Chapter Thirteen - Problems
The first hint of something out of the ordinary came two days after the party. The news report talked about a strange sickness in Sunnydale. People were going out in the evening and being found later, unconscious and often delirious. Without fail they died within forty-eight hours, with the medical authorities unable to find the cause.
After training, a few days later, Buffy stopped to talk to Giles. She wanted to know what he thought about her contacting Spike. "I miss him so much. He went away to let me get over this whole 'coming back' thing, but I'm starting to think I'm never going to get over it without him. I think I ... love him. And I keep getting these dreams, Spike's in them, but he's different – I mean he's wearing blue and his hair's not bleached any more, but it's him."
"Slayer dreams?" Gilies questioned abruptly.
"No, I don't think so, but they're strange. No real story to them, I just see Spike and sometimes I hear this music – real old tearjerker stuff, y'know – maybe some of it from your era," she grinned.
"Well, Buffy, for once, Spike had a good idea. He was worried you'd imagine yourself in love with him because of the way you came back. I think you need to leave it a bit longer, I mean, what if you get him to come back and then realise you're just grateful to him or something? Do you really want to hurt him like that?" Giles looked concerned. "Anyway, until we understand why Spike was successful in bringing you back at all, I have grave concerns about you having contact with him. Everything I've understood implies that there has to be some sort of a link between the two people involved before this is attempted."
"I suppose you're right," Buffy agreed softly. Giles had other things on his mind suddenly. He tried to get Buffy out of the shop without seeming to, so he could check the letter he'd received from London that morning. It included a report on the meeting between Spike and Lydia Watkins, and he was sure he'd noticed something – "Yes, there it is, he's letting his hair grow in dark and he's given up his regulation black, now how did Buffy know that?"
After he got the Tube map back to his flat, Spike spent a long time studying it. "Amazing," he thought, "if I read this right, there's even an entrance to the system from the basement of this building – this could be even better than Sunnydale – I'll be able to get around in daylight again – without resorting to buying a car." That night, after the commuter rush had subsided, Spike started his investigation. The reported hub – Covent Garden – was one of the deepest stations on the line. "Hardly surprising," he thought. "The bigger and badder they are, the less they like the light." In some of the unlit service tunnels he found some strange greenish slime which he didn't think was quite healthy, but that was it. Still, he knew where to start next day. In the morning he phoned Lydia to report what he'd found and was surprised when she insisted on meeting him. They met as before, same time, same place, but everything else was different. She listened to his report impatiently and then turned the conversation to various clubs and night-spots in the area. "She wants me to ask her to show me the nightlife around here!" Spike thought, amazed. He realised that a couple of years ago, he'd have found her very attractive, but now, he just wasn't interested. He was still having dreams of Buffy every night, for some reason now with short hair. Determinedly, he got the conversation back to business and when that was over, he left.
In Sunnydale, the local hospital was filling up with cases of the new illness. The death rate was still 100%. Giles started to investigate a possible supernatural cause. What he found was profoundly disturbing. He'd just started to read the full details when the phone rang. It was Spike. "Just phonin' to check everything's ok," he began. "Buffy, Dawn, you know?"
"Yes," Giles answered – he really didn't have time for this right now.
"You know, I had a funny dream last night, there was all this sixties music playing and Buffy had short hair," Spike commented. Giles stopped thinking about his research. There was something really weird about this. First, Buffy knew about his change of hair colour and now Spike knew about the haircut. And Buffy had spent most of last Sunday afternoon going through his music collection sorting out the slushiest things she could find. He brought his mind back to the present. People were dying here in Sunnydale and that was more important than this particular puzzle. He ended the call with Spike as quickly as he could and returned to his research.
In London, Spike continued with his efforts to find the cause of the disappearances. He knew he was getting closer, but he was limited in how many hours he could spend on the investigation without looking suspicious. He was getting really irritated with Lydia. She still insisted on getting his reports in person and she was now making it very obvious that she wanted their relationship to be more that business. He, in turn, had done everything he could to make it clear he was not interested. He knew she was attractive. I mean, you only had to see the envious looks he got from other men when they were together to know that most of them would be only too happy to get involved with her. He'd even tried contacting Quentin Travers suggesting another contact, but his efforts had been in vain. "No other Watcher available at this time," was the reply.
