Characters: Spike, Sam, Buffy, Faith, Xander, Willow, Oz, The scoobies, the wolf pack
Time: Night
Location: Sunnydale High
Thread Status: Open to Sam, Xander, Buffy, Faith, Willow, and Oz.

This is harder than Spike thought it would be.

He's never had to do anything like this, not to this extent anyway. Angelus always had two or more relationships co-existing along side one another, he seemed to feed off of jealousy and envy and used it to his advantage. Didn't help that the pounce always seemed to have girls ready to bend over backwards for him, among other directions he really doesn't want to think about right now thank you very much.

Spikes always been more of a straight shooter. Okay so maybe that's not the best choice of terms..

But you get what he's trying to say.

He can't help it, his heart was never meant to be broken up into parts. He's just been waitin' all his unlife, and whatever life he had before this one, for that one thing. That one person that's supposed to make it all better. Make everything else just...worth it. He's always just wanted one person beside him. It doesn't really matter the details of what they're doing, destroying or killing or saving or fighting.

He just wants someone that he knows he can call his, and mean it, and before now. He's never had that, though God he thought he did.

First there was Drusilla. The one that started it all. The one that hunted him down and brought him to salvation. She was his everything. His maker, his end and his beginning. It didn't matter that she was crazy as fucking sin. The thing that had always bothered him about her was that she was absolutely so incredibly infatuated with that pounce of a sire of hers.

How could she be, after what he had done to her?

He hadn't understood entirely until he watched Angelus make Barbara, and break her and shape her until she was a mixture of complete obedience and terror and mayhem. She hated Angelus. She was addicted to him. He had made damn sure of that. Be nice to her. Be mean to her. Be nice to her. Be mean to her.

In the beginning it was just pure chaos. She laughed, he'd make her cry. She'd cry, he'd make her angry. She tried to defy him, she wouldn't end up walking for a week or so. It wasn't the same as Dru. Not really...With Dru, Angelus shared her around like a Sunday whore, which you know, looking back on it, isn't too far from the truth. Never Barbara.

It's art in a way, the way he broke apart those girls and made them into exactly how he wanted them to be. Broken little dolls he could use and toy around with however he liked. Only problem was, Dru was supposed to be his...

At first he had blamed Angelus for that - stealin' her away but he knows thats not it. Not by a long shot.

Then, oh Gods, he fell for a fucking slayer. He just had too right? Because there's something sick and twisted in Spikes genetic make up and he isn't quite sure if it's because she stank of his sire as Dru had, or because he just had some sick fucking death wish. He fell for her, and as always, when Spike falls, he falls with his whole heart.

She could never see him like that though - and maybe she could if Angel hadn't been 'round. He likes to play the card of oh Angelus and Angel are two entirely different people, and if you ask Spike he thinks thats all a bunch of bloody horse shit. Angel is sweet and lovin' and gentle and Angelus is bad and evil and wrong. That means all vampires without their souls are that way right? Must be.

Only problem in that little ol' theory is Angel is currently tying a girl to his headboard and Spike has never just..fucking ruined a girl until she loved him. He doesn't have that in him. Much as he tried too for his girls.

Things aren't as white and black as that Slayer and Angel both like to pretend they are.

He's pretty sure the reintroduction of Barbara is going to put a whole lot of proof in that. Despite his stupid, special little snowflake of a soul, at the core he just wants to rip into that girl. That's Angelus barking at your door peaches, you're both one of the same. Maybe if he stopped trying to deny it all the bloody time and unclench he'd be able to relax a little bit more.

Maybe this will be good for him. Or maybe, and this is something Spike hasn't said to anyone, including his darling Samantha, Angels gonna discover just how happy accepting his true self is, darkness and all. That souls gonna slip out and oh man. He so does not want to be his sister vampire when that happens. He doesn't tell Sam - because she'll be high-tailing it to LA and dragging her sire back here, and he so does not want to deal with Samantha and Angel going at it.
He doesn't know who will end up on top and he doesn't want to have to guess.

There's no way this is gonna end in smiles for anyone, but there's a war ragin' and he's gotta focus. So he needs his girl to focus.

He decides to focus on the positive. like, how along with Barbara, came Samantha, and man did he never see her comin'. He knew he liked Angelus' childe, they had always got along great, she had never made fun of him or made him like less than their sire. He cared for her when Angel tossed her aside and he helped her find her feet. He didn't know how good of taste she had though.

Then again, Angel had personally dusted at least six of her childer that he knew of. Never her.

In way, Spike thinks, that was more cruel, but he knows Angel could never do that. Hell, Angelus could never do that.

and Angelus ate babies. *Babies* guys.

Okay so did Spike but still, he wants it to be known he was very drunk and cannot be held responsible for anything he may or may not have done during those times.

He never really got a chance to know anyone that Barbara turned. Nobody ever made it.


