Spike glared at Buffy, "I told you not to call me that!"

Buffy just smirked some more, "I know you did pet, but that just makes it all the more fun. William."

Spike stared at her for a moment, the smiled evilly. "Well I'm glad to see you have developed such a sense of humor since last summer, Elizabeth." Buffy groan loudly at the sound of her real name, "But to be tortured by you is not my intention."

Buffy rolled her eyes at his comment, "Cute, so why are you here? I didn't get a memo telling me that my oldest and dearest friend William the Bloody was going to be in town."

Spike's humor disappeared, "I here to find a way to get Drusilla better." He said it so quietly that if Buffy didn't have her slayer hearing then she wouldn't be able to hear his answer.

Buffy instantly became concerned, "Has it gotten worse? I mean, I thought… I thought she was getting better last time I saw her." Her tone was one of worry, Sil had been one of the few steady adult, well, older person in her life. She was the one who had first taught her about magic world that she lived in.

"By the way, where is Drusilla?" Buffy said looking outside to see if she was dancing in the moonlight. She saw no one.

"She's at the factory still, She couldn't get up. Not that she didn't try, so as to come and see you. The disease really has been draining her lately. Plus Dru said the Annoying One would get suspicious if we both left to go some where." Spike said with an eye roll. "Said 'he doesn't trust us, luv.'"

Spike sat down on the bed and put his head in his lap. "As for the disease, yeah it's gotten worse, a whole lot worse luv. I don't know what to do. I figured Hellmouth would have something to cure her."

Buffy crossed over to him and sat down beside him, putting her small arm around his shoulders. "She'll get better Spike, I know she will. I mean we're all back together now. You and I will figure out something."

Spike smiled at her efforts to comfort him, "You're a good friend, slayer, to me and Dru. I'm glad we found you when you were little in London, 'stead of one of the other vamps."

Buffy smiled at the memory, "You know in some cultures, they call what you two did kidnapping."

Spike shook his head, "No it wasn't, they had already done that when they stole you from your parents before. What we did was payback." Both of them knew who "they" was, Spike had done a lot to prevent them from finding her. They had wanted her dead; they had said something about her having criminal genes or something like that that would be hazardous to what they wanted to accomplish.

"Now I know you're lying, you didn't know I was a slayer-in-waiting. You just got lucky."

Spike lifted his eyebrow and gave her a smile; "Yes we did, didn't we. Dru got another friend and I found someone else to love and protect."

Buffy just grinned, pulling away from him, and then giving him a look that said 'liar' "Dru just wanted a meal at first, then she just fell absolutely in love with me. And you wanted a sparring partner."

"You can't blame a guy, can you?" Spike asked her while giving her a friendly punch in the shoulder. "But you weren't up for much sparring until you got older."

"Nope I wasn't, that seemed to disappoint you at first." Buffy said with a knowing smile. "But I think you enjoyed beating up any of your minions who tried to eat me."

It was Spike's turn to grin at the memory "That I did, that I did. You gotta admit you love doing the same thing now that you're old enough to appreciate it, being the slayer an' all. Plus I couldn't let the minions eat what's mine."

"I am sure that they were very surprised to find you defend a slayer, instead of killing her."

"I bet they were too, but you know how it goes. So tell me about Hellmouth?"

Buffy nodded and then she brightened slightly, "Well people are very stupid here, they don't see what is really going on around them. It's so easy to fool them with phony transcripts and fake accents. The principal seems to know all about it, but I'm not sure that he really does. By the way could you kill him for me? Please Spike?"

Spike raise an eyebrow to this, "Why pet do you want me to kill him?"

Buffy was going to answer, when a voice from the doorway answers instead, "The mean principal punished our pet. No cookies for the slayer."

"Drusilla!" Buffy exclaimed, "You shouldn't be up, not with you being sick an' all." She got up and went over to Drusilla. She then guided her back to the bed.

"Buffy's right Dru, you're sick. You need to rest." Spike worriedly said as he got up so Drusilla could sit.

Drusilla just stared at the wall for a moment, then she turned to face Buffy. "I had to see you dearie. The stars have been talking to me, telling wonderful stories about Hellmouth."

Buffy and Spike just waited knowing Drusilla would continue soon, "They tell me of a betrayal of one of our own. They tell me He's here."

Spike looked confused for a moment, but Buffy nodded, "Yes Sil, Angel is here. But he has a soul now."

"Angelus with a soul, now that's a laugh" Spike said with a laugh, "So when did he get one of those?"

Buffy shrugged, "He told me that he got it from some gypsies, cuz he killed one of theirs."

Spike looked curious, "Did he say when it happened?"

Drusilla seemed to have a moment of clarity, "Before he left us in Romania. Darla never did tell us why she wanted us to kill the whole gypsy camp. So much blood." She leaned her head down to her lap in grief. She always seemed to get this way when her mind cleared.

Spike was going to say something to comfort her, when, from the open doorway, a woman screamed at the top of her lungs, "Buffy what in the hell is going on here? Who are these people?"

Tcb

A.N. Here's some of the answers, I'll try to have another chapter tomorrow. If I don't, then the epic will continue on Wednesday…. Who are they? Why did they have Buffy? Tune in next time…