Nicknames
Disclaimer: Let's see. I own Jake, Susan, lots of carousel horses and wishing I had some candy corn.
Summary: Just a little fluffy bit before we jump back into some danger and more angst.
Reviews: Oh yes, please. Love, adore, worship all reviewers. Readers Rock but REVIEWERS RULE!!
A/N: Imzadi, sweetie, this is my little world and in it I never watched Angel very much so I know next to nothing about Lindsey. If you have any suggestions about how I can redeem him, please use the email in my profile and send them to me. (If you leave them in a review it would spoil the story for everyone else) I would welcome any help you can give me. Thanks for your continued support even though I disappointed you with the part Lindsey was in.
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Jake grasped Will's shoulders and shook him lightly. "Will! Wake up, Buddy."
Will gasped. His eyes remained unfocused. "Bloody Hell! Watcher, get the Whelp away from me. Trying to sleep here. Gonna make a snack of him yet!" He snarled, his accent again completely different from the cultured tones Jake and Susan were used to.
Every thing they had heard in the last few minutes completely dispelled any doubts Buffy and Dawn may have had. Hearing him rant about being in Heaven dredged up very painful memories for both Summers girls. Tears hovered in their eyes at the sound of their vampire's pain. Smiles fought to the surface at his use of the word 'Whelp'. Buffy realized she needed to call Willow, Xander and Giles at the first opportunity.
"Will! Wake up!" Jake raised his voice fractionally. The vampire slumped for a moment, his sapphire eyes closing. He inhaled sharply as his eyes snapped open. He groaned as he noticed his audience.
"Please tell me I didn't say anything embarrassing." Will pleaded, his voice once again refined. He raised a shaking hand to wipe away the lingering moisture.
Buffy blinked back her tears. "No. You didn't say anything we could profit from." She teased gently.
Jake noted with immense relief that Will's tremors did not return with the sound of Buffy's voice.
The young vampire smiled briefly before realizing just what she said. "How about the non-profit bits then?"
Buffy shook her head. "We'll talk about that later."
He nodded. Tilting his head, his eyes sought out Susan. "Suzy-Cutie, did you let Picasso eat all my wings?" Jake glared at his housemate. Will knew full well Susan wouldn't let him have any of the wings if Will wasn't there.
"No, Honey. Your wings are safe. Dawn and I made sure of it." Susan assured him.
Will studied the brunette teenager once more sitting on the coffee table. "Thanks, Bit." He smiled. She beamed as she heard the nickname.
Susan noticed Wesley sliding back into the kitchen and followed him. Wesley wished he still wore glasses so he would have something to do with his hands, then realized just how Giles-like it seemed. He made a mental note to call the elder former watcher soon.
"Dear Lord." He breathed. "His memories are there. All of them. Something is blocking them from surfacing to his conscious mind."
Susan watched him. "I have questions." She said.
Wesley nodded. "I'll bet you do."
Jake backed off and let Will have breathing space. He went into the kitchen and began clearing the table to make a place for Will to come in and eat. He efficiently moved about loading the dishwasher and removing a packet of blood from the refrigerator, pouring it into a mug and stuffing it into the microwave to heat. He got out the leftover lasagna and got it ready to heat as well. Susan noticed that her cousin's hands were shaking and went over to him, putting her arms around him in a warm hug.
"It's okay." She murmured.
Wesley was curious but didn't have time to ask any questions as Will walked in supported by Buffy and Dawn. The vampire had a girl on each side with an arm over each. He appeared a little shaky as the girls guided him to a chair. Jake placed the heated mug on the table.
"Thanks." Will sighed gratefully as he sipped. He beamed when the plate of lasagna was placed in front of him. Finishing the blood quickly, he tucked into the Italian dish eagerly. His strength restored, he looked around at the humans scrutinizing him.
"If you're all quite finished admiring my devilish good looks, we need to sit down and start trying to figure some of this out." Will's statement was pure Spike but with a bit more refinement in his accent. Dawn giggled at the incongruity. He turned innocent sapphire eyes on the teenager.
"And just what is so funny?" He challenged.
She plopped down into the chair next to him and propped an elbow on the table. Settling her head on her hand, she gazed at him with amusement. "You are." She said impertinently, earning a pseudo ferocious frown.
"Just wait til my memory returns. We'll see if there's not some tidbits of information I can find equally amusing." His dark blue eyes sparkled with glee when she shifted uncomfortably. Knowing he'd scored a hit and sorely wishing he knew how, he returned his attention to the others.
"Right then, now that I've got my senses back can we get on with the introductions." Will looked at Wesley. "I don't believe I know you." He said.
Wesley started. "I'm Wesley Wyndham Price. I work with…um…the vampire who bought the paintings." He stumbled in his sentence trying not to mention Angel's name. "I have heard a lot about you however. As a matter of fact, I did my graduate thesis on you at the Watcher's Academy." He revealed.
Will stared at him for a moment. "Is that a fact?" He asked in bemusement. Wes nodded, suddenly wishing he hadn't said that. "And just which me would that have been?" Will wanted to know. He lounged back in his chair and waited; looking every inch the master vampire that Wesley had spent so much time researching.
