Demonic Relativity
Disclaimer: I want Spike for Christmas.
Summary: A discussion, a date, a dream and a warning.
Reviews: I know I don't deserve them considering the lateness of this chapter but if I beg? Readers Rock but Reviewers RULE!
A/N: As this is an AU season four, we are assuming that 'Pangs' and 'Something Blue' did not happen. Other episodes may or may not be used as you will see later in this chapter. This is for those who wanted to know what was going on over at Giles' house. I humbly beg forgiveness from all those still interested in this fic and offer it to you for Christmas. (holds out chapter tentatively, straightening straggly bow) Umm…. Merry Christmas?
As always thank you to WayWard Childe for his invaluable input. (holds up mistletoe hopefully)
To everyone: I wish that you all have a very Joyous Holiday Season.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Giles' house, Tuesday, mid-morning….
The first thing Mike noticed when he woke up was that he was not in his room at the fraternity house. The second was that there was a dead body in the bed next to him. Oddly enough he was more disturbed by the first thing than the second. Cautiously, he eased his way out of the queen size bed. His companion stirred as the mattress shifted.
"Pretty? Where are you going?" Drusilla's sleepy voice sounded from under the mound of blankets.
"Human here. Nature calls." Michael told her humorously. "Then I figure I'll see if Mr. Giles has some civvies for me to wear."
"You won't leave me?" She asked as she rolled over, peering at him from the covers.
"No, Ma'am. I'm not leaving." The soldier assured her.
"There's a good pet." There was no more as the vampire drifted back to sleep.
Michael wasted no time in slipping his uniform pants on over his khaki boxers. He topped it with the matching t-shirt, leaving his uniform shirt hanging over a nearby chair. He left his combat boots sitting where he'd placed them by the door, preferring to walk around barefoot.
Downstairs, Giles heard the water running in the bathroom upstairs and got out an empty cup. He didn't know if the American would want coffee or if he'd share tea with his host. He settled back into his chair at the table and resumed checking the newspaper for stories of suspicious deaths that might require further investigation by the Slayer.
Michael walked into the small kitchen a few minutes later, silent on bare feet. "Good morning, Mr. Giles."
"Good morning, Michael. Did you sleep well?" The Watcher answered.
The dark blond head tilted in consideration. "Oddly enough I did." He admitted with a surprised smile.
Giles nodded and rose. "Would you like coffee or tea?" He picked up the empty cup.
"Whatever you have already made." Mike told him agreeably. "My mom, most of my family in fact, is allergic to coffee so I grew up drinking tea. I think I grew up in one of the few houses in America that didn't even have a coffee maker. I didn't know I could tolerate coffee until I joined the Army. Sometimes it's the only thing available that's halfway safe to drink." He chuckled at the bemusement on the older man's face. Taking the seat opposite of the one Giles had occupied, he accepted the cup of hot tea. He chuckled again at the disgust Giles displayed when he reached for the sugar bowl.
"Cretin." Giles muttered as he fetched a spoon.
"Don't I know it? But that's what happens when you grow up in the south." Mike grinned unrepentantly.
The older man resumed his seat and sipped his unsullied tea. "What's your ancestry?" He asked, jumping right into one of the things he was most curious about.
"German, English, Irish in huge doses and diluted by a bunch of other nationalities. My uncle did a family tree a while back. Frustrated the life out of him." Mike answered.
Giles frowned. "Really? Why was that?"
Mike shrugged. "There were a couple of dead ends. People he couldn't find out what happened to. They just dropped off the face of the earth." He frowned as he remembered something odd. "Both of them in the same year. He hates it when he can't make all the dots connect. Hazards of being ex-military, I guess. He likes when he can answer all the questions."
"Is it possible that you're related to Spike?" Giles wanted to know, again wasting no time jumping into what he wanted to know.
"I've discovered that anything is possible with the right circumstances." Mike tilted his head in yet another eerily Spike-like gesture. "Do you have any idea how odd it is to see your face on a vampire? What amazes me is that not one person in the Initiative saw it. That little girl last night spotted it right away."
