Disclaimers: All the characters in this story belong to Joss Whedon.

Summary: Buffy mysteriously falls ill and runs away from Sunnydale to escape the watchers council. When her friends realise that she will not back down they vow that they will do whatever it takes to ensure that she is safe. Set in season 6 before Buffy and Spike started their destructive relationship, Spuffy fanfiction.

A:N: The musical happened but they never kissed

Chapter one

It was dark out. The light of the moon lit up the headstones in the graveyard. The light hit a certain headstone perfectly, which read: BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS 1981-2001, BELOVED SISTER, DEVOTED FRIEND. SHE SAVED THE WORLD ALOT. uddenly a hand burst out from below, then another hand, then Buffy's head and shoulders. She gasped for air, pulled herself up onto the grass, lay there panting. She looked around at the dark forest, very fearfully. Flash. A car sat there burning, half burnt away. Buffy walked up, stared. She walked down a street that was littered with debris. Buffy was wearing a black dress with dark hose and black heeled shoes. Her hair was shaggy and mostly covered her face. From Buffy's point of view. Everything was blurry and indistinct. She continued walking, squinting and frowning at the burning cars. She stopped walking to stare at a car. A demon on his motorcycle went roaring past roaring past, threw something as he went by. Buffy watched him go, backed away.

She began to tossed and turn violently in bed as her flashback continued. Whimpering and moaning slightly. Buffy walked down residential streets. A siren wailed in the background. Buffy went to a car that was parked on a driveway and leaned against it. The car's lights came on and its security system began to wail and honk. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! The alarm clock went of and the blonde reluctantly opened her eyes and looked over to the offending object. As she sat up she felt suddenly queasy and had gone very pale. Lucky for her she got to the bathroom before she hurled up last night's peperoni pizza. Her whole body shook and she ached all over and fought the feeling of needing to be sick once again. Buffy groaned as she lost that battle. Several minutes later, Buffy had stopped being sick. She swilled her mouth out and wiped her face with a damp face cloth. As she was cleaning the sink she found herself getting caught up in watching the water wash her stomach contents down the drain. An abrupt knocking at the bathroom door pulled her out of her trance. There was one very impatient teenager on the other side.

"Buffy, come on! Stop hogging the bathroom!" Dawn shouted from the other side.

Buffy sighed and looked in the mirror before answering, weakly

"Nearly done,"

Huff. The slayer frowned as she could still taste the aftermath of her vomit. She brushed her teeth frantically trying to get rid of that sour taste. A series of huffs and groans emanated from the door. Eventually, Buffy emerged from the bathroom, looking really wiped and ill.

"See, if you'd just waited five then I would have been done..."

Arms crossed over her chest. Dawn looked at her sister. Concern was evident. Buffy looked like death warmed up.

"Buffy, are you okay?" she asked as she narrowed her eyes on her.

Buffy nodded weakly and looked to her feet.

"I'm fine...you better hurry up or you're gonna be late again,"

That was all she said before leaving her little sister to get on with her morning tasks.

It was a hot summer's day yet Buffy couldn't get warm. She was constantly shivering and had to put a cardigan on. She put together the coffee machine and began to make some coffee. As it peculated and the aroma wafted around the room Buffy could feel the nausea come on her once again. Shaking it off she decided to fix herself up with some sort of breakfast. Beep! The coffee machine was done and she took the pot away and poured herself a cup. The need to vomit growing even more. What is going on? She thought. As she went to pour the excess coffee down the drain, the pot came to a thundering crash. The slayer clutched her stomach in pain and began wrenching once more. Her other hand was grasping the side of the worktop so hard that her knuckles had turned white. Once the vomiting had stopped and the black pit of nausea had diminished quite a bit.

Buffy pulled herself together, got herself a glass of water and sat on one of the stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen. Her hands were shaking as she lifted the glass to her lips, causing some water to spill onto the worktop. Sighing, she slowly got off the stool and retrieved some kitchen roll and began to mop up the spilt liquid. The brown haired teen entered the kitchen and smiled at her sister as she went about her business. Buffy smiled back as she saw her kid sister bouncing around like a rubber ball. Dawn had started pouring from a box of Sugar Bombs cereal. There were a number of bowls on the table in front of her. Buffy rolled her emerald eyes and tutted.

"How many bowls of cereal are you planning on eating?"

Dawn shrugged and grinned when she found the prize at the bottom. Only then did she start to repack the cereal. Wide eyed, Buffy stared at Dawn.

"All that trouble for a toy?" she piped

The teen frowned.

"It's a collectable!"

Slight smile.

"Well it better be worth it..." Buffy started.

She felt sick again and was trying to quash that feeling back down. Dawn watched her look turn from slight happiness to as white as a sheet and this worried her to the core. The slayer swallowed the feeling down and it soon past.

"Buffy, you don't look so good... you sure you're ok?" Dawn asked

"God Dawn! I said before I'm fine so that means I'm fine!" she barked

This sudden outburst made the youngest Summers' girl jump back in surprise.

"I was just-"

"And I've already told you," Buffy interrupted

Dawn clenched her jaw and gritted her teeth.

