"Hey, Joe, where does this go?" Charlie asked, handing him a box.

"Hmmm? Let me see, Professor Lipton, think his office is being renovated, let’s find where they put his stuff. Okay, got it," he said, handing the box back with the section on it.

"Section 405, gotcha," he said, putting it into retired Prof. H. Lickman’s section.

END CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22 - THE AMULET & THE SHANSHU PROPHECY

The months passed and although Buffy and Willow talked often and emailed, there was still no news on the amulet or anything to do with it.

Buffy had called Donald Johanson a few times, but he'd still not been able to track it down, and truth be told, she didn't think he had tried much after her and Dawn had been to The Field Museum last August.

The dreams stopped, and she tried to reason with herself that they’d only been that, dreams.

"Need to get on with my life," she said to herself, then laughed, "thought that's what you were doing!"

The school year ended in late May, and her contract was renewed for the following year.

It had been in early June, that she’d started having dreams again. Only these were different from the ones the past winter, where Spike 'was real, but not yet,' these dreams were happening now, they were imminent, and each and every time he only spoke one thing to her, "Help me!"

"How Spike? Tell me baby, please!" she’d implore him, before waking once again in a cold sweat, tears running down her face.

Tonight had been no different. Shaking with fear for him, she stood up, and went to the bathroom to get a glass of water, "Tell me what to do, Spike, please! Tell me!" she said to her own image in the mirror.

Just then the phone rang. Buffy jumped, dropping the glass in the sink, shattering it.

"Hello?" Buffy said, her voice shaky.

"Buffy? It's Willow."

"Willow! I’m so glad it’s you!" she said, relieved, as she rushed on, "the dreams, Willow, they’re back, only this time…"

"What?" Willow asked, anxiously, knowing by Buffy’s tone, it was something serious.

"It’s Spike, Willow, he’s been coming to me every night for more than a week," Buffy said.

"What does he want?" Willow asked.

"Help. Every night he says, ‘Help me,’ every night. I think I’m losing my mind, Willow!"

"No, you may not be, listen Buffy are you sitting down? If not, you’d better!" Willow said.

"You got some news?" Buffy said, sitting on the side of the bed.

"Yeah, big news, Buffy, it's about the prophecy!"

"What prophecy?"

"The amulet!"

"Amulet? Prophecy? What?"

"Okay, I got to calm down and be clear, I just found this out and I'm so excited, I..."

"Willow! Please! Tell me!"

"I hacked into the computers at Wolfram and Hart, that's where Angel Investigations is located now," she said letting it sink in.

"So?"

"Wolfram and Hart! They're the ones that brought back Darla. Remember when I told you about Andrew working for The National Sun? That they were owned by Wolfram and Hart? And that I thought it sounded familiar?"

"I remember, what of it?" Buffy asked.

"Well, I had heard of them when I was in L.A., restoring Angel’s soul a few weeks before…you know…when I brought Faith back. Wesley and Fred were telling me how Wolfram and Hart had been destroyed by The Beast and how all these evil lawyers were in cahoots with the demons and everything. Now it seems like they’re back in business."

"And Angel...he's...there?" she asked, trying to take it all in.

"Yes. Listen Buffy, I hacked into their computer and they've got this freakin' amazing demon, mystical, magic, and everything else data base, the largest I've ever seen, I think it's the largest one that's ever existed. It makes Giles' research library look like it would fit on the head of a pin."

"And?"

"And when I hacked in to look up the amulet, its information was totally cross-referenced with that of the prophecy," Willow said triumphantly.

"What prophecy?" Buffy asked, exasperated.

"The Shanshu Prophecy," Willow said.

"The who shoe prophecy?" Buffy asked.

"Shanshu."

"And what does that have to do with the amulet? What’s a shanshu prophecy?"

