Chapter 5 – If You Loved Her

The sight of Spike, strong, healthy, and cradling an unconscious Buffy in his arms when he had been near dust earlier in the day sent a chill of recognition through Giles. It was Angel all over again. “What have you done to her!” he cried, stepping forward to take her from Spike.

Spike backed out of reach into the sunshine and said, “I haven’t hurt her, Rupert. Listen to me and help me figure out what’s wrong with her.”

Numbly Giles stood aside and let the vampire carry her across the threshold. Spike couldn’t make himself release her, and sat down in the armchair holding her. Memories of the witch’s love spell swamped him. For one short hour, he’d been a happy fool. He desperately wished that Buffy was awake in his arms now, wriggling her luscious tush around on his danglies, driving him crazy with desire, loving him.

“Put her on the couch so I can examine her...” Giles started; then catching sight of the fresh bite on her neck, his face flattened into the deadly visage of the Ripper, “You said you didn’t hurt her!” Whipping a stake from his belt, he charged at Spike with it raised high.

In a flash, Spike had Buffy draped across the chair so she wouldn’t be hurt in the scuffle and turned back to the Watcher. With lightening speed he knocked the stake from Giles’ hand and grabbed him by the neck. Raising the taller man one handed into the air above his head, Spike shook him as if he weighed no more than a rag doll. “Chill out!” he snapped. “Don’t you be going off half-cocked now!”

Gagging and gasping for breath, Giles nodded and scrabbled at Spike’s hand, astonished by the vampire’s great strength and the lack of chip response.

Spike set him down warily and stepped back. “Listening now, are you?” He maintained a defensive stance just in case the older man lost it again. He was fast, strong and wiley for a human. It would be stupid to dismiss the watcher too lightly. If he started a rumpus and Buffy was hurt, Spike would have to kill him, and then Buffy’d never forgive him.

The Watcher nodded mutely. He wondered wildly how he could get across the room to his cross bow. His mind spun in circles. ‘What happened to the chip? Why did he bring her here after draining her? Oh, Buffy, Buffy, I’m so very sorry...Did he turn you? I must be next...Why didn’t we stake him earlier today instead of leaving him at his crypt? Why did I underestimate him so badly all this time? How could I have been so stupid?’ And the most incomprehensible of all, ‘How could he have come here during the day?’

That last question turned the Watcher’s brain back on. He thought of the cloudless sky overhead. ‘How was he able to bring her here through the sunlight? How did he get so strong and fast?’ And back again to the first question, ‘Why isn’t the chip working?’ Finally noticing the fresh human bite on the vampire’s neck, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

Spike watched the comprehension come over the watcher’s face and asked mildly, “Sussed it out, have you?”

“What have you done, Vampire!” Giles cried in dismay. Not drained, but mated; almost as bad and even more disturbing. His entire body clenched tight as he strained not to attack again. It would be suicide. “How could this happen?”

“I had protected Dawn earlier, didn’t tell the hell bitch what she wanted to know. Slayer offered to heal me,” Spike answered dourly. He supposed the Watcher had a right to that much of the reason. He eyed the other man closely, watching him tremble with fury.

“If you loved her like you claim you do, you would have refused,” Giles grated out at him through clenched teeth. Vampires couldn’t be expected to have any self control, but this one said he loved the Slayer, so should hold himself to a higher standard. Spike surprised him with his answer.

“I did refuse. She insisted. Said she needed me strong to help her protect Dawn. Slayer’s my strength and my weakness, you know. When she really wants something, I can’t turn her down.” Spike stared moodily into the other’s angry eyes. “Just gave you a dangerous advantage over me there, Watcher, were you my enemy. Thing is, you can’t be my enemy now, without being hers as well. See to it that you’re our friend.”

Giles measured the vampire with a long hard look. He unwillingly recognized the futility of not accepting the situation, at least provisionally. The only other option was to kill them both, and unless Buffy had changed drastically, that was unthinkable. Even if that became a necessity, he wasn’t prepared. He’d never be able to overwhelm Spike and his new strength without some solid planning. Eventually sighing and rubbing his aching head, the watcher nodded brusquely.

Spike relaxed slightly and continued, “Believe it or not, I didn’t mean it to happen. As I healed, one thing led to another and before I knew it we were mated.” As he saw the Watcher’s unbelieving stare, he added defensively, “It’s not like it’s something you can plan beforehand, Rupert. Get down on bended knee and ask, ‘Will you mate with me?’ Only happens between soul mates, and it’s automatic.” Spike wouldn’t be telling the Watcher that Buffy had initiated the whole thing by biting him; it wasn’t any of his business.

“Do you realize that you’ve signed her death warrant with your ‘one thing lead to another?’ Wet teams will be after her for the rest of her life!” Wisely, Giles didn’t erupt into violence this time, but other ways of taking the vampire out ran through his mind as he raged at what this vampire had cost his Slayer.

“Then they’ll never know, will they, Watcher? There’s no reason for them to find out. Ever.” Spike stared into the other’s eyes with deadly intent. “No one will hurt her. No one. Got it?”

