Spike has left Sunnydale after his attempted attack on Buffy. He needs to stop and think before he goes to get his soul back. This is a Buffy/Dr Who crossover.
This story is based on the idea that Spike once spent some time travelling with the Doctor and Jamie.
Firstly a credit, a long time ago I read a very funny story about Spike travelling with the 2nd Doctor. Although this story is completely independent of that story it is only fair that even though I cannot now find that story to credit the author to say whoever you are you are credited here.
Ticket to oblivion. . . .
Spike sat astride his bike with his thighs clasping tightly to the vehicle as it sped its way along the dusty track road. The rush of air across his face was blowing particles of dust and filth into his eyes and mouth but he just clenched his teeth and accelerated harder. He could see his destination in the distance and a recognisable shape sitting incongruously in the desert.
He had had it with Sunnydale and he had plans. He would go to seek out those who could return him to what he used to be. But he needed to be sure, needed to know that he was making the right choice. To do that he needed space and time. HA, what an appropriate term, he needed space and time to get away and consider. So he would take a journey, twice round eternity and back in time for tea.
The bike decelerated fast and came to a sudden halt causing a cloud of dust to rise around it and it's driver. Spike climbed off and emerged from the cloud to walk towards a small mound surrounded but medium sized orange trees weighed down with copious amounts of fruit. Spike was aware that the trees were totally out of place in this desert environment and should by all rights be dead.
A man dressed in elegant but old-fashioned clothes stood beneath the branches of one of the trees peeling an orange. Spike looked carefully at him, the face and body was new but manner of the man was indisputable. Spike walked slowly towards him, kicking the dust with his feet as he walked. He looked the man up and down. The guy was still short but seemed much younger, he had the same penetrating blue eyes but his hair was curly and bouncing on his shoulders rather than sitting like a black beetle's mop on top of his head.
"What do you think of my little garden?" said the man moving towards Spike.
The voice was English and had a slight Liverpudlian tone to it.
As he approached the guy slipped the orange into the pocket of the dark velvet frock coat he was wearing and held out his hand for Spike to shake. Spike tilted his head to the side and examined the man again. The wing collar and cravat seemed a little excessive but he liked the intricately decorated waistcoat, it would go well with his own ankle length leather jacket.
"Doc, is it really you?" said Spike.
"Oh definitely, a little older and wiser but still as daft" said the man.
"You've changed"
"I hoped you wouldn't notice" his eyebrows rose apologetically.
"Which body is it?" asked Spike trying to make polite conversation.
"Oh" said the Doctor looking down at himself "number eight"
"And when we last met?"
"That one, that was number two".
Spike nodded and looked past the Doctor at the tall blue box sitting on the top of the mound.
"The TARDIS hasn't changed" Spike said pointing at the box.
"No she hasn't, she's much more reliable than I am".
"I'm surprised you got here first"
"Not that difficult really, I just kept an eye on the garden. I knew you would come here at some point. When I noticed you had arrived it was easy to nip back ten minutes and get here before you"
Spike nodded again.
"Look Doc, you promised that if I ever needed help, that I should just turn up here and you would be here waiting for me, well I need help"
The Doctor nodded reassuringly.
"Of course, that's why I'm here. Whatever you want, just let me know" he paused "as long as it doesn't involve railway spikes"
Spike smiled.
"No, it doesn't, look Doc, I need to get away from this place"
The Doctor frowned "what have you done, are you on the run again?"
"No nothing like that, I don't, can't hunt anymore" Spike pressed his palm against his forehead.
"Right, the chip" said the Doctor.
Spike wondered how the Doctor knew about the chip, but knowing the Doctor he probably even knew what he had for breakfast.
"Spicy Chicken wings," said the Doctor.
Spike thought for a second, could he read minds now.
"No, not really it's just that chip is broadcasting your thoughts to anyone who's listening on the right wavelength" replied the Doctor to Spikes unspoken question.
"Right, so you probably already know what I'm going to ask but can I….."
"Travel with me for a while" interrupted the Doctor "of course you can, I just have a few stops to make, other promises to keep and now seems as good a time as any"
Spike nodded and indicated for the Doctor to lead the way.
The two men marched up the mound to the box. Spike looked at the familiar writing across it's top, below the flashing blue light.
POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX
The Doctor pulled a key from his waistcoat pocket and inserted it in to a lock on one of the double doors.
"Ready?" he said.
When Spike nodded the Doctor pushed the doors open and went inside. Spike looked back at the desert for one last time and stepped into the box.
