Okay, the situation is this... I really needed to get coffee first thing this morning and then I got distracted answering an email and then I got distracted by a whole bunch of other stuff that even, until the headache won, included writing, instead of doing the drag the laptop into bed with me and do the update before I even get up thing that I normally do...

Thing is, I don't think things are going to get any less hectic this side of October, at which point, they may even get worse, so for a while, daily updates are about to become a thing of the past. What I'm going to do, depending on how long any sections might be is to upload a third, a half, or all of a section at once. Then, I'll leave it for a few days and upload another batch. Overall, I'll try to make it so that if you want to stick to reading a chapter a day, it works out that you can keep up by doing that, so, say I post eight chapters today, then I wouldn't post at all for the next seven days, and after that I'll post another seven chapters, which is half of the first section of the next book, and so on...

Similarly, although I'll read any comments as they come in, chances are that I'll try to fit in the replies when I'm least tied up with other things, so I may end up letting them accumulate for longer than I normally do before I reply, but they're no less appreciated. It's just that any sort of breathing space looks like it's going to be difficult to find for the foreseeable future.

Also, while I've tried to proof-read the chapters as normal (since I took over the posting from alwaysjbj), chances are that I'm more likely to have missed things doing a batch at once than doing one chapter at a time, so, sorry...

I hope you all understand.

Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.



Chapter 5.06
Monday, May 20th, 2002

"I sincerely hope after all our recent experiences that you're not about to-."

"Do I look like our resident megalomaniac redhead?" Spike gave the store-owner a lopsided glare which, since Giles was sitting on the floor with his back to the armchair that Spike was sprawled sideways across, sailed straight over the top of his oblivious head. "An' there ain't no way I'm openin' up a seance neither. Never know who or what's gonna accept an invite into your life, 'specially not on the Hellmouth, even if I wasn't like to find out that her great-granny or summat with the same name would just as soon haunt me as him."

"And I wonder why that would be..."

Spike shrugged, not seeing any point being less than honest. "Dear ol' Darla thought we could terrorise them into takin' Rip van Winkle's soul back. Couple of nights after it happened the three of us pretty much took out the whole encampment, men, women an' children. Not exactly what I would call a bright idea. I mean, I could've told her anyone as can think up a curse like that one wasn't gonna back down, but once we started if we'd left enough of them alive to raise the power there'd have been four of us wanderin' round with souls rather 'an one, so..."

A muffled slur issued from the sofa.

"It lives... well nearly," Spike drawled sarcastically. "Now it just needs to learn to speak again."

"I said so bring her soul back." Angel rolled over to face the other two men in the room.

"You just pretend to pass out to geroff the hook?" Spike asked as Giles waded in with his own question.

"What do you mean bring her soul back?"

"Spike's so confident he's Mr Happy, he won't object to a visitor for a while. There's an emergency kit in the trunk of the convertible... spell book, herbs, Orb of Thessula, everything you need. It can't be that difficult to alter the curse so that a specific soul is called. And if he's telling the truth about being happy just to make Buffy happy-."

"No-o-o-o buggerin' way!" Spike objected. "No way I'm doin' that again. Was bad enough with Buffy in my head. No way I'm lettin' some bint I've never met in there."

"You mean we could specific'ly curse Spike with Jenny's soul?" Giles asked obviously intrigued by the prospect in a way he would never allow himself to become if he were sober.

"Think so!"

"Aren't either of you two listening? I'm not for sharin'. There's a little bit of William an' a whole lot of demon in here already an' that's plenty for any corpse. I'm not in favour of anythin' as might lead to me peein' sittin' down, or peein' at all come to that, an' I'm pretty certain Buffy ain't gonna want some other bint in here neither."

"Buffy wants this settled. You're the one that said that meant bringing Jenny back. D'you want to tell her that the first time she leaves you in charge of anything that you failed because you were too scared to do what needed to be done?" asked Angel.

"No, 'course I-, Heyyy. I am not scared. Just prefer my body to myself."

"Calling it like I see it."

"I am not gonna have some woman set up shop in my body just 'cause you try to say I'm chicken. You think it's such a swell idea you let her share with you."

"Even if you could get her to share and even if somehow I ended up bein' happy enough to free her soul after, and we only know one sure way for that to work, that'd mean letting Angelus loose... and if you're as happy as you like to make out, it's hardly going to be a problem."

"Ya know, there's times I think you're even more of a bastard with that damn soul than without it."

Giles smirked as he took another unneeded sip of whisky. "You did say you would do anything to give Buffy her perfect day," he pointed out with an uncharacteristic giggle.

"Glad someone finds this so amusin'," Spike finally conceded with ill grace, "but don't think she's stayin' long, so you better make the most of it."

