While Spike was running back to the Summers's house, he was terrified. He just hoped he made it there before Angelus, Dru, and Faith. He calmed down a little bit when he remembered that Buffy should be there already. As long as his girls were in the house, they should be okay. The only one that could make it into the house without an invitation was Faith and he doubted that Angelus would send her in. It'd be different if she wasn't being thralled, but she was. Spike thought it'd be too big a risk for Angelus to take since he always liked playing it safe.
So he was still trying to get to the house as fast as he could but he wasn't panicking anymore. Which meant he had time to think about other things. And the first thing that he thought about made him panic some more.
"What the bloody buggering fuck am I going to tell Buffy?" he thought. "How am I going to tell her I know this information? I can't tell her I was planning on getting Dru outta town without telling her, can I? She'll probably see that as a betrayal, even though it's not. It's not at all, I might be in love with Buffy but I still love Dru. I couldn't just let her die without trying to save her one more time. Even if I hated her, she's still my sire, so I had to at least try. She'll have to see the truth in that, right? Fuck, I don't want to hurt her, I love the girl. Never want to hurt her. She's gotta understand. I jus' gotta walk in, tell her what happened, and take, like a man, whatever the deadly bird feels like giving me."
When Spike made it to Buffy's he ran in there like the hounds of hell were chasing him. Buffy and Joyce were in the kitchen, it looked like they were making hot chocolate. Spike felt warm all over when he saw the third glass and the container of little marshmallows next to it, clearly for him. He shook his head because he had more important things to handle first. Buffy jumped up.
"Spike, what's wrong?"
"Angelus, Dru, and Faith are on their way over here. They're trying to get your mum."
"What, why? And how do you know?"
"They think if they get your mum they can have their fun with her then force you into going to fight them now instead of having the time to finish your planning. I heard it right out of their mouths. I hid when I heard them coming, but I knew I couldn't take all three of them at once. I'll tell you the whole story when we've dealt with the situation, yeah? Right now we should focus on the fact that two master vampires and a thralled slayer are on their way over here. I'm probably only about ten minutes ahead of them."
"Right, you're right. Okay, Mom, let's get you hidden. We're not going to make it easy for them to find you. Don't worry Mom, Spike and I are here, we won't let them get you." She said when she saw how scared her mom was. "Wait, did you say a thralled Slayer?"
"Yeah, luv, I'll tell you all about it after your mum is safe. So don't hurt her too badly, she's the only one that can actually get in here, yeah? The Watcher did the disinvite spells, right?"
"Yeah, he did the spell so they can't just walk in. I want to keep Mom close 'cause I don't know where Faith is going to come in from. So close, but out of sight…" she trailed off, looking around.
"Sorry, Mum. I don't like suggesting it but maybe the hall closet," Spike offered.
It was clear Joyce wasn't very fond of that idea but it was also clear she wasn't going to fight it. Buffy looked at her mom apologetically.
"Sorry, mom. I think he's right, that's the best option. I wish I could have my eyes on you at all times but at least I know you're safe in there if no one gets through the door."
"We might not even have to worry about that. Like I said, she's under Dru's thrall. I don't rightly know if Angelus would risk sending her in here. He doesn't know I already know she's under thrall but he must know I know the look of someone Dru has taken control of. We could just tie her up till she comes to, and he knows it. He said he's been having minions watch the house every night for a while hoping for a time when Joyce went outside alone. Thankfully, that hasn't happened. He might just leave or he might try to force us out of the house, but I doubt he'll send Faith in to get her if he knows we're here." Then again, Angelus probably thought Spike was somewhere else, caught up because he was supposed to meet with Dru. Angelus knew Spike wouldn't willingly leave Dru high and dry, so he probably figured Spike was being held up by his meeting with Dru.
"Okay, then maybe we should turn off all the lights and make it look like no one is home. He'll probably send Faith in to take a look around and when she does, we can catch her and tie her up," said Buffy.
"We could do that but then Angelus would know we're home so he might try to force us out of the house."
"How would he do that?" she asked incredulously. "Keep banging on the door until we answer?"
