Hey everyone! Not much to say here, only thought I'd answer to the reviews.

bwburke94: Yeah, I did! But I guessed that he wouldn't be using it as his name but as his 'race' or something, given they didn't really know much about Gnarl, even less Spike, who was kinda out of it.

RHatch89: Thanks! You can leave ideas if you want to see something specific in the next chapters. I have it all figured out but I could fit in a thing or two if anyone has any request!

Guest: You made my day with this message. Huge hug for you!

So that's it.
Lee out.


Ally had had that same feeling for a week. She knew someone was following her when she was out, and she could still not see anyone do so. It was unnerving, and when she voiced her worries to Buffy and Spike, they'd immediately come to the same conclusion: She shouldn't patrol alone.

Spike had been quite well lately. As long as he could touch her, he was mostly fine. Sometimes, if she fell asleep on the couch while watching TV or reading, he'd go to her in the middle of the night, when he felt like it was taking her too long to go to sleep, and either take her to the basement or close the curtains and sit beside her, somehow always touching her. He'd also started accompanying her on patrols, so as not to leave her alone out of the house. If it wasn't him, it was Buffy doing the rounds with Ally.

Besides, it wasn't like Buffy went with her sister that often. Usually, the brunette Slayer much preferred her vampire's company, under the excuse that his heightened senses would be able to locate whoever was watching her and even see it more clearly in the dark. Truth was, they spent most of the patrols too busy tangled up in each other to want to trade it for a walk with Buffy. Ally could spend time with her sisters during the day, mostly mornings and lunchtime and such, and evenings and nights with Spike. And they had more privacy when patrolling than they did in the house, where Dawn, Buffy or Willow could come down anytime, as had happened before, much to the embarrassment of everyone.

As part of her training, though, that evening Dawn was patrolling with the couple, who were having quite a difficult time keeping their hands to themselves. Dawn walked right between the vampire and the Slayer, twirling a stake in her hand and talking about some situation she'd had in class with a 'stupid-bigoted-unstable physics teacher', who'd been picking on some of the weakest kids in class and putting them on the spot to embarrass them.

"Maybe you could tell Buffy about this and she could talk to Principal Wood. He seems to be a cool guy. He'd probably listen." Ally advised as she looked around for any hidden evil crawlies.

"Or… maybe my really cool big sister who doesn't work at high school and is a genius at physics could come and intimidate him a bit." Dawn suggested instead, glancing at her with a hopeful expression. "Linger around the class when it's about to end, and answer the question he always writes on the chalkboard to put someone on the spot better than he would do it. Put him on the spot. Payback." The teen smirked, the bleach blonde on her other side matching her expression.

Sometimes Ally wasn't sure who the bad influence on whom was.

"Your really cool big sister will think about it." The slayer smirked for a moment before her eyes caught sight of some moving soil twenty feet from them. "Time to get to work, Dawnie. You've got a newbie there. Let's see how you deal with it."


Dawn thought her plan was brilliant. Ally could argue with that, but decided not to, given her sister was fully awake and bouncy first thing in the morning, which didn't happen that often, even less after a night patrolling.

The plan consisted in making Buffy almost be late by changing the time in her alarm clock, then Ally insisting that they had no time to prepare lunch if they wanted to make it on time to school –where, by the way, Buffy was finally going to start talking to the kids and counselling –, so that Ally could stay back for a while, prepare their lunch and use the excuse to go to the high school by the time Dawn's physics class ended.

So far everything had gone to plan, and Ally was waiting outside Dawn's class with the teen's lunch, watching the kids and staff roaming the corridors. She would have liked to attend high school, had her situation been different. She wondered how her life would have been, had she stayed back home, go to school like all the other normal kids. She wouldn't have met Riley, Graham, or even Angel, Doyle, Wes, and all her other friends from LA. Or her sisters, Spike, and the rest of the Scoobies. She probably wouldn't have gone to college in LA, or gotten a PhD so young, and she wouldn't have the slightest idea what to do if she'd been called when Buffy died –if she did. She simply couldn't fathom her life as a 'normal' kid.

Her thoughts were brought to a halt when the door to the classroom opened and students began pouring out. Ignoring their inquisitive looks, she peeked inside, finding the question written on the chalkboard, the bigoted teacher Dawn had been complaining about sitting on his chair and her baby sister intentionally taking her sweet time gathering her things.

"Hey, Dawnie." Ally greeted as she made her way inside the classroom, where some kids still lingered. "Brought your lunch."

Dawn looked up with a mischievous glint in her eyes, making Ally sigh before turning toward the chalkboard.

The teacher would probably not try to put Dawn on the spot after that, and maybe stop picking on the weakest kids.


After leaving Dawn grinning like the cunning monster she was, Ally headed toward Buffy's office, peeking through the window to make sure she wasn't interrupting her while she talked to some teen. Luckily, she found a blonde boy just leaving her sister's table, and so she headed inside.

