Chapter 2
Buffy got into bed, and she looked at her husband before she turned off the lamp.
“I’m not asleep, if that’s what you were wondering”
“No, I wasn’t!” Buffy lied, and began to try and get comfy.
Spike didn’t say anything else he thought he’d let her talk if she wanted to………
Three forty one by the clock, it was no good, she couldn’t sleep, so she made a move to throw the bedclothes back, when Spike’s voice made her jump
“Can’t sleep pet, got something on your mind?”
Buffy sighed…she’d have to come out with it, it was no good carrying on like this, she not wanting to tell Spike and Spike just waiting for whatever bombshell she was going to drop………
“When Giles and I were talking…how can I put this…”?
“Go on pet, I’m safe in the knowledge that you love Billy and me, and aren’t going to put yourself in any danger, not for the Watcher, OR especially not for the wanker, or are you about to tell me I’m wrong?”
Buffy got up angrily and looked out of the window and said
“You KNOW I love you and Billy more than anything else in the world!”
Spike said calmly,
“So why do I feel there’s a ‘but’ coming, hmm?”
Buffy agonized and looked out of the window
“It’s something I need to do”
“Tell me…” Spike sat up and looked at her; Buffy stared resolutely out of the window
“Tell me, Spike began again, what’s SO important, it’s worth risking our marriage and motherhood for, hmm?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well it’s a simple enough question Buffy!” Spike using her name instead of one of the myriad of pet-names he had for her jolted her, she knew he was being serious
“I won’t be in any danger”
“Guarantee that, can you?”
“I’ve always won before…”
Spike crossed his wrists; leaning on is knees and said quietly
“So if it’s an easy job, why can’t one of the other slayers take it, hmm – it’s not as if they’re still just potentials now is it?”
“Angel said-“
Spike leapt out of bed and hissed angrily,
“I DO NOT want to hear that wanker’s name, okay, but I’ll tell you this, you go and do this, this thing whatever it is, and I swear you’ll come back to an empty house”
“What?” Buffy asked tremulously
“You heard, the house will be empty, coz Billy and I won’t be here when you get back, IF you get back that is!”
Spike snatched his robe off the back of the door and left the room.
*************************
“What am I going to do Will?”
Willow looked at Buffy, and said quite clearly
“You should do what you promised to Spike, and that is, until Billy is old enough to understand what you both are, you don’t do the dangerous stuff. Where did Spike go in the end?”
“He slept in the spare bedroom. By the time I got up, he’d given Billy his breakfast, washed and dressed him and had him ready to go out”
“Did he speak to you at all?”
“Sort of mumbled…oh Will – I HATE this – I hate falling out with him, it makes my stomach go funny, and I can’t concentrate!”
“Well that doesn’t bode well then, does it? – You not being able to concentrate. Do you think he meant what he said, about you coming home to an empty house?”
Buffy didn’t get time to answer her friends question as the phone rang.
“Oh, hello Giles………no, no I haven’t, not properly – he knows there’s something, but we argued, well no, strictly that’s not true, he knows there’s something, he shouted and said if I did it, I’d come back to an empty house, he’d take Billy and go…………………I DON’T KNOW!…Okay, okay, I’m sorry for shouting, but if I knew where he’d take Billy, it wouldn’t be much of a threat then, would it………okay then, bye”
Giles put the phone down, and suddenly aware of a ‘presence’, he whirled around.
“Spike – what can I - eerkkkkkkkkk – you’re…. Strang…ling… me!”
“And I’ll do MUCH worse than that if you don’t tell me this minute what’s SO fuckin’ important that you’re having Buffy risk everything she’s got”
Spike released his vice-like grip on the watcher’s windpipe.
Giles stood up straight rubbing his throat. He coughed a couple of times and said,
“Angel came to me and-“
“ I KNEW IT – I BLOODY FUCKING WELL KNEW IT! I KNEW that wanker had some ulterior motive coming to the house………well what ever it is, tell him to go fuck himself”
“I’m afraid it’s not as simple as that, Spike”
“Oh isn’t it – why not – how hard is it to say ‘Angel, go fuck yourself’ – I’ll show you how bloody easy it is, just give me the number of Wanker’s ‘R’ Us – I’ll sure as hell soddin’ well tell him!”
Giles took of his glasses and began to clean them
“Yes, I’m sure you would. But like I say…(he slipped the glasses back on again) it isn’t as simple as that”
Spike glared at Giles, who moved towards the kitchenette
“Tea?”
