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Chapters One and Two
 
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MUZZLED   (title thanks to Wonder and Ashes)
 
CHAPTER ONE
 
Spike lay in his cell, nursing the headache that he’d learned meant not only that there was a hole in his skull that hadn’t quite healed, but that any retaliation he tried to make toward his white-coated torturers, would send him to his knees screaming with pain. Pain that ebbed gradually, leaving a dull ache in his head. He’d only had to try to bite his captors a few times before noting their growing confidence in their safety as he was reduced to a moaning heap on the floor—every time.
 
After some brief experimentation with threatening gestures, genuine attempts to bite, and the resulting levels of pain, he realized that he was basically unable to retaliate for anything they did. And they had done quite a lot, testing, as he soon figured out, how reliable whatever they’d done to him was.  When he stopped trying to kill anyone, but sat in the corner of his cell sulking, they left him alone for a while.
 
With the words from his mouth being his only weapon, he didn’t hold back anytime he got the chance to tell them what he thought of them, keeping his sharpest words for the sadistic woman who seemed to be in charge. He’d had to smother a grin when his latest barbs sent her stomping away in anger.  Some loose words from the lab rats standing around chatting in front of him as if he was an inanimate object allowed him to learn not only what was causing his pain, but that they had searched for some time for a vampire smart enough to accept the chip without frying his brain. Given their satisfaction at finally having found one, it seemed unlikely that the old harridan would have him dusted no matter how angry he made her.
 
 
 
When guards came to get him and marched him, without explanation, into what appeared to be a make-shift arena, he was surprised to find himself facing a wolf. He sniffed, finding something vaguely familiar about the scent coming from the snarling creature, but he shrugged and prepared to do battle, confident that it would be an easy win. There was no way a big dog could match his speed and strength. Not to mention his fangs were just as sharp as any animal’s.
 
“Should we be doing this?” asked one of the soldiers holding a taser toward the wolf, which seemed to understand what the device could do, as it snarled but refrained from attacking the vulnerable humans.
 
“Maggie wants to give the vamp some exercise, and she wants to see what the wolf can do. I guess she’s thinking she might chip him too.”
 
Spike’s eyes widened at their words and he sniffed again, looking more closely into the wolf’s eyes.
 
“Werewolf!” he growled, letting his fangs down as he realized he’d be facing one of a vampire’s few natural enemies. 
 
The wolf’s snarl sounded surprisingly like “Spike”, but Spike shook himself, sure he hadn’t heard his own name.
 
“Let’s get this show on the road,” the tech said. “His juice is going to wear off again pretty soon and we’ll just have a naked kid to deal with.”
 
They used the tasers to push the wolf toward Spike, who had a sudden thought. “Is this going to make my chip fire?” he demanded of the techs.
 
“We don’t know,” one responded. “It shouldn’t. He’s just a subterrestrial just like you. Not human, right?” He glanced at the soldiers for verification, but they just looked uncomfortable, peering up to where Maggie Walsh was watching from an observation booth.  She frowned and gestured for them to proceed.
 
“Not human. At least not when he’s like this,” one of the soldiers said. He pointed his taser at the wolf and said “sic ‘em” to the great amusement of his companions.
 
When the wolf leapt at him, Spike automatically grabbed him by the fur on either side of his head and lifted him in the air. Spike had time to notice the wide eyes of his captors, some of whom hadn’t seen him in action before the drugged blood and the chip turned him into an obedient, if annoying and mouthy, harmless resident of the facility. He grinned through his fangs and held the snapping and snarling wolf up even higher. He held it out at arm’s length so as to be out of reach of the beast’s claws.  He was just preparing to pull the wolf closer and sink his own fangs into its throat, when the fur he was holding disappeared, his chip fired, and a naked man dropped to the floor, landing on his feet and glaring around the room.
 
“Bloody buggering fuck!” Spike screamed, holding his head and turning his still-yellow glare on the techs. 
 
One gave an apologetic shrug, but the other said, “Go ahead. Bite him. You can, can’t you?”
 
“Do I look like I can bite him, you stupid git?” Spike was still bent over holding his head, but he raised it far enough to expand his glare to the entire room, including the somewhat familiar-looking boy in front of him.
 
“Well, damn! You mean he really is human? When he isn’t a wolf?”
 
