Made for fun, not for profit. The Buffyverse belongs to Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon, I just like to play there.
A/N: Sorry about taking so long to post this update. RL issues turned into a giant-rubix-cube o' writer's block, but things are looking up now and this chapter will be followed by at least one per week for the next few weeks. Kudos to anyone who realized that the tulip/shield shaped talisman I described in chapter one was the Word of Valios. More Easter eggs of that sort to come, some in the shape of props from other seasons, some references to other TV shows. Reviewers who identify these little eggies and ask for updates will help me to post chapters extra-fast. Also, still beta-less over here, so if anyone wants the job, please PM me. I'll be happy to have any help. Now, onwards!
"A new person is to me a great event, and hinders me from sleep.
I have often had fine fancies about persons which have given me
delicious hours; but the joy ends in the day; it yields no fruit."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 - Shaking Things Up
As it turned out, there was one fun thing about being trussed up in Giles' bathroom: when the man came downstairs to use his toilet late on Thursday night, he seemed to have forgotten that he had a 'guest' chained up in the tub. He hadn't bothered to turn on the overhead lamp, instead relying on light from the window to see what he was doing. However, Spike could see perfectly well in the near dark, so he took advantage of his host's compromised position and started making snide remarks about the man's physical attributes. Giles simply glared at him and drew the shower curtain shut. However, Spike had already gotten an eyeful of Giles' manhood, and closing the curtain did nothing to shut him up.
The sounds and smells of Giles making himself breakfast the next day woke Spike and made his stomach grumble discontentedly. Whereas Angel didn't eat or drink anything other than blood, Spike had a taste for human food. He was fond of booze, especially mescal, beer and brandy, but he also enjoyed hot cocoa - preferably with tiny marshmallows floating on top - crackers, peanut butter, Doritos, and all manner of other things. As a result, when he smelt the bacon, eggs and toast that Giles was preparing, he licked his chops.
Giles didn't enter the bathroom that morning, or otherwise acknowledge Spike's presence in his home. In fact, as soon as the breakfast dishes were done, his footsteps headed out the front door - which he then locked - and Spike heard the man's car drive off. He was so hungry that his mouth had started to water, and he began to wonder if Giles intended to feed him at all.
In fact, Giles had gone out to run a few errands, one of which involved stopping at the butcher's to pick up a few bags of pig blood. He stopped at the Espresso pump on his way there to use the coffee shop's restroom, thus avoiding another embarrassing episode in his own bathroom. His next stop was the hardware store to buy light bulbs. There was a windowless half-bath on the upper floor of his apartment, consisting of only a sink, a toilet, and an overhead light which had burned out some weeks ago. He had been using the downstairs toilet since then, but considering its new occupant, this seemed as good a time as any to replace the upstairs light. Of course, at some point he would have to shower, preferably without an audience. He shook his head. Surely Buffy could have picked a different room to use as Spike's cell. Did she even consider his study? He was hardly ever in it, after all, preferring to just use it as a storage area for most of the books which they had removed from the high-school library prior to blowing it up.
The study was a cramped space, already a small room with the walls brought even closer by bookshelves, and an old easy chair wedged into the back right hand corner. There was one window in the room, on the left side as you came in, which looked out onto a grassy side yard enclosed by tall hedges. The window was flanked by two tall, skinny book cases and a large flat-topped trunk sat in front of it, the lid of which drew level with the window sill. The trunk contained ritual items such as magic gourds, sacred sand, holy water, dried bunches of herbs, and larger talismans. The top of it was cushioned and it served as a comfortable window seat. Olivia liked to sit there and read when she visited. The room had a cast iron radiator directly opposite the window, giving the space a sort of symmetry. There was no desk in the study, just a small end table to the right of the chair with a lamp sitting on it, so the room didn't lend itself to research. It was far better suited to a solitary individual spending a quiet evening at home with a cup of bovril and a good book. The only place to actually spread out more than a few volumes and a notepad was his table in the main room, so most of the time he used the front room as a study area.
