One Chance
by AtlantianDream
Story Notes: This is my first jump-in time travel story. Still trying to figure out little things. Thank you for reading!
Chapter Notes:
This is my first jump-in time travel story. Let me know if my curve ball was good enough...or if my characterization needs work...tweaking that is a major thing for me...so please let me know. Rated M right now because of language and will move to Adult Only EVENTUALLY...if people like where this even started. I own nothing and am just playing!
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Spike felt himself falling through the darkness. Felt himself suddenly gasping and solid once more.
Gasping….gasping for unneeded breathe as he tried to figure out where he was.
Slowly as his breathing evened out that he recognized the room he was currently in…if one could actually call a mausoleum a room.
His crypt. The crypt in Sunnydale that he hadn't seen in decades.
Slowly, still feeling shaky as his eyes swept over the empty space, he lifted his torso off of the sarcophagus and slowly let the world become vertical for him once more.
His head swiveled slowly as he stared at a place he had called home once. The light from the sun illuminating the space, yet he knew from all those months living in these four walls where to stand and where not to.
Finally he was sitting up and slowly swung his legs down so they hung off the side.
He had done it. Lloyd had actually sent him back in time.
And though excitement and fear filled him, the sudden wave of self depreciation went through him.
A feeling he had grown accustomed to every day of his un-life.
His soul.
He had his soul.
Spike closed his eyes and felt the familiar tug and pull of the demon and soul in him.
The sound of the door opening made him stand for the first time as he waited to see who the first face he would see would be.
And it was not a face he had seen in a very…very long time. One that he thought he would never see after finding out secrets. Secrets that would have made him act differently…un-souled and all.
The person stood in the entryway…almost as if expecting him to say something.
But words were failing him at the moment. Rare as that was…the circumstances that he now found himself in…well…anyone would feel the same way.
He must have been quiet for a lot longer than he thought because the person entered and closed the door behind them.
"Spike…seeing as the sight of me leaves you speechless I suspect you did not expect me to live through last night. And while I'd love to go on trading jabs with you as usual. Much as it pains me to say it, I owe you a debt of gratitude for the help you provided me in my recent…metamorphosis."
The words…he remembered those words. Words that the man in front of him had only ever spoken once.
He tried to remember every word that he had ever said to him. Where his heart was in his chest, even not beating as it was…a tightness filled his chest.
Maybe it was the lack of response that made the very human man to continue to enter further into his crypt and stare with a furrowed brow at him.
But Spike couldn't help but try and keep his mouth shut. He had just slammed into the past not but a few seconds ago…and here was a person that was responsible for his existence…and neither of them had known. At least while the man in front of him had been alive.
"Spike…as instinctual it is of me not to care…is…everything alright?"
Was that concern? Spike had never heard him speak to him in that manner. Well in all honesty…he had been a right bastard to the man in front of him. Spike knew then that he had been oblivious to way too much.
Hell the sight of the man should have given him a clue. But how could either of them have ever known.
"William."
The look he received after saying his name made the man's brow furrow further.
"My name is William." He said the words slowly, and properly.
It took a few seconds but the confusion turned into a weird sort of smile on the man's face. "Ah…yes…yes it is. And as…"
Spike knew he was about to try and insult him, and couldn't stand the idea of hearing it. Quickly he added something that made the man pause completely.
"What day is it?"
"Um…it's Monday…at least I…"
"What year?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Spike slowly began to walk towards the man, the feel of the leather jacket on his back making him flinch slightly. He hadn't worn it since…
Without waiting another second he removed the jacket and tossed it away from himself, not in the least caring where it landed.
"Since the only time I remember you saying those words to me were when I helped you while you were a Fyarl demon…think it's the year 2000. Hmm…course it is. Funny bugger." Spike scowled and quickly shook his head as he thought of Lloyd's ironic timing.
"Spike…ehm….what are you talking ab…"
"You were just about to tell me how you've been thinking about my….'affliction'…that even though it's against my nature…there may be a higher purpose for it." With that Spike raised his non scared eyebrow in a 'how am I doing' expression.
The man's mouth dropped open in slight shock.
Spike slowly let out a breathe…trying to stick to his plan. He knew without a doubt before he started this journey back in time he would need help. But telling the man in front of him the whole truth. The whole truth about him…about what they were to each other. He didn't know if he should unload that whopper of a truth bomb on the man's shoulder's.
"How could you…"
Spike's jaw clenched and hung his head down for a second before looking back up at the man before him…his soul and demon running a muck in his head as the two seemed to agree on one thing.
He wanted to get to know his father.
Rupert Giles continued to stare at the master vampire in shock as a look of sadness washed over his face.
