Buffy awoke from a dreamless sleep to discover she was alone in the dorm room she shared with Willow.  She looked at the clock to discover it was close to five a.m. She briefly wondered if Willow had gotten up early and was showering, but then noticed her bed hadn’t been slept in.  Willow didn’t usually make her bed until after she had showered.
   Buffy shot out of bed and headed over to the phone.  After several rings, Giles picked up the line groggily.
“Hello?”
“Giles?  Is Willow there?”  Buffy asked concerned.
“N... yes.”  Giles answered after a moment’s hesitation.  He realized Buffy would not be as understanding about Willow’s concern for the blond vampire as he had been.
“Why?”  Buffy asked curiously.
“Huh?”  Giles had forgotten what they were talking about.
“Why is Willow there?  Are you researching?”
“Uh, no.  But we were.  She was helping me go through some of these volumes.  She’s asleep now.”  Giles was struck with the lack of difficulty he had in lying to his slayer.
“Oh, okay.  I was just worried when I didn’t find her in bed.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.  I guess I’ll see her in class.”  Buffy hung up the phone, convinced Willow was okay, and safe.

   When Willow awoke the next morning, she was unsure where she was at first.  After a few moments, she realized she was in the spare bedroom of Spike’s house.  She crawled out of bed and decided she should probably take a shower.  She felt self-conscious showering in Spike’s house, with him asleep just a couple of doors down.  But she definitely couldn’t go back to the dorm.  Buffy was there, and she wasn’t ready to deal with her.  She didn’t know what to tell her.  She hoped that maybe Buffy hadn’t noticed that she hadn’t come home, but Willow realized that was very unlikely.  Maybe she could tell her she slept at Giles.
   *What the hell am I worried about? * Willow asked herself, realizing she was an adult, she didn’t need an excuse to stay out all night.  Determined to not be bullied she crept out of the bedroom and walked softly into the bathroom.

   Somewhere on the edge of sleep, Spike heard water running.  He opened his eyes, and listened.  It was the shower.  Who was in the shower?  He tried to remember the events of the previous night, wondering if he’d gone out drinking again.  Maybe he had brought someone home.  *No, that can’t be right. * He thought.  Then he smelled it.  It was her.  The redheaded witch.  She was taking a shower, here, in his house. He sat up in bed.  His head was killing him.  He tried to remember if he had indeed gone out and gotten drunk.  He hoped he didn’t doing anything stupid, especially not in front of her.
  *Damn! You’re starting to sound like Peaches! * He growled to himself.

He walked out into the kitchen and decided to make some breakfast.  If Willow had stayed the night, she was probably hungry.  After two mugs of warm bagged blood, and a cup of coffee, Spike still couldn’t remember what had happened.  He heard the water turn off, and after several minutes Willow came out, looking refreshed.  He tried to look her over to see if she showed any signs of what may have happened the previous night.  She didn’t smell any different, so he knew that nothing too embarrassing happened.

“Morning, pet.  I made some coffee.”  He nodded towards the coffeepot as she walked into the kitchen and sat at the table.
“Thanks.  I, uh, I wanted to apologize for crashing here last night.  But I didn’t feel like explaining where I had been to Buffy.”  She was looking at the table, unable to meet his eyes.  She felt awkward for making herself at home without asking.  She didn’t think he would really mind, but it was the principle of the thing.

Spike brought her a cup of steaming coffee and sat down across from her.
“It’s okay, Luv.  I don’t imagine the slayer would be happy to know you spent the night with me.”  He chucked at the thought, still unsure of exactly what had happened, although he could tell from her reaction that they hadn’t slept in the same bed.  He was glad.  If she was going to sleep in his bed, he wanted to remember it.

Willow grinned, “no, I don’t suppose she would.”  She looked over at the clock. “I, uh, I have to get going.  Class.”  She stood up, and after taken several large gulps of her coffee she set the mug in the sink and ran out of the kitchen.
“I’ll, uh, call you, or stop by, later.”  She ran out his house before he could stop her.

Spike watched her in amusement.  She seemed to be a bit flustered.  He briefly wondered if anything had happened the previous night.  But then decided that he was just imagining things.  His head was pounding.  It felt as if it was going to explode.  He walked back to his room, hoping that the grinding would stop if he got some more sleep.  It was early still and he was exhausted.

   Mark found himself wandering the streets of Sunnydale just after dawn.  He couldn’t sleep.  He kept thinking about Willow.  He wondered who she was going to see so late at night.  He had inadvertently walked to the street Willow had turned down, subconsciously hoping to get a good look at her friend.  After about thirty minutes of staring at the house, he was getting ready to leave when he heard the front door open.  He barely had enough time to hide behind a bush, before Willow came running out of the house, wearing the same clothes she had on the previous night.
  She was in a hurry.  She started to run, towards the park.  He followed her, again.  This time to a house on the other end of town.  It belonged to that watcher.  She knocked on the door for several minutes, and then was lead inside.