Buffy could have easily chained Spike to the radiator in his study. There was a thick pipe where the radiator was connected to the wall, and Giles planned on chaining Spike to that pipe as soon as possible. He seriously doubted that Spike was strong enough to either disconnect the pipe from the radiator or rip it out of the wall in order to free himself, and since there was a window which bathed that room in afternoon sunlight, Giles could easily use the threat of sun-induced immolation to guarantee Spike's cooperation. He wanted the vampire out of his bathroom as soon as possible, but he would need someone else there to cover Spike with the crossbow during the transition. Buffy was still out of town, and Willow would probably balk at the idea of menacing the now-helpless vampire. Perhaps he could enlist Xander's help.
When he returned home around noon, he heated one mug of the blood in his microwave and begrudgingly served it to Spike.
Early in the afternoon, Spike shifted in the tub, trying – in vain – to find a more comfortable position. There was no clock in the room, but Spike guessed that he'd been chained in the damned thing for at least eighteen hours so far without being able to move more than a few inches to either side, and his wrists were starting to cramp.
Giles had fed him hours before, although one mug full of blood didn't do much of anything to sate his hunger, and Spike was pestering his host for seconds. "Oi! Watcher! Hungry vamp in 'ere. You gonna bring me somethin' to eat, or do I have ta shout myself hoarse?"
Giles reached up under his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "One second!" He sighed heavily, shaking his head and muttering, "how did I end up being a damn turnkey for William the Bloody?"
A badly muffled snort came from the bathroom. "You think I like this set-up, Rupes? At least you can bloody well stand up an' move around. I'm stuck in this soddin' tub, relyin' on your good will for food."
Giles got up from his desk and headed back to the kitchen, trying to tune out Spike's litany of complaints while he fixed the vamp a snack.
"An' the blood you got for me isn't even human. Pig's blood," he made a sound of disgust. "D'you have any idea how wretched pig's blood is when you're used to eating humans? Might as well heat up a Wellington boot, smother it in Worcestershire sauce and call it a fillet mignon."
Giles had poured a second mug of butcher's blood and was removing it from the microwave when someone knocked on the front door. He quickly set the mug down, dropped a straw into it and shouted towards the door, "I'll be there in a minute." He walked briskly to the bathroom carrying the mug of blood in one hand and being careful not to let any of the liquid slosh over the rim. He stepped into the bathroom and put the mug into Spike's waiting hands. Giles suppressed a grin. With his hands bound together and held up to receive the mug, Spike almost looked like he could have been a street urchin from Oliver Twist. After all, he was having "some more", even though his method of asking for it had lacked any semblance of courtesy.
"Bout time..." Spike got the straw into his mouth and started greedily sucking down the blood. "Uhg," Spike pulled a face, but didn't spit any out. "You didn't get it warm enough. Again." The last word was shouted after Giles as the man walked out of the bathroom.
Giles headed back into the main room, not commenting on the vampire's lack of manners, and went to answer the door. He slid aside a small wooden panel in the door, right about where a peep-hole should be, and looked through the small grated opening at his guests. One could never be too careful in Sunnydale, after all.
Xander stood outside with a young woman, older than Xander by a few years but still college age. A large suitcase sat by her feet, as did a full-to-bursting duffel bag, and an overstuffed backpack hung from her shoulders. Her reddish brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, but quite a few rebellious bits of it had escaped the elastic and now hung down alongside her face.
When he saw who it was, Giles' face relaxed into a smile and he swung the door open. "Xander, Samantha. I was wondering when you would be coming by."
They both smiled at him as he stepped aside to let them come in. Samantha bent to pick up the duffel bag, and once she stood up again she adjusted the backpack by fidgeting her shoulders. Her smile seemed slightly forced and she shook her head at him fondly. "Rupert, how many times have I told you? You're the de facto dad of the Scoobies, Xand is my cousin. Call me Sam unless you want to be 'Uncle Rupes' whenever I'm in town."
Giles cringed at the nickname. Xander offered one of the suitcase handles to Giles, who took it, nodded and started to help bring the luggage in. "Of course, Sam. Did you have a pleasant flight?"
She gave Giles a look which he had seen often enough, especially after asking Buffy or Willow a question which they thought had an obvious answer. "I had a long flight, Giles. I've been flying and traipsing through airports since 9am Italian time. That's..." She paused in the entryway and took out a pocket watch, tracing around the edges of it with one finger and muttering to herself for a couple seconds before looking up again. "Seventeen hours. Counting the ride here from the airport, its closer to eighteen. And there were crying babies on the first flight. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to listen to a wailing infant for three hours? I mean, I like babies. They're cute... smelly at times, but on the whole I like 'em... but show me one person, just one, who has been trapped on a plane with one of those fleshy little noisemakers and never had the inclination to do something drastic to shut them up, and I'll call Ripley's Believe it or not."
