“Where’s Spike?” Buffy frowned as Giles walked through the front door, just before sunset – alone.

“He told me he had a personal matter to attend to. He said he’ll be back before dawn,” Giles replied, his back to her as he carefully locked the door behind him.

“Personal matter?” Buffy echoed, worry bordering on fear in her voice. “A personal matter that’s going to take him *all night*? Did he tell you what he was going to be doing?”

Giles turned to study the expression on her face, taking in her clear concern for Spike’s safety, much more than it would have been for someone she was simply forced to work with by circumstance. “He didn’t,” he replied quietly. “But…Buffy…” He hesitated for a moment, looking away from her.

“What?” Her tone was urgent, impatient, as she stepped forward to look him in the eyes, with a fearful question in her own.

“Well, I would think that it would be – quite difficult for him, actually – Angel’s being here,” Giles admitted cautiously. “I’m sure he needs some time to – think things through.”

For a brief instant, a guilty expression flashed across Buffy’s face, but she quickly covered it and said innocently, “Well, I know that there was a lot of badness between him and Angelus – what with Angelus sleeping with Drusilla and all – but I wouldn’t think that would make him…”

“Buffy.” The single word spoke volumes, telling her with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that her Watcher already knew much more than she had hoped.

She lowered her eyes, falling silent. There was really nothing to say.

“It’s a bit more than that, isn’t it?” Giles gently prodded her, and she found herself feeling encouraged by the lack of judgment in his voice.

“How long have you known?” Buffy asked him quietly, still not able to bring herself to look at him. She was afraid to, unsure of her Watcher’s reaction to the affair she had kept secret, with yet another vampire, this one unsouled and therefore unrestrained.

“Come now, Buffy,” Giles’ voice was soft with patience and affection for her, and she chanced a look up to his face. “You and your friends have always enjoyed reminding me of how ancient you see me to be, but I was young once too, and I’m not blind, you know. It’s been quite clear to me since shortly after I arrived here that there was something happening between you and Spike.”

Buffy flinched a little. There it was, out in the open. “And you’re not – mad?” she asked in a small, hesitant voice. “Disappointed?”

“Buffy…you are quite capable of making your own decisions,” he replied in a steady, reassuring voice. “I trust your judgment.”

Buffy looked back at the floor. His words were intended to make her feel better, but they only made her feel ashamed. She could not imagine how they could be true – not after her disastrous decisions the previous spring, when she had chosen to abandon them all to the mercy of her psychotic successor.

Before she had to come up with a response, Giles went on. “I’ve spoken with him about you.”

She looked up at him quickly, her eyes wide and startled – and increasingly curious. “And?” she pressed, her voice barely above a whisper.

“And he cares for you very much, Buffy. The arrival of Angel – knowing what he meant to you – well…” Giles seemed to be having trouble putting what he wanted to say into words, and he laughed softly at his own struggle. “…well, as a man, Buffy – I can tell you that he probably needs a bit of time alone at the moment. Can you understand that?”

A slow frown began to form on her face as she took in what he was saying. “Yeah,” she said with gradually rising anger in her tone. “Yeah, I understand that! He’s jealous! He thinks that just because Angel’s suddenly back, I’m gonna drop him like a bad habit and start mooning over Angel again!”

Giles did not respond, but the look on his face told her that that was exactly what he thought.

“*God!*” Buffy exploded in frustration, throwing her hands up and turning away from him for a moment before turning around to look at him again, her eyes blazing. “No offense, Giles, but sometimes you men are so *stupid*!”

“None taken,” Giles’ voice was mild, and he just let her go on, knowing better than to interrupt her.

“I can’t *believe* that! I mean, I know Angel got his soul back before I stopped Acathla, but that doesn’t change the fact that the last time I saw him he was trying to kill me! I’m not exactly ready to just jump back into a relationship with him…I’m not so sure I could *ever* be in a relationship with him again! And at the moment I *do* happen to be in a relationship with Spike…”

She stopped suddenly, her eyes widening with the realization of what she had just said. Giles met her eyes firmly, waiting for her to go on, but did not say a word. She stood there for a moment, just letting her own words sink in. “I am,” she said slowly. “I am in a relationship with him. And I *care* about Spike, Giles – I really do.” She paused for a moment, looking back up at him as her anger began to overcome her sense of shock at the truth she had just allowed herself to admit.

“But he just doesn’t get that, because the moment Angel shows up here, he just *assumes* that I’m gonna dump him for Angel! So what does he do? He has to go all stupid, death-wish macho guy on me and run out there alone to get himself killed!” She stalked to the foyer, grabbing her jacket on her way, declaring, “I have to go find him, Giles. Faith and all her thugs are on the look out for him. He won’t last ten minutes out there alone, he’s gonna get hurt.”

