STILL NIGHT TWO

Angel, rather than waiting like Spike was doing, decided to meet Buffy as she was coming back from dropping poor Tara off at the cabin. He watched as she stopped and spoke with Willow for a few seconds. Buffy tried to make her expression serious as she and Willow spoke about Willow's strongly unfortunate but cured condition. Angel smiled as she smiled.

He missed her.

Buffy gave the hurt- and worried-looking Willow a hug and set off away from the cabin toward Angel. She grinned outright as she walked and tried to mentally convince herself that it wasn't funny if Willow didn't think it was funny.

"Is Tara going to be all right?" Angel asked softly. Buffy jumped and whirled around.

"Geez, Angel," she said, and grinned. "Yeah. She's just unconscious. Nothing else seems to be wrong, but I've got Willow setting up a mental connection between she and I in case I'm wrong." She gave him a hug. "It's been a while… though, maybe not from your perspective… when are you from?" She assumed that he knew about the wacky time flux thing.

"2000," he said, confirming her suspicions. "I left about ten months ago."

Buffy nodded. "Has the Faith thing happened yet?"

Angel winced and the two of them began to walk back toward where the machine was. "I just came to apologize to you about being such an ass about it."

Buffy grinned. "Ouch. So your tribe is less with the fun than even I thought."

Angel smirked. "We thought maybe Riley was dead for a while, but it turns out he was a big damn hero." He made a face. "Anya's pleased, though. Apparently they disappeared 'underwater' for hours. It was night when I found them. Anya's barely let go of him since." He paused. "So when are you from?"

She blinked. "2003, but I don't remember much past when you remember. I think it's so that we don't alert each other of future events and end up changing them."

Angel nodded. "I know Anya, but I don't think I've ever met her… well, except for that time I came to Sunnydale without telling you about it, but… what?" he asked, responding to the expression on Buffy's face. He followed her line of sight to see the bleach blonde vampire with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Spike nodded slowly. "I was wondering…" he started, and then decided against finishing his sentence. He smiled sadly at Buffy and turned and walked away.

"Spike…" Buffy called after him.

Angel looked between Spike's retreating figure and Buffy's worried look. "Is all that worry because he has a soul, or because there's something between you?" he asked, trying not to sound anything other than observant.

Buffy looked slowly up at him. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Angel shook his head slowly, and looked at his feet. "Go after him," he told her quietly.

She snapped her head around at him. "Are you sure?"

Angel nodded, and without meaning to, caressed her cheek. "I'll see you later." He turned and walked in the opposite direction, toward his camp.

Buffy watched him go, and then sprinted to catch up to Spike. She jogged up beside him. "Hey," she said.

He glanced over and tried not to be too thrilled about the Slayer having ditched the other vampire so soon. "Tara all right?" he mumbled.

She grinned. "Damn. You're all the same, aren't you?"

Spike raised an eyebrow but didn't say a word. "Uh… yeah," Buffy stammered. "She'll be fine. Willow's going to yell in my head if there's a problem." She snorted. "I just can't believe Jeff, a normal guy…" she looked up at Spike in alarm. "He is a normal guy, right?" Spike nodded. Buffy looked satisfied. "I just can't believe a normal guy would put so many of us through that if he knew it was dangerous. I mean, you and I were fine, but Tara wouldn't have been. She has incredible internal strength, but she's… only human."

Spike only nodded.

Buffy clucked her tongue. "Come on, Spike. We're both from basically the same time frame, we know what's what. I don't feel for Angel what I feel for you anymore," she lied.

Spike smirked. "And the staring deep into each other's eyes before the challenge was just a warming up tactic, was it?"

Buffy hesitated. "Well, no. I was… I was startled, that's all. He was there and I haven't seen him since I un-died. It was a shocker." She looked up at Spike, who was pretending to pretend to stifle a look that clearly said 'yeah right'. "Okay, okay. I'll always have feelings for Angel. It's the way it is. And, and you're just going to have to deal with it."

Spike smiled. "I already have, pet. It's always a punch in the face is all."

Buffy frowned. "…Spike… are you, within your recent memory, dead?"

Spike laughed aloud. "Buffy, I've been dead for a hundred years."

"That's not what I mean." She stopped and turned to him. "Why is Kennedy a Slayer?"

"Because she's…" he stopped. "Because everyone is."

"Right. This happened in a great battle. That destroyed Sunnydale. But it wasn't the battle that destroyed Sunnydale…"

"…it was me." He finished for her, a look of slight horror on his face.

"And it k-killed you," she said. They both stopped in their tracks for a second. Spike sat down on a nearby mossy rock. Buffy kept standing and stared at him in fascination.

