Helping the Helpless?

Heading up the walk to Casa del Summers, Spike and Angel were deathly silent. They hadn't gotten out more then three words a piece on their trip there, but the fact that they had both made it there in one piece was a good sign. As the reached the front porch, Spike leaned forward and knocked. Both vampires stood waiting listening with the heightened hearing Buffy and Dawn shouting at each other as to who would be answering the door. Finally in the end it was Dawn that lost out and the sound of her coming feet could be heard padding towards the door.

Upon opening the door, Dawn leaped at Spike, wrapping him up in a teen sized bear hug.

"Oh my god! You came back!" she gushed, not noticing Angel orthe look of shock thathe was giving Spike.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" he smiled as he hugged he back.

"Well with Xander and his 'if Spike has to do something, he has to do it' régime still going strong, I kinda figured that you might skip town"

"And leave my favorite girl behind? Never"

"And I thought my friends were strange" Angel muttered absently to himself as he bared witness to this brother/sister mushy bonding scene.

It was only then did Dawn notice Angel's presence and scowled.

"What's Captain Forehead doing here?" she asked with a curling lip.

Angel was shocked. Dawn had never been so… negative towards him before and especially not when it came in favor of Spike. He was about to open his mouth in protest, but Spike cut him sharply off.

"Surprisingly Nib, he's here to help me…"

"Help you?" Dawn snorted. "Not likely"

"Hey! What's with the mini Spike act?" Angel said raising his hands in surrender to the dark haired teen.

Dawn looked critically into Angel's eyes and snorted. "Typical that you would say something like that. For your information Oh Great Broody One, Spike is my best friend and practically my unofficial brother – as for you… you never tried" she gave the souled vampire a piercing glare "So if I find one hair on his head harmed, your dust"

Spike shot Angel a viscous smirk that said 'see poofter, you can't have them all' and smiled at Dawn.

"Thanks Lil Bit, your getting better – I swear I saw his swelled head deflate a little"

"So are you guys coming in or not?"

Angel followed the teen and the younger vampire into the house of his ex darkly. Spike was right, but not at the literal, Dawn's dislike for him had taken his ego down a notch. It wasn't that Spike was soulless or anything, but it as the fact that he had managed to earn her friendship where he had never tried.

As the entered the living, they found Buffy flopped over on her stomach with her face buried in a pillow.

"Who is it?" her muffled voice came through the fabric. "Tell them to go away…"

"If that's really what you want Buffy" Angel said and turned to leave, only to have Dawn snare him by the arm.

But at the sound of his voice, Buffy's head shot up and her mouth dropped open.

"Angel? What are you doing here?"

"It was the whelp's fault Slayer" Spike replied before Angel and it was irritate the other vampire at his constant stealing of center stage. "He wanted have my dear ol' grandsire to finish what he started"

"Why that creep!" Dawn squealed and harrumphed as she drooped into a chair closest to her to grumble about how she would make Xander pay.

"Anyway…" Spike continued. "He must have had a brain transplant because he's decided to help me. I figure your going to have to call in the Scoobies"

Ten minutes later found the entire Scooby Gang gathered in Buffy's living room. Xander and Anya sat on the couch with Tara, while Willow and Dawn took chairs on opposing sides of the room. As for Buffy, Spike and Angel, they all stood.

"But you can't mean it!" Xander cried. "We were suppose to be partners in this!"

"Sorry Xander, but we have a bigger problem if you haven't noticed" Angel said folding his arms.

"What kind of problem?"

"Well Spike here is cured with the Gift of Obedience and that means we could all be in serious trouble. If it gets out, then demons will do what ever they can to get control of him. He knows most of your secrets that they could command him to tell, and even though you just told me about his chip… I don't think it'll work if he's commanded to hurt one of you"

"Could that be possible?" Tara asked timidly from her spot at the couch.

"Yes" Buffy nodded. "He can already hurt me without being commanded too"

Everyone turned to look at the Slayer with shock. Seeing Buffy begin to fidget, Spike answered the question that everyone wanted the answer for.

"I figure that when Buffy was brought back, there was something wrong. Not wrong as with her or anything, but just enough that it allowed the chip not to register her as a human and thus fair game"

"And you haven't tried to kill her?" Xander demanded incredulously of the blonde vamp.

"No. We fought, but I wasn't in it to kill"

"But why…" Willow asked. "You've always wanted to get back at Buffy"

"Why would he now? After all this time change his mind?" Anya added.

"Because he loves her" Tara and Dawn supplied.

"What!" Angel gasped and turned on Buffy and Spike whom where standing next to him like someone had let the beast out of its cage.

