A/N: I own nothing of the Whedonverse nor any fairytales and I am not profiting from this work.

Chapter 13

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I'm making a plan

I'll be the best man she's ever seen

All bets were on Wicca club.

"Sorry Buffy, just a bunch of wanna Blessed Bes." The young co-ed was sitting across from the slayer at the dining room table which had become Scoobie central since The Curse.

"It's alright Will. We'll find magic to beat this guy somewhere. I was just a little too excited to get back to classes. You've been signing me in right?" Buffy smiled and did her best to convey with her eyes that she was super grateful to her rules-oriented friend for fudging the roster.

"Yes I have. Oh!" Willows eyes were huge.

"What?" Huge Willow eyes were rarely of the good.

"The classes. All of yours and most of mine. Nearly all of them really it was really weird. I don't know why it happened…" Buffy reached out and put a hand on her witchy friend's shoulder.

"Will, chill," she removed the hand with a gentle pat. "What happened with the classes?"

"Oh, they've been cancelled."

"What?"

"Yeah, almost all of them like I said. The professors and teacher's aides were just gone today there's a list posted on every classroom door explaining that they were changed to pass-fail and the grades would be calculated on available grades so far. Uh, and that they are sorry for the inconvenience."

"This seems fishy."

"Swimteam fishy?"

"Maybe. I'll go out tonight and see what's the what. Check the campus. There might be something there that wasn't there before."

It's new and a bit alarmin' and I can't rightly remember when I felt like this before. I mean true 'm no prince charmin' or nuthin, but,... Spike's train of thought was derailed by Buf-The Slayer's comment. He had to stop that slip up. "Wut's there, Slayer?"

She turned to face him as he came in from the kitchen. He was holding two mugs. Her travel and his ceramic. She smiled a bit bemusedly. "The campus. Weird things are happening and I'm the girl to find out what."

She stopped and was visibly pondering. He placed her mug in front of her and a lock of her hair fell across her face as she looked down into it. How had he known I was getting hungry? He was right about the pills. Damn him. He hasn't rubbed my nose in it though. He sits in on every meeting and tries to help. He hasn't tried to bite anyone for days. Thanksgiving is coming up. That's when your supposed to show thanks to the people who help out. Right? Right. She could make out the sounds of Dawn coming in from school, having been dropped off by Oz, and Willow running out with an over the shoulder see you soon. Then it was right back to drinking her lunch and thinking. But he was mean and he was course and, and, playing chess with Giles last night and discussing music with Oz and movies with Xander. He's been helping Dawn with her homework and Mom with the housework. And she wasn't dumb. She had experience with Angel where it came to being followed on patrol. Spike stayed real far back but she could still sense because…

"Don't think so hard, luv. You'll hurt yourself." He was smiling into his mug and looking at her through his lashes.

"Shut up. We're family right?"

"What?" The vamp was poleaxed.

"I've been looking into it with Giles's help and Anya mentioned a few things. I found some stuff about vampire lineages and all signs point to you and I being family. Right?" She placed her mug on the table at the same time he did.

"In a roundabout way I guess, yeah." If she wants to tell me I'm like a brother or some rot I guess that'll nip the dreams as easy as anything else.

"Then that explains how I know what I do."

"What would that be?" Please don't be telepathic. Please don't be telepathic.

"That you go out and hunt things after I come home. That you follow me on patrols and take out extra fighters while my back is exposed and then fade into the shadows so that no one suspects what I've become. That you're helping."

"Christ, Slayer I…"

"And that you didn't want me to find out. Which means you're not doing it for anything but to do it." She stood and grabbed her empty mug, heading to the kitchen to rinse it out. She stopped just before the entry. "I'm going to the campus to figure out why the faculty and students have ghosted. If you want to join me we'll leave tonight." He seemed frozen in place so she turned to leave when she heard his voice come out soft and slightly broken.

"Just tell me when." He looked up at her and returned the small smile that graced her lips as he threw his hat in with hers.

Dawn scampered up the stairs knowing that if they hadn't sensed her standing there then it probably meant that maybe there was something there that wasn't there before.

Spike quirked a brow at the high pitched giddy squeal from upstairs. "Bit, must have got a good grade."