[ i'm still sick, but happy birthday to me ! hope you enjoy this chapter and as always, your comments make my day ]

♡︎

IT WAS PROBABLY ASKING TOO MUCH FOR THEM TO GET ALONG.

[ 6.09 — 6.10 ]

"A little lower."

"Here?"

"Now, a little higher."

"Fine. Here?"

"Mmm, actually, just a smidge lower."

With a dramatic groan, Teddy dropped the string lights in his hand, and Kitty whined. They were in Kitty's new room, which used to be Giles'. All the major furniture had been moved, and Xander helped make Teddy a full-sized bed frame for his room. Decorations were really all that was left to do in Kitty's room.

As she sorted Polaroids of all her friends to clip to the star-shaped string lights, Teddy was on a stool and using nails to hang the long string of lights around the room. She planned to put the one of Spike in that ridiculous Randy suit next to the picture of Giles in his wizard costume from opening day of the Magic Box.

Kitty was meant to be directing Teddy so that the lights weren't crooked, but it turned into a game where she tried to see how many times she could get him to move a little bit at a time. He finally caught on after three minutes.

"You do the lights, Kit," Teddy said, getting off the stool. "I'll put everything on your bookshelf."

Of course, the closest thing to a book on the bookshelf was comic books. But there were also records, DVDs, small stuffed animals, and other random knick-knacks that were stored in a box for the short move down the hall.

Kitty grumbled as she rolled off the bed and stomped to the corner where the lights were hanging down. However, she only got one foot on the stool before Spike rushed in, looking quite panicked.

"Problem," he said, looking at the Cupids. "Well, not sure if it's a problem. But something happened."

"How'd you get in the apartment?" Teddy asked, tilting his head. Kitty and Spike just shot him matching looks, wondering why anybody bothered to ask that question anymore.

Kitty quickly moved to Spike's side to check on him while Teddy kept unpacking. "What's wrong?"

"Um, well, the museum was robbed — some diamond is missing. Anyway, I ran into the Slayer outside of it," he told them. He frowned at the memory. "I pissed her off, she pissed me off, then I hit her."

"Oh, do you have a headache?" Kitty asked. She reached up and turned Spike's chin to see if Buffy left any bruises. "I can get you an ice pack, but you should know better by no—"

"I didn't hurt," Spike interrupted.

Both Cupids froze and looked at Spike in surprise, wondering if he was lying.

"What?" Teddy asked. "So, you lightly shoved Buffy? Stuff like that doesn't affect the chip."

"No," Spike said, taking in a deep breath. "She'd have a broken jaw if she wasn't the bloody Slayer right now. I mean, I socked her right in the face and didn't feel a single thing up here."

Kitty stood on her toes and grabbed the sides of Spike's head, forcing him to look down as she examined his skull. "Is the chip turned off?" she questioned.

"No clue," he admitted. Honestly, Spike wasn't sure what to do about it, so he came to Kitty and Teddy. "What do we do?"

"Hit me," Kitty said, releasing his head.

Spike's eyebrows practically went to his hairline. "What? Absolutely not!"

"C'mon," she said, sighing. "We need to make sure it doesn't work."

"Or it still works but the satisfaction of punching Buffy for the first time in years outweighed the pain," Teddy added. It was certainly likely. "You just didn't notice it."

"Well, I'm still not hitting you, Kitten," Spike said, rolling his eyes.

"Fine. Hit Teddy," she said, crossing her arms.

"Thanks, Kitty," Teddy sighed. But he abandoned the box by the bookshelf and came over. "Yeah, whatever. Hit me, Spike."

"Don't really wanna hit you either, mate," he admitted, shrugging. Now, if it were Buffy or Xander or Giles or some stranger, sure.

"Sex Pistols music is ass, and your Billy Idol wannabe look screams 'trying too hard,'" Teddy said flatly, eying Spike's outfit. "And I tried to set Angel and Kitty up that first summer we visited LA."

Spike narrowed his eyes at Teddy, not sure if he was lying about that last bit. "Idol stole this look from me!" he snapped defensively. "Yeah, okay. I'll hit you — ah! Damn it!"

As soon as Spike raised his fist, the chip activated, sending a jolt of pain through him. He fell over while holding his head in pain, and Kitty crouched beside him, letting him lean on her.

"What the hell is going on?" Spike asked, panting a bit as he recovered.

"Something's wrong with the chip," Teddy said, frowning.

"Can it hurt him if it's broken?" Kitty asked, worried about what could happen. "A - and we can't tell Buffy yet! She might - might..."

They all knew the only reason why Spike was still alive. If that reason was broken, what would stop Buffy from finally staking him?

"We're gonna figure this out," Teddy said. "Just, uh, Spike, stay away from Buffy. We won't say anything until we actually know something."

♡︎

Originally, Kitty had been worried about not saying anything. But as it turned out, when the museum was robbed, a security guard was frozen solid, meaning a demon was behind it. As if that wasn't enough to help get Kitty's mind off Spike's chip, Willow also turned Amy from high school back into a person.

It came as quite a shock considering the fact that the girl had been a rat since the second semester of their senior year. Some of them had even forgotten about her — mainly Kitty and Xander.

So, with Amy and the freezing demon demanding all their focus, no one noticed that Teddy wasn't at the Magic Box. He was out hunting someone down that could help with Spike's problem. All the while, Kitty was anxiously waiting for him to come back to the shop, only half paying attention to the book she was reading.

"Here," Willow said, pointing at the newspaper. "Says the guard's definitely gonna live."

"He's all thawed out," Xander read. "Says they used hair-dryers. Huh."

"Everything slowed down. His nervous system, circulatory system. He's still unconscious," Willow added.

"It's kind of creepy that you can just freeze and unfreeze people," Kitty mumbled, pulling the sleeves of her sweater over her hands.

Then Anya made a whining noise over by the bookshelf, which they all heard. "Anya?" Buffy questioned.

