Author's Notes:

I love Joss Whedon. He came up with all these brilliant characters (except for K) and stuff. Also, I know this isn't the best writing I've done, but I'd appreciate some reviews. Just to let me know people out there are reading my stuff. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, on with the show!

The Big Bad Building

K groaned and turned over in bed.

"Come on, love," Spike said softly, gently putting his hand on her arm. "It's eight thirty. We have to go kill some vamps."

"Meh. Five more minutes," K said, burying her face in Spike's chest.

Spike laughed lightly. "No time for that. Everyone else is already ready to go. We've got to leave soon, Pet."

"Ugh," K groaned again, but she got up nonetheless. "Before I became a Slayer I used to get at least ten hours of sleep every night. This is ridiculous."

"I'm sorry, Pet."

"No, it's not your fault," she said, getting clothes to change into. She went into the bathroom, splashed some water on her face, tied her hair back, and changed out of her sweatpants and into actual clothes.

"Ready, love?" Spike called from outside the bathroom.

"Yeah," she said, opening the door. "Where's Satsu?"

"She's down in the lobby," Spike said. "Everyone's waiting for us."

K's eyes widened. "Everyone is—oh my God, Spike, you should've told me this earlier!" K hated to keep people waiting. She hated disappointing people. She flung herself out the door without a second thought and ran downstairs, completely forgetting that Spike was still behind her. She entered the lobby, where the rest of the gang was waiting for her. She panted, completely out of breath.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Oh, God," she said quietly to herself. "I'm so sorry that I'm late. I didn't—"

"It's fine, K, we weren't even leaving yet," Willow said, putting her hand on K's shoulder. "We weren't, like, impatiently waiting for you or anything. Buffy said 9, it's only 8:45."

"Oh," K said after a moment of silence. Spike had finally caught up with her.

"Bloody hell," he panted. "Are we going, or what?"

"Well, if everyone is ready, we'll go," Buffy said. She led everyone to the car, and they sat in the same positions as last night.

"So do these vamps live, like, underground or something? Because then it'd be easy to take them all out," Satsu said.

"No," Buffy answered. "It's weird how modernized they are. They actually stay in these huge buildings. It almost looks like—"

"Like a law firm," Angel said.

"Yeah," Buffy said.

They all kept quiet until they arrived at a towering building.

Angel and Spike were first to enter, running as quickly as they could under a blanket so the sun wouldn't burn them.

The girls soon followed. Buffy was carrying a large axe with a stake in her belt. Willow had her magic, of course. Kennedy was carrying a scythe, and Satsu and K were equipped with several stakes.

"So what's the plan?" Satsu whispered.

"Stake anything that moves," Kennedy said.

"Well. Nothing seems to be on the ground floor," Buffy said. "How many floors are there, anyway?"

"Eight," Willow said. "Including this ground floor. So I guess we should each take a floor, clear it out, and come back here."

Buffy nodded.

"We have to go on each floor alone?" Spike asked.

"Shh!" Buffy snapped. "We don't want to attract the vamps. And yes. Can't you handle it?"

Spike quickly glanced at K before turning back to Buffy. "Yeah. Let's go."

Angel and Spike took the second and third floor just so they could avoid being closer to the sun. Buffy took the fourth floor, Kennedy took the fifth floor, Satsu took the sixth floor, K took the seventh floor, and Willow took the eighth floor.

It was an office building. With hallways, rooms, and cubicles. "Why would vampires want to nest here?" K asked herself softly. "And why is this place so big? How many vampires are here?"

There was a growling sound, and K turned around quickly, seeing her first vampire of the building. His dark hair was messy and long, covering most of the bumps on his forehead, but it wasn't long enough to hide his piercing yellow eyes. He was wearing a suit and tie.

K pushed him away from him, which made him angry. She began to throw kicks and punches, doing her dance until finally tiring out the vampire enough to push her wooden stake into his chest, turning him into dust.

"One down," K panted, "a hell of a lot more to go."

Down on the third floor, Spike was fighting off a hoard of vampires. Pushing them off of him in great numbers. There must've been at least seven vamps on him at a time. He was easily able to push them away, though, and his timing with the stake was perfect. He hit them just as they let their guard down for a moment. Though he was fighting off all these vampires, the only thing he worried about was if K was all right several floors above him.

