Her next visit to Spike was shocking at best. She found him pacing, although he immediately stopped when she entered the crypt, approaching her with long determined strides and grabbing her shoulders to push her against the wall. "Where were you?" He demanded, his expression scared, concerned, contrasting with his aggressive attitude.
"Uh... out, patrolling. What's this all about?" She tore his hands from her, recovering from the surprise and pushing him back, out of her personal space. Was he back to his jealous attitude? She thought he was over it! She would not have him controlling her every minute. If there was something she could not put up with was a man thinking he could control her in anyway.
"No, not now. Before. When you were..." He struggled with his words, his face falling, hinting at what he was trying to say.
"Dead? Some kind of hell dimension, I guess." She shrugged, walking around him to the couch, sitting on the edge, waiting for him to join her.
"You sure?"
"Uh, yeah, pretty sure. Torture, pain, screams. Kinda fits the description. Why are you asking this now?" She frowned when he finally let himself plop down on the couch, hunching over, a hand treading through his curls.
"Thought you might have been somewhere else. Just... nothing."
"Spike..." She placed her hand on his arm, feeling his cold skin under her palm at the absence of the leather duster.
He shushed her, gesturing towards the telly with the remote. "Passions is on."
She wasn't going to get anything out of him. She assumed he was just worried of the consequences her previous 'residence' could have in her. She would be okay, eventually, when the witches found a way to control her nightmares.
Meanwhile, there was something more she had to worry about. What was going on between her and Spike? She told him she loved him before she died, they'd kissed, but then she'd left. She was back, yet... they hadn't talked about what they were then, what they felt, what they should do. And it didn't look like he wanted to talk right then.
The basement was flooded. Buffy had tried to fix a leak and every pipe in the basement had basically exploded. Great.
"Told you we should have called the plumber." Dawn reminded her eldest sister, who stood in front of the sink, staring at the water coming out of the tap.
"You were right. The plumber will make everything good." She sounded lost in thought, something that was becoming a common occurrence for her.
"Dawnie, you're not eating breakfast?" Tara noticed, sitting next to the teen in the kitchen island, Ally on the other side picking pieces from a bowl of cut up fruit.
Dawn looked around at the food, grimacing for a moment. The other brunette handed her a banana, poking the youngest with it until she grabbed it, giggling.
"Dawn, breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Buffy's quiet and distracted voice caught their attention again, looking over to their big sister to find her still focused on the running water. Just staring. "It's unbelievably important. You should eat breakfast at least three times a day."
"I second that. It's the most delicious meal of the day." Ally piped in, grabbing a piece of mixed grain bread from the plate in front of her. "Eat." She insisted at the teen again, placing a couple pieces of bread and some orange juice in front of her. "Your brain needs nutrients to function well in school, meaning you'll need to work less at home later."
Willow finally moved over to Buffy and turned off the faucet, giving Buffy a concerned look, the blonde finally getting out of it and staring right back at the redhead.
Dawn gave in and started chugging down the orange juice, glancing at Ally as if to say 'See, I'm having breakfast', the other smirking in satisfaction. She was trying to get the teen to eat a full breakfast every morning, an ambitious goal seeing how she struggled to have one single piece of fruit and a slice of bread.
Xander came up from the basement with the plumber, Tito, announcing the whole pipe system needed to be replaced.
"Full copper re-pipe? That sounds potentially pricey." Willow voiced, worry seeping into her words.
"Well, if you have any questions, our number's on the invoice." Tito shrugged, handing the paper to the redhead witch.
Dawn approached her, trying to get a peek of the paper. "That's a weird phone number. Oh, wait." Her head whipped towards Xander, shocked. "Is that the bill?"
"Hey. Tito cut you a good deal down there. Those are his bargain prices. I did a little haggling for you." Xander defended, his hands coming to rest on his hips.
Buffy leaned over the island, looking at them all, trying to calm them down. "Thank you. So we'll pay him, what's the big deal?"
Ally didn't miss the look Tara and Willow shared, knowing they were in for a surprise. Bad surprise, she guessed.
Willow took the lead, as usual. "Um ... Buffy, I-I know you're still getting back on your feet after..."
"Lying flat on my back?" The blonde supplied, rather boldly.
"Yeah. Uh, but there's some money stuff we're gonna have to talk to you about."
That was bad.
It was really bad.
"Okay ... so you're telling me I'm broke?" Buffy asked straightaway, after having looked at the pile of papers and bills covering the coffee table in the living room.
Tara and Willow were sitting on the other side of the coffee table, Xander next to them, Anya at the desk looking over more bills, while Dawn and Ally stood behind the witches, attentive.
"Not yet, but ..." The redhead tried to find some encouraging words, or at least words that didn't completely get Buffy down. Tara beat her to it, though.
"Money's definitely becoming an issue."
"As in your being almost out of it." The only male in the room added, glancing at his long time blonde friend.
"But I haven't spent any money. I was all ... dead and frugal." The senior Slayer didn't understand what was happening, she had definitely not spent any money.
Her friends went on to explain where the money her mother had saved and gotten from her life insurance had gone, basically hospitals bills and the house, which cost a lot more than the eldest Summers girl imagined.
