3 Hello Iowa

He knows he's dreaming, but he smiles anyway.

This is the night everything changed.

It's not the one you think.

Buffy's alive and so is Dawn.

"Soldier Boy."

"Spike?"

He's never seen anyone look quite so astonished since Angelus killed that bishop with his own mitre.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't stake you right now."

"She needs you."

The cigarette flares between his lips in the darkness.

"Buffy?"

"You might be a wanker, but you're the only soldier-wanker she's got."

"And you came all the way to Bolivia to tell me that?"

He is so confident, so self-assured, that Riley has to hit him just to stop himself from staking him.

His sneer doesn't even flicker.

"Don't get me wrong, she didn't break when you left town but…"

"I can't go back, Spike, the military own my ass."

"Far as I can see, Buffy owns your ass."

"At least she doesn't kick it like she does yours."

Riley has never been the most quick-witted of mortals.

"She needs your help. Bint won't admit it but she does."

Another blow, this time taking the cigarette from between his lips.

"I asked about your swearwords when I was on assignment in England – they're really not words you should apply to a lady, Spike."

His pride is in the gutter and now so his is chin, but what does that matter if his girls live?

"Hit a fellow when he's just trying to help, why don't you?"

"What do you want, Spike?"

"Me? All I ever wanted was a nice comfy crypt, with cable, a fridge, a microwave and a decent supply of blood. Human for preference."

The look on Riley's face makes the chip fire in his brain.

He shakes the pain away.

"So here's the thing – God, I'm even starting to talk like her – the Big Bad is Bigger and Bad-der than ever and after Dawn. This Glory bint is harder to get rid of than a Mugwaie demon high on cheetos and you know how nasty those boys can be."

Riley, in a moment of forgetfulness and soldierly-comradeship, nods.

"Why me?"

"I want 'bit in one bit."

"Huh?"

"Ever seen a hell-god hit by an AK-47?"

The smile on his face reminds Riley of the sun rising over the cornfields of Iowa.

He is effulgent.

"Every night I save you."

Just not always the way you think.