A/N : Thanx to the latest reviewers; spuffyfan-1, wickedangel3, magckrules2004, aphelant, velja, i luv spike, electricgurl. This chapter turns William into Spike - Enjoy! :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 7 - With A Little Help From My Friends
It was six weeks since William had first walked into Rippers garage with a wad of bills in his pocket and a nervous expression on his face. Now, here he was, sitting on the concrete floor of the building wearing a pair of overalls that were covered in grease as he worked on various pieces of his bike that were spread around.
Ripper had cut him the deal that he'd promised, giving him a good price on a beautiful piece of machinery, that had in the past been his own transportation. The older man had given William a pair of overalls and a place to keep and work on the bike that was in need of some repair in the beginning. Since then a few things had gone wrong as William learnt to ride it, and that had been a complicated process in itself. Learning to control a machine like this was not something you could learn in an afternoon, and there were several bruises and wounds he'd had to find ways to hide from his mother.
Dawn was the only person other than Ripper that knew the entire plan of how William was to be transformed and sweep Buffy off her feet. She'd come to the garage a few times when he'd been working on the bike and she claimed to like Ripper too, since he made her laugh. The younger Summers had also watched as William had originally tried and failed to handle the bike on a piece of land just outside of town. He always felt extra self-conscious when she was there, but it was like a part of Buffy being there, supporting him in his endeavour.
It was last week when he'd had a really good run, Ripper had shown him a few cool moves and Dawn had piped up that she'd like to ride with William. At first he refused completely to have her on the bike with him, frightened for her safety, but Ripper assured him it would be okay 'if the kid wears a helmet and holds on tight'
'Besides' Dawn had commented, 'you're gonna want to take Buffy on this thing, you have to get used to passengers'
William had given in and let her ride with him, finding once he got into what he was doing he quite forgot she was there. Of course, he knew it would be totally different if Buffy was there.
"You clean that for much longer you'll wear the bloody thing away" Ripper commented and William realised he'd been so lost in his thoughts he'd been polishing the same spot for the past ten minutes.
"I was just thinking" he told the man, "Dawn told me Buffy and her friends were going to the Bronze on Saturday night, some huge event...it'd be perfect for my 'debut'" he air-quoted, frowning when he realised he'd picked up the habit from the young brunette girl whom he'd seen so much of lately.
"You'll do fine, mate" Ripper assured him, as he lit a cigarette and watched the boy work as he'd taught him, "The way you ride that bike, you're a natural, almost put me to shame. 'Sides, the little girl believes in you"
"Dawn is sweet" William nodded, concentrating on the bike, "but it's Buffy that really concerns me. I've done all this for her and in a few days time I could find out it was completely not worth it"
"Do you love her?" Ripper asked and William suddenly looked up, slightly shocked by the question. He liked Buffy a lot, he was sure of that, but could it be real love? To do all that he was doing though. Would he do all that, change himself completely, if he didn't love her?
"Yes, I believe I do" he said eventually with a smile.
"Then even if she laughs in your face" Ripper said, kneeling down beside him, "She'll have been worth all the effort, right?"
William slowly nodded, knowing it was true.
"Y'know" he said after a moment, "if I was half as cool as you I don't think I'd be half so nervous"
At that, Ripper only blew out the smoke from his cigarette, and laughed.
- - - - - - -
Today was the day. As soon as William woke up he started to panic, but nothing could go wrong, he knew that. His mother was going out for the afternoon with a new friend and probably wouldn't be back til late. Dawn was to arrive shortly after Anne's departure to help him get ready and then he was headed to the Bronze. Somehow the youngest Summers was to make sure Buffy was in the parking lot when he was about to get there so she would see his spectacular arrival.
The morning dragged along until finally lunch was had and then Anne said goodbye to her son and left the house. William leaned back against the front door and sighed. 'Any minute now...' he didn't even manage to finish the thought as a knock on the door made him jump.
"I waited around the corner until I saw your Mom leave" Dawn said as soon as William opened the door and let her into the house. He was silent the whole time, and Dawn could tell it was because he was nervous. She was a little worried herself about how all this was going to work out, but she kept smiling and promising it would be fine.
