Buffy felt silly, like she was getting ready for a date, but it was just patrolling. She was trying to pick out the most slay-effective, but sexy clothes. Dawn would just laugh at her when Buffy would barrel into her room asking her how she looked. Secretly, Dawn was happy for Buffy. She hadn't had a boyfriend since Riley left more than a year ago. She hadn't even seemed remotely interested in men. Angel came to visit every few months, but Dawn couldn't tell if Buffy was still interested in him. They seemed to get along well enough, but if it was more than friendship, Dawn couldn't tell. Buffy never talked about him like anything more than a friend, but she thought sometimes the looks they shared alluded to something deeper that still existed. She would half-jokingly remind Buffy not to boink him, to which Buffy would respond by throwing something at her. Dawn thought Angel was alright, for a vampire. But she also thought he was more trouble than Buffy needed. All her exes were. She needed someone easy. Someone she didn't have to hide her slaying from. Someone who didn't get their ego bruised when Buffy turned out to be stronger than them. And, most of all, someone who wouldn't try to destroy the world if Buffy decided to get groiny with them. Dawn hoped that this new guy fit all those key categories.

Finally, Buffy yelled that she was being ridiculous and probably wouldn't run into him anyway. She left the house with a tank top and old sweatpants on. Her once meticulously curled hair was thrown back into a sloppy bun. About an hour into her patrol, she realized she was looking for him more than looking for vamps. She mentally chastised herself for acting like a silly school girl, but then she saw him coming out of the Sunnydale Forever cemetery.

'Bloody hell, she's gorgeous. No rest tonight.....Does she do that on purpose? That tank top is cropped too high.....her pants are riding too low on her hips....is that? Is she wearing a thong? And her hair all mussed.....God, she looks like she just got shagged. Too bloody sexy.....fuck.....'

'Oh! There he is. Wow, he looks.....really hot. I wonder if his hair does that wavy thing naturally or if he makes it do that. And why is he looking at me like that? Again, with the clothes off or eating thing.....And, was his t-shirt that tight last night? Did his muscles always ripple like that when he walked? Too bad that duster is so long, bet he's got an ass to die for.....Stop it! Maybe he's not even looking at you like you think he's looking at you. Maybe he's got a girlfriend somewhere. Who knows. Cute guy like that, surely taken. Or gay. Oh, God, don't let him be gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Some of my best friends are gay. Really. But, ah, don't let him be taken or gay. Or maybe, yes, if I can't have him, he should be gay. Then I know no other woman will have him either. Or I could stop mentally babbling, because he's running his hand through his hair and I'm pretty sure all my blood is leaving Brainsville....."

"Hello, cutie. Nice night for killing things, don't ya think?" He smiled at her, trying to give off an air of cool and collected. Trying to keep her from seeing the tightness in his jeans.

"Uh huh," Buffy was able to sputter out. 'Damn, get it together!' "Been very busy?"

William gestured his head toward the cemetery he was leaving. "Just one in there. But I'm headed to Restfield right now....." 'Don't ask. Don't ask. Girl is obviously nervous. Heart's racing a mile a minute. Does she want me to ask, or is she upset she met up with me?'

"Would you mind some company?" 'Obvious much, Buffy?'

"That'd be lovely." 'Or, how about NO, you can't come along. How about, if you come along I'm gonna be wankin' off all night to the mental image of you sliding down those pants just a little more and lettin' me get a taste of ya.'

William watched her all night. He tried not to be obvious, and for the most part succeeded. She watched him, a little less than subtly. But that's probably just because her body was giving off signals that she was unaware of. 'Girl likes. Girl definitely likes. I can tell by the way her heart skips just a bit when I dart out my tongue to my top lip after a good tussle. And the soddin' smell of her. She definitely likes. And I like. And that's just not going to work at all.'

"So, looks like we've had a good body count. All a bloke can hope for. Think I'm gonna call it a night."

Buffy looked disappointed. "Oh, ok. Yeah, probably not many left anyway. Gotta save some to catch for tomorrow night, right?"

"Yeah, there will always be more."

"So, um.....maybe we can hook up again tomorrow. I think this tag-team slaying works pretty well. That is, unless you prefer to work alone. You gotta forgive my forwardness, I've just never come across someone relatively normal that I could do this with. I mean, my friends, but I was always worried they'd get killed......"

'No, I work better alone. No, if we split up, we can cover more ground. No, I can't be near you when you grunt and sweat and fight, because I'm afraid I'll come in my pants.' "I'd love t' meet up tomorrow. Say, 10 at the gates of Landonview?" 'WHAT?!?! Now you're making plans? Do you want to internally combust???'

