Flashbacks and wiggy moments.

*Written by: Laura

*Status: This story is in the middle of 4th and 5th season. The initiative is gone and Spike doesn't know he loves Buffy yet.

*Rating: PG-13

*Relationships: Some Buffy/Spike tension.

*Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy nor do I own any of the characters or settings from the Joss Whedon creation 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' the television show. But I can, and did, create my own characters; I'm not completely loony.

Chapter 1
A village just north of Manchester England:
October 9th, 1874:

The sun was shinning bright on the grass in the clearing that day, a cool breeze the only thing interrupting the stillness of the uncommonly good weather of England in the mid afternoon that autumn. Birds chirped in the distance, their sound melding with the sounds of laughter coming from someone in the distance. The laugh was a harsh one; obviously male in tone, the birds stopped there bellowing just to listen to the young mans happiness. Footsteps could be heard now as his feet crushed the leaves on the ground. A young, fairly dressed man ran forward into the clearing, pushing the branches out of the way as he made his way into the grassy area. He stood hunched over slightly with his hand over his stomach as he tried to catch his breath, still laughing a little, his tan britches and vest covered with dirt. He looked as though he had been rolling around in the dirt just enough to get a little dusty but not completely roughed up. He looked back and continued walking onward; it seemed as though he was running from something.

The branches moved again and out came a young blond girl dressed just as nicely in formal wear as the man had been a moment ago, the wrinkles and specks of dirt in the gown suggested that they were both engaging in the same activity. She grabbed either side of her dress and picked it up hurriedly, catching up with the man and pulling him back by his ponytail. " William!" she yelled out, half laughing. " Why do you run…silly boy."

" Because I dun't want you to bleed'in kill me of laughter pet!" He said, looking back to his friend who was now nearly painfully hurting his hair.

Her face suddenly scrunched up at his words, but she did not falter, her hands moved swiftly to tickle his sides. William started to laugh again.

He had always though that Lilith had been this way, always trying to be the fun one with her little tricks and games to play on him. Tickling was one of her favorites, but it always ended in the same way with her punching him to the ground once she had had her fill for the day. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind then did she do just that. He fell to the ground and slammed his head to the grass with a thud, his hand up by his chest as he tried the best he could to rub the pain away. "Ow?" He bellowed, one of his dark eyebrows rose questionably.

She glanced down at him teasingly the way most girls do when they are with the ones they love. " Sorry, but…" She sat down gracefully beside him. " Your so much more vulnerable on the ground." A slight smile spread across her playful expressions. Even though she loved him dearly, she hadn't told him as much, but he had to know the truth didn't he?

He shook his head, sitting up straight. " Well, now that I've let you ravage me all buggered, maybe you'll now be more fit to agree to let me take you to that spring festival this evening?"

The young girls face diminished into a frown quickly, she laid her hand on the dress before her. " William, you know that we can't do that. Why do you keep asking me that question if you'll know what the answer will be?"

" Because I'm stubborn and I don't bloody well care what other people think. Lily I love you and I want the whole world to know."

" But we can't! Don't you understand…we're different."

"Lily, I tolds you, calls me Will. And we're not all that different. My love doesn't care about wealth or status…it only cares about you, nothing else matters to me. It's bad enough I can only see you two times a week when we go to chapel, and then we have to hide. Is nothing I say going to convince you otherwise that my love is real?'

"William, please understand that I know your love is real, but father would never see you the way I do. He's as stubborn as you are, he wants me to be with this wealthy land owner…not a writer like you are."

"Poet Lily…I want to be a poet! And calls me Will. Bugger! We've been seeing each other for months now and you still call me by my full name."

"I know I call you by your first name, I think that if I don't get too attached to you it will make it easier when I have to one day tell you that I can't see you again. I know it'll happen, why can't you see it too? William your blinded by your passions, will you ever love someone else as deeply?"

"Never, there is no one else like you Lil, please…let me take you to the sodd'in festival, let them see my devotion, let them see how right we are for one another…please."

