Willow and Giles headed down the stairs from the apartment, both feeling nervous about being separated from the vampires. Giles didn't even want to consider the possibilities of Willow being somehow injured because he couldn't protect her.

Willow could see the worry on his face, and she nudged him gently. "I'm sure we are over-reacting. Even if the Council has sent more people, they will all be heading over to see Buffy. There's no reason to think they will be combing Sunnydale for you, or me, so soon."

Giles knew that logically she was right, but he still found himself nervously scanning their surroundings as they got into Angel's car and headed to the nearest supermarket. They made their selections in record time and stacked the grocery bags in the trunk, both feeling slightly more secure now that they had done half of their job without any trouble.

The next stop was Willy's. Willow had already placed an order when she picked up the blood for Spike yesterday, so they soon found they had finished all their food purchases in less than their designated hour.

Willow looked at Giles appraisingly.

"Giles," she said sweetly, causing him to look at her in alarm. He knew from the wheedling tone in her voice that she was going to make him do something that he really, really didn't want to do.

"Yes?" he said faintly.

"If we're going to go to LA tonight, and well, who knows when we'll be back, I need to take some things with me."

"Willow, I think that Angel has sufficient funds for you to purchase whatever clothing you need when you reach LA."

Willow raised her eyebrows incredulously at the suggestion that she would be worried about clothing at a time like this.

"I need my laptop," she said sternly. "I left it at my parents' house the night I went to see you, before I went to LA. I was in too much of a rush this morning to think of it, but Giles, I need that computer. It's more or less on our way. I will be in and out in two minutes."

Giles was not swayed by her arguments. "No, I think we should just head straight back to the apartment. If it's so important you can go tonight, when we are all together."

"But by then there is a much greater chance of Council people being in Sunnydale, so it will be much more dangerous. Come on Giles, it will only take a minute. If we see anything suspicious, anything at all, we'll just keep driving."

Giles opened his mouth to protest, then decided it would be quicker to just let her get the wretched computer. Muttering under his breath, Giles drove towards Willow's parents' house.

As they approached her block, they saw the street was closed to traffic, with a soldier manning the barricade. Giles and Willow looked at each other, then Giles slowed down next to the soldier.

Willow leaned out of the window, giving her best "I'm so innocent" smile. "Hello, what's going on here? Can we drive through?"

"Do you live here, miss?"

"No, just taking a shortcut home."

"The road will be open soon. Best go another way this time. Please move along now."

"Sure," said Willow with a cheerful smile as Giles drove off. A few blocks later Giles pulled over to the side of the road.

"There is no way that was a co-incidence," said Willow flatly.

"And it clearly wasn't the Council," Giles added.

"So Buffy has called in the Initiative. But they obviously weren't looking for either of us. So that means they're after - Spike."

Willow went cold at the thought of the Initiative re-capturing the blonde vampire. She couldn't believe that Buffy could be so vindictive. She must know that Spike would be tortured and probably killed.

Willow felt panic grip her. Angel's apartment was not safe enough. Buffy knew where it was, and it wouldn't be that hard for her to call LA and find out that Angel was in Sunnydale; even Buffy would be able to work out what he must be doing.

Giles could see Willow's face slowly growing whiter, and he had no doubt what was troubling her. "Buffy would not get too deeply involved with the Initiative. I expect she made an anonymous phone call with your address. There is no way she would expect Spike to be at Angel's old apartment. Besides, if anything happened you would know, wouldn't you? Can you, ah, sense them?"

Acknowledging that Giles' logical approach was more practical than blind panic, Willow made a conscious effort to calm herself, breathing deeply until she felt her heart rate begin to slow.

Then she closed her eyes and looked in her mind for the presence of her mates, instantly reassured when she sensed them, and saw that they were both worried - about her.

Willow felt guilty for upsetting them over nothing, but still, it was nice to know they were worried about her. So far, Willow thought, the whole bond thing was mostly good; she had her own built-in support group.