“Looks like. What the hell are we doing to do with him now?”
 
While one of the soldiers spoke into his communicator, the techs moved away to have a hurried whispered conference, leaving Spike and Oz to exchange suspicious glances.
 
“Do I know you?” Spike sniffed Oz again and ran his eyes over him. “Oh, I know. You’re the witch’s wolfboy. That’s why you smell familiar.  I smelled you on her.”
 
“When you kidnapped her,” Oz said, a bit of a growl in his voice. For a few seconds it looked like they were going to begin fighting as humans, but a twinge in Spike’s still–aching head had him relaxing.
 
“Didn’t hurt her,” he mumbled.  “Just wanted her to help get Dru back.”
 
“Yeah? How’d that work out for you?”
 
“Not that great,” Spike admitted.  He glanced across the room where the techs were still arguing about what to do with Oz.  “Oy! We can hear you, you know! Just make up your bloody minds.  Wankers,” he finished turning back to Oz.  “They don’t know what to do with you. Don’t want to be responsible for killing a human, but can’t let the wolf go without permission from the royal queen of pain.”
 
Holding the tasers in front of them, the guards herded Spike and Oz back toward the cages, followed at a distance by one of the techs.
 
“Maggie said just put them both in there,” the tech said, pointing to Spike’s cage. “If they don’t kill each other, we’ll worry about what to do about them later.”
 
“Hey!” Spike growled. “Bring the wolfboy some clothes. Don’t want him sitting around my room all naked and whatnot.”
 
The soldiers rolled their eyes but nodded at the tech who left, coming back a few minutes later with Oz’s clothes. He tossed them in the door and nodded to the guards to close and lock the cage.
 
XXXXXXX
 
As the humans walked away, Oz picked his clothes up and began to dress.  “Thanks,” he mumbled, eyeing Spike with calm wariness.
 
Spike shrugged. “Not like I wanted to be staring at your naked body all day, is it?”  He went back to his corner and sat down, leaning against the wall.  “May as well get comfy,” he said. “They don’t provide entertainment here.”
 
Oz nodded and went to the corner at the other end of the wall.  He sat down, hands dangling over his knees.
 
 
Spike shut his eyes tried to doze, but his innate need for some sort of entertainment finally made him ask, “How’d they catch you?”
 
Oz glance up, startled. “I was just changing and they threw a net over me.  Didn’t know what to do with me when I’m… me… so they keep giving me shots to keep me a wolf.”  He waited a few seconds, then, “You?”
 
Spike growled. “Was watching the Slayer toying with a fledge and got so wrapped up in it I didn’t notice the net until I was trapped in it. Would have got out anyway except for those bloody tasers. They just kept hitting me with them ‘til my muscles shut down.” He growled again. “Still managed to make a few of them bloody sorry about it before they knocked me out completely.” He peered at Oz to see his reaction and was pleased to see the boy nod.
 
“It’s what I would have done,” Oz said quietly. “I might have managed to bite one of them.” He gave Spike a small smile. “Guess they’ll find out if I did when the next full moon comes around.”
 
Spike snorted a laugh. “Good on you, then. I hope you did.”
 
They were quiet for a while longer, lost in thoughts of what they’d do to their captors if they had the chance.
 
 
XXXXXX
 
The boring hours they had to spend together had long since given them time to hash out any remaining resentments they had toward each other, and they soon discovered a mutual interest in music. Spike was impressed to hear that Oz was in one of the bands that played at the Bronze, and Oz was envious of Spike’s having seen some of his favorite bands back in their heyday.
 
“So, if you’ve been a punk since the early 70’s… You didn’t copy Billy Idol, he—”
 
“Spike growled. “The bloody wanker copied me – right down to the hair. Knew I should have eaten him when I had the chance instead of letting him hang out with me and Dru.”
 
“Do you do that often?”
 
“Do what? Hang out with rock star wannabes before they make it big?”
 
“No. Yes. Sort of.  I mean, do you hang out with humans without eating them?
 
“Have,” Spike said tersely. “My bat-shit crazy grandsire couldn’t handle that. But like I told the Slayer back when Angelus tried to end the world, I like it here. Don’t have to give up good times and interestin’ company just because I need to eat once in a while.”
 
