After helping the poor woman whom Angelus had bitten, Buffy headed towards her home, lost in thought.

Her confrontation with Angelus had sent her head spinning. She couldn't hurt him, and he couldn't touch her. But why the hell not? She remembered Angelus' surprise at not being able to bite her and then his irritation when he had discovered she couldn't cut him. He knew something that she didn't, and that bothered Buffy.

Changing her mind for what seemed like the millionth time that day, the Slayer spun around again and headed for the cemetery that she knew lay across town.

She wanted some answers, she thought angrily, and there was only one person who she could think of to get them from.

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

Spike gently moved his arm out from around Cora's sleeping form. The girl had fallen asleep in his arms hours ago. He quietly got up from the couch and lifted her lightly in his arms. Walking over to the bed, he managed to pull the sheets back and laid her down softly.

As he covered her up, the young girl opened her eyes.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hey, love." Spike straightened himself up. "Go back to sleep."

"Coming to bed?" she asked, as her eyes started to close.

"Soon, pet," he promised.

Cora gave him a soft smile. Considering she was living in a vampire's crypt, the bed was surprisingly warm and soft. Spike's quilt felt heavy against her body, and she felt safe and comfortable. She closed her eyes and gathered the blankets around her. Just as she felt herself drifting off again, the old wooden door leading into the crypt was swung open, banging against the stone wall behind it. The crash echoed in the crypt, the sound bouncing off the stones and seeming louder than it even was. Cora pushed herself up quickly, forgetting her sleepiness.

"Bloody hell!" Spike yelled, turning on whoever it was who had so rudely barged into his home. He had already slipped into his game face, ready to tear the intruder to pieces. He ignored the fact that if the person was human, he wouldn't be able to so much as poke them.

"Exactly!" the Slayer replied, standing in the open doorway.

Spike stared at her for a few moments, his eyes glazed with anger and confusion. "What?" he asked her, shaking his head.

Cora remained silent, watching Buffy's face.

"I've got questions, and I want answers. Now." Buffy walked the rest of the way into Spike's, ending a foot or so in front of Spike and the bed. She glanced from Cora to Spike. "From both of you," she added.

Spike growled angrily. "Slayer, it's late. We're sleeping," he emphasized the last word with a wave of his hand towards Cora.

"She looks awake," Buffy said looking at Cora.

"Yeah, when you come bustin' in here like you own the fu-"

"Spike!" Cora interrupted. "Put it away."

Spike looked at her, a moment's confusion on his ridged face, before remembering. His face morphed back into its human form. "Right, sorry, pet." Spike walked towards the open door. "She coulda at least closed the damn door," he said under his breath, as he shut it himself.

Cora gathered Spike's thick black quilt around her from where she sat on his bed. She looked up at Buffy through wide, but sleepy eyes. Buffy was upset. She was breathing heavily, her hands rested almost threateningly against her narrow hips, and her eyes had settled on Cora.

"I got into a fight with your boyfriend tonight," Buffy informed her.

"My…what?" Cora asked.

"Your boyfriend," Buffy said again. "Evil, soulless vampire who likes to kill people and bring you coffee in the mornings."

"Right, my boyfriend," Cora said, playing along with Buffy. "What's your problem with Angelus now, Slayer?" Cora used Spike's nickname for Buffy in her agitation.

"My problem is that I can't kill him."

"That sounds like a personal problem," Spike commented dryly, leaning back against the cool stone wall of his crypt.

"No. It's not that I'm not strong enough to kill him. It's that I can't even touch him."

"Buffy, just explain what's pissed you off, please. I'm a little confused, and I'm really tired," Cora said, closing her eyes and talking to Buffy as if she were a child.

"I found him drinking from a woman tonight," Buffy explained. "We fought, and, he…well, he had me. I mean, he was a second away from biting me when I found a knife. I tried to stab him, but it was like the knife hit a wall it couldn't penetrate. And when he tried to bite me, he couldn't get to my skin. He hit the same barrier I did. He couldn't touch me, and I couldn't even cut him."

Buffy shook her head, lost in thought again.

"So what the bloody hell does all this have to do with you bargin' in here, Slayer? You're a crappy fighter, so bloody what?"

