Morning Tensions: "I Think it Has to be Exactly Like This..."
by Pat Kelly
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: All hail Joss and his army of Mutant Enemies. I don't own BTVS. I make no money.

"Spike." Buffy had brought him up to speed on his prodigy. The thing of it was, he really didn't care. Spike was the least of everyone's problems. "I really don't have time for this."

"Oh you don't? I was just out for a drink, saw you, figured I'd pay you a visit. We hardly ever talk anymore. I wait and wait…nothing. So you'll make time." Angel stood calmly, his hands cupped in front of him, as Spike walked around the mansion, looking at the walls.

"How far do you think you'll get?"

"I'll get far enough. Might even take a slayer or two with me. But as long as we're playing question and answer, Mr. Detective, how far do you think you'll get? You know, seeing as you're still Buffy-whipped."

"You wanna go there, fine with me. Because we both know if Dru walked in right now, you'd do anything she asked. Isn't that right?"

Spike shook his head, and forced a laugh. "Know what I remember about this place?"

"What's that?"

"Taking a crowbar to the back of your bloody head!" Spike ran at him, his vampire visage surfacing along the way. Angel sidestepped a little, and caught Spike's arm. He flipped him onto his back.

"That's why you fail, Spike. Never brave enough to set out on your own. Always gotta take orders from somebody."

Spike got back to his feet in one quick motion, and kicked his leg up, connecting with Angel's face. His sire was somewhat taken by surprise. "They say it's never too late to turn your un-life around. How do you know I'm not just building my strength up and then leaving this sodding town?" He punched Angel successively in the face, and swept his legs. Angel shot up as fast as he had fallen, grabbed Spike by the shirt, and shoved him against the fireplace. Two sets of gleaming yellow eyes stared at one another now, fangs and all. He brought his knee up into Spike's gut, and let him slide down to the floor.

"I don't. And I don't care."

"That was always the problem. You were never there for me when I was growing up."

"Let's make up for lost time then."

As Angel reached down to grab him, Spike moved out of the way, his supernatural speed allowing him to be behind Angel before he knew it. Spike wrapped his arm around Angel's throat.

"Sure thing, Daddy."

*****

When they woke up, well there was no clock so they weren't really sure, but they knew it was early. Faith was not only surprised that she was still lying next to Buffy, but that she also didn't want to move. It was certainly one of the more unique experiences she'd had, in more ways then one. She was trying to place what she was feeling. God, was it happiness? The thing that stuck out the most was the most shocking. It had *meant* something. It had meant…a lot.

When she felt Buffy's arm tighten around her, she found herself helping by moving in closer to her. Her memories apparently hadn't scared Buffy off, and she was glad for that. Seeing Buffy's was a shock. She wasn't going to mention what she saw, because there was no need to. She understood, and she knew Buffy did too. The only thing she wanted to know was why it happened. "Morning." Buffy said in the middle of a yawn.

"Is it?"

"Who knows? Just seemed like the right thing to say." She was quiet for a few seconds. "So…um…was I okay…last night?"

"Huh?"

"It was…my first…time with..." Buffy said slowly.

Faith was trying to find a word. "Coulda fooled me. It was amazing, B."

"Really?"

"Swear. How'd I rate on the Summers Intimacy Meter?"

"You really wanna know?" Buffy grinned and kissed Faith. "On a scale from 'You're done already?' to 'I can see stars'…well, I think I saw a couple different solar systems."

"Way to boost a girl's ego."

"Only yours. But that was…"

"Something else. Those flashes…"

Buffy was quiet for a moment, thinking. "The bond…"

Faith sat up slightly, and Buffy moved back with her. "What bond?"

"I asked Giles a while ago about some stuff. He said that slayers all have the potential to form a bond. I think we did."

"So we're what? Connected?"

"I think so. In a way. I mean, how could we see what we saw if we weren't?"

Faith grabbed Buffy's hand under the sheets. "Cool."

Buffy smiled. "Yeah, it is."

"I just hope that memory thing doesn't happen every time. Was pretty intense."

She felt Buffy nod against her shoulder.

"We'll just have to see."

"Are you -?"

Buffy giggled. "No! I'm still recovering."

There was a knock at the door, then, and both girls took a deep breath. One of them had to get up. Faith eventually got up slowly, wrapping a sheet around her. She grinned at Buffy before walking to the door, and leaned down to give her a rather passionate kiss.

