CHAPTER THREE
 
“All right, so there aren’t many trees or bushes between here and the manhole, but I left the cover off, so all Spike has to do is get there without catching fire and he can dive right in….” She glanced at Spike. “Too bad you don’t have your coat anymore. That probably would have worked.”
 
Spike nodded. “It would have, but I lost it trying to get out of the net when I was fighting the wankers that zapped me. I imagine it’s long gone now.” He tried not to look as unhappy as he was at that thought, but Buffy caught it.
 
“You can buy another one, Spike. It’s not the end of the world.”
 
“That one was special. It….” Suddenly remembering who he was talking to, he shrugged. “Never mind. Right you are. I can always buy another coat.”
 
Oz spoke up. “We could break some limbs off the smaller trees and make shade for him. It only has to last a few steps, right?”
 
Spike nodded and tried to see around Buffy to the manhole. “Odd place for a sewer entrance,” he muttered. “But if it gets us to the tunnels under Sunnydale…”
 
“You’ll know right away if it goes in the wrong direction, right?”
 
He nodded. “I’ll know. Let’s get this show on the road…”
 
After Buffy looked around again for any signs of soldiers, she and Oz quickly broke off enough leafy limbs that they could keep the sun off Spike.  Standing on either side of the entrance, they held up their branches as Spike tentatively ventured outside. Once he realized that the filtered sun wasn’t going to burn him immediately, he dashed for the manhole, almost leaving his protective companions behind.  He jumped in feet first, his curses almost drowning out the splashing sound.
 
Buffy giggled and peered down at him. “Well?” She tried to see his face, but it was too dark.
 
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice coming from a short distance away. “It’s coming from the labs, but it’s going toward the bigger pipes downtown. Go ahead and come down, just use the ladder so you don’t land where I did.”
 
“You first,” Buffy gestured to Oz. “I want to pull the lid back over so they won’t know where we went if they happen to check here.”
 
He nodded and quickly backed down the ladder. Buffy followed him, dragging the heavy metal lid with her and trying to keep her balance on the ladder while wrestling it into place with one hand. Seeing the problem, Spike reached up and placed powerful hands on either side of her hips, holding her in place.
 
“I’ve got you, Slayer. Use both hands.”
 
Using both arms, she soon had it in place and began to climb down. “You can let go now, Spike,” she said. “And thanks.”
 
“My pleasure,” he said, giving a little squeeze before letting go. Buffy ignored his comment, but she couldn’t hide her flushed face, which made him smile to himself.
 
XXXXXX
 
With Spike using his knowledge of the sewer system, as well as his ability to see in the nearly complete darkness, and Oz adding his enhanced hearing and scenting, they were soon well away from the campus and approaching Giles’s apartment complex.
 
They paused in the parking lot and raised the lid of that manhole. Buffy climbed out and waited for Oz.
 
“Wait here, Spike. I’ll go get a blanket or something to put over you.”
 
Buffy and Oz ran quickly to the apartment, barely pausing to knock before opening the door to find Giles rising to his feet.
 
“Oz! I understood that you had left Sunnydale for enlightenment… or something to that effect.”
 
“Uh, yeah, that was the plan. Tell you all about it in a second.”
 
Buffy grabbed an afghan off the couch and ran back outside saying, “Leave the door open. We’ll be right back.”
 
“We?” Giles raised an eyebrow at Oz.
 
“Uh huh. We. Brace yourself. And say ‘Come in’.”
 
“Come in?” Giles repeated after him. “What the—”
 
Spike burst through the open door and began smacking at the places on his legs that had received sun.
 
“Huh. I’m surprised that worked,” Oz said, almost to himself. “Good to know.”
 
“Dear lord,” Giles said, reaching for a cross on his desk.
 
“It’s okay, Giles,” Buffy said as she came in and pulled the door closed. “He’s with us.”
 
“And I am to find that reassuring for some reason?” He looked dubious.
 
“They have a whole bunch of stuff to tell you,” Buffy said. “And I’ll be right back. I have to go get Spike’s things from Harmony.”  She glanced at Spike. “This isn't like Dru, is it? You don’t care if I stake her?”
 
