Back to Humanity
Chapter 3
By Kalifower
Disclaimer: All the characters and settings and everything else is purely owned by Joss and Co.
Comments: This takes place somewhere in the beginning of season 6. After Life Serial but before the musical. The Troika decide to mess with Spike but their plans go haywire. Don't you just love the way the Evil Trio can cause so much trouble, so badly?
He had spent most of the morning researching with Tara and Willow. Dawn hadn't actually seen any of the research. It had really just been beginning when she left for school. Grabbing her lunch that Buffy packed, she wondered if anyone else in the whole school ever had thoughts like hers. She knew they had the normal teenage thoughts, like "my parents suck," and "I'm the ugliest person in the world, no one will ever date me!" But did they have thoughts about the two lesbian witches studying how to send the pre-vamp Spike back in time? She thought probably not, but it was the Hellmouth, so who knew? She tried not to think about Spike and William and everything while she was at school, but honestly, it was more interesting than trig. She hoped that she could spend some time with William alone, hanging out. She figured that he would need a babysitter if he ever stopped researching and she was the perfect person to do that. Plus, it would be fun to be the babysitter instead of the babysat for once.
Three people sat at the dinning room table when Dawn came home. Willow was grinning from ear to ear. "What's with the big smiles?"
"Miss Rosenberg, Miss McClay and I have figured out how to send me back to my time."
Dawn smiled at the formality of his speech. It was so much fodder to tease Spike about when William was gone. He had been such a cute dork when he was human. "That's great!" She bounced over to him and stopped short, frowning. "Uh, not that I want you gone or anything. I just mean, you must be excited to get home." She hadn't meant to bound up to him, but she was excited about the whole situation and she bounced when she was happy. William looked somewhat taken back by her perkiness, but smiled at her.
"Yes, I am looking forward to going home. Everything is more confusing here then I could ever imagine. I feel very out of sorts." Dawn blinked a few times, it really was going to take some getting used to his speech, but if she spent some time with him, she could get used to it.
"Willow, can I take William out with me today? This afternoon. It's safe here in the daytime and stuff, I could take him to the park or the Espresso Pump or something."
"Well.considering all the time paradoxes we've already created I don't think walking around with William will do any more damage." She paused. "Of course, now that I said that we're all gonna to die because the universe collapsed on itself, but yeah, go out. Have fun. Tara and I will put the finishing touches on the spell preparation. He couldn't have helped with that anyway."
"Cool!" She grabbed William's hand and yanked him upstairs. "Just let me put my school stuff away and we'll go out. I'll take you to the Espresso Pump and offer you the marvels of modern coffee. Oh, except you're English, do you guys drink coffee? Then we can go to the park or something. I'd take you to the Bronze, but it's kinda closed in the daytime and I doubt they'd let you go with me at night." She kept dragging him down the hallway and into her room. She threw her bag down on the bed and it landed with a heavy thud. She got out her wallet from the front pocket and put in her small purse she had stolen from Hot Topic at the mall a few weeks ago. It was black and had a cute picture of a pink kitty on it. She liked the girly semi-punk look of it, and she'd thought Spike would approve of it. He had said something non-committal about it being nice and matching her clothes, but his voice had been warm. It was right before Buffy had come back, when Spike still acknowledged her existence. Since then both Buffy and Spike had been ignoring her, maybe William wouldn't.
She paused when she caught the uncomfortable expression on his face. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, uh, uh." he stammered.
A look of comprehension spread across her face. "You're uncomfortable because you're in my room, right?" He nodded a little. "That is so cool. It's like all those Masterpiece Theaters that I used to watch with Mom. Where everyone is so formal and guys can't be left alone with girls or everyone would think she was a ho." Her eyes widened in mock horror. "You don't think I'm a ho, do you?"
"I'm not exactly sure what a 'ho' is, but I am a bit uncomfortable being alone in young girls bedroom with her. It is unseemly."
"We can just leave, I've got everything I need."
Grabbing her arm in his, he gestured with his other hand sweeping it in front of them. "Let us be away then." Dawn giggled as they walked out the door. She couldn't believe Spike, or William, was acting silly.
The sun was shinning and Sunnydale was looking very southern California, warm and dry. The hills in the distance were still brown and the air was warm and windy from the Santa Anna winds blowing in from the desert. Dawn knew that she wasn't with Spike, and that William was human, but it hadn't sunk in exactly what that meant until she saw him in the sunlight. Sure, she'd seen Spike in the sunlight plenty of times, usually he was covered in a blanket and parts of him were on fire. But William was walking around and nothing about the sun bothered him. He wasn't on fire; in fact, he faced the sun and let it warm his body. She realized she was staring and began to drag William down the sidewalk.
"America is quite beautiful and strange. It's so warm here."
"I've never been to England, but I've heard that it's cold and rainy a lot. That's gotta suck."
"I don't think it.sucks," he dragged out the foreign sounding word. "I don't mind the gray weather, but I prefer this sun. It's quite wonderful."
"So you enjoy being here? With me?"
If William was surprised by the emotions playing below the surface of the questions he didn't show it. He did however, turn to face her and said, "Of course, you are one of the few people here who has shown me real kindness. I don't except much from others, so I was pleased that anyone cared."
Dawn had seen the same expression on Spike's face a few times this summer and hadn't been able to name it, but with William's words she knew it was loneliness. "I don't have many friends," he continued, "but it warms me to see that S-Spike has some."
"I know how that feels, which is why Spike and I get along so well. He doesn't have too many either, some demons and me."
"I'm glad that he has you. You seem a very kind and generous young lady, much like my sister. I do not find it difficult to believe that he would like you and want to protect you, since he is a champion. But what of the others? Surely, if he helps them he is friends with them."
