Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am poor so please don't sue.

Finally getting my chapters up. The server keeps crashing at college so only people with actual work are being allowed on. Apparently, this doesn't qualify, though in my opinion it's a damn sight more interesting than half the stuff they let the students get on with.

Xander sighed, "Great, just when I was getting good and drunk. Does this mean I actually have to move? Go and find Buffy?"

Spike shrugged, "I guess so."

Xander then looked at Spike, "Couldn't you handle him?"

"Yeah I could do that, but I'm paralysed with not being able to focus on which one of him to hit."

Both men laughed as Anya and Willow came running through the door. Anya spotted Xander and moved over to him, "Xander, I don't think that you should be here. There's a troll."

Spike looked at Xander as the guy stood and clutched the table in an attempt not to hit the floor, "Big guy, hammer, spinning a little? Think he's there."

The girls looked over at the troll. Spike could tell that he'd had too much to drink; the troll seemed to be talking about eating babies.

* * *

Willow felt her shoulder's sag. God, this was getting ridiculous. They had chased this thing all over town, and now that they had found it, they weren't even exactly sure how they could stop it. "I wish Buffy were here."

Buffy suddenly appeared round the door dragging Tara behind her, "I'm here."

Willow closed her eyes, "I wish I had a million dollars." The others stared at her like she had finally lost her mind. "Just checking."

"What's going on here?" Buffy stood with her hands on her hips glaring at them, looking remarkably like a dragon.

Anya jumped in, eager not to be blamed for the trouble, "Willow stole ingredients and released him from a crystal. He's a troll."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "I meant, why are those two rocking?"

All eyes now swivelled to Xander and Spike, who despite the troll were looking quite cheerful, Spike got up from his seat, "We've been doing a little male bonding pet."

Buffy nodded, "Oh yes?"

"Yes. I think we got a little carried away with the whole beer thing." Xander smiled apologetically at his friend, "It's more my fault than his, I was depressed because these two have been fighting."

Buffy raised her eyes brows, "Did you just stand up for Spike?"

Xander looked horrified, "No, no, no. . . Maybe."

Spike grinned, "See pet, I grow on people."

"Yeah like a fungus," said his girl. Buffy shook her head and looked over to Anya, so what were you saying about the troll?"

Willow cut in, "We can stop him! I think, we have a spell."

Willow closed her eyes and calmed herself as she began to speak, before she had even properly begun, the troll interrupted her, "Stop."

Willow grit her teeth in anger, "No body let's me finish!"

"You told the witch to do that Anyanka, you seem determined to put an end to all my fun, just like you always did when we were dating."

All eyes swivelled to the ex-demon, who looked as though she was tying to find the right words to express her obvious embarrassment. Spike spoke first, "You dated a troll? Well at least there isn't much competition to make Xander feel insecure here."

Both the men collapsed into drunken giggles as Buffy rolled her eyes, "You actually dated a troll?" Buffy wrinkled her nose, "That troll?"

Anya gave an exasperated sigh, "Well, he wasn't a troll then, he was just a big dumb guy, and you know he cheated on me and I made him into a troll which by the way is how I got the, "Anya's voice petered out a little, "job as a vengeance demon."

This seemed to infuriate the giant troll and he brought the hammer down on a nearby table, "I DID NOT CHEAT! In my heart, there was only one wench. I had had a great deal of meat, next thing you know I'm a troll. And then what happened? Witches. Filthy dirty disgusting witches, they trapped me, I was imprisoned in that crystal for centuries. You did this Anyanka, you will die for this."

At the mention on Anya dying, Xander seemed to recover himself a little, "But you seem to enjoy the . . . being a troll."

The troll shrugged, I adjusted."

Buffy blanked pretty much the rest of the conversation, it was really getting them no where she was going to have to do something about this troll, before he killed everyone, though she wasn't actually looking forward to tackling something that size. Then she had to get Spike home, sober him up, and give him a good punishing for the amount of alcohol he had consumed. He couldn't have timed it worse, with this thing she could have done with his help.

The troll taking another step towards them snapped Buffy out of her thoughts; she moved forward and began the fight. Unfortunately for all concerned the troll took a swing at her with the hammer. Buffy ducked and it crashed into one of the supports holding up the top level of the club. Buffy rolled out of the way and dragged Willow, who was directly in the way of the falling wood with her.

However, in the effort to protect her friend she had her back to the falling debris. A piece of metal fell onto her and cut straight through her shirt.

Buffy's yelp of pain would have been enough to snap Spike to attention even if the destruction hadn't been. He threw himself over the piles over wood, and the strewn people to get to his Slayer. "Buffy? Slayer?" Spike lifted her a little and she gasped in pain.