Buffy glared at him. "That's not all, Spike," she said. "He was as confused as me for a minute, and then," Buffy turned to look at Cora, who was still sitting huddled under Spike's blankets, listening closely, "then he got pissed at you. He said you were always doing things you shouldn't be, or something. And he was saying something to himself about it all being 'impossible.' Then he told me to tell you he was leaving…and that was it."

Buffy looked to Cora, expecting the girl to understood what was going on and to help Buffy understand.

Cora stared ahead, lost in her own thoughts. She was pretty sure that she understood what had happened in the alley where Buffy had fought Angelus, but it scared her to think about it. Something greater than she had imagined was going to take place. Something that involved them all, and it probably wasn't something anyone was going to enjoy.

"Love?" Spike walked over to Cora. She was staring off into space, shutting him and Buffy out.

"Cora?" Spike tried again, sitting down by her and nudging her with his shoulder.

She finally looked up at Buffy. She stared hard at the Slayer. She was strong and confident; she was good, Cora decided. She would help them when the time came.

Buffy watched as Cora's eyes settled on her own. The girl's dark brown eyes looked at the Slayer with a deep expression, as if a million things were going on inside her head that Buffy could never understand. Buffy wasn't sure why, but at that moment, Cora seemed very wise to her, as if she had lived a very long time and had been through so much.

Buffy felt her anger subsiding as Cora looked her over critically. Suddenly the situation seemed much more serious than Buffy's initial frustration at not being able to kill Angelus.

Then Cora's eyes turned and met Spike's.

"It's big," she stated, and Spike seemed to know what she meant. His face turned grave, and he nodded in agreement.

"Nothing's too big yet, pet," he said, putting an arm around her waist.

Cora turned to Buffy, knowing the Slayer was still impatiently awaiting an explanation.

"It's the curse, Buffy," she said, as if that would clear everything up.

Buffy stared back at her blankly. "And?" she asked stupidly.

"Well, I'm not sure. It's happened once before, but under completely different circumstances. Angelus is bound to protect me, because of the curse. He can't touch you because…" Cora took a second to gather her thoughts, "because I think that you have a role in protecting me. So hurting you would be hurting me."

Buffy tried to piece all of Cora's words together in her head. Then she shook her head in confusion. "Then why can't I hurt him?"

"It's all bound together," Cora tried to explain. She looked thoughtful and frustrated as she continued. "He can't hurt you because you're going to make a difference toward protecting me. You can't hurt him because he can't hurt you…and so he poses no threat to you, but still, your killing him would pose a threat to me."

Cora shook her head again as if trying to clear it of all the confusion. "Did that just make any sense?"

"Yeah…" Buffy tried to grasp the meaning of Cora's words. "Yeah it does. But it sucks!" she complained angrily, flopping down on the bed next to Spike and Cora. "What did you mean 'it's big'?" she asked Cora.

"I don't know yet, Buffy. When I do, you'll know."

"This has something to do with the vamps who took you?"

"Yeah."

"With the vamp I dusted tonight?"

"Yeah, Buffy," Cora said, again sounding like a teacher trying to talk to a small child.

"Oh."

Cora let out a deep sigh, and then put her hands on her abdomen as a spasm of pain went up through her chest.

"You alright, love?" Spike asked her, putting his hand over hers on her stomach.

"Yeah, fine," she said, brushing his hands away. "I just…shit." She looked down at her hands. Her fingers were covered in red. She touched her tank top with the other hand. The blood that had seeped through her thin tank tip now covered her other hand as well.

She lifted up the thin shirt and saw that one of her gauze bandages was covered with blood. Ripping it off in frustration, she finally got to where one of the gashes had opened up and was leaking fresh blood.

Spike got up and went to where he kept his supply of first aid bandages. He returned to Cora with more ointment and bandages.

"God I'm so tired of this!" Cora exclaimed, grabbing her long brown hair and flinging herself into a lying down position on Spike's bed.

"You're such a child," Spike condescended her. She pulled up her tank top for him, getting more blood on her hands in the process. After a second's hesitation, she jerked it over her head and threw it into the corner.

Spike raised her eyebrows at the girl's frustration. Lying in a black sports bra, her stomach and back still covered in white gauze bandages, Cora turned to Buffy.

