As promised with a couple of weeks to spare, here is the final chapter of the story. I hope it was worth the wait. Please note that this chapter gets an M for an entirely different reason than why many of the other chapters have deserved it.

As always all characters and the Buffyverse are property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

Chapter 23 Truce

"Yes?" Giles said as he opened his door. His face went from polite formality to cold contempt in a fraction of a second. "Spike."

"Rupert." Spike acknowledged with a nod and a smirk.

"What are doing here?" Giles asked, taking a slight step back to stay behind the protection of the threshold.

"I need your advice." Spike replied, blowing smoke through the doorway.

"Stay away from Buffy." The librarian answered glibly.

Spike smiled. "Not the advice I was looking for. Need your input on a ...metaphysical problem."

"And why would I help you?"

"Because you care about Buffy."

Giles tensed, anger flashing in his eyes. "Are you threatening her?"

"Nope, not that you believe it, but I care about her and right now I'm trying to protect her. Just not sure if what I think will be best is." He shrugged, "Not really used to trying to do the right thing. That's where you come in."

"Why didn't you just ask her?" To say the Watcher looked skeptical would be an understatement.

"Because if she even gets wind of this it will tear her apart." He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. "Look, white flag here, truce. I'm not out to hurt you, you can even bring a weapon if you want."

"Bring? You can't seriously think I'd go anywhere with you." he scoffed.

"Can't bring the problem to you." He shook his head, then leaned against the door frame. "You have to decide which is stronger; your love for Buffy or your distrust of me."

The librarian looked annoyed, and Spike knew he had been right. Giles cared too much about the Slayer to let a serious threat to her stand. "Wait here." he said finally and shut the door.

Spike smiled to himself, that was easier than he had expected. He had been afraid he would have to take Giles by force. Which would ruin any chances with ever getting Giles to not be adamantly opposed to his relationship with Buffy. Not that he ever expected Giles to approve, but he was hoping to get a grudging acceptance sooner rather than later.

When he heard the door begin to open he went on mental alert, although he kept his body language neutral. There was still a chance that Giles would try to kill him. It proved to be a good instinct because when the door opened a small crossbow was pointed at him.

"So Spike, please elaborate on what this conundrum of yours is." Giles tone was polite but his face was stone cold.

Spike shook his head "Like I told you, you have to come with me."

"I could just kill you now."

"You could try, but the problem would still exist. Plus Buffy wouldn't be happy."

"She'd get over it."

"Maybe, the whole thing with Angel almost killed her. Do you think she's up to another heartache so soon?" He took a long drag on his cigarette. "Kill me or help her. Up to you." When the Watcher still looked uncertain he added. "All right mate, stay here, let the evil vampire solve the moral dilemma. But if my decision comes back to bite her in the ass, remember you're the one who wouldn't help." He dropped his cigarette and ground it out as he turned to leave.

He had taken two steps when Giles asked. "Even if I did believe that you care about Buffy..." Spike stopped and smiled, but didn't turn around. "Why should I think that would translate into your not killing me?"

"Same reason you haven't shot me, neither of us would risk causing her that much pain." He looked over his shoulder. "You coming?"

Spike could see some idea occur to Giles and the Watcher smirked. He stepped back from the door but left it open. Moving to his desk, he set down the crossbow and started writing. Spike turned to watch him.

"What's that?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"A note to Buffy, telling her I'm going off with you. This way if I don't come back she'll know not to trust you." He set down the pen and retrieved his crossbow.

"Sound plan." Spike nodded. "You might want to grab that bottle of scotch." he gestured to the far side of the room.

"Whatever on earth for?"

"You'll need a drink after this and since you don't trust me I figured you'd prefer your own bottle."

"I won't be drinking with you Spike."

"Suit yourself. Ready?"

"Lead the way." Giles gestured with the weapon, making it clear he planned to keep it aimed at the vampire the whole way. With a nod, Spike turned and set off at an easy pace, Giles followed about ten feet behind. They walked in silence. It was a beautiful night, and Spike was wishing he hadn't had to call Buffy to cancel their rendez-vous, but this had to take precedence. He hoped Joyce had been able to deliver the message before Buffy went on patrol.

He turned a corner and had gone several yards before he realized that he no longer heard footsteps behind him. He turned and found Giles staring at him stony-faced. "What is it?"

"You're taking me back to the mansion." his voice accusatory.

"Yeah, that's where the problem is." At the unease on the Watcher's face he added. "Not filled with the happiest of memories for you, is it?" He looked back in the direction of the house. "Buffy too, she won't come here. That's why I'm moving soon."

"To where?"

Spike scoffed. "Like I'm going to tell the man with a crossbow leveled at me where I'll be sleeping."

