Kira spent a few minutes trying to muster up the courage to follow her friend. What if Shelly had gotten fried by the swirling light? It wouldn’t exactly do any good to get fried along with her. And t wasn’t like Kira was any good in the fighting department. No, really, the only reason she had to follow was to make sure Shell was okay.

Kira realised that was reason enough.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to do anything about it. At the precise moment she was going to step into the swirling light, she was knocked backwards by someone coming out of it.

Spike didn’t stop to see what he tripped over as he came out of the portal. He wanted to put as much distance between him and any followers as possible. He spied a trailer park ahead, and ran into the huddle of mobile homes.

Kira picked herself up and looked where the portal had been, just seconds before the man ran into her. She turned and spotted the man running towards her home. Well, she couldn’t do anything about Shelly being gone, but maybe she could do some work on her own end…

Spike found a trailer that looked to be empty. He couldn’t go inside without an invite, but he could hide under it, and did. He breathed an unnecessary sigh of relief.

What was he going to do now? Now that he had a moment to think, he couldn’t STOP thinking. Buffy surely thought he’d gone evil, and whatever doubts she might have would certainly be chased off by the Scoobies. It hurt to think, after all they had been through together, that they would be so quick to think he’d gone evil again, but he had to be realistic. They had every reason to think it was only the chip that had made him good. Hell, it wasn’t like he had some moral problem with drinking a human, any more than most people had in eating a burger, or even a vegan had in eating a piece of celery, which was also once living. Everything had to eat. But did that make him evil? He would stick to drinking pig’s blood, if that made Buffy happy. So, as far as he was concerned, the lack of a chip was a non-issue. But how to get the others to see that?

Kira saw the man slip under Shelly’s trailer. Was he just a man, though? Or was he a demon? Had he tracked Shelly down, or was this just coincidence? Kira parked herself around the corner of a trailer across the way. No point in rushing in and getting herself killed, when she could just as easily keep an eye on him, and be alive to warn Shelly when she came back.

IF she came back…

***

Buffy listened as Giles talked to the new girl, but she didn’t really pay attention. She’d heard the whole “Slayer’s calling” blah, blah, blah, before. She noticed vaguely that her sister, Dawn, did not seem at all happy. She wondered which upset the girl more, the fact that she had turned out to NOT be the Slayer-in-waiting after all, or that Spike had turned out to be the evil thing they had long thought him to be.

Not for the first time in her life, Buffy wondered how she could be such a fool. It wasn’t like Spike had a soul, even if he had presented her with a pretty convincing argument. Back then, she had wanted to meet this “Lydia”, who’d explained the whole thing to him, and thank the girl. Now she wanted to beat the tar out of her for getting her hopes up.

Why did she want to cry right now? Why was she so upset over learning what she really already knew about him? How had she forgotten in the first place? She thought of the enemy he had started out as, and the friend he had become. It boggled her mind, trying to think of her self of the past, and what that self would think of her now. Back then, the thought of Spike becoming her boyfriend—hell, even just a friend—was an extreme non-possibility. When had all that changed? HOW had it changed? This sick feeling she had now in her stomach SHOULD have been over he idea of EVER thinking of him romantically, something akin to how she’d felt after kissing him, back when Willow had cast that crazy spell that had made them want to get married. But now the feeling was of grief, not disgust. She felt more like she did when Angel became Angelus, after they’d made love. And she hadn’t done anything more than KISS Spike.

She was just going to have to try really hard to remember why she’d once wanted to stake him. Except that it seemed like all those evil things he’d done had happened to someone else. Were DONE by someone else. Neither of them were who they once were. Except now apparently Spike WAS.

Buffy was getting a headache. She wished Willow were there, but the witch and her lover had taken the bitten girl to the hospital.

***

“How are you feeling, Laticia?”

The young woman with a bandage on her neck drew her legs close, hugging her knees. She shrugged, and tried to smile with eyes full of shock and fear. “The doctor says I’ll be ok.”

Willow smiled kindly and patted Ticia’s hand. “I know what the doctor says. I was asking about YOU…”

Ticia tried to smile bravely, nodding her head reassuringly. “I’m good, really. I’m not dead, so I can’t complain. The doctor says I didn’t loose a lot of blood. Which I guess makes sense, since the vamp who bit me didn’t seem to keen on drinking me.” She giggled, somewhat hysterically. “It was almost like a peer pressure thing, like they were two vamps at a frat party. Or maybe he was trying to be vegetarian, or maybe I don’t smell quite ri-“

“’They’?” It took Tara a few seconds to assimilate all the girl was saying, but she had a feeling there was more to Ticia’s attack encounter than met the eye. “Ticia, I know you’re tired, but you have to tell us everything you can remember, it’s important.”

