Disclaimer: I own nothing of the characters.


Memories


Willow fiddled with the phone wire as she listened to the charge list for international calls. Her eyes moved from the clock to the phone to Faith, who leant against the doorframe, her own watchful gaze floating over the currently empty lobby of the Hyperion. The girls were either asleep or out, some were at school. It was three in the afternoon, and Willow had been trying to catch Giles on the phone for the past hour. Xander was at the hospital, collecting his "brother". Spike was being discharged, much to the chagrin of the doctors, who wanted to keep him for more observation, mainly because they were so stunned by the rate of recovery the man had displayed.

He'd gone from someone at deaths door to almost fully healed and walking within 48 hours. Xander had spent most of the previous day with him, trying to jog his memory without appearing to be completely insane. They were waiting until they got him back to the hotel to immerse him in other things that might make his memory return. Pushing him too hard and too quickly could end up with him in the loony bin for real.

The phone line clicked and a weary sounding British voice answered gruffly and Willow felt very nervous all of a sudden.

'Giles?'

'Willow! How are you my dear?' Giles' tone picked up and the butterflies in the witch's stomach started a frenzy of movement. Faith moved away from the doorframe, sitting down heavily in the seat opposite the red head.

'I-I'm fine Giles. I needed to talk to you. It's important.'

'Ah, yes, sorry it's taken me so long to answer, I've been in and out of meetings all day. The New Council won't set itself up.'

Willow nodded, then remembered he couldn't see her and she squeezed her eyes shut before taking a deep breath. 'We have a situation over here. It's not an urgent situation, at least we don't think so, not for the time being, but I thought you should know. We should have called sooner but we were worried, and then things got more complicated and we knew you'd be able to help more so I called and –'

'Willow! Willow, you're babbling. Calm down.' The witch took another deep breath and opened her eyes, feeling blood rush to her cheeks. She was nervous. Giles could react in so many different ways. 'Now tell me, short and concise, what the problem is.'

'Spike's alive.'

Silence.

Giles didn't speak. She was fairly sure she could hear him cleaning his glasses. 'Giles?' She asked.

'Alive? How long?'

'We're not sure. Faith got a call about a guy in an alleyway, he was in the Emergency Room, nearly dead –'

'He's hunting again?' Giles' voice was full of concern now. Willow shook her head fiercely.

'No! No, Spike was found in an alleyway and taken to the hospital. He was in a bad way, they had to perform surgery. He's alive, Giles, as in human. Heart beat and all. Xander found him after Faith got the call.' Willow waited for an outburst from the ex-librarian. None came. 'Giles?'

'You say he's alive? Breathing, heart beating? How?'

'We're not sure. He has no memory. He doesn't know who he is or what happened to him. He was in a bad way Giles.'

'Has he said anything?'

'No, we haven't told him too much. Not about the demony side of things anyway. Xander is just picking him up from the hospital now.'

'Picking him up? How long have you known about this?'

'Only two days.' Willow replied and she heard a clatter from the other side and a curse followed it.

'Sorry, I dropped my cup. Two days? So he's been in hospital a while? Presumably the surgery would take time to recover from.'

'No, he was in surgery the day before yesterday. It's not just the memory thing Giles, after the surgery he started to heal really quick. Quicker than a Slayer. This is why I called you.'

'Dear Lord. Thank you Willow. I'm glad you called. I'll get started on it right away. I may need a few more details but we can run over those later.'

'Giles?' Willow looked up, hearing the front doors in the lobby open. Faith stood, looking around and seeing Xander walking through the doors with a Spike on a crutch. He looked different, paler and longer hair, dressed in brown slacks and a blue sweater. His eyes were duller than they used to be, showing no sign of the life he was full of before. He struggled with the crutch over to the sofa in the middle of the lobby and sat down, looking around forlornly, not sure of his place in the world, let alone the building.

'Yes, Willow?'

'Xander doesn't think we should tell Buffy.' Faith's head whipped round, her eyes narrowing. She'd voiced her opinion on this several times. If she'd had Buffy's number, she'd probably have called herself, but despite the past two years of fighting together and on the same side, it had been made clear that she and Buffy would not be bosom buddies. 'I don't know what to do about it, I wondered what you thought.'

