TITLE: Remembered Love pt4

AUTHOR: Joe T

DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Joss Whendon, Mutant Enemy, WB, others, and just about everyone but me.

SUMMARY: Continuation of Forgotten Love.

SPOILERS: As always, everything is fair game

RATING: PG-13 implied sex.

Part 4

Spike's Crypt

"Spike, I'm telling you it would make patrolling a lot faster if…"

"Hang on Buffy." Spike says as his cell-phone interrupts her. As he answers it though, it quickly becomes clear he wishes he hadn't.

"Peaches, what do you want?" his voice comes out nearly a growl.

"Cordelia…she's a Seer now isn't she? I think Willow can handle her on her…Why? What little tricks does Fred have? She seemed the bookish type to…TARA? What's going on? Yeah, I'll get Buffy and we'll stop them, but you get to explain it all when we're done, got it?" Nodding his head at whatever answer he received, Spike hangs up and turns to the Slayer, who had been listening in once she heard his nickname for Angel.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, but Cordelia is coming here to kill Willow or something, and she's got Tara and Fred helping her."

"Tara? Why?"

"I don't know. You want to ask after we stop them or after they've killed her?"

"I'll drive."

Summer's residence

"Xan…Plea…" Willow stares into the eyes of the man holding her throat, hoping to invoke enough pity, sadness, anything that will loosen his grip. Unfortunately for her, those emotions are no longer available in the person in front of her.

"Almost three years Willow. Almost three years you cost me, because you wanted some guilt free sex. Why were you so worried about guilt, you soulless bitch?" A crunching noise punctuates the end of Xander's tirade, as he pushes her head even harder into the mirror behind her, still holding her off the floor with one arm.

Realizing how helpless she is, Willow begins scratching and beating futilely on Xander's arm, struggling to break free. As she dangles in his grip, her fingers brush against her salvation. As soon as she has a grip on the heavy, silver hand mirror, she lashes out, kicking at Xander's shin to distract him, and smashing it over his head. The blow weakens his grip enough for Willow to break free, and she rushes for the stairs.

Fear is a sensation Willow hasn't truly felt in a long time, and now it is hitting her so hard that when Xander trips her, she doesn't even try to stand, she simply scrambles for the stairs and rushes down them on her hands and knees.

As she reaches the bottom, she stands and rushes for the door, with Xander barely three steps behind her, the glare in his eyes promising her retribution. As she slams the door shut, she sees Spike and Buffy getting out of his car across the street.

"Willow, is Cordelia in there?" Buffy calls out to her.

'She doesn't know.' Willow thinks, then, hearing the door being thrown open behind her, shouts, "Buffy, Xander's been possessed again…"

"You…" Xander growls out as he grabs her again, picking her up with both hands and slamming her back into the porch banister, the impact knocking the wind out of her lungs and nearly knocking her unconscious.

Seeing this, Buffy and Spike quickly rush over, Buffy shouldering into Xander to knock him down, hopping on top of him to hold him down while Spike checks on Willow. Her increased strength did not increase her weight, however, and Xander easily pushes Buffy off. She kicks his feet out as he rises and struggles to grab his hands before he can rush at Willow again, however.

Spike's checking over of Willow is cut short as a car screeches to a near stop at the curb, Cordelia hopping out before the vehicle has even fully stopped, Fred and Tara can be seen struggling to control the still moving car.

Running up the steps, Cordelia swings her bat at Willow's head, screaming, "You BITCH!" Willow ducks just in time and the hit merely cracks the wood of the post she was leaning against, causing Cordelia let go of the bat with one hand, shaking it, "Ow!"

Not quite sure of what is happening, Spike pushes Cordelia away from Willow, wincing as she stumbles down the steps and the chip in his head fires up, not noticing as Willow dives off the side of the porch into the bushes and then scrambles into her car.

He looks up as he hears a sudden shout, "DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" and receives a surprisingly strong punch, knocking him to the floor.

Cordelia starts to smile as she hears Xander shouting, but stops and quickly jumps to her feet as she sees Willow starting her car and driving off. 'I knew I should have blocked the driveway' she thinks as she reaches the car just as it hits the street. Throwing her bat hard enough to spider- web the rear window, Cordelia screams as the car fishtails around the corner, "GET BACK HERE!"

Walking back to Buffy's porch, she sees Xander smirking at her as he walks to her, "Oh yeah, that'll get her to stop."

"Shut up." She answers as she lightly slaps him, and then grabs him into a hug and kisses him.

As they stop kissing, she refuses to let go of him and squeezes her arms tighter around him; "…Missed you." is all Xander can make out as she murmurs into his chest.

"I missed you too." He whispers into her ear.

Slowly getting up off the floor, rubbing his jaw, Spike looks at Buffy, and then Fred and Tara as they join them, watching Xander and Cordelia. Realizing the whole incident took less than two minutes, and wondering what else has changed in that time, he asks, "Can anyone tell me exactly what is going on?"

Cheerily watching Cordelia, happy that things appear to be working out for her friend, Fred doesn't even turn around as she answers, "No."