Buffy stops herself as she reaches for Giles' doorknob to open it like she normally does because some reason it feels wrong to her today. Maybe because she's with Spike and she knows Giles wouldn't like him just walking in? Or maybe it's because she knows she's in for a fight and quite possibly an intervention once she passes the threshold? She closes her hand into a fist and lifts it to know before stopping herself and shaking her head. She never knocked and there's no reason to start now. If she starts acting weird or nervous they'll know something is up and act that way too.
She figures she must be standing in front of the door too long because Spike's hand touches her lower back in question and Dawn, with all her teenage attitude says, "Uh hello, Buffy? Are you having a stroke or something? Open the door already!"
"Right… wait! Spike, cover up, we'll tell them about the daylight vampyness soon but if you walk in there from the bright sunlight they'll think you have another gem of Amara or something, I really would rather not start this conversation with a bunch of crossbows pointed at my boyfriend."
"Oh, yeah, right you are, luv," Spike says as Dawn lets out one of her squeals of excitement at Buffy calling Spike her boyfriend.
Spike pulls his duster over his and nods at Buffy so she opens the door and Spike runs through as if he was trying to get out of the sun as quickly as possible while Dawn and Buffy follow after him and close the door. They look around and realize everyone is already here.
"Hey Buff, hey Dawnie," Xander says with a welcoming smile. "Bloodbreath what are you doing here, this is a Scoobie meeting. Plus, I thought the whole reason you stayed at Buffy's place was because you were too beat up to stay by yourself. You look pretty healthy to me, well as healthy as a pale vampire can look, anyway."
Giles looks at Spike speculatively, his eyes are sharp, calculating almost. He looks between Spike and Buffy a few times, he knows that vampires heal fast but not that fast. Especially vampires that aren't on a human blood diet. Now Giles is a man of research, he isn't one to jump to conclusions but with the conversation he had with his Slayer this morning and the look of health that the vampire was portraying along with the color that was back on his skin that Giles hasn't seen Spike have since before he got the chip, well to quote his slayer, he doesn't feel like he's jumping to conclusions at all, he's taking a teeny tiny step and there the conclusions are.
Giles takes a deep breath, he has to stop himself from accusing anything. Even if he is right, Buffy doesn't need his anger right now, she's going through enough as it is without him piling on. Though, he has to admit, it isn't easy. If she went through with it before talking to him then she isn't as smart as he thinks she is. It's clear Spike is up to something, he's done something to confuse Buffy because Giles doesn't believe for one second that his slayer tying herself permanently to that monster is the key to saving the world from the hell god. He takes another deep breath because his thoughts are getting him angry all over again.
"Buffy, it's good to see you, we were getting worried, you were supposed to be here an hour ago."
"Oh yeah, sorry about that, Giles, you know what it's like."
"Erm, no, I should say not. Especially because I'm not sure what 'it' is in this situation."
Buffy opens her mouth to reply but Tara gets up and walks over to Spike to check him over.
"Wow, Spike, you really do look better. I'm so happy, I was worried about you last night."
"She was, she brought it up multiple times, she almost called Buffy until I reminded her you're a vampire, so if you're not dust, you'll be fine." Willow chimes in.
Buffy can't help but think Spike looks a little embarrassed, she doesn't think he's used to having people worried about him, which makes Buffy sad but she decides that he's going to have to get used to it. They're claimed now, and even though she's still figuring out what that means, she knows it's permanent and forever, deeper than marriage, which is a little scary if she's honest with herself but she doesn't have time to worry about that right now. Either way, they're together and they will be for a long time so he won't have to worry about being alone ever again. By the looks of things, he already has other people who care too.
Spike rubs the back of his neck looking like he'd be blushing if he was human. "Ta Glinda, means a lot. I'm fine though, the Summers ladies took good care of me. Plus that tonic of yours did a vamp some good."
"Good, I'm glad," Tara says with her small kind smile. She rests her hand on Spike's arm for a few seconds before removing it and going back to her seat.
"I'm glad you're okay too, Spike. You didn't deserve what she did to you, especially because she was just doing it to get information on Dawnie." Willow cringes thinking back on how bad he looked the night before.
