The odd couple silently walked over to a bench not far from the Magic Box, Ally awkwardly sitting down as she thinks about how she should apologize. Sorry I kissed you? Sorry I jumped you? Well, at least she had the main element.

Lindsey quietly sat next to her, his gaze lost on the people moving before them, yet his attention was still on the girl. From the corner of his eye he noticed she drew her legs toward her chest, wrapping her arms around them in an attempt to protect herself.

"Sorry." She muttered, glancing at him from over her knees, waiting for him to fully look at her. He placed his forearms on his thighs and leaned forward, clasping his hands together and turning his head to look at her. "I'm sorry I practically attacked you and..." She paused, her eyes widening, her change in demeanour confusing him. "Your hand! You have your hand again!"

She let her legs down and leaned towards him, taking both his hands in hers, examining them in awe, rolling the sleeves of his shirt to see the thin paling scar on his right wrist. He chuckled at her, amused by her reaction, enjoying the warmth of her skin over his. "You only now notice it?"

"Not like I was thinking straight before. It was very... primary." Her voice dropped as her eyes followed the line that went around his wrist, tracing it with one of her fingertips. "How? I mean... It's amazing. How?" Her gaze lifted to his face, still shocked.

"Wolfram and Hart. There's not much they can't get." Although he was relishing in his time with her, it was obvious he didn't have much appreciation for that firm anymore.

"They?" She caught on, frowning lightly.

His eyes stared into hers, knowing she would like the news. How would she react? The first time she had thought he'd do it, and hadn't, she'd been so disappointed... It was the first time he had questioned his decision, the first of many to come, even after she'd left L.A. "I don't work for them anymore. I left L.A. and that place. It was... too wrong."

"That's great!" She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, her happiness soaring, pride filling her chest. Finally! Finally, he'd done it. "God, Lindsey, that's so good, I can't believe..."

His arms moved around her, holding her against him, savouring the moment. He could count the times they'd been so close with one hand, the first one, after he'd helped her get Wolfram and Hart off her back, when they threatened to reveal her real identity and her location to the public. She'd hugged him back then too, and he'd felt proud of himself, truly proud of how he'd used his knowledge to help someone else. It was a rare occasion, after all.

"So, what do you do now? How come you're here?" She leaned back, sitting on her heels and resting her side against the back of the bench.

"How come you are here?" He shot back, his face setting into a light frown. "Hellmouth? Really? I thought you were going to live a bit, stay away from the demons, vampires, and the slaying."

She bit her lower lip and averted her eyes; that was the reaction she had feared, and this was Lindsey. He was the least likely to get angry with her. "I was passing by, noticed the high rate of death here and... stayed. And I don't think I really had a choice, either. I was destined to be here. And, the teen girl, Dawn? She's my sister. Buffy too. I have sisters, Lindsey. I have a family. With the Christmas dinners, and movie nights, and everyone having breakfast together kind of family."

"The point of you leaving L.A. was getting away from the slaying, Ally. Not going straight to the Hellmouth. You should travel, live a normal life for some time." He tried to convince her, maybe she could even leave with him. He was free, after all, and so was she.

"Not possible anymore." She lightly smiled, foreseeing his reaction to what she was going to tell him.

"What do you mean, not possible?"

"I'm a Slayer."

There was silence for a couple seconds, his mind processing her words, unable to place a meaning behind them for some time.

"What?!"

"I was activated six months ago." She held back a laugh at his expression, so shocked and caught off guard that he had literally moved back in the seat.

A few seconds later, his eyes moved towards the magic shop, his frown deepening, disconcert painted all over his face. "But the previous Slayers haven't died."

"Actually, yeah." She corrected, a sinking feeling setting on her chest. Buffy. She had been in Heaven. Heaven. Why had Ally been sent to Hell then? They'd died in the same portal, same way. Why was she sent to Hell?

"Faith Lehane is still in jail, and Buffy Summers, there, is alive." He pointed towards the shop with his thumb, disbelief colouring his voice.

"Doesn't mean she's been alive all this time."

"What?" His eyebrows moved high up in his forehead, blinking a couple times, pretty sure he'd heard wrong.

"Buffy died six months ago. And I did, too."


It had been way too much information for Lindsey for a single day, and he was pretty sure Ally should be with her friends, given the situation he was sure was going on inside the store. He held his hands up so she wouldn't bombard him with more information. First, finding her, of all places, outside a coffee shop in the Hellmouth. Then, the kiss, and the revelation she was under a lust spell. After that, her being a Slayer, and to finish off, knowing she had died. Died. Like, being buried six feet under kind of death. He just couldn't take much more information in that moment.

He was getting rusty.

He gave her his number, as did she, and promised to call her the following day, letting her go back to her friends and family.