"Well, the prophecy states that, ‘A vampire with a soul will "shanshu" once he completes his destiny, he will become human, that is his reward. That he has to survive numerous challenges in the forms of plagues, an apocalyptic battle, and several evils.’ And here’s where you really need to be sitting for this - it states that the "shanshu" will take place five years after these battles have taken place. And that the amulet will bring forth the shanshu, in other words, the vampire-turned human. THE AMULET! Did you hear that Buffy?" Willow asked.

"Buffy? Buffy? Are you there?"

Buffy stood up, then sat right back down, her mouth making movements without any sound.

"Will?"

"Yeah Buffy?"

"Read that again, ok?"

Willow repeated what she’d just read.

"Does that mean?"

"I think so…"

"Say it Will, I can’t, I just can’t…does it mean…Spike?"

"I think so, Buffy. It means Spike might, no, probably is going to shanshu, is the shanshu, not quite sure if it’s a verb or a noun, or both.

"Five years?"

"Yeah, that would mean this coming May…"

"Oh God! " Buffy said, as she once again stood up, then sat back down.

"Buffy? What?" Willow asked.

"Not next May, this ‘past’ May, last month! That’s why I’ve been having these dreams Willow! He’s alive somewhere. Oh my God! He’s alive," she said, crying tears of joy, then sobered up immediately, "he’s alive, and he needs my help!"

END CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23 - HIS ESSENCE

"Oh God, Willow! How am I going to find Spike? I couldn't even find the amulet! What if he's hurt or injured, what if Professor Lipton never sent the amulet to Chicago. The woman at the university said he didn't do technology much."

"What does that mean?" Willow asked, confused.

"I don't know, just going with the flow here. So, if he doesn't do technology, means he's probably older, right? Maybe he forgot where he put the amulet! Maybe he took it to Egypt! Maybe Spike's lost in Egypt!"

"Buffy! Get a grip! If he is alive, and from all that we know - your dreams and what I’ve read, it’s more than likely he is - but still, have to go with IF, until we know for sure… If he's alive, I doubt he'd be in Egypt. Much more likely he'd be in Chicago or if the professor misplaced it before he sent the box, then still in California, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Buffy said, then thought of something else, "Will, did I ever tell you about the professor's apartment?"

"That it had been broken into? Yeah, what does that...? Oh..."

"Yeah, what if someone else wanted the amulet, had seen the picture? But who?"

"I hate to say this, but again, all arrows are pointing back at..."

"Wolfram and Hart," Buffy said, a chill going up her spine.

"Umhmmm."

"But Angel, why would he…?"

"Didn't he think that he was going to help you? Maybe he wanted to help you, so he could shanshu, Buffy!" Willow said.

"But he didn't put up much of an argument when I told him I needed him on the second front. It really wasn't for that reason alone, it was because it was clear to me, who should wear the amulet, who should fight by my side, who wanted to fight by my side, no matter if there was a reward in it or not. It was Spike, he always had my back and it would have killed him, if I'd chosen Angel to all of a sudden come in at the ninth hour..."

"Umhmmm," Willow repeated.

"You think Angel knows about this?"

"I'd say that's a fair bet."

"And now he's at Wolfram and Hart?"

"Yeah," Willow said, also connecting the dots.

"So, maybe Angel is...evil again? Angelus?"

"I don't know, but Wolfram and Hart sure were and probably still are."

"Therefore, Angel probably knows that he's been cheated out of the shanshu? And by Spike?"

"That would be my guess, Buffy. Maybe they even knew about it last August, when the professors apartment was robbed."

"They were looking for the amulet before it shanshu'ed and now they'll be looking for Spike!" Buffy said, fear in her voice.

She was quiet for a few moments, trying to compose herself.

"You know, Willow," Buffy said a mix of fear and steel to her voice, "this should be the happiest moment I've had in over 5 years, instead, I feel more terror than I've felt for over 5 years - for Spike. God! Poor Spike. We don't even know what shape he's in, what he's like, where he's at, and now he's alone, Wolfram and Hart may be after him...."

