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Chapter 19

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“Buff, um, I fail to see the whole ‘bad guy’ aspect.” Xander looked completely flummoxed. “I mean, Initiative equals human, and the only things getting hurt are demons. You know, the same things you kill every night…sacred duty and all. Those football freaks, while I’m all for seeing them thrashed just on principle, only went after Spike. Now I admit that I have my own issues with a couple of them, but I just don’t see you with ‘Buffy the Vampire Defender’ in the job description. So how are these guys suddenly the bad guys?”

“When they started doing things as bad as any demon.” Buffy sighed in frustration. Xander was really a nice guy, but she just didn’t understand this part of him. He was clearly a bigot against all creatures demon, even though he was a demon magnet when it came to his own love life. “Not all demons are bad, Xan. The Initiative doesn’t seem to care what they are like; they just cut them up and torture them. They have to be stopped. As for the guys that left Spike for dead…well, you can’t say what they did was right!”

“The woman in charge of the Initiative has plans to examine Buffy as one of their projects,” Giles added. “I have it on fairly good authority that after they learn all they can of the Slayer through normal means, they will detain her and Buffy will be treated the same way they do the demons they are currently studying. I believe that puts them firmly in the category of ‘bad guy’.” He was verging on indignation at the lad’s inability to see beyond the simple.

“And those football players…,” Giles struggled to think how best to explain to Xander the extreme wrongness of their actions. “Xander, that kind of action is what a bully does. It has nothing to do with vampires or humans. They cared not who or what Spike was when they left him for dead. It is a character trait. Some people torture animals and others might say, ‘oh, it’s just a cat’, but the problem is more than that. They don’t respect life. Today it’s a cat, tomorrow a girlfriend. The victim is perceived as weaker and the desire to overpower, to harm, is not checked. This isn’t protecting vampires; it is stopping evil. The police won’t be able to do a thing in this case because Spike is a vampire. Something clearly needs to be done, however. It is simply a matter of what.

Xander didn’t look any more inclined to avenge Spike than before, but the revelation of the plans the Initiative had for Buffy had galvanized him to that cause. ”I’m on board for the takedown of the Initiative at least. Nobody turns my best superfriend into a lab slide!”

Giles rolled his eyes as Buffy smiled brightly, “Thanks, Xan, I knew I could count on you.”

“Don’t need the whelp’s protection anyway,” Spike sneered. He wasn’t about to show how it cut him to be dismissed. “Figure that lot are worth the headache it’d give me to fix the problem myself.”

“That is not a good idea, Spike,” Giles said, feeling a genuine sense of alarm. “There will be a way to avenge their behavior without the shedding of further blood or a migraine on your part.”

Willow had entered as Spike was speaking, her face a study in worry. “I don’t know about that, Giles. I’d kinda like a bit of bloodletting myself.”

Buffy took in her best friend’s expression. “Something else happen, Will?”

“The poophead that was giving Tara all that trouble at the Bronze paid her a visit today. She’s terrified of him.” Willow motioned for Tara to enter the Watcher’s apartment and introduced her to Xander and Giles.

“Wanker threaten you, petal?” Spike was concerned for the girl who had no fear of a vampire but was clearly shaken by the lumbering hulk of a human. “I can still take care of him for you. No migraine or bloodletting involved to set a fire at his frat house.”

Tara ducked her head and shook a bit. “He’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. It’s just…I thought that was all behind me now. I thought I could have the life I always saw others have. “ She turned her tear streaked face up to Spike. “I thought I could be brave for once, but I’m still just a scared little girl from only vague threats. I’m hopeless!”

“Nothin’ wrong with fear, kitten,” Spike reassured the shamed girl. “Maker put fear into a person for a reason. Be an idiot not to fear. Bein’ brave doesn’t mean not bein’ afraid; it means actin’ in face of the fear. As for bein’ hopeless….” Spike made a sound that showed how ridiculous he thought that idea. “So what’d the wanker say?”

Tara let out a long breath before answering. “It was a none too veiled threat that I would live to regret causing any trouble for him with his coach or the school. He has plans to go pro one day and wasn’t going to let any ‘mouse of a girl’ mess up his future. The coach was at least nicer.” Tara didn’t bring in how Steve had dismissed her as unworthy of his notice in the light of day.

“Wonder what pro team’ll take a cripple,” Spike mused.

“SPIKE!” Buffy sympathized entirely but wasn’t going to encourage the vampire. “Not really helping.”

“Ooh, that’s an idea,” Willow brightened. “There has to be a spell to remove a vertebrae or two somewhere.”

“And those books will be kept far away from you, Willow. Have you never heard of the threefold principle? Dark magic will always come back on the user.” Giles began to mentally go through his books to decide which needed to be locked away immediately. “We shall deal with this person without doing bodily harm to him, psychological damage to you or indulging in pyromania.”

