Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or Spike or any of the others. Phooey.

Author's Notes: Things are a little bit lighter and I've got an idea of where I'm going with this, so if it seems a little slow, I promise that there is more action to come, and soon. Especially when Angel finds out... hehehe

Chapter 10

Sitting with her legs crossed and in her oversized flannel pajamas, Willow Rosenberg sat on the floor in front of Buffy's CDs, going through them and just shaking her head and her friend's poor selection of music. Didn't she have anything classical or thought provoking?

Turning around she smiled at her best friend for five years now as she walked into the room wearing a white tank top and light blue pajama pants that hung on her waist. For a couple weeks now, Willow could sense that Buffy had something weighing on her mind, but what it was, was a mystery to the young woman. Tonight was the night that she was going to get to the bottom of it though. Buffy had arranged this night, just her and Willow to have a heart to heart girl talk, complete with goofy fun times.

"Okay, so spill. You said something about picking your love life apart and sewing it back together?"

There was a pounding her Buffy's closed, and locked, door. "Buffy! What are you guys doing in there? Come on, I wanna come in!" Dawn, Buffy's younger sister whined through the door and Buffy rolled her eyes, Willow just giggled.

"No! Go away Dawn! We talked about this!" There was stomping and most likely pouting going on outside the door as they heard Dawn walk away, and then slam the door to her room next door.

Buffy sat up on her bed and hugged Mr. Gordo close to her chest as she sighed. "She is so annoying sometimes. It's like she wants to be all grown up, but I mean, I would love to be her age, innocent and not having to deal with everything that I'm dealing with right now, and you're right, I did say that we were going to pick apart my love life. Oh and thanks for getting those paper for me. I dropped them off by Spike's, but he wasn't there. But I signed them and all, so he should be getting them back to me soon enough and then I won't have this nagging little voice in the back of my head going 'hi Mrs. Evans.' all the bloody time!"

Willow raised an eyebrow. Since when did Buffy start using English slang? "So, spill the beans then Buff. What's the big thing in your love life lately? I mean I know that we haven't talked about Riley leaving and all yet and as far as I know you don't have a love interest right now unless it's Spike…" Looking at her friend's face, something told her that it just might be. "Spike? You're kidding right? Buffy! It's Spike! Evil, soulless, chipped, albeit cuter and those chiseled cheekbones that just make you want to trace them with your finger nails with abs the exact same way…" Willow as trailing off and as she looked up, her face was bright crimson. "That is if you liked guys, which I don't, full lesbian here. I like the chicks."

Buffy couldn't contain herself and started laughing uncontrollably. "Willow! What if Tara heard you! Talking about a guy like that… shame on you." She reined in her giggles then and set her resolve face. "But seriously here, Spike is a nice guy, and well, more so lately. I've been seeing a different side of him. And I start thinking, well maybe Spike would make a good boyfriend and I want to kick my own ass six ways from Sunday. And the thought of Angel also comes up, I mean. It's Angel. Deep, soulful, handsome, chivalrous…"

"Broody, dark, cursed, lives in Los Angeles, with Cordelia, doesn't call or write Angel," Willow finished for her. Since Angel had left Willow had been dead set against the relationship ever starting back up again. All Angel was, was someone who made Buffy cry and made her absolutely miserable. "Face it Buffy, what you had with Angel is over. He's cursed with a soul that if he ever has the big happy again, he's gonna lose and try to kill you, again. Now the way I'm seeing it, if I look at this logically is… Angel has the whole curse thing going on, Riley wasn't enough for you. Riley just wasn't the man that you needed, cause well, you were like ten times his man. But Spike, he is a non-having soul type of vamp, but he isn't trying to kill you, hell, he's even helping you. He helped you when Angel went all bad, and he's been helping you since that whole chipped thing."

Buffy sat quiet as Willow worked through her logic. Best thing about Willow, she looked at everything logically, unless it was with her own feelings, then Willow as just as much of a basket case as the rest of them were.

"And you have to admit, Spike is hot, if you like guys, and he's funny. Admit it, I've seen you laughing with him more than once. Plus, the whole vamp thing, that's a good thing for you, right?"

Buffy sighed, it was the same thing that Riley had said, she was drawn to monsters, but you know, she wasn't exactly normal either. He power was rooted in darkness, so why should it bother her, if it made her happy? "Willow, I just don't know, I mean, if I started dating Spike… maybe he doesn't even want to date me, do I even want to date him? And Angel… I still have this whole thing for Angel. Maybe I'm crazy, but this whole thing is just getting to me. And remembering how good Spike feels…" She'd let it slip, how the hell could she have let it slip? Now Willow knew that she'd slept with Spike. And the worst part was, she'd not only done it once, but twice and fantasized about it since then.