“Tara!”

“Willow, it’s important. Someone else’s life may be on the line here.” Or unlife, as it were.

Ticia saw the determined look in Tara’s face. She matched it with one of her own. These were friends of the “Class Protector”, Buffy, the Slayer. She needed to help all she could. She told her story.

***

Cerberus sat staring where the portal had been, and whined. What was he going to do? How could he convince the others that Spike hadn’t gone bad? Everyone was so wrapped up in their own thoughts that no one was hearing him or paying him any mind. And if they were so keen on staking Spike without his chip, maybe reminding them about a vampire dog with no chip wasn’t a good idea. Humans seemed quick to judge and quick to act, and believed it was easy to turn on your friends in a snap.

He decided that being with them wasn’t the safest thing for him at the moment. Unfortunately, he seemed to be out of range of the telepathic gift he shared with Spike. The vampman could be anywhere; where should he start looking? He looked behind him and saw the way blocked by Buffy, Giles, Dawn, and the new girl. He looked ahead and sighed, walking off in the direction the portal had been in.

***

“Sunnydale Police Department.”

“Yes, may I speak to Lieutenant Devonshire, please?”

“One moment.”

If Lawrence had had to breathe, he would have been holding his breath in anticipation. He smiled with boyish glee when he finally heard the Lieutenant on the line. “Devonshire.”

“It’s Lawrence. I need you to gather up our loyal troops and put out an A.P.B. …”

***

“So yer sayin’ I’m a runner up for the ‘Chosen One’, and I have to train under YOU now, is that it?” Shelly’s features were unreadable. She might as well have been telling them what time it was.

“Well … yes, that about sums it up, actually,” Giles answered.

“You and what army?”

“ … Come again?”

“I’m saying, what’re ya going to do if I don’t want to play by your rules? I’ve been doing just fine all on my own, I don’t see as what YOU would have ta teach me.”

Giles put on his glasses, which he had been cleaning in an unconscious gesture of agitation. “Now see here! I don’t think you realize just wh-“

She held out a stake, dull end first, to him. “See this? See each of the marks on it?” He looked closely, and saw countless notches in its sides. “Each notch is a dead vampire. I think I’ve got plenty of field experience. If your Watcher Council had wanted me trained, they waited a bit long to FIND me!”

With that, Shelly turned on her heel and left.

“Aren’t you going to go after her?” Dawn asked Giles. He didn’t answer. He knew he should, but the girl reminded him so much of Buffy when they had first met. He didn’t know if he could go through it again, help the Powers That Be ruin yet another life.

***

Mrs. Habersham was a busybody. The trailer park she lived in was the perfect place for her kind, full of white trash gossip about who was cheating on who. But the house she kept the biggest eye on was the one she NEVER talked about. Not YET. No one would believe her, so she waited patiently for proof.

Which was why she called the cops tonight.

She always knew that Shelly Jenkins girl was a troublemaker, coming home in the wee hours of the morning. She wasn’t old enough to be going to some late-night job, like her tramp of a mother.

Some might think, when Mrs. Habersham saw that shady-looking man sneaking under the Jenkins trailer, that she called the police to help Shelly. But She knew Shelly wasn’t home. No, she thought, if the police came to arrest the man, they might find something else under the trailer, drugs maybe. And Mrs. Habersham would be the first to know …

***

When Devonshire heard the call come in about a break-in in the Sunnydale Trailer Park, he decided to go out and investigate himself. Particularly since, if he didn’t , no one else would bother. If the intruder was the man Lawrence was looking for, he couldn’t risk loosing him. And besides, maybe he would get to see his little girl.

***

As Dawn watched Shelly walk away, she felt an odd mix of satisfaction and disappointment. With the girl gone, she might convince Giles, Spike, and Buffy to continue her own training. Just because she wasn’t a Slayer-in-waiting after all didn’t mean she couldn’t use the lessons. Her sister WAS the Slayer, after all, and she did live on the Hellmouth. But, as much as she had resented the idea of someone else taking her place, she had found herself liking the girl, once she met her. What if they HAD both been Slayers-in-waiting? It would have been nice to have someone more her own age to hang out with and train alongside, who knew about demons and stuff.