“So… you didn’t eat the people you hung out with?”
 
Spike shrugged and peered at Oz from the corner of his eye. “Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. I’m not some kind of unnatural demon. Just one that can pass up a meal for a good time if that’s the mood I’m in.”
 
“You are a little different, I guess. You didn’t kill Willow or Xander.” He seemed to think a minute. “And did you really help Buffy stop Acathla?”
 
“Might have given her a little assistance,” he muttered. “But she’s got bigger balls than you and me put together. All I did was distract the big poof and get Dru out of the way. It was all her after that. And she sent the bloody bastard to hell where he belonged.”
 
“He didn’t stay there,” Oz pointed out.
 
“Maybe not, but he’s not shagging Dru anymore. Or the Slayer, so I’ll have to settle for that.”
 
Oz nodded. “That works”
 
 
XXXXX
 
In spite of their very different backgrounds and personalities, Oz and Spike began to interact more and more as time went on. With nothing to do all day but sit, they soon discovered the things they had in common extended beyond just an interest in music.
 
Oz had long since explained about Veruca and Willow to Spike, who’d been surprisingly sympathetic.
 
“Women!” he’d said. “Enough to drive a man to violence.”
 
A companionable silence had followed that lasted for some time. Surprisingly, it was the normally laconic Oz who broke it.
 
“So. If we get out, what are you gonna do? If you can’t hurt anything.”
 
“Dunno,” Spike sighed. “Didn’t have any trouble with you while you were all furry and fangy. Maybe I can still eat big animals. Hit the zoo and take on some chimps or whatever.”
 
“They thought you could bite me because I’m another ‘sub-terrestrial’, whatever that means.”
 
“Yeah, they did, didn’t they? So maybe I’ll be able to kick some minion arse and make them bring me food.”  Spike brightened. “That could be a bit of alright!”
 
Oz stared at him until he lost his smile.
 
 “Not from your point of view, I reckon,” Spike sighed. “Being one of the Slayers little pals like you are.” Spike cocked his head at Oz. “Are you still one of them?”
 
“Yeah,” Oz said, responding to Spike’s current question. “I mean, I’m still one of them in the sense that they’re my friends and I wouldn’t want them to get hurt.  But I don’t know if I’m still their friend. Willow wasn’t very happy with me, but I’m just trying to keep her safe. Until I can control the beast, I can’t swear she’d be safe around me. It’s for her own good”
 
“Control the beast? How do you figure to do that?”
 
Oz shrugged. “I don’t know. Thought I’d maybe go to Tibet or somewhere they have alternative outlooks on how to live your life.”  He grinned at Spike. “Or I could just ask the bitch to give me a chip too.” 
 
“Very funny,” Spike growled. “You’re welcome to mine. I don’t want it. Soon’s I get rid of it, that sadistic hag is gonna be my first meal.”
 
If you get rid of it.  She’d have to be willing to take it back out, wouldn’t she? I don’t see that happening.”
 
“I’ll find a way. Soon’s we get out of here.”
 
“Soon as we get out of here,” Oz echoed, not realizing it was to become their mantra.
 
 
 
XXXXXX
 
 
Weeks later, when it became obvious that Spike and Oz weren’t going to fight, even when they slipped the drug that kept Oz a wolf into his food, the lab workers were back. While the guards held Oz off with the tasers, the tech signaled for Spike to follow him.
 
They brought him back, hours later, very much the worse for wear. He just snarled when Oz asked him what happened. After several minutes of deep breathing and holding his head, he finally responded to Oz’s concerned question.
 
“The bitch wanted to see how much pain I could take before I went into vamp face and tried to bite somebody,” Spike said, as he slumped down against the wall.  “I think I need to sleep now…” he slurred and fell sideways to the floor.  Blood was trickling from his nose and Oz could see dried blood on his neck below his ears.  Oz walked over and tried to put him in a more comfortable position, if stretched out on a concrete floor could be said to be comfortable. As he did so, he saw what could only be burn marks on Spike’s hands, and he noticed that two fingers were bent at an unusual angle. Spike’s shirt was open, leaving the wounds carved and burned into his chest there visible.
 
“Shit!”  Oz shivered and went back to “his” corner.  When the techs came back to get him he fought, and they had to tase him in order to get the wolf-shot into him. Using a rope around his neck and the tasers, they half-led, half-dragged him down the hall to the lab.
 