Giles tried not to laugh, but he couldn't help letting out a dry chuckle. Being stuck on a flight with babies had always seemed like one of the nine levels of Hell to him, he had just never worked out which level it was. "And your semester abroad?"
She tapped one finger against her temple, "got lots of knowledge." Sam absently tucked a stray bit of hair behind her left ear as she moved out of the entryway. "It was great. I mean, starting classes in August was pretty annoying... and getting used to the routine at the Free University of Berlin was... interesting... but since the semester ended about a month earlier than school does here, I had time to go sightseeing and laze around." She put the duffel bag at the foot of the stairs and slipped the backpack straps off of her arms, setting it down next to the duffel and stretching her arms up once the bag was safely on the floor. She took her hair out of the ponytail and ran her fingers through it, trying to work out some of the simpler tangles. "I spent the last three weeks in Italy. It was marvelous."
Sam started walking towards the kitchen, and Giles shared a worried look with Xander. "Where are you going?"
She turned around with a puzzled expression on her face, gesturing down the hall with her thumb. "Traveling for almost eighteen hours. I'm tired, I'm cranky, and I need to use your bathroom." She gave Giles a searching look, furrowing her brow in concern. "Why, is something wrong with your bathroom?"
Giles glared as Xander, hissing at the young man even as he moved to head Sam off. "You didn't tell her?"
She shifted from one foot to the other in an exaggerated variation of the 'gotta-go' dance and started heading down the hall again. "...Cause if nothing's wrong with it, I've got a date with your toilet. And later, one with your shower."
Xander ducked his head, shuffling his feet apologetically as he muttered to Giles. "Uh, about that... wasn't really sure how to work it into the conversation. 'Hey, how was your trip? By the way, we have a hostage tied up in Giles' bathtub.' "
When Giles turned around from glaring at Xander, Sam had already disappeared down the hall.
Giles groaned to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "I expect this will be interesting."
Spike had been listening to their conversation while trying to choke down the rest to the tepid pig's blood. 'Days in the Scooby Life' wasn't nearly as riveting as 'Passions', but it was something to take his mind off of the miserable excuse for food that Giles had brought him. He didn't recognize the girl's voice, and he thought that he knew most of Buffy's school chums. She had said something about being Xander's cousin, which might explain why he hadn't met her. In any case, he didn't have too much time to wonder who this new person was and what she was doing there when the bathroom door opened and the subject of his curiosity walked in.
She wasn't a bad looking bird, not by a long shot. She had messy brownish red curls which spilled over her shoulders, wryly sparkling blue-gray eyes, and a pair of full lips which seemed permanently quirked in a half smirk. Her clothes, a worn-looking sweatshirt and blue jeans, were of a loose, comfortable sort suitable for travel and they were more than slightly rumpled. Since he wanted to surprise her with a quip the moment she came into the room, he only had a second or two to check her out, and between the limited time and baggy clothes, he wasn't able to see much. However, it seemed like she had curves in all the right places.
Right then, time for some fun.
He let his mouth curl up into a charming smile and nodded pleasantly at the new arrival. "Hi there, luv. Now, don't mind me, just do what you came here to do. I promise, I won't make a peep." He leered up at her, enjoying the gobsmacked look on her face.
Sam pulled herself together pretty quickly, much to his disappointment. Her mouth opened and shut soundlessly a few times and she blinked, but that was about it. She licked her lips nervously, taking in at a glance the shackles and the nearly empty mug of blood which he was still holding, and then offered a shaky smile before stepping part way back into the hall. "Excuse me."
Giles appeared in the doorway along with Xander. She looked from one to the other of them, blinking expectantly. "Well? The last time I was here you weren't into chains or guys, Giles, so what gives?"
Xander suddenly seemed to think that a spot on the wall was endlessly fascinating, so Giles was left on his own to field explanations.
Giles gave a resigned sigh and aimed a disappointed glare at Xander. "We didn't know how to tell you. I assumed that Xander would have said something on your way here from the airport, but evidently-"
"He chickened out." Sam struggled against a face-stretching grin and playfully swatted at Xander's shoulder. "Why am I not surprised?" She glanced back into the bathroom, her expression turning curious. "So, who is he?"
