The Sobekai snake demon that the demon woman – which Buffy found was named Glory - summoned had discovered that Dawn was the Key she was looking for. The Slayer had to fight with all her might to destroy the monstrous serpent before it could get to where Glory lived and reveal its discovery. It was hard, but she needed to keep her family safe. She couldn't protect her mother, but she would sure as hell protect Dawn.

After they were sure Dawn was safe, Eris and Buffy brought Dawn to the hospital everyday to spend as much time together as they could. They watched all the soap operas they could get on tv and they read all the trashy magazines the hospital had to offer.

In the day Eris was with her family when she wasn't working at the Magic Shop, but at night she was at Spike's place, taking in his much needed comfort. Her and the vampire had returned to their routine of watching Passions, talking and fighting bad guys. It was a normalcy she needed in her life, a routine that helped her to forget the anxiety she suffered every day. There was no intimacy between them, she couldn't bring herself to feel that way. Spike seemed to be ok with their current relationship but she always worried he wasn't ok and was just hiding it.

She was grateful that she found such comfort in the vampire, when she felt terrible or just needed someone he was her first thought. She knew she had people that she should have gone to, people who knew her better, like Buffy. Instead, she preferred Spike, his vast knowledge and carefree personality made her feel calmer, normal. Everyone was on edge about Joyce, all the Summers, including her, skirted around each other. And her friends never wanted to talk about it, they didn't want to comfort anyone as they themselves wanted to be comforted. She felt like they were being selfish in a way, but she couldn't fault them for their feelings. Spike on the other hand, was different. As much as he liked Joyce and enjoyed her company, he wasn't as emotional or as torn up as everyone else, he was more interested in being around Eris and keeping her distracted and as happy as she could be whilst her life was in turmoil.

Whilst Eris was lucky to have Spike as a strong pillar of support, Buffy was not. Her partner was no where to be found, and it broke the Slayer to find out what he was doing instead of being there for her. It turns out that Riley had been frequenting a vampire feeding house, a place where humans go to get off on getting bitten. The following night Riley was gone, he went with the initiative and abandoned Buffy, leaving her alone in this horrible time when she needed him the most. It broke the slayer's heart that she couldn't keep him, and that he had left her without so much as a goodbye.

Her pain was immense, it was so strong that the others could feel it emanating all around them, could see it in her eyes and the way she acted. The gang tried to giver her the support she needed, but it never helped, she felt truly alone. So many thoughts swirled through her mind like a tornado, did she cause this, did she push him away, or was it Riley who pulled away. The Slayer was strong, able to withstand the strongest battles, but the curse of that strength was the crushing loneliness that snuck in when she was at her most happiest and destroyed everything she loved and held dear. Buffy handled her emotions as she normally did, by getting lost in her Slayer duties and doing nothing else but killing all that dwells in the shadows.

Eris knew she needed to step up and help aroind the house now that Joyce was out of action. With her being unable to work, the structure of the house was starting to wobble. Eris' mother could help with the money side of things, but she still encouraged her daughter to continue working and keeping the household going. She wished her mother would come down from LA and help her in keeping the house afloat, but her with her workload being too heavy, she needed to put things in order before she could come down to Sunnydale and help her sister.

There was, however, a small amount of hope that presented itself to the gang. The Watcher's council had agreed to give Buffy the information they had about Glory. It was great but the Watchers were never willing to give something without getting something in return.

A few weeks after Giles had spoken to the council, they had brought themselves completely into Giles' life and turned it upside down. Buffy and Eris were wholeheartedly against them coming here since they had tried to kill Buffy when she was Faith and they put her through a test that almost killed her when she was just a fresh teenager.

They certainly didn't give the group any indication that they had changed. The moment they arrived they withheld the information and would only bring it forth until they did a review of the Slayer and her life, her friends, family, and the methods in which she kills. No one was happy about it but the council threatened to shut down the Magic shop and have Giles deported, never to set foot back in America again unless Buffy did exactly what they told her to.

Eris dealt with her own personal annoyances with the Watchers, they asked her about her relationship with Buffy, what role she played in the Slaying business and her fighting proficiency. They tried to make her tell them that Buffy was incompetent as a Slayer, that she needed help and was not strong enough to handle things on her own. She was well within her rights to be pissed off, but she could not do anything because they would just use it against her. After they were done with their gruelling questions, she had snuck out of the Magic Shop travelled over to Spike in the hopes she could hide from the council until they left.

Upon arriving and opening the door, she saw three Watchers interrogating him, one had a cross, another held a crossbow and lastly was a woman asking questions. Great, so she couldn't even escape from them in a vampire den, "you better watch out, your crossbow guy has sweaty fingers," she commented to the skittish Watchers as she walked over to Spike, "enjoying the attention hun?"

"Never better pet," Spike returned her mischievous smirk with his own, feeling relief that she came to save him from their incessant questions.

