A/N.- This is chapter Eleven of the ENOUGH series. By the way, this is a long series, I still have a lot to write about, so any comment is appreciated.

Disclaimer.- You all should know this belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in getting this show   on the air.

Feedback.- As you wish.

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Tara.

"Tara!!"

Willow screamed, not caring that they had just gone to sleep and it was a schoolnight. She grabbed the phone just as a very tired slayer came through the front door.

"What is it, Will, what happened?" Buffy asked, seeing  the look of fear in her friends eyes.

"It's Xander, Buffy!" Willow yelped, while dialing the familiar number.

"What?" Buffy asked, not understanding what was going on. From the stairs, also appeared Dawn and Tara, both covered only by their robes and feeling very tired as well.

"What's going on, Buffy?" Dawn asked. Buffy made a motion for her to be quiet as she heard Willow asking an ambulance to go to Xander's house. When Willow hung up she had three worried girls in front of her.

"Ok, Willow, what happened? How's Xander?" Buffy asked. Willow took a deep breath and dialed the number to Xander's apartment.

"Xander had an accident." Willow said, "of the supernatural kind."

Buffy immediately took on slayer mode, and walked to her weapons chest. "Fine, let's go and see him, I want to be there when the ambulance arrived." She took out an axe and turned around in time to see Willow hanging up the phone.

"He's not answering, Buffy." Willow said.

"We're on our way, Will. How did you find out about Xander?" Buffy asked. Willow seemed a bit insecure, having Dawn and Tara in the room with them.

"I'll explain to you on the way," Willow said, "let's go."

Buffy just looked up at her sister and her friend, as she opened the door.

"Tara, can you stay and take care of Dawn, please?" Buffy asked.

"Sure, Buffy." Tara said.

"Hey, I want to go too, Xander's my friend!" Dawn chipped in.

"No, Dawn, Willow said that it had been a supernatural accident, so I want you to stay here, and don't argue!" Buffy yelled.

Dawn simply nodded and kept quiet. Tara hugged her and nodded to Buffy as well.

Willow and Buffy walked out and then the slayer noticed something odd.

"Why are you dressed at this hour, Will?"

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Tara walked Dawn back to her room and tucked her in, assuring her that as soon as she found out something she'd let her know. Tara went downstairs and made herself some tea, it was already kind of late and she wanted something to help her sleep.

She went back to what she now hoped would be her room once again and sat on the bed. She remained silent for some time and then she sighed.

"Are you going to talk to me or will you just stare at me?" Tara said.

Spike walked out of the shadows and looked at Tara.

"I won't hurt you." Spike said, "I just wanted to talk to you."

"Just like you wanted to talk to Willow?" She asked, smiling at him.

"You knew I was here?" He asked, feeling a little bit surprised. Tara kept smiling.

"Of course, as soon as Willow moved I woke up," she said, drinking a bit more of her tea, "but I guessed you wanted some privacy."

"Thank you, but I also want to talk to you." He said.

"Sure, fire away." Tara said. Spike walked just to stand in front of her. He stared at her and sighed.

"You don't stutter at all, do you?" Spike asked, trying to break the tension.

"And you're no longer the Big Bad, yes, what about it?" She said, smiling.

Spike couldn't help but smile. She had become the mother figure after Joyce died and she took care of all of them, in her own way. She was the adult among the group of scoobies.

"I'll be honest with you, Tara, there's no point in going 'round the table here." Spike said, grabbing his hair. "The chip is gone, Tara, I managed to get rid of it."

Tara was indeed surprised, but she didn't want to make a big fuss of it.

"How long?" She asked. Spike was grateful that she wasn't screaming or was trying to turn him into a toad.

"It was gone two days ago." He answered, lowering his head. He expected Tara to reprimend him or go running for Buffy.

"That explains the Warren incident. You had something to do with that didn't you?" Tara asked. Spike just smiled at her.

"Well, thank you, who knows what those jerks would have done." Tara then stared intentlyy at him.

