A/n: Previously Oz walked in on Willow kissing Tara and wolfed out in response. Spike got him out of there, and let him stay at his and Buffy's place. The boy questioned why he had changed, and why he craved blood (that Spike dutifully provided him with). The Vampire then shared some advice/wisdom about embracing one's true nature, which landed him in an argument with the Slayer about her belief that all demons were evil.

Reunion

Not even a half hour after their argument, the couple couldn't bear the tension – or the ache of their shared bond – any longer. Spike opened the bedroom door to the hallway and came face to face with Buffy, who was on her way to him.

Without a word they embraced and stayed tightly wrapped together for a long while.

Then, finally, Spike spoke.

"We gotta work through this, all rational-like. 'Cause I'm still bloody mad at you, but I can't leave you alone."

"I know," Buffy said, in a choked whisper. "Me too."

He pulled her inside the room, then, and they made love – as much to satisfy the bond as it was to satisfy their physical bodies and give them a release of all the pent up adrenaline. Afterwards, when they held each other, Spike whispered his apologies into her hair.

"Shouldn't have exploded like that," he said.

"I'm sorry what I said… that what I think, is so upsetting to you," she replied.

The Vampire sighed. The point he'd been trying to get across to his Mate was very important to him, but he wasn't sure how to explain it without risking another argument.

"Wait a minute," he said, holding up a hand.

"What?"

"Idea."

"Yea, I got that. Get pretty much all your ideas, unless you forgot, I just don't get it get it."

Spike frowned. "Who taught you how to speak English?"

Buffy swatted him on the arm. "Explain-y?

"The first Slayer. Yer Watcher ever tell you how the bint came about?"

Buffy's brow creased in deep thought. "Not during a conversation I was paying attention to."

"Hmm… Do you think he knows?"

She shrugged. "Why is this important?"

"Because I sensed something dark in 'er that time in the vision. Couldn't put my finger on it at the time."

"Dark as in evil? No," the Slayer shook her head. "The Slayer line was not born out of evil."

Sighing in exasperation, Spike pointed out that he said dark, not evil, and that they did not have to be the same thing.

"If I'm right then that proves it, once and for all."

Buffy considered it. The whole topic kinda made her head hurt, but she vowed to ask Giles about it.

Upon being asked, he simply recited his favorite text about the Slayer being one girl in all the world to fight "the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number."

Buffy rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, so I get that she came about, and why, but how, specifically."

Giles frowned. "The, uh, specific details are somewhat unclear."

"Great," sighed Buffy, who then almost instantly brightened up again. "Hey, this means that you didn't already tell me and I just wasn't listening."

The frown on her watcher's face deepened. "Why are you asking these things?"

"Oh," she waved a hand. "Just some theory Spike has." Honestly she didn't want to go into it, but the expectant look on her father figure's face lead her to continue. "He said that when he came across the first Slayer, in the dream vision thing, that he could sense something dark within her. And he thinks maybe she was given her powers by way of darkness, or… something. It didn't make much sense to me, and I know what you're going to say. Slayers are all good, and would never-"

Giles cut her off to say, "Spike may well be right."

"Huh?"

"Well, I'm sure the first Slayer did not come about by accident. Her power would need an origin and, is often the case with these things, if you want to fight something you need to fight it on it's own terms."

"Fire with fire?"

"Something like that, yes."

"So a Slayer really is a killer."

"No, Buffy. And even if she were born partially out of darkness that does not make her evil. Far from it."

Buffy's headache had increased ten fold. "I just don't get it, Giles," she said.

He nodded and told her, "There are rumors of a relic, that tells the story of the first Slayer's origin, but when it was not passed onto me I assumed it was no more than just that - a rumor. Perhaps if I tracked down when it was last mentioned, I could- yes, yes, I'll do that."

Buffy smiled at her watcher's enthusiasm at having a mission.

"Okay, so if Slayers were made outta darkness, that doesn't make them bad?" she clarified a final time.

"You know it doesn't."

"Okay." – she still had to think about that a little more.

Meanwhile, Oz came by the Magic Box for a charm that would help both elements of himself – the man and the wolf – live in harmony. Giles was happy to assist him, of course. And after that the musician went to see Willow.

"So, you're better now?" she had asked.

"I think I am," he said, idly fiddling with his new charm. "I can control my true nature, if I try hard enough. But what about yours?"

"M-my true nature?"

"Your tendency to cheat on me."

"Oh. That."

To be continued...