"Keep recovering. I got it."

Buffy, despite the goofy smile she had, rolled her eyes playfully. Her partner certainly had cocky confidence in herself and her abilities. And Buffy could testify first-hand that the confidence was well founded. She loved it.

She heard Faith open the door. "Who is it?"

Faith had paled. "Uh…hey, Mrs. S."

*****

Giles came downstairs with a blanket and covered the two young wiccans who were curled up together, asleep, against the left side of his couch. Wesley was huddled over Willow's laptop, looking at the coding for the virus.

"I think they overworked themselves." Giles commented.

"Yes, but I believe it was worth it. She certainly has a talent for this kind of thing." Wesley said.

"And may I ask…how do you understand any of that?" Giles asked, pulling up a chair.

"Willow has almost completed it, I'm just trying to fill in the holes. It's actually really quite simple," Wesley looked down at an open notebook beside the computer, "when it's already prewritten, of course."

Giles smirked. "Of course."

"What time is it?"

Giles glanced at his clock. "Ah…6:15."

"Thankfully, working for Angel has permanently adjusted my internal clock."

"Speaking of, how's Cordelia?"

"Cordelia." Wesley smiled. "But…changed. She's matured."

"I'm trying to picture it…"

"Believe me, I'm proud to call her my colleague, and my friend."

"So she's back in LA right now?"

"No…um…she talked Angel into some vacation time while we were here. She said she was going to one of the islands."

"He's a lax employer, then?"

"He's forceful when necessary."

*****

Angel brought his arms forward, then slammed them back, elbowing Spike in the chest. The blonde vampire staggered backwards, losing his grip. Angel grabbed him by the back of his jacket, and tossed him across the room and into a wall. Spike fell, and Angel was standing overtop of him within seconds. They were a couple feet away from the entrance to the garden.

"Sun's coming up."

Spike glanced over and saw chains lying in a pile a few feet away from him.

"How about that? It is." He brought his arm up and gave a pretty hard shot to Angel's groin. The older vampire fell to his knees, and Spike quickly and swiftly grabbed the chains. He raised them up, and swung them down, connecting with Angel's head. Again. And again.

His forehead was bleeding, and Spike kept at it. Finally, Angel caught the chain, stood up with it in hand, and fighting against Spike, wrapped it around his neck, squeezing as hard as he could. Angel led them both out into the garden, and let Spike drop to the ground. He kicked him in the ribs repeatedly, his demon side enjoying it immensely. He really hated Spike.

"Come on, finish the job."

"If that's what you want."

A stake shot out from a mechanism on Angel's wrist, and grabbed it, preferring to do it the old fashioned way. He lowered himself down, putting his knee on Spike's legs, so he couldn't get up, and raised the stake.

*****

Xander was awoken rather early, too early for his liking, but his Initiative pager, which asked him to report to base immediately. "Just remember why you're doing this," He reminded himself, "to help your friends. To make up for your mistakes. Of which there were many."

He got to the complex around five minutes later and changed into uniform to find only Graham awaiting him in the main room. The man looked a little ragged around the eyes. And a little stressed out. Xander guessed he hadn't slept much. "Where are the others?" Xander asked, looking around.

"I needed to just talk to you."

"About?"

"Well, I've made a mistake. This whole operation has made a mistake, and I don't deny that."

"Adam and Riley."

Graham nodded. "But we've spent so much time looking for Adam, and now that we have, we're not sure how to take him out. Riley too. That's the curse of the military I guess. Shortsightedness."

"You're saying that the scientist guys haven't been working on it?"

"They don't want to destroy them, they just want to capture and fix them. I…I'm a soldier. The only reason I'm in charge is because my two previous commanders are dead. I ordered Riley's upgrade, because I didn't think he deserved to go out like that. But I didn't know what I was asking for. I just want these 'things' gone."

Xander thought Graham was being a little too open, but he could hear the honesty in his voice. "So what do you think I can do?"

"We've been keeping tabs on your friends, and we know they have or are close to, creating a virus to kill our two escapees. I want you to get it from them. Storming the cave would be useless without a way to disable them."

And there was the catch. "You want me to steal it from them?"

"We want the same thing they do."

"Then why not let them handle it?"

"Because the soldiers are military property, and we handle our own problems."

"How do I know you're gonna destroy them and not just -"

"I'm giving you an order, do you have a problem with that?"