Wesley cleared his throat and wondered how to tell him without mentioning Angel. "It would have been the vampire who terrorized Europe over a hundred years ago." He finally settled on.
Will nodded. "And what was I called back then?"
The former Watcher sought help from Jake. When the artist nodded, he answered. "You were first known as 'William the Bloody' after that you went by just 'Spike'."
Will stared at Wesley. They were all stunned by his reaction. He started to laugh. "You're joking." He accused.
A smile formed on Wesley's handsome face. He shook his head. "Actually, I'm not."
Will attempted to control his chuckles. "And what would a vampire do to become known as 'Spike'." He asked rather unsteadily.
Wes sobered. "He…um…used to…ah…torture his victims by driving a…railroad spike…through their…um…skulls." He explained hesitantly watching the vampire closely for any adverse reaction to the disclosure.
Will sobered as well. He looked a little ill at the thought. "How…imaginative." His voice was strained.
"Yes, well. According to my research, the only ones who received such treatment were a small group of people who were believed to be acquaintances of William before he was turned." Wes wasn't sure the new information was any more helpful.
Will looked thoughtful. "I wonder what they did to him." He questioned softly. Wesley was curious about why Will referred to the human William in the third person.
Will turned his pensive gaze to Dawn. "What did you call me?" He asked gently.
The teenager watched him carefully. "I called you 'Spike'. You were my best friend." She said.
He nodded. "And I called you 'Niblet'." He stated before frowning. "You had a vampire as a best friend?"
She nodded, her dark hair swinging with the motion. "Sometimes you called me Little Bit, Platelet or Bitesize." She chattered. "You had all kinds of nicknames for me.
He smiled suddenly. "Did all of them have to do with snacking?"
She thought about that. "I think so. Wonder why." She grinned at him.
"Must have been a vampire thing." He mused. His sapphire gaze settled on Buffy. "What about you? What did you call me?"
"Mostly I called you a pain in the ass." She grinned. "Then I called you 'Spike'."
Will had a sudden urge to take the beautiful blonde in his arms. "Well, Goldilocks, I couldn't have been too big a pain in the ass. You never staked me."
"Oh, believe me. You were. I never did figure out why I couldn't dust you." Buffy told him, her green eyes sparkling at the once hated nickname. "I see you still nickname everyone around you." She observed.
He thought about that for a second. "You're right. Guess some habits never die." He remembered what he'd wanted to discuss. He turned to Jake.
"Why don't you go get your notebook so we can go over what old Spike is saying in my sleep." He suggested. He turned to Susan. "I've been thinking." Buffy and Dawn exchanged a look.
"What? Didn't I think before?" He demanded.
Buffy snickered. "You did. It just never panned out very well. Your plans always kinda…flopped."
He grinned. "Not big on the planning then, eh? So we're safe. I was just remembering what Jake said about the amulet. It was glowing during my last migraine. I think Suzy should bring it in here so we can keep an eye on it. If it starts to make like a light bulb, we can derail the train of thought causing it. That way I avoid the whole fried brain problem. Which is really getting old, I don't mind telling you."
"Good idea." Buffy admitted. Susan rushed into Will's room and retrieved the amulet. Buffy and Will both recoiled from it. That last time Buffy had seen it, it had been incinerating the man she loved. The same man who was sitting in front of her now. Will hadn't really paid much attention to it in the past four months. He knew he'd rematerialized from it, other than that he knew close to nothing about it.
Jake returned with the notebook. He sat down and quickly added the latest subconscious statements the vampire had uttered.
Wesley sat down next to the artist and quietly asked to read the notebook. As soon as he was finished writing, Jake pushed it along the table to the Englishman.
Wes flipped the pages to the beginning and perused the contents intently. His handsome face remained impassive as he quickly scanned the contents of the large spiral. Internally he was far from calm. It was all there. In disjointed words and phrases to be sure, but Spike's history was written down in the book. To anyone who was unaware of Spike and his past, it would be nothing but unintelligible ramblings. Wes knew better, he'd researched Spike and his vampire family. He also knew Angel quite well, so it made sense. Drusilla was mentioned more than once. Angel and Angelus both appeared frequently. Buffy, Dawn, their mother, Xander, Willow, Giles and pretty much everyone from Spike's past were there. His memories were indeed intact, somehow being suppressed by something. Wesley silently vowed to help the young vampire get his unlife back. A chill went through him as he remembered Wolfram and Hart. There were formidable obstacles ahead.
"Well, Watcher? Find anything good?" Will asked when the silence became almost unbearable.
Wesley's head shot up at the nickname. "Yes, well. It's all here. It seems you've done quite a lot of sleep talking. But I'm not sure how to go about helping you bring it out of your subconscious. Jake, you've done a marvelous job of writing all this down. This will be a tremendous asset." He noticed the clock on the stove.
"It's very late. Maybe we should retire and start fresh tomorrow." He suggested. His cell phone rang. He answered it cautiously. "Hello."
Listening intently, he was stunned by what he heard. "You heard what?" Wesley's blue eyes flew to Will's suddenly paler than normal face. Will's gaze was riveted on the amulet in front of him. His vampiric hearing had allowed him to hear Angel's voice on the tiny phone. The amulet had begun to glow dimly.
"Hang up." Will ground out through clenched teeth. "Now!"
