Research Project: Buffy Summers'.

By James Carmody.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss, and until he decides to sell or give it away, him alone, I will not accept a single red cent for this! This is just for fun, my own and everybody else's who reads this.

Pairing(s): Elizabeth {Buffy} Summers/William Pratt {Spike}, various other pairings. (friendship pairings only)

Summary: Inspired by a challenge on Elysian Fields Spuffy Archive, this tale mystical education and Elizabeth Summers ascertaining how to use blessed objects in general and one in particular: Consecrated Hosts to fight against Preternatural Monsters, one of her instructors in this is William Pratt. Don't worry, this won't involve badness, but will have to do with what might be called "preternatural biology" for lack of a better term.

Author's Notes: Story is set in about season 10 of the comics, but is predominantly a 'research conversation story' dealing with mainly discussions on how to fight against enemies of a spiritual nature. Also draws pretty heavily upon Christian Theology, especially Catholic teaching- you write what you know, and I am most familiar with that particular faith's teachings. Please do read, review, and enjoy.

Suggested rating: Teen at highest, but high teen at that- clean, relatively gentle, but NOT for the faint of heart.

Chapter 1.): Primary Source Material...

Author's Notes Chapter 1 beginning: I sincerely hope you people enjoy this... Story deals with how an evil spirit is interfered with by use of blessed objects- the greatest of them all being a consecrated Host.

Giles here would have an interest in all matters of the mind, so he'd have an interest in obscure prophetic writings, including the famous Apocrypha books- one of which is the source of the idea that "relationships based on lust are doomed from the outset", based on something said be a non-human person in the Book of Tobit... a material he might well be familiar with.

One thing was bugging Elizabeth Summers massively... she had heard that an evil spirit would be harmed or interfered with somehow by the use of blessed objects in its presence. One thing in particular: Andrew had informed her that the First wasn't interfered with at all by the cross that he had stuck in its face when he had been tempted by it towards committing murder.

She still didn't truly trust Spike, but she did feel a weird kind of love for him whenever she ran across him. All in all, the whole contradictory info kept on rummaging around inside her brain, and it was bugging her to almost no end. Ordinarily she wouldn't be bugged by this, but something was off about this situation- massively off!

In retrospect, she realized, her relationship with William Pratt, better known as "Spike", during her early twenties, was one based solely on lust, not love in her part, so it was pre-doomed to failure. "Huh! If Giles were around, he'd likely cite an apocryphal passage describing how 'relationships founded in lust are very easy for a demon to enter'; what if I'm the demon?" That frightened her, immensely., she really didn't want to be such a being, that would be far too upsetting for her right now.

Not being able to make head or tails of the data rummaging around in her noggin, she tried to dial Willow's cell-phone number, but mistakenly dialed Spike's! Her first thought when she heard the person on the other end was "Wow! Did Willow get an accidental sex-change?", then she recognized who she was talking to: Spike! However, Buffy decided to go along with it and ask her question that had been bugging her all week: "How do blessings work on demons, and why they work for some people and not for others, if the material is the same with both?"

"My cell-phone's running low on energy, meet me at the cafe in two hours, the one in the middle of San Francisco Park, you know the one?" Spike told her.

"Gotcha, two hours, one of the cafes in the middle of the park." Buffy replied "Guy must have forgot to recharge again." she thought before hanging up and writing a note to her housemates as to where she was going to be.

William Pratt had been 'around the block' as one of the undead enough times to know how to avoid direct sunlight in just about any situation, so he wasn't really threatened by the situation he was faced by: a meeting in broad daylight, but he was rather puzzled by Buffy's interest in "Slayer Academics", last he recalled of her, she was far more the physical type of gal than the intellectual, then again, he never would have pegged Willow for being interested in sexual activity either... wow can people surprise you! For a moment, he considered if Willow may have messed herself up with magic worse than he had initially calculated!

"That redhead would do that." he muttered to himself as he drank his whiskey a bit as he waited. What he was referring to was Willow's rather intense love of her friends, and how it could lead her to make some incredibly stupid decisions "Such as kidnapping Buffy from Heaven" Spike thought to himself. That was about the dumbest thing that redhead had done yet in her life, but lead to stupider decisions, ones he himself had enjoyed- being a psychopath himself- he had loved the infighting that had resulted when Willow had cast a memory spell on her lover and thereby raped the poor blonde witch, and lover, albeit he didn't have anything against Victoria {Tara} Maclay. She was just convenient as a means of causing suffering via a fight- it had been the fight that he had loved, not that he hated the girls who had fought!