"It's such a pain. The text I wanted, Giles took it with him," she informed them "He has this thing that owning a book makes it like his property."

"Funny how that works," Kitty said, smiling.

"What should we do, should we call him? It's like the middle of last night there," Buffy said, frowning. "Or maybe it's tomorrow. Anyone remember how that works?"

"I mean, Teddy's running an errand, but he'll be on this as soon as he gets back," Kitty told them. "I don't think he's ever read about this thing, though. Research is all any of us can do, Giles included."

Of course, they all grimaced at the thought of research, Kitty included.

"That's okay, no one freak. We'll just do it another way," Willow said, reaching into her bag.

Buffy shared a concerned look with the others. "I-I don't think we need to resort to — I mean—" She stopped as Willow pulled her laptop out of her bag and set it on the table. They all smiled, glad she wasn't using magic after the whole erasing their memories spell. "Oh. Hey, cool."

"All right, back to basics. A little old-fashioned state-of-the-art hacker action," Xander said happily.

"That's great, Will," Buffy said. "I haven't seen you do that in a long time."

Then Willow put her hands over the keyboard but didn't touch it. The keyboard began to glow with a pale yellow light, clear signs of a spell.

"I don't remember that part," Kitty whispered to Buffy and Xander.

They all stared at Willow, who was looking blankly ahead. "It's quicker. It'll just take me a sec to go through the files," Willow said, not seeing the concerned looks. "Okay. Internal police report. A diamond was stolen from the museum last night. A big one. On loan from the British Museum. They're withholding information to smoke out the criminals. Oh! It's pretty." She smiled at Buffy. "There's a picture."

"Well, is it a, a supernatural diamond? You know, like, healing powers, or, or good-lucky?" Buffy asked.

"Maybe it's cursed," Anya suggested. "Diamonds are excellent for cursing."

"Oh, can we Indiana Jones this?" Kitty asked, leaning forward. Xander nodded in agreement, liking the thought of using a bullwhip and wearing a fedora.

"No need for Dr. Jones," Willow said, once again staring forward as she checked the files with her spell. "We'll keep checking, shall we?"

Xander glanced at Kitty, who nudged his foot under the table to get him to say something. "Well, you know, I am kinda beat, and I bet you that's tiring, that... thing you're doing there," he said awkwardly. Then he gave a fake yawn and stretched.

Willow took her hands off the keyboard and looked at them all. "Guys, I'm fine. What's the deal with—"

"Oh, for crying out loud," Anya interrupted loudly. "This is bizarre. You're all, 'la la la!' with, with the magic, and the not talking, like everything's normal, when we all know that Tara up and left you, and now everyone's scared to say anything to you," she blurted out. Then she smiled. "Except me. Is this that thing I do that you were commenting—" Xander's quick nod cut her off.

"Guys, it's okay," Willow said quietly. "It's hard, but i-it's better this way. Little things just... started taking over, things that didn't matter, but we saw them differently, so they got blown out of proportion. And, this time away will help us sort through things. Really."

Kitty looked down at the table and frowned. She was the only one that heard part of Tara's song when that demon had all that musical fun. And Teddy heard the reason for the breakup directly from Tara — it was because she'd used magic on Tara to make her forget just how differently they were seeing everything. No, the Cupids weren't going to blab to the entire gang about it, but they both thought it was pretty much unforgivable. And it seemed Willow wasn't even learning her lesson about using magic too much — magic was more important than Tara.

"Now, let's just keep working on this," Willow said, thinking she'd smoothed all their worries over. "I don't wanna leave Amy alone in the house so long."

"Amy, is she... how is she adjusting?" Xander asked, leaning forward. The only people to see her were Willow and Buffy — and Buffy's reports leaned toward 'adjusting badly.'

"It's hard to say. It's a lot to take in. I keep expecting her to do, like, ratty stuff, you know, licking her hands clean, shredding newspaper, leaving little pellets in the corner," Willow admitted.

Buffy frowned at the thought. "Let's definitely not leave her alone in the house too long."

"I'll go soon," she said. "Just a few more minutes using the computer."

Before Kitty could make a comment about Willow not actually 'using' the computer, the bell on the door rang. It wasn't a customer though. It was Teddy. He didn't come over but did catch Kitty's eye. She quickly excused herself to go talk to him.

"Hey, what do we got?" she asked quietly, not wanting anyone to overhear.

"Wrap Spike in a blanket and take him to this address," Teddy said, holding out a slip of paper. It led to a neighborhood about ten minutes away from Main Street.

"What is this place?" Kitty asked, looking at it. She didn't think she'd ever been down that street and didn't know how it'd help Spike figure out what was wrong.

"Did some digging at the bar. Sex robot guy is back in town," he said, shaking his head. "I figure if he's smart enough to make April and Buffybot, he can see if a simple chip is malfunctioning."

Kitty quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Thank you," she murmured. "I could hardly sleep last night — just kept staring at his head, waiting for it to explode."

"Yeah, that probably would've been a bummer to wake up to."

♡︎

"You didn't have to kick the door down," Kitty whispered, shaking her head. "There's an overhead porch to block the sun. We could've just picked the lock."

"It's more fun to break the door," Spike said, shrugging. They looked around the seemingly empty house that had all the lights turned off. It didn't even look like someone frequently habited the single-story home.

"Maybe they moved," Kitty said, looking around with a frown.

Spike tilted his head, listening for something with his enhanced hearing. "Or maybe... the little nerd is in his nerd cave."

With that, Spike led them toward the door leading to the basement. Like with the front one, he kicked it down as well. Kitty peered over his shoulder and saw three boys on the stairs, who'd been on their way up before Spike interrupted. They quickly backed away in fear.

And Kitty found she recognized two of them — Warren, the sexbot guy, and Johnathan from school.

"Hello, it's called knocking," the blonde boy that Kitty didn't recognize spoke up, whose name was Andrew.

