I am very very sorry for not updating sooner, I had the chapter written ages ago but missed this site out. Bad Alex. Hope it's worth the wait.

Chapter Two: William the Bloody

“So,” the Doctor said, moving casually around the spaceship and fiddling with controls. “What year are we talking here?”

“I … don’t know.” Buffy pulled herself out of the shock of being inside a spaceship and considered. “Before he was turned.”

“I’m sorry, turned?”

“He was a vampire.”

The Doctor raised his eyes. “Of course he was. So, same question: what year?”

“Well … he was turned in 1880; he told me once. I’d like to see him before that.”

“Any idea what time of year?”

“No. Does that matter?”

“Well, if you want to see him as close as possible to his – um – turn … I suppose we could play it safe and go to the previous year. How does New Year’s Eve sound?”

Buffy smiled. “Great.”

“Okay. New Year’s Eve, 1879 … where, exactly?”

“London.”

The Doctor pulled a switch and grinned. “Here we go!”

The ship suddenly shuddered and Buffy grabbed at a pillar to keep herself upright. Her travelling companion seemed used to it; all he did was laugh at her.

After a sickeningly shuddering ride, the ship grew still.

“Is this it, then?” Buffy said. “Are we here?”

“Take a look,” he replied, smiling.

Buffy hurried to the door, but a call from him stopped her in her tracks. “Oy! You can’t go out dressed like that!”

She followed his long, complicated directions to a walk-in wardrobe filled with every kind of clothing imaginable, from weird futuristic spandex-like clothing to suits of armour. She changed into a black, flowing dress that seemed to her to fit the time period and ventured back to the main part of the ship.

“How’s this?”

The Doctor looked up, and for a moment his face froze. “It’s … it’ll do,” he said finally, looking back down at the controls.

“What’s the matter?”

For a moment she thought he wouldn’t answer, but he finally said in a quiet voice, “My friend Rose wore that on our second trip together.”

The tone of his voice was clear – Rose was no longer around.

Buffy slipped an arm in his. “I’m sorry.”

He forced a smile. “Thank you.” He snapped back into his previously cheery mood as if somebody had flicked a switch. “Now, shall we go?”

-----

It took a surprisingly short time for them to find Spike – or, rather, William. He had opened up a little to Buffy about his human life – not much, but enough for her to direct the Doctor to the rough area where he resided. There was snow everywhere and Christmas decorations were still hanging.

“Wow,” Buffy murmured. “It’s beautiful.”

The Doctor began to say something, but Buffy stopped suddenly, a feeling overpowering her. “He’s close.”

“Sorry?”

She pointed to a large mansion with mistletoe hanging over the door. “In there.”

“How on earth do you know that?”

“I don’t know,” Buffy admitted. “Instinct?”

“Well, it can’t hurt to try there. Shall we?”

Buffy swallowed, nerves making her hesitate, but the thought of seeing Spike – William – again was too strong. She nodded and took his arm. “Okay.”

There was a New Years’ Eve gathering inside, and the room was fairly crowded. Buffy’s heart began to sink. How was she supposed to find him in this? Then a name caught her attention. “Watch where you’re going, William!”

Buffy whirled around. The Doctor followed her line of gaze.

It was him. Buffy’s heart leapt as she recognised Spike’s face, somewhat camouflaged by the hairstyle and 1800s clothes. He mumbled an apology to the sneering aristocrat and hurried out of sight again, absorbed in something written on a piece of paper.

“That was him,” she whispered. “That was really him.”

“Are you going to go over there?”

Buffy bit her lip. “I can’t. There’s too many people. Maybe we could wait a bit until there are less around?”

The Doctor nodded. “All right. Take your time.”

A few minutes later, Buffy was asked to dance, and she reluctantly accepted, as the crowd William was part of didn’t seem to be thinning much. She tried to relax, and be polite to the gentleman she was dancing with, even though he spent the whole time talking about himself.

He wasn’t the first to ask, either. Buffy tried to enjoy herself as she danced with man after man, all the while barely taking her eyes of the one she really wanted to be with. After a while, the Doctor interrupted, taking her arm and leading her into a dance with him right after she had finished with another.

“We really ought to go soon, Buffy.”

“Why? Is there a limit on how long I can spend outside my own time or something?”

“No, because it’s nearly midnight. I know the chances of your boyfriend turning on New Year’s Day is three hundred and sixty-five to one, but we should be on the safe side.”

Buffy bit her lip. “But I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet.”

The Doctor sighed. “All right. We’ll stay a while longer. But this is against my better judgement.”

The clock chimed midnight not long afterwards, and the Doctor looked uncomfortable, but kept quiet. Buffy continued watching William, not taking her eyes off of him.

At last, he shook off his peers and sat down in a corner, pulling out some paper. Buffy took a deep breath. If there was a time to meet him, this was it.