"No, he could try to burn it down, or he could start attacking the house. There's no home barrier to keep a vampire out if there aren't four walls. Or, he could find someone walking down the street and grab them, bring them back here, and hurt them until you come out."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I don't need any more. Okay, so we don't take Faith unless we're willing to take them on tonight. Crap, I wish I had my Scythe with me, I left it with Giles. We could call the gang but I doubt the Scoobies would get here before they do. We could just take them two on two. We've done that before, and we've won."
"Good point, that. But Faith will be there. I'm down with doing it if you are, Slayer. You know I'm always down for some rough and tumble. You know me, it's fists, fangs, and sod all else," said Spike, jumping from one foot to the other, getting excited at the thought of a dangerous fight.
"No, let's go with the plan we already have. We're taking them down tomorrow. For tonight, let's just keep my mom safe, okay?"
Spike walked up to her and cupped her cheek. "Alright, luv. Told you already, I'm following your lead with this. If that's how you wanna play it, that's fine with me. Course I'll fight to keep your mum safe. I care about her, yeah?"
"Thanks, Spike." She lifted her chin and reached up to kiss him. Just as their lips were about to touch, someone cleared their throat.
"Oh no, not this again," thought Buffy.
How many times was she going to have to remind herself not to make smoochies in front of people who were important to her unless they already knew they were a couple. She looked over to her mom who was looking at her with a raised brow that clearly said, "you better explain yourself, missy."
"Sorry, mom. Didn't mean for you to find out like that. Spike and I are dating now," Buffy said plainly. She didn't feel bad about dating Spike but she felt bad about springing it on her this way. She knew her mom liked Spike but she didn't know if she liked Spike enough for him to be smooching with her daughter, let alone the future possibility of maybe, possibly, if all went well, getting groiny with him. Buffy looked her mom in the eyes, trying to be all grown up about it.
"Oh, okay. I can't say I'm surprised. I saw something like this coming."
"What?" Buffy asked incredulously, "I didn't even see something like this coming, how did you?"
"I saw the way he was looking at you the night he took the ax wound for you. And I've seen how worried you've been about him. It was clear you both cared more about each other than you were willing to admit."
"Oh…" was all Buffy could think to say.
"Right then. I take this to mean I don't have to watch my back worrying that you'll come at me with another ax, do I, Joyce?"
"No, William. You don't. That is, as long as you don't hurt her. If you do, all bets are off."
Spike felt a shiver go down his back, and not the good kind, at the look she had in her eyes. "Right you are, Joyce." He looked at her seriously, "I promise you I won't knowingly do anything to hurt your daughter. I care about her, Mum."
She stared at Spike for a few moments before smiling. "Good then, now that that's settled, let's focus on what we're going to do now. They should be here soon, right?"
"That's right, Mom. Why don't you go in the closet so they don't sneak up on us while you're still out here."
Joyce sighed. "Okay, Buffy. I'll go. But you look at me, young lady. You better do what you have to, to stay safe. And you, William, you better help keep her safe too."
Buffy wanted to sigh and roll her eyes. She could take Faith with one hand tied behind her back but saw that her mom was scared so she nodded at her seriously, "I will, Mom."
"Good." She looked at Spike and he nodded too, so she went into the closet.
Both Spike and Buffy were paying special attention to their senses, waiting to feel the vampires and the Slayer to reach their range. They didn't feel anything but were surprised when someone spoke up behind them.
"Buffy." They turned around and saw Angelus. Spike knew though, by his brooding disposition, poncy hair, and soulful eyes, that this wasn't Angelus, this was Angel. It took Buffy about the same amount of time to come to the same conclusion and her eyes grew impossibly wide.
"Angel?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"It's me, Buffy," he said in an annoyingly broodtastic and poncey way if Spike did say so himself.
"What are you doing here? How did you get your soul back? How did you get in here without an invite?" Buffy took a few steps closer to him but Angel put his hands up to stop her.
"No, don't come any closer, I don't have long. I'm not even really here." He emphasized the point by walking over to the couch and instead of putting his hand on it, he went right through. "I'm a projection, from hell. Whistler gave me something that allows me to contact you just once. I've come to tell you that there's another way to bring my soul back from the beyond and back into my body."