"That was Dawn. She and Spike appear to be friends." The Watcher frowned at the thought.
"And that bothers you." Mike observed perceptively.
"Yes, frankly, it does." Giles nodded. "I'm a Watcher for a Vampire Slayer. Our job is to rid the world of vampires and demons. Not become friends with them." A frown crossed his handsome face. "Although that didn't stop her from falling in love with a vampire. Nothing about this assignment has been what I would term normal."
Mike choked on the sip of tea he'd just taken. "In love with a vampire? You have got to be kidding me!"
With a chagrined expression, Giles rose to open the refrigerator. "Well, he did have a soul…" He began.
A snort sounded from the soldier. "And we all know how important that is." He stated sarcastically. "Considering her attitude towards Spike, that was the last thing I expected you to tell me."
"Indeed." The noncommittal word amused Mike. "Are you hungry?" Giles turned to his guest with a small carton of eggs in his hand.
"Starving." The younger man nodded emphatically. He got up. "Here, let me help." He reached for the egg carton with an encouraging smile. "Do you have a frying pan with a lid, some cheese and a bit of ham? How about some omelets?"
"You cook?" Rupert asked, astonished.
The dark blond head nodded as he assembled the ingredients provided by his bemused host. "Momma always said that a man needed to be able to take care of himself. She made sure I could cook, wash clothes, do a little mending if I need to and clean. But the last bit I'm not overly fond of." He admitted with an embarrassed grin. He turned the stove to his preferred temperature and placed the frying pan on it. "I need a bowl, a fork and some butter."
Rupert watched as the soldier made himself at home in his kitchen. With quick, economical movements, Mike had the eggs cooking on almost no time. He layered cheese and ham onto the circle of scrambled eggs, turned the heat down low and covered the pan. He resumed his seat and picked up his cup amusement apparent in his bright blue/gray gaze. "You still have questions." He observed placidly.
Giles nodded as he took another sip of tea. He grimaced and rose to refill the teapot so he could boil some more water. "Where did you grow up? You mentioned being from the south?"
Mike returned to the stove and lifted the lid on the pan. He turned slightly towards his host. "Got a plate?" Accepting the offered china, he slid the perfectly turned omelet onto it before slipping it into the oven he'd preheated to keep the first one hot while he made the second one. Mere minutes later he had another omelet in the pan. A flip of the switch stopped the whistling teapot and the soldier returned to the table to leave room for Giles to make the tea. Mike added sugar to his tea under the disapproving eye of the older man. Just when Giles was beginning to believe his questions would go unanswered, Mike began speaking again.
"I grew up in the Ozark Mountains in the southwestern part of Missouri. My mom pretty much raised me on her own. My dad took a hike when I was little. My uncle is retired military, ex-special forces, and still has contacts higher up but that didn't help when I asked for a transfer out of this nightmare assignment. The only person he's scared of is my aunt. Until I was stationed here, the most demonic thing I'd ever seen in my life was that old mule my uncle wouldn't get rid of. You already know how I got through school. Anything else?" Mike grinned as he rose to tip the second omelet out of the pan. He brought the plates to the table as Giles fetched silverware from the drawer.
A rueful smile crossed Rupert's handsome face. "Actually, quite a lot but that will do for now." He tasted his breakfast. "This is wonderful."
They ate silently for several minutes. Mike placed his fork on his plate with a sigh and finished his tea. He reached across the table and snagged the Watcher's discarded newspaper. Army training had him finishing long before his host so he scanned the headlines of the paper.
Giles watched his guest as he quietly read the newspaper. He found himself wondering just how it had come about that he was playing host to not only a not-quite-sane female Master Vampire but an absent-without-leave soldier. He tilted his head as he considered the man across the table. This person had nearly vampiric reaction speed and compassion for all creatures but belonged to a rigidly structured organization that preyed on everything considered nonhuman. He noticed with amusement that the headlined stories got no more than a cursory glance before the younger man flipped through to the comics section. He swallowed the last bite of the delicious omelet and rose to pick up both plates in order to carry them to the sink.
