Disclaimer: I own nothing of the characters.

This story is set after season seven, and does not follow comic canon or Angel S5. It's set a year after the Hellmouth has been destroyed. Xander has been working in Cleveland, and returns to LA to spend the anniversary of Anya's death as close to her final resting place as he can get. Whilst there, he stops in LA to visit Faith and her branch of Slayers, and decides to follow a seemingly harmless job checking up on a mental patient who has been having visions of Slayers….Spike/Xander friendship mainly, Spuffy undertones.

A/N: This is my first Spike/Xander centric story. There will be no slash, it's not that kind of fic. I just think that Xander sometimes got a bad rap on the show and I used to hate his behaviour, but I've decided to give him a chance to redeem himself. At least, in this fantasy! I'm not sure how long this fic is going to be, it depends how long it takes for issues to be resolved.

Seeing Ghosts

Spike was alive. Maybe not entirely in one piece, judging by the serious looking wounds, but he was alive. Alive. Breathing. Hooked up to one of those little monitors that beeped in time with a human heart rate.

Xander wasn't entirely sure his brain could cope with the new information.

His ears certainly couldn't cope with the high pitched scream that suddenly burst from the previously dead vampire as he became fully alert. The restraints around his wrists and ankles held him down but in no way still. He writhed and pitched on the bed, high pitched screams becoming yells for something the one eyed brunette could not understand. Marie, the nurse, rushed forward and pushed the call button, trying to calm the figure on the bed down.

'Sir, sir! Please, calm down, we're only trying to help!' She looked up at Xander. 'You recognised him? What's his name?'

Xander stood dumbstruck for a second before spluttering and responding to the nurse, all the while stepping away from the bed and the confusing feelings he had surrounding this new situation. 'W-william. His name is William.' Definitely better than Spike. Always thought that was a stupid name.

'William.' Marie shouted, her hand trying to hold Spike's shoulders down. 'William!' She raised her voice and the man stilled for a second, staring at her. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed onto the pillows beneath him, the monitors beside him going nuts as reopened wounds on his body started bleeding profusely. The door to the small room opened and a doctor rushed in, looking fiercely at Xander and his female companion before asking the nurse for an update.

Everything seemed to rush by. Xander didn't understand what they were saying, and the doctor was frantically checking the machines, prodding Spike and checking his heart, frowning and mentioning words like "surgery". He had always hated hospitals, and even now, even when the patient was someone he'd never cared for…it wasn't a pleasant place to be.

'Sir?' The doctor was in front of him all of a sudden, and Xander noticed that several other medical types had entered the room and begun to work on the now deathly still body on the bed. 'The nurse says you know this man?' His attention was caught and he nodded, his mouth doing a pretty good impression of a fish. The doctor looked really pissed at him. 'Are you a relation?'

A few seconds passed and then Xander shook himself out of it. 'Y-yeah. Yes. I'm his brother. Half-brother. His name is William Harris.' Okay, totally winging it. And how weird does that sound? He's my brother. Ha. I'll laugh about it later.

The doctor frowned again. 'He is seriously ill. We need to get him up to the OR immediately or he may not survive.'

'What's wrong with him?' Sarah piped up, noticing that Xander was struggling to compute much English.

'His spleen is badly damaged and there's some lacerations to the liver and other damage to his organs. His heart is struggling, he needs major surgery now or he will not last the night. Are you prepared to sign consent?' The doctor asked and Xander nodded, his eyes fixed on the medics preparing Spike to be moved. 'Good. If you would follow the medics, they'll take your brother up to the OR and you can fill in the paperwork there.'

Xander nodded again. Paperwork…that means I need to think up some fake stuff. And quickly. Crap. I wish Willow was here. 'I need to call someone. Is that okay?'

The doctor nodded and then motioned to the medics to move the patient. 'You can use the phone upstairs.'