An hour later, they tossed his body—still that of a wolf—into the cage and left. Spike opened one eye, wincing when Oz’s body hit the floor with a thud. When they were alone, he dragged himself over to check for signs of life.
 
“Reckon they wouldn’t have bothered to bring you back if they’d killed you,” he muttered after reassuring himself that Oz wasn’t dead. He moved back toward his wall and went back to sleep, letting his body heal itself. 
 
He was surprised when that night’s “dinner” turned out to be human blood, albeit a bit stale. He frowned at it suspiciously, but was too much in need of it to turn it down. By the time they threw a raw steak into the cage, Oz was awake and he grabbed it, snarling at Spike to keep his distance.
 
“You know what they’re doin’ don’t you?” Spike asked, just as if he held conversations with wolves all the time. “They’re giving us the good stuff so we recover faster and they can do more ‘tests’ on us.”  The only response was another snarl as Oz continued to bolt the meat without even chewing it. 
 
At some point during the night, the shot they gave him wore off and Spike awoke to see Oz struggling to get back into his clothes.
 
“Need help?” Spike asked.
 
“I’ve got it. Thanks.” Oz donned his shirt and came over to sit by Spike.
 
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he said softly.
 
“Had that thought myself, a month or more ago. Any ideas? I’m happy to fight our way out, but I’d be lucky to get one punch off, never mind a decent bite.”
 
“I’m working on it. If there was just some way to get word to Willow… and Buffy, obviously. She’s dating one of the soldiers. I haven’t seen him in here yet, but if Buffy knew—”
 
Spike scoffed. “Slayer might come for you, but I can guarantee she’ll leave my arse in here to rot.”
 
“Maybe. Maybe not. You can’t bite anybody, so she’s got no reason to stake you now. And if I tell her we’re….friends?” He glanced sideways at Spike, who nodded.
 
“I s’pose we are at that. ‘The enemy of my enemy’ an’ all.”
 
Oz smiled to see Spike once again confirming what he’d already figured out—that the thuggish vampire had both a much higher IQ and a much better education than anyone had suspected.
 
“Wot?”
 
“Nothing. Just… you aren’t quite who or what we think you are.”
 
“Don’t kid yourself, wolfboy.” Spike’s voice was cold as he tried to salvage his reputation. “I’m every bit what you lot think I am. Despite what you may suspect you know about me before I was turned and given a chance to change my life,” he said, thereby confirming Oz’s suspicions, rather than discounting them. “So to speak,” he added when Oz raised an eyebrow. “Life, unlife, death. Call it whatever you like, it’s who and what I am now. I’m what Angelus and the tart made me. And I’m who I decided I wanted to be.”
 
“Okay,” Oz agreed in his easy-going way. Spike glared at him with suspicion, but Oz’s bland expression gave him nothing to object to.
 
 
 
CHAPTER TWO
 
Help came sooner than they expected.  It was only the next day. Following one of the techs down the hall was the Slayer herself and the man Oz quickly hissed to Spike was her new boyfriend.  When they came to the cage holding Spike and Oz, Buffy froze, her eyes going wide. 
 
“Oz?  Riley, that’s Oz. What the hell?” Riley seemed as surprised as she was.
 
“I’ve got no idea, Buffy. But we’ll get him out of there. I promise.” As he went off to see what he needed to do to get Oz out, Buffy turned her gaze to Spike. She frowned as the usually mouthy vampire remained sitting against the wall not speaking. He was shirtless and she could make out the cuts and burn marks on his torso. She glanced back and forth between him and Oz.
 
“Go on with you, then,” Spike said to Oz. “Here’s your chance.” He flickered a glance at Buffy, but refused to lower himself to begging. 
 
“I thought you left town, Spike.”
 
“As you can see, I didn’t get very far, Slayer. Your boytoy’s friends thought I’d make a nice prezzie for their boss lady.” He stared at Riley as he came back toward Buffy. “I see your taste in men hasn’t improved any. Big and bulky and into torture must be how you like them.”
 
Buffy’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t respond, just looked at Riley. “Well?”
 
