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Author's Chapter Notes:
New beta chapter by Sharon/Havena! Many thanks to her! (Only a very small edit)
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William was hurting; his side felt as if the constant reference to spikes this morning was actually referring to the pain. His side felt as if spikes were being drilled into his flesh. He wasn’t sure how he got the injury but it was another reason that tested his already trying patience. Miss Summers had to be mad, it must explain why she wore men’s clothing, acted like one and spoke in a completely ridiculous manner. It would also explain why for some reason she thought it was the year 2003. At first he was completely taken by her looks and mannerism, and even perhaps thought it was quaint when she called him by his Christian name, but after spending time with her it was obvious something was terribly wrong with this woman.

He held respect for women, probably more so than most of his peers, he knew he was a romantic, but he also respected the rules and thoughts of society. She was indecent, she was not someone with whom he should have continued acquaintance. But she also needed help, in more ways than one; he noted the blood on her blouse and felt a certain pull. She was injured and she had come to rescue him. Mad or not, she held enough compassion and selflessness to help him and he knew he was being inconsiderate.

His eyes were boring into Miss Summers, she was crazy but she looked serious in her claims. He knew he was rude looking at her like this but he just couldn’t comprehend how this could have happened, to her, to this town, to him. The world was going mad and that was perhaps the reason for Miss Summers’ lapse.

The odd sound, loud in its approach, was the only thing that could have pulled him from Miss Summers’ infuriatingly stern gaze. The source of the sound abruptly stopped close to them and he turned. What he saw he couldn’t comprehend. He opened his mouth to speak but abruptly closed it and tried again, with little success. A metal carriage, with no horses in sight, had just appeared out of nowhere, like magic. Breathing deeply he tried to calm himself. When he was unsuccessful he began to hyperventilate. He barely noticed when Miss Summers came closer to him and put her hand on his arm. At this point he didn’t care.

“It’s a car Sp-Mr. Pratt, a horseless carriage, nothing to be panicky about. It can’t hurt you.” Her slow words again drew out his anger before he was overcome with more than one emotion.

His panic had been jumped started when he first saw Miss Summers after he had been worried about going into shock. It was odd that she could make him feel so strongly, but sure enough, her words were causing a storm in his heart yet again, but not in an encouraging manner. He turned away from the…car…as Miss Summers called it and walked back to the rim of the crater, peering down into its depths. He was trying to come to terms with what exactly was going on and failing badly.

He heard what sounded like a door being opened and closed but chose to ignore it a moment longer. It was obvious someone had been in that horseless carriage and had just gotten out. He dimly heard the conversation behind him.

“Giles!” Miss Summers called to the new comer.

“I see everything went well with the rescue then?” The new comer had a British accent and it was obvious that the new person was male, perhaps a bit older. The fact that there was something familiar here in this strange world calmed him. When he heard Miss Summers hurried whispers to this Mr. Giles his fear, panic, and confusion returned full force. He decided to turn and introduce himself as it was proper, even if he was at his wits end.

“What!?” Mr. Giles shocked exclamation caused William to miss a step. Luckily he didn’t trip and continued on his way. He noticed Miss Summers looking at Mr. Giles in an imploring manner and again didn’t know what to make of it.

Both of them were ignoring William, even in his approach. He saw the older man look utterly bewildered at whatever Miss Summers had whispered to him. Perhaps she just told him it was 2003 as well? But that didn’t explain the horseless carriage. Or the fact he saw more of those cars in the crater, or the colored photographs, or even the fact that the Mr. Giles was also in a fashion he had never seen before.

In a few short strides he was in front of Mr. Giles (if that was his proper name) and Miss Summers (it was highly unlikely she was married). The two turned to him, the older man eyes went wide when he looked at William. He was taken aback by the same look on Mr. Giles face that Miss Summers gave him when she thought he was someone else. He waited for Miss Summers to introduce him, trying desperately to hold onto proper decorum, especially when he wasn’t able to with Miss Summers. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long.

“Giles, this is William Pratt…of London. Will-Mr. Pratt, this is Giles, ah, Rupert Giles.” Miss Summers didn’t seem quite comfortable with the introduction.