Spike frowned
“I did NOT come here for tea and bleedin’ sympathy! – I want some answers!”
The phone rang and Giles answered it, he looked at Spike and said, ‘ yes, he is’ and handed Spike the receiver.
“What?” Spike snapped
“Spike…please come home, I’ll tell you everything” Buffy said miserably
“Yes well, it’s not before time, either” Spike still snapped at her practically throwing the receiver down.
Giles wandered out from putting the kettle on to see Spike disappear under a swirl of blanket out of the back door, he closed his eyes, rubbed the back of his neck and sighed
“Oh dear lord…”
******************************
“Well…I’m waiting!” Spike sat at the dining table as Buffy paced around, wringing her hands
“Spike PLEASE – this isn’t easy…it’s a prophecy”
“Oh, I see, one of those, is it? And?”
“It’s to do with the Sanshu”
Spike looked at his wife steadily.
“Angel said, well, you see, the thing is…um, it’s something that Wesley found, and if it’s true, there could be trouble”
“Trouble? – What kind of trouble – and what does this have to do with you? – The Sanshu is for an ensouled vampire, nothing to do with slayers”
Buffy sat sideways on a chair opposite Spike.
“The thing is…this prophecy………one of you gets to Sanshu, the other, well…they just cease to exist – poof, cloud of dust”
“I see, well, we’ll just have to make sure it’s me that wins and not go ‘poof’, won’t we”
“SPIKE!”
“What – what are you saying you want Angel to Sanshu and ME to go poof? – Can be arranged, in fact, if that’s what you want, (leaning with his hands on the table, Spike made to stand up) I’ll save you the wait and the bother, why don’t I just walk out there now, into the bright warm – OW! Bloody hell!”
Spike held his now stinging cheek.
Buffy said through tears,
“That’s NOT what I want as you very well know it!”
Spike sat down again looking at his hands
“Well pet, what DO you want? It’s you that said it was one or the other of us, not me”
“Part of the prophecy is missing…it needs to be found. Angel came here actually to warn me”
“WARN you? About what?”
“The senior partners at Wolfram and Hart already know about the missing piece and are looking for it - he told me that they might try and use some legal-ese to make it so HE won the Sanshu, whether it was his to win or not…”
Spike’s brows shot up
“You mean to tell me, that Peaches wants this as a fair fight?”
“Well he came here and told me about it, didn’t he?”
Spike looked incredulous
“Bollocks! There’s something else behind his motive, you mark my words”
“You don’t trust him then?”
“About as far as I can throw the great poof………”
*************************
“……………But that’s just it Giles, in spite of what Angel told me, Spike doesn’t trust him!”
“Well, I can understand that Buffy, there has been if you’ll pardon the pun, bad blood between him and Angel for nigh on a century or more now”
Buffy picked miserably at the threads at the knee of her jeans
“I know…what if…” Buffy’s voice left her and a lump stuck in her throat
Giles looked at her
“You mean what if it IS Angel’s prophecy to Sanshu and not Spike’s?” Buffy just nodded, tears dripping down her face
“We’ll just have to find our way around it – make it so neither of them has to cease to exist. But don’t ask me how, because I don’t know – yet”
Buffy sniffed and wiped her eyes, not convinced.
*********************************
“Spike? – I’m surprised to say the least!”
“Yeah well, don’t get your knickers in a bunch just yet Peaches, all I wanted to say was, tell your bunch of cronies not to work too hard on this Sanshu thing trying to get it to be you, coz I’ve read it before see, and it says, the one that’ll Sanshu, has a son. That’s me, I’M the one with a son – so no hard feelings mate, but there you have it”
“Spike”
“Sorry and all that, but well…”
“Spike”
“That’s the way the cookie - ”
“SPIKE”
“Ow, fuck me…gone bleedin’ deaf now, WHAT?!”
“Sorry to burst your bubble…but *I* have a son too”
“You? – Yeah right!”
“Sorry Spike, but I do”
“Yeah, yeah, pull the other one, it’s got bells and Santa on it! Look mate, I’m sorry n’all that, but – “
“His name is Connor”
“Connor? What, is this some sprog you dropped when you were both underage and living in the old country before you were turned, because by son, I don’t think they mean a pile of dusty bones somewhere in a family grave, they mean a real, live walking talking child” Spike said gleefully
“Spike, Connor is alive…he was –“
“Bollocks – who’d be dumb enough to want to share rude bits with you, let alone get preggers?!”
