She started rifling through his duster looking for a flask of some kind that she knows he always has on hand. Once she found it, she thought about pouring it over his wound to sanitize it but she shook her head after a second. He's a vampire, he doesn't have to worry about infections so she emptied it out on the ground and took her trusty knife out of her waistband. She took a deep breath and cut her arm, not too deep but enough to get some blood into the flask. Once it was filled a little more than halfway, she ripped a part of Spike's ruined shirt off to cover her cut that was already healing thanks to Slayer healing.

She takes a stake out just in case, she's noticed that Spike has great control over his demon but she has to be able to stop him if need be. She won't dust him but she will protect herself. She puts the flask close to Spike's nose and waits to see what will happen. After almost a minute of nothing happening, she shook her head again because she remembered he wasn't breathing. So why would he be able to smell anything? She opened his mouth and poured a little in. That did it, his face changed and he opened his yellow eyes with a snarl, he didn't move though, she figured he was still in too much pain.

"Spike it's okay, it's me, Buffy. Drink this."

He looked at her, confused. In her opinion, it was an improvement because he didn't look menacing anymore. She put the flask to his mouth and poured the rest slowly. When she was done, she sat back and Spike closed his eyes. After about another minute, he opened his eyes and looked more focused. She released a sigh of relief and smiled at him.

"Hey Spike, how ya feeling?"

"Buffy?" He breathes in then licks his lip to get the little blood that dribbled out. "Is that… Slayer blood? Your blood?"

Buffy cupped his face. "Yeah, I had to get you something, I couldn't move you without you groaning in pain. How are you feeling now?"

"Better, thanks. Buffy, that means a lot, I understand how hard and against your instincts that was to offer, to help me. I owe you." After a few seconds, Buffy nodded her head, making a decision. She takes the wrap off her arm and holds it up for him to lick to seal, he looked at her confusedly before getting it and licking the cut closed.

"Thanks. Do you think you're ready to walk?" He moved around experimentally and then nodded his head.

"Yeah, 'm good luv, let's go."

Buffy nodded, stood, and waited for him to get up. Once he was standing, he put his arm around her and they walked home. She was pretty sure that she heard him bend down and sniff her hair a few times but didn't say anything. For some reason, she didn't find the vamp sniffy thing as weird as she normally did. They made it back to the watcher's home in record time and walked right in. The watcher was reading through some books and seemed startled by their abrupt entrance. He could tell right away that Spike was injured and jumped up. Giles didn't know why but seeing Spike injured like that affected him deeply. He decided to assume it was because he was a comrade in arms and leave it at that.

"What happened?" Giles asked and went over to assist Buffy in getting him over to the couch. Once he was there, he went to move his clothes to see the damage but stopped and looked at Spike. "May I?"

"Sure watcher, have at it," Spike replied and Giles lifted his shirt and gasped at the damage.

"Christ Spike, what the bloody hell happened?"

"Well Rupes, a vamp was going to take off your Slayer's head with an ax. Soddin' fool that I am, I jumped and took the hit for her."

"Well, I must thank you for that."

"Don't worry 'bout it Rupes, I didn't want the Slayer to bite it either." He paused when he realized he was getting choked up, and tried for some false bravado, "If anyone's gonna take her out, it's gonna be me." He failed miserably, Giles and Buffy could tell he didn't mean a lick of it.

"Right, whatever you say. Well, thanks all the same."

"No problem watcher. Gotta keep our girl safe." Giles raised his brow at that statement but didn't comment on it. He decided to focus on the injury instead.

"Well, you don't have to worry about infections, correct?"

"No, that's not a worry for vamps."

"Okay, you said pig blood won't really help you, right? The cut is already healing quite quickly, that's not regular vampire healing, why is that I wonder?" Giles raised his brow. Spike cleared his throat but didn't offer any insight. He, in fact, looked at Buffy uncomfortably. Buffy was looking at him with pleading in her eyes not to tell Giles what happened.

"Don't know Rupes but I'm feeling well enough to go feed. I'll be back in a little bit." Spike said, shrugging off any more questions.

"Actually Spike," Giles said, looking quite uncomfortable himself. "Is there anywhere else you might be able to stay tonight? My uh, lady friend is coming in from London and it would be best not to have any other company for tonight." Spike wiggled his eyebrows at Giles while Buffy looked disgusted at the thought of her watcher having a private life.