"Buffy, listen to me! You'll find him! I know you will Buffy. And I'll help, I'll try to do a locator spell, see if it still will work. Listen, do you have any personal articles of his? I mean really old?"

"How old?"

"Human days old?"

"No, I don't think so, why?"

"Well, most of my locator spells had to do with demons, and Spike was a demon, at least, he partially had the essence of a demon that could be tracked with a demon tracking spell... you know what I mean."

"Don't worry Willow, it doesn't hurt me. I know he was a demon. But I don't understand. Why do you need something from his human days?" Buffy asked.

"Because I can try a different locator spell, one for humans, but I need something of his in order to tap into that energy, his essence, sort of like a DNA marker," Willow explained.

"There's nothing," Buffy said, trying to remember if in any of the thngs she'd found in the house, if any of them had any direct connection, a memento, anything, from his human days.

"What about his soul?" Buffy asked.

"What about it?" Willow asked.

"Remember what I told you about the last few minutes? Well, what I didn't tell you, was that we exchanged something those last few seconds when we touched. I felt his soul go right into me, mine into his, we were, in all definitions of the word, truly as one. It was like a spark that lit up the whole night sky, except it was our souls," Buffy said, "see, I know he left a part of me with him, not metaphorically speaking, but real, inside me, a part of his soul. So, maybe..."

"Maybe I could trace him through you?" Willow asked, excitedly, "if what you say is true, then you are carrying part of his essence, part of him!"

"How do we…?"

"Buffy, all I need for you to do, is to breathe inside of a clear jar. Put a plastic bag inside of it, breath into it and then seal it shut before any of it can escape, then seal the jar. Just send it to me International Fed Ex, or whatever. If what you say is true, I’ll be able to locate Spike. If it’s not, then we’ll work on something else," Willow said.

"Okay, Willow, I’ll send it to you tomorrow! I can’t believe this is happening!"

"I know, it’s hard to believe. Don’t worry Buffy, you’ll find him!" Willow said.

"I hope so, Willow and the sooner the better, before anybody else does!"

END CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24 - GUESTAGE TO ALLY

Buffy hung up the phone and started a frantic search of the house for plastic bags and a jar.

"Come on, there's got to be a damn jar somewhere!" she said, as she tore open cabinets, only seeing a can of green beans and one ready-to-explode can of fruit cocktail.

Finally, she found a half-empty mayonnaise jar in the back of the refrigerator, dumped out the contents, and washed it out about half a dozen times.

She found a clean, unused bag that had come from the local Safeway under the sink.

"I love you, Spike, hang in there, baby, I'm gonna find you," she whispered, then blew into the bag, sealing it inside of the jar. She tightened the lid, duct taped it shut, and bubble wrapped it. She found a small carton and some packing peanuts, and placed the jar inside. She sealed the carton and addressed it to Willow.

It was 4:00am and she knew the FED EX didn't open until 8:30am. She sighed, and made herself a pot of coffee. It was going to be a long four and a half hours.

By 6:30am, Buffy had already showered, dressed, and was working on her second pot of coffee, when she decided to check her email.

"You've got post!" said the British voice that she'd elected to hear when she logged onto AOL.

Spam, spam, and more spam! A letter from the Alumni Association at CSUSM, more spam. Make your Penis Larger! Lose Weight, Get Rich by Using the Power of the Internet! Check out Girls from Russia! Viagra for Women, etc.

Finally, she came to an email from Dawn.

"Dear Buffy," it read,

"You'll never believe whom I ran into the other day, while out for dinner! Andrew! He said he emailed you about something important about the amulet about a year ago, but that you'd never answered. I told him I didn't think that you had received it, but he said it never was returned as an invalid email address. ? I think he said the email was at Hotmail. Didn't we both open an account there about 8 years ago? When we first were using Willow's computer, before we had one? I may have given him that email a long time ago, just to shut him up. J ?

I think he's got some information that might be important. He didn't want to go into it right then, as he was in the middle of interviewing someone for a story. I got his email for you; it's awells@aol.com.

