~*~
Chapter 11
~*~

Tara had been looking at Buffy oddly since she overheard the odd whisper about dust. Willow took the shaken girl to one side and tried to explain away Buffy’s comment.

"Buffy knows Spike and he gets in trouble like this all the time. He’s not dead, you’ll see. He has a real slow pulse is all. Yeah, and he’s a shallow breather,” she improvised.

Anya chimed in a bit too cheerily for the circumstances. "Yes, Spike is not easily killed. He can take all kinds of abuse, even likes it. It's like foreplay."

Tara raised a brow at that comment but still insisted, "We still need to get an ambulance for him quickly. He’s lost a lot of blood and I think they broke a lot of bones. He was really nice to me in there and made them let me go." Her lovely doe eyes filled with tears, "I just want him to be alright." She turned imploring eyes on the girl with the cell phone, silently begging her to make the needed call.

Buffy looked conflicted. “Spike’s not nice to anyone. There had to be something in it for him.” She didn’t see the shocked, reproving look on Tara’s face at the cold attitude being shown to the hurt man.

"Look, why don’t you let Willow walk you home and I’ll take care of this pest,” Buffy offered. "Looks like you’ve had a ratty night and standing in the rain worrying over him isn’t gonna improve it. He’ll be fine, I promise."

Tara felt weak-willed for agreeing to let this seemingly cold-hearted girl take charge of the situation. She would have stood her ground and made sure this man got the care he obviously needed if only it didn’t involve the possibility of getting her name in print. She really didn’t want her dad and Donny to come and pull her away from the only chance
she had for a life of her own, an end to her private hell. What if she became stubborn trying to save a man already dead only to lose her new life in the process?

"You’re sure he’ll be okay? Won’t I need to tell the police what happened?" Hoping to be reassured, she turned tear-filled eyes on Buffy.

"I really can’t see Spike wanting the police involved in this, believe me. No, he’ll be fine and the guys that did this will get what’s coming to them.” Buffy’s voice took a sharp tone with that promise. For some reason, the thought of a group of jackasses thumping on her vampire made Buffy’s blood boil. “Look, just go home and I’ll tell Spike how you helped. Maybe he’ll drop by and show you he’s okay in a day or two,” Buffy promised.

"Okay, but I really don’t feel right about this. It’s as if what was done to him doesn’t matter. There should be justice,” Tara replied. Tara was already wallowing in guilt over her agreement to hand the decisions over to a girl who seemed uncaring in the extreme.

"Justice is one thing Spike doesn’t want, believe me,” Buffy insisted.

Tara wondered if the helpful man in black was some sort of criminal for these otherwise seemingly nice girls not to want to involve the police. Maybe he was a troublemaker that the police would choose to blame for the problem no matter what Tara might tell them.

He had not seemed to be someone like that though, and she was usually a pretty good judge of character. She hadn’t yet tried to read his aura; right now it would mostly register pain unless he really was dead. Tara preferred to not judge people on anything but her own personal experience with them. So far, the poor beaten man had only done her a good turn. Actually, he was the only male in her short life to have ever done so. "Are you sure he’ll get the medical care he needs without the police getting involved?”


"Yeah, he’s a pain in the ass, but he seems to be my pain in the ass to deal with,” Buffy sighed. She was really uncomfortable feeling the concern she was feeling when looking at Spike in this condition. "I’ll make sure he lives to annoy another day. Anya, will you help me get Spike over to Giles’ while Willow walks--I’m sorry, what is your name?”

"My name is Tara Maclay. I’m new to Sunnydale University. Um, I..I..I’m a freshman,” the shy blonde replied.

Anya and Buffy pulled Spike up and began to drag him to his feet while the introductions took place among the young women.

Willow and Tara headed to the dorms of the university, with Willow giving advice to the newcomer about the areas in Sunnydale to avoid after dark.

"Great, he’s bleeding all over my new coat,” Buffy grumbled as the unconscious body of Spike pressed against her. "Geesh, wonder what he said to piss them off this much. He’s really thrashed! Well, he did say that vampires couldn’t bleed to
death, so he’ll be fine,” she reminded herself.

