A/N: Thank you all for the beautiful reviews! I love you all. So I got you something (this chapter could get very confusing)....

12

Buffy froze, mouth dropping open. Angel was dressed in a black duster, black shirt and black pants, eyes the same colour exactly, hair the same style and length sand skin as pale as bone, height and weight exactly right. He smirked at her, that old Angelus smirk.

Her eyes ticked to Spike next to him, an identical smirk on his face. A face she hadn't seen until recently and now she got to see two of him. He wore a black duster, red shirt open that showed a black T-shirt, black jeans and biker boots. His white blond hair was slicked back; the scar was there too.

They were both identical to their counterparts in every little detail that she could see.

Buffy reacted after a second and slammed the door shut "Demons!"

The door splintered and flew inward hitting her full force so that the Slayer careened through the air and hit a wall, the door falling on top of her. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as people jumped up from their seats and grabbed for anything that might resemble a weapon. Angel came running and took the scene in as the Angel and Spike demons swept through the room and turned in opposite directions.

Buffy threw the door off in time to see the Spike Demon rush Angel and the Angel Demon, who looked a little shocked to see him, rushed Spike. The Slayer realized they were deliberately going to fight people that couldn't fight them back. She jumped up and ran to help Spike even though in the back of her mind she knew she would be little use.

Spike was standing now and as the Evil Angel jumped at him he grabbed the lapels of his jacket and tried to head butt him. Buffy tried to warn him but was too late and his head hit the force field that surrounded the demon. He yelled and the Evil Angel grabbed him and turned him around throwing him into Buffy who had been approaching.

"Looks like they came to visit us instead!" Xander yelled from somewhere.

Buffy hit her head on the stone floor as Spike landed on top of her knocking the breath from her lungs in a silent exhalation. She saw stars and purple spots and groaned trying to push his weight off of her. Buffy shoved him off and he rolled to the floor on his back. Buffy heard the battle raging and she took a deep breath to fill her lungs then sat up ready to join the fray. To her surprise Spike grabbed her around the waist, arms sliding around her and pulled her back down to lay on top of him.

"Spike! –" She started to protest.

An ax whistled over her head and Buffy froze, that was where her head would have been if he hadn't pulled her back down. She gulped and Spike's arm tightened around her and she became suddenly and incredible aware that she was pressing her back against him.

"And I'm the one who's not ready to fight?" Spike whispered in her ear.

Buffy yanked his arms from around her and scrambled up she looked around and saw Evil Spike punch Xander in the face and Willow and Kennedy were trying to help him but couldn't even scratch the demon. Evil Angel was in the process of kicking Faith's ass and battling Robin at the same time. Buffy looked around for Angel and saw him picking himself up from the floor. He looked around and they caught eyes at the same time, Buffy nodded for him to go after Evil Angel.

She turned and managed to block a punch from Evil Spike just in time but block was the only thing she could do. He came at her again with a flying kick and Buffy caught his leg in mid-air, holding it there.

They looked at each other, her eyes full of determination and he looked sad all of a sudden. It threw her and what he said threw her even more.

"You let me die" Evil Spike whispered.

Buffy, even though she knew it wasn't really him, couldn't help it but his remark affected her more than she'd like. Taking advantage of her hesitation Evil Spike pulled his leg back away from her and kicked her in the face. Buffy stumbled but did not go down, turning to face him she saw Evil Spike withdraw a wicked looking knife from his pocket, it reminded her of the knife she had once used against Faith. Faster then she had expected he slashed it out at her, Buffy jumped back with triumph and Evil Spike grinned. The Slayer looked down at herself and to her surprise she saw blood there, blood from her body. She was cut and she couldn't feel it yet. As she was still looking down at herself in shock Evil Spike lunged at her with the knife aiming for a killing blow.

Buffy started to move but knew she would be too late.

Spike grabbed Evil Spike from behind, curling his arm around his neck the vampire morphed face; fangs sprouting and he buried his teeth into the demon's neck. Evil Spike screamed and dropped the knife as Spike tore himself away from the throat spitting out blue blood he threw the demon to the floor.

Evil Angel whipped a mean roundhouse kick into Angel and sent him flying to the stairs banister, which he struck his head against looking dazed.

