Walk Through The Fire

Summery: After Joyce Summers death in 2001, Buffy's twin cousin comes to live with the Summer's girls, but Annette is more than she seems. B/S, X/D, F/We, I/G, Wi/T, D/Cn, A/An. AU.OC.

Author's Note: Re-written from the original version that I'd posted on Quizilla. To see the original, go to Anne30S2M's webpage on Quizilla. I do not own BtVS or AtS, that is the great Joss Whedon's honor and I am but a humble fan and servant of the master.

Chapter Summery: This chapter is a flashback look at Spike and Anne. It will start off with Anne and Spike's first meeting, then on to their first fight, then to when Spike saves Annette's life, through their time as lovers. This will all be AU Sunnydale/L.A. Annette shouldn't be flashing to the reality of when this was going on.

Chapter 2- Standing

1998

"Anne, come on, the gang should all be there by now!" Buffy called up the stairs. Anne rushed to finish up. She was wearing a white peasant crop top and leather pants. The crop's sleeves bunched at her elbows and under bust with white chemise dangling off of it. The top was her favorite for Bronze-wear, because it showed off just enough of her muscular abs that it drove the boys nuts. Anne reached into her closet and pulled out a brown suede 3/4 trench and put it on. "Anne!"

Anne ran down the stairs and said, "I'm ready." 10 year old Dawn and Aunt Joyce came in, Dawn eating chocolate ice cream.

Aunt Joyce gave both of the girls a kiss and said, "You girls have a good time. Be home by-"

"11." Buffy and Anne completed simultaneously. Buffy laid a kiss on Dawn's head and Anne did the same. "See you guys in a few." Buffy said. Anne just smiled and started out. When they left the house, Anne and Buffy both took out their crosses and put them on, then got out their stakes and headed towards the cemetery Anne felt a presence all around her, from the moment that she stepped out. She didn't mention it to Buffy, but someone was definitely watching them. They did a quick sweep of the cemetery, staking at least 2 vamps and decided to call it a night. They walked to the Bronze and that presence fallowed Anne and Buffy there. They walked in and found Xander, Willow, Oz, and Cordy. Xander came up to Annette and gave her a hug.

"Hey, girlie, how about a turn on the dance floor?" He asked playfully.

"Nah, I'm gonna get something to drink." In reality, Anne was going to try to find the would-be stalker. She walked up to the bar and ordered a Dr.Pepper. When she payed she walked to the stairs, where a sexy, bleach blond man was watching the dance floor. The closer she got, the more she knew about the man. He was a vampire, at least 100 years old, give or take, he had a glimmer, something that shouldn't be there. He didn't loose all of his soul. There was something good in him-but, he was evil. Anne could smell his last victim's blood left on his lips. "Whatcha watchin'?" She said playfully to the vamp. She knew he was watching Buffy. Stalking his prey.

The vamp looked at Anne in annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, just thought you'd want to talk. You have been following my cousin and me all night for a reason, vampire." He glared at her and Anne let her demonic fire flash in her emerald eyes.

The vamp laughed, it was a full throated amused laugh. "A Carthax demon. How original." He said.

"What do you want with Buffy?" Anne questioned. He turned his blue eyes on her. Something low in Anne's body squirmed when those eyes met hers. He got in close and Anne couldn't restrain from squirming, thinking about what that body could do.

"One good day." He whispered into her ear, his silky British accent hitting her everywhere. She pushed him off. He just laughed at her."Calm down, demon girl. You'll see what I've got planned soon enough." He gave a salute and began to walk towards the door.

"Whats your name?" Annette called. He turned and gave a smirk.

"William." Then she lost him in the crowd.

1998, 2 months later

Buffy and Anne split up at the cemetery They were searching for William the Bloody, aka Spike, aka the vamp that was at the Bronze that night and effected Annette so oddly. She and Angel went to the north end of the cemetery, Xander and Anne took the south. Cordy, Oz, Willow, and Giles were at the library doing as much research as possible on Spike and Drusilla, his sire and lover and burden. She was a complete mental case all because of Angelus-but Anne tried not to think too much about that. "So, what was this Spike guy like anyway? Big and scary?" Xander asked looking antsy around the passing tombstones and crypts.

Anne shrugged looking too. She was trying to get a feel on him. "Something like that." She found him and started to run towards a crypt that looked terrible. The name was unreadable. "Spike, I know your there."

Spike walked out from behind the crypt. He put his hands up and smiled. "You caught me, love." He put his hands down and Xander backed up a few paces. Anne raised her stake. "Be careful with that, its bloody dangerous."

"Thats the idea." Anne said dangerously. She took a step forward.

"And here I thought we'd be friends, pet. Oh, well." He grabbed her wrist and twisted it. He brought up his leg and kicked her in the face. She staggered back but he still had her wrist, and it kept her from falling. She used his lock on her wrist to flip him over onto his back.

"Go get Buffy!" She told Xander. He nodded and ran to the other side. Spike pulled Anne on top of him.