"No. No sir."

"I'm authorizing any means necessary. Arm yourself."

"Yes sir." Xander walked off feeling very worried. As he went out of view, the lead scientist came out of a side room and walked up to Graham.

"You pulled that off nicely. I doubt you would have gotten his cooperation if you had told him we didn't plan to destroy them. Despite the threat to his life if he refused."

"I've learned that sometimes, to get the job done, lying is a necessary evil." Graham walked away, and paying no attention to the consequences of what he was going to bring on himself, let a small smile creep onto his face. "Even when risking what you've built your life around."

*****

"Mom?" Buffy called a bit too loudly from her spot in the bed. The two, silent females in the next room heard frantic fumbling and noises for about two minutes, until eventually, Buffy emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed. Though it was obvious it had been a rushed job.

"You know I think I'll just…" Faith trailed off. This was not making a good impression on the still stoic Joyce.

"Get dressed?" Buffy offered quickly.

"Right. Gotta look decent. It's always my first priority. Uh…usually." Faith was grasping at really thin straws, and she knew it. Shutting her mouth before she made things worse, she slowly backed up into the bedroom.

"So…mom," Buffy began, clapping her hands together, "do you wanna sit down?" Joyce shook her head. "Okay, no sitting. Say, what time is it?"

"Past six." Joyce finally spoke.

"In the morning? You're here kinda early."

"I've been thinking about it all night. I figured the earlier we talked the better. I was obviously wrong."

"Don't suppose it was going to be a good talk."

"It was looking that way."

"Looking?" Buffy took a breath. "I know…I mean what really bad timing, huh? Wow… uh…but we could still…talk."

"I don't think that's a very good idea right now."

"But I'm all for talking. Faith too. Right?"

"Totally." Faith called out.

"So how do you wanna handle this, mom? Cause one of us is avoiding. We could get it all out right now. Like a Band-Aid. Once and we'd be done."

"I…I have to go." Joyce said, and then walked out.

"Guess that's not an option." Buffy said rubbing her hands over her face.

Faith emerged from the bedroom. "So what's the deal?"

"Who knows?" Buffy responded, frustration evident in her voice.

*****

Spike reached out his arm, feeling along the ground for anything to keep him undead for another day. He was coming up empty, and wished he were somewhere else. He went toe to toe with his sire, but that wasn't good enough. It needed to either be a mutual draw, or he had to win.

He felt like he was dislocating his shoulder, but he eventually felt something. Something sharp. Not caring what it was, he grabbed it with his fingers, and swiped Angel's face. A second later, all he knew was that the weight was off, and he was able to move again. He saw that he had a shard of glass. Looking over at his fallen enemy, he grinned and threw it to the ground.

Angel hissed; the side of his face was cut. He watched Spike take off as his face shifted back to human form. He got up slowly, and walked back into the mansion before he started getting really bad sunburn.

After a few minutes of trying to stick it out, his body registered the pain, even though the cuts would probably be gone within the next half-hour. It was a good thing he had brought his personal first aid kit in from the car, though he just needed to clean the blood away. Now, if he could find it…

Then he heard footsteps in the mansion. It wasn't Spike, because he could smell the warm blood. He looked around, and his eyes finally settled on Joyce.

"It is you." Joyce stated.

"I'm here to help Buffy and Faith fight," He caught the faraway look on her face, "but I'll be gone as soon as it's safe."

"I didn't mean…oh I don't know what I mean anymore."

"What are you doing out this way?"

"I was driving. And thinking. I ended up here and saw Spike running. I figured the only reason he would be here is because of you, and it looks like you two were fighting." Joyce said in a disparaging tone. For a second, Angel almost felt guilty about fighting for his life.

"It's goes back a long time with us. You didn't happen to see a first aid kit around here, did you?"

Joyce looked. "Yes. It's sitting on this trunk against the wall."

"Would you mind -?"

"Not at all." She went to grab it.

"Can I ask what's bothering you?"

"Well…Buffy always said you were a good listener." She handed him the kit, and he nodded gratefully. "Do you know about -?"

"Faith?"

"You're good at that. So," Joyce cleared her throat, "I'm trying to decide what's more dangerous for her. Dating a vampire, no offense," Angel simply waited, "or…"

"Dating Faith? Or dating a girl?"

"Should it make a difference?"

