Disclaimer: The usual

Spoilers: BtVS through Chosen; AtS through Just Rewards.

True Nature

Chapter 4

When Wes and Giles returned half an hour later, they found Buffy curled up on the couch next to Spike, sleeping peacefully, as Spike gazed lovingly at her. When they walked in, he looked up, and gestured for them to be quiet.

"She wanted me to wake her up when you got back, but I hate to wake her when she looks so peaceful." He whispered.

"We'll just put this yogurt in the icebox, then." Wesley said, indicating the frozen chocolate yogurt, with sprinkles, no less.

"No, I'm awake." Buffy said sleepily, sitting up next to Spike.

"When did you wake up, luv." Spike looked at her, surprised that he hadn't realized she had awakened.

"Mmmm." She stretched. "As soon as I heard Wesley make a reference to food. Gimme." She reached out for the yogurt as Spike and Wesley smiled at her. Giles merely shook his head, a brief smile flitting across his face at her carefree behavior.

Buffy dug into the yogurt with gusto. She looked around as she ate. "Nice place."

She grinned as she took in the state-of-the-art entertainment center. "Very nice. Beats the hell out of the crypt, huh?" Spike laughed.

"But, why do you need a refrigerator? I mean, if you're all non-corporeal and stuff, then you don't eat, right?"

"No, but Wes does. Since my telly is much nicer than his, he hangs over here alot. You know, when he's not chasin' demons, or researching mystical trinkets.

"Besides, he always has to have his beer and flowering onion when he's watching his team get lucky." Spike grinned.

"Chelsea does not 'get lucky'. They're simply a better team." Wes retorted. "If any team gets lucky, it's Man U. Oh, but wait, they've already lost more matches than Chelsea, so I guess they're not so lucky after all." He smirked.

Spike opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Buffy interrupted him. "Wait, Wes eats that flowering onion thing?"

"Yeah, after I told him how brilliant it was. And Manchester United is the dog's bollocks, mate."

"You're both daft." Giles interjected. "The only team with any real character is the Tottenham Hotspurs."

Wes and Spike looked at Giles is dismay, then looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Buffy gaped at them. She couldn't believe it. They were acting like...guys. In all the years she'd known them, she'd never heard them talk about sports, or cars, or anything...guy-like. Now, they were talking about some sport like regular guys. She wondered...

"Uh, guys, what are you talking about?"

"Football." They answered in unison.

"Football?" Buffy asked incredulously. "Okay, I may not be much of a fan, but I do know that I have never heard of those teams, so unless there's some new..."

Spike sat down and put his arm around Buffy. "British football, luv. What you Yanks like to call soccer."

"Oh." Buffy blushed. Then she sat up, suddenly. "Spike! Your arm! I can feel it!"

"What?!" All three men looked at Spike's arm where it lay across Buffy's shoulders. But even as they looked, his arm slipped through her, as it became non-corporeal again.

"Bugger!"

"What happened? What were you doing differently?"

"Bloody hell! Nothing! I don't know!"

"Well, maybe it was unconscious. You know, like when Giles has me train with a blindfold on because sometimes our conscious mind can fool us."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "You suggesting I use the Force, luv?

Buffy smirked. "Hey, you're the one who's all go through-able, Obi-Wan."

Spike chuckled. "So, tell me what you're talkin' about."

"Well, when you touched me, it wasn't something you did out of any conscious thought. You were just trying to comfort me because you knew I was kind of embarrassed. You didn't think about it, you just did it. It's like second nature to you, to try to comfort me, or make me feel better."

"Actually, that idea has some merit." Giles said thoughtfully. "Spike has always been a creature of passion rather than intellect."

When everyone looked at him, he colored slightly and stammered, "I did, did not mean that as, as an insult. I merely meant that both he and, and Buffy have followed their hearts rather than their heads on more than one occasion and turned out to be right. Sometimes more often than those of us who try to do the 'rational' thing."

They all stood silently for a moment, then they nodded. Giles let out a soft sigh of relief.

Then Spike took a deep breath. "Well, since we've sort of tumbled to this subject. Whose idea was it to write the book?"

"Giles'" Buffy answered promptly.

Spike was stunned and made no attempt to keep his surprise out of his voice. "Really?"

"I don't blame you for being skeptical, Spike. But, Buffy told me about you sealing the Hellmouth, and Faith and the other Slayers told me their versions of what happened. And at that time, I also realized that, with the new training facility we've started we needed to replace and update as many records as possible, in light of the loss of the Council and its resources"

Spike noticed Wes looked as if he wanted to speak, but he remained silent.

"I decided to start by updating your history, not only because I believed it to be complete, and because I had so many eyewitness accounts, as well as my own records, but also because I realized that you are truly unique. And I felt that the new Slayers, and those to come should know about you."

Spike listened to him in silence. Giles walked over to him and extended his hand. "I was wrong, and I am truly sorry."

Spike cocked his head to one side and gazed at the man who had been like a father to Buffy. "Forgiven." He put his hand in Giles'. They were unable to shake hands, but the gesture was enough for both of them.

Buffy smiled. "Well, now, would someone care to explain to me what has been going on around here, since I seem to be the only one in the dark here?"

