"Are they really together now? I can't believe it! Two of my most favorite people, we might actually be able to feel like a family again. Look at me, I'm so excited I'm talking to myself!"

"More like screaming to herself," Buffy mumbles about Dawn who's in the kitchen waiting for Buffy and Spike, as she and Spike are still getting dressed upstairs.

"What do you mean, luv?"

"You don't hear that? She's yelling down there."

"Yeah I hear her, 'course I do. Vampire hearing and all but she's not yelling, she's talking at her normal screechy teenager volume, which is loud, granted but no more than the norm."

"But I never hear her, not this clearly anyway."

Spike walks up and wraps Buffy in his arms. "Might be the effects of the claim, can't say I've been in one before but I heard there are some perks. Never heard of one like this, mind, but they're normally between two vampires so they both usually have the hearing already."

"What did the first Slayer say? 'See what he sees, have each other's strengths' something like that." Buffy looks at the window where the wind is making a branch bump against it lightly but to her, now, it's almost like a loud bang and she flinches. Uneasily she says, "This is going to be a lot to get used to."

Spike rubs her back, "Yeah it does take a mite bit of time to get a hold of it. It was sensory overload for me when I first crawled out of the dirt. It's alright though, kitten, you got the benefit of me, I know how to handle it. Dru was too lost in her own mind to teach me anything. Right, focus on one thing, like your heartbeat," Spike started tapping his finger over her heart in the rhythm of her beat. "It's steady, calming, when the sounds get too much, take deep breaths and focus on it for a while, it'll help, you know, center yourself, or some such rot, whatever, it helps."

Buffy laughs at Spike and then tries and after a few seconds it's easy to focus on her heartbeat and not the scratching on the window, the screaming of the air conditioner, the swirling of the microwave Dawn is using downstairs, or the yelling of the old episode of the twilight zone Dawn must be watching and she's able to take a deep breath and calm herself down. "Thanks, yeah, that helps."

"Good, see it's not too bad."

Buffy nods "Okay, we have to get downstairs, Dawn is about to come up."

Buffy walks over to the door and turns the handle and they both hear a creak, she pulls her hand away to see that she bent the doorknob. "What the what? I know you are not that much stronger than me. So this can't be because of the claim too, can it?"

"No slayer, I always figured you were the stronger of us, I got you when it comes to speed though. That doesn't make much sense." He says, eyeing the doorknob. "Truthfully, I don't know, I didn't expect any changes like this to happen, not this fast leastways."

"Come on! It took me a year to get my Slayer strength under control and I still occasionally break things by mistake. Now I'm going to have to learn it all over again?"

"Slayer, Buffy, this could only help with the hell bitch."

She thinks for a second then nods, "Yeah, you're right."

Spike goes for the doorknob this time, not thinking anything of it and when he twists it, he pulls it right off. "Bugger."

Buffy is starting to get excited, surely with both of them having this extra strength they'll be able to beat Glory, right? They have to, the first slayer seemed pretty positive that if they did this, they'd win. She becomes distracted when she notices she can see all the rivets and scratches in the wood of the door. "Woah."

"Yeah, sorry about that, slayer. Let me just…" Buffy sees Spike bend down and do something with the door, she doesn't know how he does it without a knob but he gets the door open.

"Thanks but that wasn't what I was talking about, I can see… pretty much everything. I guess I should have expected it when she said 'See what he sees' but woah. Wait! Does this mean I won't have to like bump into things at night, cause vampires have great night vision, right?" Buffy asks, officially no longer wigged about the situation, she's just excited to see what happens next.

She has to work hard not to laugh when they get downstairs and Dawn is standing there at the bottom of the stairs with her arms crossed, her foot tapping and a clear 'you two better explain yourselves' look. Buffy innocently asks, "What's the what, Dawn?"

"Don't play dumb with me, missy. What the heck? I heard loud sounds that I never want to have to hear my sister make again and then I find out you and Spike are in your room together?"

"What? You don't like the idea of me and Spike being a… couple?" She asks, having trouble saying the word even though she really wants it and is devoted to them being together.

