Sorry this took me so long. I've been a bit under the weather.:( Also, I don't have UPN
so I haven't yet seen the Buffy premiere, so I hope that the characterization is still right.

Disclaimer's still the same as chapters 1 and 2.

Locked Away, Chapter Three

Spike heaved another shovel full of dirt over his left shoulder to the ground behind him.
He had wanted to ask Willow exactly why she needed him to do this but he hadn't yet
figured out the right words to say that wouldn't give away how he truly felt about this
situation. He didn't want to admit to himself how he felt.

This was Buffy's grave. Willow had asked, no, told him to dig her up. She didn't offer
to pay him. She didn't tell him why or spell out any plan. She just said "C'mon, we're
going to get Buffy," and thrust a shovel into his hands. He felt like anyone would feel in
this situation.

He was scared.

Tara was there too. She said even less about what they were doing. She just pulled her
shawl around her to keep out the chill of the evening and looked in every direction except
the one pointing down into the grave where Spike moved the dirt out.

Finally he set his jaw and thought of the right approach. "Why didn't you ask Harris to
do this?" he asked casually.

Willow looked at him with serious eyes. "I didn't want to involve anyone who didn't
have to be."

Spike stopped digging and threw the shovel down. "Then why the bloody hell am I
here?"

With the same seriousness, "Because you have to be."

"Look, I'm not an idiot," he said hotly. He choked down the embarrassment that only an
idiot would have dug this much out of a grave before declaring he wasn't an idiot. At
least he wasn't too far to stop digging and go home. "I know how these reanimation
rituals go. This isn't right. The two of you should follow your own advice to Dawn and
just let it go. I miss Buffy just as much as any of you but I don't want to have anything to
do with this perversion."

Tara looked to Willow. Apparently she felt the same as he did but she hadn't said
anything. She still didn't. She trusted Willow and Willow always had a plan.

Willow jumped down into the pit that Spike had already dug out. "I'm sorry," she began
with the sheepishness that she had made famous and with the pleading eyes that Spike
couldn't believe were focused on him. "I know I should explain but I was afraid that it
would all sound so crazy that you would just laugh at me and tell me to bug off."

Spike looked up at Tara. He tried not to laugh. "Can you believe her? She thought that
she was just going to intimidate me into doing this."

"Actually," Tara said softly, "I think she used influence on you."

"What?!" He was actually offended. He had thought that he was helping her on his own
because she needed him to. Now he didn't know who really let him down, Willow or
himself.

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry," Willow relented. "I felt guilty about it so I let it wear
off."

"So I'm in control of myself now. Is that what you're saying?" he asked suspiciously.

Willow nodded. She felt badly, but she reassured herself by thinking that she didn't have
any choice. He never would have done this on his own and she knew now that it was
only a matter of seconds before he climbed out and told her to 'bug off'.

Spike looked at Willow for a long moment and then he reached down and picked up the
shovel. He started digging again.

Willow couldn't believe it. "You're going to stay?" she asked, "Why?"

"Because of her," he replied pointing his thumb back at Tara. "She doesn't have any better idea of what's going on here than I do, but she trusted you. If she trusts you then I don't see why I shouldn't." He left it at that and kept on digging, taking care not to splatter Willow with dirt without looking like he was taking care.

"But I love her," Tara protested.

"If there's one thing that I've learned in this lengthy existence of mine it's that love has nothing to do with trust," he remarked. This time he did stop digging. He looked up at Willow again. "For what it's worth, I trust you. If you tell me there's nothing perverse in what you're doing, then I'll believe you."

"There's nothing bad, Spike," Willow said honestly, "I promise."

"Well, then," he replied, tossing the shovel out of the grave, "I'm finished digging." He turned and began to pull himself out.

Willow became flustered at Spike's apparent change of heart. "Why have you stopped? I thought you were okay with this."

"Hey, Red," Spike said patiently, inwardly amused in the whine that issued with her question. "I stopped digging because I've hit coffin."