"Hey, Alls!" Buffy smiled when she noticed her sister by the door.

"Hey there, Buff." Ally smiled back, waiting for the boy to leave, who was smirking at her like he expected her to fall to his feet. Once he had closed the door behind him, she rolled her eyes and approached the senior Slayer. "How's work going?"

"Uhm… It's… crazy. That boy came just because he was bored… and I had another one pretend to be confused about being gay so I would go on a date with him." The blonde confessed as she buried her head in her hands, her shoulders sagging in exasperation.

"I'm sure you broke his heart." Ally laughed, letting herself plop down onto the chair the students usually occupied. "Did you ever imagine yourself counselling kids?"

Buffy looked around the room, as if she still hadn't gotten used to being a counsellor. "Never. We did a career fair thing when I was in high school, and my results said I'd be a police officer."

"No way!" Ally straightened in her seat, a full blown smile on her face. She couldn't imagine Buffy in police uniform, or on police duty. Buffy was too independent, didn't answer well to being ordered around.

"My reaction was more disbelief, but yeah, I was just as shocked." She smirked, leaning back in her chair. "What about you? What did you want to do before you got yourself involved in… you know?"

"Uhm… I wanted to work on scientific research. The original plan was getting my degrees in Physics and Biochemistry, then work in some kind of lab or university research team. I might have even gone for Biomedical Engineering, but… then… you know, I went for a quiet Physics degree while I was being trained." She shrugged and rested her elbows on Buffy's desk, letting her head fall on top of her hands. "Angel insisted I did something apart from... our job. He worried I'd get too stuck in our world. He only agreed to… preparing me if I continued my studies, 'cause I had already started the Physics degree. Distance learning degree, mostly, but I did go to campus quite a few times after I'd changed my name and settled in LA."

"He cared a lot about you." The senior Slayer mused, her gaze lost on the surface of the desk.

"Yeah. He cares a lot, in his own way. You know, he's not really… uhm… socially adept. It took a lot of insistence to get him to go out and meet people. He's come a long way, really. He would barely want to talk to anyone when I met him."

"Tell me about it." The blonde smirked again, just as Principal Wood left his office.

"Good morning, Miss Summers." He greeted Ally, nodding his head toward her. "Need counselling too?"

"Nah, I just came to bring her lunch. Gotta get home soon." She gestured toward the brown bag on top of Buffy's desk.

Her sister nodded, a teasing smile tugging at her lips. "Yeah, Captain Peroxide might freak out if he finds you gone when he decides to wake up."

"Don't be mean, Buff." Ally chastised, glaring at her.

Wood glanced between the sisters, quirking an eyebrow at the brunette. "Captain Peroxide?"

"My boyfriend."

The principal frowned, shaking his arm to lift his sleeve a bit and look at the watch. "And he hasn't woken up by noon?"

"Uh… he usually stays up late at night." The brunette shrugged, hating how bad an image Spike was getting.

"Huh." That was the only response from the man as he put his hands in the pockets of his pants.

It looked like Buffy was having fun, because she continued her teasing. "Such a waste. It's a beautiful day out. Good weather, warm…"

"Come on, Buff." Ally whined, frowning at her sister.

"You should really try to get him to wake up earlier. Soak up on vitamin D. We're fortunate here in California, really." Wood supported the blonde, yet he was trying to be helpful, unlike Buffy.

"Uh, yeah, no. He's… photosensitive."

Buffy coughed, trying to stifle a laugh or a snort and turning around so that Principal Wood couldn't see her face.

"Well, I should get going. See you later, Buff. Bye, Principal Wood." And with one last glare at her sister, Ally left the office.


When everyone got home, they informed Ally of the new case they had on their hands. A girl named Cassie had somehow predicted her death, come Friday, and Buffy was doing all she could to prevent it, even recruiting Dawn to befriend Cassie.

They gathered the team –meaning they called Xander over and got Willow on the computer– and researched all they could about Cassie: medical records, academic record, even her personal website, where she posted poems about death that sincerely creeped Ally out.

She was about to leave the room to go check on Spike in the basement when Dawn arrived, talking about her own theory on who would kill Cassie.

"Guys, I'm telling you. I got this case cracked wide-open. I got the perp fingered. I told you 'bout Mike Helgenberg, right?"

"Uh, that's the guy that asked her to the dance?" Buffy recalled, even as she paid more attention to the computer, where Willow had found something on Cassie's dad.

"Right. The one that keeps asking her to the dance. I'm thinking, who likes to be rejected? Nobody. I'm thinking, some people can't handle the rejection. I'm thinking that…"

"Hey, I got something." Willow jumped, interrupting the teen.

"I'm thinking you've been doing a lot of thinking." Ally smiled at her baby sister as she stood beside her, waiting for Willow to continue. Dawn smiled lightly, not happy at being ignored so easily by the rest.