Riley glanced around and lowered his voice. “We can take Oz, we just have to wait until the lab guys go to lunch. Nobody’s real comfortable with treating him like a sub-terrestrial, so they’ll be happy to get rid of him.” He stared at Spike who glared back at him, his eyes flashing amber before a twinge from the chip reminded him of his lack of ability to follow through.
 
“I don’t know why they put him with a hostile, though. I’m surprised he survived in there.”
 
Buffy looked at Oz. “Are you okay? Spike didn’t try to hurt you?”
 
Oz shook his head. “That’s one of the things they were counting on, but his chip sees me as human.”
 
“Chip?” Buffy looked back at Riley for an explanation.
 
He gazed at Spike with new enthusiasm. “So Maggie finally got herself one.”
 
“One what? Vampire? They’re dime a dozen in Sunnydale.”
 
“One that can control itself well enough not to burn its brain out trying to kill everybody.”
He frowned at Buffy. “Why do you call it ‘Spike’?”
 
“That’s his name. Well, really, I guess his name is William, as in William the Bloody? He’s pretty old, and a master vampire. That’s probably why he’s got more control than what you’re used to.”
 
Buffy gazed at Spike again. He hoped she was remembering how often she’d been around him and been perfectly safe. Even inviting him into her house and introducing him to her mother.  It seemed not to have occurred to her that it was kind of weird that he had such good control over his demon—without the soul that Angel seemed to need.
 
Spike stared back at her. Willing her to remember that he’d never violated her trust by attacking her or her mother when they were sleeping in the home to which he had an invitation.
 
“What is she doing with him?” Buffy frowned when Riley shrugged.
 
“Testing the chip, I guess. I think it has something to do with finding sub-terrestrials that can be made docile enough to use as weapons. She needs to see what its limits are and how controllable the subject is.  Probably why she wanted Oz too.”
 
“Oz is not a lab rat!”  Buffy suddenly looked every inch the Slayer. She glanced into the cage and sighed, shaking her head. “And neither is Spike.  He needs to come with us too.”
 
“Uh, Buffy. That’s definitely a no. My guys are going to help us get Oz out because they know he’s human… most of the time. But that’s a hostile in there. He’s here until Maggie doesn’t need him anymore. I’m sure she’s got a lot more testing to do…’
 
Matching snarls from both Oz and Spike, brought their gazes back to the cage. To Buffy’s obvious surprise, Oz was standing in front of Spike, but the growls were coming from both seemingly human men.
 
“Buffy—” Oz started to speak, then remembered that Riley was a part of the organization that held him.
 
Before he could decide if he wanted to tell Buffy about what was going on in there in front of Riley, a guard came back and opened the cage. He held a taser in his hand to keep Spike back as he gestured at Oz. “Let’s go, you.”
 
Oz hesitated, but Spike said, “Go on. At least one of us should be able to get out of this hellhole.”
 
“We’ll come back for you. I promise. Buffy won’t leave you in here like this.”
 
Spike met Buffy’s confused stare, getting to his feet when she gave an almost imperceptible nod that Riley didn’t see.  She shifted her gaze to the guard holding the taser. “Can I see that? I’ve always wondered how one of these things worked….” She took it from him, moving him away from the door at the same time as she batted her eyes and asked him to explain it to her.  Her little shriek of “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” was enough to turn Riley toward her and the now collapsed guard. Moving at a speed that was barely visible to human eyes, Spike was out the door and moving down the hall toward what he knew were the fire stairs. 
 
Leaving Riley to apologize to the groggy guard for her, Buffy grabbed Oz by the hand and pulled him away. “Let’s go, Oz. We don’t want to be here when everybody comes back from lunch, and I should try to catch Spike.”
 
In his human form, Oz couldn’t match either Spike or Buffy’s speed up the stairs, but he assured Buffy he could tell by the scent that Spike was still ahead of them.  They caught up with him at a landing, to find Spike struggling to pull the cover off a large ventilation duct.
 
“Give us a hand here, Slayer. I can hear soldiers coming from both directions.”
Without questioning what she was doing, Buffy pulled on the other side. With both of them pulling, the cover soon popped off and Oz scrambled into the duct. Buffy hesitated, saying, “Go on. I’ll send them in some other direction.”
 
