Buffy sat up in bed, her friends surrounding her. Willow, Xander, and Riley were all in her room the day after she'd been returned, gratefully trying to entertain the depressed girl. There was just one problem in this; Buffy wasn't depressed.

"She'll be in shock. She might not want to eat, and she might do some pretty uncharacteristic things. Kidnapping victims as a whole have a history of trying to hurt themselves when the shock is still fresh," an agent had told her mother. So Joyce was liberally sending up snacks, while letting Buffy have some chill time with her friends. But she still wasn't depressed.

"You're so brave," Willow commented when Buffy pointed this out. Her eyes strayed to the book on Buffy's nightstand, taking it as further proof that Buffy wasn't herself. "I'd have freaked out." Buffy was getting a little tired of her friends walking on eggshells, trying to comfort her without admitting aloud what had supposedly happened to her. Several 'I'd have done this' and 'you're so' statements had been directed at her, without ever mentioning the situation they'd have done something in, or that she'd be so something in.

"Mm-hmm. Willow, can I see those notes?" She'd asked Willow to bring her notes for tomorrow's math test, but the red head hadn't whipped them out as soon as she walked in the room. For Willow, that was rare.

"Buffy, you can't go to school tomorrow! You're still not feeling well!"

"I'm feeling fine Will. And I don't really think Mr. Crane will consider being kidnapped an adequate excuse to miss his test."

"But-"

"Please Willow. I need to do good on this test." Willow forked her notebook over with a defeated sigh, as the doorbell rang. Downstairs, they could hear Giles's voice as he enquired as to Buffy's condition, and then asked if he might see her?

"Buffy, are you feeling up to visitors?" her mother asked her a minute later, peeking her head in the teen's room.

"I'm FINE, Mom." Joyce invited the librarian up the stairs, and as she showed him into Buffy's room, Buffy caught the goofy smile her mom shot Giles. He returned it nervously as Buffy rolled her eyes. She hated it when her mother flirted in front of her.

"Hello Buffy. I was just calling to check up on your condition."

"Calling? More like showing up."

"Oh, yes. I suppose it's a British term." British. Spike was British. Spike was apparently Victorian British, even though he had a rougher accent. How his voice had taken that up, she wanted to know. Yet another mystery she hadn't been able to solve. Of course she was grateful to be back home, and away from the crazy creature-of-the-night side of Spike, but she found herself slightly disappointed to be taken away from the man who'd made her ramen noodles.

"I'm quite fine then, good chap. See, I speak British."

"I'm quite impressed. I also wanted to inquire when you would be returning to school?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow! Buffy, you've been though a great deal! More than anyone would imagine!" He shot a glance around the room at that moment, letting her know he was referring to her blissfully clueless friends and mother.

"Killer math test."

"I don't think-"

"I'm going, alright people?" Everyone stared at her, her outburst making them gape. "I'm going to school tomorrow, and I want to go to the Bronze tomorrow night. I feel fine, like I've said a hundred times, and I just want to go back to my normal life." Giles nodded.

"Of course. I understand. I'd like to discuss something with you once you return to school, if that's okay with you. Just come by the library any time." She answered affirmatively, and Joyce left to show him out. She could hear the two talking for some time downstairs, so she just kept up a conversation with her friends to drown the adults out.

"Do you three want to hit the Bronze with me? It'll be like a double date." She laughed internally as Willow turned red, and Xander sputtered. The two kinda had crushes on each other, had had them for some time. But they were terrified to admit their feelings to the other. Buffy had heard both of their confessions, and had been trying to throw them together for months now.

"If you're still convinced you feel fine tomorrow, I guess," Xander stuttered.

"Of course," Riley answered from where he sat next to her, holding her hand.

"Cool. Let's meet there at nine?"

"Sounds good," Willow answered. The three then made up three lame excuses for why they had to leave, because Joyce had told them she wanted Buffy to get some rest around four o'clock. She watched them go before picking up her book, and continuing where she had left off the night before. The school's copy wasn't anywhere near as old as Spike's, but years of student abuse had reduced it to far worse conditions than the lovingly worn novel, with it's beige cover and crooked black typewriter font, that she'd started on.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Giles rubbed his eyes as he climbed into bed. It was only nine, but he'd had a rough last couple of days. What with Buffy being kidnapped, he'd forgone sleeping to try and find her as soon as possible. When dealing with Vampires, time was of the essence.

Sadly, Spike's forces had a few former witches in their ranks. One of them, a younger girl named Amy, had been a Wicca student at Sunnydale High just a few years ago. So locating spells were rendered useless. Giles had, however, gone to the factory during daylight, use a short-range locator spell that had proven effective in the past. It created a tiny, glowing orb that would scope out the location quickly before reporting back to it's creator. Because it was less of a spell and more of a magical probe (there were differences, even if Giles didn't understand them), barriers couldn't keep them out. He'd planned on discerning where in the factory the Vampires were keeping her, but it had returned without results.

