Willow groaned as her alarm clock awoke her from the strange dream, she'd dreamt that Buffy had died and she'd gone to when Spike was still human and screwed up the future. Why do I always have the weird dreams? Gotta look at Tara's Freudian dreams book, she decided. Green eyes looked around the room and she nearly fell off the bed. "Tara?" Willow whispered. "Miss Kitty Fantastico?" She was in her old room in her old house, she didn't even have the fish that she'd gotten for Channukah 1997...that had ended up getting killed by Angelus. "What the hell is going on here?"

Willow stood up and walked to her mirror and gasped, her hair was longer and less red. She guessed that she was either in her sophomore year or junior year of high school before looking at a kitten calendar. It was a Wednesday morning in September 1997. What happened on a Wednesday in September 1997? she wondered.

Then she read Thursday's events: parent-teacher conference...Saturday was the Feast of Saint Vigeous. "Oh...boy..." Willow murmured. "Here comes Spike." She frowned as she remembered Angel's words. She would be the only one to remember. Spike wouldn't remember that kiss or her taking off his shirt? Maybe that was of the good? Willow, cool the hormones. You're still a lesbian, she thought. The redhead wondered what Tara was doing right now. Was she playing with Miss Kitty Fantastico, was she looking after Dawn? Willow frowned again. Dawn didn't exist here while Buffy, Joyce, Ms. Calendar, they were all alive. Xander and Buffy were still virgins, she guessed in body, she was still a virgin. The irony, sweet Willow was the only one that could remember having sex with not one, but two people...a guy and a girl, she mused. And almost having sex with an evil soulless vampire...well, he was in human form, but none-the-less.

She frowned. I guess I'm making up for the not-so-hormonal teenage days now, she thought.

"Willow, honey! You'll be late for school, your father and I are going to London on the 12:45 flight from LAX, okay?" Sheila Rosenberg called.

"LAX is in Los Angeles...that's where I was last when I was got into the Time Warp," she whimpered. Willow smiled at her statement, the first time she had seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show was when she was stuck vampsitting Spike last year - or was it two years in the future? Argh! Brain pain, the witch whined mentally.

"Willow?" Sheila repeated.

"I'm fine, gonna get dressed and go to school," Willow told her mother and looked through her closet for something twenty-year-old Willow Rosenberg. "Mom!" she called.

"Yes, Willow?" Sheila stated, ducking her head into the room.

"Can you leave some of your credit cards?" the redhead asked hopefully. Sheila seemed momentarily startled but nodded.

"On the kitchen table, sweetie," she replied, going back downstairs. Willow went back to the task at hand before finding a pair of corduroys and a maroon top with a rainbow-colored flower on it. It wasn't exactly 2001 Willow but it'd do. She grabbed her bookbag and raced downstairs, in no time she was at school and she shuddered, it was just like she had remembered it, the Hellmouth right under the library. Later that year, she'd get attacked by Drusilla and Spike's cronies and go into a coma. She missed the future Spike, her Spike....her Spike? Since when was Spike her Spike? Too much time travel, she decided.

"Whoa, Willow, check you out," Buffy's cheerful voice interrupted Willow's thoughts.

"Buffy!" Willow cried, hugging her now-alive best friend.

"Willow, are you all right 'cause you're acting...strange," Buffy said, hugging her friend back.

"How's your mom?" Willow asked.

"She's great," Buffy replied.

"Good, good, that's good," Willow rambled.

"Did you get into the coffee? You know, caffeine is bad," Buffy stated.

"Yeah...espresso," Willow lied easily.

"So we Bronzing it tonight? Angel might be there," Buffy chirped.

Willow's eyes widened. "He won't," Willow answered.

"So now you're psychic, Will?" Buffy teased.

"You could say that," Willow replied. "What about your French?"

"We could do it at the Bronze...pleeease, Will?" Buffy begged.

"Oh, all right..." Willow relented and the two of them headed into the building and ran into Xander.

"Hey, Will, Buff," Xander greeted the two girls. "Anything of the evil lately?"

Well, I mind-spoke to a neutered vampire named Spike and helped Buffy defeat a Hellgod then I time-travelled into the 1870s and staked a loony vampiress that talked to the stars and had a friend of mine turned into a vampire - you know, the one I mind-spoke to? Other than that, things are good. What about you? Willow wondered what would happen if she told her friends of her latest adventures. Probably get a one-way ticket to the padded room.

"Things are pretty quiet lately," Buffy replied and then Principal Snyder zeroed-in on the Slayer.

