A/N: Thanks everyone who reviewed this fic – it made me feel so good. Well, as you can see chapter three is now up, so what are you waiting for? Read it! (The song lyrics used are from The Calling's song 'Unstoppable')

Buffy followed Spike as he pushed his way to the front of a line of one of Los Angeles most popular nightclubs. She had no idea how he expected to get in because you had to cue in a place like this and Spike was not dressed up he was dressed as he had been this morning. Not that he didn't look good in it but that wasn't the point in one of these places – they had a code. Buffy, herself, had made a bit of an effort. She was wearing a short black dress that had a keyhole neck at the front showing a bit of cleavage and had a tie around her neck which was the only thing keeping it up. It just just dusted her knees and with that she wore three-inch spike heels with thin straps that she found easy to walk in. She had a jacket on too it was waist level and black leather. Spike had seemed very appreciative of what she had been wearing when he met her outside Wolfram and Hart. A few years ago he would have made a lewd comment but tonight his eyes had just widened and he had choked on the smoke from his cigarette – she took that as a good sign as to what she looked like.

Now as people made sounds of disgruntlement because of Spike's shoving Buffy felt herself getting separated from the vampire. She called out his name and he turned, grabbed her hand and then pulled her along. Buffy didn't allow herself to be pulled along by just anyone and she couldn't help the small shot of electricity that ran up her hand, wrist and arm from the contact. The fact that she had thought she would never get to see this man again was probably what intensified that. Probably.

Someone tried to challenge Spike's pushing in so he morphed faces and hissed at the man and then no one challenged him again. They got to the front of the line where the velvet rope was pulled across and the big bouncers looked at them.

"Hey, Spike!" One of the big guys asked, his brown eyes looking down on them, as he seemed to be seven feet tall.

"Maurice" Spike nodded at him.

Maurice looked over at Buffy "Who's your honey?"

"Never you mind that" Spike squeezed her hand a little "So, you gonna let us in or am I gonna freeze my perfect arse off?"

The large man chuckled and the pulled the velvet rope off and motioned them in, Spike walked through and kept hold of her as he did. They made it to the cloakroom and Buffy took her jacket off but Spike, not surprisingly, chose to keep his. As they walked down the stairway to the main body of the club loud throbbing music pounded up to them and Buffy felt the vibrations through her feet. There were bodies packed tight on the dance floor, all writhing very closely together to frenetic beats, some couples hadn't even made it to the floor and were packed tightly on the staircase so that the supernatural couple had to squeeze through them.

When the strobe lights stopped pulsing the lights were very muted and it made the whole place seem strangely intimate. There were hundreds of people packed close and yet it looked intimate. The walls of the club were painted black and the whole place had a slightly gothic theme to it with high chandeliers, which didn't provide any light but were very pretty in a medieval way.

When they reached the bottom of the steps and the music started up a hauntingly dark melody as if on cue Buffy felt a strong arm slip around her waist. She turned around in surprise and found herself encircled in Spike's arms, strong, familiar and strangely electrifying. A thin tendril of excitement ran up her spine and it was a feeling she hadn't felt for a while – the feeling of exhilaration, of being in the arms of someone that made her excited. Buffy felt her eyes widened as she looked up at him and Spike stepped away taking it as a sign of rejection.

"I'm out of line," Spike said softly but she heard it above the music as his arms fell away from her.

"No, Spike, you're not. It's fine" She wanted to say it was better than fine but instead she reached out and took his hand.

Buffy turned toward the dance floor and held Spike's hand above her head as she walked towards it and pulled him along behind her. It was kind of a slow dance but still with a rhythm you could really dance to – it was also very melodic and dusky and she figured it was the kind of music Spike could dance to. Man, was that an understatement.

As she turned back around to face him when they reached somewhere near the middle of the floor where they had managed, somehow, to clear a space Spike's eyes were all for hers. She found that particularly honorable because there were a lot of girls that had on less than Buffy's dress around them. In fact Buffy looked positively demure next to a lot of the girls here.

Spike's arm slid back around her waist and he pulled her into him possessively so that their chests were pressed together but Buffy made sure their thighs were not as she did not want to risk him getting the wrong idea. She wasn't even sure herself what the right idea was because she was just happy too see him again, touch him again and she didn't want to get carried away.

The words of the song floated to her ears, sung by a husky voiced male.

"Come and lay right on my bed sit and drink some wine

I'll try not to make you cry

If you get inside my head then you'd understand,

then you'd understand me.

