A/N: So, I left you with a cliffhanger last time, ha! I guess you'll find out what's going on soon enough, so read and enjoy! Or… I HOPE you enjoy. :) Spoiler: This is a Spuffy based chapter! Enjoy… haha

Catching up: "What exactly am I protecting you from now love?" Spike asked Buffy quietly. "From him." Buffy barely whispered. "Who's him love?" he purred. Giles looked up to Buffy, "We may have some kind of elemental, a demon that takes its form as the weather, or control the elements as such." A sudden crash from the kitchen followed by a loud yelp made them all jump, a snarl from what they could only guess was from a demon sent them flying into the room next to them.

Burns, Flesh wounds, and Fire.

Buffy was the first one to make it into the kitchen where the first thing she saw was smoke rising from the floor above a very hysterical vampire.

"Spike!" She screamed and began patting him down. He cussed and hissed loudly until the fire went out. "What happened?" Buffy asked frantically holding his face in her hands.

"Had a bit of an accident love." He winced as a piece of charred shirt rubbed his burned chest. "No biggy."

"A bit of an accident?" Buffy laughed nervously and looked her blonde vampire over. "How?"

"Stove lit my shirt on fire." He tore off a shred of his shirt and looked down at his scorched body. "Like I said, no worries." He stood up shakily and nearly fell over. Buffy let him lean heavily against her, and he swore at the pain from her touching his tender skin.

"Get in the shower; I'll get you some new clothes." She mumbled taking him to the stairs.

"Will do pet." He nuzzled her ear affectionately, but she hardly noticed. Her eyes were bright red and filled to the brim with tears. So this was how it was going to be. Make her fall even harder for him than she already had, and then kill him. Good job hell. Let's really make Buffy crazy.

They reached the top of the stairs after a few long minutes of half carrying a toasty vampire, and then made their way through the hall to the bathroom.

"Will you be ok?" She whispered without looking at his face. The feeling that leaving him would prove to be detrimental was maddening.

"Yeah," He whispered back, painfully tearing off his shirt. Then he looked at her curiously. "Will you be?" He watched her put her head down so that her blonde locks fell into her face, hiding her fresh tears. "Buffy…" He put one red hand on her shoulder, and with the other he pulled her face up to look at him.

"You would have died." She choked out with a sob, and was grateful when he pulled her into his chest and cradled her against him.

"You saved me." He chuckled lightly at the irony. "It's gonna take a lot more than a little fire to keep me away from you." He kissed the top of her head, and then his demon whined pitifully when her sobs only got harder. "What's troubling you pet?" His voice was pleading and lost of hope. "Buffy please." He moaned into her shoulder. Having her body against his was extremely painful with the burns still fresh, but he bit his tongue against it.

"He took you away from me. And he keeps taking you away from me." It was nearly impossible for Spike to understand her words, but somehow he managed. "I just want to be with you. But he won't let me. He keeps coming for me. And he won't let me go home. I can't be with Spike."

Spike hadn't a clue as to what she was talking about. He just stood there and held his crying beauty and tried to put the pieces together. Perhaps Anya was right; maybe she did think she was still in hell. The thought made Spike snarl furiously and he pulled her tighter against him, not even realizing the hiss that escaped him at the pain of his burned flesh being ripped off of him.

"Tell you what slayer," his words were venomous, just like when he was still trying to kill her. "I'll take you back down to the little hell world," he flinched when her muscles tightened with her fear. "And we'll have a little chat with our friendly hell god, and I'll prove to you that you are home, and you are with me, and you will always be with me. Understand pet?" Her nails dug into him while she listened fearfully to his words.

"Help me." She moaned. "God, help me."

Spike didn't know what to do. He felt like it were he in hell, rather than her. This was the ultimate torture. Seeing his love, usually strong and together, reduced to this, a small afraid little girl, was almost as bad as seeing her dead in front of him when he could have saved her. After their first apocalypse together with the hell god Glori.

"Buffy listen to me." His jaw clenched. "Love, it's you and it's me. And we're going to get through this." Buffy recognized those as the same words that she'd said to him when he'd gotten his soul back. "Let me help you. I'll help you." The last words he said were a mixture of choked sobs and angry snarls.

"Spike." She breathed as she pulled away from him. She'd forgotten for a moment why they'd come up here.

She walked over to the tub and pulled the metal for the water to rush out. She turned it to cold, and then stepped back staring at the white bath.

"Do you guys think Spike is gonna be ok?" Dawn looked to her friends for any positive thoughts.

Giles spoke up first. "I do hope so; it would definitely be to our disadvantage if he weren't with us." He took off his glasses and began to clean them with a cloth that he took out of his pocket.

Dawn glared angrily at him before Willow lightly added, "What he means is, we don't really know a whole lot about this new demon, and well, we could really use Spike's help." She smiled sheepishly.

"Well I hope for Buffy's sake that he's alright." Tara whispered looking at her hands. "Imagine if he were gone, what would happen to her." In agreement, the scoobies all looked at the floor solemnly. Buffy had gone through so much to bring Spike back. He made her feel safe in a world that she thought was hell. If he were gone, who knows what kind of damage that would do to her mind.

"I'm going to go check on them." Xander gave up. "See if I can help." He climbed the stairs regretfully, and searched the rooms for Buffy and Captain Peroxide. But he didn't find them. "Hey guys?" He called through the long hallway. "Buffy?"No answer.

He walked into the bathroom where the water from the shower head was still coming down in a steady stream, and Spike's tattered shirt lay on the floor at his feet.

Xander ran back down into the living room and burst out, "There gone!" The others stared at him for an explanation. "I just went upstairs and they aren't there. Buffy, and Spike, are gone."

A/N: Did you like? I hope so! I liked writing the Spuffy moment, and yes, I know exactly where this is going. Unlike before. When I didn't… Ok well anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll have the next chapter up soon!