Somehow, Samantha did. Maybe Barbara was more careful, maybe Sam was just not stupid. Maybe it was fate and maybe it was a fluke. Who knows, Spike doesn't care. He just cares that she's here, and she's real, and she's looking at him, because oh God when she looks at him....

He swears he's never loved before, and he knows thats a lie but for a moment it feels real. So fucking real.

He's the truth: he's loved, but Spikes never been loved back.

Now.

Spike is loved back. Now Spike turns over and she doesn't flinch or think of anyone else. Now, they are assisted self improvement and discovering carnal ways to forgive and forget and hate and love. It's hard and rocky and it's fucking not easy to date someone while working for your ex.

Especially when your ex is quite literally destined by fate to murder your girlfriend.

It kind of puts a damper on the romance aspect. At times.

Sometimes he thinks of just bailin' but he finds somethin' keeping him here that isn't his heart or his dick for once. The only two things he's ever listened too by the way, screw his brain, what does he need that for?

Nothing useful..that's for sure.

The grounds shakin' beneath him and he feels it callin' his name. He stayed here at first for what he thought was love, but now it's purpose and it feels weird to hold in his hands and feel right. He's never had any sort of idea what he was doing with his life, he was just sort of barrel-rolling his way through. Nothings ever made much sense to him, not in any real way anyway.

But this.

This makes sense. He sees these girls fighting even though they might all very well die, he sees the slayers, both of 'em with sadness in their eyes because their power is something that only be shared with their last breathe and it might just be what keeps that girl or that one over there alive.

He sees Faith who had turned her back on her calling show up to offer up her life for this fight. He sees Xander go on with only one eye and a broken heart. He sees Anya whose never cared much for anyone but she's still sticking around because God, the heart does make you do some awfully stupid things. He sees Dawnie who was so small and so scared turning into this big bad watcher, and Andrew, whose annoying but wicked good at the books it turns out. Barbara and Samantha give up blood without a chip in their head. They hear one word about him possibly being in danger and Barbara's ready to throw herself in fully armed. He watches everyone becoming not different, but better. Better versions of themselves.

He might as well do that too right? If he can.

He's always wanted to be a better man. He's lucky he can't see his reflection because he knows he'd hate it.

He never had someone believe that he could. He never believed that he could, but Sam?

Sam believes.

He believes because of her.

She adopts this mission as if it hers because it is, because he is, because this is what Spike has waited over a bloody century for.

He was just waitin' for her to show up.

He's sitting in the living room now, and Sam is darting back and forth because she's been briefing everyone but him. He gets it - he doesn't need to know the details, not right off the bat. He'll follow her to the ends of the earth and into the darkness. So he waits.

He's waited at least six lifetimes, what's a few more moments?

He turns his eyes toward her, "Whats the plan blackbird?"

Characters: Angel & Barbara
Time: Night
Location: Outside of California/Angels apartment
Thread Status: Open to Angel

It's almost like old times.

Okay. You know. It's really not. It's almost like old times if you...You know. Minus ALOT of things. Like the blood and the torture and the innocent lives. If you minus the fear and tension in her chest. If you minus the having to share him.

Some things are the same.

Barbara still doesn't call him Angel or Angelus. She's given a list of titles she can choose for. His name is a curse on her lips, which ends with her bent over his knee. This isn't hard. She's never really called him by his given name, then again. He's never been Angel before - and it's strange. She didn't know it would be like this.

She had imagined.

The hunger is still there, her blood still warms when he's near, and his hands, fuck, his hands make her feel desperate and needy and nervous. She stutters for answers to questions he barks at her, and rope finds it's way around her body, and around her wrists more often than not. She still sees that familiar glint in his eye that says 'Just wait Kitten.' She still has to remind herself to focus on anything that's not him.

But it's different.

She's not afraid.

His touch can hurt, and sometimes there's blood, but there's no buckets. He doesn't slice into her flesh, he doesn't break her fingers or close his hands into fists that hit like freight trains. When the gravel crunches under her knees he doesn't kick in her ribs. He holds her like he cares, and he explains why he's doing what he's doing. Sometimes that reasoning is just because he needs too - because he's on edge and she's a receptacle for his frustration - but he tells her, and that's new. There was so many times the pain came without reason or logic, and she was left sobbing and confused on what exactly she did wrong. You can't correct the behavior if you don't know what exactly needs correcting.

This Angel is not her Angelus, but he needs her all the same.

It takes her months to fully understand that. The darkness is still there - the desperation and need for control, but there's love. She had always figured Angelus loved her - he told her he did anyway, but now...She's not sure. Maybe he thought that was love, but no. Love is not names carved into flesh to mark your terrority, it's not the brand that still sits on her hip - almost a full century later.