"Ahem," Spike cleared his throat loudly enough to be heard from his spot inside the tub. "Can I just say that-"
"No," Xander cut him off. "Shut up."
Sam tsked gently. "Play nice, children. So, looks like I'll be using the half-bath upstairs for the moment. Meantime, could you..." she gestured vaguely at Giles and Xander, then at the bathroom. "'Cause I really need a hot bath. Alone," she added with particular emphasis.
"I don't mind having a little company in the tub," Spike chimed, sounding more amused than actually hopeful that any of them would entertain his offer.
Xander clenched his jaw and started to take a step towards the bathroom, clearly gearing up to give the vamp a piece of his mind, but Sam put a restraining hand on his arm and shook her head. 'Let me,' she mouthed silently.
She took a few backward steps until she was in the bathroom again and smiled politely at Spike. "I'm not that easy, handsome, and we haven't even been properly introduced. Just put your libido in neutral for a while."
"Be quiet, Spike," Giles all but growled.
"Wait," Sam moved back to the doorway and leaned through it into the hallway, staring at Xander and Giles in turn. "Spike? He's Spike?" They didn't have enough time to respond before she twisted in place to look at Spike, still leaning one hand on the door frame
"You're Spike?" She blinked, canting her head slightly as the info sank in.
He puffed up a bit at the recognition in her voice, a pleased look coming over his face. "That I am, luv," he all but purred, his voice deep and silken.
Sam let out a breathy, disbelieving laugh and narrowed her eyes at him appraisingly. "William the Bloody. That Spike?"
Spike's demeanor changed as soon as she recognized his name; several tiny, indefinable adjustments to his posture and expression which had the effect of making it seem that the chains and shackles were nothing more than minor inconveniences to him.
"Heard of me, then, have you?" A slow smile curved his lips upward and he drawled seductively "well, isn't that neat?"
"Yeah," Sam cleared her throat self-consciously, belatedly realizing that at some point she had drifted away from the door and was leaning one hand on the lip of the tub. She straightened her posture, removing her right hand from the tub and nervously jamming it into the back pocket of her jeans.
"A couple years back you were all the guys would talk about. It was always 'Spike did this' and ' Spike did that'." She smirked, a wicked gleam coming into her eyes as she relaxed again. "It got pretty annoying, actually. Last time I visited, before the whole Mayor-McSnake drama, I read up on you, just in case you came to town again."
Spike sat forward slightly, as much as he could without making the chains clank noticeably. "And?" he asked leadingly.
Sam turned a bit, but didn't try to hide her coy smile. "You've been a very bad boy, according to Giles' books and what the Scoobies have told me." His eyes followed her as she stepped closer to the side of the tub and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "A very interesting and naughty boy," Sam wrinkled her nose in mock-disapproval on the word 'naughty', mischief dancing in her eyes. She pulled back, smiling, and said in a regular voice, "but I've always felt that first hand experience is more reliable than research. Better to trust you own biases than someone else's, right?"
Spike sat back again while she spoke, taking the opportunity to let his eyes travel lazily over her body. She was shapely, that much was clear even with baggy layers of fabric in the way. Her frame, or what he could see of it under the slouchy outfit of sweatshirt and comfy jeans, was sleek and sturdy, not petite. She had smooth cheeks which colored slightly as he studied her. The loose sweatshirt made it hard to tell the size of her waist, but the swell of her bosoms and gentle curve of her hips weren't hidden by the extra cloth. Busty and clever, he thought. Lethal combination, that.
Giles strode into the room, crossbow in hand, and leveled it at Spike's chest. Xander followed shortly, holding a pair of black metallic keys on a small ring. "Why don't you get settled upstairs, Sam, while we handle our guest's... relocation." Giles never took his eyes off the vamp.
"But I'm still... " she shook her head, quickly changing back to 'practical' gear. "He's chained up in your tub because why now?"
Giles sighed heavily. "There is some sort of... of paramilitary organization operating in the area. They seem to be hunting and capturing demons. Spike managed to escape from them, and he came to us for protection."
Sam gestured at Spike, looking incredulous. "Since when does he need protection? He's a big bad vamp. While we're at it, since when do you guys take prisoners?"
