"How was school!?" As far as Dawn Summers was concerned, some people were just too cheery as this particular moment. Big sister Buffy was one of them.

She was still wearing a red and white stripey shirt, which meant she must have gotten back from a shift at the Doublemeat Palace a little while ago. If they were eating burgers again tonight, Dawn thought she might puke. Fortunately, they weren't.

"I fixed you guys a snack, a nutritious after school snack," Buffy repeated in a lively tone, but at the same time as though she were reading from a textbook. Dawn couldn't help but feel a little bit worried then. Nutritious? Was that even a word in this house?

Buffy darted back into the kitchen to get said snack whilst Dawn threw herself down on the couch and switched the tv on low. Connor followed suit. She felt bitter that he did that. Maybe if he'd done a little less of it all day, things would have gone better for her.

A moment later Buffy reappeared with a plateful of celery, carrot, cheesesticks and dip. Dawn peered at it suspiciously and decided she wasn't hungry, but Connor dug right in and begun shoveling it in with what was perhaps not the greatest table manners. Ugh. She guessed when you lived in a hell dimension it probably didn't matter whether you got doritos or cauliflower - as long as it was edible.

"Well?" Buffy again, "Did you meet your teachers? Did you get homework?"

"Buffy, you're scaring me. You sound like Willow."

Buffy must have realised she sounded a little bit over-enthused, "Well, I just wanna be involved, now that things are just starting to get back to normal."

"Things are never normal around here," Dawn replied, then suddenly she realised, "You've got to go patrolling," she accused.

"I'm sorry Dawnie, but the vamp action in Sunnydale has been on the increase lately." Dawn just shrugged. She was getting used to this now. She was wrong - there was one normal. Even now no one had time for Dawn.

"Anyway, you won't be alone," Buffy continued, "Connor will be here with you." Oh great! She looked across at Connor, staring at the tv screen showing an afternoon road runner cartoon rerun with a piece of carrot sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Dawn screwed up her nose. In the background, Wild. E. Coyote tried to catch the road runner on rocket powered roller blades and ended up flying off a cliff.

"Can't I come," she asked, but she didn't really expect a yes answer.

Buffy sighed, "Not on a school night."

"Can we go to The Bronze?" Connor suddenly asked, the television now forgotten. Both Buffy and Dawn looked surprised.

"You want to go to The Bronze?!" Dawn asked as though it were possibly the strangest thing Connor could ever have asked. How did he even know about The Bronze? "Why do you want to go to The Bronze?"

Connor shrugged, "Some friends said they would meet us there." Friends? How did that figure? It was the first day of school and Connor had made friends but she hadn't. Life just wasn't fair.

"I thought you could show me where it is," he smiled. It was a pleasant smile. That wasn't fair either! He had to stay weird and silent so that she could keep disliking him!

"Weell…" Buffy was considering it, looking thoughtful. She knew more than most that The Bronze could be a pretty dangerous place too. All the people around tended to attract a vamp or two every now and again. But suddenly, for Dawn, anyplace was preferable to here even if it meant taking the son of Angel along. If Buffy didn't let them go, she thought she might scream with frustration at the over-protectiveness. Two faces peered at Buffy expectantly.

"Ok…" Buffy broke down, "but go straight there and back - no dallying, or shortcuts," she looked meaningfully at them, "stick together and no vamp action!"

The two faces gave her innocent and angelic smiles, "We promise!"

******************

Muddy footprints. All over the main corridor. They traveled the entire length of it, sometimes criss-crossing or zig-zagging, and she swore at one point they seemed to traverse up the wall. How could a corridor get so dirty in just one day!

Macy sighed and scrubbed harder at one spot on the floor. Ok, she had a mop, but for all the difference she was making she might as well have had a toothbrush. Stupid teachers! Stupid school!

"MACY!" Ms. Jenkins voice filled the halls in an urgent shout and repeated itself only seconds later in an even higher pitch, "MACY!"

What was it now? More scrubbing? Toilets?!

"I've already done that spot five times!" she complained loudly in anticipation. Nothing, not the threat of a year's worth of detention, not Ms. Jenkins 'witchcraft', absolutely nothing was going to make her do toilets!

"MACYYY!" This time a scream, very close. For the first time Macy looked up realising something might be wrong. Since when did Ms. Jenkins call her by her first name?