She has always looked at this man with the utmost adoration. She was completely obsessed with him - any version of him. She was made for him. She was nothing before he found her. She barely even remembers what it felt to be human. Such a short snapshot in what would be her life. Things like souls don't matter to Barbara. Not like they did to Darla. To Drusilla. No she was always like Spike...

They were more alike than she liked to admit.

They're still on the road but she knows they're heading home soon, not because he tells her, but because she can feel it, his back straightening, his voice short and curt. They're heading west. He takes his time, but you can only take so much. Soon they'll be heading back into California. Back to where he works and hopes to make a difference. It was nice pretending none of that mattered. To be completely wrapped up in him and whatever was going on between them.

But he has a life. She just has to figure out how she fits into it.

She fears she won't. Fit that is. She doesn't tell him that. She was never really good at speaking up. She just watches the night sky as it passes by. The windows are down and the air is turning crisp, but she knows it won't get too cold. Californias not known for that sort of thing. Good thing. Vampires are cold bloodied.

That night, when he pulls off into a hotel she's quieter than normal - and maybe he notices and maybe he doesn't. She's happy. Really happy - and she doesn't know that she's ever felt like this, and she doesn't know if she ever will again. She doesn't know if it matters, and she doesn't know how long it's going to last.

The second Angelus got his soul, Angel had left their family. Which she more than understood, Darla was a nightmare; but...

"You know it didn't matter to me right?" She asks rather suddenly, breaking the silence between the two of them. She spins in her desk chair toward him. Her legs crossed up on the chair. By the look on his face he has absolutely no idea what she's talking about or where she's at in her mind. She's never spoke about this. Not outloud. Not to anyone. But they're going back home soon and he has to know. He has to know before it's too late. There's been so many times things have been left unsaid in her life, and she is going to be damned if this is one of them again.

"When you got your soul." She continues, clueing him in on where her mind has been wandering for the past fifty miles or so. "That was always Darlas hang up." The name tastes bitter on her tongue and she wants to tell him that after he left she took out her anger and frustration on Barbara's body for years before she turned back to the Masters side. She doesn't tell him that.

"I would have gone with you then, as I am with you now." Her voice is sad, and angry all at once.

He left her. He built her to be completely and utterly dependent on him. She wasn't supposed to be able to function without him - so when he left, she lost herself. She was crippled and useless. If it wasn't for Spike - she know's she'd be dust by now. She didn't care if he had a soul, she didn't care if following him meant upheaving her entire life and figuring out how to survive on bagged blood. She would have done it without hesitation because she needed him. She had thought, stupidly, that he had needed her back.

Now she knows better.

Angelus did alot of fucked up things to her.

He never fucking left her. One time, he was wayward for a month or so, stuck behind on one of the times Spike had them chased out of town. When he caught up to them, Darla had gotten her claws into her. He never left her alone again. She was his, his to hurt, to bruise and to break. In exchange for her loyalty he kept her safe from anyone - anyone else.

Angelus didn't leave her. Angel did.

It's a hurt she's been holding on for far too long. It's the base point that spiderwebs out into every insecurity she has, and it's all focused now on one fear she can't seem to shake. She has to know. She has to know before she gets too invested and she gets her heart broken again, because it took her fucking decades to patch herself together enough to even be able to function and she doesn't know if she can do it again. She doesn't know if she wants to do it again.

"Are you going to leave me again?"

Characters: The Scoobies
Time: Night
Location: The Vineyard to begin
Thread Status: Open to Faith, Spike, Samantha, Xander, Willow, Oz

It's dark by the time Buffy leaves her house. The home that she once knew as her safe place, her only zone away from the vampires and her calling has now become the centralized zone for just that. Gone are the days where she could be both girl and slayer. Behind her are the excitement of dances, boys, and staying out with her best friends. Once upon a time she had time to worry about things like finals, homework and what the principal thought of her. She doesn't have that luxury anymore.

She had tried so hard to keep those things for herself, and then, again, she tried and failed to keep those things for Dawn. She wanted so much for this calling to affect only her. As it rightfully should. She knows now why slayers work alone.
If they don't. People get hurt. People die. Peoples lives get turned upside down all because they happen to be in the general vicinity of the slayer.

Fate calls her chosen. The books call her sacred. She calls herself cursed. She wonders these days if there is a difference.

She never asked for this. Now she is not sure she could ever be anything but this. What is she if not the muscles under her skin and the fire in her gut? Even if you took away all the fates had bestowed upon her, she would still be the slayer.

This knowledge is what makes her know in her core that they have a shot at this. If she really, honestly thought that they were going to lose, she isn't sure if she would still be here. If she would let these girls still be here. She knows they need to stay together, the bringers made sure of that. When she thinks of all the potentials that she will never meet because their blood-line has been wiped off the earth her heart aches. She blames herself, but doesn't fully understand why.

