"Explain. Now." Buffy stood with her arms crossed across her chest. She looked from the sleeping girl and back to Spike.

"I don't really know much yet," Spike said with a sigh as he sat down gently on the edge of the bed next to the sleeping Cora. "Angelus saved her. They took her and Angelus saved her. It's all I know."

"Why in hell would Angelus ever want to help a human? She is human right?"

"Yes, yes pet, she's human."

"So since when has evil Angelus started saving lives? And don't call me pet."

Spike sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I dunno, that's a little bit more complicated. Cora's the only one who can tell you all'bout that."

"Okay, but..."

"Listen. Go home, get some rest. Lemme take care of Cora for the night an'you can come back tomorrow an'talk to her yourself. She said she'd explain things to you." Spike stood up, hopping to usher Buffy out a little faster.

"Fine, I guess." Buffy looked unsure again. She was definitely not used to being so left out of things. She was the Slayer after all, the girl who usually ran things, who gave the orders. She was not the girl who sat around waiting to be told what to do or told what was going on. "Will she…I mean, she'll stay with you?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, Slayer, she'll stay with me."

"And Angelus? Is he…will he be in Sunnydale?" Her face was hesitant; she wasn't quite as certain about facing her enemy and ex-love as she had pretended to be earlier in the cemetery that night.

Spike let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he'll be sticking around. He has a bit of a…soft spot…you could say when it comes to Cor." He glanced back at Cora, who had tried to curl up on her side on his bed. "You don' have to worry about him bothering you tonight though. He won't hurt you."

"Because she told him not to?" Buffy gave the sleeping girl and curious and disbelieving glare.

"Yeah, because she told him not to."

"I really don't understand this Spike." Buffy ran a hand through her hair and pushed herself up from where she had been leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, well, it's kinda a lot and it's complicated." Spike moved toward the armchair in the center of his crypt. He pulled off his signature long leather jacket and laid it over the chair. He sat down on the bed again and pulled off his boots.

Buffy watched him. "You'll tell me though right? Or she'll tell me?" Buffy motioned again to the unconscious girl.

"Yeah, yeah she'll tell you. Now please, I'm exhausted and I've still gotta change that comforter where she bled all over it before I can turn in."

Buffy regarded the ruined comforter. "That was a lot of blood for a human to spill and still be alive."

"Well Cora's special. You should know all about being special, being the Slayer and all." Spike gave Buffy a sideways glance. He knew she was doing all she could to pump him for information, but he was too tired to really care.

"So she's like me? There are no other slayers."

"God Buffy. No, she's not bloody like you. She's different." He looked at her again and shook his head. "Not so bloody nosy like you that's for sure," he added under his breath.

Spike bent down over Cora again and turned to Buffy. "If you're still here then at least help me change the blanket. There's one in that trunk behind the couch."

He turned back to Cora. The girl's black tanktop was still rolled up from when they had applied the bandages. She had on one of the smallest pairs of jeans he had ever seen, and yet they were sagging around her hips. There was blood coated down one side of them too.

"Bloody hell she's gotten skinny." He inspected her. "I hope Angel tortured the bastards who did this to her before he killed 'em."

Cora was barefoot, and her feet were dirty. Spike figured he had better get her out of those jeans. She wouldn't be happy with him undressing her, but in her weakened state, he figured it'd be alright.

"Bring me a pair of boxers outta that drawer over there too."

"Like your boxers? Like go through your underwear drawer? Ew," Buffy complained, but she headed over to the drawers anyways. She opened the top one and pulled out the first pair she found.

"These are washed right?" She asked him.

"Yeah, they're washed, Slayer. Where's your mind at?" Spike quietly laughed.

Buffy returned with the clean blanket, an old black quilt with red embroidery, and with a pair of Spike's black boxers. Spike slid off Cora's dirty jeans and threw them in the corner. He took the shorts from the Slayer and quickly slid them up over Cora's skinny hips. At least she looked more comfortable.

Buffy was staring at the girl's legs. "Spike…" she began, "look at her legs."

Spike's eyes followed to where Buffy was staring. Cora's legs were completely black and blue, and to the side of her right knee there was an indentation where the bone should have been.

"Yeah, and she wanted to walk. Crazy girl." Spike shook his head in disbelief. "She'll be alright; right now she jus' needs to sleep."

He scooped her up in his arms and nodded to Buffy to change the blanket. She quickly pulled off the bloody comforter and spread out the new quilt. "Want me to pull it down?"