"I had kind of a brainwave" she told her friend as they headed into the living room and she sat down on the sofa without a care.
"Why don't I like the sound if this?" William sighed as he sat down beside her and watched her hunt through the contents of her bag.
"Would you just trust me?" she stopped briefly to look over at him and roll her eyes "I already told you we have to do something with your hair so..." the last word hung in the air as she produced a small box and handed it to him.
"Oh God" he groaned as he read the name of the product and looked at the picture on the box of a person with almost white-blond hair!
"Come on Will, blond hair will look so great on you" Dawn pleaded with him. She had to try and cover for the fact that she'd meant to buy black dye and accidentally picked up the wrong thing when Andrew came into the store and caught her eye. She really wasn't going to tell William about that.
"My mother will go apoplectic" he sighed, leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed. Dawn looked puzzled.
"Okay, I don't even know what that is" she admitted "but if it's bad I have it covered" she assured him with a nod as he opened his eyes and looked over at her questioningly, "This stuff is totally temporary, disappears in four to six washes" she pointed at the writing on the box that said just that and William rolled his eyes at her.
"Well, I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...and here I thought it was a girls excuse for staying at home on the weekend"
Dawn giggled at that before turning more serious.
"Well if you stood up to your Mom and weren't so freaky about not wanting anyone to know this mystery guy is you we wouldn't have so much of a problem" she pointed out, shifting the blame from herself onto him.
"I already told you, Buffy wants mysterious" he snapped, before his voice dropped along with his expression "besides if she really knew it was me she'd just laugh"
"Doubtful" Dawn snorted into a laugh, remembering how good William looked in those clothes they'd got for him before and how well he could handle the bike he'd bought - Buffy was going to be blown away! "But still, if you're going to be a different person there's two other things we need" she told the young man next to her "First you're the only guy around here with a British accent"
"Already taken care of" he grinned, "I may not be too good at your average American intonation but I can sound different, she wont guess it's me" he'd been listening carefully to the way Ripper at the garage spoke. He had a rough and much cooler accent than William's refined one but after spending so much time talking with him, the boy was sure he could imitate it quite well.
"Okay that leaves the second thing" Dawn told him.
"Which is?" he prompted when she fell silent, slightly worried that they'd forgotten a major point.
"You don't have a name" she told him simply.
"Oh, yes" William frowned, completely deflated, "Now why didn't I think of that" he sighed as he stood up and looked decidedly like he was going to start pacing.
"Don't panic" Dawn said, getting up from her seat too, grabbing his arm to stop him from moving "just go fix your hair and change your clothes and I'll hang around here and try and think of something" she told him "Any problems just yell, okay?"
William smiled down at her and nodded.
"Thankyou for all your help Dawn" he said sincerely "you've been a good friend to me"
"No problem" she smiled, trying not to blush. Okay so William wasn't the coolest guy in the world, but he was kinda cute and fun to hang with, and he'd just complimented her - a compliment from a guy was something special. "Now just go, I wanna see what you look like" she said, giving him a shove towards the stairs. As he ascended to his room, Dawn flopped back down on the couch and grabbed a magazine from underneath the coffee table. She rolled her eyes as she realised it was most definitely William's mothers and that she would not find anything interesting to read in it at all. Popping her gum, she reached for the remote and flicked on the TV. Just because she was fifteen, that didn't make her too old for cartoons, right?
Upstairs William had showered and changed into his black jeans. He left his top off as he read the back of the box of hair dye and glanced up at himself in the bathroom mirror. It was true to say he'd never been particular fond of his natural hair colour and style but what Dawn was asking him, or more like telling him, to do was a little more outrageous than he'd thought about going.
'Oh well' he thought to himself, 'for the love of Buffy...' as he readied himself to dye his hair an obscene shade of blond.
Later there was hair gel and the rest of his clothes, the black T-shirt, red shirt, and finally his boots and leather duster. Standing before the full length mirror, he hardly recognised himself, but he did like what he saw, he only hoped Buffy would be as impressed as she ought to be.
"So, er, what do you think?" he asked nervously as he stood in the doorway to the living room. Dawn was so engrossed by the TV that she hadn't even heard him come down the stairs. She'd helped herself to a packet of popcorn from the kitchen and she almost choked on the piece in her mouth as she finally turned her head and saw William standing there, looking nothing like the boy who'd gone up those stairs a short while ago.