“Nah, do what you have to do, Slayer. Just make sure she gives you all my belongings first. Including my dosh. It’s in a bag under the bed.”
 
“What if she spent it already?”
 
“Then the stupid piece of—the ignorant twit is going to be very sorry my chip doesn’t work on other vampires. You just leave her to me….”
 
“Buffy?” Giles interrupted. “Are you leaving me alone with William the Bloody… and a potential werewolf?”
 
“Spike can’t hurt you, and Oz won’t as long as he isn’t a wolf.  They’ll tell you all about it. I’m going to go ruin Harmony’s day.” She looked at Spike. “Tell me again where I can find her.”
 
Spike gave Buffy a run-down of the easiest way to find and get into his former hide-out, then stopped her as she went to leave.  “Watch your back, Slayer.”
 
“You don’t think I can take Harmony?”  She looked like she was seriously regretting getting him out of the lab.
 
“No, you daft— Have you forgotten already what you heard? That bitch wants you too. Just be careful.”
 
“Oh. Right. Them. Got it. I’m going to be Buffy the Careful Vampire Slayer.  See you later, guys. Fill Giles in.”
 
“Don’t suppose you have anything interesting to drink here?” Spike inquired as he settled into a comfy chair. “This is going to be thirsty work.”
 
XXXXXX
 
In spite of her irritation at Spike’s assumption she needed to be careful, Buffy did keep her steps rapid, and she checked frequently to be sure no one was following her. Once she’d found the entrance to Spike’s underground lair that he’d used as headquarters while searching for the Gem, she stopped worrying about human interference and tried to sense any vampires in the area.
 
She wasn’t getting much in the way of strong vibes, so she entered the cave and moved toward the sounds of activity and light. She paused to peer into the room, noting Harmony and two other vamps, one still with dirt on his face.  Harmony was berating what Buffy soon realized was coat rack wearing what appeared to be Spike’s coat.
“You can’t leave me, you jerk! I left you.  And I have all your stuff, so it you want it, you’re just going to have to come crawling back and—”
 
“Harmony, you know that’s just a coat rack, right?  Just cause your old boyfriend left his coat here, doesn’t mean he’s coming back.” The vampire brushing dirt off his shirt was staring at her with a frown.
 
“He didn’t leave it here. He left it… somewhere else. Somewhere that I found it and brought it back here in case he came back. Which he has to. Come back, I mean. This is where his stuff is.” She waved her arm around.
 
“I think you trashed most of his stuff last week,” the cleaner of the two vampires said. “If he’s as badass as you say he is, I’d be kind of worried about that if I was you.”
 
“She’s got more important things to be worried about right now,” Buffy said as she entered the room and ran a stake through the chest of the vamp that was speaking.
 
“Buffy!”
 
“Harmony.”  Buffy dusted the dirty vamp and brushed the dirt off her arm. “Sheesh! Didn’t you tell that guy to shake off the grave dirt?”
 
“I was getting around to it,” Harmony muttered. “Now I have to go out and make more minions. They aren’t easy to come by, you know.”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I’m sure they aren’t, for you.” She walked closer, smiling when Harmony retreated behind a table. “Spike wants his stuff. I’ll start with this,” she said, pulling the coat off the rack and throwing it on the table. She walked to the bed and, without turning her back to Harmony, bent down to feel around under it. When she felt the handle of a canvas bag, she pulled it out and unzipped it. Inside, in addition to some books that looked like poetry collections, there were several stacks of money. Big stacks. Of large bills. Buffy glanced back at the books, then shrugged and stood up.
 
“Is it all here?”
 
“Is what all there? All his stupid poetry books? I guess so. Why would I want anything from there?”
 
“Oh, no reason,” Buffy said. “What else is here that he might want?”
 
Harmony narrowed her eyes. “What do you care? Why are you stealing his things? Did you dust my Blondie Bear?”
 
Buffy rolled her eyes at the nickname, making a mental note to use it at the first opportunity. “He’s not dust, and I’m not stealing them. I’m returning them to him. Now what else is here that belongs to Spike?”
 
“I don’t know.  I burned a bunch of stuff.  If he wants anything else, he’ll have to come back and beg me for it.”
 