Dawn stares at them with a hard face for a long time before a smile comes over her face. "Of course I do! You've just been so against the idea for so long that I never thought you'd actually open your eyes and see what was right in front of you. I'm happy for you two but there's going to have to be some ground rules. One, no getting all groiny with each other anywhere I might accidentally walk in on you. Two, no keeping me up with your wild loud monkey sex, I don't want to hear it, at all, because ew. And three, just no grossing me out in general, got it?"

Buffy stares at Dawn long and hard pretending to think it over before smiling widely and pulling her in for a hug while making extra sure not to use too much strength, "No problem, Dawnie."

"Good, now what's for breakfast?"

"Uh, cereal?"

"We're out of milk."

"Uhh, pizza?"

"Christ, that's not brekky, 'especially not for a growing girl. I'll make you's an omelet."

"You can cook?" Buffy asks incredulously.

"Course I can cook. Been alive a century plus and I like food."

"Alright…" Buffy says sounding dubious but decides to trust him. "I have a phone call I have to make anyway." A phone call she isn't looking forward to at all, she really hopes everything she has to tell Giles is a surprise to him as much as it was for her, if not, they'll have bigger problems.

"Who do you have to call, Buffy?" Dawn asks.

"Giles, I haven't had a chance to tell him anything about the vision quest yet, he's probably really confused right now and we'll probably have to set up a Scoobie meeting that knowing them, will probably turn into an intervention about my love life." Buffy sighs just thinking about it before straightening her shoulders and walking over to the phone.

Buffy is surprised even though she probably shouldn't be when Giles answers the phone on the first ring. "Buffy?"

Buffy cringes and has to pull the phone a few inches away from her ear because of how loud it sounds to her. "Hey Giles, it's me."

"Are you finally ready to inform me what has been going on with you?"

Buffy sighs, she still has all the resolve she's had since she first talked to the First Slayer, she's not going to let her friends talk her out of anything, heck, it's too late anyway, she is already of the claimed, but that doesn't mean she is looking forward to all the fallout. "Giles, what do you know about how the First Slayer came to be? Like how she was made?"

"Err, no. I don't know anything for certain but from what I've come to understand from my reading and research, the side of evil, the side of the demons were becoming too great and powerful so the Powers That Be decided the side of good needed a boost. They gave us that boost by creating a girl who was strong enough to fight against the forces of evil. That was the first Slayer." He answers, sounding confused about the apparent topic change.

"Yeah, well no. That's not what happened at all. I don't know the full story because I was too preoccupied but the other information I was given but apparently that's not what happened at all. The watchers took a girl against her will and forced whatever magic in her to make her become the slayer. She really doesn't like you guys, by the way, hate would be the word I use."

"Hate? What? No, that cannot be correct, Buffy, you must have misunderstood."

"Nope," She made sure to pop the p, "all with the understanding being, Giles."

"Buffy, I promise you, I had no clue."

"Okay, well that's not even the wiggiest part of what I learned."

"Do tell," Giles says dryly.

Buffy goes on to tell him all about the vision quest, about how she met the first slayer again, and saw all the different slayers through time and how they used to work hand in hand, about how they knew they met the one they were supposed to be with through a feeling they got when they first met and how when they claimed their other half they gained abilities from one another like a long life for the slayer. When she's finished Giles stays quiet for such a long time she has to ask, "…Giles?"

Giles clears his throat, "And what, you think Angel is your other half? I still do not understand why this makes you think that Spike is trustworthy."

That's when she realizes she left the whole Spike part out of her retelling. "Well, yeah. That's what I thought at first too but nope."

"Buffy I'm going to need you to tell me what you mean now because I'm starting to get a picture of the situation and it's not a likable one at all so I'm going to need you to tell me exactly what you were told so that I may calm down and stop imagining worst case scenarios."

Uh-oh, Buffy thinks, she knows that tone. Giles already figured it out and he's not too happy. He's holding on to his last shred of denial hoping Buffy can clear the situation up and then they can laugh about it. He's not going to be too happy. "Giles, come on, no need to sound so dire, it's going to be fine, really. It's good, she showed me a lot of things and all of it is of the good."

"Buffy…"

"Giles, for real, Spike loves me, I'm good with it, happy even."

