Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 and all related concepts are the property of MGM, while the character of Spike belongs to Joss Whedon and James Marsters, among other people (Also, the original idea for this story came from Jedi Buttercup's 'An Unexpected Gift', so I don't own it either, although I have put my own spin on things, and have been given his full permission to use his idea)

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, of course

AN: In response to requests for some elements from "Angel" to be included in this story, I include this little teaser for a few upcoming events; hope you like it (Although I'll tell you this in advance so I'm not accused of giving anyone false hope; Spike will not be getting his body back in the same manner that he regained corporeal form in the series)...

AN 2: As the Spike/Vala relationship progresses, anyone got anything they'd particularly like to see Spike and Vala do together before Spike's body is restored to him?

The Ghost in the Team

Lindsey McDonald almost couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"The amulet was sent where?" he said, his voice a low growl of rage as he looked at Eve as she stood before him, an apologetic expression on her face as she stared back at him.

"As far as our contacts in the Colorado branch could confirm, it was sent to the Cheyenne Mountain facility after the destruction of the Hellmouth by a member of some group called the Demon Research Initiative," Eve replied, her tone remaining professional despite the evident regret in her expression. "Whatever's going on there is so highly classified even what government contacts we've established in the present administration can't tell us what's happening there; our best source of information for the group was lost when Vice-President Robert Kinsey was forced to resign over three years ago, and since then information about the facility's been impossibly secure."

"Even for Wolfram & Hart?" Lindsey said, looking sceptically at Eve; he knew that it was unfair to vent his frustration at the messenger, but he couldn't believe that his best tool for getting revenge on Angel could have been handed over to some people he'd never heard of even when he was in Wolfram & Hart by sheer chance. "I always got the impression that we had people everywhere-"

"Unfortunately," Eve said, her tone making it clear that making this admission to him was almost painful, "sometimes we exaggerate our resources; there are more than a few agencies out there where we only have people in relatively low-key situations rather than positions where they'll actually be really useful to us. Whatever's taking place in Cheyenne Mountain since they shut down NORAD, it's one of the most closely-guarded secrets we've ever uncovered; only a few people in the White House are even rumoured to know what it is, and most of the ones who were associated with us were caught and imprisoned by an in-house clean-up a few years ago. There are some reports that the former members of the group who weren't caught are operating underground, but if they are they're using a set of contacts we can't access; there hasn't been a single report from the demonic side of our affairs that they're doing anything..."

"OK, so you can't tell me what's there; I get that," Lindsey said, sighing in frustration as he stared upwards in contemplation for a moment before he returned his attention back to Eve. "But you are sure that Spike's there, right?"

"Reasonably sure, anyway," Eve replied. "Whatever they're doing down there generates an unusual energy reading that makes taking mystical scans of the base difficult at best- and there are some moments where the amulet seems to vanish for days at a time-, but it's definitely there, and Spike's there with it."

"Good," Lindsey said, allowing himself a slight smile before he nodded grimly. "Well then, guess it's time to test that old saying; if Mohammed won't go to the mountain, then set things up so he's dragged there himself."

"Hold on; you mean..." Eve said, looking uncertainly at the man who'd come to mean more to her than she'd ever imagined anything outside of her work could mean to her.

"Yep," Lindsey replied, as he walked off to the room that he'd set up as his 'study'. "Looks like I'm going to have to try and bump up the plan a few stages."

He'd have preferred to do this when Spike had spent at least a couple of months in Los Angeles to get attached to the city, but with the other vampire with a soul having been confirmed as having settled into another location, it looked like Lindsey would have to take a more direct role in the situation than he might have liked and hope for the best.

"So," Vala asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel as the two of them stood in the cargo bay that had been turned into the prison for the Odyssey crew, "how long do you think it's going to take for us to get out of here?"

"No way to tell, really," Daniel said with a grim sigh as he looked up at the ceiling. "I know that we told him all we could, but Spike said himself that he's not exactly a technical expert, and there's no way of knowing if the transporter systems will even be in good enough condition for him to-"

Daniel's further thoughts on that matter were cut short when he and everyone around him was suddenly surrounded by a bright white light, which subsequently faded to reveal the Odyssey's bridge, Spike standing casually behind a control console until he realised that he was standing partly inside the recently-promoted Captain Sheila Womack.

"Watch it!" the vampire- Daniel still sometimes wondered about Spike's true species and limitations, but he supposed he'd only be able to find out the truth if Spike became corporeal again- said, stepping forward so that he was standing in the control console as he turned to look at Womack. "I go to all the effort of getting you out of here, and then you go and stand in me?"