"How?"
Christ, Spike felt like he shouldn't even be here for this. It was too personal—he could just see the emotions bouncing off the two and he felt like an intruder. He was trying not to get too upset about it; he knew it was hard to let go of your first love. Fuck, look what he tried to do not an hour before. He knew she was going to do everything she could to get him back from hell and Spike would try to do everything he could to be okay with it and not get too insecure and jealous about it. She told him a few days ago that even if Angel did come back, she couldn't be with him that way again, so he'd try to believe that.
"You have to look for a spell in The Clavicule of Solomon Grimoire. It's an ancient book that's not easy to get but that spell will bring me back into my body. The best part? It's not a curse, it's a ritual, blessed by the gods. That means there will be no pesky loopholes that will make me be detached from my body again, Buffy. You have to do it, please. For me, for us. I know it will be hard to find but I believe in you, I know you can do it."
Alarm bells started going off in Spike's head. He didn't know why but something about this was off and he was just hoping his girl felt it too.
"Of course, I'll look for it, Angel. I'll call Giles as soon as we make sure Angelus doesn't come here tonight."
Spike wanted to facepalm. It seemed the Slayer wasn't seeing through any of it and believed everything the souled git was telling her.
"Thank you, Buffy. Just try to hold him off, I can't come back if you dust him, there has to be a body to come back to."
Yup, those alarm bells were pretty much blaring for Spike at this point. At least he could see the trepidation in Buffy's eyes now.
"Okay, I'm on it. You can count on me."
Angel gave Buffy one of those poncey soulful looks he'd perfected then disappeared into nothing. Spike didn't know what to do with himself, Buffy was just standing there, staring at the spot where Angel had just been standing. So he just turned away to look out the window; he had to stay focused on the imminent attack.
Speaking of Angelus, Spike heard Drusilla's singing and knew they were close. He couldn't see them yet but that didn't mean they weren't being watched. Spike snapped his fingers and that finally snapped Buffy out of whatever melancholia she was in. She was about to turn around and yell at Spike for snapping his finger at her like she was a dog. Thankfully though, she turned around to see him holding his finger in front of his mouth with a shush motion. Then he mouthed the word "listen." So she did, and she could just barely hear the singing too.
When the three finally came into sight, it didn't look like they knew Buffy and Spike were there. They were talking among themselves but in a tone too quiet for them to hear. Spike wanted to just go out there with fists and fangs to take them out right then, but Buffy's hand on his arm stopped him. They had a plan and she wanted them to stick to it. Tomorrow they could take the three down with the least chance of casualties, so that's what they were going to do. They just had to survive whatever Angelus had planned now.
Dru started laughing and dancing around, twirling in a circle. Spike knew that dance well, she was happy about something, and he had a bad feeling about it. Angelus turned to look at the house and looked right into the window that they were watching from.
"You might as well come out, we know you're in there, lovers."
Buffy looked at Spike with confusion and he just shrugged. This was not the time to get into the past partners and vampire hierarchy talk. Spike took a step toward the door again but Buffy stopped him this time too. He didn't know what Buffy's plan was. Angelus wasn't the type to get bored easily so he had his doubts that they'd just go away if they were ignored long enough.
"I don't like being ignored, Buffy. Waiting here so long for you is actually making me a little peckish. Maybe I should get a snack. I wonder how many different doors I'd have to knock on before someone answered?"
Buffy tensed up. She couldn't let him kill anyone else to get to her. So she walked to the door and opened it. Of course, Spike was right behind her.
"What do you want, Angelus?"
"Oh, I just want to talk. No, that's not true, what I really wanted was to have my way with that hot mom of yours and maybe get a nice bite out of her too but I don't see that happening tonight. Oh well, that will just have to wait until after I kill you," he growled as he changed into game face.
"You wanna fight, poofter? Okay then, let's fight. I'm sick of this back-and-forth." Spike went to step over the threshold to go outside when once again, Buffy stopped him.