"What're you doing tomorrow?" Cora asked her. Spike had already removed the bloodied bandage from her abdomen and was busy putting fresh antiseptic and a new bandage on.

"Uh…school I guess?" Buffy suggested.

"Want to go for a drive instead? I need clothes. I've been living out of a single tank top for days, and I've been going through Spike's boxer shorts faster than he does." Cora looked at Buffy mischievously. "He thinks not wearing underwear makes him sexier," she said in a low voice.

Buffy laughed. "Are we going shopping?"

"Actually, I've got a place in Santa Maria, if you don't mind the drive. It's a couple of hours."

"Sure," Buffy accepted. She liked Cora, and she definitely needed to find out more about the mysterious girl and her past before she trusted her too much. "Oh, but I don't drive. Like at all. Buffy and cars are not mixy things," Buffy explained with a smile.

Cora laughed at the other girl's words. "No problem. I drive. And I'm sure Spike would love to let us take his car." She smiled at him.

"Ah ah ah," Spike shook his head as he rose from the bed. Cora rose to a seated position, her hands resting behind her, holding her up. She frowned at him.

He laughed at her puzzled expression. "Don't you remember the last time you borrowed my car, pet?"

Cora looked at him innocently, her eyebrows rose over her eyes questioningly.

"I found it in the bloody river!" Spike explained. "And I found you on the shore of that river a few hundred feet from it. It took me three months to get that car out and get it runnin' again."

"I thought I was doing you a favor," Cora said. "I figured that, with it in the river, you'd finally go buy something new." Buffy stifled a laugh.

"I like my car, pet. And that still doesn't explain why you didn't get out of the car before you dumped it in that soddin' river."

"Well," Cora started, "I hadn't exactly planned on it going into the river. That part was a mistake." Spike looked at her with a raised brow. "I was being chased!" Cora said, her hands rising up in the air as if that explained everything.

Spike laughed again. "By Angelus!"

"It was supposed to be a game," Cora said, turning to Buffy as if trying to convince her.

"One you're supposed to play with other people's cars, love." Spike went to his drawers and pulled out one of his black shirts. He tossed it to Cora.

She pulled it over her head. "I was fourteen! Besides, Angelus thought it would be funnier if I used yours."

"Yeah, and it was really funny when you went through that guardrail and nearly got yourself killed."

"Aw," Cora said as Spike sat back down on the bed again. She elbowed him roughly. "And I thought you only cared about it because of your car."

"Didn't want you to die, now did I, pet?"

"You were racing?" Buffy asked, unsurprised that it was Angelus who nearly got Cora killed.

"Yeah. And it was fun, until Angel forgot that he was immortal and I'm…well…not." Cora laughed again at the memory.

Cora yawned loudly, and Spike bent down to unlace his boots.

"You gonna sleep with us now, Slayer?" Spike asked, turning to look at Buffy with annoyance.

"Oh," Buffy stood up quickly. "I'm sorry, I forgot it was so late. And I'm apologizing to you Cora, not Spike." The Slayer smiled. "Thanks for talking to me, I'm sorry for waking you up earlier.

"It's okay," Cora said. "We have a lot to learn about each other still."

"Yes, we do," Buffy agreed. "Maybe you can fill me in some more tomorrow?"

Cora looked hopefully towards Spike. "Well we still don't have a car yet…" she let the sentence hang in the air.

Spike looked back and forth between the two girls.

"Fine," he consented. "I'd be a damn crazy vampire to stand up to a Slayer and to a…well…to Cora."

Cora raised her eyebrows at him conspiratorially. Buffy looked momentarily confused again before she decided to just let it go. There were still many things she needed to know about Cora and jumping down everyone's throats about everything that she didn't understand yet wasn't going to help.

"Pick you up around ten, Buffy?" Cora asked, as she shifted under Spike's covers again.

"Sounds good," Buffy agreed, getting to the door. "Goodnight," she called as she left. She felt better about Cora already. Despite Buffy's history with Angel, it was becoming surprisingly easy to sit and listen to the other girl's old stories about growing up with Angelus. Buffy couldn't wait to learn even more about Cora Beckman on the drive to Santa Maria tomorrow.