The smoke of Spike's cigarette spiralled and twisted through the air. The vampire once again sat atop the roof of the Hyperion. This time he sat on the edge of the building, watching the world below. A young couple caught his attention as they walked down the sunny street. The wife was pushing a stroller while the husband was carrying a little girl on his shoulders. Giggles and pieces of happy talk floated up to Spike's ears. He sighed and felt the familiar pang of remorse deep in his chest.
"Spike?"
The blonde vampire turned and raised his hand, making it possible to see the person walking towards him in the blinding sunlight. Almost six years after getting the Gem of Amarra back, and he still wasn't used to the harsh light he had hid from for so long.
"Hello, Rupes."
Rupert Giles, dressed smartly in black trousers, a deep blue dress shirt and a brown leather jacket, sat leaning next to Spike. While the vampire got a good view of his profile, the old watcher kept his view back to the door leading into the hotel.
Spike examined Giles. It had been almost a year since he had last seen him. Giles looked tired, more tired than usual. Though he supposed that was what one got for inviting a young woman to live with him year round. After Buffy had disappeared and pronounced dead, the old man had taken a turn for the worse. He had taken up his old drinking habits and fell into a routine of avoiding everything and everybody.
It had only been when Spike had brought Hope home, did Giles heal. He took the little girl as well as could be. Spike had asked him to act as Godfather, knowing it was something their slayer would have wanted. It was only after Dawn received the letter from Oxford did Giles contemplate moving back to England. He used the same old stuffy excuses, but they all knew Buffy's third death had taken more of a toll on him then he would allow shown.
"I won't ruin the respectable relationship we have managed to build over the years by trying to initiate small talk." A small smile pulled at the edges of Giles' mouth. Spike felt a smile of his own come up. The only one in the group, beside Angel, who was close enough to his own age, Giles had become a good friend whenever Spike needed to talk or drink.
"Good, would have been hurt if you tried."
"Am I right to assume Dawn told you of her…discovery." Giles hesitated on his last word. Spike knew that only second to him, Giles had taken Dawn's hit and miss Buffy sightings the worst.
"She did." Spike nodded and took a long drag off the shrinking cigarette. "She didn't blame me when I didn't believe her. She knows it's gonna take more than a maybe to get me moving these days."
"And rightly so." Giles let his eyes run over the rooftop, taking in the crumbling brick and the tarnished chimneys.
"Though I suppose it might change things if I had my own glimpse." Spike inwardly grinned as Giles whipped his head to face Spike. He knew Giles wouldn't doubt him.
"What do you mean?"
"Ever since I got Hope, I've been having what I assumed where hallucinations of Buffy. They started as harmless visions I thought my tortured soul created for me, to comfort and calm me. But they continued. It wasn't just at night anymore, she would come when important things happened.
"I once considered that it might be The First, that it had found a way back some how." Spike stubbed his cigarette out, concentrating on Giles. "But she could touch things, I mean I never really thought about it till last night. Then she made a comment…"
"Buffy?"
"Yeah. She basically insinuated that things could change, that she could come back. Then Hope ran in and she disappeared. I forgot about my little episode until Hope mentioned her. She said that Buffy comes to her too. This morning I had her describe Buffy to me…perfect detail."
"She's seen pictures of her mother." Countered Giles, but Spike could tell he was leaning towards his side.
"Not just the looks. How she talks, her mannerism, her poses. Giles, I'm not saying Buffy didn't die, but…what is she can come back?"
"I suppose it's possible." Giles sat back with a sigh. The information ran through his brain at high speed. Buffy was dead, and yet she could come back to them. "Perhaps she is stuck, a ghost of sorts."
"I thought of that." Spike got up and started to pace. "I don't think that's it though. It's weird, it's like she's been watching over us…like an…"
"Angel?" Supplied Giles. Spike looked up at him in surprise, but before he could say anything, Giles's face jumped to attention. The way it did whenever he used to figure out which monster they were up against. "Of course. Why didn't I think of it before."
Spike watched in confusion as the old watcher jumped up and hurried out of sight into the hotel. Before long he heard Giles calling to him to follow. Grabbing his coat and smokes, Spike hurried back though the hotel.