"Sounds great! I'll be there with bells on. Except, not really, because bells, noisy." 'Ok, stop babbling, you got a date. NO, no a date. A set time to take a walk together at night where you probably will end up killing things. Definitely not a date.'

"Looking forward to it." He turned go, pulling out some cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one up as he went.

Buffy frowned. 'Well, not perfect. Shouldn't have expected perfect. But still.....as damn close as I've gotten in a while. And how does he make something so nasty look so hot?'

She went home feeling like a little girl at the circus who just found out she was going to Disneyland the next day.

And so they met the next night. And the next. And every night for the following two weeks. Each patrol they got more and more comfortable with each other's style, learning to anticipate and expect the other's movements. It didn't take long before they were a fluid team. And as often as William told himself it was a bad idea, he found himself waiting for her every night at 10pm. And as often as she told herself not to get her hopes up, Buffy found herself getting first date butterflies every night around 8pm.

But one night was different. Around 9pm, Dawn called to Buffy, "Hey, Buffy, don't forget Angel is coming into town tonight. You want me to put out the sheets for the couch?"

Buffy ran out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. "Oh shit! I completely forgot. I'm supposed to meet William tonight."

Dawn smirked. "When aren't you supposed to meet William?"

"When is he supposed to get here?" Buffy whined.

"God, he's your ex, not mine. Maybe you could keep track of this stuff. And 10pm, by the way."

Buffy shook her head. "No good. I meet William at 10. Gonna be late at it is. Look, when Angel gets here, just tell him I'm sorry that I couldn't wait for him, and I'll try to cut patrolling short tonight."

"Whatever." Dawn rolled her eyes. "You haven't had a short patrol in weeks. As a matter of fact, they seem to get longer and longer. And we still haven't met this guy, ya know."

"Look, we're just patrolling buddies at this point. If anything more happens, you guys will be the first to know, ok?"

"Hey! Was getting worried some baddy tagged you on the way over here."

"Sorry, I had to stay late at work. Barely had time to shower and dry my hair."

William smiled. "Not a problem, luv."

As they started to walk further into the cemetery, Buffy heard someone calling after her. She turned to see Angel jogging toward the pair. A hint of panic hit her, but she quickly hid it and waved at him. "Angel! What are you doing here?"

He slowed as he approached them. "Well, Dawn said you were patrolling. Said I could find you here and-" He stopped abruptly, noticing the man she was with. "Spike?"

William had been trying to casually hide his face ever since he saw Angel coming toward them.

Buffy frowned. "Um, Angel, this is William."

"William." Angel shook his head and looked at Buffy. "You ever going to start hanging out with guys who are actually alive?"

Buffy half grinned as though he were joking, but then looked at William, who was now glaring at Angel with a clenched jaw. "You're.....you're not.....you're a vampire?"

William didn't answer, he just directed his gaze to the ground.

"But.....but you said.....and I thought.....God, you lied to me? All this time, you've been lying to me?"

William spoke quietly. "Never lied to you."

"Ha! And how come I couldn't tell? I'm the Slayer, that's my job."

Angel chuckled. "Well, you certainly didn't seem to know I was a vampire before we were dating."

At that, William's eyes shot up to Angel. 'Dating. Buffy dated this pillock?'

Angel shook his head. "Spike, old boy, what the hell are you doing here?"

"None of your bleedin' business," William grated out, again looking anywhere but at Angel.

"Wait, Spike? I thought you said your name was William." Buffy was confused.

"Well, back in his bad old days, he preferred Spike. But now that he's got a soul, I guess he's back to William."

William glared up at Angel again. "How did you....." Then he just shook his head.

Buffy looked at William. "Ok, hold on. First of all, you're a vampire. Not only that, a vampire with a soul. Any other secrets I should know about?"

"Oh, you might want to look up his history with Slayers. You can find him under 'Spike' or 'William the Bloody.' He's sure to be in the Watcher's journals." Angel seemed to be having a very good time with this.

William closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He turned to Buffy and said quietly. "Look, I'm sorry. I just thought if you knew what I was, you'd.....I don't know, run me out of town. Didn't know you had 'experience' with vamps with souls." He threw a disgusted look towards Angel. When he looked back at Buffy, his eyes softened. "Just wanted to help out. Do some good."

Buffy looked at him blankly and shook her head. "I don't think I want to patrol tonight. I'm going home."

William stepped back and let her leave. As she passed Angel to head to the exit, Angel walked up to William. "You touch her, you'll regret it."

William looked indignant at Angel. "I've got a soul now, you bloody idiot. I don't hurt people anymore."

Angel shook his head. "That's not the kind of touching I meant." With that, he turned to join Buffy.

William sighed. "Don't do that anymore, either," he said to himself.

---

TBC Please R&R!