“Buffy.” Giles caught her arm before she could open the door.

She stopped, looking up at him in surprise. “What?”

“He’s going to be fine. I thought of that already. I – well let’s just say I *loaned* him a bit of my power. Just enough to protect himself should he be attacked,” Giles admitted, almost as if confessing to some minor crime.

Buffy *was* surprised that Giles had been willing to place even that small amount of trust in the unsouled vampire he had attempted to stake a few days before. “Why would you do that?” she asked softly, turning away from the door and toward Giles, her intent eyes never leaving his face.

“Because he *does* care about you, Buffy. I know that he’s not going to do anything that would – well, that would jeopardize your feelings for him.” Giles paused a moment before going on firmly, “And just trust me when I say that he *does* need some time alone, Buffy. Any man would need to sort out his thoughts on an issue like this.”

Buffy looked at him for a moment. She could not understand what the big deal was; she knew by now that she was not going to reject Spike for Angel – why couldn’t *he* just know it? But Giles *was* a man – even if he *was* practically ancient – and he probably knew what he was talking about. And if Spike was protected by a hefty dose of Giles’ magical power, he was surely not in any danger. She might as well let him go do the jealous broody guy thing for a while.


“Well, isn’t this nice.” Faith’s voice was mocking, full of cruel satisfaction as she circled her victim, looking him over in a way that was invasive and violating without even touching him. “You and me -- together again,” she smirked as she drew very close, slipping her arms around his waist and pulling him against her.

Spike had never felt so utterly helpless in his life. He could not tell her to stop, could not move away from her, but he still tried to shove her away, although he knew that it would prove to be a futile effort. Just as he had expected her to do, she caught his wrists tightly, pulling them down and behind her, jerking him closer to her and snarling in his ear, “Don’t fight me. You can’t stop me, no matter how bad you want to. Like it or not, tonight you’re *all* *mine*…you got that?”

He immediately froze in response to her command, a look of helpless, frustrated fear and anger on his face. He was fighting off an overwhelming sense of panic; he could not move, could not defend himself in any way, subject to her every whim – and he knew that her whims when it came to him were not going to be very pleasant.

Faith smiled. “This is just too perfect,” she laughed, shaking her head and taking a step back to look him over again. “Thought you got away with it, didn’t you, Baby?” she sneered. “Looks like you were wrong.” Her smile slowly faded into a hate-filled glare, and he knew what she was going to do before she did it – he just couldn’t do anything to stop her.

She drew back her fist and struck him a powerful blow across the face, sending him stumbling backward to the ground, though his feet remained in the same place where Giles had ordered him to stand. He wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, breathing hard as he struggled to rise, dazed from the blow.

Faith smiled, pleased to see that he was still bound by the command he had been given. She stalked over to stand directly over his head, crouching down to grip his hair painfully and jerk him up, hard. “Aww, need some help, Baby?” she asked him, her eyes wide and her lips forming a mockingly sympathetic pout as she stood, yanking him to his feet with her.

She seemed disappointed when he did not cry out, did not make a sound or say a word, although she had obviously hurt him. Then her eyes widened with genuine realization, and a slow smile spread over her face.

“Okay,” she said brightly, releasing him suddenly. “You are *not* gonna fight me. You aren’t gonna try to escape. But you *can* move. And you can talk,” she said, counting off her rules on her fingers as she spoke. Suddenly she leaned in, her hand at the back of his head as she whispered suggestively in his ear, “You have to be able to talk to be able to beg.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, shaking with a mixture of fear, and the release of being able to move again. “That’s something you’ll never hear from me, bitch,” he declared in a low, trembling voice. “You can do what you bloody well please, I won’t beg you for anything.”

She stepped back, her eyebrows raised in surprise, her expression more amused than angry. “Really,” she remarked mildly with a smirk, before she leaned in suddenly, assaulting his mouth with a forceful, punishing kiss that he was powerless to resist. When she finally pulled away, with a cold smile of satisfaction, she whispered, her mouth inches from his, “I think you will…if I tell you to.”

His heart sank with the realization that she was absolutely right. He waited breathlessly for the cruel command that would bring about more humiliation – but it didn’t come. Instead she just backed off a step or two, giving him a challenging look, waiting for his response.

So, he decided, what the hell? Things couldn’t exactly get any *worse* -- he would bloody well give it to her.

He shrugged. “Might be true. You might be in control at the moment,” he spoke with conviction, his voice trembling with rage and defiance. “But you’re not gonna be forever. I’m gonna find a way around this soddin’ spell of yours, and you’re gonna pay for this, you bloody bitch – you’re gonna pay for everything! Doesn’t matter what you do to me, when the other Slayer – the *sane* Slayer,” he sneered. “…finds out about this, she’s not gonna rest until she’s taken you out.”