Spike went right for Warren and backed him up against a support beam. Kitty crossed her arms and smiled apologetically at his friends. "Knock knock, robot boy," Spike said, knocking on the side of Warren's head. "Need you to look at my chip."

"Is that, like, British slang or something?" Johnathan asked nervously. "'Cause we're not—"

"Ew, Johnathan, no," Kitty said, shaking her head. "There's a chip in his head. Something's wrong with it."

"We're kind of in the middle of something," Warren told Spike.

"Well, you can play holodeck another time. Right now, I'm in charge," he replied.

"Yeah, what are you gonna do if we don't especially feel like maybe playing your—"

As Warren was talking, Spike looked around the room. He couldn't hit Warren to make him do his bidding, so he settled for the next best thing. They all watched as he snatched up a Boba Fett collectible figurine.

"What are, wait, what are you doing?" Warren asked in alarm.

"Examine my chip or else Mister..."

"Fett," Kitty told him, a smile on her face.

Spike nodded in thanks but also knew he was going to call her a nerd later for knowing. "—Fett here is the first to die."

He held the figure in one hand and took its head in the other, ready to pull it clean off. The three geeks watched, acting as if he had a real person held hostage.

"Hey, all right, let's not, let's not do anything crazy here," Johnathan said nervously.

"That's a limited edition, 1979 mint condition Boba Fett," Andrew said, shaking his head.

Spike grinned and pretended to pull the head off. Warren jumped forward. "All right, dude, chill. You can still make it right. You know you don't wanna do this," he said.

"What I want... is answers, nimrod," Spike said.

"Right. But you don't wanna hurt the Fett, 'cause man, you're not comin' back from that," Warren said. "You know, you don't just do that and walk away."

"That right? Let's find out." Again, Spike faked pulling the head off, and Warren shouted in alarm.

"Wah, uh, one second!" he said. Then he pulled his friends to the side, where they began whispering.

"Dudes, I think that's Spike," Andrew said dumbly. As if they hadn't seen him multiple times while harassing Buffy and watching their hidden cameras at all the Scooby gang hangouts. And if Spike had discovered one of the cameras in his crypt pointed shamefully at his bed, the nerds really would be losing their heads — chip or no chip.

"Of course it is, and he's evil. Completely capable of removing that head," Warren said. "I'm gonna help him out."

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Jonathan asked. "I mean, we all have heads too. Would Kitty even stop him?"

"See, we help him, and he owes us one," Warren whispered. "See, we get Spike and Kitty on our side, we get info on Buffy. And maybe, maybe we can even find a way to keep her out of Phase Two."

"Jonathan's right, can we trust him?" Andrew asked, who was rarely one to disagree with Warren.

Warren scoffed. "'Course not. But alliances aren't about trust. See, he needs us, we need him. Well, that's how these things work," he said. They glanced back to see Kitty toying with the action figure, making Boba Fett do a handstand on Spike's bicep, who had to refrain from rolling his eyes. "I think we're ready. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Jonathan said, nodding.

Andrew looked back once more to see Kitty and Spike tossing the figure back and forth now. "Do what you need to do," he said, fearing for the toy.

Warren then turned back to Spike and Kitty. "I think we can work something out. I'll take a look at your chip. It'll be a deal. We scratch your back, you scratch—"

"I'm not scratching your anything," Spike interrupted. "You do what I tell you, that's the deal. Deal?"

With an annoyed sigh, Warren gave in. "Deal."

"Then let's go," Spike said, tossing the action figure over to Andrew, who managed to catch it. As Spike followed Warren, they looked down at the toy in relief.

"Oh! It's okay, it's okay," Andrew said to the figure. "It'll be fine."

"What a relief," Kitty said, biting back an amused grin.

♡︎

Warren managed to get some kind of reading from Spike's chip without having to cut into his skull. Kitty didn't know how it worked as he waved some device around his head. Once he finished the initial scan, they had to wait around for the results. Andrew, Johnathan, and Spike were all waiting in chairs with Kitty sitting on Spike's lap.

"This place is kind of cool," Kitty said to fill the awkward silence. "Like a little sci-fi goblin cave."

"I take that as a compliment," Jonathan said, clearing his throat.

"It is," she assured him, smiling. "I'm glad things are going a little better for you since high school, Jonathan." He dreamed of having a friend, let alone two when they were younger. "You seem happier — when no one's threatening your action figures."

Spike rolled his eyes, unable to believe Kitty was socializing with them.

"Yeah," Jonathan said, forcing a smile. "A lot better."

"Oh, and I don't think I ever caught your name," Kitty said to Andrew.

"I'm Andrew. I was a year behind you at Sunnydale," he told her. Then he smiled proudly. "I summoned those flying monkeys at the school play."

"Oh, I must have missed that show," Kitty said, not even recalling the incident. Spike snorted at the thought of flying monkeys terrorizing a high school. "You do look kind of familiar though."

"He's Tucker's brother," Jonathan told her.

"...Tucker?" she asked, looking at him in disbelief. Andrew nodded, keeping his eyes off her. "Tucker Wells? Tucker that summoned Hellhounds to try and kill everyone after I told him I wouldn't go to Prom with him? That Tucker?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, nodding awkwardly. "That's Big Bro." Instead of responding, Kitty moved closer to Spike, pressing up against his side as she watched Andrew warily. He wrapped his arms around her waist for comfort. "He's, um, got a girlfriend now."

"My condolences to her," Spike muttered, already hating the Tucker guy.

"You're English, right?" Andrew then asked Spike.

Spike eyed him with a suspicious frown. God, he wanted to leave. "Yeah."

"I've seen every episode of Doctor Who. Not Red Dwarf, though, 'cause, um..."

"'Cause, it's not out yet on DVD," Jonathan said, speaking a little louder than Andrew, who had a habit of mumbling.

He nodded. "It's not out on DVD."

The words flew over Spike's head, who only understood them separately and not in those orders. He scowled and held Kitty tighter before impatiently yelling. "Warren!"

Warren quickly came around the corner, holding a pile of papers in his hand. "Here I am, here."

