"Is this the start of some new nightmare?" Buffy asked as they watched the four figures of her friends draw nearer.
"This isn't how the others began," Spike replied. "And it's no dream of mine, unless we suddenly appear in Harris's basement again." He chuckled. "Now that would be a nightmare."
"Especially if we had to see you wear a Hawaiian shirt again," Buffy added. "I don't think any of us would survive that."
Just then, Dawn broke away from the others and ran forward to embrace her sister. "Buffy!" she cried, "We've been so worried about you. Are you okay?"
Buffy returned the embrace hesitantly at first. "Dawn," she said slowly, "Is it really you? What are you doing here?"
"Of course it's me, silly," she replied. "It was all Xander's idea," she said, as the others came up to join them. "Tara had lost contact with you and we didn't know what to do. He turned up later that evening and when he found out, he kind of freaked."
"I did not freak out," Xander protested. "I seem to recall saying that we had to try something different, since Spike obviously hadn't managed to do the job." The two of them exchanged wary glances like fighters sizing each other up before a match.
"Don't even start," Buffy said with a sidelong glance at Spike, who subsided. "I was about ready to give up when William - Spike - found me," she said. "We changed the course of a few nightmares and kept hoping you would draw us out. I'm glad you're all here, but I'd feel a lot better if I knew where here was, and which way was home."
Tara nodded. "I tried to bring you out, but there was something resisting my spell. It's probably because you had started fighting back in the dreams. Our only choice seemed to be to come after you and help from the inside."
"So where was this nightmare?" asked Willow, looking around at what little remained of the dream environment. "Anywhere we know?"
"It was where Glory was trying to open the door between dimensions," Buffy admitted. Only scattered rubble gave any evidence of the former presence of Glory's helltower, but Dawn, Xander and Willow looked distressed. Since Tara had only been returned to herself near the end of the battle, she was able to face the news with somewhat more equanimity.
"But that's awful," Willow said. "That you'd have to go through that again."
"It must have been terrible for you, Buffy," Dawn chimed in.
Buffy traded looks with Spike. Somehow it seemed entirely too intimate a piece of information to tell them that it had actually been his nightmare. She simply nodded her acknowledgement. Spike said nothing.
"So what's the plan now?" Buffy asked Tara, who had been examining their environment with interest. The sky was a uniform cloudy grey, and what looked like thick walls of fog surrounded the empty lot. "It doesn't seem as though another nightmare is going to start any time soon. Unless you're afraid of rainy days," she added. She went on to fill in the others about the signs she and Spike had observed when the dream shifts occurred.
Without warning, a light mist of warm rain began to fall, and they all looked at each other, spooked. They ducked for cover from the rain in the shelter of a crazily tilted wall.
"Okay, everyone with a major wiggins," Xander said, raising his hand. One by one, the rest of the Scoobies followed suit.
"I wish we had a doorway to take us home," declared Willow, looking around expectantly. Nothing happened.
"How about a chocolate milkshake?" Dawn added. Still nothing changed. The rain began to come down more heavily.
"I'm sure it was just a coincidence," Buffy said. "It already looked like it was going to rain. It's not like I said anything about thunder and lightning-" Her words were cut off suddenly as a bright flash dazzled their eyes. A loud crash rent the air an instant later. Everyone turned and looked at her, wide-eyed.
"Say it again," Dawn urged. Buffy complied, and the effect was the same. Though everyone else tried repeatedly, their words seemed to have no influence on their environment.
"Not that I'd wish for a sunny day, love," Spike said at length, after everyone had marvelled at how Buffy could control the weather in the dream world. "But do you suppose you might . . ." He held out one hand, indicating the oppressive rainfall.
"Oh, right. 'It stopped raining'," she said. It didn't. Buffy looked at Spike and only shrugged.
"Well, it took a while to start," he replied supportively. Yet perhaps not surprisingly, within five minutes the rain had diminished and vanished, leaving the 'sky' as featureless as it had been when the others had arrived.
"Lucid dreaming," said Willow suddenly. "You know - when you're dreaming but almost awake and you can control what happens in your dreams."
"So I could just dream us a way out of here?" Buffy asked. "'The portal to take us all home is behind that fallen section of wall'," she declared, and then went to move the boards aside. There was nothing there but some scattered trash and pale, wizened grass that hadn't seen sunlight in days.
"Maybe you need to start with something smaller," Tara suggested. "Rain, thunder and lightning weren't all that unusual, given the way the sky looked when we got here. A portal appearing instantly might be too big a change for the rules of the dream."
"Smaller. Right," Buffy acknowledged. She looked around the empty lot and gathered her thoughts. A tingling sense of power enveloped her, and she found images spilling into her head. Before the tower had been built, this was just an empty lot that sometimes people would cut through as a shortcut to the shops on the other side. That's what the fat man had done, but he found it difficult walking on the uneven ground and had paused to rest - just over there. When he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his sweating face, he had accidentally scattered a few coins as well, but hadn't noticed. They had lain beneath some scattered stones all this time. One of them was a 1961 silver dollar that he was going to give to his niece for her birthday, since she was interested in collecting coins . . .