Giles was quiet for a moment, mulling it over. 'I do not think telling her right away would be constructive. It may do more damage than good. We'll see what we can find, and work on getting answers for now. We need to make sure that nothing untoward is going on here.'

'Got it. I'll get working on what I can find out this end. I guess we should keep Angel out of this too huh?'

'This is no business of Angel's. I'd prefer if he and that law firm stayed away from Spike and the Slayers.' The grit and anger in Giles' voice was harsh and Willow winced a little as she agreed quietly. She waited for Giles to tell her the information and details he needed before he could start researching, and wrote them down, before saying her goodbyes and hanging up. Faith stood in front of her, arms crossed.

'You shouldn't keep this from B.' The dark slayer said, her eyes narrowed slits of mistrust.

'Giles doesn't think it would be constructive to tell her. She'd get upset, jump on a plane over here and just beat herself up if we can't do anything. If he stays like this? What kind of a life is that for her?'

'Shouldn't she have the right to decide?' Faith asked, following the witch as she left the office and walked into the lobby.

'She will. Just not right now.' Willow spat back, and then turned to Spike with a bright smile. 'Hey, Spike. How are you feeling?'

'Spiffy.' He replied. 'Got to go back to some clinic tomorrow to have this checked out.' He motioned to his ankle in the bright green cast. 'Although it feels fine, the cast is just awkward to walk with. I feel pretty good actually. Surely that's not right?' He raised a scarred eyebrow in Willow's direction. She noted the scar with interest and looked towards Xander, who grimaced and sat next to Spike.

'No. No it's not. But we can discuss that later.' Willow said, and then motioned to the slayer beside her. 'This is Faith. She kinda runs this place. There's a lot of other girls here, they'll come and go. Just ignore them for the most part and they won't bother you.' They hadn't worried about any of the Sunnydale Potentials recognising Spike, seeing as they'd all been sent out on missions to keep them occupied. Willow was hoping Spike's memories would return quickly and she could get him out of here.

'Yo.' Faith held a hand out and Spike smiled as he took it, shaking it firmly. Faith smiled back and Willow's eyes widened at the flirting. She nudged Faith who scowled at her. 'I got stuff to do. Catch you later, blondie.' She winked at the former vampire and he watched her leave, his eyes lingering appreciatively on her rear. Xander frowned at him and cleared his throat. Spike's head whipped round, his face a picture of innocence.

'What?' He asked, looking between the red head and the brunette.

'Nothing.' Xander shook his head, turning his attention to Willow. 'Did you get hold of Giles?'

'Yeah. He needs some more information. Did you take care of the insurance?'

'I put him on mine. I figure Giles will sort it.' The one eyed man shrugged, looking to Spike. 'I'm hungry, how about you?' The blonde nodded.

'I could go for a bite.' Xander ignored the phrasing.

'Cool. Willow?' The witch nodded.

'Whatever you guys are having. I've got books to check.' She turned and wandered away. 'I'll need to talk to you Spike, when you get back.' She didn't wait for a reply.

'Chinese?' Xander asked and Spike shrugged.

'You tell me. I don't know what I like, afterall.'

Xander nodded and headed for the front desk and pulled out a Chinese restaurant menu from the pile sat on the side. He thumbed through and then picked up the phone. 'Hi, can I have an order for delivery to the Hyperion Hotel. Er, 1481 Hyperion Avenue? Yeah that's the one. Can I have two number three's, a forty two, a thirty six, a seventy one and a fifty? That'd be great. Oh, and prawn crackers? Twenty-eight fifty? No problem. Thanks.' He hung up the phone and turned to Spike, who was looking more confused than before. 'It was a standard order back in Sunnydale. I'm fairly sure you liked egg rolls. You used to dip them in…' He stopped abruptly and Spike frowned.

'You do that a lot.'

'What?' Xander asked innocently. The blonde's frown turned into a scowl.

'You cut off in the middle of sentences. As if there's something you're hiding from me. What is it? Something to do with this Sunnydale place? You said it collapsed right?'