Giles snorted, amused in spite of himself. “We’re shooting the same daggers back and forth at each other. The Council certainly won’t hear about it from me, but they have spies everywhere. They’ll find out someday. The fact remains that you’ve put her life in danger by doing this.”

“Her life’s always been in danger. I’ve made her stronger, faster, a better warrior.” Spike glared angrily at the other man. He’d never knowingly put her in peril, he’d protect her with his very existence. Privately it grieved him that now, because of him, not only demons, but the Council of Wankers itself would be after her.

“So the two of you are enhanced?” Giles asked shortly, already knowing the answer, but needing to make it official.

The grim faced blonde answered with a scornful look and a snort. “Obviously. That’s the hallmark of a mating, separates it from a double claim. Enhancement’s the result of the mingling of souls.”

Giles continued to glare at him. ‘The mingling of souls...Dear Lord.’ Aloud he stuck to the former topic, “Nevertheless, you have endangered her. Every mated pair in recorded history has been terminated. Council policy mandates it. They’ll declare her subverted. Uncontrollable. Dangerous. Contaminated. Useless to them.” He emphasized each point individually to make sure the vampire understood the severity of what he had done to Buffy, and finished with what he expected would matter more than any other. “You’ll be their target now too. If a vampire has corrupted a slayer, he’s simply too dangerous to exist. They’ll overwhelm you with sheer mass of numbers, and that will be it. That’s their modus operandi with a mated pair.”

Spike ignored the deliberate insult that he had contaminated the Slayer, and the danger to himself. He focused on what was essential. “And what do you say, Watcher? You think she’s subverted?” Spike picked Buffy up and settled back into the lounger with her, sending her mentor a piercing look. Giles was a savvy and formidable man. He could be ruthless, and was, in fact, the only human aside from slayers, that Spike had ever respected. He would be a problem, should he choose to be; especially since Spike knew that Buffy wouldn’t allow him to be eliminated.

Looking down at her, Spike noted that she hadn’t stirred when he moved her, and this distracted his thoughts away from the Watcher. He smoothed her hair worriedly. ‘What’s the matter, Buffy? Please wake up and tell me. We’ll work it out together.’

Giles studied Spike’s absorption in Buffy for several moments before answering. “I’ve researched your dossier, investigated everything I can find on you ever since you first arrived to threaten my slayer. I’ve also studied you directly.” Sighing, he continued, “I’ve concluded that you are loyal to those who, for want of a better term, you love.” He refused to back down when Spike looked up and glowered at him for that, instead staring back stonily with narrowed eyes. “You’ll do anything in your power to protect and make those people happy.” Removing his glasses to polish the lenses, the Watcher admitted wryly, “Actually, I believe it’s more likely that you’ve been subverted by her than that she has been by you.”

Spike gave an ironic nod and half grin. “Right you are. You were the only one on the Council with a lick of sense, so of course they kicked you off. Always been a pack of fools, killing their greatest allies, suppressing their best and brightest members.” Twitching an eyebrow cockily, he taunted, “Vamps’ve done right well down through the ages, what with the Council being such power hungry dobbers. Wankers’d rather have a young, green slayer they can control than a strong, mated one who gives them two bangs for their buck.”

Spike shrugged his shoulders irritably and commented vaguely, “Seems a vamp picks up slayer values during the mating process. I’m itching with the need to go out n’ do some good.” The vampire silently considered his own network of spies that the humans weren’t aware of. He’d be able to protect his slayer from any piddling wet teams that came along. He’d eliminated enough of them in his day that had come after Drusilla and him. “Back before the mating, Watcher, I’d have done something about the Council’s threat to her. Now I guess that for the time being, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. If the time comes that they needed fixing, I’ll take care of it...Right, well, I’ll deal with them later. Now I need to know what’s wrong with Buffy.”

Giles observed him warily for a moment, then realized that he agreed with the vampire on that issue at least, and nodded. Laying his hand on Buffy’s forehead, he noted that it was warm, her skin was dry, and her color was good. He lifted her eyelids to check her pupils. They reacted normally to light. Holding her wrist, he counted her pulse. It was strong. Taking a stethoscope out of a cabinet, Giles listened to her heart, lungs, and abdomen.

“I wasn’t aware you knew medicine, Watcher.” Spike commented, observing him intently.

Tapping her knees to test her reflexes, Giles replied, “Yes, well, we all take paramedic training as part of our education.”

“Paramedic, huh...” Spike commented doubtfully. “You a sawbones?” He recognized expertise when he saw it.

“Not officially, but I’ve done extensive research on the topic,” Giles admitted. Clearing his throat self-consciously, he turned to put the stethoscope away.

“You did a fine job of teaching her emergency medicine, by the way,” Spike complimented him.

Giles shook his head and snorted that if he’d known who she’d use her knowledge on, he might not have bothered.

Spike gave a short bark of laughter, hugged her and turned his attention back to Buffy’s condition. “Do you think it’s some kind of spell or a slayer trance, maybe?”

“I’ll cast a ‘Deep Seeing’ and look for magicks around her.” The Watcher Mage set to work but a few minutes later was forced to conclude, “There are none. All right, start at the beginning. Tell me everything that’s happened today so I can try to figure out what put her into this state.”

Tbc…