"Wow" she breathed, eyes wide as saucers. She thought he'd looked good before, but now, there just were not words for how gorgeous he truly was.
"Well, say something" he urged her, very uncomfortable just having her stare at him with her mouth hanging open like a fish.
"I don't know what to say" she admitted, "You look amazing"
It was all William could do not to blush at her words, and the way she looked at him was highly disconcerting.
"Er, so, now we just need a name" Dawn realised as she shook her head to return to her normal state, a state in which she was not drooling and looking like a moron "It has to be something totally cool" she told her friend a he sat down in the armchair nearby and she flipped off the TV.
"Any ideas?" he asked hopefully, confessing he really hadn't given the matter any thought at all.
"Well, Brad Pitt is cool" she considered "but you don't look like a Brad" she realised with a frown "How about Johnny? Or Orlando...it was just a suggestion" she added grumpily as she saw the unimpressed look that settled on his features.
"There are millions of names in the world, this is going to be impossible, isn't it?" he moaned, unable to believe that something so important had slipped his mind - he had to have a name!
"Well, maybe it shouldn't be an ordinary name" Dawn considered, looking excited by the prospect of thinking up something completely outrageous that Will could use for a name "Like there was this gang where my cousin lives and the leader was nick-named Razor" she told him.
"Razor?" he echoed with some distaste and the girl nodded.
"He liked blades and..." she realised maybe the name wasn't so perfect when he continued to look at her in a more and more disgusted way "well, he wasn't exactly a nice guy" she admitted.
"Anything less blood-thirsty?" William asked her with a slightly amused expression now, she really was trying to help, and Dawn was very entertaining even when she was scaring him with her strange knowledge of the world.
"Er...oh, I got it, Spike!" she suddenly yelled with excitement. William was back to the distasteful look.
"As in the dog from Tom & Jerry?" he asked her with a frown, at which Dawn rolled her eyes again.
"No, as in your hair" she told him "Since you put the dye and the gel on it it's kinda sticking up" his hand went straight to his head which was not necessarily the best plan ever and Dawn realised maybe telling a guy with an image problem that his hair was sticking up wasn't quite the confidence boost he needed "plus Spike could also mean railroad" she said quickly "and there was this guy once on the TV who got this railroad spike and shoved it through this other guys head..."
"Does your mother know you watch this sort of thing?" William interrupted, momentarily forgetting his hair and Dawn took the opportunity to get to her feet and drag him up too, getting his hands away from his head so she could fix the damage he'd done.
"That's not the issue" she told him as she straightened out his hair for him "Point is, it has violent tendencies without being totally obviously 'bloodthirsty'" she air-quoted the word he'd used before "and y'know" she grinned, taking a step back to study him "some girls might think there was another reason for a nick-name like Spike..." she trailed off, looking away and trying not to giggle too much.
"I don't think I..." William frowned, not understanding til he saw the look on the young girls face and the direction in which her eyes were travelling "Dawn!" he half-yelled in shock.
"Sorry" the girl put her hands up in mock-surrender and backed up a couple of steps "but those jeans are kinda tight"
William warily eyed his lower apparel, wondering what on earth he was getting himself into. Dawn felt bad for making him even more self-conscious than he already was.
"Look don't worry about it" she said, making him look at her "You look good and Buffy's going to love you, especially on that bike"
"It's getting late" William breathed out slowly, trying to stay calm, he had to be cool, that was the point! "I guess it's now or never"
Dawn nodded, as she stepped towards him.
"Good luck" she smiled, reaching up to kiss his cheek briefly, both of them trying not to go pink afterwards "I'm gonna go home before she gets suspicious, the girls are all meeting at our house before we head to the Bronze" she rolled her eyes as she headed for the front door and let herself out "See ya later, Spike" she called over shoulder and he smiled at her use of his new name.
"Bye, Dawn" he called back right before the door clicked shut and he headed into the hall. Eyeing himself in the mirror there, he took a final deep breath.
"Well, here goes nothing..."
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : Next chapter; Buffy meets 'Spike' for the first time. In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think so far! :-)