And she was doing all right at this point. Though not staking ten vamps every second, she was able to hold her own, taking her time as she brought down one vampire at a time. She felt kind of stupid, taking her own merry time fighting down a whole hoard of vampires like this. But hey, whatever worked.

She finally caught a break. The vamps weren't coming after her. She hunched over, and panted. "I can't let my guard down." She stood up straight, stake at the ready, stealthily walking down the hallways of the office, looking for any more vampires on her floor.

"I know there are more of you," she said. "It can't be that easy."

She passed by a mirror, which was in one of the cubicles.

"Holy crap," she said, looking into it. She didn't notice how much the vampires had attacked her. Her face was bruised, and she had gotten a cut on her forehead, which bled into her hair and down the side of her face. It only just begun to hurt. She touched it, and looked down at her hand. "Bloody hell," she said quietly. She quickly laughed to herself for starting to talk like Spike. "Oh, God," she said, wiping her hand on her shirt. She didn't even want to see where else she had gotten hurt.

"Mmmmmm. The blood of a Slayer," said a voice behind her. She jumped, and turned around. Another vampire was slowly approaching her. "I've always wanted to try it. I would ask for some help holding you down… but you seem small enough for me to handle. But you did kill off everyone on this floor. Tsk. This place is rather dusty, and it's all your fault."

"Are you going to keep talking?" K panted, her stake up. "Or are you going to fight me already?"

The vampire chuckled. "How adorable. You're one of the cutest little humans I've ever seen."

"If you're going to kill me, why don't you just try now?"

"Oh, I like to play with my food. You see, first—"

K was fed up with his talking, so she threw his stake at him, piercing his chest and making him a pile of dust.

"I don't like to play around with my victims," K said, picking up her stake.

She walked around the floor once again, making sure that there were no more vampires. The last one she had killed said that he was the last of them on this floor, and K couldn't find any others. She checked the cubicles, the offices, and even the bathrooms. There were no more vamps on the floor.

"Oh, God," K groaned, as she fell to her knees and curled up into a ball on the floor. "Fuck," she yelled loudly. All of her wounds and bruises begun to hurt, and each one, though they felt like a tiny poke before, now felt like she was on fire.

She didn't know how long she was curled up in that position, but after a while, the pain wasn't as prominent. She figured it was her Slayer powers healing her. She was able to get up, and she began to walk downstairs to see who had finished and was waiting on the ground floor.

"Hello?" she called to the ground floor. Nothing. It was completely empty. "I couldn't have been the first one done, could I? I can't just stay here. Someone else might need help." K decided to go to the second floor since it was the closest to her.

"Whose floor was this?" she said quietly as she scanned the hallways. "Oh, right. Angel!" she called out. "Angel, are you here?"

She opened the door to one of the offices, finding Angel staking a vampire in the heart.

"Oh, there you are."

"K," he said, slightly surprised to see her. "You were looking for me? Well, I just finished cleaning this floor out."

"Yeah, I finished my floor a little earlier, too," she said. "I came down here to see if you needed any help."

"No, I'm done here. You look really beat up. Are you okay? We should get you back to the van or something."

"I'm fine," K said. "I mean, I think we should go help the others. I know Buffy said to go back down to the ground floor when we were done, but isn't that, like, a waste of time and energy? Let's go another floor up."

"Is the ground floor empty?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, I just checked."

They were climbing up the stairs when K asked, "Who had the third floor?"

"Spike did," Angel answered.

K ran through the hallways and checked the rooms. The floors were covered in vampire dust. "Spike!" she called. "Spike! Spike? Spike!"

There was no answer.

"Calm down, K," Angel told her. "You're acting a bit frantic."

"Spike!" K continued to call. "Spike? Spike!"

"K—"

"Angel, what if they killed him?" K practically screamed, her eyes wide. "What if they got his stake and stabbed him, and what if he's one of these dust piles we're stepping on? Oh, God. Spike? Spike!"

"K—"

"Spike?"

"K!"

"What?"

"Think for a moment. If Spike were dead, there would still be vampires on this floor. I'm sure he killed them and went to another floor."

"What? Oh, God. Spike? Spike!"

"K!" Angel yelled, wrapping his arms around K and pulling her into his chest, practically smothering her. "Please, calm down!"

She began to scream into Angel's leather jacket. Angel couldn't tell if she was just screaming, or if she had begun to cry.