"Actually, he wasn’t completely correct,” supplied Anya. "I did know of a vampire that was completely exsanguinated. He began to look like a mummy and then his dust just blew away. It takes a lot because every single drop of blood has to be gone, but it can happen. I think Spike still has enough fluid in him to pull through,” she said reassuringly.

In spite of Anya’s words, it was clear from Buffy’s face that she was still concerned for the vampire they held between them.

"Anya, sometimes your stories scare me more than the vampires,” Buffy said with a nervous laugh. "Do you tell them to Xander too?"

~*~

Chapter 12

~*~

Giles was already asleep when the girls brought Spike to the door and began to knock rather loudly.

"Yes, Spike, I am coming! Good Lord, I let the fiend stay here in safety and he insists on going out all hours flaunting his presence, then doesn’t even bother to take the key I so generously let him borrow,” he muttered in irritation. The Watcher was feeling decidedly put upon by his unwelcome houseguest. "Really, if he feels safe enough to carouse all night, it’s high time he find another place to live."

That thought brought a smile to his face as he shuffled to the door. He was still grinning as he pulled the door open. His smile quickly faded as he took in Buffy, covered in blood, her arm around an unconscious Spike. Indeed, he was so upset he did not notice Anya there at first.

"Giles, the very least you could do is take Spike from us and let me get home to Xander,” the forced Samaritan said. "Really, there is a reason they call it dead weight, you know. I don’t have Buffy’s Slayer strength and am quite sure Xander wouldn’t approve of my helping in this situation anyway.”

"Yes, yes, of course, come in, come in. Just place him on the sofa and I’m sure we will do just splendidly without your continued assistance. Feel free to return home to Xander in all due haste, Anya,” Giles said with some annoyance. "Buffy, my dear, are you quite all right?”

"Yeah, I’m fine. Just got pulled into saving Spike’s undead ass from a gang of drunken frat boys. At least that’s what this girl said happened. It was all over by the time we got to the Bronze.” Buffy helped lower Spike onto the overstuffed sofa and continued, “this kinda nervous girl came running up to Willow--I think she’s in a class with Will or something--and said there was a guy murdered in the alley. It was Spike and he was unconscious. I didn’t tell…um, Tara was her name, anyway…I didn’t tell her that if Spike was murdered in an alley, it was in the last century. I didn’t think she wanted to know about vampires and demons on top of all the rest she’d seen tonight."

"No, of course not. Civilians have such trouble believing anyway and there is no need to further alarm the girl,” Giles agreed. "You say Spike was set upon by a group of college lads?" He looked on in discomfort at the condition of the vampire on his sofa.

"Yeah, I haven’t really looked too closely yet, but I think they really did a number on him. This Tara said that Spike had come to her rescue in some way, if you can believe that. I don’t really know what happened, to tell you the truth. I figured I’d better get his sorry butt out of the alley before those commandos stumbled on him and we lost our chance to find out what they are all about,” Buffy said.

"Well, I’m headed to the dismal basement Xander calls home since my services aren’t needed here,” Anya said. She didn’t exactly rush out, however, as it was whites day with the laundry and the tiny apartment would reek of bleach.

"I must say that I would never have believed a group of mere humans could inflict such damage on a master vampire. It appears he was not exaggerating when he said this chip prohibits his doing any harm to human beings. This has to have been quite a blow to his ego, as well as his body,” Giles said. He looked at the bruised and broken body of the once fierce vampire and felt an unexpected surge of sympathy for his plight.

"Now we know he really is neutered, I guess,” Buffy said. She looked at Spike more closely and winced at the sight of the damage that had been done to him. ‘I hope not literally,’ she amended to herself.

Buffy frowned. "He makes me crazy a lot, but I wouldn’t have done this to him. Stake him, sure…beat him half to death, no. Giles, these guys couldn’t have known he’s a vampire. They must have thought they were beating up another human being. God, they had to have thought they murdered some guy and just left his body there! Maybe that girl is right and some kind of justice needs to happen. I mean they might do something like this again when someone pisses them off and really kill someone,” she reasoned.