"Absolutely." Angel said, taking a rag and cleaning the blood off his face. "Faith is not the same person she was. She was able to stop herself before it got any worse. I only wish I could have done that."

"She stopped because…"

"Because she found love, and was able to finally realize it."

"With my daughter."

"Is that so hard to believe? The fact that she told you means she wants you to still be involved in her life. You're luckier then most."

"Am I? Because it seems like just when I'm about to come to terms with one thing, something else comes up."

"That's her life on a daily basis. She understands it's complicated for you, but for her, this is nothing compared to some of the other things she has to deal with. A lot of people connect for a lot of different reasons, Joyce."

"Like the two of you." He nodded. "You seem very accepting."

"I'm two-hundred and forty six. I've been denied happiness for most of those years. But just because I'm not allowed to have it doesn't mean I don't want anybody else to. We would've never been truly happy. And Buffy and Faith deserve to have that chance. It may last, it may not, but it's not my place to stand in the way."

"Do you think they will?"

"As long as they want it, and there are no curses involved." Angel said in a rather deadpan manner.

"Thank you, Angel. I think I'll try...and talk to them again." Joyce said, beginning to leave.

"You're welcome. Would you tell her that Adam is in a cave deep in Breaker's Woods? It's important. She'll know what it means."

"Of course."

*****

Tara and Willow awoke almost simultaneously, to find themselves in a "couch and blanket" position. Not an uncomfortable one, but they knew they hadn't been like this the night before.

"Hmm…Giles'…couch…blanket…" Willow trailed off as she saw Wesley and Giles moving about the house. Tara arched her neck too. "And Giles and Wesley…able to see us…how…"

They both threw the blanket off, and sat up nervously and quickly. They had nothing to hide, sure, but it was still a really…intimate position. Wesley saw them awake, and walked over.

"Good morning, girls."

"Wesley...hey…hi…morning…" They stuttered.

"I believe Giles is making eggs. Would you be interested?"

"Do you like eggs, Tara?" Willow asked.

"Yeah…love eggs…good…"

"Hey! Me too! We're egg lovers. Gotta love eggs. Yum."

"So that's a yes, then?" Wesley asked.

"You betcha."

Wesley started to go tell Giles, and then stopped. "Oh…I…completed the code you left out last night, though I'm not positive it's all correct…"

"Oh great! We'll check it."

As the girls got up to walk over to the laptop, they didn't notice Xander peaking in the window. It took them about two minutes to scan Wesley's work, well it took Willow that long, and it all appeared to be correct. Pulling a floppy disk out of her case, she inserted it into her drive, and saved the virus to it.

"It's all done. Nice goin', Wesley." Willow congratulated him.

He blushed in the kitchen. "So now what?" Tara asked.

"Well…we can't exactly test this, so the next move is to get it into Adam and hope it works. If it does, it'll weaken his structure, first the hardware, which should send, mixed signals to his brain, and he won't be so unkillable anymore. Plus he won't be very coordinated. Same for Riley. Hopefully."

"Cool." Tara gave her a quick kiss. Xander moved away from the window.

*****

"Feel like going out?" Buffy asked. Faith shrugged. "Me either. Shadow puppets?"

"I don't think there's enough light."

"Oh. Yeah." Buffy and Faith had been staring at the walls for about an hour, so they were pretty excited when there was a knock at the door. What had happened with Joyce had been bothering them a lot, and they couldn't really find the energy to do much of anything. They both went to the door, and Buffy opened it. Buffy smiled when she saw who it was, and Faith smiled too. Although a bit more nervously.

"Mom. Hi."

"Can we try this again?"

"Sure…come in." When Joyce entered, Faith shut the door, and they went back to the couch.

*****

Spike entered the cave, a smile on his face. Adam stood looking at Riley, who had his eyes closed. "I think I'm ready, I got one up on my maker, and I gotta tell ya, I'm feeling really good about myself. Think it's time to launch an offensive. Take care of the slayers once and for all…" Riley's eyes snapped open, and a disk ejected from his built in drive.

"He's finished." Adam spoke.

"Wonderful." Spike commented dryly.

"You are free, brother." Riley blinked, trying to get his bearings. He looked at his hands, as his memories came back. The emotions were kicking in at full blast. A drawback to being an updated version that just had its memory unlocked.

"Oh God…Buffy…"

...continued in Gearing Up...