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: Thanks are owed to Elgin, who suggested some of the dialogue relating to Spike's past at the end of this chapter
The Ghost in the Team
The next morning, Spike stood in front of the Stargate as it began its usual spinning dialling motion, the rest of the team standing around him as he looked up at the 'gate that had come to define his new role in life. He stood out slightly from the rest of the group, still dressed in his usual leather coat and dark red shirt, but it was an anomaly that General Landry and others had been willing to overlook for the moment; until the results of this test had been confirmed to their satisfaction and his future ability to participate in team missions had been determined, there was no point insisting that Spike dress in a particular manner.
"You're sure this is safe?" Vala asked, looking anxiously over at Sam.
"Vala," Sam said, looking at the other woman with a slight sigh, "the Alpha Site gate is inside the facility, and we're going there when it's night on the planet in question anyway; Spike's going to be perfectly fine."
"Well… all right…" Vala said, sighing in resignation before she looked over at Spike. "You're sure you'll be all right?"
"As sure as I'll ever be," Spike said, grinning slightly as he looked up at the Stargate, the wormhole completely formed and ready to accept them. "Here we go, then; one small step for a vamp, and all that…"
"This is hardly the first non-Earth planet that you have been to, Spike," Teal'c said, looking over at the vampire with a slight edge of amusement to his stare.
"Yeah, but's the first one I'll actually be walking on; whatever I was back when I was intangible, I wasn't exactly solid," Spike said, looking over at Teal'c with a slight smile before he turned back to face the Stargate, focusing his attention on the matter at hand.
He could make all the excuses he wanted, but it wouldn't change the situation facing him right now; his teammates wanted him to stay with them, and that meant going through the Stargate.
With that thought, he took a deep breath, and walked through the wormhole in front of him…
Emerging from the other end of the wormhole, Spike was momentarily surprised at the lack of pain he experienced, but swiftly reflected that it was actually only to be expected; the last few times he'd travelled through the Stargate, he'd always only gone through when the amulet had gone through, meaning that he'd been yanked along, whereas this time he'd actually walked through on his own.
Actually, with all physical discomfort removed, that was definitely the easier means of magical transportation he'd ever encountered; no momentary weakness at any point before, during or after the transit was over, real sense of disorientation whatsoever…
"Mr… Spike?" the man in the military uniform standing in front of the Stargate said, looking at the vampire with the curious uncertainty Spike had come to expect from the average SGC personnel; SG-1 might have accepted him, but the rest were still adjusting to the idea of working with a vampire.
"That's me," the vampire in question said, smiling as he shook the other man's hand, shortly before the sound of the Stargate releasing other travellers signalled the arrival of the rest of SG-1.
"Colonel Rambor," Mitchell said, nodding politely at the other man. "How long until daylight?"
"Not much more than an hour, Colonel Mitchell," the other man replied, nodding in understanding at the other man's query, his gaze flicking briefly towards Spike before he looked back at Mitchell. "We've been informed of Mr Spike's requirements, and we've prepared the medical bay with as much fresh, donated blood as we can manage to find, with the doctors standing by just in case but… well, to be honest, this whole situation is just…. Strange…"
"Hey, we're the SGC; 'strange' is just a day at the office," Mitchell said with a smile, before his expression became more serious. "You've got the rest of the stuff, right?"
"We do," Rambor said, nodding in confirmation at Mitchell as he indicated a couple of men standing near the door of the gateroom with various objects in their hands. "A blanket to cover the subject if he… catches on fire, a couple of scanners to try and get a clearer picture of what parts of the light spectrum are particularly dangerous…"
"And a fire extinguisher," Mitchell said, walking over to a corner of the room holding the object in question and picking it up with a satisfied nod before he looked back at Spike. "OK, that's everything."
"A fire extinguisher?" Spike said, looking sceptically at Mitchell as he took in the red cylinder in the lieutenant colonel's hands. "What's the point of that? I mean, we've got the blanket, and it's not like it's going to do that much damage to me; give me a bit of blood and it's all fine…"
"Look, I ain't takin' chances on this one," Mitchell retorted, glaring firmly at the vampire. "Fire's fire, no matter how you slice it, and fire's a big deal; if you start burning, we are going to do more to make sure you're OK than throw a rug over you and drag you back inside."