---

"So I'm on my back on the floor in a puddle of demon entrails and Cordy walks in and she doesn't even notice the body behind the door and she looks at me lying there and she says, 'Is this really the sort of first impression you want to give the clients?' and then just to top that, she adds, '...And you really might want to rethink that aftershave. It smells like something died-."

"Wes?" Marie asked, puzzled by his sudden silence until she realised that his attention was riveted on a group by the door, who for the most part seemed yet to have noticed him. The look on his face was self-explanatory and Marie took matters into her own hands, scooting her chair around the small circular table as she whispered in his ear. "Don't take this the wrong way... I'm all in favour of the waiting but the forgetting thing, seems like round about now you could use some help... on a strictly friends basis."

She raised a gentle hand to his cheek, turning his head toward her. Her lips pressed to his for just a fraction of a second before he responded to their touch, his eyes drifting closed rather than trying to keep track of the quartet from LA. Leaning in toward her, he cradled her head as the embrace deepened into a tender exploration.

---

"I'm warnin' you, Rupert, if you balls this up I will-."

"You'll what, William ? Set Buffy on me?"

"You screw this up and I won't need to be settin' her on anyone," Spike told him with more than a hint of smugness. "She'll come after ya all on 'er own. Doesn't stop me thinkin' we should be waitin' till you're all sobered up."

Angel sighed. "I'm not staying in Sunnydale another night, Spike. In case you've forgotten, Cordy is still missing."

"I haven't forgotten an' what I said about helpin' out if you need us still stands. Just seems to me like you might be forgettin' that there's an actual missin' boyfriend as well, as opposed to you who still falls into the wannabe category. Now there's a thought. Tell Builder's Bum that you're movin' in on 'is ex, an' me an' Buffy might actually get some peace for a day or two."

"Builder's Bum?" Angel asked.

"What do I look like? The Ladybird book of what the hell's happened here since you left? Haven't you actually spoken to anyone from this town in the last three years? How many ex's has the bint got? An' how many do you think got a job on a building site and have been working on developing an appropriate cleavage for the last couple of years?"

"Xander? But Buffy said he got married, and I'm pretty sure she said his wife was a vengeance demon. He'd have-"

"To be insane? Doesn't stop him sticking his nose in our business an' Buffy never even went out with him... I'm sure he could do even better defending his former. Seems to me he likes you even less than he likes me. Assumin' Anya didn't just decide she'd had enough and just..." Spike made a slashing gesture in the region of his groin.

Spike looked down again at the printed sheet to which Giles had been making alterations. "Is there one bloody line of that thing that you haven't dismantled an' reassembled?

'Quad perditum est, invenietur?' What is lost, return? An' I don't think. What d'ya do just miss that bit out altogether? 'Not dead... nor not of the living'? I thought you said this had been translated into English? Shouldn't that be 'Neither dead nor of the living'? 'Cause I don't feature you sticking double negatives in some spell I barely understand an' it's all fine an' good if it's meant to apply to the body as the soul's meant to be goin' into, but it hardly applies to your gyppo girl. 'Spirits of the interregnum'? That's not gonna work.. 'Te implore, Deo omni'! This isn't a soddin' spell. It's a bloody prayer! You really think that God is gonna think, 'Yeah there's three pissed old buggers down there as want to have some fun with someone's soul. Sure, I'll play!'? 'Gods, bind him.' It was one god before. Do you even know who the heck you're prayin' to? 'Cast his heart from the evil realm'? 'Let this orb be the vessel that will carry his soul to him'... At least I reckon that bit's not so hard to change but the rest of it's just gonna come out like so much rubbish."

Giles gave Spike an owlish glare over the top of his glasses. "Are you casting asper- asper- doubts on my capabilities? I'll have you know I've been studying magic since you were in nappies."

"I hardly think so, Rupes... unless there's some secret you want to tell us?"

Giles' scowl deepened. "It's hardly my fault when you wander around forever looking about thirty..."

"Thirty? You cheeky-."

"Nevertheless, I'm sure with Jenny's notes I can manage to adapt the spell to our purposes."

"Yeah, I bet you're sure. You're sure so long as it's me you're playin' with. Be a different matter if it was you that's gonna end up possessed by whatever you manage to call up."

"Spike!" Angel cut through the tirade. "And you call me a drama queen? Sit down. Shut up. Drink up, if you must, and let him work."

Spike sent the elder vampire a sour look and crossed his arms like a petulant teenager, for all of about a second before he uncrossed them again to take another drink. "Bloody mojo," the blond muttered under his breath.

"We could call Willow," the brunette suggested with mocking civility. "You never did say what the deal with Buffy throwing her out was..."

