Rebuilding

Ch 22 – Indiscretion

Spike paced furiously back and forth in front of the Summers' sofa as Dawn watched him, her head moving like she was watching a tennis match. Tara was in the kitchen brewing a pot of coffee and had already laid out a notebook and pencil for note-taking.

He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out his pack of smokes. Tapping one out, he began to fumble for the lighter.

"Spike…?"

"Yeah, Bit," he said distractedly.

"Smoking. House. Big no."

"Huh? Oh, right. Bloody second hand smoke and all that rot. I'll be on the front porch."

When Spike opened the door, he found Xander and Giles struggling to haul the Buffy robot inside. She was immobile and had water and slush dropping from her onto the porch and then the hall carpet with wet splashes. In the background, Rick's car pulled off and accelerated with its magnetic bubble-light sending a revolving red flash into the darkness.

"What's this, then?"

"Hey, Baby," Xander stretched for a quick kiss. "We've brought home a Buffybot-cicle."

"Uh-huh. What, you met a demonic Frosty the Snowman?"

"It was Adam," Giles said with a grunt as he and Xan lowered the robot to the floor in the entranceway. "Somebody has been modifying him… I believe it must be Warren Meers."

"Anyone who could make two sexbots has my vote as being able to alter a robo-zombie," Xander agreed.

"Wow… will she be okay," Dawn asked from behind Spike.

Before anyone could answer, they heard another female voice, "Goddess… oh, what happened to her?"

"Adam," Spike supplied.

"Think you could finish thawing her out," Xander asked her.

"I don't think I should try magic on a robot," she said worriedly. "It's unpredictable as it is. Willow! Willow, come upstairs," Tara yelled toward the back of the house.

"I'm afraid we lost the Aprilbot for now, too," Spike revealed to the newcomers. "And I've got news on our new vamp."

"Yeah, what's going on," Willow's voice revealed she'd joined them. "Wow. A spell?"

"I believe it's the work of an Ice Spirit," Giles said. "Though how Adam was able to utilize it, I'm not sure."

"They were asking about a de-thaw spell," Tara told her. "But I'm worried about sending magic at a machine."

"I don't think it'll be necessary… she seems to be thawing on her own," Willow pointed out. "A-and her internal systems are pretty well sealed."

"T-then she'll be okay," Dawn asked her in a small and worried voice.

"Well… I'll need to check her over before we risk powering her up. But I think she theoretically should be perfectly operable. We better get a truckload of towels though!"

"I have a wet vac at the site," Xander said. "I'll run over and grab it."

"I'm going with you. No one is leaving my sight."

"Uh… unless we're all squeezing into Xan's car, that might be impractical," Dawn grinned at him.

"Just you girls stay inside. And don't be inviting anyone in until we get back," he growled, not amused.

"What's your deal," Willow sulked.

"He knows who the vampire is," Tara told her. "The one who turned the kids that attacked Dawn and her friends? But he won't share."

"I'll share. I just didn't want to have to repeat myself," he corrected her. "When Xan and I get back, we'll all have a cuppa and a story."

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like this story," Xander questioned him.

"You knew I had a past, Love," Spike pointed out.

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"That should be enough of a clue for even my thick as a brick and self-involved as a runway model Sire to figure out," Vanessa complimented her vampiric trio.

"Aren't you worried," Gladys asked, "About him hunting us down before we're ready?"

"Oh, I'm ready dearest," she said in return.

Vanessa walked over to the firewood box that sat next to the old fireplace. It probably hadn't held any wood since the place was abandoned. Now she opened it to reveal four crossbow guns, each already loaded with bolts.

"Each of these has been coated with Russurik Spawn Juice, so be careful with them. They'll affect even us. Once we shoot Spike with them he'll be completely paralyzed up to ten hours. Just whatever you do, avoid the heart!"

"And then what," Rachel said with clear anticipation.

"And then Spike is going to get a little floor show starring the dark haired girl and as many of the others as we can get our hands on. And when I'm sure that he's ready to stake himself to escape my torments… only then will I send him back to Hell," she smiled wickedly.

