Banner by the lovely and talented nmcil12

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The Friday after Thanksgiving, the gang went in. The council had already informed the military brass of the situation, and that meant that there were only a few MP’s guarding the doors of the facility. Giles held a brief conversation with the MP and they were in. The plans Willow had found by hacking their system allowed them to find everything very easily. It was very grim work, some demons were so far gone that even though they weren’t harmful the group felt it would be kinder to put them out of their pain. The harmful demons were taken care of by Buffy. They eventually found Spike and used a stretcher they’d found to take him out of there.

“Did your mum send you?” Spike asked in a faint voice.

“Kinda.”  Buffy winced at his appearance. He didn’t look like any of the other demons; he looked – battered - more than operated on. “What happened to you?” she murmured.

“Kept tryin’ to escape, but I can’t hit humans anymore. Put somethin’ in my head.” He gestured vaguely to his cranium. “But they can hit me. I hit ‘em anyway, but it’s like fireworks inside - up close and personal.”

“Well - don’t worry about hitting anyone right now. We’re under Mom’s orders to play nice.” Buffy smiled.

“Knew I liked Joyce,” Spike muttered and fell asleep.

When the gang found the room that Buffy had previously been snooping around what they found inside made them all shudder in revulsion.There on a surgery table was what could only be called a monstrosity. Demon and human parts combined with what appeared to be a computer imbedded in its chest. But the head was the worst, half human half demon stitched together. The gang couldn’t figure out if it had a demon or human brain inside the pieced together skull. It might have even had both. Willow went to the computer console in the corner of the room and started typing immediately. Reams of paper started printing and what it said made them sick. This thing was supposed to be the next super soldier, pieced together from the soldiers that worked there and the demons they had been capturing. The gang realized that they had saved the lives of all the men and women that worked there from becoming like this.

Spike was in bad shape when they got him back to Revello Drive. Both of his legs were broken as were most of his fingers and quite a few ribs. He had deep wounds on his abdomen and healing scars over the rest of his body.

Joyce sent Willow and Xander out for blood while she and Buffy got him comfortable in the spare room. They splinted his broken bones and bandaged his other wounds; thankfully he was unconscious for all of it.

In the three weeks Spike spent recovering, Buffy was a frequent visitor. At first she wasn’t entirely trusting of Spike.  Her first visit after the rescue didn’t go very well…

“Hey, Slayer, your mum’s not home right now,” Spike said as Buffy walked into the room he was recuperating in.

Grabbing the remote, she turned off the TV. “Shut up, Spike. I’m not here to see my mom. I came to make sure you aren’t planning anything evil in my house. I don’t trust you; you might have my mom fooled, but not me.”

“Just how barmy are you, Slayer? Exactly what kind of evil can I get up to laid up in bed looking like I just went ten rounds with a M’Fashnik demon? Besides, I don’t do evil anymore, now gimme the remote and let a bloke heal in peace.”

Buffy stayed away from her mom’s house for a few days after that, but when she walked in the next time, what she heard really shocked her. Her mom and Spike were discussing literature! Poetry and Shakespeare, Buffy couldn’t believe it. “Spike knows poetry?” Buffy blurted out.

“Buffy! Yes, Spike knows poetry; he graduated from Oxford with degrees in Classic Literature and Languages before he was turned. He’s quite well read even since becoming a vampire. We were discussing a first edition book of poetry he has that he agreed to loan to me.” She smirked at her daughter. “If you ask nicely, he might help you with that assignment you have for your class.”

Feeling admonished by her mom, Buffy asked Spike for help. Surprisingly, Spike was really good at helping her understand the poem for the assignment, and the two talked for a while about different writers they liked.

Buffy started spending more time at the house. As Spike healed, he was able to get around better and Buffy found him watching TV one afternoon in the living room.

“What are you watching?” she asked as she breezed into the room.

“Passions, best show on TV, recording it for your mum. Need help with an assignment?” Spike replied, not taking his eyes from the screen.

“Nope, I had some time to kill so I thought I’d come by.” After watching for a few minutes, Buffy started laughing.

“Oi, what are you laughing at?” Spike shot her a quick look.

“This is the best show on TV?” Buffy was trying to contain her snorts and giggles.

“Better than that tripe you watch,” Spike said with a huff.

Soon the two were comparing viewing preferences and arguing good-naturedly about musical tastes.

The rest of the Scoobies stopped by often, including Giles. He found he liked having another Englishman around - even if they were from different centuries. Buffy kidded that as old fashioned as Giles acted; they might as well have been born in the same year. It was during one of Giles’ visits that Spike was finally able to explain in more detail what the Initiative was like. “Spike, the military destroyed most of their files, so we really don’t know everything that they were doing. If you could tell me what happened to you and what you saw, it will be a great help to us,” Giles politely inquired. Spike decided to tell him everything and they had several conversations about the labs. As time went on, the two found that they shared some musical tastes and even some literary preferences.

Willow even brought her new friend Tara, who was also a witch, over to meet Spike. Spike took to the new girl right away, christening her Glinda, and went out of his way to be kind to her. He made a point of telling Willow that Tara was a right fine bird and he was sorry to hear that she and Oz hadn’t worked out.

The most fun visits were when the whelp and the demon girl visited. Anya and Spike hit it off right away. They talked about their bad demon days and how silly humans could be about things. Spike enjoyed making fun of Xander and the two constantly snarked at each other. At first, Anya had to tell Xander that Spike was new to the whole do-gooder thing just like she was, and he should be trying to help him, not being mean to him.

When Spike had finally healed, he asked if Buffy wanted him to patrol for her one night. He needed to get out of the house and kill something. All that sitting around made him antsy.  Buffy suggested that they go together and then go to the Bronze and meet up with the gang.

“You want me to join you and your friends?” Spike asked in amazement. “Get hit on the head during patrol last night?

“You’re my friend too, Spike. So yeah, after patrol we Bronze it. It’s a Scooby tradition,” Buffy replied, rolling her eyes. “But if you want to be a part pooper...”

“It’s not a party without me, luv.” Spike smirked, and in spite of herself, Buffy smirked back.
               
The next night, Spike asked Joyce to call Giles, saying he needed to talk to both of them. When Giles arrived, Spike explained that he had made a decision after exchanging letters with Joyce and long talks with her and Buffy since he’d gotten out of the labs.

“Listen, Rupert, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and well – I’d like to help you lot out.  I can patrol and help out with the big bads that come to town. Even give Buffy a night off once in awhile.” He went on to tell Giles about the treasure and what it contained. He explained that he knew it was going to take a while before they all trusted him, so he was willing to give Giles the gem to hold on to. He would leave it up to Giles when, or if, he would trust him with it. He asked Joyce to auction off the rest of the items so that he could get his own place to live.

“Well, Spike, I know how Joyce feels about you and that she trusts you. It will take some time for me to trust you, but if you are sincere, I guess we can start with you helping Buffy on patrol and go from there. As for the ring, I have to admit at this point in time, I would be very uncomfortable with you having it in your possession. Given time we can revisit the issue. Is that acceptable?” Giles responded thoughtfully.

“Well, I hope you’ll be able to see what I see in Spike, Giles,” Joyce said with a smile on her face. “I trust Spike and I’m very proud of him. I know he can be a good man and a great help for my daughter and you with her calling.”

Giles was fairly certain that if vampires could blush Spike would be doing it right now hearing the praise coming from Ms. Summers.