The girl sighed in defeat, he would never understand, stupid boy. Her father had chosen another and only wanted the best for his little girl, but she on the other hand did not. And now look were it had gotten her, whom was she frolicking around with after mass? A commoner; a boy yes, but also a handsome blond haired blue-eyed wonderful boy whom had captured her heart. It was almost like Romeo and Juliet the way things were going. Love at first sight did exist; she believed that now more then ever. But her heart had misguided her in the road she took now. She knew that she would be doomed to live a middle-class life if William did not make something of himself, wealthy, like her father wanted.

Sure she had only known him for three month now, but what a three months those had been. Though, to be fair, in all that time she had learned nothing of his future plans other then that he was going to move to London shortly with his mother and become a 'poet.' When she had asked him about this, he had asked her to come with him to London, but she had declined and ever since then had been asking her to go to this damned festival for the crop harvest. Oh, sometimes this boy made her so frustrated. " My father asked me to go with another lad William…and I have said yes."

The Poet scowled a moment, otherwise taking things very calmly, and then spoke up. "Who? I would think it fair for me to ask and know after all." Another fellow? Didn't she love him at all; had she any idea what this could do to a blokes pride?

" I dun know him, all I know is that he's wealthy…and an upper-class, blue-blooded snoop. My father assures me that I will grow to like him…but…"

" But what?"

" But you see…I…"Another voice rang out near by.

" Lilith!" It was her father's voice. The pair looked at one another and quickly stood up.

She whispered. " It's father, he can't see me with you…I must go…"

William held her back. " But what were you going to say?"

Her father again." Lilith! Time to go dear!" The voice now had authority in it.

" I…" she looked back and forth between her lover and her maker. " …I have to go." The girl picked up her dress and yanked her hand away giving a small peck on his cheek before running off in the direction they had come from. She disappeared into the brushed as she had come, only she was now going back to church.

Chapter 2
Sunnydale: Present

" Giles!" The brunette carried a woman in his arm, she lay limb and lifeless as a rage doll.

" Xander?" The watcher took one look at Anya in the boy's embrace and walked over quickly to his assistance. " What happened?"

" I …I dunno Giles…" Hurriedly he rushed he over to the table in the center of the Magic shop pushing a large arrangement of candles in the middle out of the way making them land to the ground in a shattered heap. " It…It came out of no where and just grabbed a hold of her arm. It was a demon but I didn't recognize it…god I hate demons…sept when she was one…but that's not the point….oh!" As the young boy talked, Giles gave Anya a basic physical examine. Eyelids, pulse on the wrist, breathing, pulse on the neck. " She ok?" He continued to check without falter. " Giles?'

The watcher laid Anya hand back to the table carefully and looked up to Xander. " She's alive…but…"

"But…But what?"

"Dammit! I'm afraid I've seen this before Xander." He fixed his glasses, walking to a bookshelf to grab an old worn out leather bound book.

"Wait, so you know what's going on right? You can fix this, she's going to be ok right?"

With a disconcerting look to the worried lad, Giles next flipped through the pages looking for one in particular. When he finally arrived at the page he was looking for, he read out loud so that he may accumulate the answers he needed for both of them. His voice was serious now when he talked. " The demon that…um…'got' her was a type of soul capturing demon if you will. You rarely see these types of demons anymore, I'm actually quite astonished that they still roamed in this part of the world, they feed on the purity and the energy that only a human soul can give. They can feed on…da…days on end you see. Anya is alive…but she's in a sort of limbo to be precise. She'll…her soul…will keep getting weaker and weaker until it's gone completely and she dies. The only way, if any, if we hope to save her is to find the demon and kill it…or find her soul in the nether realm and thus bring it back to her body and starving the demon."

" Ok…anyone that didn't just get that raise their hand." He raised his hand comically, but his face actually quite serious, as he normally wouldn't use that type of sarcasm to get his point across. Inside, he was worried and going crazy as hell for his girlfriend. " So your saying we just kill this demon and she's fine?"

