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Chapter 4


“Will someone please tell me why we’re taking all this trouble to help a vampire?” Buffy asked bitterly.

“Hey – I’m very useful to you! Got you all sorts of info you’d never have got otherwise.” Spike said indignantly.

“Yeah, and some really useful dollars for you too!”

“Haven’t been paid for weeks now!”

“That’s only because you haven’t been around for weeks!”

“You’re missing the point – “

“And the point being?”

“Children, entertaining as it is to hear you bickering all evening, I think we ought to return to the problem at hand.” Giles said bitingly.

“He is the problem at hand,” muttered Buffy.

“Quite. But having gone this far, I am reluctant to just hand him over to the Council – it would make a mockery of all we have been through, the last two days.”

“Thanks mate.” Spike grunted.

“Believe me, it’s not personal. I would have been far happier if Buffy had staked you years ago. Now why didn’t you think to tell us about your friends before?”

“Well, you seemed to’ve got it all under control, with your good friend Toby. He did us right proud didn’t he,” Spike said with a smirk.

Giles had the grace to look uncomfortable, “Yes, well, I’d had no real contact with him since college days, only the occasional letter and phone call, and he seemed genuine enough.”

“Look, this is getting us nowhere. Spike, where are these so-called friends of yours? How will you contact them?” Buffy said impatiently.

“They’re not exactly in the ‘phone book luv, but I know where to look. We need to go to London, Whitechapel to be exact.”

“Whitechapel!” Exclaimed the Watcher, “That’s not a very salubrious area.”

“It’s not on the tourist trail, that’s for sure – but it’s where I last had contact with them.”

“Isn’t that where Jack the Ripper hung out?” Buffy asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Spike said nostalgically.

“You were there? Ugh! Don’t tell me that you were involved!” Buffy said incredulously.

“Nah, I wasn’t much more than a fledgling then. Besides not my scene, all that torture and evisceration – I’m the direct sort, you know, see, hunt, kill, feed.” Spike said matter of factly. “Now Angelus thought it was fun, ‘specially the letters, he couldn’t wait ‘til they were published in the Daily News. Used to bore us silly reading them out and woe betide anyone who wasn’t paying attention.”

He missed Buffy’s sick expression.

“Y’know the reward for the capture of Jack was up to 500 quid – that was a hell of a lot of money in those days. I….” He suddenly realised that the room had gone quite still and both the Slayer and the Watcher were regarding him with disgust. “What? I told you it wasn’t me – I was totally controlled by Angelus, what he said went, and I got in a hell of a lot of trouble refusing to help him with his games.”

“Games, is that how you saw it!” Buffy yelled at him, trying to block out the images that Spike’s reminiscences had brought into her mind. She knew only too well what Angelus was capable of, having had first hand experience.

They all stopped short as they heard a sound at the front door, and only relaxed when they saw that it was the housekeeper. “I’ve managed to get you this.” She held out a flask to Spike.

“Thanks Hilda.”

He took it, quickly unscrewed the top and began to gulp the contents. When he caught the look of disgust on the Slayer’s face, he gave her a sour look and went upstairs to drink in private. They could hear him grumbling, “It’s not as if it’s the first time she’s seen a sodding vampire drinking, surely it’s better than taking it from the source.”

“I’ll get our things together, upstairs.” Giles followed after the vampire.

Buffy glanced at the housekeeper to gauge her reaction, “Sorry about Spike, we’ll take him away with us as soon as we can.”

“Oh, don’t apologise for him – I think he is rather nice.”

“Nice! You know he’s all vampiry don’t you?”

“Yes, I knew as soon as I saw him really – I just had to open the curtains a bit to make sure. He has rather colourful language, doesn’t he?” She laughed fondly.

“How do you know so much about vampires?” Buffy asked curiously.

“My brother was killed by one.” The housekeeper said evenly.

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be my dear; it was a long time ago, when I lived in London with my family. The experience made me what I am. I was determined to learn all about them, and to find some way to protect me and mine against them. So I learned all I could about magic and the like. I must say that I have never read about, or seen a vampire quite like him though. His aura is unique.”

“Aura?” Said Buffy uncertainly.

“Yes, it tells a lot about a person. Spike’s is dark of course, because he is, for want of a better phrase, a creature of the night. But it is shot through with green and gold – I have never heard of a vampire having a colour in their aura. He is very special.”

“Who’s special?” Spike was coming towards them, rubbing his eyes and smothering a yawn. “Thanks for the grub pet, went down a treat.” He handed the flask back to the smiling woman.

“Oh, we were talking about my brother.” The housekeeper said, shooting a glance at Buffy, who was still recovering from what she had just heard.

“Oh yeah. Live locally does he?” Spike asked politely.

“Come on Spike, stop asking stupid questions and get going. We’ve got a long way to go and not a lot of time.” Buffy said to distract him.

“I haven’t got anything to get together luv – what you see is all I got.” He smirked and waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry,” Mrs Norton said, offering him a plastic bag, “I meant to have given this to you earlier.”