And she was upset about the whole situation with Spike, to be sure, but only because she was afraid for him, and what Buffy and the other Scoobies would do to him if they caught him. She didn’t believe he’d gone evil, she trusted him with her life. Now she just had to remind her sister that she had done the same.

And then Dawn noticed. Cerberus wasn’t there with them anymore. Where did he go?

***

“I just don’t get it,” Willow pondered as she and Tara made their way home from the hospital. “Why was he hanging out with that other vampire, if he hasn’t gone all evil? Why did he bite that girl at all?”

Tara nodded; she was having a hard time wrapping her brain around it too. ”I feel like there’s something important that we don’t know. I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions until we know what that is. Maybe Cerberus can give us more insight when he comes back home. In the meantime, maybe we can do a scry-“ “WILLOW! TARA!” Xander ran to them from across the street, Anya in tow, panic in his eyes. “Dawn is gone!” he panted. “She-“

“It’s ok, Xander, she’s with Buffy and Giles,” Tara comforted him.

“THANK GOD! I was worried half to death something might happen to her! I’m gonna kill her when she comes home…”

Anya shook her head. “I told you not to get so upset! She’s been training to be a Slayer; she can take care of herself! Honestly, between you, Spike, Giles, and Buffy, you guys are going to suffocate the girl. Now lets go home and have sex, since they don’t need us to babysit anymore.”

***

Devonshire walked up to the trailer in question. He knew from previous visits exactly where to find it. His feet made no sound. He was too good at what he did for that.

He heard a gasp from the trailer across the way, but ignored it.

“Heya, Pop. Is this business, or a social visit?”

He turned, trying to keep the pride off his face. He had heard Kira, but not Shelly. Someone else was good at what they did, too. “Hi, sweetie. Actually, it IS business, I’m afraid.” He dropped to the ground, reached under the trailer, and dragged a black leather coat out from under it. The coat’s occupant struggled for a moment, until it saw the uniform. Then it looked confused.

“Sweetie, yer getting’ a bit lax, here, ar’ncha? I mean, for there to be a VAMPIRE under yer trailer…”

“Give me a break, I wasn’t even home! I’ll take care of him.” She pulled a stake out of her pocket. “After I take care of you.” She lunged at the cop.

She was too slow.

Devonshire leapt to the side, dragging his quarry with him. He hurried over to where Kira was hiding and grabbed her. He held her in front of him, like a shield. “Ah, ah, ah, what did I tell you about playing nice, Shelly! Now drop the stake!”

Spike wasn’t sure of what to do. On the one hand, there was the girl he saw on the other side of the portal, standing before him again, brandishing a stake that he was relatively certain she knew how to use. On the other, he was being held by a vampire dressed as a cop and holding a human hostage. What did this vamp want with him? Was it better to play along for now, or fight the vampire?

“Dr. Lawrence is looking for you,” the vamp told him, and let go.

That decided him. If he was going to get any answers, he was going to have to play along. He moved towards the girl. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he was going to have to knock her out to get her out of the game, so it had to look convincing.

“NO!”

Or not.

“Forget her, she won’t hurt us while I have her friend. Let’s just go.”

“KIRA!” Shelley cried, for the first time in a long while uncertain what to do. If she made a move, her father would snap Kira’s neck in a second. It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t have a shield anymore; he was a vampire, and enjoyed killing. And truth be told, Shelly didn’t think she had it in her to dust her father; that was why he was still “alive” in the first place. She just stood there, feeling helpless, as she watched the monsters take her friend away.

***

Dawn and Buffy walked home in silence. Buffy kept telling herself that it was late, that was the only reason she wasn’t tracking Spike down that very moment. She wouldn’t admit, even in her own thoughts, that she dreaded finding him and what she had to do. That she wasn’t sure she COULD do it.

She was about to put her key in the lock when the door opened.

“Buffy! Thank god you’re home!” Willow grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. Then the witch looked around. “Where’s Cerbie?”

Dawn answered, “I dunno. He disappeared while we were talking to Shelly.”

“No! We NEED him! AGH! Tara, what do we do now?”

“Well, wherever he is, the sun’s almost up. He’s probably going to hide for the day, and we all need some sleep. Let’s just show Buffy what we found out, and then get to bed.”

“Show me what?” She asked as they dragged her into their room, formerly her mother’s room.

The witches settled Buffy and Dawn done on the bed, then putzed around on their makeshift alter. Willow drew down the widow screen, and suddenly images appeared on it. Buffy looked back at the altar, and saw a light shining from a crystal there onto the screen.

“COOL! Can I use that thing at my next sleepover?” Dawn asked.

