Howdy! Hope you dig this chapter. Let me know if you've got questions or concerns. Thanks as always for reading and reviewing. It makes me happy. I hope typos aren't terrible. I'm totally digging writing this story YAY.

Part 6: Helping Friends

Angel sat on the bed in his hotel room, cell phone firmly pressed to his ear. He was busy trying to get a hold of his partners. He wanted some information on what happened to his brother and he now knew enough to get it.

"Angel investigations, Winifred speaking, how may I help you?"

"Fred, it's Angel, is Gunn back yet?"

"Hi Angel, yeah let me get him."

"No that's ok. Listen I want you two to do some research for me."

"Sure Angel what do you need?"

"I know this is weird, but I need you to find out what happened to my brother. Who was on his team. Where they were and what they were after. I really think it's the only way to help him and the Military isn't giving any of the information out."

"Sure Angel we can look into that no problem. How are you and your family doing?"

"We're alright Fred we'd all be better if we knew we could help Billy." Whoa now that was a name Angel hadn't used for Spike in a long time. Even after all these years it felt natural on his tongue. Billy. It was what their mother had called him. After she died it was Will or William, until the infamous day he had announced that from then on it would be Spike. Where in the world had that come from? Angel quested was to go with his then new blond locks and punk style. Angel laughed to himself. Spike hadn't always been reckless and wild. He had been a shy quiet boy, good and caring. Maybe that boy, Billy was long gone. But if Angel had anything to say about it his brother wasn't going to be lost.

"Angel you still there?"

"Huumm, What, yeah, Sorry Fred I must have zoned out."

**

"Dawn it's ok, really everything is going to be ok." Xander and Willow tried to console a very upset Dawn. She worried that she had hurt her friend and that Buffy and Giles were mad at her.

"I just didn't want him to be alone." Dawn rubbed her eyes and smeared her already running mascara.

**

Nurse Walsh entered the room sedative in hand. The patient, Agent Giles sat quivering on the bed. Mrs. Giles and his father Mr. Giles hovering around him trying in vain to be helpful.

"Stand back please." She pushed her way into the room like the old battle axe she was and moved right up to the bed. Agent Giles looked up at her with big eyes that she likened to a kicked puppy.

"What's that?" Mr. Giles made his way around the bed to this nurse he didn't entirely like.

"It's to sedate agent Giles who you all worked up so nicely. It's the nurses who are going to have to be in here all night watching him, so I'd rather have him sedated if it's all the same to you." Nurse Walsh flicked her syringe.

"Actually..." Giles and Buffy both started.

"Stop what you're doing Nurse Walsh." A round faced blond woman sweep into the room. And put a stop to the injection Nurse Walsh was about to administer.

Buffy sighed "Dr. McClay we're so glad you could make it." The new arrival hugged Buffy and Rupert.

Rupert smiled at the young woman she had been a promising student of his once, to see her so grown up and successful was a blessing "Tara, so wonderful of you to come."

"Anything I can do to help Giles." Tara turned back to the Nurse and the patient.

"I demand to know who you are and what authority you have in this hospital." Nurse Walsh did not like the idea of an outsider coming in and telling her what to do.

"I'm Dr. Tara McClay MD. I specialize in natural healing and Dr. Wydem Price has invited me at the request of the patient's family to come and work with him on this case. So you see I have a great deal of authority when it comes to William and there is to be no more use of sedating drugs. I'll take it from here Nurse you can go."

Tara stepped aside so the Nurse Walsh could exit. The nurse left the room in a huff. Tara ignored her.

"I don't think I like her very much, she gives off a bad vibe." Tara smiled reassuringly at the others. Her calm and caring attitude was already making Buffy feel better and Rupert felt better having a doctor he knew there.

**

Seeing William this way was hard. Tara and William had been in high school together. She never would have guessed then that someday they would be in this situation together. He had always been such a strong guy. Tara recalled as if it were yesterday the multiple times William had stuck up for her in school when other children were picking on the way she talked or dressed or something just as stupid. Now she could finally help him with something or she hoped she could help him anyway. All she could do now was try, hope, and pray.

**

"So what's happened here?" Tara asked Spike.

Spike stopped rocking and looked at her for a few seconds. He tried to place that face and that voice. It was coming from somewhere farther back in his memory than the other. He thought hard but it wasn't coming to him.

He studied her face, every line and birthmark. Her eyes were familiar but whose were they? Then she turned her head just so, causing a wisp of hair to fall over her eye and she brushed it away coolly.

TARA.

Tara was here. Why was Tara here? She hadn't more than crossed his mind in years. They couldn't know about Tara she was too long ago. They only ever conjured up people from his present.

It was really Tara.

It may have only been a small realization, but she meant all the world to a man who was sinking in his mind's own fog with nothing solid to grab hold of.

Tara walked over to William and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Buffy started to answer "dawn was in here and..." Tara hushed her.

"William, what's wrong." Spike hesitated for a moment.

"Tara?" He looked up with hopeful eyes.

"Yes, it's me. Can you tell me what's bothering you?" Tara started to rub his back.

"Don't want to hurt the girl." Spike put his head in his hands.

"No of course you don't, we all know you won't hurt anyone, Will."

Spike's head snapped back up "No, you're wrong. I've hurt people. I've hurt lots of people." The sound of his voice was so piteous and pleading that Buffy had to bite her lip to keep from going to him.

"What people have you hurt?" Tara looked back at Buffy and Giles hoping that they had an explanation for his words but their perplexed faces told her that they didn't know either.

"I've hurt lots of people. I had to do it. It's who I am. I didn't have a choice. It was life or death." Spike started rock and shaking his head vigorously.

"SShhh, SShhh. I understand. William you're a solder. You follow orders. If people get hurt, it's not your fault. You don't hurt people on purpose. You wouldn't hurt the girl. It's not who you are." Tara tried to hold him still, tried to get her words to sink in.

"No, no. I hurt them. I tried to be good, tried to do what was right. I didn't follow orders. Went against what I was supposed to do. That's when people get hurt, when I got..." Tara, Buffy, and Giles all leaned in, waiting, expecting some big revelation. But Spike wasn't ready to give up his secret; he reverted back to his cadence of "don't hurt the girl."

Tara moved back from the bed. "It's alright, it's alright. You did well." Tara reached into her bag she had placed on the floor and pulled out a large thermos.

"William I want you to drink some of this tea, it will help you sleep." She looked to Buffy who was again at Spike's side. "Has he had any night mares?"

Buffy thought about it. "I don't think so but, he's been either comatose or heavily sedated since he's been here." Tara nodded her head knowingly.

"I guess we'll find out then."

**

The ever lurking Agent Finn was masterfully eavesdropping on Agent Giles's riddled tell all to Dr. McClay and he didn't like what he heard. That confession was a little to close for comfort. If Giles became even the slightest bit more lucid, the doctor and his family might be able to read between the lines and figure out what he was trying to tell them. The doctor had already shown surprising skill at it. Forrest wasn't going to be happy about this.

To be continued...