Well hi there kiddies! Sorry, I'd meant to get this up to you earlier - yesterday at the very latest, but first I got busy, then my computer died. Won't turn on and since I have an older hard drive, I don't have anything to use to get the files off it. Luckily, I'd been sending these chapters out to the wonderful and ever-so helpful and patient Love-el-ly Joy and they're still saved in my outbox. Unfortunately, that means this is the unedited version of this. If she found any mistakes that I missed, this version doesn't have them edited out. I'm pretty sure I added more description to this chapter, but this version doesn't have it.

So in the meantime, here's the rougher version of this while I work on recovering my files and getting one of my two computers to turn on. I know the other chapters are edited and more descriptive, so bear with me until we get to the next chapter. Meanwhile, enjoy!

A little over an hour later, the trio headed out of Wolfram & Hart, ready to go.

"A stake?" asked Gunn, gripping his axe fondly. "You're trying to track down some unknown horrific demon and all you bring is a stake?"

"Hey, I'm a Slayer; a stake is my meat and potatoes! You'd be surprised wat I can do with a stake," she said.

There was a beat of silence as Spike and Gunn looked from the phallic stake to her with raised eyebrows.

"Eeeew! Not what I meant, you pervs! Anyway, it's less conspicuous than your battle axe."

"Hey, don't diss the axe! It's way too easy to lose or break a stake and then you're shit outta luck."

"You're assuming she only has the one," said Spike. "If I know the Slayer, she has at least five or six more on her."

Gunn eyed her petite frame. "Where?"

Spike smirked. "Like she said, you'd be surpri- OW! You're a violent woman, pet!"

"They're hidden," is all she said to Gunn. "And," she said to both of them, "this is recon only. Even if we find this thing, we can't engage it. We don't know enough about it or its power yet to try to fight it.."

Gunn was looking behind her as a growl emanated from an alley behind them. "Vamps we can fight though, right?" said Gunn, nodding toward a gang of vamps emerging from what was clearly a nest.

"Oh yes," Buffy confirmed with a grin. "Vamps we can fight."

They attacked the group with enthusiasm, particularly Gunn, who had spent the last few months fighting evil from behind a desk. After dusting two, he gripped his axe fondly and looked around for more before he was stopped by Spike.

"You ever see a slayer fight?" asked Spike.

"Can't say I have."

"Just watch for a moment."

Gunn looked over to see Buffy dodge a blow aimed at her face, grabbing her attacker's arm and throwing him aside, just in time to deliver a hard kick to the midsection of another vamp coming at her. She dodged one attack, only to be caught off guard as a vamp took out her knee, bringing her to the ground. She kicked her feet up, simultaneously kicking the vamp in the face and flinging herself back to her feet.

Gunn grinned at Spike, before gripping his axe and jumping back into the fray.

Buffy smiled as the last vamp exploded into dust. "Well," she said, dusting off her clothes, "that was bracing."

"No kidding," said Gunn, "Nice moves.

"Well, you know, I work out," she said.

"So Buffy," said Spike, "how exactly are we tracking this thing? What are we looking for?"

"It's tough to tell. Basically, if we see any fights, we should check them out. Any deaths we can't explain we should look into. Keep your eyes peeled for anything different or anything that doesn't add up. Sorry I can't be more specific."

"Your standard 'something's brewing' patrol, then," said Spike.

"Pretty much." They continued on in silence for a minute before Buffy cleared her throat. "Spike. I've been meaning to ask you. When you died…. I mean, when you were…" She sighed. "Do you remember anything? Where you were?"

Spike instantly recognized what she was asking. "Wasn't in hell," he hastened to assure her, leaving out the Pavayne incident. "And I definitely wasn't in heaven. It was more of a 'one minute you're here, the next you're there' kind of thing. Disorienting as hell, but that's all.

Buffy nodded, relieved. "And you decided not to tell me because…?"

"Well come on! I'd gone out in a bloody epic blaze of glory. Calling you up to say 'hey guess what – I'm alive!' would've been a bit anti-climactic!"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Right, because I've never died dramatically only to come back to life again."

"Got me there," said Spike.

"Man, I get that life gets weird when you start hunting demons, but you three have the weirdest common experiences," said Gunn, shaking his head.

Spike and Buffy grinned. "Taking on gods from demon dimensions!" said Spike.

"Swords through the stomach," said Buffy.

"Me and Angel both having to be invited into your house twice because you revoked the invitation."