"Don't even think about it. I'd rather have Mr Benn the shopkeeper here, even if he is nine sheets, or however many that is to the wind. An' you're not askin' Glinda neither... That bloody spell was the first step on the road to hell for Red, an' I'm not riskin' the good witch."

"But you'll risk me?" Giles asked.

"Don't think you're in a position to cast stones, Rupie-b-."

"If you even think it, I will bring back your soul."

Spike at last conceded he was in a no-win situation and decided that the quicker he could drink himself into oblivion the more smoothly the rest of this would go.

---

"Wesley?" Somehow, Fred managed to sound bewildered and betrayed, but when Marie made to draw away, it was Wes's hand that prevented her from breaking the kiss for just a second longer. He took Marie's hand as they parted, holding it in his as if the gesture came to them as second nature.

The watcher looked up at the Angel contingent far more coolly than he probably thought he had managed. "That is what my friends call me. I believe it would be more appropriate, however, for you to use Mr Wyndam-Pryce. Now, did you actually have something to say, or do you simply plan to wallow in self-pity because I'm no longer sufficiently enthralled to place myself at your beck and call?"

Gunn looked like he wanted to throw himself at the watcher when he saw the hurt expression on his girlfriend's face, but surprisingly, it was Faith's hand that held him back. "Past is past. This is his town. Let it lie." The slayer chivvied the rest of the group toward where the maitre d' waited to seat them.

"So," she asked as she lingered briefly before joining the others, "I guess I'd be pushing it to call you Wes?"

"I suspect you call everyone exactly what you feel like calling them but I doubt you call many people your friend," Wes answered with a half-smile. "I would introduce you, ladies, but Marie is due back in court in quarter of an hour and I think that's our bill arriving. Oh, and I don't know if Spike mentioned it when he and Giles came over, but the council will be arriving en masse in fairly short order. I don't know whether that will have any bearing on your plans but I thought you should know."

"No, they didn't get around to mentioning that..." Faith's voice faded away as she tried to figure out whether and how this piece of news might affect her. "Thanks for the warning... Wes."

Their waiter placed the bill on the table between them and Wes's hand covered Marie's before she could pick it up.

She gave him a curious look. "I said lunch was on me?"

"On one condition... You let me buy you dinner."

"It would have to be late... After I put Rosa to bed."

Wes shrugged. "Depending how things go on the case, I could always come over early enough to give you a hand with that... If that would be okay?"

"I think Rosa would like that... but I won't say anything in advance in case it turns out that you can't make it."

"And her mother?"

Marie's smile was wide, even if she was still slightly too unsure to quite meet Wes's eyes as she responded. "She'd like it, too... Just nothing too formal on a work night, okay?" She placed a selection of notes from her purse alongside the bill, and Wes helped her on with her jacket, his arm resting loosely around her waist, his other hand holding the manila file Marie had given him when they first came in, as they made their way to the exit. She was slightly surprised when Wes guided her to one side, the opposite direction from her car, immediately they left the restaurant.

He smiled at her puzzled glance, checking that they were out of sight of anyone still inside. "I just wanted you to be sure that I wasn't doing this for the benefit of any audience." His head ducked down to hers as she leant into the embrace, standing on tiptoe so that their lips could meet. His hand cradled her neck and then he let his thumb brush against the soft skin from the corner of her jaw to the tip of her chin as he whispered to her. "I think the time when I could be just a friend disappeared the second your lips touched mine. For good or bad, rebound or not, there's no going back. It's time for me to take Spike's advice, give in to the inevitable and enjoy the ride..." He gave her a look that was filled with all sorts of promise. "Figuratively speaking, of course. I wouldn't presume. Something as good as you has to be earned."

"And what makes you think, when you smile like the devil, that I want to be good?" Marie placed one last chaste kiss to his lips before walking backwards to her car, watching him all the way. "See you tonight," she promised before she finally closed the car door and headed back to the courthouse with little time to spare.

---

"Spirit of Jenny Calendar, Janna of the Calderash people,
I call on you in the realm of the dead
Let she who was rent from us be returned..." Spike took several more deep drinks from the bottle in his hand as Giles intoned his improvised ritual. He really wasn't sure what to expect. Perhaps they should count themselves lucky if the watcher's prayer was simply ignored.

"...I ask that you return to inhabit this vessel, which is neither dead nor of the living.
I implore you, Lord, to allow this. Listen to this plea.
Lord, let her heart be brought forth from its resting place and bound into this body.
Let this orb be the vessel that will carry her soul to him."

Spike breathed a sigh of relief as the watcher paused, the orb nothing more than a lump of polished crystal.

And then Giles began the chant over again, his voice firmer and more certain. Spike's heart sank as the orb began to glow. He had a bad feeling about this.