She had a family. She had two sisters, one of which was a Slayer.

Too much information for a single day.

Once he arrived to his motel room, he remembered something he couldn't believe he had forgotten about the Slayer, Buffy. Did Ally know...?


When Ally got back inside the shop, silence welcomed her, even though she could see her friends sitting around the table, Willow trying not to cry, the rest of them staring aghast at her eldest sister.

"Buffy?"

The blonde turned at her call, looking all the bit tired, like any drop of energy she'd had before had left her at once.

"Why don't you tell them, Alls? Why don't you tell them where we were?" Her eyes were hard, her voice strained, as if she was blaming Ally for not being the one to tell the truth.

Ally held herself back from snapping, her words still coming out sharper than intended. "I don't know in what kind of dimension you were, Buff, but I was in Hell. I don't think torture and screams fit in with the description of Heaven." Buffy and her stared down each other, the blonde being the first to avert her gaze to glance back at her redhead friend.

"I'm going home." The senior Slayer announced, not waiting for anyone to reply before she left the shop in a rush.

Heaven.

She'd being pulled out of Heaven.

The Gang stayed sat around the table for some time, still trying to come to terms with Buffy's revelation, even Ally finally letting her disappointment aside and sitting next to Dawn, bringing an arm around the teen as she laid her head on her big sister's shoulder, eyes unseeing, mind reeling.

And there they all sat until Tara decided to do something useful, taking the stones the Slayers had carried with her upstairs to the more advanced section of the store, probably to research what kind of magic the dark witch had used. Willow was still in shock, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.

A while later, Ally noticed Tara look at her girlfriend from the platform, her face contorted in what could only be described as pain, heart-broken and on the verge of tears. And she knew, Ally knew, it had nothing to do with Buffy.


Buffy was in her room when the two brunettes got home, Ally's hand still holding Dawn's to keep her grounded, the witches having gone with Xander and Anya, probably to talk about their best friend's confession. Still, neither Dawn nor Ally dared go talk to her right then. They suspected she needed space, she would come downstairs when she was ready.

"I'm gonna go get lunch ready. Go study for that maths test while I do it." Ally ordered softly, squeezing Dawn's hand one last time.

Not five minutes had passed when the teen appeared in the kitchen, sitting behind the island while her sister raised one eyebrow, asking for an explanation. "Can't focus right now." Dawn shrugged, her eyes following Ally's as they cut some vegetables. "Tell me about your friend, Lindsey."

Ally smirked; she knew it wouldn't take Dawn long to start wanting to gossip. And it was a great way to take her mind off their sister's bomb. "What do you want to know?"

Dawn folded her arms on the counter, resting her chin on them. "He said he liked you, but he's not that ex you've mentioned a couple times, is he?"

"No. We were friends."

Ally turned to start cooking on the stove, still glancing at Dawn to let her know she was listening. They hadn't talked much about anything except schoolwork since Halloween, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off the young Slayer's chest. She'd missed Dawn. She'd probably gotten her point across by then, anyway. "So you two never... you were never together or anything? God, it must have been a bit of a shock for him to... you know... you two in the alley."

"Yeah. I mean, we did kiss once, the last night I spent in L.A., but... that was not really... It wasn't going to work back then, and it's not going to work now."

That made Dawn perk up, her eyes widening with curiosity. "You kissed? So, you liked him too."

"Yeah. He's cute and we got along, we even met at a bar on Fridays, but... our situation was a bit complicated back then. I was going to leave the next day, and I was just staying in his apartment at night before I got on a bus out of the city. I had just broken up with my ex and..."

Dawn knew they were approaching a delicate subject, something her sister had avoided talking about. "Was it because of... your friends? He said things got complicated with them."

Ally nodded, her mind going back in time, ten months, even though it felt like a whole other life. That last day had been chaotic. She had just packed her things and left her previous residence, Lindsey being the only friend she knew outside of her main group of friends that would be happy about the end of her relationship. She was only going to say goodbye and take a bus that evening, but he convinced her to stay the night and wait until morning, when even buses were safer.

"Are you going to tell Spike?"

Ally froze in place. She hadn't thought about Spike. There had been so many things going on... Shit, she had to tell him. She had to tell him she'd kissed Lindsey. God, she had to tell him.

"Shit." She growled under her breath, cursing herself for not remembering she had a boyfriend. "I'm gonna have to tell him."

"Or not... I mean, it was a spell, you weren't..."

"I know, but I'm not gonna keep it from him. It's not like I cheated on him on purpose. Doesn't mean he hasn't the right to know." She glanced from the saucepan to Dawn, knowing that the sooner, the better. "Will you be alright here for awhile? I'm gonna try to find him."

The kid rolled her eyes, flicking her hand in the air. "I'll be fine. Buffy's upstairs and we're home. Go."