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When Xander, Spike and Giles returned to the house with the wet-vac, the Buffy robot had been covered in towels but was still lying where they'd dropped her off. Tara had given a shrug, stating that they hadn't been strong enough to move it.

"I wanted to levitate it, but somebody is being a worry-wart about magic and technology mixing," Willow said snidely.

"We talked about the risks," Tara said reasonably, "It's not worth it."

"Adam is obviously using some magic," Willow pointed out again.

"Willow," she said with an edge in her voice, "I don't want to rehash this again."

"I-it's alright ladies," Giles intervened. "The men will move her out of the way of the hall later. Perhaps we can get her downstairs."

"Coffee is on," Tara said, turning on her heel with a last look at Willow and squeezed around the robot into the dining room. On the table sat a steaming carafe.

Once they had settled down, they all looked to Spike for information.

"It's like this… about 1920, 1921 me and Dru were traveling the Eastern seaboard. We were enjoying Philadelphia… quite the night life, it had…," he drifted off in reminiscence.

"Spike," Dawn asked with a quick glance at Xander. It felt a little rude for Spike to be thinking about Skank-Ass Dru when Xan was right here.

"Yeah, well… anyway… we were in Philly. We had one of our passionate, but short lived spats. See, there was this bloke… a real bruiser type that she had an eye for. Really irritated me, it did. So we had this knock-down fight; well… mostly it was her knocking me around. Dru may be mad as a hatter, but she was more than capable of beating the snot out of her sired at the time, especially with me not feeling right with hitting her back."

"What a gentleman," Xander grinned at him.

"Pshaw! Yeah, right. No, it was just she was my Sire, yeah? Couldn't just hit her. So anyway, she runs off into the night and I'm throwing a temper tantrum when this tart strolls up to me. She was some Chorus line girl or some such," Spike shook his head at his past foolishness. "Anyway, she was given me the obvious eye and I figured if Dru could sire me, then why not me siring somebody else?"

"So the vampire in town is one of the Aurelius clans'," Giles said thoughtfully.

"Not really. I guess technically," Spike nodded. "But since I didn't much get into the whole clan thing she didn't get much of a history lesson. Anyway, I turned her."

"So why is she here," Dawn asked.

"Getting to that part," Spike nodded. "You see, like I said, Dru's and my spats never lasted long. She came back, all apologies, and I took her back without much fuss. But Dru… she wasn't much into sharing unless it was on her terms. She ordered me to dump Vanessa, which I did without a fight. I should have just staked the bitch, but…."

"So she's pissed off at you," Xander said. "Why now? Why here?"

"How long were you and Vanessa… uh… together? Is that an appropriate term," Tara asked.

"Only a few days; if it amounted to a week I'd be surprised. I didn't have much interest in her to begin with, did I? I was just surly at Dru when I turned her. As to why now? Who bloody knows? Maybe she just found me… Dru and I tended to wander a lot all over the world. Or maybe she's here for the Hellmouth and I just happened to here as well? I don't know. Guess it don't much matter, she's here and I have to deal with her."

"We have to deal with her," Xander pointed out.

"This is personal business," Spike insisted. "I don't want you guys involved. I'll deal with my own mess. You all just stay hunkered down until I tell you its safe."

"Why does she tear men's throats," Giles wondered.

"I can guess she's taking out her anger at me on all men," Spike shrugged. "Or maybe she's just half-nuts like me. Again, who knows? Point being… my mess, my problem."

"Uh-uh. Not the way it works," Xander told him. "Around here, we all work to fix each other's screw ups."

"Look, Love… appreciate the thought…"

"…Willow," Xander interrupted Spike, "A little resolve-face action, here, please. We're not hiding while this loon is out there. We all work together to take her down, right?"

"Sure," Willow gave him a small smile. Actually though, Spike was right in her estimation. He made this mess and they had enough to do without getting dragged into it. Still, she supposed this was a 'best friend duty' thing, so she agreed.

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End Chapter 22