"Can you even begin to figure out what's wrong with him?" Angel asked.

Buffy frowned, "No. I haven't seen him in a long time."

"How long?"

Buffy shrugged, "Ten years, give or take. He just left town one night. I didn't bother to try to find him again." Well, that was only a half-lie, which meant it was mostly true.

"Why'd he leave?"

"I don't know." That was a complete lie. A big, fat, lie with teeth and horns. She could see by the look on Angel's face that he was aware of the lie.

"Buffy, please. What happened?"

"Why do you care?" She asked quietly. Why indeed? Just because it had something to do with his former lover and his..what exactly was Spike to Angel? Maybe a better question would have been, what wasn't Spike to Angel?

"That's a hell of a question, Buffy. Because I care about both of you, and I think there is something important you aren't telling me."

Buffy sighed, but she didn't answer immediately. She watched Spike. who was apparently getting read to sleep. He was still fully clothed, but he had stretched out on the bed. Buffy was loath to leave him alone, and so all three of them were in Spike's temporary room. It would be hard to explain it all to Angel, especially when she didn't understand most of it herself. She had acted so differently in those years with Spike than she had when she was a little girl with Angel. Would Angel want to hear about the woman she had become under Spike's watchful eye?

"I wonder what he's thinking about?" Buffy said softly.

Angel sat beside him on the bed. "Maybe nothing."

Buffy took her place on the other side of Spike's prone body. "You didn't clean him. He's all dirty."

Spike started slightly, and then words, thick with age, his voice rusty with disuse, wheezed past his lips. "Vampires are dirty."

"Wait? Spike? What did you say?" Angel asked, leaning closer. But apparently Spike didn't have anything left to say, because his silence remained unbroken. Angel looked up to Buffy, "Did you catch what he said?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah. Let's get him cleaned up." Her voice and her face didn't betray the tumultuous emotions roaring through her, not the least of which was guilt. "I don't think we can make him shower. Perhaps a sponge bath?"

"Buffy, that's the first time I've heard him speak since we've found him. That's only the second time I've seen him react to anything. Don't try to shrug it off."

"Angel, we can talk about the various philosophical meanings behind 'vampires are dirty' all you want, after we clean this one."

Angel sighed, "Fine, I'll be right back. Do you need help removing his clothes?

Buffy hid a small smile, "Nah, I got it under control."

***

Voices, he heard voices. He could only catch every other word or so. The voices didn't make any sense, but it didn't matter, because the words he did catch were clear and strong. Fresh. Her voice was there. And another's..

This voice, it was wrong. He knew it was wrong. It was flat, an American accent. Not the original brogue he was used to. It was suddenly very important to keep everybody's voice and accents distinct and categorized. It was all he had to go by.

He could also see her face, but it seemed it was from a great distance away. It was older, there were a few wrinkles, but it was the same face. She didn't smile though, and he missed that. He didn't believe, couldn't believe, that she was real though. Nothing was real in this world, except the vampires.

The dirty vampires. He heard her voice again, something about dirty vampires. He remembered that. It was important. Maybe it was why he fought.



A/N--This chapter is super-short because I wrote it in between classes. There WILL be a longer one posted sometime this evening. Thanks for the reviews I've received so far, I hope y'all continue to enjoy my humble story.