The Watcher decided it was time to change the subject before Willow moved back into dangerous territory. The girl was far more magically inclined than he had realized and he’d need to take her firmly in hand to prevent the sorts of things Ripper remembered all too well. “So, Miss Maclay, I am told you are not a novice when it comes to the supernatural. You were surprisingly sanguine when faced with Spike here.”

“My mother told me about the hidden world. She took me to New Orleans once on a holiday and we went into the demon district to buy some herbs for some healing potions. I saw some vampires, but none up close. “ Tara got a pained look on her face. ‘My father wasn’t happy to find out we’d gone.”

“Will must have told you Spikey’s impotent then, to not do a freak-out up close and personal,” Xander guessed.

“Willow didn’t say anything about Spike being a vampire. I judge everyone for themselves though, and Spike did me a good turn. Besides, his aura is special.” She shot a shy grin at the embarrassed vampire. “She also didn’t say anything about his sex life.” Turning fully to Spike, she said sincerely, “I’m sorry to hear you are having trouble. Maybe we can find a healing potion?”

Buffy nearly fell off the couch laughing at the sputtering vampire’s reaction. Spike was torn between being touched at the girl’s concern and outrage that his manly abilities had been called into question.

“What Xander actually meant is that Spike has a computer chip that prohibits his hunting and killing people. ” Giles gave a disapproving look at Xander. “It renders him safe.”

“Hey!” Spike objected. “Could still do more than a bit of harm here! Given it lots of thought, chained up in that tub of yours. Don’t have to use fangs to be the Big Bad.”

Tara noticed how Spike’s aura clearly showed his many emotions at all the talk about him and his handicap. Clearly he was a vampire in transition, not even knowing what he felt himself. One clear feeling, though, had been hurt at being the butt of the others’ ill-meant humor. The Harris boy’s aura, on the other hand, was a good one except for the bright glow of a mean streak that, if left unchecked, could blot out all his better instincts.

“It must be difficult to know quite how to act since this chip takes so many choices from you,” Tara sympathized. She had already decided the chip was making it easier for the vampire to connect with humans in a non-food capacity, but that didn’t stop her from seeing it was a struggle for Spike to know just how to be. Turning to Xander, she continued, “Yes, I know about the chip, but I didn’t until I had already decided that I like Spike.”

Spike wasn’t finished though. “Ask demon girl ‘bout that. No fangs on her while she was ruinin’ lives and killin’. Right proud of her long career too. Don’t think I wasn’t listenin to her carry on when she wasn’t givin’ enough information on your sex life to cause a bloke to lose his lunch.”

Tara looked with interest at the young human who so clearly didn’t like the vampire. “You are dating a demon?” She hazarded a glance at the others in the room, wondering at their acceptance of such a thing. Perhaps they wouldn’t reject her when her true demon nature proved itself.

“Ex!” Xander exploded. “Ex-demon! Wouldn’t touch her with a ten foot pole if that ex wasn’t there!” No one saw Tara flinch slightly.

Spike smirked, “Don’t see why she’s letting you touch her at all.”

Willow was exasperated. “Okay, off topic here, folks. We need to stop this guy from bullying Tara. And as for your girlfriend, she’s scary enough as a human!”

Anya chose that moment to arrive on the scene. “If I had just gotten my necklace back, if you had been a halfway decent witch, you’d see scary.” She snuggled up to Xander and kissed him in greeting. “Why am I being discussed?”

“Does no one knock anymore?” Giles muttered. “The lot of you waltz in here at all hours as if it were your own home. A man deserves a bit of privacy, after all. A man’s castle and what all.”

Buffy quirked her eyebrow at Giles’ irritation. “Thought you were the one to say we should consider this our second home?”

“Yes, well, I was clearly too far into the bottle at the time,” Giles admitted. “Nor did I expect as much traffic as Grand Central Station at high noon.”

“Back to me and why your oldest friend is calling me scary,” Anya demanded.

“We were just talking about demons and ex-demons and how not scary chipped Spike is, that’s all,” Xander evaded.

“I don’t see why being a demon is cause to be afraid at all. Just like anyone else, there are scary ones and those that are completely harmless. As for me, I simply did my job well.” Anya smiled at the new girl. “Hello. We met the other night. I’m Anya.”

“Tara. Tara Maclay.” Tara smiled at the girl she assumed had been a demon at one time. “How did you stop being a demon?”

“My power was in the necklace all vengeance demons wear. When it was destroyed, I became human. Now I can only punish people the same way as any other puny human can. I can punish Xander by withholding sex, for example.”

“Oh.” Tara hoped to get a chance to have a long talk with this girl. Perhaps she would know a way for Tara’s own demon background to be rejected. “I’d really love to talk with you sometime when you have a moment.”

“Sure. I could use a girlfriend,” Anya looked pointedly at Willow. “One that isn’t always rolling her eyes at me and making nasty cracks just because her oldest friend has moved on.”