Buffy nodded. “Okay. I wouldn’t hold my breath till that happens. And, just so you know? You might want to think about leaving Sunnydale.”
 
“Why? I have as much right to be here as anybody else! Who are you to tell me to leave?”
 
“Uh. The Slayer? Ringing any bells? She who stakes vampires and makes them dust?” Buffy pointed to the two piles of dust on the floor. “I’m giving you a chance to leave.”
 
“Oh. Well… would you really stake me? We were high school besties!” In spite of her words, Harmony was edging toward a dark tunnel leading away from the room.
 
“You were a high school bitch, Harmony. It’s not really in your best interest to remind me of that.”
 
“Tell Spike I hate him!” Harmony yelled as she turned and sprinted away into the darkness.
 
“Yeah, I’ll be sure to share that.” Buffy looked around the room, but couldn’t really identify anything she thought might belong to Spike. “I guess he can come and look for himself if he really needs anything from here,” she said to herself as she made her way back out into the afternoon sun.
 
XXXXXX
 
Meanwhile, a nervous Giles was interrogating Oz.
 
“And now you’re friends with William the Bloody? The vampire that kidnapped Willow last year?”
 
“We worked that out,” Spike muttered. 
 
Oz nodded his agreement. “We’re okay. It was what it was. I was more pissed off about Xander taking advantage of Willow’s fear to make out with her than I was about Spike. He only wanted her to help him get his girlfriend back.”
 
“And did you?” Giles shifted his gaze to Spike.
 
“For a bit. Didn’t work out, though.”
 
“Then why did you come back here?”
 
Spike squirmed uncomfortably. “Was looking for the Slayer. Seems like she’s what Dru got so brassed off about.”
 
“Buffy? Drusilla was angry with you because of Buffy?”
 
“Yeah. You know, made that truce and whatnot. She said the Slayer was ‘floating all around me’ whatever the bloody hell that means. Figured if I came back here and got the Gem, I could kill Buffy and that would make Dru happy.”
 
“You came back to kill my slayer, and now you want me to help you?” Giles glanced at the stake lying on his desk.
 
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist there, Watcher. Didn’t do it, did I? And she gave my ring to the big poof. Like you stupid gits should want Angelus to ever have anything like that.”
 
“He would not have been my first choice,” Giles admitted. “But it seems Angel destroyed it, so it can never end up in the wrong hands again.”  He glared as Spike snorted. “And yours would have been just as much the wrong hands as his.”
 
Spike shrugged and didn’t respond, so Giles turned his attention back on Oz.
 
“Tell me what happened. How you ended up in a cell with Spike and why you are so anxious to leave immediately.”
 
Oz exchanged glances with Spike, then said, “Got captured while I was in between being me and wolf. When it turned out Spike couldn’t bite when I was me, they didn’t know what to do with me, so they just threw us together in the same cell. We had a lot of time to get to know each other and to know we needed to get out of there.”
 
Giles frowned. “And you say Buffy and Willow’s psychology teacher is running the place? That she is some kind of mad scientist?”
 
“Vivisectionist,” Spike muttered, earning a disbelieving stare from Giles.
 
“She is,” Oz confirmed. “Not above torturing sentient creatures to learn more about them. I’m not sure she doesn’t enjoy it…” he added, exchanging a look of solidarity with Spike.
 
“And why do you think Buffy needs to worry about her boyfriend’s… boss?”
 
“Slayer isn’t normal. Her boytoy has seen that by now, and his boss wants to take her apart and see what makes her tick.”
 
“So you say.”
 
“Buffy heard the soldiers talking,” Oz said in his quiet way. “The bitch wants them to capture all three of us.”
 
Giles sighed and glanced at the phone. “I guess it’s time to talk to the Council about this organization.” He picked up a pad of paper and a pen. “One at a time, please tell me everything that happened to you from the beginning, as well as what you’ve observed of both the commandoes and the facility.”
 
 
 
CHAPTER FOUR
 
By the time Buffy arrived, holding Spike’s coat and with his dufflebag hanging off her shoulder, Giles had completed his notes and gone into his bedroom to make his call to the Council.
 
“Where’s Giles? You guys didn’t scare him away, did you?”
 