Spike found Giles in the room he was staying in. The old man was wrenching books out of a suitcase and flipping through them at maximum speeds.
"Giles, what are you…"
"I knew it." Giles stopped flipping and let his finger come to rest in the middle of a page. He brought it over and showed it to Spike.
"Los Guardas Perdidos?" Spike looked at Giles and crossed his arms. "You have got to be kidding me. Those guys are myths."
"No, no they aren't." Giles took a seat at the desk by the window and continued to read. "At least not anymore." He turned back to Spike. "What have you heard about them?"
Spike sighed and leaned against the wall opposite Giles. This couldn't be happening to him. Buffy couldn't be this close and yet that far away.
"Los Guardas Perdidos or The Lost Guardians is a group of souls taken before they go on to their final resting place. Legend has it that a person's soul stays in a kind of limbo, like no man's land before it passes on to the beyond. While the soul is there, either side can nab it. The sides originally being God and the Devil.
"The Lost Guardians are souls that were taken by a third party. The souls are then made whole. The third party then trains the people and gives them a mission. To protect those who have lost them. They become like Angels, given supernatural powers of healing and strength and protection."
"Normally the Guardians do not reveal themselves to those on the mortal plane." Giles stood up and began to pace. "There were accounts of crossing over, such as Buffy insinuated, but it has never been proven."
"But, it can be done?" Spike crossed his arms, watching the Watcher critically. "Can she do it alone, or does she need our help?"
"I have no idea. I suppose you need to speak with her again." Giles looked pained and Spike knew he wanted to speak with Buffy as well. Under any other circumstances, Spike would have gladly offered, but two things stopped him.
One, he was scared that a new entity into the group may scare Buffy away. Besides that, he hated to admit that he was a little selfish. He really wanted Buffy all to himself. He just kept reminding himself that if she could come back, everyone else would be able to see Buffy.
"I'll do it while she visits Hope tonight, have to make sure I don't scare her off."
"Spike…"
The vampire turned to look at the Ex-Watcher. Giles looked tired but there was something else. Something Spike had never really thought about when he and Giles were put in the same sentence.
"Are you worried about me, watcher?" Spike grinned wickedly and looped his thumbs through his belt and laughed. "The day has finally come."
Giles had enough tack to smile good-humouredly. "Spike, we have become friends, that is a fact neither you nor I can deny."
"Not for a lack of trying." Spike smirked, but he understood what Giles was trying to tell him.
"You and Hope, you're both important to me…"
"I know." Spike walked over to Giles and put his hand on the man's shoulder. "We're you're last link to Buffy…"
Spike watched as Giles ducked his head and nodded. Thinking about it as he walked back to his room, Spike realized that he was probably the only person besides Buffy that had ever seen Giles let his guard down. Spike knew it was a grim thought, but he couldn't help but smile at the irony of the situation. The closest he had ever gotten to Buffy's friends, the time when they all trusted him so much, was when she had died.
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"So, lil'bit." Spike plunked his daughter down in her bed and pulled the covers up around her. Hope giggled as he sat beside her and kissed her forehead. "What will it be tonight? Which tale shall I tell you?"
Hope looked thoughtful. Spike had a hard time not laughing as her tiny brow furrowed in an attempt to think hard. After a few moments, her face lit up and Spike knew she had chosen from the long book of tales engrained in her memory.
"Daddy." Hope looked up at him with wide innocent eyes. "Connor said today that Mommy once loved Uncle Angel more than anything in the world. He said that they were soul mates. I thought you said Mommy was your soul mate?"
Spike took a deep breath in. Whenever his little princess asked for this particular tale, it became hard for him to speak. This was a subject very close to his heart. It had always been touch, but he supposed the reason for it still being that way, was him. Spike would always be insecure about Buffy's love for him, even though Hope was proof that he shouldn't be.
"Well, Nibblit." Spike smiled at his daughter. Everyday she only got more and more beautiful, just like her mother. "Your mother was never one to do things the natural way. She preferred the hard way enough she would whine about it after." Spike smiled, remembering Buffy's attitude towards slaying in the beginning. "Your Uncle Angel had a…hard life. Your mum was the first person that gave him a purpose. He could work to protect her, to him that gave his life meaning. Of course, following all fairy tales, they fell in love…"
"But mommy loves you." Hope looked up with shinning eyes.
