Author note: I appreciate all the people who faved and followed this fic. I'm happy to see that people read it. Anyway, here's an update, so please enjoy!

(O.O)

Spike wasn't sure why he came back to Sunnydale.

He was finally free of the godforsaken chip in his head, although he had to promise a highly suspicious organization to help them out once in a while, if the need ever arrived, in exchange for getting it removed. But he could deal with that. It wouldn't be the first time he helped humans and their problems anyway. His contributions during World War II, as well as the truce with the Slayer to fight alongside her, were proof enough that he could play nice with his food if he didn't want the world to end.

Although, the promise he had to make his old war buddy about not killing any innocent humans within the next century or two was a bit too much. He still agreed to it though, because it made the man happy knowing that he wouldn't be responsible for releasing a monster back to the human population.

So, Spike had his fangs back, and while he wasn't allowed to eat innocent humans, he was allowed to kill the evil ones and get his kicks of violence by starting bar fights again. He also had the option to kill demons, because they were definitely more fun to hunt than humans. But why did he decide to go back to Sunnyhell was the real question. One he's been asking himself all night since he left the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound where they did the surgery to get the chip out.

Besides pain, torture, and humiliation, this town has given him nothing worth going back for.

He thought of the Slayer.

Yeah, she'd be enough to get him to come back.

He'd got his fangs back, so that meant he could now finish where they left off and could kill the daft bint once and for all. He could finally make her pay for all the pain she caused him and for ruining his unlife!

Finally, finding a purpose for his return, Spike walked towards the Magic Box, the place he was certain that he'd find his Slayer, and mentally prepared himself for the fight of a lifetime.

He went through the back door, following his senses to find her. Then froze when he heard that someone was fighting inside.

He rushed in and saw his Slayer and her mates having a hard time fending off three Lei-Ach demons.

"What the hell are you doing? The thing's right in front of you, move back you stupid bint!" Spike shouted as he watched Buffy about to be hit by the demon.

Buffy heard the familiar voice and stepped backward, narrowly avoiding the demon's claw that was aiming at her face.

"Spike? Are you really here?" she called out.

"Yeah! And three other demons that are about to kill you and all your mates!"

"Where are they?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, behind you!" Tara warned from the shop's entrance.

The Slayer turned but was grabbed by a demon before being flung to a nearby table. She quickly got to her feet, angry and looking ready to murder these annoying invisible monsters.

"Spike, Tara, tell me where they are?!" she ordered.

"Two on your right, Slayer!" Spike's voice vibrated. "Do a 150back swipe kick!"

Doing as she was told, the Slayer dropped to the floor before moving as instructed. She felt her leg connect with something and heard a crash from the direction Spike told her. She jumped in the direction where she heard one of the demons fell and landed on what she hoped was its chest. She lifted her left foot and stomped hard, before hearing a crack.

In the background, she heard Tara's voice, doing an incantation.

The Slayer turned and saw a flash of light. Then her eyes widened as she stared at a demon that was about to attack Tara. Picking up the axe that Anya dropped earlier, she flung it to the demon's back, killing it instantly before it could touch her friend. She heard another scuffle from behind her and turned just in time to see Spike snap the third demon's neck.

"You're welcome," the vampire said gruffly before releasing the demon and letting it fall to the floor.

She was about to say something rude because she was certain it would definitely kill her if she said thank you to the peroxide pest but was interrupted by a cry of terror from a man, who stared horrified at the scene from the shop's entrance.

Spike watched in silence as Red's bird's family started hounding her, insisting that she should come home with them. Going as far as calling the obviously human witch a demon.

God, humans are so stupid. What on earth do they see in the girl that made them think she's a demon? She's too much of a goody-two-shoes and too pure to be anything demonic. Plus, I don't smell a single drop of demon blood in her.

"You're dealing with all of us," Harris said, pulling the vampire out of his musings.

"Except me," Spike added.

"Except Spike," the boy corrected.

"I don't care what happens," the vampire explained.

The witch's family started getting angry. Her brother even threatened her if she didn't go with them.

To which Harris stepped up to defend her. "And I swear by your full and manly beard, you're gonna break something trying," the boy said, surprising Spike.

At least he has guts when it's needed, Spike thought admiring him a bit.

"Well, I hope you'll all be happy hanging out with a disgusting demon!" said the only woman in the group, which he assumed, was the witch's cousin.

At this, Anyaka called her out. "E-excuse me, what kind?" the ex-demon asked.

"What?"