"Uh… right," Spike said, looking at the other man with a slightly awkward expression, evidently stuck for how he was meant to respond to such a statement, even as the slight warmth in his eyes showed that he appreciated the thought behind it.
Really, his uncertainty was the main reason he hadn't made a sarcastic comment; he just wasn't comfortable with people liking him enough to be concerned about his safety…
"You're sure about this?" Vala asked, looking uncertainly at Spike to break the awkward silence. "I mean, you've got that shield device…"
"Don't want to be totally dependent on it, is all," Spike said, looking at Vala with a slight shrug before he looked over at Sam. "Don't get me wrong, glad you went to the trouble of putting it together, but-"
"I understand, Spike," Sam said, smiling reassuringly at him before she indicated the door beyond them. "Well, let's go; we're not going to find out what's going to happen to you in here."
Walking through the base's corridors, Spike was surprised at how many people were looking at him; he'd known that he was distinctive, but he'd thought that they'd all known he was coming here anyway.
"What's with the stares?" he asked, looking curiously at Mitchell.
"We're… well, the fact that you're going around here dressed like that sticks out a bit," Mitchell said, looking at Spike with a slight shrug. "I mean, they're mostly aware of the vampire thing- after working with Teal'c all these years, the entire SGC knows not to judge because of species-, but the idea that you're going offworld dressed like… that…"
"Hey, not meaning to step on any toes here-" Spike began, before his eyes widened. "Huh."
"Something wrong?" Mitchell asked, looking with new curiosity at the vampire.
"Nothing," Spike said, waving a dismissive hand. "Let's just get up there, shall we?"
He wasn't going to voice it until he'd figured out the best way to say it, but the idea that he was so concerned about what the rest of SG-1 thought of him that he'd stop wearing the coat…
Even if the reasons for keeping it varied now that he had a soul- he liked to think of it as a kind of homage to Nikki Wood-, the idea that he was willing to give that up to go along with what was expected of him by these guys…
Damn, they meant a lot to him.
Thoughts on fashion were forgotten as they reached the base's main exterior door, Spike waiting in the corridor while the rest of SG-1 headed outside to scope out the area. Based on what Sam remembered of this planet, she was fairly sure that the sun would rise behind the Alpha Site, which should give Spike a good amount of shade to retreat to if the sun turned out to be dangerous, and there was nothing lying around that had the potential to be a problem if Spike had to move quickly in any direction.
With nothing else to do, Spike spent the next hour or so before the sun came up carrying some additional equipment from the labs inside the base to the door so that his teammates could set them up. The additional gear would give Sam a better opportunity to scan Spike as he stood in the sunlight and get a clearer impression of what would happen, along with Vala and Mitchell took up their position with the necessary precautionary equipment in case the fire became particularly serious.
A few moments after the sun rose at last, everything in place and his teammates ready to use it, Spike took a deep breath, removed the modified shield device from his coat pocket to hand it over to Sam, and stepped out into the sunshine immediately outside the shade provided by the base. Holding out his hands, Spike watched as he flexed his fingers in the sunlight, only to be met with nothing but a slight tingling sensation around his fingertips as he held them out in front of him.
This wasn't the normal reaction to sunlight- he might not have been human for over a century, but he remembered that much about it even without his brief time out with the Gem of Amara-, but at the same time this definitely wasn't how vampires reacted to sunlight…
"You OK?" Mitchell asked, the lieutenant-colonel's anxious voice drawing his attention back to the present as he turned around to look at his friend. "Anything… burning?"
"It's… odd," Spike said, looking thoughtfully at his hand as the sun illuminated it. "Skin itches- probably like you'd feel after a bad sunburn; experienced that once or twice when I was alive on trips to the country-, but I'm definitely not actually burning…"
"Huh," Mitchell said, looking at the vampire's hand thoughtfully.
It wasn't that he'd wanted to see Spike on fire, but after getting so worked up about it, seeing nothing happen was a bit of a let-down…
"Actually… that makes sense," Sam said, her contemplative voice interrupting Mitchell's thoughts.
"How?" Spike asked, looking over at her curiously.
"Well, we know that all planets are slightly different from each other, so what if the same rule applies to suns?" Sam explained.