"I know." Spike almost laughed. His little girl was as loyal as they get. "Do you remember what I told you about fairy tales?"
"That they don't always end happy?"
"Exactly. Things didn't go well for Mommy and Angel. Uncle Angel was cursed and that meant the two could never be together like they needed. It was hard for you mum, because he was the first man she ever loved. See lil'bit, for me, falling in love with your mum was the easy part. Loving her after that could be a challenge. Your mum was special because she didn't just have one soul mate, no she had many different ones. There's me, Uncle Angel, Aunt Willow, Uncle Xander and Giles. We're all her soul mates in different ways."
"So…" Hope considered this. She put her finger on her chin, tapping it, like she had seen her Aunt Anya do so many times before. "Your soul mate doesn't need to be the one you're married too?"
"No, of course not." Spike smiled at Hope. She was good at connecting the dots, though he wasn't sure if she would really understand what he had told her until she was older. "Hope, give your Da a kiss and go to sleep alright?"
"Ok, daddy." Hope wrapped her arms around Spike's neck and then planted a kiss on his face. He smiled and tucked the cover over her, making sure to put her teddy bear in her arms. "I love you."
"Love you too, Nibblit. Sweet Dreams." Spike kissed Hope's forehead and turned off the lights. Only leaving the glow of the light from the next room shinning through the crack of the door as he left her to sleep.
As Spike turned and went to grab his smokes, he noticed the light in his own bedroom was on. Curious, he let his vampire senses seep into his guise as he slowly pushed open the door. His mouth formed a small "o" as he saw a petit figure curled up on his bed.
He was almost afraid to touch her as he sat down on the end of the bed. He was so afraid that she might vanish as soon as his finger touched her face, that for a few moments they just hovered over her cheek in a ghost caress.
"You have been given a gift."
Spike whipped around to find a short demon dressed in the oddest clothes and a hat leaning against the doorframe. His trousers were lime green with stripes of forest green running up and down. He wore a bright purple dress coat over a white shirt and a green vest.
"Who are you?" Spike slowly rose off the bed, but unconsciously moved to guard his sleeping beauty.
"Relax." The demon took an apple out of his pocket and crunched into it. "The name's Whistler. I'm like an emissary from the Powers That Be."
"Never really liked those guys."
Whistler laughed and gestured at Buffy lying on the bed. "Well, you're gonna love them in a minute. They were the ones that got her out of the gig that took her life."
"You mean…?" Spike turned to look at Buffy. "She's alive?"
"Yeah." Whistler smiled. "The PTB figured five years was long enough, she didn't deserve to be taken away from you and Hope."
"She's alive." Spike didn't care what the half demon thought of his as tears fell from his eyes.
"I know it's big, but there's a catch." Whistler winced as Spike glared at him. "There was nothing we could do, beyond our control."
"What's the catch?"
"She doesn't remember the past five years. Her last memory is off the night she disappeared, just before she was taken."
"You mean to say that Buffy will still think Hope is in her stomach?" Spike looked back at Buffy. A few strands of hair fell over her face, hiding her nose from him.
"Exactly. You and the others will have to help her, fill in the last five years. You can't tell her what you and the Watcher found today. That's the most important thing. You have to erase any evidence that she was dead…she has to think she was just missing."
"Why?"
"She's already died twice. Don't you think the news that she died, became a wrath of death, missed her daughters first five years of life and left you alone would be a pretty big shocker?"
"Yeah, I guess so." Spike looked back at Buffy. Just seeing her, knowing she was back, brought a huge smile to his face.
"The next few months will be hard, but together you guys can make it a bit easier for everyone." Whistler smiled. "Tell the girl I said hi and I'll see her around."
Spike didn't hear him leave, but he knew Whistler was gone. For the first time in five years, Spike lay down next to Buffy and curled her into his tight embrace. They could deal with this in the morning. For now, he just wanted to hold her.
TBC…
