~*~
Chapter 4
~*~

Spike awoke that night with the kernel of a plan. He had dreamed of the last time he returned to Sunnydale to prove he didn’t have a soft spot for the Slayer. It had been a good plan then: get the Gem of Amara, kill the Slayer and return triumphant to Dru. "No reason I can’t put the plan into action now. No Harm here to bugger things up. Slayer don’t even know me, so she has no reason to be on guard. Meet her the first time in bright sunshine and she’ll never see it comin’."

The rest of the night involved Spike recruiting two very stupid but brawny Carflot demons to excavate the tunnels leading to the tomb and its buried gem. Between the three of them, they had broken through to the vault by daybreak. As Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum gawked at the shineys, Spike slipped on the ring and ended the partnership in a permanent way.

"Shame to miss my first date for a suntan," Spike thought with a grin, "But need a bit of sleep after a hard night’s work first." Spike decided to just nap in the tomb where he had found the gem. "Gonna be smart about it this time. Not gonna get all cocky and lose my edge. Make sure the bint sees me in the bright California sunshine enough to not figure me for a vamp before I make my move. Gonna be smart about all this, too," he said as he gazed at the loot in the tomb. "No reason to beg for my blood ever again with this lot. Enough here to hire a decent Doc to pull out the wiring later, if I still want to."