"What kind of demon is she?" demon girl expanded. "There's a lot of different kinds. Some are very, very evil. And some have been considered to be useful members of society."

Spike nodded in agreement there.

"Well, I-I ... what does it matter?" girly cousin stuttered.

"Evil is evil," Mr. Maclay stated.

"Well, let's just narrow it down." That earned Anyaka a nod of approval from her beau.

This gave the vampire an opportunity to help out.

Better make a show that I still have the chip.

"Ohhh!" Spike said, startling everyone. "Why don't I make this simple?"

He then walked up to the witch and punched her in the nose, before pretending he got a headache because the chip fired.

"Hey!" Willow cried angrily, before realizing what he did meant for them. "Hey."

"He hit my nose," Glinda said with a shocked and pained expression.

Come on! I didn't hit you that hard! Spike thought.

"And it hurt!" Red added enthusiastically before backtracking. "Um, him, I mean."

"And that only works on humans!" Buffy added.

"There's no demon in there. That's just a family legend, am I right?" Spike added his own explanation. "Just a bit of spin to keep the ladies in line."

He smirked, showing his fangs to the now angry Mr. Maclay.

"Oh, you're a piece of work. I like you," he said. However, in his head, he was thinking the complete opposite. I actually don't and I want to kill you right now for what you and your family have been doing to these women. Was what he really thought.

Spike backed off though and decided against killing the man. More because he wasn't certain if the bloke and his lot fit the description of non-innocent that he was allowed to kill and eat. He looked at the Scoobies, ganging up on the family one last time before slipping out of the room through the back entrance where he came from.

Once he was away from the shop, he grabbed his head and looked horrified at what he just did back there.

"The fuck was I doing?!" he said out loud.

He came here to fight and kill the Slayer. And yet, the first sign that he saw Buffy and her friends were in danger, he helped them! Did S.H.I.E.L.D. messed up the operation on his head? Are they to blame for this sudden change of heart? Did he even want Buffy dead in the first place?

This was all too confusing. He needed to talk to someone.

He could ask Steve, but the man was probably asleep or traveling on a plane, because last he heard of him, he was on his way to DC for a conference to let the world know how Captain America survived after all these years. So, he can't call him up at the moment.

Luckily for him, he had more than one friend nowadays to talk to about his moral dilemma.

(O.O)

Joyce Summers was bored in her own home because she didn't have anything fun to do nowadays.

Sure, she still had to run her own gallery all by herself. But citizens of Sunnydale weren't all that into art so she didn't sell that much through the store itself. So, she wasn't required to stay there late in the evening. However, she did get more customers online which helped if she didn't want to end up bankrupt anytime soon.

The presence of her online store made things easier for her, and she practically didn't have to do anything to maintain it. She just had to check her emails regularly and that was pretty much it. Orders came and she'd send a manifest to Rick, who she hired to bag and ship items from the store to the address of the customer. Easily done.

However, this left her with a lot of free time on her hands.

One would've thought that she would be grateful for it, since raising two daughters alone normally meant that she didn't have time for herself. But she did, and that was because she was blessed with two beautiful and independent girls, who rarely needed her.

Buffy was in college and no longer visited her.

And Dawn was at that age where she preferred to be left alone in her room.

Hence, her growing boredom. She didn't have anything to do and her only source of entertainment were her girls, who no longer liked spending time with her.

Maybe I should start looking for a hobby? The woman thought as she sipped her hot chocolate.

Then she jumped as someone started banging the door to her backyard. She cautiously stood up to check who it was.

Her daughter has grilled her enough times in the past already for her to know that she should be careful about these things.

She sighed in relief though when she saw through the door window who it was.

It's just Spike.

She opened the door and let the odd vampire in.

"Hello, Spike. So nice of you to visit," she said with a smile.

"Sorry for coming in this late, Joyce, but I need help," the vampire said.

"I'm not sure what I can do to help, but I will try," she said. "Would you like some hot cocoa?"

"With little marshmallows?" he asked, sounding almost childish.

Joyce smiled at the vampire before nodding.

"I'll have some, thank you," he said, before settling onto one of the kitchen island chairs.

She prepared the drink for the vampire. "So, what do you need help with?" she asked as she poured the drink into a cup.

"I got the chip removed!" he suddenly blurted out.

Joyce would've dropped the pot with hot cocoa at that statement had she not caught herself. She put the pot down before turning to the vampire with an almost scared expression.

"And? Are you here to kill me and my daughter?" she asked, almost a whisper.