They weren't keeping Buffy at the factory. The news was a blow to him- he'd been ready to storm in, stakes a-blazing. But this put a damper on his plans. He'd been at a complete loss as to how to proceed. And just when he'd been ready to contact the Vampires himself, Spike had called.

Buffy was back now. That was all that mattered. Spike had escaped, and a funny feeling still lingered around the whole event, but she was back, and she was safe. He was going to start training her as soon as possible, teaching her how to stake and some basic self-defense moves, just to make sure she'd be safe in the future against any new Spike plans. And he was going to lend some more sophisticated Wicca books to her friend Willow, containing protection spells and shield charms.

Every little bit helped.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The electronica song seemed to mimic her heartbeat as she spun around in Riley's arms, letting her hands rest on his waist. He smiled at her as his farm-boy hair fell in his eyes, making him look even cuter. She couldn't believe she'd ever considered Spike to be hot- she'd take the soft brown locks any day over Gwen Stefani-blonde tresses.

Still, as she thought this, she couldn't help but wonder what color lurked under the blonde. And she had to appreciate Spike's hair as it was; not even Eminem could pull off the peroxide look that well. With dear Em, it just looked like a gimmick. With Spike, well, it was Spike. She couldn't imagine what he'd look like with any other color hair, though she'd like to find out.

"It's getting late," she heard Riley say over the noise of the next song. She pouted, not wanting to go, but he tilted his head towards the table where Xander and Willow were sitting in silence. She sighed. Once again, her attempts to get them together hadn't worked.

"Let's go, guys," she told them as soon as she reached the table. Willow looked relieved to have the silence broken, though Xander appeared disappointed. Even though Buffy knew he was nowhere near telling Willow how he felt, the look on his faced resembled being interrupted just when his confession of love was on the tip of his tongue. She'd seen this look before, and knew what it meant; he was mentally kicking himself for not saying anything when he had the chance.

They four of them walked out of the Bronze together, Riley holding Buffy's hand while Xander and Willow kept a safe distance between themselves.

"So, Buffy, how was your math test?" Xander asked, trying to make small talk. Buffy responded by telling him the subtleties of each problem, until a scream came from somewhere near. Willow and Xander jumped, while Riley pulled Buffy into her arms automatically.

In an abandoned house just a few hundred feet from the Bronze, Spike was eagerly slurping up his latest victim when he felt it. Buffy. Raising his bloody face, and allowing the demon visage to slip from it, he sniffed the air in wonder. He hadn't thought he'd ever see her again, and it was just a few days later. Fate is funny like that.

He'd fully intended on bringing her back from the library with him. His bed was still indented where she'd spend most of her day reading, her scent lingered on everything he owned, and there was a bag of stolen girly shampoo and a towel stashed behind a chair. She'd been complaining about wanting to take a shower, but he didn't have girly shampoo or towels. So he'd nicked some just for her, and had been planning to unveil her presents after Giles was dead. A peace offering, because he knew she liked the old man.

Now, they were both just reminders that she wasn't there anymore. And, to his surprise, he missed her. He'd meant what he said when he told her he was lonely, and he felt like they had unfinished business. Both added up to the crazy, but possibly true, conclusion that he liked the human girl.

Crazy as it was, just smelling her now was bringing a smile to his face, and he began to wonder if there actually was something in him that cared just a smidge about Buffy.

He got to his feet and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his duster. Bounding down the stairs, he flew out the door and headed down the alley directly for a group of four kids, Buffy one of them.

Their scents were vaguely familiar, Buffy having worn them the night she came to him. But one of them, a boy with his hair falling in his eyes and his arms around Buffy, rang a familiar bell in Spike's mind.

Prince Riley. His smell was all over Buffy, inside and out. Spike growled before he could control it, and the small group heard him.

"Who are you?" Buffy's boyfriend asked, trying to sound threatening. The other two in the gang looked scared, but Buffy was gazing at him with a look so…glad.

"You're okay," he heard her whisper, thanks to his superior hearing, and he remembered the arrow wound.

"S'nothing," he directed at her, basking in the warmth of her smile when she realized she'd been heard.

"I said, who are you?"

"He's a friend." Everyone in the alley looked at Buffy, wondering where in the world she'd become acquainted with such a punk. "How have you been?"

"Bored," he said, the first thing that came to his mind. He wanted Riley far away from her; the dork was practically pressing Buffy up against him.

"I'd have thought you'd have scheming and plotting to keep you busy."

"Yea, 'cause that's sooo interesting."

"I'm curious, what do you do for fun? I mean, other than the obvious." Riley, Willow, and Xander didn't need to know that the definition of 'obvious' involved massive bloodshed.

