The airport was a lousy place to spend a Friday night, but none of three of them noticed that should have been spending it doing other things.

"I hate airports," Donna said. "I thought that it was just hospitals, but airports are also too clean."

"Donna, we've been here for ten minutes," Toby said.

"And I'm getting nervous," she said.

"Not as much as I am," C.J said, slowly.

She'd seen a large group of people come out of baggage claim together. Toby looked the way she was.

"Is that them?" Donna whispered.

"Yeah," Toby said.

He took a couple a steps forward to wait for them. Giles noticed them and lead his group over. They stopped a few feet behind him as he walked up to meet Toby.

"Good to see, Pokey," he said.

"You too, Ripper, although I wish it hadn't happened that we had to," Toby said.

"You can't change the past, Toby."

"And we're not sure about the future either, Rupert."

They each waved their groups over. The two White House staffers faced the Scooby gang of six. The two 'leaders' introduced each other.

Giles smiled briefly at the women and waited for Toby to introduce them. Donna waved quickly when Toby said her name. The little dark haired girl smiled briefly back, and Donna felt her support. She didn't look at Mr Giles.

C.J looked straight at him when she was introduced. They was no way he didn't know who she was. She could feel the redhead and the tall man at the back watching the interaction. But she was watching the Watcher.

Giles saw the vulnerability in C.J. She kept it hidden well now. And she was trying to be defiant. But it reminded him so much of Buffy when she said she was going to face the Master. He had spoken to Miles Winters when his Slayer had died, but neither of them had even known what had happened. To bring this woman down, or build her to what she was, it can't have been easy.

Toby was slightly unnerved by C.J's lack of response to being introduced. All C.J was interested in was being on reasonable terms with the man who had known her Watcher. It was Giles's turn to introduce people and he suddenly realised that he didn't know how to do it. Toby had simply given names, and from they'd discussed in the plane, that was all that was needed. But the Scooby gang was more complicated.

"Dawn Summers," he said, drawing Dawn forward to stand beside him. "She's Buffy's sister."

Dawn glanced up at the people for moment from trained politeness. The only reason she wasn't running away was the litany in head reminding her that she knew more than these people about much more important things. Donna smiled warmly at her and Dawn felt a little more comfortable.

"That's Willow Rosenberg, she's a witch," Giles said, gesturing to where the red head was standing next to Dawn.

To pulled Xander to his other side. "This is Xander Harris, officially he's a carpenter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Xander said. He offered his hand professionally and they each shook hands with him. He seemed a man who would judge people by their handshakes.

"Tara Maclay, ah, also a witch."

Tara waved from where she was standing behind Willow. She narrowed her eyes at Giles's hesitation.

"I'm Willow's girlfriend," she said.

"But you're still a witch right?" Donna insisted.

"Yes, that too," Tara said.

"Good."

"I'm Anya Jenkins," Anya introduced herself. She shook hands with everyone, as Xander had done, but she seemed much more excited by it.

"That's Spike," Giles said, waving his hand at Spike, who was standing at the back.

He hadn't taken his eyes of C.J. And she'd looked at each person in turn to remember their faces. She looked at Spike now and their eyes met.

"Slayer," he said, with what passed for a friendly grin.

C.J stared at him a moment before rounding on Giles.

"I do not believe you people," she said hotly. "You know he killed her, don't you? You do know she had a little boy who wouldn't let go of the case she'd owned. He bought his freedom by ratting out his 'associates' and spent the whole evening boasting that he'd downed another Slayer."

"What can I say, luv? I changed," Spike said with a shrug.

"'I'm not going to change. I'm a vampire, Bit, be evil forever,'" C.J said, in a bad impersonation of Spike's accent. But her contempt was strong.

Neither Donna nor Toby had any idea of what was happening. The Scoobies didn't either, except Giles who had read all the Watchers' diaries after Angelus had returned. Dawn turned the Summers' disgusted sneer on Spike. He knew exactly what she meant.

Spike squatted down so he could look up at Dawn.

"You trusted me, Dawn. And so did Buffy. She trusted me with you."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out," Dawn spat.

Spike gripped her shoulders, "If I were human, I'd be dead, Dawn. We've got a chance to bring Buffy back, and the Watcher's leading the way. You know what she meant to me."

Dawn blinked back tears. And tried to maintain her scowl.

Spike didn't know what to do. He could loose her. How would he protect her if she wouldn't let him? How would he survive her thinking it hadn't been for her? He just stared at her, wanting her to believe him.

"You called her 'Bit,'" Dawn said.

Spike chuckled, a little, but kept his weight on Dawn's shoulders.

"It's a name, luv. And you're the only 'little Bit' I care about. You know that right?"

Before Dawn could say that she did, Spike leaped to his feet and turned around, pushing Dawn behind him. C.J spun on her heel, facing the opposite direction to Spike. Willow glanced quickly from Spike to C.J and squeezed Tara's hand. They stood between Spike and C.J watching the scattered crowd wandering through the airport lounge. Softly they began to chant.

C.J took the two stakes she had from her jacket and threw one to Spike.

"Spike!"

He caught it and went back to scanning the crowd.

"What's going on?" Giles asked.

"I don't know," C.J said. Spike shrugged.

From directly in front of Tara and Willow's joined hands, a slow blue flame appeared on the floor and formed a ring around the White House staffers and the Scooby gang and their luggage.