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- Spike's Hospital Room -

Spike has been awake for nearly an hour now, most of the feeling has returned to his hands and he can move his fingers, currently he's running them through Buffy's hair watching her as she sleeps. She looks so peaceful and Spike can't remember the last time he'd woken up with her wrapped in his arms. They had just slept, like they had the night before the Hellmouth closed, they were there for each other, it was a level of closeness that was hard to find, but they had it in each other. Slowly Buffy stars to stir and as she wakes up she looks up at Spike, it takes her a moment to remember where she is, but quickly it all comes back to her and she smiles.

"Mornin' Sunshine," Spike says.

"Hey…"

"Sleep well?"

"Yea… hospital beds slightly more comfortable these days."

"So slayer, just when are you leaving at today."

"Later tonight, I think my flight's at like nine… I wish I could stay, but I'm needed back home."

"No, you should go…you have to go."

"You could always come…"

"No, I couldn't… I don't belong there, and I'm needed here… As much as I'm in love with you Summers, we both have our own lives now, and I think it'd be unfair of me not to let you move on."

A look of disappointment crosses Buffy's face, she still cares for Spike still loves him, but maybe he was right. It had been a long time since he had been apart of her life and she wouldn't even know where he would fit in if he came back with her. They aren't together; they hadn't been for a long time.

"You're right… and it'd be unfair to you, you obviously have made a life for yourself here, I shouldn't expect you to just pick yourself up and move because of me…but maybe you could visit sometime, come see me and Dawn?"

"It's a sure thing pet…and who knows maybe I'll decide to stay when this is all over, it's just that right now there's some stuff a brewin' and I'm gonna be needed in this fight."

Buffy then starts to get out of bed, as she's talking she straightens her clothes out and puts her hair up in a pony tail with a rubber band that she's had around her wrist. Spike just watches her silently.

"I understand…you know what, I should go, I have to change, and shower, and call home…I'll meet you back at the office in a little while ok?"

"Uh, yea…yea, I'll see you then."

"Ok."

Buffy gives him one last smile then turns and exits the room.

-Angel's Office-

Spike walks into Angel's office; he's now dressed and wearing his leather duster. Angel is sitting behind his desk and doesn't even bother to look up at Spike as he walks in the room. Spike sits down on one the large chairs that face Angel's desk. He's quiet for some time before Angel finally looks up from his paperwork to acknowledge him. Spike seems to be deep in thought and doesn't even notice that Angel is now looking at him. Angel can smell Buffy's sent all over Spike and a pain of jealously hits him, but then is quickly diminished after realizing that Spike is worried about something.

"Something on your mind, not that I care," Angel asks.

"huh, oh…actually yea…Uh, well Buffy and I were talking and she asked me to go back with her, but I said that I shouldn't…We talked about it for a little while and just decided that we both need to move on…but…"

"But you want to go back with her."

"Yea…but I'm making the right choice right? I mean, it'd never work, we'd just get hurt in the end."

"As much as I'd love to get rid of you Spike, I think your right to stay…let her move on with her life."

"Right…right then."

The room falls silent again and Spike continues to contemplate if letting Buffy go was the right decision. Angel thinks about if what he had told Spike was the right advice. Then both of their thoughts are interrupted as the door to Angel's office opens again and Wes, Fred and Gunn walk in.

"Angel, we've got a big problem," Gunn states mater of factly.

"What's wrong?" Angel asks.

All attention is on Wes, Gunn and Fred, as Angel becomes concerned and stands up. Spike however just turns his head and doesn't bother to move out of the chair that he's sitting in.

"There's this new artifact that we're running tests on in my department that we got from…" Fred begins to say.

"A clan of Fongoleuin demons, well as it turns out they're trying to back out of their contract with us," Gunn says finishing her sentence.

"A very lethal group of demons let me add," Wes adds in.

"What are they doing?" Angel asks.

"They say that if we don't give them their artifact back that their going to… well lets just sat that it's not good," Fred says.

"They're serious too, and these demons, they can cause a lot of damage if they set their mind to it…so I arranged a meeting with their leader in twenty minuets, they want to talk with you," Gunn says.

"We thought we should be present at said meeting, also we figured we should tell you something about what this artifact is and what it does and all that."

"yea, that could be useful," Angel says.

Wes, Fred and Gunn walk over to Angel's desk, Angel sits down and Gunn pulls out a file folder that he had with him on the artifact that he was talking about, they start to discuss with Angel what its purpose is and how it works when Buffy walks in the room, Spike is the first to notice her seeing as he wasn't paying as much attention to Gunn and Fred anyway and he smiles at her as she walks in.

"Hey," Buffy says causing everyone in the room to look in her direction at the sound of her voice. She takes a few steps into the room hesitantly and looks around at the office space, taking in the big windows and bright light that fills the room. It was to say the least an odd sight to see Spike standing in the light."So, you open the blinds and let the sun shine in often?"

"Special glass," Spike explains.

"Oh."

"Buffy, hi," Angel says.

"Hey… and don't worry, I won't nose around too much, I know you have work to do."

"Quite the contrary Miss Summers, you're always welcome," Wes says with a smile.

Buffy just smiles back and after a few seconds walks over towards Spike and sits in the seat next to him, Spike watches her every step of the way. Wes and Fred go back to explaining to Angel about the meeting that they would be having soon and the four of them get lost in their talk of Wolfram and Hart business.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Buffy asks turning to Spike.

"Some demon meeting."

"Fun."

"Not really."

"So what's this meeting about?"

Fred and Wes look up from the papers that they brought in to describe the artifact to Angel to look over at Buffy. Angel also looks up, but it's Wes who answers her.

"We're negotiating with a group of demons over an artifact they had given us in return for protection, a rival demon society, this society has since been eliminated and well…"

"Now they want their artifact back, gotcha… so just what is this artifact that's got them all riled up?"

"Oh, it's a D'kaykmsuhve crystal, they're very rare, and actually just what their purpose is… is unknown, but we do know that they have a lot of power, there are all sorts of experiments that I've been planning on doing on it and then there are all of the mystical uses, Oh and… and I'll let Wes explain to you more about the demons," Fred says.

Fed looks slightly flustered after her recent babble, and looks back down at her papers, Wes however smiles obviously thinking that she was cute.

"Well, there isn't much else to say besides that they should be arriving for a meeting in a short while," Wes says just as Harmony bursts through the door without knocking, everyone looks in her direction, their heads locked on her as the door hits the wall with a loud thump.

"Boss, we've got trouble, there's all whole bunch of really ugly guys here and they don't look too friendly," Harmony says.

"It's ok Harmony their here for a meeting."

"They don't look like they wanna chat things out, more like smash us all into tiny pieces… Buffy, what are you doing here, don't think that you can just walk back in here and take my Spikey Awa…"

Harmony sentence is then cut off as she's pushed out of the way by three huge demons with dark scaly skin and long claws dangling from their fingers. They push their way into the room. Harmony regains her balance and dusts her self off then looks up at the intruding demons with a scowl on her face. No one is left sitting in the room having stood when the demons entered.

"That was rude," Harm spits out.

"We have come for our crystal," the demon explains.

"Well fine, but you could at least be nice about it."

"Harmony!" Angel says in a warning tone.

Harmony: "What!"

Angel just gives Harmony an icy glare that she returns with a shrug. The demons turn their attention to Angel and take an advancing step. Spike and Buffy have stepped up closer while Wes and Fred look ready to fight however hover towards the back of the group. It looks as if a fight is the only way out of this situation; reasoning was something that these demons looked incapable of doing.