Ally felt her baby sister shift, getting more worried about the situation every second. "So, what do we do?"
"Easy. We burn the house to the ground and collect the insurance. Plus, fire? Pretty." Buffy joked, leaving her friends and family speechless. "You guys, I'm kidding. Okay, it's, it's bills, it's money. It's pieces of paper sent by bureaucrats that we've never even met. It's not like it's the end of the world." She paused, thinking about it. "Which is too bad, you know, 'cause that, I'm really good at." She looked over at her youngest sister, noticing her concern was not fading. "I'll take care of this. I promise. I ... just don't know how yet."
"I can pay the plumber, Buff. You don't need to worry about that." Ally intervened, taking Dawn's hand and squeezing, attempting to reassure her. Buffy went to interrupt her, but she beat her to it. "I'm basically living here. I'm never in my apartment. I will do it. I have money, and it's not going anywhere. I have a constant income from a few works I've done in the past."
"Thank you." The blonde smiled lightly, immensely grateful.
"You're still out of money." Anya reminded her, turning in her seat to look at her. "Um ... i-i-if you wanna pay every bill here, and every bill coming, and ... have enough to start a nice college fund for Dawn?" She smiled widely, the kind that could creep people who didn't know her out. "Start charging."
"For what?"
"Slaying vampires! Well, you're providing a valuable service to the whole community. I say cash in." The ex-demon didn't realize the effect her words were having on her boyfriend and friends.
Buffy blinked, flabbergasted at the suggestion. "Well, that's an idea ... you would have. Any other suggestions?"
Anya didn't give in, though. "Well, I mean, it's, it's not so crazy."
Dawn burst. "Yes it is! You can't charge innocent people for saving their lives."
"Spiderman does."
"He does not!"
"Does too."
"Does no-" The teen stopped, calming down and looking at the dark haired man still refusing to look at his girlfriend. "Xander?"
Both girls were then looking at him, uncomfortable at being put in such a situation. "Action is his reward."
Dawn gave Anya a 'told you so' look, getting the ex-demon annoyed, standing from her seat and grabbing her purse. "Why don't you ever take my side?" And she left the room, Xander going after her.
Ally decided she should speak up, try to support the ex-demon. "Actually, it's not such a bad idea. I'm not saying charge everyone just for killing vampires or demons, but there must be people who are having problems with them and can pay for it. Like a supernatural protection agency."
"Oh, come on..." Dawn huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'm not going to charge people for it." Buffy concluded, her eyes sliding over the bills. "It's my duty."
After Buffy was denied a loan at the bank, even after fighting the demon who had robbed it, they all gathered at the Magic Box, Dawn joining the research team for the first time. Ally went to the back alley to get rid of the empty cups of coffee and boxes of donuts the Gang went through almost every time they got together, still wondering how much she could last living on caffeine and a couple hours of sleep at night. She didn't scream anymore, but the nightmares persisted, making her wake up covered in sweat and terrified every night. At least she didn't disrupt Dawnie's sleep anymore.
When she got back inside the magic store, she found Giles standing in the middle of the main room, hugging Buffy, deeply affected at seeing his protégée alive again.
It was a beautiful sight.
When they stepped back from the hug, the Watcher's eyes moved from Buffy to the rest of the room, finding Ally standing in the back, smiling softly at them. "Oh, God. You're alive. You're both here." His gaze moved back and forth between both girls, the brunette swiftly approaching them to hug the Watcher. "Willow told me, but I didn't let myself believe..."
"Believe." Ally smiled widely when the man wrapped his arms around her, warm and fatherly like he'd always been. She was so happy to have him back she didn't realize she had to control her strength a bit more then.
"You're incredibly strong." His voice was strained, making her immediately loosen her hold.
Ally looked back at the redhead witch, wandering if she had told him about her new situation. Willow seemed to understand what she wanted to know, only shrugging and shaking her head in response.
"Uh... There's something you should know, first." The new Slayer announced, taking a step back so that Giles could look at her well. He tilted his head, forehead crunching up, expecting something bad, as it was usual for anyone inhabiting Sunnydale. "When... when Buffy and I jumped..." She looked over to her oldest sister, her nodding lightly, face still as unemotional as it had been since they'd been resurrected. "She... went first. She... died first. A couple seconds before me, I think."
"How would you know that?" The Watcher took off his glasses, wiping them as he always did when he was thinking or worried.
"I was activated."
"You now have two Slayers to watch." Buffy added, waiting for her surrogate father to take it all in.
"We'll let you get used to it and catch up with Buff. Breathe, Giles." The second Slayer grinned at him before making her way over to the rest of the group, sitting next to her youngest sister while Watcher and senior Slayer made their way to the training room.
When Giles got back from the training room, Anya rushed to hug him, claiming he couldn't get the control of the store back, making clear it was her territory then. He simply shrugged it off and focused on the demon at hand, nearing the table to find out what they knew. "And, do we have information on this new demon that I suddenly find so desperately interesting?"
Turned out the Mmm'Cookies demon was a mercenary kind, working for the highest bidder, meaning they had to find who could pay and control these beasts.
