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Buffy couldn’t say a word as Spike sauntered into the room, casually ashing his cigarette on a near by pile of books.



He prodded Gile’s prone body with the tip of his boot and quirked an eyebrow. “Can’t say as my good looks and charm have ever had an effect like this on a male watcher before. Don’t rightly know whether I’m flattered or disturbed.”



Buffy rolled her eyes and got her voice back, his cocky attitude making her retort, “Get over yourself, Spike, you just surprised him with your whole jumping out of the shadows bit.”



Spike smirked. “A watcher who collapses whenever things jump out of the shadows... sounds damn useful to me pet.”



Buffy couldn’t think of anything to say to this other then “Shut up Spike”, which seemed to have no effect whatsoever, as he carried on talking.



“Thought I’d stop by, have a bit of a chit chat with you and sleeping beauty here, tell you what’s what with Dru and that, but seems I’ll have to wait for naptime to be over” He licked his lips, “Is it time for you to have a lie down too pet? I could show you what other effects I have on people.”



Buffy blushed all the way to her bleached roots but managed to sound disgusted as she replied, “Is one of them projectile vomiting?”



Spike chuckled. “That’s a bit of an improved comeback kitten. Once you get to know me better I’m sure the claws will really come out.”



As Spike was talking he had reached over Giles, plucking his glasses from his face before proceeding to slide them up his own nose. “Bloody hell! The poor buggers blind!” Spike looked at Giles thoughtfully. “Must be why he dresses the way he does.”



The sight of Spike in Giles’s glasses made it very difficult for Buffy to maintain her composure, she managed to only by reminding herself of the distasteful comments and generally lecherous and not-at-all-sexy attitude Spike directed towards her. She was very determined that she wouldn’t like him, despite the empathy she felt over his pretty horrible life story, his current white knight gig and his (damn spectacular) looks. She was still really annoyed that she’d needed him to come to her rescue. Her friends coming to her aid was one thing, a non-human complete stranger who-thought-he-was-all-that was something else.



Buffy suddenly remembered what Spike had said when he’d made his overly dramatic entrance.

“Whose peaches?”





Spike gave her a withering look over the top of his stolen specs. “Peaches, Captain forehead, Tall dark and brooding, Mr blank and boring... he goes by many names but his expression remains the same.”





“You mean Angel?!” Buffy squealed in outrage.





“I think my terms of endearment are more accurate, angelic face my arse, but hey, call him want you want.”





Buffy was mad. She and Angel might not be in the place she wanted, and Spike’s arrival might have thrown her emotions into a tizzy, but she had a connection with Angel and she didn’t want to hear him insulted. “You’re an ass”.





“Thank you.”





“That wasn’t meant to be a compliment.”





Spike sighed. “The subtleties of sarcasm really are lost on you Americans aren’t they? And I take back what I said about the retorts becoming more witty.”





Buffy chose to ignore this, though the temptation to hit Spike squarely in the nose was getting stronger by the second. “So you do know Angel then?”





“For my sins.” Spike didn’t seem overly interested in elaborating, but was paying more attention to Giles, who had started to stir. Spike took the glasses off and put them on the table while he helped Giles to a seat.





“Thank yo-“ Even with blurred sight Giles saw who was helping him and went into shock again, though this time he managed to stay conscious, and scrabbled to put his glasses on.





Spike pretended not to notice the effect he was having, and sprawled in a chair between Buffy and Giles, propping his feet up on the table and lighting up another cigarette.





“William the Bloody” Giles said in an awed whisper.





“Call me Spike mate, it’s a tad less formal, reads better on a greeting card.”





Buffy smirked. “Yeah, Spike sounds a lot less stupid.”





Spike tilted his head to one side and his lip twitched. “Do you really want to start a discussion on stupid names Buffy?”





Buffy was prevented from retorting by Giles starting to speak in a reverent tone, “You have no idea, what a... what an honour it is to to meet you...Spike”





Spike looked intently at Giles, “For once Rupes the feelings mutual. From what I’ve seen”, he tapped the side of his head, “you’re a lot more then a normal watcher.”



Giles seemed ridiculously flattered, he glowed bright red and started polishing his glasses with a gleeful air. “You’ve had... had visions about me?”





Spike still seemed thoughtful. “Yeah, which is pretty much a first. Anything I have seen about other watchers lives has been bloody dull, toasting crumpets, doin puzzles, almost gettin laid, that kinda thing. But you, you're something else. You’re led a very interesting life... Ripper.”



