"Like that was so not obvious," Buffy was quick to point out as the door closed behind Spike and Bella. Had she just voiced that? How mature do I sound, she thought.

Willow giggled, stopping abruptly at Buffy's cold glare.

"Well, I thought it was kind of cute," she said defensively. "I hope he claims her."

"Willow!" Buffy's eyes went wide as she and Giles simultaneously admonished the witch. Sure, it had been for entirely different reasons, but it baffled her just the same.

"Oh, come on. We're all adults here."

Buffy cleared her throat and alluded to Dawn.

"Like you didn't know about those things when you were 15, Miss High and Mighty Slayer," Willow challenged. She was wearing her Willow resolve face. Buffy was helpless to it.

"Fine. Whatever," she finally conceded.

"So, uh... what does 'claim' mean?" Dawn quietly asked.

Buffy shot Willow a raised-eyebrow glare.

"Well, uh..." Willow was stammering. Good job, Wills, she told herself. "Claim is when, uh... well, when two vampires... two. Like Bella and Spike. Well, they decide, uh..." She paused and took a deep breath. "It's when they punch each other in the arm and say 'hey, that makes you my vampire now.' Okay?" She was a horrible liar.

"Okay," Dawn accepted. "Just making sure." She got up and went to sit across from Giles in Bella's seat. She gazed down at the book Bella had been reading and without looking up, she corrected Willow.

"Actually, pretty sure you're thinking of mating. But way to go in substituting the old arm-punch for hot and steamy vampire sex. Yay, you!"

"DAWN!" they all admonished at once. She caught Giles' eyes and grinned.

"Hey, you should just be glad I studied something. Even if it wasn't Algebra," she told him.

He shook his head and returned to his musty, old tome. Dawn thumbed through the text that Bella had been reading. Dumb Buffy, she thought. Spike had loved her. He'd grieved for her, unconsolably, when she had died. He had kept her together when she came back wrong. And what did that get him? Just another round of Kick the Spike, courtesy of Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer. As much as Dawn loved her sister, Buffy was clearly out of her league when it came to Spike.

She wasn't sure if it had something to do with her being The Key, but something about Spike with Bella made her feel all green and glowy. It was like she was TPTB's personal traffic light stuck on green for the vampiric duo. Dumb Buffy, she though again. She'd lost her chance and there was no getting it back ever again. Of that much, Dawn was sure. And it was gratefully so. She couldn't stand to watch her sister break him again. Lucky, lucky Bella.

They had made it about a block from Bella's apartment when he leaned her up against the nearest tree and kissed her senseless. At first, her eyes went wide and then she quickly surrendered to him. His tongue plundered into her mouth over and over again. Her hand went to the back of his neck encouraging him to deepen the kiss. Her other had stroked his cheek softly. He was overwhelmed by her apparent need of him for both passion and tenderness. He moaned and reluctantly broke away from her.

"Gonna need to get a room if we don't stop, Kitten," he joked.

Her eyes were shining with desire. Maybe that's what I want, she silently told him. Now, there was something he hadn't expected. He cocked his head to the side trying to suss out whether or not she meant that by getting back into her head. Maybe I think that this is more than just some prophesy and that I just want to be with you, she challenged him.

"Prophesy? What prophesy would that be, Pet?" he asked her, resting his hand, beside her head, on the tree.

She sighed. "That's kind of why I wanted you to come for a walk with me."

"Uh-huh." He was confused, but strangely decided to veer East down the Road of Be Patient. He waited for her to continue.

"Okay." He reached up and tucked her hair behind her hair and she smiled. Oh, William. I'm so glad it's you.

He seemed to relax after she said that. Whatever this prophesy was couldn't change the look in the girl's eyes. He knew that now.

"So, then. Tell me about out prophesy," he urged her.

"Mamma made a deal with the Powers. Basically, I get to keep my soul, but only because it serves them and their glowy asses in the end."

"You've seen them?" he asked, surprised.

"Aren't you more interested in where you fit into all this?" she asked, trying to mask her scowl.

"Right, then. Go on," he responded.

"You're him."

He furrowed his brow, clearly not understanding where this was going.

"Angel called me. Told me that the Powers, they told him that you were 'him' and that I'd know what they were talking about."

"So, Love. What are they talking about?"

So, the damned Powers had plans for him. Go figure. Tap into a chap's unlife and not even give him fair warning. Always butting in and sodding everything up.

"Mamma kept a journal. I'll show you when we go back," she told him. "In her journal, she wrote that he would be the one to save me and together we would save the world."

He was part of the witch's master plan? Or was it the Powers'? He no longer knew. He was trying to piece it all together, then he realized he just didn't care. He would have been drawn to Bella no matter what.

"I don't understand," he finally admitted. She thought he had. "Save you from what?"

She smiled. You saved me from myself, she told him.