Willow focused on all her positive feelings for her mates, and tried to visualise sending those emotions through the bond. (Psychic e-mail) she chuckled to herself, before opening her eyes and letting a relieved grin cross her face.

"They're fine," she told Giles. "But they're worried, so we should get back to the apartment."

They made it in record time, grabbing the bags of groceries and heading up the stairs. Willow didn't bother knocking, just opened the door and headed in, only to stop in surprise at the sight of her two mates lying entwined on the floor, apparently asleep.

Angel and Spike were waiting for Willow to return when they simultaneously felt their heads explode with a burst of emotion. It was as though their minds were stripped of everything, every feeling, every memory, and the only thing they could feel or remember was love - and lust. Then suddenly, the sensation receded and they found themselves in Willow's dreamscape.

"Bloody Hell, not again!" moaned Spike. Then he noticed that just he and Angel were there, which for some reason made him a bit worried. After all, it was Willow's dream; it stood to reason that she should be in it.

Angel put his hand on Spike's shoulder, gently nudging him to draw the younger vampire's attention to the approaching figure of Ms Calendar.

"Greetings," she said calmly.

Spike opened his mouth to reply, but was convinced by the sudden tightening of Angel's hand to stay silent.

Angel waited for a moment, until he was sure Spike was going to co- operate. Then he said, "What just happened?"

"The bond between you is growing stronger. Your mate was experimenting with it."

"Experimenting in what way?" asked Angel, remembering the intensity of emotion that had consumed him.

"She was consciously projecting her emotions through the bond."

Spike's eyes widened as he realised what that meant, and he felt Angel's body stiffen.

"Why is the bond growing stronger?" asked Angel calmly.

"The bond is a reflection of the emotional ties between you. Three strangers can be bond partners, but the bond is weak as is their connection to each other. Do not think that chance brought you together. You were chosen by the First, whether she knows it or not. She is the centre."

"Then why are we here without her?"

"Because you each have a role independent of the First. You are both bound to her, and to each other, and you must think carefully on what that means. There are many troubles ahead, and the three must be as one."

"But you said once that it didn't matter if we were physically together," Angel reminded her, confused at what seemed to be a change in the rules.

"The bond changes, and the stronger the bond is the better for all. Soon your First will reach maturity; the three must be one."

And with that Angel and Spike found themselves lying on the floor in Angel's apartment, looking at Giles' feet.

Angel slowly sat up as Spike scrambled to put some distance between them. "Where's Willow?" they both asked, as Giles reached down a hand to help Angel to his feet.

Spike snickered at the sight. "Need a hand eh, old man?" he asked, only to receive a growl from Willow as she walked in from the kitchen.

"I thought I told you to behave?" she said with mock ferocity, before enveloping Spike in a bear hug. Spike was glad he didn't have to breath; for a little thing she was surprisingly strong.

After a few minutes he felt her relax her grip, and he moved back far enough to look at her face. "Missed me, eh pet?".

Willow grinned at him, and closed the distance between them to claim his lips in a searing kiss. Her hands drifted to squeeze his ass before Giles' low cough reminded her of their surroundings.

Unable to control the bright red colour that covered her face, Willow moved away from Spike and ignored his big grin - and the even bigger bulge in his trousers. Willow said a muted "hello" to Angel, then exclaimed nervously, "Blood! I have some blood, cold I'm afraid, but still," and with that she made her escape to the kitchen.

Spike enjoyed the look of resignation on the ex-Watcher's face. "One thing that you've got to admit about Willow, she's got excellent taste in men," he said to Giles, smirking at the look of distaste on Giles' face as he hastily excused himself to help Willow.

Spike turned to Angel, a wise remark on his lips when he noticed Angel's set expression. He remembered Willow's brief "hello", and decided Angel might need a bit of reassurance.

After all, he was starting to think it might be good to have another bloke around to help him with Willow. (I mean,) he thought, (women are hard enough to deal with, with Angel there he can do all the talking and I can do all the shagging. Perfect.)