'Thanks.' Sarah looked at him and he drew her to one side quickly. 'Look, I'm going to call Willow. Can you go back and check in with Faith, make sure she doesn't tell anyone else who this is, we need to figure this out before letting anyone else know.' Sarah nodded and left the room, and Xander took a deep breath before following the medics and the gurney containing the ex-vampire out of the room.

It had been four hours. He'd paced the waiting room, read the magazines, and stared at the clock. Willow was on her way, luckily she had only been in Vegas. And alone. He didn't think he could handle Kennedy along with the mess he was in. He couldn't trust Kennedy to keep her mouth shut either.

He'd thought about calling Giles. He'd thought about calling Buffy. He knew he'd have to tell the Watcher eventually. But he didn't know what to do about Buffy. If it were him, and it was Anya who'd been brought back…he'd want to know. But it would break his heart for her not to know him. And if she died again…no. He couldn't, wouldn't tell Buffy just yet. He'd make sure Spike was okay, try and get him back to his normal self. Then he'd tell the Slayer. As much as he had disliked Spike, he was what she wanted and he wouldn't stop his best friend from being happy. Not again.

'Xander?' A tired voice sounded from the door and Xander turned, sighing in relief as he saw his red headed childhood friend. He rushed to her and enveloped her in a bear hug, holding her tightly until she giggled under his weight. 'Xander…what's going on? I thought you'd been hurt, then you tell me you're in the surgery waiting room.'

He pulled away from her but kept his hands on her shoulders. 'You're not going to believe this, Wills. I came over here to investigate a crazy guy shouting about demons and slayers, just as a favour to Faith. And you won't believe who I found. Alive and breathing. It's Spike, Willow. He's back.' The witch had only stunned silence for him. 'He doesn't seem to know me, and he is way more crazy than he was in the basement. And seriously hurt. He's in surgery now.'

'Have…oh goddess. Have you rung Buffy?' Willow asked, her eyes wide as saucers.

'No. I didn't want to get her hopes up…in case he died. He was in a bad way.' Xander ran his hand over his face and then looked at the clock again. 'It's been over four hours now.' He sat down in an uncomfortable plastic chair and Willow followed suit, patting him on the back. 'I told them he was my half-brother. Had to make up all this crap for the forms, I didn't know what else to do. As far as they know he's 28, his name is William Harris and he disappeared a year ago. Which is more or less the truth. I didn't know what else to do!' He slapped his hands on his forehead and sighed heavily.

'It's okay. That stuff will be fine. If anyone asks, we'll just say you have the same dad but that "William" was the result of an affair or something. And you didn't know about him until a few years ago. And he lived in England. You know, if his accent is the same. Did you happen to notice?' She asked. Her best friend shook his head.

'Was hard to tell through all the screaming.' Xander muttered. 'I guess we're going to have to play this by ear.' He frowned. 'How stupid is that phrase?'

Willow smiled and then jumped as a door down the corridor opened. It was getting late and the corridors had been silent by the time she'd gotten to the hospital. So the unexpected noise of a door was enough to blast through her already frayed nerves. Xander chuckled as she gripped his hand tightly, and then his smile faded when a man dressed in blue scrubs stepped through the door, a surgical mask pulled down under his chin.

'Mr Harris?' The man asked, his eyebrows raised.

'Yeah, that's me.' Xander stood, pulling Willow with him. 'This is my friend, Willow Rosenburg, she knows Sp-William aswell. How is he?' To be honest, Xander was shocked by the concern in his own voice. He'd never had thought in a million years that he would be worried about Spike. But then he'd never thought that Spike would save the world, die for a year and then come back human and insane.

'My name is Doctor Caldwell, I operated on your brother. He's pulled through the surgery. We had to repair a lot of damage and he's on a ventilator for the time being. You can come through and see him if you would like? I assume you're the only family here?'

'I'm the only family he has.' Xander said gruffly.

The doctor nodded. 'Okay then. There are some more forms that need completing but it's rather late now. If you would like to see him briefly, I can explain a few more things and then we'll sort out the paperwork in the morning. Are you staying nearby?' Xander nodded. 'Okay then. He's just through here in recovery.'

