When Spike got to Giles's he knocked on the door to be all polite like. Giles was surprised when he opened the door because he thought Spike was staying with the Summers women.

"Spike, what a surprise! I thought you were with Buffy tonight. Come in, come in, you're just in time for a nightcap," he said, stepping inside.

"That sounds bloody perfect, Rupert. After the night I've had."

"What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Physically? Yeah, we're fine. Emotionally and whatnot? Not so much, it's gonna take some time for Buffy to heal. Angelus has a way of doin' that to women. I think she just needed some alone time, she'll be fine though."

"What happened?" Giles asked worriedly while pouring them each a healthy glass.

"Not rightly sure, best I can figure, she had a flashback and needed to be alone for a while. I've seen it happen quite a few times with Dru when she was missing her Daddy."

"What? That sounds like a completely different situation than Buffy. Buffy hates Angelus… and maybe most importantly, she's not insane."

"That's exactly it, Watcher. She's not insane. If she was, she'd be missing him too when she had her flashbacks to the torture. Either way, the ending is the same, she needs some time to herself to get her head on straight again."

"Ah, I see your point. She's a strong girl though, she'll be alright by the morning. You're free to stay here for the night, of course."

Spike wanted to roll his eyes at the Watcher's naiveness but refrained; it would be a very long time until his girl was over what she went through. Then he got mad at himself thinking he must be spending too much time with Buffy if he was inclined to roll his eyes.

Rupert is right though, Buffy is strong. It'll take a lot of time for her to be okay again but she'll get there, Spike thought.

"Ta, mate, I'll take you up on that. Where's Lawson, by the way?"

"He and the children left about an hour ago. Sam said he'd get a hotel room and keep a low profile until he heard from you. Did you find a place to keep the minions?"

"Yeah, I'll start getting them away from Angelus tomorrow. Then it'll be three on three and we'll take them out the old-fashioned way, fists and fangs."

"Buffy has more than just you and Sam on her team."

"Know that, don't I? You lot can't add much muscle to a fight against master vampires and a Slayer though, can you? You and the kids can't be there. As soon as Angelus feels like he's lost the upper hand, you'll be what he goes after to get it back. Buffy can't be worrying about the lot of you when she's trying to take them down. You'll just be another distraction and worry for her."

Giles was really angry at Spike for a few long moments but then his shoulders sagged and he dropped his head in defeat because he knew Spike was correct, he'd be more of a hindrance than a help if he went to the battle with her. He couldn't just do nothing, though, he had to be able to help in some way.

"A holding spell!" Giles said, but didn't go on.

"I bloody hate magic, Rupert. What's this about a holding spell?"

"We might not be able to help physically, but I can help my Slayer in other ways. Willow and I can prepare that and a few possible other spells beforehand so I can come with you. I'll use them if necessary and the children don't have to be there. We don't have the power to make a holding spell strong enough to freeze all three but if one of our enemies gets the upper hand in the fight and might fatally hurt someone on our team, I can use the spell to freeze them long enough to get our person safe. Possibly even keep the spell going long enough to stake the vampire that's frozen." Giles refilled their drinks once he'd taken his last sip and realized their glasses were both empty.

Spike let out an involuntary shudder at the thought of Drusilla being dusted. He had to find a way to get her out of this alive. In fact, when the Watcher went to bed for the night, Spike had a phone call to make. That chaos demon seemed to be really smitten with her. Maybe he could call the bloke up and get him to take Dru away for a while. Spike could knock Dru out long enough to get her out of town. He'd done that enough times that he knew just where and how hard to hit her in the head to knock her out with the least amount of pain to her.

Would make the battle even easier for them too. Dru would eventually wake up and fight to get back to her Daddy but hopefully Angelus would be dusted before Dru made it back to town. Then she'd either go off to grieve by burning down a few towns or come back here to try and get revenge. At least that would give her a chance of survival. Yeah, that's what he'd do, he decided with a smile. He looked back at Giles and saw he was looking at him strangely, as if he already knew what he was thinking.