"Until he regains consciousness, we won’t know what happened or who was involved. That, of course, is provided that we can be sure his story will be the truth in any form,” he sighed. "Let’s get him cleaned up and try to stop the bleeding before my sofa is thoroughly ruined. He’s going to be in a great deal of pain for some time, I fear. And I had so hoped to get him to move on. Ah, well, after he heals up, he can shop about for some nice nest or tomb or something other than my home,” Giles mused.

"I think I’m gonna’ pass on the whole cleaning Spike’s body show, if you don’t mind, Giles. I don’t think I wanna see all the parts that need fixin’.” She pushed down the heat that flushed her body at the thought of what parts might be revealed and what those might look like. They had certainly felt wonderful under Willow’s spell. Buffy had given THAT far too much thought already without a visual. “I’m gonna head back to the dorms and check on Willow and that Tara girl. Maybe I’ll hear some more on what happened tonight.”

"Yes, do that, Buffy. Naturally, I wouldn’t expect you to, ahem, assist in any unseemly way with tending to his injuries. Perhaps this girl can offer some more information on what occurred. At least we will have another source besides Spike for the whole story,” he said softly. "Would you mind heating up some blood before you go, however. He’s going to need quite a bit if he’s going to heal properly and I’d like to start that process as soon as possible."

"Sure thing,” Buffy said with a quick smile. "One thermos of Piggy Dew coming up,” she quipped. "Do you have enough, or should I stop by Willy’s?"

"I believe we have enough for tonight. Thank you, Buffy.”

Buffy heated the blood and left Giles to the job of tending to Spike’s many injuries.

"How the mighty have fallen,” Giles thought to himself as he began to pull away the clothing from the fallen vampire’s wounds. Giles was sure he’d seen worse beatings, but he couldn’t remember when as wound after wound was revealed.

~*~
Chapter 13
~*~

Coach was angrier than any of the boys had ever seen him. He didn’t like being awakened at this hour, especially with news like his star players were sharing with him.

"What do you mean you left the body in the alley? You thought no one would notice the whole pack of you going out that back door after this guy. I don’t know how I’m going to keep this one quiet. Who was this girl that was involved? We’ll have to make sure she doesn’t remember any connection between any of you and this pool shark,” he nearly shouted. The coach’s face was beet red and he just knew his blood pressure medication was being given a workout.

‘God, why can’t we get kids with half a brain that can play football? Or at least some who don’t drink and break every law known to man on a regular basis,’ he thought with rancor. Coaching used to be much easier when he worked at the middle school.

"Let me call a friend or two, see if the body’s been discovered or if this guy is in the hospital and not dead. I’ll have to be careful how I ask; don’t want to draw any suspicion. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the guy will have crawled out into the street, got hit by a car or something and this will all just go away." Life was rarely that simple, however.

"Meanwhile, try, try, try to be discreet and find out the name of that girl,” he ordered. "And, for God’s sake, let me handle her! Just give me her name and dorm room and I’ll handle it,” he said forcefully. "You said she was real shy. That could be good. The last mess you got me into was saved by the girl being reluctant to have her name in the papers.” The coach cringed inwardly at the memory of his veiled threats to have that girl’s less than pure past spread all over the news. “Honestly, Steve, you really need to keep that zipper of yours up or just stay faithful to Vanessa for the season! I can’t keep pulling a rabbit out of the hat whenever your hormones get the better of you,” he reprimanded the worst offender, who also happened to be his best player.

"That goes for all of you,” he finished, glaring at the room filled with Sunnydale University’s finest. "Stay away from the women and gambling, and all of our lives will get a lot easier."

‘Maybe I can bribe a demon to mess up the corpse and make it look like another of the “unexplained deaths” we always have here in Sunnydale’, he thought. The coach had lived on the Hellmouth a long time and was far from stupid. He knew the secret world of his little town. Knew some names too, not that he wanted to be in their debt again. First he’d need to be sure there was a corpse to cover up.