   Mark was even more confused than before.  Willow had apparently spent the night with her ‘friend’, even though she had told him he wasn’t her boyfriend.  He headed over to the fraternity, determined to get some answers from Riley.

Willow walked into Giles house, unsure of how to ask him for her favor.
“Giles, I was wondering if… you could do me a favor?”
“You don’t want me to tell Buffy that you spent the night with Spike?  Uh, at Spike’s, I mean” Giles corrected.
Willow smiled.  “Yeah.  I just don’t think she would understand.”
“Yes, quite right.”  Giles agreed.  “She called last night.”
A look of horror crossed Willow’s features at Giles words, and he hurried to reassure her.  “Don’t worry.  I told her you were here, researching, and you fell asleep.”

Willow sighed.  “Thanks.  Did you… did you find anything?”  She asked, afraid to hear the answer.  Giles looked down and shook his head.
“No, I’m afraid not.  I’m gonna keep looking, but I’m afraid the only people who can answer your questions are the people responsible.”
“Riley?”  She asked softly.  Giles nodded.
“Well, I’ll see if I can talk to him today, without revealing my reasons, of course.  I’ll come by after class.”  She headed to leave.
“Willow?” Giles called just as she had opened the door. She turned around.
“Be careful.  We don’t know very much about these people, or their agenda.  We don’t know Riley.  Don’t tell them anything they don’t already know.”

Willow smiled and nodded her head. “Of course not.”

Willow walked into class with a purpose.  She was determined to confront Riley.  Ok, maybe confront wasn’t the right term.  But she knew she had to get some answers.  She just hoped Riley had them, and would be willing to share.

  She saw Riley in one corner of the room, intently looking at a stack of papers.  Without thinking she headed for him.  A part of her brain told her this wasn’t the time, or the place, but she was driven by a need that was overriding her rational thought.

   She had almost reached him when she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Willow whirled around to see who had kept her from her goal.

“Willow” Buffy smiled uncertainly at her friend.
“Buffy. Hi!” Willow waved slightly at her friend. “I, was, uh, I was just coming to class, here, where we are.” Willow babbled, realizing she had lost her chance to speak with Riley.

  Buffy turned towards their seats, and shook her head slightly.  Willow had been acting rather strange lately.
  After they had sat down in their seats, Buffy turned to her friend. “So, you spent the night at Giles?”
“Uh, I Uh, yeah.”  Willow busied herself will opening her Psyche book, avoiding having to look Buffy in the eye, while she lied. “I, uh, had to help him with some research.”
Willow took a moment to look up at the slayer, and seeing the confusion in her eyes, was sorry she did.

“With what?”  Buffy asked, a million questions forming in her mind.
“Huh?”  Willow asked, not understanding the question.
“What kind of research?  Giles’ didn’t mention anything to me.”
Willow stared at her friend blankly for a moment, trying to think of an answer. “Uh, it was… it wasn’t important.  Just some new book he found. He…” Willow was relieved to have her explanation interrupted by the entrance of Professor Walsh.

As the professor took control of the class, Willow couldn’t help but wonder how she had gotten herself into this mess.  Why she felt the need to lie to Buffy about where she had spent the night?  It wasn’t like anything had happened.  Hell, it wasn’t even like she wanted anything to happen.  Her and Spike were just friends.

   Spike awoke to the pounding in his head.  It had gotten worse recently.  It felt like someone had taken a jackhammer, and let it loose inside there.  He groaned, as he tried to move.  His body wasn’t cooperating.  It felt stiff, and heavy.  If he didn’t know better he would swear something was pinning him down.  He relaxed his body for a second against the bed, and then tried again.
  Every muscle in his body ached.  He could feel every cell constrict in pain at his movement, and the pounding in his head was getting louder.  His vision was starting to blur, he knew with sudden clarity that he was going to loose consciousness.
He would be glad for the silence.

     Willow rushed out of class before Buffy could corner her and ask anymore questions. She decided that talking to Riley at school might have been a bad idea.  She would have to talk to him later, away from here, away from Buffy.

  She had been so lost in her own thoughts; Willow barely noticed when she ran into something, or rather someone.
“I am so sorry.  I didn’t even see you.”  Willow apologized as she bent down to pick up her dropped books.
“Mark.”  She smiled.
“Willow.  Are you alright?”  Mark asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.  I, uh, need to go.  I have, uh, uh thing.”  She smiled again and walked past Mark and disappeared down the hall.

  Mark stared after her for a moment, and then turned back to his destination.  When he entered the classroom, he found Riley standing in one corner talking to Buffy Summers.

“Hey, Riley.  Buffy.”  Mark nodded at Buffy, “What’s with Willow?”

“What do you mean?”  Buffy asked,

“Well I just ran into her in the hallway, and she seemed a little distracted.  Did she… did she have a fight with her boyfriend or something?”

“She doesn’t have a boyfriend.”  Riley stated and then looked questioningly to Buffy, “Does she?”
“No.  They broke up.”
“Oh, well I assumed, after last night… and then just now…”
“Last night?”  Buffy asked, confused, “What happened last night?”