They are killing potentials because they are scared, because the slayer is the only thing standing between this world and the next. Slayers have the power. Everyone wants it.  The council has spent it's entire existence trying to control it. It was Buffy who stood up to that council, only to watch it burn in her absence. All things connected to the slayers were in danger.
The slayer is meant to fight to save the world, now she finds herself fighting to save herself and what would be her replacements. It feels wrong somehow, but she doesn't know what else to do. She can't let these girls die.
She is entering the dragons mouth tonight. Caleb is hiding something. She wants to know what. She needs to know. Anything that can help her fight back this darkness is desperately needed.

She is fighting blind, for once, there is nothing in her future but ash and smoke. It's unclear. She's terrified. She can't tell anyone this of course. She has to be strong. That's her job.

She finds herself standing in the vineyard. She's stalling she knows, but she isn't sure what lays ahead of her, and for the first time in years she's nervous. Her palms are sweaty. She swallows slowly, flicks her wrists out beside her and cracks her neck, limbering up, though she's not sure what good it will do.

She lets out a slow breathe.

It's time.

Characters: Kinda Everyone
Time: Over the course of a few months [Non-canon; takes place during season seven of Buffy]
Location: Angel's apartment, then Wolfram and Hart
Thread Status: Kind of a free for all.

Things were messy for awhile. Things still were pretty messy; and Barbara is still pretty sure that Angels new little family is having trouble accepting her. Worse than that, Angel has to put them first, all the time, because that’s his job. She gets along okay with Fred, and therefore Wesley tolerates her presence but she can feel the total weight of their untrustworthiness. She gets drunk with Lorne alot after hours and tends to hang with him when shes not doing the secretary thing.

The lack of trust around her is weighty, and she has trouble trying to convince people that shes not that girl anymore. Well, she is, but she’s trying, and she signed a contract and everything. Still...her blood oath not to harm anyone doesn’t seem to convince anyone. She swears sometimes when she goes out at night Angel sends lackeys after her to keep on eye on her. She’s soulless and she gets the distrust, really, but it sucks when not even Angel trusts her to obey him. I mean, why would she be here unless she was doing it for him? She’s not Darla. Not everything is about her, her, her.

She starts to sing for Lorne, because she’s afraid that maybe she can’t do this, she can’t stay straight. No one else thinks she can, so she drinks and she sings for him and tells him to tell her if shes going to slip anytime soon. She always reads clean, and she hasn’t ingested human blood in over four months... She thinks Lorne is telling her drunken secrets to the crew because they seem to start easing up on her, little by little. Suddenly shes involved in the gossip and the water cooler conversations and even included in on some of the missions... One day, she takes off out of no where, Angel finds her on the outskirts of Sunnydale, checking in..unable to help herself..

Angel follows her, helps her snoop without being seen because she doesn't want Sam to know she's there, keeping an eye on her. He comes through for her with a girl that she doesn't reconigse. Someone on the inside. She actually smells quite a bit less vile than Buffy does and when she off-off-handedly uses this as a compliment Angel stares at her like she just said the worst thing possible. Then the girl called Faith cracks up and tells Angel that she likes her. She tells them everything, how Sam has been invited into the slayers inner circle, how much its caused everyone to trust Spike a hell of a lot more. “She’s good for you man,” she hears Faith say when Barbara steps out to give them some solo conversation time. "You should probably let her know that, every once in awhile."

Angel doesn't ask about Buffy, at least not while Barbara's around. He respects her enough to keep that part seperate, although she knews he asks. It's who he is.

Then it happens, a week later Angel announces suddenly to his group that he needs to take a vacation. Nothing big really, he just needs some time off. A few weeks, and he’ll be back...He has some personal stuff he needs to work out. He leaves Wesley in charge. Barbara tries not to seem hurt and surprised that Angels taking off without her, tries even harder not to care when she drives home alone that night to find that suitcases on the bed they shared.

Its only then she notices that her things are packed today. “Didn’t really think I was gonna leave you here did you kitten?” He purrs from behind her, scaring her and making tears rise in her eyes.

“Where are we going?” She whispers, voice choked with emotion.

Angel simply shrugs. “I’ve been everywhere..”

Barbara agrees, “Every continent....At some point or another.”

Angel smiles again, "Never been anywhere with you....sides Europe..." He comes closer, touches her hair, makes her skin flush, "Rome..." His voice - like velvet. "Ireland was especially nice..."

Barbara looked up at him, "You tied me up and forgot about me before running off to England, if I'm not mistaken." Her expression softens, she giggles despite herself. “Was paticularly nice, burning down that hostel and pinning it on you.”

So here they are, never been anywhere together. Traveling across country, sometimes they fight evil when they come across it, sometimes Wesley sends them in the direction of something and they take care of it. In the meantime Barbara fills her iphone up with photos and uploads them to instagram. They take turns sending postcards to their loved ones...and they received them from their friends along the way.

Below are some of those postcards.

