Written as a Long Stand Alone (Was written so it can be read with out reading the first story).

Sequel to Dream Once More (Archived at the Sand lot)

Author: T. Claybourne  (t.claybourne@yahoo.com)

AU And Crossover

Rating: Rated R most chapters for violence and Language, some are NC-17 for sexual content

A/N I'd like to thank my Beta Reader Hawera And muses Michelle Branch, Robbie Williams and Evanescence

Afterglow Chapter 17 Monkey Business

Spike awoke looking at a strange ceiling. He took a breath and recognized the scent of Harris right away. Slowly looking around, he saw that the room was obviously Xander's. In the corner was a comfy chair holding Spike's suit jacket, tie and shirt. It was then that the memories of last night came crashing in on him. Sitting up with a start, he swung his feet over the side of the bed and rubbed his face with his hands. Right now he wished that vampires could black out and forget everything. A beautiful blackout would be just the ticket. He sat quietly in his embarrassment and heard domestic sounds in the kitchen. He sensed that it was another vampire, but to be sure he stepped over the bag in front of it he opened the door and took a deep breath. Her scent wafted up to him, intermingled with other spices: she was cooking. Spike let out an audible sigh that was more for himself than anything else. He bent down and looked in the bag, and inside was a change of clothing, his coat and some toiletries. The contents smelled slightly of Buffy.

He took the bag and wandered across the hallway to the bathroom. Someone had laid out towels and a bar of soap for him. He turned on the shower, and the little hot water heater ignited with a whoosh. Once the water was warm enough he shed his rumpled suit pants and stepped in. He let the water wash over him, and he was finally starting to relax when he remembered Mia saying she'd take back the past and they could start over. Spike felt as if any air he had in his lungs was sucked right out. His legs got weak and he had to grip the wall of the shower. Had he actually told her no? He'd told her... no. After a few moments he felt a bit steadier, and finished showering. He dried off and dressing, and then ran the hair wax through his hair and combed it straight. He seemed to need hard straight hair today.

While he laced up his boots, Spike wondered if he could pretend that he didn't remember anything. If she'd never been that drunk since she'd been turned there was a good chance that she might believe that he had blacked it out. Of course, there was also a good chance she had been that drunk. He went downstairs and opened the front door but pulled back. The sun was out and much too bright: There was just no going out the front: he'd have to face it.

He hung his coat on the pegs in the hall, put his shoulders back.... jaw forward, and went quietly down the stairs to the kitchen. Mia was busy in front of the stove. A big pot and two frying pans adorned the stove top. Mia wore Capri-length grey sweat pants with a purple ribbed tank top, and her hair was pulled up in some sort of clip. She was humming as she cooked.

"Are you hungry? I can heat you up some blood, or if you want there is pancake mix left from earlier. You can do blood and pancakes."

Spike tried hard not to react to her knowing that he was there. He had thought that he had been very stealthy.

"Blood and Pancakes?"

"Yeah, remember how every time I used to make pancakes you said they'd be better with blood than syrup? Well, I won't get too grossed out by it now."

"Right, but don't go to any trouble."

She turned to look at him. Her eyes narrowed a bit. "Spike? Is that you?"

"Very sodding funny," he said as he walked over and sat at the kitchen table, which was covered with books, a lap top computer, and notebooks.

Mia turned and emptied some rice into the pot, and the contents of both frying pans went in as well. She covered the pot and turned the burner down. Setting the timer, she went to the small refrigerator and poured them each a big travel mug of blood. After waiting for the blood to heat, she put one mug in front of Spike and the other opposite him and gathering up her books, notebooks and computer, she took them to her room. When she came back she sat down.

"Homework, pet?"

"Yes, I've been tasked with going through the Watcher journals and compiling a history. I have some parchments still to go over. Giles is trying to locate someone to help me translate them, but otherwise I'm up to 600 A.D. You would not believe what some of the Slayers had to put up with back then. Watchers even bought them as slaves. One Arab watcher placed a Slayer in his harem. He never made her his concubine, it was a cover, but still the girl had to live in a harem. And Buffy thought she had it bad, balancing school and slaying! I think that when the girls read what some of the first Slayers had to endure, their own lives won't seem so bad. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to mention..."

"Buffy? No matter."

"I'm babbling, probably for the same reason I started cooking instead of working. I'm nervous."

He cocked his head a little. "YOU'RE nervous?"

"I don't know what's going to happen now and..."

"I'm the one who made a sodding fool of myself."

"You were just really drunk, no biggie."

Spike drank down his blood. He hadn't expected this.

Mia got up and took their mugs to the sink. She rinsed and then washed them out. As she was drying them he came up behind her.

"You said you'd come back and we could try again."

Very slowly she placed the cups in the cupboard and then turned. "I did."