Tara shushed her gently and told the sisters to watch the screen.

They saw Spike and Cerberus getting ice cream. How the pair have a run-in with some demons and Shelly. They saw Shelly hit him with her tazer. The paramedics came and took him to the morgue, but left Cerberus there. Spike woke up. There was sound, too. As they listened, they realised that Spike seemed very disoriented. The doctor came in, and it seemed the man knew Spike but Spike did not recognize him. They saw the doctor take him to the park, heard their exchange. Saw them fight, and the doc loose. Saw Spike lift the girl and bite her.

And then they saw Buffy and the others come onto the scene. It seemed to the present Buffy that Spike seemed horrified at what he had done. When she had been there, she thought his expression was just horror at having been caught. But from this angle it seemed he looked that way before he even realised she was there. Was she just reaching? Did that crystal thing have a rewind?

“This is why we need Cerberus!” Willow told her. “It sounds to me like Spike had amnesia from that blow to the head with the tazer! I bet it deactivated his chip, too! If we had Cerbie here, we could know for sure, through the psychic link they have…”

Things clicked into place for the sisters. “Oh! That was why he was acting so weird!” they said together.

“Yeah, when I saw him he was all ‘You talking to me?’ And when I asked Cerbie where Spike was, and he said ‘Spike who’?” Buffy elaborated.

Dawn chimed in excitedly. “And when I asked him not to tell Buffy I was following, he said ‘Tell who what?’” Then she realised what she just said.

“Hey, that’s right, you snuck out of the house! You’re grounded, missey!” Buffy wagged a finger at the girl. “Guys!” Willow waved a hand to get their attention. “So you’re saying Cerbie seemed like he had amnesia? That settles it, then! Spike must have gotten it from the shock of the tazer, and Cerbie got it too from their psychic link!”

Buffy smiled and hugged Willow. It amazed her, how relieved she felt to learn Spike wasn’t evil again after all. Now she could sleep easier. Which is exactly what she did.

***

“So where’re we goin’, mate?”

“I told you, to see Lawrence.”

”What does he want with me?”

Devonshire shrugged. “I don’t ask, I just follow orders.”

They sat in awkward silence for a while in the squad car, as the Lieutenant drove. Well, silent save for the screeching of the girl in the back seat.

“So tell me something, Spike.” Spike could tell Devonshire had been itching to ask him something for a while. He nodded in encouragement; anything the cop said might bring him closer to his own answers.

“What was up with you fighting other vamps and working with the Slayer?”

Spike snorted. “A n’ ‘o told you I was doing that?”

“Aw, c’mon now, man. I’ve SEEN you two together, seen you kick our people’s asses. Did you get a soul, like Angelus? I bet that’s why the bosses want ya, huh?”

“Bosses? Which bosses would that be, mate?”

Devonshire barked a laugh. “Wolfram and Hart! How else would there be vampires working in the police department and a hospital?”

***

Shelly sat on her bed, weeping. She’d failed. She’d failed before, but it had never cost the life of a friend. Was Kira still alive? Was she still human? If only she had killed that vamp in the alley when she had a chance. If only she had killed her father, back when he had first been turned. She could still see the night it had happened, fresh in her mind as it was a year ago.

A scratch at the door broke her thoughts. When she opened it, a dog sat on the aluminum stair, watching her intently, it’s tail still.

“Well, hey there, boy! What’re you doin’ here?” She kneeled down and scratched it behind the ears. This was the dog she saw back with the Slayer and her friends. “What, are you bringing a message to me? Slayer fall down a well?” She moved aside. “Come on in, boy. I suppose I have some beef jerky around.”

The dog rushed in. **That’s kind of you, but I’m more interested in finding my friend**

Shelley stuck her head out the door, looking for the speaker.

**Down here.** She looked down at the dog, who started wagging it’s tail. **Yes, that’s right. A talking dog. Vampires are real, why not talking dogs?**

***

Devonshire pulled the squad car up a long drive, and parked it outside a mansion that seemed right out of “Lifestyeles of the Rich and Famous”. When he opened the back, Kira tried to make a break for it, but couldn’t do much with the handcuffs around her wrists and ankles. He slung her over his shoulder and made his way with Spike to the door. An underling led them to Lawrence’s study, where he was entertaining a human woman.

“Ah! You found him! Excellent!” The doctor gestured to Spike. Lilah, I want you to meet my sire, William the Bloody, better known as Spike.”