"You mean… whatever makes our sun particularly dangerous to vampires doesn't exist on this sun?" Mitchell asked, looking thoughtfully at his old friend.
"Exactly," Sam said, nodding in confirmation at her fellow lieutenant colonel. "Of course, there's no way to know what that is without a broader range of tests, including visits to a few other worlds to see how Spike copes with them, but I think it works. Over the years, vampires may have... well, 'evolved' is the best term, even if it's had the opposite consequence this time around... a vulnerability to Earth's sun in particular, with that vulnerability varying under exposure to other suns based on factors like whatever radiation a particular sun generates or something like that."
"Is it not possible that the atmosphere of the planet that we are on may also play a part in the sun's effect on Spike, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked.
"You mean… something in the atmosphere affects what rays get through and some of them are only fatal to vampires in certain amounts?" Sam asked, nodding thoughtfully. "It's possible, I admit, but that's a bit more unlikely to be relevant; planets themselves can vary in terms of their geological structure, but the atmospheres on the inhabited worlds we've encountered are generally fairly similar to each other, or the Goa'uld would have had more trouble adapting human hosts for other planets…"
"Something to think about, anyway," Vala said, smiling over at Sam before she looked more warmly at Spike. "Besides, if it means that Spike can go out without always worrying about getting burnt alive, does it matter?"
"Yes," Sam said, looking firmly over at Vala. "If we can't predict what suns are going to affect Spike in what manner, it's going to be harder to know what worlds are safe for him to visit; that shield device may have a large power supply, but we can't exactly afford to risk it running down if we're going to be offworld for a long time and don't know exactly how dangerous the sun is to Spike…"
"One bizarre and unusual problem at a time, OK?" Mitchell said, holding up a hand to halt Sam's speculation. "We've got something to start on with this research; let's… work out where to go next and take it from there."
"Well," Spike said a few hours later as they sat in the infirmary of the Beta Site, the vampire gazing at his burned hand as though it had offended him in some manner, "I think it's safe to say that could have gone better."
"You mean the part where you actually caught on fire?" Vala said, looking pointedly at Spike.
"I told you; give me a bit of time and some blood and I'll be back to my peak soon," Spike said, scratching at a still-healing burn on his right hand. After taking a brief detour back to Earth to take a quick scan of Spike in the sunlight to better determine what specific radiation pattern caused Spike to start burning, they had visited a few other planets that were uninhabited in the immediate vicinity of the Stargates and taken further readings of Spike, the rest of SG-1 standing by with blankets and fire equipment. A couple of planets had caused Spike to burn at a faster rate than he was used to, and another couple had a similar effect on him to the sun on the Alpha Site, but it was enough for them to get some ideas for Sam to adapt the MALP to scan for the relevant radiation frequency. The shield device would probably still be necessary- Sam and Doctor Lam had speculated that Spike might still be vulnerable to sunlight on those worlds if he was exposed to it for long enough- but that was a significant improvement over what he could have been dealing with.
"At least now we have a better idea how your body reacts to different suns," Sam pointed out with an awkward smile.
"Tell me about it," Spike said, grinning at the thought. "Might be nifty to see how that works out long-term…"
"So," Mitchell asked, looking at Spike with a slightly pointed stare, "you realise that, now that you can change your clothing, people back at base will expect you to adhere to traditional offworld dress regulations?"
"Come again?" Spike asked, looking at Mitchell in confusion.
"You'll need to wear BDUs when offworld," Mitchell clarified, looking firmly at Spike. "We can keep the coat for a few occasions where it's appropriate- you've made a good impression on the Jaffa looking like that, as an example, so anything where we're working with them you can probably get away with the coat-, but if you're sticking with us you need to go along with the plan."
Spike thought about protesting, but any objection died before he could voice it.
The coat might be part of his image, but that was his image on Earth; if he was working with these guys off-world, they probably knew what worked, and if Teal'c could change his look when he joined them, he could do the same thing.
Actually, now that he thought about it, wearing it for the casual first-contact missions would probably be for the best; considering that he'd read about a few missions where people had ended up losing their BDUs, whether through local damage or particularly hostile residents, not wearing the coat unless he knew he'd need it would probably be a smart move…
"All right," he said, looking back at the other man. "But I reserve the right to wear it if something comes up where the look works as well."
