Disclaimer:All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Many thanks to my beta Leon Stryfe who stepped up when I was stuck and helped write more than a few chapters with me. For all your help you have earned the title of Co-Author for this story and my sincere gratitude. Thanks to my wonderful friend Sweetprincipale who listens to me and encourages me. And the wonderful ending was all her idea!

I have played with the time-line a bit in this story. The Angel episode “The Trial” actually aired a week after the Buffy episode “Shadow”. For the purposes of this story “The Trial” happened first. I have taken quite a bit of dialog from a few episodes of season 5. Shadow written by David Fury, The Trial written by David Greenwalt, No Place Like Home by Doug Petrie, Checkpoint by Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie, Blood Ties by Steven DeKnight, Spiral by Steven DeKnight and Intervention by Jane Espenson.

I hope you enjoy the story. This is the longest piece I have ever done and hopefully I did it justice.

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Giles let himself in to his apartment with a relieved sigh. He was tired; between running the shop, researching Glory and the Sobek Snake and taking turns watching Joyce and Dawn he felt like he could sleep for a week. Walking over to his answering machine, he noticed the message light blinking.

“Oh, what now!” Pressing play he pulled out a chair and flopped into it.

“Giles, it's Cordelia. I just had a strange vision. There was this blonde woman wearing a Versace knock off. I mean, like, a seriously bad knock off. No way is she fooling anyone with that. Oh, and this guy in scrubs, the kind doctors wear, they had Dawn and one of them had a knife. But it kept changing who had the knife. One minute it was the woman and the next it was the guy. But Dawn got cut and she started bleeding. And the rest of you were fighting these weird little demons trying to get to her. Listen, Angel is still brooding about the whole not-the-Powers'-Champion-thing but if you need help just give us a call okay? Bye”.

“Well, that's just bloody wonderful.” Looking out the window Giles saw that the sun had set. “Tomorrow,” he said to himself. “Tomorrow we can plan. Right now I need sleep. Then Spike and I can plan how to take care of this.” Stumbling up to his bed he didn't even bother to remove his clothes before he went to sleep.

After waking up in the morning and showering, Giles called Willow while making his customary morning cup of tea.

“Willow? Could you go to the shop and continue researching? Yes, dear, I know it was your turn to go to Buffy's house. I need to speak with Spike again to see if he can give me any more information about what Glory might know. No, Willow, I don't think he was 'holding out on us'. He was in pain and tired so I cut the conversation short. I just want to ask him a few more questions. Thank you. Yes, I will see you later.”

After arriving at Buffy's house and fending off questions about why he was there instead of Willow, Giles went down to speak with Spike.

“I received an interesting call from Cordelia yesterday. She called while I was out and left a message. Apparently, you were correct. Dr. Ben Wilkinson is working with Glory. Cordelia saw the two of them taking turns cutting Dawn while we were all fighting her minions. It seems perhaps that the powers might have removed your chip for just this purpose.”

“'Bout time one of you lot listen to me. The doc needs to die.” Spike lowered his voice not wanting anyone else to hear their conversation. The watcher might be on board but the rest of them wouldn't be okay with killing a human. “Know you don't understand but take out the doc and hell bitch disappears. Problem with that is you never know who's gonna show up to the party.”

“Are you saying that if we attack Ben, Glory will arrive to help him?”

Taking a deep breath to control his frustration at the situation, Spike answered him.

“Something like that, plus all those toady minions. We need to incapacitate him somehow. Figure out how to kill him and where to leave the body. I know you lot can't stand me. But I've earned some good will with the slayers family and I'm not gonna risk it. So this stays between you an me, got it watcher?”

“Spike, your deeds for Joyce and Dawn, while extraordinary, are not a way to Buffy. I won't tolerate you using them as a way to get closer to her.” The disapproving tone was matched with Giles folding his arms across his chest.

“What part of 'this stays between you and me' didn' you understand? I'm not trying to use it as a way to get to Buffy. I like the bit and Joyce and if they found out, well, it might change their opinion of me. They're the only ones besides Glinda and demon girl I can stand of you bunch.”

With a dubious look, Giles decided to bring the subject back to the reason he was there.

“So we need to learn more about the doctor. Where he lives, when he works, where he goes to relax.”

“Can answer some of those right now. He lives with Glory.” At Giles skeptical look Spike explained. “Ben was there. He popped in a few times while Glory and I were gettin' acquainted. Stealing a copy of his schedule from the hospital is easy. Drive me over tonight an' I'll nick it. Still not back to full strength to walk over on my own.”

“Fine. I'll be back tonight. Don't let anyone see you leave.”

Later that night Spike sneaked out of the house and met Giles down the block.

“Did anyone see you leave?”

“Nope. I was quiet as a church mouse.” At Giles disbelieving stare, Spike continued. “Oi, I checked, alright? Everyone was sleeping like a baby. Lets get this done; don't like leaving them alone right now.”

Once the two reached the hospital, Spike limped out from the car. After only a few minutes he was back. Stopping outside of the vehicle he vamped out and tore into a bag of blood, drinking it quickly. Tossing the empty bag aside, he got in the car smirking at the watcher.

