Chapter 4.03
Thursday, May 9th, 2002

Thursday Early hours of the morning

Spike wasn't sure what woke him at first, and then Buffy struggled in his arms. Raising himself up, he saw the tell-tale darting movements of her eyeballs behind closed lids. Bending his neck, he whispered near her ear. "Shh, pet. 'S not real. You're safe. Everything's okay." Her struggles stilled and he placed gentle kisses against her shoulder. His hand rubbed softly up and down her side in a movement designed to be soothing.

Her eyes flicked open and she pulled his arm tight round her waist again, her left hand on top of his, she intertwined their fingers.

"Bad dream, love?"

She nodded.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"S'okay. Just the usual,"

Spike hugged her even tighter to him briefly as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Inwardly, he cursed the Scoobies again for the lack of foresight on their part that had made them bring her back to life without disinterring her first. "They'll get better with time."

She managed a watery smile. "They are better, with you here. First time in three nights I've been with you that it's happened."

"Could be because you didn't exactly get much sleep the other two," he answered wryly.

"Or it could be because I feel safe with you."

"And when we're not together, how often."

She paused before she answered. "At least once."

"Every night?" His voice was full of concern.

She nodded again.

He felt helpless, knowing there was nothing he could do to help other than just be there for her. It was the same way that her scent in the air and her presence in his arms stilled his own subconscious, letting him forget his failure on the tower.

She shook her head as if to clear it and rolled over in his arms. Her eyes flicked to his face. "How d'you feel about 'a spot of violence'?"

"As you wish, princess." He kissed her on the forehead and loosened his grip on her waist. She scrambled out of bed, hastily righting the straps on the short gown. Spike watched her until she left the room and then quickly put his socks and boots back on and followed after. Reaching the main room, he realised that the only shirt he had was the one Buffy had ripped off him earlier. The spare clothes from their stay in LA were in Buffy's case, now at Revello Drive. Everything else was still at the crypt.

Buffy emerged from the bathroom dressed for battle only to give a small laugh at the incongruous sight of Spike with his duster on but his shirt still unbuttoned.

"Oops?" she offered almost by way of apology. "Didn't realise it was the only shirt you had here."

"Was worth it, pet. Don't worry. We can swing past the crypt while we're out and I'll clear out the fridge and get the rest of my clothes. Pick up the bike as well, so I can drop you off at home or bring you back, whatever you want."

"I should probably go home, so I'm there to get Dawn off to school." Her voice held more than a hint of reluctance.

"I know, love. We'll all be together soon enough. One big family."

"Speaking of family. May as well ring Giles now, before we go out," Buffy gave a weak half smile.

Spike dropped into a half reclining position on the sofa and, reaching over the chair arm, he picked up a cordless phone from its stand on an end table. He held it out in her direction, but when she made a move to take it from him, he pulled her down into his lap. She tensed for a second but then relaxed against him, resting her head on his shoulder. As soon as she did, he handed her the phone.

"So, you don't know."

"Buffy, it's not the sort of decision one jumps into overnight." Giles sounded exasperated as only the slayer could make him. "I think it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to make a decision of this sort so quickly."

"But he sounded interested?"

Buffy heard the watcher sigh, and could imagine him polishing his glasses as he spoke. "There is nothing more to be done. Whether he decides to move back to Sunnydale or not is to some extent irrelevant. What is more important is that he knows there is a place where he will be welcome if he so chooses... though I would be most grateful if he were able to provide you with help on a day to day basis."

"So you're saying that the fact he knows he can come here is more important than whether or not he comes?" Buffy tried to make sure she had understood her former mentor correctly.

"Precisely. Now as to other matters, the orbs of Nezzla Khan have been hidden away for so long that nothing I was able to find is based on first hand knowledge. Everything seems to have its basis in ancient oral tradition. From what I can gather, this is the first time the orbs have fallen into human hands. As such, there are no records as to what any long-term effects might be. I would recommend that Xander uses them with caution, and that Anya watches him very carefully for any signs of change following or during their use. He certainly shouldn't be carrying them constantly until we are very sure that it is only the strength and invulnerability of the demon prince that is passed on."

"So, taking them to work so that he doesn't strain anything with all the heavy lifting would be a no-no then?"

"Please tell me that even Xander wouldn't be quite so frivolous with an item of such obvious power," the Englishman pleaded.

"Even Xander wouldn't be that frivly with such a powerful thingy...?" Buffy responded with no conviction at all.

"Oh dear lord. Just tell him I said not to carry them unless he's expecting trouble or helping out on patrol."

