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

The Ghost in the Team

It had taken a while for them to arrange- aside from all the time Sam and Spike spent getting updated on what had happened in the SGC while they'd been away, including Atlantis being reoccupied, the rest of SG-1 had spent several hours sending messages to the IOA and General Landry arguing that Spike should be provided with retroactive backpay dating from his amulet's arrival in the SGC to the present, now that he actually had a practical need for it-, but it had finally happened; Spike had the money, time and inclination to go to a nice local restaurant- recommended by some of his teammates- with someone he… at least liked… and he was going to take it.

Actually, now that he was standing outside the door to Vala's room, Spike wondered why he was feeling so awkward about this; it wasn't like he and Vala hadn't been out on dates before...

Then again, that wasn't exactly true; they'd never been out on what could be considered a date, they'd just stayed in and watched a movie or something to avoid the questions that might have been attracted if Spike had accidentally walked through something or people had questioned his inability to eat.

Actually, now that he thought about it, had he ever actually been on a date date before?

Discounting his liaisons with Buffy- they couldn't really count as 'dates' as they never really did much of anything other than shag in whatever location they'd met in-, that thing with the Goth girl whose name he couldn't remember at Anya's wedding as it hadn't been anything more than a rather pathetic attempt to make Buffy jealous, and his time with Drusilla where a 'date' consisted of them killing things together...

Bloody Hell, he'd never actually dated anyone in the conventional sense, had he?

OK, so it wasn't like he had no clues about what to do whatsoever- he'd spent enough time stalking couples to know what to do, along with basic common sense-, but to realise that he'd never actually had a genuine date was a bit daunting...

Still, on the bright side, Vala arguably hadn't had one either- she might not talk about her pre-Qetesh life that much, but she'd lived on a different planet, so it wasn't unreasonable to assume that her world had different rules of 'courtship' than what they had here-, so when you got down to it, they were probably equally at sea in this situation.

It might have been strange to think about, particularly after he'd spent so much of his early time in Sunnydale insisting that he was still the same 'Big Bad', but Spike was really rather enjoying this opportunity to re-invent himself now that he was at the SGC. With no real reason to get back in touch with the Scoobies- he wasn't interested in re-establishing his relationship with Buffy, things with Dawn had just been complicated the last time they'd seen each other, and the rest of the gang had just been acquaintances at best-, he was glad to get back to basics and start over, re-creating himself as a man who wanted to fight for Earth rather than a formerly soulless vampire who wanted to prove himself to one person…

As the door opened and Vala walked into the corridor, Spike's eyes widened at the sight before him, all thoughts of past dating history forgotten in the face of his present in every sense of the word. He had no idea when she'd had the time or opportunity to get them, but Vala was dressed in tight leather pants and a black leather jacket of a similar length to his, over a dark green top that exposed a very eye-catching amount of cleavage, her hair casually hanging down around her shoulders…

"You like?" Vala asked, giving him an experimental twirl as she showed off her outfit, leaving Spike staring at her in surprise for a moment before he regained his composure and nodded.

"Trust me on this, luv," he said, the endearment slipping out before he even registered it as he stepped up to place a hand around her waist, "you look incredible."

"Good," Vala said, giving him a brief kiss before she stepped back with a broad grin. "Well, let's be off; from what I've heard, those restaurant bookings aren't going to wait forever, after all."

With that said, she turned to head for the elevator at the end of the corridor, but paused as she turned back to look at him. "Just to check-"

"I can eat, Val; it just... well, meat aside, it probably won't taste much of anything, when you get down to it," Spike said, guessing at her question as he smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry, though; I'll still be able to digest it easily enough, and the texture variety's interesting."

"Good," Vala said, smiling warmly at him before she held out her arm, initial concern forgotten in the face of this more positive news. "Shall we?"

"We shall," Spike said, grinning back at Vala as they turned and began to walk towards the lift that would lead them to the ground level of the SGC.

A few hours later, standing on the edge of a bar, sipping at his drink, Spike smiled at the sight of Vala enjoying her latest dance in the middle of the club.

The current environment wasn't exactly something the vampire known as William the Bloody would have chosen on his own accord- it brought back a few too many memories of all the time he'd spent at the Bronze in Sunnydale, which didn't help his resolve to try and make new memories that had nothing to do with Buffy and would reinforce his decision to re-invent himself away from anyone's previous expectations-, but he had wanted to give Vala the chance to see parts of Earth she wouldn't have experienced before, which included this kind of club after the dinner they'd had at one of the more formal places Daniel or the rest of SG-1 had recommended they go to (Apparently there was this one bar where the original team were banned from returning due to a fight they'd started while affected by these strength-enhancing bracelets that had erratic effects on their moods, but Spike wasn't concerned about that; it had been a long time ago and he knew enough about drugs making you loopy).

