A/N: I've stolen lines and events from the episode 'Gone' as in Part 1.

Chapter 14 – First steps into the clear. (Part 2)

The door to Spike's crypt flung open, Buffy had planned to be quite stealthy about surprising him but the door was slightly jammed and she had to kick it open as usual. She slowly made her way into the crypt and watched Spike as he spoke to whatever he thought had just entered his home, she walked over to the tv and turned it off then as Spike walked past her she cheekily brushed his ass with her hand, she could see he was becoming very intrigued at this point and decided to end the mystery by pinning him again the wall and stripping his shirt from him. Then she slowly licked a trail from his neck down his chest lingering on his nipples and then back up again placing feather kisses all the way to his face.

"Buffy?" Spike queried still confused. Buffy just giggled lightly. "What happened to you?" Spike said feeling for her body to reassure himself that it was Buffy standing in front of him. She quickly explained that something had knocked her over and now she was invisible while trying to get Spike's attention back on other things. She ran her hands across his thighs and then inched towards his crotch but Spike grabbed her hands before they reached their destination.

"Buffy, luv," He said as he held her hand away from him. "Don't you think you should be finding a way to get this fixed."

"The gang's researching it, there's nothing I can do… apart from you." Buffy said seductively. Spike smiled ruefully at that, she really had become a vixen. Buffy started to kiss him and Spike didn't protest as her tongue slipped into his mouth. They made their way down to the lower level of the crypt and onto the bed but Spike stopped Buffy before things went all the way.

"Wait." He said as she was about to remove his jeans.

"What is it?" Buffy said. When Spike hesitated to answer Buffy asked him hurtfully. "Don't you want to?" Spike heard the pain and insecurity in the question and quickly replied.

"I always want to, I always want you, you know that." He said as he stoked her shoulders. "But you're not all here, I need to see you Buffy."

"I thought we could have some fun though, invisible sex fun!" Buffy said optimistically but could see Spike still wasn't happy.

"You just seem to be enjoying this disappearing act a little too much." Spike said as he got off the bed and went to get himself a drink.

"Well yeah, I mean it's been liberating, for the first time since… I'm free. Free of rules and reports, free to do whatever I want."

"But in the real world you can't do whatever you want and I thought you were finally living in it, I mean you've got a job now."

"What do you know about the real world? You don't live in it, you're not even living, and you don't know anything about the pressures and responsibility."

Spike bit back a harsh comment that would've turned the conversation into a full blown argument and probably ended up with Buffy storming out and decided to go with the more calm approach.

"Did something happen today that you're not telling me?" He asked wondering what had suddenly made Buffy so angry at the world and life; he thought she was getting over her resurrection.

Buffy sighed and Spike could see from the shape on the bed that she had flopped down and was lying across it. "This horrible woman from social services called round this morning." Buffy said giving in and explaining her problems.

"But everything's fine with you and Dawn now."

"Well that's not exactly what their interested in, it's more about how much school Dawn has missed and her grades falling and if things don't get better they can take her away from me."

"What? But there were reasons for all that, apocalypses!"

"I don't think social services would take that as a valid excuse, plus even if they did know what I really did and believed it that would be an even bigger reason to take Dawn away from me." Buffy said sighing again. "So now you know why life sucks so much and being a slayer in the real world even more so, because I don't get given any 'get out of jail free' cards."

"I'm so sorry Buffy." Spike said coming to the bed, he stroked her face and felt a tear on her cheek; he wiped it away with his thumb and then continued to caress her. Their moment of solace was interrupted though when they both heard Xander calling.

"Spike? Buffy? Are you down here? I'm covering my eyes because I don't want see you guys in some kind of comprising position." Xander called as he appeared at the bottom of the ladder in Spike's crypt his hand over his eyes.

"Harris you can open your eyes." Spike said.

"You sure you're not naked?" Xander said stumbling closer still with his eyes tightly shut.

"I'm sure, not about Buffy though because she is invisible of course, she could be completely starkers right now." Spike said chuckling.

"Spike!" Buffy said lightly swatting him. "Xander what is it? Did you find something?"

Xander removed his hand and looked to where he figured Buffy was. "That cone we had… it kinda disintegrated, so we think that whatever did this to you is unstable and if we don't get you visible again you're going to… well, dissolve, or ... fade ... into nothing."

"What?" Spike said. "Well do you know how to reverse it?"

"Not yet, Willow was looking into the culprits but I haven't heard from her."