The last time Spike had been inside the TARDIS the inside had been bigger than the outside. It still was but it had been a gleaming white space with roundels on the walls and 1960's type dials on the central hexagonal console. Now the interior was more like a cross between a gothic cathedral and a Victorian gentleman's club. The console was still in the middle of the massive space but the console itself seemed smaller and was now wooden. The central column in the middle of the console was now much bigger and connected with the metal girders that surrounded and stretched above the platform on which the console stood.
Spike stepped down from the entrance and followed the Doctor over to the console. The Doctor shut the interior doors and started pressing buttons and twiddling dials. A wheezing noise like the wailing of deep voiced banshees seemed to rise from the depths of the earth. Spike recognised this as the sound of the Tardis dematerialising; they were on the move. The Doctor looked up from the controls and smiled.
"You've redecorated," said Spike.
"Just a little" replied the Doctor suppressing a chuckle.
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James Robert Mcrimmon grasped the oar as tightly as he could. He was halfway between the mainland and the island; the last thing he needed now was a storm.
"Go away" he shouted at the dark clouds hanging threateningly in the sky.
Still he kept paddling away trying to get to the island before the storm came. He knew he would not make it. Just his luck.
Culloden was now six months in the past and he was still on the run. The island was a place to hide and rest. A place to pause for the first time in six months and think in peace. After the battle he had found himself alone on a patch of heath land and had needed to chase of a redcoat to get away. How he had got there he could not remember it was like a gaping black void in his mind. He had felt different too. He could not explain how but he felt older more experienced but he did not know how. It was puzzle and he needed to be alone to get his head around it.
The Storm was rising; he could feel the boat beginning to rock as the wind started to cut more deeply. He dropped the oar in to the bottom of the boat and held on to the sides to steady himself against the now violent rocking. Suddenly the heavens opened and heave rain and hail began to fall. Jamie gritted his teeth against the cold. A massive wave came at the boat from nowhere and Jamie found himself thrashing in the sea his boat upturned and out of reach. Jamie closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle.
Suddenly a noise like wailing banshees seemed to rise up from the depths of the sea. Jamie opened his eyes as the noise stopped. Hovering about three feet above the water was a large blue box. The Box had doors and the doors were open. Two men leaned out of the box and offered him their hands.
"Come on Jamie boy" said the one with yellow hair in an English voice.
Jamie weighed up his options, drowning in the sea or falling into the hands of English flying devils. Before he could make up his mind he felt them grab him by the shoulders and pull him out of the water and into the box. Jamie shook himself free of their grasp and looked at his surroundings. He was just considering how a room so big could fit into a small blue flying box when he passed out.
Jamie opened one eye; he was lying on long soft seat pretending to still be unconscious. He looked at the two men talking to each other on the other side of the room. He did not know where he was or how he had got here. He was frightened but he was not going to admit that, not even to himself. All in all he wished he was back in the water.
"He's awake," said Spike watching Jamie out of the corner of his eye.
"I know" said the Doctor "It's better he doesn't know we know that yet"
Spike looked at the Doctor quizzically. He was holding a very peculiar looking piece of equipment with what looked like a large red light bulb on one end.
"What is that thing"
"A Neural de-inhibitor" replied the Doctor.
"A neural what?"
"Well alright, I made the name up, but it sort of suggests what it does" he paused "possibly".
"Look, Spike I am very grateful for your help with Jamie"
"That's OK, I sorta like the little puff".
The Doctor tutted but continued.
"I've got something for you as a thank you"
Spike shifted uncomfortably as he watched the Doctor start rummaging in his pockets with his free hand.
"Ah-Ha" said the Doctor as he pulled something out.
"Oh" he said when he pulled out the orange he had put there earlier.
"No not that" Spike smiled.
The Doctor started rummaging again and finally pilled out a small silver bracelet and slipped it over Spike's wrist.
"It's a Galifreyan Sundancer Band," said the Doctor "It allows Vampires to walk in sunlight. I would never have given it to you before, but now with the chip I suppose it's safe"
Spike looked at the silver band in wonder and then a thought stuck him.
"Thanks Doc" he said ruffling the Doctors hair "But, why is a guy like you, who spends his life helping others helping a murderous scumbag like me and why would Galifeyans need a bracelet that allows Vampires to walk in the sun?"
"Well, to the first part of that I think you answered your own question and to the second, let's just say Timelords and Vampires have more in common that you might think".