With impeccable timing to confirm her suspicion, two figures appeared in the hallway intersection only a few metres away, one dragging the other. The other was Ms. Jenkins, struggling and looking petrified. At the sight of Macy, she struggled harder. Her abductor, a tall man in dark clothes, reigned her in with an iron grip.

"Ms. Jenkins?" Macy's voice had become very small. This was something very dangerous. This strange man should be stopped - somebody should do something. She should do something, but what?

At the sound of her voice, the man turned and looked in her direction with a snarl. Macy reeled back in fright. She dropped the mop.

She'd never seen anything like it - him. His forehead was horribly twisted, disfigured, his complexion pallid and teeth elongated like… like… like a vampire! She scooped her eyes up from the floor where they'd popped out of their sockets. Well, it felt like that anyway.

Ms. Jenkins' wacko abductor growled loudly and began dragging the teacher off in the opposite direction down the corridor, deeper into the school. It shook Macy out of her fright - right, do something!

She stepped forward, running toward the pair in an effort to help the teacher she didn't really like and probably would never have admitted to having saved had she actually made it.

Macy kicked over the bucket she had been using to mop the floor. Filthy water poured out all over the corridor and she slipped, going down. Just to complete the mess, she hit her head on the bucket. Now she was wet, smelly, and close to unconscious. She tried to get up, and came face to fang with Mr. Weirdo No.2.

"Ok, ok. I'll do the toilets!" she whispered in terror. He grinned, and it was sickeningly toothy.

"Ms. JEEEEEENKIIIIIINS!"

She didn't even have time to scramble backwards before two powerfully strong arms grabbed her round the middle and began hauling her off kicking and screaming down the hallway in the same direction the other had taken the teacher only moments before.

"Is that the best you can do?" the kidnapper taunted, "I'd like to hear you scream a little louder before I eat you, little girl." Eat? Creep! LITTLE GIRL! There was just something things you didn't call Macy.

She went for the tender spot, bashing the guy in the balls. Fortunately, it worked. Doubling over in pain, he dropped her. She landed with a splodge and jumped to her feet. A couple of years of martial arts was not supposed to leave her unprepared in a situation like this.

Her abductor recovered quickly, snarling and getting ready to leap at her. Macy was waiting.

With a hard punch to the face, "Kung foo!" Her fist stung more than she remembered it should, but it seemed to temporarily stun the kidnapper.

She gave him a high kick to the stomach, "Tae kwon do!" The guy sure took a beating. She very well may have been hurting herself more than him. There had to be a better way. Before he could come after her again, Macy grabbed him in a headlock. He tried to struggle by pulling his head out, but stopped when he saw what she was doing.

Macy rammed his head through a locker, finally his body went limp as he fell unconscious.

She looked smug, "Schoolyard bully, ninth grade."

Great, now time for the important part - run for her life! She turned and began to bolt in the opposite direction to where she'd seen the other kidnapper leave. Halfway down the hall she stopped and frowned.

"No…. save Ms. Jenkins." She said it as though she didn't really want to.

*************************

The flashy neon sign of The Bronze was flickering slightly at odd intervals. The club itself, however, was having no problems maintaining its usual standard. Connor, who had never been to The Bronze before, would not know this.

The inside was packed. A local band was playing on the stage. Connor looked around with all his senses, but could not spot the Penelope demon. He did see Macy's friend Dustin though. Dustin was making himself very small at a table, trying to camouflage into the crowd and failing miserably.

"Great. We're here. Now what?" said Dawn, coming up behind him. Connor just pointed at Dustin without saying anything.

Their journey over here had been quiet to say the least. Apparently, having asked how Angel was, Dawn didn't have much to say. That was fine. After telling Dawn that Angel was fine, Connor didn't have much to say either. It was a long and arduous conversation.

The pair came to a stand in front of Dustin.

"Hi," Dustin greeted weakly, "Macy will be here soon. She just… she had detention."

Five minutes later, the three were still sitting there in what might have been uncomfortable silence if there hadn't been music blaring all around them. It was still uncomfortable though.

Connor, meanwhile, was trying to think of a clever way of getting free to scour the place. If he had learned nothing else in school that day (and he hadn't), it was that telling Dawn exactly what he was doing here probably wasn't the best idea. It was stupid anyway. He didn't have to follow what some girl said. He knew his father - Holtz - would have approved of what he was doing.