Shaking his head, Spike jumped into the large duct, holding on to the cover with one hand. He reached for her and yanked her up and into the tunnel with them.
 
“Help me get it back on, Slayer.”
 
“What the hell, Spike?”
 
“You’ve helped us escape. The old battle axe that runs the place isn’t going to be happy with you either. She’ll want to know what makes you tick. And you won’t enjoy the experience. Now help me pull this back into place so we can scarper away without drawing a crowd.”
 
XXXXXX
 
The vent was so large, they could run quickly, if a bit awkwardly, in a bent over position. When they ran out of light seeping up from the inhabited areas below, Spike went into game face, and he and Oz used their superior scenting abilities to follow the fresh air at the end of what had now become more of a tunnel. When they reached the end, Spike flinched back from the strong sunlight flooding the entrance.
 
“Bloody buggering fuck!”
 
They all paused to review the situation.  Buffy shook her head and sat down, leaning against a rock wall.
 
“Let’s just catch our breath and figure out what to do.”  She glared at Spike. “Want to tell me what that was all about?  I could have pretended I was chasing you to catch you or something.”
 
“Slayer, if your new boytoy has seen you in action, I can guarantee his sadistic boss would have you in those labs before you could blink.”
 
“That’s crazy! I told her what I am. She was kinda dismissive of what I do, but she knows I’m human. She wouldn’t put me in one of those cages…” Buffy glanced at Oz. “Would she?”
 
He shrugged. “She knows I’m human most of the time. Spike’s chip doesn’t work on the wolf, but it works when I’m me. Didn’t matter. She didn’t let me go, and she did some of her ‘testing’ on me too.”  He looked over at Spike. “Maybe not as much as she did to Spike, but not something you want to find out about, Buffy.”
 
Buffy looked at Spike, still shirtless, and frowned. “She did that to you?”
 
“Her and her lab rat minions. Needed to see how much I could take before the demon took over and made me attack. Then the chip would knock me on my arse, I’d recover, and off we’d go again.”
 
Buffy looked briefly as if she might be sick, then she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
 
“So, all those demons I saw in the other cages…”
 
“Are there so she can cut them up and mix and match the body parts.  I’m a blood thirsty demon, but I’ve seen things in the past few weeks that made me shudder.”
 
Buffy turned her gaze on Oz. “Is this true, Oz?”
 
“’Fraid so.”
 
“Riley Finn is going to have some ‘splainin’ to do,” Buffy growled. “But right now, we need to get out of here. You guys need to tell Giles everything you know so he can help me figure out what to do.” She stood up and walked to the exit, peering out into the sunshine.” I wonder how long it is till it’ll be dark enough to leave?”
 
“You and the wolf can leave whenever you want to, Slayer. I’ll be alright until it’s safe for me to go out.”
 
“Where will you go?” Buffy looked doubtful. “I want you to talk to Giles too.”
 
Spike sighed and shook his head. “Need to find a safe place to hide, and a way to get blood. Need to get back to my cave and get my clothes and some dosh, and….”
 
“And if you’re running around Sunnydale, they’ll have you again in a heartbeat. No. You need to come to Giles’ with us. I’ll get you some blood somewhere.” She peered out again, then ventured outside a small distance. She spotted a manhole cover only a few yards away and walked over to pull it up. She looked inside, but couldn’t really see anything in the dark interior. Leaving the cover off, she ventured closer to the edge of the small copse they seemed to be in and peeked out through the bushes.
 
She flinched back when she saw several commandoes jogging past. Flattening herself to the ground, she listened to what she could catch of their conversation.
 
“Look alive, guys. We’ve got a lot better shot at catching them while it’s daylight.”
 
“All of them? Or just the vampire? Who, by the way, isn’t going to walking around out here in daylight.”
 
“Maggie says all of them. She wants her vamp back, she’s pissed off enough about the wolf to want him back, and she wants to know more about what a ‘slayer’ is.”
 
“But she’s Finn’s—”
 
“If he knows what’s good for him, she’ll be his ex. Maggie was not happy with him.”
 
“I still say we aren’t going to find them walking around campus in broad daylight….”
 
The voices faded away as the jogged off in the direction of the dorms.
 
Buffy retreated to the cave, shivering all over.
 
 
 
“Slayer?” Spike studied her distraught expression and trembling body as she  stared at him with wide eyes. “Are you alright?”
 