"Uh... sorry?" Womack said, looking uncertainly at the SGC's strangest recruit as she turned to study her usual control console, wincing slightly at the damage that it had sustained before she turned back to look at Spike. "So... thanks for saving us, I guess?"

"That'll do for a start, anyway..." Spike muttered, before he turned to activate the ship's broadcasting systems once again. "Hey, Sam, we've got what looks like everyone up in this area, and I think I got the Lucian Alliance sods in the cargo bay in their place; what's next?"

"We need to focus our attention on repairing the ship's engine systems," Sam's voice replied, Spike turning the volume up slightly so that she could better address the rest of the people in the room. "From what I've been able to determine, shield emitters are operating at around fifty percent, and hull integrity's intermittent in some areas- nothing structurally damaging but it could be a problem if anyone goes into those areas before we can conduct repairs-, but hyperdrive has to be our main priority; we don't need to move far, we just need to get away from here so that we don't have to worry about the rest of the Alliance finding us until we can make more long-term repairs."

"Understood, Colonel Carter," Major Kevin Marks- from what Daniel could see of the crew in the room around him, Marks was the highest-ranking Odyssey officer present- said, before he turned to address the rest of the crew. "All right, everyone, you heard Colonel Carter; we've got a lot to do and maybe not that much time to do it in. Everyone get to your posts and assess the necessary repairs needed to get this ship back to operating efficiency; if you're not needed to repair what you know most about, find somewhere you're needed."

As soon as Marks had finished speaking, the crew were heading out of the bridge and off to examine the rest of the ship, leaving Spike looking in frustration at the rapidly-emptying room.

"Oi, is anyone going to actually thank me for this?" he asked, rapidly turning around to try and find someone he could talk to. "I mean, I did just save the damn ship-"

He was cut off by surprise more than anything else when Vala suddenly leaned over from the other side of the console to place her lips close to his own, in a gesture that would have been a kiss if both participants had been solid.

"Thanks," Vala said as she pulled back, smiling at Spike in a slightly tentative manner. "I know it's not much, but..."

"Thought that counts, right?" Spike replied, nodding back at Vala with his own slight smile. "Thanks, Val; 'ppreciate it."

After a moment's uncertain silence as the three people left on the bridge looked around at each other, Daniel broke the silence with a slightly uncertain shrug.

"So," he said, indicating the chair where the Odyssey's commander would usually sit, "since we're the only people on board who can't actually contribute to the repair effort, who wants to take the main chair?"

"You do it, Danny-boy," Spike replied with a nonchalant shrug, waving one hand through the chair for emphasis on his point. "I can't sit there and Val's not been on the team much longer than me; if anyone's going to be respected by the rest of the crew here, it's you."

For a moment, Daniel simply looked uncomfortably between the other two, before he nodded in resignation and sat down in the chair, looking over at his teammates with a slight smile.

"Well," he said, a slightly uncertain shrug his only acknowledgement of the way Vala's almost-kiss had slightly shifted the dynamics of their group, "we'd better get to work; as Marks said, we've only got a certain amount of time before the Lucian Alliance comes to get us..."

"And you are certain that this information is accurate, Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c asked, his al'kesh remaining cloaked as he stayed close to the mothership where Colonel Mitchell was currently located.

Having run out of options on how to find the Odyssey by simply asking questions as themselves, Mitchell had come up with the plan of using the Re'ol chemical- capable of influencing the perceptions of others- to infiltrate the Lucian Alliance by posing as the rarely-seen lieutenant Kefflin in order to learn what had happened to the ship.

So far, despite the obvious risk of running into more than one person who knew what Kefflin looked like- the man may not be seen by the rest of the Alliance that much, but that wasn't the same as not being known to anyone-, the plan appeared to be working out fairly well. Having 'established' his identity with Netan, the current leader of the Alliance, Mitchell had been able to reveal the successful capture of the Odyssey after claiming to have 'overheard' it being discussed among his men, resulting in Netan revealing that he had dispatched a rebellious lieutenant to capture the Odyssey in the belief that the lieutenant- someone named Anateo, apparently- would lose, Anateo's victory thus leaving Netan in an awkward position unless he exerted his authority. According to Mitchell's latest update, another lieutenant had determined the ship's current coordinates and provided them to Netan, who was now on his way to capture the Odyssey for himself; Teal'c had only just managed to follow the ship into hyperspace without being detected before he lost track of it.

"Yeah, I'm fairly sure of it; after what Netan did here, I don't think he's going to try a diversion when he doesn't think he needs it," Mitchell muttered, his tone a grim one despite the obviously low volume he was forced to maintain to prevent himself being overheard. "But we've got another problem right now; the guy who gave him this info is Tenat, and he's somehow managed to get control of an Alliance mothership."