"Have you..., I mean, do you...?" Tara tried to ask, but Spike knew exactly what she was implying.

"Nope, no killing anyone. Don't want to, don't plan to go back." He answered.

"Then what you did to Xander was an accident?" She asked, placing two and two together. Spike looked away and walked to the window.

"I didn't kill him. He just needed someone to put him in his place." Spike said, staring into the night. Soon the slayer would find out about what happened and he'd be chased. Again.

"Well, the no killing part is good, but I guess Buffy won't be pleased when she finds out you put her friend in the hospital." Tara said.

"I really don't care what the slayer thinks, Tara," Spike said, with a bit of coldness in his voice, "we all have to answer to the things we do."

Tara was surprised again. Not only because Spike was being strange but also because he wasn't talking the way he used to. He hadn't referred to Willow as 'Red', and he wasn't calling her 'Glinda', and he called Buffy 'slayer'. She had never seen him like that.

"Is there something wrong, Spike?" Tara asked, staring at the vampire who she felt she didn't know anymore.

"As I told your girlfriend, I'm leaving town." Spike said. Tara smiled when he called Willow her 'girlfriend', but she felt sad when he told her he was leaving. She risked everything with her next question.

"It has to do with you and Buffy, isn't it?" Tara softly asked.

Spike didn't turn around, he just kept staring ahead.

"Not everything in my life revolves around the slayer." He answered.

"I don't want to intrude in your personal life, Spike, but I know about you and Buffy." She said, expecting the volatile vampire to explode after that revelation.

"What about me and the slayer, Tara?" He said, "And what life, I don't have a life." He turned around and looked at her. "But I'm planning on changing that."

"Why won't you say her name, then?" Tara asked. She knew now that she was intruding but she wanted to help him. And only by knowing the whole story she'd be able to do something.

"She's only the slayer to me, Tara." Spike said, pacing around.

"You know that is not true, Spike." Tara told him, standing up and placing her empty cup on the drawer, "You two had a relationship, a bit weird but there was something there."

Spike's eyes turned on her's and she expected to see something in there. Yet, there was nothing, there was no emotion in those eyes.

"No, Tara, " Spike said, "in a relationship there must be giving and receiving. Mutual feelings. A reciprocation of trust. There was nothing like that between the slayer and me. I'm a vampire to her, and vampires are monsters. End of story."

"You know you're not a monster." Tara said.

"Wrong, Tara, I am a monster, that is why I'm leaving town. I finally realized that I will always be a monster, no matter what I think." Then his eyes softened and smiled a bit. "Yet, you were always nice, just like Willow. I'm glad that you two are back together. You deserve happines, Tara. I hope you and Willow live happily ever after."

Tara couldn't help but smile and hug the vampire in front of her. She never thought of him as a monster. Sure, he was obnoxious and arrogant but he was always decent with her. Maybe because she met him when he was already chipped and was on his way of loving Buffy.

"I never thanked you for what you did on my birthday, Spike." Tara said, as she disentengled her from Spike's arms.

"What, for hitting you?" Spike asked, curious about it.

"No, Spike, you gave me my humanity back with that single punch, " Tara smiled, "thank you."

"Anytime, Tara." Spike looked at her and hugged her once again.

"Please look after the scoobies," he said, "they're still children."

Tara looked at him and nodded. She didn't know what had prompted Spike to believe he was a monster. He cared about all of them, maybe not Xander, but he hadn't killed him. It was his sign of respect for Xander and also to Buffy. Even in his weird state he was still thinking about them.

"Now I'm off to the hardest one of you." Spike said, sighing. Tara nodded and gave him a brief smile.

"Should I leave the house?" Tara asked.

Spike shook his head.

"No, thanks, I guess she'll want someone to talk to after I say goodbye." Spike said, "but if she stakes me then please don't let her throw me into the trash can."

Tara smiled and nodded. She knew that the next one on Spike's list would be the hardest. Even harder than Buffy.

Dawn just wouldn't understand.

End of Chapter.