*****

"What'd she say," Buffy asked Willow as they finished with the dirty dishes and drained Giles's sink.

"She misses me. She wants to come back early. Buffy, she wants me to go up and meet her family. Can you imagine?"

"I think if you're going to be together for any length of time, you probably should. Otherwise it comes off as if you're hiding from them."

"I had to ask, didn't I?"

"I don't see what the big deal is," Xander said around the apple he was munching. "I mean, it's not as if you were guys. What's wrong?" Buffy and Willow were glaring at him.

"You are a jerk," Buffy told him as they moved into the living room. Xander pouted and settled on the back of the settee just as Giles walked by with a sheaf of paperwork. Arm brushed folder, and the papers flew like a started covey.

"Do you mind?" Giles squealed.

"Yes, I do!" Xander snapped. "I mind it a lot when you blame everything on me!" The other three stared at him.

"What did we blame on you?" Buffy asked.

"Just forget it," Xander said. "I've got to go to work, anyway."

He actually liked his new job. He was an evaluator for a large restaurant chain with six franchised brands in the area. He got a free meal every day, plus mileage and salary, and all he had to do was fill out the form.

Plus the boss liked him. Rob was fortyish, bearded and balding with sparkling Santa Claus eyes, and he'd told Xander that if they got the new account, he could start doing discount stores, too. It would mean more money plus he could keep the stuff he bought. Underwear. Toilet paper. Pine Sol. Xander was coming up in the world.

He hadn't mentioned it to his friends. They'd landed on him before he got the chance. Not that they were the type to get excited over free socks, anyway.

Rob called him over as soon as he got in, gold tooth glinting from a wide grin.

"Xander, would you like to do a little travelling? There's a hotel chain that's been getting complaints about housekeeping in this region. I thought I'd give you first crack at it, since you're my most reliable operative."

"That'd be great." He wondered if he could take a date. He wondered if he could get a date. "When does it start?"

"First of the month." Chubby hands snaked out and clasped Xander's. "I want you to know how much I appreciate all the good work you're doing for us."

Xander could feel himself beaming. "I'm glad you're pleased," he said. He handed in his paperwork, picked up the next week's assignments and walked out of the office grinning. It was nice to be appreciated.

Nice, and unusual. Buffy and Willow thought he was scum. Riley thought he was an idiot. Giles had the nerve to pity him. There was no one Xander had ever been able to connect with.

No one alive.

He didn't know exactly why he turned into the graveyard. Certainly it had nothing to do with the memory of sprawling naked across his bed with his ass tilted up to meet sweet cool vampire cock. Nothing to do with the look in Spike's eyes as he swallowed Xander's whole length. No, scratch that one. At the time all Xander could think about was vampire fangs sinking into his engorged prick.

But they hadn't. The whole glorious time, over a month, Xander had slept every day in the arms of someone beautiful and powerful and far, far too good for him. Which was why it ended, he supposed. He still couldn't get the image of Spike kissing Buffy off the inside of his eyelids.

He found the crypt with no great difficulty, the carved letters plain in the light of the setting sun. Spike was actually lying on a bier. Xander's skin crawled. What if he'd lost him? What if Spike never woke up?

"You want summat, or are you just here to gawk?"

"I... I came to see you, Spike."

"Did you?"

"Yeah, I... I got a new job, see, and it's going really great, and... and...."

"And you just had to tell somebody?"

"Yeah. Yeah, and...."

"And you decided it should be me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did."

"Well isn't that just lovely. You turn me out of your bed and out of your house and then you have the nerve to turn up here and tell me how well you're doing! That is just peachy."

"I should go."

"Too bloody right!"

Xander pulled the crypt door to behind him and walked out to his car before he wiped the tears. Even Spike had turned against him.

"Xander?" He looked up to find Bob looking at him, holding a vase of daisies. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I just...."

"It hurts to lose a friend, doesn't it?"

"Oh, yeah."

A warm arm settled around his shoulders.

"It hurts like Hell, sometimes, but I promise you, it passes."

"Yeah."

"Here, look, I meant these for a friend of mine, but why don't we leave them here, instead? I mean, there aren't any, and maybe your friend deserves some."

"Yeah. Yeah, he deserves...." Spike deserved a lot better than Xander had given him. Rob bent and laid the daisies at the foot of the crypt, and then stood and put his arms around Xander. For a moment they just held each other, and then Xander became aware that each of them was sporting a rampant erection.

"Sometimes," Rob said, looking up into Xander's eyes.

"Yeah. Give me a ride home?"

Rob's eyes widened, but then he nodded and led Xander around Xander's car to his own.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As the night's first star peeked down at Sunnydale, Spike slouched out of his crypt, scooped up the daisies, sniffed them, and then smashed them against the cold stone.

Demon. He definitely smelled demon. The little slut had dumped him for a demon, and then come to rub it in. Rob, indeed. Spike wanted to kill something. He wanted to sink his teeth into someone's warm neck and feel the blood gush into his mouth and over his face and down his chin. Too bad demons didn't have blood. Ichor just wasn't the same. Spike shook his head and started down to the Strip to roll a drunk or two for beer money.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After, Rob and Xander went out for pizza. Naturally they found the whole Scooby gang gathered around a table.

