They were still silent when they filed back into the Hub. Tosh went immediately back to her desk. She spoke with Gwen and Owen over the comms to see if the victims were all right. Jack marched to the conference room, as it was more private than his office. Buffy followed. Ianto and Spike stood awkwardly as they watched the father and daughter leave. Ianto started tidying the Hub, and Spike began prowling around the place. He looked up when the pterodactyl screeched.

"That's a dinosaur," Spike said.

"Yes," said Ianto while trying not to roll his eyes.

"Of course you've got a bloody dinosaur," Spike muttered.

No one said anything else. After a while Spike resorted to pacing in front of the couch.

"Coffee," Ianto said when Owen and Gwen were on their way back. "Everyone could use some coffee."

"I'll help you with that," Spike said. Ianto didn't move, but his face was showing complete disbelief. Spike shifted uncomfortably. "What?"

"Nothing," the Welshman replied. He went to the coffee machine while the vampire trailed behind. While he started his coffee magic, Spike poked about looking at things.

"So, aliens? How's that been going for you?" Spike asked in an effort to fill the silence. Ianto just stared. "Not too keen on the idea of them myself, being personally a demon for so long and all, but Slayer says demons and aliens are just the same. Not sure whether to be insulted or not. There aren't really those ones that burst out of the chest, are there? Cause as hilarious as that scene was…"

"That was just a movie," Ianto interrupted the babbling vampire. "Do you ever stop talking?"

"No," Spike answered while still poking around. "You like the Ramones?"

"You're nervous."

"Vampires don't get nervous," Spike growled. But he was betrayed by his own anxious look back towards the Hub.

"All right, worried then," Ianto said.

Spike heaved a sigh. "If it were just some demon to fight—I know my slayer'd be just fine. But she cares about her friends. It's what makes her so special. And when it comes to family… she's had it rough. Meeting her father meant more to her than she evens knows. And this…"

"You love her," Ianto said with surprise.

"That obvious? Yeah. She's got me right buggered, has since the first moment I saw her—though it took some time to realise it. I'd been with one woman over a century and thought that we were forever. But Buffy… I'll love her till I'm dust. Not that she'll ever feel the same. What about you? Don't think I haven't noticed you've got a thing for the boss."

"I… we… he…" The Welshman was obviously flustered.

"You too, huh?"

"Coffee's ready." Ianto got to work pouring and preparing each person's mug. He heard the sound of the cog door, his timing perfect, so he put all the mugs on a tray. Before he could pick it up, Spike grabbed the tray and nodded for Ianto to go ahead of him. Frowning, Ianto walked out to the Hub with his vampire shadow. Spike held the tray for Ianto to distribute the cups to everyone. Ianto kept Jack and Buffy's mugs under a cosy, but with still no sign of them he doubted whether the coffee for them was needed. As Ianto took the tray from Spike he asked, "You didn't want any, did you?"

"No," Spike said as he sat on the couch and started absently tapping his hands on his legs. "I'm on edge enough without adding caffeine."

"Great, an edgy vampire," Owen muttered. "Just what we need."

For what felt like minutes everyone tried not to look at the vampire. Finally, Spike had had enough silence. "All right, you lot have questions. Fire away."

"How long have you been a vampire?" Tosh asked.

"I was turned in 1880."

"And you've been stealing Billy Idol's look for how much of that time?" Owen snarked.

"Hey! He bloody well stole it from me."

"That answers that," said Owen.

"The things you've seen, the history you've lived through…" Tosh said as she thought out loud.

"Well, yeah. Been through stuff. Had myself some fun. Funny thing is the world hasn't changed as much as you might think."

"How did you get to be friends with a vampire slayer?" Tosh asked.

Spike laughed. "Long story, luv. Stuff of bards and poets."

Owen scoffed.

"You lot really don't know much about slayers, do you?" Spike spoke the question as an insult.

"And you do?" Owen shot back angrily.

"Yeah, seeing as how I've met so many, studied them for so long. Do you even know how old Buffy was when she was called?"

"Fifteen," Owen said after a pause.

"Fifteen and she has to fight everything Hell throws at her. And her, she got thrown everything and the kitchen sink. She was only sixteen when I came into town looking to bag my third slayer."

"Bag? You've killed vampire slayers?" The hostility in Gwen's tone was impossible to miss.

With a slight growl to himself, Spike stood and paced again.

The emotions of the Torchwood team varied. Tosh looked nervous, but she tried to trust Buffy's judgement—even if it baffled her. Both Gwen and Owen looked ready to kill the vampire. Because of Buffy, Owen entertained ideas of how to do it without any intent of seeing it through. Gwen, however, was waiting for the slightest provocation, the smallest excuse, to dispatch the undead intruder. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly sure how to go about it; she had no way of knowing what was vampire fact or fiction. Every time she had meant to ask Rhys something had distracted them.

Ianto appeared passive. As he watched Spike his mind whirled and processed everything. The resemblance to John Hart was undeniable, but the more he studied the vampire the more different the two were. Sure it was the same glib manner of speech, but the feelings behind what was said were complete opposites. The man from the future was cold and empty, looking for a thrill any way he could get it. This vampire seemed to have a romantic heart, a genuineness that testified of indefatigable loyalty. He was obviously besotted with Buffy, and thus far had made no flirtatious remark concerning anyone on the Torchwood team—not one quip on the looks of either sex. Ianto was startled, perturbed almost, that given time with this man he could be good friends. Yet he wasn't even a man; he was a vampire. That disturbed him even more.

"I do," Ianto said. Everyone stared at his odd outburst. Ianto looked a Spike. "I like the Ramones."