"So, Michael, have you decided what you're going to do now? Is it possible for you to return to the Army?" Giles questioned as he returned to the table.
Mike refolded the paper and returned it to Rupert's side of the table. He frowned as he thought about his current lack of options. "I can't go back to the Initiative, that's for sure. There's no way in Hell I can wander around town looking the way I do. I was wondering if you'd have any civvies that I could borrow."
"Civvies? I don't understand." Giles frowned.
Mike ran an elegant finger up and down the side of his nose with an abashed smile. "Sorry, been speaking 'Army' so long I slipped. Would you happen to have any non-military clothing I could wear?" He frowned. "I should do something about my hair and…" He trailed off, deep in thought. "I have an idea. What do you think?" He started talking, his accent deepening as his idea gelled.
Giles listened for a few minutes before beginning to laugh. "That just might work."
Initiative Labs…..
Riley wasn't sure which he preferred, the furious clipboard throwing rage of the other day or today's icy anger. He stood at attention hoping with all his might that his impatience to be out of there and getting ready for his date with Buffy didn't show on his face. A sneaky glance at his boss assured him that she was fairly unaware of his distraction. He tried hard not to blink when she suddenly stopped right in front of him.
"Am I to understand that you have no idea where the missing soldier is? My missing hostile is still missing? And you haven't a clue who the civilians were that seemed to know my missing hostile? Am I correct?" Maggie Walsh hissed her questions out mere inches from Riley's face.
"Um, no Ma'am. I don't have any new information for you." Riley admitted reluctantly. "I have doubled the patrols and given them instructions to be as low key as possible. We don't want to lose any more to the vampire that's been feeding on our men. I hope to have news by tomorrow morning."
"This situation needs to be contained." Walsh turned away and picked up a file. "Do you have any idea who Private Caden is related to?"
Riley frowned in confusion. "Related, Ma'am?"
"I found out after he disappeared that Private Caden's uncle is retired Army with connections in some of the highest departments in the service. They can not be allowed to find out that he has gone missing. He should have never been chosen for this assignment. I told them I wanted soldiers with no outside connections." She thumped the clipboard back down on the desk. "This situation is getting out of control." She turned back to Riley. "By tomorrow morning I want to have either Private Caden in front of me ready for reprogramming or his body in the morgue ready to be shipped back to his family after his 'car accident'. We don't have any reason to believe that he's been turned since none of the others that were been bitten have risen as vampires. Believe me, I've been keeping an eye on the bodies."
Riley gulped at the callousness of her statements. Silently he vowed to find the missing man and make him sorry he'd caused so much trouble.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Go out and find him!" The last two words were shrieked as her control snapped again. Riley Finn wasted no time at all getting out of her sight, not bothering to find out exactly which 'him' she was referring to this time.
Later, mid-afternoon…
Buffy leaned back onto the blanket that had been spread out underneath a large leafy tree in the campus common area and simply let herself enjoy the feeling of being outside in the daylight away from all the nasty things that go bump in the night. Riley watched as the infrequent bursts of sunshine lit highlights in her long hair. He was lounging on his side propped up on one elbow with his feet crossed at the ankles. He was trying very hard to forget his impossible assignment and concentrate of the lovely girl opposite him.
"You look tired. Why don't you lie down and take a nap. I'll keep watch." Riley suggested as he reached over and smoothed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. She looked over at him and smiled. She was having a very hard time associating this seemingly kind, considerate, normal man with the torture that had been inflicted on Spike. But she was willing to give Riley the benefit of a doubt and adopt a wait and see attitude. She scooted over to his side of the blanket and sighed as he tugged her closer. He gazed down as she closed her eyes and appeared to immediately doze off.