Besides, seeing Vala moving on the dancefloor in those tight leather trousers and that top was a sight he wouldn't pass up any time soon...

Spike's pleasant thoughts were cut off when a man suddenly appeared, dressed in a pink-and-white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and hair hanging down to around the back of his neck, and placed a drink in front of the vampire without even a cursory introduction.

"Uh..." Spike said, looking in confusion at his new beer before looking at the man who'd given it to him. "Thanks, but I'll be honest, mate; you're not my type, and I'm here with someone already. So be a good lad and push off."

Moving the drink to the other end of the bar, Spike stared at the man for a few moments in the hopes of prompting him to leave on his own, but it soon became clear that the new arrival was apparently content to just stare at Spike.

"Look," the vampire said, deciding he might as well deal with this before Vala got back, "what are you gawking at?"

"A guy like you, whiling away his time in some bar in Colorado?" the man said, a solemn expression on his face as he looked at Spike. "Look like somebody who's feeling kinda lost."

"I'm here because my date wanted to check out something new; I'm not worried about my place in the world," Spike said, enjoying the slight surprise on the other man's face at Spike's response- evidently he hadn't been expecting Spike to be here with anyone, even if he knew enough to know that Spike was in this city- before it resumed a more neutral expression.

"We need to talk," the man said, still trying to look confident despite Spike's own lowering opinion of the man's status; if he didn't know about Vala, he clearly didn't know as much about Spike as the 'guy like you' comment might imply in the right context.

"You know, we really don't," Spike retorted, standing up and walking over to glare more directly at the other man, noting Vala heading off to the toilet without any sign that she'd noticed him talking to this guy; at least he could probably finish this 'chat' without having to let her know about it and raise questions he wouldn't be able to answer. "I don't know what you're selling, but best you peddle your wares someplace else if you know what's good for you."

"Hey, Spike," the man said, dispelling the admittedly fragile hope Spike had been nurturing that this was all just some weird come-on, "get any interesting mail a while back?"

Interesting mail? Spike thought, confused at the new turn of events. What kind of mail...

His eyes widened in shock at the memory of a particular anomaly that still hadn't been accounted for.

"That package?" he said, turning to look at the other man, taking care to keep his voice relatively low; even if they were in a public setting with a fair amount of background noise, he wasn't going to give anyone the chance to potentially accuse him of leaking classified information. "That was you? Who the bloody hell are you?"

"Your new best friend," the man said, with a smug expression that automatically earned him a place on Spike's hit-list; clearly, if he thought the package had made some kind of impression on Spike, he knew nothing about what was really going on in Spike's life right now and had no reason to believe that he had a right to say anything on that topic.

"What; because you sent me some package that emitted a weird energy burst?" Spike said, looking sceptically at the man, enjoying the uncomfortable expression that appeared on the man's face at that comment. "Not exactly a ringing endorsement."

"That was actually meant to restore you to corporeal form-" the man said, even as his voice became less assertive now that he was being asked to explain something without proof.

"And yet, I pulled it off without you; not really seeing why I need you as a 'best friend' when I've already got a good group," Spike retorted, glaring at the other man after tapping his knuckles against the bar behind him to verify his last statement. "What exactly have you done for me other than be bloody vague and mysterious while trying to 'help' me?"

"I'm a bit more than that," the man said, a slight edge of frustration in his eyes even as he continued to stare at Spike; evidently he had come up with a plan and was trying to stick to it despite Spike having clearly diverged from the script. "I was actually going to recover that amulet myself before Major Finn-"

"Yeah, we can all say that we were going to do some good things but someone else beat up to it; again, not really anything that I'm that interested in hearing," Spike countered, walking forward to move his hand into a position where he could easily grab this guy's arm if the need arose; his time as Sam's bodyguard in the other world might have given him a useful crash course in the value of patience, but cryptic statements were still something that annoyed him at the best of times, and the strange tattoos he could see on this guy's arms didn't improve his mood. "I'll make this simple; who are you, what are you, what do you want with me, and you should think about how many bones I can break before you give me any kind of answer?"

"You can call me Doyle," the man said, looking at Spike with a frustratingly calm manner despite his current position. "But this isn't about what I want... it's about what you want."