"Yes Xander, but it's a little bit more difficult then all that you see, the demon only arises once every twenty years or so to find a new food source, according to this book. It'll just go back to its lair or hiding place and stay there…feeding almost telepathically until the victim dies. Unless you know exactly were to find this demon, the only way to help Anya at all is to pull her soul back and starve the demon. Capturing her arm, like you said, was only the first step in feeding process, now it must drain which gives us time thankfully."

" So we can kill it…good." Xander stomped off towards the phone. " I'll call Buffy…"

"Xander…we may need more help then that."


Chapter 3
A village just north of Manchester England:
October 10th, 1874 ( That evening).

The festival wasn't as bad as he had first pictured it. A few lights, some music, some people making money on there homemade pies, people dancing and walking about as they chattered pointlessly about the selfish needs. Couples were holding hands and smiling at one another as they strolled about merrily. Bloody 'ell, it was exactly as bad as he had first pictured it. Night had fallen all but a half an hour ago and the town square was filled with patrons of all sorts, some buying, and some selling. William couldn't…or wouldn't, or wasn't going to let him self be concerned with those matters. He wasn't there to enjoy himself, as much he would have liked to; he was only there because he knew Lilith would be there. He knew in his heart that this had to be the right choice, god he sounded like some lovesick, thick idiot. But that was what he was, no doubts in his mind about that now.

The young man stood at the corner of the two streets just a block from the festivities themselves. His back lay hard against the cold steel of the street sign, his back warm in comparison thus making the cold seem that much more overwhelming. He shivered, ever so slightly, now and again as he glanced down at the people in the streets.

People were arriving to the yearly festival in all kinds of different ways and, it had surprised William most of all, that Lilith was yet to make an appearance. He had been there for almost an hour now …where could she have been? Maybe she was still home getting ready, he wished he could check to be sure but, of course, that was strictly forbidden. Not only did Lilith live in a large mansion a few blocks away that he was not invited to be in, but also, like before, he was still just a middle class lad of no importance.

But that didn't mean his worry was any less intense...he still was quite curious weather she would show or not. Oh sod society and all it's bleeding rules, he needed to know!

A lot of thoughts and ten minutes later…he was walking up to her very street. The plan seemed simple enough in his head. He knew where her room was after all; he had followed her home one night and seen that hers was on the farthest east corner of the huge mansion. The large house itself sat among the many other buildings in that street but it was white with a dark roof...he remembered it well. It was a very luxurious place as far as he could tell from the outside. He had never gone in, but the clean marble and stone carriageway with a picket fence was enough to convince him that what lied within couldn't have been that bad.

He walked from the main street to what he thought was her room, noticing as soon as he had gotten a close enough view that not many lights or lamps were lit. Hopefully he had not just missed her going on her way already. God, that's all he needed now, to have just missed her. If he had done that...

But no, that couldn't be because... there, on the very east corner of the building he had first thought her room to be a light was on and brightly filling her room. But this bothered him even more, why wasn't she off and having fun with the rest of the towns' people? It didn't seem right and something inside of him was saying that things weren't right. Something was going to happen tonight and the forces that be were telling him not to go. The small voice in the back of his head said ' no' and 'don't go because something bad will happen.' He ignored this voice, he wanted to see her so badly, and he had to talk to her.

Sure, he wouldn't have been able to talk to her at the festival if her Parents had been there.... but he had hoped that he and Lilith might have another session of catch before the night was done. But, it was obvious she was still in her room, then again it was none of his business. But what was he supposed to do? Walk away? He would never walk away if it meant she would be happy and safe. He loved her so much and he had never felt this way about anyone…ever. He had fallen deep, hadn't his mother warned him about this? He worried about her all the time. Lily was a fragile young beautiful girl who didn't know how brutally harsh the real world could be. She was tame and papered and…spoiled…yes… but still a wonderful girl at heart. He knew the real her and not the mask she put on for the others…her family.

Slowly and extremely quietly he crept up to the side of her large window doorway. He kept behind the bushes as he looked in, what he saw...he couldn't even hope to comprehend at first.

But once he had heard the snap of a hand against flesh and her cry out in pain as she fell to the floor, he was up and running into the room without any thought to his own well being.