"Fair enough," Mitchell said; considering Spike's reputation, there might be some occasions where he'd stand out more in the coat than he would in BDUs.
"And I'm picking my own weapon," Spike said. "Don't have much experience with that kind of stuff, but I'd like the chance to find what works rather than just get stuck with something."
"That should be acceptable," Teal'c said. "They gave me permission to use a variety of weapons when I began to use the weapons of the Tau'ri over my previous staff weapon, and I am certain that they will grant you the same permission; we both possess greater strength and reflexes that should be accommodated with the appropriate weapon."
"Seems like a plan," Spike said, standing up and looking at his teamamtes with a smile. "Let's go; we've got a mission coming up and I'd like to be ready."
"Well, we've got a few options in the armoury here," Mitchell said, smiling back at Spike as he stood up. "Shall we scope them out and see what you like?"
"Sounds good to me," Spike said, grinning enthusiastically back at his team leader. "Let's go."
"OK," Mitchell said, SG-1 all standing around Spike as he stood in the Beta Site's armoury, studying the weapons Mitchell had laid out on a table before him. "Starting with the obvious, whatever else you pick, you'd be expected to have a zat and a handgun of some sort just in case; you're already aware of what the zat does, and considering your past we know you're capable of using the weapons, so we'll go over the smaller possibilities once we've established your main gun. Good with you?"
"Sounds fine," Spike confirmed with a nod. "So, what've we got?"
"Starting from the top, the P-90," Mitchell began, indicating the gun in question. "Standard fare for most SGC personnel, the FN P-90 Personal Defence Weapon, manufactured in Belgium; rapid firing rate, good line of sight, and can be equipped with some interesting optional extras in the event of us facing something like Kull warriors or new humanoid Replicators, best used in close-quarter combat against a large number of bad guys."
"Huh," Spike said, looking at the weapon thoughtfully. "Y'know, I visited Belgium once. Of course, that was back in 1908."
"Really?" Sam said, looking curiously at the vampire. "What did you think?"
"Trust me, vampires don't think much of anything when they've just visited a chocolate factory, eaten some of the wares, and are on a sugar high for the first time ever," Spike replied. "Took nearly three days before I stopped seeing spots in front of my eyes…"
"Sounds… interesting," Sam said, looking awkwardly at the vampire; there wasn't anything else she could say to that particular news.
"Better than when I was at Woodstock," Spike noted with a slight smile. "Spent hours watching my hand move after I ate there…"
"Woodstock?" Vala repeated.
"It was a major concert a few decades ago; most of the people there… well, some of the people it attracted to visit it were known for using drugs," Sam said, shrugging awkwardly at the other woman. "Let's… leave it at that, shall we?"
"Probably for the best," Mitchell said, moving on to the next item on the rack. "The FN Minimi light machine-gun, paratrooper variant; offers a good mix of being reasonably compact and lightweight- by machinegun standards, anyway- which makes it easier to handle in confined spaces, such as inside an alien spacecraft, and has a decent range, while firing at approximately a thousand rounds per minute."
"Nice," Spike said, nodding in approval at the weapon.
"That it is," Mitchell said, patting it thoughtfully. "Teal'c's used this thing on some past missions that required additional firepower without needing additional manpower, and we've established what you're physically capable of, so I think you can carry this on your own if you had to; Teal'c normally uses a few extra drums to carry ammunition, so you can get extra ammo if needed, although I'd recommend a bag to stop your jacket and belt getting loaded down."
"Not bad," Spike said thoughtfully. "Probably something to keep in mind for bigger missions, though; don't want to use something that big everywhere."
"Good point," Mitchell said, nodding in acknowledgement before moving on to another weapon. "This is the G36K; similar to the P-90, but generally more use when dealing with potentially armoured foes when in closer quarters, given that the shorter barrel limits accuracy."
"So, not that different, and a bit less focused, but hits a bit harder when it does?" Spike asked.
"Pretty much, yeah," Mitchell confirmed.
"I'll keep that on the list," Spike said with a thoughtful nod. "Next?"
