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Chapter Three

Poor Giles


Pain. The thing that awoke Giles was pain. He groaned and tried to bring his hand to his head but couldn’t because it was strapped down. He panicked, remembering the soldiers, and started to tug at his restraints. In addition to his hands, his legs were secured and a strap across his torso just under the arms prevented him from sitting up. The light above him was so bright he had to half close his eyes against the glare.

“Ah, you’re awake.” A woman’s voice spoke.

Giles turned his head to the left and squinted, trying to see who was there. Maggie Walsh. The sight didn’t cheer him, nor did the fact that she was wearing a lab coat and holding a scalpel.

“You’ve given us quite the run-around, Number Seventeen,” she said coldly.

“But I’m not…” Giles trailed off. What could he possibly say to convince her?

“You’re not? So what are you then, the Easter Bunny?”

Giles stayed quiet. He knew this harridan wouldn’t listen to him. The way she’d spoken of vampires and demon to Buffy indicated that she thought of them as lab rats with no intellect, nothing to say but lies and wanting nothing more than to kill and do other evil deeds. In fairness she was probably mostly right!

Maggie stepped closer, her hand feeling warm on his flesh. Giles realised he was stripped to the waist.

“Well, let’s see how quickly a vampire heals, shall we? My agent caught you with a bullet as you were captured. We’d better get it out.”

She laid the scalpel on his skin and pressed it along in a line starting above and finishing just below the bullet wound. Giles yelled out in pain.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Maggie dryly. “Did that hurt? Fresh out of local anaesthetic, I’m afraid.” She dug deeper into his flesh to locate the bullet.

The pain and fear in Giles made him change into Spike’s game face. His cries were replaced by growls and snarls. Maggie removed the bullet and left the now quite large wound unstitched or dressed. She noted its size on Giles’ chart so they could track how long it took to heal. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating. The vampire features faded as another short blast from the tazer rendered him once more unconscious.

“We’re not taking any chance with this one again,” said Maggie. “It’s shown above average intelligence for a vampire by escaping and eluding us for so long. It will make a very interesting subject for study.”

A couple of assistants threaded a straight jacket onto Giles and put shackles on his ankles, with only a foot of chain linking them. Number Seventeen wouldn’t be escaping again. He was put in one of a long line of glass-fronted cells.

When Giles came to once more, he was lying on his side, arms held painfully tight by the straight jacket. He struggled a bit but the straps didn’t budge. Managing to sit up, he shuffled to the wall so he could lean against it. The bullet wound was painful and he could see a patch of blood seeping through the canvas of the jacket.

“Oh dear,” said Giles, gazing around the cell.

*~*~*~*

Buffy, Spike, Willow and Xander were desperately trying to think of what to do, missing Giles’ encyclopaedic knowledge.

“We’ve basically got two problems,” said Buffy.

“Yeah, well, that’s enough to be going on with, right?” said Spike.

“Two problems,” repeated Buffy, giving Spike a ‘look’. “One is to get Giles out from The Initiative and the other to get the two of you back where you belong.”

“And it’s taken you this long to work that out?” sneered Spike, sounding almost Spike-like even with Giles’ voice.

“Shut up, walking dead guy,” said Xander. “Er..or middle-aged ex-librarian guy.”

“The thing is, we might not have to do them in that order. It might be easier to get Spike’s body out if Spike were in the driver’s seat,” said Buffy.

“Oh, right. You swap us back and then leave me there, like the boy here, said before," snapped Spike, jabbing a finger towards Xander.

“No,” said Buffy, thinking that Spike was even more irritating when he sounded like Giles. “It’s just if there’s fighting to be done to get him...er...you...er...whatever, out then you might do it better than Giles.”

“See your point, Slayer,” said Spike. “Thing is, how do we get swapped back?”

“I dunno. Willow, Xander, you hit the books. I’ll go back to where I killed the demon and see if I can find anything.” Buffy got up to leave and Spike also rose from his chair. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“Look, I might be all dressed up in Giles but I’m a ‘doer’, not a ‘book’ guy. I’ve got a vested interest so I’m coming too.”

Buffy rolled her eyes, but said, "Okay.”

*~*~*~*

Xander and Willow went through the books for hours and so far hadn’t even managed to trace what kind of demon it was, let alone learn how to reverse what had been done.

Spike and Buffy hadn’t fared much better at the scene. They'd managed to collect a little orange dust that they thought might be leftover residue from the orange cloud it had disappeared in.

They all gathered back at Giles’ to swap their tales of no progress. Buffy said she’d look round The Initiative in the morning as she was scheduled for a tour with Riley so it wouldn’t arise any suspicion.

Spike protested about leaving it to the morning but eventually agreed, especially as he felt more exhausted than he’d ever felt. They all crashed at Giles'. Spike being gentlemanly for once, let the girls take the bed, then lost the race with Xander for the couch and ended up sleeping in one of the armchairs.

*~*~*~*

Giles looked up as the door opened. Two soldiers stood there - one was one of the two who’d captured him, the other, Riley Finn, Buffy’s boyfriend.

“Riley,” Giles said.

“How’s the thing know your name?” asked Graham.

“I don’t know,” said Riley, “and I don’t much care for it. Go on, Graham, I’ve got you covered.

Graham walked into the cell carrying a bag of blood.

“Here’s your dinner,” said Graham. “We’re not freeing your hands so you’ll just have to bite hold of it.” He held it close to Giles’ face.

Giles started to say he didn’t want it when he felt his face change and he suddenly found he did want it after all. Part of him was repulsed but the body had taken over where the mind had quailed - it hadn’t eaten all day. He bit into the bag and drank the lot. Once the bag was emptied the two men left. After a time Giles started to feel woozy.

Oh, damn. It was drugged.

He succumbed to the drug in the blood and fell asleep.

To be continued…