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.
 
 

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.”
 
 

CHAPTER FIVE
 
Buffy followed Spike down the hall, stopping him with a hand on his arm when they got to the living room.  “When did you last eat?”
 
He stared at her in surprise. “Last night. They only feed the animals once a day.”
 
“You’re hungry, aren’t you?” When he just continued to stare at her, she added, “I saw how you looked at Oz’s blood. You wanted to lick it off… but you didn’t. Why not?”
 
“Wolfboy’s my friend, isn’t he? Wouldn’t go sampling his blood without permission. And that tiny little bit wasn’t going to feed me. Would have been just for the pleasure of tasting human blood.”
 
“But you didn’t do it.” Buffy stared at him until he looked away and pushed around her to go sprawl in an easy chair.  She sat down to wait for Giles and Oz to come back into the room.
 
“Stop staring at me, Slayer,” he growled.
 
“I was just thinking—”
 
He snorted. “That explains the smoke comin’ from your ears then.”
 
“That was lame, Spike.”
 
“I can do better.”
 
“I’ll bet you can…. Blondie Bear.”  Buffy giggled at her own humor, but sobered when his snarl at her ended with him clutching his head and smothering a scream.  “Oh my God. You can’t even get mad at a human?”
 
“Was thinking about biting you,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Chip reads intent as much as it does actions. Learnt that much during the last round of testing.”
 
“So, you could hit me if you didn’t mean to? Like when you cut Oz and he said ‘ow’? That didn’t trigger the chip.”
 
“Didn’t mean to do it, did I?”
 
“So you would have bitten me?” Buffy’s eyes narrowed and she looked as if she was planning to cause him even more pain.  He shrugged and raised bloodshot eyes to hers.
 
“Dunno. I was just brassed off at being reminded of my lousy taste in women, and my first reaction was to bite. Probably would have thought better of it before I actually got my teeth into you, but the chip read the anger and reacted as if I would.”  He looked down at the floor. “I wouldn’t really hurt you.”
 
“Really? I thought killing me was on your bucket list of things to do before I dust you.”
 
“Ha, bloody, ha, Slayer.  It was. Now it isn’t. Not up for discussion. Could change my mind again if you keep calling me… what you called me.”
 
“Fine. I won’t call you that stupid name if it really bothers you. I don’t want to be responsible for causing that kind of pain… unless I’m hitting you, of course.”
 
“Goes without sayin’,” he said, managing a small smile. Buffy smiled back before she could stop herself and when Giles returned to the room the two normal enemies were smiling softly at each other from their respective chairs.
 
“Am I interrupting something? I sincerely hope.”
 
“What? No. We’re just waiting for you and Oz to come back so I can tell you my idea. Shut up, Spike.”
 
“Wasn’t even thinking it that time,” he said.
 
Giles stared back and forth. “I have the distinct feeling I’m missing something.”
 
“Nothin’ important, Watcher.”
 
“Let’s wait for… Oz!  Is that you?” 
 
All eyes went to the man entering the room. His ears were bright red with embarrassment as he waited to hear their reactions. Oz had gone from a scruffy-looking young man with long hair and a beard, to a completely bald and clean-shaven one. Not only did he now look barely old enough to drive, but even Buffy, who’d known him since she came to Sunnydale, didn’t think she would recognize him on the street.
 
“Wow.”
 
“An amazing transformation.” Giles could not seem to stop staring at Oz. “I believe you will be quite safe walking around Sunnydale like that. I’m not sure even Willow would recognize you.”
 
“Yeah, well, let’s not take that chance, huh? I still need to leave.”
 
“Wait! You haven’t heard my idea yet,” Buffy said.
 
Oz waited patiently while she organized her thoughts.
 
“Okay, see here’s the thing. You want to learn to control the wolf, right? Because right now, you can’t do much about it if it comes out. Which is sorta like having a demon inside, except that your demon comes out when the moon is full, and vamp demons are always there. But all vamps can hide their demons sometimes, and Spike can just ignore his when he wants to—” At Spike’s snort and Oz’s look of disbelief, she amended, “Okay, he can control his most of the time. Unless he’s being tortured or something. Anyway, he can control it, so why can’t he teach you how to control yours? Why do you want to go all the way to Tibet for that? He can help you learn how to do it right here in Sunnydale.”
 