She frowned. "It's kinda complicated. I mean sometimes they like him, but you know, or actually you don't know. He did some bad stuff in the past. To them too."
"They mentioned that last night, that I had done some horrible things. I just can't believe that I could commit horrible crimes. I am a good man."
"I know and in some ways so is Spike, but he has stuff going on. The same things that make him so strong, makes it hard for him not to want to hurt things. It's like the nature of what he is or something."
"Is it because he is a monster? I surmised as much from the conversation last night."
"Technically he's not a monster so much as a vampire. Like Dracula. And he has this thing, a chip, in his head now, and it makes him better"
"Dracula? A chip?"
"You know, the book, not the actual guy. Wasn't it written before 1878? I thought it might have been. Oh, well." She shrugged.
William looked confused and she realized he wore that expression a lot, tons more than Spike did. That must be 100 years of lag time did to a person. She slowed her pace as they neared the Espresso Pump. Toasted coffee beans and chocolate filled the air. Dawn loved that smell; she was defiantly trying to build up the coffee-drinking mystique. She had a fantasy about her and some coffee, a beret and Jackson from English. She shook her head, but she was with William and had to focus.
"I'm confused by this whole affair." He started. "I must admit this whole situation seems a dream to my mind."
"First, zuh? Second, um.there is no second. What does that mean?"
"I mean, that I feel like this is a dream. This can't be real, none of this. It's all my fevered mind, confusing me."
"Ohhh, is that all. That happens to everyone when they first learn about the Hellmouth. No one believes that it's real." She turned to the barrista, "one mocha and one earl gray tea."
William managed to blush from embarrassment and look unconvinced at the same time. "Miss Dawn, I do not have the money to pay for that."
"It's the 21st century now, I can pay, really. And please call me Dawn, that Miss thing is weird." She scanned the room for a few moments before grabbing a small table with two seats. "Speaking of, how is the 21st century? I mean, I noticed a lack of freak out about pretty much everything."
"There are strange things all around me, but it all seems like variations on what I already know from home." Looking as a woman walked by with an out-dated hankie shirt and hip huggers, he blushed and continued, "Although, some of the clothing is rather scandalous. Mostly, what I find difficult is the language. It is so different here. I find it difficult to understand what people are saying."
"Yeah, totally."
He shook his head. "I don't seem to understand this place's basic assumptions. You speak nonsense half the time. Which is somewhat excusable, it is a different country, and perhaps even a different time. And if it is a different time then I'm still alive, because I was turned into some murdering monster and now for some reason I'm no longer evil, but have chosen the path of the hero. It all makes no sense. If this isn't a dream I think I will go mad." As he spoke, William's voice had been rising; he had stood up and began pacing around their little table.
"Calm down! Really, people are looking." Dawn waved frantically at his abandoned seat. Lowering her voice, she continued. "Most people don't know about vampires and other monsters here either, they don't want to know. It was the same in your time. But it's true. Really."
William sat down and glared into his tea for a few minutes. Suddenly, he slammed it back and stood up again. "I need to move about and walk around. My head feels muddled and clumsy." Dawn took another sip of her coffee and felt her arm be grabbed by William. Apparently, sudden changes in temper were not a Spike thing only. "Where is the park that you mentioned earlier, perhaps walking someplace with a garden would help calm my mind."
He walked fast and she was about to have to run just to keep up with him. "Hey, you don't know where you're going. I'm the one who knows were the park is. So calm down, and walk a little slower."
He turned sharply to her with a Spike-like scowl on his face, but when he saw exasperated face he smiled. "I'm sorry Miss.er, uh, Dawn. I don't know what came over me to act so rudely and rashly. I feel as if there is nothing I can do and that I'm trapped. I've never done well with that feeling. I almost always walk out of where I am, determined to catch some fresh air and be with my thoughts. My Mother and Father, have always said it was one of my largest faults and would get me in trouble some day."
"No problem-o.and Spike does it too, so I don't think you ever get over it." She quickened her pace as she remembered something. "Spike likes these English roses in the park. He told me so this summer. I bet you'll like them too. We've got a little time before sunset. We can just go over to the Magic Box after the park. I bet I can give you a tour or something. It's pretty cool."
Andrew collapsed holding on to his staff. He was exhausted from the demon raising.
"Perfect," Warren said.
That evening everyone reconvened in the Magic Box. Dawn was giving William a tour of the shop. Enjoying the continued role of babysitter. The rest of the group was hanging around the counter. Spike hadn't shown up yet.
"But I'll think he'll be here soon. He really didn't like the idea of William walking around unsupervised. I pointed out that we weren't going to let him go anywhere with out someone with him, but Spike just said that's exactly what he meant."
"I'm not surprised," Willow said. "Having a double of you walking around isn't a barrel o' fun." Buffy and Xander nodded in agreement. "William was really helpful today, though."
"Yeah. He's really good with translation. He can just study for hours." Tara smiled. "He even gave Willow a run for her money."
The bell over the front door rang and Spike walked over to the counter tense and to the point, "Did you find out anything important? Anything that would send him home, Red?"
"Well yeah, it looks like it'll be easy. We need to so the final preparations, but the spell it's self is easy."
"And hello to you too, Mr. Late-Vampire. Hey, why didn't you ever tell us you could help us research?" Xander said.
Spike shrugged trying to assume a relaxed pose resting on the counter. "Readin', writin' and studyin' are not exactly highly prized job qualifications for a vamp. As for helping you, well that's only been for the last few months, hasn't it? Before that I would have loved a Big Bad ending for everyone." He paused and realized that he needed to backpedal. "Not that I wouldn't still love for you all to be maimed to death. Gah, I'm going to go smoke." He walked right out again.
"Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the crypt." Xander said. He glanced over at Dawn and William. "He seems to really like Dawn, just like Spike."
"They went out this afternoon. I think she liked the attention. He told me that she reminded him of his younger sister, Sarah." Dawn was holding up a statue of Inanna and William was laughing.
A sudden giant crash made the Scoobies look to the back of the shop. The door to the training room had been ripped off its hinges and crashed to the ground. A huge green monster had broken down the door to the training room and was heading towards William and Dawn. It was built like a very large football player but covered in fur and had weird yellow, glowing eyes.
"My store!" Anya yelled.
"Dawn!" Buffy yelled. Before she could move William jumped in front of Dawn and grabbed one of the swords that was lying near him on the table waiting, to be polished.
"Hey, those are for retail!" Anya said to William. "If you ruin it, you pay for it."
He didn't seem totally unused to holding a sword, but when he tried to thrust at the monster it brushed him aside and he smacked into bookshelf.
Spike heard the shouting and threw his cigarette to the ground. He ran in the door and over to the monster just as William was knocked down. Buffy reached for the monster and punched it hard. The Gramble demon was shaken and turned its rage on the Slayer. She asked the room, "how do I kill it?"
Spike jumped up on its back and looked right in Buffy's eyes, "like this, love." With one swift movement he broke the monsters neck. He hopped off as the demon fell to the ground and melted into a thick pile of purple goo with bits of green hair in it. It smelled like rotten eggs.
"Oh, gross. Why can't they all go poof like vamps?" Buffy complained.
Anya moved towards the back room and grabbed a mop. She handed it to Buffy, "you slay it you get to clean it up."
"But Spike killed it."
"And if I thought I could get him to clean it up then I would, but you're a close second."
"Don't worry Buffy, we'll help." Willow walked over. "Ewwww, monster ick."
Spike walked over to his double who was still slumped on the floor by the bookshelf. He could hear a steady pulse and the breathing was solid. Nothing was hurt too much.
Buffy looked over at the pair, "Thank you, uh, both. No really, you helped a lot." She looked at Spike, "and now you get to help me clean up monster goo."
"Oi! I got to take care of my self here. You know, make sure he's not injured or anything."
William looked up at Spike and Buffy, he cocked his head slightly and grinned, "oh, no I feel fine, just a tad winded. I wouldn't want to get in your way and interfere with you helping the lady."
"Great, see Spike, he's fine. Now help clean up."
"Cheeky bugger, wasn't I?" He looked at the Slayer, "Am I always that annoying?"
"Damn it. Every time we get close to really getting the Slayer, she always manages to save the day. How does she do it?" Warren asked. The camera had been knocked over the previous night and the whole fight had been blurry and hard to watch, but he knew that they had killed the demon.
"It was your fault, that demon wasn't strong enough." Jonathan said turning to Andrew. He picked up a slender piece of dyed wood covered in engravings. "This is a stupid shaman's stick!"
"Stop touching my magic wood!" Andrew said as he ran over to Jonathan. The other two smirked at the entendre. But Andrew grabbed the smaller man and pulled him into a headlock. "If your spell had done anything then the demon I conjured would have been enough. It's all your fault."
"It's both of your fault." Warren said, still half-laughing from the "magic wood" comment, he ran over and tackled them both. They wrestled on the floor. Since none of them actually knew anything about fighting most of the fight amounted to rolling around on top of each other.
Andrew finally managed to grab the shaman's stick away from Jonathan. He jumped up from the scuffle on the floor triumphantly and walked over to his corner of the basement. Jonathan was lying on the floor gulping for breath and Warren was standing up.
"Okay, Slayer, you've won this battle, but not the war."
"Warren? How can we win the war if we keep losing all the battles?"
"Shut up, Andrew."
"But..."
"Shut up!"
"There have been too many weird occurrences lately. I wonder if they're all connected to that black van that we saw a couple days ago. Repeating hours, diamond eating ice monsters, and lots of demon attacks. Way weird. I hate doing research, but maybe we should start. Well, after we send William home, that's gotta happen first." Buffy was beginning to babble so she decided to stop. Turing to Tara she said, "How is he?"
Tara, who had been checking William for injuries, looked at Buffy, "he's not bad, but he does have a fever. I'm pretty sure that it has to do more with the sickness from before then the fight we just had."
"I'm fine, just a little shaken from the fight." William said and tried to stand up, and failed spectacularly as he fell down beside Tara. "I think I'll just sit here for awhile."
"Well you need to rest so that you'll be okay when we do the spell to get you home." Tara smiled at William.
"Which means there's a way to send him home." Spike tried to scowl and build up his anger like armor; instead he came across as tired and sad.
Willow ignored Spike and walked over to her girlfriend and pulled gently at her arm. "Tara, could you help me with the spell?"
"Sure.hold on." she looked up and Willow nodded.
She continued. "Oh, I know, Spike can take care of him. He knows what William needs better then any one else here does." She smiled at Spike.
He rolled his eyes but Spike didn't fight the suggestion. He just went over the younger version of himself and stood there awkwardly. "Is there anything you need, mate?"
"You've been ignoring me the whole time I've been here. Why are you so pained to have me here, am I really that bad?" His voice wavered. Everything just piled on top of itself. First he had been in a strange place with even more strange people. Then he had found his doppelganger there too, but the whole time he had been here Spike had not said more then a few words with him. He had wanted to ask so many questions. At least last night he had acted more friendly.
Spike was annoyed that William was asking stupid personal questions in front of the people who could use it against him later. "You and I, we're very different. Like day and night."
"We're not so different. They way you dress and talk have changed, but that makes some sense. But the way you walk, they way you are friends with Miss Dawn. I even see it in you when you look at Miss Summers. You look at her like I look at Miss Add."
