A/N: Another good response to my work. Wow, if you people keep this up I might actually believe you like the fic... A few questions arose over the last few chapters. Here are the answers. Romance is on the way. How can we have a fic with this situation and not have romance? Second, Tara did blab, Glory convinced Ben that William was the Key. Anything else should be covered in fic.

Disclaimer: You haven't figured it out by now? It's, what? Ten chapters in? I don't do normal...

Last time, on Crushed: William got kidnapped. Glory argued with Ben. The Scoobies assembled. Buffy fought Glory. Spike got thrown off the platform on the tower. Poor Spike. William got cut. Poor William. Buffy killed Doc. Yay Buffy. Buffy didn't die. Yay me.

Injuries, confusion and dilemmas

Joyce Summers scraped the scrambled eggs out of the pan, onto a plate. She looked at the assortment of food on the bed tray. Eggs, bacon, hash browns, sausages, toast, some coffee, some tea, some orange juice and a muffin.

She may be overcompensating, but the young Englishman had saved her daughter. Buffy had told her how William had pretended to be the Key to save Dawn. It had earned him a new fan.

Dawn had not left his side since they had brought him back to the Summers home. He had been insisting non-stop that he did not need to stay here. At least until both Buffy and Dawn had pointed out that he had no where else to go. Joyce had just gone and gotten him some warm tea, to help him calm down.

Picking up the tray, Joyce head into Dawn's room, where William had been put by the younger Summers women. She backed through the door, pushing it wide open, and deposited the tray gently on the beside table.

He sat in the bed, where Buffy had deposited him before she left half an hour ago. Dawn, having gotten the story of what happened, had grabbed a stool from the kitchen and had parked herself beside the bed and was busy trying to entertain the injured young man.

"Mrs. Summers, this is too much. Really. You don't need to do any of this." He assured her earnestly. He really was too sweet. Joyce smiled at the boy gently, then pushed the food closer to him.

Alexander Lavelle Harris has a moral dilemma. This is uncommon for him. His world had remained relatively simple throughout his life. The lines were almost always clear as to who was treated how. Him, Willow, Jesse, and later, Buffy. His whole life revolved around his friends.

Only, those lines had been getting blurry as he got older. First had come the knowledge that vampires existed, but that wasn't too bad. 'Vampires = Evil' was simple enough math for Xander Harris. Then he had other maths formulas come up that caused trouble to his beliefs. 'Cordelia = Evil Hellbitch' turned into 'Cordelia = Girlfriend' which then turned into 'Cordelia = Wrathful Ex-Girlfriend'.

'Willow = Best Friend' turned into 'Willow = Illicit Smoochies Partner', then back again. Then there was the whole Angel dilemma. Good vampire and all. That still wasn't too bad. 'Vampires = Evil' became 'Vampires = Evil Except When Have Soul'. Even if the math had become a little more complex, it was still basically good.

Only now he had another problem. Spike. An evil, assumedly, soulless, self admittedly, vampire who did good things. First there was the whole, 'get tortured by the Hellgod and then not ask for anything' incident, as Xander had been calling it. He was seriously considering getting a shorter name for this incident.

But hey, Xander had reasoned. He just wants to get into Buffy's pants and it was far more likely to get into them by not being a grade A jerk. Only, then there was the 'attempting to save hated alter ego from Hellgod's minions, getting injured in process and then not even attempting to stick around and get credit from Buffy' incident. Xander was looking for a smaller name for this event as well.

There was no way Xander could reasonably justify this to himself. At first he had thought that the vampire had disappeared because the sun was about to rise, ignoring the knowledge that the sun had never stopped the vampire from annoying Buffy before and wouldn't start then.

Only, Spike hadn't showed an hour after sunset. It was a fourteen minute walk to the Restfield Cemetery, less if you were an evil, supernatural creature of the night. Xander had checked. It just didn't play out.

If Spike were only interested in getting into Buffy's pants, he would have capitalised on such a good chance for him. Buffy and the others would be grateful for his aid in rescuing William, and he'd have a better shot than he would usually.

This pointed to the fact that he actually loved Buffy, he was stupid and/or he was plotting something. Only, the first one couldn't be true. He didn't have a soul. But Spike was not stupid either, even though all his plans had fallen apart, and if her were plotting against them, he would have taken the opportunity to blend into the group more.

Shaking his head, Xander decided that he would just finish delivering the pizzas like he was supposed to and trust that events would work out for the best.

Spike stared blackly at the opposite wall of his crypt. He was a bloody disgrace is what he was. The Slayer, his Slayer, had asked him to do one thing, to rescue the ponce, and what does he do? Get tossed off the bloody tower by some geriatric demon and smashed up all his ribs.

Of course, Buffy had saved the little nance. She always did. Never left anyone behind. Which only made his failure so much more evident. The Slayer hadn't even stopped at the bloody demon, just tossed him off the edge.