"Last but not least," Mitchell continued as he indicated the last weapon in the armoury (Considering how long it had been since this thing was used in the field, Mitchell guessed that it had been in in the armoury when they'd established the Beta Site). "This Micro 16 is a bit of an odd duck of a weapon; technically, it's not a 'proper' firearm, but it's mainly something Sam here created from a mishmash of components sourced from a wide variety of different rifles and carbines from the M16 'family' of weapons, fed by twin drum magazines, with the option of taking smaller box magazines."
"You made this thing?" Spike said, looking at Sam in surprise. "Why don't you still use it?"
"Well, this was the prototype of a design that was meant to replace the P-90," Sam said, shrugging slightly as she looked at the vampire. "My original design brief was to develop a weapon that wasn't much bigger or heavier than the P-90, but provided greater range, stopping power, and ammunition capacity. However, I was still field-testing this one when we first ran across Anubis's Kull warriors, and the funding for the project was immediately diverted to designing a weapon that could kill them, given their resistance to conventional ammunition; what with one thing and another, the project was never restarted. I eventually stopped using the prototype because no one else on SG-1 carried weapons that used the same ammunition- Teal'c's use of Minimis aside, anyway- so sharing ammo became dangerously problematic; I liked it, but sticking with the standard gun gave me more options."
"Fair enough," Spike said, studying the gun in question. "Nice gun, anyway; looks a bit like my old Tommy Gun…"
"Tommy Gun?" Mitchell repeated, looking at Spike in surprise. "When did you own a Tommy Gun?"
"Back in 1925," Spike said, nostalgically reflecting on the aforementioned time period even as he continued to stare thoughtfully at the Micro-16. "I was working for Frankie 'Four Fingers' Fioretti and the Bucelli Family over in East Side Chi-Town; strictly night-shift, naturally. Worked with this Ano-Movic demon, James Allen; he'd drive the car, while I'd lean out the window with my Tommy and push the button on whoever had incurred ol' Four Fingers's wrath this time-"
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Mitchell interjected, looking at Spike incredulously. "Let me get this straight; you were a mob enforcer?"
"Exactly," Spike said, shrugging casually. "I had the suits, the fedoras, the two-tone shoes, the Tommy Gun, the violin case, a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, the works. That was such a fun year... great music, great new dances, great fashions, all the blood and bootleg whiskey I could buy, plenty of cash changing hands and loads of violence - it was practically a non-stop party."
"For the… just to be sure, this was you in your 'evil' phase, right?" Mitchell asked, looking apprehensively at the vampire; working with Teal'c was easy when they knew he'd made a choice to defy what he'd been, but talking about what Spike had been before he got his soul back wasn't something to inspire comfort.
"Yep," Spike confirmed, before he shrugged. "All fell apart in the end, o'course; Fioretti got offed by some of the Roman's boys from the Lower West Side, the Bucelli Family fell apart in a civil war, and Allen got done in by his bookie over some unpaid debts and a dead racehorse, so I moved on."
"Wait…" Vala said, looking thoughtfully at Spike, "is this the same time and culture that those movies Sam showed me were set in- one of those was called 'The Untouchables', I think?"
"Uh… yes?" Sam said, stuck for anything else to say as she tried to process the news that she was working with someone who'd worked for the mob (She was suddenly glad that Spike had proven himself so conclusively during his first encounter with Adria; it would be hard for anyone to object to something he'd done so long ago in the face of a victory like that). "It… sounds like it."
"Good to know," Vala said, nodding briefly at Sam before turning to look at Spike. "Did you have a moll when you were working for this Four Fingers person? I'm given to understand that a lot of those mobster fellows back then had a moll; I rather like the look of those dresses and fur coats and big hats they wore in those days."
"Er… no," Spike said, surprised at the unusual question. "Dru and I were on the outs at the time- got separated when she went to pursue some rumour of Angelus's whereabouts with Darla-, so it was just me…"
"Would you like one?" Vala asked, grinning flirtatiously at him. "Better late than never…!"
"Anyway," Mitchell said, looking firmly at Spike before he and Vala could get any further into something that sounded like it should be a private conversation, "memories of the past aside, that's the key objects in the arsenal; see anything that takes your fancy?"
"Well," Spike said, reaching out to pick up a P-90, lifting it experimentally in his hands before he smiled and picked up another, "let's start with the obvious and work on it from there."
AN 2: Next chapter, we get back to the events of the episodes, as Spike and SG-1 make a very shocking discovery…