Characters: Barbara, Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred
Time:
Location: Angel's apartment, then Wolfram and Hart
Thread Status: Open to Angel first, then Wesley later.

Barbara had to admit, Angel’s digs were better than she had anticipated, and he looked damn good in a suit, which was also something she not expecting. Almost as soon as they got there Angel had informed her that before anything, anything else was done they were going to get some sleep. Barbara had looked at him as if he was kidding but he had just grabbed her by her arm and dragged her to his apartment and to his rather large bathroom.

"Take a shower." He had told her, his voice curt, serious. She had grinned and then pouted. “You tryin’ to say I smell big guy?”

"Yes." He had answered promptly, surprising hey. Well, that was rude. "Like cigarettes and Spike. It's disgusting. I'd like you to smell like....you. Just, you." He had then shut the door on her and she had looked at his bathroom between his jacuzzi bath-tub and his what could only be described as a porno shower. She had walked into the shower that seemed to be carved in the side of a cobble-stone mountain-side and around at all the shower-heads. She didn’t even know how begin to operate this and she contemplated asking Angel if he wanted to join her. She spent the next forty-five minutes in sheer bliss on the floor of the shower, three shower-heads spraying her with hot, massaging spouts of water. His shampoo and conditioner smelt like pomegranate, as did his body-wash. He even had apricot facial scrub. Even his bar-soap was a combination of honey and oatmeal, and when she was all clean and showered she felt like a virgin elfin princess.

Or, at least an elfin princess.

A half hour later, Angel would emerge from the bathroom himself bitching about the fact that she hadn’t put anything away and left her wet towels all over the floor, not to mention the fact that she had used up almost all the hot water. Of course that argument would be struck dead when he found her half asleep on his bed wearing nothing but one of his t-shirts.

He had kept her in his apartment while he went to work for the first two weeks, mostly waiting for the human blood to drain out of her body. He’d occasionally prick her finger and test to see if there was any trace of it in her system, cursing every-time there was despite the fact that he had hired guards to keep her from exiting the apartment without his knowledge, consent and supervision. She had felt like a prisoner and went a little stir-crazy the first few days until he had finally come home with a lap-top and an xbox to hook up to his flat-screen in the living room. Then he had given her a rush card and told her she had an allowance of five hundred dollars a month.

After that she stopped feeling so much like a prisonr and more like a kept girl. She wasn’t sure which one she hated more.

Introducing her to his colleagues wasn’t exactly easy, and he had spent many days talking to her about how to act, and what her new rules were. He had went to the lengths of typing them up while he was at work and laminating them.

"Did you make your assistant make a rule sheet for me?" She had asked, blinking at him.

He looked at her with a blank expression that told he obviously had not thought about what he had just done nor the repercussions of it. “They’re gonna find out now you know. It’s only a matter of time.”

"All the better that you read, and memorize."

Barbara flipped open the files and sighed, “Fuck man, really? This is like homework.”

“Read.”

Barbara sighed.

( Click for Angels insane contract because he's a perfectionist. Also Insane.Collapse )

Barbara blinked as she stared at the paper that lay before her, and then turned her eyes up toward Angel. His signature seemed to be glaring at her from the page in her head, blood red in color and scent. He had signed it with his blood. Nice touch, for a fucking psycho. "Are you fucking serious?"

There was no emotion there, he raised an eyebrow slowly.

"I am not calling you sir." She mumbled as she as she sank her fangs into her palm enough to break the skin completely and let the blood flow from the wound. "Angelus was so much easier, he wasn't all brainy and formal about this kind of thing."

"I figured having a few ground rules to start with would make this easier...not just for you, for my team. They're going to need to know they can trust you."

"This is what you call a few?" She sighed, "Well I guess it beats being stuck here all day, although kicking Sam and Spikes ass on xbox certainly has been fun."

There was a beat, a pause of silence between the two of them, and then Barbara bit her lip, and signed.

Barbara O'Connor

"I really hate lawyers you know."

"You shouldn't," Angel added softly, "You're technically going to be working for them now."

Characters: Spike, Buffy, Samantha, Willow, Oz, and Xander
Time:
Location: Sunnydale, Slayer headquarters :: Buffy's house
Thread Status: Open to Sam, Buffy, Xander, Oz and Willow

Two months had past since Samantha Wild had come into Spikes life. Two months since her sire, Barbara had allowed herself to be whisked away to Los Angelos. They kept in touch, as promised, mostly Angel calling Spike more than anything else. It seems that Barbara was doing a good job of keeping him on his toes, much to Sam and Spikes delight. As such most of the time she wasn’t able to come to the phone to call herself. It had taken Sam some time to get used to how things were with her sire now, it was hard for her to accept that her sire was okay, that she wasn’t being hurt or traumatized in a way that she didn’t fully want.