Love, Dawn

Buffy had forgotten all about that one, she didn't even think she knew her ID or password anymore. She typed in hotmail.com and got the login page for mail.

"Okay, here goes," she said to herself.

User name: 'bsummers' she typed, don't think I was ever too original, she thought to herself.

Password: 'slayer' she typed.

"I'm sorry, your password is incorrect, please answer the secret question that you picked when you opened this account in order for us to mail you your password." "Your question is: What was the name of your first pet?" Buffy typed "Fluffy," it was the little dog she'd gotten for Christmas when she was 8 years old.

"You password has been sent to your email now!"

"Well, I hope it's the other email, or I'm back to square one!" Buffy said out loud.

Buffy went back to her AOL email account, more junk mail, then she saw, 'Your password from Hotmail."

She opened it up. "Your password is: Angel."

"Shit!" Buffy said.

She went back to her Hotmail account and typed in "Angel." She then clicked "Change Your Password." Buffy tapped her fingers on her neck as she thought about it, her fingers unconsciously playing with the chain on her necklace. All of a sudden it became clear. Under the "Enter New Password," prompt she typed, "Lovebirds," then again, when it asked her to repeat the process.

Buffy went to her email and there it was, two emails from Andrew:

June 29, 2007

9:30pm

To: bsummers@hotmail.com

From: awells@aol.com

Dear Buffy, how have you been? I’m out of school, well, sort of quit, because I got this fab job working for The National Sun. This is why I’m emailing you, tomorrow I’m set to cover a story about this archaeology professor who’s been digging at the Sunnydale crater. I’m to take my photographer and go cover this story in 2 days. They supposedly have uncovered a bunch of stuff from there. Thought you might like to be present. I’ll tell them you’re my assistant if you come along. Just thought you might like to know.

How is everyone? I haven’t talked to anyone except Xander in the past year.

Let me know if you want to come.

Your friend,

Andrew

And this one:

July 7, 2007

1:30pm

To: bsummer@hotmail.com

From: awells@aol.com

Dear Buffy,

I thought you might want to know that today I was called into the office of a Mr. Angel at Wolfram & Hart (the parent company to my newspaper) to ask about the Sunnydale dig.

Besides wanting to know all about the dig and the professor, he wanted to know if I knew any of you guys. Or Spike.

I sort of remember you guys mentioning him once in a while. Wasn’t sure that he was the one. In any case, I told him that Willow used to tutor my brother Tucker, but that I didn’t know any of you. Or Spike.

One more thing, Angel is a vampire. In case you didn’t know, but you probably do. The whole thing kinda gave my ‘spidey’ senses a work out. Don’t know what he wanted, but thought you should know. Please advise.

Your friend,

Andrew

"Shit!" Buffy said for the second time that morning. Andrew had tried to get a hold of her almost a year ago! If only she’d looked at that freakin’ Hotmail account before now.

"Well, nothing to be done about that now, but what to do NOW, that’s the question," Buffy said.

She wasn’t sure if she could even trust Andrew, now that she new he was working for the newspaper owned by Wolfram and Hart. And Angel, she thought darkly. She knew he’d been jealous of Spike that last time he’d seen her, when she told him, that he wasn’t her boyfriend, but that, "He’s in my heart." Buffy frowned, thinking of why she just hadn’t come right out and told Angel, "Yes, Spike is my boyfriend, my lover, my everything, I love him…"

But she knew the answer. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Angel with the whole truth. NO! That wasn’t it! She couldn’t look anybody right in the eye and tell them that she’d loved Spike, even though she kept telling everyone that she needed him, that he was the one who always had her back. She just couldn’t say, "I love Spike," to everyone. It had been confusing, it seemed selfish to make everybody deal with it, but she wished she had, oh how she wished it! She’d barely been able to say it to him again those last few days, the last moment, when saying it meant that they both knew what they were about to lose.

It had only been here, in this house that the words in her heart had flowed easily from her lips.

