CHAPTER THREE
 
“Giles, why would Spike know anything about Shakespeare’s sonnets?”
 
He blinked at Buffy for a second. “I beg your pardon?”
 
“Spike. He told me I’d enjoy reading the sonnets if I picked the right ones. How does a vampire know that?  I mean, I know Angel used to read a lot of weird stuff, but he’s really old... and... and Angel. This is Spike! Bleached hair, nail polish, smokes, drinks, steals—”
 
“I’m quite aware of Spike’s faults, thank you, Buffy. What brought this on?”
 
“I told you. He said I’d like some of the sonnets. And he was right!”
 
“Yes. And when did he share this important information with you? I thought he’d taken himself out of our lives.”
 
“What? Oh that. No, I was just mad at him and I told him to stay away from me.  But we’re okay now, so he’ll probably be here later.”
 
“I see. He said you would like some of the sonnets and now you’re ‘okay’. When did he make this revelation?”
 
“He drove me back to school from my mom’s. He went there to make sure she was okay and ended up fighting one of those creepy minions that was trying to get in the house.”
 
“Spike went to your home to protect your mother while you were fighting the Gentlemen? And she let him in?”
 
“Oh, he’s been able to get into my house since we called a truce to stop Angelus. He and my mom like each other.  They talk about... well I don’t know what they talk about. Art maybe?”  Her eyes got big. “Shakespeare and art? I think Mr. Bloody and I are going to have a long talk about what he was like as a human.”
 
“I would venture to guess that it was quite different from the rough exterior he presents now.” Giles appeared uninterested in continuing the conversation and went back to the book he’d been looking through. “I did find more information about the Gentlemen. Apparently we don’t have to worry about their reappearance now that you’ve caused them to self-destruct.  The book didn’t say what happens to the minions, but—”
 
“Giles, we’re not talking about last night’s ugly evil people, we were talking about Spike. William the Bloody. Why do you think he was different? I mean, other than he obviously wore different clothes...whatever the Victorian version of punk was.”
 
“From some of my conversations with him when he was living here, I suspect we would be quite surprised by both his social level and education when he was human. Why he has chosen to present himself as a thug rather than a gentleman, I have no idea, but I believe it to be very different from his former life.”
 
Buffy thought about Spike’s behavior when they were under Willow’s spell, as well as when he wasn’t bespelled and her frown deepened.  “That lying son of a bitch!”
 
“Excuse me?” Giles looked up from the new book he had just opened.
 
“Spike! He does know how to be a gentleman. I’ve seen it.”
 
“Well, there you have it. I imagine he also was quite well educated. Shakespeare’s works may well be something in which he has some expertise.  Now, do stop talking about Spike’s history and help me decide what to do about Willow.”
 
“Willow?” Buffy’s voice went up again. “We’re doing something about Willow? Why are we doing something about Willow?”
 
Giles just stared at her until she looked away.
 
“Yeah, okay, okay. But you took her magic. And she’s sorry for what she did. She says so all the time.”
 
“She does indeed say she is sorry. Unfortunately, her attitude does not indicate that to be the case, and she is beginning to regain her powers. Slowly, but surely. And if I cannot get her to understand the dangerous forces she is playing with....”
 
“Giles, it’s Willow. You’re talking about her like she was some.....” Buffy’s voice trailed off as she remembered how scary Willow had been when confronted about her misuse of magic.
 
“Like someone who might want to take revenge on those who thwarted her latest attempt to control her friends?” He held Buffy’s gaze until she nodded and sighed.
 
“Okay. So she gets a little carried away... Spike said she was on a power trip the first time. I won’t repeat what he said about the second spell....”
 
“She was – both times. And she’s given us no reason to assume she will not want to exercise that power again if and when she gets it back.”
 
“Well, what can we do? Can’t you just keep her from getting it back?”
 
“As she regains her natural power, that which I absorbed from her is slowly leaching away from me.  I may still be stronger than she is, and I certainly have much of the knowledge she lacks, but the point is, if we cannot trust her, it will not be safe to be around her.”
 
“Wonderful. My best friend is turning out to be evil.”  Buffy slumped into a chair.
 
“Not evil, perhaps, but certainly a bit too concerned with controlling those around her to suit me.” He gave Buffy a shrewd look. “You may recall that causing Spike’s chip to fire until it destroyed his brain was one of her threats. I am assuming you would not want that to happen?”
 
Buffy sighed. “No. I don’t want his brain turned to mush. And I don’t particularly want to be turned back into nympho-Buffy again either. “ She raised an eyebrow at him. “But speaking of people pretending to be thugs... bringing back Ripper again might be fun.”
 
“No, it wouldn’t. None of you would like that – least of all Willow.”  Giles didn’t elaborate, only closed the notebook he’d been jotting notes into and stood up. “I have contacted the coven again and they are sending someone over to work with Willow. The hope is that by the time she regains her power, she will have learned more about how to use it to make the world a better place... for everyone, not just for herself.”
 