How many times had Spike said that if he was only given a chance he would prove himself to the Slayer? And the first time he gets that chance, what does he do? Get seven kinds of crap kicked out of him and fail her.

"Spike?"

And now the Slayer was here to tell him all about how pathetic and useless he was. He sank to the floor dejectedly, resting his weight carefully against the side of the sarcophagus.

"'m here, Slayer." the vampire wheezed carefully. "Here to stake me, then?" he asked as the small blonde wandered into the crypt. She just looked at him in confusion for a minute. Spike was shocked to see no stake in her hands. Almost every encounter he and the Slayer had ever had involved a stake in some way. Just never the way Spike wanted.

"Is that some masochistic vamp kick or something? Why would I stake you?" Buffy asked, puzzled. She watched as Spike leaned his head back against the sarcophagus and closed his eyes.

"For not saving boy wonder, for loving you, for being an evil vampire. Take your pick." he replied, his weariness echoed in his voice and bearing. Spike opened his eyes after a minute of not being staked and found himself looking into Buffy's green eyes.

"I'm not going to stake you." the Slayer told him solemnly. At Spike's hopeful look, she elaborated, "So long as you aren't being actively evil, killing or feeding off people or annoying me too much."

Buffy was entirely surprised by the emotion in Spike's eyes. She had no idea her words would have effected him like that. His face was completely blank, but his eyes were full of shock and adoration.

"You're not going to stake me?" he asked in an almost painfully hopeful tone. His eyes narrowed sharply as a thought occurred to him. "Or set me on fire, or drag me into the sun, or decapitate me, or douse me in holy water?"

Buffy rolled her eyes then shook her head. "Now, are you going to come to the victory party or are you going to stay here and brood?"

"I am not bloody brooding!" Spike roared, springing to his feet before groaning loudly.

Buffy looked at Spike blankly for a moment before asking softly, "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed by a little blood and a little booze." Spike replied in an artfully breezy tone. "Now, what was that about a party?"

William was incredibly uncomfortable. This 'post-apocalypse' party seemed to be a small gathering of friends, vastly different to what he associated with a party. For the most part, he was glad. He'd never fit in in his own time and he was happy he wasn't put in the same social situation in this one.

Of course, the flip side was that this gathering was infinitely more intimate, and his outsider status was made obvious. Willow and her friend Tara were talking softly near the table where Xander had put the pizzas. Xander and his new fiancé were talking animatedly next to the stereo. Buffy was conversing with her sister conspiratorially

, casting looks at him and Spike, while Mrs Summers and Rupert inserted the odd comment just as quietly.

His feeling of discomfort was not helped by having to stand with Spike. Not only was it disconcerting to try to talk to someone who looked very like you, he was in a foul mood this evening, glaring at everyone and everything that wasn't a Summers woman.

The problem had been compounded earlier, when Xander had attempted to talk to Spike. The vampire had just looked at the boy witheringly, before taking a long draught out of a flask he had been nursing all night. The young carpenter had just left at that point, and William had been loathe to follow. Not only were his new injuries somewhat painful, he did not want to inflict his presence on someone who did not want it. At least Spike deserved any discomfort he took from William's presence.

"I want to thank you," William began in a low tone, "for trying to save me on the tower." Spike glowered at the young man and opened his mouth to speak. "I know you did not do it to save me but because Buffy asked you but... it's still more than anyone else has done for me." he concluded faintly.

Spike looked at William intently for a moment. "I know" he said, just as softly. The two men, time traveller and vampire, connected with remembrance of past indignity. The tender moment was ruined when something one of the foursome said something that had Dawn giggling.

Finally growing tired of his exclusion, William walked over to Buffy, Joyce, Rupert and Dawn. Their voices grew more hushed as he approached, until he finally reached them. The four stared at him for a moment, before Buffy and Dawn looked at something that Rupert was holding and burst out in fresh giggles.

William's questioning glance was only answered by a vague gesture towards Rupert, who had a vaguely amused look on his face. When the older man nodded towards his hand, and held said hand out, William took a closer look.

It was a small, plastic card. Looking closer, he saw it had a picture of him in it. It must have been taken the day he had been given his 'makeover', as the girls insisted it be called, as his hair was gelled, which he had not done since.

Surely this was not what had the girls giggling. He stared at the card, looking for a reason why they would laugh now when they didn't before. William nearly jumped out of his skin when Spike, who had slunk up, exclaimed loudly,

"Oh sodding hell!"

It was then that William realised there was writing on the card. Apparently, this card identified someone, him, as William Giles. Giles. That is what they had been laughing at. His frantic, bewildered gaze shot up to the elder British man, who shrugged apologetically.

"It was the best I could do." Rupert murmured as the girls once more burst into laughter.

A/N: Sorry about how long that took. I had a lot of trouble with that chapter. I feel that the last two were far better, as this one seemed a little forced. Hope I don't disappoint,