Dawn makes her way up the stairs back to her bedroom and narrowly avoids colliding with Willow and Buffy, who come barreling out of their rooms.

"Dawn!" Buffy's standing in on the landing in a t-shirt and shorts holding a stake,"what- are you alright? What was that crash?"

Dawn shoots a cold look at her, taking in her dishevelled hair and off centre clothes.

"Xander broke in. Tried to kill Spike." She moves to walk past Buffy but she blocks her way, holding her by the arm.

"He WHAT!? Why?"

"Why indeed?" Dawn snatches her arm out of Buffy's grip and pushes her way up the rest of the stairs.

"Dawn!"

Dawn spins round at the top of the stairs, anger twisting her face.

"He risked his life for us, Buffy! FOR ME! He let Glory tear him almost completely to pieces! When are you going to stop letting your friends treat him like dirt?! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING?!"

"DAWN! That's enough!"

"No it's NOT! It'll never be enough! You act like it meant nothing! All of you act like what he did, what he went through meant nothing! I've heard you say he's evil and soulless but no one else, none of them, none of your friends were here when you were dead and I was alone!"

Buffy reaches for Dawn but she smacks her hand away and runs to her room, slamming the door.

Willow stands aside to let her pass, clutching an enormous volume on the history of Medieval Europe that she'd hastily grabbed as a weapon.

"Where did that come from?"

Buffy shrugs, defensively.

"She's... just really attached to Spike, that's all. I'm going to go check on him."

"Buffy-"

Buffy's already heading down the stairs, but Willow catches her arm, "Buffy-"

"What, Will?"

"Just Dawn? Just her that's attached to Spike?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

Buffy freezes on the steps.

"Buffy, just tell me what's going on. I'm your best friend, I thought... You know you can trust me, I just want to help."

"You can't help Will."

"Even if I can't, wouldn't you tell me anyway? Didn't we used to tell each other stuff? Whatever's going on with you and... and with Spike, I just- I'm not here to judge I'm all about the not judging, I swear I'm, I'm judge free. But I mean- I'm not stupid, he's here all the time and you're all- with the furtive glances and... uh." She sighs rolling her eyes at her uncontrollable rambling, "he's not like my most favorite person on the planet but he does care. I get that he does. About Dawn and... and you in his own really creepy, kidnap-you, shrine-having, build-a-robot-Buffy way but... but maybe love makes us do insane things sometimes." Her voice breaks as she thinks of Tara, the thousands of stupid mistakes it felt like she made from the beginning.

One little push and we're all only a step away from the biggest mistake of our lives.

"If I'm wrong fine but if that's what you're not telling me…"

She tilts her head up to let tears flow back, but when she meets Buffy's eyes she sees tears swimming in hers and they spill uncontrollably.

She pulls Buffy back up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. She closes the door behind them.

"Do you love him?"

Buffy slumps down on Willow's bed, sobbing quietly.

"Buffy? Do you?"

"Yes."

It's little more than a whisper.

"Even... without a soul?"

Buffy takes a deep shuddering breath.

"He has a soul."

"What? H-How?"

"It's... hard to explain right now. Tara- She said-"

"Tara? You spoke to Tara? About this?"

Buffy nods and Willow tries to swallow the sting of betrayal that's rising in her throat like bile.

"What did Tara say?"

"That it's not permanent yet. She's looking into it... it's not-" she swallows trying to get the words out round the tears, "it's not permanent and because of that it's hurting him. I'm hurting him. It's my fault."

"No, that's- it's not your fault."

Buffy shakes her head, scrabbling in her mind to find the words to make Willow understand, but coming up blank. The whole mess of it just too huge to explain in one go.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Buffy sighs, looking her directly in the eyes.

"Ok... I guess obviousness. But you could've, you know? You used to be able to talk to me ."

"I know. It's just after the whole Angel everything, I didn't think I could take it. I feel like," she chokes, hiding her head in her hands, "I kept thinking about what happened just before I had to... before I had to kill him and- and Xander gave me your message saying 'kick his ass', like it was that simple, like it didn't completely kill me having to do that, and I just didn't think you'd understand. It was... like you were rooting for me to kill him. I know you didn't mean it that way but it sucked. I thought you'd think it was all happening again. That you'd all be waiting for it to fail, in a 'we told you so' way."

She looks up at Willow, who takes a seat next to her on the bed. Her face is a mask of confusion.

"What message?"

"You know, you told Xander. When you were in the hospital."

"…what did Xander say to you that day?"

"Just that. 'Kick his ass', like you were cheering me on."

"That's not what I told Xander to tell you." Willow's face flickers from confusion to fury in a heartbeat.

"What... what did you tell him to tell me?"

"I said to stall for time. That I was going to try putting his soul back. I said to tell you to stall."

Buffy's face turns white.