In This Together-

A/N: Hey guys hope you are enjoying the story. If you are please, please, pleas review.
Chapter 4: My lover, My stranger, My professor


Buffy walked along sluggishly. She had sat through 3 classes already and she was tired. The classes were ok; she had just never expected college to involve so much work. And not just any work. Hard work. She had sat through sociology, psychology and history. The first two she had with Willow but the third she had on her own. Now she was on her way to meet Willow for lunch before her next class started in an hour.

She walked out and looked around the many tables on the North Quad where many students took their lunch. It didn’t take long to locate her because her red hair made her stick out. Buffy smiled as she moved towards her. When she got there she gladly sat down, with a sigh

“Thank god I have a break now” she said, head sitting on the table. Willow giggled

“Come on, it hasn’t been that bad”

“No, I guess not” Buffy agreed, sitting up straight “but there’s so much homework”

“Well this is college Buffy, and it’s cool because I know stuff, an con college in can tell people I know stuff, I couldn’t in high school. In high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon. You really had to work to learn anything. But here, the energy, the collective intelligence... It's like this force, this penetrating force, and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know, and letting this place just thrust into and, and spurt knowledge into... That sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.”

Buffy laughed “A little bit” she concurred.

“Anyway, what I mean is college is a cool place. Yeah there’s more work and yes it’s harder but it will all be worth it and we can have fun while we’re at it”

Buffy smiled “I suppose. I guess it’ll just take some getting used to is all”

“Yep”

“You’re the best Wills” Buffy told her friend

“I know” Buffy giggled, scrunching up a bit of paper and aiming it at Willow’s head, throwing it. Willow quickly retaliated and the two friends spent the remainder of the hour just having fun, relaxing and getting to know each other a bit better.



Rupert watched the young man pace the length of his office
“God, this is my first job. What if they don’t respect me, what if they don’t like my lessons? What if I just am really bad at this job?”

“Listen,” Rupert instructed “you have been studying for this job for a number of years. You have been preparing for ages. You will be fine, as long as you are confident in yourself. The students will not respect you if you aren’t confident in your abilities. So when you go into that classroom, hold your head high, know what you are talking about and they will listen and respect you,” he told the younger man.

“Yeah, I know that you’re right, but I can’t help being a little worried”

“Your being anxious is understandable. Every person starting a new job, or starting his or her first job out of university is always nervous. You are no different. It’s ok to be nervous, just don’t let your nerves rule you” he instructed. Trying to make the younger man realise that what he was feeling was not unnatural. But also that he could get through it. He looked down at his watch.

“Well class will be starting soon”
The other man nodded.

“Well shouldn’t you be going?” he prompted.
The man nodded again, not moving an inch

“Well?” Giles asked. The other man looked at him. Gave a small worried smile before turning and leaving.




Buffy and Willow slipped into the classroom and saw only about 15 people there. They made their way up to the back and sat nervously. Buffy put her bag down and rummaged through it pulling out a notebook and a few other things.
About halfway through bringing her things out she heard the door to the room open; she didn’t look up and continued pulling out her paper and pens. She then heard him speak.

“Hello Class. Welcome to English Lit.” Buddy thought he sounded familiar.

“He sounds like Giles.” She thought to herself as she opened her notebook. The professor continued talking.

I’m going to have my T.A pass out the syllabus for the semester while I see whose her today.” Buffy still hadn’t looked up. The professor walked over to his desk and grabbed a clipboard with a list of names.

“Tonya Brown.” He called out. A blonde girl raised her hand and yelled out ‘here’.
“Joanne Davidson”
“Jenny Davison…” He continued on until he got to a name that struck his memory.


“Buffy Sum...” He paused which caused Buffy to look up. Her eyes widened as did his. She quickly put her head down and talked to her self. “Ok, it’s not him. You just think it’s him. You’re going to look up and he’ll be gone. Yep that’s what you’re going to do.” Willow looked at her wondering what was going on. She slowly raised her head and her eyes connected with a bleach blonde.
Finding she was wrong about hiing ing an illusion she did the next best thing... she ran.
She just ran straight out the door and into the hall. Buffy looked towards Spike, completely bewildered. She watched Spike’s next actions closely.
“Shit.” Spike cursed throwing the clipboard onto her desk as he ran out after her.



“Buffy” he yelled as he chased her down the long corridor, she refused to stop or even look back at him. Eventually he caught up to her and grabbed her arm. He spun her around

“Buffy listen to me” he ordered shaking her a little “ I had no idea you would be here”
She snorted, “Funnily enough I didn’t expect you to be my professor either,” she almost yelled

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I had no idea you would be one of my students”

“Ok, well there isn’t anything we can do about it”

“No” he agreed, “there isn’t so why don’t you come back to class, and we’ll just ignore that this happened. As for the other night we’ll just act like it didn’t happen either. We can’t take any risks here. This is my first teaching position”

Buffy was a little hurt but she could see where he was coming from so she nodded, “Ok”

“Ok” he repeated. They turned and walked backed to class. Everyone started when they came back but she did her best to ignore them. She just went back to her seat beside Willow.

“What happened?” Willow whispered

“Nothing” Buffy dismissed the situation and then turned to face Spike and try and get through the class. She managed, barely, but as soon as class let out she was first through the door to freedom. From the whole situation she hoped.

Buffy had gone straight home after that class, avoiding anyone she knew. She needed time to be by herself and get her head around everything and also just to relax. Which she had done quite well so far. She had soaked in a long bath, ate a ton of cookie dough ice cream and watched cheesy soap opera’s. But now she felt like she really needed to talk to someone. And that person that she wanted to speak to was her mother, but she had no phone line in the apartment yet. But she really needed her mom now so she guessed Mr Giles might let her use his phone. She pulled herself off the couch and trudged out and towards Giles’ house. She knocked on the door, and waited for someone to answer. She thought she was hallucinating when the door was thrown open and there, once again, stood Spike. Before either of them said anything, she fell to the ground, passed out.