Why I felt so alone, why I kept myself from love

And you became my favorite drug

So let me take you right now, swallow you down,

I need you inside"

Buffy felt her eyes flicker up to Spike's at those words as they swayed slowly together, he held one of her hands in his as his other hand stroked her lower back. The words seemed to describe her relationship with him back when she had been using him to feel something, anything. Spike looked down at her with a serious expression on his alabaster face.

"Do you think that this is right, or is it really wrong

I know that this is what we've been wanting

And all this is burning in my soul; it fills up to my throat

It fills up till my heart is breaking"

Buffy felt that this song might have been written for her and Spike and he seemed to think the same thing because he gave her one of those smoldering looks and she had to look away and lean her head against his shoulder. She felt his hand run up from her lower back to the large portion of her bare back that the dress exposed. His cold fingers slid up between her shoulder blades and then traced them lightly, teasingly. She felt herself move against him because of the light contact and Spike's grip on her hand tightened a little as if reacting to her reaction.

"When I wake up without you, knowing you're not there

I'm only feeling half as good

Well, I'm gonna find a way

To wrap you in my arms, you make me feel alive"

Buffy's other hand gripped Spike's shoulder and his hand moved up from her shoulder blades to nestle on the back of her neck under her loose blond hair. His fingers found the base of her skull and stroked there before moving around to the soft skin just behind her ear, which he ran a finger softly down making her close her eyes in relaxation.

At that moment the song ended and a more upbeat dance one came on.

Spike and Buffy remained in an embrace for a few moments until she pulled back and out of the circle of his arms, as she pulled away he ran his hands down her biceps, forearms and hands until she was out of reach. She looked at him feeling suddenly awkward.

Spike seemed to understand because he quirked an eyebrow and jabbed his thumb at the bar "Drink?"

"I don't think yes would be a strong enough word" Buffy nodded quickly.

He gave her a faint smile and turned pushing his way through the throng of gyrating people. Buffy followed close behind and leaned against a free space of the bar as Spike craned down so she could whisper in his ear what she wanted. Buffy was tempted to answer isn't that just the question? But instead she said a bottle of beer. Spike ordered the two beers and moments later they were there and he had paid, handed one to her and taken a large gulp of his own.

"So, how you liking L.A so far?" He yelled.

Buffy shrugged "I used to live here but, I guess, it's pretty...lively"

"Yeah," He laughed "Not that I'd know anything about that being a dead guy"

She almost smiled but held it back looking back over the crowd. When she turned back she saw a young pretty blond had pretty much attached herself to Spike's side and was whispering something in his ear provocatively. Buffy turned to stare at him full on and as the blond whispered he kept his eyes on Buffy as she arched an eyebrow at him. Spike chuckled at her look and then turned to the girl and whispered something in her ear. The girl frowned and then turned on her heel and left in a hurry.

"What did you say to her?" She asked.

"Told her you were my wife and had a black belt in practically every martial art known to man" Spike smirked "Works every time"

Buffy slugged some beer "Also a partial truth. Which is new for you, Spike"

He did laugh then and widened his eyes for a second before letting them drop to normal "Have you forgotten I'm all reformed and with honor now? Righting wrongs and defending...fluffy rabbits and the like"

"That I would like to see" She looked him in the eye.

"So, you really wailed on Angel-breath's gang of chaperone's – they're still in the infirmary last thing I heard and are not best pleased" Spike sipped his beer "You could've killed them"

"They were human. Barely" Buffy shrugged.

"Tell you something though, luv, you drew some big attention to yourself. You're the new buzz around the office –they've seen a Slayer before but the Wolfram and Hart big wigs seem to know you're the Slayer. They're all getting very sweaty about it," Spike frowned "Not sure if they're excited or just scared as hell of you"

"Here's hoping it's the latter" Buffy raised her beer.

They clinked their bottles together – a toast.

When Buffy stepped out of another club two hours later she was laughing throatily and Spike followed close behind also giving a hearty laugh. She hadn't had this much fun for a long time – what with the apocalypse and then the aftermath of that, moving to a different country...it made for a very stressful time. But here and now with a man she had thought was dead to the world she was having a great time.

Buffy pulled her jacket on against the chilly night air and let out a breath as they walked down the dark street – music from clubs blaring out behind them.

Soon they were almost the only people out and Buffy's heels clacking against the sidewalk were loud, echoing through the empty back street. If she was any other girl she would have been freaked out by the dark and the eerie feel of it all but she was the Slayer and if an empty street was all she had to worry about then it was a good day.

Spike lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply blowing the smoke out into the night sky before glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"You gave those blokes a right telling off" He grinned.