And with that, Ally ran out of the house and toward the cemetery, hoping that Spike was already there. The sooner she got it out of her chest, the better.


When she didn't find her vampire in his crypt, she went for the only other place she knew he could go to during the day. She had never really been inside, but she guessed it was high time she did.

The demon bar.

Would it be anything like the one she went to in L.A.?

Short answer; no. Long answer; comparing the demon bar in Sunnydale to the one in L.A. was like comparing a cockroach to a unicorn.

Dirty, stinking and filled with depressed looking demons, most of whom looked up at seeing her cross the threshold, the place was the epitome of discourage.

"Slayer!" One of them shouted, jumping up from his chair and backing towards another door, probably an emergency escape.

"Calm down, I'm not here for you." She assured, looking around to find everybody had stopped drinking and were tense as bowstrings. "I'm not here for any of you. I'm looking for somebody else. Go on drinking." She approached the bar, the blue-ish demon serving the drinks staring at her wearily.

"I won't tell you a word, Slayer. I won't be to blame for the death of one of my patrons." He hissed, stepping backwards, away from her.

She sighed, desperately missing the karaoke bar, where she was always welcome and the demons were even nice to her. Specially the owner. "I'm not going to kill anyone right now. I'm looking for Spike. I know he comes here every now and then."

"Uh, the vampire. Yes, he's at the back. Although he doesn't usually come so early in the day." He pointed towards the back door with his thumb, or one of his thumbs at least, not letting go of the glass he had been holding since she had arrived.

"Thanks." She brightly smiled at him, striding across the bar, almost stopping when she came a cross a Brachen demon that was so scared he was trembling, even shaking his stool. "Relax, buddy. I'm not here to hurt any of you. I know Brachen demons are peaceful. Breath."

When she reached the back room, she found something she truly hadn't been expecting. A card game where the currency were kittens. Spike didn't even realize she was there at first. Some of the demons around the table froze when they saw her, but she only smiled and waited next to the door, letting them go back to their game. It was only then that the bleach blonde vampire looked up, smirking when he saw her. "Hello, love."

A few minutes of almost silent playing later, she heard one of the participants lean whisper to another one of the demons, so low she only got to understand '...the mini Slayer...', but it was enough to make her pout.

"I'm taller than Buffy!" She complained, Spike sending her an amused look.

That shut them all up, soon finishing up the game with Spike having lost several kittens. Really, what the fuck was wrong with them? Who used kittens to make bets?

The vampire gestured with his head towards a trap door on the floor not far from them, one she was pretty sure led to the sewers. Well, it wasn't like Spike could go out any other way during that time of the day.

She followed him down the hole, landing on slightly wet floor and between her vampire's arms. But then he froze, his face coming closer, his brow crunching up.

"What is it?" She asked, already suspecting the reason for his change in demeanour.

"Cologne." He muttered, not fully snarling, not using his normal tone of voice either. "Why do you smell like a man's cologne?"

"Lindsey." She wasn't going to hide anything from him, he deserved to know. The angry wrinkles in his forehead became even more pronounced, yet he didn't say anything. "The witch." She was afraid of his reaction, of hurting him. It was the last thing she wanted. She was getting so nervous her words started coming out in a rush. "She-she hit me with a lust spell. And then I ran to the crypt but you weren't in the crypt, and Dawn and Anya tried to take me to the Magic Box so Will and Tara could fix me but they left me alone on the street for a few minutes ,and I saw him, and I hadn't seen him in ten months, and I lost my mind. I'm sorry, Spike. I'm so sorry." Her breathing came out in quick huffs, her chest heaving as if she had been running for hours, her heart beating at a frantic pace.

"What did you two do?" His voice was controlled, yet there was an underlying fury and hurt that shook her to the bone.

"We only kissed. Dawn and Anya caught us and they told him what had happened and he just helped them get me to the Magic Box and back to normal. That's all." She promised, trying to find his hands in the dark and failing miserably. "Spike?"

There was no answer for a few seconds, the nerves eating her from the inside, an unknown fear surrounding her heart like a frozen cloak. "Anything going on between you two before?" He finally asked, Ally letting the breath she didn't know she had been holding out.

"No. I mean, we kissed once, but... Nothing really happened. We were friends." She finally caught one of his hands, wrapping hers around it, noticing how he didn't even try to hold it. "I-I know it's... bad, but... I promise it meant nothing. But if you... if you want me to... Do... do you want me to leave?" She tried to keep her voice from trembling, and only managed to do it half the time, her emotions taking over the rest.

"Yeah. Got a lot to think about right now." He replied dryly, pulling his hand away from hers and turning so his back faced her. "You better go home. Sewers are not the best place for the Slayer."