"Yeah, that's a soddin' good idea, Watcher. What other spells do you think could help?" He asked overexcitedly, trying to make the Watcher think he was just thinking over the idea instead of what he was really musing about. Giles's strange look became even more pronounced. Spike knew he was a terrible liar, but he had to try, right?

Giles cleared his throat, a little surprised at Spike's enthusiasm. "Well, maybe a weakening spell? So they're not at the top of their game? Or possibly a confusion spell?"

"Sounds good to me, as long as those spells stay bloody far away from me," he ended with a chuckle. Giles realized his tumbler was empty again but decided to be responsible and go to bed as he had school in the morning.

"I'll be sure they are. Get some rest you old sod, we have a couple of master vampires and a Slayer to take down. Actually, I'll have to think about that, maybe there's a spell that I can find to make Faith stay out of the fight. Our goal is to rehabilitate her, not hurt her. Unlike Angelus and Drusilla," Giles said as he got up and started going to his room.

Spike flinched again at the thought of something bad happening to Dru. He poured himself another drink from Giles's stash even though he had just gotten his own alcohol. Giles's scotch was much posher than the cheap shit Spike bought. After going to the bathroom to get ready for bed, Giles fell asleep almost as soon as he entered his room.

Spike waited another five minutes after he heard Giles's heart rate calm down before he got up to go to the phone. The phone call with Stan, a bloody boring name for someone as unusual as a chaos demon, lasted only five minutes before Stan said he was on his way. Spike had forty-eight hours to come up with a plan to get Dru far enough from Angel that he could knock her out and get her out of town.

He also had to make sure to be away from Buffy so she wouldn't find out until after the fact. Which, going by the fight they'd just had, wouldn't be much of a problem. Christ, he had to talk to her—he didn't like fighting with his girl. Well, he'd done all he could for the night so he sat down and opened up one of the bottles he'd swiped, which was Jack, he realized after looking at the label. He turned on the telly to a late-night black-and-white movie and settled in for a night of getting sloshed.

After talking to Willow, Buffy went through the rest of the day in a much better mood. She just couldn't wait for the day to be over so she could go over to Giles's and talk to Spike. The only thing she was not looking forward to was the fact that she had to apologize to him again. Buffy and apologies were two unmixey things, but oh well, Spike was worth it. She knew Giles was expecting her to meet him in the library when school was over so they could talk. But she figured it'd be best to sneak out of school before Giles or any of the Scoobies could see her so she could get to Giles's and talk to Spike without any spectators.

When she got there she took a deep breath before she straightened her shoulders and opened the door. Once inside, she saw Spike passed out on the couch, his feet on the coffee table with a bottle of alcohol in his hand, tipping over. It would be spilling out if it wasn't already empty. She sighed. She knew she didn't have the best coping mechanisms but she was pretty sure Spike's had to be worse.

She looked at him for a few minutes, trying to figure out the best way to go about this. She didn't want to fight but she knew she couldn't just skip the talking part and move right to the smoochies like she wanted to. She walked over, took the bottle out of his hand, and sat next to him. She leaned over and cupped his face softly, rubbing his cheek with her thumb.

"Spike, wakey wakey. It's time to get up."

He didn't open his eyes but he inhaled and mumbled, "Buffy."

"Yup, it's me. Now wake up you sleepy vampire, we have to talk before everyone gets here."

He groaned in annoyance and half-heartedly tried to swat her hand away. When she didn't let her hand be moved, he reluctantly opened his eyes, "What do you want, woman? The sun is still up, don't any of you white hats know that means all good vampires should be asleep?"

"Haven't we been through this already? You're a strange vampire that doesn't follow the same set of rules as the others, you're special."

He smiled softly at her, then she was able to see the second he remembered the fight they'd had the night before, because she saw his eyes turn wary with a hard glint to them and the metaphorical walls go up around his heart. "This is quite a turnaround from last night, Buffy. What's changed? Do you have an enemy you have to point your attack dog at so you've decided to rub his belly beforehand?"