Spike growled in anger at the sight of the blood on her back, he ran a hand over her forehead, "I'm okay Spike, and I'm just a little . . ."

Spike lifted her and lay her on the snooker table, "Are you alright, pet?"

Buffy lifted her head, she was about to answer, but something over Spike's shoulder caught her attention. Spike turned and saw the troll coming towards them. He growled again. He squeezed his lover's hand and then moved round to face the troll, "Well aren't you an ugly bugger then."

The troll growled and took a swing at Spike. Spike dodged out of the way, "Now normally, I don't care about people going on the rampage, but what I do mind is when she gets hurt." Spike pointed at Buffy, "She's mine and now she's hurt. That's a problem." Spike didn't bother to speak anymore; letting his anger fuel his actions, he snap kicked the troll in the head. It stumbled back. Spike punched it repeatedly growling. His face changed without him even realising as the fight continued, the scent of Buffy's blood was in the air, and the fact this thing had spilt it made him want to torture it for years.

Spike kicked the troll so hard in the leg that he heard a bone snap, as the troll leant down in pain, Spike grasped it round the neck. He pulled hard to the right until he felt the spinal column separate.

Dropping the corpse to the floor, he sighed. The troll had only landed one blow, but it felt like he might have one or two or. . . he felt down. . . six cracked ribs. Ignoring the pain, he moved over to his lover. He lifted her shirt up slightly and saw the cut down her back. It was deep and still bleeding quite heavily. She was drifting in and out of consciousness, "Willow!"

The girl picked herself up, limping slightly and made her way over to Spike past Xander and Anya who were holding hands looking worried. Spike could tell that she was trying not to cry. The expression on her face showed that she was expecting Spike to yell at her for not getting out of the way quickly enough, "Don't you dare think that this is your fault Red. It wasn't, it was an accident. Just tell me, is there anything you can do? Magic? Or should we go to the hospital?"

Willow looked relieved, but the tears started to stream down her cheeks, "I can probably stop the actual bleeding, I mean stop her from losing blood, but she might need stitches."

Spike stood to the side, "Do what you can then."

Willow moved forward, "Tara? A little help?"

Tara came over to her girlfriend and took her hand, "What are we thinking?"

Willow thought for about a second, "The spell we read about that time in the magic box, about a month and a half ago."

Tara scowled, "That's heavy stuff."

"I hate to interrupt but can we do something about the gash down my lovers back please?"

Both Willow and Tara flushed under his gaze. "Alright Will."

The girl's linked hands. They fixed their eyes to each other's, though as far as Spike could tell they weren't actually speaking. They seemed to be whispering something at the same time. The power was coming off them both in waves. Especially off the red head. Spike took an involuntary step backward and then moved forward again out of a desire to be close to Buffy. After a few seconds that seemed to drag onward Willow pulled her hand away. She seemed to have a light in her hand. Spike watched carefully as she lowered her hand and moved it just over the length of Buffy's back. Spike watched in amazement as the wound completely healed itself leaving no trace that it had ever actually been there.

Buffy stirred and lifted herself up onto her elbows. She caught sight of Willow and Tara, "Guys what happened?"

Both of the witches stumbled backwards. Buffy jumped to her feet and grasped their arms, leading them to chairs. Before she had moved two steps, she felt someone's arms come around from behind her. "What the . . ?

She turned to see Spike, without thinking about it too much she just wrapped her arms around him and held him, "God, Buffy. You're alright."

Buffy frowned in confusion, "I am not usually?"

Spike pulled away from her, and pulled the bloody part of her top around to show her the stain, "Not when a troll ahs dropped something metal on you."

Buffy paled, "What happened to me?"

Willow looked as though she was going to cry again, "You were trying to get me out of the way of falling balcony and it fell on you instead. Tara and I did a spell to heal you. I'm so sorry . . ."

Buffy waved away the apology, "Don't be stupid, Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, yeah," said Willow turning the same colour as her hair. "Just a little dizzy."

Buffy looked over to Xander and Anya, "You guys okay? Where's the troll?"

Anya pointed round the other side of the pool table and Buffy saw the huge corpse, "Love to know how they're going to explain this to the town."

Anya nodded brightly, "Should be interesting."

Buffy looked around at the devastation, "We need to help the people we can and check that someone has called an ambulance."

The Scoobies stood frozen for a second and then seemed to move as one, checking on all the people around.

Buffy walked over to Spike and slipped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down to kiss her, "You okay? I didn't think that you could actually go any paler but I guess I may have just been proven wrong."

Spike held her tightly, "Do you have any idea how much you just scared me?"

Buffy smiled, "I'm sorry. Occupational hazard."

Spike wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her again.