Disclaimer and Notes: see Prologue
Spike’s brain
by Belladonna
~Chapter 9~
Amok Time
Silence had descended down over the house on Revello Drive 1680. Of course that was the silence that had followed a rather loud and not good for any not-nailed-down-really-tight-and-therefore-ready-to-be-thrown thing inside the house, discussion which will not be delved into any further.
The rest of both the Scoobies and the Fang Gang had soon realized to leave the field quietly and quickly and after their retreat towards the stairs they all had fled to the rest of the rooms on the second floor. It hadn’t been necessary to sit at the upper end of the stairs to be eavesdropping on the conversation Buffy and Angel had had before, most parts of it had been audible in excellent sound quality to the smallest corner of the house. Probably the neighbours had heard it as well.
Now there only was silence left in the living room with Buffy on one end of the couch and Angel sitting on the other one. After the initial first impulses of violence and anger had vanished, meaning that Angel was really, really mad at Buffy about that video appearance and her frantically denying everything because she had no idea what the hell he was talking about anyway, how the hell she had been in the video in the first place and how the hell he could know about it, they had ran out of words. That part probably was the best idea for them, since the discussion about it could become truly nasty and so Angel had decided to let the matter drop – for the moment – and concentrate about finding out how Spike had managed to get her in the video and find him to hurt him severely; that was the same video she on the other hand had no idea how she had participated in. But he didn’t believe that of course but since the light of the sun prevented him from looking for his severely irritating and obnoxious grand-childe to do some of the things he had thought of in the car, he could as well save some strength for that later.
When the others joined them later in the morning for breakfast, they still sat in the same places they had seen them when they’d left.
“Uh, hi Buffy.” Willow said shyly, hurrying past her into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast for all of them like she usually did. Now that they had some visitors, she had to do some more and hoped that the fridge was well enough stocked to accomplish that. Sensing the dark mood her friend was in, she quickly was followed by Tara and the new girl Fred. The young Texan girl was a sweet and shy one, reminded Willow a bit of herself before she had met Buffy. She liked her.
In the living room the Slayer and the vampire still sat there on the couch, and still not moving, mostly because none of them wanted to give in to the other.
“Ah, good morning Buffy, good morning Angel.” Wesley greeted them both after he had come down the stairs. Willow had told them what they knew so far and that the more manpower was more than welcomed in their search for Spike’s body and the same time for the Nerds. That didn’t mean that he had understood the reason for their concern about that other vampire’s welfare. “I see you have managed not to kill each other. Well, good because we still need to figure out how to help Spike, though I don’t see the point of doing it and why we can’t go back to our work in L.A.; where we are needed.”
“Me neither.” Cordelia joined in, remembering briefly her last encounter with the bleached vampire in L.A. Of course she also wasn’t quite sure whether it was such a great idea, that thing with Spike. Whatever that thing was, it definitely wasn’t what they had come here for.
“This isn’t open for discussion.” Buffy told them seriously. She was severely pissed at the attitude in the room. It hadn’t been that hard to convince the Scoobies to help Spike, since they all knew him and he actually had been there too for the convincing part. But then, Angel and the others weren’t exactly informed about what had happened for the past few months – come to think of it, the Scoobies didn’t know about everything from them either, but that was besides the point – and so they naturally had to be a bit prejudiced because of the whole helping Spike thing. Still, that didn’t mean that they had to be that hostile about it, Spike was a good guy after all, once you knew him better. Buffy smiled inwardly at that. She stood up from the couch and went slowly towards them, her eyes daring them to say something. “Spike has helped us more than once and he deserves to be helped by us when he’s in trouble. We find him, we help him. Plus, we can get rid of these idiotic morons who think to be my arch nemesis-es or whatever. End of discussion.”
With that she then stormed off upstairs to her room for a change, leaving her clearly stunned guests in the living room behind.
“What was that all about?” Cordelia wondered when she entered the kitchen to meet the others. The delicious scent of freshly made pancakes wavered through the room and reminded her of not even having had dinner the day before due to Angel going all hell-on-wheels on them.
“What was what?” Willow asked, flipping another pancake onto a plate. Tara and Fred were busy preparing the table for more guests at breakfast that the Summers household ever had had.
“That scene she made in the living room, what else? If you ask my opinion, I think Buffy’s gone insane.” Cordelia told her, sitting down on a chair. “But then, that would explain the video.”
“What video?” Willow was confused for a second, but then remembered. “Oh, that video. I don’t think that Buffy being insane would explain it, but wait a minute…Buffy is not crazy and hands off my pancakes!”
Willow slapped Cordy’s hands from her plate. Cordelia just smiled towards her.