"Don't say her name!" With the outburst everyone in the shop looked towards Spike and William. "She was a cruel, heartless bitch and deserved all the horrible things that happened to her."
"No!" William's eyes went wide with horror. He knew that Spike was a monster, a vampire, but the thought that he might have hurt Miss Addams was more then he could bear. What if he had hurt his Mother, or Sarah?
"Shut up, you stupid git!" He crouched next to his counterpart, his body taut and his face scowling, and whispered in his ears, "I never hurt her, I wasn't interested in her after I met Dru. She hurt herself plenty. She was stupid and paid the price for it." William blinked in surprise. He thought that Spike had wanted to hurt him, but the voice was soft and full of pain.
"Spike, stop scaring yourself." Xander said. "That sentence was just not right."
Tara walked over to William trying to diffuse the situation. "We're almost ready. So you can go over to the center of the circle if you want." He looked somewhat grateful, which she expected, but there was hesitancy in his face, like he wanted to speak to Spike more.
She walked William over into the middle of a circle of yellow candles. The witches motioned the rest to join hands around the outside of the circle. The next fifteen minutes were filled with silence as Tara and Willow began chanting and casting the protective circle. Then when Willow raised her hands and clapped three times saying, "William, by Mercury and Chronos, go back to where you came from, safe and unharmed." There was a popping noise and then William wasn't standing in the circle.
"That was it?" Spike said. "I thought there would be a lot more pain considering how fun it was when he came here."
"Oh, no, the pain was because the spell was using you as a focal point to bring him from the past, but he wanted to be back in his time. It was just an artificial bubble that was keeping him here; it was really easy to get him back."
Dropping his hands and leaving the circle Spike decided that was a good moment to leave. Hopefully they would all forget that this ever happened. Figuring this was the Hellmouth there would be some other baddie in a week or so to let everyone forget about this. He just had to lay low until then.
William woke up with a dreadful headache. He felt like he had just been in a fight and his fever was returning. He glanced around and looked for Sarah. Hadn't they just been out here together? It seemed like it was a day or so ago, or just last minute he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he had a very curious dream. He had been in the future, one where people dressed oddly and talked inappropriately. He had been there in the future; he was a monster and a man trapped in the same body. He shook his head. It had just been a dream, nothing more. It had to be, because nothing else made any sense.
"William, oh, you're awake!" He heard Sarah yell as she ran over the small knoll towards him. Behind her were Logan and Donald, some of the field servants.
The two men lifted William up from his sitting position. He tried to walk and failed, but he wouldn't let them carry him if he could help it. Which he realized he couldn't when his knees gave out on him and he fell down to the ground. He would have been embarrassed, but he was losing consciousness. Logan and Donald lifted the small man up and began the walk back to the mansion. Sarah was looking at her brother with large brown eyes.
"He'll be alright, won't he?"
"He'll be fine, Miss." Logan said. With that they set out to get to the manor. Turning to the little girl he continued, "Why don't you get the Doctor?" With that Sarah ran on towards the manor.
He wasn't sulking or brooding he decided. It would be too much like Angelus after the soul if he was doing that. He was just walking and thinking. That was all. It wasn't like he was still that bespeckled poet that had just been sent home. Bespeckled poet? No, he was not. He had stopped trying to be him over a century ago. He had left poems and romantic views of the world behind when he accepted what Dru had to offer him. The only respect he had ever had was from being Spike, the Scourge of Europe, and Slayer of Slayers. Except that most of the Scoobies had respected William, even if he was a geek, and they all still hated Spike. So where did that leave him? All that git had done was prove that he wasn't man enough for the Scoobies and the Slayer, but he wasn't monster enough to be the Big Bad.
He heard a thump and a muffled scream coming from behind the crypt to his left. Well a fight might be better then the non-brooding he was currently engaged in. He ran over to the noise. It was some stupid chit who looked like she had decided to walk alone through the graveyard at night. Part of him said just to leave her there to the fate she deserved, but he wanted a fight, and there was another smaller part of him that said he shouldn't.
"You know I hate it when other people kill in my cemetery, it's just rude."
They fledgling growled at Spike, it wouldn't be much of a fight, but never look a gift horse in the mouth. He reached over and punched the vamp on the face. It's head snapped back and it let go of the girl. "Run" he said, "Get to your house and don't ever go out alone at night, even the Bit knows that." The young one was on its feet. Spike knocked him down with a kick to the chest and charged the fledging as it got up again. The two were on the ground and rolling around. The younger one at least knew to take pot shots in the kidneys. Spike was somewhat pleased, but he was getting impatient. He grabbed a stake from the lining of his coat and pushed it through the young vamp's chest.
Spike stood up and dusted himself off. It was the worst part of killing vamps: all that dust. But at least it wasn't it one of the slimy demons, it was so hard to clean that stuff out of leather. Not to mention cleaning his hair, when he had no plumbing in his crypt.
He walked over to his crypt, which was mercifully close. He tossed his duster to the couch and thought about pouring himself some bourbon. He thought better of it and skipped the glass altogether. Feeling the hot, rich flame feed itself down his throat to his belly already made him feel a bit better. He smelled the alcohol wafting off the top of the bottle and smiled. His father and brother had both enjoyed bourbon. He shook his head and took another swig. Apparently, getting reacquainted with his human side had made him nostalgic. He decided that wasn't all bad, at least in the privacy of his crypt. He went downstairs and walked over to his tiny bookshelf. He reached down and picked up an old copy of On the Road. He had stolen it out of a library about 30 years ago, somewhere in New York. Kerouac was a poet who could fight and drink with the best of 'em. Somehow that was very appealing to him right now. He sat down on a small slab of stone and began reading it again.
