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Author's Chapter Notes:
I so had better be doing this right....though I'm probably screwing things up because I'm looking at the actual computer as little as possible because genius me hsa finally actually gotten home...but my eye's screwed up now, so...(and I don't really know how but it should be alright)



Anyhow, I'm finally back so you finally get an update...
Chapter 50

“Oh,” Xander went for mock sadness and ended up just sounding snide, “Would you look at that? The lights are out; guess we have to go.”

“You really are daft, Harris if you thought they’d pay the electric bill just in case someone decided to break in.”

“I would like to get this done with as quickly as possible. If we could begin our—What was that?” Giles had just heard a strange sound seemingly above them.

“Seems we’re not the only ones who thought breaking in’d be fun,” Spike answered.

“You never were very clever were you, Spike?” Much as he knew it was a good thing, Spike really did not want that person to be there just then.

“Actually Soldier Boy, think the problem was me being too clever. Good to see you still come running when the Slayer’s in danger though.”

“It would seem that you weren’t able to protect her yourself,” Riley said, never knowing just how deeply that cut Spike—not only could he not save Buffy, it was his fault the whole thing was even happening.

The lights—apparently someone had been paying the bill—flicked on loudly and for the first time everyone other than Spike knew just how many people were in the room—the four who had come with him, GI Jerk, and a handful of other commandos.

“Now, what was it Buffy needed help with that required you coming here?”

“She needs Spike’s chip out,” Dawn answered, figuring simple and to the point was the way to do it.

“And why would we remove Hostile 17’s ‘chip’?”

“So Buffy doesn’t die.” Again, simple and to the point.

“What’s happened to Buffy?” Suddenly Riley lost his rigid soldier boy façade, looking very worried.

“She’s been cursed and—well, to cut a long story very short, she’s feeling what Spike feels with the chip, every time she eats. For her not to die, his chip needs to be removed,” Giles explained.

“She feels the pain of his chip whenever she eats?”

“Like she’s got one of her own,” Spike agreed.

“Then I have a very simple solution,” Riley said calmly. “Did any of you bring any stakes with you?”

“Can we stop this ‘Let’s Stake Spike’ train, please? If Buffy’s feeling what Spike feels—or however exactly it’s working—we don’t know that staking Spike won’t kill Buffy; not for sure.”

Riley didn’t say anything but he didn’t say anything more about staking Spike so everyone figured that message had been received.

“How do I know this is really what Buffy wants? She’s not here with you,” he said it like they needed to be reminded

“Yeah, they don’t exactly let you out of the hospital for field trips." Spike wondered why she’d always dated such sods. Not that he was biased or anything.

“She’s in the hospital?”

“What part of ‘dying’ did you miss?” Dawn wondered.

“Give me a few minutes to find the paperwork and for Doctor Coraid to arrange things with the hospital and we’ll go. I will of course need to verify things with Buffy before the actual procedure takes place, however.”

“I would expect nothing less. Thank you Riley,” Giles replied.

Spike decided to save his thank you until his head, minus one bit of metal, had been sewn back together.

“Well that was easy,” Xander remarked several seconds after all the Initiative men had left the vicinity.

Spike resisted the strong urge to throttle him and wondered if the Slayer’d let him get in one good punch once this chip was out.

Just one…





For being Mr. Be-All-You-Can-Be, Finn sure didn’t deal well with hospitals. Spike and Giles both had been worried more than once that he was going to pass out.

Now, though, they had made it to Buffy’s room and Spike’s main concern was how she would react to seeing her former boyfriend again. He was only glad there was no one besides Angelus and Finn to contend with.

“Buffy?” Apparently Cardboard wasn’t real big on understanding tonight.

“Hi Riley.”

“My God, are you alright? What did this to you? What kind of demon was it?” Just like Riley to jump to conclusions.

“I’m not as bad as I could be—not dead after all—but not exactly alright either. It wasn’t a demon that did this; I was actually cursed by a witch.”

“Willow did this?”

“What?” Buffy asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of her tone. “No, it wasn’t Willow. I staked a vampire and the witch that was his girlfriend or whatever wanted to kill me.”

“Then why do you think this is related to Spike’s chip?”

“She wanted to kill me, but,” Buffy continued, “Spike stopped her and had her do something else instead—“

“I knew he was a part of this! Buffy, we can lock him up; keep him alive but away from everyone; from everything.”

“That’s okay, Riley, you don’t need to do that. Some sort of curse had to be done so Spike asked her to do something that should have been relatively harmless—and that was after I’d actually given him a pretty good reason to want me dead. This isn’t Spike’s fault, Riley.”

“Is so,” Spike muttered but Buffy ignored him.

“Spike’s the reason why I’m not dead right now—for several different reasons actually.”

“So you really do want his chip to be removed?” Riley asked as if hearing the truth in it for the first time.

“Yes please,” Buffy said primly.

“If that’s what you really want,” he sighed. “We should be back in about half an hour.”

“You’re doing it right now?” Dawn, the only other one in the room, asked.

“We may not need a sterile operating room because it is a demon, but we will still need the same medical supplies. This is the only place to find such supplies; and doing it here is easier than finding somewhere else.”

“How exactly are you going to convince the hospital that the guy they’re operating on is dead is no big deal?”

“They do autopsies every day, don’t they?” Dawn questioned.

“You are not doing Spike’s surgery in the morgue, Riley.”

“Wasn’t planning to,” he said, though he did look sorry he hadn’t had that plan. “Everything will be done in a regular operating room but with no hospital personnel present. The Initiative is a part of the United States government, secret or not, and has the ability to request such things.”

“I think I’ll marvel over the scariness that is the government’s power after you do the operation on my boyfriend’s head.”

Spike had no idea if she’d said the boyfriend word without thinking or if it was her way of telling Riley what was between the two of them. Either way he certainly was not going to ask and risk having her take it back. Nope, not bloody likely.

“Fine,” Riley huffed; apparently, the boyfriend thing had gotten to him, too. “We’ll be back soon. I hope you start feeling well right away.”

“Thanks, Riley. Can I talk to Spike alone for just a minute before you go?”

“Might as well,” Riley said in a voice full of resignation.

Dawn fled the room after Riley when she received a sharp look from Buffy.

“Not changing your mind are you, pet?” Spike moved across the room to sit next to her on the bed.

“What? About the chip? Of course not. I just…before you go…Tell me you love me.”

“I love you, Buffy, you know I do,” Spike took a chance and kissed her then. “Love you even if you want them to keep this chip in my head; be bloody furious with you for you not getting well, but I’d still love you.”

“I know…and I…I can’t…Right now, I—but there…I—“

Spike held a finger to her lips, “Shh,” he said softly. “It’s alright, we’ve got lots of time, yeah? No rush.”

“Just make sure they don’t kill you.” And after one last kiss he was out the door, leaving Buffy to sit and wait.

And worry.



TBC…..





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