It can happen to anyone of us, anyone you think of.

Anyone can fall. Anyone can hurt someone they love

Hearts will break. 'Cause I made a stupid mistake

- Gareth Gates - Anyone Of Us

(O.O)

It took her at least two days before the hospital staff finally released her from their care, which had been a relief.

She really didn't like those white walls and sterile floors, no matter how old she was.

Hospitals and her were unmixy and she thanked her boyfriend and maybe Angel for getting them to release her early. She changed into more comfortable clothes which Dawn had brought with her and met up with her sister near the hospital's entrance.

Her eyes widened when her sister escorted her to a limo, which would take them to Wolfram and Hart.

"You know, we could've taken a cab," she told her sister, who gave her an unimpressed look.

"True. But then we'd have to pay for it. We're not working for the Council anymore so we need to save money, at least until we get jobs of our own."

She sighed. She just got out of the hospital and yet it didn't take long before reality had to kick her in the face. She knew there were downsides to leaving the Council and though they agreed to give her an allowance, she knew that it would not be enough to really support them in the long run.

Dawn still needed to go to college and she too might have plans of pursuing a degree on her own sometime in the future. So despite what they were getting from the Council, they would still need to think of a new income source or they might end up reliving Sunnydale's burger-flipping days again. And that was so not an option.

"You know, I agree with Spike. Angel and his team are doing good there, despite the place being Evil Inc," her sister suddenly said.

She sighed. That was another thing that was bothering her. Angel was working for this evil company and trying to do good from the inside. It was an admirable thing, what they were doing there. But she couldn't shake the feeling that that place was bad and eventually Angel and his team would end up on the losing end of the bargain.

Fred nearly became a casualty to W&H's plans, and that should've been enough evidence for Angel and the others to know that that place wasn't a good place.

"I never doubted their intentions, Dawn. I know that they are trying to do good there and maybe they have succeeded so far. But I still think that place is bad. Angel really should just leave and stop before he gets in too deep."

She didn't get an answer from her sister, which was good because she didn't think there was a real good response to what she said. She spoke the truth. Wolfram and Hart was bad news and she knew within her gut that Angel wouldl end up losing if he stayed there.

(O.O)

He grunted in pain as he was once again on the receiving end of another powerful kick from his opponent. He was sprawled on his back, unnecessarily breathing heavily.

"Oh, gosh, Spike, I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" Fred said from above him, looking extremely guilty at what she just did.

"'Tis okay, pet. I should've learned my lesson and avoided it instead of letting it hit me," he said to the scientist.

"Well, I'm still sorry. I should've held back on the power instead of simply letting it loose on you. You could've been seriously hurt."

She offered her hand to him, which he accepted.

"We're here to assess your power. If you hold back, how else are we going to learn about your limits?" he responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Spike's right, Fred. We want to measure the full extent of the power you received from Illyria. This is the best way to do it," Wesley said, joining them and handing towels to the two sparring partners.

"I still think that there should be a less painful way to test my strength without having to hurt my friend," the Texan said with a pout.

He laughed. "Well, you could always try and invent a Geiger counter that would measure people's strengths, as it did in that old cartoon," he suggested.

"Hmm. That's not a bad idea. I mean, the concept of a Geiger counter is already available and maybe I can tweak it a bit, that would allow measuring a person's kinetic energy or maybe spatial energy, that is often associated with magic."

"You can indeed do that, my dear. But I suggest you do that once you get better control of your strength, otherwise, you'll end up destroying any equipment you might use for this new invention," Wes reminded her.

This only made the brunette pout some more. That was another reason why she needed this sparring thing. Aside from measuring her new capabilities and strength, it was also there for her to learn how to control her powers. She had a lot of it, and it made it hard for her to do what she loved because she seemed to always end up breaking things in her lab.

"I really wish that there was a shortcut to all this," the young woman whined.

"Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to success. Only hard work will help us in this situation, and whining will get us nowhere," the ex-Watcher said in a sagely manner that didn't seem to impress the two other occupants in the room.

"Really, Wes?" Fred said, crossing her arms.

The former Watcher saw her expression and immediately realized his mistake and tried to backtrack on his words. He really should stop acting like his old Watcher-self when he spoke to his girl. That never got him any action with the ladies in the past and it looked like it wouldn't be helping him either in the present.

"I mean, life has a lot of downsides, and shortcuts are for losers," he said, trying to salvage the situation.

"Are you calling me a loser?"

"Heavens no! What I'm trying to say is that you're a winner and shortcuts are not your way. You're very much not like a loser, I assure you."

While Wesley dug himself a deeper grave with his horrible word vomit, a familiar scent graced his nose.

"Buffy," he suddenly uttered, stopping the lover's quarrel that was happening in front of him.

His eyes immediately turned towards the doorway and watched in amazement as his goddess walked inside the room with her sister.

"Spike!" Buffy exclaimed before rushing to his arms.

He was quick to catch her and buried his nose in her hair. God, her smell was intoxicating. Five days without her and he had been in hell. He missed her so much.

He had no idea how he survived all those months without her, because a couple of days with her stuck at the hospital was already too much for him.

She ended the hug first but kept her hand on his as she turned to the other occupants in the room.

"Fred?" she asked the young woman in front of her.

