The next morning , Buffy got up late and she was still tired. She remembered going into her room and laying in the darkness of the night thinking about him. Why was she thinking about him? WHY? She didn't need him anymore. She didn't want to need him anymore. And she hated to admit that she did. Buffy reached up into the cabinet and grabbed the grape jelly. Spooning some out of the jar, she spread the jelly all over her nice burnt toast and took her plate and sleep deprived body over to the nook. She thought about Spike the whole night through. She hadn't fallen asleep until a few hours ago and then she had the dreams again. The dreams that fulfilled her every fantasy and urge from the night before and back but now, the dreams were haunting. He was actually alive, well technically undead, all this time. Taking a small bite or her toast, she crunched the piece in between her teeth as Dawn came into the kitchen.
"Morning Buffy." Her younger but growing sister said.
"Morning." She responded and continued to stare down at the oak table.
"So, have you even spoken to him yet?" Dawn asked, grabbing the cereal box, milk, bowl and spoon and sitting next to the petite blonde.
"How is that any of your business?"
"Because you're my sister and he's my friend." Dawn pointed out and poured the milk on her cereal. The snap, crackle, pop was music to her ears.
"Dawn, he's a vampire!"
"That has never stopped you before." Dawn said, scooping the cereal in the spoon and shoving it into her mouth. "Think about it. Pike. Angel. Spike. Riley. Parker. Then you have to count Colin because he was just well, Colin. Now, pick one of those guys that loved you, cherished you, tried every day to make you proud, to make you happy, and the one that you miss the most." Dawn dared her, chomping on her cereal as it disappeared. She waited and waited as Buffy stared at her half eaten toast and thought. "Oh come on Buffy. You know the answer, it's right on the tip of your tongue and you can't even admit it?"
"I don't want to admit it." She whispered so only Dawn could hear.
"Why not?" Dawn asked as she walked over to the sink to rinse out her bowl and put back the milk.
"Because I don't love him."
"So?" Dawn put her hand on her hip and looked at her sister. "Buffy, you don't have to love the guy the first time you see him. If that happened, I would be married to every guy that I had a crush on." Dawn came back over to the table and grabbed Buffy's hands. "All I...we want you to do is talk to him. That's all he ever wanted...was to talk to you." Dawn kissed her big sister's forehead and started to leave when Spike entered with his cell phone attached to his ear.
"Morning Dawn." He directed towards the girl and headed towards the refrigerator to get something to drink. "I understand that Connor, but you need to let your father be. He has some things to get through." Spike stopped and eyed Buffy, sitting at the tiny table by herself. Connor rambled on the other side of the line and Spike let it brush past him and stared at her. She was a vision of beauty, he thought. Her blond hair shone in the early morning light and reflected off of her bare shoulders as she delicately pulled the piece of burnt toast up towards her mouth. The curve of her lisp enticed him and he honestly couldn't remember how they felt on his lips anymore.
"Connor!" He yelled at the phone. "Calm down. Illyria knows what she's doing. And if you have any troubles with her just call Gunn. He knows how to handle her." He reminded the boy. "Wait a minute, what? She hurt him?" He listened to the boy talk on the other line and Buffy watched his face expressions go all wonky. "Okay, if you need help with her, call Gunn or Kate. They know what to do." He paused again. "I don't know when your father is going to be back. He's Angel. Does he ever tell anyone? Okay. Be good and I'll see you when I get back." He flipped the cell phone closed and became bold, sitting across the table from Buffy and taking a drink of the water he had gotten out of the fridge.
"Since when does Angel have a son?" Buffy looked up and asked, confusion in her face. A smile decorated his face, surprised and rejoicing in his soul that she actually talked to him.

"Funny story actually. You up to hear it?"
"Yeah. It's not like I have anywhere to be."
"Okay. Well, During our little affair back in Sunnydale, over in Los Angeles, Angel and his gang were busy helping Darla through her pregnancy. She was pregnant with his child."
"Wait a minute. Darla? Didn't he kill her like a million years ago?"
"He did kill her, but Evil Incorporated brought her back to drive him crazy. One night he got sack happy with her and poof went her belly."
"So, a son?"
"A son." Spike leaned forward as Giles and Xander walked into the kitchen for breakfast. He cleared his throat and took another drink of his water when his cell went off again. "Spike here." He answered. "Illyria? How did you get this number?" Spike left the room to deal with the ex-god king, creator of things. Xander and Giles took a seat next to Buffy and wondered what had happened between them in the early morning hours. She looked up at them looking at her.
"What?"
"You are going to have to tell us sometime you know?" Xander told her.
"Who says?"
"I do." Giles said, looking at her and flashing a smile for a second and hiding it again. Spike came back into the kitchen, wanting something to eat.
"Wait a minute, you don't eat. You can't." Buffy pointed out.
"I can and I will." Spike searched the fridge for something appetizing.
"Wait, you haven't told them yet?" Xander spoke up, knowing the ex-vampire had not told anyone except him about the transformation.
"What do you think?"
"You have to tell them Spike!"
"Says who?"