Spike nodded in reply, and Buffy pulled the bed down. When she was finished, she stepped back, and Spike laid Cora down into the bed. He pulled the blanket up to her shoulders. Cora rolled onto her side again and inhaled a sharp breath of pain as she did so. Then she relaxed onto the clean bed.

"Never seen her like this before." He turned to Buffy. "You oughta go. I'm goin' to sleep too." He walked to the other side of the bed and climbed into it.

"You're sleeping with her?" Buffy looked at him incredulously.

"I'm not sleepin' with her, pet. God, where is your mind? It's my bed, and I'm just sleepin'. Make sure you close the door behind you alright, Slayer? Come back tomorrow." Spike shook his head out of annoyance.

With that, Spike turned to face the opposite direction as Cora and closed his eyes. Buffy silently breathed a sigh of relief. What a night. She turned out the lights as she left and closed the old wooden door firmly. She couldn't wait to see what she found out tomorrow.

-------------------

Buffy woke up to the sun shining through her bedroom window the next day. She glanced at her clock: eleven-fifteen. She couldn't believe she had slept in so late. She didn't have any class or anything since it was Saturday. She had wanted to call Giles before she went back to Spike's, at least to let him know that Angelus was back in town and to fill him in on what she knew about Cora—which was practically nothing—but instead she got dressed quickly and snuck out the back door. Not that her mom would care that she was leaving, they were kind of past that stage. Since she had entered college and especially with her slaying, Buffy came and went as she pleased.

She covered the distance between her house and the cemetery quickly and made her way past the numerous gravestones to Spike's crypt without interruptions. Not too many evil things were up at this time, and no vampires would dare to come out on this sunny of a day.

She paused at the big wooden door, listening. She heard talking inside, and instead of just barging in the way she usually did, Buffy decided that she should knock.

She heard the talking stop, and before she had the chance to knock or run away, the door was suddenly swung inward.

"Aw Buff, you missed me already? Really, lover, I'm just touched." Angelus' hand covered his unbeating heart in a mock form of sincerity.

He leaned over the threshold menacingly, just far out enough where the sun wouldn't touch was glad that she was standing just far enough from the door so that she had the sun's protection.

He laughed as he realized he couldn't go further and addressed her in a low voice. "You realize I'm going to kill you right? Maybe I'll start with your friends, your watcher, Joyce." He smiled. "Cora can't protect you forever."

Buffy narrowed her eyes at him. She could hear Spike calling to Angelus from within. Angelus looked over his shoulder and replied, "It's that damn Slayer again. You'd think she'd know not to go knocking at the homes of vampires in the daytime." He turned back to her. "We're cranky when the sun's out," he said with a grin.

"Will you get your poof ass outta the way and let her in, mate?" Spike walked over and grabbed Angelus' hand off the doorframe where he had been leaning. "She's supposed to be here more'n you are anyways. Come in, Slayer."

Angelus stepped out of her way and Buffy walked into the crypt. She must be crazy. What the hell was she doing going into Spike's when Angelus was there? She looked past where Spike was holding the door open for her and saw Cora lying on her side on the couch.

She smiled at the girl. "You look better." Cora gave a small smile in return.

Angelus snorted a short laugh. "Alright well in case you've forgotten, Slayer. I am evil now and I'm not about to sit around having a conversation with the girl I plan on killing. I'd much rather be torturing you." He gave her a wide smile.

"Right," Cora began, "Angel could you…?"

"Yeah, yeah babe. Spikey, my boy, I'll be seeing you later. Buffy, my dear, I hope to be torturing you next time I see you. And Cora," he smiled at the skinny brunette glaring at him from her place on the couch, "enjoy your breakfast. I know I enjoyed mine." With that, Angelus walked to the other side of Spike's crypt and descended the stairs that Spike had built and that led down to a sewer entrance.

Buffy shook her head in disbelief. "I need to kill him."

"Well, not just yet," Cora motioned to the bag of bagels and tray of coffee cups that were sitting on the small coffee table in front of the couch, "I kind of have a feeling he's going to be bringing me breakfast for a while. He doesn't like to see me like this. I think it's just because he can't have any fun as long as I'm lying here like an invalid."

Buffy had just arrived and she was already as confused as ever. Angelus actually cared about the girl?

"Oh," Cora began timidly, "and uh, I think Angel may have killed the bagel shop owner. Sorry, um, about that. I didn't know though; I mean, I wouldn't have let him bring me food if I would have known he would be, well, eating too." She shrugged her shoulders in a what-can-you-do kind of way.