Part 6

"Right. Well since I have, of course, the finest collection of books anywhere outside the Watcher's Council I have no doubt that I'll be able to find the answer to this problem in no time."

Cordelia looked over at Buffy, "What's his deal? Do you think whatever is affecting the others affected Giles differently? Maybe this is a different spell cause I don't see him making googly eyes at anyone. Well, besides himself."

Willow looked at Giles with concern, "You haven't seen Ethan recently have you Giles?"

"What? No, not since that dreadful Eyphon episode, which by the way was not my fault."

Buffy not really paying attention to Giles since clearly his was a different spell, "Uh huh. Say, I know let's go to the library where you keep this great collection of books and see if we can find something." She turned to whisper to Oz, "I'll call Angel and have him meet us there. Maybe he'll be sane enough to find out what's happening."

Spike couldn't help but stir the pot a bit. "So we're off to the library then? Hmm, maybe Joyce's new boy toy is showing her around his place of work." Spike waggled his eyebrows at Buffy and sat back with a smirk and waited for the fireworks. He may not be able to kill the Slayer because of his Red but that didn't mean he couldn't play cat to her mouse.

Buffy glared daggers at Spike, "Will, you know there are plenty of fish in the sea. I'm sure you can find someone to take Spike's place after I dust him."

"Hey! Did I jump on the let's stake Angelus bandwagon? No! I think if I could back you up when it came to Angel you can at least put up with Spike."

Spike smirked at Buffy as he helped Willow up from the couch, "Yeah, Slayer. I mean it's not like I'm out stalking all those that Willow loves, leaving little presents for her and her friends or taunting her like Angelus did you."

Willow poked him in the stomach and wrinkled her nose at him, "You're not helping."

Spike couldn't help it she looked so cute trying to be forceful. He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose.

Buffy narrowed her eyes and fantasized of using an exacto knife to slice through Spike's neck like she did that quarterback.  That had been a slow and painful final death.

~~~~

"Okay so what do we look for? Spells that cause adults to do the wacky?"

"Ooh, I wonder if there's a horny toad demon?"

Cordelia just rolled her eyes and ignored Xander. Giles was handing out books for the others to look through. "I believe we should begin researching love spells."

"Ooh, I have the book that I used when I tried to do that spell for Spike."

Giles looked condescendingly at Willow, "That's nice, dear. But I believe these books are more extensive. We'll use yours if we don't find anything here."

Spike looked at Willow's crestfallen expression and immediately vamped. In a blink of an eye he was across the table and held Rupert by the neck. "Apologize to Willow."

Buffy jumped and grabbed her stake grinning at the wonderful opportunity that Spike presented.

"SPIKE!" Angel barked from the doorway. "Let Giles go!"

Buffy stopped mid-lunge and turned to look at Angel.

Spike didn't release Giles but turned his head to Angel, "No. He hurt Willow's feelings and he's going to apologize."

Willow slipped her arms around Spike's waist. "Please let him go. I'm sure he didn't mean it. It's whatever spell he's under. It's all right, really."

Spike squeezed just a little bit tighter before finally releasing Giles' throat.

Giles rubbed his throat and gasped for air before turning to Willow, "I'm sorry if I made you feel inferior."

Spike growled deep in his throat.

Giles cleared his throat and hastily went to get more books.

Buffy looked over at Oz before looking back at Angel, "Umm, Angel. Thanks for coming. Before we get started there's something I need to tell you."

Oz quietly slipped his hand in Buffy's, "Something WE need to tell you."

Angel looked from Buffy to Oz and down to their entwined fingers and felt relief. Okay a little burning jealousy but mostly relief. Buffy had moved on.

Angel nodded and indicated they go out into the hallway.

Buffy turned concerned eyes to Oz and shrugged. That had gone better than she thought.

"Angel, you know I'll always love you, right? Well, this just being friends with you was so hard. It hurt that I couldn't be near you anymore."

Angel opened his mouth to interrupt but another voice interrupted instead.

"There you are!"

Buffy and Oz turned to see who had disturbed their conversation totally missing the goofy grin that Angel was now sporting.

"Hey Buffy, Oz."

"Harmony?"

Harmony smiled and ran up to Angel. "I missed you so much. I know it's only been like a few minutes but GOD it seems like forever."

Angel smiled down at Harmony and pulled her close.

Buffy's mouth kept opening and closing but nothing was coming out. She felt the beginnings of an eye twitch. Harmony?! He moved on with HARMONY!

Well good. FINE. That's just FINE. She had Oz after all.

"Well, I see you seemed to move on as well."

"What? Oh yeah." Angel dragged his eyes away from Harmony. "Well, you know. You're right. The just friends thing was really hard. But I saw Harmony tonight at the Bronze and it just seemed to click."

"Yeah click." Buffy muttered. "Well okay then. Everyone has moved on and we can get to researching."

"Researching?" Harmony asked. "No one said anything about researching. That's like homework, right? Angel just said he had to stop by here for some meeting."

Buffy rolled her eyes and looked over at Oz. Buffy started speaking slowly so Harmony could understand, "Yes. A research meeting."

"Fine you research."

Buffy ignored her and dragged Oz back into the library.

The sound of the library doors banging open caused everyone at the table to look up. Well, everyone but Spike who was busy nuzzling Willow's neck.

"Cordy?"

"Harmony? What are you doing here?"

Angel wrapped his arms around her waist, "She's with me."

Spike raised his head when he felt Willow stiffen. Wasn't that the blonde bint who hung around the cheerleader? He looked from her over to Buffy and saw that she was silently fuming. Well, well more gasoline to add to the Slayer fire.