"Bloody hell," he muttered. "Get on with it then."

"Please," Kitty said, trying to be a little more polite. She smiled at Warren when he handed them the papers, which she and Spike stared blankly at, not understanding most of the numbers and charts.

"Help me out here, Spock, I don't speak loser," Spike said flatly, handing the papers back.

Warren sighed. "Okay, right, um, your chip works fine, yeah."

Spike and Kitty shared a frown. "There's gotta be something —"

"No, no, listen," Warren interrupted. "I don't know what that thing does. I'd like to..."

He leaned closer, eying Spike's cranium. And Spike glared while leaning farther away. "Hey!"

"But whatever it is, it works fine. There's no deterioration of the signal, it still is coming through on a steady pulse. Which it's supposed to," he explained.

"It's not hurting him or anything? Not gonna blow up or give him an aneurysm at random?" Kitty asked, looking up at Warren hopefully.

"As long as it's not... designed to do that," Warren said, still quite confused. How had they spied on this group for weeks and still not discovered what the chip did?

Spike then stood, carefully setting Kitty on her feet before he towered over Warren, a menacing glare on his face. "If you're lying to us—"

"No!" he said quickly. "It's all right here. I, I mean, it is. It's really not that hard to figure out, if you just..." Warren trailed off, seeing the look on Spike's face. "What?"

After a moment of pondering, Spike's frown turned into a smile. Kitty rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what he was so delighted about. He stepped toward Warren. "You tell anyone about this..."

"No, I promise. Who would I tell?" Warren asked. His only two friends were in the room. "I don't even know what this is about!"

"It's about the rules having changed. Everything's different now," Spike said, smirking. He took Kitty's hand and led her to the stairs. "Nothing wrong with me — something wrong with her."

Kitty sighed. "Just don't make a big thing out of it, Spike. You could just tell her. Ya know, with words. Like a sane person."

"Hmm, that doesn't nearly as fun to me."

♡︎

As the night went on, the closing time for the Magic Box grew near, and Anya, Xander, Buffy, and Teddy were all still around the table and looking at books. This whole robbery was throwing them for a loop.

"Aha! I got it!" Xander suddenly exclaimed. "Uh, here's our villain right here!" The three others all looked at his book before shaking their heads and returning to their own. Xander frowned. "What?"

"That's a D&D manual, sweetie," Anya informed him.

"No, but it could—" He moved to look at the cover and laughed weakly. "Oh."

"Let's face it, we're not gonna find this thing because it doesn't exist," Anya said, sighing. "There's no such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds."

"Well, maybe he doesn't eat them. You know, maybe he just... thinks they're pretty," Buffy said with a hopeful smile. Then she made a face and slammed her book shut. "We suck."

"If Kitty were a supervillain, that's how I imagine she'd operate," Teddy said, smiling. "Just go for things that sparkle."

"We need new brains," Xander grumbled. "What's up with Willow?"

Buffy shrugged. "Out with Amy, I guess."

"Great, someone to do more magic with," Teddy muttered bitterly.

"But at least she's not all cooped up and crying," Buffy said, frowning. "That's forward momentum. Now, I know that I don't... know everything that happened with her and Tara, but it—"

"Tara thinks Willow is doing too much magic, and she's not the only one," Teddy interrupted, crossing his arms. "And she used magic to erase Tara's memory repeatedly so that she'd forget all their fights about it. She said pick magic or me, and Willow picked magic."

They all looked at Teddy, who was never one to share gossip. But he'd been the shoulder for Tara to cry on the last few days and he wanted everyone to be just as mad at Willow as he was. And now that they all knew, they could all be wary around her.

Xander timidly raised his hand. "I, um, definitely agree on the too much magic if we're taking a group census. Way too much."

"I know," Buffy said, rubbing her head. "But I-I think she'll be fine. You know, it's, it's Willow. She of the level head."

"Well, those are the ones you have to watch out for the most. Responsible types," Anya said.

"Right, she might go crazy and start alphabetizing everything," Buffy joked.

"Buff, this isn't something to joke about," Teddy told her softly.

Anya nodded. "I'm serious. Responsible people are... always so concerned with being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad — they can't get enough. It's like all kablooey."

"That's not true," Buffy argued.

"Okay, not kablooey, more like bam," Anya corrected.

"Exhibit Riley," Teddy muttered under his breath.

"It's human nature, Buff. Will's getting a taste of something powerful, way bigger than her," Xander said. They all needed Buffy to take this more seriously.

"Yeah, she was getting out of control with it before Tara left," Anya said, "and now that she's gone..."

"It's gotta be seductive. Just giving in to it. Going totally wild," Xander said. Then he cringed. "Is that how Spike landed Kitty?"

"Not really. They took for fucking ever to do the giving in," Teddy said, flipping through his book. Little did he know, Buffy's eyes were glued to him. She'd been thinking about giving in ever since Teddy sang that song to her — but she didn't want to give in for the right reasons, and he deserved the right reasons.

"We need to keep an eye on her," Xander declared. Teddy decided to keep to himself the fact that Giles had already assigned him with watching Willow.

"Okay," Buffy said, nodding. "Okay, we'll keep an eye. But I'm sure it's not going to escalate."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "What's that you always say to Kitty about jinxes?"

♡︎

The four of them stayed another thirty minutes before closing up the Magic Box for the night. As expected, they didn't manage to find their bad guy in that amount of time. And most of them were convinced it wasn't a demon at all.

"I'm telling you, I, I think there's something about this thing," Buffy said, not wanting to leave it alone until it happened again.

"Well, I don't know, Buff. It seems like we've been through every book,
Xander said, shrugging.

"Yeah, even the ones that weren't so boring you wanted to kill yourself," Anya muttered.

"We have those? Teddy, have you been hoarding them? That's why you like this so much, isn't it? Do you have hidden fun books?" Xander questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Teddy rolled his eyes playfully. "Yes," he said sarcastically. "I keep them off the shelves and only bring them out to keep Kitty amused."

