Chapter Two

A few seconds later, Pittsburgh

"Oh my god, Dante's? Brian, that place is so renowned. How can you afford it?" Justin asked, so excited at the news he couldn't help but grin his wide, full-toothed smile.

"I know that's not a serious question so I'm ignoring it completely," answered Brian nonchalantly. "Now pack your things. We're leaving tonight."

Same time, Scotland

Buffy Summers was sitting in her room contemplating her life and missing Sunnydale, her mom, and sex. Then she remembered she didn't need to miss sex at all and called Spike on the intercom to the basement, which is where he dwelled in the largely majestic Scottish castle/Slayers Headquarters. After a shrill buzzing noise at the push of the intercom button, Buffy spoke.

"Spike? Are you there?" There was only a very short pause before he answered back.

"Slayer. Missing me already?" His voice was deep and fancifully English over the mechanical buzz of the machine.

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her feet awkwardly. She didn't like the idea of admitting her dependence to anyone, but it was true and they both knew it. Buffy needed Spike. At least the feeling was mutual.

"What are you doing?" she asked him. He responded quickly.

"On my way up to see you, Love."

"Oh," sighed Buffy. "Okay. I'll see you in a second."

"Yeah, in the ten minutes it takes to walk all the way up to your tower in the sky. I'll see you."

It did not take Spike ten minutes to walk all the way to Buffy's room, but when she opened the door to his sharp knocking, he looked out of breath.

"Run all the way here?" she asked him, which he answered with a cool shrug of his shoulders as he sauntered past her.

"We need to talk, Buffy," Spike began, sitting on the foot of her bed and motioning for her to join him. With hesitance, Buffy moved to sit beside him. She sat gazing at him. His blonde hair was slicked back today, Buffy guessed, because they had spent yesterday watching Harry Potter movies with Xander and Willow. Spike had seemed oddly fascinated with the characters of Draco Malfoy.

"That boy bloody stole my act!" he had hollered.

Buffy had noticed the resemblance of the two peroxide badasses and smiled. It was so good having Spike alive and back at her side.

"What is it you need to talk to me about?" Buffy asked. Spike nodded and took her hand.

"We know Sunnydale had one, Cleveland's got one that Faith is dealing with," said Spike carefully. "But I heard from Xander from Giles that there's a new hellmouth causing troubles, Love."

Buffy was taken aback. "Another hellmouth?" She crinkled her nose in disgust. "Why am I surprised by this?" Spike smiled at her.

"It needs to be taken care of immediately," he said. "Lots of wonky stuff going on."

Buffy stood up, determined and pissed. She began to pace the room. "Does Giles think I'm the one who has to deal with this? Did you tell him I'm busy enough here, in control of a few thousand slayerettes?"

"Don't kill the messenger, Pet," he soothed. "Don't get too worked up either." His eyes were mischievous. "I smoothed it out so it's like this, Buffy. The two of us check out this hellmouth together, on a sort of…vacation."

Buffy raised her eyebrows at him. "I don't have time to vacation, Spike."

"Oh, but you do." He stood up and walked so he was standing inches from her. His hands were on her waist. "Because, you see, the vacation spot…is the hellmouth."

Buffy just stared at him, wondering what kind of sense he was making.

"Buffy, we're going to Dante's Cove."