By Kalifower
Disclaimer: All the characters and settings and everything else is purely owned by Joss and Co.
Comments: This takes place somewhere in the beginning of season 6. After Life Serial but before the musical. The Troika decide to mess with Spike but their plans go haywire. Don't you just love the way the Evil Trio can cause so much trouble, so badly?
He had spent most of the morning researching with Tara and Willow. Dawn hadn't actually seen any of the research. It had really just been beginning when she left for school. Grabbing her lunch that Buffy packed, she wondered if anyone else in the whole school ever had thoughts like hers. She knew they had the normal teenage thoughts, like "my parents suck," and "I'm the ugliest person in the world, no one will ever date me!" But did they have thoughts about the two lesbian witches studying how to send the pre-vamp Spike back in time? She thought probably not, but it was the Hellmouth, so who knew? She tried not to think about Spike and William and everything while she was at school, but honestly, it was more interesting than trig. She hoped that she could spend some time with William alone, hanging out. She figured that he would need a babysitter if he ever stopped researching and she was the perfect person to do that. Plus, it would be fun to be the babysitter instead of the babysat for once.
Three people sat at the dinning room table when Dawn came home. Willow was grinning from ear to ear. "What's with the big smiles?"
"Miss Rosenberg, Miss McClay and I have figured out how to send me back to my time."
Dawn smiled at the formality of his speech. It was so much fodder to tease Spike about when William was gone. He had been such a cute dork when he was human. "That's great!" She bounced over to him and stopped short, frowning. "Uh, not that I want you gone or anything. I just mean, you must be excited to get home." She hadn't meant to bound up to him, but she was excited about the whole situation and she bounced when she was happy. William looked somewhat taken back by her perkiness, but smiled at her.
"Yes, I am looking forward to going home. Everything is more confusing here then I could ever imagine. I feel very out of sorts." Dawn blinked a few times, it really was going to take some getting used to his speech, but if she spent some time with him, she could get used to it.
"Willow, can I take William out with me today? This afternoon. It's safe here in the daytime and stuff, I could take him to the park or the Espresso Pump or something."
"Well.considering all the time paradoxes we've already created I don't think walking around with William will do any more damage." She paused. "Of course, now that I said that we're all gonna to die because the universe collapsed on itself, but yeah, go out. Have fun. Tara and I will put the finishing touches on the spell preparation. He couldn't have helped with that anyway."
"Cool!" She grabbed William's hand and yanked him upstairs. "Just let me put my school stuff away and we'll go out. I'll take you to the Espresso Pump and offer you the marvels of modern coffee. Oh, except you're English, do you guys drink coffee? Then we can go to the park or something. I'd take you to the Bronze, but it's kinda closed in the daytime and I doubt they'd let you go with me at night." She kept dragging him down the hallway and into her room. She threw her bag down on the bed and it landed with a heavy thud. She got out her wallet from the front pocket and put in her small purse she had stolen from Hot Topic at the mall a few weeks ago. It was black and had a cute picture of a pink kitty on it. She liked the girly semi-punk look of it, and she'd thought Spike would approve of it. He had said something non-committal about it being nice and matching her clothes, but his voice had been warm. It was right before Buffy had come back, when Spike still acknowledged her existence. Since then both Buffy and Spike had been ignoring her, maybe William wouldn't.
She paused when she caught the uncomfortable expression on his face. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, uh, uh." he stammered.
A look of comprehension spread across her face. "You're uncomfortable because you're in my room, right?" He nodded a little. "That is so cool. It's like all those Masterpiece Theaters that I used to watch with Mom. Where everyone is so formal and guys can't be left alone with girls or everyone would think she was a ho." Her eyes widened in mock horror. "You don't think I'm a ho, do you?"
"I'm not exactly sure what a 'ho' is, but I am a bit uncomfortable being alone in young girls bedroom with her. It is unseemly."
"We can just leave, I've got everything I need."
Grabbing her arm in his, he gestured with his other hand sweeping it in front of them. "Let us be away then." Dawn giggled as they walked out the door. She couldn't believe Spike, or William, was acting silly.
The sun was shinning and Sunnydale was looking very southern California, warm and dry. The hills in the distance were still brown and the air was warm and windy from the Santa Anna winds blowing in from the desert. Dawn knew that she wasn't with Spike, and that William was human, but it hadn't sunk in exactly what that meant until she saw him in the sunlight. Sure, she'd seen Spike in the sunlight plenty of times, usually he was covered in a blanket and parts of him were on fire. But William was walking around and nothing about the sun bothered him. He wasn't on fire; in fact, he faced the sun and let it warm his body. She realized she was staring and began to drag William down the sidewalk.
"America is quite beautiful and strange. It's so warm here."
"I've never been to England, but I've heard that it's cold and rainy a lot. That's gotta suck."
"I don't think it.sucks," he dragged out the foreign sounding word. "I don't mind the gray weather, but I prefer this sun. It's quite wonderful."
"So you enjoy being here? With me?"
If William was surprised by the emotions playing below the surface of the questions he didn't show it. He did however, turn to face her and said, "Of course, you are one of the few people here who has shown me real kindness. I don't except much from others, so I was pleased that anyone cared."
Dawn had seen the same expression on Spike's face a few times this summer and hadn't been able to name it, but with William's words she knew it was loneliness. "I don't have many friends," he continued, "but it warms me to see that S-Spike has some."
"I know how that feels, which is why Spike and I get along so well. He doesn't have too many either, some demons and me."
"I'm glad that he has you. You seem a very kind and generous young lady, much like my sister. I do not find it difficult to believe that he would like you and want to protect you, since he is a champion. But what of the others? Surely, if he helps them he is friends with them."