William held out his hand, “It’s…It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Giles.” William could feel himself color; his voice had cracked at the last moment.

Mr. Giles took his hand, “The pleasures all mine.” William noticed that while Mr. Giles voice was soft, the man was stiff and reluctant. The glint in the older man’s eye wasn’t hard to miss; something about William was offensive to the other man. Ignoring this, after shaking Mr. Giles hand he let go, took another step back and tried his best to smile, though his smile was short and very weak.

“I take it that you must have had quite the ordeal this morning.” Mr. Giles seemed pleasant enough.

“Yes, q-quite. I would be very grateful to get back to normal society as soon as possible.” William surprised himself with maintaining a somewhat coherent sentence.

“Giles, where’s the school bus? Whose car is this?” Miss Summers’ voice was tired, but she was obviously trying to distract them from the upcoming discussion. Curious, William just listened to the conversation.

“I rented this one. Once we got to town I didn’t think it would be very discreet to drive the bus back here.”

“Where’s the bus now?” Miss Summers stared at the black horseless carriage as if it was up for auction.

“Faith volunteered to find a place for it.” When Miss Summers looked at Mr. Giles with raised eyebrows, Mr. Giles quickly added, “Please don’t ask.”

“At least that’s one less thing to worry about, have you heard anything about this morning on the news?”

“Yes, indeed I did. Which reminds me we should be going, I believe we will be having company very soon.”

William was completely at a loss about their conversation and the more he heard the more he felt out of place. Before he could ask any questions to Mr. Giles, the older man stepped toward him.

“I know this must seem very surreal, but I must make this clear. Buffy has informed me that you think the year is 1880, and I assure you that this is not 1880 but 2003. The car in front of us is a carriage of sorts that can transport us to the nearest town fairly quickly. Please stay close to us as much as possible once there.”

William’s heart was pounding in his chest, was Mr. Giles also mad? He seemed like a proper man, besides his funny attire. How could this be true? “Where…where am I?”

“In America, within the state of California.” Mr. Giles voice was calm, low and compassionate, making it harder to disbelieve him.

That would explain Miss Summers accent and the unknown land masses. Perhaps that explained everything else? America, he heard, was an odd place. If he could just get to England, everything could possibly return to normal. But that wouldn’t explain how he got here in the first place. If he was indeed in California, he must have been in a coma for many months while he was transported here. No, that still wasn’t right. He was in the same clothes from the night before, at least the last night he could remember. The clothes still appeared and felt fresh; he didn’t feel at all like he just woke from a coma. He was lost in thought, staring off into nothingness, when Miss Summers came up to him.

“Hey, let’s get going. We can talk more on the way to town.”

William nodded slowly, not trusting his voice. He allowed her to lead him into the car, trying very hard not to concentrate on the horseless carriage, how it could move, or how safe it was to ride in such a device. When it begun to move William closed his eyes and kept his head down. He was hungry but he couldn’t think of food, the fast motion and his injury were causing him to feel sick. William decided it was best to over look the need for a bath or a tailor and find a doctor right away. He wondered if he would survive the answers to the rest of his questions on just how and why he was half way around the world and possibly 120 years in the future.

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Buffy sat next to William in the back seat and looked at him tenderly. The first few minutes in the car had been silent, but she could feel how uncomfortable William was with this whole ordeal. The fact she was staring at Spike’s core wasn’t lost on her. She knew he was her responsibility the moment she realized he was human with no memories of being a vampire. Spike had died for her, got a soul for her, and loved her. There wasn’t any way she could turn her back on William, no matter what anyone might say. Now she had to tell William the reason why he was here. She wished she could just skip this part, but the fact is the more she delayed the worse it would be. Spike taught her that. Hesitantly she touched his shoulder. He jumped at her touch and looked at her as if he was lost.

“Mr. Pratt, I suppose you want to know the reason you’re here, right?”

William swallowed, “You have knowledge on my predicament?”

“Er, you could say that. I’m not sure about the whys or hows, but I have a general idea.”