"Fair point." Giles conceded. He took a deep breath and nodded. "All right, let's go."

Spike turned and continued on. After a short distance he said over his shoulder. "You know mate, I never had a chance to tell you, I was impressed with how you were able to endure all that Angel put you through. Not many could."

Giles just humphed at the compliment, but after a minute of silence he grudgingly said. "I guess I should thank you for stopping him from killing me."

"Thank Buffy not me. It was part of the deal we made."

"Yes, she told me. Still, you upheld your side of the bargain." He sounded surprised.

Spike just shrugged, apparently no one expected him to keep his word.

He turned up the walk to the house, he was just reaching for the doorknob when Giles said, "Stop."

Spike turned slowly. "You want to go in first?"

"No, open the door slowly then walk to the center of the room where I can see you."

"Always listen to the man with a pointy stick." Spike did as instructed and forced himself not to laugh as Giles cautiously peered around the door, ready for an ambush. Once fully inside he closed the door behind him. His eyes scanned the room and he was just beginning to relax when he saw a naked form lying against the wall by the fireplace, his arms manacled above him. The watcher's face hardened and he retrained the crossbow on Spike.

"Keeping prisoners? I was right, you haven't changed, you've just managed to deceive Buffy."

"No, yes, no." Spike replied calmly. "You're right, I haven't changed, but Buffy knows that. She knows I haven't gone all mopey and soul-having. I'm still evil, I'm just behaving myself while we're together. No deception there."

"I'm fairly certain Buffy would not approve of that." Giles jerked his head in the direction of the sleeping figure.

"You don't know the half of it." Spike said with a smirk. Yo! Peaches!" he yelled. "Wakey-wakey, we got company." He threw a coin from his pocket at Angel.

The effect was immediate. The feral vampire sprang to his feet, snarling and straining at his bonds.

Giles jumped back, bringing the crossbow around to point at it's chest. Fear and confusion battled for dominance of his face. He opened his mouth several times to say something, only to close it again before he finally said. "I thought Buffy killed him."

Spike sat on the back of the couch and swung his legs around so his feet were on the seat. Looking at what was left of his grandsire he clarified. "What she told me was that she drove her sword through him and he was sucked into hell. Looks like hell didn't want him either and spat him back out." he glanced at Giles.

"How?"

"Damned if I know. Last night she gave me this ring he had given her and asked me to leave it where he had died. She wanted to put him, the whole thing, behind her. I did as she asked, went to sleep and woke up to this."

"Has he said anything?" Giles continued to stare at the feral beast.

"Nope, just growls a lot. I tried to talk to him but he didn't seem to understand anything except one word."

"What word?"

"Buffy." Spike replied, slightly louder.

At her name Angel grew frenzied, snarling and straining against the manacles until they cut into his skin. Giles took a step back.

"He does that every time. Don't know if it means he wants to kill her or claim her." Spike pulled his cigarettes out.

"Does she know?" Giles asked.

"Hell no." Spike put a cigarette to his lips and lit it. "Seeing him like this would kill her. Which was why I was all set to kill him. Had the stake in my hand and everything."

"What stopped you?"

"It occurred to me that he might be back for a reason." He took a long drag off his cigarette. "Sure, it could just be that hell found him an insufferable ponce and spat him back out. But what if he's part of some bigger plan? Maybe without him here some big bad takes over the world."

"You honestly believe that...that," Giles gestured with the crossbow, "could save the world?" His hatred of Angel evident on his face.

"Don't know what to think, that's why I came to you. Let you puzzle out the implications of..." A twang rang out and in the next instant a quarrel sank into the chest of the chained vampire. It let out one final snarl and exploded into dust.

Keeping his movements outwardly casual Spike stood warily. "All right then. Glad to see that was an easy decision."

"It was." Giles replied with grim satisfaction before reloading the crossbow and pointing it at Spike. "And so is this."

"You're not going to shoot me Rupert."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Two things. One – like I said before, it would hurt Buffy. And two -" Spike closed the distance before the Watcher could react and grabbed the crossbow from him. "I'm not going to let you."

Giles jumped back in shock. Now that he had lost his perceived upper hand fear filled his eyes, though he did a decent job of keeping a stiff upper lip. "Don't forget the note, Buffy will know it was you that killed me."

"Not planning on killing you." Spike took the wooden bolt and broke it, then tossed the crossbow into the far corner of the room. He wandered over to a side table. "Drink?" he picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels and two glasses and walked back to the couch. Setting the glasses on the coffee table he poured generous portions in both and picked one up.

The librarian watched him with uncertainty. "I told you I'm not drinking with you."