She paused for a moment "I will, if that's what you truly want."

Spike cocked his head a bit and blinked. He could see from her eyes that she was telling the truth. Leaning forward and grasping her chin between his thumb and forefinger, he kissed her, first with tenderness then deeper.

Mia felt his cold lips and the comfort and familiarity of them. There was no excitement or tingles as there had been when Xander kissed her. As their kiss increased in depth, her demon responded and began to reach out to Spike's. He pulled back and looked at her.

"What did you feel?" Spike asked her.

Mia looked away. What could she say? Comfortable? Familiarity ? His demon?

"Mia, what?"

She looked back, begging him not to force her to answer.

"Say it!"

Mia began blinking, trying to hold back the tears that threatened.

"What did you feel? ... say it."

"I don't want to."

"Say it!"

"Spike."

"Just say it, out loud"

"I said I don't want to."

He grabbed her on each side of her head.

"Fine. I'll say it."

Spike watched as she pulled back, her eyes flashing with amber briefly and then calm blue.

"I felt nothing, but familiarity."

He smiled then. "Me too."

A look of relief came across her face.

"Doesn't make much sense to try anything with a reaction like that, do you agree, pet?" he said, one eyebrow raised.

"If I wasn't so relieved you would be getting hit."

"I could use a drink right about now." Spike took his hands from her face and leaned against the counter next to her.

"Beer.... in the fridge"

"No, something stronger, something you might have on hand, perhaps, for Giles?"

"Oh, that..... well, Willow put that in the back garden shed this morning, so if you want to ignite, feel free to go get it."

"Why the bloody hell did she do that?"

"We all figured you had enough yesterday to last the week. Besides, I know how you were after I left LA. And you're still too thin: I'm not the only one that thinks so."

Spike shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Been talking with Buffy, have you?"

"When she dropped off the clothes but..."

"You need to stay out of this."

"I am going to say this one thing and that'll be all I ever say on the subject. Will you listen?" Mia turned sideways to look at him.

"Do I have a bleedin' choice?"

"Yes, you prick!" She put a hand on her hip.

"Oi, what did you just call me? You have picked up such a mouth since you left."

"Yes I have. I've changed my mind, you have no fucking choice so shut the fuck up and listen. Buffy loves you. She lost you to Emma, me, once before, and so she was scared of that happening again. Buffy made a bad decision, as if you never did that. Contrary to popular opinion, she is not perfect. Just think on that while you get your head on straight."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Xander opened the front door quietly. He had decided to come home at midday to check on Mia and Spike. He didn't really need to. He knew she could take care of herself, but he felt the need to satisfy himself that she was fine. Walking as silently as possible he paused half way down the stairs, overhearing their conversation.

"Oh, so does this mean I get to give advice about you and monkey boy?"

Xander could only hear it, a loud crack.

Spike hollered "aaaaawOW"

"I told you to stop calling him that."

"Damn woman, my noth?"

"I knew it would be tender after yesterday, but shit Spike, does it usually bleed that much?"

"No, I don't usually get hith with a freight train, you useth all your strength, dinth you?"

"I think so, maybe...shit...did I?"

"That is so cool, I dinth know you could hith like that."

"Spike here, take this towel: you're bleeding all over the floor. You'll have to clean it up and for fuck sake, quit talking like that."

"Me! You are the one that soddin made the meth"

Xander chose then to come on into the kitchen.

Spike watched as Mia's eyes lit up. Sadly he recalled a time when those same eyes looked that way at him.

"Hey," said Xander. "Spike, what happened to your nose?"

"It's nothing. I just happened to run into a vampire's fist." He glanced at Mia.

Xander looked to Mia and she grinned, then shrugged. "Whoops."

"Well, I see that no furniture is broken, obviously neither of you has had to use the vacuum for an extreme dust clean up, and only Spike got a bloody nose, so all is well. What smells so good?"

"Dinner. I'm making Jambalaya. You guys can just heat it up for supper tonight." Mia went to the freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen green beans, and walked over to Spike. Pulling the towel back, she examined his nose.

"It's broken." She reached up and set it straight.

"Aaaw, damn woman. You did that so bleeding roughly on purpose."

"I can very gently put it back crooked if you want, you baby."

Spike narrowed his eyes at her. "Baby....remember where that snazzy now green eye came from."

Mia shoved the bag on to his nose. "Here, hold this on it."

"Ouch! Bloody Hell! You'd better never consider a job as a nurse."

Xander came up and touched the brown and greenish hue around her eye. "Spike did this?"

"I deserved it Xander, just like he deserved that."

"I did not deserve this."

"You did too. You pushed too hard this morning, and then..."

"You used all your strength. If I were human I'd be dead."