“Excuse me, miss.” A voice in her ear made her jump, and she bristled with irritation.

“What?”

The gentleman in question looked rather taken aback at her curt response. “I – was only going to ask for a dance.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m looking for somebody. Excuse me.”

There were very few times Buffy didn’t like being attractive, and now was one of them. She ducked around two more people, and sighed in frustration when she glimpsed William stand and head back in the direction of the crowd.

“Ah, William!” One of them greeted him, and Buffy bit back the frustration and edged nearer to hear properly. The Doctor reappeared beside her, and she motioned for him to be quiet. The aristocrat who had spoken continued. “Favour us with your opinion. What do you make of this rash of disappearances sweeping through our town? Animals or thieves?”

William replied haughtily, and Buffy’s breath caught in her throat at the sound of his voice. She had to stop herself from racing over and throwing herself into his arms. “I prefer not to think of such dark, ugly business at all. That's what the police are for.”

Buffy tried to lighten things. “Okay, definitely not the Spike I know -” She stopped as she spotted where he was looking. Or rather, the woman he was looking at.

“I prefer placing my energies into creating things of beauty,” William continued.

Jealousy reared its head for a moment as Buffy plainly recognised the look on his face – that adoring gaze. Of course, she should have realised there might have been someone in his life before Drusilla. She blinked back tears. Maybe she shouldn’t have come. She didn’t want her final memory of the love of her life to be of him with another woman.

“Do you want to go?” the Doctor whispered in her ear.

Buffy opened her mouth to say yes, before the woman turned slightly and she saw her face. “Wait – I’ve seen her before.”

Halfreck?

Well … that was one mystery cleared up. Sort of.

“No, I don’t want to go yet.” The thought that Spike had barely paid her any attention when they had met again at Buffy’s party made her feel better somehow.

“If you’re sure.”

Another man snatched a piece of paper from William’s hands. “I see. Well, don’t withhold, William.”

“Rescue us from a dreary topic,” another said.

Despite his protests, the poem was read aloud. Buffy, who had never heard any of Spike’s compositions before, held her breath.

“My heart expands,” the aristocrat read. “'Tis grown a bulge in it; inspired by your beauty, effulgent.” He laughed. “Effulgent?”

Not exactly what Buffy had expected, but she didn’t think it was worth the mocking laughter that ran around the crowd. She started forwards angrily, but the Doctor caught her arm.

“Don’t. This is not the time to draw attention to yourself.”

William snatched his poem back with a sour look and started after Halfreck. Buffy groaned, but was distracted by the rest of the conversation.

“… actually one of his better compositions,” somebody was saying.

“Have you heard?” another chortled. “They call him William the Bloody because of his bloody awful poetry!”

“I always wondered how he got that name.” Buffy didn’t mean to have spoken out loud, but nobody heard her.

“It suits him. I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff!”

“So that’s where he got the idea from,” Buffy muttered. The Doctor opened his mouth to ask, before apparently deciding he didn’t want to know.

Buffy couldn’t take the mockery any more. Before the Doctor could stop her, she stepped forward and said in a sweet voice, “Excuse me.”

The man who had read out William’s poem turned to her. “Yes, Miss?”

“I’m looking for William Pratt,” she said. “The poet? I was hoping to ask him for his autograph. He has an amazing way with words, doesn’t he? I think his work is absolutely beautiful.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, before somebody pointed. “H-he’s over there.”

She thanked them politely and left, smiling in satisfaction. Her pace slowed as she neared where William and Halfreck were talking. She shouldn’t interrupt a private moment – however, Halfreck didn’t look very happy. Buffy hovered just within earshot.

“Please stop!” Halfreck was saying.

“I know I'm a bad poet,” William said. He sounded almost like he was pleading with her. “But I'm a good man and all I ask is that … that you try to see me -”

“I do see you,” she replied. “That’s the problem. You’re nothing to me, William. You’re beneath me.”

Buffy was hit with an odd mix of anger, sadness and guilt. She had said those exact words to Spike herself, probably more than once for all she could remember. Halfreck walked away, leaving William looking completely heartbroken. Buffy swallowed. All she wanted to do was go over and comfort him, but now the time had come her legs wouldn’t move.

He moved instead, standing and sweeping past her without even looking at her. Buffy remained frozen for a moment more before coming to her senses and hurrying after him.

She lost him in the crowd, but bumped into the Doctor. “Buffy, your man just left the party.” He looked at her closely. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” she replied, making a beeline for the door.

She spotted William, staggering down the street and trailing bits of paper. Buffy hurried after him. It took her a minute to realise that he was tearing up his poetry.

“Stop!” she cried, horrified. “William! William!”

He heard, and finally, he turned round.

TBC …

AN: I know most of that came from Fool for Love, but it was necessary. From hereon it will get more interesting.