To be honest I know nothing about Marines. I had an ex who went into the Marines. I tuned him out at all times when he started on stories. Which is why we probably aren't together anymore and also why the Marine detail is very very flimsy.

****

"Do you really think this is best," Xander asked.

Buffy looked up from the closet before her. She was at Willow's house looking for something to wear for the noontime meeting she had put in her schedule.

"He's a blood sucking fiend," Xander pointed out.

"God Xander," Buffy said huffily, "Do you ever change your tune. You're so black and white, vampires are all bad, they'll do nothing but manipulate. Don't be so bigoted."

Xander recoiled into Willow's arms. He looked a bit hurt, "I like Angel."

Buffy realized that she was mad at a Xander who had reacted poorly to Angelus' abuse and to Spike's dalliance with his girlfriend. This wasn't a boy who loved her and hated the vampire's who touched her.

Willow looked down at him skeptically, "You do not like Angel."

Xander looked up defensively, "Well I don't dislike him."

Willow didn't change her facial skepticism.

Xander sighed, " Okay. We don't get along in the slightest, but we work well together. He's never done anything to hurt me and I can deal with him."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "So you don't count the soul."

"A man is redeemed through good works," Xander said neutrally.

Buffy blinked repeatedly, "Where did you get that from."

Xander shrugged in Willow's arms, "From some movie or the bible."

"You read the bible!" Buffy shrieked.

Willow snickered and Xander tried and failed to look pious.

"Nah Buff, I must have picked it up when I was in basic training there was this guy who was from Iowa…"

Willow grabbed a pillow and attempted to smother Xander,

Willow looked at Buffy, "Don't ever ask anything about the Marines. He was in it for a year, yet he makes it sound like he was in there for a life. We got pulled over by this cop. I was terrified, but the cop noticed the Marine sticker in the car and they start talking and all the sudden we just get to go. It's a cult."

Xander climbed his way from behind the pillow, "She exaggerates."

Willow rolled her eyes, "Not a chance."

"Xander began to tickle her. Willow squealed and wriggled around.

"Geeze, do you two ever stop?" Buffy said holding up a blue shirt.

Willow pulled away and flopped on her stomach, and Xander followed her lead. They watched Buffy.

"You still don't' get it do you?" Willow asked quietly, "We go out every night, not knowing if we are going to return. Our lifestyle doesn't lend for a long life. I mean how many vampire hunters live to be fifty, especially on the Hellmouth. Slayers doesn't even live very long and they've got super powers. We just live everyday to the fullest."

Buffy's heart tightened. They had helped three Slayers, and those three slayers had died. So many times she had worried over her own life expectancy. They had to survive on their own, without her to protect them. They understood the eeriness of not knowing about where their future lay.

"Xander," Buffy said thinking of his earlier question, "I'm sure that this is what I have to do. I am definitely sure that this will work."

"Why?" Xander asked, "Don't tell me, you were boinking more of the undead!!"

Willow poke him again, "It does seem as if you had a relationship."

"Does he have a soul!"

"Do you love him?"

Buffy looked at them and grabbed an outfit, "I may have had relations, not a relationship, he doesn't have a soul, and he loved me."

With that she shot out the door.

Xander looked over at Willow his hands propping up his chin, his feet swaying at the far end of the bed, "Things are definitely more interesting with her here. What we get daily vampires, and huge apocalypse, but no drama. With Buffy come all this drama. It's fluffy drama. I like. It makes the day to day all that more interesting, all the less focus on doom and gloom."

Willow had the exact same positioning as Xander her feet swaying in time with hers, "I know. What is it with her and vampires. I wonder if Angel knows! I think that Spike is part of Angel's line. I wonder what that means. This is definitely interesting."

"For the love of Christ," Buffy said from the bathroom, "I can hear you."

Buffy and Xander muffled giggles with their hands.

****

She sat looking at the factory, simply just waiting. Her plan was always to wait until noon before entering into his domain.

What am I willing to sacrifice for Dawn? She thought, I've already given my life but what other life am I willing to give?

It would be a simple deal just to give him Angel. However she couldn't do that. Something in her integral Buffy moral code wouldn't let herself just give up someone else to save Dawn.

Her new found self-esteem wouldn't just let her march in there and give up herself either. She wanted this to work, but she couldn't just use him again.

She had found something beautiful in a monster and she had turned it into something ugly. He attempted to make it beautiful with love and she just let herself use him, without thinking that a monster had feelings. She just let herself drown in his beauty and honesty.

So how was this going to work. In fifteen minutes she was going to walk into his home and announce that he was going to help her. He would, one way or another.

Buffy just hoped that it would be the right way.

This was a different creature from the one that she had known. This one was brood free. He had never faced time in a wheelchair while everything else went on. He had never seen his lover enjoy the company of another. This one was un-chipped and had not learned the lessons of patience when you are forced to be something different. He still believed in the rules of vampires are top of the food chain, happy-meals on legs and all.

However she knew him. She knew what lay underneath. He lived by his heart, by his emotions. He fought with his mind only on the fight. He loved with his un-beating heart only to care about one person. He was better than most people. It was just a matter of getting there.

But she had seen his eyes the first times that he saw her. For a moment before fighting before the snide comments he had seen him watching her. He knew instinctively that there was something about her. He knew better than she did.

And Spike was a creature of Instinct.

Buffy had also realized that those who loved her had some kind of premonition of the shadow life that they had lived. It was as if they all had dreams. Dawn was the slayer, she had conscious dreams.

Everyone dreams. It is a common fact. Every night in REM sleep people dream. It is only the interruption of the dreams that gives them over to the conscious. Even then the dreams are occasionally ripped out of a person's thoughts. They can't hold on to dreams no matter what. There are some people who are different. Those people have trained themselves to remember. But there are some dreams, so elusive that they cannot be held on to. These dreams haunt the waking.

Buffy swore that it was these dreams that everyone around her had.

It wasn't something that anyone could talk about. It was just something that was.

Some times little bits of memory would pass behind the eyes of Xander and Willow. He would pull her tighter and she would close her eyes to the memories that haunted them. They had each other, and that is what they needed.

The moment that Buffy had brought up Angel, Giles had blanched. Then he had returned to the normal Giles' face. Angel had never touched him, never done anything but help, but there was some part of Giles that could not bear Angel. It was almost as if he remembered Angelus' torture.

Buffy could almost read the undercurrents. These people were happy in who they were, but they also knew that part of them could be very different.

They didn't remember a thing, but Buffy knew that they had dreamed.

Did demons dream?

Buffy giggled.

She knew the answer to that one. There were mornings that Spike would start purring and moving. He had been caught in a very pleasant dream. She had watched him the first time, swearing that if he called out Drusilla's name then she would stake him on the spot. However he hadn't he had giggled and said her name in a way that made her weak. He never knew that she just didn't run after sex. She ran in the morning when it became suddenly very clear that he was allowing her to use him in the worst way.

Daemons did dream. At least that one did. He dreamed with his heart.

Buffy looked at her watch.

She just hoped that this demon still dreamed about her.