Oz and Spike exchanged looks. Then Oz shook his head. “I don’t think it’s the same thing, Buffy. The wolf is a living creature that I turn into. Spike is… dead. No offense,” he added with a glance at the vampire.
 
“None taken. He’s right, Slayer. A demon is what I am. Without it, I’m just a corpse. Better-looking one than most, but—”
 
While Buffy rolled her eyes, Giles chimed in. “I’m afraid they’re right, Buffy. I’m not sure whatever Spike does to keep his demon quiet would work with something as different as the werewolf virus.”
 
“Virus?”
 
“Of a sort. It is passed through a bite, but it’s a bite that leaves the victim alive and harboring a wolf. Unlike a vampire, which is, as Spike pointed out, an animated corpse. If Oz lost his wolf, he would still be Oz and completely human. If Spike’s demon is lost, he turns to the dust he would have become many years ago had he died of natural causes and remained in his grave.”
 
“Oh.” Buffy’s shoulders sagged.
 
“Sorry, Buffy,” Oz said. “I know you’re trying to help, but I think it’s best if I leave.”
 
“But Willow’s already so unhappy! I mean, I understand now why we didn’t run into you at the Bronze or on campus or anything like that, but at least we thought you were still around somewhere. If you go away….”
 
“If I go away, Willow is safe from me. If I stay here, she isn’t. I didn’t hurt her last time, but I did kill somebody else. And I don’t know that I wouldn’t have killed her or Xander if you hadn’t been there to stop me. I can’t live like this. I’ll be back when I know I’m safe.”
 
There was silence when he finished speaking, so he just nodded and walked to the door. Spike got to his feet and followed him. They had a quiet conversation that both Buffy and Giles tried to pretend they weren’t listening to.
 
“Be careful out there. If it doesn’t work out, you can always hide out with me during the bad times.”
 
“Thanks, but I think you’re going to have your own problems,” Oz said, cutting his eyes toward Buffy and back quickly. “That chip’s put a pretty big dent in your ability to protect yourself. You’ll have to stick pretty close to Buffy for a while.” He snickered, laughing even harder when Spike growled.
 
“If I could bite you….”
 
“Just don’t forget you can’t and get yourself dusted. We’ve got things to do when I get back – bands to hear, concerts to attend—”
 
“Clubs to wreck….” Spike grinned at Oz.
 
“So…take care of yourself…”
 
“You too, wolfman. We’ve still got some howling to do.”
 
“Yes we do. So long, Spike.”
 
“Good luck, mate.”
 
XXXXXX
 
Spike walked back to his chair and sat down, staring back at Buffy and Giles who were looking at him.  “What?”
 
Buffy shrugged. “I didn’t know vampires could have friends.  I thought you were all about the minions or family members.”
 
“What you don’t know about vampires could fit on the roof of this flat,” Spike growled, resting his head on the back of the chair.
 
“Are you just cranky because you’re hungry?”
 
“I’m cranky because I’m a vampire. Or I used to be. Now I’m… I don’t know what I am. Can’t feed myself. Can’t even walk around for fear of being captured again. Depending on the Slayer for food and shelter….”
 
“I’d like to point out that with Buffy being pursued by the same organization, you are both somewhat dependent upon me for food and shelter,” Giles said dryly. “Which, if you can promise not to destroy my home by getting into a physical confrontation while I’m gone, I will endeavor to take care of.”
 
He stood up and picked up his car keys. “Assuming I can get from here to the grocer without encountering anyone searching for you, I will do my best to see that we enough food… and blood… here to last a few days. By which time, I hope the Council will have convinced the US Army to take a hard look at what is going on here.”
 
“Hold up, there, Watcher.” Spike reached for his bag and pulled out several large bills. “I can pay my way.”
 
Without looking at the denominations, Giles stuffed the money in his pocket and, after peering outside, went out to shop.
 