"Oh," she replied simply. She got down on her knees and began pushing the dirt away from the coffin with her hands.

Spike turned away. He didn't want to look. More than three months had passed since Buffy had been placed in that ground. Too long. He knew what time did to beauty. He could hear Willow open the lid. He didn't want to see.

"Oh, my God," Willow breathed.

On instinct, Spike turned to see what had caused her stunned reaction. What he saw gave him a chill that he had difficulty masking.

Buffy was perfect. Untouched by time.

"I don't know why," Tara began to say. "Something made me do it."

"What? What did you do?" Spike asked.

Without looking away from Buffy she replied, "I put a preservation spell on her. Nothing big. It probably would have worn off in a couple of months anyway." Willow looked up at her worriedly. No one could have foreseen the reason for Tara's spell. They couldn't help but wonder if other powers were at work. "Something just made me do it."

Willow tried to put on her reassuring face. "It's good thing," she said. "It makes our job much easier." She glanced back down at Buffy's body. "Now all we have to do is replace some organs and bodily fluids."

Spike grimaced at that. "Suddenly the romance has disappeared," he remarked dryly but he found that he didn't want to leave. He was transfixed to his spot, overseeing the restoration. He knew that he was no longer under anyone's 'influence' except the one that told him that his part wasn't over.

Los Angeles, the next evening.

"The last time I saw him he almost tortured me to death," Angel spoke to the room at large as all other eyes did what they could to avoid his direct attention.

Giles and Fred had retreated to her room to decifer the last of the pool's strange instructions before Willow came back with Spike and Dawn that evening.

Wesley, who sat in one of the hotel lobby chairs had his nose buried in one of his research books trying to find any reference to perflecting pools in this earth. Without looking up he managed to respond, "I remember."

Angel leaned up against the wall but couldn't seem to be still. His feet shifted constantly underneath him as if they had a mind of their own. "This doesn't make sense," he said shaking his head. "How can Giles trust him?"

Cordy looked over a variety of take-out menus that she had spread over the receptionist desk. "Maybe he's changed," she replied.

Even though it was a rhetorical question he couldn't keep himself from rejecting her answer. "I don't believe it. I remember, no, I know him too well. He doesn't have it in him." He had been reeling for days since the moment Giles told him. When he could quiet the rage in his head he tried to use what reason he had left to understand what had lead them to this point. Too him, it was inconceivable.

He had been away from Sunnydale too long.

To Cordy, all Angel had been doing was ranting. She sighed a little louder than she meant to.

Finally he heard a sign that someone was listening to him. It wasn't the one he really wanted but at least it was a response. All it needed was a little clarification. "What?"

Cordy slammed her hands down on the desk and looked directly at him. "I'm sorry, Angel. I know you're upset that Fred's pool said Spike is the one who is destined to save Buffy, but geez, listening to you go on about this, I can't help it."

"What?" he asked.

Her eyebrows arched up as if to lift up her words. "Pot. Kettle. Black."

Angel looked away and shook his head. "This has nothing to do with me," he said quietly.

Gunn, who had kept a low profile within the confines of a sports magazine, chimed in. "I don't know, man. Evil vampire goes around killing lots of good people. Something happens to him and he ends up on the side of the good guys." He glanced over at Angel who had ventured a look in his direction. "Sounds like a story I've heard before."

Angel pushed himself away from the wall and approached Gunn and Cordy. They didn't see this like he did. Surely he could make them understand. "There's a big difference. I have a soul. All he has is a computer chip in his head." He couldn't help but sound a little defensive.

Wesley roused himself to join the discussion. "You're right. There is a big difference," he said.

Angel relaxed a little. Wesley had been there. He knew. "Thank you, Wesley," he said.

Wesley continued, placing his book down on a nearby table. He steepled his fingers together as he reasoned this out. "The presence of your soul forced morality on you. With Spike, the demon himself has made a conscious choice to be good. If your soul was stripped from you again you would revert to your former evil. Spike has no soul to lose."