Xander started unlocking the shackles around Spike's ankles. "He says the commando guys did something to him, and now he can't bite people."
"Seriously?"
Spike lowered his eyes and gave a sullen nod of confirmation as Xander removed the shackles and untwined the connecting chain from his legs. "GI Joes buggered me up. Can't even fight to defend myself." He shrugged one shoulder. "Promised the Slayer's mates I'd tell 'em about the commando lab if they'd take me in."
Sam had moved aside to give Giles and Xander room to maneuver, and she had wound up leaning against the far wall shaking her head. "Okay, this is... Sunnydale logic, and my brain can't handle it without some sleep, or at least some food." She nodded at Giles. "We'll talk about dinner later?"
He answered without looking away from Spike. "Yes. After your bath."
Sam smiled. "I hope you're not too hungry, cause I'm gonna be a while. Lots of travel germs to get rid of."
Xander briefly looked up from unlocking the iron manacles on Spike's wrists. "I'll be doing deliveries for the Slicery later tonight. If you want, I can bring some stuff by here. We always have a few orders that don't get picked up."
Giles wrinkled his nose very slightly in distaste at the idea of discount pizza. "I appreciate the offer, but we have enough Thanksgiving leftovers to last a few more days."
Sam licked her lips and headed for the hallway again. "Not with me around. Your stuffing and gravy won't last the night, no matter how much was leftover. I'm planning on gorging myself."
Xander finished unlocking the last manacle, put it aside with the leg irons and pocketed the keys. "Alright, evil dead. Lets go." He grabbed Spike by one arm and tried to urge the vamp upright. Spike just fixed him with a withering glare and jerked his arm free, glowering rebelliously from pizza boy to retired librarian.
Giles set his mouth in a hard line and stepped forward menacingly with the crossbow. "Get up. Now."
"Sod off."
Sam rolled her eyes in annoyance at the macho interplay. She held up one hand to Giles, palm out in a placating gesture, and then turned her attention back to the vamp. "Spike?"
He broke off from the angry staring to glance at her curiously.
"If you don't get up, I can't take my bath. Now, you can sit there for a while just to be contrary, or you can cooperate with these guys and maybe catch sight of me wearing nothing but a towel." She smirked at him and then shrugged theatrically. "Your call."
The vamp smirked, his expression briefly softening as he looked at her, and then he stood. "See," he spoke to Xander as though in a Shakespearean aside, complete with sotto voice, "she is usin' her head. Empty threats and cheap intimidation don't work on me." He swung his hurt leg over the side of the tub, trying not to wince at the movement, and stepped onto the floor. "You lot should know that by now. I'm more of a quid pro quo sort of bloke."
Sam chuckled to herself as Spike headed for the doorway. "Don't you mean tit for tat?"
Xander grabbed the two sets of chains off of the floor and shook his head at her. "Don't encourage him, Sam." He left first, walking backwards to keep an eye on Spike, and Giles brought up the rear, forcing the grinning vampire to walk in front of him by pressing the arrow point between Spike's shoulder blades. Sam shut the door behind Giles as soon as he left the bathroom.
Giles briefly considered taking Spike to his study, but he felt uneasy about having the vampire out of sight in another room, especially one which was near the back door to his apartment. He decided it would be best to keep Spike in the main room for most of the evening, and then Sam could help him chain Spike to the radiator in his study. He urged Spike towards the living room, casually noting the vampire's limp. "Is that from one of the Chumash arrows?" The former Watcher's tone was curious, not concerned, and Spike bristled at it.
"Yeah. Slayer wasn't exactly gentle about removing it."
Giles furrowed his brow in confusion. "But you were shot nearly twenty-four hours ago. I was under the impression that vampires heal rapidly."
"We do, but only when we've actually eaten in the last month." He huffed. "'M so bloody starved that I'm healin' up slower 'n a soddin' human."
Xander pulled out the chair where they had tied Spike during the Thanksgiving fiasco and rooted around in Giles' weapons chest for the rope they had used. "Well, now you get to see how the other half lives."
"Yeah," Spike snarked. "Lucky me."
Giles urged Spike towards the chair, not missing a beat in their conversation. "You've already had two mugs of blood-"
Spike rolled his eyes and turned around, quickly losing patience with satisfying the man's intellectual curiosity. "Do you have any idea how much blood a vamp gets from killing one bloke? Ten pints, easy. Closer to eight if you're huntin' birds. That's sixteen cups, Watcher. I haven't eaten in weeks. You think two little mugs are gonna make a dent?"