‘If the guy is alive and wants to cause trouble, I may just bribe one of those demons anyway. It worked well in dealing with those twins last year. God, I need a higher class of athlete for my team. I can’t keep this up forever. Damned alumni, all they want is a winning season, no matter what kind of thug it takes to carry the ball to victory.’


He started making the necessary calls, being as careful as possible to give nothing away. After about an hour and a half he was left scratching his head in confusion.

If the story his unrepentant boys had told him was true, the English pool shark should have needed a hospital at the very least, and more than likely the morgue. No one with injuries matching their description, however, had come in and no dead bodies were found. Well, at least not in the alley behind the Bronze, and no male bodies--not tonight anyway.

After all, this was Sunnydale; there was always at least one dead body every night. This night, it was a pair of girls in the park with neck wounds, but no beaten men in alleys. Maybe Coach’s luck was finally changing and some random demon had made a meal of the unfortunate hustler. Things were looking up. Now the only possible fly in the ointment was the girl.

~*~
Chapter 14
~*~

Spike had lost a lot of blood. In all his years of taking on the biggest of the big bads, he couldn’t remember having quite so many broken bones to show for it, at least not at one time. The only time he ever remembered being this badly hurt was after Angelus had established the pecking order in their little family soon after William was turned. He wondered just how he had managed to get to the Watcher’s flat. His last memory was of the blinding pain in his head as he tried to defend himself against a pack of hairless gorillas masquerading as college students.

"So you’re back amongst us, I see,” said Giles. "There’s a cup with blood next to you. I think it advisable that you drink down as much as you can hold for now,” he advised softly. Giles was not without compassion, even for a vampire. "I think we can wait until you’re feeling more the thing before we discuss what happened.”

"How did I get here?” Spike choked out softly.

"Buffy and Anya brought you here from the alley behind the Bronze. A young lady led them to you, thinking you were dead. You really do need blood and rest for now, however. There will be time enough for the sharing of information later." Giles stood and began to move away from the injured vampire.

"Bloody bastards! I wasn’t even cheating. Won the blunt fair and square. Wasn’t my fault they couldn’t hold their drink or play a decent game of billiards. Actually trying to do the straight and narrow for once. See what it got me? Damn buggerin’ chip won’t even let me fight back against a pack of pups,” he lamented.

It was clear from his tone of voice and facial expression that he was feeling no small amount of shame at having been laid low by a group of college boys.

"Yes, well, you have been handicapped by the wiring put in your head by those scientists that you promised to lead us to,” Giles reminded him. "I’m sure you would have decimated the lot of them had you not been chipped,” he offered in sympathy.

"Damn straight, Watcher, woulda drained the lot of ‘em! Used to eat gangs of bullies all the time," Spike spat out in a mixture of anger and pride.

"Of course, if that had been the case, Buffy would have simply staked you, rather than hauling your carcass over to bleed on my sofa,” Giles replied dryly.

"There is that,” Spike agreed. "Still don’t seem right--a group of humans being able to do this to a bloke and it’s okay, but not okay for a fella to defend himself.”

"No, Spike, it is not okay. Humans have laws to deal with such behavior, however. These criminals will be dealt with in a human way by humans with human laws,” Giles promised.

"Your human laws don’t protect demons. What, I’m gonna go to the police and press charges on the lot of ‘em? Even in blind Sunnydale the cops’ll figure out I’m not quite human. Don’t see any justice happenin’ in this case, old man. Don’t think those
jackals knew or cared if I was human or not either. What’s that say about your soulful human justice?"

The watcher and the vampire looked at each other with a tense silence between them. Spike drained the blood, then groaned in pain as he eased back on the pillows and closed his eyes.

Giles found it difficult to sleep with the moral questions highlighted by this night’s events. Things were much simpler when one merely staked the vampires and left the criminal element to the police. Suddenly Giles felt years older than he had earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow he would try to talk to the girl that had alerted Buffy to Spike’s situation and try to sort out what needed to be done. Spike was right--they didn’t do this to him because he was a vampire. For all they knew, Spike was a human. This couldn’t be swept under a carpet.