Author's Note: Thanks for all of the reviews! You guys really made me happy, haha. :) New chapter! Btw, this story can also be found at http/ which is an awesome Spuffy site. :) Please review!

Fool Me Once
Chapter 3

During her long walk back to the hospital, Buffy's mind played a nice game. A game that should have been known as 'let's make Buffy insane with revelations.'

Revelations that so didn't happen.

Are you kidding girl? You're hot for him.

Am not!

Are too!

Just because I had a dream about him—

—a sex dream!—

—a dream, doesn't mean that I want him!

And I suppose it doesn't mean you are seeing him as more than a vampire now, either, eh?

"Shut up!" Buffy said out loud, kicking a can in the street forcefully and sending it half a block down the road until it collided with a trash can. "Great, now I'm taking to myself. God, I have such worse things to worry about."

And here you are thinking about Mr. Sexy Vampire.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Buffy said exasperatedly.

"What?"

The unexpected sound of a second voice sent Buffy whirling around. "Riley!" she said in relief, as he stepped out of the narrow alley intersecting with the street. Buffy craned her neck to the side and looked behind her boyfriend. "What'cha doin' there?"

"Just chasing down a vampire," Riley answered, pulling his sleeve down further in order to conceal the band aid on his wrist. "What about you, Buff? I thought you'd be at the, uh, hospital."

"Doing a quick patrol before morning. I kind of needed to let off some steam." The two began walking down the street together, but separated by a good foot of space between them. They were talking normally, but Buffy sensed that there was something bothering her boyfriend. "Are you alright, Riley?"

"Yeah, I'm great! Er, fine," he answered, almost too quickly. She reluctantly took this as the truth, but couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something wrong. "How was your patrol? Feeling any better?"

"Yeah," Buffy answered, although that was far from the case. There was nothing that would alleviate the apprehension she felt about her mother's illness and the coming struggle with it, and now there were other things of almost equal proportions on her mind.

Because she really couldn't keep denying what she had felt after the dream. Not just the lust—she'd had those thoughts, however secretly, nearly the entire time she had known him. No, there was something more, something that had been pretty plain to Buffy the moment that she had woken up. But she denied, denied, denied, if not to the others—because no one would ever know what had happened—to herself. It was all for nothing though; she couldn't ignore the fact that she had felt something intense.

A connection.

One which she had just proved to be more than a crazy dream scenario. She had felt it again when she had told Spike about her mother, and it resulted in Crazy!Buffy talking to herself and numerous inanimate objects.

And apparently, Crazy!Buffy didn't know exactly how to converse with the other humans very well; Riley had been chatting about something nonsensical for the past five minutes while the fun revelation game continued within her mind.

It took her a minute to realize that Riley's rambling had somehow turned into questioning. Of her. "What?" she asked dazedly, looking up and realizing for the first time that they were outside of the hospital.

"Do you want me to go in with you?"

"That's okay," she answered quickly. She had already dealt with Riley's 'let it out' speech once and was not interested in a repeat performance. Maybe it was selfish, considering the fact that she so craved someone with whom to share the weight she carried, but Buffy just couldn't confide to Riley—not about something of the magnitude of her mother's sickness. "My mom's probably sleeping, but I wanted to be here just in case she needs anything." Standing on her toes, she gave her boyfriend a chaste kiss on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Riley looked as if he wanted to protest, but resignedly nodded. "G'night, Buff."

"Night."

By the time the blond vampire managed to drag himself from the tombstone he hadn't moved from, there was a small mountain of cigarette butts littering the earthen ground.

Bloody revelations.

There was something changing in the Slayer, he could sense it; maybe it was just the pressure of having to finally grow up and out of her high school self, or of having yet another person completely reliant upon her care, but it seemed… deeper than that.

Spike hadn't let himself think of their time on her porch, of the feel of her silently crying body shaking when she somehow found her way into his arms. He knew how disoriented the poor bird was; probably didn't even realize that it was him holding her. Thinking back on how he felt about it now, the emotion being held out over all others was shame—shame that he had gone there to snuff the life from her, and was rewarded with seeing a glimpse of her true self.

It hadn't been the Slayer that he had comforted that night; it was Buffy, no strings attached. The way she had looked that night, the strength of her sobs coursing through her—made a bloke wonder when had been the last time she had bared her true self to the world. It had obviously been a while, that was for certain; he doubted whether even Red or the whelp had ever seen that side of her.

And again, unworthiness came swirling up and soured his stomach.

"Bloody hell," Spike muttered, shaking his head as he stood and began to walk through the cemetery, his black leather duster swirling about his legs. The thing about shame was that it managed to chase you regardless of how quickly you ran away, was always there to nag at you, make you lose your mind. "You've got that right," the vampire chuckled, a smile forming on his face. He had initially thought that he had dreamed up the whole night before, but their encounter tonight had only confirmed their sudden comfort with one another. There was a change in the Slayer, all right, but exactly what it was, he had no idea. Maybe it was the way she looked at him—her stare, those eyes…

It was bittersweet torture. The taste that he had of Buffy, the two moments of closeness they shared… it wasn't nearly enough to satiate the desire he had for her, to satisfy the need he had for her mere presence; William was a fool in love, but Spike wouldn't let his blind hope prevail.

"She could never want you, mate," the vampire said with false joviality, exiting through the gate of the cemetery and heading down the road to the nearest convenience store. He would get piss drunk and finally rid his mind of the constantly-present Slayer within it; if he didn't forget about Buffy soon, she would take over his entire existence.

No one says you've got to stay Love's Bitch forever.