"Giles, in case you missed that part of the conversation the other day, Xander got married to Anya on Saturday. The only time he's offered to patrol with me in the last year was when he came back to town after he ran away from the wedding. Now he's back with his honey-bun, I don't think touring the graveyards will feature in his itinerary."

Giles cleared his throat. "I also think you should perhaps try to talk Xander into letting Spike hit him while he's carrying the orbs, to see if he does still register as human."

"That'll make his day." Buffy was amazed to see the blond vamp shaking his head. "It won't make his day? Hang on, Giles." Buffy lowered the phone and turned her attention to the vamp whose lap she was currently occupying. "What's up?"

"Won't work, pet. Whether he's a human or a demon, Rupert just said those things give him invulnerability. If I can't hurt him the chip won't go off ...unless you want me to try a rocket launcher?" he suggested with a wicked grin.

"I think that would be taking curiosity a shade too far?" she tried to sound disapproving, but she knew for Anya's sake if nothing else he wouldn't follow through.

"Giles? Did you catch that? Spike says the chip wouldn't go off even if it picked Xander up as a human because he knows he couldn't hurt him. Ooh wait, I've an idea. Blind taste test. If Spike were to hit Xander without actually knowing if he had the orbs, then it would work, wouldn't it?" Spike nodded his agreement.

"Quite. Well I shall leave you to sort out the details, shall I?"

"What about the other thing then?" Buffy asked.

"So far, I've only come across records of two humans being claimed, neither seemed to suffer any adverse effects and both seemed to age slower than might be expected. One lived with his mate for eighty years whilst he appeared to age only ten or fifteen years over this time. However, when his mate died his years seemed to catch up with him over a relatively short period of time. When he died four years later he judged that he appeared to be about eighty-five.

The girl in the second case died with her lover when the house they were resting in was burned to the ground. They had been together for twenty years and she showed little if any sign of ageing over that period, but she was definitely still human as she was often seen out and about in daytime.

As yet, I haven't come across any information about any slayers being claimed.

So, all in all, things look quite promising, if you're sure you want to go ahead, but there's a lot more research still to do. I don't think two cases is sufficient basis to say you would be in the clear and neither of them were slayers."

"So basically you're still looking for a reason to say no, but you haven't found it yet," the slayer reasoned.

"You could put it like that, though if we could prove it were safe, a mutual claim would be more appropriate than a continuation of the situation as it stands."

"Okay, give our love to Olivia and call me when you find anything new, otherwise I'll be in touch when we manage to book a church."

"Goodbye, Buffy."

"Bye, Giles."

Buffy turned to her companion. "Time to boogie, Blood Breath." She kissed the end of his nose and then levered herself out of his lap, staying close enough that he had to brush against her to stand up. He pushed himself out of the chair and put his hands on her hips, resting his forehead against hers.

"All staked up?"

Quicker than the eye could see Buffy had a stake in her hand. Spike had no more idea where she hid them now they were dating than he had had when they used to fight for real. "You?"

Spike flexed his arms and he had a stake in each hand. He gave them a gun-slinger type twirl before they disappeared into his sleeves again.

"Okay then, let's go kick some demon butt." Buffy took his hand and drew him toward the door.

Thursday Early morning

Spike dialled Giles home phone number. He paced the living room as he waited to be connected, wondering if this was a good idea. He tried to convince himself that he would be losing nothing by asking, and that he didn't care if the answer was no. Somehow it didn't seem to work.

After two rings he heard an automated message, but that had been what he wanted. He knew Giles should be at work.

"Watcher, it's Spike. I've got kind of a big favour to ask you. I haven't said anything to Buffy about it, 'cause if she knew and then you said no she might be disappointed, which is the reverse of what I'm hoping for. I didn't want to embarrass you into saying yes either, so if you don't bring it up I'll never mention this message again. Now, I'm asking for her, not for me, except once we're married it's sort of a package deal so I could understand you saying no but what I want is this..."

By the time he finished rambling nervously he had to redial the number and leave a second message to make his request as he had been cut off. After that he just had to wait to see if Giles rang back when he got home. He sat himself on one of the stools that tucked under the breakfast bar and turned his attention to the book he'd brought from Buffy's the previous night while he waited. There were still boxes and bags from his and Buffy's shopping trip in a pile in the corner, but keeping his promise to Dawn took precedence.

Buffy yawned as she watched Tara flip pancakes for breakfast. She had been going to make breakfast for at least her and Dawn this morning, but Tara had beaten her to it. Buffy was sure there should be a law against anyone who was that much of a morning person. Maybe she could go back to bed once the others left, or go visit Spike and both go back to bed together.