Willow looked at Xander as she let go of his hand. 'Just let me know what you can yeah?' She watched him leave with the doctor and the sank into a chair.

The doctor led him through a set of double doors and through a lobby into another room, where the door announced rather proudly "recovery suite". There were other people in the room, maybe two or three, but Xander paid no attention as he followed Doctor Caldwell to a curtained off area. Behind the curtain lay Spike, attached to more monitors than Xander could figure out in the darkened room. He was covered in bandages and a solid cast engulfed one foot up to the knee. Tubes and wires were attached in several places and a massive blue mask covered his face, attached to a machine that seemed to be breathing for him. It was a pretty scary sight.

'We had to drain a large amount of blood from his internal organs. His spleen has been completely removed and his right ankle is broken. We've had to sew up several lacerations and he'll be on the ventilator until we can ascertain that he is able to breathe for himself. It might be a few days before he wakes up. We're keeping him sedated for the time being.'

'Does…does anyone know what happened to him?'

The doctor shook his head. 'If I had to hazard a guess, from the injuries? He got hit by a truck. It's a wonder we kept him alive, Mr Harris. He's a very lucky man.'

'They said he didn't remember anything when he came in. Is that likely to change?'

'His scans came back clear, no head injuries. The mind reacts in funny ways to stressful situations, Mr Harris. He will probably wake up perfectly fine.' He checked the folder at the bottom of the bed containing the ex-vampire and wrote something down. 'I'm due in surgery again soon. Another doctor will take over his care in the morning. Visiting hours start at eight a m. If you'd like to come back then, you can fill out the rest of the paperwork and discuss his future treatment with the doctor. It's likely he'll need a lot of help.'

Xander nodded and moved to the side of the bed, resting his hand on Spike's and feeling incredibly odd about it. But it didn't feel like he could just leave. 'I'll be back in the morning, Spike.' His mouth was a thin line as he turned back to a confused looking doctor. 'Sorry. It's a nickname. He always preferred it.' The doctor seemed to accept his explanation and turned away, leaving the room. Xander took one last look at the vampire and left too, collecting Willow on his way out.

'So we don't know anything beyond "He's really hurt and still in danger"' Faith asked, bouncing her foot off of the leg of the chair. Xander and Willow had been back from the hospital about an hour and the witch had already claimed a room and gone to get some sleep. Faith had insisted on hearing the whole story from Xander, having been exceptionally confused by Sarah's short tale earlier.

'Nope. I've got to call Giles. They're going to want to know insurance details and he'll want to research.'

'What about B?' The brunette slayer asked, her brow furrowing. 'She deserves to know.'

'Deserves to know what? That the man she loves and who she's mourned for the last year is alive but could possibly still die again? Oh, and has no clue who he is?' Xander shook his head. 'No. I want to make sure he's going to get better, see if he regains his memory. It'll hurt her more to get him back and then lose him again. She deserves a Spike that is whole.'

'She deserves the truth, Xander.' Faith grumbled and then held her hands up at his stare. 'Fine. I get it. Buffy's own good. Seems to me you guys do that to her a lot.'

'No. This is different. I'm not trying to keep her away from him. I'd just…look, me and Spike? We were never bosom buddies yeah? So I guess, if I'm here and I help in some way, if I can see him getting better and…'

'You feel like this is going to make amends for being utterly crappy to him in the past?' Faith asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair. Xander ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

'I don't know! Maybe?' He flopped into a chair opposite the dark slayer and sighed. 'But he needs someone familiar around. I'll ring Giles. See what he thinks.' Although he was never Spike's number one fan. And he never approved of Buffy's involvement with him. But it's different now. He's human. Surely Giles isn't that cold? He looked at Faith. 'I just hope I'm doing the right thing.'

A/N: Okay, I'm getting this underway. I hope my medical bits were okay, I'm drawing on a lot of watching ER reruns to get this right lol! Hopefully will have the next chapter up in a couple of days!