A Soulless Slayer

Ch. 11 The Good Old Scooby Gang

"Well, she was tasty." Angelus dropped the jogger to the ground. "But I'm in the mood for something a bit sweeter." He got back in his car and drove to Sunnydale. 

"You'll sleep when the mornin' comes and I'll lie and watch you sleepin'" He sang 'Somewhere in the Night' to himself as he drove on. God, I love Barry Manilow.

~~~

Buffy and Spike went on patrol. Well, that makes sense why she doesn't want to tell em bout us.' he thought.

God what they must think. They think I really did come back wrong. What would they have done if I told them the whole story about me and Spike... Buffy got tears in her eyes.

"Well, that went well don't ya think? The git was a few seconds away from bashin' my skull in with that cross." Spike tried to joke. Buffy stopped walking. She held herself while her tears started to fall.

"Luv?" no response. "Luv you alright?"

She ran into him and sobbed. "Shhh shhh pet. You're alright. I got ya shhh." Spike tried to calm her.

"They hate me..." she gasped for breath.

"No, they don't. If they hate anyone they hate me."

"They hate both of us..." she sobbed harder.

"No, they don't pet. But even if they did..." he made her look at him. "I love you."

This calmed her down and she took a deep breath. "I love you too."

"Good. Now that that's taken care of let's find something for you to kill, huh? That normally makes ya feel better."

~~~

Spike and Buffy continued to patrol. So far they had taken out two-run of your mill demons and six vampires: four new ones and two who had experience.

Both thought they killed more than enough for the night and were walking towards Buffy's house.

"Want me to stay are your house tonight? In case the git comes back? I'll sleep on the couch if ya want." Spike offered as they walked.

"No, I'm fine. Xander wouldn't hurt me. Walk me home though?" Spike looked at her. "Passions should still be on. We can watch it and I can make popcorn!" Suddenly Buffy looked forward to going home.

"What did I do to deserve you?" Spike was smiling.

"Well, you stopped trying to kill people. Like me, my friends, my family. You helped out when I was gone." Buffy joked. "And what did I do to deserve you?"

"You're you." They walked the rest of the way quietly.

~~~

"No, I don't need a ride home. Really I can walk by myself. Idiot." Dawn mumbled as she walked home from her friend's house. I'm almost closer to the magic shop. Maybe I should go there. Dawn stopped while she thought about what to do. Footsteps came from behind her.

She turned around and saw no one. "Buffy? Spike?" She started walking again faster this time. So did the footsteps behind her.

Dawn froze. "Hello?" a twig snapped. "Who's there? I'm not afraid of you. My sisters the slayer." A laugh came out of a bush and she took off running.

Crap, crap, crap, crap.' She pushed herself faster. Another twig snapped and she turned to see it.

Just then she ran into something hard that grabbed her shoulders. She let out a scream. She closed her eyes and started hitting what was holding her.

"Dawn. Dawn." the thing knew her name, it laughed again. "Dawn stop, it's me."

She stopped and looked up. "Angel?"

"Yeah." He let her go. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. Your sister told you I would be here right?"

"Yeah. I thought you were coming in a couple days, though." For some reason, Dawn felt uneasy around him, more than she normally did.

"Yeah I was, but I finished up my business faster than I thought I would. Why are you out walking by yourself? This isn't really the town to do that." Angel asked with concern.

"I was at my friends. I was actually on my way home." Dawn forced a smile. 

"Is that where Buffy is?" Angel perked up.

"Well, it is late. So maybe. She could be patrolling or at the Magic Box. We're closer to the shop. I can take you there if you walk with me?" Whether something felt wrong or not Sunnydale really wasn't the town you wanted to walk around by yourself at night.

"Great, lead the way," Angel smiled and they walked together to the Magic Box.

~~~

"What is she thinking?" They were all at the Magic Box.

"She thinks she came back wrong." Anya helped.

"Well, she didn't." Willow snapped.

"Maybe she did." Xander snapped back.

"That's enough." This time, it was Tara's turn to snap. They had argued about this all night and Tara was tired of it. "That's enough. This it Buffy we are talking about, our friend. So what she trusts Spike, so do I. Have you all forgotten what he did for us when she was gone? How many times he saved our lives? Each of us he saved at least three times, including Dawn and Giles."

Everyone was staring at her. For all but Willow, this was the most they had heard her speak at once.

"Do you trust Buffy?" Everyone nodded to Tara. "Do you trust her with you life?" More nods. "Is she a big girl who can make her own decisions?" Still more nods. "Than her trusting Spike conversation is over?" Nods came from everyone but Xander.

"Problem Xander?" This was the first time anyone had seen her with this much strength and fire.

"No. I can deal, eventually. Bigger problem is that she thinks she came back wrong. How do we deal with that?" Xander raised a good point.

"W-well, Tara and I, can look into that, if your game baby?" Willow looked to Tara. "We all could."

"Sounds good honey." and like that Tara went to being shy again.

Everyone started researching for Buffy and read books. The doorbell jingled.

"Sorry were closed. Please come spend money tomorrow." No one bothered to look up, not even Anya as she told people what to do. "Xander, go and lock the door."

"The good old Scooby Gang." Everyone looked up at the familiar voice.

"Angel," Willow smiled at him, she always had tolerated him more than the others did.