This story is unfinished. Read with the knowledge that the final chapter will just be an outline of what I had planned. Anyone is welcome to finish it if they so wish, just give me (Megan) credit for my portion and ideas. This will be the first time I didn't finish a story that had an outline. It is sad I know but seriously I don't think I'll ever get back to this idea. Sorry. But at least I won't leave you hanging … you will know how I intended the story to go.

Title: Saves Nine

Author: Megan (so far)

Rating: PG-13

Fandom: BtVS

Pairing: Willow/Spike

Summary: Spike asks for a different spell to be cast in Lover's Walk and doesn't get distracted.

Warnings: Time travel, mild language, confusing dialects, you know mild stuff.

A/N: The title comes from the saying "A stitch in time, saves nine."

Willow sorted through the magic supplies that were in front of her along with the page from the spellbook Spike had given her. They were sitting in the old burnt out factory and Xander was out cold on the bed having been hit over the head with a microscope. Spike was demanding that Willow do a spell for him. They were going back in time with a specific goal. They were going to tell Drusilla and a just turned William to run from Angelus and never go to Sunnydale. Spike was sure that if he could get them to listen, it would ensure that he and Dru would live happily ever after.

The spell supplies were simple enough, there was some mint for travel and some senna for time and they needed to be mixed together and boiled into a potion that had to be drunk by the time travelers. There was a circle that needed to be drawn with blessed chalk and candles that needed to be lit. There was a Latin incantation that needed to be chanted and that was about it. Except for the fact that both of them needed to be touching the personal item of the person they wanted to go back in time to see.

Before she did the spell, Willow warned Spike of the little fine print on the spell that she got a chance to read before he was hurrying her along. "We can only do the spell once or it will kill us."

He didn't seem deterred. "Then you better get it right the first time."

"I'm not a real witch you know. This may not work the way you want it to." She didn't know much about time travel but the entire spell hinged on the ring they were using as a personal item and since she didn't know much about the ring she was afraid that they were going to end up in a different time than Spike wanted. Having no idea when the ring was made or where it was made she didn't know when or where they would show up in time if this worked at all.

"For your sake, you better pray it works out perfectly," he snarled in her ear.

Willow went to work mixing the potion first, stealing glances at Spike and Xander as she did so. Spike was pacing and Xander still hadn't moved. Once the potion was mixed she made a circle counterclockwise on the ground with the chalk. "You need to be in the circle too," she told Spike. "And I need the ring."

Spike stepped into the circle and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He grabbed her left hand and shoved it on her ring finger. "Don't lose it," he said through gritted teeth.

The ring was simple, it was a silver band with a repetitive design on it. She held up the beaker of potion. "We each need to drink half this."

He sneered at her. "Ladies first."

Finding the point that would be half and marking it with her finger, Willow began to drink the foul tasting mixture. The mint was not enough to overpower the taste of senna. When she brought the beaker back down she was just shy of the halfway point, so she took another sip to get her there. She coughed at how bad the potion tasted and handed the rested of the potion to Spike. He drank it down in a few swallows and threw the beaker behind him, the glass breaking on the cement floor.

Holding her shaking hand out to him, Willow really hoped that everything went according to plan and that she got out of this alive. "You need to be touching the ring, too."

Spike laced his fingers through hers. "Let's do this."

Willow took a couple calming breaths and then read the Latin incantation off the page, never truly believing that it was going to work, but as soon as the last word was spoken, her and Spike were no longer in the factory.

They were outside in the sun and Spike was freaking out. "Oy!" He was trying to hide under his coat and find somewhere to go, but they were in a wide open field. He was running full tilt for the barn at the far end of the pasture. Not knowing what else to do Willow followed him, waiting for him to notice that he was inot/i bursting into flames. She looked over the page with the spell as she walked and deciphered some more of the fine print of the spell. While the spell was in effect neither she nor Spike could be killed. Nice to know.

"Since this doesn't look like London, it's really good that he can't kill me," she sighed to herself as she folded the page and stuffed it in her pocket.

When Spike was about halfway to the barn, he came to an abrupt halt, let his coat fall to his shoulders, and he looked at the sun. "Wooo hooo!"

He looked so thrilled that Willow hoped that he wouldn't be mad that the spell had screwed up and taken them somewhere other than where Spike wanted to be. She didn't get a chance to find out because a man wearing really old-fashioned clothes was riding up to them on horseback. He looked the two of them over suspiciously.

"And what, may I ask, are the two o' you doing in me field?" His Irish accent was thick. His build was stocky and his hair was a light shade of orange that bordered on blonde.