At the mention of his old nickname, a reminder of his dangerous, rebellious past, Giles didn’t look abashed. On the contrary, he seemed really pleased that Spike was obviously impressed with him. Giles was looking at him the way Buffy looked at a pair of designer shoes on sale, almost adoration. His hero worship for Spike was much greater then Buffy had realised.





“I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you have decided to appear to Buffy. I really hope she proves to be a slayer worthy of your aid, the slayer I know she can be.”



“Hey! I’m more then worthy, I’m the worthiest.” Buffy was glaring. Spike was making Giles doubt her abilities. Now she really didn’t like him. “I thought you’d come here to give us information, not suck up to my watcher.”





“Buffy!”





“It’s ok Rupes, she’s right. As much as I’d like to reminisce about the home land over a nice scotch... by the by, you don’t happen to have any here do you?”





“Yeah Spike, Giles stores hard liquor in the library of a high school, that’s likely” Buffy turned to share a smile with Giles, but he had run off to his office, only to return, to Buffy’s mortification, with a large bottle of scotch and two glasses.





Spike grinned, “Did you say something pet?”



“Uh, no.”





Spike waited until Giles had poured him a very generous glass before he decided to put Buffy out of her misery and actually get to the point. He left behind the Buffy aimed innuendos now that Giles was conscious and became almost professional.





“As Rupes already did a bloody good job of telling the edited version of my life story we’ll skip the touchy feely getting to know you crap and get right to how I can help.”





Giles was nodding like an over enthusiastic jack in the box and it was making Buffy nauseous. Something came to her then which really hadn’t occurred to her before. It had the potential to put Spike in a bad light with Giles so she didn’t hesitate before speaking up. “Hang on a second Spike, if you’re supposed to be this amazing ‘saver of slayers’-“



“Saviour”





“Whatever. So yeah, if going around saving slayer’s lives is your thing, and you’ve decided to come out of retirement or whatever to help me out, not that I need your help, where the hell were you when the master was like, well, killing me and stuff?”





Spike leaned across the table so he was intimate inches from Buffy. When he spoke she felt his cool breath on her skin, and she once again found herself wondering how there could be eyes so impossibly blue. “If you’d shut that pretty little mouth of yours for two minutes and let me talk luv, I’ll explain all that.”





With a strength of will Buffy pulled herself away from his intense stare and flopped back into her chair, crossing her arms to show she wasn’t best pleased by his lack of respect for the slayer as she muttered ungraciously, “Fine, the spotlights yours.”





Spike did a mock bow. Giles had his head propped up on his hand, like a child about to hear a really exciting story. Spike began.





“You know the basics of my life, or unlife or whatever you want to call it, up until the late 1970’s. I know you’ve probably got a shed load more questions about all of that but now’s not the time for them. I’m not gonna go into much detail over why I... went away, or what happened after so don’t bloody well ask, but I’ll tell you what you need to know.”





Buffy grew interested despite herself and sat up a little

straighter.





“Nicky Wood was the last slayer I helped. She and I... we were... you could say we were friends. When she... when she died, it wasn’t like it had been with all the other slayers. There wasn’t a sudden blankness in my vision, the lack of sight that comes when a slayers time is up and I can’t do a damn thing about it. I saw. I knew what was going to happen. I tried to stop it, and I failed. She died. And it was my fault.” Spike paused and took a deep breath; he clearly wanted to get through this part of the story as quickly as possible. Buffy felt her heart wrench. “After that... it took a long time to recover from that. I blocked my sight, made it so I couldn’t see the slayers. I couldn’t see them anymore. I didn’t ever want to have a slayers blood on my hands again. I vanished.”





“What made you reappear?” Giles had adopted a hushed tone, as though unwilling to break the spell Spike had started to weave with his story.





Spike inclined his head. “Buffy. Buffy made me come back.”





Buffy’s mouth fell open. “Me? What did I do?”





Spike gave her another one of his soul penetrating stares. “You lived.”



“I had visions about you, even though I was trying to block them. I didn’t know at the time, but the nancying powers that sodding be wanted me to see you. I saw you right from your early fun and games, by the by, burning down that school, I liked that. Real school spirit that was.” Spike stopped smiling abruptly. “Then last year I saw the blackness coming, the nothingness. That should have been it for visions of you, but then I saw how you would die, at the hands of the master. And then, straight after, I saw you come back, thanks to your friend. Never seen any bloody thing like it. A slayer with friends, let alone friends who would risk their lives for her, took a bit of getting used to. Then I saw what was coming, and I couldn’t stay in the shadows anymore. I’d already decided to come here before the powers paid me a visit.”