"I can't believe she'd hide that from me," he muttered, snapping his finger in fake annoyance.

"Look, I'm just saying, all the things that have happened lately? Okay, the, the bank robbery, the jewelry heist," Buffy listed.

"The exploding lint," Xander added.

"I-is it me, or do these things seem really—"

"Lame?" Anya offered.

She shrugged. "Well, I was gonna go with unusual, but, yeah. I don't know. You know, I'll do a quick patrol tonight, and after a good night's sleep, we can solve this tomorrow. Theo, you in?"

"Of course," he told her.

"Optimism. I remember optimism," Anya said with a flat smile.

Xander wrapped an arm over her shoulder. "That's because you're like a thousand."

"Good night, guys," Teddy said as he and Buffy went the opposite direction as Anya and Xander. As they walked around town and down alleys, checking for attacks, Teddy glanced at Buffy with a smile. "Do you know what Kitty's theory for all this is?"

"I can only imagine," she said, already chuckling.

"She thinks it's Mr. Freeze from Batman but in real life and using the diamonds to power his suit."

Buffy scoffed and shook her head, clearly amused. "And she calls you and Giles nerds all the time."

"Xander corrupted her early on to make her think comic stuff is cool and knowing real-life things is lame," he said, kicking a rock down the alley they were headed down. "But I highly doubt we're got a comic book style villain on our hands—"

"Slayer." When Buffy heard Spike call for her angrily, she rolled her eyes.

"And so my night is now complete," she muttered as she and Teddy came to a stop. Spike and Kitty came over to them, the latter of which with an already apologetic smile on her face. "Leave us alone. We're a little busy actually doing stuff."

As Buffy started walking again, Spike moved to walk next to her. Teddy fell behind with Kitty and looked at her questionably. "How'd it go?" he asked quietly.

"Just, uh, I tried to talk him out of this," she whispered. "But Buffy hits him a lot for no reason. Plus, she'll still kick his ass once she gets over the shock."

"You shouldn't be so flip, love," Spike said in a condescending tone, looking at Buffy with a smirk.

"What are you gonna do, walk behind me to death?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm just saying things might be a little different." Then he moved around and stopped her from walking. "You oughta be careful."

Buffy sighed and shook her head. "Enough. Kitty, get a leash on your boy toy." She tried to walk around Spike, but he shifted to block her path. A small, confused smile was on her lips, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Already, she was ready to hit him. "Get out of my way."

"Or what?" In response, Buffy shrugged before decking him in the face. He reeled a little but caught himself. After a pause, he punched her right back, making her spin from the momentum. She quickly looked back at him, glaring. Spike placed a hand to his forehead. "Oh, the pain! The pain!" he said mockingly. Worry overtook Buffy's face. "Is gone. Guess what I just found out. Looks like I'm not as toothless as you thought, sweetheart."

"How?" Buffy asked in alarm.

"Don't you get it? Don't you see? You came back wrong," he sneered. Teddy's eyes were wide while Kitty just put her head in her hands, knowing this would be a disaster.

Buffy stared in disbelief for a moment before stalking forward angrily. She punched Spike, who laughed as he staggered back. She hit him again and then kicked him, driving him further into the alley. But when she again moved to punch him, he grabbed her arm and hit her with his other hand, causing her to stumble into a chain-link fence.

"It's a trick," Buffy said, shaking her head. "You did something to the chip, it's a trick."

"It's no trick. It's not me, it's you. Just you, in fact, that's the funny part," he said before hitting her again. "'Cause, you're the one that's changed. That's why this doesn't hurt me." Spike got in a few more swings before Buffy blocked him and shoved him back. "Came back a little less human than you were."

"You're wrong," she said, kicking him hard and causing him to smash into a brick wall.

Spike quickly got back up and came back over. "Then how come you're so spooked, Slayer? And why can I—" He punched her again with no pain. "—do that?"

"Okay. Break it up!" Teddy shouted as he and Kitty finally got in the middle of them. Buffy fought against him as Kitty put a hand on Spike's chest, nudging him back. The vampire continued to smirk at Buffy, not caring about the blood on his busted lip and the bruises he'd begin to feel in an hour.

"You got your hits in," Kitty told Spike. Maybe not two years' worth of hits, but still. He rolled his eyes but relaxed his shoulders. Kitty looked back at Buffy, whose eyes were wide with disbelief and anger. "We had the chip checked out. It's not malfunctioning or turned off, Buffy."

"But we'll figure out what's wr—" Teddy caught himself before he could say the word 'wrong', not wanting Buffy to think she was wrong. "We'll look into it."

"Kitty," Buffy said slowly, not taking her eyes away from Spike. "Get him away from me. Before I kill him."

Based on the look in Buffy's eye, they all knew she was being serious. So, Kitty took Spike's hand and quickly led him away, leaving Buffy in the alley with Teddy. Neither said anything and as soon as Spike was out of sight, tears began to well in Buffy's eyes.

As the Slayer fell apart, beginning to think she really was a monster, she all but collapsed against Teddy, who just held her tightly. And all the while, he whispered the same words over and over in her ear, "You're not wrong."

♡︎

Given that Buffy was still processing what happened with Spike and the chip, Teddy thought it best that Kitty steer clear of the Slayer for the day. They didn't want Spike coming up in conversation, which would probably lead to a fight. No, Kitty didn't like violence, but at the same time, Buffy was fairly abusive toward Spike, who couldn't defend himself. So, she thought he was entitled to just a little bit of rubbing it in her face that he could hit her now.

So, after work at the bowling alley, Kitty went to Spike's crypt. She didn't complain, as it got her out of research duty, which was where everyone else — other than Willow — was.

"All these demons are starting to look alike," Xander mumbled tiredly. "You got reptiles, reptiles with horns, reptiles with gills."

"There's reptiles with horns and gills," Teddy informed him, who was sitting on the floor with his back against the counter. "Something to look forward to."