“No,” she said finally. “I am not all right. None of us are.”
 
She gave them a quick recap of what she’d heard as she sank back down against the wall. 
 
“Whoa!” Oz said. “So I guess Riley’s in trouble for helping us out?”
 
“Sounds like it. I guess Professor Walsh didn’t want to lose either one of you… and now she wants me.” Buffy’s eyes narrowed.  “And I think she’s going to get me. If she wants to know what a slayer is, she’s going to find out….”
 
Spike grinned at her, then sobered. “While I appreciate that attitude, Slayer, you’re not immune to tasers or drugs either. I think you need to stay away.”
 
“We need to get to Giles.”  Buffy looked at Spike. “There’s an open manhole just outside. Could you find your way to my watcher’s apartment from here?”
 
He thought for a second, trying to remember what he knew about the watcher’s location. “Eventually, I could. Assumin’ what’s down there isn’t just another part of the lab facility and isn’t going to take us right back in.”
 
“Good point.” She sighed and thunked her head back against the rock wall. “And ow!” She stuck her leg out and kicked Spike in the thigh when he snickered, but her glare was more perfunctory than serious.  “Shut up.”
 
He gave a genuine laugh then. “Come on, pet. If it had been me whacking myself in the head, you’d have laughed. Admit it.”
 
“I admit nothing,” she replied, but her lips twitched in a small smile.
 
“Stubborn bint.”
 
Her smile vanished and she looked to Oz. “Is that a bad word? Did he just call me a name in British?”
 
Oz smothered a smile of his own and made a so-so gesture with his hand. “I don’t think it’s stake-worthy,” he said. “You’ll have to ask Giles for sure, though.”
 
“I’ve called you much worse than that, Slayer. It’s nothing to get your knickers in a twist over.”
 
“But we were fighting then – names don’t count when we’re fighting.”
 
“Good to know,” he grinned at her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
 
“Okay, then. Here’s the plan…” She paused when Spike and Oz exchanged looks. “Now what?”
 
“Slayer’s in the house,” Oz said with a smile. “All we have to do now is follow orders.”
 
“Don’t do ‘orders’,” Spike growled.
 
“Well according to you and Oz, you can’t do biting either, so guess what?”
 
Spike glared at her, then sighed and slumped against the wall, being careful not to bump his head.
 
“Thought so.” Buffy gave him a sunny smile that did nothing to improve his disposition. “So here’s the plan. We’ll find some way to protect Spike from the sun between here and the manhole, and then he’ll lead us through the sewers back to Giles’ apartment. And then we’ll have a Scooby meeting about what to do.”
 
Oz looked uncomfortable. “Buffy… you know I want to help. But I don’t think Willow is going to be too happy to see me there. She was pretty upset, and I wasn’t planning to let her see me again before I left.”
 
“Good point.” Buffy stared at him with sympathetic eyes. “Are you sure you want to go away? Willow’s been pretty unhappy….”
 
“I don’t want her to be unhappy – but I can’t stay here until I know I can control the wolf. I need to leave, Buffy. As soon as I’ve told Giles everything I can, I want to be on the road. All I need is money for bus fare….”
 
“I’ll cover you,” Spike said quietly. “Soon’s I can get to my stuff. Whatever of it Harmony hasn’t destroyed or planted unicorns all over,” he finished in a mutter.
 
“About that… I think she burned all your old records. Xander saw her when she was doing it and they had a fight.”
 
Spike snarled. “Stupid blood twat. Harris fought with her?”
 
“Yeah. I gather it was kinda….” Buffy tried to hide her smile, but failed. “Pathetic? On both their parts? She didn’t remember she was vampire, and he didn’t remember he knows how to dust them, so they just had a… a…. slapping fight.”
 
“A slapping fight?”
 
“There may have been hairpulling…” She glared from Spike to Oz. “Don’t you dare tell him I told you that. Either one of you!”  She suddenly looked very much like a Slayer, and both men nodded quickly.
 
“Nope. No telling.”
 
“Not me. I’ve already forgotten about it.”
 
When Buffy relaxed and turned to look back outside, Spike and Oz exchanged identical smirks. Smirks which they wiped off quickly when she turned back to them.
 
 
 
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