I was so excited that my family was here that it takes me a minute to remember that only one of the three people here is expecting Spike to join us. Wow, this is sure going to cause Willow to have a major wig out. At least he didn't try to bite her yet. The only thing he did to her at this point was when he kidnapped her for the spell for the skanky hoe. When I think of Drusilla, that dark strong primal part of me that I think is the Slayer in me tries to come out again. Thank goodness I am able to push it back down this time. It's weird because I've never felt that before. It only started happening after I came back here. Maybe it's a side effect of time travel? I really have to take a trip to LA to visit The Powers, I'll worry about that later though, because I have more time-sensitive things to deal with.
"Okay guys, I had a big important Slayer dream that I have to tell you about, I'm just waiting for everyone else to get here." Oz and Willow had questioning looks at that. "My mom and Dawn are going to be a part of the team, along with someone else. This new person isn't up for discussion. He's very important to the future and will become a very important member of the team. I know he was our enemy before but he isn't anymore. I need you to trust me here because this is a Slayer decision and I'm not going to change it."
"Okay, Buffy, you're starting to worry me, there aren't many of our enemies that are still alive… Or undead, so you have to be talking about either Angelus, Ethan, Drusilla, or Spike. We know Angelus is Angel again and he's already on our team so the choices left aren't making me too excited," Willow said. At Drusilla's name I feel angry again but am able to ignore it.
"It's Spike, I'll give you more details when I tell you about my dream when they get here, but right now all you have to know is he's been in town for a while and hasn't done anything bad. He hangs out with my mom and sister at least once a week and if it wasn't for him I don't know if we all would have made it out alive during the fight with Angelus."
"What do you mean Buffy?" Willow asks, she somehow sounds both interested and incredulous at the same time.
"The night of the battle, he came to me for a truce. He made sure Giles got out safely and kept Drusilla from helping Angelus, and I let them leave town. So that's what he did and I don't know if I would have been able to do it without him. So he's already helped with one apocalypse and from my dream he will help with a lot more. Anyway he's with my mom and sister now, and they're almost here. I can feel him getting closer."
"What do you mean, feel, Buffy?" Willow asks, confused.
"I can feel when vampires are close, part of my Slayerness, I guess. Every vampire has a different tingly feeling. I just don't usually keep them undusty long enough to learn them. I know Spike's and Angel's though. Oh! I'll be right back," I say and leave before they have a chance to respond. Once I get outside I see them walking up. Well, Mom and Dawn are walking up, Spike is dashing from shady spot to shady spot trying to avoid getting burned.
"Hey! So, I had to tell Giles something so he would know I'm being serious when it comes to me getting paid by the Council and why it was okay to trust Spike. So I kinda told them I had a major Slayer dream that told me different parts of the future. It was the best I could come up with on the spot. I just wanted you guys to know before you went in there and said something else. I hope it was a good idea."
"Sounds 'bout right to me, luv. How'd they take the information 'bout yours truly?" He asks with a quirk of a brow and that stupid sexy smirk that always makes me turn to mush, no matter how much I used to fight it..
"I didn't really give them much of a choice. I told them you're coming and you're trustworthy, and how you helped with the Angelus and Acathla thing. So they'll probably be watching you the whole time but they will give you a chance. I won't let them be mean to you this time around. I figure we should focus on the initiative situation and tell them that's what most of my dream was about. Willow agreed to get help with her magic so I don't know if it's a great idea to use the spell again. Maybe we will be able to figure out another way while we're all talking," I stop because I notice I'm babbling.
"That was a good idea dear," Mom says with an indulgent smile. "Why don't we go inside and start this meeting? I have my book club tonight."
"Sounds good, Mom," I say as I start heading towards the door "Oh! Spike I forgot to ask, do you want to go patrolling with me tonight?" I say with a blush. In Buffy/Spike talk I might as well have asked him out on a date.