It was very early one Tuesday morning when Spike knew he'd found it. There was a nest – demon eggs of some kind, buried deep in the system in a tunnel which didn't look like anyone had been there in fifty years. He found a place to hide, out of the way, and waited. An hour later he was rewarded. A huge beast came into the tunnel, one second it was at the entrance, the next it was right in front of him. Over the next half-hour, more of the beasts came back. "Baalagrog demons," thought Spike, "eight of them, I knew they were fast, but .... it's as though they can move in another dimension and appear instantaneously somewhere else here. No wonder no one's seen what's responsible for the deaths." He thought again, "Remember something else about them, read it at Giles' one night when I was really bored. Something about their reproduction, they need what was it, eight adults to produce a nest of eggs, but only one of those will hatch immediately. The first to hatch needs to do something before the rest can hatch. " It had seemed a funny way to go about reproduction to him at the time, which was why he remembered it at all. The details were sketchy, but he'd find out some more. An hour later, it seemed they were all asleep, so Spike crept out of his hiding place.
A week later, Giles squinted at his E-Mail. Lydia in London was looking for confirmation of what Spike had reported about some Baalagrog demons he'd seen. "Strange girl," he thought, "why can't she keep to the point? I'm really not interested in her relationship with Spike – except insofar as I can make sure Buffy doesn't contact him. I knew he didn't really love Buffy – the first girl who makes herself available and he's forgotten her."
Meanwhile, Giles had made progress on the Sunnydale problem. The only thing was, the evidence pointed to a Halkrew demon – a demon so rare legend had it there was only one in existence. The records he had seen suggested it was dormant most of the time, but once every two or three hundred years it woke and fed on the life energy of humans. Each time there was an attack, thousands would die. When the demon had fed enough, it would become dormant again. There was no way on record of killing the beast.
Two days later, Spike, armed with all the information and weapons he could cope with, emerged in the lair of the Baalagrog demon. He had asked for back-up, but Lydia had implied that if he could not deal with this alone, he would be of no use to the Council. He knew he only had to kill two of them and the danger would be over. He was amazed that anything with that complicated a life cycle managed to reproduce at all. The rest of the adults would die soon anyway, and with two gone, the eggs would not hatch. Axe in hand, he approached as stealthily as he could.
As soon as he was within reach of the closest Baalagrog, he swung the axe, aiming to cut off its head. Just when the axe should have hit home, he realised the demon was no longer there. Spike span around, looking for the demon and saw it was coming straight at him. Spike launched himself into the air, grabbed a ceiling support and vaulted over the thing. He ran. The problem was, fast as he was, the demon was faster. The only advantage he had was the fact that he kept changing direction. That seemed to confuse the demon, but it was still getting closer. Thankful that he didn't have to breathe, Spike headed as fast as he could for the public parts of the system. He guessed that, despite its speed, the demon would prefer to attack lone prey, so the busier the better. "Not far now," he thought as he approached a doorway he knew would bring him out on a Northern line platform, but the fraction of a second he spent opening the door resulted in a blinding pain down his back. The injury would certainly have been enough to floor a human, but Spike was, just, able to get through the door. Once on the other side he stood for a moment, trying to ignore the curious looks he was getting from those waiting on the platform. A few seconds later a train arrived and Spike got on too, keen to put some miles between him and the Baalagrog.
Buffy had been doing a lot of thinking. It all led the same way. She certainly wasn't happy as she was. Every moment of every day Spike was on her mind. She could remember how he infuriated her, how he made her laugh. She knew Dawn missed him too. Not for the first time, she was amazed at her sister's understanding. She had never asked Buffy to contact Spike. She seemed content to believe Spike would come back in the end and that everything would be right then. Slowly, Buffy realised that she loved Spike. It was simple. She needed him and couldn't live without him.
Giles had updated Buffy on his theory about the Halkrew. The problem was, no one had ever survived seeing the demon, so he had no description. He just warned her to avoid anything unfamiliar and report back. She asked him again about contacting Spike, telling him that she was certain of her love. Giles put her off again; citing some new research he was doing which would prove that she was still suffering the after-effects of coming back. As he was saying this, he was trying to think of how to tell her Spike was involved elsewhere without hurting her.
That night on patrol, she saw a weird light in the children's playground. She approached cautiously. The light didn't seem to have a source, but it didn't look 'demony' so she crept closer, intending to watch. Just then, she felt a sharp pain in her back and immediately saw Spike in her mind. She knew he was hurt. She must have gasped at the sudden pain, because when she looked, the light was coming closer to her and her feet seemed to be stuck in place. The light enveloped her and she lost consciousness.
Spike eventually arrived back at his flat mid morning. He cleaned up his injury as well as he could and went to bed. He decided he just couldn't face another fencing match with Lydia until he'd slept. At first he slept deeply, but when the dreams came, they were very different. This time there was real fear, then pain, then darkness. He woke to the knowledge that something was seriously wrong with Buffy. He tried to contact Giles, then Xander then Willow, but there was no answer from any of them. He called his solicitor to arrange a flight back to Sunnydale – unfortunately, his special circumstances required some special arrangements – he couldn't possibly leave until the following night.