"In what way?" Spike asked; the guy might have been wrong about several details so far, but it might be worthwhile just humouring him at least…

"Now that your life's back, what are you going to do with it?" 'Doyle'- something about that name didn't quite sound right to Spike- asked, his eyes flicking over Spike in a thoughtful manner.

Spike couldn't believe it; was this 'Doyle' guy actually trying to tell him what to do now that he had a solid form again?

"I've heard enough," Spike said, rolling his eyes as he turned around to look towards the toilet for some sign of Vala; he thought there'd been a bit of a queue for it before she got there, but she'd have to be done soon, right?

"Aren't you feeling a bit out of place here?" 'Doyle' said, Spike's long experience with people the only thing that allowed him to pick up the slight edge of desperation in his voice as he stood up to look more directly at the vampire. "I mean, Colorado isn't-"

"What it is," Spike said, looking firmly back at 'Doyle', "is the place where I work, the place where my friends work, the place where my current date works, and the place where I'm staying at least until I've managed to find a lost friend of mine, so you can either belt up or get lost, preferably both."

"You're working in an abandoned military base-" 'Doyle' began.

"You don't know where I'm working and you don't have the right to know what I do, so stop acting like you do and get lost," Spike said, snorting in satisfaction at the stumped look on his unwanted guest's face before he turned around in preparation to walk away. "We clear?"

"You've got a destiny-" the man began, only for Spike to turn around and grab him by the throat, hauling his persistently annoying 'guest' towards him with a low growl.

"I don't know what I have to do to spell it out any clearer than I have already," he said, glaring coldly at the man before him, "so I'll just say this one more time; I'm staying in Colorado for the foreseeable future, I've got enough to be working with without worrying about some theoretical 'destiny' of yours, I owe you nothing and have no interest in hearing whatever the hell you've got to say to me, and if you know anything about me, you'll know that I don't take kindly to people who think they know what I should do, so belt up and get out. Is that clear?"

For a moment, 'Doyle' simply stared silently at Spike, most likely trying to think of some other way he could convince the man before him to listen to him, but after a few moments had passed with no sign that Spike was even going to bother blinking, he came to a decision and stepped back, glaring in frustration at the other man.

"Fine," he said, turning away from Spike with a sigh, only to pause and glance back at him. "Enjoy whatever you've got on. You could have been someone-"

"I am someone," Spike said bluntly. "You want a champion for some other city, get off your arse and do something about it yourself; world's not going to get anywhere when you keep relying on other people to save it instead of yourself, particularly when I'm busy here already."

As he spoke, a part of him wondered if that had been part of the motivation behind the Scoobies' decision to resurrect Buffy- they felt that they couldn't cut the mustard on their own so they'd brought her back to do it for them-, but he quickly resolved to ignore that thought.

As hard as it had been to reach this point, Buffy, the Scoobies, and Sunnydale were now his past; Vala, SG-1 and the SGC were his future, and he wasn't going to suddenly regress just because things had been simpler when he only had demons and Earth to worry about.

"Whatever," Doyle said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small card, tossing it to Spike with a grim smile. "Call me when you change your mind."

Rolling his eyes, Spike slipped the card into his jacket pocket and promptly forgot about it as his mysterious contact vanished into the crowd of people around the bar.

He'd taken the damn thing to humour the other sod, but he definitely wouldn't be calling that number any time soon; right now, Daniel's absence and whatever he might be enduring in Adria's custody was his top priority.

Maybe once his friend was back on Earth- he'd like the Ori to have been dealt with too, but that was probably setting his sights too high after they'd lost the Sangreal-, then he'd look 'Doyle' up…

"Everything all right?" Vala asked, sliding into the seat next to him with a smile.

"Just… some guy; nothing I couldn't handle," Spike said, pushing the whole issue to the back of his mind as he turned to look at Vala. "So, now that you're here, care for a drink?"

As the two continued to converse, all thoughts of the strange meeting he'd just had with the mysterious 'Doyle' ceased to occupy Spike's mind, his attention focused entirely on having a relaxing time with Vala as they considered what they might do next.

If that guy wanted a vampire to help him out with some mess or another in Los Angeles, he could get in touch with Angel; right now, Spike couldn't give a crap one way or the other about what anyone wanted or expected of him in another city on this planet.

He was the vampire with a soul who was a member of SG-1, was currently dating the former host of the Goa'uld Qetesh, and had been declared blood kin to all Jaffa for his role in saving Dakara; with that behind him, and the continuing issue of needing to find wherever Daniel was now, he didn't really need anything else on Earth to worry about.