Dawn cringes too because she feels terrible that Spike got hurt like that because of her. Spike puts his hand on Dawn's shoulder and squeezes softly, Spike can read her like a book and knows exactly what she's thinking, he doesn't want her to feel bad about what happened to him, he'd do it again in a second if it'd keep his nibblet safe. "Ta Red."
"Wait, wait, why are we being nice to the vampire who has tried to kill us multiple times, have all of you gone crazy or is it me? And how do we know that he didn't say anything to Glory? We shouldn't trust him, Buff. The last time he had the opportunity to give us up in order to save himself, he took it. We'd be dumb to think he didn't do the same thing this time. No, no, no, we have to move, we should grab whatever clothes we can and get outta dodge because I'd be willing to bet dead boy Jr. told the hell god exactly who the key is and she'll be here any minute too get Dawnie…." Xander says starting to become hysterical.
Buffy wanted to be understanding, calm, and sympathetic to how everyone might be feeling about the situation and how things have been changing and if there was anyone in the world who knew what it's like to go off a big babble tangent it's her but about halfway through Xander's speech she decides this is just too much so she stands up and speaks in her most 'I'm the slayer so I make the rules' voice. "Xander stop!" Xander closes his mouth with an audible snap "Spike didn't give us up to Glory, I know that for a fact."
Buffy has all intentions of saying more, in fact, she's working up a good head of steam getting ready to go on one of her long slayer speeches but Giles cuts her off, "Yes, I heard you say something of the sort yesterday, and over the phone this morning. Please do explain."
"Well, I was about to before you cut me off." Buffy can't help but snipe at Giles. She softens when she sees an apologetic look on his face. "As all of you know, I went on a vision quest yesterday. It involved some magic that Giles handled and my only instructions were to walk in the desert. Thankfully, whatever magic Giles worked was good because he mojo'ed up a guide for me, it just so happened that the guide was the first, as in the first slayer to ever exist."
"You mean the one that tried to kill us after Adam?" Willow asks innocently.
"Yeah her. Only, I'm not sure she was trying to kill us after all. Or if she was, it was because she wasn't found of the Slayers and our power being used again without her permission. I learned a lot out there yesterday, the biggest thing I learned was that I'm right not to trust the council and they might be even worse than I thought."
"Buffy, I don't know if that's quite fair."
"No, what's not fair is what they did to her Giles. But that's not important right now, or at least that's not what's most important. Right now we have to focus on Glory. You better believe if I survive this hell bitch I'm going back there to get the full story." Buffy realizes she's getting off track so she shakes her head to center herself again. She doesn't know why but she feels the need to look at Spike and her shoulders relax when she sees him staring at her steadily and he nods to let her know that he has her back no matter what. That gives her the courage to look back at her friends and continue "Anyway, where was I? Oh right, Glory. Basically, she told me what I had when I came to her wasn't enough to beat Glory. If things kept going the way they were I would have lost. Thankfully, she told me how to change that."
"Oh, that's good Buffy. I really didn't want to die, I was just starting to accept the fact that I'm human again so I'm not going to live forever. I really didn't want my life to end even more prematurely because of a hell god."
"Right, I agree with you Anya, we're all way too young to die." Buffy agrees.
"I didn't say that, I said I wasn't ready to die. It seems to me that both Spike and Giles have lived long fulfilling lives, it would be no great upset were they to die."
"Oi!"
"Don't you forget who signs your paychecks, Anya. I wouldn't be quite so ready for your employer to die."
"I didn't say I wanted you to die! I just said it wouldn't be a travesty." Anya says with a huff as she crosses her arms.
Buffy has been trying but finally, she can't keep back the giggle any longer and soon it turns into a full-fledged belly laugh. Once she calms herself down she looks around and sees everyone looking at her like she's crazy which, fair. When was the last time she let herself laugh like this? When was the last time she wanted to? "Right sorry but you can't deny she's funny. Anyway, we don't have to worry about that anymore. I took the first slayer's advice and now I feel totally of the prepared to handle the hell bitch."