“I think I shall pay a visit to this footballer and suggest he refrain from bothering you any further,” Giles offered.

“Yeah, I’ll go along. Nothin’ like seein the bloke you just killed at your door to get somebody’s attention,” Spike added as he followed Giles towards the door.

~~~

The two Brits discovered Steve and the coach in the latter’s office. Practice had gone a bit late and Coach was going over play plans for the next big game when he looked up to see two strange men with a hardness to their eyes that spelled trouble.

“Hey, that’s him!” Steve pointed a shaky finger at Spike. “That’s the wimp that tried to hustle me at pool.” He sneered at Spike and swaggered forward. “What’d you do, go get your daddy to threaten me?”

Giles looked pointedly at the ‘authority figure’ in the room. “We are here to make certain you both understand fully that any attempts to interfere with the life and happiness of Tara Maclay will be answered by the two of us. You are not dealing with a young girl any longer.” He turned to Steve with a withering glance, “You will find yourself well out of your element if you persist. … And why on earth would you assume that I am in any way related to Spike?”

The coach hastened to calm the waters. “Look, there’s been a misunderstanding, that’s all. No one wants to bother the girl. I just wanted to make sure she was all right after Steve here told me about the trouble at the nightclub.”

Spike snorted. “Yeah, I can just imagine your tender concern. The girl is off limits, got that?”

“Or you’ll do what?” Steve taunted, “Do nothing, like you did in the alley? Man, I’ve seen girls fight back better than you even tried.” He turned his back dismissively on the fuming vampire.

“And yet he is still here,” Giles pointed out. “Aren’t you even a bit surprised to see him here healthy after the damage you did to him?” Giles shared a look with Spike. “Perhaps you should be wondering how that is remotely possible.”

Coach had a feeling that things were rapidly spiraling out of control and it wasn’t going to be good for his volatile quarterback to push these two. The older man had a tightly leashed violence in him that was palpable and he had a good point about the other’s condition.

“Got lucky. Me and the boys had more beer in us than we thought, that’s all. Didn’t do nearly the damage we thought…or that he asked for by messing with us.”

“I think it more likely that you and your boys were the lucky ones that Spike has better control over himself than the lot of you,” Giles responded and nodded slightly to Spike.

The sound of bones shifting was unsettling, but it wasn’t the first time the coach had looked into the face of horror. Spike had shifted to gameface and leveled a deadly gaze at Steve as if judging the blood content of the blowhard.

“Um, Steve…,” Coach cautioned the boy who had yet to turn around to see what the look on his coach’s face was about. “I think you need to back off real quick-like and just let this drop.”

Steve turned around and got his first close-up look at a vampire in full ready-to-go. “Shit, man, what the hell are you?” He paled and backed up in spite of himself.

“I’m the angel of death if you don’t back the hell off the girl, berk,” Spike thundered. “I’m what goes bump in the night. Pay Tara any more visits, even with flowers and candy, and the next thing you’ll be seein’ is that bright light they talk about just before you meet your maker. I’ll lower myself to swill down the drek you’ve likely got in your veins and leave you drained and dry with a football stuffed so far up your arse they’ll be weeks pullin’ it out.”

“He’s a vampire, Steve. Don’t mess with these guys…or the girl.” Coach turned to Giles. “I swear I’ll leave the girl alone, like it never happened. Steve won’t go near her either, right?” He looked at his player who was still trying to process what was before his eyes. “Steve, I told you to stay clear of her already. You’ll do as I say now, right?”

Giles and Spike turned and left the pair in silence. Once outside, Spike let out a whoop of laughter. “Now THAT felt good! See that bugger nearly piss his pants, Rupes?”

“Yes, I must admit it did feel rather good to put the fear of…something…into them,” Giles agreed.

“Nearly called me a god there, old man,” Spike teased.

“Not bloody likely.” Giles rolled his eyes and stifled a grin at the rejoicing vampire nearly skipping at his side in glee. “Now perhaps we can concentrate on dealing with that crone Walsh and her enterprise”

~~~

Back at the athletic office, the coach sat down hard on his chair in relief. All things considered, that had gone rather well. There wouldn’t be a problem over the incident at the Bronze because the victim had been a vampire and he and his boys had somehow managed to get off easy from the entire affair. His only hope was that Steve had more brains than he had thus far exhibited.

Steve seethed as he watched the monster and the man leave. He wasn’t one to take orders. He barely followed the coaches’ directions for play when they differed from his own instincts. “Since when does a vampire care about some little stuttering mouse? Who the hell does he think he is to tell me who I can or can’t talk to?”

His coach tensed with worry at where this was leading and Steve decided silence might be golden in this case. ‘Yeah, big bad vampire hiding behind some middle-aged guy. Didn’t even fight back. Why is that, I wonder?’