The day after her meeting with Giles, Buffy had recovered enough to get back to patrolling. Things were still pretty calm in the cemeteries. Either news of Angelus's death hadn't circulated, or the demons were all more afraid of Buffy than they'd ever been. Buffy sincerely hoped for the latter.

The ground was muddy from heavy rain and her shoe sunk into the soft dirt. There were boot prints in the dirt in front of her. They seemed to come from the gate to her right and continue past to her left. She decided to follow them. The prints went a short way before curving to the right. They went around a mausoleum and Buffy got the distinct impression that the prints were a lot fresher than she'd thought. The person making them must have noticed her following them and hid on the other side of the crypt. Most likely to ambush her.

Instead of following the tracks around the front, where she was certain she could be jumped, she climbed up to the top of the structure and walked across it. Looking down on the other side, Buffy could see a a rather messy patch of blond hair. She rolled her eyes as the cigarette smoke reached her.

"I'd ask if you were following me, but I think that would be redundant," she said.

Spike didn't bother to look up. Buffy found that somewhat insulting. "Come on down, Rapunzel."

"Are you playing the knight in shining armor?"

"If that's what you need."

"Since when do you care what I need?"

Spike tossed his cigarette and turned to look at her. The moonlight created a halo around her small form, crouching on the roof of the crypt. Spike thought if people knew how easily she sacrificed everything for their lives, this is how they would see her; glowing like an angel.

"Since I have nothing better to do."

"What happened to your face?" The bruises looked like someone had tried to kick his head in, in the most literal way possible.

"It would seem I'm no longer welcome in the vampire community."

"Well for the record, you're not welcome in the Buffy community either."

"Is that right? If it wasn't for me, Angelus would have torn you apart! You would have been lost, groping around in the darkness. And he would have taken his time," Spike said darkly.

"You don't have a chip anymore, Spike. There's nothing stopping you from killing-"

"That didn't bother you when I was sitting in your mum's kitchen. Or when we sat together until the sun came up."

"I was a mess. I wasn't thinking clearly."

Spike looked amused. "Oh please. You may not have been all kittens and rainbows, but I saw you. You needed me then, and you'll need me again."

"No one needs you, Spike," Buffy said sincerely.

"Don't push me away now, slayer," he warned. "I won't be there when you need me again."

"I told you. I don't need you. Not ever." She jumped down the backside of the crypt and walked quickly into the woods hoping he didn't chase her. She got the feeling that if he tried much harder to convince her, he would win.

To his credit, he left her alone. So, she was free to walk alone through the woods. She'd made it past the end of the cemetery and almost to where the houses began, when she noticed something on the ground. It looked like maybe a dead animal, but being the slayer means investigating every dead thing that comes along.

As she got closer, she felt sick. The small form on the ground was a child. A dead child. A small dead child that had been stabbed through his middle and his body torn apart left to lay in his own blood. There was an action figure laying in the red puddle. She felt a bit dizzy and realized she was gasping. Spike was there to catch her as she fainted.

She woke up in her own bed. Her thoughts were unclear and she wasn't certain whether or not she'd dreamed the whole thing. She was wearing her clothes like she remembered, but maybe she'd just laid down and decided she wasn't ready to face the world after all.

Joyce was reading a book on the couch when Buffy came downstairs. She smiled to see her daughter on the steps.

"Good, you're up."

"Uh, yeah. I am," Buffy said still a bit disoriented.

"You don't remember do you?"

Buffy shook her head. "I thought it was a dream."

"Well, Spike didn't-"

"Spike?"

"Who do you think carried you all the way home?"

Buffy looked confused. "He carried me?"

Joyce nodded. "He said he came all the way from the woods behind the cemetery. I told him he should have just called me. That's quite a long walk, but he assured me it wasn't a problem. He's strangely polite for a vampire don't you think?"

Buffy was only half present. "Polite... yeah. I have to..."

"Buffy?"

Buffy left the house still lost in her thoughts. She was halfway to the cemetery when situation finally lost it's misty quality and became completely real. She could see the police tape baring off part of the forest. There were three police cars parked around the edge of the cemetery as well as an ambulance. Someone slammed the doors to the ambulance shut and it drove off leaving the police to investigate.

Buffy got as close as the tape before an officer stopped her. They told her the area was closed and insisted she move on, but not before she got a good look at the soldiers talking to the sheriff.

Spike wasn't sure what he'd been thinking. Why didn't he just leave her laying in the woods? Why did he do half the things he did for her? He couldn't convince himself it was all for Joyce's home made hot chocolate though he certainly tried.

He was standing behind the Summer's house when Buffy ran off. He didn't see her, but he heard the door slam. She'd only been out an hour. He was just glad she hadn't hit her head. But why?

He had the chip out. He could kill her. It would be easy. Maybe that's why he didn't. It wouldn't been too easy. The slayer was an absolute mess and could hardly get out of bed. She was fainting at the sight of blood. She'd be dead the instant he decided he wanted her blood. Yeah, that was the reason.

Spike tossed his cigarette and reached for the next before realizing he was out. He'd blown through the whole pack standing there.

His stomach growled and he felt little spikes of pain there. The thought of animal blood made him queasy. He'd tasted human blood too recently. Was he really going to give that up? The slayer didn't have to know. A body turns up and it could have been put there by any local vampire. He sighed knowing he wouldn't do it. At some point he'd decided to put that behind him. Looks like he was stuck mixing stolen blood bank blood with pig's blood until the craving stopped. Not that it ever would stop, but hopefully it would lessen with time.

It wasn't hard to catch the van at the hospital before it unloaded. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't the only vampire who had thought to steal donated blood. There was a pair on the opposite side of the parking lot, kneeling behind the bushes waiting for the driver to get out and unlock the back.

Spike rolled his eyes. They would no doubt defeat the purpose of bagged blood by killing the driver to get to it. There would still be a body which would still draw unwanted attention. Namely that of the slayer.

Spike snuck around behind them and cracked their heads together. They yelled and glared up at him with yellow eyes.

"Make yourselves scarce," Spike commanded.

One immediately crawled out of arms reach. The other sat glaring up at him as though coming to the conclusion that he could win this fight. His friend grabbed him by the arm and shook his head. As they ran off together Spike heard one whisper, "That's Spike!"

The second replied, "You mean the slayer's pet?"

Spike growled, "So that's what they're saying about me."

He looked up and realized he'd almost missed his chance. The driver was pushing a cart up to the door and taking it inside. Spike swooped over to the truck and snagged a small cooler that wouldn't be missed.

"It was horrible, Giles. He was just little kid!"

"You said he was... skewered?"

"He was just sitting there playing with his action figure and something came up and shish kabobed him."

"I'll have to go through my books, but that sounds vaguely familiar."

Buffy sat down on the couch while Giles collected several books that looked promising. She turned on the TV and watched the report of the dead boy. The segment ended and went to the next. A woman was reported dead, but they weren't releasing any information about her death. They showed the woman's picture. Buffy gasped as she recognized the face of Maggie Walsh.

"Oh my God."

"What is it?" Giles asked looking up from his book.

"That's Professor Walsh!"

"Didn't Riley say she had something to do with the Initiative?"

"Yeah, he did," she said quietly still watching the screen. They didn't say anything more about Walsh and instead turned to the traffic report.

"Perhaps they know something about this creature."

"I doubt they'd be willing to tell me about it."

"I wasn't thinking you should ask nicely."

"So I should what? Break in to a secret government agency?"

"If it comes to that." Giles turned back to his book.