"Well you better find her!" Spike said. Buffy was still silent and Spike wished she would say something because he couldn't tell what she thinking not being able to see her face.

"I'll go to my place, she's probably there. Xander you go back to the Magic Box in case she's on her way there." Buffy said as she moved to the ladder.

"I'm coming with you." Spike said to Buffy.

"Alright, I'm guessing we better move quickly."

Buffy didn't say any more as they made their way her house and Spike was slightly worried about her, she had spoken so calmly and acted indifferent to finding out she could die very soon. Spike had excepted a bit more of a reaction, anything more than what she was giving him.

Willow was not at home, they only found Dawn who got very upset when they told her what was going on. They were about the leave when the phone started ringing.

"Willow?" Buffy said as she answered phone. Spike listened to Buffy speak. "Who is this? You sound familiar." Another pause. "Where?" Spike looked confused as she put the phone down. Buffy explained someone had taken Willow and she was supposed to meet them at the video-game arcade alone.

"Well bugger that, I'm coming with you."

"Spike I can't risk anything happening to Willow."

"And what about you… look you can go in alone I'll wait outside in case something goes wrong."

"Fine." Buffy said relenting.

Buffy went into the arcade and saw Willow who appeared to be standing on her own. "You okay, Will?" Buffy said.

"Buffy?" Willow said.

"Where are the bad guys?"

"All around you, Slayer, so don't try anything." Someone said who appeared to be holding Willow. Buffy thought she recognised the voice.

"He's bluffing, Buffy, there, there's just three of them, I think." Willow said.

"More than enough to cause some serious carnage, right guys? ... Guys? Guys!" The mystery person spoke again. But his friends appeared to be having more fun on a game than with their kidnapping.

After some more confusion Willow and the four invisible people moved to a less crowed part of the arcade. Buffy watched the large gun device intently figuring it was what made her invisible. She noticed the diamond that was fixed to it and thanked god that now they wouldn't have to do anymore research into frost monsters.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you guys are the ones who did this to me?"

"They're the ones from your mystery van." Willow said confirming Buffy's thoughts.

"Oh. You. So what annoying thing are you gonna do to me now?"

"Save your life, make you visible." The mystery leader said.

"Right. I'm supposed to believe that?" But Buffy gave in figuring it was the only chance to live and save Willow and picked up a hockey mallet as instructed by the anonymous guy so he would have a target.

"Okay, now hold still, and all your troubles will soon be gone." He said as the gun pointed towards Buffy.

"You're on the wrong setting!" Willow said.

"What?" The guy with the gun exclaimed.

"The gun, it's not set for reversing the particle ionization. It'll accelerate her molecular dissolution, I saw the plans!" Willow explained.

"Mind your own business."

"What's she talking about?" Another voice said.

"That's what I'd like to know." Buffy said.

"Buffy, he's trying to kill you!" Willow shouted before being hit by the gun. Then all hell broke out as Buffy fought the three invisible bad guys, it was all over pretty quickly, Buffy found it extremely easy to beat them all and she realised why when Willow got her hands on the invisibility ray and made them all visible including herself. Jonathan, Warren and another guy… Andrew apparently had banded together to be her arch-nemeses or nemesis's she wasn't sure what the plural was of that word. And she was slightly impressed when they threw something that burst into smoke causing her and Willow to start coughing but then found it extremely funny when the smoke cleared and they were still standing there trying to get the door open. They finally managed to get the door unlocked and Buffy and Willow followed closely behind them. It turned out they didn't even need to hurry though as the trio came face to face with Spike and all looked very scared cowering in front of him. They turned to see Buffy and Willow standing behind them, Buffy had her arms folded and didn't look happy. She couldn't believe these three geeks had been causing her so much trouble, what had happened to the real big bad's?

"We're sorry, please don't hurt us!" Andrew said.

"Shut up!" Warren said. "They can't hurt us, the Slayer doesn't hurt humans."

"No?" Buffy said.

At that moment a security guard came outside. "What's going on here? I got a bunch of scared kids saying this place is haunted!" He said.

"We've just found the diamond thieves." Buffy said as Willow took the diamond from the gun and handed it to the guard.

"Oh my." The guard said stunned.

"I think you better call the cops." Buffy said.

"What? No they're lying, It's our word against yours!" Warren said desperate.