“Relax, Slayer. We were perfect gentlemen. Watcher’s upstairs talking to the Council of Wankers about your boyfriend’s employers. He seems to think they might take offense at the harridan’s idea of capturing you.”
 
“Harridan?”
 
“The old witch, bitch, call her whatever you want.”
 
“I know what it means, Spike. I just never expected you to use such a Giles-ish word.”
 
“Makes us even then. I wouldn’t have expected you to know it.”
 
“Why’d you use it if you didn’t think I’d know it?”  By now, Buffy was standing in front of him and glaring. She maintained a strong grip on both his coat and bag.  “I have your stuff. You might want to be nicer to me.”
 
He laughed. “Right you are, pet. I’m a bad rude man to not appreciate you.” He held out his hand. “May I have my belongings? And how did you get my coat? I thought that was a goner after I was captured. Wasn’t wearing it when I woke up.”
 
She shrugged as she handed him the bag and tossed the coat on the back of his chair. “I don’t know. She said she found it somewhere. I didn’t see any other clothes.” She gave him a sideways glance. “Harmony says she hates you, by the way…Blondie Bear.”
 
“Please tell me you staked her,” he growled, refusing to meet her amused smirk. 
 
Buffy shook her head. “I probably should have. She had minions. Minions for cripe’s sake!” She sighed. “Is that all there was? I didn’t know what else to look for.”
 
Spike shrugged. “I had more books and my records, but you already told me what happened with them, so who knows if I still own anything. I’ll find my way there soon’s I can and take a look. She might have kept my clothes somewhere.  Might need to throw Harm out and hunker down there for a while if I can figure out a way to get something to eat.”
 
“If you stay here… or maybe not here here, ‘cause it’s not my house… but if you’re where we can find you, I could pick up blood for you at the butcher.”
 
“Pig swill? You want me to eat pig swill?” He stood up, indignation in every line of his body.
 
“I want you to not eat people!” Buffy snapped back at him, standing toe to toe and glaring into his flashing eyes.
 
“I’m a bloody vampire!” he growled, glaring back at her and trying not to notice how alluring she was when she was angry.  He failed, losing his train of thought as he admired the heightened color in her cheeks and her sparkling eyes. “Oh bloody hell,” he groaned, turning away. “That’s what Dru meant.”
 
“What? What is what Dru meant?” Buffy frowned as he broke off the confrontation to sink back into the chair.
 
“Nothing, Slayer. Nothing at all.” He shook his head. “Pig’s blood is fine. It’s what I usually got in the hellhole.”
 
“Usually? They were feeding you human blood?”
 
“Only when they wanted me to heal fast from whatever their latest torment was. In between ‘testing’ me, it was pig blood.”  He gestured at Oz. “Same thing for wolfboy. He got food from the cafeteria except when they needed him to get healthy. Then he got raw steak.”
 
Buffy stared at Oz, who shrugged and nodded. “Only when I was a wolf.”
 
Buffy sank into another chair. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Riley never—”
 
“Maybe he didn’t know?” Oz offered. “He seemed surprised to see me.”
 
Buffy shook her head. “No. He knows. He told me about all the vamps and demons they captured for Professor Walsh. He knew she was doing something, and he said he hadn’t been down to the labs for a while when we went down for a tour. I guess that’s why he didn’t know you were there.” She sighed. “He just never told me they were experimenting on everything. And he had to know, ‘cause he knew right away what she’d done to Spike.” She glanced at Spike. “It’s not right. If it’s evil, I’ll slay it, but you don’t do ‘experiments’ on things that can think or feel pain. That’s just wrong.”
 
Spike was gazing at her with an expression she’d never seen from him.
 
“What? It is wrong.”
 
“Yes it is, luv. Should’ve known you’d see that.” He stared at her for another moment, noticing how she blushed under his scrutiny. “I am so buggered…” he muttered to himself, forgetting Oz’s keen hearing.
 
“Oh shit. Are you kidding me?”
 
Spike whirled to glare at Oz. “Not. One. Word.”
 
Oz just shook his head.  “None of my business,” he said. “I won’t be here.”
 