So five weeks ago, three weeks after she had left, Spike had filled up the Chevy Impala Barbara had left for Sam, and bought a GPS for it. On a sunday night he had then put Sam in the car and told her to hit start on the GPS, she should be in Los Angelos within a matter of hours. Sam hadn’t wanted to go of course, at least not without Spike, but he had knelt by the car as she sat in the drivers seat and told her that he wasn’t letting her go, not by a long shot.

“You just need to visit.” Spike had explained, “I fully expect you back here by Wednesday night. No exceptions, or I’ll come hunt you down and make you regret not being more timely. You need to see for yourself that she’s okay. I need you here Sam, but you’re never going to be here if half of you is always with her. Go.”

"Can't you come with me?" Sam had whispered, hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white.

“You know the slayer can’t spare both of us, not right now, and I can’t go for you. This is the only way...Trust me.”

He had stood there on the side of the road, leaned up against a tree as Sam eased her way back out of the drive-way and took off toward Los Angelos. Oz and Xander had been hanging about, part of Oz’s pack had just gotten back from a recent patrol, or hunt as they liked to call it. He had walked up to Spike then as he gazed out into the distance. Off toward fading tail-lights.

"You gonna be okay man?" Xander had asked after the dogs had decided to turn in for the night and Spike had turned toward him, eyebrow raised. Xander didn't care about Spike. At least not much. He had been the reason why his marriage had gone south, or well, sort of marriage, he had left Anya at the alter before Spike had done anything. That probably hadn't exactly helped the relationship. "Is she gonna be?"

“You know you’re the first person to really seem like they gave a damn about her,” Spike admitted, pulling a cigarette out of the inside pocket of his coat and lighting it. “Save for Red of course...”

Xander shrugged, “Wills understands that almost all of us are more monster than man, but that doesn’t make the man, or woman part in this particular situation any less relevant.”

“That’s very insightful whelp, did you come up with that all by yourself?” Spike had to admit, Xander’s sudden friendship with Samantha was unnerving and not something Spike supported. Xander hated all things vampire - well, all the vampires he had met thus far, then Sam comes bouncing in and suddenly Xander was all buddy-buddy after only two weeks of her going cold blood...errr no blood, as it were? Yeah. Spike wasn’t buying it.

Xander shrugged again. “When’s she gonna be back?”

Spike finally turned toward him, “When she’s done seeing that her sire being viciously fucked by Angel isn’t a bad thing. Just a bloody gross thing.” He had pushed past him then, his shoulder bumping into Xanders as he did. He might have put a little too much oomph behind that because Xander had lost his footing and fallen to the ground. He looked over his shoulder and thought for a moment of walking back and helping the boy to his feet but Buffy was standing at the door-way, arms crossed and he just didn’t feel like being the nice guy. Not today. He walked inside.

Sam had come back of course, right on time because she was the kind of girl that was smart enough to obey orders when directly given. Spike would be lying if he had said he wasn’t just a tiny bit disappointed, he had spent his time apart of her imagining what he might do if he indeed had to hunt her down. He had a few...delicious ideas up his sleeve, but they had scattered when she had walked in Tuesday morning just before the sun came up. Actually, just as the sun was coming up. He hadn’t been expecting her and the video game’s he was currently playing with Xander and Oz proved that.

She had raised her eyebrow at them for a moment, then glanced at the television. “Halo 4?” She had asked meekly before grabbing the last controller and squeezing between Xander and Spike on the couch. Oz had been sitting in a recliner and had just smirked quietly to himself. "Buffy gave us the night off..." Xander had mumbled, "...Guy time and what have you."

"But you’re pretty much a guy," Oz had added. Nothing was said about her absence that night.

Things had changed drastically since Sam had come, Oz being one of the changes of course. Followed behind him were a dedicated and loyal pack of wolves with just as much control over their inner-beasties as Oz himself had. At first Spike had been worried that now the house was going to smell like dog all the time, but Oz’s pack had helped out with that. It also helped that most of Sunnydale had been swallowing abandoning their homes and emptying the city, a foreshadowing of bad things to come was obvious even to the common-folk of the town. Oz had a few trust fund pups under his belt it seemed and they bought out three houses directly connected to Buffys. One next door, and then the two that shared a back-yard. Xander had knocked down the fences that separated the houses and put up a large privacy fence around the four of them to create one large yard.

He was currently building an obstacle course. Buffys home had become home for what were referred to as the Alphas. Buffy, Xander, Giles, Dawn, Willow and Himself. This was main head-quarters as it were. One of the home went to the wolves, and the other two went to the potentials who just kept showing up. Xander had offered to live with the potentials but the motion had been denied, Oz had been spending more and more time in Buffys house lately, as had two of the stronger wolves who preferred Oz’s company to the rest of their pack.