"No problem Rupes, I'll figure something out. You just have yourself a right good time with your lady friend." Spike said with a wink and made his way to the door.

"Spike, don't worry about finding somewhere else, just come to my house after you're uh…done. My mom likes you, so you can stay at my house."

"You sure, Slayer?"

"Yup, all with the sure having." Buffy said with a big smile.

"Right then, Slayer. I'll see you there in 'bout an hour." Spike said with a wink. Without knowing why, Buffy blushed.

"Um, okay Spike, see you there."

Spike didn't actually have to feed, he just said that to get out of the conversation about why he was healing so well and figured it would be expected of him to feed to heal. He just didn't expect the watcher to have a booty call tonight, Spike couldn't help but chuckle 'good for him, bloke deserves to get some. His job is bloody stressful.' The Slayers blood did it's job and he was feeling on top of the world right now. He decided to walk around until the hour was up, he needed to get some of this energy out of him, if he wasn't already gone for Buffy, he would have found someone to take all his arousal out on, he's had a stiffy since he woke up. When he got to the Summers house he knocked on the door and Joyce was the one that answered, she looked happy to see him.

"Oh, hello. What a lovely surprise. Come in, come in, you'll be happy to know that I just bought some little marshmallows for cocoa."

"Ta, Joyce. You shouldn't just invite vampires in all willy-nilly though." Joyce let out a little giggle.

"Oh, don't worry William, I don't. I was just being polite, your invitation was never revoked." Spike stopped for a second in surprise, then a warm feeling bubbled up in his chest where his heart used to beat.

"Oh, thanks for that Mum."

"It wasn't just me, Buffy didn't want to disinvite you either. She told me about you staying the night, the bed is all set up for you upstairs. The window is covered, so there's nothing for you to worry about."

"Thanks, Mum, that means a lot to me," Spike said, feeling all choked up again.

"Don't worry about it, William," Joyce said, putting her hand atop his. Just then, the kettle let out a loud whistle signaling it was ready. Joyce took her hand back and went to make the hot cocoa. Buffy came down the stairs, came into the kitchen, and smiled at him when she saw him.

"Hey Spike, how are you feeling? All healed up?"

"Healed? What happened?" Joyce asked.

"I almost got hurt real bad today. Spike jumped in and took the hit for me."

Joyce gave Spike a thankful smile and then looked at Buffy in worry. "What do you mean, Buffy?"

"There was an ax coming for me. Don't get me wrong, Mom. It would have hurt, but I would've been fine."

She was trying to tone it down a little. She decided to do it that way because she didn't want to show how close she was to dying a second time. She didn't want to scare her mom, after all. Joyce looked at Buffy, then walked right over to Spike and gave him a big hug. Buffy could tell he was uncomfortable for a second, then slowly wrapped his arms around her, after another second he let himself enjoy the hug and take comfort from it. Buffy had a feeling that Spike didn't get many people offering him comfort and compassion.

"Thank you for saving my baby. I know she's just trying to make me feel better. I have a feeling you saved her life."

"No problem Mum, I would do it again. It's no big deal, I knew I would survive it, vamp healing and all."

"Still, I appreciate it." She said and released Spike from the hug. Spike felt uncomfortable with all the praise he was getting and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Don't worry about it, Joyce. It's not a big deal."

"Okay, I get it. Still though, I feel much more safe with you here helping Buffy. Are you planning on staying around for a while?"

"Yeah, we still got this Angelus problem to work out. I don't really have much plans after that, so I might stick around for a while."

Buffy couldn't help the surge of joy and hope she got when Spike said he might be staying. Spike looked at Buffy with what could only be called a hopeful question in his eyes. Buffy nodded her approval at him, he gave her such a happy smile, one that she's only ever seen when he was talking to Drusilla before. It made her stomach do silly flip-flops that she's only ever associated with Angel. Joyce saw the exchange but went to sit down and drink her cocoa.

'I really don't want Buffy to involve herself with another vampire. I want her to have a normal life with marriage and kids. Still though, Spike can keep her safe, I won't worry as much about her coming back safely at night, I'll be able to sleep easier. Maybe it's not such a bad thing, and I do like Spike, much better than that Angel fellow. I'll have to think on this more later.'

"Buffy, do you want a cup of hot cocoa?"

"Sure Mom, thanks," Buffy says and goes to take a seat at the counter next to Spike. He can't help but smile at her. As they drink they just make small talk and afterwards Joyce excused herself for bed.