XXXXXX
 
There was silence for several minutes while Spike and Buffy avoided looking at each other. When they caught each other sneaking looks across the room, Buffy giggled and Spike broke into a grin.
 
“Behavin’ like a couple of four-year-olds aren’t we?”
 
“I can’t believe I went from a tour of his facility with my boyfriend, to an escaped… something.”
 
“Just don’t forget that, pet. To them, you are a ‘something’ now. Just as non-human as wolfboy and me.”
 
“His name is Oz,” Buffy said.
 
“I know that.”
 
“Then why don’t you call him by his name?”
 
“Don’t call anybody by their names, do I?  You’re the Slayer, Rupert’s the Watcher, Willow’s the Witch – or Red, the boy is….whatever.”
 
“You don’t know Xander’s name?”
 
He shrugged.  “Guess I never had any reason to remember it. He’s just the boy that hangs around with Red. And Demon-girl – don’t think I know her name either.”
 
“She’s Anya. And Xander is Xander Harris.”
 
“And Captain America?”
 
“Riley Finn. And I should probably be worried that I knew who you meant….”
 
He laughed at her and she threw a couch pillow at him.
 
“Shut up, Spike.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER SIX
 
Oz had only been gone a little over a week when he suddenly found himself back in a familiar place, if somewhat bewildered about why and how he got there. Deciding Buffy’s watcher would be the mostly likely person to have an explanation, he walked across the parking lot to Giles’s apartment.
 
When Oz knocked on the door, it was opened by a beaming Buffy who pulled him into a hug and then waved an ugly silver ring at him.
 
“Look, Oz! Spike asked me to marry him! We’re engaged!”
 
Oz glanced at Spike, who was beaming proudly. “She said yes. Bet you never thought that would happen, did you?”
 
“Uh… no?”
 
“Come in, come in,” Spike said. “I’m so glad you’re back and I don’t have to ask Harris to be my best man.”
 
“By all means, come in, Oz,” Giles said from the couch where he was downing another glass of scotch. “Welcome to the asylum.”
 
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Buffy said. “He thinks somebody put a spell on him and Xander.”
 
“Ah.”  Oz peered at Buffy who was now snuggled up in Spike’s lap. “So you and Spike aren’t really….”
 
“We’re immune!” she said with a brilliant smile. “I guess because I’m the slayer and Spike’s a vampire, it doesn’t seem to have affected us.”
 
“I can see that,” Oz snickered as he watched them indulge in a brief, but noisy make-out session.  He walked over to sit next to Giles. “So, a spell, huh? What has it done to Xander?”
 
“According to a rather panicky phone call from Anya, he has apparently become something of a magnet for demons. I expect them to arrive at any moment, hoping Buffy will be able to protect them.”
 
Oz cast another look at the cooing and kissing couple in the big chair. “If she’s not too busy with her own special demon,” he said.
 
“Oh good Lord. Are they still at it?” Giles tipped up his glass, frowning when nothing came out. “It’s okay. I have more scotch.” He stood up and tottered to the kitchen, holding on to furniture and walls to keep from tripping over anything.
 
As Oz watched Buffy and Spike, wondering how much of Spike’s behavior was spell-induced and how much was a result of his earlier feelings for Buffy, the front door burst open and Xander and Anya stumbled in.
 
“Shut it! Shut it!” Anya shrieked, pushing against the door. “Buffy! We could use some slayer-strength here.”
 
With a sigh, Buffy got up from Spike’s lap, pulling him by the hand. “Come on, Spike. Let’s get rid of the demon that’s after Xander.”
 
One look out the door and Spike slammed it shut, ignoring the scream from the small demon whose hand was crushed. Green fingers fell to the floor. “Best make that demons, plural, love. We’ll need weapons to take them out.”
 
“We? What we? Why isn’t he tied up?  And what is Oz doing here? Didn’t you go away to China or someplace like that? And what’s with the haircut?” Everyone paused to take note of the fuzz just barely visible on Oz’s head and face.
 
“I did.” Oz frowned, ignoring the question about his lack of hair. “Now I’m back here. Not sure exactly how that happened.”
 