Angelus chuckled. "Same old Spike. I could never teach you any patience, boy. I've tried to beat the knowledge into you but you just don't understand. The best part of the fight is the buildup. I'm just not done playing with Buffy here." He looked at Buffy. "Once I realized you were here, I figured it'd be nice to have a chat. It's clear your mom isn't easy pickings tonight like I had hoped but what about your friends? Have you kept in contact with them? I've sent my minions to all their houses. I wonder what surprises they'll have for me when I get there."
Buffy shivered at the thought before white-hot rage filled her veins. "I swear, if you touch one hair on their head, you'll wish the PTB left you in hell."
"Tsk tsk, Buffy. If you keep talking to me like that, I might start to think that you don't love me anymore."
"I'd never love a monster like you!"
"Oh Buffy, stop lying to yourself. I'm no more a monster than my souled counterpart or my wayward grandchilde…."
Angelus was going to say more but Buffy laughed out loud. "Oh, you're just delusional. Listen, I'm with Spike on this one. I'm SO over this conversation, so let's fight or just leave because I have better things to do."
"Okay, we'll go. Just one more thing. Do you know what your little lover boy was up to tonight?"
Spike tensed, of course Angelus was going to tell Buffy before he had a chance to. Buffy saw him tense and that made her suspicious. "What are you talking about?"
"He wanted to get Drusilla alone so he could take her away from us. He was going to leave you all alone to fight this battle. I guess I was right. It will always be Dru for Spike, even though she'll never choose him."
"Oi! Shut your soddin' mouth! That's a lie and you know it, you bastard!"
That was it, Spike decided, he wasn't going to let Angelus's mouth mess up his relationship with his girl just to stir the pot. Spike pulled his hand away from Buffy and attacked Angelus, all fists and fangs. He was too angry to think straight and Angelus was trying to use that against him. If Spike had been clear-headed, he'd have been able to use different fighting techniques that he'd learned over the decades. Instead, he just attacked Angelus with brute strength. Angelus was bigger than Spike, though, and stronger, but Spike was faster so they were pretty evenly matched.
Buffy had her stake out but didn't attack Drusilla—even though Buffy knew Dru was evil, she didn't want to hurt Spike. The only way she'd attack Drusilla was if she tried to join the fight. She didn't know what to think about what Angelus had just said, but she believed that Spike had no intention of leaving her, so she decided to think about that after the fight was over. Buffy kept a close eye on Dru, but a lot of her attention was on the fight. She wanted to make sure Spike was safe, except after Angel's visit earlier tonight, she couldn't let Spike dust Angelus either. At least not until she found this spell Angel was talking about. Spike was getting the upper hand. It was obvious, so Dru decided she was done watching.
"Dolly, why don't you have some fun? I'm sure you'd like a fight, right?"
It took a while, and Spike was pretty sure he had two broken ribs, but Angelus left an opening and Spike took it. He roundhouse kicked Angelus's knee, which knocked him down to his knees. He then kicked Angelus's face, which left him flat on the ground. Angelus hit his head hard and was knocked unconscious when he landed on the ground. Spike pulled out a stake and had every intention of ending it when Faith came over and kicked him in the face, Spike didn't even try to block it because he didn't see it coming—he was too focused on the possibility of finally ending Angelus
Spike didn't want to hurt the girl. He knew she was under thrall so attacking him wasn't really her choice. Normally, that wouldn't matter much to him but he was trying to be good for Buffy. Plus, he doubted Buffy wanted any more harm to come to the girl after just learning what they'd done to her. So he decided to try to subdue her. He gave Angelus a mournful look because he had a feeling Buffy would try to stop him from dusting the sod. He noticed that Buffy was still just standing there, inside the threshold watching what was happening.
"You gonna help me out, Slayer?"
"Spike, we can't dust Angelus, you know what just happened!" She didn't want to say more because she didn't want the others to know about Angel's visit. Still though, she couldn't leave Spike out there by himself so she walked out and with all the authority she had as a slayer said, "Dru, if you don't want Angelus dusted tonight you better take him and get out of here." She then went over to help Spike with Faith. At two against one, it didn't take long to subdue Faith; the only problem was, they had nothing to stop her from attacking again. With a wince, Buffy punched Faith in the face. She wasn't knocked out but she seemed more clear-headed now. Buffy figured the thrall was broken, so she sat her down and decided to deal with her once Angelus and Drusilla were gone.