"Oh Buffy, dear girl, please tell me you didn't. You promised to wait and talk it through with me, I'm sure there are better ways to win." Giles says somewhere in between being sad and angry.
"No Giles, I know this was the right thing to do even if you don't agree."
"Okay, I think I speak for everyone when I say, 'Come on, we're sitting at the edge of our seats here, what did you do that's going to beat Glory?" Xander asks sounding excited albeit a little worried considering how upset Giles seems to be. Buffy looks around and sees everyone else in the house nodding in agreement with Xander.
Buffy can't help but feel the pressure already building up. She knows her friends don't mean to make her feel that way but that doesn't mean that they don't. They're happy with her and for her when she is doing what they expect from her and what they think is right. She knows that's not fair to them, they love her and want her to be happy but on the other hand, they all feel like they have the right to chime in with their opinions on her love life but she really doesn't think that's fair because she's never made them feel like they had to get her approval on who they date. Okay, so she can admit that Angel was a mistake, not even taking into account all the realizations she's come to over the last 24 hours. She knows that a lot of people got hurt, a lot of people died because of her desire for a relationship but she also knows that isn't her fault. Angel had 100 years to figure out the details of his curse and he didn't, it wasn't on a 17-year-old who already had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She mentally shakes her head, she shouldn't be thinking about that right now, either way, the point is they don't have the right to dictate who she's with and she's not going to let them, not anymore. With that decision in her head, her shoulders loosen.
"Okay, so I'll get to that in a second, first you need to know the background, you need to know what I learned from the first slayer. Right okay, where to start? It's a lot and it took me a while to believe it all even though in my heart I knew it was true. Well, not my heart, in my body? I don't know, in the part of me that makes me a slayer. It was like the words she was saying just resonated with me and I knew it was true."
"Uh, Buff, that's good to know but you still haven't really given us any Glory beating information."
Oh, right, now she was the one that was babbling, she supposes she might still be a little worried. "yeah okay, well apparently a long time ago, like a long long time the slayers and the watcher's council worked a lot differently. It was more of a team and they believed different things than they do now. Slayers were just as in charge as watchers, if not more. Anyway, there are these bonds that connect Slayers to one specific being and when the two come together they become stronger."
"Come together?" Willow asks but by the blush on her cheeks, it seems she has a pretty good idea what Buffy is saying.
"Yeah, it's more than just getting groiny with each other, there's some bitey stuff and some words involved and then they kinda become one, I know it sounds cheesy but yeah I think that's the best way I can explain it. They get each other's strengths and other bonuses."
"Bonuses? Wait wait wait, bitey? Why would you need to get bitey? I mean unless you're into that kind of stuff." Willow asks and now almost her whole face is red she's blushing so hard.
"Wait, I think I'm starting to get the picture here. For once I'm picking up what you're putting down quicker than Willow and I really wish I wasn't. Please Buff, please don't tell me this 'other being' is a vampire."
"It is." She says simply.
"Oh no, oh no no no. I don't like this, not one bit. Oh and let me guess, it's your one true love, Angel. Well, now that I think about it, that might not be too bad, it's not like he can get groiny with you and still be Angel. Oh well, we'll figure something else out, Buff, no need to worry."
"Are you kidding me, Xander? You'd rather me lose and die, possibly bringing on the end of the world just so that I don't sleep with a vampire?" Buffy looks around hoping to find some people on her side and sees that Anya looks angry at Xander, Tara keeps looking between Buffy and Spike and that's when Buffy remembers that she can read auras and Buffy wonders what she sees going on between hers and Spike now that they've claimed each other. Willow looks weary and like she's hoping that Xander has jumped to the wrong conclusions while Giles is staring at her with what she's coined his 'disappointed watcher/dad' face.
"No of course not! I just know there has to be other better ways to beat her. There's no need to tie yourself to Angel for the rest of your life."
"It's not Angel." She says simply.
Xander's eyes widen and he looks between Spike and Buffy multiple times before standing up and passing while muttering, "Oh no, oh no no no" over and over again. Buffy is trying hard not to let herself get angry at Xander's dramatics.