"Tenat?" Teal'c repeated in surprise. "The bounty hunter?"

"Yeah, tell me about it; I've got no idea how that guy got to be in charge of anything over here, so don't ask," Mitchell muttered grimly. "He's keeping his mouth shut because he figures I'm scamming Netan and he wants a piece of the action, but that can't keep him quiet for long; I've managed to ring over to his ship, but the only plan I've got right now for dealing with this mess is... well, it's a bit risky."

"We are SG-1, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said with a brief smile. "I can conceive of no circumstances where we have not come up with a plan that does not contain some element of risk."

"Point," Mitchell said with a slightly amused chuckle. "Let's get on with this, then; wish me luck, and get ready to start firing if things go ugly."

With that, he terminated the connection, leaving Teal'c with nothing more to do than continue to steer his al'kesh towards their destination and hope that the Odyssey crew would be prepared to fight back when they got there; as much as he trusted that Spike's unique condition would give them an unanticipated advantage in fighting the Lucian Alliance, the vampire was only one man.

As well as that, he also had to remember to prepare for the worst if Colonel Mitchell's latest plan failed; they might be SG-1, and be possessed of the luck that would have amazed true gods, but there was only so much luck you could count on before it ran out...

If there was one thing Spike found frustrating about his new role in the SGC, it was how little there was for him to do when he wasn't actively on a mission or fighting someone. He might have just managed to save the ship from being stolen, but his ability to do anything during the subsequent attempt to reconstruct it was really rather limited; not only were his computer skills virtually nonexistent, but then there was all that crap about how he couldn't concentrate long enough to actually carry anything for longer than a few seconds, which limited his ability to carry tools...

Right now, he was generally just trying to kill time by wandering around the corridors to check on how things were going with keeping the imprisoned Lucian Alliance members contained; with repairs going fairly well- structural integrity was solid enough for them to move, and shields and weapons were apparently up to a point where they'd at least be able to try and fight back if things went wrong-, guard duty seemed like the most obviously productive use of his time and effort at this point.

Add in the fact that it stopped him thinking too much about what had just happened on the bridge with him and Vala...

Stop it! he scolded himself, even as he knew it was pointless.

He didn't know it had happened, but that dark-haired, in-your-face ex-space-con had somehow made a really interesting impression on him and it wasn't showing any signs of dying down any time soon...

Spike almost couldn't believe he was even thinking this; after spending over a century with Dru, and taking well over a year to even come close to acknowledging how he now felt about Buffy, here he was, thinking about some woman he'd barely known for a couple of months like... like this?

He'd known that love was irrational, but moving on from Buffy this quickly after everything he'd gone through for her?

Then again...

When he got down to it, it wasn't like there'd been that much to get over; he might have loved Buffy to varying degrees for the better part of three years, and they'd definitely been close even without having any sex in the last year, but they'd never had an actual 'relationship' in the strictest sense of the word.

They'd humped like bunnies- he wasn't going to forget that any time soon-, but, looking back, Spike had to admit that they'd both been a mess at that point. He might have been honest when he'd thought that Buffy wanted him at that point, but it had never been about wanting him as a person, it had been about wanting what he made her feel... and, as much as it sounded good phrased like that, self-loathing and pain weren't exactly loving emotions by any stretch of the imagination.

Even after she'd come to accept him back into the group after he'd gone and gained his soul back- and he was still slightly hazy on the details of how he'd actually managed to get back to Sunnydale in that state; he sometimes wondered if the ritual that restored his soul had helped him get past the brooding guilt portion of having his soul restored by having him 'burn' through it all at once in those delirious weeks immediately after getting it, given that Angelus had seemed fairly together apart from the whole conscience thing after he'd been cursed the first time-, he'd never been able to fully convince himself that she'd loved him.

She accepted him, she appreciated him, she needed him to talk to, but what she'd wanted from him had always been very specific, and he wasn't going to start lying to himself about that now when there wasn't any reason for him to do it.

Even with that resolution in mind, he still wasn't sure how he felt about that. How he'd felt about Buffy had defined so much of what he'd done the last few years that he wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that he didn't have to define himself by how she felt about him any more; he liked working with the SGC for the relative freedom it gave him to find his own place- even if he still wasn't sure how he'd cope once he got his body back-, but that didn't automatically fill the void her absence had left in his life on its own.

But Vala...

He hadn't needed her to do anything- he hadn't even asked her for anything-, and she'd still kissed him (Or at least she would have kissed him if he'd had a body for her to make contact with in the first place)...