Buffy smiled and shrugged "When I say I don't wanna dance I mean it"

"Yeah, I think the fact that their wrinklies are squashed to a pulp will remind them of that next time, don't you?" Spike laughed, took a hit of his cigarette.

The Slayer smiled remembering the two jerks that had practically tried to drag her onto the dance floor as she had come out of the bathroom. She had politely refused at first but they hadn't got the picture so she had rammed a foot between the legs of both of them before they had a time to react. She hadn't used her Slayer strength just her normal girl kind – she didn't want to stop them from having children in later life when they had matured a little, she just wanted to make sure they got the picture.

"Been meaning to ask, how's Dawn?" Spike asked sounding as casual about it as he could.

Buffy looked at him then faced front "She's doin' great. Started high school again and she's the cool American kid – most popular girl in her year"

"Good for 'er" He nodded "Deserves some happiness"

She nodded slowly and spoke softly "We all do"

Spike cleared his throat "So, what about the rest of them? Did...did they all get out...did they all survive?"

"...Anya, she...she didn't make it" Buffy said solemnly.

Spike was quiet for a few moments "Bloody shame. She was a nice bird"

Buffy nodded "I thought Andrew would have told you"

"I stayed away from him as much as I could, didn't want him knowing I was..."

"Alive?" She looked at him then "Spike, why? I don't understand...I know you tried to explain but it just sounds like a load of crap. You know we would have wanted to know if you were alive"

"I doubt that...its not like I was best pals with your mates"

"You know I would have wanted to know" Buffy stopped walking in turn making him stop as she faced him down "But you were too afraid that I would, what, send you away?"

Spike gritted his teeth "For all I bloody knew you were living it up in Blighty. I didn't want to show up and mess things up for you not when you'd worked so bloody hard to make your life right again. For all I knew you had another soddin' wanker of a boyfriend, a nice little house and plans for the future all to your name. I didn't want to intrude on that. The way I went out was a noble way, better than I deserved to leave this world. Then I got pulled back and I thought that maybe you would be..."

"Be what, Spike?" She yelled.

"Be disappointed!" He yelled back throwing his hands up in the air.

Buffy looked at him with wide eyes and she shook her head not able to actually speak as his statement sunk in. She took a deep breath and felt her brow furrow as Spike grunted and took a deep rough hit off his cigarette then threw it to the ground and stamped on it. The vampire threw up his hands in derision and then turned on his heel and stormed off down the street.

The Slayer was having none of that she was going to tell him how stupid he was being so she started to run after him in her heels. Spike reached the end of the street with his coat swishing around him and he was about to turn the corner when a large black van sped around it and nearly ran him over. He yelled a curse at it and Buffy stopped as the van skidded to a halt on the road next to her. Spike turned around just as around eight commandos all dressed in black jumped out of the back of the van and onto the sidewalk.

Buffy brought her hands up into a defensive stance and readied herself for an attack as Spike called her name and started to run back to her. She didn't figure upon one of the commandos pulling a tranquilizer gun and shooting it into her chest. The Slayer pulled it out and slammed her foot into a commando that tried to grab her. As she did that another dart stuck into her back and she began to feel a little drowsy. Spike was pounding down the pavement towards her but he was a way away yet. The Slayer turned around and slugged her fist into another commando's face making him fall to the ground. Two more tranquilizers hit her and the Slayer went down. She fell forward into the arms of one commando who quickly lifted her over his shoulder and then ran back around the van. He jumped in the back followed by the seven others, two of them carrying their comrade who she had punched. Buffy was slammed down onto the floor of the van and then she fell into unconsciousness.

Spike reached the van just as they pulled the back doors shut and locked them. The vampire had morphed faces in his hurry and careened into the back of the van just as they had shut the doors. He growled and pounded his fists against the metal denting it. The van peeled away from the sidewalk and he jumped onto the back of it crawling up onto the roof and holding on tight. Spike punched his fist through the roof of the van and hissed. The driver jerked the wheel from side to side trying to shake him off but he held on tight.

Spike crawled down onto the front of the moving van to see the driver who was also geared up in army clothes but through his eyeholes he could see red eyes with a pinprick of white for pupils. Spike punched his way through the front windshield and crawled in trying to throttle the driver. He didn't account on the guy bringing out a gun and shooting him in the head.

Pain exploded through Spike's brain as the driver took the opportunity to swerve again and the vampire was propelled off and he hit a signpost with his back. Spike fell to the ground unconscious.

A/N: Dun! Dun! Dun! Want to see what happens next? You'll just have to wait. Keep the feedback coming; I do so love it. Maybe I should change my name to feedback fiend...hmm...