"Yes, well," Giles cleared his throat uneasily, noticing that now the crossbow bolt was pressing into Spike's chest. "I had thought it was just because we are accustomed to seeing you in low light, but you do look, um, rather drawn."
Spike canted his head slightly and raised a challenging eyebrow. "That mean you're gonna heat me up a proper meal? Or are you lot just gonna keep shuffling' me from pillar to post, makin' snide comments about my little plastic problem and then expecting me ta tell you everything you want to know, coz this little fly is tired of bein' given vinegar. I won't be sharing' any info until I get some honey." He shook his head with a breathy laugh, glancing down at the crossbow. "And even if you lot start to treat me decently, how do I know you won't just dust me after I've told you what I know?"
Giles lowered the crossbow with a defeated-sounding sigh. "As long as you are here, Spike, you won't be harmed."
Spike glared at Giles, then nodded with false enthusiasm. "Oh, right, the way I wasn't left tied to a chair and shot full of soddin' arrows?"
"Uh-huh," Xander came back to stand by the couch, two coils of rope looped over his shoulder. "Like they could have untied you anyway while they were trying not to get shot."
The sound of a toilet flushing, followed by water running behind a closed door, caught Spike's attention, and he wondered if that meant Sam was almost done in the bathroom.
"Be that as it may," Giles relaxed his stance and shot Xander a don't-you-dare-bollox-this-up look, "Spike - we have no intention of killing a harmless... uh, creature... but we have to know what's been done to you. We can't let you go until we're sure that you're ... impotent -"
"Hey!" Spike narrowed his eyes, angry and stung by the unintentional, albeit predictable, dig.
Giles looked away and waved his hand apologetically. "Sorry, poor choice of words. Until we're sure you're, you're..."
"Toothless?" Xander supplied, grinning.
Spike turned to glower at him threateningly. "You better watch it, mate."
Xander scoffed, adjusting the rope on his shoulder when his movement caused it to slip. "What are you gonna do, huh? Scold me?"
Spike bit down on the inside of his cheek, trying to get a hold on his temper. His leg hurt like hell and his other arrow wounds were throbbing angrily as well. The last thing he wanted was to add a migraine to the mix. Still, patience had never been a strength of his, and putting up with Xander's insults was getting harder. Maybe if he didn't hit the boy too hard...
He was distracted from his thoughts of possibly breaking Xander's nose by the bathroom door opening and Sam's footsteps coming towards them.
She walked out of the hall and came to stand at Giles' shoulder, a spot which happened to be within arm's length of Spike. He studied her briefly, glad for the distraction from Xander's witless jibes. It looked – and smelled – like she had washed her face, and he wondered why she had bothered to do that when she was about to bathe.
"So," she looked around at all three of them curiously, "I miss anything good?"
Xander gestured at Spike dismissively. "He's just whining about how we're not being nice enough to him." He shook his head, turning to give the vamp a hateful glance. "I can't imagine why that is. Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time trying to kill us."
Sam took a steadying breath, blinked a few times and shook her head, moving towards the stairs. "Oookay. I'm really too tired to deal with this crap, so..." She slipped her arms into the straps of her backpack and gestured at her luggage, "Xand, can you help me get my stuff upstairs?"
He shot a glance at Giles, who nodded that he didn't need Xander's help any longer. "Sure." He bobbed his head, putting aside the ropes in favor of grabbing her suitcase and duffel-bag.
She put a hand on his arm, giving a slight head-shake. "Uh, Xand, I don't need the duffel just now. It has dirty laundry, books and..." she shrugged tiredly, "nothing I need right now."
Xander just smiled, picking both up and starting to carry them up the stairs. "Its cool. I can get both."
She spent a moment watching Xander, apparently making sure that he wasn't having any trouble, and then turned to face Giles. "Play nice," she looked past him to Spike. "Both of you." Giles nodded his acquiescence and Spike just smirked at her. She responded with a faint smile of her own, sighed and turned to head upstairs, muttering to herself, "this month is gonna suck, isn't it?"
Spike watched her go, smirking to himself. Maybe coming to the Scoobies for help hadn't been such a bad idea after all.