"You know them?" Rob asked Xander.

"Friends from high school."

"You want to speak to them?"

Xander grinned. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I do." He took Rob's hand and led him to the gang's booth. "Everyone," he said, "I'd like you to meet my new boss, Rob." He swayed against Rob, just to make sure everyone got the point. "Rob, everyone."

"Hi," Rob said. "I've heard a great deal about you all."

"Nice to meet you," Giles said. "These are Buffy, and Riley, and my niece Andrea," and here he indicated a freckled redhead. "There are others, but then this isn't a formal meeting."

"It's nice to finally meet you all," Rob said as Xander pulled him away, managing to rub their bodies together so as to eliminate any lingering doubts.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Xander woke up with the warm and fuzzy feeling that always meant the other shoe was about to fall. He ran over the previous night in his mind. Got laid. Rubbed the gang's nose in it. Got both nipples pierced, just to have something to remember the night. Got laid again. Gods, he felt dopey.

And he wasn't in the mood for cold cereal. Giles always fed him if he whined enough. He'd just drop in on Giles, and maybe find a way to mention how well his life was going. Hey, it shouldn't take much to make an unemployed librarian a little green.

Green, though, was not the color. Giles was as pale as ice, and the rest of the gang was buzzing like a nest of hornets.

"Andrea's gone," Giles told him. "I went out for the paper, and when I came back, the door was open and this was just lying there." He held up a slipper with a teddy bear's face.

"What, you didn't tell her not to open the door?"

"Not to anyone she didn't know. She's fourteen, and she hasn't... she hasn't seen the things we've seen. She doesn't know how to be careful."

The police were on there way, and there was nothing he could do.

"I gotta go to work," Xander said, and walked away before anyone could object. It wasn't that he didn't feel sorry for the kid. He just wasn't going to let a random burglar ruin his day. He almost skipped into the office.

It wasn't an office anymore. There was only bare walls and a few bits of trash. It figured. Any good thing that happened in Xander's life just evaporated within a few days. He started to stalk out and look for another job, but then he heard a rasping noise drifting down the hall from the back room. It sounded like heavy breathing.

What if it were Rob? What if he needed help? Xander should probably call someone. But, what if Rob needed help right now?

His feet marched themselves down the hall with a will of their own. This room had a bit of furniture left: Desk. Light. Telephone. Chair, with Giles's niece tied across it, naked and exposed. The raspy sound was the breath of a demon, fucking her like some wild beast until he screamed, and gobs of yellowy come with purple streaks gushed from around his cock and down the sobbing girl's legs. Xander fought the urge to run. What had happened to Rob and his whole crew?

The demon turned to Xander, and then he knew. Under the horns and the fangs and the misshapen brow ridges, the face was Rob's.

Xander almost made the door before clawed hands caught him and slammed him face first against the wall.

"It's not her," the demon hissed.

"What do you mean, it's not her? Of course it's her. Who else would it be?"

"It's not her. It's not the Slayer's Companion."

"Willow?"

"The Swordsman's Bride, the Flame-Haired Scribe. Where is she?"

"I dunno."

Dirty claws tweaked the pins in Xander's tender nipples.

"Something to remember me by?" he chuckled. "Maybe I give you some of what the little girl got, hmm? You liked it last night, didn't you?"

"Willow. Willow's gone to see her girlfriend's parents. She's not here, really."

The demon spun Xander around to face him, and slid his long prehensile tongue down Xander's throat. Then he threw the boy to the ground, and was gone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I am so sorry," Xander said that evening as they waited at the hospital.

"It's all right," Giles told him for the fortieth time. "You had no way of knowing."

"He might have tried common sense," Spike said from the doorway.

"How did you get in here?" Giles demanded.

"It's a public place," Spike said. "Speaking of which, could we get the jalopy moved from in front of my crypt, thank you very much? The churchyard cats are using it for a podium."

"I'll move it," Xander said. "Just let me find out...."

It was then that the staff told Giles that Andrea would be all right, but that she'd be in the hospital for several days.

"Come on," Giles said when he'd spoken to his niece, "I'll give you a ride back to your car."

"I wish we knew where the demon got to," Buffy mused.

"He's probably after Willow," Xander mused.

"Willow?"

"Yeah, he was talking about her. He called her the Slayer's Companion, the Flame-Haired Scribe, and the Swordmaster's Bride."

"Here!" Spike had stopped dead in his tracks, and Giles had bumped him from behind.

"Sorry, mate," the vampire mumbled. "He said that, did he? He called he the Swordsman's Bride?"

"Yeah, that was it!"

"Spike?" Buffy's lips were pressed together tightly. "What does this mean?"

It was Giles who answered.

"It's actually a touchy situation," he said. "You see, down through the ages there have been Slayers. And down through the ages, in every generation, one of them has been born a twin, with a brother who wielded a magical silver sword...."

"A magic sword?" Buffy turned away. "I don't have time for this, Giles. I have to warn Willow."

