Willow glanced nervously back along the walkway. She was sure she was hearing footsteps but she could see no one else on the street. ' It would be just my luck to run into a vampire without Buffy around', she thought. ' But there should be more people out on the street, and it's still kinda' early and where is everyone.' She picked up her pace just a little faster, now going at almost a jog. 'This is ridiculous' she thought as she once more glanced back over her shoulder.

Turning to face front again, she bounced off the man who had not been there a second ago. She let out a screech.

Spike reached out and grabbed both of Willow's shoulders to save her from a fall.

Willow shook off his hands and glared at Spike. "Don't do that. You scared me to death and...and what do you think you are doing. And don't be so pleased with yourself."

"Have to keep in practice, Red. Never know when things are going to turn 'round." said Spike as he made an appraisal of Willows' neck.

"Yeah, well, just keep your eyes to yourself, mister" said Willow tugging at the collar of her sweater when she noticed the regard. She started off down the street again, this time at a walk, with Spike trailing along behind.

When she stopped abruptly it was Spike's turn to walk into her.

"Why are you following me anyway?" she asked.

"I need you to do me a favor."

"This isn't anything to do with Buffy is it? Or anything yucky or stuff? Or illegal or, you know, something I really wouldn't want to do?"

"No," said Spike, drawing out the word, "I just need you to do some research."

"Oh."

"And you can't tell Buffy. Or Giles. Or the other scoobies."

"Again, illegal, immoral?"

"I just want you to trace a family tree. Can you do that?" said Spike. He cocked his head regarding the redhead in front of him. If she turned him down he wasn't sure who else he could hire. After all, he wasn't exactly rolling in money and this is something might takes a lot of time. He would need a willing researcher who wouldn't run away in the daylight hours.

"Who's? I mean if it's Buffy's you'll just have to find yourself another...searcher of family trees."

"If I tell you I'll just have to kill you." Spike quipped. He had to reach out and snatch at Willows' arm as she turned to stalk off. "Sorry, Red, just couldn't resist. Look, I'll let you know who if you agree to do this. I can't promise it has nothing to do with anyone here, but I'm starting with someone from a ages ago to see if anyone is alive today. Do you think you can handle that?"

"This isn't for revenge or something, is it?"

Willow noticed the strange look on Spike's face. "Ah, no, I guess it's not. Are you feeling ok?"

Spike just gave a nod and shoving his hands deep into his dusters' pockets started walking again in the direction of campus. Willow skipped to catch up. "Ah, you know that Tara is probably going to have to know. I mean we do share a room and she is bound to notice me, like, doing researchy things."

"Fair enough. Just her though. Can't you walk any faster?"

"Hey, so not fair, human here."

The two walked off into the night still bickering.





They arrived at the dorm room to find Tara just finishing up her studies. She gave a questioning look at Spike but Willow just went directly to the computer and booted up.

"Okay, I think I have some ideas where to look for information but I really need to know what you know so I have a place to start." She looked at Spike with her hands poised over the keyboard waiting for him to start.

Spike sat on the edge of the bed and looked down. "I need you to find out about Cecily Addams. I know she lived in London in 1880. I think that she came here to America in 1881. Her father had a bit of money so she probably traveled first class."

Willow looked on hopefully waiting for more information. It was not forthcoming.

"Is...is that all you know? 'Cause, I mean, I can probably find out stuff from that, but, well, more, more would be more nice."

Spike looked up with a sneer. "Right, then, maybe I'll draw you a bloody picture then we can look at all the movies of people who came to America in 1881."

Tara crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Spike. "I...I think she means do you have any more information about her family. It...it would help to know if they were titled. Were they known enough to be written up in the papers? Sometimes, you know, if they went abroad they would get press in the papers."

"Yeah" chimed in Willow, "you know, the early years of the paparazzi. I think they called it a society page."

"Ok" said Spike, contrite for his earlier outburst, "her dad was a Lord. Lord Addams of Bidford on Avon."

Willow began to type, her fingers flying across the keys, her face betraying her annoyance at the unwanted ads that popped up on the screen.

"Got 'im." said Willow after a few minutes of typing. "Now, I'll just..." She trailed off, again typing at a prodigious rate.

Spike got up and went to stand behind Willow to watch. Despite the fact that computers had been out a while and he was familiar with them he was still impressed by the speed that Willow was able to find things.

Tara moved over to stand on the other side of Willow and bent down to watch the screens. She glanced over to Spike and let out a startled exclamation.

"Ah, ah...your face Spike. You aren't...aren't going to...to".

Spike put a hand up and felt his face. "Oh, the bumps. 'Na, just a tad hungry." He again bent down and indicated for Willow to continue.

"But you aren't..."

He looked over at Tara and sure enough his face was just a regular face again.

"I can wait. Or were you offering?" The smirk was positively evil.