Add in the fact that he really found her to be fairly pleasant company- she was the only member of the SGC he'd met who actually seemed willing to consistently relax right now; everyone else always maintained some kind of professionalism that put him a bit in mind of Captain Cardboard, no matter how much they relaxed when not in a direct combat situation or the fact that they treated him a hell of a lot better than the Iowan prat had ever done-, with a lively, somewhat whacky attitude that he had to admit put him a bit in mind of a saner, less murderous version of Dru with some bits of Buffy's tendency to natter on thrown in, and...

Oh God... he thought to himself, his eyes widening in shock at himself.

He really did feel something for her...

He wouldn't go so far as saying that he was in love with Vala yet- it had definitely been too soon for that; even when he'd dived into things with Dru there'd been the obvious sire/childe bond to strengthen the connection between them-, but there was definitely something there... and it had barely been a couple of months since he'd last seen Buffy.

What had happened to him?

True, their relationship hadn't exactly been easy by any stretch of the imagination- he'd already accepted the fact that she'd never loved him the way he'd wanted her to, but that was merely the tip of the sodding metaphorical iceberg-, but after everything he'd gone through for her, he'd moved on from her this quickly? He'd lost everything, and-

He paused, a sudden epiphany striking him.

He'd lost everything...

In some ways, it was kind of apt, when he thought about it in that context; he'd been given a chance at a clean slate from his past, away from even the supernatural elements that had so defined him for so long, so it only seemed kind of right that he moved on from Buffy into the bargain.

Moved on...

Turning the sentence over in his mind once more, Spike had to admit that it actually didn't seem as scary as it had done earlier.

He might not be solid any more, and he wasn't exactly much use in the current situation, but he was still a part of this strange new world he'd found himself in since he fell into that amulet; it was only right that he'd moved past some of the other things he'd been holding onto from his old life as well.

Walking over to a room with a window, Spike allowed himself a brief smile as he stared out at the vastness of space before him.

He might not know what direction Earth was in relation to him right now- for all he knew he might be looking at a part of the galaxy not even Earth's astronomers knew about-, but what he had to say right now seemed like it would be best said here.

"Goodbye," he said simply, the statement addressed to nobody in particular.

It probably didn't mean much to anyone else- hell, the people he was addressing it to were probably nowhere close to being in the direction that he was looking as he said it-, but he felt that it had to be said.

Just as Spike was about to turn back around to continue his guard shift, his eyes widened in horror as there was a sudden burst of white light in the middle of one of the windows, followed by the emergence of two large pyramid-esque ships that he recognised from the files he'd studied in his spare time- reading was one of the few things he could do on his own right now, so long as the book stayed fairly flat on its own and he had a decent weight to help it do so- as Goa'uld ha'taks.

Shit... he thought to himself, his feet automatically turning around to take him back towards the bridge; he didn't know what he could do when he got there, but he had to try...

It was only when he got to the bridge that he realised things weren't exactly progressing quite as he'd expected. The bridge still looked like it could use some work- more than one panel was open as people continued to work at the circuits inside them-, but there was no actual sign of them engaging in combat, despite the fact that the ships had been there for at least a couple of minutes by this point...

"One of the motherships is firing at the other," Marks said from where he was sitting at his control console, Daniel looking up from where he was sitting in the command chair to look at the major. "Receiving radio signal."

"Odyssey, this is Teal'c," the Jaffa's distinctive voice said a moment later. "Do you copy?"

"Teal'c?" Spike and Daniel said simultaneously, Daniel looking over at the vampire as he registered Spike's presence (Not that Spike could blame him for not noticing him earlier; he really didn't attract as much attention when he wasn't solid any more) even as he hit the button to activate the radio.

"Daniel Jackson, Spike, it is good to hear your voices," Teal'c said, sounding slightly satisfied before he continued. "Colonel Mitchell is presently on board one of the motherships; I am in the al'kesh, currently under cloak, and have been observing the situation for Colonel Mitchell's safety while he attempts to carry out his current plan. On Colonel Mitchell's behalf, I must request that you beam him aboard the Odyssey immediately; his plan will doubtless shortly be exposed."

"Uh, yeah," Daniel said, nodding over at Marks with a quick acceptance that even the impulsive Spike had to acknowledge made sense. They might not know what Mitchell's plan was, but given the potentially short amount of time they might have before the two ships before them stopped firing at each other, if Teal'c thought that getting Mitchell off the ship was a good idea right now, the archaeologist had evidently decided to trust his judgement.

