Buffy stood frozen in the doorway for a long moment, staring in disbelief at the very person she had been longing for that very day -- the one who had loved her and guided her, so much more than her natural father ever had -- the one whose very presence here at her door made her suddenly feel so much safer -- like now that he was here, she could be sure that in the end, everything would be all right.

She could face anything now.

Her Watcher had returned.

He just stared back at her for a long moment, before his eyes welled with tears and he moved quickly forward through the doorway to take her into his arms, enfolding her in a trembling embrace.

"Giles!" she sobbed, surprised as much by the tears of joy and relief that suddenly overwhelmed her as she had been by his tears. "Oh, God, Giles, I'm so glad you're here!"

"Buffy..." he whispered, one hand lifting to rest gently at the back of her head in a gesture that was nothing if not fatherly. "Buffy...I need to breathe..."

Immediately Buffy drew back, laughing through her tears. Some things never changed. "Oh my God," she gasped, shaking her head, wiping quickly at her tears. She babbled on as Giles released her and walked past her into the living room. "I didn't think I'd be able to find you! How did you know? I mean...oh, just come in here and tell me all about..."

Her words suddenly cut off as Giles crossed the room in an instant, gripping the throat of the vampire sitting on the sofa and shoving him back against it, taking out a stake with his free hand.

"Giles, no!" Buffy yelled, hurrying forward to stop him.

Before she could reach them, however, Spike had changed into his game face with a vicious snarl, easily shoving the older man away from him, sending him staggering a few steps backward, menace blazing from his glittering golden eyes.

Buffy stopped Giles just as he was about to move forward again, pulling him back and taking the stake from his hand. "Giles, wait," she told him firmly, stepping past him to turn her attention to the furious master vampire, facing her with defiance in his eyes, his entire body trembling with barely controlled rage.

"Spike," she said slowly, a note of warning in her calm, even voice as she shifted the stake in her hand to get a better grip on it, without even realizing she was doing it. "Calm down. Okay? He was just...um...surprised to see you here." *Understatement of the century.*

"The bloody git just tried to stake me, Slayer!" Spike spat out, his eyes still blazing with fury, as he took an angry step toward the Watcher. "Don't bloody tell me to calm down!"

Giles eyes narrowed in anger at the unspoken threat, and he advanced again as well, retrieving a second stake that he had concealed in his inside coat pocket. In response, Spike bared his fangs and stepped aggressively toward the man, ready to attack.

The Slayer stepped firmly between them, holding out both hands and commanding sharply in a voice of unquestionable authority, "*Stop*!" She was a little surprised when they both immediately complied, halting in their tracks at the single word, but still glaring at each other over her head.

Reassured that she had at least a little of their attention, she went on slowly, emphatically, "The next one who moves a hand...or a fang...or any other part of his body toward the other...will *lose* that part. Is that clear?" She looked closely at each of them in turn, her eyes blazing with a fire of angry determination that told them that she was dead serious.

Giles released a deep breath and nodded slowly, taking a deliberate step back. Spike grudgingly did the same, shooting the Watcher another vicious glare before looking away sullenly.

"Okay," Buffy said, her own voice softer now, a little optimistic. "This is good. Everybody needs to just calm down. Giles, we'll explain everything...just no more attempts to kill each other. Okay?"

Giles gave her a long, searching look, obviously very confused by the accepted presence of the vampire in her house, before nodding again slowly.

"Your weapon," Buffy said firmly, holding out her hand and giving him an expectant, no-nonsense sort of look.

His eyes never leaving hers, he placed the stake in her hand.

Buffy turned to Spike, who was glaring at Giles again, still in game face. "Yours, too," she told him pointedly.

"Like bleedin' hell..." he began slowly with a disbelieving sneer.

"Spike." Her voice was low and held the beginnings of a threat. "*Now.*"

He just glared at her for a moment longer, fury and frustration raging in those unearthly golden eyes, and for a terrible moment she thought he was going to refuse. Much to her relief, he finally relented and shifted back to his human guise with a sigh of resignation.

"Thank you," Buffy said softly, trying with her piercing gaze to get him to look at her again. She felt an unexpected rush of sympathy at the look in his eyes when he finally did, much easier to interpret on his expressive human features. The demon's scowl had revealed his anger at being threatened yet again, but those impossibly blue eyes glaring resentfully at her revealed his pain and fear -- and utter weariness of feeling both.

He finally spoke, his voice low his words measured, as he struggled to control his temper, his eyes focused on the floor at her feet. "I am bloody well sick to death of all you bloody humans trying to stake me, or beat me senseless, or push me around..." His voice was trembling with emotion as he spat out the words, and Buffy could tell that he was getting himself worked up again. "...and I swear, Slayer, the next soddin' human who tries to bloody *touch* me..."