"Sounds like a right good time Slayer, I'm always up for a spot of violence before bed," he says while giving me a weighing look. He can tell I was nervous asking him but I don't think he knows why.
When we walk inside, it is exactly what I expected it to be. Everyone is looking warily at Spike and there's a bunch of poorly concealed weapons reachable by everyone already in the house. So I roll my eyes but say nothing. They're allowed to be uncomfortable but it makes me a little mad that they don't trust my judgment. I know I made a mistake with Angelus but that wasn't all my fault. I mean Giles is supposed to be my Watcher, why didn't he do any research when he heard about the curse. Or the fact that the 200 year old vampire that was living with the curse for 100 of those years never took the time to find out the details of said curse. But nooo it's all Buffy's fault. Ugh anyway, now's not the time to think about that, I'll just say what I have to say and get out of here. I just made plans for tonight.
"Okay guys, everyone knows everyone. Does anyone have anything they want to say before we get started? As you know Spike is going to be working with us from now on. So if anyone has anything they want to say to him now is the time. Because after this we are going to work as a team and I know it will take a while to build trust but I need my team to be able to work together," I say and look around waiting for anyone to speak up.
"I…I think Oz and I s-should get an apology. You caused major problems in our relationship." At that, Oz looks at Willow incredulously.
"How did he cause problems, Willow?" Oz asks in that cool, quietly neutral way of his.
"Well with the whole Xander and me kissage thing," Willow says, now looking uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry for kidnapping you, I wasn't rightly sober 'round that time. Wasn't thinkin' straight. Magic always has consequences. But I didn't make you or the whelp do anything while you were alone. That was all you Red," Spike says. Willow looks mad at that until she looks around and sees no sympathy in the group. I guess she was always blaming Spike for what happened, and now she has to face that the kissage wasn't his fault.
"Oh… well… yeah that is true. I guess it's okay, you didn't hurt me or anything. You were very sad, even cried on my..."
"Oi! That was supposed to stay between us," he cuts her off, sounding completely embarrassed. I give him a small smile and pat him on his knee. When I do that Giles and Willow look at me weird. Crap, I forgot these versions of themselves don't know our history and how I feel about him. Hell, even when we were fighting the First, they would give me the same looks. Oh well, best to just move on and deal with that later. Or never.
"Oz, were you invited to a Halloween party at a frat house?" I say, to change the subject.
"Yeah, I was going to invite everyone today," is his short reply.
"Awesome, it was part of my dream. I think they'll call you for help or something and when you go, you'll see one of your friends painting a symbol on the floor. If you see that I need you to mess the symbol up or get them to change it completely. Maybe erase it? Either way you have to get rid of it somehow. It will summon a fear demon. Ugh it gets me mad. Don't people know Halloween is supposed to be my day off? Can't things go according to plan just once? It's a good thing I had this Slayer dream, maybe I'll actually get a fun, evil-free night! I haven't had a night off in so long I don't even know what we could do. For once a Slayer dream gave me an easy fix to the problem and not some cryptic scary foreboding information," I babble on happily, thinking about my night off.
Out of the corner of my eye I see mom looking upset. I don't think she realized how demanding me being a slayer is. There's not many jobs that you only get one day a year off, i guess that's one of the differences between a job and a calling. I feel bad that mom is learning the hard truths about slaying. I mean I know she knew it was dangerous, but I don't think she knew how dangerous, and she knew I'd never have a normal life, but I think she's avoided accepting them. These last few days must have been really hard for her, she's handling it very well, but it can't be easy.
"Sounds good Buffy, I'm on it." Oz says, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Thanks Oz. Okay that wasn't the only thing in this dream. I know the Big Bad that's coming this year and you'll never believe who it is." People are looking at me, getting annoyed that I stopped talking. Sheesh, haven't these people ever heard of a dramatic pause? "The American government."
"What?" Willow questioned.
"Dear lord," This came from Giles, and he threw in a glasses-cleaning for good measure.