Angel was stunned. This wasn't something to be reasoned out until they felt pacified. Spike was evil. That was all Angel knew. Nothing could have happened to him to make him good. A cat without its claws still feels the hunt. "What about the chip?" he asked suddenly. "It could always be removed. What happens then? Do you really think he'll continue to make that choice to be good?" He knew what Spike would do. No part of him doubted.

"None of us know the answer to that, Angel," Wesley answered patiently.

"Yeah, just like we didn't know that you were gonna turn on us when you did," Gunn added.

"Wait a minute--" Angel started.

"I don't remember you losing your soul to do that," Cordy continued.

Angel saw them all looking at him readying themselves for his next argument. Suddenly he realized that his hands were up as if defending himself. He dropped them to his sides. "Alright," he sighed more in frustration than in acquiescence. "The three of you have made your point."

Cordy came from behind the desk and took him gently by the arms. "Angel, look. I know it looks like we're all picking sides but there are no sides to pick." Her voice was soft and consoling but it did little to bring him out of his funk. Little did he know that Willow made her promise to 'make him okay with this'. "Everyone here, with the exception of Gunn of course, remembers Spike being a big baddie. You've had your moments of darkness too, but you've gained our trust back. You've earned it. Knowing you as we have has just opened our minds a little."

Wesley got to his feet slowly and came to Cordy's side. "Spike has done things as well that have earned their trust. He has fought alongside them for months and on more than one occasion he has offered up his own life to save Buffy and her sister."

Wesley paused to wait for Angel to look him in the eye. When he finally did he added: "In the end, he mourned for her."

Before Angel could reflect on their words or even come up with another argument Gunn spoke up. "I get it. I know what this is about. This doesn't have anything to do with Spike being a bad guy."

"What are you saying, Gunn?" Wesley asked.

Gunn continued his argument with a pride of having figured out this particular pathos. "It's because he was there. He was there with her, fighting this big evil god, protecting her sister, playing the part of the hero, and you weren't. You were somewhere else, being somebody else's hero."

A sound from the entrance shattered the tension of the moment. "They're here," Wesley announced.

Willow came in followed by a Dawn that looked like she would rather be having a root canal. The look on their faces told of a trip that was not easily made. "Spike will be here in a minute. He had to get, um..." Willow let her voice trail off. Everyone knew what she meant and no one wanted to acknowledge that they brought Buffy's body in the trunk of the car.

Cordy was as effusive as usual. "Hey, where's everyone else? I was looking forward to a big reunion. We were going to send for take out."

Without a word, Angel made his way for the exit. Suspecting trouble Wesley followed and brought Gunn with him. They planned to keep a safe and discreet distance.

Willow looked after them distractedly and then turned back to answer. "I told Tara what was going on. She's with Xander and Anya, to explain it all to them. Giles didn't think it was a good idea to have everyone here, just in case something went wrong."

"What could go wrong?" Dawn said bluntly. "Buffy's already dead."

Cordy decided to gloss over the gloomy mood of her guests. She spread out her take-out menus in front of them. "On that note, what are you guys in the mood for?"

Outside of the hotel.

Angel approached Willow's car and saw immediately the man who had caused him so much grief. How could everyone be snowed by him so easily? This all had to be part of some elaborate plan that he had cooked up. Why was he the only one who could see it?

He watched as Spike lifted something from the trunk. Whatever it was had been wrapped in a blanket that Angel recognized as being from Buffy's bed. He expected Spike to heave it up onto his shoulder like a heavy bag but he didn't. He cradled it in his arms carefully, tenderly, like a mother holding a baby.

All of the fight left Angel in that moment as he realized that the precious cargo was Buffy.

"Need a hand?" Angel heard himself ask.

Spike looked up and managed to masterfully mask the surprise that he felt. "No, I've got everything under control," he said. He obviously lied since he couldn't figure out how to shut the trunk without putting Buffy down.

