"So...Liam." 

"So...Buffy."

Liam and Buffy had spent the last 10 minutes scouring Liam's apartment for a bed for Buffy.  They had ended in Liam's bedroom, standing by the bed, the only bed.

"You know, the pull-out couch in the study was really fine..."

"No, Buffy, take the bed, I'll take the couch."

"No, it's your house, you take the bed.  I can really get a hotel..."

"Wait, Buffy.  Take the bed, I insist."

"No, I will take the couch.  No objections."

"But..."

"No, I insist."

"Okay.  So why don't you change, and I can go and set up the study."  Liam awkwardly walked out of the room.  Buffy smiled.

A week later, the scoobies were making no progress on finding Buffy.  While at the same time, Liam and Buffy were having a blast at attempting being roommates.

The two had gotten into a sort of cute routine.  Every morning, Liam would wake up at 5am, shower and at 6am come and wake Buffy, by opening the blinds in the study.  Buffy would then shower, while Liam made breakfast and coffee.  Buffy went out and picked up the paper and Liam's mail.  By the time she got back, breakfast was done and the two sat down together, ate and talked about the day.

"You know this is getting kind of creepy."  Liam sat back at the table and looked at Buffy as she ate her eggs.

"What is?"

"The whole in sync thing we've got going on.  I mean we call each other a lot during the day, spend all our time together, face it Buffy, we're like an old married couple."

Buffy laughed.  "Okay, I give.  Where are you going with this?"  She leaned back in her chair, and Liam marveled at how beautiful she was.

"I dunno, I was thinking we should go to a movie, get some dinner..."

"Liam, we already do that."

"I don't mean as a platonic date, I mean as a date."  Liam kept smiling, but Buffy's smile quickly slipped off her face.

"Oh Liam, I don't know.  I don't want to risk ruining what we have, and plus my love life has never been..."

"Buffy, why don't you just forget the past.  That's why it's called the past, because it's over and done with.  And as for your love life, you know I'm not like the others you have dated."

Buffy hesitated then smiled.  "Okay, but if we get attacked by demons, that's it..."

"I know, I know."  Liam laughed and the two smiled across the table at each other.

"I can't believe you let her leave."  Spike paced around the Magic Box.  It had been a week since he had arrived and since Buffy had disappeared.  He had not been much of a help, But every Scooby could tell he was very worried about Buffy.

"We didn't let her leave Spike."  Xander was not happy about the vampire staying, but figured he could help with the search for Buffy, so stayed dormant.

"Yeah, we just ignored her for three months."  Anya sat behind the counter counting money.

"We didn't ignore her..."

"Face it red, you did."  Spike glared at Willow.  "From what all of you have told me, you ignored her."

"It's not like we meant to, we just got caught up in our own lives."  Faith shrugged.

"No one means to ignore their friends, some times their lives just get to hectic."  Michaela stood with Giles's arm around her.

"But you did."

"Spike's right, dare I say it."  Giles sighed.  "But that is no exception, Buffy is a very big part of all our lives.  We had no logical reason to ignore her for as long as we did."

"Thank you, Rupert."  Spike stopped pacing.  "So, what do we know?  Red, have you tried a locator spell?"

"Yes, and it didn't work.  I gave Buffy a charm to deflect locator spells, and it's not in the box she usually leaves it in.  Buffy never used it before, she didn't like it, but I guess she really doesn't want to be found."

"Look, I really don't want the one to bring this up, but."  Oz shifted in his seat.  "Could Buffy be...dead?"