Tosh and Gwen looked confused, and Owen had a look that seemed to say 'you would.' Spike cocked an eyebrow, but he sat down on the other end of the couch. They talked about music but once the subject was exhausted silence fell again.

"What do you think is going on in there?" Gwen burst out. Everyone looked at her but said nothing. "It's been forever."

"I'm guessing it's complicated, Gwen," Owen said snidely.

Spike made a small noise that only Ianto caught.

"Complicated?" Gwen had been brewing in the silence and now boiled over. "She breaks all the rules, she betrays us, and we act like it's all fine!"

"No one's acting like it's fine," Owen argued. "But you have to admit…"

"What, Owen? That the only reason she's still here is because she's Jack's daughter?"

"Maybe we should…" Tosh tried to intervene, but Owen cut her off.

"No, let's get this out. You haven't been all that keen on Buffy for a while, have you, Gwen?"

Gwen hesitated only for a moment. "You all don't know that this isn't the first time Buffy has done this—betrayed those around her, rebelled against those on her side. Rhys has told me all about things she's done."

"Rhys?" Spike asked Ianto. At the same moment Owen said, "What Rhys has told you? And you believe it?"

"Gwen's husband, his cousin is a watcher so he knew Buffy by reputation." While Ianto answered Spike Gwen answered Owen, "Yes, I do Owen. He told me why he knew her name."

"Right," Spike said and stood up, cutting off Gwen and Owen's argument. "You're talking about Buffy turning her back on the Watcher's Council?"

She nodded and Spike continued.

"Well you can't have heard much. See, I wasn't there when she first had trouble with them, but I learned the details from the man who was—the man who was like a father to her and was sacked by the Council for getting too attached. Did Rhys forget to mention the watchers' tradition of draining a slayer of her powers on her eighteenth birthday—and that's if they even live that long—big IF—and then throwing the weakened girl into a locked house with a vampire? If the slayer has been obedient to those sods the vamp's an easy kill. If she's been difficult, not pulling the party line as well as they'd like, asking questions or making her own calls, she faces a nasty vamp and never comes out of the house again. Buffy fell in the latter category. They gave her the nastiest, yet she outwitted him, scared and powerless as she was. Saw her often enough beat me, so I can guess what that looked like. And I was there when those self-righteous wankers came back and tried dictating ridiculous commands and putting the Slayer through pointless hoops when she just needed some information from them so she could save the world. Again. So seeing as how she's been up against every nasty in the night, I think she's entitled to make the calls. That woman is amazing, more than you know. She's a fighter and a leader. Personally, I don't understand why she's stayed this long with you idiots. But that's her. She cares about people, and when she calls you a friend there's nothing she won't do for you. So take your 'we've been betrayed' attitude and shove it up your…"

"Spike!" Buffy re-entered the Hub at that moment. "We're leaving."

She walked to her desk unaware of the speech made on her behalf and gathered her things. The team were in a stunned silence as they tried to process everything they had just heard, and what it all meant about Buffy, the Watchers, and the vampire in the room. But one thing was sinking in: Buffy was leaving Torchwood permanently.

"Buff," Owen tried to speak but stopped.

Buffy smiled at the old familiar nickname coming from her newer friend. "Do me a favour, Owen, and ask Tosh out to dinner."

She sent a smile towards Tosh, who was looking both upset and flustered. Buffy was able to fit her things in a box she had left sitting around. She picked it up and started to walk out of the Hub. As she passed Ianto, the Welshman gave her a quick and awkward hug.

"Watch out for him for me," she said quietly to him. "He may not be in any mortal danger, but…"

"Yeah," he answered. Then he nodded towards Spike who had taken the box and walked ahead and out of the Hub. "You've got quite the backup yourself now."

Buffy's face went almost dumb with shock. "You approve of…"

Ianto took a deep breath but said, "Yeah. He's not remotely like who we thought he was. He seems… all right."

"For a vampire," Buffy added.

"For anyone," he corrected.

As Buffy walked to join Spike in the tourist office, her mind raced. Somehow the two men had formed camaraderie out of the previous hostility. It unnerved her.

Spike shifted the box in his arms. "Listen, Buffy, if you ever want to talk…"

"Since when have you known me to keep quiet when I want to talk?"

"Just sayin'. No need to bite. I'm the vampire here, remember?"

They started walking to the mall where Spike had left his rented car (courtesy of the new Watcher's Council). "So where is this thing Giles wanted me to look into? There was a letter?"

"Yeah. The letter explains things… well, not really. But it's in Penrith. The thing, not the letter."

"Which is where?"

"In my coat pocket if you want to manhandle me to get it." He did the sexy slightly sticking out his tongue thing with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Ew, no, Penrith, not the letter. And you wish!

"Cumbria."

"Are seriously being difficult just to annoy me?"

He grinned. "It's part of England in the north west, just next to the Lake District."

"I've heard of that."

"So you should have. Giles has been getting talk of some sort of demon."

"Seriously, could you be any vaguer?"

He glanced over and raised an eyebrow.

She huffed. "If your hands weren't full of my things I'd punch you."

"Sorry, Slayer, Mr. Tea & Crumpets was just as vague. Said something about odd things that could be a demon, possibly a dragon. There's probably more in the letter."

"Dragon?"

"I know!" he said with an excited grin.

She gave him a lopsided incredulous look. "You're excited for a dragon? Are you forgetting just how flammable you are?"

"C'mon, Slayer, wouldn't be any fun without a little danger."

She conceded the point with a slight smile.

A.N. So Buffy's leaving Torchwood. Did you really think she was going to stick around forever? Don't worry, she'll be back. There's no way I'm not having a meeting between Spike and Hart. But in the meantime things are taking a different direction for Buffy. I'd love to know your thoughts!