“But she must be crazy, I mean she was there with Spike!! And did you see how good she looked? One would think that after all this all-night slaying she would have at least some blackness under her eyes, God knows I do after all the nightshifts I work for Angel..err, Wesley and not to mention all the visions, boy they can be a real pain…”
Both Willow and Tara tried to figure out what exactly Cordy was talking about, but gave it up soon and just pretended to listen to her. It wasn’t like Willow hadn’t practiced that a lot in High School and was still mightily good at it. That practice also had come in handy when she was around Anya of course.
“…I am so glad that this at least is over now, and I didn’t even get a tail or horns for it, ‘cause that wouldn’t look so good on me. I mean horns in someone’s face, how does that look for fashion?”
“Good morning Cordelia.” Lorne greeted her, having come down for breakfast and wearing a rather hideously coloured suit, the colour clashing horribly with both his green skin and the red horns on his forehead.
“Uh, not that horns are not good looking, I mean…”; she hastily corrected her mistake, and then proceeded to continue on with her ramblings about the unfairness of life in general.
“Ah, breakfast, what a lovely occasion for us all to come together and get some new strength after our near-death experience from last night.” The green demon took a plate from Fred, filled with pancakes and sat down on the table. “Have you looked after Connor yet?” He asked Cordelia in between two bites and her interrupting the monologue to breathe.
“Yes, and I am still really mad at Angel to drive that irresponsible with the baby in the car.” She scolded the not-present vampire.
After all of them finally had gotten together in the kitchen for breakfast, that was except Buffy who still was showering and Angel who still was sitting on the couch and doing what he did best – brood, something still was puzzling Willow and that wasn’t the baby part, which she had already seen when they had arrived yet also still didn’t quite get.
“Why would you get horns, Cordy?”
***
Spike was still in the car outside, marvelling at the light of the day and the fact that he didn’t burst into flames; wouldn’t make him happy if the car caught fire anyway. He knew that Angel was inside and as much as he wanted to really rub it into his grand-sire’s face that Buffy was with him now and had feelings for him, he also was a bit afraid of what he would find inside. Would she by now have run straight towards the older vampire and completely forget about him outside? He knew that she still had feelings for Angel, that he would always hold a special place inside her heart that Spike never would. But it was him Buffy sought out when she wanted to talk about problems and other things and not call Granddaddy for that. Spike grinned at that thought, still if he didn’t want to remain the whole day outside in the car, he had to go inside the house again; well rather back to the television screen. Hey, he still could give the old man a heart attack by appearing out of nowhere directly on the screen, or what passed with vampires as coronary that was.
***
Inside the house, Buffy had just come back down the stairs. Angel was still in the same place when she had left, so before joining the others for breakfast Buffy slowly entered the living room again to face him.
“Angel?”
The vampire looked up towards her, still trying to figure out what was going on.
“Spike helped you?” He then asked silently after a while. That much he had gotten from her earlier outburst, but that didn’t mean that he had understood it. And it made him forget for the moment that he really felt like killing Spike. A lot.
“Look, I don’t want to discuss this with you either.” Buffy told him seriously. “Yes, Spike has helped us and is still helping us. And he hasn’t hurt anyone for the past two years.”
“Yes, but this is Spike we’re talking about.” Angel protested. “He is just playing you…”
“No, he can’t harm any living being because of the chip the Initiative implanted him with.” Buffy told him, reminding him of something she thought he already knew. Angel growled, with the memories of the Initiative came the memory of Riley and how much he didn’t like him either.
“He’s helping us and he doesn’t even want something in return for it, so I’d say he’s really changed.” Buffy explained, smiling inwardly at how much Spike really had changed or rather how much his love for her had caused that change to start in the first place. And she even more smiled at the fact that she had started to love him back.
“But Buffy…” Angel started again only to be interrupted by Buffy.
“No buts, Spike has changed and if he was here, he’d prove it to you.” Buffy stated, smiling openly now. “Plus, Dawn really likes him, so you’d better watch what you say about Spike around her. After breakfast, everything will look brighter, believe me and don’t those pancakes smile really deliciously?”
Angel was still staring at her, trying to figure out just how much the girl he had left had grown into the Buffy that was standing in front of him. He stood up and joined her to leave for the kitchen, though the prospect of pancakes didn’t sound that appealing to him than it did to her.
Behind him the television screen flickered again, the black screen giving way to the bleached blond vampire Angel was looking for.
“Oh, why don’t you go join the others and I’ll be right back.” Buffy ushered Angel out of the room, not wanting him to find out about Spike’s current whereabouts.
As soon as Angel was out of the room, she addressed the television.
“What the hell have you been thinking?!”
“Why, luv?” Spike grinned broadly towards her, still inside his mind he was also a bit afraid.
“What if he saw you?” Buffy was mad now. “You know why he’s here and it’d be better if he didn’t see you. And how come he knew about the video?”