With a smile of accomplishment on his face, Spike drifted into a sleep filled with dreams of plenty, dreams of power, dreams of Buffy in the skimpy little skirts she used to wear. That last one woke him up with a cold chill and a look of fear on his face. "Bugger that! Just a Dru-induced nightmare’s all. No interest in the Slayer except as my number three! Anything else is just my subconscious and all that rot Dru was spoutin’."

~~~

Rhonda was starting to make Buffy long for Cordelia’s company. At least Cordy had some class to back up the attitude; Rhonda was nothing more than a bully. Ever since the other girl had snooped into Buffy’s records in the Principal’s office, Rhonda made it a point to rub in Buffy’s Hemery record every chance she got.

"Got a match, Buffy?" Rhonda’s lip curled in a singularly unattractive way. "Oh, that’s right! No matches for you on school property. We don’t want to lose OUR gym too." The girl cackled a low laugh as she nudged her boyfriend. He hadn’t heard his girlfriends diss on the new girl but laughed on cue anyway.

"Let me guess…," an annoyed Buffy responded. "You plan to be the next Joan Rivers. Good choice ‘cause, just like you, she never seems to get that people are laughing AT her, not with her!" Buffy turned and purposefully headed for the student lounge area and her comrades. At least her friends were smart and funny. Rhonda’s crew had to have a group IQ of only twelve. And as for the funny? Not so much.

Buffy was glad she only had one class with the bitch or there might be hair pulling incidents in her school files. She had promised her mom to keep out of trouble here at Sunnydale High and so far her slaying hadn’t created the same sort of situation that had led to her expulsion from Hemery in L.A. Not for the first time Buffy wished there was somewhere she could return her "gift" and just be a normal high school sophomore with no worries except her love life, her friends, her grades and the occasional smackdown with bitches like Rhonda and friends.

"Hey, Buff." Xander brightened as soon as he saw the girl of his wet dreams coming towards the couch. He had lusted after Buffy from their first meeting when he had nearly knocked her down with his skateboard on the first day of school. She was every dream he had ever had, even down to the superpowers. It was like being best buddies with Wonder Woman, except Buffy was cuter, blonder, younger and she danced like pure sex. He lived for the chance that one day Buffy would really look at him and see him as the perfect Steve Trevor to her Diana Prince.

"Hi, guys. Just had another battle of the nitwits with Rhonda. I need a lobotomy so the fight would be fair for her, I think." Buffy plopped down on the couch next to Willow and glanced at the scribbles on the notepad that was currently in Willow’s lap. "Whatcha doin?"

"Oh, nothing." Willow looked a little sheepish and started to slip the notepad into her Elmo backpack. She giggled nervously and turned to face Buffy, changing the subject none too subtly. "Have you decided who you want for your new lab partner since Owen and you aren’t…you know?"

"Not really. I think everybody’s already paired up and it’s not like Owen and I are mortal enemies or anything. I’ll even let him do the dissecting while I draw the pictures. That will have to fill his need for adventure with me." Buffy wasn’t about to get another regular human involved in her slayage. She worried enough about Will and Xan without having a boyfriend out there every night. Getting rid of the Anointed One on her first date with Owen Thurman had been far too thrilling for the boy but he’d have to go back to getting his kicks by cutting into cow’s eyes and squigging out his lab partner. "What’s with the notes?"

Willow blushed a bit and gave up the attempted subject changing. "I was just making a list of guys you might be perfect with. Since I’ve known most of them since kindergarten, I had a pretty long list too, but Xan keeps finding things wrong with them!" Willow scowled at the boy next to her.

Buffy looked at both her friends, touched and a little confused. "Thanks, Will, but I can get my own boyfriend, you know!"

"Sure you can! You could have any guy you want." Willow looked flustered. "It’s just that with the whole slayage and all, you haven’t had time to get to meet a lot of guys here in Sunnydale except Xander and Angel and they’re not your type, right?"

"And why would you say that, Will?" Xander asked, affronted.

"Well, Buffy was saying that Angel is too much with the ‘man of mystery’ vibe and, well…you’re Xander."

Willow saw the hurt look on his face and tried to fix things. "You know, the best guy friend, like the ‘brother she never had’ guy. As for the slayage, you’re like her Jimmy Olsen or Boy Robin, without the weird living with the older guy, strange exclamations and totally gay costume thing and all."

"So you’re saying I’m sidekick material or even adoptable but not boyfriend material?" Xander clearly had his feelings hurt. "I’ll have you know lots of girls would date me if I asked them! And not all of them started out as larvae either!" Xander got up in a bit of a huff and headed for the men’s room.

"Wow, touchy!" Buffy was more worried over the distressed expression on her girlfriend’s face at the moment. "You still haven’t told him you’re crushin’, huh?"

"No, Buffy, I can’t. He thinks of me like his sister, or one of the guys." Willow looked dejected. "I’ve been in love with him since I was five and all he sees is a playmate, and not in the Hugh Hefner way either." She blushed brightly at the last image.

"Maybe while we are on that field trip you can sneak in some alone time with Xan and trip into his arms or something?" Buffy didn’t understand how Xander hadn’t noticed the worshipful glances Willow was always giving him. Maybe they only needed a bit of a push.

"Yeah, maybe I’ll find a way to bring out the animal in him." Willow joked. "With my luck, it’ll be an iguana or something!"

The girls were giggling when Xander returned. "Well, that bell is my cue to head to my nap in the Human Civilization room. How can anyone look at the world and dare to name a class that anyway?" Xander headed for his promised nap as the girls moved towards their class in another direction.

"Bronzing tonight?" Buffy called over her shoulder.

"Sure, meet you there," Xan replied as he slid into his classroom.

~~~

Spike experienced a feeling of deja vu as he watched the Slayer shimmy and sway to the house band. As Buffy gracefully moved her arms above her head and turned her body into the boy she was dancing with, Spike wondered if the chit really had no idea of the impact her moves had on every male in the room. Girl could slay a man with her sexuality alone. He felt his jeans tighten as he watched and shifted uncomfortably on the bar stool.

He still planned to have his first meeting in the broad daylight but couldn’t resist a bit of recon at Buffy’s nightly home away from home. The fact they carried Guinness at this point in time didn’t hurt a bit either. Spike sipped his brew and watched the young, carefree slayer at play. He overheard the little group making plans to go to the mall the next afternoon when classes were over to pick up new shoes for some school outing later in the week. That might be a good place to be spotted by the girl. Find a nice place under a skylight to show off his lack of allergy to sunlight and all.