"Hiya, Buffy, glad to see you up and about."

"Same goes for you. I'm really glad you're alright."

"Me too."

The two women smiled at each other before Dawn said, "So where's your weird twin? I thought you guys were supposed to both be here for this assessment."

Fred shrugged, before nodding to the farthest corner of the room, where a blue-haired version of her was standing beside a potted plant.

"She's having a very intellectual conversation with nature."

The group stared at the Old One as she was indeed talking to the plant.

"Is she actually having a conversation with the plant? Or that's just her insanity going woohoo?" Dawn asked, doing the she's-crazy-gesture with her hand.

"That's rude, Bit," he told her.

Fred also came to her twin's defense.

"Oh, she's not crazy. She really is having an intellectual conversation with the plant."

Illyria turned towards the ground and slowly approached them.

"You were speaking about me," she stated, her stoic expression was so weird considering she looked so much like Fred.

"Yeah, sorry about that. We were simply wondering what Alluhyn said to you," Fred said, smiling at her double.

"He speaks of the destruction of others like him. He is extremely vocal about the fact that he has been separated from his sisters."

"Plants can have sisters?" Dawn asked, looking confused.

"All living beings are capable of having familial bonds with others. So long as they share the same blood or they came from the same cell organism they thus become related. This should not surprise you, Green Child," she responded.

He and Buffy stiffened at the God-King's casual referral to his little Bit's hidden identity.

"I guess you're right," the teen responded, unaffected by the name.

"Is it my turn to beat the halfbreed?" Illyria asked politely, looking at Wesley.

He could see that the former Watcher was taken aback. The man was still not used to the other being before him. She bore such striking resemblance to the scientist that more often than not, they would forget that she once tried to kill all of them.

It was only because of the real Fred's arrival that they had survived the encounter, and it was only at Fred's insistence that they let the God-King stay with them instead of returning her to her tomb at the Deeper Well.

He was very amazed at the young woman's kindness. Despite what the other did to them and to her, she still felt sorry for the Old One, who wore her face and adopted her. It was because of Fred that the once emotionless ancient demon was now able to make casual conversations with them. Their Fred had been teaching the other the proper ways to live in modern society, to which the God-King was quick to adapt to.

"Um, no. Actually, we shall do that at a later date. Since Buffy is here, Angel said he wanted us to go to his office before we do anything else."

"I see. It is a pity, but I shall be patient," she said, looking expectantly at Fred, who smiled at her encouragingly.

"Well, we better get our butts to Angel's office then. Wouldn't want to keep the big man waiting," Fred exclaimed before grabbing Illyria's arma and dragging her with her.

He saw her give Wesley a stink eye, which meant she had not forgiven him for his earlier behavior, to which the former Watcher slumped before following the two dejectedly.

"That is so weird," he heard his girlfriend say.

He eyed her and raised a questioning brow.

"I mean, last time I saw that thing, it was killing me with that spell thingy. Now, it's like that didn't happen and Fred is acting like it's her long-lost sister and not something who once tried to kill her."

He didn't fail to notice how his girl called Illyria an it while referring to the Old One. And while he could understand her confusion in Fred's behavior towards someone who almost killed her, the Slayer's disbelief and her demeaning way of addressing the former god were getting to him.

It was reminding him of how it was with them. How it took him dying to save the world before the girl could admit that he wasn't just some evil, disgusting demon and that she loved him.

"Buffy, you are being super rude," Dawn suddenly said.

"Excuse me?" the Slayer responded.

"First of all, Illyria is obviously a she, not an it. Get that one right, because no one wants to be related to someone who can't even address people correctly."

He could see the look of disbelief on his Slayer's face as her sister's words sunk in.

"Secondly, what's not to get? Fred's an awesome person and she forgave Illyria because she knows the god has nowhere to go. You already know we went to see her army and it wasn't there because they died years ago. The poor girl just woke up millions of years in the future with nothing that resembles what used to be her home and Fred didn't want to send her back to sleep because that wasn't a good place to spend eternity in."

"But it-she-tried to kill us, Dawnie. I just think she's too dangerous to stay around us or LA, for that matter. Why didn't they just send her back to the Deeper Well anyway?"

"Ugh! Weren't you listening? It's because Fred felt sorry for her. She thought it wasn't fair for Illyria to be stuck in a dark, dank coffin for the rest of eternity. She took her in and had been teaching her how to function in normal, human society."

Buffy snorted. "Dawn, she's an evil demon. I really doubt she'd ever be able to fit in our world."

That was the last straw for him. His hand let go of hers.

She immediately turned to him and he could see her eyes widened. But he didn't care.

"Then what does that say about me?" he said, giving her a meaningful look before walking away.

"Buffy, you idiot," he heard Dawn say, but he ignored the two women and opted to go after Wesley, Fred, and Illyria.

TBC

(O.O)

I know, I know. They finally got together and then Buffy opens her mouth and bam! She hurts Spike again. There's so much bad history between these two and so many unaddressed problems that can't be solved overnight. So I'm going to address one more issue before I end this fic, well actually there is one last drama that I will add, but that one will be resolved easily.

Thank you for reading and let me know what you think. I do hope to see you guys in the next update, which will either be on Monday or Tuesday next week! See ya!