Spike cursed as he finished searching the downstairs and moved toward the upper level of the house. He had wasted half of his morning searching, and his already low patience was just about gone. Staring balefully at the room around him, he contemplated breaking some of Giles' precious belongings, but finally decided that that was a little too much like an untrained puppy's behavior after being left home alone all day.

Another two hours, and he had officially looked everywhere. He had lifted every cushion, every piece of furniture. He had gone into every room, even the ones that Giles said he wasn't allowed in. Every drawer and closet had been opened, but the only thing that Spike had to show for it was a pile of dirty magazines that had been hiding in a box of old records in the back of Giles' closet. Generally, he would have been happy with that, but since he had yet to find what he was actually looking for, he was growing steadily more frustrated.

Throwing himself down in a chair, he tried to wait. But Giles had left early that morning, without a word as to where he was going or when he'd be back. For all he knew, the stupid librarian had gone on some soul-searching trip to England and wouldn't be back for days.

Growling, he finally broke down and picked up the phone. It range five times before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello?" a groggy voice answered.

"I need you to go to store for me."

"Spike? What the hell?"

"I need something from the store. Now."

"Where's Giles?"

"How the bloody hell should I know?"

"Well call someone else. I'm sleeping."

"It's almost noon!"

"It's Sunday morning!"

"You're probably just too busy shagging that demon girlfriend of yours to –"

"You're not going to shut up, are you?"

"No. And I'm going to keep calling you until you go to the store."

There was a moment of silence.

"Fine. What the hell do you need?"

"The newspaper."

"What? That's it? No blood? Just a stupid newspaper?"

"You heard me."

"What do I get in return?"

"Peace and quiet."

"It's gonna take more that, Spike. You're dragging me out of my nice warm bed."

Spike glanced over at the tin can he had found under a loose floorboard in Giles' bedroom.

"I'll pay you a hundred bucks."

"Be right there."

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Twenty minutes later there was an irritated banging on the front door. Spike ran across the room and opened it, being sure to keep out of any sunlight that might come through.

"Do you have it?"

Xander sighed and handed him the newspaper. He looked exhausted, still clad in his pajamas and wearing sneakers that were barely tied.

"You mind telling me what was so important that you couldn't wait for Giles to get home?"

Spike didn't answer him. He just sat in Giles' overstuffed chair and started flipping through the paper. Finally, he found what he had been looking for all morning, and he smiled as he opened the pages.

Frowning, Xander moved forward until he could see what Spike was reading. When he realized what it was, he couldn't believe it.

"The comics!?" he asked incredulously. "You dragged me out of bed for the comics!?!?"

Spike glared at him.

"Not just the comics."

"What then?"

"Charlie Brown."

"Peanuts?"

"Yep."

"You were going crazy because you couldn't read the Peanuts strip?"

"I like Linus. Your money is on the table."

Xander stood there for another couple of minutes, staring at the vampire in total disbelief. But Spike just continued reading, now and again smiling or actually laughing out loud. Finally, Xander just threw up his hands and turned around, grabbing his money before walking out and shutting the door behind him.

Finished with Charlie Brown and the gang, Spike eagerly turned the page to see what Beetle Bailey was up to.