"Five years, and I’m still confused, still in pain over the way I hurt you, the way I’d denied you for so long," Buffy said out loud.

Did one wonderful weekend make up for it? Did a few nights together at the end, make up for all the pain?

She didn’t know. All she knew, is that if he was alive, she would never, ever let him go again, never let a moment slip by when she wouldn’t remind him of how important he was to her, how loved, how…

Buffy woke with a start, she had dozed for a little, while thinking of all the things she would do to make up for lost time, if she found Spike.

If…

She looked at the clock, it was 7:30am, still an hour to go. She picked up the phone.

"Hello?" a groggy Dawn answered.

"Hey!"

"Buffy?"

"Yeah, it’s me, listen, I’m sorry to wake you up, but this is important."

"What is it?" Dawn said.

"I got your email about Andrew, and you were right about that Hotmail account. I’d totally forgotten it and Andrew had emailed me last year. What I need now is how to get in touch with him. Now," Buffy said.

"Hold on, Buffy, he gave me his card, I’m gonna go get it, " Dawn said, putting the phone down.

"Okay, I’m back," Dawn said, "I got his business card. Here, let me give you his phone and pager numbers."

"Thanks, Dawn," Buffy said, after taking them down," go back to sleep, it’s still early."

"Wait, Buffy. What’s going on? Have you found out anything about the amulet from Willow lately?"

Buffy took a deep breath, "Yes."

"Well?" Dawn asked, exasperated with her sister.

"He’s alive, Dawn," Buffy said in a whisper.

"Who? Spike?" Oh my God? Where? How?" Dawn sputtered.

"I don’t know where, I just know that he is. He’s been sending me messages lately…in my dreams, and Willow, she found out that there’s a prophecy associated with the amulet, that a vampire with a soul, once he’s completed his destiny; survived evils, an apocalypse, and a bunch of other stuff, will get his reward," Buffy said.

"What reward? Coming back to life?" Dawn said, now squealing.

"To become human again," Buffy said, softly.

"Oh my God, Buffy, that’s…"

"I know."

"So Spike is alive now? And human?"

"Yes. I mean, I think so," Buffy said.

"That’s great Buffy, isn’t it?" she asked, noting her sister’s lack of enthusiasm.

"Yes, but he’s out there alone somewhere and I don’t know where, and in my dreams he’s been…"

"What?" Dawn asked, worried all of a sudden.

Buffy took a deep breath, "he need my help, he’s been saying, ‘help me,’ in my dreams, for over a week now, every night. Every night he asks me to help him and I don’t know how," she said, all of a sudden feeling very helpless.

"You will, Buffy! We all will, you, me, Willow! We’ll find him and bring him home to you, to us! I promise Buffy! Okay? Buffy?"

"Thank you Dawn," she said, feeling better having her sister be so commanding.

"Just let me know what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. I’ll do anything you want," Dawn said.

"I will. As soon as I find something out, I’ll let you know. Thanks, Dawn," Buffy said, "I gotta go run some errands now."

"Okay, Buffy. Call me! I mean it, as soon as you find anything out!"

"I will, I promise. Bye, Dawn."

"Bye, Buffy."

Buffy looked at the clock, it was 7:55am. Just enough time to get to the FED EX near the San Diego airport.

Buffy was out of FED EX by 8:35am. They had assured her it would be in London and to Willow in about 14 hours.

Buffy stopped at a Radio Shack in the older part of downtown San Diego, and went into the back, through an employee’s only door to where Clem was working.

"Hey Clem," Buffy said.

"Well, hi there, Buffy," Clem said, pleased at seeing his ‘neighbor,’ "how’s it hanging, er, I mean, going?" he asked her.

"I need two phones that can’t be traced, no G.P.S., no nothing," she told him.

"Sure thing, Buffy," he said going under the counter and pulling out two small red phones, "going undercover?" he asked, laughing.

"Not exactly, just need to be sure about someone’s intentions, that’s all," Buffy said.

