“So, where is everyone?” Buffy asked, shutting yet another book and pushing it aside with a weary sigh.

“Hmmm?” Giles dragged himself away from the passage he’d been reading and blinked.

“You know, Willow, Xander... the rest of the gang?”

“LA, I believe,” Giles answered distractedly, his eyes flicking back to the book.

“The Dingoes had a gig in LA Friday night; Xan had the weekend off, so Faith and him decided to go with Willow and Oz and make a weekend of it,” this dimension’s Buffy answered, rolling her eyes at her watcher’s typical lack of interest in anything not slayer related. “They’ll be back sometime tomorrow night.”

“Xander and Faith?” Buffy asked, her eyes widening in disbelief. “You mean as in... together?”

“See,” this dimension’s Spike said, turning to give his Buffy a smug look, “‘m not the only one wonders what she sees in the boy.”

“No, I...” Buffy snapped her mouth shut, deciding it was better not to correct Spike’s misconception. She frowned, silently wondering why she ended up with the homicidal Faith in her dimension. “Never mind,” she added when they continued to stare at her expectantly.

Spike’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied this other-world version of his love for a moment, before giving her a brief nod and returning his attention to the book in front of him.

“Rupert,” Jenny called from the doorway. “Would you mind checking over my notes for me?”

~*~

“I’m pretty sure that the amulet is functioning properly; the problem is in the phrasing of your activation chant. You’re asking it to take you to the subject—in this case Dawn—but you’re then asking for it to ‘bring you to the familiar’. So, as far as I can tell, it is taking you to the dimension that Dawn is in, but instead of taking you to where she is, it is taking you to somewhere or someone you’re familiar with.”

“Great,” Spike growled. “So Red stuffed up, as usual.”

“Can you fix it?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“It’s not broken, so it doesn’t need fixing. I just needed to remove the superfluous phrase from your chant and tidy up the grammar. Nice and easy,” Jenny informed them with a smile. “Now you just need to learn the new chant, and it should take you directly to Dawn. I’ve written the chant down, just in case you have to leave before you’ve had a chance to learn it.” She handed each of them a neatly folded piece of paper.

~*~

Buffy opened the door to the guest room. “The bathroom’s through there,” she told her guests, pointing to the door. “That’s Dawn’s room.” She pointed once more. “And Spike and I are in the basement. If you need anything—”

Looking over his Buffy’s shoulder, Spike saw that the room contained only a double bed, and was just opening his mouth to suggest he take the couch downstairs when she smiled and nodded her thanks to her counterpart. “We’re good. All we need is some sleep. You guys have been great, you have no idea how much this means,” she said with a gesture that took in their surroundings and ended with her hand resting protectively over the pocket containing Jenny’s new version of the activation chant.

Buffy’s eyes grew distant for a moment as she thought about how she would feel if something happened to her Dawn. “I think I have an idea,” she said. “And I’m sure that if the situation was reversed, you guys would do the same for us. Get some sleep. Knowing Giles, he’ll be back in a few hours to continue the research party—he hasn’t had an excuse for one in a while, and you know what he’s like when the inner watcher breaks out.”

“I didn’t know it ever went away,” Spike muttered, following Buffy into the room as their host headed back downstairs.

“You should have some blood,” Buffy said, rummaging through his duffle and pulling out a bag. “We should have put these in the fridge; they might go off. I should do that now before I forget,” she added, dropping the duffle bag on the bed and snatching up the remaining blood bags.

“Leave them,” Spike said, catching her by the shoulders. “I can sleep downstairs on the couch, love. Or,” he grabbed a pillow off the bed and dropped it on the floor, “the floor will do fine. Get some sleep,” he added, pushing her gently towards the bed.

“No. I— I want you to stay...here,” she added, patting the bed. “It’s just—”

“Awkward?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah.” She sighed. “I want you to stay, but I don’t want you to think—”

“Don’t worry,” Spike cut her off sharply. “Know better than to think.”

“See,” she snapped. “That’s what I’m talking about!” She drew a deep breath, visibly calming herself before meeting his gaze levelly and picking up the discarded bag of blood. “Eat. Please.”

Spike took the bag, and slipping into his vampiric features, he neatly pierced the plastic and downed the contents.

“I want you to stay,” Buffy said again. “And I do want to see if maybe there’s something— But Dawn is my priority and I don’t want to rush. And,” she continued quickly before he could interrupt her, “I don’t want you thinking that I don’t want to see just because I don’t want to rush. Did that make any kind of sense?” she asked, smiling at the confused look on Spike’s face.

“Only the Buffy kind,” Spike chuckled. “It’s alright, love. I don’t expect anything, and I know that getting Dawn back is our first priority. I promise I won’t get any ideas—good or bad, ‘kay?”

“Okay.”

“Right, so...floor or bed?” he asked, not quite sure where the trail of Buffy logic had left them.

“Bed, you doofus. Isn’t that what I just said?”

“If you say so, love,” he responded. Laughing once more, he kicked off his boots and slipped into bed.

“Eww. Spike, you have blood breath. Toothpaste, look into it,” Buffy ordered, gathering her own toiletries and beating him to the bathroom. “Or no goodnight kiss,” she added, laughing as she closed the bathroom door.