This opened up a whole set of new questions but Spike thought these could wait. Better to just accept the gift and enjoy the light. The Doctor was moving towards Jamie.
Jamie saw the two men coming towards him. He was going to surprise them then take one hostage. He started to fumble for his knife. But he could not find it and when he opened his eyes he found the Doctor suddenly standing over him.
"Hello, Jamie" he said "now just relax and it will soon be over"
" No, get that dirty thing away from me" he yelled pointing at the thing with a red bulb on the end.
The bulb flashed into his eyes and Jamie was once again unconscious.
"Now that should do it," said the Doctor.
"Do what?" asked Spike.
The Doctor explained that some time after Spike had left the Tardis last the Doctor, Jamie and another friend called Zoe who Spike did not know had been captured by the Doctor's own people. They had not taken kindly to the Doctor's gallivanting about and tampering with other world's histories and had exiled him to earth. Jamie and the girl had been returned to their own times and had their memories of their time with the Doctor erased.
"This" said the Doctor waving the device he had used on Jamie "will reverse that and return his memories"
Spike looked at Jamie; this was going to be fun.
----------------------
The Doctor was holding Jamie under the arms and Spike held him under the knees. Spike resisted the urge to solve the age old mystery of what a Scotsman wears under his kilt. They were carrying Jamie down a long panelled corridor with doors and passageways leading off in all directions. Spike thought that the Tardis seemed even bigger inside that it did the last time he was there.
"I think this is the one" said the Doctor pushing a door open with his behind.
Spike gasped and almost dropped Jamie as he stepped through in to the room. He thought that room was not the right word to describe what he saw. The space was massive, the walls and ceiling were to far away to make out and the floor disappeared in to the endless distance, the ground was covered in soft green grass and when he looked back at the door he had just passed trough it appeared to be standing independently like a portal back in to another world.
"What is this place?" he asked.
"Just a spare room" said the Doctor "I thought it would be a nice place for him to wake up".
Spike did not remember spare rooms like this from the last time he had been onboard.
Jamie opened his eyes; the sky seemed very distant. It was a blue shade of white, unusual but not unknown. Jamie felt that he remembered something but could not think what, his mind seemed full of information that felt familiar but was not there before. He felt confused. He decided that the best course of action was to sit up and see where he was, but still he did not move. Perhaps he was dead, he thought he was going to drown when he fell out of the boat. Yes that must be it. That would explain why they was no breeze or sun in the sky.
He let his head fall so that his cheek was resting on the grass. Grass? Was there grass in heaven? Jamie moved his hand and felt the soft green blades between his fingers. Maybe he had made it to the island after all and everything else was a hallucination. He looked at the horizon to see if could see where he had come ashore. Oh, thought Jamie, there was no horizon. The sky and the ground just seemed to merge at a distance too far off to see. That was very odd. Jamie had been to the tops of mountains, the middle of broad oceans and to strange alien planets but he could always see some form of horizon. Wait, where had that thought come from? How could he have visited another planet, how could anyone travel among the stars? Suddenly he remembered.
"Doctor" he cried.
"Mornin' Jamie boy" said a London accent.
Jamie sat bolt upright and looked around for the source of the voice. About twenty feet away a guy with yellow hair and wearing a long leather coat sat cross-legged watching him.
"Spike, is that you, where is the Doctor?"
"Just the other side of that door" said Spike.
Jamie looked where Spike was pointing. Sure enough there was a closed door standing there in the middle of the grass. He turned and looked at Spike again.
"Where is he, where's Zoe, where am I, what happened to me?"
"Whoa Mr twenty questions, one thing at a time".
"No w listen choirboy, the Doctor came back for you and is waiting to see you. But he's changed you see, doesn't look the same as you remember him. He thought it best that I was here, a face you know" said Spike.
"I don't trust you, I want to see him, NOW"
"It's Ok Spike, I'll take over from here" said the Doctor.
Spike got up and walked out the door the Doctor had just come through. Jamie caught a glimpse of the corridor before Spike closed it behind him. The Doctor kneeled in front of Jamie and smiled.
"Hello Jamie" he said gently.
"Who are ye, where am I?" Jamie said.
"Its me Jamie, the Doctor. You're safe at home. This is the Tardis".
"Tardis, no I don't remember this and your certainly not the Doctor".
"Ah, this is going to take a lot of explaining"
The Doctor swung his legs round so he was sitting cross-legged and started to talk.
To be continued….