Buffy bent and moved some rocks aside, brushing loose dirt out of the depressions they had left. Her eye caught the liquid gleam of silver, and her hand shook as she reached out to pick up a heavy coin. Only a few spots of tarnish marred its surface, and she read the date with disbelief. It was the silver dollar she had seen moments before in her mind. She turned back to the others and held it up triumphantly.
Xander wasn't convinced. "That could have been there all along," he argued.
"Then how did Buffy know it was there?" Spike countered. "She made it appear where she wanted it to."
"Maybe that's the secret," said Tara. "The changes have to be something that could have been possible all along."
"That means we won't be able to create a gateway home by wishing for one," Willow pointed out. "If it has to be something possible, then only magic is going to create it."
"And we have no supplies," Tara finished unhappily. "The only sign of magic is our amulets that represent our consciousness against the dreams." The Scoobies looked at each other despondently. Buffy's success in changing the dream didn't seem so promising any more.
Spike's laughter shocked them all out of their introspection. "I swear it must be only dumb luck that let you beat me so many times," he said unsympathetically. "There's a shop full of magic supplies only half a dozen blocks from here in the real Sunnyhell, and all we have to do is have Buffy imagine our way there."
They looked at each other sheepishly, embarrassed that the idea hadn't occurred to them first. "If anyone tries to tell me I said this, I'll deny it ever happened," said Xander. "But Spike is right. We have to head for the Magic Box."
With Buffy and Spike leading the way, the group set out on the deserted streets of dream-Sunnydale. Every now and then Buffy would pause and consult her memory of the layout of the streets, but for the most part they kept a steady pace. It was Xander who first pointed out a disturbing trend when they were only two blocks from the store.
"These buildings are empty," he said, after peering into a number of darkened doorways. "I mean literally - there's nothing on the inside. They're hollow shells, like on a movie set or something."
Buffy frowned. "I've never been in them," she replied. "So I guess I can't just make up what's inside."
"You've been inside the Magic Box many times," Tara pointed out reassuringly. "You'll be able to recreate the inside of it as well as the outside."
"It's like that really old Star Trek episode I saw on the Sci-Fi channel last week," Xander commented. "You know, the one where they were at the OK Corral. The aliens took Kirk's memories about the old west, but he'd only read about it - so all the buildings only had front walls and hardly any details. And when Chekov got killed, he wasn't really killed but went back to the Enterprise."
Xander looked toward Spike as though the mere presence of a Y-chromosome should somehow guarantee he'd understand. The vampire lifted one dark brow laconically. "Don't get cable back at the crypt," he observed. "And besides, I don't speak geek."
"So what you're saying is the only way to get out of here is to get killed?" Dawn asked nervously.
"Let's try it first on Harris, then," Spike suggested.
"Very funny," he replied, obviously thinking it was nothing but.
"Ooh, I know that one," Willow interjected. "That's 'Spectre of the Gun' where they're kidnapped by the Melkotians to be tested to see if they're worthy of being contacted." Xander looked vindicated, but the others were just puzzled. "Chekov didn't die because he was too interested in this girl to pay attention to the things around him. Spock had to hypnotize the others so they would realize it wasn't real and the bullets couldn't hurt them."
"Guys, this isn't helping," Tara chided them all gently. "We have to play by the rules of this dream world in order to find a way out. I'm sure Buffy can do it."
"I wish I were sure," Buffy said gloomily. "The more I think about it, the less I can remember. What's on the shelves nearest the door, for example?" she asked. "Is it the scented candles, or are those by the cash register?" She sat despondently on a nearby bus stop bench. The others gathered around, not knowing what to say.
"All this nattering's given me an idea," said Spike, moving to one knee in front of Buffy. "Will you lend me that coin you found, pet?"
Buffy dug the silver dollar out of her pocket and handed it to him. He stripped the rings from his left hand and thrust them into his jeans pocket. Holding the coin in one hand, he leaned forward with his other hand on Buffy's thigh and looked up at her. "Do you trust me?"
She drew her lower lip between her teeth and frowned uncertainly, but finally nodded. Spike held his left hand out level between them and slowly let the silver dollar walk across the back of his knuckles. The coin winked light as it flipped smoothly across his hand. He captured it as it looked about ready to fall, and then drew it under his fingers to start the motion again on the other side of his hand. Buffy watched the repetitive motion intently. Spike waited until he felt her muscles relax. No one spoke while they waited to see what he had in mind.
"You're headed into the Magic Box, love," he said, his voice pitched low for her ears alone. "Tell me what it's like there."
"When you open the door, it rings that bell. I hate that damn bell," she said suddenly, perhaps recalling several abortive attempts at working in the store.
"Mmm-hmm," he murmured encouragingly. "Tell me more about the store."
"There's the smell," she volunteered. "Candles and herbs and other mystical stuff all mixed together - kind of 'mustical'," she giggled abruptly.