"Great. And I'm still finding nothing of the 'steal a diamond, freeze a guy' variety," he said. "Ahn, would you hand me that one next to you?" However, Anya didn't respond, too enthralled with the book she was reading. "Great, we're not even married yet, and already you've stopped listening to me."

Xander reached across her to get a book, but as he picked it up, something slipped out of it and onto the table. He looked down at the bridal magazine before glancing at her. Then he put his hand on the book in her hands and tipped it down, revealing a magazine with dresses in it.

"Anya!"

"I'm sorry, but this is pointless! And Kitty does this all the time," she whined. "We've been researching forever and we're not even close to finding out who robbed that museum."

Buffy came over to see what she'd been reading. "What's up?"

"Anya has a theory. She thinks that Martha Stewart froze that guy," Xander said flatly.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, scoffing. "Martha Stewart isn't a demon. She's a witch."

Xander shook his head. "Please, she — really?"

Anya nodded. "Of course. Nobody could do that much decoupage without calling on the powers of darkness."

"Guys, while this is fascinating, we still have work to do," Teddy reminded them, getting off the floor to switch out books. Then he sat at the table.

"I know I do!" Anya exclaimed, looking at the bridal magazine. "I can't decide whether to put my bridesmaids in cocktail dresses or the traditional burlap with blood larva."

"The traditional what?" Xander asked in alarm.

"Well, I was a demon for a thousand years, you don't expect me to turn my back on all the ways of my people," she told him.

"Uh, can I weigh in on this whole me wearing larva—"

Both of them cut Buffy off. "No."

Buffy sighed in irritation and moved to sit next to Teddy. He nudged her shoulder. "Maybe we can get Kitty in a larva burlap dress too."

"She's been bragging about getting to look hot in a tight suit," Buffy said, grinning. "Keeps begging Xand to let her make it skimpier."

"Do I wanna know how she could possibly make a suit skimpy?" Teddy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Doesn't want to wear a dress shirt under the suit jacket," she explained, smirking.

"Well, I'm sure that'd be a big hit with at least half the crowd," he said, sighing. "And Spike." Then they tuned back into what Anya was telling Xander.

"At least I'm not asking you to perform the groom's rite of self-flagellation," she said. Xander's eyes went wide and he went to speak, but Buffy cut him off.

"Uh, guys! There's something out there?" she reminded them.

"There is," Xander said, moving on from the discussion. "And as much as I hate to admit that my bizarre bride-to-be has a point... we're gettin' nowhere here, Buff. Maybe it's time to try something new. You know? Hit the streets, get Spike on it."

"No," she grumbled, still sore about the whole Spike subject. "No, no Spike. And no hit the streets. We, we, we stay put, you know? Away from distractions. We'll figure this out."

"What about Willow, can't she do something?" Anya asked.

"Maybe. But she's home sleeping," Buffy said.

"Sleeping?" Xander asked. Not even he and Kitty, the laziest of the gang, slept this late in the day. "She sick?"

"No, she was out late. With Amy," she said, earning annoyed looks from Teddy and Xander.

"And I'm bizarre? At least I didn't dump you to hang out with an ex-rat," Anya muttered.

"No, it's not like that, you know, she's just... helping Amy through a transition," Buffy said, not wanting them mad at Willow.

"And making herself a playmate to do magic with. Someone who won't monitor her like Tara," Xander said.

Buffy shook her head. "No, Willow's a grownup. You know, maybe she doesn't need to be monitored." She received blank stares from the boys. "You know, she's going through something, but we're not her. I mean, m-maybe she has reasons for acting this way. We've all done stupid stuff and learned from it. We don't do it again. Okay, so, you know, who are we to get all judgy?"

Xander put his hands up in defense. "Not judgy, Buff. Just, observey."

"Yeah, all we're saying is, she's acting different," Anya said. "You know, she's not herself."

"We're observey because we care," Teddy told Buffy. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

♡︎

It was an hour after sunset when Spike finally woke up. He didn't move though, not wanting to wake up Kitty, who was curled up in his lap on the chair in the crypt. For a while, he just sat and watched her, one hand drawing patterns on her side under her shirt as he held her.

She'd come over after finishing at her job and changing at the apartment. They didn't discuss the whole 'him being able to hurt Buffy' thing much, but Kitty had to address it. As Spike thought back on it, he pushed the collar of her sweater to the side to check on the fresh bite.

"I'm proud of you," Kitty had said as Spike made room for her on the armchair. A marathon of Passions reruns was on all day. They planned to watch until both fell asleep.

"What for?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I can't imagine it's for beating up on Buffy."

Kitty shook her head with a smile. She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his temple, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm proud of you for coming to me and Teddy when you first found out," she specified. "You let us find a way to see what was going on. I — you could've just run off and tested it by trying to kill someone, but you didn't. I know that must have been hard for you — know how much you miss drinking from humans."

Spike reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before letting his hand rest on her cheek. "I miss drinking from humans but I'd miss you more if I lost you because I tried something stupid like that," he admitted, turning his head so that their noses brushed. "May not be the goodhearted reason you're hoping for, but as long as it stopped me."

"I don't care about the reason," she said softly. "Spike, I didn't do this in hopes of changing you — didn't let myself love some potential version of you. I love you, bad past and sometimes admittedly psychotic tendencies included."

"I don't deserve you," he spoke quietly, moving to brush his thumb across her bottom lip softly.

"You do," Kitty said, meaning every word. "You didn't lie to me or betray my trust. You deserve every ounce of love I have for you."

The corners of Spike's lips turned up, but he was kissing her gently before she could admire the content smile. "I love you, too," he whispered against her lips. "So damn much."

Kitty smiled while threading her right hand through his hand, toying with his loose curls. "Sorry, you don't get to munch on tasty girls again."

He chuckled as she chomped her teeth playfully at him. "Hmm, you're the only tasty girl I need," Spike said, as if she needed reminding. "A right nummy treat."