"There's a Bowie concert next month, in LA. I've considered turning Bowie in the past, but I think it'd have too much of an effect on his music. So now I just go see his show whenever he's in town." Buffy chuckled, while Red, Whelp, and Prince Riley looked confused.

"My mom will be worried if I don't get home soon. So I'll see you around?"

"Our paths just tend to cross." He gave her a faint smile as he turned and headed for his graveyard.

He was halfway there before he remembered his forgotten prey, much less the bitable-looking humans Buffy had been with. He hadn't even given thought to biting them in her presence.

He stopped walking as he took a deep, unnecessary breath to clear his head. Okay, it was becoming apparent. He didn't hate the girl. But that was all he would admit to.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Buffy shrieked wildly as she closed in on Giles. The Library was closed to students during today's lunch period, because Giles had insisted on pulling her away from her important social engagements to "train."

"I want you to be more than prepared should you ever find yourself in a similar situation than the one you faced mere days ago."

"The Vampires will be wearing pads like that?" She indicated the puffy armor he had donned before giving her a blunt stake. He dodged her as she swung again, missing again. "Dammit! Stop moving!"

"This is supposed to be combat training. Stopping movement would defeat the purpose." She managed to hit his chest, but it was nowhere near his heart. Giles grabbed her arm, and tried to be as gentle as he could as he twisted it in back of her. He leaned forward as if to bite her.

"If you miss the heart, it's worse than not connecting at all. The force of the blow will take you precious seconds to recover, while the Vamp can have his way with your close-range neck." As he pulled his face away, he noticed for the first time that there were no bite marks on her neck. He hadn't necessarily assumed there would be, but after a few days of wondering exactly WHAT Buffy had been through (because the girl wasn't talking,) he was starting to get confused.

She'd been in Spike's clutches for more than 48 hours, and it didn't appear she'd been harmed at all. She had a few scratches that had already healed, that's how minor they were, and a bump on her head. As well as the tailbone injury which she had gotten when Spike dropped her to make his escape.

And that was another fishy thing, Spike's escape. He'd just dropped the girl and ran. Pulled the arrow Giles KNEW had connected out of his leg, dropped Buffy, and ran. That was rather un-Spike-like behavior. And even if Spike had gone chicken, as the Americans said, and left her, he'd have hunted her down soon enough. Giles was fairly confident that was the case, and was waiting for the shoe to drop any minute now, practically.

Thus, training.

"Aye-yah!" she yelled as her stake crashed through his musings, hit directly over his heart, and send him stumbling backwards into one of the tables. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"I'll live," he chuckled wryly as he stripped off the padding. It was getting close to the end of Buffy's lunch period, and he needed to shelve some books before student groups came in anyway.

"That means I can go?" she asked hopefully, interpreting his action. He nodded.

"For only your second day, that was very impressive. Granted, you caught me off guard, but I'm still proud. Yes, you may go." She grinned as she turned and headed towards the doors. "Buffy?"

"Yea?"

"My stake." She looked at the weapon in her hand.

"I thought you wanted me to carry one at all times."

"Yes, but a sharp one. Not that thing." He emitted a tiny sigh as she handed it over, and he replaced in her hand a thinner, sharper splinter of wood.

"Thanks. I'm still sorry about losing Mr. Pointy," she apologized sheepishly. She knew Mr. Pointy held some memories, good and painful, for Giles. But Spike had confiscated him.

"It wasn't your fault. Have a nice day," he said as she departed. Once she was gone, he began to straighten the chairs that had been pushed out of the way during their fight. He had focused mainly on avoiding attacks while trying to hit the heart these past two days, and while she wasn't ready for a just-risen Vamp yet, he saw an opportunity for progress. Soon, he'd start to teach her how to fight back. A few simple kicks and punches. And more defensive maneuvers- ducking and jumping. Oh, and maybe a little weaponry…nothing major, but it couldn't hurt for Buffy to know how to handle a short sword, would it?

He realized he was basically training her exactly in Kendra's image, but he couldn't help himself. If Buffy was for all intents and purposes a Protector, so be it. The council wouldn't know, and she'd be capable of taking care of herself. She'd be able to fight off Spike once Giles was dead, and the new Sunnydale Protector didn't know to keep the menace away from the Miss Summers.

Thinking of Miss Summers made him thing of the other Ms. Summers, Joyce Summers to be exact. Unbeknownst to Buffy, he was taking her mother out to lunch tomorrow. When Joyce had originally called him, quite unexpectedly, having gotten his number out of the school directory, she'd suggested dinner. The excuse 'I can't be busy at night because I have a feeling a man is planning on eating your daughter' wouldn't fly, but he'd stammered out something with the effects of making her suggest lunch.

Lunch was good. Eat lunch with the older Summers by day, keep the younger Summers from becoming lunch by night.