The woman stood and sauntered over to the bleach blond vamp. She practically reeked of smug satisfaction, almost as much as she did of some expensive cologne. She held out a hand. Spike just stared at it, keeping his face unreadable. Lilah stiffened, for a moment, obviously offended, but played it cool. “I’ve read a lot about you. Word is you’ve bagged two Slayers, but seem to be off your game with Buffy.”

Spike suspected his past reputation was why Wolfram and Hart had an interest in him. He had spent the trip over coming up with a cover story for his recent behavior. It wouldn’t do for such dangerous enemies to believe he’d gone soft, but he knew they knew about his chip, due to their interactions with the Initiative.

He smiled, bored. “I guess I could see why you’d think that.”

“Well, let’s see. You kill demons,“ she ticked it off on her fingers, “you kill other vampires, you threatened your long-time love, Drucilla., and you’ve saved Buffy and her friends on more than one occasion. Yeah, I’d say it looks like you’ve switched sides. I think you need a lawyer to get you out of this one.”

He raised a brow. “If you’re offering, I’m not buying,” he sneered. “Do you know why I kill Slayers?”

Lilah shrugged. “To prove you’re the Big Bad? Because all demons hate the Slayer?”

“Because its FUN. Because I’m immortal! What else do I have to do? Why do people go bungee-jumping, or skydiving? Because the chance to die makes life more exciting! But Buffy is different from the other Slayers. She has a life outside this job of hers. I learned a lot from Angelus. One thing he taught me was that, to kill this girl, you have to LOVE her. I’ve learned to savor my kills as I’ve matured.”

“I think it’s because you can’t kill her with that chip in your head.”

He eyed her for a moment, a wry smile on his lips. “Right. I can’t kill her—or at least, I couldn’t kill her until last night. But the chip doesn’t work anymore. Now I CAN.” He began to pace the room. “I stayed with her these long months because it was fun, messing with her head. It was a thrill, wondering if she would finally break and kill me. And if I could feel her fire other ways …” He eyed Lilah up and down, liking his lips. “I’d get all the fun out of ‘er I could. And I figured SOMEday I would be free of this chip.” As quick as a blink, he was across the room and had Lilah by the throat, against the wall. “Someday I’d be able to sink my teeth into ‘er sweet likkle neck. …” He vamped out and brought his fangs against her neck. “And I’d get to see the ‘urt, the betrayal in ‘er eyes as she died.”

He let go of her and started pacing again. “But first I’d kill each of ‘er friends, and make her wonder how they died. Make ‘er go mad trying to find out. See the horro in ‘er eyes when she finally learned it was ME, and that they died because she let me live all these years.” He turned back and gave his audience an evil smile.

“HAH! See, I KNEW he couldn’t have gone soft!” Lawrence was like a kid at Christmas.

Lilah had recovered quickly, and was giving Spike a cool smile. “So why kill demons? Why refuse to eat last night, and attack Lawrence here?”

Spike shrugged. “Hafta get m’rocks off some’ow, ey? ‘Sides, it keeps me in ‘er good graces, lets me get closer to ‘er, ‘er thinkin’ I’m on ‘er side. As for last night… that’s why I can kill ‘er now. I was in a fight when this lil’ bit zaps me, right ‘ere. “ He pointed to the back of his neck. “Had a bit of amnesia or somethin’, didn’t know ‘o or what I was. But I do now.”

“Do you?” Lilah raised a brow. “Then kill that girl you brought with.”

“No!” Devonshire cried/

Spike just barely remembered not to sigh in relief.

“She’s mine!”

“Now Lieutenant, this is no way to treat our guest,” Lawrence reprimanded him.

“But she’s a friend of my daughter! I want to make a gift of her to Shelly, when I turn her!”

Lawrence sighed. Spike remembered that this one was always a man of manners and propriety. This could work to his advantage. “Let ‘im keep the girl, Lawrence. She’s not the only human in the room.” He moved towards Lilah.

“Ah, never mind …” Lilah put up her hands, “about the killing. We know you bit that rirl in the park, so it’s really a moot point. What I wanted to see was whether your chip was still out of commission.”

Spike frowned. “Why wouldn’t it be?” And he hit her, square in the jaw.

Lilah fell back against the chair behind her. She glared up at the bleached vamp, nursing a bleeding lip. Spike was obviously not in pain.

When she caught her breath, she answered him, “Well, the short-circuit might only be temporary. You could be feeding, and suddenly find yourself with your brain fried. What I’m offering you is a chance to be rid of it, once and for all.”

He eyed her warily. “I’m listening …”