After giggling, she placed feather-light kisses along his jaw. "Want a treat now?" Spike raised a scarred eyebrow at the proposition while moving a hand up her jean-clad leg. "I didn't mean that kind, Blondie Bear," she whispered in his ear.

"Are you sure, Kitten?" he asked her, realizing she meant a bite.

Spike hadn't drank her blood since that first day she returned after Buffy's death. Sure, Kitty thought about it a lot but hadn't quite mustered enough courage to ask him to bite her while having sex again, but this was different. This time, she was offering it almost as a reward — a way to show how much she appreciated how he'd handled the whole Buffy situation.

Kitty nodded to Spike, not looking away from him. He moved his hand back off her thigh and trailed a finger along her neck. "Have you eaten enough today, pet? Drank water?" Again, Kitty nodded — she'd sort of been planning this, thinking he deserved it.

"I told you," Kitty said, kissing his cheek. "I'm proud of you."

Spike hadn't taken much blood — less than if she was donating it to the hospital. But it put her in an overly affectionate, tired headspace that he'd never complain about as it led to an afternoon of slow, languid kisses. It wasn't long after that Kitty and Spike dozed off in each other's arms, tangled up in each other.

As he continued to draw patterns on her skin, he felt himself beginning to fall back asleep. But only a few seconds after he nodded off, something knocking against his head woke him up. Spike sat up, and the movement caused Kitty to stir. He was glaring at Buffy, who'd thrown an unlit candle at his head — she had another in hand, ready to throw it. Teddy was behind her, shaking his head at the childishness.

"Why are you even asleep? It's dark out," Buffy said, rolling her eyes.

"'Cause Kitty is sleepy," Kitty said while rubbing her eyes.

"Careful with my candles," Spike muttered, eying the candle in her hand. "Someone should teach you how to use candles in foreplay—"

Buffy cut him off by throwing the candle at them. Kitty ducked into Spike's chest, so it just rolled off her shoulders after hitting his face.

"Come on. Dawn's missing," Buffy told them.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Again? Ever think about a Lojack for the girl?" he asked.

"What's the story?" Kitty asked, frowning. "Because we all know I snuck out a lot. Well, G doesn't know."

"She went out with Willow," Teddy said. As he looked at Kitty, she was off Spike's lap in a second.

Of course, Spike didn't see the big deal as he grinned. "Willow? That's kind of a sorry excuse to come by. If you wanted another face-off—"

"Spike," Kitty interrupted softly, touching his arm. This wasn't about Buffy wanting a fight. "Willow's... her magic. It's not good."

"She's into something," Buffy said. "Her and Dawn have been missing for hours. There, there's some guy named Rack."

Now Spike was fully paying attention. "Rack?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he's, uh, some sort of—"

"I know who he is," Spike interrupted. "He deals in magic. Black stuff, dangerous."

"We've been all over downtown and we can't find his place," Teddy said, sighing.

"Because he cloaks it," he explained. "You can't feel it unless you're into the big bad — a witch or a vampire or—"

Of course, they knew that. It was why they came to him. "So let's go!" Buffy snapped.

"We're coming. We're coming," Kitty said, shoving her feet into her boots while tossing Spike his coat.

♡︎

The group of four spent a good hour wandering around town with Spike acting as a bloodhound, trying to pick up on Rack's energy. They went down multiple alleys and near many abandoned buildings without coming across Willow or Dawn. With the area of town they were in, Buffy was really hoping they didn't find her baby sister anywhere near.

"Anything?" she asked anxiously.

"Not yet. I might pick up on it if you stop asking me about every two seconds," Spike grumbled.

She glared at him. "Spike, if you're dragging this out—"

"What, so I can linger near your precious self?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "Get a grip. I'd much rather be home with my girl."

"Guys, don't fight," Teddy said, sighing.

"Oh, I've got two years of fighting to make up for," Spike said spitefully. "Chaining me up, breaking my nose every other day, and let's not forget all that interfering when it came to Kitty and I—"

"Get over yourself, Spike," Buffy muttered, shaking her head. "You deserved everything single—"

"I'm not done listing, thanks very much," he said, glaring. "Thinking you're better than me just because you're human — well, you were at least. No telling what you are now. Now, you've no right treating me like I'm some piece of garbage until you need me. Just like tonight."

Buffy moved away from Spike, filled with anger at his words. "I'll find Dawn myself."

Spike rolled his eyes at her dramatics. Of course, the Slayer could dish out hurtful words left and right but couldn't take it when he threw them back in her face. "You really gonna put your little sis in danger just to spite me?"

That made Buffy stop, who turned back to him with a glare. They may have been back to hating each other, but right now, Spike was quite literally the only one that stood a chance of finding this Rack guy. So, without saying another word to each other, they started looking again.

Kitty linked her elbow with Teddy's as they walked in sync, eyes glued to the ones they loved. "You know, for a minute there, I thought they were making progress in the acquaintances department," Kitty said, frowning.

"It was probably asking too much for them to get along," Teddy said, shaking his head. "At least they aren't hitting each other."

"The night is not over yet, brother."

It was another thirty minutes of wandering around town and coming up empty, and those minutes were spent in tense silence. Spike was too focused on trying to pick up on Rack's energy, but it seemed the dark magic dealer had closed up shop for the night.

But then as they circled back around an alley close to the road, a familiar, high-pitched scream reached their ears. All four of them shared a worried look before rushing off to the right to where Dawn's scream came from.

They ran around the building to see a horrid scene under the overpass of the road. There was a wrecked car that was smoking, the front half completely crushed with Willow behind the wheel. And some kind of demon had Dawn in his clutches, who was pounding her fists against him, trying to get free. He backhanded her, which sent her flying into a stone pillar.

"Dawn!" Buffy shouted.

She tackled the demon, carrying him away from Dawn. Spike moved to help her fight the demon as Teddy pulled Willow out of the car and Kitty rushed to Dawn's side, checking on her injuries. She was bleeding from her head and cradling her left arm, which was obviously broken from the way it was angled.