"And the crowd would cheer, but you're not human, so shut up."

Xander laughed. Both vampires looked at him. "Sorry, but you guys are hilarious."

Mia walked over and pulled Spike's ice pack off. She grimaced.

"What? What's wrong with it now?" asked Spike.

Xander came over. "Geez, Mia, that's pretty...is there a word that means worse than bad? I've actually seen him several times after he's been tortured, but his nose never looked like that!"

Xander cocked his head a little and with his first two fingers, he made little motions around Spike's eyes and forehead. "It's all swollen and black right here, and it's spreading up there over his eyes."

Mia reached up and grabbed his fingers. "Xander, honey, it's not a good idea to irritate a hurt and angry vampire."

"Yeah, Xander, honey..." snapped Spike

Mia smashed the ice pack back onto Spike's nose.

"Bloody hell, woman!"

Xander smiled: he wanted to kiss her so badly! But the words.... "irritate a hurt and angry vampire," were fresh in his mind. Besides. he'd seen what a mess Spike had been last night, and as much as he didn't like the guy, he couldn't rub it in this soon.

"I brought the van home so you could use it to get to class today. Charlie, from the Sun Street job, will be here in about five minutes to pick me up. I'll just pull it in the garage for you, OK?"

Xander went out and pulled the van in. Mia squeezed past it and they stood together in the shadow of the garage while Xander waited for his ride.

Xander leaned down and whispered, "Thank you for defending my honor." He kissed her then.

"He just did it to piss me off."

"Guess he knows better now."

Mia giggled.

"Guess so. I probably wouldn't have punched him so hard, but we'd had a rough exchange earlier. He pushed me to say something I didn't want to. That's Spike for you though. Emma didn't let him push her and I don't know why I did."

"Guilt makes us do strange things."

"You know, I'm through with that. The way I ended the relationship was wrong, but what I did was right for me."

"And me." He kissed her again, pulling her in close so her body touched his, then ran his hand up, brushing the side of her breast.

Mia pulled back a little.

"Xander, I am trying to be a good girl here, to take things slowly to make sure no one gets hurt, but you are not making it easy."

"I can't help it, that man in me takes over sometimes."

"Not complaining about that, just saying...help?"

Xander chuckled. "You sure do not make it easy on a guy. Do you know how sexy you are?"

Mia stepped back, looked at herself and laughed. "Did you not just see me break that guy's nose in there? That was real sexy."

"That was sexy because um, Spike!"

"You goof."

"That has been said before."

"Xander, you have a way of making me laugh that..." She tilted her head. "It's good."

"I do it because of that smile: I love seeing it."

Xander watched her eyes becoming teary.

He took her in his arms. "Please don't cry.... that I don't like to see."

She tilted her head and kissed him.

He stepped back, but held her face in his hands. "Will you be alright with Spike?"

She gave him a huge grin. "Sure. If he gives me any trouble I'll pull him around by his nose. I am actually going to take him to observe my Watchers' class. You know I mentioned that they aren't making any progress, and I'm worried that it's me."

"But your Slayers are doing fine."

"They're all girls; maybe I'm treating them differently and don't realize it."

"You said Spike trained you, so he should be able to see what it is."

"You aren't acting all jealous?"

He cocked his head, "Should I? Do you want me to?"

"No and no. It's just that after what Willow said last night I ..."

"After what I saw today I've got no worries"

He was rewarded with a huge smile.

"If you get worried again, let me know, I can always give him a black eye."

Xander laughed and gave her a big wet kiss on the mouth.

Just then Charlie pulled up and honked. Xander kissed her for real, and then ran for the car. He climbed into the passenger seat and looked across Charlie to see Mia wave.

"That your girl?"

"We're working to that."

"A real looker, that one, governor."

"She's a lot more than that."

"That's the kind you want to keep."

"I know it, Charlie, but I'm not so good at the keeping.... so just going to take it slow with this one."

"Slow: sometimes that can be the very best way, if you know what I mean."

Xander felt his belly clench. Yeah, slow might be the best way. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mia hugged herself, then squeezed past the van and back into the kitchen. Spike had every cupboard open. She looked at him with his ice pack, searching the cupboards and started to laugh. He turned and stared at her. It made her laugh harder.

"I'm glad you find this so sodding funny."

"Not this, you."

"Bloody ha, ha ha, look at Spike, isn't he pathetic."

This only made her laugh harder. "Oh my god, Spike," she breathed. "This 'look how pathetic I am' act, is not working for you."

He morphed into his demon visage, threw the frozen beans to the floor and growled.

This brought on another fit of laughter. Spike returned to his human face and glared at her. "You are cruel, you know."

"Yep, vampire... part of the territory."

He shook his head, and smiled. "I don't like how you save it up for... me."