Things had been tense with Buffy and Samantha, Spike had had to put his reputation and life on the line saying that Sam could be trusted. He had waited to introduce her, a week and a half for the human blood to get out of her system, for her to gain some semblance of control of herself. He had wanted to give her more time, but time was something they were running out of and Spike knew if he was caught with her before he gave up the knowledge on his own it would only make matters worse. Sam still was not invited into head-quarters, nor the two potentials homes. Buffy had threatened Spike with inviting her himself with a stake through the heart, and he hadn’t doubted her.

As such, Spike had moved out the basement and into the wolves home with Sam, who had happily accepted her. They understood the monsters within the man, or woman, was it were and wanted to give Sam a chance to prove herself. The dog smell took some getting used too, but at least Buffy had decided to give Sam some benefit of the doubt, a chance to prove herself. As much as both of them seemed to hate every moment of kissing the slayers ass, ever since Sam had turned up, that had been their main mission, to get in good graces with her.

Characters: Samantha, Barbara. Then Spike and Angel.
Time: 3 AM
Location: Angel's Mansion.
Thread Status: Open to Barbara at first. Followed by Spike, and then Angel.

Sam sat there for the next hour, her eyes searching her lovers as he spoke to her about … everything that had happened between him and Buffy the vampire Slayer. Some of the things.. she never could imagine him doing, but others.. she was unable to repress the growl of jealousy that erupted through her clenched lips. But, she had to keep her calm, she promised him that she would.

He told her about how the dream had started with him being obsessed with always wanting to kill her. To get another slayer in his notch of kills in his bedpost.. but it turned into something else. The obsession changed and he became.. in love with her. The dream… it had changed everything. His heart. His mind. his body. His .. well, mini-him. He had tried to get her to be with him, but nothing had ever happened.

She turned him down at every turn and every corner. That was.. until she had died.

Buffy died saving the world - ugh - for the second time, and Spike had been utterly devastated. Her heart admittedly hurt at the idea of Spike being so heart broken, and she had curled up into his side, trying to be comforting as he talked. She felt better when he had wrapped her up in his arms, holding her close to him as he continued to talk. He told her of how Buffy just wanted to feel.

During a very… very terrible little couple of days where everyone was singing. Although, Sam admitted that she would have loved to be there.. she would have loved to hear him sing.. She was sure that it was.. heavenly and sinful at the same time. His voice just did that to her regularly.. she couldn't wait to hear him sing to her one day. But anyway. After all the singing.. they had kissed. And their relationship began.

She, of course, was ashamed of being with him. She kept their relationship a secret, and he continued to sleep with her whenever he wanted to, and whenever she wanted to as well. They brought down buildings, literally.. and it made Sam want to destroy an even bigger building then an already condemned house.. Just to one up the slayer.

The relationship had ended sourly.

But for some reason, she kept him in her heart. So close to it that she would let him be apart of the good fight, and Sam was a little upset by that. She couldn't shake the feeling that Buffy was still in love with Spike, and that she would do anything to get him back. Well, maybe not anything, but that she wouldn't mind the vampire to be so close to her again.

The conversation had turned to her, but she was unable to tell him anything, because there were footsteps in the mansion, and they had belonged to her sire. There was only one set, and she took in a deep breath. She could feel the sorrow, and the pride, and the.. just pain… she didn't know what else was there, but she knew what this was going to be.

Goodbye.

She turned to Spike and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth, her fingers gently tracing the skin over his cheekbones, down his cheek and chin before she was up and out of the bedroom before he even had a chance to blink. She moved down the hallway, and down the main staircase to see Barbara sitting by the fire. She took in a deep, unneeded breathe again and crossed her arms over her chest.

"How long are you staying?" she asked softly.

She knew that her sire brought her here for a reason. She knew, that that reason was either the fight.. or Spike. She also knew, that even though they loved each other dearly, and that they were family.. and best friends.. Sometimes when one had a different path than another.. they had to let them go. Because if you truly love something.. or someone.. you must let them go.

Characters: Angel and Barbara
Time: Afternoon
Location: Angel's Mansion
Thread Status: Open to Barbara

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt right now angel, but don't think I'm looking the other way. I'm watching you, and if you fuck this up… If you hurt her again… Sam will want to stake you, and I will not have any problem whatsoever in helping to accomplish that. She's been through enough because of you.. you do what I'm guessing you're gonna do again.. there may be no coming back for her. Tread carefully Angel."

The bleached blonde vampires words still echoed in his head, and Angel couldn't help himself from growling deep in his throat.

He knew that the vampire was right in his wording, but that really didn't mean that he had to like what was coming out of his mouth, or like the fact that they were directed completely at him. Hitting him straight in the heart as if it were an actual stake.

But he didn't want to hurt her. He didn't want to become Angelus again, that was one of the things he would always regret.. He would always regret the way that Angelus had treated the beautiful little vampire.

He turned toward her, about to speak, but he felt as if his voice was stuck in his throat.