Willow decides she's not going to jump to conclusions and takes over the questioning because it seems that Xander might be having a nervous breakdown. She hopes she'll find out he's wrong so she'll be able to calm him down. "Okay, so if it's not Angel, how do you find this person you're supposed to tie your life to?"
"Well, it's rare, like super rare, like so rare it rarely ever happens. Am I saying rare too much? It feels like I might be saying rare too much." Buffy shakes her head to get back on topic, she can't let her nerves get the better of her. " Anyway, it's not only that it's rar—super unlikely to find the other person, on top of that for the last few hundred years the Watcher's council taught the slayers to suppress the instincts that would make it easier to find that one in a million. It's actually not a lot. Like the first slayer didn't just tell me about these past slayers that found their other half but she showed me. Like she touched my forehead and I felt like I time traveled back to these times and watched them, which was wiggy and nowhere near as fun as it sounds, it actually sucked. Anyway, I saw them and all they needed was just this feeling like a zap that shoots through your body. I mean literally, that's all you need. I saw one Slayer have a stake in a vamp's heart and they both felt the zing and all of a sudden she was letting him go and he was giving up his life of evil. And it really worked, I saw them years later living together, fighting side by side, just kicking ass in general and they were so happy. A slayer, who had lived many years giving her whole existence to fighting actually had a chance to be happy. You know how unlikely that is in the life of a Slayer, especially in the life of Buffy."
"And have you ever felt this zap or zing or whatever?" Willow asks tentatively, she can't stop her eyes from flipping to Spike as she's talking.
"Oh yeah, I didn't know what it was of course, I was never taught something like that could happen, plus I was with Angel at the time so I didn't allow myself to really think about it at all."
Giles stands up and rips his glasses off showing all the frustration he's feeling right now. "Buffy, please tell me you didn't do anything rash, please tell me you didn't do something that can't be undone."
"Oh, don't worry Giles, no with the rash being here." She sees Giles' shoulders sag in relief, "Nope, I made sure to really think it through and sleep on it. I'm sure it was the right decision. Plus, look…" Buffy says as she walks over to the couch and lifts it up even with Tara still on it and she doesn't even look mildly strained."
"Eeep!"
"Sorry, Tara, I just had to prove a point."
"It's alright, Buffy."
"I'm not sure what's so special about that, Buffy, you're always super strong," Xander says and it's the first coherent thing out of his mouth since his babbling muttered words earlier.
"Yeah, I'm strong but I was never that strong. It's taken me a long time to get my Slayer strength under control so I don't accidentally break a door while opening it or break a rib while I'm hugging someone. It's to the point I don't have to think about it anymore. That is until this morning, I've broken a lot of things already because I'm so much stronger than I was, Spike is too and that's not even talking about my other heightened senses."
"Wait wait, so you're telling me you actually got groiny with evil dead over there? That's disgusting!" Xander yells and he looks as disgusted as his words suggest.
Buffy can't help but flinch, although they all seemed pretty panicked this is the first time that someone has raised their voice and even though she's handling the heightened senses okay, someone yelling is just too much for her. Spike notices this so he gets up from the couch where he's been sitting next to Dawn letting Buffy handle this as she wants to and puts his hand on her back and starts tapping the rhythm of her heart hard enough that she'll feel it too, remind her how he taught her to deal with the sound overload. What he wants to do is wrap her in his arms and help shield her from this but he had a feeling doing that would just make everyone even more angry and give them an excuse to yell more. So he promises himself that he won't do anything to get them more angry, he could be nonconfrontational, for now at least, for Buffy. That doesn't mean it's easy by any means, he's had to stop himself from vamping out a few times already because of how the whelp keeps speaking to his girl. In fact, he makes sure to pay attention to her heartbeat as well because that always has a way of calming him down, he also takes a few deep unneeded breaths.
Buffy takes one more deep breath before she is back in control and her senses are no longer overwhelming her. "That is none of your damn business, Alexander Harris. And I don't know what ever made you think it was. I don't comment on who you sleep with."
"That's because people I sleep with aren't known to go on killing sprees."