Willow didn't know what to say to him, but Spike had no such troubles. "We're sorry, sir. My wife and I were accosted by thieves and we just woke up in your field. We are just happy to be alive."

The man was still eying them with suspicion. Willow assumed that it had a lot to do with the clothes. She herself was wearing jeans and she doubted that this man had ever seen a woman in anything other than a dress. She thought of the only story she could to cover for the clothes she was wearing and for possibly Spike's clothes as well. "Sir, they took everything we owned including our clothes and only left us with these strange garments to wear."

Looking horrified, the man changed his tone. "That musta been a horrible thing indeed for a lady to go through. These men had no shame." He climbed down off his horse and held his hand out to Spike. "My name is Arlen Bell."

Spike shook his hand. "I'm William Jones and this is Willow. We just got in from port and now have no idea where we are. Would you mind enlightening us?"

"These be the outskirts of Galway," Arlen said.

The look that Spike gave her was subtle, but it chilled her. He wasn't happy. And they were far away from their intended goal. From what little she could remember from the Watchers' Diaries, she knew that Galway Ireland was the human home of Angel. With this fact in the mix, Willow assumed that they were not only physically far away from their goal, but very far away according to timing as well. Angel was turned into a vampire in 1750 something and Spike didn't get turned into a vampire until 1880. If the ring were somehow attached to Angel then it was entirely possible they had gone back in time much farther than they had intended. And if they were in Galway then that seemed likely.

Willow swallowed.

Spike turned back to Arlen. "There would not be anyplace that would take in stranded travelers, would there?"

Arlen stroked his chin. "Not that I know of. If you don't mind hard work I'll let you stay in me barn."

Piping up before Spike could do or say anything, Willow said, "Thank you, sir, that's very kind of you." She grabbed Spike's hand and pulled him away from Arlen. "Behave. We need to figure out a way to blend in around here. And you can't kill anyone or it could severely alter history. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?"

To her amazement Spike nodded his head. "I've heard of it. But what the bloody hell am I going to do for food?"

Thinking about it for a second, Willow got an idea. It wasn't a pleasant idea but it was the only idea she thought Spike would agree to. "I've got it covered. Don't worry about it. Let's just take this nice man's offer and figure out what to do next. We need to get home."

Spike squeezed her hand to the point of pain. "We aren't going anywhere until I get my way."

Willow winced at the pain. "Then we're going to need clothes and a plan. A careful plan. We can't make any waves. We can't alter anything." She was worried that she was going to be a little old woman before she got back to Sunnydale. Not wanting to be a walking mummy, she was going to make it her goal to change Spike's mind. He had the second half of the spell, the half that would get them home.

XxXx

Arlen immediately put Spike to work as a stable hand. It was Spike's job to look after the horses and oxen that were used to tend the barley fields. Willow was to help Arlen's wife with the laundry. Spike had never taken care of an animal in his entire existence and needed a lot of instruction from Arlen's other stable hand, Ian, who seemed to be getting a kick out watching someone else do his job. Spike's guess was that Ian assumed that Spike had been wealthy before their run in with thieves. Not wanting to give the man anything else to laugh at, Spike did his work without complaint and to the best of his ability hoping that as soon as night fell he could just rob some people and get Willow and himself out of here.

Willow was in the barn waiting for him when he was done with his work. She was sitting in the loft feet dangling over the side reading over the page with the first half of the spell on it like it would unveil some great mystery.

"I hate to tell you this, but the only way you are getting home is through me." He climbed up to the loft. "That piece of paper is useless now. You said we could only do the spell once so we don't need that anymore. I have the only copy of the second half of the spell, so I don't know why you're bothering with that."

She folded the piece of paper and put it in her pocket. "I was just reading some of the fine print of the spell. I didn't get a chance before we left and I thought it might be important."

"And?"

"Did you read this before you had me do the spell?" she asked.

"Just enough to get the ingredients from Uncle Bob's." He shrugged and sat next to her. "Is there something bad?"

"Spike, the spell... both parts of the spell are linked to the object. As far as I can tell the reason we aren't where you wanted us to be is because we're in the general time and place where the ring was created."

"So what? I figure we wait it out and once I'm made into a vampire we'll do the second half of the spell then." He didn't see what the big deal was. He would turn her into a vampire so she didn't age and they would wait it out. Not a hardship as far as he could tell.

Willow groaned. "I said both parts of the spell. The second half of the spell doesn't take you back to the time you left. It takes you to the time the object stops existing. This is a silver ring, Spike, what do you think it's shelf life is? For all we know the object doesn't stop existing until the world dies. And to top it off... we cannot intercede in the object's life in any way. We can't even tell someone else to destroy it."