Xander swallowed hard and nodded. 'There's a lot of stuff…we weren't sure you were ready for. We'll wait for Willow to come back, and we'll have some food and I promise, I'll answer all your questions okay? We're not going to hide anything from you. We just didn't want you to end up in a nuthouse.'

Spike eyed him warily and then nodded slowly.

He wanted the truth. And he wanted it now.


The redhead sat back in her chair and groaned. 'I've eaten way too much.'

'Tell me about it.' Xander said, watching as Spike shoved yet another egg roll into his mouth and chewed happily. 'I think we can ascertain Spike remembers Chinese food and how much he liked it.'

'Ambrosia,' the ex-vamp declared, smacking his lips together. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and then stretched, looking down at the cast on his ankle in annoyance. 'This thing is really pissing me off. And it's making my leg itchy.' His brow furrowed and he reached down, ripping the cast in half with one movement. Willow and Xander looked on in shock as he held up the two pieces, his own face a picture of confusion as he looked between the two halves. 'I was going to try and scratch it with my chopsticks! I didn't….how….' He looked up at his two companions. 'Answers now. This is weird. I've got ridiculous strength, I've miraculously healed from life threatening injuries in hours and I'm starting to think that we're not related at all!' He pointed one of the cast halves at Xander.

The witch and the carpenter swallowed hard and Xander nodded. 'Okay. I promised you answers.'

'Damn straight.' Spike dropped the cast pieces to the floor and folded his arms, waiting for them to start.

'You're right. We're not brothers. We aren't really even friends.'

'That's rich.' Spike said, glaring. 'Is my name even Spike, or William, or whatever?' Willow held her hands up.

'Hey, yeah it is. You've always been Spike to us. We have known you about seven years. And me and you are friends. Sort of. Not close friends, in fact, you've tried to kill me a couple of times,' Spike looked alarmed, 'but we got past that! You were a good guy.'

'A good guy?' Spike snorted. 'What was I before, a super villain?'

'Try a vampire.' Faith said from the doorway, her arms folded across her chest. Spike turned his head, taking in the newcomer and stood, easily walking on the previously broken ankle. Faith glanced at it and then dismissed it.

'A vampire?' He scoffed. 'Vampires aren't real.'

'Oh they're real.' Faith said, walking towards him. 'Willow is a witch and I'm a slayer. All my girls are Slayers. And you were William The Bloody, a notorious vampire turned champion. You saved the world by burning up in the Hellmouth, blondie.' She was almost toe to toe with him, a small part of her enjoying the conflict on his face. He scrunched his nose up, turning to face the other two.

'Are you lot off you're rockers?'

'How else do you explain the fast healing? The strength? We need to work out what is going on here.' Willow said matter-of-factly. Spike shook his head, reached a hand up as his nose began to bleed.

'This is nuts.' He said, wiping the blood away from his face and looking at it in shock. 'I liked…egg rolls…dipped in blood.' He looked up at Xander. 'That was what you were going to say earlier.' The half-blind carpenter was about to reply when Spike's eyes rolled up in his head and he hit the floor, too late for Faith to catch him.


He opened his eyes slowly to find Xander sat beside him. He was laying on a very comfy bed, the room lit only by a small lamp beside him. His head hurt and his nose felt a bit crusty, probably from where it had bled before. His body felt remarkable though. He looked over to see Xander was apparently playing a game on his cell. When he saw Spike was awake, he put the phone away.

'Thought we lost you for a minute there. Any brainwaves?'

Spike thought for a moment and then shook his head in frustration. 'I remember what the girl – Faith?' Xander nodded. 'I remember what she said. About vampires. That I was one. It's…it's a lot to take in. How do we go about finding out what happened to me?' He asked, pulling himself up into a sitting position.

'Willow and Giles are on it.'

'Giles. The British guy you know?'

'There's only two of you.' Xander smiled. 'They'll figure it out.'

Spike nodded, looking around. 'Where's Dawn?' He asked and Xander's eye nearly popped out of its socket.

'Huh?'

'Where's Dawn?' Spike asked, then got confused as Xander sputtered a little. 'Who is Dawn?'