"So, he's like human now? Like walking in the sunlight, breathing, with a heart beat human?"
Willow sat on Giles' sofa playing gin rummy with Xander. Buffy nodded from the chair she sat in across the room and continued looking at the really ugly etchings in one of the occultism books, some monsters just had no sense of fashion.
"That's just weird."
"Tell me about it," The slayer replied, "Plus, he's not acting like himself. He's like scared of everything. I had to convince him that the automatic doors at the cafe we had dinner at were not evil. Not to mention every time he saw a car!"
Maybe she was being too hard on him. This wasn't Spike after all; it was William. Just an alarmed book clerk from the nineteenth century stuck in her world. "At least he decided to do something about his hair and clothes."
Giles had been kind enough to lend him one of his old librarian tweed outfits.
"And he's polite now," Xander shuddered, with a laugh he continued, "He kept calling me 'good sir', so obviously something has to have effected his brain."
He shuffled through the playing cards in his hand trying to find a good combination that would beat Willow's hand.
"Maybe it's like a Spike clone or something," thought the red head as she put down a full house combination of cards.
"Oh, yeah, just what we need," Buffy grimaced and rolled her eyes, "Lots of Spike clones running around."
The bathroom door opened down the hall and out emerged a transformed William. He walked over to the gaping trio of friends. With a slight bow of his head he asked, "Do I look all right, Buffy?"
"Not bad," Buffy answered taking in all the changes. He was wearing a tweed suit and his hair was washed free of harsh hair products. It hung damply around his forehead. "Went from Billy Idol to Young Republicans... but it kinda works."
"Woah!" Xander said. It was kind of deja vu-ish but he couldn't figure out why. It was like something wacky that only happened in dreams.
Willow smiled kindly, "You clean up nicely." William blushed, not used to so much attention. "Thank you, Miss."
He suddenly realized he had not seen this one before. "Willow. I'm Willow."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Willow."
Buffy caught herself staring at William. Without all his bad vampire traits he was kind of cute? She shook her head and put the occult book back on the shelf. More like he was a wuss. But still, there was the whole 'the bloody' added to his human name. William the Bloody. Her brow wrinkled, how had he gotten that moniker anyway? Was there a part of his human past that was dark? Someday she would make him tell her, but for now, "Ready to go guys?"
"Yeah," Willow agreed.
They were headed back to the magic shop, after hours, to try to find out what demon had caused Spike's change. "I can't wait to see Giles' new shipment of Jukeli orbs."
Xander looked at her strangely. "What, can I help it if I don't have my priorities right?"
Willow grinned at her friends, "I am a witch after all. Besides, I don't think this new alteration is that bad. As long as the demon doesn't come back we get a new good guy Scooby member."
With a worried face she turned to the slayer, "You don't think it's coming back, do you?"
Buffy sighed, "Most likely it will."
"I don't very much believe in demons, nasty thoughts like those are best kept in the minds of madmen, but if it will assist in recovering some of my memories we must do the proper research,"
William held the door for the two ladies as they exited Giles' apartment. "I have the deepest desire to find the reason behind this strange occurrence."
Later, at the magic shop the Scooby Gang had assembled and was going through a stack of books trying to find the demon who they had seen at the city dump. It was late and their efforts were slowly dwindling. Anya leaned against her boyfriend and closed her eyes.
"All the words are swimming on the page like fish trying to mate." She complained. Why did she ever join this ridiculous club anyway? Oh, yeah, she thought with a smile, Xander. He could make anything worthwhile. Xander finished looking through the last pages of the last book he was going to look through that night and closed it. Not funny looking demons even resembling the funny looking demon from the dump. He put his arm around Anya.
"I think it might be best to turn in for the night," Giles finally said.
"Yeah, the troops are getting restless," Buffy agreed.
The clock said it was almost two in the morning. Gosh, how the time flied when there was research to be done, or came to a grinding crawl. Willow yawned as she sleepily looked over towards her girlfriend. Tara was just as tired as the rest of them, but still continued on with the research. How sweet was that, Willow thought. The ever diligent and helpful Tara, just one more reason she adored her so much.
"Well, if you don't require our help anymore I'll take Xander home."
Anya stood up and asked Xander, "I hate to skip a night, but we can have sex in the morning, right?"
Xander blushed slightly, but was getting used to this by now. With a dopey grin he rose and kissed her, "Sure."
"Good night, guys," Buffy said as they walked out of the store.
"Night Buff," She heard Xander call back.
"You might as well leave too, we're not getting anywhere tonight," Buffy told Willow and Tara.
"Are you sure?" Willow asked helpfully. In all seriousness though, she was ready to go back to the dorm she shared with Tara.
"Go."
A small laugh and some coercion filled Buffy's voice.
"We're gone." Willow rose and started to follow Tara out the door.
"What about him, though?" She pointed to the sleeping William. He had begun the night perusing the stacks of books with the others, but with the first glance at a demon in the pictures he had complained of feeling faint. Then he had spent all night writing something of which no one else had seen.
"I'll take him back to my place," Buffy replied casually.
"Are you sure?" Giles asked. Only a few hours ago she had complained of being stuck to watch him, and now she was offering to let him sleep at her house.
"Yeah. I mean, its not like I'm worried he's going to bite me anymore."
"Well," He paused, not exactly liking this arrangement himself, "If you're sure."
"I am." Buffy nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Buffy."
"Bye, Will. Bye Tara."
Buffy reclined in her chair. "I still can't believe he doesn't remember anything."
"Well, he was changed into a human by different means, so we have no way of knowing if he'll ever remember anything from the past."
She sighed, "A part of me doesn't want him to remember, Giles. I mean, he's not a vampire anymore, so what's the point?"
"Perhaps there is no point to this," Giles gently replied.
"No I think there is. There has to be."
"Well, at any rate, you should get some rest. We'll reconvene here tomorrow."
"Right."
She nodded. Giles left and Buffy was alone with William. She smirked and pulled the piece of paper he had been writing on out from under his sleeping hunched over form that rested on the table. What exactly does the great William the Bloody write about? The paper had tons of crossed out words and scribbles on it, obviously the work of someone who was not pleased with the final result.
"My heart" It began. "expands." Crossed out. "Opens" Crossed out. "unfolds." It seemed he liked the way that sounded, because he had kept that line. "'Tis grown a bulge," No, that's not right, the inner poet had scribbled, "tis grown and enlarged." Ah, yes, that was better.
William raised his head, suddenly waking up. Buffy let the poem drop from her hands embarrassed. He looked at her flushing with color.
"You write poetry?" She was confounded.
"When the muse strikes," He nodded and folded up the poem tucking it into a pocket.
"Oh."
He looked up at Buffy, but he seemed to be looking far away, into the past. "It was the last thing I recall about the night before I awoke here."
It must be so hard for him, Buffy sat silently, everything he knew and loved is in the past. Dead. By him. And sooner or later he was going to know that.
"Well, we should get home, come on."
She stood, as did William. He held out his arm for her, and she wrapped hers around in. Arm and arm they started to walk back to the Summers' house.
Spike discarded of the burnt up cigarette into the bushes and pushed the front door open. It was his last stop for the night, something he had been waiting to do for ages. The lights were out and the house was dark. He heard someone on the stairs, and flicked on the lights. It was Dawn, not the slayer. She had woken up and decided to get a late night snack.
"Spike," She saw him and asked innocently, "What are you doing here? You're probably looking for my sister, right? Well, Buffy's not home yet."
He closed the front door swiftly, "Well, we're just going to have to find something to occupy us 'til she gets home, then." His face morphed into it's vampire visage.