"You mean you and Spike? Oh God! Buffy!"

"Well the first time was during that whole spell, and then the second time…"

"There was a SECOND TIME?!"

"The second time was not too long ago, I hit complete rock bottom and I went to him, and well, it was kinda rough, but it helped snap me outta whatever I had been in."

"You mean to tell me that that's why you recovered… Oh Goddess…"

"And well, the other day, I had this fantasy, and it was just so real, I was between Spike and Angel…"

"I DON'T want to hear anymore… I really don't, this is overloading my brain as it is."

"I'm sorry Will, I mean I know that it was wrong and all…"

"No it wasn't wrong, just surprising, and you never told me?! This is just like the time with Angel. Hello, best friend here, I'm supposed to know about this stuff right away!"

Buffy giggled and pouted. "I'm sorry Will, I promise that when I get married… again. You'll be the first to know. Or the next time I have sex, I'll just call you right from the bed."

Now it was Willow's turn to giggle and within minutes they were rolling on the ground in a fit of giggles, neither one able to control themselves and each one getting a respective knot in their sides.

Spike entered his crypt and looked around, he'd been beside himself ever since that night at the Bronze. He didn't know what to do. He knew that he loved the girl, stupid as that may seem to him, he knew that he did and there was just no turning back from that. The only problem seemed to lay with figuring out how to go about making her his. She was an independent spirit, anyone could see that and she was hurting. Years of moronic bloody poofters building her up and then droppin her off of a ten-story building had crushed her trust in men, let alone vamps.

Sitting on the top of his TV were a stack of white papers that caught his eye. Walking over to them, he picked up the pile and sat down in his recliner to read them. What he saw crushed him. He'd had a little bit of hope before. Being married to Buffy was a dream come true, almost, if he could get her to come around. He was married, to the woman who haunted his dreams, his golden goddess. And now this, divorce papers, which signified to Spike that there was no chance, she didn't even take the time to give them to him herself.

"Well bloody buggerin hell! If she wants to be bloody divorced, I'll give her a bloody divorce, take half of her stuff." He raised the pen to sign it and stopped. "Or I couldn't, refuse to sign them, drag her off to marriage counseling, listen to some big know it all talk about how we need to rekindle the romance. Piss her off all right and proper. I'm not gonna play her games, it's time she played mine."

He tossed the papers over onto the ground and leaned back, turning on the TV, grinning. "Time for my telly, make sure that Timmy is okay and all, oh and Chastity goes for that bloke."



"Maybe you're right Willow, maybe I will give it shot with Spike, I mean what harm could it do? He's chipped so he can't bite me… just break my heart, and I've had plenty of experience with that, so no need to worry there. All right, I'll do it, bearing that he doesn't piss me off in the next few days. We'll get divorced and start over, build something. I mean Angel had his chance, and it's not like he's knocking down my door for another chance."

Willow smiled at her friend. There was a light in Buffy's eyes again. The thought of her dating Spike was gonna be a shocker for a lot of people though. "Let's give it a bit Buffy, we'll talk with Xander and Giles, get them all okay with the idea before we go rushing off and doing something that would just confuse them outta their heads and make Xander run off doing the Snoopy Dance and babbling like an idiot."

"Oh God! You're right! Giles and Xander… and my mom! And Dawn, Dawn'll kill me."

"Why is Dawn going to kill you?"

"Cause she has a crush on Spike! It like transferred from Xander to Spike and it's just wrong, I mean she's not even really a teen yet, she is, but she isn't and Xander's too old for her and Spike is just whoa… that's WAY too old. I mean he's too old for me even, but I have experience with older men, at least he's not Angel's age…"

Buffy would have kept going if Willow hadn't slammed her hand over her mouth. "Buffy! Calm down, we'll get everything all hunky dory and you and Spike will be able to go around making googly eyes at one another all that you want. At least Spike and Xander have some history what with Spike having lived with Xander and all. And hey, he doesn't hate Spike as much as he does Angel…"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at her best friend, but shrugged. She pushed Willow's hand away. "I'm good. Really, I am. Now can we please move on? I have chocolate." She grinned at Willow and Willow just shook her head, giggling again. It felt like old time back in high school, just hanging out, if Xander had been here, there it really would have felt like high school again, except for the whole her being a lesbian now and no more Oz or Angel, or Cordelia. Okay so maybe not exactly like high school, but close enough to bring back all those good memories and escape the reality of the impending doom upon all of them that was rapidly approaching with Glory.

TBC....