“Right. On your way to Tibet or whatever.” Spike reached for his bag and opened it, dipping his hand in without letting it gape open far enough for anyone to see his poetry books.
 
“I already saw them,” Buffy said with a smile. “We’re going to have to talk about this new side of Spike.”
 
“We arenot going to talk about it,” he growled. “And if you tell anyone, I….”
 
“You’ll what? Lick me to death?” Buffy challenged him, once more stepping into his space. She frowned when his eyes glazed over as he stared at her mouth. Finally, he tore his gaze away and stepped back from her.
 
“Could come to that,” he mumbled, shooting a glare at Oz who was grinning so much Spike was sure he could see a trace of fangs.  He went back to his bag and pulled out a wad of bills. He peeled off about half of them and handed them to Oz. “This ought to get you a good way from here.”
 
Oz took the bills, glanced at the numbers on them and shook his head. “Man, I can’t take all this.”
 
“Yes you can. I’ve got plenty, and I can get more.”  When he saw Buffy frowning at him, he said, “Did you think that ring was the only thing I took out of that cave? I sold off a lot of jewels and coins, but there are more.”
 
“So, you can pay for your own blood. Good to know.”
 
“Wouldn’t have asked you to keep me in blood, Slayer.” He glanced up as Giles returned to the room. “Although the watcher can probably afford it.”
 
“What can the watcher afford?”
 
“Blood. For Spike.”
 
“Have we adopted him?” Giles looked less than pleased.
 
“No, of course not. But he can’t feed himself, and I’m not turning him out there to collect minions to kill for him. And I can’t stake him now because he’s harmless to humans. And I’m not letting him go back to that place where they do experiments on living creatures so they can make weapons out of them. Until we can figure out what to do with him, I think he needs to stay with one of us.”
 
Spike perked up. “Do I get to choose which one is going to babysit me?”
 
“No!”
 
“No!” 
 
Giles sighed. “I believe I have a set of chains we can use on him.”
 
“Nobody gets to chain me up but the Slayer,” Spike growled.
 
Before Buffy could respond, Oz stood up.  “I need to get going. I don’t want to run into Willow and make her any unhappier than I already have.” He dropped his gaze to the floor. “I really do love her. But I can’t risk her life by taking a chance on not being able to control the wolf. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. I have to find a way to control it before I’m safe to be around.”
 
Buffy sighed and nodded. “I understand that, Oz. Just… be careful, okay? There are people out there who hunt werewolves.”
 
“And most vamps consider them the only thing they can legitimately look down on. Watch yourself.”
 
Oz stared at Spike. “How do you control your demon?” he asked. “I’ve seen you—it took torture to make you lose control and set off your chip.”
 
Buffy glanced at Spike also. “Yeah, Riley said it took a long time for them to find somebody who didn’t fry their brain. How come you didn’t?”
 
“’Cause I’m not an idiot?” Spike snorted. “The splitting headaches were a bloody convincing hint that I shouldn’t try to hurt any humans. Of course I didn’t know it was that specific until they threw the wolf in with me. But the lab rats seemed sure I could bite him, and it seemed like I could…. until he changed and the chip kicked in right away.”
 
“But you can do it. You can control your demon. Not just long enough to trick somebody into letting you get close, but as long as you want to. That’s just weird.”
 
“I’m not some dirt-under-his-nails fledgling, Slayer. I’ve had a long time to teach the demon who’s in charge of this body. If I don’t want to bite somebody, I don’t bite ‘em. Your mum, for instance. Nice lady. I’d never hurt her.”
 
Buffy shook her head in disbelief, then turned to Giles. “Is that right? Can vamps control their demons?”
 
Giles looked uncomfortable and shrugged. “There is a theory that some demons are stronger than others. A very small number of vampires seem never to feel a need to kill, and others can control themselves when they need to.”  He glared at Spike. “Clearly the first issue has never been Spike’s problem.”
 
“I am what I am, Watcher. My demon’s strong enough to have stood up to Angelus, and to take out two slayers—one of ‘em almost as good as Goldilocks here. But he doesn’t rule me. Never has, I just never saw any reason to tell him ‘down boy’ before I came to Sunnyhell.”
 