“Probably the same spell that had Giles going blind and Xander…. Buffy, what are you doing?” Anya narrowed her eyes as Buffy and Spike resumed cuddling in the big chair.
 
“We’re engaged!” Buffy said happily, showing off her ring. “Spike and I are going to get married.”
 
Xander stared with his mouth hanging open until Anya pushed it shut. “Relax, Xander. Obviously we’re dealing with some sort of spell here—although I don’t know why it’s so different for everybody.”
 
With a sigh and a quick kiss, Spike moved Buffy off his lap and stood up to begin looking through the books Giles had on a shelf, muttering to himself about finding a general reversal spell.
 
“Is he helping?” Giles tried to follow the conversations going on around him.
 
“Well of course he is!” Buffy looked offended on Spike’s behalf.
 
“Can’t have a blind man walking my bride down the aisle can I? Or a bunch of besotted demons mucking up the ceremony.”
 
“You think finding myself back in Sunnydale is part of the spell?” Oz frowned.
 
“Don’t remember how or why you got here, do you?”
 
“No.” His frown deepened.
 
 Spike stopped looking through the book and walked over to Oz, rubbing his fuzzy head and earning a growl before he said, “Who do we know that might have done a spell to bring you back?”
 
“Willow? You think Willow did this?”
 
“Don’t you? I mean, doesn’t it make sense? Don’t know why she wants a blind watcher for Buffy. Or Harris to be chased by demons, but with all of you obviously under some sort of spell, it must have been something… .big.”
 
“Oh Dear Lord.” Giles groaned as he sank back against the couch. “She told me I couldn’t see anything, shortly before I started losing my vision.”
 
Xander paled. “She told me I was a demon magnet….” He whirled to stare at Buffy. “And she said if you thought it was so important to stay near Spike, you should just marry him.”
 
“Well that’s just silly of her. I am going to marry him. She didn’t need to wish it on me.”  She moved closer to Spike as there was silence in the room and they all stared at her.
“What? She didn’t. Did she Spike?  We’re in love, aren’t we?”
 
“Of course we are, pet. Our feelings have nothing to do with whatever she may have wished on everybody else.”
 
“Buffy...” Giles paused, then continued, “and Spike, please try to remember that until only a short while ago, you were not in love. Nor were you planning to be married. The only one who doesn’t seem to have been harmed by this spell is Oz.”
 
Oz cleared his throat. “I was actually in China just before I found myself in your parking lot,” he said. “I’m not hurt, but I’m pretty sure I’m part of the spell.”
 
“Well we aren’t part of the spell!” Buffy’s indignation was backed up by Spike’s low growl as the truth of what Giles said began to worm its way into his befuddled brain.  “We aren’t, are we?” Buffy’s eyes narrowed when she saw the confusion on Spike’s face.
 
“One of us isn’t, love. You can count on it,” he said, low enough that no one but Buffy and Oz could hear him.
 
“What does that mean? One of us? Which one of us?”
 
“Nothing, pet. Don’t get yourself in a state.” Spike met Oz’s gaze, earning a small nod from him. “Best thing we can do right now is see what we can do to help them break the over-all spell and get everybody back to normal.” He went back to the bookshelf and began to read again, leaving Buffy to sit in the chair by herself, a pout on her face.
 
Oz slid up behind him and picked up one of the books. Keeping his voice low, he said, “Shouldn’t you be enjoying your engagement while you can? Let me handle this. If I find something, I’ll let you know and you can tell Giles.”
 
Spike stared at him. “You think we’re part of the spell, don’t you?”
 
“I know you have feelings for Buffy, but you know as well as I do she wasn’t there with you. And she isn’t going to be there when the spell breaks. I’d say enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it.”
 
Spike gave a low growl, but nodded. “I think you’re wrong, but I’d rather be snogging my girl than digging through a bunch of old watcher books.”
 
“Go on. Keep Buffy happy for a while.”
 
“You’re a good friend, Wolfboy. Definitely best man material.”
 
“We’ll see,” was the quiet response, although Oz smiled at him.
 