She frowned. "It's kinda complicated. I mean sometimes they like him, but you know, or actually you don't know. He did some bad stuff in the past. To them too."
"They mentioned that last night, that I had done some horrible things. I just can't believe that I could commit horrible crimes. I am a good man."
"I know and in some ways so is Spike, but he has stuff going on. The same things that make him so strong, makes it hard for him not to want to hurt things. It's like the nature of what he is or something."
"Is it because he is a monster? I surmised as much from the conversation last night."
"Technically he's not a monster so much as a vampire. Like Dracula. And he has this thing, a chip, in his head now, and it makes him better"
"Dracula? A chip?"
"You know, the book, not the actual guy. Wasn't it written before 1878? I thought it might have been. Oh, well." She shrugged.
William looked confused and she realized he wore that expression a lot, tons more than Spike did. That must be 100 years of lag time did to a person. She slowed her pace as they neared the Espresso Pump. Toasted coffee beans and chocolate filled the air. Dawn loved that smell; she was defiantly trying to build up the coffee-drinking mystique. She had a fantasy about her and some coffee, a beret and Jackson from English. She shook her head, but she was with William and had to focus.
"I'm confused by this whole affair." He started. "I must admit this whole situation seems a dream to my mind."
"First, zuh? Second, um.there is no second. What does that mean?"
"I mean, that I feel like this is a dream. This can't be real, none of this. It's all my fevered mind, confusing me."
"Ohhh, is that all. That happens to everyone when they first learn about the Hellmouth. No one believes that it's real." She turned to the barrista, "one mocha and one earl gray tea."
William managed to blush from embarrassment and look unconvinced at the same time. "Miss Dawn, I do not have the money to pay for that."
"It's the 21st century now, I can pay, really. And please call me Dawn, that Miss thing is weird." She scanned the room for a few moments before grabbing a small table with two seats. "Speaking of, how is the 21st century? I mean, I noticed a lack of freak out about pretty much everything."
"There are strange things all around me, but it all seems like variations on what I already know from home." Looking as a woman walked by with an out-dated hankie shirt and hip huggers, he blushed and continued, "Although, some of the clothing is rather scandalous. Mostly, what I find difficult is the language. It is so different here. I find it difficult to understand what people are saying."
"Yeah, totally."
He shook his head. "I don't seem to understand this place's basic assumptions. You speak nonsense half the time. Which is somewhat excusable, it is a different country, and perhaps even a different time. And if it is a different time then I'm still alive, because I was turned into some murdering monster and now for some reason I'm no longer evil, but have chosen the path of the hero. It all makes no sense. If this isn't a dream I think I will go mad." As he spoke, William's voice had been rising; he had stood up and began pacing around their little table.
"Calm down! Really, people are looking." Dawn waved frantically at his abandoned seat. Lowering her voice, she continued. "Most people don't know about vampires and other monsters here either, they don't want to know. It was the same in your time. But it's true. Really."
William sat down and glared into his tea for a few minutes. Suddenly, he slammed it back and stood up again. "I need to move about and walk around. My head feels muddled and clumsy." Dawn took another sip of her coffee and felt her arm be grabbed by William. Apparently, sudden changes in temper were not a Spike thing only. "Where is the park that you mentioned earlier, perhaps walking someplace with a garden would help calm my mind."
He walked fast and she was about to have to run just to keep up with him. "Hey, you don't know where you're going. I'm the one who knows were the park is. So calm down, and walk a little slower."
He turned sharply to her with a Spike-like scowl on his face, but when he saw exasperated face he smiled. "I'm sorry Miss.er, uh, Dawn. I don't know what came over me to act so rudely and rashly. I feel as if there is nothing I can do and that I'm trapped. I've never done well with that feeling. I almost always walk out of where I am, determined to catch some fresh air and be with my thoughts. My Mother and Father, have always said it was one of my largest faults and would get me in trouble some day."
"No problem-o.and Spike does it too, so I don't think you ever get over it." She quickened her pace as she remembered something. "Spike likes these English roses in the park. He told me so this summer. I bet you'll like them too. We've got a little time before sunset. We can just go over to the Magic Box after the park. I bet I can give you a tour or something. It's pretty cool."
Andrew collapsed holding on to his staff. He was exhausted from the demon raising.
"Perfect," Warren said.
That evening everyone reconvened in the Magic Box. Dawn was giving William a tour of the shop. Enjoying the continued role of babysitter. The rest of the group was hanging around the counter. Spike hadn't shown up yet.
"But I'll think he'll be here soon. He really didn't like the idea of William walking around unsupervised. I pointed out that we weren't going to let him go anywhere with out someone with him, but Spike just said that's exactly what he meant."
"I'm not surprised," Willow said. "Having a double of you walking around isn't a barrel o' fun." Buffy and Xander nodded in agreement. "William was really helpful today, though."
"Yeah. He's really good with translation. He can just study for hours." Tara smiled. "He even gave Willow a run for her money."
The bell over the front door rang and Spike walked over to the counter tense and to the point, "Did you find out anything important? Anything that would send him home, Red?"
"Well yeah, it looks like it'll be easy. We need to so the final preparations, but the spell it's self is easy."
"And hello to you too, Mr. Late-Vampire. Hey, why didn't you ever tell us you could help us research?" Xander said.
Spike shrugged trying to assume a relaxed pose resting on the counter. "Readin', writin' and studyin' are not exactly highly prized job qualifications for a vamp. As for helping you, well that's only been for the last few months, hasn't it? Before that I would have loved a Big Bad ending for everyone." He paused and realized that he needed to backpedal. "Not that I wouldn't still love for you all to be maimed to death. Gah, I'm going to go smoke." He walked right out again.
"Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the crypt." Xander said. He glanced over at Dawn and William. "He seems to really like Dawn, just like Spike."
"They went out this afternoon. I think she liked the attention. He told me that she reminded him of his younger sister, Sarah." Dawn was holding up a statue of Inanna and William was laughing.
A sudden giant crash made the Scoobies look to the back of the shop. The door to the training room had been ripped off its hinges and crashed to the ground. A huge green monster had broken down the door to the training room and was heading towards William and Dawn. It was built like a very large football player but covered in fur and had weird yellow, glowing eyes.
"My store!" Anya yelled.
"Dawn!" Buffy yelled. Before she could move William jumped in front of Dawn and grabbed one of the swords that was lying near him on the table waiting, to be polished.
"Hey, those are for retail!" Anya said to William. "If you ruin it, you pay for it."
He didn't seem totally unused to holding a sword, but when he tried to thrust at the monster it brushed him aside and he smacked into bookshelf.
Spike heard the shouting and threw his cigarette to the ground. He ran in the door and over to the monster just as William was knocked down. Buffy reached for the monster and punched it hard. The Gramble demon was shaken and turned its rage on the Slayer. She asked the room, "how do I kill it?"
Spike jumped up on its back and looked right in Buffy's eyes, "like this, love." With one swift movement he broke the monsters neck. He hopped off as the demon fell to the ground and melted into a thick pile of purple goo with bits of green hair in it. It smelled like rotten eggs.
"Oh, gross. Why can't they all go poof like vamps?" Buffy complained.
Anya moved towards the back room and grabbed a mop. She handed it to Buffy, "you slay it you get to clean it up."
"But Spike killed it."
"And if I thought I could get him to clean it up then I would, but you're a close second."
"Don't worry Buffy, we'll help." Willow walked over. "Ewwww, monster ick."
Spike walked over to his double who was still slumped on the floor by the bookshelf. He could hear a steady pulse and the breathing was solid. Nothing was hurt too much.
Buffy looked over at the pair, "Thank you, uh, both. No really, you helped a lot." She looked at Spike, "and now you get to help me clean up monster goo."
"Oi! I got to take care of my self here. You know, make sure he's not injured or anything."
William looked up at Spike and Buffy, he cocked his head slightly and grinned, "oh, no I feel fine, just a tad winded. I wouldn't want to get in your way and interfere with you helping the lady."
"Great, see Spike, he's fine. Now help clean up."
"Cheeky bugger, wasn't I?" He looked at the Slayer, "Am I always that annoying?"
"Damn it. Every time we get close to really getting the Slayer, she always manages to save the day. How does she do it?" Warren asked. The camera had been knocked over the previous night and the whole fight had been blurry and hard to watch, but he knew that they had killed the demon.
"It was your fault, that demon wasn't strong enough." Jonathan said turning to Andrew. He picked up a slender piece of dyed wood covered in engravings. "This is a stupid shaman's stick!"
"Stop touching my magic wood!" Andrew said as he ran over to Jonathan. The other two smirked at the entendre. But Andrew grabbed the smaller man and pulled him into a headlock. "If your spell had done anything then the demon I conjured would have been enough. It's all your fault."
"It's both of your fault." Warren said, still half-laughing from the "magic wood" comment, he ran over and tackled them both. They wrestled on the floor. Since none of them actually knew anything about fighting most of the fight amounted to rolling around on top of each other.
Andrew finally managed to grab the shaman's stick away from Jonathan. He jumped up from the scuffle on the floor triumphantly and walked over to his corner of the basement. Jonathan was lying on the floor gulping for breath and Warren was standing up.
"Okay, Slayer, you've won this battle, but not the war."
"Warren? How can we win the war if we keep losing all the battles?"
"Shut up, Andrew."
"But..."
"Shut up!"
"There have been too many weird occurrences lately. I wonder if they're all connected to that black van that we saw a couple days ago. Repeating hours, diamond eating ice monsters, and lots of demon attacks. Way weird. I hate doing research, but maybe we should start. Well, after we send William home, that's gotta happen first." Buffy was beginning to babble so she decided to stop. Turing to Tara she said, "How is he?"
Tara, who had been checking William for injuries, looked at Buffy, "he's not bad, but he does have a fever. I'm pretty sure that it has to do more with the sickness from before then the fight we just had."
"I'm fine, just a little shaken from the fight." William said and tried to stand up, and failed spectacularly as he fell down beside Tara. "I think I'll just sit here for awhile."
"Well you need to rest so that you'll be okay when we do the spell to get you home." Tara smiled at William.
"Which means there's a way to send him home." Spike tried to scowl and build up his anger like armor; instead he came across as tired and sad.
Willow ignored Spike and walked over to her girlfriend and pulled gently at her arm. "Tara, could you help me with the spell?"
"Sure.hold on." she looked up and Willow nodded.
She continued. "Oh, I know, Spike can take care of him. He knows what William needs better then any one else here does." She smiled at Spike.
He rolled his eyes but Spike didn't fight the suggestion. He just went over the younger version of himself and stood there awkwardly. "Is there anything you need, mate?"
"You've been ignoring me the whole time I've been here. Why are you so pained to have me here, am I really that bad?" His voice wavered. Everything just piled on top of itself. First he had been in a strange place with even more strange people. Then he had found his doppelganger there too, but the whole time he had been here Spike had not said more then a few words with him. He had wanted to ask so many questions. At least last night he had acted more friendly.
Spike was annoyed that William was asking stupid personal questions in front of the people who could use it against him later. "You and I, we're very different. Like day and night."
"We're not so different. They way you dress and talk have changed, but that makes some sense. But the way you walk, they way you are friends with Miss Dawn. I even see it in you when you look at Miss Summers. You look at her like I look at Miss Add."