Clem looked at her, there was something different about the way she looked to him, something more forceful than he’d felt from her in a long time, something more slayer like than her new persona, Elizabeth the Montessori school teacher, that was for sure.

"You know," Clem said, programming the untraceable, anonymous, pre-paid minutes into the phones, "if you need my help, you know I’m there for you," he said.

"I know Clem, and I will, I do right now, that’s why I’m here getting these from you, because I know I can always trust you," she paused, "I think that…I’ll have some very good news to tell you, soon. Just, not right now."

"Okay," Clem said, cheerfully, "always can wait for good news."

"Thanks Clem," Buffy said, handing him a couple of hundred dollar bills for the phones and the pre-paid minutes.

"You’re welcome, Buffy," he said, taking the money, "let me know if you need me for anything else."

"I will. Bye, Clem."

"Bye, Buffy."

Buffy bought some fast food, a 6-pack of bottled water and headed south to the border. By 9:30am, she stopped at a little ‘restorante’ across the border in Tijuana that had a pay phone. She dialed the pager number that Dawn had given her and waited. 10:00am, 10:30am, 11:00am, finally at 11:15am the phone rang. She picked it up.

"This is Andrew Wells," the familiar lilting voice said.

"Andrew! Do you know who this is?" she said, "if you do just say yes, don’t use my name."

There was a long pause.

"Yes."

"Oh my God! It’s been ages. I just ran into," he started to say Dawn’s name, then caught himself, "er, you-know-who, the other day! Oh, guess you know that, since you have my pager number," Andrew said, "how are you?"

"Andrew, I just got your email last night. I haven’t looked at that account in almost 7 years, that’s why I didn’t know you’d emailed me last year."

"I wondered why you hadn’t emailed me back," Andrew said.

"I need to see you," Buffy said.

"Okay, where and when?"

"Meet me in front of the Panda Exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, 1:00pm. Find the nearest phone and wait for my call."

"Okay," Andrew said, "I’ll see you there, but better make it 1:30pm, I’ve got to come all the way from L.A."

"See you at 1:30, then," Buffy said, and hung up.

Andrew arrived at 1:25pm and quickly saw the telephone. He waited and waited and waited.

Buffy watched Andrew from a number of different vantage points for over an hour, waiting to make sure that he hadn’t brought anybody with him or that there was no signal. Finally she walked up to him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey yourself," Andrew said, half smiling, "thought you were going to call."

"Nah, just always wanted to say that," Buffy said, hugging him.

"Hey!" Andrew said, as Buffy’s hand went down his pants and under his shirt.

"Sorry, Andy, nothing personal," Buffy said, completing her search for wires, microphones, etc.

"Well, it is personal!" Andrew said, "how’d you like it…?"

"Don’t even go there, Andrew. I’m not the one working for The National Sun, a paper owned by evil lawyers in cahoots with the demon world, now am I?" Buffy asked.

"I don’t work for them either, anymore. And besides, I didn’t know that’s what they were when they hired me, I just thought they were a regular paper," he whined.

"How can I believe that you’re not working for them anymore?" she asked.

Andrew just looked at her and shook his head. She’d been the right person for the slayer gig, that was for sure! She was still thorough, and demanding. He sighed.

"Guess you haven’t seen my stories in The San Francisco Chronicle for the past 5 months, have you?"

"Why would I?" Buffy asked.

"I don’t know, guess you wouldn’t have. Got a job reviewing gay-friendly restaurants. That’s how I ran into Dawn. Though, don’t think she knew it was gay-friendly," he said, laughing.

Buffy rolled her eyes, then asked, "How did you manage to quit The National Sun?"

"Well, I quit about 6 months ago. I was sort of afraid to, if you know what I mean," he said.

"I might, why don’t you tell me about it."

"Well, as you know, Angel called me in for a meeting, and something just had me very nervous about that, especially when he started asking me about all of you guys and especially Spike," Andrew said.

"What did he want to know about Spike," Buffy asked, her eyes steely.