"Miss Summers, I need to see you in my office. Now," the troll answered.

Buffy's face fell and she followed the principal to his office. "I really hate that guy," Xander murmured.

"He gets eaten by a snake," Willow replied without thinking and Xander looked at her like she was insane.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"Um, I--I said, 'He is really a snake' - of a guy...not an actual snake b--but a mean guy," Willow covered.

"Okay..." Xander answered slowly.

"We--we should go to the library and do Scooby Gang stuff," Willow answered.

"Yeah," Xander replied as the two went to the school library. Willow grinned as they entered, her eyes running over the familiar surroundings.

It was hard to accept that the library wasn't destroyed but Willow was glad to be there, it was where she had spent the happier days of her youth. Not that she was old but she had grown up so much since, well...just since the last time she had been in the library when Spike found out he could kill demons. She let a little giggle out as she recounted his pep talk.

"I say we go out there and kick a little demon ass. What, can't go without your Buffy? Is that it? Too chicken? Let's find her. She is the Chosen One after all. Come on, vampires, rrr, nasty! Let's annihilate them for justice and...for the safety of puppies and Christmas, right? Let's fight that evil! Let's kill something! Oh, come on!" "What?" Xander asked, pulling Willow out of her reverie.

"Oh...um...just thinking..." Willow replied, Xander arched a brow before taking a seat at the table. Willow bit back a frown before taking a seat as well.

The day continued just as Willow remembered it four years previous and she went to the Bronze with Buffy and Xander just as she had before. She sat at the table, half-listening to Buffy's mockery of the French language and half-listening for the British accented voice to cry out "Where's the phone? I need to call 911, there's someone biting people out there." And as Buffy said something about a cow the voice rang out and Buffy raced outside to fight. Willow's eyes flew to the source and he smirked at her and she answered back with a glare, her eyes turning black.

Spike frowned as Buffy raced outside to dispatch of one of the Annoying One's lackeys and he followed her. Willow, in turn, followed the bleached-blonde. "Spike," Willow hissed.

"Red," he answered. "'Bout time we met up again."

"Just like old days...well, sort of. I will stake you...or maybe I'll find the Initiative and have them chip you," she threatened.

Spike knew she could do as she said but he didn't really care. Their kiss a long time ago replayed in his mind and before Willow knew what was happening, she was pressed against the alley wall, stuck between the concrete exterior of the Bronze and Spike's body. Hands shot out on either side of her, blocking a possible escape route unless she...her thoughts were cut of as a pair of cool and demanding lips were pressed to hers.

The kiss took the witch's breath away and she unwittingly moved closer to him. "Spike!" the lackey cried and Spike pulled away from the kiss.

"Go, Willow," he whispered, letting her go and she raced off. Spike left the shadows and watched Buffy stake the lackey.

"Bravo, Buffster," he replied. "I was hopin' you'd get rid of him."

"Who are you?" she hissed.

"Name's Spike," he answered.

"What kind of name is 'Spike?'" Buffy growled.

"What kind of name is 'Buffy?'" Spike countered.

"What are you doing in my town?" the blonde stated.

"Can't a bloke come to town without gettin' the Slayer's knickers in a bunch?" Spike stated.

"I'm one minute from kicking your ass," Buffy said.

"Been there, done that," he muttered. "I'm here to help out. You know, kick a little demon ass. What say, Slayer? Can you make a deal with a handsome devil?"

"Are you insane? Slayers don't work with vampires!" Buffy shouted.

"Really? Well, I heard you're quite cozy with my sire," Spike replied.

"Your what?"

"Si-re. The vamp who made me. Big guy, broody, major case of caveman brow, has a lot of nancyboy hair gel? Goes by the name of 'Angel.'"

"Angel?" Buffy whispered.

"That's his name. If you can make a deal with peaches, why not his prodigal childe?" Spike told her.

"I...okay, but the second you step out of line, I'll--"

"Stake me right good and proper," Spike replied, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before."

"Um...now that's cleared, we should go to the library," Buffy said.

"Right, ladies first, " Spike said.

"Uh-uh, you first," Buffy replied.

"And let you poke a stick into my heart? Not a chance," Spike answered.

"You really think I'll let you bite me?" she replied.

"Won't be the last time you get bit," Spike muttered.

"What?" Buffy demanded, glaring at Spike.

"Right then," Spike said. "We'll walk by each other."

"'Kay," Buffy stated and they headed to Sunnydale High School's library.