With a shrug of indifference Spike sat on the short side of the corner sofa, after taking a drink he looked at the Watcher expectantly.

"What happens now?" Giles asked.

"Up to you mate. You can go, lecture or threaten me about breaking up with Buffy which will do no good, or ask me all the questions I'm sure you're dying to ask." He took another drink.

Spike could see the inner struggle on Giles face. He knew he would be safest if he left but his paternal feelings for his Slayer over rode his sense of self-preservation.

"Willow claims you love Buffy."

"Yeah? Well Red has a big mouth."

"Are you saying it's true?"

"You really think I would have gone to all the trouble to haul you down here to solve a moral quandary if I didn't? I would have just staked the ponce and not worried about the consequences." He took another swig of his drink. "And I wouldn't have an icebox full of blood bags. God, I haven't bitten anyone since LA."

"You're not good enough for her." Giles challenged.

"Nope, not by a long shot, but then no one is."

"How did you get her to become infatuated with you?"

"My boyish charm." Spike replied smugly.

"I want the truth Spike."

Spike shrugged, "It just happened, I didn't set out to do it.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"Believe what you like, it's the truth. Sure it's easier to believe I cast some sort of spell over her, but I didn't."

"Convince me." Giles said skeptically.

"How?" Spike scoffed, sure that there wasn't anything he could tell the Watcher that would sway him.

"Tell me everything that happened since you met in LA."

"How long have you got?"

"As long as it takes."

"Okay. Remember that friend of hers that tried to sell her out so I would make him a vampire?"

"Ford? What does he have to do with this? He was long dead by that time."

"One of his groupies was there. She recognized Buffy and went squealing to her when she saw me so Buffy came hunting. Caught up with me outside a bloodbank."

"You were stealing blood?" Giles sounded surprised.

"Buying it actually."

"Forgive me, but that seems out of character. From what I've read and seen you seem to prefer the hunt."

"God, I do." He said with perhaps too much enthusiasm. Despite his assurances to Buffy that he could stay on the straight and narrow, not having the excitement of a chase was wearing on him, although the fight with Angel had helped take the edge off. "But I was trying to track down Dru. It was the type of area she liked to hunt in, and I had heard rumors that people had gone missing. I was buying blood because it's easier to track down the source of disappearances if you aren't adding to them."

Giles just gave a brief nod, seeming to agree with the logic of it, so Spike continued. "We fought, or at least I did, she was rubbish. Twice I had her at my mercy and warned her to walk away."

"Why didn't you just kill her? You've never hesitated to kill a Slayer before." Crossing his arms, Giles perched on the back of the couch opposite the vampire.

"It would have been a let down." Spike said plainly. "Your girl, when she has her head in the game, when she's fired up, she's the best fight I've ever had. But not that night.

"So finally I just knocked her out. But then I'm there in this alley with an unconcious Slayer. I almost left her there, but in that part of town it would've been the same as killing her without the satisfaction of doing it myself."

He shifted slightly, carefully watching Giles, prepared for his reaction. "Then my denomic nature got the better of me, with my blood still pumping from the fight and her lying there all cute and helpless. I decided to have some fun."

Giles sprang to his feet, his face red, his hands clenched into fists. "You raped her?"

"Yeah, cause this is me sitting here wit sticking out of my chest." Spike replied sarcastically. "No, but I planned to. Almost did it right there in the alley, but I didn't want to be interrupted and it wouldn't have been as much fun with her unconscious."

"Fun?!" The Watcher was furious at this point.

"Demon fun. Got to realize I've had a hundred years of letting the demon run free, not to mention I got my training on how to be a vampire from that pile of dust over there." He poured himself another whiskey. "So, yeah, I have been known to get my rocks off in some pretty despicable ways. But if you've read up on me I'm sure you knew that."

"I did." Giles confirmed through tight lips.

"I decided I would have my fun while punishing her..."

"Punish her for what?" Giles asked, still seething over the picutre Spike was painting.

"For being the Slayer." Spike made it sound like it should have been obvious. "Course that was before I understood that just being the Slayer was punishment enough for all the sins of mankind."

"Being the Slayer is a sacred duty..." Giles began defensively.

"Yeah, cause that makes it all better, dunnit? Being torn out of a nice normal life of school and make-up and boys to face the hordes of hell on a nightly basis. That's why the title is Chosen One. No one would pick it for themselves. Or am I wrong? Did Buffy do backflips when she learned about her sacred duty?"

The librarian looked away and sat on the couch. His silence telling Spike he was right. He resumed his story.