Apparently, Cassie's dad was a violent drunk, which immediately set Buffy and Xander into action. Ally decided to stay back, take care of Spike and keep searching with Will and Dawn. No one would probably believe she was in official duty if she tried to talk to Cassie's dad. She really had no reason to be there, unlike Buffy, and she looked too young to be taken seriously by someone outside the supernatural world, unlike Xander.

Downstairs, Spike sat in his usual spot, one knee propped against his chest, eyes vacant. Not until Ally sat carelessly next to him and intertwined her fingers with his did he looked at her.

"There's a girl. Her name's Cassie Newton. She's in danger. She says she's gonna die on Friday. Have you… heard anything?" She asked, resting her head on his shoulder and staring off into space like him before. "Is there something evil out there? Do you know anything?"

"Yes." He paused, making Ally look up at him. "There's evil. Down here. Right here. I'm a bad man. William is a bad man." She felt his hand, his whole body, tense beside her, alerting her.

"No, he's not." She turned toward him and placed her free hand on the side of his face, making him look at her. "William is good, and sweet, and loving. You are good. I know that. You are good."

His baby blues glistened with unshed tears, focused entirely on her. He barely even blinked, but his hold on her hand tightened a bit more before he relaxed, getting a light smile out of her. "You really believe that?" He whispered almost inaudibly.

"Of course I do. I know you. I've seen all the good that you've done since I've been here. You saved Dawn, took care of her and Joyce when they needed you to, told me about Buffy's… problem, and you've been here for me when no one else was. You were good before getting your soul, and you're good now. And you better start believing it too, Mister." She patted his cheek before returning to her previous position, with her head on his shoulder. "So, do you know anything about what will happen to Cassie?"

He shook his head, only to then rest it on top of hers and stare off into space again, letting her touch keep him grounded.


It was a hectic week, looking everywhere they could to find anything that would clue them on what would kill Cassie. It was Friday, and so far, they knew nothing. Buffy's concern seeped into Ally, who paced the basement nervously in the early morning, before leaving with her sisters and Xander to go to the high school.

She supposed she would wander around high school, search the basement for any monsters and all that, see if she could find anything that would help her save Cassie.


It was probably already sunset by the time she let herself fall on top of a crate in the basement, tired and clueless. Dawn had called to tell them Cassie had disappeared, but there's been no news from Buffy, so either she had nothing or hadn't bothered to call her.

Either way, anxiety was eating her. They'd had a head start on this girl's death. They had searched everywhere, and yet they'd come up with a whole lot of nothing. She felt useless, like she was failing at her job. 'Cause it was her job. Saving people like Cassie was her job.

And then she heard footsteps, fast, light, approaching her. Who would be at the high school basement at this hour? Maybe she'd finally get somewhere in this case. Maybe…

It was Spike.

"Come on, love, we haven't got much time. Feel demon up there. Gotta go help the girl." He held his hand out for her to take, which she didn't even hesitate in doing before grabbing a torch like thing from a corner and guiding her through the corridors, taking an unusually long route to get to the library. When she asked about it, he glanced over his shoulder at her, worry in his eyes. "Traps on the common entrances. There's a back door that's been left untouched."

By the time they got to the library, a huge demon with grey-brown thick skin was attacking Buffy, throwing her against bookshelves, while a boy in red robes had Cassie grabbed by the shoulder and a butcher's knife near her neck.

Getting his zippo out of his pocket, Spike lit the torch and swung it against the demon.

"I'll take care of this." Buffy declared when she got up from the floor, taking the torch from the vampire.

"You go help the girl, we'll deal with the demon." Ally decided, gesturing toward the teen with her head.

Ally distracted the demon, kicking and punching relentlessly while Buffy aimed the torch to the unprotected part of his torso, the flames soon taking his whole body. When the demon dropped to the floor, Ally finally looked over to where Cassie and Spike where, seeing him untie the teen and take the tape from around her mouth.

Cassie looked at her saviour, her chest still heaving from the terror she'd lived through. He was looking around until he locked gazes with the brunette that looked like Dawn, her other sister, his face visibly relaxing when he found her unscathed. "She'll need you. Soon, she'll need you. Only you can get her back."

He frowned, leaning back from the creepy seer teen, wondering what the hell she was going on about. He stood back up when Goldilocks and his Ally Cat reached them, letting the blonde take care of the teen as his girl stood beside him.

They stayed back when Buffy guided the kid out, purposefully ignoring the boy who'd started the whole demon thing, while Ally made sure he hadn't been hurt and his head felt fine. After all, he had hit a human –as much as the human deserved it. But he didn't seem so bothered by that, and more by what the kid had said, which he decided not to tell Ally about.

Then they heard it. It was Buffy. "Cassie! Cassie. No, come on. Cassie. Cassie!"

By the time they reached them, Cassie was dead, no way of getting her back.

Heart failure.

They couldn't fight against heart failure.