"Retreat!" Evil Angel yelled "Retreat!"

Evil Spike crawled up and Buffy watched all this with a sort of glazed look to her eyes. Her hand was pressed to her stomach and blood seeped through her fingers. Spike started to move to stop his demon counterpart when he noticed this and ran to her instead, morphing back to human face.

"Buffy?" He stood before her looking down at her wound then up into her eyes "Buffy? You all right?"

"I'm...I'm fine..." Buffy waved a dismissive hand and just saw the two demons running out of the door with Giles, Xander and Robin following them when she felt dizzy and fell.

Spike caught her in his arms in a bizarre tango sort of move and held her there. He lay her down on the floor gently and ripped off Giles' sweater from his body. Then much to her chagrin he tore her shirt open and that was when the wound started to sting a little. Spike pressed the sweater against her stomach and held it there firmly as he stroked a hand down her face.

"Willow!" He yelled with urgency "Willow!"

Buffy watched him still in pain as things started to move around strangely. She was trying not to pass out and blinked a few times, her eyelids still so heavy. Buffy had a perfect view of Spike's neck and chin as he yelled for her witch friend again. Delirious from blood loss or maybe just a little crazy she reached out a bloody hand to him and placed it on his chin. Spike looked down at her and all the blood and she realized he must be hungry and Slayer's blood was like the caviar of the vampire diet.

He growled and almost morphed face but stopped himself, the vampire took her hand with his free one and stroked her palm with his thumb. Spike leaned down and started whispering things that made no sense to her muddled brain but she figured they were words of comfort and Buffy had missed him so much. She rolled onto her side hugging herself against him as he tried to keep the sweater still pressed against her.

"Buffy..." She heard Willow's voice nearby "Buffy!"

Then she was being wrenched away by lots of hands and her eyes slammed shut.

Buffy sat on the edge of her bed with her shirt off and Dawn kneeling between her knees and applying some sort of antiseptic cream to her cut. It was about seven inches along and diagonal across her stomach in a nasty red line. It had taken a long time for them to stop the blood flow and Giles had considered taking her to hospital but she awoke and refused saying she'd had worse, which was true. It still hurt like a bitch but she could ignore it.

What really bothered her was that the demons had got in so easily without anyone hearing them climbing the gates and then they had taken them by surprise without them being prepared. She was the only one that got hurt really, just a few bruises for everyone else. That made her feel like crap as well because she was supposed to be strong and quick and she had let that demon stop her because he looked like Spike. She had known it wasn't him but it still stopped her.

Buffy had called off the finding of the demons' lair for tonight; it would be dangerous to follow them. Tomorrow, in daytime they would do it, they'd get Angel to throw a blanket over his head or something and they'd find them when it was safer.

"Nobody blames you, you know" Dawn said suddenly as she pressed cotton wool to the wound and wrapped a bandaged around her "For hesitating. It's only human"

Buffy bowed her head "I'm the Slayer...a Slayer, I can't afford to let demons' get to me like that"

Dawn looked up at her "It's not like you could have hit him anyway"

"No, but I could have at least kept him busy while Spike came up with something"

"Buffy, you've gotta stop beating yourself up"

"I don't have to. The demons do that for me" Buffy sighed.

There was a light knock at the door but it was open anyway and when they both looked up it was Spike they saw looking hesitant in the doorway. His eyes swept over her without her shirt on and Buffy crossed her arms over her chest even though it hurt to do so.

"Sorry," Spike looked at the floor "I shouldn't..."

Dawn stood and looked between them "I'll just...go" With that she skidded out as fast as she could.

Spike entered and Buffy looked around for a clean shirt finally she stood and walked slowly to the wardrobe. She turned around as she held a shirt to cover herself and saw his once white T-shirt was now covered in her dried blood.

"Doesn't that make you...hungry?" She asked.

Spike looked down at himself then looked around her room "So, this is the new Slayer digs, eh? Like the bed"

Buffy looked at him pointedly.

"What I mean is, I had a similar style back in China, the Boxer Rebellion" He explained "Very comfortable"

"Yeah? You steal it from a family you killed?" She turned away, her back to him and slipped the shirt on buttoning it with slow movements.