"I...we...I don't have any blood for you." Tara said in confusion.

"Ok, ducks, if that's what you would like to think." Spike continued to regard Tara with the very evil smirk on his face.

Tara looked confused for a moment more, then let out a gasp and turned several shades of red.

Willow, having caught the tail end of the conversation, stood up and started pushing Spike toward the door. "Ok, that's enough buster. Time for you to go and do vampirey things elsewhere, somewhere way far-away elsewhere."

Spike gently disengaged himself from Willow. "Ok. Right. I was out of line." Looking over at Tara he said "I'm sorry. Now," he said directing Willow back to the computer, "will you sit down and finish?"

Tara touched Willow on the arm to get her attention. "It's ok Will. I just...just wasn't thinking clearly. If I had thought about it before I would have know that he could, well, he would know these things. He, he can, um, smell blood."

Spike gave Willow a triumphant smile.

Tara caught the smile and frowned at Spike. "You could have been more polite."

"Well, I am evil not Miss Manners."

"So not." said Willow only partly mollified. She went back to the computer and began to type again. Despite the fact that Spike only marginally qualified as a friend she would finish what she started. The search was the reward.

Tara looked at Spike. "You better leave for tonight. Come back tomorrow. If Willow finds anything before we will let you know." She pointedly opened the door to the hallway.

Spike pursed his lips in a secret smile and let himself be banished from the room.



The knocking at the door the next evening was at first lost under the noise of the base beat coming from the party down the hall. When there was a sudden lull between songs the pounding intensified with muffled cursing also coming through the door.

Tara leaped off the bed where she had been thumbing through a magazine and answered.

Spike stood in the hallway glaring at the three students who had just bumped past him. He raised his hand to again thump the door and noticed just in time that it was open. He brought his other hand out from behind his back and displayed what had been earlier in the day some very pretty flowers. "Here, these are for you."

Tara reached out to take the flowers. "Th-thanks." She started to move off into the room and noticed that Spike still stood outside the room. A little startled that he hadn't just barged in she invited him to come inside.

Willow turned around from the monitor and motioned for Spike to come over. "I found some things that I'm putting into order now. Do you want to see?"

The monitor displayed the typical branching lines of a family tree and some other odd assortment of lines running off the page.

"Well, well, you have been a busy girl." He pulled the only other chair in the room over by the desk and sat down next to Willow. "What do these mean?" he said pointing to the screen.

"Well, I found out that Cecily had come over to America in 1881 on the 'Manitoban'. She had a baby already although it doesn't say that there was anyone else, like a husband, traveling with her. When she got here she landed in Canada but then, then she somehow made her way down to Philadelphia, 'cause that's where I picked up on her again. She married a Quaker and they had, like, six kids. So all these lines, these are for the six kids."

"I'm not interested in those six kids. I want to know about the baby she brought over."

"Oh, ok. Well, that's not so good. I mean, I could kinda track them but well, they were all, like, dying young or you know, they were like put in institutions and...and well, there just isn't that much about them or really, I mean, there were only two left. But, but..." Willow stammered her way to a halt.

Spike regarded the down turned head. "Well, go on."

"Spike, you know you killed one of them the other day. So what are you going to do? Go after the other one? Hasn't their family had enough problems?"

"How do you know I killed one of them?"



"Well, when I was tracking down the family tree, her name came up and I remembered reading about the woman found murdered, Sarah McLaughlin, and then I talked to Buffy..."

"I thought I had asked you not to tell the others."

"Tell, no. No tell, just talked. She told me you killed her." Willow looked up at Spike's face looking for some answers. She thought that there was a touch of, was that sadness? "Did you know her? Was she your friend?"

"I guess you could call her that, a friend. Or at least she thought of herself as my friend. Did Buffy tell you she was dying?"

"Ah, no. It didn't come up."

"She was a street person, you know, a bag lady. She had bone cancer. She asked me to kill her."

"Oh." Willow sat a moment in silence. "Did you know her a long time?"

"Thirty-six years."

"That's a long time."

"Only to you." After a few moments, Spike sat up and started poking at the keys. "You said there is another?"

Willow pushed his hand away from the keyboard and used the mouse to scroll over to the far side of the chart.

"Yeah, here. See. I found this person in this institution and traced it back to them." She directed the cursor to the appropriate spots on the screens. "And see, I found a birth certificate for a baby born while she was in the institution." A few clicks of the mouse on the tool bar brought up a copy of a birth certificate.

"What does the name say?" said Spike squinting at the screen.

Willow clicked on the over small copy and it enlarged. "They named the baby Willamina Cooper. Hey, that's kinda like your name. You know William, Willamina. And, hey, I have an address for her. You could, like, contact her and tell her...well, you could tell her her great aunt is dead." Willow finished lamely.

"Yeah, peachy"