The fight between Buffy, Spike, and the demon came to a halt as the demon froze and began to tremble all over.

"Now you're scared?" Buffy asked, confused. She'd really laid into the monster before he decided fighting wasn't the best. "Better late than never."

But then the demon began to scream as steam came off him in waves. They all watched as he dissolved into a shower of sparks and smoke. And Willow was standing behind him, magical sparks crackling around her fingers. Her face was covered in blood and her eyes were completely black — she looked terrifying. Then she leaned heavily against a pillar, trying to catch her breath and recover.

Buffy only looked at her friend for a moment before rushing over to Dawn, who was sobbing as Kitty tried to look at her arm. Spike and Teddy were watching Willow carefully as she did. "Dawn, what happened? Are you okay?" Buffy asked, looking over her.

"Uh... he was after Willow, she made the car drive — don't!" she shrieked as Buffy tried to move the injured limb. "No, don't!"

"I need to see, okay, let me see your arm," Buffy murmured reassuringly. She tried to gently coax Dawn's arm away, seeing the way it was bent.

"Dawn?" Willow asked weakly, coming over. Teddy quickly blocked her, not letting her close to the girl. "Oh god, there's blood."

Buffy glanced at Kitty and Spike. "Okay, we need to get her to a doctor."

"Is she okay? Is she okay?" Willow asked frantically.

As Buffy and Spike helped Dawn stand, the Slayer didn't even look at Willow. "Back off, Will, I got her."

They all started to walk away, moving slow to not cause Dawn any more pain. Willow watched tearfully, calling after them. "No, Dawnie!"

"I mean it," Buffy said angrily, "stay away from her!"

Willow ran around in front of them, looking at Dawn as she cried. "Dawnie! Dawnie, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, it was an accident! I didn't see — I'm so, so sorry." Dawn glared angrily at Willow, having no sympathy after the night they'd had, where Willow put her in danger multiple times despite Dawn begging to be taken home. Then she slapped Willow right across the face. "Dawnie! Dawnie, don't! Dawnie, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

They all began to walk away again as Willow continued to beg, dropping to the ground as she cried hysterically. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Buffy paused and glanced at Teddy, who nodded to her. He quickly took up her position, supporting Dawn's other side. He and Spike led her away, and after looking at Willow for a moment, Kitty followed, leaving Buffy behind.

Buffy walked over to her, a harsh glare on her face. "Get up," she ordered.

"I screwed it up, everything, Tara—"

Buffy grabbed Willow's arm and yanked her to her feet. "Yeah, you know what, you did screw up, okay? You could have killed her! You almost did!" she shouted.

"I know! I know!" she sobbed. "I can't stop, Buffy! I tried and I can't."

"You can."

Willow shook her head repeatedly as she trembled. "I can't! I can't, I ju — god, I need help. Please! Please help me, please," she begged. Buffy stood impossibly still as Willow threw her arms around her and continued to sob. "Please."

♡︎

It was only Buffy, Kitty, and Willow in the Summers' house. After a trip to the emergency room, Buffy thought it was best for Dawn and Willow to stay in separate places for the night, and Dawn asked to stay at the apartment with Teddy. After getting off the phone with the Cupid, Buffy and Kitty both went to Willow's room.

She was sitting on her bed, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she stared blankly down at a cup of tea. But she looked up when they stood in the doorway. "Is she okay?"

"Theo says she's sleeping," Buffy told her. "The E.R. doc gave her something for the pain, it knocked her out."

"But she's gonna be alright?" Willow asked anxiously. Now that the high had worn off, all she felt was guilt and worry and pain.

"It's a full break," Kitty said quietly. "You know, it's gonna take some time."

Willow looked away. " God, I'm sorry. I'm so..."

"I just don't understand," Buffy said, shaking her head. "I don't understand why you'd go to see somebody like Rack, and I certainly don't understand why you'd drag Dawn into it."

"I don't know. The magic, I-I thought I had it under control, and then... I didn't," she said shamefully.

"Because of Tara?" Buffy asked. But they knew it wasn't just because of Tara that it got this bad.

"No. It started before she left. It's why she left," she said, finally admitting what Teddy had told them.

"Seemed like things were going so well," Buffy mumbled.

"It was. But I mean... if you could be, you know, plain old Willow or super Willow, who would you be?" she asked, looking at Buffy. "I guess you don't actually have an option on the whole super thing."

"Will, there's nothing wrong with you," Kitty said sadly, hating to see her friend like this. "You don't need magic to be special."

"Don't I?" she asked them. "I mean, who was I? Just... some girl. Tara didn't even know that girl."

"You are more than some girl. And Tara wants you to stop. She loves you," Buffy told her as they both moved further into the room.

"We don't know that."

"I know that," the Cupid said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I promise you."

Willow looked down tearfully. "I just — it took me away from myself, I was... free."

"I get that," Buffy said. She took a seat next to Kitty. "But it's wrong. People get hurt."

"If something had happened to Dawn tonight... something worse..."

Buffy bit her tongue, trying to push her anger aside. "I know."

Willow shook her head. "No, I don't think you do. I... I was out of my mind, I-I did things I can't even... It won't happen again, I promise. No more spells. I'm finished."

"Good," Kitty said, reaching for her hand. "I think that's the right thing to do. We'll treat this like alcoholism and gambling. Stop it all."

"It's not worth it," Willow agreed. She had to reason with the decision out loud. "Not if it messes with the people I love. The magic wasn't all great. I won't miss the nosebleeds and the headaches and stuff."

"There you go," Buffy told her, managing a small smile.

"Or keeping stinky yak cheese in my bra." It earned confused looks from Kitty and Buffy. "Don't ask."

"Now we don't have to," Buffy told her.

"'Cause, it's over," Willow declared.

"It's over," Kitty said, squeezing her hand. "And we're gonna remind you just how bitchin' Willow is, with or without magic and... stinky yak cheese."