Giles choked on a mouthful of scotch but Buffy was too lost in what she was hearing to be grossed out by the spray of dribble. Giles didn’t seem to notice Spike over dramatically wiping his face. “You’re... you’re in contact with th-the powers that be?”





Spike helped himself to another drink and lit up yet again before he nodded. “Unfortunately. Bloody wankers like to check in every now and again, make sure I’m playing nice with the other children.” He smirked. “They can’t control me in the way they’d like – believe me they’ve tried- but they like to know what I’m up to, send me the odd vision or two outside of my own sight they think I should see. I ignore them more often than not, just for the fun of pissin ‘em off, but this time they got my attention.



The powers had already got the ponce- sorry, Angel- on the scene, but then Drusilla threw her last sandwich out of the hamper and messed up their careful little order of things. She wasn’t supposed up show up in Sunnyhell til later, don’t ask me when cos I don’t have a sodding clue, but turning up earlier meant that you might die, and the powers couldn’t have that. They seem to have some sort of plan for you pet, but I wouldn’t get all whooptie whoop about it, their plans are usually right questionable.



Anyway, that’s why I turned up when I did. Drusilla tried to outsmart me, but I saw what was going down just in the nic of time, your welcome by the way luv. I’ve seen a fair bit of what’s to come, and there’s not actually a great deal I can do about it, much as I’d bloody well like to.” Spike looked a little troubled.





Giles spoke up before Buffy was able to, “Can you tell us what’s to come? So we can prepare?”





Spike looked directly at Giles, and there was definitely sadness in his gaze. “Wish I could mate, really wish I could. It doesn’t work like that though. If I can prevent what I see coming in any way then I can intervene. In this case the wheels of what’s to come have already been set in motion, they’ve actually been spinning for a long time. I can’t change it, and if I tell you then you’ll try to change it, which I can guarantee would make things worse. Though you might not believe me on that when alls said and done.

I’d probably tell you more than I’m going to anyway but the wankers that be put a limit on what I can say. Bloody tricky bit of mojo they used, everything they’ve tried on me before hasn’t worked, but they really don’ want me ‘buggerin up their plans’, so they’ve pulled out the big guns this time. ”





Giles looked at Buffy in concern. “Will Buffy be harmed in what’s to come?”





Buffy saw Spike hesitate ever so slightly before he shook his head, but Giles didn't, and let out a relieved sigh patting her hand warmly across the table.



Buffy narrowed her eyes at him. “Will Giles be harmed? Or my friends?”





Spike phrased his response too carefully for Buffy’s liking. “If things go like I’ve seen ‘em, then the red head, the whelpish lookin boy, that miss-i-am girl-“





“Willow, Xander and Cordellia?”





“Yeah them, an-and Giles, and your mum, they’ll be... ok. None of the people you love will be physically hurt.”





Buffy was reassured, especially by the mention of her mom, completely missing the fact that Spike had stuttered, and mentioned only the people she loved, and not vampires she had feelings for, or people she only cared about, not getting hurt, and while her loved ones physical health was somewhat assured their mental health had not been.



Spike was fighting an internal battle with himself over his honest, but in his eyes, not honest enough promise, but there was nothing he could do.





“Is it Drusilla?” Buffy asked.





Spike gave a non committal nod. “She’s got somethin’ up her sleeve, a few things actually. Well, she’s got more things up her sleeve then coherent thoughts in her head.” Spike’s lips twitched a bit as he added, “So she’s got about three things up her sleeve. I can’t tell you want they are, but I can give you hints.”





Giles made Spike wait whilst he got together some paper and a pen. Buffy smiled fondly at her ever organised watcher.





“Firstly, and most obviously, be bloody careful. She’s not only a daft bint but a sneaky one. I’ve got to be a bit vague with what I say, I can’t give you too much of an idea of things, times and so on, so what I say will be a bit mixed up, not in the right order, an probably won’t make much sense now.”





Spike thought for a moment. “It might be easier if I write it down m’self. I might be able to get away with sayin more if I write it, but I don’t know.”



Giles pushed the paper across to Spike, who spent the next fifteen minutes writing, cursing and apparently crossing out a lot.



When he was done he folded the paper in half. Giles held his hand out for it, but Spike didn’t give it to him. “I’m not going to be around while this plays out, there’s no part in it for me.”