“I can’t believe we’re talking about nerdy little Willow like she was—“
 
“A dangerously too-full-of-herself-witch?”  Spike’s voice preceded him into the room. Giles and Buffy both whirled around to see the door swinging shut behind him.
 
“How did you get in here?”
 
He frowned at Buffy and pointed behind him. “Through that door, same as you did. Why? Did you have the Watcher do a dis-invite while you were brassed off at me?”
 
“No! I just meant....” She turned to Giles. “Why didn’t we hear him come in?”
 
Spike responded before Giles could. “Vampire, luv. Predator.  Stalker of prey. Supernatural creature of the night.” He smirked at them. “Anyway, you two were so wrapped up in your debate about Red that even she could have walked in before you noticed.”
 
He turned to look at Giles. “So what are you going to do with her, Watcher? I expect she’s going to be a mite annoyed with all of us when she recovers enough to do something about it.”
 
“You would likely be safe from her wrath, Spike, if you just remain out of sight as you have been lately.”
 
“Not planning to do that,” he said tersely. When Giles stiffened, Spike sent Buffy a sharp look. “Not unless the Slayer orders me to again.  Was that the plan, pet? Had a change of heart?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “No. I just told Giles we were okay and you would be back. But now that I think about it... if you weren’t around, she probably wouldn’t remember she was mad at you. Maybe you should—”
 
“Not hiding from her,” he growled. “Been away from you long enough, not going to—” The shocked expressions on Giles’s face and the panicked one on Buffy’s had Spike swallowing the rest of what was obviously going to be a revelation best kept to himself.  “I mean, Big Bad here. May not be able to rip her throat out, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to grovel to her.”
 
“Just so you know, ‘ripping her throat out’ wasn’t one of our ideas,” Buffy said, hoping Giles would go with the change of subject. When he closed his eyes and sighed heavily, she knew he’d understood Spike only too well. Giving the abashed vampire a glare that promised future retribution, Buffy went on. “But we do need to have some kind of plan. Just in case the witch from the coven can’t do whatever it is she’s supposed to do.”
 
“My hope is that Willow will accept her as a fellow practitioner and mentor, and allow herself to be guided in the appropriate use of magic, with an emphasis on the importance of avoiding those areas that might open her to darker forces.”
 
“Willow’s kinda used to be the smartest person in the room. I’m not sure how she’ll take to being mentored.” Buffy frowned.  “Maybe Xander can talk to her...”
 
Giles and Spike gave almost identical scoffing coughs.
 
“What? Is that some kind of English thing – coughing when you don’t like something?” Buffy tapped her foot and switched her glare back and forth between them.  “Xander’s been her best friend since kindergarten. She loves him. Even if she won’t listen, she won’t hurt him. Which is more than you can say,” she added, pointing at Spike. “And probably you too, Giles. She was pretty mad about the way you took her magic away.”
 
“And exactly how do you think Xander is going to stop her?  She almost got him killed.”
 
“Yeah, but she didn’t mean to. And she fixed him before she fixed you... or us... which I guess wasn’t really fixing in our case....”
 
“Exactly. While I am grateful that her careless comments didn’t result in the actions she anticipated...” Giles shot a sharp look at Spike who did his best to look innocent, then switched his gaze to Buffy who looked no more than appropriately embarrassed about having been caught with her hand wrapped around Spike’s cock.  He shook his head, and continued. “As fortunate as you are that you did not suffer any serious consequences from those spells, there is no guarantee that her next attempt to control either one of you will be so benign... relatively speaking,” he added quickly when both Buffy and Spike gaped at him. “Not that she was... benign is perhaps not the word I want... perhaps will be less embarrassing and more uncomfortable... not that you weren’t both uncomfortable, but—”
 
“We get it, Giles,” Buffy said, refusing to look in Spike’s direction. “There are worse things she could do than wish non-stop sex on us.”
 
“Exactly.”
 
Giles buried his face back in his book and missed the silent laughter Spike was barely able to contain.  Buffy did not miss it, but instead of saying anything, she pointed to the door and picked up her stakes. As she opened the weapons chest and took out a sword, she said, “Okay. Well, we’re just going to do a quick patrol and then we’ll be back when everybody is here.  Maybe we can just talk to Willow. Do like an intervention or something.”
 
“Fine. Don’t be too long, though. I also want to talk about your boyfriend and his organization.” Buffy was just quick enough to shove Spike out the door to keep his snarl from being audible to Giles.
 
 
                                                            XXX
 
 
“Idiot!” she hissed as the door closed behind them.  “We want him to think nothing happened, remember?”
 
“He called that big oaf your ‘boyfriend’. Can’t expect me to hear something like that and be alright with it, can you?”
 
“Yes I can!  You should – be all right with it, I mean. You and me... we’re just... people who had sex.  And, okay, maybe we don’t hate each other quite as much as—”
 
“Haven’t hated you since I came to you for help when I couldn’t feed or defend myself. Can’t say I’d have been askin’ you to marry me, but that spell wasn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. Opened my eyes” He looked at her sideways. “Opened yours too, if you’ll just admit it to yourself.”
 