"Good work, pet. I knew you'd find away to get me on my back sooner or later." He drawled. Anne scoffed. She tried to get up, but couldn't budge, he had a tight grip on her.

Anne looked him in the eye, trying to ignore the fact that she was straddling him. "What are you doing, Spike?"

"Waiting for that good day, love. Thats all I want. I bought you a present." He said.

"Please, like you-" He stopped her.

Spike put his hand on her back. "The last piece of the puzzle is at the pier." He whispered. Then Spike took her hips and used her own body weight to throw her off. He disappeared before she got back up.

1998, 1 month later

Annette's uneasy feeling since Angelus was resurrected didn't cease. She knew something terrible was happening at the graveyard, but it was just a blur. She just knew she had to be there. Buffy and Giles were on the other side, trying to follow it up, and Anne had opted to go alone. She reached the oak in the center of the graveyard and heard something. A crack, like feet on a fallen twig. She turned and saw Angelus. "Hello, Annie." She lifted her stake.

"Angelus." She didn't keep the pain from her voice. She knew that she'd been in love with Angel for so long, and seeing him like this-it killed her.

He smiled, his hands together at his waist. "You know what, I've had my eye on you for awhile, Annie. I guess its just the demon in you that keeps me so close."

"Go to hell." Anne told him, gripping the stake tighter.

He let the smile drop. "Been there." He walked-no, stalked, around her. "You don't know hell until you've been trapped, doing things you wish you've never done. Falling in love, mooning over the lesser mortals-I've been in hell. And I'm about to take you with me." He through Annette down. She landed hard against a broken tombstone. Angelus picked her up again and threw her, like a rag doll and threw her against a tree. Before she even had time to get up, he grabbed her again and slammed her into a nearby crypt. Anne cried out in pain and felt the cold trickle of blood falling down her back. She was hurt, badly. She kicked Angelus in the chest and he flew back. She started running through the cemetery, but he caught up with the injured Annette easily. "And here I thought we were having so much fun, Annie." Angelus tripped her and flipped Anne onto her back. "Time to take you to hell." He vamp faced and sank his teeth into Annette. He drank until he knew that she didn't have enough strength to fight back, then he climbed on top of her-

Spike knew that Angelus was up to something bad, he had to know what. Angelus was vindictive and Spike couldn't risk him killing demon girl until he discovered why they were connected. Why he actually cared for the slayer look-alike. He took in a whiff of the air; he smelled blood, fear, demon girl's scent, and Angelus. He followed that scent until he reached the center of the cemetery There he saw Angelus on top of Summers-he was rapping her. Spike could smell blood all around him, he knew that Angelus could smell nothing but that. Spike grabbed a piece of a broken headstone and hit Angelus over the head with it as hard as possible. Angelus fell over, knocked out cold. Spike fell to his knees beside the nearly unconscious girl. "Annette?" He asked picking up her head, her blood spilling on his hands.

The girl looked up at him, her eyes glazed over in pain and loss of blood. "Spike-kill me. Please-" And her head slumped to the side. Spike could hear her ever faint heartbeat. He picked her up and ran as fast as he could to the hospital.

"I can't do that, love." He said as he carried her.

When he reached the hospital, he got every mortal he could to work on Annette. When they took her to the OR, he called the only person he could think of.

"Hello?" A voice on the other side of the line asked.

"Willow?" He asked. God, why did he have to call anyone?
"Who is this?" Red asked.

Spike took in a breath. "Look, I found your mate in the cemetery Angelus got her. Call in the super friends and get to the hospital." He hung up. Spike noticed several people in the waiting room staring at him. He looked down at his shirt and saw that demon girl's blood was all over his once white shirt and his leather trench. He huffed in frustration and ran out of the hospital.

2000, UCLA dorms.

Annette buttoned her fleece penguin pajama shirt and walked to her bed. She was about to turn out the light on her bedside table when a knock came to the door. "Coming!" Anne called as she ran to the door. When she reached the door, she felt a familiar presence on the other side. She put her hand on the knob and turned. The door opened and Anne saw Spike. It was the first time she'd seen him since he'd visited her in the hospital before Drusilla and he had skipped town."Hi." She looked at him bright eyed, but she was cautious with the vampire.

"Can I-?" He said looking through the door.

"Oh. Yeah-come in." Anne said opening the door wider. He walked in and smiled. They hugged and Annette had a flash of when they'd kissed in the hospital. It was amazing. She knew that he was good, at heart. That last bit of his soul that had remained after the transformation to vamp-hood kept him from being completely evil. He just wanted to be bad, and thats why he did everything he could to be that way.

"I missed you, pet." He whispered against her hair.

She pulled back to see his face. "I missed you, too, William." Annette told him. He reached down to her lips and brushed them lightly. When he was sure that she was ok with it, he let his silky tongue slid into her mouth and message her own. Their kiss held all the passion that a kiss should when shared by people with that deep a connection. When the kiss ended, they walked to the bed and sat down. "What brings you here, Spike?"

"Looking for a fancy little gem, rumor has it that its here." Spike said smiling.