“Actually, it was Darla”
“Darla?” Spike broke out into uncontrollable giggles…………………
**************************************
Spike slapped the Watchers diary closed and said to Wesley,
“Okay, so if I DO believe you and granddad DOES have a legit son – how is this Sanshu thing going to be resolved?”
“That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question – we just don’t know yet. You said you read this prophecy Spike, where and when did you read it?”
“How the bleedin’ hell should………I don’t know, it was years and years ago, way back when I was with Dru- mean to say, hardly likely to be interested back then, was I?”
“Why not”
“Well for the simple reason is, when I read it, I didn’t have my soul for one, two, I didn’t have Billy, and never thought in the reign of pig’s puddin’ would I ever procreate given my circumstances – and even though I knew Peaches had his soul, he was in the same predicament as me as regards having a sprog – I thought this Sanshu thing was just another camp-fire legend”
“When you read it, can you remember what it was written on?”
“No”
“Please Spike, try and think, it’s important”
Spike frowned………bleedin’ ‘ell…………
“It’s vital that you remember Spike, it could mean the difference between living and…well, you know the consequences”
“Well, shurrup then – gi’us a chance to bleedin’ well think will ya!” Spike screwed his face up…………
Wesley left him in peace to think. Spike pictured himself unrolling a scroll – that was it, it was a scroll – moth-eaten old thing it was too, dirty big holes in it in parts, and it was written in ancient Sumerian, of which Spike knew a smattering……in his minds eye he could picture Dru swanning around ‘dancing’ with one of her dolls…she was saying something…*Come on Spikey …think, THINK* what was she saying……a present – a present – that’s it - A PRESENT it was something to do with the First – they were going to a party and the First was going to be there, and Dru was whittering on about what should they take him as a present, and Spike let the scroll roll up and he said to her, ‘Well if you can get in the family way by him lets give him this, it tells of a way to become human via something called a Sanshu or something’ Dru stopped dancing and gave him a ‘look’ and Spike just threw the thing inside the chest that was by the fire. He also remembered that Dru had taken to putting cushions or dolls up her dresses and ‘giving birth’ for the next few weeks, and wanting to eat babies for a while – it sickened Spike even back then, he couldn’t abide eating babies or kids, anybody under 14 it just sickened him……Darla, Dru and Angelus used to delight in tormenting him with the little corpses when they ‘went through’ a maternity hospital or orphanage – personally he wouldn’t join in, his demon wanted to revel in it like the others – maybe it was a residual of humanity that he wouldn’t allow himself to indulge…………………
Spike got up from the chair and opened the door that lead to the shop. Giles was talking to Wesley
“Had time to think?” Wes asked
“Yeah……it got burned”
“Burned, are you sure?”
“Course I’m bleedin’ sure – it was in a box that was next to the fire, anything it is we used to burn. I remember Dru once hanged me for three days just coz I threw one of her stupid bleedin’ dolls on the fire – it had got a broken face for fuck’s sake – but no, I’d ‘killed’ Miss Evangeline and was to be punished”
“I see – so the translation in the Ars Demonicus is all we have then Giles”
“Seems like it”
“So what happens now – when is this thing s’pose to happen?” Spike asked
“All Souls Day, or H’-“
“Hallowe’en” Spike interrupted. Then quickly doing a rough mental calculation he continued,
“That’s the end of next month – so I’ve got just over four weeks to find a way of getting rid of Angel then”
“It isn’t a matter of you ‘getting rid’ as you put it Spike, there will be a test – a quest of some sort, and the one that triumphs… - well you know the rest” Giles stated.
“So where does my Mrs come in all this? – Why is she needed when it’s between me and the Poof?”
“Ah, you see we need to consult the Oracles – The Powers that Be, no mere mortal can look upon them, they will decide everything – the Quest, who lives and who dies…………”
“Why can’t *I* go myself?”
“Self interest, not allowed, you might gain unfair advantage if say, one of the goddesses favoured you” Giles said. Spike grinned
“So all I’d have to do is turn on the old charm, and-“
“Hold your horses there Spike, it COULD go the other way too, one of them might instantly dislike you and – POOF the rest is history”
The smile left his face, and then looking at both men he said,
“But why my Buffy – couldn’t they say that there’s a conflict of interest there too, I mean, she’s bound to want me to win over the P- um Angel, I’m her husband after all, we have a child together”
“Yes, we thought about that spike, but she was once in love with Angel too”
“WAS – PAST TENSE MATE!” Spike said angrily……………………………………………
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