Before Buffy or Giles could respond to his brag about killing the two slayers, Oz interrupted.  Tucking the money into an inside pocket, he stood up and moved toward the door.
 
“I’ve got to get going. I want to be on a bus and on my way out of here before tonight.”
 
“Do you need me to go with you? Just in case?” Buffy frowned her dislike of sending Oz out by himself.
 
He shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’ll be careful.”
 
“Why don’t you cut your hair and shave?”
 
Everybody stared at Spike. Giles spoke first. “That is actually an excellent idea. With a short haircut and no beard, they will be much less likely to recognize you as their escaped werewolf.”
 
“Good idea. Thanks,” he said to Spike.
 
“There are shaving implements in my bathroom,” Giles said. “And perhaps a pair of scissors also. Feel free to use them.”
 
While Oz went off to change his appearance, Buffy and Giles looked at Spike speculatively.
 
“What? Oh no. Not me. I’m not….”
 
“Your roots are showing,” Buffy said. “If we dyed your hair, and you didn’t wear that coat….”
 
“Not going to pretend I’m something else, Slayer.”
 
“Fine. It was just a suggestion. Your roots are showing, you know.”
 
“So are yours,” he muttered, sinking back into the chair.  He smirked to himself when Buffy’s hand went to her head.
 
Before the exchange could escalate, Oz yelled from the bathroom, “Spike! Little help?”
 
“I’m not a sodding barber,” Spike said, getting to his feet anyway and following Giles’s gesture in the direction of the bathroom. 
 
 
Buffy sat down and tapped her fingers on the table.  “What do you think we should do?” she asked, as Giles sat down across from her.
 
“I have notified the Council of the presence of the cages and the experiments. I’d already alerted them to the presence of the soldiers and that they seemed to be targeting vampires and demons, but now that they have more information—” He broke off as the phone rang.  “That will be the Council calling back. Excuse me for a moment.”
 
Buffy watched Giles walk out to answer the phone, then followed the sounds of singing to the bathroom.  She found Spike shaving Oz’s head, leaving clumps of hair on the floor and singing in Italian.
 
“What the hell?”
 
“What? It’s a song from an opera about a barber. Seems appropriate.” He went back to his chore, his tongue caught between his teeth as he tried to scrape Oz’s head clean without nicking him.
 
“Aren’t we done yet?”
 
“I’m trying not to slip and make you bleed,” Spike growled. “Speaking of controlling the demon, it might be harder to do that if I have to smell blood while I’m working.”
 
Buffy watched as Spike rinsed the razor and then carefully scraped another clean path over Oz’s ear.
 
“You’re pretty good at that,” she mused. “Maybe I should have you shave my legs for me….”
 
“Ow!” Oz’s yelp took the attention off Spike, who was pretty sure his eyes had glazed over at the thought of Buffy’s bare legs.
 
“Sorry,” he muttered. “My attention wandered.”
 
Oz snickered, earning himself a threat to “cut your furry throat” from the embarrassed vampire.  Even Buffy giggled, having obviously had no difficulty guessing where Spike’s thoughts had gone. Trying to save face, Spike leered at her, saying, “You sure that’s all you want shaved, Slayer? Could make myself available for—”
 
“Save it for your skanky girlfriends, Blondie Bear. I was only kidding.”
 
“Your loss,” he said as he finished up Oz’s head and handed him a wet towel to wipe all the shaving cream off. He turned to face Buffy. “Did you want something?”
 
“Just wanted to see what you were doing.” She watched carefully as he cleaned the razor and set it on the sink. His hand trembled almost imperceptibly as he stared at the blood from when he nicked Oz’s ear. He took a deep breath and stuck his hand under the faucet, rinsing until there was no sign of blood on it, then stood up and gave himself a shake.
 
“So, you’re good now? You can shave your face?”
 
Oz fingered the full beard he’d grown while in the lab cages.  “Yeah. I can do this myself. Kinda hate to, though. I like it.”
 
“You’d like it less if you got snatched up on your way to the bus station,” Spike growled.
 
“Point.”  Oz picked up the razor, remembering how it had cut his ear when Spike’s mind went to Buffy’s legs.  “You okay?” he asked quietly.
 
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Just gonna go see what the watcher has in the way of strong drink.”