A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed you are so kind and encouraging. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh and to answer the question posed to me by BuffyandDracoLover about Buffy's dad, if you keep on reading I promise you will get your answer in a few chapters. As for now here is the new chapter.

Disclainer: I do not own any of these characters they all belong to the God Joss Whedon.

"Hey Buffy" The voice jolted her out of her thoughts and made her jump. She had been deep in thought about William and hadn't seen the man standing at the top of the stairs. She glanced to her left where the voice had come from. 'Great' she thought to herself 'This guy is really starting to get on my nerves.' "Gee, Spike, lurk much?" She asked him turning to her right to go to her rooms.

Spike pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against and followed her down the hall. "I wasn't lurking. I was standing here, waiting for you."

"Oh, so that makes it different?"

"Yeah."

"So, you're a stalker?"

"No. Just want to talk is all."

Buffy cast a quick glance at him. "Why don't you go talk to some one else? I'd rather be left alone."

"Well, I would, but no one else seems to want me around."

"I don't want you around either." Buffy replied in matter of fact tone.

"Yeah, I picked up on that when we first talked downstairs, but unlike every one else that doesn't want me here, you at the very least answer me when I say something to you. The rest of the bloody lot barely nods their head in response."

Buffy and Spike had come to the doorway of her apartment and stopped walking. Buffy turned so that she faced him, but avoided looking directly at him. Even without looking at him she could feel him watching her closely.

"Maybe you haven't annoyed them enough yet." She suggested, trying to hint to him that he was annoying her.

"So I'm annoying now am I?" Spike asked, a smirk on his face.

"As a matter of fact, yes, you are." Buffy told him as she finally made eye contact with him. Her heart skipped a beat as she let herself get lost in his eyes for a brief moment. "I, um, I should go." She said blinking herself back to reality.

Spike noticed the change in her again. She had done the same thing before when they had made eye contact. He wasn't sure what to make of her reaction. "Do you have to?" He asked sounding disappointed. Spike scolded himself, he hadn't meant his question to sound so pleading. 'What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I care if she wants to go?'

Buffy noticed the disappointment in his voice and for a second she thought about changing her mind, but when she made eye contact with him again she thought of William and knew she needed time to herself. "Why do you care? Isn't there some place else you can go? Maybe some place where you aren't a thorn in every ones side that lives here."

Her outburst caught Spike off guard and it took him a moment to gather himself back into the ruthless man he normally pretended he was. It was the easiest way to keep himself from getting hurt again, from letting people get in. "Bloody hell, woman. What is your problem? The only reason I'm a thorn in anybody's side is because Peaches makes me out to be that way."

"Peaches?"

"Yeah. You know, your beau, Angel?"

"First of all Angel is not my beau. Second of all if you aren't what he says you are, then why do you insist on bothering me?" Buffy waited for a response but got nothing. "Hello? Spike? You wanna answer my question?"

"Huh?" Spike said snapping out if his daze. His thoughts had lingered on the fact that Buffy was not involved with his cousin as she had previously led him to believe.

"I asked you, if you aren't like Angel says you are, then why do you insist on making a pest of yourself? Why can't you just leave me alone when it is obvious that I don't like you?"

"You want to know why?" Spike retorted raising his voice wondering why he was going to tell her the truth. "How about because I don't know any one here, or even in this country any more for that matter. I was ripped away from every one I knew years ago. I came back looking for some one from my past that I had to unwillingly leave behind, but I had no luck. So now I am stuck here with Angel until I can get myself together to get out of this soddin' place. I am trying to make friends here, which I can't because Peaches has badmouthed me to every one. You are the only one that seems willing to respond to me. Yeah maybe you aren't being nice about it and you act like a stupid bint but it's better then being alone." He paused and took a deep breath trying to calm down. He hadn't meant to get worked up. Spike tried to read the expression on Buffy's face but she refused to look at him. "I'm sorry, I got worked up, I didn't mean to call you names." He said softly trying to apologize.

Buffy wasn't sure what had happened. They had been having a conversation, even if it hadn't been a nice one, but it had been conversation. The next thing she knew Spike was yelling at her, calling her a stupid bint, whatever that was, and she felt hurt. "I should go." She whispered and turned to walk into her apartment.

"No, Buffy, wait. Could you please just give me a chance? There's something else I have to say." He begged her not to go.

"Is everything okay?" Came a voice from behind the two blonds. They both turned to see Oz standing there, as usual no expression upon his face. "It sounded like there was some yelling and I thought I better check it out before Angel did."

Buffy gave him a weak smile. "It's okay Oz. We were having a little spat, but nothing to worry about. We'll try to keep it down."

"You sure?"

"Yeah it's good. Sorry if we disturbed you."

"It's okay. I just didn't want the boss to hear it. You know one of you would have hell to pay if he had come up here." He replied casting a glance in Spike's direction knowing that he would have been the one that would have had to deal with the wrath of Angel. Oz gave a nod to the two of them and walked back in the direction of his room.

When Spike turned around he saw Buffy walking through the doorway into her apartment. "Buffy, before you go can I please say just one thing?"

Buffy stopped just inside the living room and turned to face him. She watched him standing there watching her, but said nothing. She was still stunned from what Spike had told her in the hallway. Maybe Angel was wrong about his cousin, maybe he wasn't as bad as he said he was. He was here in America because he had lost a friend and had hoped to come back to find them. He hadn't succeeded in his search and now he was stuck here with no friends, an uncle that didn't want to help him, and a cousin who did everything to make him miserable because they didn't get along. She started to feel sorry for him and the front she had been putting up slowly started to fade away.

Spike saw something in her eyes change. They seemed to soften. He felt guilty for yelling at her, for taking his frustrations out on her, when she wasn't responsible for anything that had happened to him. "Buffy, I…"

She cut him off before he could finish. "You don't have to stand in the hallway, Spike. You can come in if you'd like. It might be better anyway, you know with the yelling and all at least I could close the door to help muffle the noise." Buffy stepped to the side to allow room for Spike to enter her living area, but he didn't move towards the door.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. Angel might…"

"Don't worry about him"

"I just, I don't want to be more of a pest then I have been since I've been here."

"Would you just get in here? You are the one that had something else to say. You are the one that wanted to make friends here. How do you expect to accomplish this if you are going to just stand there while I am in here?"

"Are you sure that you are okay with this?" Spike asked as he stepped in to Buffy's apartment. She closed the door behind him and gestured to the sofa in the middle of the room.

"I'm sure. Make yourself at home. Would you like something to drink? I could make coffee or there might be soda in the fridge." Buffy walked to the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator door as Spike took a seat on the sofa.

"Actually, I'm okay. Thank you anyway."

Buffy took out a bottle of water and closed the door. "You sure?" She asked as she made her way over to where he was sitting. He just nodded his head as she sat down on the opposite end of the sofa and tucked her feet up under her.

"Buffy" Spike said before she had a chance to say anything "I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry for yelling like that. None of that was your fault."

"It's okay, honestly. Why don't we start from the beginning, erase the slate, and try again?"

"I like the sound of that. Shall I start?" He asked filled with hope that things were going to get better.