"Fine, be like that...I'm going to school!"

Buffy went to shout after her but decided against it and sighed back into her seat.

Buffy's day consisted of trying to get rid of the nausea which she had suddenly gained. She didn't know what to make of it. And it hadn't been the first morning that she had woken up like this. It had happened about three or four times in the past two week. She didn't mean to snap at Dawn like that and she certainly didn't know why. Once the blonde had got rid of the sickness she headed over to the magic box. All her friends noticed she was distracted and distant. When she was training Willow commented to Giles that she doesn't seem to be showing any REAL human emotion and the watcher explained that it was probably a side effect of her being dragged out of heaven. Just hearing about where she had pulled her best friend from made the red-head's eyes fill with tears. Not only did she snap at Dawn this morning she had also started snapping at them.

Later on that night they slayer decided she needed to work off some steam. For some strange reason a lot of vampires were cropping up tonight. Not only that she had fought around 3 other demons. After the last vampire she huffed, looked down to the grass, then up to the sky and took her jacket off.

"Is there another apocalypse coming or something?" she muttered to herself as she readjusted her jacket on the tombstone. It was a lovely night. Not too hot but not too cold. Soft breeze blowing around. The demons seemed to be drawn to her even more. Vampires would stop and snarl at her. Pausing for a few seconds as if they were trying to figure something out and then they would give a sick smile and charge at her. If you asked Buffy there was definitely something in the blood supply or should we say people cause these vampires were acting weird around her.

She kicked the grass as she went along and eventually another vampire popped up. Buffy was starting to feel a bit off colour. Yet again the vampire stopped for a second and charged at her. Knocking her to the floor and started to punch her. He was only able to get one punch in before Buffy pushed him off her and she vaulted off her back. Then she started to wail on him. In the shadow of a near by tree he watched her fight. Noticing how she wasn't her normal self.

All that was visible was a bright amber light and the smoke that was coming from it. An assault of kicks and punches is what she dealt out to the vampire and then staked him good and proper. She leaned her head back a bit and pinched the bridge of her nose. A killer headache had just made its presence felt and she felt a bit queasy again. He came to about a metre or so behind her and she hadn't even noticed. This isn't like her, where has her slayer senses gone, down the bloody toilet? Spike thought. As he got closer to the petite woman he started to notice something was extremely, majorly different with her. He stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it about. No. He took a deep, unneeded breath in then spoke.

"So, you planning on standing there all night, slayer?"

Buffy let her eyes roll shut.

"Do you have to creep up like that?" she moaned

Shrug.

"I'm a vampire love, tis what we do...where have your senses gone anyway? And what has happened to your fighting skills, bloody sloppy is what it is,"

A shaky sigh escaped her lips as she turned around to face him. Spike furrowed his brows as he studied her face a bit more. Boy, did she look awful. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance and curiosity.

"Spike, what are you doing?" she exasperated, trying to hide how ill she felt from him.

His eyes softened in concern. Buffy smiled inwardly at this.

"Buffy...pet, is there anything you want to talk to me 'bout? Are you feeling ok?" his voice was dripping with concern.

Ever since she had returned his softer side was coming out more often and the thing was before she had died, Buffy would of hit him and told him that she wanted him out of her life. But now, now was a different story. She quite welcomed his soft side and sometimes they found themselves sitting on top of tombs or sitting on the sofa he had stolen in his crypt, talking or just sitting in a comfortable silence.

"I'm fine (his face shows that he doesn't believe her)... really and I-I think I'm getting over the whole being ripped out of complete bliss...slowly," she explained

Brow raised in the slayer's direction.

"You don't fool me, I've known you long enough to know there is something wrong and besides I am a vampire, I can sense these things," he pointed out for the second time

Roll of the eyes and a slight aggravated groan escaped her lips. She walked her way towards the tombstone she had left her coat on. Leg wobbling slightly as she went on and she hid it well. She could feel herself getting heated and angry. What was with everyone recently? Did they all go deaf when she said she was fine? Deep down she knew that there was something wrong and that it was no good hiding it from the vampire.

"What is it with everyone today! It's are you ok Buffy? Are you sure? (puts on a painfully bad English accent) oh dear lord, Buffy you look rather peaky!" she shouted.

Her heart was beating double the normal pace and Spike's concern for her grew even more. If she didn't calm down something bad could happen and he didn't want that. She whirled back round to face him and continued with her rant. No matter how bad she was feeling right then.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me if I was ok today, I could pay off all of these debts and more!"

It accelerated even more. He stepped towards her. Buffy's colour had gone from completely white to what he thought looked slightly sour and a little green. Heart pounded even more. Buffy looked him dead in the eye. Her own eyes were glazed over in confusion as her face was masked with confusion. Buffy furrowed her brows at him.

"Spike?" she whispered, before collapsing.

Spike's leather clad and strong arms caught her as her head was about to hit the tombstone. Her golden hair fell across her face and he gently brushed it away with his fingers as he weighed up his options.

Ok so what do you think guys? Please review as it helps me to carry on! Thank you for reading this!!!