"I saw something like this coming," was Oz's bland reply. That makes me quirk a brow at him wanting more information, but before I could ask Giles interrupts.
"What do you mean Buffy? Are you sure that's what the dream meant? I don't think humans will ever be on opposite sides as us, you're the Slayer meant to protect humans from demons."
"No Giles, I'm meant to protect the good and innocent from evil. You know there are evil humans. If there weren't, we'd never have had to face your friend Ethan and turn into our costumes."
"Quite right, but you know I still need more information," Giles says blandly.
"Well I don't know if I remembered to tell you, but a few nights ago I saw these weird guys around campus in military suits walking around at night. I thought it was weird and was planning on telling you but didn't think too much about it because I figured it was human business not mine. Well once I had the dream I realized that wasn't true. They are capturing demons and torturing them. Cutting them up and sewing them back together. Experimenting on them in ways like putting chips in their brain to stop them from hurting people and they're even taking the most dangerous pieces of different types of demons and mixing them with technology and a human to try to make like a super soldier. It's terrible Giles. If they were just killing dangerous demons I would think they were good. But they're not, they're torturing them and even the harmless demons that don't hurt anyone. We have to stop them!" I say, impassioned.
"I know why this feels wrong dear girl but…"
"NO! Don't patronize me Giles. This is wrong, there's no other way around it. I know your Council teachings make you think that demons don't feel, but that just isn't true. I know it's not, and if you let yourself really think about it, you will too." I look him straight in the eye and try to convey how serious I am about this. I want him to agree to help before he knows what Adam will try to do once he's turned on, or activated, or whatever. Of course Giles will want to help once he knows that Adam will want to take over the world. But I want to try to teach him to see demons as more than just soulless monsters. It's the only way that we will make it through the next few years and stay a team. This is the first step towards that. So I look at him and wait for him to answer, to decide if he's truly on my team or not, to decide if he can get past the Angelus thing and trust me.
"Okay Buffy, what do you propose we do?" Oh good he trusts me, or at least he's willing to give this a chance. The only problem is that I don't have a solid plan yet.
"Well in my dream, I saw who the leader of the commandos is. You'll never believe who it is, my psych teacher! And my TA is one of her soldiers. He already asked me out once so I'm thinking I can talk to him and try to get some info out of him" I look around expecting to see agreement but all I see is people looking at Spike strangely. Then I realize he's growling. Does he not like me talking about guys who want to date me? Or does he remember Riley? I'll have to ask him later. So I do what I've gotten used to doing when I need to calm him down, I put my hand on his knee and he stops growling soon after. It takes me a minute to realize that I've never done that with this Spike but apparently my touch calms him down just as much now as it did to my Spike. When I realize that I can't help but to let out a smile.
"Anyway," I say before people can start asking questions, "I was also thinking that the Council might want to help. I doubt they want the U.S. government encroaching on what they consider 'their territory'. Don't they have connections? I figure they can pull some strings to get it closed down if they want to."
"Yes, they definitely have connections to powerful people. They could probably get it done but I don't think I should ask them about it until we handle what you and I talked about earlier. Knowing them, they'd offer a trade. Something like 'you tell us how we're in danger and we will get those commandos shut down' and completely ignore you wanting to get paid. So I find it best to wait on asking them until after we figure out the money of it all."
"Good point Giles, Okay I guess I will talk to Riley then. Hopefully I'll get some sort of info out of him." I swear I heard Spike mumble something like 'Captain Cardboard is a ponce' and it made me laugh because that was definitely my Spike, this Spike hasn't even met him yet. And hopefully never will.
"Okay guys, that's all for today, there's more from the dream but it doesn't come into play till later, I think we should handle the current Big Bad and deal with the next one after. It's going to be dark soon so I'm going to go home and eat, then head out for patrol. Call me if you need me or anything hellmouthy comes up. Will, I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to the dorm tonight or not, if not I'll see you in class tomorrow."