Spike joined Buffy, pulling her to her feet until he could sit down and set her back on his lap. She was still pouting, so he nipped at her full lower lip. ‘Gonna get that, pet.”
 
Buffy giggled and snuggled into his side, running her fingers up and down his chest and earning a muffled groan from him as he shifted beneath her.
 
“Playin’ with fire, there, love,” he rumbled in her ear. Before they could get anymore entangled than they already were, the door shuddered as demons continued to throw themselves against it. “Bloody hell,” he growled. “Where are the weapons? Let’s take care of this now.”
 
Buffy gave him a last lingering kiss before she stood up with a sigh. “Okay. Let’s make demon sushi out of them.”
 
She led Spike to the weapons chest and began to search through it.
 
“Here, you take this,” she said, handing a sword to Xander. “Stay with Giles. He won’t be able to see to defend himself.”  Buffy gazed at Anya. “Do you know how to use a sword?”
 
“How hard can it be,” Anya sniffed. “You stab or behead with it.”
 
“Good enough,” Spike said, handing her one of the swords and choosing one for himself. “Let’s go, Slayer. We’ve got snogging to do.”
 
“You guys stay here. Lock the door behind us, ‘k, Oz?”
 
He nodded and added a club to the chair where he was collecting books that looked as if they might be useful. “Go. Kill things. It’ll do you both good.” He watched as Spike yanked the door open and followed Buffy out into the front yard.  He closed the door, leaning against it briefly, before going back to the books.
 
XXXX
 
Buffy and Spike whacked and stabbed their way through the demons, all struggling to get the door and Xander, paying no attention to the two people hacking them into pieces.  When a particularly clumsy green creature knocked Spike to the ground, Buffy threw herself on top of him protectively. It was soon obvious that the demons had no interest in them, as they all just continued to throw themselves at the door.
 
Buffy looked down at Spike who was holding her by her waist and pulling her more tightly against him.
 
“They don’t want us.”
 
“Nope,” he agreed, sliding his arms all the way around her. “We can just lie here snogging all night and nobody will care.”
 
“Ummmm,” Buffy moaned into his mouth. “You are a very good kisser…”
 
“I think I’m kind of inspired, love,” he murmured. “Could keep this up all night.”
 
“All night works for me,” she said, nibbling on his throat.”
 
“Oh bloody hell, love. You have no idea what that does to me.”
 
She giggled and rubbed herself against him. “I think I do. I can feel it.”
 
“Minx,” he growled pushing up into her. “If we had a little privacy….”
 
“I thought you wanted to wait for the wedding night?” Buffy teased, letting her legs fall open.  “Oh! Oh, I think I….” She gave a little whimper as she ground down into him. He put his hands on her butt and pulled her down even harder as he tilted his hips up.
 
“Oh god, Buffy. Slayer. Love of my life….  Yessss, right there. Just—”
 
“Buffy!”  Willow’s shocked exclamation didn’t seem to affect Buffy, but Spike growled and glared up at her.
 
“Little busy here right now, Red. Why don’t you go inside and—”
 
“It’s okay, Willow,” Buffy panted. “We’re engaged. I would have told you about it right away, but you weren’t here, and now you are and you can congratulate us.”
 
Willow groaned and pulled on Buffy’s arm. “I can stop you from doing something you’re really gonna regret. Let her go, Spike!”
 
“Don't want to.” He tightened his arms, pleased that Buffy seemed to have no inclination to move.
 
Willow blew out her breath. “You two are not getting married. I just said that when Buffy wanted to go looking for you.”
 
“Then how are we engaged?” Buffy waved her hand with the heavy ring on it. “Huh? Answer me that, Willow. What does that mean?”
 
“It means I have to be more careful what I say when I’ve done a spell to have my will be done.  Now get off the vampire so we can go inside and away from these demons.”
 
Although they were still lying down, Buffy and Spike had stopped grinding together when they realized Willow was serious.
 
“So it was you,” Spike growled, still resting his hands on Buffy’s hips. “If you want to get away from the demons, you’ll need to take back what you said about Harris being a demon magnet.  And you might want to clear up the watcher’s little case of blindness while you’re at it.”
 