His declaration came to an abrupt stop when he felt the touch of strong but gentle hands on his arms. “Spike,” Buffy said quietly but firmly. “Let’s just sit down and explain everything. Okay? No one’s trying to hurt you right now. All right?”

Buffy did not notice the odd look her Watcher was giving her behind her back, frowning slightly at the kindness Buffy was showing to this vampire who had once been her greatest enemy.

“Yeah,” Spike muttered resentfully, still refusing to look at her, though somewhat calmer now. “How long’s *that* going to last?”

Buffy felt a slight irritation mingling with her genuine sympathy for him. He was behaving like a petulant child. “Look, you’d be a little freaked out, too,” she reminded him, stepping back and crossing her arms over her chest, giving up her attempt to soothe him. “Since the last time he saw you was when you and Angelus were torturing him!”

“Correction, pet,” Spike shot back. “Angelus was torturing him. I saved his bloody life, whether either of you ever knew it or not! And he repays me by trying to stake me! Well, I’ll tell you this, love, if he so much as…”

“Spike.” Her voice was flat, exagerratedly patient. “Sit. Down.”

There was a moment’s silence, in which no one moved or spoke, before Spike finally sighed in defeat, and dropped down onto the sofa. Once he was seated, Giles warily took a seat in the armchair across from him, never taking his eyes from the still-very-angry vampire.

“Okay,” Buffy began, not feeling safe to sit down herself just yet. “Giles. Spike is fighting on *our* side. At the moment.” She proceeded to explain to him all that had happened while he had been gone, but was interrupted twice for excited, tearful reunions, when Willow, and then Xander, arrived home to find Giles there.

Somehow, eventually, she managed to get through the whole story.

“I knew that something was wrong,” Giles admitted. “When I overheard the Council’s secretary talking to you, and telling you I wasn’t there. So, naturally…” He paused, with a calm smile, “I took the necessary measures to return as quickly as possible.”

“How did you get here so fast?” Buffy asked. “I mean – I only called yesterday.”

Giles hesitated a moment, a puzzled look on his face, but before he could speak, Xander raised a hand slowly, a sheepish smile on his face.

“I – kind of called the Council before you did, Buffy,” he admitted with a little shrug. “As soon as you got back, actually. I knew you’d need Giles here.”

Buffy felt a warm rush of affection for him, and flashed him a grateful smile.

“Erm, yes,” Giles went on, a slightly uncomfortable smile on his face. “I suppose it could have been Xander the secretary was speaking to. I only knew that you had returned to the Hellmouth.”

The look in his eyes sent a warm feeling through her heart, telling her plainly how pleased and proud of her he was that she had returned. The disappointment that she had left in the first place seemed to be eclipsed by his joy to see her after all this time. Giles had never been overly expressive with his emotions – but his eyes said it all.

His smile faded a bit into a little grimace as he added in a dry tone, “It took longer than I had hoped to get here, actually. Human smuggling rings are not the most expedient method of travel.”

Buffy could not completely stifle the giggles that rose in her throat at the thought of Giles being smuggled into the country in the back of a produce truck, or some other ridiculous means such as that. It was just so funny to imagine Giles being smuggled into the country as an illegal alien.

It was also incredibly touching to her. Even through her laughter, Buffy thought that she might cry, to think of her very proper, very *British* watcher, enduring the danger and discomfort of re-entering the country illegally, just to be able to be there for her through this.

“So what does the Council think about all this?” Xander asked, as he took a seat on the sofa, as far away from Spike as possible. “I’m surprised they haven’t sent a special strike force down here to eliminate Faith completely.”

“Well, quite honestly,” Giles admitted, idly removing his glasses and wiping them clean as he spoke, and once again Buffy was nearly moved to tears by the simple, oh-so-familiar gesture, “My conversation with Buffy just now is the first any of the Council have heard of the recent events here in Sunnydale. It seems that Faith managed to deceive us quite thoroughly.”

“How’s that?” Spike asked, frowning, ignoring the dirty looks shot his way by everyone in the room *except* Buffy. *As if I haven’t got a bloody right to speak!* he fumed. *Like to rip the lot of them to shreds!*

Giles directed his response to Buffy, as if Spike had not even spoken. “Faith and her Watcher were originally assigned to guard the Hellmouth in New York City…”

“There’s a Hellmouth in New York City?” Xander interrupted in surprise. “Really?”

“This comes as a *shock* to you?” Spike asked sarcastically, his eyebrows raised when he realized the boy was sincere.

Buffy thought about it for a moment, and shrugged casually. “Makes sense. So. How did she end up here?” She frowned. “And where’s her watcher?”

“Dead,” Giles replied bluntly, after a moment’s pause in which he replaced his glasses on his face. “There was an explosion. Nothing was heard from either of them afterwards, and no bodies were found, but ash taken from the site was tested and proven to be human remains.”

“Eww,” Buffy wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Instant incineration. *There’s* a lovely thought.”