Spike wondered at the giddy schoolgirl side she had unexpectedly exposed. This from a woman he had always found to be painfully intense in the emotions she was willing to reveal to him. "What do you see on the shelves?" he prompted again, trying to maintain his own focus.
Little by little he coaxed a description of the store out of her. Details she hadn't even realized she knew spilled from her lips. She talked continually for some time, until her voice grew hoarse. Once she began to repeat herself Spike brought the coin to a halt, stretching out his cramped fingers. He lifted his other hand to her chin and tipped her chin up until her eyes met his. "You can stop, love. Think you can get us into the shop now?"
Buffy nodded mutely, stunned. From where she had taken a seat on the sidewalk, Dawn asked the question that was on everyone's minds. "Wow, Spike - where did you learn how to do that? That was awesome!"
He levered himself to his feet, rubbing his palm firmly with his opposite thumb. "You live a hundred years or so, you get bored," he said. "Dru always was fond of parlour tricks," he added softly, when Buffy looked up at him.
The group resumed their trek through the dream streets. Buffy was so focussed on maintaining her clear vision of the Magic Box that she jumped, startled, when Spike reached for her hand. She looked self-consciously over her shoulder at her friends, and then allowed his fingers to close gently around hers as they walked. The rest of the trip was made in silence.
When they reached the shop door, Buffy paused to take a deep breath before pushing it open. The bell rang. It was as though they had stepped back into reality; the shop seemed identical in every respect to the one they knew and she sighed with relief.
"Way to go, Buffster!" Xander exclaimed, clapping her on the shoulder. "I knew you could do it." The others crowded around with their congratulations as well. She looked at Spike who was standing back from the press, and shaped 'thank you' with her lips. He only shrugged deprecatingly.
Before long, they settled into the routine they'd perfected over several years and dozens of crises, large and small. Willow and Tara quickly laid out the parameters of the type of spell they would be looking for and coordinated the collected information. Xander, Dawn and Buffy pored over the requisite texts, looking both for spells and for information that described their current predicament. The resulting pile of books was depressingly small.
Spike refused to get involved and instead sat on the couch, crossing his booted feet at the ankles and spreading his arms out across the back. "Point me at something I can kill," he said, "and I'll take care of it for you. Until that time, I'll be waiting right here." Cigarette after cigarette soon littered the floor beside him. When Dawn scolded him, he laughed. "It's not real, Bit. Wouldn't matter if I burned the place down." But he got up and found a dish to use as an ashtray.
Some time later, Buffy shoved her chair back from the table and stretched her arms out above her head. "This has got to be payback for all the homework I didn't do in school," she complained, twisting in the chair to ease her sore back.
Spike came up behind her and dug his fingers firmly into her shoulders, eliciting a pleased groan from her. "I know just the thing to take the kinks out, love," he suggested with a smile.
"What? No!" Buffy exclaimed, standing up so abruptly her chair tipped backwards behind her.
"I meant a quick bout in the training room," he explained. "But if you've got something else in mind . . ." His grin implied it probably hadn't been too far from his thoughts either.
She moved out of his reach and his smile vanished. "So, what then? I'm only welcome when there's no one around to find out?" He waved his hand, taking in the four at the table who were studiously ignoring this exchange. "They all know."
Spike advanced on her slowly. "There's got to be some give and take, love. I'm getting tired of being the one you come to when you get a craving, but who's shut out any time you're not interested. You told me you wanted to be with me, that you needed me; well, maybe I need you too sometimes. Or is it only that you're ashamed of being seen with me?"
Buffy looked sideways at the others and gave a quick jerk of her head. Tara and Willow took the hint and quickly left the table, heading for the upper level in search of more books. Xander was a little slower on the uptake, but Dawn dragged him away to the front of the store.
"I'm not ashamed," she insisted, when they had some privacy.
"Ah. So if I do this, then," he said, running his fingers down the closure of her blouse, plucking at the buttons. "It doesn't bother you at all."
She grabbed his hand before it could go any lower and involuntarily glanced around to see if anyone had noticed. "I just don't feel the same need to be an exhibitionist that you do," she admonished. "Some things should be kept private, is all. It doesn't mean I don't want you, or need you - because I do." Buffy moved into the circle of his arms. "I'm worried about what the Nightmare Master is up to," she said. "It's been too long without some kind of attack on us."
"All the more reason to take your mind off of things for a while," Spike persisted, tightening his hold.
"No," she said firmly. "This isn't the right time; even you have to see that. We have to be ready to fight at a moment's notice, and find a spell to get us out of here before then if we can. When we get home, then we can take all the time we need."
"When we get home then," he agreed, accepting her unspoken promise.
"Uh, guys?" Dawn's shaky voice drew their attention away from each other. "You need to come see this." Everyone joined her at the front window of the store. Instead of the streetscape of the dream-Sunnydale, they faced a dark landscape of forbidding hills. In the distance, a coal black tower thrust like an accusing finger into a lightning blasted sky.
"I think we might be out of time."