But first Willow and Angel had to sort out their problems, and he had a feeling it might take a bit more than a rough fuck. So Spike did his best to get Angel motivated.

"Come on mate, chin up. Remember the whole projection thing. Red's crazy about us."

"She's crazy about you," said Angel morosely.

"No, no, well, yeah, obviously, but she likes you too. Come on, don't make me talk like a poof. You know what I mean."

Angel smiled slightly, touched that Spike would make the effort to try and cheer him up. He felt as though he had re-established his connection with his grand-childe, and it had been much easier than he had imagined. But then, Spike had always been too forgiving for his own good when there was a shag involved, thought Angel slyly.

He wondered what Willow would think of he and Spike becoming closer, and whether she would worry that it would effect her relationship with Spike. After all, for all her dealings with vampires Willow was human - well, more or less - and did not have the same lack of sexual restraint as a vampire. It would be only natural for her to feel jealous, Angel decided with a frown.

Spike groaned. "Sodding poof, don't tell me you're going to start brooding."

Angel smacked Spike across the back of the head, relieving both of their tension, and they were chatting aimlessly when Willow entered with two cups of blood and, to Spike's inexpressible delight, a packet of Marlboros.

Spike downed his blood in record time, ripping the packet of cigarettes open and wasting no time in lighting one up, his face a study in pleasure as the smoke filled his long-dead lungs.

While Angel and Spike enjoyed their meal, Willow used the blankets that had previously sheltered the vampires to cover the dusty sofa, giving them at least somewhere to sit. Spike threw himself down on one end, and dragged Willow onto his lap.

Angel motioned for Giles to sit down, and he took the empty mugs into the kitchen. It was not quite noon, which meant they still had several hours to spend here before they could leave. Angel rubbed one hand over his face, dreading the thought of spending such a long period cooped up, with no way of speaking privately to Spike or Willow.

Trying to put his worries about such personal matters from his mind, Angel returned to the others to find out what had happened earlier to upset Willow. When he heard that Buffy had apparently called in the Initiative, he exchanged an alarmed look with Spike.

"Giles, are you sure? I mean surely Buffy knows what would happen to Spike if they captured him."

"And what would happen to Willow," Giles said gravely.

Three pairs of eyes stared at him. "What do you mean?" growled Spike.

"Well," reasoned Giles, "if they found Spike with a human, ah, consort, who carried marks suggesting he was capable of feeding off a human despite his chip, I imagine they would want to study them both."

Spike wrapped his arms tighter around Willow, growling softly as he licked the bite mark on her neck; his mark. As with most vampires the basic urges were the strongest in times of stress, and the urge to mark Willow again was humming through him.

(Mine) was his only thought, as he tried to think of some way to kill those bastards without setting off his chip. And as he considered his options, he notices Angel's clenched jaw and wondered how much more provoking it would take from Bitchy before Angel decided to take the fight to her. And Angel did not have a chip.

Willow was determined not to dwell on what was happening. Her only priority was to get them all safely to LA as soon as possible. Then Buffy would find out that she had made a poor choice in forcing Willow to become her enemy.

Suddenly something occurred to Willow; Giles had seen her bite marks.

She was half embarrassed and half proud - after all, those marks were the vampire equivalent of a wedding ring, and they showed her as Spike's mate.

Still, since Giles had mentioned it ... "Giles," she asked hesitantly, "do you think that Spike can bite me without the chip going off because, well, because I'm not human anymore?" Willow noted with some pride that she had managed to keep her voice even, despite the nauseous feeling that filled her at the idea of not being human.

"Well," said Giles, sensing that this was probably a sensitive topic, "Spike was unable to attack Buffy in self defence, so we can assume that the chip is still functioning overall. As to your particular case, it may be as you say that the, ah, the ritual has started your change into a Servant, so that the chip no longer recognises you as human."