Dru hissed at Buffy but otherwise ignored her. She walked past her, and over to Spike. "My black knight, come home to mummy, she misses her baby so. The family cries for their missed member. Oh, the fun we shall have together again, I see it love, I see it all. The stars know what you have tried tonight and laugh laugh laugh at your attempt. Mummy is right where she should be but you, sweet William, are the one who is lost. Stop following the sunshine dear heart, you're effulgent all on your own." She held her hand out to Spike enticingly, daring him to follow.
Spike stared at her for a long time, then looked down, and sighed. "You know that's not how it's going to go, Poodle. I'm not leaving Buffy. Angelus is out and the dark Slayer doesn't want to play with you anymore, Dru. This would be the perfect time for you to get out of here and save yourself. I know someone who'd be right chuffed to go away with you."
Spike heard Buffy inhale sharply and realized that had probably given Dru the wrong impression. "Is it you, my sweet boy?"
"No Dru, I've already told you, I'm not yours anymore. I'm talking about the last bloke you shagged when we were still together; that chaos demon misses you." He tried to stop it but the bitterness he still felt because Dru had kept stepping out of their relationship was loud and clear.
Drusilla ignored it, just like she'd always done when he was in pain. That's not fair, he supposed, she wasn't right enough in the head to be held responsible and she'd been there for him on her better days. "Oh, my little Stevie is here? What fun we used to have!" She clapped her hands happily.
Buffy thought Steve was a very normal name for a very wiggy-looking demon. She shook her head. She couldn't just let Drusilla leave, could she? Buffy knew what would happen if Drusilla left town tonight. Over the years, there would be hundreds, if not thousands of families wondering where their loved one had disappeared to. She was the Slayer, it was her job to stop vampires. But wasn't she just thinking that she wished Dru wasn't here? That she knew dusting her would hurt Spike and that's the last thing she wanted to do? This was why she shouldn't be with a vampire, her calling was cut and dry: vampires killed humans, Buffy tried to keep humans safe. Therefore, Buffy dusted vampires. It was simple. Well, it should have been. Then a weirdo vampire like Spike came around and saved her life, while at the same time forsaking his family. Then she'd found out he didn't kill anymore when he ate. Then he agreed to help save the world with her again. Then the lines blurred and Buffy got a headache. And that was not even thinking of her first vampire boyfriend; when she did, that headache turned into a migraine.
It turned out that Buffy didn't have to make a decision right then because Drusilla was talking again. "Sadly, my chaos pet will have to just miss Princess, for she must stay with Daddy and Daddy doesn't like to share. I will see you soon, my sweet prince. You will be back with Mummy before long, Miss Edith says it's so. Come on, pet, let us go home. Help me get Daddy home safely while he sleeps."
Buffy scoffed until she realized that Faith wasn't sitting on her stoop anymore; she was hefting Angelus over her shoulder. "Faith, what are you doing? You can stay with us now, you don't have to follow them, you're free." Faith didn't respond, she just kept walking and Buffy thought maybe she wasn't free from Drusilla's control after all, so she spoke to Dru. "I'm not going to let you just take her. She doesn't want to go with you, you're forcing her. She's ours."
Buffy took a few steps forward, getting ready to put actions to her words, but about ten minions came out of the shadows. She couldn't get around them to get to Faith so she shared a quick look with Spike and they both went to work taking them out. It didn't take long, only a few minutes to get them all, but the trio was out of sight by the time they were done. Part of her wanted to go after them but another part of her wanted to get to Giles and tell him about the visit from Angel. Another smaller part of her wanted to talk to Spike and ask him what the hell Angelus was talking about earlier but that part was easily sent on vacation to Egypt and would come home when things finally slowed down. The part of her that finally won was the daughter part when she remembered her mom was in a closet waiting for the all-clear from her. She'd deal with the rest tomorrow.