Mia laughed. "You're lying. Admit it; on some level you love it."

Spike chuckled. "You know, it's a little scary how you go straight for the kill even when it's only a question of humiliation."

"Trained by the best, "shrugged Mia.

One eyebrow went up then. "I never, not with..."

"No, not with Emma, but with Angel, that was a different story."

"True ....that's very sodding true."

Mia stared at him, and shook her head. "You were looking for booze because of the pain."

"No."

"Liar. I really didn't mean to do that kind of damage. That's my M.O. I always do more damage than I intend. You look like you've had a fucking car accident, and then rhinoplasty."

"Bollocks! You can't even hit a bloke on the nose without feeling guilty! And what's with the big words: can't you just say nose job?"

"The guilt is that god damn soul, thank you very much. My demon never got to play without it: it doesn't remember freedom."

"Let it out now and get over the guilt."

"No"

"You're afraid."

"Yes, and don't push me. Who knows what your face will look like if you do?"

"Alright, bloody well got me there. We can work on this when my face isn't on fire."

"I knew it."

Mia went to the bathroom and came back with two pills and her digital camera. "Here, for the pain. They will only take the edge off, but it's better than nothing."

"What's the camera for?"

"Before I tell you I have to ask you a favor."

Mia explained about the Watcher's class and Spike agreed to go with her. It was then that she focused the camera on him.

"Bloody hell!" Spike looked in the camera large view screen, and traced the bruise forming around his nose and the inside of his eyes up into his forehead. He started to feel around his nose, trying to ignore the pain. She might have broken more than just his nose. It was then that he recalled her breaking that vamp's back with one kick. He really couldn't feel anything in his face because it was too tender to probe deeper.

"What did you sodding do to me, woman?"

"I punched you in the nose, remember? I didn't hit you hard enough to cause brain damage, did I? So now you know why you have to wear makeup to class. If you go like that they will all be interested in your nose and you won't be able to just blend in like another Watcher."

"Sod off. I'm not bloody wearing makeup, I'm not a bleeding poofter."

She held up the camera screen again. "Ok, we'll just tell them a girl did this."

Spike's eyes narrowed. "Why didn't you just stake me last night, while I slept?"

That made her grin. "Because you looked all corpse-like. It was kind of cute and for you, almost innocent. Suck it up, baby. I promise no one will know and you can wash it off right after class."

"Bollocks! And that would be a resounding NO! I have done a lot of demeaning things since I first got the chip, then the soul, but I draw the line here."

"Spike, the day you became corporeal went like this: run into Angel's door; drink Angel's mug of blood; and then fuck Harmony...well, before she bit you while she was sporting bloody eyes. How on earth can you think that wearing makeup to cover a huge, embarrassing bruise could be worse than your time on the table with Harmony?"

"Who told you that?"

"A girl has her sources. I wonder what Buffy would think of it?"

"I couldn't care less."

"Well, that's alright then." Mia headed up the stairs. She picked up the phone on the side board in the living room.

Spike followed her, putting his hand on the receiver to prevent her from calling out. "It was that bint Harmony, wasn't it?"

"Yep, while I worked there, but I just reminded her who was getting it every night from you and that shut her right up."

"All I can say is that the world is bloody lucky you have your soul. We would really be in trouble if you ever lost it."

"So I win."

"Yes, you witch."

"You do have some brain damage, Spike. Willow is the witch. Mia is the vampire."

"Bloody ha, ha. You will owe me big, and I mean big, as in it will take a lot to make this up to me."

"You're demon better have not pulled your mind into the gutter. What almost happened on Sunday will not be apart of this, and..."

"Please: like I'd want that. I am talking booze and well, more booze. Get over yourself."

"Sit on the couch. I'll be right back."

Spike sat down and turned to watch her go.

Mia got as far as the stair door, before she turned back and said, "You know very well that if I was willing, you would be too. Our demons love to...shall we say, play in bed ,together. I know it; you know it, and neither of us will forget how it was after I first became a vampire. It just can't happen, not now."

As she disappeared down the stairs, Spike closed his eyes. Of all the sodding things for her to say, she actually had left him with a semi erection just remembering the way it had been after she had been turned. Bitch. He knew she wasn't his any more. During that kiss in the kitchen he hadn't felt the passion or the spark they'd had in L.A, and he had really wanted to. Spike had been determined to take her up on her offer, but with that kiss he had changed his mind. He had compared it to his kisses with Buffy and he knew then that his feelings for Mia were no longer romantic.

The bickering, the arguing, they were... and he couldn't believe he was thinking this... they were fun. Of course they would be more fun if his face didn't hurt so badly, and if she didn't keep besting him. He was going to have to get back in fighting form, think more like he did when he was around Angel.