Spike shrugged and looked helplessly at Wesley, who rolled his eyes, but responded, nonetheless.

"About three weeks after your final battle with the First, Angel received a package, no return address, and no indication of what it was or where it came from. When he opened it, an amulet fell out onto the floor. It immediately emitted a magical energy that swirled up around it and turned into Spike.

"We discovered almost immediately that he was non-corporeal, and well, we've been running tests on him ever since, trying to determine just what is going on with him. So far, we have been able to determine that, while he is non-corporeal, he is not a real ghost. His essence is linked to the amulet. And although we do not know who sent the amulet to Angel, we do know that Spike cannot leave Wolfram and Hart, and if the amulet is destroyed, Spike will be as well."

"Excuse me?!"

"Spike's essence is trapped within the amulet, so if it is destroyed, so is he."

"You've had him here all this time, and you haven't figured out how to release him? Why didn't you call me? Oh, wait, that's right, Angel." She pulled her cell phone out of her purse. "I'll just call Willow and get her to do her Witchy Woman thing and release him from that amulet."

Wes placed a gentle hand on Buffy's arm. "Buffy, we have witches, sorcerers, and mystics on staff here. They've looked for spells and rituals, but they haven't found anything that covers this. Like Rupert said, he's unique. But we haven't given up."

Buffy looked into Wesley's eyes and realized he was telling the truth. He would not stop trying to find a way to re-corporealize Spike.

She sighed deeply as she replaced her cell phone. "What can I do to help?" She sank deeper into the couch and crossed her arms.

Spike smiled softly as he watched her. He knew how hard it was for her to deal with something that she couldn't hit or kill. It was hard for him, too.

"Well, I know how you feel about this, but all we can do right now is...research."

Buffy groaned. "All right, if that's all we can do, where do I start?"

Wesley looked at Spike, then Giles, in surprise. He knew, from Giles' book and Spike's stories that Buffy had matured, but he had never really thought he'd see the day that Buffy would willingly research with nothing more than a half-hearted protest. He was truly stunned. Then again, he really had no room to cast stones, considering all the changes he, himself, had undergone.

"Well, I suppose the first step is to introduce you around so that everyone knows who you are and no one gives you any trouble if they see you walking around or looking for something."

Buffy nodded, as did Giles. They followed Wesley, with Spike walking next to Buffy.

As they walked out into the hallway, Wesley turned toward Giles. "Rupert, I may be able to help you out a bit with those missing and incomplete records."

"How so?"

"Ever heard of Rutherford Sirk?"

"Sounds familiar. I believe he was a Watcher. But, I think I remember hearing that he left before the First's agents destroyed the Council's headquarters."

"Yes, he did. And apparently he took quite a few valuable texts with him when he went. I've already seen the Deavandrine Codex, and I've no doubt he brought a number of others with him as well. I can watch for them and pass them onto you as I find them. And of course, you are always welcome to borrow anything we have here."

"Thank you, Wesley. That would be most helpful."

Buffy and Spike looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes and tried desperately to hold in their laughter at the formal manner with which the two men conducted themselves.

Wesley led them to the lab first. He looked around but didn't see Fred anywhere. Then he spotted the familiar, dark-haired young man in the lab coat. "Knox, do you know where Fred is?"

Knox looked up from his experiment. "Yes, sir. She's in the boss's office. Some kind of meeting."

Wes looked disturbed at that comment. But before he could turn away, Knox indicated the new arrivals. "Uh, sir. Not to be rude, and I know Spike is in here all the time, but we're not supposed to have..."

"Oh, these are friends of Angel's and mine. This is Rupert Giles and Buffy Summer."

Knox leaped off of his lab stool. "Buffy Summers, the Slayer. Wow, what a pleasure to meet you." He reached out and shook her hand.

Buffy responded automatically. Then she looked at him a little more closely. "Have we met before? You look very familiar."

Knox just smiled and waved his hand. "I get that all the time." Then he turned to Giles. "And you must be her Watcher, the one who wrote the book?"

Giles nodded. "Yes, so you've read my book?"

Knox nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah. I think everybody here has. It has been the hot topic for the past few days. There must be two dozen copies floating around here." He leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially. "Somebody found a couple copies at this occult store downtown and bought 'em. So, they shared 'em, then the people they shared 'em with passed 'em on, and then the people who didn't want to wait went out looking for their own copies, and if they couldn't find one, they ordered 'em, with overnight delivery. I heard people even got friends and family in other cities buying copies and overnighting them here." He smirked. "And I think a few of our employees may have invoked their knowledge of the dark arts to get their own copies."

Spike and Giles tried, unsuccessfully, to hide their smiles at everyone's obvious enthusiasm over the book. Wesley stayed focused. "Do you know what the meeting was about?"

Knox shrugged. "No, but Angel seemed pretty ticked off about something."

Wes looked at Giles and Spike, still smirking proudly, and then turned his gaze to Buffy, who looked just as annoyed as he felt. "I'll give you three guesses what's got Angel so angry."

Buffy slid her glance toward the other two British men in the room and nodded her agreement.

TBC