Buffy had no idea why she was being so abrupt with him but alone, in her room with him covered in her blood she did not feel comfortable. Especially with the Evil Spikes words echoing around her head 'you let me die', could she have done anything? He had told her to let him do it, that he needed to. She had tried to persuade him but he had said no. Still was there anything else she could have done? Buffy didn't know.

Spike chuckled but it wasn't friendly "Yes, it does make me hungry. To answer your question before"

She stopped and stared at the wall "Then why don't you take it off?"

"Okay," He grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt and pulled it off over his head, throwing it down onto her bed "That better?"

Buffy did not look around, she would not "That's not what I meant, Spike"

Spike shut the door and walked around the room, pacing "I thought that maybe after my little three-year-holiday things might just have changed. Yeah, the location and the house is different, everyone's a little older and there are more of your lot but that's all that's different. You seem to have gone back to the beginning, luv"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, living on a Hellmouth," He pointed out, counting reasons on his fingers "Patrolling every night, hanging out with the Scoobies and Giles your Watcher. Oh, not to mention you're swooning over Angel again. You've gone back to the same Slayer I first met and tried to kill all those years back"

"Yeah and you failed" She crossed her arms then stopped and turned around to face him "I am not swooning over Angel!"

Spike nodded, smiling "Really? Every time I see you two you're practically shagging one another"

She saw she was facing him, half-naked him and she looked away "That would be impossible. The curse incase you've forgotten?"

"Oh, right. Like that stopped you before" He snorted.

Buffy locked eyes with him then, not caring about his state of undress "This has nothing to do with you Spike. You've been gone for three years and you have no right to come here and tell me how my life is not to your liking. I actually don't give a damn"

"That so?" Spike asked circling her.

"Yeah," She replied circling him too "That's so"

"Tell me something then, Buffy, hmm? Why don't you just give it up? Stop being the Slayer and just be Buffy Summers" Spike said, "It's what you've always wanted, right?"

Buffy tilted her head "I can't just give it up. It's what I was meant to do, slay"

"But there's hundreds of Slayers now" He pointed out "The reason you don't leave the job is because you are the Slayer. I'm not sure there is a Buffy anymore, just the Slayer every minute of every day"

"How dare you just come back after a day and presume to know me!" She came up to him, looked up into his eyes "Three years, Spike, three long years. I've changed; maybe you're right. Maybe I am just the Slayer now but that's who I am. It's not like it would matter to you, right? You've always said I'll always be the Slayer no matter what. We both know it wasn't Buffy Summers you fell in love with. It was the Slayer, the pain"

Spike raised his eyebrows "That's how you figure it?"

"That's how I know it" She replied "Are you telling me that if I was just a normal girl, no super strength, nothing, you would have still fallen in love with me? I don't think so. William the Bloody, even with a chip in his head, needs violence, viciousness. Good ol' Buffy Summers couldn't have given that to you"

"Forget about William the Bloody. What about me? Spike" He looked down into her eyes "I got a soul for you Buffy, because I was in love with you. I knew that you deserved better and when I say you I mean Buffy not the Slayer"

"They are one and the same now, always have been I guess" She turned and started to walk away from him.

Spike caught her wrist and she turned back to him "That is what I've always believed. That's what I've always known, Buffy. I still love you, all of you, the Slayer, the Buffy and the mad dopey bimbo you sometimes become"

"Thanks..." She mumbled.

"The words aren't important" He let go of her arm "It's the feeling behind them. Look, I should go...you're hurt and need to rest"

Spike turned and Buffy watched the way his muscles rippled in his back, his shoulder blades moving as he gripped the handle to her door and pulled it open. His skin was pale as the moon and Buffy remembered the feel of it well.

She knew that if she let him go now that it would always be the same between them, just like it been before. Never really admitting what they felt for each other, even if they weren't sure about it. She knew that if she didn't let him in now then he would always be alienated.

He was halfway down the corridor when Buffy jogged after him grabbing his wrist. Spike turned to her and they looked at each other. Buffy didn't say anything as she took his hand and pulled him back toward her room.

"You know, a lot can happen in three years" She told him casually "Wanna hear my amusing anecdotes?"

Spike dragged his feet; making out he didn't want to go "Do I have to?"

"Yep" She pulled him inside "Torture begins"

The door shut.

A/N: Review and ye shall be further rewarded.