"Shhhhh," Angel said, beginning to stroke her hair with his hand, getting a bit of her blood on it. "Calm down. I'm sure… I'm sure Spike is fine. Let's go up another floor, and we'll try to help out, kill more vampires, and find Spike."

K stopped screaming, but didn't move away from Angel's grasp. She slowly nodded, rubbing her nose on Angel's shirt.

"All right," Angel said softly.

K pulled away from him, rubbing her eyes. "Thank you, Angel," she whispered.

Angel nodded. "Let's go up a floor."

"Who was supposed to be on that floor?" K asked.

"Buffy," Angel said, before pulling K along towards the stairs.

Angel ran ahead this time as they arrived on floor four. Angel froze as soon as he entered a hallway.

"What is it, Angel?"

He inhaled deeply. "I smell… vampires."

K held her stake up.

"And…" Angel continued with another deep breath. "Buffy. She's still here. She's with Spike."

"Spike?" K said a bit too loudly.

"Shh!" Angel spat, but it was already too late. Three vampires had already found them. One of them was carrying Buffy's axe.

"Two more?" the vampire said. Before they began to fight.

K began to fight against the vampire with the axe while Angel began to fight against the other two.

"Another Slayer?" the vampire snarled.

"Yeah," K said, punching him in the face. "And there's a hell of a lot more than us, so you might as well die now."

The vampire swing the axe which hit K squarely in the arm, ripping through her shirt and leaving a deep cut.

"Aah!" K screamed, moving her other hand to her wounded arm. The vampire had turned to dust, and there stood Angel with a stake in his hand.

"Angel," K panted. "I am so sorry. I was completely useless."

"Don't worry about it. You're cut pretty deep. Maybe you should rest."

K shook her head. "N-no… I have to find Spike."

Angel picked up the axe, but didn't argue. "Fine. Let's go. We're safe for now, I don't smell any more vampires on this floor. Well, except for Spike."

"Spike!" K yelled. "Spike? Spike!"

She dragged herself along, panting as she went, searching frantically for the blonde vampire.

She opened one of the office rooms and saw Spike. On his knees, with Buffy lying down on his lap, her eyes closed.

"Spike!" K exclaimed.

"K?" he asked. "Bloody hell… you're a mess. Are you okay?"

"I-I'm okay," she said quietly. "What happened? I-is Buffy…?"

"She's unconscious, love," Spike said. He put his arms under her, and lifted her in one swift motion, her body hanging limply in his arms. "She's not in a good shape. And neither are you, we should get back to the car."

"B-but what about Willow and Kennedy and Satsu?" K asked.

"You're bleeding, K!" Spike exclaimed. "If a vampire attacks you now, you're done for!"

Angel walked up behind K.

"What happened? Why is Buffy—"

"She's unconscious!" Spike repeated. "A vampire knocked her out and took her axe."

"Well, here's the axe," Angel said. "Spike, you take Buffy and K down to the car. I'll take care of the rest."

Spike nodded. "Come on, love, you've got to go."

K reluctantly looked from Spike to Angel, and back to Spike.

"Okay," she said quietly.

Angel left to go up to the next floor, as Spike carried Buffy and supported an unsteady K all the way back to the ground floor.

"K, I can't go out there," Spike said. "Because of the sun."

"Oh, right," K said.

"I'm not sure how to get Buffy back over there," he said. "You're in no state to carry her…"

"I can do it," K said. "With my right arm. Spike, you can't go out into the sun, and Buffy's got to get to the car."

"Love, I don't want your arm to fall off," he said. "I like your arm."

"I can do it, Spike," she said. She showed him her right shoulder. "Just leave her here… it's the only way she'll be safe, Spike. She can't stay in this building. You go help Angel, I can take care of this."

"…All right, Pet," he said, carefully draping Buffy onto K's shoulder.

K used every ounce of her strength she had left not to drop Buffy.

"See?" K groaned. "I can take care of it… just go help Angel. These vampires are tough, and they're going to need as much help as possible. Go!"

Spike nodded. He turned around and left up the stairs and K walked out into the sunlight, into the van. She left Buffy down in the middle seat, and then sat in the driver's seat.

"I-I can't just sit here," K said, putting her head on the steering wheel. She closed her eyes, and the pain from her arm had just hit her. "Aah…"

She heard Buffy groan from the back seat. K shot up, and looked back.

