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

Chapter 14

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The professors and teacher's aides were just gone today

Wut's there, Slayer?

That you're helping

It didn't take long once they reached the campus for Spike to know exactly where to go. He'd been there before or at least that's what he had grumbled as they went toward a hidden tunnel entrance that led into a labyrinth of awful carnage. Nothing was left alive. Demons Buffy hadn't even seen before and they were mutilated or shot dead. Spike had punched a hole through a wall when they had found a computer in a room they had sniffed out. Project 314 of Sunnydale's own private Frankenstein.

"I was tortured for a fucking pet project?!" He was pacing back and forth then stopped. He looked at Buffy who was looking into the distance as though frozen in horror. "What is it Slayer?"

"They were harmless." It was a stolid whisper.

Spike stopped and walked toward his Slayer but didn't dare speak.

"They were harmless, weren't they?" Her eyes were pleading almost as though she needed a different answer than yes. He wasn't going to lie to her though and having walked past the corpses of these monsters' abandoned victims and knowing through Vamp enhanced Slayer sense that that they were no threat alive or dead had already told her the truth.

"Were they harmless? Yeah, but their families won't be. We havta get the bodies out and back for proper funerals and burials. At least the ones with honor codes and the like. We gotta do it soon." He looked down at her, this unbelievable woman, and just waited for the order.

"Right. We don't want a turf war over some misunderstanding and this place might be filled in with concrete by tomorrow." She stood and squared her shoulders.

"D'you think so?" Spike was a little stunned she was moving into action. Then again that's who she was, Action Girl. The Slayer.

"I have a pretty fair idea. This was a military outfit. Defunct and clearly a disgrace. If the big guys in Washington had approved we wouldn't be here. So come on. We have work to do."

They spent the rest of the night carrying bodies up through the tunnels and storing them in a cave far enough out that none of the clean up crew would follow. They took turns sleeping in the recesses of the dark cave and neither seemed to worry about the intentions of the other. Spike had removed all of the computer files he could and now had them on his person. Buffy was actually really impressed with that. She couldn't imagine a lot of pre-20th century vamps who were tech savvy. Even the other one she thought she knew but that led her back to the cycling word puzzle that was her mind. If she focused on each task at hand she couldn't think about the things she didn't want to think about. Spike and she delivered the last body to another crying group of demons and were well on their way home to report when Buffy couldn't help but explode in a massive bout of verbal diarrhea.

"If I can feel and they can feel how many others can feel? Am I killing creatures whose only difference between humans and them is a heartbeat and specific dietary restrictions. How many peaceful vampires have I killed when they were just protecting their own? How many harmless demons? Am I a monster?" She looked at him. She was breaking he could tell. He had seen that face when Dru would have her awful moments of clarity and cry at the injustices Angelus had done her. But this was the Slayer, the Chosen One. The girl who stood between the world and utter ruin. How could she ever think herself a monster?

"You're not a monster. You're a dog catcher. Animal control."

"Are you calling me a dog?" He smiled at her. One of his real smiles.

"No, I'm saying that there are some of us who can get adopted out and then there are the others, the ones you take out, that are too feral to live in coexistence. The ones you get at are the ones too stupid to know when to stop. All the baddies you take down are baddies. Wolves huntin' for girls like Red and the Bit. For folk a mite too weak to fight 'em off like Demon Girl and the Whelp. You're keeping the streets safe from the monsters not bein' one."

"You made me feel better." It looked like she was more confused than grateful.

"You're welcome." His eyes were kinda twinkly when he looked at her like that.

"Thanks." And they finished the trek home so they could get the files to Willow, the report to Giles and their story to mom. Dawn was never going to let her hear the end of staying out two whole nights with Spike. Buffy smiled at her companion and knocked his shoulder with hers. It's not like anything happened. Spike reached over slightly and casually took her hand. But the Bit would certainly latch on and natter. They walked on, hand in hand, with twin goofy grins. Honestly the girl was obsessed with their nonexistent dating lives.