“Her Watcher?” Spike guessed, and as Giles turned a scathing look of disgust on him, before turning back to face her, Buffy wondered why he kept trying. Neither her friends nor her Watcher were going to accept his presence in the house any time soon. They were tolerating it for her sake.

Barely.

Giles spoke to Buffy when he continued, “We had no DNA samples on record from either Faith or her Watcher, no way to prove conclusively…but when no word arrived from either of them, they were presumed to be dead.”

“Well, the bloody Council of Wankers was only *half* stupid,” Spike muttered from his seat on the sofa, earning himself another triple death glare.

Buffy could feel the tension mounting again in the room, and gave him a warning look herself, to which his response was to roll his eyes in irritation. She could see that he was becoming agitated again by the open hostility pouring off the others and directed his way.

“Didn’t they think something was up when no new Slayer was called?” she asked Giles, becoming desperate to keep the conversation going, to prevent any further conflict from arising.

“For the first couple of weeks, no,” he admitted. “Longer lapses between the loss of one Slayer and the discovery of the next have occurred. But in my honest opinion,” he paused, giving her a slightly apologetic look. “I don’t think that the Council was terribly eager to recover Faith. You see…she had already displayed a great deal of her…”

“Homicidal tendencies?” Xander suggested.

“Well…precisely,” Giles agreed reluctantly. “I believe they are of the opinion that she was more of a danger than an asset, and previous attempts at – at eliminating her – had proven unsuccessful – well, quite simply, I believe they *wanted* to believe that she was dead. Your…erm…death, Buffy, however brief, somewhat altered the lineage of the Slayer, and there were those in the Council who were very much inclined to use that fact to explain away the absence of a new Slayer.”

“And they’re paying for it now,” Buffy finished grimly. “We all are. We have to take her out, Giles. I know she’s human, and a Slayer. But she’s dangerous as any demon I’ve ever faced. She has to be stopped. And *fast*.”

She quickly outlined the ritual Faith was planning, being careful to describe it just as Spike had explained it to her, not wanting him to have any reason to join the conversation again. She thought that the less “communication” he had with Giles and her friends, the better.

When she had finished, Giles was wide-eyed, stunned, and began cleaning his glasses again. “Good Lord,” he said softly, an almost awed hush about his voice.

“We have to find her partner,” Buffy told him. “But I have no idea where to begin.”

“Will,” Xander said suddenly, hopefully looking to his friend. “Is there something you could maybe do? Like, hack into her phone lines? Or…or maybe something magic?”

Willow was staring at Spike, lost in her own thoughts.

“Magic?” Buffy was surprised. “Will, are you that good?” she asked honestly. When she had left, Willow had just been beginning to develop her interest in magic.

Willow looked up at her suddenly, distracted. A slow smile came over her face, possibly the first Buffy had seen on her face since her return. “Yeah,” she nodded. “Yeah, I am, actually.” Her frank confidence in her own abilities took Buffy by surprise, not sounding very much like the timid, insecure girl Willow had been when she had left.

“So you can come up with something to figure out who Faith’s partner is?” Buffy perked up a little at that.

Willow’s expression grew thoughtful as she looked away, and then nodded slowly, the smile beginning again at the corners of her mouth. “I have some ideas,” she said softly.

Spike had felt a growing unease, from the moment Willow’s magical ability had been mentioned. Magic in general was something he knew should be handled with great care, dangerous even under the best circumstance and with the best intentions.

In the hands of someone who intended to do someone else harm – say for example, in the hands of a teenage dabbler who had managed to achieve a certain level of power and was out for revenge for the death of her lover…against *him*…

The very thought was terrifying.

“Good,” Buffy said with a decisive nod, unaware of Spike’s rising concerns. “You can work on that, and let us know what you come up with. I still need to patrol, try and keep her numbers down as much as possible…”

As Buffy went on planning, Spike’s suspicions were confirmed, and a cold chill ran down his spine when Willow’s eyes rose to meet his, gleaming with malicious intent, a sly smile on her lips.

The rest of the conversation was lost on him, as troubling thoughts consumed him. What was the little witch planning? he wondered. At the same time that the thought frightened him, it also infuriated him.

As he had told Buffy, he was getting sick and tired of bearing the brunt of everyone’s rage and revenge, for things which were mostly not even his fault. The wolf-boy had attacked *him*! It hardly seemed fair that he should suffer the effects of whatever gruesome hex Red was concocting for a simple act of self-defense.

And that was *if* the Whelp or the Watcher did not stake him before she could carry out her plan.

His sanctuary was looking less safe by the moment.

He just sat there in silence for the rest of the impromptu planning session. His worries had taken the fun out of attempting to irritate the Slayer’s friends – and had also made the idea of annoying them seem a little unwise. So for once he held his peace, and just sat quietly waiting for the Slayer to call a halt to things for the evening, and the others to go their separate ways for the night.

Then, he and the Slayer were going to have a talk.