Buffy flinches again, this time hurt by her friend's words. She straightens her shoulders though and looks Xander in his face. "I was 17 Xander, that situation wasn't my fault so stop trying to make me feel bad for it. And yeah, Spike has done evil things in the past but again, you have no room to talk about that, look at who your girlfriend is. She's been alive ten times longer than Spike and she was a vengeance demon the whole time. She's even taken credit for wars. Her body count must be in the millions. You still love her, and she's still our friend because she's not that person anymore. No offense, Anya." Buffy looks at Anya with a quick small smile.
"None taken, it's true. I've tried to tell him the same thing but you know Xander, he only listens to what he wants to hear."
"Ahn, that's not true!"
"Oh yes, it is." She says simply.
Xander looks at Anya for a second before waving his hand at her in a 'whatever' motion and turning his attention back to what he finds most important. "Buff, you can't be serious. You're honestly telling me that the first time you saw Spike," He takes a second to sneer at the vampire, "You knew that he was something like your other half? Like you knew you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with him?"
"No, if you were listening you would have heard that I said I felt something but I didn't know what it was because I wasn't taught about it." Buffy huffs getting annoyed at Xander by this point.
"Yeah, well, I think I'm going to have to agree with the Watcher's council on this one, Buff. They obviously had good reasons for not telling you, they didn't want you to sully yourself with such filth."
"Xander, that's quite enough!"
"Giles, you can't seriously be saying you're cool with all this!"
"No, I'm not but yelling at Buffy and calling people names isn't doing anything to make the situation better."
Spike thinks Buffy better reward him for staying quiet this whole time because chip or not he's about to rip Xander's throat out.
Giles takes another deep breath and cleans the glasses that he's been angrily fidgeting with this whole time before putting them back on and looking at Buffy. Once he does he sees that she's uncomfortable and a small part of him thinks 'Good. Foolish girl got herself into a terrible situation that she could have avoided if she only listened to me, she should feel that way.' The bigger part of him feels bad, though he doesn't agree with her choices, she is still like a daughter to him and he doesn't like seeing her in pain. That's when he remembered what he just heard her say. "Erm Buffy, did you say heightened senses?"
"Yeah, they're like crazy good, I can't believe vampires see and hear like this all the time. No wonder it's hard to sneak up on them."
Though Giles isn't happy with the situation and can't help but be angry with his slayer, the researcher in him can't stop himself from grabbing the nearest pen and paper to him and asking more questions. "Now when you say enhanced, how good are we talking?"
For the first time since Buffy walked in here, she can feel her tension ease a little. If Giles is onto the researchy part of this conversation, the worst is over. "Oh well let's see, I heard Dawn in the kitchen and I was in my room, I thought she was screaming at the top of her lungs until Spike told me she was just talking in her normal voice."
That starts Xander's studdering up again, "Sp-spike was in your bedroom? Oh no, oh no no no, that is not good, I don't like this. Don't like this one bit." He starts pacing again until he yells and throws his hand in the air with an "Ah-ha" He runs over to Giles and grabs his arms to get his attention, "I figured it out, Giles! Spike must have heard about the vision quest and did some sort of spell. She just thought it was the first slayer when really it was the spell making her see things and it just told her what Spike wanted to. She only thinks this is the best thing to do." He looks at Spike with an evil look in his eye that neither Buffy nor Willow has ever seen from him before and doesn't want to see again anytime soon. He chuckles darkly, "You just wait Dead Boy, you better enjoy it while you can because once we break this spell you are going to be so much dust! In fact, we should just do it right now, that should probably break whatever mojo you have her under and the claim will have to break since only half of the people are alive. Giles, crossbow me." Xander says completely serious as he holds his hand out to Giles waiting for the crossbow while not taking his death stare off of Spike.
"Do shut up, Xander."
Xander's stuttering comes back with a vengeance when he comprehends Giles' words, "You've got to be kidding me, G-man! For someone who says he doesn't like what's happening, you sure aren't doing anything to stop it. And what about you, Willow? You sure are quiet. Help Buffy out here and use some of your witchy mojo to fix this. You can't tell me you actually agree with this. You can't tell me you think it's okay for Buffy to get groiny with Spike of all people."