“I’ll get to them as soon as I— Get the hell away from me!” she shrieked as a newly arriving demon bumped into her.  She waved her hand. “Xander isn’t a demon magnet!” she yelled. “He doesn’t even like demons.”
 
There was a moment of confusion in front of the door before the demons began slinking away, obviously not quite sure what they’d been doing there.  Two of them paused to stare at Buffy and Spike.  “Slayer,” the biggest one gurgled just before his head fell off, having been struck by the sword Spike threw at him.
 
With a sigh, Buffy sat up on him.  “Let me go, Spike. The demons are gone, we can go back inside with everybody else.
 
“Don’t want to be with everybody else,” he said, sitting up himself and pulling her legs around his waist. Face to face, with Buffy on his lap, they completely forgot Willow’s presence and went back to kissing.
 
“Guys! Buffy! You are not getting married. I take it back.  Do you hear me? You’re not engaged.”
 
They paused and looked at each other, then Spike shrugged. “I don’t have to marry you to love you. It’s up to you, pet.”
 
“We probably shouldn’t rush into anything,” Buffy agreed. “But we can still—”
 
“Argh!” Willow threw her hands up in air and walked to the door. “Come in here with me so we can work this out.”  As she started to open the door, Spike and Buffy remembered who else was in there besides Giles and Xander.
 
“Uh oh….”
 
With growl, Spike gave her a last kiss, stood up, and wited until she’d slid down his body and had her feel on the ground. “Come on, love. We need to go in there and provide some moral support for my buddy.”
 
“Hey! Oz was my friend before he was yours," Buffy said as she ran after him.

 
CHAPTER SEVEN
 
Willow threw open the door, shouting, “Xander you’re not a demon magnet anymore, and Giles, you can see just as well as you used to. And Buffy and Spike, you—” She froze, her eyes going wide.  “Oz?”
 
“Hey, Willow.” He raised his hand in greeting.
 
“Where’s your hair?”
 
“Oh that. Well, long story….”
 
“And where have you been?  I looked everywhere for you.”
 
“Ah, that one I can answer. As of a few hours ago, I was in China. On my way to a monastery in Tibet. And then suddenly, I was here.”  He met Willow’s shocked gaze with his own sad smile. “Don’t suppose you know anything about that, do you, Willow?”
 
“Oh. Oh my… Oh….” Willow sank into the nearest chair. “Did I?  I didn’t mean… I mean I wanted…. But….” She raised her eyes to take in the people all staring at her. “I just wanted Oz to come back to me. I didn’t mean for all this other stuff to happen.”
 
“Exactly what kind of a spell did you do, Willow?” Giles asked in a tone that barely managed to be nonjudgmental.
 
“Oh. Well, I couldn’t find one specifically for making lovers come back, so I did one that made my will be done.  All I have to do is say something is, and it happens.”  She bit her lip. “But I thought it wasn’t working because Oz didn’t appear, so I kinda forgot about it.”
 
“Apparently it took some time for your will to reach China,” Giles said dryly. “Those of us more easily reached were affected first.”
 
“But, it’s all fixed now. Right? Everybody’s okay. I mean, Giles can see, and the demons are gone, and Buffy and Spike aren’t getting married anymore….”  She looked at the big chair they had settled back into. “What are you two doing? I said you weren’t getting married anymore.”
 
“We got that, Wills. It’s okay.” Buffy frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”
 
“If you aren’t planning to marry him, why are you on Spike’s lap?”
 
“We didn’t stop loving each other just because we aren’t getting married.” Buffy looked up at Spike. “Did we?”
 
“I didn’t” he said quietly. “But you might want to think on it a bit more, love. The watcher was right, you know. We weren’t in love yesterday, were we?”
 
Buffy frowned. “Well… no. I guess we weren’t, but….” Buffy glared at Willow. “If you only said I should marry Spike, why did we think we were in love?” He twitched at her use of the past tense but didn’t speak.
 
“I don’t know what Spike’s problem is, but would you be marrying somebody if you didn’t love him?  No, you wouldn’t. So when the spell said you should marry Spike, it made you think you love him.” Willow glared back. “The spell is over. You aren’t getting married. You shouldn’t still love him.”
 