The way home was a ridiculously weepy one for Ally. She'd never been one to cry for boys, she had barely cried when she broke up with her last boyfriend. It was disgraceful and she wanted nothing more than to slap herself and get back the usual control she had over her emotions. She wasn't going to cry. God, she couldn't be blamed for what had happened, and Spike needed time to think. That was all. They hadn't broken up. Everything would be fine.


The last day had been a challenge for everyone. Ally was lucky she had Dawn, and even Buffy to some degree, while the rest of the Gang was still coming to terms with 'Buffy was in Heaven'. Giles was extremely supportive, spending hours at the Magic Box training both Slayers, giving them a way to let some steam off, even when it was clear it was a bit too much exertion for him.

After a long morning running around and generally trying to keep her mind off the most important matters, Ally went out to meet Lindsey at a coffee shop, knowing it was his last day in town. He was going somewhere to the east, where, she wasn't sure.

He stayed over at her place that night, kinda like a replay of her last night in L.A., even though she didn't sleep. She had tried the previous night, only for the nightmares to come back, not even getting four hours of rest. She was once again running on coffee.


After saying goodbye to Lindsey, she went back to the Summer's home, only to find her baby sister and Tara leaving for the Magic Box, where a Scooby meeting had been called. She wondered aloud about the kind of creature that was currently threatening town, Dawn supplying her own odd theories.

Once they met Giles, Anya and Buffy there, Ally leaned against the counter, Dawn doing the same thing next to a bookshelf.

"So whadda we got?" The teen asked, ready to get head-first into research. She was getting more and more interested in fighting evil, specially since they'd started letting her take part "What kind of oogly-boogleys? Lizardy types, or um, zombies, or, or vampires, or what?"

Ally held back a laugh, watching her sister fondly.

Giles took off his glasses and started wiping them, a bit exasperated and amused at the kid's behaviour. "There are no oogly-boogleys, Dawn."

That was when the redhead witch and Xander arrived, the first with her friend's jacket on, probably because she was wearing a short sleeved shirt under it. It was almost winter-time. Even Ally was wearing long sleeves and a jacket.

The Watcher stood from his seat on the table, putting his glasses back on a his hands on his pockets. "I'm glad you're here, um... I have something I really have to tell you all. Um ... I know it feels like we've been through this before..."

Buffy just couldn't take the preliminaries, standing up and approaching the former-librarian dryly. "Why don't you just jump to the chase? Tell them that you're..."

She was interrupted by a smoking man in a brown suit and a padded hat with earflaps entering the store, no one realizing who it was at first.

Ally didn't even dare say a word, Giles being the one to speak up first. "Spike?"

Everyone stared at him, mouths hanging open at his attire. He just stood there, in front of the door, as the smoke coming from him dissipated. "You need to give me asylum. Happens there's a bloke I'd rather not see just now." He walked farther into the store, completely ignoring Ally and jumping up to sit on the counter, not far from her.

Giles focused the meeting once again, trying not to pay too much attention to the vampire. "Well, now that we've recovered from Spike's ... sartorial humor, I'll jump to the chase. Um ... I'm headed back to and I plan to stay ... indefinitely." He sat once again, only next to Anya, as everyone stared at him.

No one had been ready for it, definitely not Ally. He was leaving? Then? How could he? Why would he?

Xander was the first to voice his surprise. "Now? Not now, I mean, not after ... everything."

"Yes, now."

Anya completely missed the general reaction to the news, once again only focused on herself. "For real this time? 'Cause honest to Pete, a young shopkeeper's heart can only take so much ... I mean, not that I want you to go..."

Not being able to take it any longer, Buffy left her place next to the stairs, striding towards the front door. "I can't do this. I just, I don't think..."

Willow stopped her, calling for her. "Buffy, listen." The blonde Slayer turned to look at her friend. "I know this must be awful for you, and I, I'm sorry, I ... I'm so sorry for..."

The senior Slayer nodded, not even waiting for Willow to finish what she had to say. Ally knew that was going to be some kind of 'poor me' speech, and she just wasn't ready to take it, either. She had been in Hell, for god's sake! How could Buffy complain so much, when she had had what was probably the best vacation ever? She'd had a break, she'd had Heaven. Ally'd had torture, endless, agonizing. She'd only had pain in her life for so long, yet she never complained. She never said a word about it. How could Buffy behave like that?

Trying to tune her eldest sister out, Ally hopped onto the counter, a few feet away from the vampire who was just keeping out of the conversation.

"Sorry. Everybody's sorry. I know that you guys are just trying to help ... but it's just, it's too much. And, and I, I can't take it any more." The blonde was teary by that point, giving the speech of her life. "If you guys ... if you guys understood how it felt ... how it feels. It's like I'm dying, it..."

And everything went black, all of the Scoobies falling asleep at once.