"Wait, tell us what?" Giles broke up the argument between the two for the thousandth time.
"If you don't, I will." Xander stood up and declared, when Willow walked in the room, cheerful from a good night's sleep.
"Morning everyone." She said happily, heading towards the same fridge that Spike was standing in front of. "I'm guessing that I ran right into a fight? Buffy, don't fight with him, just give him a chance." She presumed that Buffy had something to do with this.
"I didn't have anything to do with this, Willow! Why do you always presume that I have something to do with it?" Buffy huffed at her best friend.
"Sorry."
"You have to tell them Spike! Now!" Xander demanded.
"Tell us what?" Willow looked around at Buffy and Giles, as they both shrugged their shoulders.
"That he's..."
"Xander! Don't. It's my thing to share and I'm not sharing right now. Okay?" Spike yelled at him.
"Then when are you gonna tell them? When we ask you to go to a matinee on Sunday afternoon? Or when someone accidentally opens the curtains and they finally realize that you're..."
"Xander!" Giles yelled at him. "When Spike wants to share, he will."
"Thank you watcher." Spike acknowledged the older man.
"That doesn't mean that I'm on your side, Spike. I never was or ever will be."
"Fair enough." Spike finished the conversation up as his cell phone blared out of the back of his jeans pocket.
"Spike here. Gunn? What's wrong?" Everyone watched as Spike flipped out on the phone to a man named Gunn.
"What's wrong with him?" They listened more. "Where is he?" Spike grabbed a pen and paper off the refrigerator and wrote down the address. "Okay, I'll go get him and send him back. Alright, bye." Spike flipped the phone closed and shoved it back in his jeans pocket. "You know where this is?" Spike handed the address to Willow to read. She looked down at the address and immediately recognized it.
"This is the address to the coven. How did you get it?"
"One of my friends is there. We need to go get him so he can get on with his life, or what's left of it."
"Okay. We'll go later when the sun sets."
"We can go now." Spike started to walk out towards the library and reached for the doors when Buffy stopped him. "What are you doing?"
"No, the question is what are you doing? Spike you were about to walk out of this building and ignite into a million fire balls."
"So?"
"So! So?!? Listen buddy, you think you can come back into my life and expect me to run into your arms, picking up where we left off? You expect to show up here, making all these feelings arise again and then you want to go out into the sun and burn up just so you can prove that you're a man to me? I don't think so. You already proved yourself to me. You did when you hid the truth from Glory for Dawn, you proved it when you helped me with Willow and you proved it when you sacrificed yourself to save us all in Sunnydale. So don't you think that ending your undead pathetic excuse for a life is going to excuse you. Don't!"
"Buffy, that's a beautiful speech." Spike said, wiping away a stray tear that escaped her eye. "But I have to go and get a friend. He needs to go home."
"Then you leave as well."
"You're going to have to tell her." Xander pointed out to Spike. Spike rolled his eyes over to the first person he put his trust in after the shanshu happened.
"Why don't I just show her?" Spike turned his attention back to Buffy and kissed her cheek before clutching the handle on the door and opening it.
"Spike!" Buffy's worried voice screamed as he walked out into the sunbathed driveway, without bursting into flames. Buffy turned back into Xander's arms, not wanting to see the dust on the driveway.

"Oh my God..." Dawn said gasping and covering her mouth. Willow and Giles moved forward looking into the driveway.
"I thought I was hearing things last night..." Willow trailed off not wanting to spoil the news for Buffy.
"Buffy, you can turn around now." Xander ran his hand down Buffy's back trying to console her.
"No, I don't want to. I don't wanna see the dust."
"You won't." Xander grasped her shoulders and turned her around to see out the door. Uncovering her eyes slowly, she was angry at what she saw.
"How?" She asked, walking out onto the driveway basked in sunlight and a tanless ex-vampire. There he was, the great and terrible William the Bloody standing in the sun like it was something he did everyday. Lifting her hand to his chest, Spike covered it with his as his heart thumped in his chest.
"Oh my...you're....you're a... how is this possible?"
"I'm alive, Buffy. I'm alive and if you want I can explain the prophecy later on. But right now, I have to go and get Angel from the coven with Willow," he stressed her name, "and ship him back to his son." Spike smiled down at her, watching the sun glisten her tears that she had shed.
"Your heart is beating."
"Yea. It's been doing that quite a lot actually."
"How long?"
"How long what?"
"How long have you known...that you were alive?"
"After the fight." Spike took Buffy's hand and laid a gentlemen's kiss upon it and returned it to her side. "I will be back in a while. We can talk then. Red, you coming?" He motioned to Willow.
"Wait, you can't drop this in her lap and go off right after." Giles objected.
"Okay Giles, here's a scenario for you. You and Red here go and get Angel and when you don't return because he's crazy and he killed you and then I still have to go and get him because there are only three people in the world that could handle him like this and three of them are dead." Spike hopped on his motorcycle and handed Willow a helmet to put on. "Give us two hours." Spike said to Giles who was still shaking his head and then looked to Buffy. "I will be back. I promise."
"You better."