"Buffy, don't do anything rash, don't do anything at all until we have time to research, we'll find another way to keep Dawn safe, you don't have to tie your life to a monster to do it. The others will be here in about an hour and we will research until we find an alternative."

Buffy opened her mouth to tell him it was already done but decided to wait until they were in person, it wasn't like she wasn't going to have to go through this again, she'd rather get it all done at once. "Giles, I don't know how I feel about the research of it all, after everything I learned, I already didn't trust the Watcher's council but now I know I shouldn't. I already know that their books won't say anything about the claim, nothing good at least. I'm willing to do research about this but I'm not willing to use books you got from them, not for this, it's too important and they've already done too much to the Slayer line, I won't let them hurt it anymore."

"Buffy, I don't think that's quite fair."

"No, Giles, it isn't fair. Just like they weren't fair when they forced a girl to become the one girl in all the world meant to protect humanity against the forces of evil. It's not surprising that they're not being fair about this either."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Buffy sighs, "I know… we'll talk when we get there."

"We? I don't think it's quite necessary for Spike to come with you. Wait, is he still with you?"

"Of course he is. He was tortured, Giles. Tortured because he wouldn't give Dawn up, you'd have to be heartless to kick him out into the cold after something like that, it was too dangerous out there for him."

"Are you sure it has nothing to do with what you learned? I'm sorry, it just sounds as if you think he is a completely different being than the one that came here to kill you multiple times."

"I know who Spike is, Giles. Ugh, I'll just talk to you when we get there."

"Quite right, see you soon, Buffy, be careful."

Buffy sighs again, "Bye Giles, see you soon."

Buffy stares at the phone for a few seconds becoming overwhelmed and upset at what is coming today and she's surprised when she feels Spike wrap his arms around her from behind. She was so lost in her own thoughts, that she didn't even feel him coming up behind her. She can tell he's a little cautious, not sure how she'll take his gesture and she's surprised how easily she leans back into him and feels the comfort that he's giving her.

"Didn't go well?"

"About as well as I expected it to. I didn't tell him everything, he told me not to do anything until he had time to research. I decided to tell him it's already a done deal in person, with everyone. I don't feel like having the same fight ten times."

"This is your show, Slayer, whatever you think is best."

Buffy opens her mouth to speak but a moan comes out instead because Spike kisses her neck where he bit her earlier. "What was that?"

"It's the claim, luv. Like I said, there are some perks to it."

"Like what? More like that, 'cause I could get used to it."

"Yeah, the bite will always be sensitive like that when I touch it, same with mine. Other vampires will have an aversion to biting you, they'll feel my claim and have the urge to stay away. Don't know for sure cause this is just as new to me as it is for you but I've heard we could grow to feel each other's emotions, always be able to find each other, and more. Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"Yup, I'm totally getting majorly of the excited about this." Buffy smiles at him and lifts her mouth to his to kiss him.

"Eww, gross guys, are you already forgetting about the rules? Come on, I'm hungry!" Dawn says when she walks into the room.

Spike pulls away from Buffy with a look in his eyes that clearly says 'We'll continue this soon' Buffy feels a shiver go through her right to her lady bits at the look of lust in his eyes. "Sorry nib, got a mite bit distracted. Food will be ready in just a mo'"

"Yeah, sure it will," Dawn says with an eye roll and a flip of her hair with all the attitude of a teenager before flouncing back into the kitchen.

It doesn't take long for Spike to whip them up some omelets and they all eat quickly. Buffy hasn't lost any of her resolve to tell her friends like it is and not take any crap from them but that doesn't mean she's looking forward to it. So her breakfast is just kind of bland because of her anxiety about what's coming her way later today.

"I'm coming with you."

"What?" Buffy asks, being brought out of her thoughts.

"I'm coming with you. I know how they're going to react and you'll need someone who is pro-Spuffy on your side."

"Spuffy?"

"Yeah, it's like your relationship name you know, the name that people use when talking about you, like Brennifer."

"Brennifer?" Spike chimes in, sounding flabbergasted.

"Yeah, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston, hello, they're like the it couple!"

Both Buffy and Spike just stare at Dawn for a few long moments, astounded at her reasoning before Buffy shakes her head and asks, "Wait, why are people talking about us?"

