~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

SPIKE: Well, this can't be good, you here at this hour. Trouble?

BUFFY: No, no trouble, I was just...

SPIKE: Oh, right. none of my business, no worries.

BUFFY: Spike, how was your night?

SPIKE: All right. And yours? Did you bag any baddies?

BUFFY: One. Vampire. Someone I used to know actually, a little. Holden...Holden Webster.

SPIKE: You knew him, huh? That must have been a picnic.

BUFFY: Yeah.

SPIKE: Well, I'm going to turn in before I drop. G'night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

BUFFY: You know you want it. You know I want you too.

BUFFY: There's my guy

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

BUFFY: Did you kill her?

SPIKE: What?

BUFFY: The girl? Last night?

SPIKE: What girl? What are you talking about?

BUFFY: I caught the first act, I missed the curtain call. Did you kill her? did you turn her, is she one of your kind now?

SPIKE: Did you...are you following me?

BUFFY: Answer my question! Where is she?

SPIKE: Who knows? I talked to her is all.

BUFFY: Really? Looked like more than talking to me.

SPIKE: Well, I certainly didn't off her. Where are you getting this? You know I can't.

BUFFY: Right, the chip.

SPIKE: No, not the chip. Not the chip, dammit! You honestly think that I'd go the end of the end of the world and back to get my soul and then...Buffy, I can barely live with what I did. It haunts me, all of it. If you think that I would add to the body count now, you're crazy.

BUFFY: So what? You just stroll the promenade looking for drunk co-eds because you're hungry for conversation?

SPIKE: Ohh, is that what this is? Right.

BUFFY: What?

SPIKE: You're jealous.

BUFFY: Don't play games, not now.

SPIKE: Yeah, you saw me chattin' up another bird, saw me giving the eye to someone else. Touched a nerve, didn't it?

BUFFY: Don't flatter yourself.

SPIKE: It burns, huh? But you can't admit it, so you trump up some charge me about being back on the juice.

BUFFY: This vampire I killed told me--

SPIKE: Told you what? That I go out? Yeah, I talk to people...women. I talk to them because I can't talk to you.

BUFFY: Oh, Spike, save it.

SPIKE: As daft a notion of Soulful Spike the Killer is, it is nothing compared to the idea that another girl could mean anything to me. This chip, they did TO me. I couldn't help it. But the soul I got on my own. For you.

BUFFY: I know.

SPIKE: So yeah, I go and pass the time, with someone. But that's all it is, is time. Because God help me, Buffy, it's still all about you.

BUFFY: Spike, this vampire told me you sired him.

SPIKE: That doesn't mean--

BUFFY: He said you killed him and dumped him in a parking lot somewhere.

SPIKE: And you believe him?

BUFFY: I did follow you last night, and you know what? You didn't look lonely OR casual to me. You looked like you were on the prowl.

SPIKE: You can't know that!

BUFFY: So then tell me. Tell me what happened! You talked to her and then what?

SPIKE: We talked, that's all I remember.

BUFFY: All you remember?

SPIKE: I don't know. I go out, I talk to people. It's boring, it all bleeds together.

BUFFY: Well, if you seem to forget that much, then--

SPIKE: Not that. Taste of human blood? THAT I'd remember.

BUFFY: You were camped out on the Hellmouth talking to invisible people. Recently. How can you be sure of anything?

SPIKE: No! You are wrong! You've got an accusation from a pile of dust, and not a shred of proof.

BUFFY: So I'll get some.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

SPIKE: Down here. You won't come down? I understand, risky proposition.

EVIL-SPIKE-LOOK-ALIKE: There's an order. Slayer's not in order. But it can't hurt to play. Get your claws in the mouse, y'know?

SPIKE: You're not here!

BUFFY: All right. What do you want to show me?

SPIKE: I've been remembering...the girl. I walked her home, the one you saw, and the one before that. And I think I killed her, and I think I killed the lady who lived here, and there might be others.

BUFFY: Oh my god...

SPIKE: Yeah. I think I buried them here.

BUFFY: Spike, why?

SPIKE: Well, I don't know, do I? I don't even know how, I shouldn't even be here.

EVIL-SPIKE-LOOK-ALIKE: Oh, don't deceive me, oh, never leave me, how could you use a poor maid so?

BUFFY: What? What is it? Spike! What are you doing?! Spike, listen to me, you don't want to do this!

EVIL-SPIKE-LOOK-ALIKE: And it's just about to get fun. (Moments later) You know what I want you to do. They're waiting for you. Take her. Taste her. Make her weak.

BUFFY: Spike! No!

SPIKE: (Spike remembers everything he'd done) I remember.

EVIL-SPIKE-LOOK-ALIKE: You failed. Now she's going to kill you. You lose, mate.

SPIKE: Do it fast, okay? He said you'd do it.

BUFFY: Who said?

SPIKE: Me. It was me. I saw it, it was here the whole time. Talking and singing. That song.

BUFFY: What are you talking about?

SPIKE: I don't know. Please, I don't remember. Don't make me remember. You make it so I forget again! I did what you wanted!

BUFFY: There's something here.

SPIKE: God, no, please. I need that. I can't cry this salt out of me, it' won't come. I've killed, and I can feel them, I can feel every one of them.

BUFFY: There's something playing with us, all of us.

SPIKE: What is it? Why is it doing this to me?

BUFFY: I don't know.

SPIKE: Help me? Can you help me?

BUFFY: I'll help you.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

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