"What is your relationship with Mr Spike?" the woman at the back of the Watchers group asked with a jealous tone, she had been fawning over Spike since she entered the crypt. She became interested in him when she first researched him, one of the most famous vampires in history, she even wrote her Thesis about him. When she heard he was in Sunnydale and was an ally to the Slayer she jumped at the chance to be able to ask him all the questions she wished. What she didn't expect was seeing him being so flirtatious with the Slayers cousin.

Eris noticed the jealousy in the women's voice and decided to toy with her. If they were going to disrupt their lives then she was going to at least have some fun with it, "oh we're lovers," she leant up and kissed Spike's cheek, making sure to hold onto him tightly as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Yea, we have hot, kinky sex every night," Spike had very quickly clued on to what she was doing and relished in the thought of playing along.

"We fuck like rabbits, or we have passionate love making," her words started making the Watchers feel flushed in embarrassment and no small part of curiosity. They had never heard of a human being in a romantic relationship with an Elder Vampire, though they went out into the real world to discover that until now.

"And the Slayer is fine with you having this relationship with the vampire that has killed two of her predecessors?"

"No, she hates Spike but my love for him is too strong."

"Well, that is all the questions we have, thank you for your time," the jealous woman spared the lovers a prudish glance before storming out of the room.

Once they were gone, Eris stepped away from Spike who mourned the loss of her heat, "Sorry if that was sudden, I've been wanting to do something to irritate them all day."

"Got to you already, did they?"

"Oh yeah, it was very hard not to punch them in the face. Do you mind if I hang out here for a while? I'm pretty sure they're still at the Magic Shop and I don't want to do something stupid if they annoy me too much."

"Sure, if you're patient we can watch Passions later on, right now though I need to sleep."

"Of course, I might crash on your couch for a bit," she walked over to his couch and snuggled herself into the corner.

Spike stayed still, struggling to decide whether he wanted to sleep or watch her sleep. After some time, he realised he could do both. He watched her until her breathing slowed then went to his coffin and took a nap. He kept his body perfectly still so he couldn't make any noise and allowed himself to be lulled into a peaceful state by Eris' breathing and strong beating heart.

When nightime arrived, the duo were jolted awake when the door to the crypt was slammed open. Thinking they were in danger they both jumped on their feet and stood together in defence.

"Oh, it's the Slayer," Spike said in relief when he saw her blonde hair, "for a second there I was worried."

"What are you guys doing here? Is everything ok?" Eris asked anxiously, referring to Dawn and Joyce who had scurried in behind Buffy.

"Yeah, what's with the family outing?"

"I need your help," Buffy wasted no time getting straight to the point.

"Great, I need your cash."

"I'm serious, you have to look after them, Eris included."

Hearing the fear in her voice made him concerned, usually she only directed anger at him, "well, that's a boat load of manly responsibility flying out of nowhere, what's the matter Slayer? You're not feeling 100%?"

"No."

"They didn't put a chip in your head, did they?" he sounded genuinely concerned by that.

"No, Spike I need an answer now, in or out. You're the only one strong enough to protect them."

"Buffy what's wrong?" Eris asked worriedly as she walked over to her cousin.

"Glory, she came to the house and threated to kill everyone I love. Are you gonna help or not Spike?"

The bleach blonde took a moment before replying, "alright then," he turned to the other two Summers and motioned to his room, inviting them in, "come on in, there's plenty of blood in the fridge."

"Do you mean like, real blood?" Dawn scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"What do you think?"

"Mostly I think eww."

Eris look at Spike and Dawn in amusement as she spoke, "he's a vampire Dawnie, I don't think he would have frozen fries in there."

Buffy ignored their interaction continued to look at Spike threateningly, "I don't think I have to remind you-"

"Yeah yeah, if anything happens to them I'll stake you good and proper, send me a new one next time eh? That bits gone stale," Buffy glared at him one last time before she walked out the door, leaving everyone standing around silently.

"I love what you've…neglected to do with the place," Joyce said awkwardly after a moment of silence.

"Just don't break anything," Spike replied as he walked off.

"You know I gave him cleaning supplies and even cleaned this place once, but it just got dirty again," Eris joked as she walked back over to the couch she was so rudely woken up from.

"And don't make a lot of noise, Passions is on," he turned on his Tv and motioned Eris to get off the couch, "move."

"Make me," Spike rolled his eyes and used his vampire strength to lift her off the couch without any struggle.

"Passions?" Joyce asked as she hurried towards the Tv, "Oh, do you think Timmy's really dead?"

"Oh, no no, she can just sow him back together, he's a doll for God's sake."

"What about the wedding? I mean there's no way they're gonna go through with that."

"You know they won't, they will get to the day and something will happen, it always does" Eris sat herself down on the floor between Spike's legs, letting his fingers comb through her hair distractedly whilst he and Joyce sat on each arm rest of the couch.

Dawn was barely interested in the show and moved to Spike's tomb, feeling incredibly bored.