Now see this here, this was one of the problems when it came down to being Angel. Whenever things got tense with someone that he really truly cared about, he got completely tongue tied. He never knew what to say, and if he spoke, he basically became a stupid bumbling idiot again. He became a drunk teenager that was never good at speaking his heart. Well he was, but, it didn't always bode well for him.

Something always went wrong.

Taking in a deep breath, he moved toward his childe and gently wrapped her up in his arms. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head, burying her nose into her hair as he gently ran his fingers through the silky strands.

"He's not wrong about wanting to feel that way about me.." he whispered. "he's anything but wrong, for once in his life, Spike is actually right and it scares me." he admitted. "I hate the fact that Angelus looms over my head, that he could come back at any moment of pure happiness, and I know that somewhere down the line that it's going to hit us square in the face, and I really don't want that to happen for you. You've become… such a strong vampire.. such a strong woman.." he paused again. "And i'm so proud of that."

"I'm so proud of what you've become.. Angelus may not be happy with it, but there isn't a bone in Angel's body that isn't proud. You're beautiful, and you're strong, and you've left that little Kitten behind.." he heard a soft purr and laughed softly, "Okay, maybe not completely, but enough that she's not scared of the life that she lives. And… if Angelus comes out, he's going to destroy you, and I don't think i could handle that."

He pulled away, holding her at arms length and pushed some of her hair from her face, so that he could look at her. "I'm not good for you, Barbara. And it kills me to say that, because for years I have felt completely empty, not knowing what was wrong with me, until now.. until I finally saw your face again, and i knew what i had been missing.. i had been missing you. It'll kill me if he comes out and hurts you.. I wouldn't be able to live with it."

Characters: Sam and Spike
Time: Afternoon
Location: Sunnydale Sewers - Magic Box
Thread Status: Closed.

Sam slipped silently through the sewers of Sunnydale California. The scent was overwhelming at first, but she was used to using the sewers during the day. But with her speed and agility, she was able to avoid stepping on all the rats, and all the actual.. sewage. She hoped from side to side, letting her nose take her to where it wanted to go.

She was trying to focus on the smell, but her mind kept drifting back to what she'd just witnessed. She would never understand why her loving sire would set herself up to get hurt once more. After everything that she'd been through, after all the years it took for Sam to bring her back.. to bring her into her own.. As they taught each other over the years.

It was so much work.. So much.. to get her to believe in herself. So much work to get her to even attempt to forget about the prick of a vampire who had broken her heart. Who had turned her into a complete lap dog, made her fall so madly in love with him and then just.. leave her. like the snap of a finger.

It was pathetic.

And it was killing her.

She went down a left side, and then a right, and then another left, until she had to pause, a scent immediately hitting her nose. All thoughts of her sire, breaking her own heart, fled her mind. It was a scent that she knew very well. Sage. Cinnamon. Different scents of wax. Butterfly wings. Dusty old books. And blood. Lots of blood.

It was a scent that had been so heavenly to her over the years.

Immediately rushing off toward the scent, she crawled herself up the ladder and looked through the manhole cover. It was sunny in that area, but only just that she could make it up and out and into the shade without much damage.

Taking in a deep, unneeded breath, she pushed open the cover and hoped out. She let out a gasp. She was wrong, so very wrong! There was lots of sun! And it was burning! She could smell her skin sizzling as she hip hoped out of the manhole, covered it, and made a beeline to the shade that was just big enough for her body to stand in.

Taking in a few, calming breaths, she let her skin begin to immediately heal over and she slipped through the back door of the best shop that Sunnydale was most likely to ever have.

The Magic Box.

And the only reason she knew that, was she'd heard of a witch here in Sunnydale, about a year ago, tearing the place to absolute shreds. Bringing down the beams, knocking over everything, setting things on fire. And the only reason she actually knew that this was the place, was it still smelt of fresh paint, and she figured that there was no other magic store in Sunnydale, so it had to be the shop.

It was completely empty though. Just like the rest of Sunnydale. There was stuff strewn around, windows shattered, glass vials and books absolutely destroyed. She should have figured that this was what she was going to walk into when she'd seen the rest of the ghost town. But it was still.. absolutely heart breaking.

Slipping further into the store, she ran her fingers gently over the glass counter, before bending over and peering inside. There was a stand there, but the item was missing, and she bent down to read it. It was a hammer. From a Troll named Olaf.

She couldn't help but laugh.

Turning around, she looked up and saw that there was a second floor. Moving toward it, and instead of jumping up, she climbed the ladder and crouched down toward the bookshelves, picking off one of the books and moving to sit down in the corner, her brown eyes scanning the pages, her fingers gently caressing the words.

She'd gotten so wrapped up that she never heard the sound of the back door opening and then closing. Signalling that she wasn't the only customer that the Magic Box currently had.