A/N : Thanx so much to all the fab reviewers! I love that you're all having theories about whats happening here - I won't say you're right, but I won't say you're wrong either! Just keep on reading and reviewing, I'll keep on writing, and you'll find out what really is happening:-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"Something bad but you can't figure out what it is?" Buffy asked Spike as she handed him a mug of warm blood and joined him on the couch, cradling her own mug of hot cocoa between her hands.

"I dunno, luv" he sighed, shaking his head, "'S like there was somethin' in that hall, like a voice I couldn't quite hear, or a scent I couldn't quite smell" he said thoughtfully, "Could just be my over-active imagination but..."

"But it could be real" Buffy noted, "Real and bad, and honestly, I'd rather be prepared for the worst case scenario"

"How can we prepare if I can't even tell you what it is that's coming?" Spike asked with a smirk, "Even you can't manage that, pet"

"Hey, I was born ready for anything" the Slayer told him with a similarly cocky smile, "and now I have you with me, there's nothing I can't face"

The couple shared a kiss, both experiencing the strange taste of chocolate and blood as their lips and then tongues met - they were quite used to it by now.

"Still, bloody hard work telling you what to be ready for if I can't even wrap my head around it myself" Spike sighed when they parted, "Seems to me we ought to get your Watcher and the Wiccas on the case tomorrow"

"Sounds like a plan" Buffy agreed, as a yawn over took her, "Tonight is so not the night for research, I think Willow and Tara both got a little giddy on the champagne and the last I saw of Giles he was getting pretty darn friendly with one of Xander's aunts"

"There's a mental image that doesn't bear thinking of" Spike shuddered, "Of all the horrors I've seen, I think even I'd run screaming like a ponce from the sight of old Ripper getting his jollies"

"I see your shudder and raise you an eew" Buffy nodded, "It's just not of the good"

"Agreed" Spike said as he took the mug she held in her hands and put it on the table along with his own, "So, how about we find some way to take our minds off that and everything else?" he suggested, moving in close to her and capturing her lips with his.

"We could do that" she said softly, when he gave her a moment to breathe, hands already working on getting each other out of their clothes.

Buffy and Spike had barely made it to the bedroom before their passion overtook them, still it didn't bother them too much whether they did or didn't these days. Willow and Tara had gotten a place of their own a while ago now, as both couples felt they needed a little more privacy than they could really get through paper thin walls. A lot of help from Giles meant there was enough cash to keep the house running for a while, and with Buffy working as much as she could, and Spike even helping out by earning a healthy sum of cash as a bouncer at one of the nastier demon clubs on the Hellmouth, things were going surprisingly well for the blond couple.

Now as they lay spent together in their bed, Buffy couldn't help the smile that filled her face. Life wasn't a bowl of cherries, it was never going to be perfect, but right now it was good. When she managed not to dwell too much on the loss of her Mom, or Dawn, or Annaliese, she could instead concentrate on what she had in her life now. Her great friends and father figure, a baby that would be kind of her niece when it came along, and most important if all, she had Spike.

Right now as she lay beside him, watching him sleep, Buffy couldn't imagine why she'd kept pushing him away so long. They were happy, so much so the Slayer almost felt bad about it. They shouldn't be able to go on with their lives, or in Spike's case unlife, when they'd lost so many people that should be so important. This was how she often thought, but when she mentioned it Spike would always tell her the same thing.

"They loved us, pet, just like we loved them" he'd tell her gently, "They wouldn't want us to sit around and cry for them, they'd want us to move on and be happy, and remember them with a smile, not a tear"

For a supposedly soulless creature, he said some beautiful things sometimes, and Buffy wondered at this man, how he could be such a paradox. Vampires by their very nature were that, she supposed, but Spike was different in a whole other way too. So much more a man than the demon he ought to be, and yet he didn't technically possess a soul, only a chip that stopped him causing physical harm to any human. Though she was sure that had been when he'd started to change, the days and weeks that followed his escape from the Initiative with a lump of silicone in his head, Buffy knew that what Spike told her was true, that she had made the biggest change in his existence. She who had somehow charmed him and challenged him enough that she caused him to fall in love with her.

Buffy knew that falling in love had changed her too, first Angel years ago, and now Spike. Her relationship with the first vampire had taught her a lot about growing up, and rather more than she needed to know about pain. This new love she had with Spike, it taught her about companionship, and passion, and somehow she was even learning to lean a little on someone else, whilst sharing their load too.

As another yawn took over, Buffy decided now was not the time to be getting comtemplatey. She needed sleep, especially if Spike was right about some kind of Big Bad coming. It'd fit into the schedule, she thought, as she snuggled down under the covers, shifting into Spike's cool embrace as he opened his arms to her even in his semi-state of sleep. Something nasty was due to pop up any time now, and as sure as sunlight killed vampires, it would come, and again they'd all be fighting for their lives and the world, except Anya and Xander of course who were on honeymoon for the next two weeks, a collective present from the whole gang.

For now, Buffy forced herself to rest, safe and happy in her lovers arms. Whatever was coming would come, and they'd deal when it did. For a few hours everything would be as it should be, calm and peaceful.