"She's gone, again." It had only taken one brief glance at her sister's dreamy smile for Dawn to work out where her head was at this morning.

"What? No I'm not. Right here ready to eat yummy pancakes with my sister before she goes to school."

Tara flipped the first few onto her plate and started on the next batch, smiling at Dawn and Willow as they came in the room together. "Morning, sweeties."

"Hey, Will." Buffy passed her plate over to Dawn. "Here, you take these, I'll get some once all the people who have to leave early have been fed."

Willow gave Tara a hug before she grabbed a stool and took a seat at the island. "Hey, Buff, you owe me big time. Xander says if you want he'll come back after he drops Dawn off at school, have a look at the basement and you can discuss what you want."

"So he's going to do it?" 'Damn, so much for sleepy Spike and silk sheets.'

"He said he'd probably have to get a couple of the other guys to help out, like Tito for the plumbing, and some other guy for the electricky stuff but he'd be able to do most of it."

"Youch. I remember Tito's prices. Well, there shouldn't be too much for him to do, I hope, and Spike said we could afford it."

"Dawn says his new place is pretty cool," Tara said.

"Yeah, it's not bad. A bit out of the way. Did you know there are five cemeteries on an almost direct route between there and here?"

"Does that mean you actually patrolled last night?" Dawn asked between mouthfuls of pancakes. "I thought that was just an excuse to get rid of me so that you guys could have loud obnoxious sex."

"Dawn. Yes, we ...patrolled. We got a whole bunch a vamps and a hairy demon. It looked kinda cute at first, like an overgrown Old English sheepdog with curly horns that had learned to walk on its hind legs but then, well you know how some dogs will attach themselves to your leg, imagine one that's seven foot three. And we weren't loud and obnoxious it's just a very small flat."

"I can't imagine Spike being keen on some demon trying to move in on his territory." Tara commented, as she served up a plate of pancakes for Willow.

"Hey, I could get offended at being called territory, if it wasn't for the fact it was a female demon. So, yeah, you could definitely say he wasn't keen on having his 'territory' invaded." Buffy snickered as she remembered Spike's attempts to fend off the behemoth.

"Ew. Mental scarring in process." Dawn shovelled the last of her pancakes into her mouth, chugged her orange juice and dashed upstairs to sort out her books for school.

"Will, is your computer all linked up to the Internet at the moment?" Buffy asked the redhead in an apparently random change of subject.

"Mmmh. In the dining room."

"So I just switch it on, click on the web browser, then Google in the favourites bit and type in what I want to do the search on. Right?"

"Sure. I've got a spare few minutes. I can give you a hand if you want once we finish breakfast."

"No. It's good. It's time I started to sort out some of the basic stuff for myself," Buffy hastily replied, blushing profusely.

"I guess, since Spike's getting that new computer for you and Dawn. Oh, you can tell him I've ordered all the bits now. When it all arrives I'll put it together over here and install all the software and stuff before we shift it to his place. He can settle up any time between now and when I pay my visa bill."

Buffy's pancakes arrived and she smothered them with syrup before she tucked in. Willow meanwhile finished hers and headed off to get ready for lectures. A car horn sounded outside and Dawn rushed downstairs and out the door with a quick, "Bye."

Buffy was still drinking her coffee when Tara finally got to sit down and eat her own breakfast. "So you're coping okay with the whole out of the closet deal then?" she asked as she used her fork to break up the pancakes into bite-sized pieces.

Buffy glanced up at her. "Ask me about that after I've explained to Xander that we want the basement soundproofed. Were you around when Will spoke to him last night?"

Tara shook her head. "Took refuge in the bath while she phoned."

"Okay, I'll just have to play it by ear. He can't hate him that much. Can he?"

Tara shrugged. "Xander? I think it might take a trained psychologist a decade or two to work out the inconsistencies in his brain. Spike and Anya's situations are more or less parallel in lots of ways, but he marries one and wants to stake the other. 'Course Anya's having sex with him, and Spike's violating his best friend. I mean I love him, but I'll never understand him."

"Oh well. I think I'll go check out that stuff on Will's computer before he gets here. Does it make me a bad person if part of me is wishing he'd refused? If he can't..." Buffy sighed and levered herself off her stool. She refilled her coffee cup and headed toward the dining room, not waiting to see if Tara would answer her question.

Time to find out what that password really meant. She put the phrase into the search engine and clicked on the first site on the list. A seed catalogue. 'Dianthus Barbatus - a perennial wild flower from the carnation family, commonly known as Sweet William.' Sweet William. Cute... and nothing to do with anal sex. She closed down the program and switched off the computer. When Xander arrived she was busy looking through the magazines she'd brought back from LA.