She pulled her hand away from him and almost balled it into a fist to punch him in the nose before she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She knew he lashed out when he was upset, hurt, or afraid of being rejected or ridiculed. That didn't make it hurt any less though.

"No, Spike. I—I'm s-sorry about last night. I took my feelings out on you and you didn't deserve it," she said, forcing the words out of her mouth.

Spike took a deep breath himself, trying to calm down when he realized she wasn't there to start round two. "Buffy, didn't we go through this already? We're supposed to talk to each other, not attack then run away."

"I know, I already said I was sorry."

"It doesn't matter now anyway. You were right, this is never going to work."

Buffy felt like the floor had dropped out from underneath her. He wants to break up? Did I really mess it up that badly? I thought he cared about me.

"What do you mean?" She asked in a small voice.

"I almost drained someone last night."

"What?"

"I went to the Bronze last night with every intention of feeding on someone till their heart stopped then getting the fuck out of town," he said, angry at himself again so he got up and started to pace. He wasn't really sure whether he was mad at himself for not being able to go through with it, or because he'd even tried in the first place, after figuring out why Buffy was so upset.

"But you didn't?" She asked slowly, utterly confused. She wasn't expecting the conversation to go this way. She wondered if that was how it was going to be every time they fought? Could she even trust him now? Should she even want to?

"No, I bloody didn't! Think I'd be cruel enough to come back here if I did? Make you kill another… Just couldn't do it, could I?" Spike was still pacing but he took out a cigarette and was about to light it when he saw the look on Buffy's face, so he went to the window that had the least amount of sun exposure and sat on the window ledge to smoke mostly outside.

"Okay… So then you just did what you always do? Fed and left them alive?" She was confused and didn't see the problem if that was the case.

"Yeah, I suppose so…" He shook his head because he knew that was a lie and he didn't want to lie to her. "No, the chit thought she was going to die. Most of the time, they don't even realize they got bit."

"How don't they realize?" She asked incredulously, from what she'd seen, bites hurt and the only reason she hadn't really felt hers was because she was in thrall and she thought Spike didn't have the ability to do thrall.

"Most of the time I choose drunk people. Works out better for both of us, they have a high blood alcohol level so they're feeling good, I get some of that blood and alcohol, win-win. Plus, bites don't have to hurt if you don't want 'em to. I can make 'em feel good. Then I just heal the bites and they walk away thinking they just got some good necking; they just don't know how right they are."

"So what? You seduce them first? Is there smooching and stuff involved?" She asked, hurt.

"Buffy luv, no, I wouldn't do that to you. Yeah, I flirt with them to get them outside but no more than I flirt with everyone else."

Spike had a feeling that they'd completely lost the point of this conversation but he was going to get yelled at just the same.

She knew Spike was a flirt but it still rubbed her the wrong way. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself down, and when it seemed to work, she opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. That might have been because she didn't really know what to say. Eventually, she went with, "Oh."

"Buffy, I don't really know what to do or say right now. All I know is that I love you and I want this to work, so what do I need to do to make this okay?"

Buffy was starting to realize that Spike only said her name when he was being serious, and— her brain stuttered to a stop when she comprehended the last part of his sentence. "You—you love me?"

"Course I love you. I have for a while, just didn't want to say anything so early but it just slipped out. The dream helped me realize it but it'd been there for a while."

"You loved me before we even shared the dream? But we weren't even together then!"

"Yeah, you think I'd betray my family for just anyone? Fuck, Dru knew it before I did, it's why she left me, innit?"

"What? She left you because you loved me? Spike, stop! I need a minute, this is too much."

"Buffy, wait, this doesn't have to change anything. I loved you before, you just didn't know it. Why does anything have to be different now?"

"Spike, stop. I said I just need a minute."

Spike opened his mouth to say more but sighed and eventually nodded his head in acquiescence. It wasn't necessary, though, because Buffy wasn't looking at him, she was already opening the door to go outside into the sun where he couldn't follow.