"Just what I told you in the email, did I know him? Had I heard of him? That kind of stuff," he answered.

"Nothing else?" she asked.

"No," Andrew said, "but after that, I had the feeling that I was being watched. Never saw by whom, but figured it out when I came home one day and my apartment had been ransacked. All my notes on the dig in Sunnydale were missing, so I knew who it had to be."

"What was in your notes?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing other than what was in the story. Oh, maybe just that the professor was going to be digging in Egypt that summer and something about his life in Chicago, before he started teaching in San Bernardino, but that’s all."

"The professor’s dead. Died in Egypt, of natural causes, so his assistant in Chicago told me," Buffy said.

"You think the same people who ransacked my apartment…?"

"Could be," Buffy said, nodding. "I was going to meet with him when he was home for a few days last summer. By the time Dawn and I got there, he was already dead and his apartment ransacked, also."

Andrew looked at Buffy, shaking his head, then asked, "How’d you know about him, if you hadn’t gotten my email?"

"I saw your article up in the display case at CSUSM, when I was taking a class there last summer. I just didn’t know that you wrote it. Sorry, I didn’t know your last name," she said, shrugging.

"That’s okay," he said.

"So, how did you get hired in the first place? Did they, do you think they know your connection to me?" Buffy asked.

"I really don’t think so, it just happened that I wrote an anonymous piece for a contest. We didn’t use names, just numbers. Just so happened that mine was chosen and I got an internship with The National Sun for the summer and they offered me a position that fall," he said.

"And how’d you quit then?"

"Well, I just played dumb. I know, you probably don’t think that’s too hard for me, huh?"

"Dumb like a fox, my mom always used to say," Buffy said, smiling.

Andrew smiled back, "Well, I figured that if I quit after the break-in, that it would look like I suspected something, so I just started screwing up. Wrote bad stories, misquoted sources, and came to work drunk a few times. Think they finally just got tired of all the complaints they were getting about me. Finally, I told them that my grandmother was sick up north. Actually, she was very sick, so it wasn’t a lie, but it worked. Told them I had to quit to take care of her."

"I’m sorry, did she…?"

"Yeah, she died. About 2 weeks after I got there," Andrew said, "last of my relatives, too."

"I am sorry, Andrew," Buffy said, reaching out to squeeze his hand.

"I…I was with someone for a while, but it didn’t work out. He didn’t want to move when I went north to San Francisco, plus the whole getting broke into thing, think it freaked him out," Andrew said.

"I’m sorry," Buffy said, again. She knew what it was like to feel alone.

He shrugged, "Anyway, didn’t exactly want to use The National Sun as a reference. Didn’t want them to know where I was. But in this business, your name follows you; it’s your trademark, so figured they could find out where I was working anyway, if they wanted to. So, I used them as a reference, and guess they gave me a real glowing one, since the paper put me on the oh-so-prestigious, ‘gay friendly restaurant,’ beat," he said, laughing.

"Well, hey! You’re working, you get to eat, see cute guys, it could be worse," Buffy said.

"Yeah, it could," he agreed.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, while Buffy was trying to decide something. Finally she decided to tell Andrew about the amulet.

"Wow!" Andrew said, when she was finished. "Wow! And you think Spike may be alive? Now?"

"I think so. And he needs my help, Andrew. I have to find him, somehow," Buffy said.

"You will Buffy, you will," he said, comforting her.

An hour later they parted outside the zoo. She gave him the other phone and told him she would call him if she heard anything. He had promised to help her anyway he could, to either help locate Spike, or to help her once she found him.

He seemed to have grown up a lot in the past 5 years and had a new confidence about him; an integrity that hadn’t been there before. He had quit The National Sun, with what must have been easy money and could have been a big lure over to the darkness. She was proud of him.

She smiled as she got into her car. Andrew, who would have thought it? From guestage to ally.

END CHAPTER 24

END CHAPTER 25

CONT. CH. 26 - 30

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