"What?" Spike asked, before shouting, "NO! I would never hurt you and Dawn!"

This confused Joyce but she was also relieved. If he wasn't here for that, then I guess I can hear him out. She thought.

"Okay. So, the chip is gone. Does Buffy know?" she asked, turning back to pouring cocoa into the vampire's cup.

"I would've told her tonight, but something happened. So no, she doesn't."

Joyce put the marshmallows in the drink before turning back to the vampire to hand it to him. Then she asked, "Okay, so what do you need help with?"

"I think I'm broken!" the vampire said after taking a drink from his cup.

Joyce tilted her head to the side and gave the vampire a once-over.

He doesn't look hurt. What does he mean by that?

"What do you mean by broken, Spike?" she finally asked.

"I mean, I'm not evil! I finally got the chip out and was free to do what I wanted, and you know the first thing I did? I went to see your daughter!"

This made her flinch.

He had better not hurt my little girl. She thought, looking angry.

The vampire missed the expression, and instead continued with his tale.

"I thought I did it because I wanted to fight her, you know, go back to where we left off. Fight each other like what normal Vampire/Slayers did. But when I got there, she and her mates were in trouble."

He then went on and explained what happened in the Magic Box, about Willow's friend's spell and how he saved her daughter and her friends. Even going as far as helping Willow's friend, who thought of herself as a demon, by proving to everyone that she wasn't.

"Okay, so you did good, Spike. What seems to be the problem?" she asked again, clearly not certain what the vampire's issue was.

"That's exactly the problem! I'm not supposed to do anything good! I should be evil! I should be slaughtering those children, not helping them! There's something inherently wrong with me! I'm friends with Captain Freaking America for God's sake, and even agreed to help S.H.I.E.L.D. from time to time! I'm the worst kind of vampire in history! I'm a disgrace to my kind! I don't know what to do. You've got to help me, Joyce!"

Out of all the things she expected the vampire to say, this was not it. So, he's having an identity crisis about whether he still wanted to be evil or not, and he thought that the best person to ask about this was her.

She felt honored that the vampire thought so highly of her. But at the same time, she was intimidated by the concept of educating this creature on the most basics of morality. Was she really the one he should ask about what he should do? Was she qualified to even give him advice on changing his nature when she wasn't the epitome of goodness?

However, as she stared at the vampire, she couldn't help but feel responsible for him. Over the course of the last several months, since he got chipped, he had been the only person who visited her and talked to her on those days when she found herself being eaten by boredom. He was quick-witted, knowledgeable, and worldly. He knew about so many things and never ceased to amaze her with what he had to share with her, whether it was a piece of artwork he saw in Venice back in '67, or a book he read a while back that he wanted to talk about, or even a show he saw recently.

He never failed to let her know and talk about such things, and these moments became precious to her because she was able to discuss them with someone who wasn't interested in her romantically.

Over the course of time, the vampire became more than just her daughter's mortal enemy/occasional ally.

He's become my friend.

And like his friend, it's only natural for her to want to help him with his problems.

"I'm sorry to hear that you are having such problems, Spike," she finally said. "I can only imagine how all this must be confusing for you."

Spike nodded, happy that someone finally understood his problems.

"But let me ask you, what do you really want to do now that you don't have the chip?" she asked. "Because that's the real issue here. You never used to question whether you're evil or not. You're always certain of who you are and never thought of yourself as evil as Angelus, which for me is the epitome of evil. You make your own standards and you live by your own rules. That hasn't changed and I don't think it should. That's what makes you different from the rest of your kind. And you like that. You like being different. I don't think you should start questioning this part of yourself, Spike."

The helpless look he gave her almost made her want to hug the poor vamp and protect him from his problems. But she stopped herself. He needed someone to talk to him like an adult, not to mother him.

"But that's the thing. I don't know what I want to do," he said, looking hopeless.

Joyce felt sorry for him and again, the urge to hug him was strong. But she held back and instead asked, "Okay. How about I ask you questions on what you can do and you tell me whether it is something you would like to do or it's something you will consider doing?"

"How's this going to help?"

"I'm not quite certain, but I think if you hear suggestions from me maybe you will get an idea on what it is you'd like to do, Spike."

The vampire contemplated this before nodding and agreeing to try her little experiment.

"Okay. Let me start with something easy. Do you still want to kill to eat people?"

Spike scoffed at this. "I need blood to survive, Joyce. You know I'd say yes to that."