"Bye Buffy," Willow said chirpily. I waved to Giles and Oz and left with Mom, Dawn, and Spike. We then all loaded up in Spike's Desoto and headed home.
"I think that went pretty well, right guys? I didn't give away too much information? There's no way they suspect I'm Future Buffy right?"
"No dear, you did great. The only reason I could see them being suspicious that something was wrong is your change of heart when it comes to demons, their feelings, and how they should be treated. I know just last week before you came back in time, younger you kept trying to tell me how I couldn't trust Spike because he was soulless and didn't have emotions and was just waiting for the right time to strike, when I brought up that I liked him. I never even heard you even suggest there was such a thing as a good or friendly demon. I'm sure they're a little confused about your change of heart and you might have to answer questions they have at some point," Mom said and crap, she was right. I hate that I was ever so naive to believe things were so black and white, and I hate that I ignored the truth right in front of me so I could hold on to my childish belief that Angel was my true love. If I would have just accepted the truth that he wasn't different then Angelus I think my life would have been much better. But I couldn't accept it because if I did, I'd have to admit that he just didn't love me enough. So no, instead I made myself believe that he couldn't love me without a soul and that's why he treated me and my friends and family so horribly. Ugh I was just too young. There's no reason to dwell on it now, the Powers literally gave me a second chance and I'm not going to make the same mistake again.
"Thanks Mom, I think you're right. Anyway I'm hungry, what's for dinner?"
~~~~~~~~
Mhmmm dinner was yummy and now it's time to go spend the rest of the night with my guy doing what we do best… well second best, killing baddies. But first I should ask Dawn what she thinks we should do about the Tara/Oz situation because we only have days until Oz will decide to leave.
"Hey Dawn, can I talk to you real quick?"
"Sure Buffy what's up?" she asks as she gets up and starts heading to the back door I assume for privacy.
"This will only take a minute, Spike, then I'll be ready to go" I say as I follow her. Spike nods but looks distinctly uncomfortable. Huh, I wonder what that's about, I'll ask when we go out for patrol alone. When we're outside I jump right into it. "This Halloween party is tomorrow, that is the first time that Oz thinks about leaving, he loses control because of the fear monster. That won't happen this time because we already stopped it but that other werewolf chick will be in town any day, maybe she already is. What I'm wondering is if we should stop him from leaving? If we do what will happen to Tara? I love them both and they're both good people and good for Willow but I don't know what to do."
"I've been thinking about this Buffy, I think we should stop him from leaving. But we should also invite Tara into the group without being Willow's girlfriend. She needs us, if not she'll go back with her abusive family. And if she's not dating Willow or you don't jump off the tower, or we get Warren arrested earlier, she won't have to die. There are many ways to save her life, so I think that we can have all of them in the group. Maybe Tara will fall for someone else. I mean she's not in love with Willow yet, she doesn't even know her. So it's not like it will hurt her to see Oz and Willow together, you know?"
"That's a great idea Dawn, why don't you meet me at campus tomorrow after you're done with school and we will find her and talk to her?" The more I think about it, the better I think this idea is. I dont think it's Tara's fault that she fell into a magic addiction, I think it's Willow's need for control that did that. But maybe with the teaching Giles is getting her, and not having another witch as a lover, Willow will be able to do magic without hurting herself or others. And we don't have to worry about losing Tara if she and Willow get in a fight. Yes, this is the perfect answer.
"Sounds good Buffy, now get your butt inside, your date is waiting for you," she says with a wink.
"We're just going patrolling Dawn this isn't a date," I say even though I thought the same thing myself earlier.
"Sure it isn't, don't forget I know you and Spike better than anyone else. This is like a hot date or foreplay for you," she says and goes inside before I can respond, or slap her. Which is probably for the best because I wasn't sure how I should react. I just take a deep breath and head inside to my vampire.