Suddenly, through the crowd, he spotted her. Over between the dance floor and the stairs, in a pale blue dress. She was talking to a male, smiling and laughing. Probably some poor unsuspecting victim, Connor thought.

"What are you looking at?" Dawn asked curiously, stretching her neck in an attempt to see past.

"Nothing," Connor replied quickly. He moved so that he was in the way between Dawn and Penelope, "I… I have to pee." He got up and backed away slowly in the direction of the stairs. For a second he pointed, in what he assumed was the direction of the toilets, and then he disappeared into the crowd leaving Dawn, with Dustin, in the corner.

*****************

Buffy was only half concentrating as she trailed down the streets of Sunnydale. Mostly because things seemed to be looking up. At first, she'd been concerned because she could tell Connor and Dawn weren't getting along, but now they were going to the Bronze together. Still, having Connor stirred up a lot of memories. Of Angel.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. If there was any feeling she knew well, it was the feeling of being stalked. Sometimes, when it wasn't your average vampire, she knew who it was too. She always knew when it was Angel, but tonight it wasn't Angel.

Buffy knew who it was. And it had gone on long enough.

"Stop following me Spike." This would not do. He might be back with a soul, but it was still Spike. She had to move on. She had to. If only because there was no future with the undead. But mostly because, with or without a soul, it was still Spike.

A compliment to his stalking skills, he did come out of the shadows to the right - a different direction to which Buffy had thought he was. Spike, standing there casually in his big black trenchcoat and bleached hair.

"Hello Slayer," he said. It was too friendly.

"This has to end Spike. No more puppy eyes, no more following me through the dark. No more hanging around my front garden watching me when you think I can't see you." It just wasn't healthy for either of them.

"Of course it does." But the tone in which he said it was so casual it suggested he wasn't even listening to what he was saying let alone believing it. In a way, how could she blame him? She'd told him those same words so many times now, and she had always gone back on them.

"This isn't going to be like those other times Spike," she told him, and meant it, "I'm not going to give in this time. For God's sake Spike my front yard is not an ashtray!" Spike took a drag on his cigarette. Here he was now, trying to be so casual, as though it didn't matter, as though he didn't care about her. So he said he had a soul now, but she didn't know if he lied. Even had she cared, they had no future. Soul or no, she had made that choice before.

But that was it, now, she didn't care. She should have hated him for what he had done - what he had tried to do. Trying to take her by force. Every emotion and passion possible she had already used on Spike. Disgust, at what he was and the havok he created. She had pitied the wretched creature that had crawled to her with a chip in its head, poured herself into him and used him when he was the only other who knew hell as she did. She had hated him, hated him for what he had done, and perhaps some small part of her had loved him, and it had made her hate him for that too. But not anymore. Instead, all she felt for Spike now was an empty hole, nothing. How though, could she tell him that when she had wasted so many words before telling him no.

For a moment, without words, Buffy thought she saw something dawn in Spike's eyes. As though he could feel what she was thinking, and knew. A great sadness. And then just as quickly it faded, and the old Spike was looking at her again.

"Yeah well," he said, trying to look cool, "I never was very good at no, not even when it was more like no, no, please no!" He said it as though it were a cry for help. One of his victims. Buffy rolled her eyes and resumed her patrol, ignoring Spike. Nothing she could say was going to convince him. She could have taken action and fought him, if he pushed it to that, but that had not done her any good in the past either. Her best chance was to do nothing and prove that it did not matter to her anymore.

It was Dawn she thought about. She did not want Dawn hurt by Spike's continued presence, when she had become attached to him, and been surprised when he had tried to… When he had tried to do what he did.

Dawn. Dawn was the reason she was out here tonight. Buffy's patrol was taking her past the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High. She was not going to leave things to chance - the Slayer knew better. Dawn was going to have a nice quiet year at school and she needed to make sure of that.

Up the new front gates she stole with Spike trailing along behind. She didn't bother to tell him to stop. Buffy gazed up at the front entrance to the new school building. That was strange, there were lights on. She looked at her watch. Surely it was well past the end of detention.