"I know you need blood, but I'm asking whether or not you want to kill people so you can eat them. Do you need to kill people to get your fill of human blood? Is this something you want to do?" she asked, clarifying her question.

Spike thought hard on this before answering. "I'm a vampire and I do need blood. But you're right that I don't need to kill people to get it. So, to answer your question, no, I don't want to kill someone for my food."

Joyce nodded. "Okay. That's good to know. Now, next question. Do you want to kill people in general? Not for food but because you want to. Do you have the urge to murder the masses?"

This earned a laugh from him.

"No, and no," he said in between his chuckles. "I will kill someone if they deserve it, but I don't think I will openly search for people to kill them for fun. It's not fun hunting down humans anyway, they're weak and quite easy to kill. It's also illogical to do so in this time and age. It's quite a hassle to hide their bodies."

Joyce was happy to hear this answer. It did pose a question though, regarding those other vampires in town who rampantly murdered people. How come no one has caught on to the existence of vampires when so many of them just left their victims everywhere?

Spike must've noticed something in her face because he answered her question.

"Sunnydale has a spell all over town that makes humans with no knowledge of the supernatural world ignore all signs of it and rationalize the killings as animal attacks and such. It's actually not the same anywhere else. In fact, vampires and demons from other towns or cities are more careful with their kills and activities and would have to hide the bodies to make sure no one catches on to the existence of demons and such."

Joyce nodded at this and thanked the vampire for the information. Then she continued with her questions and allowed him to internally process each and every one of them as he answered.

Spike slowly gained an idea on what he wanted to do as they continued their conversation.

He's got to hand it to Joyce, though. This question and answer thing was indeed helping him process what he did and didn't want to do.

It was now clear to him that some of his old views regarding certain things like killing and violence have changed but not by much.

Was he evil? Some would say that yes, he was. Only because he still wanted to steal things and lie to people. He also didn't have a problem with killing people. But as he told Rogers, he wouldn't kill anyone innocent, so he should be called relatively evil.

Was he as evil as Angelus? Nope! He was never going to measure up to the bastard in terms of wickedness. And he was fine with that.

Did he want to kill the Slayer and her friends? Sometimes, but only because they annoyed the hell out of him. The daft bint and her lot have grown on him though and like her mum and kid sis, Spike didn't think he'd have it in him to hurt them anymore. At least not in a murderous way.

So, what did he want to do with his life now that the chip was gone?

By the end of Joyce's little Q/A, he was finally able to answer that question. He planned to live his unlife however he wanted. He wouldn't actively do good, but he wouldn't act evil either. He'd stay in Sunnydale because, why the hell not? It's as good a place as any and the Slayer was there, so he'd have fun with whatever trouble went her way.

He was Spike, the relatively evil vampire, who lived in Sunnydale and who occasionally helped the Slayer because he didn't want the world to end. He's the master of his life. And no one was going to stand in his way.

At least that was what he thought before he went to bed that night.

Spike was watching a movie in his crypt when the door behind slammed opened. He turned to his uninvited visitor and sneered at her.

"Slayer," he said.

"Spike, I heard about the chip," she said.

"I haven't killed anyone since I got to town."

"Doesn't matter. You're a soulless vampire. That means you're evil in my books."

She rushed at him and they fought. However, for some reason, she got the upper hand and was able to slam him on the ground. She straddled him and stared into his eyes before she raised her stake to plunge it into his heart.

Spike winced and prepared himself for his demise. However, she stopped just an inch before the stake reached his chest. He looked up to face her and the two stared at each other in confusion.

Suddenly, he pulled her upper arms towards him and locked his lips with hers. He kissed her passionately and she responded in return. It went on for a moment before Buffy pulled back. She put her hand on her mouth, savoring his taste on her lips.

He slowly sat up and stared at her in confusion. He saw her drop the hand from her mouth and they looked at each other again. The next thing he knew, they were in each other's embraces and before locking lips again.

There was passion and lust. He felt her hand on the back of his head, urging him to deepen their kiss. He responded with great enthusiasm. His mouth ventured from her lips though to her neck and sucked hard without drawing blood.

She moaned in response. "Spike," she said, "More… I want you.."

"Buffy, I love you," he whispered in her ear before he held her body closer.

Then he woke up on his bed, looking horrified at what he just saw.

"Oh, God, no," he said, panting, "Please, no."

TBC

(O.O)

Well, I hope I did okay. No Steve in this chapter, but he will be in the next one! Thanks for reading and I appreciate reviews because they keep me going!