“Stealing human blood? Really, Spike. Did you at least get the schedule?” Shaking his head in exasperation Giles drove them out of the lot.

“Got it right here. Don't go getting your knickers in a twist. We've had a shadow ever since we left the house. Figured it was a good idea to let 'em think we came here for blood to heal me up from the beatin' I took at the hands o' their boss instead of me checking up on the good doctor.”

“Oh, well, yes that makes sense. Um, good plan.” Parking the car in front of his flat, Giles got out and headed towards his home. “Lets take a look at the schedule, shall we?”

A loud crash two nights later woke the occupants of 1630 Revello. Spike and Buffy immediately jumped from their beds, weapons grabbed from their position near the sleeping fighters. Buffy took one leap and cleared the stairs to land in the foyer while Spike took the stairs three at a time up from the basement.

“I want my Key! I don't know where you hid it but I will find it. If you won't tell me maybe I should ask the shy blonde where it is?” Glory announced as she spotted Buffy and Spike.

The two immediately started fighting side by side but all their blows did next to nothing to the goddess. Glory took everything they threw at her with a laugh.

“Is that the best you little crap-gnats can muster?”

A vicious sword-swing from Spike left a huge rend in Glory's dress but little else.

“Look what you did to my dress, you little-” A jumping spin kick by Buffy cut Glory off mid-sentence. Stumbling, the hell god took another blow delivered by Spike, pushing her out the door. A quick look between the slayer and vampire and both pulled back and punched her for all their worth. Glory was sent flying off the porch, landing unceremoniously on the front lawn. Getting to her feet, she attacked with renewed fury. The sounds from the fight were waking the neighbors and lights soon appeared in the windows of the houses nearby. Landing painful blows on Buffy and Spike, Glory took off, all the while yelling over her shoulder.

“This isn't over yet. I will get my Key!”

The two warriors stumbled back into the house, finding a terrified Joyce and Dawn standing at the top of the stairs.

“Are you both alright?” Joyce inquired, noticing the bruises and cuts on their faces.

“No worries, Joyce. Just need a bit of sleep and a mug o' blood be as good as new.”

“Yeah mom, I should be fine in a few hours after some rest. I don't think she'll be back tonight. Everyone needs to get some sleep, even Hell Gods.”

Giles and Spike were very careful over the next week. Not only did they have to watch out for Glory and her minions but they couldn't let Buffy and the rest know about their meetings. After some heated arguments the two agreed upon a plan. They would kill Ben.

Their plan ran into some trouble, however, as things commonly do on a hellmouth. The original plan was to take two weeks and follow Ben every moment of the day, but Glory's attacks became relentless. After one such attack, when she targeted Tara and broke the witch's wrist before Buffy and Spike could get to her, Giles and Spike decided they couldn't wait any longer.

“Ben works a double shift every Wednesday, which is tomorrow, according to his schedule. I discretely asked around: he always takes a nap in the on-call room in the doctors lounge on the second floor at 11 o'clock at night. His break lasts 30 minutes depending on whether he gets a call. That doesn't leave us a lot of time to work with. We can sneak in through the tunnels and drug him and take him out the same way. If we inject him with a large enough dose of Vecuroniumit should keep him unconscious for at least 30 minutes.”

“Just make sure you have both vials on you, watcher. Don't fancy him waking up while were strolling through the tunnels, yeah?”

“If it looks like he might be waking up, I will inject him again. Now, back to the plan. We put him in the car and take him to the seedier side of town. Three stab wounds with one to the heart should do it.”

“An' we wait until were sure the wanker is dead before we call the cops from a pay phone. Then, we come back here and share a bottle of the good stuff. Got it, watcher? I'll nip over to the hospital tonight and grab the drugs. Ben's not on tonight so I doubt anyone will be watching the place. But just in case, I'll nick a bag or two of blood.” At Giles harsh stare Spike got angry. “Oi, listen mate, we hope this plan works. But if the hell bitch shows up I gotta be a full strength and pigs blood just ain't gonna cut it. You don't stand a chance in hell against her. If she shows up I'm gonna be too busy tryin' to get you outta there before she rips your spine out to do any damage to the bitch.” Coat swirling behind him, Spike left to carry out his task for the night.

The next evening, just before 11 pm, the two unlikely assassins trudged through the foul smelling water in the sewer tunnels under Sunnydale. Holding a hand up for Giles to stop, Spike listened carefully before opening the cover that led into the hospital. With a nod to indicate the all clear, Spike carefully slid the cover for the tunnel off to the side. Once both men were out they made their way to the room their prey was in.

The first problem they encountered was that Ben wasn't sleeping in the room he usually used. The two men snuck into the on-call room with Spike in lead and Giles following behind syringe loaded and in his hand.

Spike stopped short when he realized that Ben wasn't there causing Giles to bump into him from behind, almost injecting him with the knockout drug.

“Oi, watch it mate.”

“Where is he? This is where my informant said he would be.” Giles ran a distracted hand through his hair and the unexpected event.

“We'll find the bugger. Just gonna be a little harder than we thought.”

The door opening from behind them had both men spinning around in surprise.

“Can I help you?” A female doctor asked them.