“Shut up, Spike.”
 
“Excellent comeback, Slayer. Put me right in my place that one did.” He rolled his eyes and nudged her to the left.  “Let’s check out Sunnydale Memorial Garden. Think there were some burials there yesterday.”
 
They trudged in silence for a while before Buffy asked quietly, “You didn’t hate me before the spell?” She didn’t look at him as she waited for the answer.
 
“Thought I did. Thought that was why Dru said you were ‘floating all around’ me. Thought she meant I was too focused on killing you and not enough on her....” He put his hands in his pockets and gave a shrug she could see from the corner of her eye. “Turns out that may not be exactly what she meant.”
 
“Are you saying....”
 
“Not sayin’ anything. Except don’t expect me to give a hurrah every bloody time I get reminded that you have another man in your life. That’s all.”
 
Buffy was very happy to come upon a small group of newly risen vampires just leaving the cemetery, giving her an excuse not to respond.  She waited, bouncing on the balls of her feet, for them to notice her.
 
“Hey! Dinner!” None of the fledglings were aware enough to notice that one of the people in front of them had no heartbeat and didn’t smell human. They charged toward Buffy and Spike, elbowing each other to be first to taste blood. As though they had been working together for years rather than weeks, Buffy and Spike needed no speech as they instinctively divided up the group and began to dust them. While Buffy quipped and whirled, using her stakes and leaving the sword hanging down her back, Spike roared a challenge and began to fight his three opponents, not even going in to game face to do it.
 
When he was down to only one big man wearing the remains of Army fatigues, he said to Buffy, “Do you know this bloke?”  She took a second away from her own remaining opponent and took a glance. She gasped and quickly dusted the vamp in front of her before moving to Spike’s side.
 
“Oh my God. That’s one of Riley’s men. I forget his name, but I’ve met him.”
 
The vampire, having finally realized that the man he’d been fighting wasn’t human, and that Buffy wasn’t the easy meal he’d thought she was, began to back away.
 
“Hey, guys. Let’s just forget this whole thing, ‘K?  No harm, no foul. I’ll just go my way and you two will—”
 
His dust drifted to the ground and just past where he’d been standing they could see Riley lowering a crossbow and staring at them.
 
“Buffy? Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Or do you have more ‘studying’ to do tonight?”
 
She sighed, stepped in front of Spike when Riley began to raise the crossbow again. “I’m the Slayer, Riley. I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out.”
 
“The what?”
 
“Slayer, the. Look it up. And please don’t point that at Spike.”
 
“He’s a hostile. I need to take him in.”
 
“You had him once. You lost him. He’s mine now. He can’t hurt anybody, so there’s no reason he can’t be free.”
 
“He can’t? So the chip is working, huh?”
 
“It’s working. And if it stops working... well, that’s my problem to deal with. Go look up ‘Slayer’ and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
 
She remained standing in front of Spike until Riley had lowered the crossbow again and walked back to join the black-clad men she now noticed watching them. Not until she was sure that they had walked far enough away that Spike’s back would be safe from a crossbow bolt did she turn to start walking back to Giles’s. She could hear the raised voices behind her as they began to question Riley about both her and the “hostile” she was walking off with.
 
“Can you hear them?”
 
Spike nodded, his head cocked as he listened to the discussion.  When they were too far away even for his hearing, he blew out a breath and shook his head.
 
“What?” Buffy picked up speed now that there was no reason to linger, and the apartment complex was soon in sight.
 
“Well, one of them has heard of the Slayer – although it was all a bunch of bollocks – so they’re off to read up on you. The argument seems to be whether you are evil, like the company you keep – yours truly being mentioned – or something else that they don’t know about.”
 
“Great. They’ll probably be wanting to put a chip in my head.” She giggled in disbelief at her own words, but Spike surprised her by stopping right in front of the door and touching her arm to get her attention. His expression was one of genuine fear. Neither of them noticed Giles, who had opened the door and was watching quietly.
 
“That’s not funny, luv. It could happen. The sadistic old bint that runs that place would probably love to take you apart and see what makes you tick. Promise me you won’t go anywhere near that lab.”
 
“Don’t be silly,” she said, more kindly than she might have if he hadn’t looked so worried.  “I’m human. Just like them. And I slay vampires and demons, and I fight evil, and—”
 
“You’re nothing at all like them. You’re stronger than any two of them put together, faster than they are, and you don’t capture demons so you can saw off their body parts or experiment on them to see how much pain they can take.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her.  “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
 
Buffy threw his hands off. “Spike. I’m the Slayer, remember? If they aren’t as much on the side of good as they say they are, then I need to know about it. And I probably will have to do something about it. You’ll just have to... to... deal with it. The best thing you can do is don’t let yourself get captured again, and maybe you can find out more about what’s going on by asking other demons. You can’t be the only one that got away.”