Seeing the glassy look in Willow's eyes, Giles hurried on. "However that's only one possibility. It may also be that the circumstances in which you were bitten, I mean that you were a willing participant, well, that may be the reason the chip was not activated, because there was no violent intent on Spike's part."

Willow thought this over. Looking over her shoulder at Spike, she asked, "When you had sex with, you know, other humans, did you bite them?"

Spike knew what she was getting at. "Sorry luv, tried but the chip wouldn't let me."

Willow didn't know which was more disturbing, the idea that Spike had wanted to bite Buffy when they had sex, or that Buffy had apparently been willing to let to let him, or the confirmation that as far as Spike's chip was concerned she was now no longer human - not something that would be a bonus if the Initiative ever did manage to capture her.

But even the frission of fear that ran down her spine at the thought of being subjected to the Initiative's brand of scientific study was not enough to keep her mind clear of the horrible images of Buffy and Spike together - in a naked way.

Willow knew it was ridiculous, (I mean) she thought, (it was my spell that made him do it,) but still she felt jealousy clawing at her. What was it about Buffy anyhow, always taking the men that Willow wanted?

Disturbed at her thoughts, Willow climbed off Spike's lap and said to Giles, "I think I'll make a sandwich, do you want one?" And at Giles nod she headed to the kitchen, hoping some privacy would help her to marshal her thoughts.

Wesley and Cordelia had spent most of the morning discussing recent developments. Cordelia was outraged to learn of Buffy's antics. (She just can't stand not being the centre of attention) fumed the former cheerleader.

She also managed to discover from Wesley's ramblings that the loss of the book was serious. She didn't exactly understand why, and it seemed from his vagueness that Wesley didn't either, but she decided this was her chance to do something for Angel.

After all, Angel had saved her, and the world, plenty of times, and in Cordelia's personal opinion he deserved some happiness. Plus with Willow around, she would finally have some female companionship (and she knew there would be plenty of shopping required, because she had seen Willow's idea of fashion and she would make it her personal project to improve the hacker's look to the fullest extent possible with Angel's impressive credit limit). Plus there was the whole eye- candy factor that Spike brought, a definite plus given the limited appeal of most of their demonic clientele.

The end result of her deliberations was that Cordelia soon found herself heading down the highway in a borrowed car, leaving Wesley's protests far behind as she headed for Sunnydale.

Just over an hour and one speeding ticket later, Cordelia pulled up outside Xander's house. It was 11am, and she had no doubt that she would find Xander at home, still sleeping.

Knocking briskly at the door, she gave Xander's mother her best businesslike look and was soon directed to the basement, where as expected she could hear snoring coming from a lump on the bed.

Shaking her head at the unappealing surroundings, Cordelia put her head close to the place on the lump where the snores seemed loudest and yelled "Alexander Lavelle Harris!" She smiled as the lump jerked then tried to rise, instead ending in a sprawled heap on the floor.

Xander finally managed to free himself from his blankets, only to stare in amazement at Cordelia's elegant form towering over him. From the look on his face he would have been only slightly more surprised to see an extraterrestrial, thought Cordelia impatiently as she nudged him with her foot.

"Come on Xander, get moving, Willow's in trouble, Buffy's gone psycho, time to be a hero, MOVE."

Xander staggered to his feet. Cordelia took a good look and decided it was just as well she was one step ahead. Opening the paper bag she had brought with her, she removed the lid from the plastic cup inside and let the smell of coffee work its magic.

After Xander had pulled some clothes on and drained the cup of coffee, he felt a bit closer to normal, but he was still having trouble understanding exactly why Cordelia Chase was sitting in his basement.

Luckily for all concerned, Cordelia knew Xander well enough to put things in a Xander-friendly way.

"OK, here's the situation. Willow has found out that she is a real witch, like in a chosen kind of way, and Spike and Angel have been picked as her mates. Willow is happy, Spike is happy, Angel is happy. Buffy is pissed off. She has called in the Council and told them Willow has brainwashed Giles, so now all of them are hiding out somewhere until dusk so they can go to LA. But Buffy has stolen a book from Giles, something important that Willow needs. And we need to get it back."