He sighed, “Any information you have would be…appreciative.” For a moment Buffy thought he wouldn’t believe her. Maybe he really did think she was insane, but she couldn’t blame him for that.

“You’re 120 years in the future, what do you think could cause that?”

William closed his eyes as Giles hit a bump in the road. He twitched and then opened his eyes again. “I could hardly explain something so preposterous.” William sighed again, he looked so very ill. “But if I ignore all proper sense, then I think only magic could have brought me here.”

“Magic, right, that actually makes sense. I’ll ask…never mind.” Buffy shifted in her seat. “The woman who, um, ‘accosted’ you, she was about your height right? With dark hair, a bit curly on the ends and sharp features? Sounded a bit insane?”

William’s eyes went wide, “Yes, are you an acquaintance of hers?”

“You could say that.” Buffy was ruefully in her acknowledgment. Drusilla and Buffy weren’t on friendly terms, but it was obvious William thought so.

“Would she perhaps have anything to do with why I am here?”

“Yeah, she played a part in it all right. You told me the last thing you remember was her biting your neck, right?”

“Yes, that was what she did.”

Buffy wanted to ask why William would let a strange woman bite his neck, but that was a discussion for later. Buffy frowned, knowing she was going in for the kill. “What bites people on their neck and would probably still be around 120 years in the future?”

Buffy hoped vampire lore was strong enough to be common knowledge in Victorian times. She sat waiting for her words to sink in and could see his mind processing the information. Every second his face looked more upset and disbelieving. “A-a-a Vampire?”

“Yup, the immortal pain in the neck menaces, and I mean that literally.”

“Bloody…” William closed his eyes again and began to breathe deeply. Buffy waited for him to calm down. She was surprised when Giles spoke up for the first time since getting in the car.

“Whatever you were told about vampires in the past, I suggest you discard it. Vampires are very real and one of the reasons that the town you woke up in was a crater.”

“H-How do you know this?” William’s voice was dry.

“I slay them. That’s my job.” Buffy’s voice was soft and low, somehow saying that it was her job to kill vampires was so far the hardest thing she had to tell William.

“This is lunacy. Do you seriously expect me to believe a vampire took me into the future?” William’s anger was apparent in his voice.

“No, a vampire didn’t take you into the future; you were a vampire until this morning.” Buffy looked at William and she knew he could see the sadness in her eyes. She frowned as she saw him working out the memories of Drusilla siring him. He squeezed his eyes shut and suddenly brought his head to his knees.

“I do believe I am going to be sick.”

“Giles, pull over!”

Giles didn’t hesitate to pull the car over. As soon as the car was stopped William frantically worked the door open and fell to the ground on his knees. Buffy got out of the car and swiftly went to William; she knelt beside him and rubbed his back. Nothing came out of him besides clear fluid, neither of them had anything to eat all day. Buffy felt Giles standing behind them and hoped he would know what to say.

“I-I don’t believe you.” William’s ragged voice was barely audible.

“You told me once about your mother, her name was Anne, she was sick. She used to sing the song ‘Early One Morning’ to you when you were a baby.” Buffy added hopefully.

William looked at Buffy; she could tell he still didn’t believe her, but perhaps something was getting to him.

Giles spoke up, his voice tingled with impatience. “You were named William the Bloody, and then Spike, after you were turned. You were like any other vampire until a few years ago, and this morning your Vampire self just saved the world. I dare say if someone told me all this I wouldn’t believe it either, but until you can provide another reasonable explanation to why you are here I suggest you accept what we are saying as truth.”

William looked at Giles in devastation. Buffy could tell that this man had just lost everything in accepting that they may be telling the truth. This was Spike, before he was Spike; he was just a man that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the moment her heart couldn’t tell the difference between William and Spike. She touched his face, forcing him to look at her.

“Hey, it’ll be OK. You’re with us and we take care of our family.”

Somehow Buffy knew the moment the words left her mouth that something came alive in William’s eyes. Oddly the words lit something in Buffy too, because ever since she had come back from the dead she didn’t feel that her friends were her family. And now, this might be a new beginning for all of them.

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TBC...





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