"I mean, it's not like the news makes me all with the happy but you have to listen to what she's saying. She's right, we don't have a right to dictate who she's with and she's made it clear that she's going to be with Spike. I think the best thing we can do is support her. Especially if what the first Slayer said is true, if their being together will help us beat Glory. Because I gotta be honest here with you Xan, she scares me."
"We can find another way to beat the bad guy, just like we always do!"
"Did you just ignore the first part of what I said? It's none of our business, the best thing we can do for Buffy is support her." Buffy gives Willow a grateful smile and Willow smiles softly back at her. Willow gives Tara a loving smile when she feels her lover's hand squeeze her knee and sees her looking at Willow proudly.
Everyone sees Xander take a deep breath to go into yet another tangent about how this is wrong but Tara surprises everyone by speaking up, "I-I'd like to say something." She takes a deep breath and then stands up. "I-I think you all know I can read auras. Well I'm reading theirs and they're happy, there is no intention to hurt from either of them. They've always been connected, it's been that way since I first saw both of them together. It was like each of their auras were always reaching out to each other, they'd only calm and still when they were close to the other. Now their auras are bigger, I see more strength, like a lot more but not only that, I see a certainty in them, they're no longer looking, it's almost like they mesh into one big aura together. There's nothing wrong with them being together, in fact, I'd go as far as to say that neither of them would ever be as happy with anyone else as they will be together."
Everyone just stares at her for a long time, they're not used to Tara speaking up and especially not used to it when people are fighting but she sounds so sure of herself that it's almost like the men can't fight or ignore what she's saying.
"Yes, thank you for that, Tara. That actually makes me feel a little better about this whole situation."
Tara nods at Giles, thankful that she can help because she knows that Buffy and Spike will be good together and that they love each other, even if Buffy doesn't realize that herself yet. Buffy decides they are no longer going to talk about the claiming, they can talk about the other things she's learned in the last 24 hours but her love life is officially off the table. "Okay, so I learned a lot of other important things too if you want to know."
Xander looks angry and it's clear he wants to fight more, Buffy isn't sure why, maybe he's trying to talk her into breaking up with Spike, or maybe he doesn't understand the claim is permanent, either way, he knows no one is willing to fight on his side so he has no choice but to stop. Buffy hopes he won't ever bring it up again but she has a feeling this isn't going to be the last time they fight about this. Giles doesn't look too happy either but it's clear, just like Xander, he's done for now but this is by no means over. He's probably going to want to talk to her when they're alone. She just hopes that they don't try to do anything behind her back. They're two of the most important men in her life but now that they've finished the claim, Spike is in that group too and she really doesn't want to have to choose between them.
Buffy holds in another sigh before perking up and telling them about the other Slayers she saw during the quest, along with the fact that the Slayers used to be willing to work with demons as long as they played by her rules and didn't hurt anyone. She told them about the fact that the first slayer she was shown in the vision lived well over 150 years before an apocalypse took her and her lover out, not old age or another human ailment because when she claimed her vampire one of the traits she had gotten from him was immortality. She was thinking about holding this part out but going by the look on Giles' face, he already figured it out so she reluctantly told them about how Spike would no longer go poof in the sun and how he's just as strong as her now. She told them about the Watchers and how they changed over the years but it all started with one Watcher that wanted to be in control of the Slayer and not just a help to her and how that decision pushed the Slayers away for a long time until they were able to get the slayers back under the council's thumb. She also quickly brought up the realizations she'd come to the night before about Angel and the feelings she accepted she was having for Spike.
By the time she stops talking, the gang is looking at her with wide eyes while Buffy is breathing hard and her mouth is so dry she has to run into the kitchen to get herself some water. By the time she gets back, it seems that the scoobies have gotten their thoughts in order so she waits to see what they have to say. When she realizes they aren't going to say anything she uses her Slayer's voice. "Okay then, now that you're all caught up, we're going to focus on taking Glory out because I want that bitch dead, like yesterday."