"Oh, come on, Buffy, you know everyone in the scoobies will be talking about you for weeks to come. I think if they're saying Spuffy they'll have to get over it faster, Xander especially. I can just imagine his eyes darkening and cheeks growing red in anger every time he said yours and Spike's names together. And Spuffy is cute, you can't help but smile when you say it." Dawn says sounding completely sure of this and proud of herself.

Buffy looks at Spike and can tell he's trying not to laugh at the whole conversation. She wants to roll her eyes but instead looks at the clock and realizes they're already late. She looks back at Dawn and thinks, she'd really rather not have Dawn have to be there for that whole conversation but on the other hand, Glory. So of course she'll bring her with them, it's not like she's going to leave her alone in the house unprotected, especially with how easily she just waltzed right in last time. "Okay, Dawnie, you can come. Go get ready."

Dawn jumps up with her signature squeal and runs upstairs before Buffy can change her mind, she's never allowed to be involved with anything serious so she's not going to ruin her chance. It isn't until she's looking at her outfit in the mirror that she realizes it's probably the whole key thing that's getting her the permission to come. She shrugs, it's still a win so she won't complain.

She leaves her room to run downstairs and has to cringe as she's in the hall hearing the giggling and growling coming from Buffy's room, she decides they're going to have to do something about that because there's no way she's going to be okay with hearing that all the time. Maybe Willow can work her mojo to make it so that she can't hear inside the room? She'll have to ask her about that after all the yelling that's so going to happen.

Still, she smiles because for the first time in a long time, Buffy seems happy and the house doesn't feel weighed down by grief and sadness. Though she does feel like crying for a second when she thinks about why the house was so quiet and filled with grief. She's able to smile again though because she thinks she and her sister are healing, even with all the craziness going on right now, and… and that's good. It almost feels wrong to feel good, because her mom died and things are terrible right now but she feels good because she thinks she might see the light at the end of the tunnel and she might live in a house that will feel like a home again, instead of it just feeling like, she didn't even know, a crypt or maybe limbo. Since her mom died it felt like she and Buffy weren't living, they were just surviving, less than that even, just existing but seeing how different and even happy Buffy has been since she came back from her vision quest is like a breath of fresh air for Dawn and she'll be damned if she lets any of Buffy's well-meaning friends ruin it for her, for them.

Still, though, she doesn't need to hear Buffy and Spike's happiness so she yells loudly and bangs on the wall at the bottom of the stairs because Buffy is hard of hearing sometimes, "Aren't we in a rush? I thought we were supposed to be there already!"

"Geez, Dawn, no need to scream, I can hear you just fine." Buffy says after a few more giggles and the opening of the door. Dawn is surprised when she sees that Buffy is covering her ears like Dawn is being too loud. Dawn isn't oblivious, she's self-aware enough to know she often annoys people when she yells loudly or stomps her foot but she could have sworn she wasn't being too much this time, weird.

"Sorry." Dawn mumbles, she doesn't want to be the one to ruin the good mood everyone is in by starting a fight over something so small and silly.

"Right then, you ready to go, platelet?"

"Yup." Dawn has to admit, if only to herself that she loves all the little nicknames he has for her, even though when she actually took the time to think about them a while ago she realized they all had to go with either her blood or eating her, which again, weird but whatever that's just Spike and she loves him, though she'd never tell him that because he'd probably get all weird about it and say something mean about wanting to rip her head off and drink from it.

Even though they've never been in this situation before, somehow it seems normal when Buffy runs ahead to open the driver's side door to her mom's car and for Dawn to stay behind to lock and close the house door after Spike, with his head covered by his duster, makes a dash from the house to the car. It isn't until they're in the car and Spike isn't able to put his duster down that they realize the problem.

"Sorry luv, can't really drive with the big ball of fire in the sky still up."

"Oh, right. Where's the DeSoto? It's all blacked out so you can drive during the day, right?"

Spike clears his throat uncomfortably. "Dru took it with her the last time she left town."

Buffy knows why he's uncomfortable, and he should be, the chaining up of Buffy is no way to woo her but she's too focused on the Drusilla of it all to get upset about it. "She stole your car?" Buffy asks with all the incredulousness she feels.