The contradiction that had saved his soul was that he had loved the blonde warrior-woman who he had sworn to kill, and that had lead to him turning into a good man in the end of his life, then something else had seen fit to resurrect him., and William wanted to repay that being in kind for the favor of returning him to the work-world, as he had come to see the Earth again!

He had arrived about an hour and three-quarters before his meeting, or the girl he had wanted to meet, so he had plenty of time to sit and reminisce about his life- and "how we got here", wherever here is.

A major reason why William was so eager to meet with Elizabeth was that he cared about her, and would for as long as he could... she does have this gift for making people fall in love with her, he knew this first-hand, and would protect her with his life.

When Elizabeth showed up, she was wearing pale summery cloths: a thin and ruffled shirt- almost a t-shirt, and basically blue-jeans, as well as sneakers. Her hair was in a pony-tail straight out the back from her eyes, and the sleeves of her shirt were practically just ruffles. In the sun, she looked gorgeous to him as she walked up to the cafe they had agreed to meet at to discuss what was going on.

After some small-talk, Buffy took out a notepad of paper from her purse and a writing implement to take notes that was tucked behind her right ear. William then noticed that this was no mere social get-together, she was after something, something important: information. "So, this is an interrogation." William Pratt thought to himself, as Buffy Summers looked at him with her head turned down, past her eyelashes, and to her right a bit. Spike sat back to get comfortable, if he was going to be relating something of his past, he'd want to be comfy to do so. After what felt like five minutes, but was in reality more like a minute, Elizabeth Summers started with her inquisition. "So, Spike..." she began "how does any Sacramental work on a Vampire, and why exactly?" she asked pointedly."Straight and to the point" he thought "Gotta give her credit for her honesty, if nothing else, that appeals to me." he considered before answering.

"Now we come to the gist of the discussion..." Spike muttered, before continuing. "I'm no expert" he began "but, as far as I can make it out, the principle is like that of radiation... works kind of like the way your ex-boyfriend, Angel, got that nasty cross-shaped burn on his chest in the Bronze all those years ago when the two of you danced." he looked at her, and grinned when she looked down in shame. "Yes, I had heard about that one, That was Something., although it is far more the belief of the user than the actual item that has the power in such matters." William said, emphasizing the word "Belief" to make certain she knew THAT is of the essence.

"What about the Heavenly Hosts?" Buffy asked pointedly, referring to Consecrated Communion Wafers- the Body and Blood of Christ Himself "How do they work?" she asked him.

Spike was confused, he'd heard of such rituals in his days as an Anglican youth, but this ritual was something beyond his understanding- he didn't want to give her faulty info, oh, in his early days he'd love to lead her on a wild goose-chase all over the planet with false information; if only to set her temper off so badly that she'd never forgive him and try to stake him next time she saw him... but now? Now he, he couldn't believe it- he loved her! "That's something that Catholics do, I don't understand it at all." he said, completely confused by this turn of events, but at least he understood what she was getting at right now. "Although" he amended his statement "I have heard that they say it IS the Body and Blood of God the Son. I don't want to make fun of anybody's religious beliefs, but I have always had trouble believing that, something about it doesn't make sense." he said, trying to soften the blow. And from the look she gave him, clearly one of hurt, he guessed he'd stepped in it, badly!

"Well, I gotta figure that'd happen someday or another, that we'd offend eachother." Buffy thought to herself, sadly. Then she looked up, right at him, with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes, and said, contemplatively "There is one thing we can try..." to him, which set the hairs on the back of his neck standing right up on end.

Then something about Elizabeth's hurt expression dawned on him "Wait a minute... You're one of them!" he said, not wanting to show any bias against that brand of Christianity, but doing so unintentionally nonetheless "You're a Catholic! I should have guessed- that remark about looking in a Convent from your twenties or thereabouts! You were looking for a job-change!" he blurted out with the joy of a student who had just made a discovery he didn't expect.

William cringed visibly, he loved Elizabeth, but by this he had inadvertently hurt her massively- this seemed as if he couldn't do anything right today besides the one skill he didn't want to have: hurting the woman he loved!

Author's Notes End Chapter 1.): This is my very first Spuffy (Spike/Buffy pairing) story that I have come up with, and I'm rather proud of it, but I really really really want to know what you as the readers think. Please read, review/comment, and enjoy. Oh, this is also a bit of a love-story. And it also includes some metaphysics and matters of the spiritual.