"What… happened?" Buffy asked.

"We both got injured and were sent back to the van," K told her. "You were knocked out by a vampire, and I got sliced by your axe."

"Oh… oh, my head…" Buffy said quietly.

"Yeah. Spike was taking care of you, and Angel took care of me. And then we went up to your floor, and Spike told me to bring you here. He couldn't come because of the sun, so I..."

"So… you brought me here?"

"Um, no," K said. "I helped Spike put the blanket on himself. I couldn't lift you. My arm is all…"

"Oh," Buffy said. "But everyone is okay, right?"

"I honestly don't know."

K didn't know why she lied to Buffy. She figured that she didn't want her to be disappointed when she heard that K was the one who helped her.

Buffy sat up, and turned around to look out the back window. "Oh, thank God," she said to herself.

K turned around to see what she saw. The two vampires were running under the blanket, and Willow, Kennedy, and Satsu followed closely behind. They were all rather beaten up, but none of them looked as bad as K or Buffy.

Angel and Spike jumped into the dark van first before the rest of the girls crawled in. K practically jumped off the driver's seat and went to the very back of the van.

"Buffy," Angel said. "You're awake. Good."

"Yeah… I'm all right. What's the status?"

"The whole building is clean."

"Man, those vampires were tough," Kennedy groaned as she took the wheel and started the car.

"Yeah, they were tougher than usual," Satsu said. "And there were a ton of them. And the building was so huge. Thank God we all made it up. We might want to ask for extra help on the next nest. I mean, two of us almost died."

Spike lightly touched K's wound on her left arm.

"Ah!" she said softly. "I… it hurts."

"Sorry, love," Spike said.

"Spike," K said extremely softly. "I lied to Buffy. I told her you carried her here, not me."

"Why did you do that?" Spike asked, his voice just as quiet.

K shrugged one shoulder. "I was just afraid of how she'd react if she knew I helped her. Can you keep it a secret?"

Spike sighed, but nodded. "I'll do anything for you, love."

"Thank you, Spike."

Before too terribly long, they arrived at the hotel. The boys ran under the blanket again as the rest of them came behind them. They took the elevator to the seventh floor, and went into room 718.

"Let's get cleaned up," Buffy said. "We need lots of bandages, and a sling for K. Maybe an ice pack or two."

"I've called room service, and they're sending up all the healing supplies we need," Satsu said.

"Great. Thanks. I'm going to lie down…"

Buffy crawled into bed. Angel sat down next to her and put his hand on her arm.

Once the healing supplies was up, Willow helped K get bandaged and into her sling after she washed all the blood off of her.

"Thanks, Willow," she said, now wearing clean clothes and a sling. "God, I feel so bloody ridiculous in this. It's like I'm restricted."

Willow started giggling.

"What?" K asked.

"You're starting to talk like Spike," she said. "You just said 'bloody'."

K smiled stupidly. "Yeah. I guess. He's just really getting to me, y'know?"

"Well, I think it's adorable," Willow said, putting one last bandage on K. "Well, you're all set. You should really get some rest. You probably had it the hardest today."

"Yeah… I think I'll go to sleep. Goodnight, Willow."

"Goodnight, K."

K went into room 717, leaving the rest of them in 718.

"Hey, Spike?" Buffy said. She was still lying down, her eyes now closed. "Could you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" Spike asked.

"Could you call HQ and ask Xander to come up here?" Buffy asked. "I would do it myself… but, my head is just…"

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it," Spike said. And he left to room 717, as well.

"Why'd you ask Spike to do it?" Angel asked Buffy. "I mean, I could've done it."

"Because," Buffy said, pushing herself closer to Angel. "I need you here with me."

Angel rolled his eyes, but smiled.

"God, everywhere I go, I'm surrounded by couples," Satsu complained. "In here there's Angel and Buffy, and Willow and Kennedy. And then I go in there, and there's Spike and K."

"I'm hungry," Kennedy said.

Willow smiled and stroked her hair. "I'm a little peck-ish, too," she said. "D'you want to go down to the lounge and grab a bite, baby?"

"Yeah," Kennedy said, standing up with Willow. "It's not even that late right now. But let's go."

"Hey, take me with you," Satsu said. "I'd rather be the third wheel with you two than with Angel and Buffy."

So the three of them left as Angel and Buffy continued to cuddle in bed together.