"Obsessed with her more like it" Xander snapped. "He staked her all last year, built the bot and she doesn't want anything to do with him - right Buff?"

Everyone's gaze once again return to Buffy and she looked as though she was a deer caught in the headlights of one ver big truck. First she blushed with embarrassment and then it turned to one of shame. They all watched in shock as the Slayer looked down at her feet as she squirmed in her own skin.

"Holly Hara. I am not seeing this…"

"Whoa… hey honey Xander; you ever hear of De-Nile?" Anya asked as she leaned over to whisper in his ear.

Everyone, including Angel, was speechless.

"Well… I… umm…" Buffy stammered looking around the room for support she couldn't at the moment find in their shocked blank faces. "Only once…"

"Once what?" Angel suddenly demanded turning on Spike. "You – tell me everything!"

"Angel don't"

But Angel already had Spike pinned against the wall and Spike was already beginning to comply with his grandsire's command.

"It all started last year" the blonde vamp began. "I hated Buffy and I wanted her dead like always. Then I had a dream… and after I had to admit myself what I had been denying since after my first stay in Sunnydale – I loved her. It was the reason that Drusilla dumped me and I didn't want to admit to it. She said that all she could see was her dancing around in my head. But after the chip… I was trapped"

During that whole time Spike eyes were the only things that betrayed him. They were full of pain and longing and the will to bite his own tongue, but it couldn't be ended.

"So I couldn't kill her, as I had always wanted. After Red's little spell that ended up making us engaged was broken, I was heartbroken – that was the happiest I had ever been. Then it just hit me, like it was always meant to be. I wasn't afraid to admit that I loved her, to bad she didn't feel the same. And it drove me mad and it was enough that I had the Buffybot commissioned. But it wasn't really and never had been. That stupid bint was just an escape from the reality that I faced: I was never going to have her. Then she died and inside I died to"

There was a short pause as Spike struggled against the grip on which Angel was squeezing his throat.

"I had given up all my hope for her after that and devoted it on caring for Dawn. But then Red decided to play the power trip and bring her back, not knowing that they were dragging her out of Heaven. For some reason I'll never understand was that I was the first one she admitted that to only days after coming back. I hoped that things were looking up and they certainly were the night she kissed me after our little song and dance musical number of the day – then again after we all lost our memories. But…"

Spike's voiced hitched as he gained momentary control over his own will before it collapsed back into that of his story.

"… As of a week yesterday, it was consummated. I discovered that my chip no longer worked on her and so I took a fight to her"

"And tell me how it ended" Angel growled.

"Think on it Peaches, the word isnt very hard to spell even with your little brain. Three letters – S.E.X."

Snarling Angel dragged a stake from his pocket and was about to dust Spike right there when suddenly he was thrown across the room by a surprising amount of power and smashed into the wall on he opposite side. Both gasping vampires looked up to see with amazing discovery that Spike's savor was Tara.

Tara was on her feet looking very infuriated, red faced and breathing harshly.

"Never… do… that… again" she growled at the souled vampire, stressing each word out as if she were driving a nail into wood.

"Tara's gone mad"

"No I haven't Xander" she snapped and everyone knew then that it was a wise thingnever to get they're usually timid Wicca angry ever again.

"Thanks Glenda" Spike gasped as he allowed a frantic Buffy to pull him to his feet.

"Your welcome. Now you Angel, you had no right to do that. No one should ever have to have their minds or personal thoughts or memories tampered with like that. I know what its like. If Buffy and Spike were going to tell us, then they would have on their own accord. But I do have something to tell you and I am damn well not afraid of you. You left Buffy and so she has to get on with her life. She can choose whatever she wants in this her life because its hers not yours. Yes I completely understand that you were her first love, but that doesn't mean that you own her. And I also know that you hate Spike, so from what I've been told him so much because you were the one who taught him to be the creature he was. He's my friend and I feel goodness on him that wasn't there before. You may have been cursed with a soul, but to me it looks like he's created one of his own"

Tara drew in a deep breath after she finished her lengthy speech and headed for the door.

"Sorry I can't be of any help. I have to go home"

There was a deathly silence that followed the blonde Wicca's departure like a plague. Everyone having felt Tara's biting words at a different level.

"But this just can't be…" Xander started.

"Oh just shut up whelp. You heard the lady" Spike growled as all eyes also turned to glare at the young carpenter.

"Bite me Deadboy"

And as Spike lunged and sunk his fangs into Xander's neck, he was almost happy with the command that he had been given.

Ooh cliffhanger! I'm evil now for sure. What do you think will happen to Xander? Please review and tell me what you though. Later!