"Don't say her name!" With the outburst everyone in the shop looked towards Spike and William. "She was a cruel, heartless bitch and deserved all the horrible things that happened to her."
"No!" William's eyes went wide with horror. He knew that Spike was a monster, a vampire, but the thought that he might have hurt Miss Addams was more then he could bear. What if he had hurt his Mother, or Sarah?
"Shut up, you stupid git!" He crouched next to his counterpart, his body taut and his face scowling, and whispered in his ears, "I never hurt her, I wasn't interested in her after I met Dru. She hurt herself plenty. She was stupid and paid the price for it." William blinked in surprise. He thought that Spike had wanted to hurt him, but the voice was soft and full of pain.
"Spike, stop scaring yourself." Xander said. "That sentence was just not right."
Tara walked over to William trying to diffuse the situation. "We're almost ready. So you can go over to the center of the circle if you want." He looked somewhat grateful, which she expected, but there was hesitancy in his face, like he wanted to speak to Spike more.
She walked William over into the middle of a circle of yellow candles. The witches motioned the rest to join hands around the outside of the circle. The next fifteen minutes were filled with silence as Tara and Willow began chanting and casting the protective circle. Then when Willow raised her hands and clapped three times saying, "William, by Mercury and Chronos, go back to where you came from, safe and unharmed." There was a popping noise and then William wasn't standing in the circle.
"That was it?" Spike said. "I thought there would be a lot more pain considering how fun it was when he came here."
"Oh, no, the pain was because the spell was using you as a focal point to bring him from the past, but he wanted to be back in his time. It was just an artificial bubble that was keeping him here; it was really easy to get him back."
Dropping his hands and leaving the circle Spike decided that was a good moment to leave. Hopefully they would all forget that this ever happened. Figuring this was the Hellmouth there would be some other baddie in a week or so to let everyone forget about this. He just had to lay low until then.
William woke up with a dreadful headache. He felt like he had just been in a fight and his fever was returning. He glanced around and looked for Sarah. Hadn't they just been out here together? It seemed like it was a day or so ago, or just last minute he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he had a very curious dream. He had been in the future, one where people dressed oddly and talked inappropriately. He had been there in the future; he was a monster and a man trapped in the same body. He shook his head. It had just been a dream, nothing more. It had to be, because nothing else made any sense.
"William, oh, you're awake!" He heard Sarah yell as she ran over the small knoll towards him. Behind her were Logan and Donald, some of the field servants.
The two men lifted William up from his sitting position. He tried to walk and failed, but he wouldn't let them carry him if he could help it. Which he realized he couldn't when his knees gave out on him and he fell down to the ground. He would have been embarrassed, but he was losing consciousness. Logan and Donald lifted the small man up and began the walk back to the mansion. Sarah was looking at her brother with large brown eyes.
"He'll be alright, won't he?"
"He'll be fine, Miss." Logan said. With that they set out to get to the manor. Turning to the little girl he continued, "Why don't you get the Doctor?" With that Sarah ran on towards the manor.
He wasn't sulking or brooding he decided. It would be too much like Angelus after the soul if he was doing that. He was just walking and thinking. That was all. It wasn't like he was still that bespeckled poet that had just been sent home. Bespeckled poet? No, he was not. He had stopped trying to be him over a century ago. He had left poems and romantic views of the world behind when he accepted what Dru had to offer him. The only respect he had ever had was from being Spike, the Scourge of Europe, and Slayer of Slayers. Except that most of the Scoobies had respected William, even if he was a geek, and they all still hated Spike. So where did that leave him? All that git had done was prove that he wasn't man enough for the Scoobies and the Slayer, but he wasn't monster enough to be the Big Bad.
He heard a thump and a muffled scream coming from behind the crypt to his left. Well a fight might be better then the non-brooding he was currently engaged in. He ran over to the noise. It was some stupid chit who looked like she had decided to walk alone through the graveyard at night. Part of him said just to leave her there to the fate she deserved, but he wanted a fight, and there was another smaller part of him that said he shouldn't.
"You know I hate it when other people kill in my cemetery, it's just rude."
They fledgling growled at Spike, it wouldn't be much of a fight, but never look a gift horse in the mouth. He reached over and punched the vamp on the face. It's head snapped back and it let go of the girl. "Run" he said, "Get to your house and don't ever go out alone at night, even the Bit knows that." The young one was on its feet. Spike knocked him down with a kick to the chest and charged the fledging as it got up again. The two were on the ground and rolling around. The younger one at least knew to take pot shots in the kidneys. Spike was somewhat pleased, but he was getting impatient. He grabbed a stake from the lining of his coat and pushed it through the young vamp's chest.
Spike stood up and dusted himself off. It was the worst part of killing vamps: all that dust. But at least it wasn't it one of the slimy demons, it was so hard to clean that stuff out of leather. Not to mention cleaning his hair, when he had no plumbing in his crypt.
He walked over to his crypt, which was mercifully close. He tossed his duster to the couch and thought about pouring himself some bourbon. He thought better of it and skipped the glass altogether. Feeling the hot, rich flame feed itself down his throat to his belly already made him feel a bit better. He smelled the alcohol wafting off the top of the bottle and smiled. His father and brother had both enjoyed bourbon. He shook his head and took another swig. Apparently, getting reacquainted with his human side had made him nostalgic. He decided that wasn't all bad, at least in the privacy of his crypt. He went downstairs and walked over to his tiny bookshelf. He reached down and picked up an old copy of On the Road. He had stolen it out of a library about 30 years ago, somewhere in New York. Kerouac was a poet who could fight and drink with the best of 'em. Somehow that was very appealing to him right now. He sat down on a small slab of stone and began reading it again.