“Right,” Faith shot back sarcastically. “She’s gonna fly into a furious rage and come hunting me down just because I…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes widening in understanding, then narrowing with fury.

Spike suddenly thought that maybe it would have been wiser to leave Buffy out of it.

“You’re sleeping with her,” Faith stated, her voice soft but very dangerous, a look of controlled surprise on her face.

Spike’s silence was all the response she needed. She stepped back close to him. “You think she actually cares?” she demanded mockingly, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyebrows raised in a challenge. “She’s only screwing you because I did. It’s – territorial, honey. A Slayer thing…you wouldn’t get it,” she said with a mocking, dismissive sneer. She paused, leaning in close to him with a triumphant smile. “She only wanted you because you were mine.”

“Right,” Spike laughed in her face, giving her a derisive up and down look before he began counting off his points on his fingers. “Because with all her loving family, devoted friends, intelligence, good looks, and bloody *amazing* body,” he chuckled softly as he added that last one, shaking his head a little at the memory, just because he knew it would get to her, “she’s just *so* bleedin’ jealous of a whorish, psychotic little trollop like you with no friends, no family, no *nothing* but an inflated ego and possibly a mild case of schizophrenia? Oh, and by the way,” he added almost as an afterthought. “I never *was* yours!”

Her expression did not change, but he could see the flash of rage in her eyes. “Are you finished?” she asked softly, not moving, a cold smile on her lips.

His eyebrows raised and he gave a little half shrug before replying, “Actually, *no*. You’re also a…”

His words were cut off by a savage fist across his face, followed by one to his stomach, doubling him over in pain. She grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head violently into the wall, releasing him to drop to his knees at her feet, coughing and choking as she glared down at him cruelly.

“Yeah. I think you’re finished,” she remarked coldly.

“Not quite,” he gasped, defiant even as he drew back slightly against the wall, as she crouched down in front of him with a menacing smile. “You’re not gonna win this one, Faith. You have no idea what you’re up against. Buffy…”

She hit him again, forcefully silencing him before she leaned in to speak softly next to his hear, finishing for him, “…has absolutely no…idea…about…any of this. And she won’t. Because her clueless little friends who mean so much to her don’t know anything about my plan, and couldn’t help her if they did. Even the little witch is powerless now, thanks to – oh, yeah…” She went on in a voice of mock surprise. “…the one she trusts more than anyone else, who also happens to be on *my* side.”

She laughed softly. “And then there’s you,” she went on, her voice almost gentle as she ran a hand lightly through his hair. “And you’re not even gonna remember this tomorrow. You’ll be just as clueless as the rest of them.”

He jerked his head away from her, but she caught his hair and yanked him painfully close to her, refusing to allow his resistance. “Guess what, Baby?” she whispered in his ear, no smile or laughter now masking the cruel menace in her eyes and voice. “I win.”

She released him with a jerk that knocked his head into the wall, and he closed his eyes in despair that he did not want her to see, breathing hard with fear, having absolutely no response to refute her claim.

She stepped back, a triumphant smirk on her face. “Get up,” she ordered.

He had no choice; he struggled to his feet, still not looking at her.

There was an evil, suggestive glee in her voice as she said, “This is gonna be fun. You know, there’s an awful lot of things I’ve wanted to try for a very long time. You know the only thing that I’ve been missing?”

When he realized that she was waiting for his response, he shook his head, still keeping it bowed and his eyes averted.

She leaned in close, trapping him between her body and the wall, as she lowered her head, seeking his gaze until he reluctantly met her eyes. With a sadistic smile she answered her own question. “A willing partner.”

“That’s still something you haven’t got,” he said quietly, his voice trembling, struggling for control of his emotions, but still determined not to break completely before her campaign of terror. “No matter how you try to fool yourself, you sick little bitch.”

“Is that so?” she smirked, pressing in even closer, running her hands invasively over his body; he shuddered but did not pull away from her. Her smile faded into a thin hard line that said she was finished playing – or maybe that she had just begun. “You don’t seem to be offering much resistance, Baby,” she mocked him.

He did not dignify her comment with a response; they both knew he couldn’t resist.

“Don’t worry,” she said in a mockingly soft, reassuring voice. “It’ll only last one night, and in the morning you won’t even remember any of this.”

A part of him hoped desperately that she was right, but Spike had a very hard time believing that he would be able to forget. His heart sank with despair as she went on in a voice of cruel triumph and sadistic intent.

“So I guess we’d better get started, huh?”