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Chapter 4.

When Giles arrived home that evening, he had dinner with him. While the three ate in companionable silence, Spike noted that Buffy seemed to treat him better when the watcher was around. He considered this and the possible reasons while he drank his dinner. When they had all finished, the Watcher sat back in his armchair and informed the other two of the meeting he'd had with his slayer and her friends. “I was a participant in a very strange conversation with Angel and my Buffy earlier.”

“How do you mean, Giles?” Buffy asked as she shot a daggered glare at the snickering vampire beside her.

“I don’t want to upset you dear, but it appeared to me that Angel was acting a little suspiciously,” Giles offered hesitantly.

“Don’t go cryptic on me now, Giles. I need to know what happened,” she stated firmly.

Taking a breath, Giles looked hard at the older slayer, judging her openness to his upcoming revelations. He apparently found what he was looking for and nodded to her before continuing. “He seemed to be very casual when he asked my Buffy to tell him about her slaying activities last evening. He was particularly interested in what she had to say about the vampire she dusted outside the Bronze, but tried to hide his interest. He made a few suggestions relating to researching the St. Vigeous Day Ritual, none very helpful, I'm afraid. Apparently, when Buffy was fighting the vampire in the alley, she said she heard him call out for help to someone named ‘Spike’. Angel clearly recognized your name, Spike, but he said nothing. He did, however, say that he’d heard some rumours and that he needed to do a little more checking, but he might be able to remove the threat of the Anointed One for Buffy. As you can understand, Buffy was extremely grateful to him for this.” Giles’ expression was void of emotion as he imparted his tale.

Spike followed Giles’ lead on this, keeping his expression blank. He sat back and waited for Buffy’s reactions.

“That’s so weird. I remember that conversation like it just happened, you know? But that’s like, four and a half years ago for me and-and I remember thinking that Angel was being a little more weird than normal, but I was sooo happy that he was going to help me with the annoying one. Why do I remember it so clearly? Is it like what you were saying about her being me, Spike? That whole changing the future in the past deal?” Buffy questioned.

Spike noticed that the fact that she remembered the conversation so clearly was more important to her than the content of the conversation. He inwardly sighed at her need to avoid all matters that put Angel’s behaviour into question. The whole 'soul equals good, no soul equals bad' theory, was beginning to pull at him. The bloody great Poofter was gonna pay for that one day.

“What’s this?” Giles was intrigued.

“What? Oh Spike has a theory," Buffy told him and then looked to the vampire to explain further, as did the Watcher.

“Huh? Oh, well it’s not much of a theory, really. It's just my way of thinkin’ on the matter.” Spike started slowly, trying to explain what his thoughts on the matter were. “That ray that the nerds shot at us hit me directly and I got sent back into my old body, but the old me? He’s still in here. I can hear him. I can feel him. And he can feel and hear me. Not like having a conversation, mind you; it's more like a voice on the edge of my awareness. But Buffy here, she got hit by a filtered ray. It went through me and into her, so I figure that was why she didn’t get sent into her old body. Not enough power or somethin’. Thing is though, because he’s in here with me, he has access to all my memories. So even if he hasn’t lived through them, he knows what I lived through. Buffy on the other hand, isn’t in her old body, so their memories aren’t shared. They're still the same person, just at a different point in the timeline. So anytime somethin’ happens to your Buffy that’s different from what this Buffy lived through, this Buffy’s past changes and she doesn’t remember the difference. Her memories have already been changed. If we’re not careful, we could seriously bollocks up her life and the lives of the people she loves.”

“It’s an interesting theory, Spike, and one that I’m more then a little inclined to agree with. It certainly covers everything. However, it does leave us with some rather large problems,” Giles offered his opinion, all the while contemplating the intriguing vampire. He had noticed that Spike seemed far more concerned about the effects this situation might have on Buffy than any adverse effects it might have on himself. Giles had not been prepared for the apparent selflessness that the soulless vampire appeared to be displaying. This vampire was nothing like the watcher had always believed William the Bloody to be; the vampire that had many tomes depicting his violent nature. Giles longed to be able sit down with Spike and discuss all the events that had effectively changed this vampire into the individual he now was, rather than the monster that he was portrayed as in Giles’ books.

“Well, Spike came up with a really good idea about how we can survive financially and it helps my mom and us at the same time,” Buffy offered eagerly not even aware of how much she had come to rely on Spike. Spike however, was more than pleased at Buffy’s enthusiastic recant of his earlier ideas.

Giles’ shock that the mystical ring of Amara was actually real was quickly abated by his eagerness at hearing about the possibility of other magical items. The subject matter also gave him the opportunity to offer an idea of his own. “As my own magical abilities are limited, I was wondering how you would feel about allowing Miss Calendar to assist us?”

“It’s gonna affect the timeline, Giles.” Buffy considered her Watcher, momentarily contemplating how Jenny’s inclusion could change the events in her past. “But maybe that could be a good thing.”

Spike silently considered his own memories. If what he had been told and what he remembered was right, the Gypsy could help with more than just the magical items from the treasure of Amara. She could help get rid of the threat of Angelus. Then, maybe with a little encouragement, Angel would show his true colours and Buffy would see him for the manipulative lying bastard that he was.

“Only if you’re sure, Slayer.”





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