"Buffy, you can show him where his room is, right? Sorry Spike, it's too late for someone that isn't a night owl, it's way past my bedtime."

"No problem Joyce, I'll probably see you after work."

"Okay, goodnight all." She says and makes her way upstairs.

"I'm probably going to bed too, I still have to get up for school tomorrow," Buffy said with an eye roll.

"Okay kitten, just show me to my room first and I'll be all set. You don't mind if I watch some telly first, right? It's way too early for me to catch some kip."

He puts his hand on hers, which is resting on the counter. After a second, he realized it was an unusual thing for him to do so he quickly pulled his hand back. Buffy looks at him with a small smile, signaling that it was an okay thing for him to do. He gives her a sheepish smile in return. Buffy leads him upstairs and points to his room. She turns to him and stands there for a second, feeling like she should say something to him but doesn't know what to say.

"Night, luv, I'll see you tomorrow." He finally said with a soft smile.

"Good night, Spike." She says with a smile

She turns around and goes to bed. Instead of watching tv he decided to go out and find a nice brawl to get into. With the Slayer blood in his system he's amped and is still horney as hell, at least he can slake his blood lust, even if he only has his hand for the regular type of lust. He dusted 5 fledges and one big slimey demon he's never seen before. He's finally able to fall asleep when he gets the prickles warning him that sunrise is imminent.

When Buffy woke, she had breakfast like she normally does with her mom, it's a pretty quiet affair with them both not being morning people. She then made her way to school and that was pretty boring, even the times she stopped in the library because no one had any information to add about Angelus. They already had everything set up for the digging situation, which was happening tomorrow, so there wasn't much to say about that either. When she got home, Spike was still asleep so she squeezed in some time to do her homework before waking him up. Turns out, Spike isn't much of a morning person either. In fact, he was quite cranky when he woke her up. He growled at her and tried to get her to leave him alone. When that didn't work, he tried to tell her to leave him alone. Eventually, he accepted that his sleep was over and begrudgingly got up. Now, they're all sitting in Rupert's flat arguing about what they're going to do. It's the same fight that has been going on for a half hour and Spike is already tired of it.

"I'm telling you, taking the fight to them is the best option," Buffy said.

"Buffy, it's dangerous! We don't know what they're planning yet and it's three against two." Willow protested.

"Of course, it's bloody dangerous, that's what being a slayer is. Damn Slayer, do you always let your human friends dictate all your decisions?"

"Yeah Dead Boy Jr, you'd know exactly how dangerous the life of a slayer is, wouldn't you? And of course, she depends on her human friends, she's human too." Xander cuts in, always ready to remind everyone how evil Spike is.

"She's human-ish at best. As you so delicately pointed out, I know Slayers, and I've spent a lot of time studying them. That includes researching what they are made of. None of that matters to what we're talking about though. As pained as I am to admit it, right now, Angelus deserves all our soddin' attention."

"Spike's right," Buffy said uneasily. She's not sure if she's ready to hear about that right now, she's fine with living by that river in Egypt for now.

"Yes, but I must talk to you about that later, Spike." Giles cut in and Spike nodded at him. The rest of the Scoobies look scared on Buffy's behalf.

'Christ, these kids really think so little of demons that they're scared that she might have a little in her. Oh right, they think if they're demons they can't feel emotions or some bollocks like that. I wonder how they'd feel if they learned that most demons have souls, and vampires have their own version of one, it's just tainted by the evil of a demon and doesn't care about stupid things like regret. I'll save that little mind-blow for another time.' Spike thinks.

"Anyway, if it's the two against three thing you lot are so worried about, I have someone that'll help, he hates Angel as much as we do."

"We're talking about Angelus, not Angel, they're two different beings," Giles said.

Buffy'd already realized that they're the same person but now she knows not everyone feels that way. She also realizes that Giles probably has to think that way because Angelus killed Jenny and for him to not kill Angel, he has to continue to think that way. Buffy looks at Spike to try to convey that to him, he's always been weirdly good at knowing what she's thinking, so she hopes now is the same. He gets it though and doesn't say any more on that.

"Either way watcher, he hates them both. Angel was the one that turned him and used him, then directly after threw him in the ocean to swim 60 miles to shore a few hours before daylight."

"He what?" Was a chorus from all the Scoobies.