Xander spoke up immediately. “So get the hell off Spike’s lap, Buffy! You don’t have to be there anymore!”
 
Spike’s arms tightened just long enough for Buffy to feel the squeeze before he took them away and waited to see what she would do. She frowned, both at the implications that were just sinking in and at the loss of Spike’s embrace. She looked up at him, her distress obvious.
 
“I… I guess I don’t love you, Spike. We were just in love because of the spell.”
 
“Know you don’t, Buffy. It’s alright.”
 
She moved to get off his lap, trying not to feel the tension in his body or hear the pain in his voice.  She got to her feet and began to move away, only to turn back and lean down so only he could hear her words.
 
“But I think I like you a lot more than I did yesterday. And I still think you’re a great kisser.”
 
Face flaming, she whirled and walked away, his “I can work with that” making her giggle as she joined Oz, whose quiet nod and smile were puzzling until he whispered, “He’s my friend, and his feelings are real. Thanks for letting him down easy.”
 
Buffy nodded, then looked from Oz to Willow. “I guess you two have some talking to do?”
 
Oz shook his head. “Nothing’s changed for me. It took me a week to get that far, now I have to start over.”  They both turned to stare at Willow, whose eyes were tearing up at Oz’s obvious lack of delight in finding himself back in Sunnydale.
 
“I don’t understand,” Willow said. “Why were you in China?”
 
“It’s the way to get to Tibet. Nothing’s changed, Willow. I love you, but I don’t want to be around you or anybody else I care about—” He waved his hand to encompass the whole room. “Not until I know I can control the wolf. There’s a monastery there where I can learn how to do that. They were expecting me.”
 
Willow’s face fell. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “I was just so unhappy without you.” She took a deep breath. “I can fix it, I think. If the spell is still in effect, I should be able to put you back where you were. You might be a little late, but….”
 
“I’d really appreciate that, Willow,” Oz said, his voice gentle but firm.
 
“When will you be back?”
 
“I don’t know. As long as it takes, I guess. If I can do it, I’ll be back when I feel safe. If I can’t….”
 
Willow squeezed her eyes shut in pain, then nodded. “Okay. Good luck, Oz. You should go back to where you were this morning so you can continue your trip. I will it so.”
 
Before anyone could say anything else to him, Oz vanished from the room, leaving Willow sobbing on the floor and Spike rushing to the window to make sure Oz wasn’t just out in the parking lot again.
 
“Fuck!” he muttered. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.” He started when he felt Buffy’s hand on his shoulder. She gave a soft squeeze before dropping her hand to her side.
 
“He knows how you feel,” she said. “He knows you would have said it if you’d had time.”
 
He nodded and followed her back into the room, hesitating at the big chair. “You take it,” she said. “I’m going to talk to Willow.”
 
Buffy sank to her knees beside her still sobbing friend and hugged her until Willow’s sobs trailed off to sniffles. “You know you’ve got to let that wish go, right?” she asked, still holding Willow in her arms.
 
“I know. I don’t want any more accidental engagements or demon swarms. It’s ended. I will it to be gone.”
 
“Okay then,” Buffy stood up and pulled Willow to her feet. “I’m going to talk to Giles about the Initiative, and then I think it’s ice cream time.”
 
“Oh shoot! I should have wished them away while I was at it.”
 
“It’s okay. I think the Council’s on it. Less chance of nasty surprises that way.”
 
Giles nodded his agreement. “Arrangements are underway already. The operation will be closed down within the next day or two. Although I suggest you… and Spike… remain in hiding until that has occurred.”
“So much for ice cream,” Buffy said, rolling her eyes.  “Or for finishing this semester.”
 
“It’ll be okay, Buffy. I’ll take good notes and I’ll tell your professors that you had a family emergency.” Willow beamed, delighted to be able to be useful.
 
“In the meantime, I presume this means I will continue to have houseguests?”
 
“I guess so, Giles.” Buffy slid her eyes to the side to catch Spike’s gaze. “Although, I know where there’s a vacant cave….”
 
The End.