The Bronze was crowded for a Wednesday night. There was no band playing, but there seemed to be an undercurrent of electricity in the air these days. Xander, Anya, Buffy, Tara and Dawn sat at one of the tables guarding the extra chair that they had saved for Willow. Giles had elected to stay at home, and if Spike showed up, he would have to get his own chair.

Xander pointed toward the door. "There's Willow."

"And Spike." Anya pointed out unnecessarily.

The witch and the vampire seemed to be having some sort of game of keep away with Willow passing an envelope back and forth between her two hands and Spike dancing from side to side to grab at it.

Willow skipped up to the table. "I've got them." Spike, with another bold grab at the envelope, bounced off the table drawing protest from the rest of the group.

"Will you two children knock it off." scolded Buffy, looking back and forth between the two. Willow had the grace to look sheepish for a moment, but then the moment passed.

"I have the pictures Spike brought back from Las Vegas." she chortled. "And just wait until you see them." Looking slyly at Buffy and Spike, she continued, "There are lots of women in the pictures."

Spike finally succeeded in grabbing the envelope from Willow's grasp. "These are mine." he stated. He started to put them in his pocket, but was stopped by a hand on his arm and the pictures were grabbed from his hand by Xander.

"Hey," said Xander, not at all repentant, "you owe me." This earned him a small hit on the shoulder from Anya. "Hey, like, ow."

He opened the envelope and pulled the pictures from their pocket. "Hey, these are pretty good. Who took them?" he asked, starting to pass them around the table. "And how did you get all the daytime shots?" he asked Spike.

Spike, who had not yet seen the pictures, did not answer. They finally started to reach him and he looked over the shots. It was strange to see all of the places lit with the sun, places he had just left a few nights ago. He had been able to see the daytime world with television, but it was different knowing he had just been there. He hadn't realized that the mountains surrounding the valley we so beautiful.

"Oh, ho. Who are these women?" asked Xander, holding up a photo of three women smiling into the camera. "Like 'em kinda young there, don't fella?"

A smile touch the corners of Spike's mouth and he puffed himself up a little taller in the chair he had snagged from the next table. "That's me great, great, and two more times, granddaughter. There on the left," he said pointing, "and the one in the middle is Kindra. The one on the right is Magda, they are her guardians."

The group gave the appropriate exclamations of how beautiful his granddaughter was and he went on to explain the going away party that they had given for him as the pictures advanced.

He went quiet for a little while as the pictures came his way. He realized that the photographer was so skilled that while he wasn't "in" any of the shots, they had been taken with care to show his prospective of the party. That explained why Jeff had spent half the night hovering behind him. He was, unaccountably, touched that such thoughtfulness should have been taken on his behalf.

At the end there was a picture showing Willamina and Jeff together. Buffy stared at the photo for a long time before passing it on to Tara. Tara, sensing something, turned to Buffy. "What's wrong?"



"Do you know that guy in the picture?"

"You mean this one here?" At the affirmative nod from Buffy, she replied. "No, no, I don't think I have ever seen him before. Have you?"

Buffy shook her head and sighed. "No, I don't think so, but he really looks like someone I think I've met." She frowned in concentration, then sighed. "No, I just can't remember where I've seen him before. But, it'll come to me."

"Yeah," said Tara, smiling, "probably in the middle of the night."

Spike gathered up the pictures and put them all back in the envelope. He sat back in his chair and watched the interplay between this group of friends. He knew not all of them considered him part of the group, and all of them would do anything to keep him from Buffy, but for this moment he was content. He felt his demon roll uncomfortably within him.

Dawn looked over and smiled her dazzling smile, "Come on Spike, tell me about your trip. Did you do anything interesting?"

He pursed his lips into his regular sardonic smile, "I'll tell you as long as Buffy promises not to stake me tonight." All eyes turned to Buffy who, reluctantly, nodded agreement. What was another day?

"Well," began Spike, "when I first got there..."

~*~*~*

The two old men hunched over the chessboard. "Check." said the one old man to the other.

The day was passing into evening, shadows growing long over the ground and racing up the sides of the building. Soon, the night market would be open. Strollers out for the evening would greet the pair, as they had for many years now. None of the young people could ever remember a time when the pair had not played their game in the village square. Even some of the older villagers seemed to remember them always being there. But in the way of sleepy towns everywhere, no mention was made of the familiar.

The game would continue tomorrow, and the day after. So it had always been, and so it would always be.