"I know…you can't stand the sight of me…know you think of me as a monster. Know you probably think anything out of my mouth is a lie…but…if you love Buffy….you need to listen to me."
Giles felt himself stiffen, paternal feeling of protection instantly filling him.
"You're in no position to threaten…"
"I'm not threaten' anyone. Least of all Buffy. I'm…"
Spike stopped as anger gripped him, turning around and letting his fists form at his sides as resentment and hate from years of knowing….years of knowing at not having him there to yell at surged though him.
Having him there to bloody explain himself…of the hell all it was possible…of how he could have left his mother and buggered all…but it was too soon to say anything of the sort to him.
It was too soon.
Dealing with him was too soon.
But in the back of his mind he knew he really had no time to slowly explain things.
And he needed his help. Needed him to save the people that needed saving. Needed him to keep Buffy from suffering.
He had one shot at this. Only one.
He had risked all to get here. To get here and make sure that what they had done would never happen. That the events that led to the deaths of those he cared for never occur.
That he would never end up with Buffy. He would never touch her. That he would help her and hers. He'd give up all of his future…anything even close to happiness….if he could save them.
Giles was tempted to take the stake from his pocket and use it on the unsuspecting vampire when Giles saw the tension drain out of his shoulder's and arms.
"I'm from the future old man."
Silence stretched for a bit before Spike heard the suppression of laughter. Spike pursed his lips in a 'yeah…expected as much' fashion and proceeded to turn around and face a laughing Watcher.
Giles couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of Spike's exclamation.
The seriousness of Spike's face made his humor of the statement vanish.
"You're serious…" Giles voice sounding super incredulous, about to shake his head and claim it's impossible when Spike said something that made him freeze inside to his core.
"You did it once. Didn't you old boy?" Again Spike raised one eyebrow.
Rupert kept his mouth shut but the very fact that Spike knew of his indiscretion in his youth spoke volumes.
Spike didn't wait for him to respond.
"You and that Ethan Rayne went back in time together isn't that right? 1853 was it?"
Giles took a step back from Spike….unsure of how to even respond to the question.
Spike's jaw tightened again as he tried to keep his anger back.
"Hormones making you do things you shouldn't. Met a girl…lost her maidenhood to you."
"Hold your tongue." Giles felt his ire rise in a way it hadn't since Jenny was killed.
"Hate to tell this old man…but you ruined her. Ruined her for any chance of a descent marriage. I mean really….were you thinking of anything besides getting your knob shined up…"
"ENOUGH!" Giles yelled as he grabbed Spike by the throat and held him against the pillar in the center of the room.
Spike didn't fight him, if anything it gave him a little bit of hope that she had meant something to him.
"Ann Margret Pratt was it?" Spike struggled to say but watched the anger in the man's eyes.
"If you touched her I'll kill without a shred of remorse." Rupert's anger make him grip Spike's neck all the more tightly.
Spike's own anger surged at the words.
"Meant something to you did she? Who'd have known! Knocked her up proper and left her to her fate did you!"
It took a few seconds for the words to actually sink into Rupert's mind, but Spike's own anger had been sparked.
Spike dropped out of Giles' hold and snarled at him from not a step away.
" SHE WAS A BLOODY CHILD. YOU. DUMB. TWAT!" Spike swung at him, not caring if it was his father or not.
He had forgotten about the initiative chip that would still be in his head.
It triggered.
Spike yelled and fell to the ground at the extreme shock that travelled around his cranium.
To say that Rupert Giles felt as if Angelus had tortured him once more was putting it mildly. He had paled incredibly.
"It's…it's impossible. She…it was just…. How. How could you know all this?" Rupert slowly turned and stared at Spike on the floor.
A humorless laugh left Spike as he pressed his palm into one eye as he tried to fight back the residual pain.
"She told me. Told me why we had to live in grandfather's house. Why I had to be the man of the house. Why there'd never be men callers. Heh…Edmund. My entire life she told me my father's name was Edmund. Bloody hell I searched ten years trying to find you and kill you for what you did to her. What you did to me. But…how could I…you weren't even from the same century."
Rupert found himself at eye level with Spike as every ounce of strength had drained from his body collapsing him to the floor as he understood what Spike had just admitted to. What everything that he had been saying meant.
Spike pulled away the hand from his face and looked at the man in front of him with tear filled eyes.
"My name's William. William Henry Pratt."
And for the first time Rupert Giles really looked at him, as if for the first time he wasn't seeing a vampire…or a demon.
Staring straight into his eyes Rupert saw the blue shade of Anne's staring back at him.
Chapter End Notes:
Please review and let me know if this interested anyone into wanting to read another chapter!