"When the Slayer Twin is born alone, then shall the Swordsman's Bride bring forth the Opener of the Way. Codex Narcissus, 161 AD."

"How can you be a twin if you're born alone?" she asked.

"If you were supposed to be a twin, but your brother was made a vampire in his last incarnation, and so could not be reborn with you, because he's still here."

"And Willow...."

"Should have been your brother's wife. And this demon is going to try to father a child on her, a child with the ability... well, we think with the ability to create a Hellmouth at will."

"That's not good," Buffy said. "But how did Spike know... Spike? Where'd he go?"

"Doesn't matter," Xander said. "Let's find Willow and dust the demon before anything else goes wrong.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Here, Willow!" Spike dropped from the wall beside her parking place as soon as she was out of the car.

"Not to be able to harm a human being," she said, "you can certainly make a pest of yourself."

"Don't go in there," he said.

"Why? Because you can't follow me in and bug me unless I ask you, and I'm certainly not going to ask you?"

"There's something waiting...."

"Yeah, peace and quiet." She slipped her keys into the door and cracked it open. "I had a really bad day, Spike. I got called a lot of names, and I watched someone I care about cry until she was sick. I am not in the mood to deal with a vampire with delusions...."

As she stepped through the door, demon hands grasped her.

"Spike, co...." A foul-smelling hand clamped over her mouth, and her eyes met those of the vampire watching helplessly as the demon pushed the door to with the tip of its tail.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What do you want from me?" Willow asked.

"You are the Slayer's Companion? The Swordsman's Bride?"

"I'm not married."

"You are not the one?"

"I don't think so" Willow said.

The demon blinked stupidly. Nothing was this stupid. Of course, demons even had to borrow brains when they took human form and turn them in when they were done, so maybe a demon in its true form could be this stupid. Maybe it wouldn't rip her limb from limb and scatter the bits over the living room furniture she owed three years salary on.

Maybe she didn't have a prayer of getting out of there alive.

"You are the Swordsman's Bride," it rumbled. "You are the Slayer's Companion, the Flame-Haired Scribe, the..."

"Uh-uh. You want my roomate." Willow felt a minor twinge of guilt. What if the demon found Tara? Not likely at the distance, but still...

"Room... mate?"

"Yeah. She and Buffy are really close friends. I could take you to her if you like. She's over at Buffy's."

"We wait," the demon growled.

"Or I could go and get her for you! That way you two could do what you have to do, and then you'd have the whole dark night to get away! Would you like that?"

The demon seemed to consider. Willow could not believe it was this stupid. Only a demon...

It moved like a striking serpent to scoop her up. Willow screamed, and then felt like an idiot when it slammed the door open and shoved her out.

"You will bring the her!" it roared.

"You've got that right," Willow muttered as she sped away.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"It's not going to believe it," Xander said to Giles in the dim van, watching Willow and her companion traipsing up the walk, two red heads gleaming in the yellow light from the streetlamp.

"Never underestimate the stupidity of the average demom," Giles replied.

"Here!" Spike said from the rear, "I resemble that remark!"

"Tell us about it," Xander chuckled.

Across the lawn the door opened and the two girls disappeared inside.

"It's bought it," Giles said.

"What's happening?" Spike asked.

"Door's closed," Giles said.

The faint sound of crashing furniture and breaking glass echoed in the street, and then the door opened and Buffy appeared, red wig in one hand and stake in the other, and waved.

"Well, let's survey the damages," Giles said. "I hope she doesn't lose her lease. Coming, Xander?"

"I'll be along in a minute."

Giles shrugged and disappeared into the building. Xander crept into the back of the van, where the vampire was sprawled on the bed.

"Spike?"

"I thought I told you to sod off."

"Yeah. Yeah, you did. I told you a lot of things, too. I mean, I said some things I didn't mean."

"I meant it: Sod off."

"You've got a right to mean it. I mean, I kicked you out."

"Yeah, you did."

"I told you I hated you."

"What part of 'sod off' are you having a problem with, here?"

"The part that says you're never going to forgive me and you're never going to love me again and I have to go through the rest of my life knowing I screwed up the most important thing I'll ever try to do, just like everything else."

"You can add feeling bloody sorry for yourself to the list, as well."

"I'm sorry, Spike. I love you."

"No, you don't."

"I do! What would I have to do to prove that I do?"

Spike winced.

"What? What did I say?"

"Nothing. It's just I spent most of the last hundred years trying to prove to Angelus that I loved him, and to Dru that she was worth loving. Your head's a worse mess that hers; you know that?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean...."

Cool fingers brushed across Xander's mouth. Cooler blue eyes looked up at him, and cool lips twitched in a suppressed grin that quickly escaped and spread across Spike's face.

"Come here, ye birk!" he said, and pulled Xander to him.

In the middle of the kiss, the van's door flew open and Buffy climbed in, and then climbed back out again.

"There are no heterosexuals left in Sunnydale!" she moaned from outside. Spike grinned again.

"Well, Slayer, if you'd give a fellow any hope at all...."

"I'll give you hope," she said, exhibiting the stake as they all piled into the van and drove away.

The End