Xander absorbed all of this. He could definitely imagine Willow and Angel together. Despite all his anti-Angel propaganda, he thought Angel was quite an OK guy for a vampire. And the same for Spike, although he was a bit more irritating. Anyway, if Willow was happy then who was he, boyfriend of a former vengeance demon, to raise objections. Xander marveled at his easy acceptance of his best friend having acquired two vampire lovers - (too many years on the Hellmouth) - before moving onto the rest of Cordelia's story.

He knew that Cordelia wouldn't lie to him, and he could easily imagine Buffy going, well OK, going psycho, but he wasn't sure why Cordelia would be so concerned about helping Willow.

"And you're worried about Willow because?"

"I care about Angel. If Willow is Angel's mate then that makes her my problem as well. And plus I can't believe Buffy would treat Willow like that. I mean, it's not like Willow ever stole one of Buffy's boyfriends. Well, except Angel, but he wasn't Buffy's at the time so that doesn't count. Oh come on," she said, dragging Xander to the stairs, "we need to move, just trust me."

And Xander, to his surprise, found that he did.

"OK, what's the plan?" he asked. Hopefully Cordelia had one, and it would be easy to follow.

"All we need to do is find Buffy. She's bound to have the book with her, we just need to get it off her."

Xander looked at Cordelia doubtfully; that didn't sound like much of a plan to him. Seeing his look, Cordelia sighed impatiently. "Oh please, come on, this is Buffy we're talking about."

Cordelia pushed Xander into her car, and drove them both to the university campus. They got out of the car, and Cordelia had Xander direct them to Buffy's dorm building.

"OK, now you call her and tell her that Willow has called you, that she was very upset, and she is coming around to your house and you want Buffy to come too."

Xander hesitated. ""Buffy is going to be really pissed off with me."

"Best friends forever, always stuck by you, blah blah, come on Xander, Willow needs that book."

So Xander found himself dialing Buffy's number, and to his horror he soon heard Buffy answer. (Why can't you ever get the machine when you want to?) he thought, then he launched into his speech.

Buffy told him in cheerful tones that she'd be there as soon as she could, and Xander hung up, turning to Cordelia. "Now what?"

"Where's her room?" And off they went, until they were outside Buffy's door. To Xander's horror, Cordelia marched straight in without knocking. By the time Xander had worked up the courage to enter, he saw that the room was Buffy-free and Cordelia was conducting a brisk but neat search, soon pulling a silver book from Buffy's weapons bag with glee.

And while Xander was still gaping at her sheer effrontery, Cordelia grabbed his hand and pulled him from the room, closing the door behind them and heading downstairs.

"But how did you know she wouldn't be there?"

"Are you serious? Do you have any idea how long it takes her to apply all that make-up? To get her hair like that? She would have headed straight for the bathroom. She won't be at your house for at least an hour."

Cordelia dropped Xander back at his house, after first making him call Buffy back (this time, to his relief, he got the machine) and leave a message saying Willow had called and wasn't coming, so there was no need for Buffy to come.

Cordelia thought briefly about where the others were likely to be hiding. "Xander, where was Angel's old apartment?" After getting the address, Cordelia said her good-byes and to his credit, Xander told her to let him know if he could be of any further help, and to get Willow to call him.

Then Cordelia headed over to the apartment, hoping that she had guessed right. Spotting Angel's car parked outside, she marveled over her own cleverness. (Brains and beauty) she thought as she knocked on the door. When there was no response she tried the handle; it was unlocked.

Rolling her eyes at the elaborate security, Cordelia strolled in saying, "It's only me, where is everyone?"

At the sound of her voice Angel and Spike seemed to materialise out of the shadows. "Oh hi Angel, I've got a present for you" said Cordelia cheekily, and she handed a dumb struck Angel the re-stolen book.