While Spike was busy watching Buffy at play, he didn’t notice the female vampire enter the Bronze. True, there were enough vamps there that his senses didn’t pick up on her at first, but blood ties eventually make themselves known. Spike spotted Darla seconds after she had seen him at the bar.

"Well, if it isn’t William the Bloody Annoying!" Darla snarked. "Did you bring Dru to join the party? It won’t be long now until the Master is free and resumes his rightful place." She looked at Spike in disdain. "You still haven’t learned manners, boy! You should have first gone to pay homage to our Master before looking for a meal for yourself. I have to say I’m surprised you answered the call. You were never one for family after Angelus left."

"You were never much as family, Darla." Spike turned and looked at his link to the Aurelian line and inwardly shuddered. He really had hoped to miss out on the great family reunion this time as well, but fate had it otherwise.

"Where’s my Drusilla? Off talking to the tree limbs or something?" Darla snorted at her own wit.

"’Bout now, she’s in Seattle, probably eatin’ Nirvana wannabe groupies or some such. I’m here on my own business, Darla. Got nothin’ to do with you or with Dru." Spike sipped at his Guinness.

"Did you two lovebirds have a tiff? That’s delicious! The Master will be interested in that bit of news. We all thought the two of you would actually last it out, dust together or some other maudlin treacle." Darla looked down her dainty nose at the younger vamp.

"I see you have your eye on the Slayer. Take my advice, Spike: don’t even think of it." Darla’s eyes narrowed in warning. "There’s a prophecy on that one and she’s not for you. The Master will destroy this one after the Anointed One leads her to him. Then the Master will be free and can finally ascend! You keep away from the girl."

"Funny days with you trying to protect the Slayer from me, Darla. Angel would be proud. Might even confuse your reason and hope you’ve grown a soul." Spike laughed as Darla shivered in revulsion at the idea.

"Watch your mouth! And I mean it," She stared intently into his eyes, "keep away from this Slayer."

‘Well now,’ thought Spike, ‘looks like I’m gonna have to start the changes in the timeline already. Won’t do for the old bitch to go blabbin’ about me bein’ in town. Ruins the whole surprise.’

Darla had begun to shark the crowd, looking for easy meals, when she looked back only to see Spike heading for the back door. "Wonder where he’s going?" She sighed in annoyance at having her hunt disrupted. "Better keep an eye on him until we can reign him in. Naturally, Spike would have to show up to ruin all the plans; he was always the best at that." Darla headed for the door as well.

Buffy caught a glimpse of the female vampire she had battled in her first days in Sunnydale, the mouthy one that had helped kill Jesse. She had seen her coming on to the hottie sitting at the bar a few minutes before and had been happy to see that the guy didn’t seem interested at all. When Buffy looked back again, she saw the cute guy going out the back door and Darla heading out behind him.

Buffy leaned over and yelled to Willow over the music. "Duty calls! Got a vamp to dust. Be right back."

Willow grinned back and answered, "Yup, lots of cute bootie tonight! Have fun!"
Xander turned to Willow, "What’s up? Buffy need help?"

"Nope, just got a cramp or something with all the bootie call. She’ll be right back." Willow nodded to the beat of the song playing.

Buffy hit the back door just in time to see Darla’s dust twinkle in the beam of the streetlight. The handsome stranger was pocketing a stake and turning to exit the alley as Buffy watched in amazement. Obviously the guy hadn’t needed her help at all. Buffy watched as the stranger moved pantherlike, strong and powerful strides taking him further from her view.

"Whoa! Gotta ask Giles if Slayers come in male packages too!" Buffy felt herself warm to the idea of there being someone out there that not only would get what her life was all about but could partner her perfectly. The fact the guy was megahot was only a plus. Okay, a major plus, but the idea of someone who could handle himself fighting at her side was a turn-on too.