"Buffy…" he started, voice barely more than a whisper. "We weren't this close when you came to visit me in my cave."

She wasn't listening. She was reviewing their conversation silently. She mouthed the words I haven't seen him since I un-died over and over. "I have seen him since I un-died. He gave you that freaky amulet that allowed you to destroy Sunnydale," she whispered more to herself than to Spike.

They said it at the same time: "Time doesn't flow normally here."

MEANWHILE…

Willow stepped into the cabin and took in the fantastic sight. It was a well-made log cabin with no real electricity; candles lit the large room well, especially with a fire roaring in the heath. A long table sat along a wall with food that seemed to cater to her very thoughts. A door in the corner revealed a bathroom that wasn't exactly elabourate, but it did contain a bathtub and a shower along with the toilet and sink. Willow assumed they ran with wonderfully warm water. Fuzzy blue bathrobes were hung on the wall in one corner of the room, next to the large bookshelf with books on demons and also recreational reading.

Willow paid attention to these details only for a second before going to Tara, who was lying on one of the two beds behind a large screen that looked authentically Chinese. Candles surrounded the bed and provided Willow with enough light to make sure that Tara was still all right on all accounts… aside from the being unconscious thing.

The redhead threw a blanket over Tara and reluctantly left her side to have a look at the books that decorated the bookshelf. She picked up one at random and was delighted to read the title: Fruit That Shouldn't Be Alive but Is: How to Protect Yourself From Such Menaces. She was about to open the book when she smelled something horrible. It took her a few minutes before she realized it was her.

She put the book down and found a pencil on the table with food. She was very hungry, but she desperately needed a shower, and she wanted to wait for Tara to wake up. She uncrumpled an old gum wrapper she found in her pocket and wrote Tara a quick note in case she woke up while Willow was in the shower. She laid it on one of the fantastically comfortable chairs in the room, grabbed one of the bathrobes and headed into the bathroom, careful to shut the door quietly behind her.

The sound of Willow humming quietly in the shower and the smell of shampoo woke Tara. She blinked herself awake and took in her surroundings. She figured that she was in the cabin, but she didn't remember winning. In fact, the last thing she remembered was giving up quite emphatically.

But it didn't matter. She lay on the bed for a while longer and listened to Willow's hilariously tuneless humming. Tara loved it. She smiled and listened until she heard the sound of the shower stop.

The witch tentatively stood and tested her own balance. She found herself a tad dizzy, but other than that in remarkable condition. She padded lightly over to the table of food and smelled the miscellaneous concoctions. She didn't touch anything; she'd wait for Willow. She felt like they hadn't seen each other for months.

Tara walked over to the comfy arm chair Willow had been sitting in not long before and picked up the note, smiling and putting it discreetly in her pocket. She picked up the book set aside from the shelf and read the first few pages. She got fully enthralled in the book and jumped quite a bit when Willow pushed open the bathroom door.

The redhead blinked, and then smiled warmly and with concern. "Hi. How are you feeling?"

"I… I'm fine. A little dizzy, but… I'm fine." She smiled and held up the book. "Had an encounter with biting fruit?"

Willow blushed slightly. "Yep. Not very pleasant, let me tell you. My chin got connected to my nose, it… it wasn't fun."

Tara managed to suppress the grin that threatened to blossom over her face. "Are you all right?"

Willow grinned. "Peachy. Got my face back to normal." She scrunched her nose. "Had to murder a pear to do it, though. I felt so badly… it screamed and everything."

"Aw. Well, I think I saw some non-biting pears over here… hopefully." Tara was finding her responses to Willow's words awkward, and she cursed herself inwardly for it. She didn't know why. Possibly it was because she didn't know what time frame Willow was in.

Willow smiled. "I thought maybe you'd like to have a shower before we ate. I mean, I'm not implying that you're dirty, but… it feels nice after a night in the woods."

Tara nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

"I'm washing my clothes in the bathtub, but just move them into the sink if you feel like having a bath."

Tara shook her head. "I might have a bath later. M-meanwhile I think I'll just… wash my clothes too?" Willow frowned slightly at Tara's forming it as a question. She wasn't usually so awkward around her. Maybe it was just the disorientation of waking up.

Willow nodded. "Sure. Take your time." Tara smiled and brushed past Willow into the bathroom. Willow waited until she heard the shower turn on, and then she folded the other blue fluffy robe and knocked quietly on the door.

"Tara? I'm just putting a bathrobe in here, okay?"

"Okay," came the reply after a moment. Willow popped in, put the robe on the floor, and popped back out again, closing the door softly. "Thanks," came Tara's warm reply.

Willow sat down in her comfy chair and opened her book on bizarre live fruits. Interesting, she thought, how she'd never heard of any of these before.