"What gem?" Anne asked.

"The Gem of Amara." He said, hoping she hadn't heard of it. She had, well, she'd read about it during a research session in the library at Sunnydale High.

She stood up and walked to the other side of the room, her arms crossed, looking outside her window. God, L.A. was beautiful-"Let me guess, its your latest greatest plan for defeating Buffy? Invincibility and all that?" She asked.

He walked over to Anne and put hands on her shoulders. "I'm evil, love. I've never lied to you about that. The Slayer's in my way of being the big bad, I got to atleast try to kill her." He said.

"You've been trying to kill her for 2 years, what makes you think that this will help? The Gem is a myth, Spike. It doesn't exist." Anne told him.

"It does. I found it. But, sadly, your darling cousin took it from me and sent it to Captain Forehead." He said removing his hands and looking out too.

"Angel won't give it to you without a fight." Anne stayed.

"Why do you think I'm here, pet?" Spike stated. Anne turned to face him, looking up at his blue eyes and glared.

"Why are you here? In my room?" She questioned. He just smiled and kissed her. She let him, but that didn't allay her thoughts. He pressed her against him and she suddenly became very aware of why. He broke and looked at her, questioningly hopefull. Was Anne ready? After Angelus? Yes. Why? Because Spike wasn't Angelus. She, more or less, trusted him. Spike kissed along her jaw line and into the nape of her neck. He started to unbutton her blouse and they moved to the bed as Anne stripped him of his coat. Soon, they were naked on Anne's bed, and she readied herself for his entrance as he kissed the other side of her neck-he stopped, reaching the scar on her collar where Angelus had sank his fangs into her. "What? What is it?" She asked. He got up and walked to the other side of the room. She stared at his naked figure. "Spike?"

He turned. "I can't, Annie. I'm sorry." Spike told her, looking sad.

"Whats wrong?" She asked getting up and walking to him. She touched his arm. "Is it me?" She asked.

He laughed bitterly. "No, never. You're perfect, love. Its me. Its Angelus." He said taking in a deep breath.

"What?" She asked laughing nervously.

"He took you-he hurt you. I don't want to do that."

"You won't." She said positively.

"Whats to stop me? He was my mentor-my teacher. I am what he made me-whats going to keep me from being his kind of monster? I care for you, Annette. I don't know why and I stopped caring along time ago about the reason. I don't want to hurt you. But I might."

"Do you want to be that kind of monster?" Anne asked putting a hand to his face. He shook his head.

"Never." He told her.

Anne kissed him gently. "Then thats what will keep you from being that kind of monster. Besides-what Angelus did was disgusting and painfull and rape. I didn't want it-at all. This-this with me and you, I want this. You can't rape the willing." He nodded and took her in his arms again.

"I hope your right, pet." And he laid her gently on the bed-

2003

Anne kicked down the door of the crypt. It crashed on the other side with a loud bang. "SPIKE!" She yelled. There were 4 or 5 empty whiskey bottles thrown about the crypt. She looked at the mess as she walked through. "SPIKE!"

"What?" He asked from a chair, drinking another bottle. Anne walked over to him and took the bottle from his hands and threw it against the wall. It shattered. "Bloody hell!"

"Shut up." She said angrily.

Spike looked at her ashamed. "You heard." He didn't make it a question.

Anne nodded, furious."You're not the man I thought you were."

Spike got up and went to the fridge. He opened it and grabbed another bottle of whiskey. Anne walked to him and pryed the bottle away before he could take a sip. "You don't need anymore of this, Spike."

"I think I'll determine that, Annie." He tried to take the bottle from her, but she gripped it as tighter, causing it to break in her hands. "Bloody hell, that was my last bottle."

"Good. I'm tired of this, Spike. You drink away your problems and this is just one problem that booze aren't going to help. You tried to rape Buffy." Anne stated.

"I know-"

"No, I don't think you do. You tried to rape her. You tried to cause her the most physical and mental pain you could ever cause a girl. You never get over something like that. Especially if you have feelings for the person that does it. Did you forget what it did to me? Huh, Spike? Remember how you told me you didn't want to be that kind of monster? Why would you do that?"

"I wasn't thinking-"

"Nah, really? Because if you were had been, that thought would never have crossed your mind. You love Buffy. Or at least I thought you did."

"I do-"

"I can't believe you, Spike." Anne walked to the other side of the crypt. "I thought you loved me."

"Always-" Anne looked at him. Tears poured from his eyes.

"Prove that you love us. Prove to both of us that you've changed-for the better. Don't hide and sulk-if you don't want to be that kind of monster, then don't. We need you, all of us. Buffy needs you. Be who she needs, William." And Anne left the crypt, leaving Spike behind to consider this.

Attention: This was one of the first person relationship profiles that I'll be posting periodically about Annette's relationships with all the guys. The only men that Anne was involved with were Spike, Angel, and Xander. Xander and Anne didn't have a physical relationship-but you'll learn that next. Please post a review telling me what you think. The next chapter will be an installment into the plot.