A/N : Wow, can't believe it's two weeks since I last posted on this fic! Thats quite a long gap for me. Oh well, here we are at chapter 12, and I hope after this amount of time you can remember what happened before! Thankx to the reviewers of chapter 11; SpIkEs AnGeL, ms trick, SweetBitter, Lisa, SouthernRain, Rachel, BuffyandDracoLover. Sorry I made you all wait so long - but here's the new chapter and I hope you like it...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 12 - The Truth, The Half-Truth, and Anything But The Truth

Buffy lay on her bed, tear stains down her cheeks and even more salt water threatening to spill out of her red rimmed eyes at any moment. How had all this happened? How had she managed to get from the truest form of contentment to perfect and tragic pain, in the space of a half hour.

"I want an explanation" her mother had snapped in her harshest tone as Buffy finally made it into her house. She hadn't had much time to come up with excuses, against all odds she had hoped to get home fast enough to avoid her mother knowing she'd ever been out, with a fast change of clothes her excuse would be she's been somewhere in the grounds without anyone's knowledge. Of course that would have left the problem of Angel, but she could easily have admitted to simply wanting to avoid her mothers evening of 'entertaining', she'd get a stern telling off for that but nothing majorly bad.

As it was she'd been caught, in the clothes and make-up that her mother so disapproved of.

"I was at a party" Buffy half-lied, the Bronze was like a party atmoshpere of sorts after all.

"You said you were going out with Angel" Joyce reminded her, "Where is he?"

"Oh, yeah, I..." Buffy faltered as her mind spun, "I didn't mean Angel, I meant Angela" she lied completely now, hoping her mother would swallow it, "She's a new girl from our school"

Joyce looked dubiously at her daughter. She was aware of all comings and goings on the 'better' side of town. If any new person were attending school with Buffy she would surely know of their parents.

"What is this Angela's last name?" she asked and watched Buffy silently flounder, trying to come up with a response.

"It's, er, Angela...Spike-ford, she said suddenly, "Yeah, that's it, Angela Spikesford" she smiled on the outside as inside she screamed at herself for soming up with such a stupid name and for being such a bad liar and for getting caught and...

"Where was this party with Miss Spikesford?" her mother persisted, thinking not only the name very suspiscious but also the way Buffy was acting, all jumpy and fidgety, she wasn't buying these excuses at all and she planned to get to the truth, even if it took all night.

"At her house" Buffy said quickly, desperate to keep her breathing steady, but her nerves and the exertion of running had made her heart beat faster and her body needed more oxygen too fast for her to keep up without obvious panting.

Joyce didn't wait for further explanation, something else had just occurred to her. Why was her daughter wearing that long coat? It wasn't particularly cold and she was indoors now,still with all the buttons fastened. There would be no conceivable reason for this, unless she had something to hide.

"You're looking a little flushed, dear" Joyce suddenly smiled, making Buffy doubly nervous, her mother never smiled quite like that, "Why don't you take off your coat and cool down"

Buffy was about to protest but she saw her mother's eyes harden above her smile. She knew without a doubt it was Game Over, she'd been caught and there was no way out.

Buffy had expected her mother to be shocked by her apearance but she had not quite thought she would go so far as to faint! Lady Joyce took in the leather and clingy material that adorned her daughters body before passing out cold into the arms of a servant who was standing nearby awaiting orders.

After that, Buffy had started to cry as her mother came aorund, yelling and reprimanding, and informing Buffy she was grounded for eternity, more or less. The girl had run to her room in floods of tears, not because she'd been found out, not because her mother had been disgusted by her appearance, not because she wouldn't be permitted to see her friends for a few weeks, she cried and sobbed her heart out, because she knew without a doubt her time with Spike was definitely over.

Here she still lay, several hours later. Still staring at the ceiling, the peace of sleep and the wonder of dreams hadn't come to Buffy, leaving her to sob in pain as the moon descended once again to make room for the sun in it's place.

A tap on the door caught her attention and she spared a glance at the clock before calling 'come in' to whom ever was on the other side of her door. It was already seven thirty the next day.

"Buffy?" a quiet voice asked as the owner came carefully into the room.

"Willow" Buffy craoked out her best friends name, as said girl walked over to the bed where the blonde lay and sat on the edge, "Oh Will, what am I going to do?"

Suddenly more tears began to course down Buffy's face as she sat up and reached for her friend. Her best friend hugged her, feeling so terrible about Buffy's situation and guiltily thinking about her own a little too.

"We knew it was gonna end Buffy" she said quietly, "You knew it had too, but I am sorry it was this way, with your Mom getting mad and all"

"Of course I knew it had to end" Buffy sniffed, pulling away from her friend and trying to dry her face, an impossible task as all removed tears were soon replaced by fresh ones, "but why now? Why when I've just realised that...Willow, last night I told Spike I loved him and he said it back, we love each other and it's real, and now I'll never see him again" her explanation to her friend only made her ordeal all the more real, brigning forth much more choking and sobbing.

"I wish I could help Buffy" Willow said sadly, almost in tears herself just because her best friend was obviously hurting so badly, "but I can't even talk right now, I'm supposed to be working..." she admitted, standing up again.

"It's okay" Buffy nodded that she understood, "I don't think I'm supposed to talk to anyone anyway...Mom's so mad she's even grounded me from school for at least a week, I'm gonna have to study here"

"I'll try to come back again later" Willow promised as she moved back toward the door, "and I'm sorry" she added just before she turned to actually leave.

"None of this is your fault, Will" Buffy sniffed and Willow gave a simple nod as response before slipping from the room.

As she clicked the bedroom door closed again, the red-head felt a hand on her shoulder and physically jumped at the contact.