Spike didn't have much to think about with that. The goal just changed a little. "Then I'll just turn Drusilla into a vampire myself and whisk her away before Angelus can get to her. That simple."

Since he wasn't expecting it and she was quick about it, Spike didn't have a chance to stop her from cutting his hand with what looked like a kitchen knife. The wound closed up in a matter of seconds. He was left gawking at it. "How?"

"Because we're part of the spell, we are, and I quote, unchanging. I got burnt with boiling water this afternoon and the burn was gone before I could even scream in pain. I've cut myself a dozen times or more and while it hurts, it doesn't even scar. And I can't even bite my nails. They are like diamond strong now." For effect she tried to bite one of her nails and she showed him that it had no effect on the nail itself. "I think this means that I won't age for as long as I'm under the effects of the spell. And I already figured out that we can't die. Example... you in the sun today. But the bad news is that we're stuck with each other for the next couple hundred years."

"How do you figure? I don't need you anymore. I needed a witch to do the second half of the spell but since that is out of the question, what the hell do I need you for?" he asked.

"To feed," she answered simply. "Unless you want to seriously screw with the history of the world, I'm your one and only food source until we hit 1998. You can't kill me, so it's the perfect solution. Feed off me until we get back to our own time. After that we'll part company."

He looked at the way her chin was jutted forward and he knew she meant it. She was sacrificing herself for others... for the sake of history. He could also tell that she didn't think she was going to like it at all. He was going to just have to show her that pain could be pleasurable. It may take a little bit of training but he had time to kill before Drusilla was even born.

Drusilla... there was a problem. If he couldn't make her into a vampire he was either going to have to wait for Angelus or find another vampire to do it for him. He looked at Willow. She was supposed to be the smart one of Buffy's group. He wondered what she had to say about it.

"What do you think I should do? Should I wait for Angelus to turn Drusilla or should I find another vampire to do it for me before he gets there?"

Willow sighed. "I don't think we should be messing with history at all, but if you're telling me that the decision is mine then I say we let the events unfold as close as we can to how they happened the first time. But if you do anything and I mean anything that causes something catastrophic like the Nazis winning World War II or the start of World War III I swear I will find a way to make you pay Spike. Do you understand me?"

"Got it, Red." He chuckled and swung an arm around her. "I'm starting to feel a little bit peckish, luv."

She stiffened under his arm. "We should probably go farther back into the loft for this. We don't want to get caught. Emma, Arlen's wife, said she'd come out and check on us later."

Spike smoothly got to his feet and offered Willow a hand up. She didn't accept it. They walked back into the hay and found a dark corner. Pulling back her hair, she offered her neck up to him without complaint. He drew her up into his arms, let the demon come forth, and bit into her.

Willow gasped and Spike groaned. She tasted amazing, pure and magic filled. There was no blood that he had ever drank that was more exquisite. He almost felt like he could get drunk off her alone. He drew her blood out in long sips and decided to check and see if she would really survive being completely drained. He drank every drop he could get out of her.

Her heart stopped beating and she seemed to have passed out cold, but she was still breathing oddly enough so he assumed that she was going to be fine. He lay her down in the hay.

He barely had her down when a gruff but female voice called through the barn. "Willow? I think I may have found you a dress. I also have a shift for you and an old corset."

Spike hurried down the ladder to the main part of the barn. "You must be Mrs. Bell."

"And you must be Willow's husband William," she said. "Where is Willow?" Emma Bell was what Spike would call handsome. She wasn't quite pretty but she had a quality about her that was still attractive with her coal hair and dark eyes.

"She is in the loft sleeping. I would hate to disturb her. She has had a rough couple of days." He motioned absently.

"The way I see it the two of you are not used to doing manual labor, though to both your credits you have not shied away from it." She held out the dress and underclothes. "Make sure she gets those. I want to see her dressed properly tomorrow. It might not be fancy but it should fit her well enough."

He took the garments off the woman and smiled. "She'll be grateful to be in a dress again. You are too kind."

"It was just going to rot. These things haven't fit me in years. And I did not have any daughters to hand them down to."

Still smiling, Spike tucked the clothing under his arm. "Still, thank you."

"Sleep well, we will see you in the morning." And with that Mrs. Bell left the barn.

Spike climbed back up to the loft, set the clothing aside, and curled up around Willow. Her heart was beating again, and she had turned into a more comfortable position, but she hadn't woken up. He wanted to know when she did wake up, but he also wanted to sleep before being put to work again the next day. He was asleep in no time, comfortably wrapped around a warm body.