Liam looked up as he heard several sharp knocks on his apartment door. Putting down his book, putting a clean button up shirt over his bare chest and black work out pants, got up and head towards the door.
Liam's apartment had been a great find on such quick notice, it was like a two floor loft. The bottom floor when looked at clockwise, consisted of the kitchen, TV/sound system area, cushy chairs in front of huge cathedral windows that ran the whole height of the apartment wall, a bathroom, and small study. The stairs, which reminded Liam of the stairs in old firehouses, only larger, sat next to the study and led up to the second floor. The second floor was lined against the wall, and looked out over the first floor. Clockwise from the stairs, was another set of smaller stairs that led to Liam's master bedroom, off the bedroom, was his larger bathroom. To the right of the bathroom, was his work out room, then the huge cathedral windows from the lower level. From that was an office, a storage room and finally the stairs, again. Liam loved his apartment, decorated with his tastes of dark reds, blacks, yellows and whites, as well as accents from his home and past.
"Buffy?" Liam was surprised to find the little slayer, cloaked in black, and canvas bag at feet, and face stained with tears, standing outside his door. "Come on in." Liam shuffled Buffy inside, bringing her bag with him, and led her over to on of the cushy chairs by the large windows.
"I'm sorry, I just came to talk. I should go and..." Buffy started to get up, but Liam pushed her back down, and sat on the chair across from her.
"Buffy, what's wrong?"
"You must think I'm pitiful." A new wave of silent tears fell from the slayer's eyes. "Acting all pathetic and mushy."
"No." Liam smiled as Buffy looked up at him through blurry eyes. "I think it's nice that you're not afraid to show your softer side, especially to someone you just met today."
"But that's just it! That's why I came here, I feel like I've known you my whole life."
"That's good to know. But why don't we start with, what made you come here in the first place?"
"Oh."
"Yeah. Oh."
"Okay, well, it didn't start tonight, and even if I did start last spring, when I did, you wouldn't really understand."
"I have all the time in the world."
"Okay, here goes..." Buffy started back when she had first been called, and was prepared to go the whole nine yards, or years. Liam sat up right, attentive and interested.
"Wow." Liam leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. "That's quite a...wow!"
"Thanks." Buffy had just finished telling Liam all about her past, not leaving out any details. She sat across from him and was drying her eyes. "I know it's a little long...and a little detailed."
"Well, yeah. Okay, you know your life makes a lot of sense." Liam suddenly looked up. "So, what are you going to do now?"
Buffy looked out the large windows. "Uh, well it's getting late, so I guess I'm gonna go and find a hotel..."
"Why don't you stay here with me?" Buffy looked up at Liam, surprised to see him looking oddly serious.
"You're joking right?"
"No. Seriously, I have the room. And besides, it'd be fun. We'd be like roommates."
"Uh, sure. Thanks." Buffy smiled warmly at Liam.
"No problem. Come on, let's find a place for you to sleep." Liam held out his hand to Buffy, and together, they walked upstairs.
"So, where do you think she might be?" The scoobies once again sat around the dinning room table. Willow's face was marred by angst.
"Maybe she went to Costa Rica." The group all swung around to see Spike standing in the doorway. "But hey, that's just a guess."
"Spike." Xander lept up and shoved Spike against the front door. "You bastard."
"Xander!" Yelled Anya.
"Bloody Hell, you wanker!" Spike threw Xander off him and jumped up. "What the hell was that for?"
"Spike? How, can you...?" Giles stood stunned.
"Oh that? Little side effect of the soul." Spike picked up his bag and walked into the kitchen. The others followed him.
"I thought you had a chip in your head to keep you from hurting humans." Faith looked confused.
"Who're you?" Spike looked at Faith.
"Faith, other slayer. We met before. I was wearing a different body."
"Body swap?"
"Yeah."
"Huh! Okay, we'll this summer, I headed for Africa, and got a soul, cancelled out the chip."
"Why'd you get the soul?" Michaela stood beside Giles.
"Aren't you the daughter of that evil Fullencanali guy?"
"Yes."
"Oh." Spike started to dig through the fridge.
"Spike, why did you get a soul." Oz stood protectively in front of Willow.
"Thought it'd be fun." Spike came out of the fridge, and faced the group. "Turns out it's a bitch."
"How poetic." Faith smiled.
"You know there's no blood in the fridge." Spike stared at the others as if they should have stocked the fridge with blood for him. "Buffy?" Spike walked out of the kitchen into the living room, calling the slayer's name. "Buffy? Slayer, where are you?"
"Spike, did you not contribute to our conversation earlier?" Willow and the others followed Spike.
"Let's see; said an aimless quote to get your attention, got knocked into the door by the boy. Yup, I'd call that a contribution. Buffy?"
"Spike!" The peroxide blonde vampire turned to look at the scoobies.
"What?"
"If you had paid attention, you would have known that we were talking about Buffy."
"What?"
"She's the one missing."
"Oh."