Buffy was woken by the bed shaking beneath her, and yelling loud enough to wake the dead coming from the man beside her, though ironically he himself slept on.

"Spike!" she called as she flipped on the lamp and began trying to rouse him, "Spike, wake up, it's a bad dream!" she told him, and suddenly he was still, his eyes popping open and looking almost wild as he stared up at her.

"No" he said hoarsely, swallowing hard, "No, it's not" he shook his head on the pillow, "I don't..." he started to say, when he was interrupted by the phone downstairs ringing loudly.

"I'll go" Buffy said quickly jumping out of bed, wrapping her robe around her, and hurrying downstairs.

She grabbed up the phone and shakily said hello.

"Buffy, it's Angel" said the vampire on the other end of the line, and immediately Buffy's heart-rate quickened at the prospect of being told something awful was coming.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, knowing something must be, and already wondering if it was connected to whatever Spike suspected of being on it's way. She glanced up as the bleached blond followed her down the stairs in just his jeans, looking more shaken up than one would expect from a mere nightmare.

"Cordy had a vision" Angel said in her ear and Spike came to stand close, able to hear the conversation from both sides now with his vampire hearing, "Something's coming to Sunnydale, Buffy, something you're not expecting"

"Actually, Peaches, you're a bit wrong there" Spike told his grand-sire as he slid the phone from Buffy's grasp before she barely noticed he was planning to, "Knew something was coming, sensed it, felt it, got the bloody technicolor nightmare if you must know"

"Nightmare?" Angel frowned as he echoed the word back.

"What, did I stutter?" Spike checked with an eye roll, "Yes, a bleedin' nightmare you daft sod. Now stick the soddin' cheerleader on the phone and lets see if we can't match up a few important points between her brain pictures and mine"

Though Angel was less than happy at being spoken to in such a tone or being ordered around by Spike, what his grand-childe said made sense and with a grumble he handed the telephone to Cordelia.

"Buffy?" she checked, not aware the phone had been passed over.

"Spike actually, luv" he told her, "Seems you and me might've been sharin' thoughts, me in a dream, you in one of your head-cracking visions, so be a pet and do tell me just exactly what you saw?"

"Okay, so first like a flash of Sunnydale main street, then fire and blood" Cordy recounted, shuddering slightly at the thought of all she'd borne witness too behind her eyes, "then some kind of forcefield, maybe a portal or an explosion of energy"

"Sounding familiar so far" Spike said grimly, knowing he'd be breaking out on a cold sweat by now if he weren't already cold from death, "Go on, pet" he urged Cordelia who did as she was asked.

"Then... I don't know, it all kind of mixed into one, with screaming and yelling and... and then nothing" she said thoughtfully, as if she ought to know what came next but was unable it find it in her head.

"Nothing, like white, blank, and empty?" Spike asked and Cordy nearly spoke right over him as she excitedly replied in the positive.

"Yes, exactly!" she yelled, "Like a peaceful kind of... white nothingness"

"Seems we really were seein' the same thing then" Spike told her, "To the letter"

"It's not good, is it?" Cordy checked.

She already knew that if she was getting visions about it, the Powers That Be were worried and wanted Angel there to help. Still, she had been the one to convince her man that instead of barging into another hero's stomping ground, maybe it was best to call and simply warn Buffy, and indeed Spike who they knew was her live-in lover these days.

"You know the answer to that, pet" he said, thrusting the phone back into Buffy's hands, and telling her with a simple look that they needed to end the call and move. The Slayer did just that, thanking Cordy for her call, and agreeing that it might be a good plan for the seer and her vampire boss at least to come over from LA as back-up as soon as they could. They would leave the rest of the gang at home, it made sense to have them covering there.

By the time Buffy was done on the phone and turned around, she found Spike with half the contents of her weapons chest spread over the floor.

"Spike" she said worriedly, "Please tell me, what is going on?"

"Me and your cheerleader friend saw the same thing" he explained as he selected the weapons he thought might be useful, "I was right, something's coming, and it's not waiting for Team Angel to roll up and take charge either"

"Now?" Buffy checked wide-eyed, "It's coming now?"

"Dunno, luv" Spike admitted, "But it feels bloody close, and it's coming right into the main street of your home town, fit to tear the place apart"

Buffy didn't need telling twice, not when she could see a look of almost fear in her lover's eyes. He seldom if ever got freaked out by anything, but this had shaken him up badly.

Grabbing the phone, Buffy ran up the stairs dialling Willow & Tara's number on the way. In her room she got dressed in record time, all the while holding the phone beneath her chin and asking her Wicca friends to meet them on main street as soon as possible. She considered calling Giles but with the amount of liquor he'd put away she doubted he'd be much use in a battle such as this.

Rushing back down the stairs, she tossed the rest of Spike's clothes to him and selected weapons for herself as he finished dressing.

"Ready, luv?" the vampire checked as he picked up a two headed axe and glanced over at his Slayer who was brandishing a broad-sword.

"Like I told you already, Spike" she said as she walked by him, kissing him briefly as she did so, "I was born ready"

To Be Continued...