Angel didn't think he could have felt more shock if Buffy had staked him. Her words echoed inside his head. Spike didn't hurt me tonight Angel. You did

Guilt washed over him as he realized that the dislike he'd always had for Spike had let him jump to the first, most wrong--and probably most jealous--conclusion: Spike had come back wrong and tried to hurt his Slayer.

Angel blinked. When did she become my Slayer again? Then he realized that she'd never stopped being his Slayer--even when she'd been so distant after her resurrection.

His mind flashed back to a conversation they'd had not long after he'd come back from Hell. The day that they'd decided that if they couldn't be "just friends" then they shouldn't be anthing at all.

"You still my girl?" he'd asked.

"Always."

And she really was, even if she'd moved on to other guys. Still his girl, his Slayer, his…soul mate. She'd reminded him of that when she kissed him in that tomb back in Sunnydale.

He'd never--ever--wanted to hurt her. But he had. When he betrayed her trust by not telling her he was a vampire. When he'd spent the next several weeks afterward avoiding her. Dozens of times when he'd lost his soul. When he'd broken up with her, and then when he'd left. Thanksgiving that first year apart. When Faith came to L.A. The list really went on.

And he'd done it again tonight--trying to destroy the little bit of happiness he'd helped give back to her by acting like a jeleous, territorial…vampire.

He groaned and dropped his upper body back down to the floor.


Spike, Dawn and Faith watched the emotions play out across Angel's face in a quiet punctuated only by Dawn's occational sniffle. It was all the girl could do to keep from breaking into full fledged sobbing.

She and Spike may not have been all that close over the last year or so (not counting the month he'd been dead), but he was still her best friend. And she'd nearly lost him again.

The Powers only knew how it might have ended if only one Slayer had been here.

She watched the fight go out of Angel as he slumped back to the floor. That gave her a relief that she couldn't describe. There was no way she could have watched him die again tonight. She clung to the blond vampire a little tighter, trying not to cry, as she thought of how she could have lost him a second time.

It was Faith who finally broke the silence that Buffy's words had brought. "Angel, maybe we should go now. Let them have what's left of their reunion."

Slowly, the elder vampire got to his feet. He swept his gaze from Buffy's to Faith's, then Dawn's before finally stopping at Spike's icy stare. His grandchilde may have had one arm wrapped protectively around Dawn, but his eyes promised a swift and thourough retribution if he so much as flinched in their direction.

"You're right." He dropped his gaze in shame. "Let's go."

He walked to the doorway, the paused, one hand resting on the frame; and looked back at the three people who's night of happiness he'd destroyed. "I'm sorry," he said, and walked out.

Faith watched Buffy for a moment longer, concern written on here face. "You guys might want to bail before the cops get here. With all that noise someone was bound to call 'em. If you'll get me some of Spike's stuff, I'll take it to the Hyperion for you.."

Spike nodded when Buffy didn't answer, and went to the dresser. He yanked out the two drawers that Willow and Dawn had placed his new clothes in, stacked them up and handed them to Faith. "You and Angel better get gone. I hear sirens."

Faith nodded and left without antoher word. Spike grabbed the cup of blood Willow had left for him and dumped it on the floor. Then he grabbed his already trashed duster and dragged it through the mess, making a trail that led from the door to the curb outside. Dawn, following his lead, drug Buffy outside after him.

Spike carried his duster until they came to a dumpster several blocks away. There, with a sad sigh at its loss, he tossed it in. But far, far better the duster than tehm.

After another few blocks, Spike turned to Buffy, who'd been uncomfortably silent. "Luv, you're not mad at me, are you?"

She blinked in surprise. "No! Why would I be mad at you?"

"Dunno. You were just so quiet…and brooding."

She smiled a little at that, and Spike felt relieved. "Angel has that effect on me sometimes. I was just dreading going back home."

"Why's that?"

"Angel's been taking care of all of us."

"Oh." That wasn't anything Red hadn't told him. Suddenly he grinned, a hint of the old more carefree Spike returning. "Guess you'll have to sneak me into your room then, luv.