Chapter 3: Three Chances

-Office-

Spike closed the door behind him turning around to look the woman who had called him in there up and down. She was undoubtedly attractive, he watched her as she sat down and then quickly brought his eyes up to meet hers as she looked up at him. He sat at the desk across from her.

Woman: "Mr. Spike, I'm Valerie Addison, I will be your representative, which means that I look over your case and then present my findings to the Powers that Be whom then decide where you will be spending your eternity, any questions?"

After Spike is silent for a moment Valerie picks up one of the files on her desk. There are two large stacks of files on top of her desk, and then three more piles on the floor behind her desk that are a few feet tall.

Spike: "So, all those files your work load for the day?"

Valerie: "what, oh no… all of these are yours… this is your entire life and unlife, every person you met, loved, killed, I need to take every detail into account if I'm going to be able to make any case that you've done something in your life that was redeemable."

Spike takes a deep breath; it was a hard concept to grasp on to that someone was going to be going through ever moment of his life and unlife. She would be reading about every person he met, loved, killed; she would read about all of his failures and embarrassing moments. But it meant something else too; she would read about all of the good things that he'd done, however in the end it would mean that she would see how uneven the scales were tipped.

Spike: "So, you're what… gonna read through each and every one of these files then?"

Valerie: "Oh, heavens no… I'm only going to look over your main file, think of it like the cliff notes version. These are just here incase I need to look something up for more information."

Spike simply nodded. Valerie opened up the main file and for the first time in Spike's life he was truly afraid.

Valerie: "Well, why don't we get started?"

-Hours later-

Valerie and Spike had been discussing Spike's past for about five hours now, they had only skimmed through his life as William, there hadn't been too much of an interest there. However when they reached Spike's killing glory days Spike actually flinched at some of the graphic descriptions of things he had done. When they finally got to Spike's Sunnydayle days he felt slightly more relaxed, and now they were summarizing.

Valerie: "Well, this is certainly going to be a tough case, you have a record like I've never seen… however there are unquestionably acts that show your strive for redemption, even long before the soul I believe that there was a part of you that wanted to be good."

Spike: "So, what does that mean e'zactly?"

Valerie: "It means that you are a good man… you may have done some indescribably horrible things in your past, but you've also done some amazing heroic and selfless things too. Your decision to die before giving up Dawn to Glory, protecting her was a truly selfless act, getting a soul to be a better man, may not have been completely selfless however it was brave and above all a completely uncharacteristic thing for a vampire to do, and of course sacrificing your life to save the world helps a little as well."

Spike: "So you're saying I might come out of this alright, m'not saying that I'll get a pass to heaven or anything but someplace tolerable at least, right?"

Valerie: "I'm not saying anything, this case could go in all sorts of directions, the majority of them not being good; what I'm saying is that you have something about you that not many demons nor people have like you do. Your ability to love even when it was thought to be impossible, you were able to give up anything and everything for love, that is an incredible accomplishment; it didn't always lead to the best decisions, your love for Drusilla caused some terrible events, but your love for Buffy, for Dawn, for the people that you met along the way, even when you were evil, who were good people, the things that you did for those people, that's what makes you different."

Spike felt almost shy at hearing this woman talk of him in such a different light then he was used to. Sure, Buffy had said a few similar things to him within the past year; however no one had ever told him what she just had in such length and caring words. Some had even condemned him for his love, saying that it was unnatural; he was in awe to have that part of him complimented so.

Spike: "So, what do we do now… head off to meet with the Powers or whoever?"

Valerie: "Not quite yet."

Valerie closed the file folder and set it off to the side, Spike was now paying very close attention to every move that she made, she opened one of her desk drawers, her dark hair fell in front of her face as she reached into the drawer looking for something; after a few moments she pulled out a blue folder and set it promptly on the desk. She moved her hair out of her face just before opening the folder.

Valerie: "We could take your case straight to the Powers, and if that's what you want then that's what we'll do; I'm only your case worker I can't make your decisions for you. However what I suggest you do is what we call an event amend."

Spike: "And just what's that?"

Valerie: "You are able to go back into any point in time and change the outcome to complete a goal that the Powers set for you, by completing the goal it will prove that you have whatever quality that the Powers are unsure on whether you have or not."

Spike: "I can change any event that I want?"

Valerie: "yes, but there is a catch, you must complete the goal that they set for you, going back just to relive a favorite memory will not help you, and you only have three chances. If you fail the goal that they set for you, or run out of chances to do an event amend it will count against you heavily."

Spike: "What happens when I change the future?"

Valerie: "In some cases, it dosen't change the future at all... the event amend is simply a trial to test you, and usually everything that you do during it is erased afterward leaving the past and future as they were when you had died."

Spike sat back in his chair and thought about what he was going to do. He could go back, he could prove that he was a better person then he had once been, he could prove that he had it in him whatever they wanted to see; or he could screw up everything. Spike knew that this would be the deciding factor in his fate, on the one hand if he did the event amend he could fail and they'd see that he wasn't 'good enough', but on the other hand if he didn't do it they'd never know if he had whatever it was that they were looking for in him. What it came down to was that if Spike had any chance of winning some kind of peaceful resting place he needed to do this, and he needed to meet his goal.

Spike: "Alright then, I guess I have to do this."

Valerie: "Are you sure? You know you could fail."

Spike: "I have to, I could fail, but if I do… If I do then I guess I don't deserve to be in heaven."

Valerie: "Ok, then I need you to fill this out."

Valerie pulls out a form from the blue folder on her desk and hands it to Spike. He stares at it as she finds a pen in her drawer and gives it to him.

Valerie: "It's just a simple contract saying that you agree to do the event amend and that you understand the rules fully… in the past we've sent a few people to hell dimensions who argued that they weren't told something and that had been why they had failed, don't worry though, I'm sure you'll do fine… I have a good feeling about this case."

Spike signed the paper quickly realizing that the ink he had used hadn't been ink, it was blood, and by the smell of it, it was his blood. That had sent a slight shiver down his spine, there was no turning back now, but then again Spike had not intention of turning back.

Valerie: "Alright then Mr. Spike, please follow me."

Valerie took the contract from Spike and stood up, she carried the blood signed contract with her as she exited the room and Spike followed, he looked at the demons in the waiting room and then proceeded to follow Valerie down the long corridor, there were doors on either side of him however it was clear that they were headed to the door at the end of the hall.

AN: Thanks to all of my reviewers: funkydevil206, I know these last few chapters have just been building and building without a lot of action, but bear with me. They're setting the stage for alot more action later on, the next chapter gets a little more interesting, but if you hang in there until chapter 5 I promise it wont be boring, and there's a little bit of spuffy-ness as well; however I just want to remind you that this is more of a 'spike-centric' fic, so Buffy isn't in most of it, although she will be there in the end.