“Wait a second, pet.” Spike was confused. “I have no idea why Peaches is here, I mean, car here? And what was that with the video?”
“Well, television here would fit better now.” Buffy corrected him, having found her smile back, but still there was this being not amused expression on her face. “About the video, let’s just say he knows about it; he has seen it if that makes it clearer for you!”
“But how?” Spike asked her still overly confused. He had no idea that the video, he hadn’t even intended for her to see had been apparently broadcast over to Los Angeles also. But it meant that she hadn’t been glued to Angel permanently and rather was concerned about what said vampire might do to Spike, her Spike.
“He has seen it!!” Buffy repeated, standing there with her hands on her hips and ignoring the broad grin on Spike’s face; the one that appeared there right after the second where his mouth hung agape from the surprise.
“Buffy, breakfast is ready and the pancakes are getting cold! Tara made the funny shaped ones you like so much.” Dawn’s voice came from the kitchen.
“I’m coming!” Buffy replied. Before she left, she turned around and addressed Spike again.
“Stay here, we have to talk about this later.” Her tone still was frozen in this not amused kind of way. Still, a faint blush had crept up her cheeks at the image of her dancing very closely to Spike and she remembered that she wanted to try this out for real sometime soon with him. “Be just glad that other than Angel, which I have still no idea how, nobody else has seen that.”
***
On the other side of the ocean, Rupert Giles was just sitting down, enjoying some quality time of reading, something he hadn’t done for like ages and sipping from his cup of tea when this perfect stillness was interrupted by rather rapid knocking on the door.
“Oh well, I shouldn’t have thought to have a single afternoon for myself then, should I?” Giles muttered angrily and went for the door. It wasn’t enough that he had tried to figure out why the report about this new band nobody knew anything about but had gone straight to No.1 almost everywhere had triggered something inside his mind and no matter how much he’d racked his brains, still couldn’t quite figure it out. Now they had to interrupt him again.
He made his way to the door, putting up his most sour expression to scare away any not welcomed visitors and then opened to greet this visitor properly. The person he now was facing wasn’t whom he had expected to see at all and also never wanted to see again.
“Rupert, there is something we need to talk about.” Quentin Travers had a similar expression on his face, he did look quite pissed about something Giles was sure to find out soon. “And it concerns your Slayer, or rather her improbable behaviour recently.”
***
The pancakes didn’t only smell deliciously, they tasted even more so. Sometimes during breakfast, the Scoobies and their guests were joined by Xander and Anya. The latter of course clung even more to her fiancé than she did without the visit from Los Angeles; Cordelia had been his ex after all. And so it was that Anya seemingly out of accident showed her ring more than usually, also did she mention the wedding ceremony equally often which did mean something. It wasn’t as if the big wedding and all that went with it had been the only thing Anya was talking about for the past months.
“So, you and Xander are tying the knot, right?” For Cordelia this still was somehow surprising. It was Xander, her ex and an ex-demon whose job had it been to carry out scorned women’s pleas. Just like she had done when Cordy had met her first and she so didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Yes!” Anya beamed brightly and showed her ring again for good measure. “And it doesn’t matter to him that I am not a virgin anymore when we’ll go down the aisle. I mean sure, he isn’t one neither, but Bridal magazine said that….what?”
Cordy just stared at her open-mouthed, Xander had turned beet red once again and the rest of them barely suppressed their grins.
“Ahn, tact. We talked about that.” Xander made himself as small as possible, Anya only waved offhandedly in his direction.
“Yes, I know and I should develop some more. “ She said, facing the others again. “I still don’t understand why it is so horrible if I told them how good our sex is. It’s not like I did that and it is really good. Xander and I have lots of orgasms, which is why we both are no longer virgins.”
The only sound now in the kitchen was the loud coughing coming from Cordelia who had choked on her pancake. Wesley had turned quite red himself and the present Scobies rolled their eyes.
“Ah, that is quite nice for you, Anya wasn’t it?” Wesley managed after a while, his face still a glowing post in the darkness as red as it was. “But we should get back to the point at hand before Cordelia suffers from any severe health consequences…or anyone else for that matter.”
Cordelia shot him a deadly look but remained silent, she was trying to fight off the choking and didn’t trust her voice right now that far.
“So from what Willow has told us, there are three guys that are causing trouble and now they have acquired Spike as their latest tool in going against you?” Wesley asked, waiting for confirmation before continuing with what must have been the $1 Million question of the morning. “Why Spike?”
***
“Warren, there is something seriously wrong here.” Jonathan contemplated for like the thousandth time. But like all those times before his comrade in arms didn’t listen do him.