Spike looked inside, drew out a black T-shirt, and stood gaping at it. When he made no move to put it on, Buffy snatched it out of his hand and looked at the front. She started to laugh.

“That’s right, laugh it up Slayer – you haven’t got to wear the sodding thing!”

“What’s all the hilarity about?” Giles struggled down the stairs with a suitcase in each hand.

Buffy said nothing, just reversed the shirt so that Giles could read the front. There was a large cartoon simian hanging from a branch with the slogan “Urban Gorilla” underneath.

“I’m sorry Spike, that’s all I could find at such short notice,” Mrs Norton had a suspiciously wicked twinkle in her eye. “You go through clothes like nobody’s business.”

After they had forced the disgruntled vampire into his new shirt, and stored all their belongings in the car, they took their leave of the still chuckling housekeeper. She hugged a startled Spike and then said, “I have one more present for you, I hope you like this one better.” She gave him a small box.

“What’s this?” he said, his expression a mixture of wonder and pleasure. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had given him anything. Unless you counted Dru’s gifts and they tended to bleed and scream a lot.

“Well, unless you open it, you’ll never find out.”

He slowly opened the box, and brought out a sliver coloured, engraved, metal band upon which hung a beautiful blue crystal, echoing the colour of his eyes.

“Come on, I’ll help you put it on.”

He obediently lowered his head and Mrs Norton fixed it round his neck.

“It’s a ward, isn’t it?” Spike asked.

“Yes, some of my best work, even though I do say so myself.”

“A ward?” Buffy said.

“Yeah luv, it stops people putting the mojo on me.” Spike put his hand up to his neck, wishing desperately that he could see what it looked like.

“Well, it won’t stop all magic, no ward can do that.” Mrs Norton replied, “but it will let you know when magic is present, and will stop some of the more common spells working on you.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Spike said sincerely.

“You don’t have to. I’ve had more fun the last 24 hours than I’ve had for the last, well I don’t know how long.”

“Fun!” snorted Buffy.

“Yes, not a lot of fun for you I admit – being threatened with a gun is not one of life’s best experiences, but not a lot happens around here and I hadn’t realised how dull my life had become.”

Spike caught hold of Mrs Norton’s hand, brought it up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “If you ever find yourself in Sunnydale California, look me up and we’ll see if we can have some more fun.” He smiled genuinely, kissed her forehead, and got into the car.

“Well, I will echo the vampire’s sentiments,” Giles smiled and shook Mrs Norton’s hand, “here’s my card, if I can be of service to you at any time, please call me.”

Buffy looked at the older woman uncertainly, “Um, yes, well thank you. You saved our necks. I hope it doesn’t get you into any trouble.”

“I’ll be long gone before the people from the Council get here, and I will deny all knowledge of what went on. I’m just a simple housekeeper, don’t know anything.” She chuckled. “And don’t forget, I’m not the only one who saved lives today.”

Before Mrs Norton could say any more, Buffy shook her hand and fled to the car.

They hadn’t been travelling for more than five minutes, when the Watcher and the Slayer heard a noise from the back. They both swung their heads round and were met with the sight of Spike, sprawled out on the back seat fast asleep. “What’s that noise?” Buffy asked.

“I believe he is purring.” Giles faced forward with a smile.

“Purring! Vampires purr? Well, you learn something new every day.” She tucked this bit of knowledge away; you never know when something like that will come in useful. She looked forward to teasing him with it. Woah! Teasing him? Where had that thought come from? Now she had nothing to do, but think about what had happened over the last two days, and reflect upon what the housekeeper had said. “Special?” Spike is special? It’s not the word that she’d use for him, she thought – obnoxious, cocky, irritating – those are the words that suit him better!

Before she could stop it, a series of images of him rushed through her mind. Being held by Mills’ thugs, hands chained behind him, blank eyed and beaten. Sitting in the kitchen, laughing and joking with Mrs Norton. The look of sheer terror on his face, when Mills found them. Spike flying through the air, yelling with rage and pain, tackling 5 humans, his chip punishing him. Lying on the floor, bleeding from two gunshot wounds, quoting poetry. Lying underneath her in the wood, a look of – of; she forced herself to admit it – a look of pure love on his face for a second, until she wiped it off with her words The look of wonder on his face, when looking at the gift from the housekeeper. Mrs Norton said that he was different from any other vampires she had met, or heard of – perhaps that was her get out clause. It didn’t mean that she was wrong in slaying other vampires; they really were vicious, bloodsucking monsters. She leaned back with a sigh; I think I’m so tired now, anything seems logical.

Giles looked over at her, “We’ll stop for the night soon. I just want to get some distance between us and the house, in case the Council comes looking.”

“Do you think they will?” Buffy asked

“I think that maybe Spike was right, they would love to get their hands on him – they’d call it research I’m sure.” he replied grimly, “Using the excuse of getting him out of circulation, even though he can’t hurt humans. His chip is something they’d like to “research” at length. I don’t think even Spike deserves their hospitality.”

Buffy nodded, the thought of Spike in the council’s hands, was suddenly abhorrent. It would be out of the frying pan into the fire.


TBC





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