"You and Angel both chaining me to a wall."

"Me and Angel both being chained to walls by you. For a lot longer than you were, for that matter."

"Okay, so we've all spent some time chained to a wall," Buffy conceded.

"Oh god, this is information I don't need," said Gunn.

"Being involved with someone who used to try to kill you!" said Buffy.

"Crawling out of your grave, of course. That one's a classic," said Spike.

"Ooh! For me and Angel – being single parents of mystical teenage kids!" said Buffy.

"Bonus points for the fact that both kids went from non-existent to teenager in less than a year," Spike put in.

Gunn just shook his head. "How did this become my life?"

Buffy grinned at him until he said "How old is your sister again? Maybe she and Connor should hook up."

"Eeeew! That's like incest!"

"Um, except for the fact that they aren't related," said Gunn.

"God, they would be the world's angstiest couple," said Spike.

"Dawn's gotten better about that."

"I hear Connor's not as bad anymore either," said Gunn.

"No."

"But just think of all they have in common!" Gunn was thoroughly enjoying himself at this point.

"Lalalalala not listening!" said Buffy, covering her ears.

"They're growing up, you know. They're well into dating age anyway."

"Do you want to meet the business end of my fist?"

"She's actually older than Buffy was when she met Angel," Spike chimed in.

"Dawn should not look to any of my relationships as an example."

"Is she coming with Giles?" asked Spike.

"No, thank God."

"I miss the little bit," he said.

Buffy's eyes softened at him. "I think she misses you too. This is the first time in a long while she hasn't had an undead big brother type in her life."

"So they just… made up memories and planted them in everyone's head?" said Gunn.

"Yep," said Buffy.

"Everyone who would have had contact with her if she had actually existed then."

"Yep."

"I always thought it was odd Angelus never went after her," said Spike.

Buffy nodded. "He went after me, Willow, Giles, even messed with my mom a little. I remember being terrified, just waiting for him to do something to her, but he never did."

"Because she wasn't really there," said Gunn.

"The monks can change memories, but they can't change history. But she was there. I mean, not really, but she remembers it all."

Gunn shook his head. "Okay, this is starting to make my head hurt," he said, not noticing Spike go very still beside him. "New topic."

"How 'bout the dead girl over there?" Spike said quietly.

Buffy hurried over to the body, followed quickly by the other two. She crouched down, hoping to find a pulse, but not surprised when the girl was still and silent.

"Was it our demon?" asked Gunn.

"It's tough to tell, since it's not as distinctive as, say, a vampire bite. If I had to guess, I would say it was a Polgara demon."

Spike leaned in closer and sniffed experimentally. "Yeah, definitely a Polgara," he said.

Buffy made a face at the sniffing, then turned away from the girl.

"On the bright side," she said, her voice growing grim, a determined glint in her eyes, "that makes something else we can beat the crap out of tonight."

Several hours later, the trio made their way through Wolfram & Hart carrying bags of blood and takeout.

"We didn't need to take this back here, pet," Spike had been saying. "Angel's a big CEO now. He can get his own blood."

"It's not the blood I'm worried about and you know it. It's the brooding."

They threw open his office door to find Angel staring longingly out the window.

Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Did you actually get any work done, or have you just been staring out the window this whole time?"

Angel's eyes widened in surprise. "No, I just finished what I needed, honest!" he said, waving some papers around as proof.

"Good," she said, pulling out blood and setting it on his desk.

"Did you find anything?" asked Angel.

"Nothing on our mystery demon. Giles will be here soon, so hopefully we won't be clueless for long," she said, unpacking her food. "Managed to get some of your standard stake and slays though."

Angel's eyebrows rose as she laid out a feast in front of her. "And did you leave any food for the rest of LA?"

"Ha ha," said Buffy. "You know how slaying always makes me hungry and… uh… craving junk food."

Angel's lips twitched. "Craving junk food," he repeated.

Buffy's face flushed as she babbled. "Yeah, you know, pizza, Chinese, tacos, cheesy fries… It's like'yay killing bad things! Let's kill your cholesterol too!' It's a good thing I'm so active, otherwise…."

She trailed off, clamping her mouth shut to avoid more babbling.

Angel and Spike just smirked.

Like I said, it's missing some parts I went back and added later, but this is all I have for you. Hopefully I can make it to a computer center this week to recover my files. The other few chapters I have finished should be relatively polished, it's just this one that isn't. Thanks for your patience. Let me know what you think!