Spike looked up angrily at Oz as he entered the door, but his fierce glare softened noticeably as Willow walked in behind him. He purposely met her gaze and smiled a little but didn't interrupt Giles. She gave him a small smile back, but he saw something behind it...guilt?
Damn, he thought to himself, feeling his soul die...well, er figuratively anyway.
"So basically what you're saying is that we have to fight Adam by running away?" Buffy exploded in the middle of her former watcher's speech, "I mean, yes, we have to be careful but we also have to remember that we're still battling it."
"Yes, Buffy but precautions must be taken-"
Spike sighed and lit another cigarette, tuning the lively debate out and letting his eyes wander across the room to where Willow sat in-between Xander and Oz on the couch. Spike's face tightened at the sight of Oz lightly taking her hand. She looked up at him, surprised and smiled slightly.
Otherwise, she seemed deeply engrossed in what her friends were saying, but he could've sworn he saw her gaze flicker across the room and at him.
He wanted more than anything to just run over and hold her but...no. He shook his head and sighed deeply, how was it that he, Spike, William the Bloody had fallen for her, smart, sweet and shy college girl. Why? he asked for the nth time.
***
Meanwhile, deep in the forest some ways away from the warmth of Giles's home, lumbered Adam. He feared none, he was the ruler of the night, the forest. The small animals in the brush seemed to sense this and scampered away in his wake.
He ignored them. He felt thoughts and something that could've been emotions pulsing through him...all too much. What did it all mean? Lies...all lies? Confusion and the thirst for answers drove him on.
That female...the girl...what had Mother called her? The Slayer...what was she? What did she mean? Who was she?
What was who?
He threw back his head and bellowed the cry of the insane...
Find them. Fine answers. Kill for answers.
Yes, that was what he must do. Find Slayer. Kill her. And get answers.
He slowed to a stop, tilted his head in an animal like way, then changed direction and sauntered on.
***
Willow felt rather guilty about her conversation with Oz after kissing Spike. But that wasn't cheating, so why did she feel so remorseful? She sighed to herself and knew...it was the feeling she got from Oz. The sensation that she was once again sinking back into that familiar feeling of heart-racing-palm-sweating love.
How highschool, she thought to herself with a smirk.
Buffy watched her friend while she pretended to be hanging on Giles's every word. She had figured of course, that there would be some tension between her and the two...people, for lack of a better word. But is seemed that before that Willow would come to her and spill her troubles and they would both take time out of their insane lives to focus on something almost trivial and relatively normal.
Though most normal girls wouldn't be torn between a werewolf and a vamp, Buffy reminded herself cynically.
"..so in short, I do think that there is much cause for worry over this, Buffy," Giles said turning to her, something fatherly in his eyes.
Buffy smiled slightly, thanking him with her own gaze, "Yea...Well, it's dark, I'm gonna jet. Do the usual Slayer thing and patrol."
"Hey, I'll come with you," Riley stood, trying to hide the intense pain from his injury.
"Ah ah, no way, mister. You're staying here and healing," Buffy replied firmly.
Xander imitated the sound of a whip cracking, "you sock it to him, Buff."
"Shut up, Xander," she said good-naturedly.
"I should come," Riley protested, equally firmly, "I mean, Adam was created by the Initiative...I almost feel like I'm responsible in part."
"And I feel like I'm responsible for making sure you don't get killed just when you're starting to heal," Buffy shot back. She gently pushed him back onto the couch and covered him gently with a blanket, "Now stay here."
"Uh, Buffy, Riley does bring up a good point. You could use some back-up," Giles said, interrupting the tender moment.
"I've got my good buddy Mr. Blaster," she replied, holstering the now-fixed gadget that Xander had repaired by way of much help from Riley. She caught Giles's look and nodded, "um...why don't you come, Xander, I could use the military knowledge," at this, Anya looked as though she might speak against it, but Xander silenced her with a look, "and Will...well, we could use the general knowledge,"
Both Spike and Oz stood at this.
"Absolutely not," Spike said.
"Why?" Oz asked, anger behind his voice.
"What...you don't think I can take care of myself?" demanded Willow, standing and trying to look tough, "I can handle Adam as well as the next...defenseless human being,"
"And that would involve what? Running in the opposite direction or being gutted or both?" Spike retorted.
"Hey, how come no one protested this much for me?" Xander asked.
"Oh, like we care about you," snapped the vampire, brushing him aside.
"Oh, great, thanks," Xander muttered.
"Look, I'll be fine.." Willow said, half laughing at how ridiculous this situation was, "I can do spells and plus I can run pretty fast," she added with a comforting smile.
"Then I'm coming," both Spike and Oz said in unison, then in equal unison, they turned and looked at one another, "no you're not." They both turned to look at the rest of the group as if being judged.
"Look, both of you have strength...but Spike, I don't know if you could fight Adam. He's half human...I don't know what the result would be and Oz...well, we don't need another person, and we can't have you two fighting each other on the way."
"Buffy, your rational really doesn't make much sense, wouldn't it be better to leave Willow here to do some spells on Adam's activity or perhaps hack into Initiative systems to find out more about him?" Giles intoned sensibly.
Buffy hesitated, yes, of course Giles was correct, so why had she chosen Willow to come along? To her surprise she realized she had wanted to spend some quality spill-your-guts-laugh-over-guys time with her friend.
Of course, with Oz, there hasn't been much laughing lately...
She felt guilt was over her as she realized the peril she had almost put her friend into.
"Yes, of course Giles...um, Riley, you need to heal, Xander, you're still with me, Anya, you help Giles research, Will stay and check computer records and do some spells, Spike and Oz...you're both with me," she sighed, "and no arguing," she added as they began to protest, "now come on."
As she lead her rather ragtag team of would-be demon hunters and possibly demon fighters out the door, she watched with amusement as Spike cornered Willow and talked gently with her for a moment before kissing her hand and sweeping past Oz with a smirk on his face. But the werewolf retaliated and simply walked over to Willow and cupping her chin in his hand, kissed her gently on the lips before she could even react. As he met up with the group, Buffy noticed, and definitely didn't like, the look that Spike gave Oz or vice versa.
***
"...stop snapping those branches into my face on purpose, you bugger," snarled Spike.
"Oh. Sorry, didn't mean to," Oz replied, his voice and face as always, neutral.
Spike grumbled something under his breath.
Probably unspeakable curses, Buffy thought to herself.
"So exactly what are we looking for?" Xander asked, toying with the blaster.
"Don't play with that," Buffy said automatically, looking over her shoulder to watch Oz and Spike still squabbling. They caught up with she and Xander and she could hear their conversation.
"She doesn't want you, you know," Spike said bluntly in Oz's face.
Oz looked back up at him, cocked his head to the side and for a moment looked like he might strike out with his fist, but Xander interrupted.
"Hey, will you two stop it? We have something a little more important to focus on," Xander snapped over his shoulder.
Buffy froze in her footsteps suddenly, every part of her alert, listening hard, "Yea. And from the noise it's making in the bushes, it sounds like it's coming closer...."
***