"Locking on to his locator beacon," Marks replied as he began to rapidly tap other controls on the console in front of him. A moment later, Mitchell appeared at the front of the bridge in a burst of white light, dressed in the grey-and-black uniform of the Lucian Alliance, his hands nonchalantly behind his back as he looked at them.

"Jackson," Mitchell said, walking forward to look at the archaeologist. "What are you doing sitting there?"

"What are you wearing?" Daniel countered, indicating the Lucian Alliance garb Mitchell was wearing.

"Oh," Mitchell said, tugging slightly on the coat as he looked down at himself before looking back at Daniel, "it's a... long story."

"Yeah, great, love to hear it; any chance we could get it after we're out of here?" Spike asked, indicating a screen displaying the ha'taks as they continued to exchange fire. "That won't last forever, you know-!"

"Mr... Spike," Marks said- Spike made a mental note to work on getting a better rep among the rest of the staff here; he was liked well enough by SG-1, but he really needed to see about getting the kind of respect Teal'c got despite his lack of 'credentials'-, turning to look pointedly at the intangible vampire, "as much as we would like to leave, we can't do anything while the hyperdrive is still-"

"Daniel," Sam's voice suddenly said over the radio, "try it now."

A nod from Daniel was all Marks needed to input the necessary commands to send the Odyssey back into the strange blue 'tunnel' that was hyperspace, leaving Spike exchanging glances with his new teammates as he allowed himself a slight smile.

It hadn't been the smoothest mission he'd ever been on- and he really wouldn't have minded more opportunities to hit things-, but, all in all, that hadn't gone too badly in his book.

"So, lemme get this straight," Spike asked, as he walked along Odyssey's still-under-repair corridors with Mitchell and Daniel a short while later, the other two once again in their usual uniforms as Mitchell explained his recent actions. "You used some mind-altering chemical to make everyone on the other ha'tak think that you were the head Lucian Alliance guy, and then tricked them into attacking the other ship?"

"Well, actually I could only use the chemical on Tenat- there was only enough of the dose for one person-, but since nobody else on that ship knew what the guy I was posing as was meant to look like, I just needed to convince him to get the job done," Mitchell said, smiling slightly at Spike. "Still, neat trick, huh?"

"Tell me about it; disguising yourself's one thing that's never easy to do with magic..." Spike muttered, shaking his head as he reflected on Glory's 'spell' to keep her identity as Ben secret; that had probably been the most successful magical 'disguise' he'd encountered, and given that the two appearances were two different personalities into the bargain it wasn't that cool when you got down to it...

"You know," Daniel said, a brief glance at Spike the only sign of his discomfort at the implications of Spike's last comment before he looked back at Mitchell, "you're very lucky that no one else on the bridge of that ship knew what Netan looked like."

"Yeah, it was a gamble," Mitchell replied with a shrug. "But I figured, if I got made, or if the chemical jab on Tenat didn't work after half an hour, I'd take the bridge by force. I had a pissed-off Jaffa waiting to help me out."

Before Spike could ask what use Teal'c would have been on that al'kesh, Sam and Vala walked out of an elevator in front of them.

"Ah, there you are," Vala said, smiling broadly at Mitchell while taking particular care not to look at Spike (He tried not to feel offended; even if she did feel... something... for him, his present condition wouldn't exactly make it something she'd like to put a lot of thought into given the sheer strangeness of it). "So, what happened? How did you get the Lucian alliance to fire on each other?"

"Oh, you'll love this-" Mitchell began.

"Before you tell us," Sam said, holding up a finger and looking between her teammates, "I got long range communications back online, and sent a message to Earth telling them that we'll be coming home."

"Yeah..." Spike muttered, nodding briefly at Sam even as he exchanged glances with Daniel and Mitchell, his memories of what the group had told him about their currently-shaky-standing with the Alliance making it fairly obvious to him how things between them would turn out now. "Should probably mention that we've almost certainly got those 'Alliance' sods on our backs now along with the sodding Ori...

"I did," Sam replied after a momentary pause, the group exchanging grim glances with each other at the thought.

From what Spike had seen of them, the Lucian Alliance might not be a threat on the same scale as the Ori, but war was war, and having to deal with more than one under any circumstances was never going to be a good thing...

And he still didn't really know how he felt about Vala yet; even if she did feel... something... for him, how the sodding hell was he meant to have any kind of relationship with anyone when he didn't even have a sodding body any more?

Once, Spike reflected, glancing upwards in frustration as the group turned around to walk back to wherever they would be the most use in the repair work right now- Spike decided he might as well just resume his old guard duties out of a lack of anything else to keep himself occupied right now-, just once, would it be asking too much for me to have an easy relationship?

There was no easy way to deal with this; Spike just wasn't sure what would be the best way...