"Anyway, I threw her over my shoulder and brought her back to my place. Lucky for both of us, the walk gave me time to think. It occurred to me that if I raped her I would have to kill her. Since there's no way you could do that to a Slayer and not expect to be enemy number one until one of you was dead. And I really didn't want to kill her when it wasn't a challenge." He dropped his cigarette to the ground and stomped it out. "Made me start to wonder why she wanted to die."

Giles turned his head to stare at Spike. "You think she wanted to die?"

"Sure of it. I could tell that by the way she fought."

"I don't believe it. She's stronger than that."

Spike nodded. "She's the strongest person I ever met." He said seriously. "But it's true. She couldn't deny it."

"Just because she didn't deny it to you..." Giles protested.

"Rupert, she let me feed from her." Spike spoke over him, leaning forward for emphasis.

"What!?"

"She let me bite her."

"What do you mean 'let'? I was told you had her chained to your bed. What choice did she have?"

"I'd goaded her into a game of truth or dare, figured it might get something out of her. I asked her why she wanted to die, she asked me what the dare was. I picked the one thing I thought she would refuse, and she didn't." He flopped back against the couch. "I was completely gobsmacked. Almost didn't do it, almost asked her if she was out of her mind, but she offered her neck to me. No way I could resist that, not a saint, am I?"

"Obviously." Giles said with distaste.

"The point is: given a choice between the two, she chose to let me feed from her with no assurance that I would stop other than my word. If that's not a death wish than I don't know what is."

Giles sat there, his mouth open as he tried to process the information. He rose, pacing briefly before sitting again and picking up the drink that Spike had poured for him. Concealing his smile Spike took a drink from his own glass.

Taking a drink, Giles asked, "You say she wouldn't tell you why, yet you told Willow that Angel had gotten his soul back. How did you find that out?"

"Truth or dare, whiskey, and mindgames. I just kept pushing till it kinda tumbled out. Everything she had bottled up, the pain, the guilt, the anger."

Giles shook his head. "It doesn't make sense. She had gone there to kill Angelus, that he got his soul back when it was too late for her to keep from killing him would have been traumatic, of course. But I don't..."

"Ah, I see what you're thinking." Spike said with a sad smile. "You're picturing them in midfight, Buffy about to skewer him with that sword, him saying, 'Buffy I'm back' but too late for her to stop the thrust. Right?"

"Something along those lines, yes." Giles looked confused. "Isn't that what happened?"

"That would be a walk in the park. Then she could at least lie to herself that she would have stopped it if she could." He took a long swallow from his glass.

"Well then, what did happen?"

"Mind you, they were still fighting when I left with Dru and he had the upper hand. So the rest is based on what she told me. Somehow she managed to turn it around, she beat him, had him on his knees, and was about to kill him when he got his soul back. She was able to stop the sword. She said he didn't remember anything he did. They hugged, but the gate was opening and she knew she had to kill him to close it. So she told him to close his eyes, kissed him, told him she loved him, then ran him through." He threw back the last of his drink. "He reached out to her and she just let him be sucked into hell."

"Good lord." Giles murmured as the enormity of Buffy's actions and the psychological wounds they inflicted sank in. He too drained his glass.

Spike continued, "She had to consciously make that choice. So yeah, I know she's strong, but nobody should have to make that kind of choice." He shook his head. "And then she kept it all bottled up inside her, not telling anyone, feeling all alone in the world." He poured himself another drink and offered the bottle to Giles who did the same.

After a long silence Giles asked, "What happened next?"

"Next? She started yelling at the universe, or whatever chose her. Wanting answers only the powers that be could give her and they weren't talking. She was in such pain, I had to do something so I held her. At first she fought me, but finally she just cried herself to sleep."

"When did you let her go?"

"When she woke up. I let her think I was asleep and she snuck out."

They sat there for a long time, neither speaking. Finally Giles cleared his throat. "How do I know this is the truth? You could just be making it all up."

Spike shrugged. "Ask the Slayer. But Rupert, don't you think if I was lying to you, I would have left the whole rape plan out? Make myself sound a little better? Didn't exactly paint myself as Prince Charming now did I?"

"True." Giles conceded. He stared at the contents of his glass for another long moment before downing them and setting the glass on the table. He stood. "If you hurt her I will hunt you down." He threatened, his voice even.

"Get in line behind Red." Spike said with a half-smile. "But I don't plan on it. Seeing her in pain..." he shook his head. "I won't be the cause of it."

"As long as we understand each other."

Spike gave a solemn nod. As Giles turned toward the door Spike added. "Don't forget your crossbow."

"Oh." Giles looked around and retrieved it from the corner. "Goodnight." he said automatically as he closed the door.

"Night." Spike murmured, finishing his whiskey as he stared at the pile of dust on the hearth.

Please note an epilogue follows.