Buffy looked around in the unfamiliar room. She gazed around taking in the shelves of what appeared to be occult merchandise and books. A small counter stood off to one side with an older model cash register on one end. A large round table with matching chairs sat opposite of the counter in front of a set of open work stairs that appeared to lead to another area full of bookshelves. She frowned and tried to remember what she'd been doing before arriving in this place. She could hear a very faint humming and spun around trying to pinpoint the location of the sound. A circular step up leading to the door caught her attention. As she watched the door swung open and a little girl about eleven or twelve walked through. She was blonde and pretty. Her innocent face was tense with concentration as she carefully carried a small ornately carved box in both hands. She was the source of the humming. As Buffy watched, the girl raised her head and stared straight at the Slayer. The older blonde tilted her head and tried to make out the words as the girl began to sing softly.
"Can't even shout
Can't even cry
The gentlemen are coming by
looking in windows
knocking on doors
They need to take seven
and they might take yours
Can't call to mom
can't say a word
You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard"
As Buffy watched, the little girl finished her song for the second time and stared at the Slayer. No, stared past the Slayer. As soon as she realized that the little girl was looking at something behind her, Buffy whirled around. A trickle of cold fear slid down her spine as she faced a tall, thin demon with dead white skin, extra long fingers and dressed in severe black suits. A wide toothy grin graced his hideous face. She opened her mouth to scream and……
Riley was startled when the girl at his side shot up with a gasp. He frowned as Buffy looked around wildly for a few seconds.
"Buffy? Are you all right?" He asked anxiously.
The blonde blinked at him owlishly a couple of times before she realized it had been a slayer dream and she really needed to find Giles. "I'm sorry. I have to go home." She began to gather her belongings.
"What's wrong?" The soldier rose and extended his hand to help her up.
"I'm really sorry but I forgot that I promised my mom I'd get home early to help her… um… find something in the basement." She finally finished lamely. She straightened out her skirt and avoided looking up into Riley's hazel eyes.
"Can I walk you home?" He offered as he gathered up the blanket and folded it with quick efficient movements.
Unaccustomed panic flared through the girl. "Oh no!" She yelped. She inhaled and smiled up at him beguilingly. "It's ok, I'll be all right." She slipped her hand around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "Thank you for the picnic. It was very nice."
Riley grinned. "No problem. When can I see you again?"
A slight frown marred her forehead. "I don't know. I'll see you in class tomorrow?"
The soldier pouted but realized it was probably for the best. He really needed to get some progress made on finding the missing Hostile and the AWOL Private. "Yeah, I'll be there. We're supposed to go over test questions so no napping." He winked at her.
A giggle escaped as she turned to walk away. "I'll do my best."
Late evening, Giles' house….
To say that Giles was surprised when Drusilla absolutely refused to leave the house that evening would have been a vast understatement. The Watcher and Michael both watched as she closed her eyes and swayed gently. She sang softly but it was not a song either man had heard before. She surveyed them with glittering blue eyes, her gaze resting on Mike for more than a few long moments.
The former soldier shifted under her perusal. "Miss Drusilla, don't you need to feed?" He asked quietly. "Aren't you going to visit Spike tonight?"
"No, my Pretty. I have fed well the past few days and have no need to do so every day. My lovely Spike will be fine where he is. They do not want his. But Mum must be warned. Tell them." She turned to Giles. "Tell them all to keep the doors locked and closed, Watcher. They are here." With that warning, she swept regally up the stairs, leaving the humans gazing after her in bemusement.
Mike turned to his host. "Do I want to know what she means by "You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard"?
Rupert returned his glasses to his face, freshly cleaned and walked over to an over-stuffed bookcase. "No, I don't think you do but I'm afraid we have no choice but to try to find out." He removed several books and handed two of them to Mike.
Early Wednesday morning, Summers basement….
Spike blinked awake and rubbed his eyes. He frowned as his chains clanked in the intense stillness of the basement. He peered around the room trying to determine what had caused him to wake up. With a shrug, he hitched his blanket back up to his shoulders and turned his back to the wall. A sense of unease trickled down his spine as his eyelashes fluttered closed and he drifted back to sleep.
TBC