But then again it was lights. Demony mayhem, she knew, preferred the dark and even burglars wouldn't be that bold. No, if lights were on, it was probably legit. No supernatural stories to tell here.

A loud scream pierced the night air and a small figure barreled out of the front door and down the stairs. A young girl, about Dawn's age, was flying along towards them, her plaited hair bouncing along behind her. She was being hotly pursued by a much taller, uglier figure.

Then again…

Figures, thought Buffy.

She watched as the two came nearer. The girl flew right passed Buffy, a little to the left, perhaps believing the Slayer was also a Vampire. She was so busy watching her attacker though, that she missed seeing Spike and drove straight into him. It was like ramming the Titanic into the iceberg all over again. Spike may have looked slightly gangly, but he had Vampire strength. The girl went down like a sack full of beans.

The Vampire pursuing her stopped short, unsure of what to do and looking between the Slayer and her Vampire bitch. He only got a second for that eyeful before Buffy dusted him in one sweeping motion. Compared to a demon God, that guy was smaller than small fry.

Down on the ground, the black-haired girl groaned and raised herself up on her elbows.

"Oh God, I ran into a brick wall," she moaned. Buffy looked down at her.

"No," the Slayer said, "but close." Spike shot her a somewhat dirty look. Was that progress?

"Are you alright?" she asked the young girl, visibly searching the neck line for any sign of bitage. The skin looked comfortingly unbroken, but still, there were Vampires in Sunnydale High School. Of course there were. Maybe she should have considered sending Dawn away to school, like boarding school or something.

"Yes, I think so," the girl replied, rubbing her sore head, "but you have to stop that…" She looked and pointed behind her to the spot the Vampire had been in only a moment ago, and a puzzled expression crossed her face. She couldn't quite understand, "There was a guy following me, just now."

"He's gone," Buffy informed her. Probably best not to explain exactly how, "The important thing is, are there any more of them?" She'd be lucky if it was only a solo Vampire.

"Yes," the Vamp's victim, getting up from the ground, "At least two. I knocked one of them out, but the other got Ms. Jenkins. I tried to go after her, but then the third guy chased me out here." She didn't seem to even notice the dust on her jeans let alone brush it off.

"You knocked one of them out?!" Spike marveled. He had, after all, experienced the extreme lack of pain at Macy's entire body pummeling into him. No wonder he was dubious. She was such a small creature.

Macy bristled. She didn't like being thought of as not able to fend for herself.

"I've done martial arts," she protested, "I could probably kick your butt," she judged. Spike raised his eyebrows and tried not to laugh at her spunk. Buffy's mind, however, was elsewhere.

"Which way did they go?"

"Further into the school. Towards… towards the Principle's office," the girl informed her. Buffy turned to leave.

"But," the girl stopped her, "you'll have to be careful. There's something weird about these guys. You know they say the eyes are windows to the soul. Well I've never seen such ugly window pane's before, you know?"

"There's no soul in there sweetheart," Spike informed her, earning a look from Buffy in the process. Was there a soul in Spike?

"I'd believe you," said Macy. She didn't really know what she was talking about, of course.

Buffy nodded, "Spike, you stay here and look after her." Maybe he was useful for something, as long as he continued to follow her around.

"Oh come on…" but Spike's complaints fell on deaf ears. Buffy was already running up the stairs to the school. He looked agitated at being left with a job that didn't include kicking someone's butt, even if it was a demon's. Why did he always get the minding job? That said, Buffy probably wasn't going to be leaving Dawn with him any time soon.

"You know, I can look after myself, if you want to," Macy waved a hand in the general direction of the school. Still, she looked relieved when Spike drew out another cigarette and stayed, even though he ignored her.

"I don't know what kind of idiot would want to mutilate themselves like that," Macy said awkwardly, trying for small talk. She was, of course, referring to the horrible eyes and teeth sported by the men who had attacked her.

Spike blew a cloud of smoke above her head. Pausing.

"Me neither," he finally said, emotionless. Macy coughed as the smoke drifted down and seemed to cling like dirt to her lungs. Mmm, passive smoking - yuck!

"Those things will kill you," she accused.

"Really? Oh well, I'll just stop then…" He didn't bother to reign in the sarcasm. There was another awkward silence.

"You know," said Macy, "all that screaming and running stuff, that was just to throw him off."