"Can't really steal something that's half hers, can she? We got it in the '70s in Jersey, I won it in a poker game where she was distracting the other players by tellin' them their future. Wasn't cheating per se but none of their futures looked too bright, couldn't really be at the top of their game. To this day I don't know if she was making it up or the dollies and stars were really talking to her, either way, we drove out of town with the car."

Buffy can't stop the jealousy she feels while he's telling the story, he's clearly speaking with fondness and Buffy doesn't understand how he can think back on the big ho so fondly. From what Buffy saw, she treated him horribly and had no problem with cheating on him. What the hell? He's hers now and he better not be pining over his ex. Buffy is surprised at the primal feeling of possessiveness that comes over her, she literally has to stop the growl she feels bubbling up from her chest, and she clears her throat because a little one makes it out anyway.

She sees Spike look at her nervously anyway, she supposes even if she kept the growl down her face is showing her emotions enough to worry him. After a few seconds, his worried face calms down and a smug smile comes over it. He reaches across the center console and squeezes her hand. "Don't worry so much, slayer. It's the claim, I'd react the same way if you started talking about Peaches."

"What? We're just going to be like cavemen for the rest of our lives? Spike mine, if touch I kill you." She says in her best caveman voice.

Spike chuckles in his husky way Buffy is sure will always go right to her nether regions, she has to forcefully stop herself from squeezing her legs together. She regrets stopping the impulse when his nostrils flare and his eyes darken.

"No, it'll get easier eventually but we'll always feel possessive. You're mine just as I'm yours." He says calmly like it's the most clear and easy thing in the world.

Buffy cuts her eyes to Dawn making sure Spike remembers that they're not alone. She's sure her sister has a lot of questions now after listening to them. In fact, she's surprised that Dawn hasn't already interjected in the conversation to get the answers Buffy's sure she wants. Buffy is about to grab the bull by the horns so to speak and just tell her, it's probably best that she knows anyway considering what's about to happen at Giles'. She turns her head to talk to her but she doesn't get any further than that because Dawn yelps loud enough to make them both cringe as she jumps over the seats to cover Spike's hands.

"Dawn, what the hell? What's with the wiggyness and the screeching?"

"What? Buffy, your boyfriend is flammable! His hand was about to go up in flames!"

Buffy and Spike both look and realize Dawn is right, she's covering their hands and the sun is shining right over her back. Buffy looks at Spike and his eyes are wide and confused. Tentatively, with the hand of his that is not currently being held on for dear life by Dawn, he reaches out to a beam of light. He starts by just putting his fingers slowly into the light and once the tip of his pointer finger is in the light and not burning he lets out a yelp of excitement and sits forward so that his face is in the light and he's looking right at the sun.

"Spike, be careful!" Buffy sees that he's not burning but the panic and fear that she's feeling in this situation aren't lessening even though she sees that he's okay.

"What is happening?" Dawn asks with wonder in her voice.

"Must be the claim."

"Claim?"

Instead of answering Spike opens the car door and with a whoop of joy steps out of the car to enjoy the sunshine.

"Claim?" Dawn asks again, this time to Buffy.

Buffy doesn't answer either, instead she gets out of the car with Dawn following, walks around the car to Spike's side, and wraps her arms around him, he kisses the top of her head and after a few more moments of basking in the sun, he turns his attention back to Dawn. "Right, nib, so here's the situation…"

Spike and Buffy explain to her what a claim is and what they can expect when they get to Giles'. By the time they get there, Buffy works herself back into her wiggy state but looks at herself in the mirror, takes a deep breath, and feels that part inside her, deep inside her, that part that was always there but only made itself known when she was activated as a Slayer. The place she's never felt closer to than after her meeting with the First Slayer. The slayer in her and when she connects with that part of herself, her inner strength pushes her and gives her the confidence she needs to go through this. To knowingly upset her best friends, the people that are so close to her they're more her family than her father. They'll accept her, her and her decisions, they love her and they don't want to hurt her. They'll accept who she is becoming and who she's decided to spend her life with. With a nod at herself in the mirror she shuts it, looks at both Spike and Dawn, and then opens the door.