Giles looked about to protest, and even Buffy wanted to argue, but Spike cut them both off. “I’ll be back, I can promise you that much. And I won’t be goin far, so if things change by other means i’ll be able to step in. But I don’t think they will.”





Spike gave them a small smile as he got gracefully to his feet. Giles immediately jumped up as well and Buffy, not wanting to appear even shorter then she already was, quickly followed their example.





Spike turned to Giles. “It was real good to meet you Rupes, an for once I’m bein sincere. Your doin a good job with her. When I get back we’ll have a proper chat about... things. I don’ usually make it a habit, befriendin’ watchers. As a matter of fact I’ve never made a friend of one, boring gits the lot of them, no offence, but I reckon you might be the exception”.



Giles had an earsplitting grin on his face, and shook Spikes had so vigorously Buffy feared it might come off (before she noticed the very interesting way Spikes biceps were flexing, and then she could have cared less if Giles kept it up all night)





Once Spike had finally managed to get his hand back he turned to Buffy.





“Look after yourself slayer. I know it’ll go against the grain but try and do what I say-“ he waved the folded paper. “I can only help you a bit, this is pretty much all on you. Things might get rough, but you’ll be ok. In the end you’ll be ok”.

He stroked Buffy’s fingers ever so slightly and she was pretty sure, despite Spike being an ass some times, that he was an ally she was very, very glad to have.



Spike handed her the folded paper and turned to leave, stopping by the door. “By the way, don’t mention my being here to peaches. He caught my scent at the school the other night, but he’s not sure he’s right, and he’s not supposed to know he is. Plus, it really wouldn’t go down all that well.”





Buffy remembered the first question she had asked Spike when he turned up at the library that night, she also remembered she’d never gotten an answer, so she asked again.





“How do you know Angel Spike?”





Spike flashed a grin so sexy Buffy was sure even Giles’ knees buckled a bit. “That, sweet slayer, is a story for another time. A time when there’s a hot chocolate with the itty bitty marshmellows available.” Spike chuckled and sauntered out into the darkness of the hallway. A second later he was gone.



Buffy and Giles didn’t say a word as she unfolded the list.

The first half of the page was illegible scribbles. There was also a crude, but recognisable drawing of an extremely large foreheaded vampire, wearing a brooding expression, with a speech bubble coming out of its mouth which said ‘Wouldn’t you be miserable if you had my hair?’ Buffy ignored that, as well as Giles’ very audible snicker.



Underneath it, in a surprisingly elegant, flowing script Spike had written ‘Bloody hell, can’t even write what I want to now. Wankers!’ (Wankers had been heavily underlined) ‘Had to be a bit cryptic, and I sodding well hate that, but it’ll help. I think’





‘1. Organs make surprisingly effective weapons.



2. Organised people back up computer files. Look in places you wouldn’t expect.



3. What’s unleashed can be contained again, use the witch.



4. Don’t forget lessons learned at Halloween (the whelp might actually prove useful here)



5. Things spoken in the harsh light of day aren’t always true, trust in the words of the night.



6. A chain which is broken, even for a minute, must have a new link made.



7. Blood is everything.



8. No matter how dark the night becomes, dawn will always follow.



9. Right, I’ve had enough of tryin’ to be all lyrical, like a damn poet. I reckon I can be cryptic and not sound like a complete ponce.



10. While running away can be a good option, in this case (the case that hasn’t happened yet but will happen) it isn’t. Also, I’ve never much liked the name Anne.



11. Though it sounds pretty final, Hell isn’t always the end.



12. The man in the stupid hat is a pain in the arse but he knows what he’s talkin about.



13. Ghost’s really aren’t a myth. Ghosts= possessions. Possessions=not bloody good.



14. Tell your mum you’re the slayer. This doesn’t have to be cryptic cos it won’t affect the important stuff to come directly, but it will change what happens after. Tell her. Make sure you have a strong drink to hand (For her, NOT you) Visual aids might help. Or get Rupes to talk to her. Just make sure she’s calm. She might not be the most observant birdwatcher in the bush (no offense) but she’s your mum. If you have her to lean on it will make the future a lot easier to bare. She won’t put you back in the nut house. I’m 95% certain on that pet.



15. I won’t say good luck cos you make your own damn luck. Follow your blood, it won’t steer you wrong. (Unless you’ve been possessed by a ghost)



Spike.





Giles turned to Buffy with his eyebrows raised. He polished his glasses carefully and read the list again. His eyebrows were still raised. “What the bloody hell does that lot mean?”





Buffy shook her head. “I have no clue, but I’m pretty sure were gonna find out.”






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