Angel walked up and shut it for him. He didn't want to look at the other man. He had trouble even finding the right words to say. "Look, uh, under the circumstances--"

"Don't worry. I'll be good," Spike answered. "The stakes are too high for me to be otherwise." Clutching Buffy closely to him, he approached the entrance of the hotel.

"Spike," Angel said, suddenly causing the other man to stop and face him. Even before the words came out, he couldn't believe he was saying them. "Thank you." It was a true gratitude that he felt, for the actions that had brought them here and for what was to happen that night but those two words were the only gratitude he would give.

Spike nodded solemnly. "Things have changed," he said and then he entered the hotel.

Too quiet to be heard, Angel answered. "So I've heard."

As he approached the hotel entrance on Spike's trail he paused at his car. He spoke to the air around him. "Maybe I've learned to be a little open-minded too."

Wesley and Gunn heard him clearly.

Minutes later with nearly everyone assembled in the lobby Giles came down the stairs. "Oh, good. Everything's prepared upstairs. We could start whenever you and Dawn are ready." He paused seeing Cordy on the phone with a menu in her hand. "That is, unless you wish to wait for the food."

Dawn spoke up, still brooding. "I'm not hungry."

"I think she speaks for all of us," Spike agreed.

"Let's do this, Giles," Angel said.

Wesley stepped forward with a hopeful tone in his voice. "Do you need us to come?"

Giles shook his head. "It's not necessary."

Gunn tugged at the back of Wesley's shirt. "Fred's bathroom's going to be crowded enough."

Fred was waiting for them at her door. She welcomed them all in with a nervous smile. "Hello. I guess we're ready. Which one of you is the key?"

"I am," Dawn said somberly. When Willow had told her of this crazy idea of bringing her sister back she was furious. She had been through this before with the death of her mother. She had gotten her hopes up only to have them destroyed by reality. Dead is dead. There is no coming back. Willow can have all the delusions about resurrection she wants without her. She didn't want to be there. This wouldn't work.

Willow tried to comfort her. "Don't worry. This time, it's a good thing."

Fred brightened. "It's a really good thing." She led the reluctant girl to the perflecting pool.

"What do I have to do?" Dawn asked cautiously.

"Just touch the water," Fred instructed. "If you're the key it's been telling us about, the pool will become the doorway to the place it shows."

Dawn looked down into the pool. She saw a crowd of people in a dark room. A woman within the group looked like her sister. She couldn't believe she was looking in someone's bathtub. Her doubt began to falter a little. "Sounds a lot easier than a bloodletting," she remarked.

Fred nodded encouragingly. "Oh, it is."

Before she realized that she was doing it, Dawn reached out and touched the surface of the bath water. A shock of electric blue light rippled out from her point of contact and the image within the pool became brighter and clearer as if it were suddenly on the other side of a window.

Fred caught Dawn as she stumbled backwards in surprise. "Wow!" Fred exclaimed. "You've got a lot of power."

"So I've been told," Dawn replied. This time the angry edge was missing from her voice. She began to wonder if this would work after all. "This is the first time I've ever been able to do something with it. This leads to where my sister is?"

"Uh-huh," Fred answered, "but you can't go. That's someone else's job."

"Mine," Spike announced. He approached the pool and looked down at the image of Buffy below. "Do I just jump in?"

"Yeah," Fred told him, "but you have to be very careful. What you see here isn't going to be what you'll see on the other side."

He looked at her with concern. "What am I going to see?"

Fred glanced back at him nervously. "I have no idea," she said.

Willow came forward. "I'll try to keep in contact with you. To give you guidance if you need it."

Spike looked down with uncertainty. "I probably will." He stood by the side of the tub and readied himself to jump in.

"Spike!" Dawn called out suddenly. "Be careful."

He turned back to her reassuringly. "Don't worry. I'll come back with your sister."

He jumped into the pool and Dawn screamed.

To be continued...

Next: Find out what made Dawn scream and if Angel has really put his differences enough to help his former enemy. Part Four should be the conclusion.