"Oh, it's you" she said, gasping in air, her hand over her heart as she turned round and saw Xander standing there.

"How's Buffy?" he asked her without so much as a greeting or apology for scaring her.

"Not so good" Willow frowned, "I don't think it would have been so bad if not for Spike..." she started before realising Xander was not supposed to know anything about Buffy's secret liasions with this mystery man. She clamped her hand over her mouth as if it might help to stop anymore secrets spilling out but it was all too late.

"Spike?" Xander echoed the unfamiliar name, "Who the hell is Spike?"

"Well...er..." Willow wasn't sure what to say. She hated to lie to Xander, especially now when they had this undefined relationship thing going on, they were finally getting really close and the last thing she wanted to do was blow the sliver of a chance she had with him.

"I think you should start from the beginning and tell me exactly what happened" Xander told her, somewhat sternly before glancing away from her and at his sisters bedroom door, "Actually I have a better idea" he amended, "You can both tell me"

It took a while for the whole truthful plan to be divulged to Xander. Willow begged to be allowed to go and do the work her mother had asked her to do but Xander wanted to know everything and he wanted to hear it from not just his sister but her trusted friend too. Besides, if Willow was in anyway berated for lack of work, he would cover for her, he was the man of the house after all, and what he said had an impact.

It was an hour later when Buffy wiped her eys and blew her nose and declared that her brother now knew everything there was to know, how she'd met Spike, their two evenings together and their much more brief final meeting. Mostly he was shocked by his sisters behaviour and several times he'd thought about how he may need to have this guy severely beaten for daring to touch his precious sister, but it seemed she was all too eagar for the touching to be happeneing!

"And you love him?" he checked one final time.

"I do" Buffy said truthfully and Willow's heart broke for her, she looked so sad, "Xander I know it's ridiculous, we both know it, after knowing each other such a short time it should be impossible for us to be in love but we truly are"

"I believe you" came her twin's quiet response, Buffy didn't really notice the way he glanced at Willow, in fact the red-head barely noticed herself, "Time has nothing to do with love, I know that, sometimes you just know" the second glance of Willow that he stole, Buffy saw completely, and despite her complete and utter devatation over Spike, she smiled ever so slightly on the inside at the thought of Xander and Willow finding some happiness together.

"I wish we could help" Willow repeated her earlier sentiments, "but your mother's word is kind of the law in this house" she said unecessarily to her friends, they were only to aware of what consequences could come from disobeying Lady Joyce.

Grounded for weeks was bad enough but Buffy and Xander both knew that their mother could cut off much of their money, could completely disinherit them and throw them out if things got really bad, they were only sixteen after all and had very few rights even to the money that was technically their own.

"I never even got to say goodbye" Buffy mumbled, trying not to start crying all over again, "He's going to think I'm avoiding him, that I used him and lied to him when I said I loved him" she realised with a somewhat hysterical tone.

"He wouldn't think that" Willow tried to calm her down, but she could see how Spike might get the wrong idea. He could easily believe that Buffy had abandoned him, what with her hasty retreat from the Bronze and then never contacting him again...

"Maybe we can help you" Xander suggested a strange look in his eyes as the cogs turning in his mind were almost audible, "Maybe you can have a chance to say goodbye"

* * * * * *

Spike was bored, lonely, and mostly hacked-off. When Buffy had come into the Bronze again last night, he couldn't even pretend to be cool about it, he was thrilled to see her again. When she'd told him she loved him, there'd been no hesitation in admitting that he felt exactly the same about her and despite not knowing even her full given name, Spike knew this was the real thing, with a capital R and a capital T.

Her cellphone had started to ring as they'd headed for the dance floor and her face had gone ashen during the call. Sure something terrible had happened, that some awful news had been communicated he'd asked her what was wrong, tried to help, but before he had much chance to protest she kissed him briefly and ran away.

Ten hours on, Spike was confused by so many things and all of them linked back to the beautiful contradiction that was his Buffy. In his mind she was his, though despite the words they'd said and the kisses they'd shared, he was less sure of his hold on her. In fact he was beginning to wonder if he would see her again, despite the fact she'd said he would. No, he had to trust her, he loved her and therefore he believed in her and what she said, she would be back another night, he just didn't know when. He lay in his room, pondering these things as his own cell vibrated in the pocket of his jeans. 'Unknown Number' was displayed on the screen and with a frown he picked up the call.

"Hello?" he asked warily and was a little confused when an unfamiliar male voice answered him. Not a lot of blokes had his number, he usually only gave it to girls he liked and recently that had meant only Buffy had it.

"Is this Spike? Because I have a message for you"

"Yeah" the bleach blond replied as casually as he could depsite the fact he was totally thrown by this myserious caller, "This is me, who do you have a message from?"

"It's from Buffy" came an almost whispered response and something happened to Spike's heart as he heard that name, after last night he was convinced something tragic had hapened to her, he was relieved when the mystery caller continued, "She needs to see you, after midnight, the road behind the multiplex"

"Whats this all about?" Spike demanded to know, he wouldn't admit it but this call was seriously giving him the wiggins.

"It's complicated" Xander sighed, wishing this guy was less inquisitive, "but if you love her, you'll be there to see her" the brunette concluded before ending the call and switching off his own cellphone, just in case Spike decided to call the number back.

The plan had been fairly awkward, in truth Xander really wasn't a plan making kind of a guy, but he'd do anything for his sister and that included helping to smuggle her out of the house to say goodbye to this guy she believed she was in love with.

To Be Continued...

[Coming Soon, to a fanfiction.net page near you; Chapter 13 of 'Trouble With Boys' :-)]