"They'll know we're not lying when I give them the address of your headquarters, then they'll have all the evidence they need to lock you away." Willow said looking pleased with herself. The guard used his radio the report the capture and the cops arrived quite quickly taking the nerd trio away. Buffy felt a bit guilty looking at Jonathon's face she always thought he was actually quite a nice guy apart from the whole superstar spell and then this of course. Ah well, if they wanted to be her archenemies then they would have to deal with the consequences.

"So," Spike said once everything was taken care of. "Those nerds are the ones who have been causing you so much trouble?" Buffy could see he was just trying to make conversation after the awkwardness between them before. Spike had been right to act the way he had with her. Buffy admitted to herself that being invisible had made her act differently, she'd never been able to experience that freedom before not since she was a little girl without a care in the world. And before any of this had happened Buffy thought she was happy again, living in the real world, Spike had given her that happiness and she was enjoying being with Dawn and her friends again, so why the set back? Buffy thought. Now Spike would want an explanation too and Buffy just didn't know what to tell him. She just nodded at his question and waited for him to make the next move.

"How's the world feeling…you know, now that you're back in it?" Spike asked hesitantly as he took a step closer to her.

"It's o.k." Buffy said mirroring his actions and taking a step towards him so that they were now only a foot apart. "You're here so that's a big plus." She said as she leant forward searching for a kiss which she fervently received. As they pulled back Spike lingered next to her mouth for a couple of seconds so that their lips were faintly touching and then he leant his forehead against hers not wanting to break the intimate contact.

"I'm going to go back home with Willow and tell Dawn I'm fine…" Buffy said against his lips as she unwrapped her arms from his waist and then stepped back. Spike shut his eyes briefly to hide his disappointment and looked down. "…but after that I'd like to come by your place… and maybe spend the night." Spike's head shot up to look at Buffy hoping he had heard her correctly. She sounded anxious as she spoke, he couldn't believe she was actually insecure about asking to come over or that she thought she had to ask at all. Spike reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You know you'll always welcome pet." They shared a smile and then Buffy went to join Willow as she was finishing giving her statement to Sunnydale's finest.

"Hey." Buffy said.

"Hey." Willow echoed and they joined in step together as they slowly walked down the street.

"Pretty neat, you finding the van. So ... how did you manage to ... do it exactly? I mean, to locate it?" Buffy said hoping Willow hadn't already done some magic on her first day of rehab.

"The hard way. The spell-free way. The oh-my-god-my-head's-gonna-fall-off, my-feet-are-killing-me way." Willow said grimacing. Buffy smiled as her friend sat down on the side walk glad that she was working through her problem. "I don't know how I got through this day." Willow said.

"Well, the important thing is that you did. It's a ... good first step." Buffy said sitting down beside her.

"How are you doing, post-invisibleness? I kind of noticed it bit of tension between you and Spike." Willow asked.

"Yeah, I don't think I handled it very well, being all out of sight or I handled it too well… I still have to do some definite damage control from my giddy-fest. Spike and I had a bit of an argument,"

"Another one?" Willow said teasing.

"Hey!" Buffy said but then relented, excepting the fact that they did argue a lot. "We may fight a lot but that just means we make up a lot too." Willow made a bit of a face at what Buffy was implying with her 'making up' comment and Buffy giggled slightly at her friends' prudishness before continuing to speak on a more serious note. "It wasn't a big argument anyway and we're o.k. I mean I've still got to work through some stuff with him but we're o.k. It wasn't really about us." Buffy sighed not knowing how to find the words when she hadn't had them for Spike. "I thought… that I was happy, I mean I am but… I thought I was really happy with living again and then being invisible made me remember how being out of the world was good too, freeing… although in the end it didn't work out so well."

"Well yeah, finding out you're fading away can do that."

"I know... I actually got scared."

"Well, yeah. Who wouldn't?" "

"Me. I wouldn't. Not too long ago I probably would have welcomed it. But… I've got Spike now and I life I want to live, it's just that in my mind the living part didn't seem so hard… I think I'm prepared for it now though, I mean I've come from a set-back and I'm ready for more. That's something, right?"

"It's something. In fact it's more than something." Willow said smiling at Buffy. "So I guess we both made good first steps, even if you made one back and then another forward."

"I guess." Buffy said, feeling there were a lot more steps to come.

"Yay for us."

"Yay."

TBC…

Authors' note: I know I just dealt with the nerds really quickly but they were annoying in season six and I just wanted to get rid of them, plus in the episode 'Gone' there is no way Buffy and Willow would have just let them run away so easily especially when they have been screwing with her life so much.

Please review as this took me very long time to get how I wanted and I really want to know what you think!