“Why, wetting your panties already?” Warren taunted the boy who frantically shook his head denying it. “Relax, everything is gonna go alright.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Jonathan looked at him angrily. He knew that Warren had just seized the opportunity to get back on him. Did he suspect anything about them laughing behind his back? “Just look for once and you’ll see it for yourself.”
Warren had been working on the vampire for the past hour or so, with Jonathan and Andrew as his dutiful audience; always watching his every move up to the point that it really creeped him out. But he had been so engrossed in his work that he had to admit that he hadn’t noticed anything not going according to his plan. Of course he also had tried really hard to shut out the other two chatting about just how much this reminded them of an episode on Star Trek he’d immediately forgotten the title from. But he hadn’t noticed anything unusual at all. He stepped back and took another closer look at the vampire in front of him, silent like before with his head-gear that allowed them to control his movements from a greater distance. Still there was nothing unusual about him other that maybe he did look a bit pale, well paler than before but wasn’t he dead and weren’t dead people supposed to look pale?
“He doesn’t look that good, Warren.” Andrew chimed in. “He doesn’t look all healthy.”
“Well, duh, he’s a vampire and all he eats is blood so does that sound any more healthy to you?” Warren snapped at him. But then he saw it for himself.
The vampire indeed didn’t look like before. His eyes were slightly sunken and the cheekbones even more prominent than usually, his body had begun to get thinner, not fast and not that noticeable but soon it would be and then he would no longer be useful for them. Warren mentally cursed himself for not having been that foreseeing. If the vampire would start to show that clear signs of being defective, he couldn’t continue with his plan for the Slayer would notice something being wrong with him. And he didn’t want to build a bot, she’d notice that too, not when he had the real thing at hand. Warren frowned at that sight. They had to do something and more importantly, they had to do it soon. He would have to reschedule the whole timetable of his plan, his despite the circumstances still brilliant plan mind you, and start it sooner than anticipated.
“Alright folks, we’ll then have to start Phase Two sooner than we thought to…” Warren started, but was interrupted by Andrew again.
“But I thought we already started Phase Two, Warren.”
“..and we’ll just have to follow my plan then nothing will go wrong.” Warren continued, shooting daggers towards Andrew. “I have an idea how this is going to work.”
“But the Slayer will notice that something is wrong with him, I mean look at him. She’ll see it right away and then we’re so screwed.” Andrew whined and Warren slapped him again.
“Then we’ll just have to make it so that she won’t see anything.” Warren smiled evilly. “Andrew, get your things, you know what to do.”
***
No matter how hard they’d tried, they couldn’t come up with any possible explanation why Spike was so interesting for the Nerdy Ones. Still, the question was a burning one and finding an answer to it came right after finding Spike’s body. That was of course also right after convincing Angel that the video he had seen had just been nothing more than a trick of the Three Geeks. Also Buffy was for once glad that none of the others had told the L.A. crew of the current state Spike was in, it made it easier for her to do all the explaining about him being vamp-napped by the Nerdians in whole and not just his body while the ever annoying mind of his remained stuck inside her television. Speaking of Spike, it was about time that Buffy checked on her very own television-vamp again. It had taken some time, but Angel, albeit still extremely suspicious had started to believe the story Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies had come up with about Spike’s and Buffy’s appearance in that video. Of course Lorne had supplied lots of comments of his own about how really sorry he was to have missed that. He so would’ve loved having the chance of soul-reading another member of Angel’s family, one that hadn’t a soul. How he was able to soul-read those without having a soul remained his secret however. The green demon found this whole situation extremely fascinating. Since breakfast time was over now, the whole gang had decided to retreat to the living room for discussing the next stages of what to do.
Buffy heard a slight flicker from the living room on their way there and stepped in front of the others. She knew exactly what that had been, rather who that had been and so didn’t want to have the others find out, especially not Angel, not after all the convincing it took before.
“Uh, I completely forgot about some chairs.” She stammered hastily, shooing the others back into the dining room. Why don’t you get some of them and I’ll prepare the room for our war council.”
“War council?” Xander sounded very confused for a second, but the looks Willow gave him cleared it up a bit. “Oh, right, we’ll be fetching us some chairs.” He grabbed Angel and dragged him along, away from the living room where Spike just had reappeared on the television screen again.
“What is your problem?” Angel shrugged the hand off. How dare he crinkle his new shirt?!
“Chairs, we need chairs.” Willow stated as she pushed him towards the kitchen and further away from where he could ran into the chance of seeing Spike or even hearing his voice from the screen.
But before Buffy even had the chance of reprimanding her vampire for appearing so suddenly on the screen and risking to be seen by Angel, the television went black along with all the other lights inside the Summer’s house, the room thanks to the blackened out windows due to Angel staying for the day was pitch black now too. A strangled yelp could be heard right before the lights had frizzled out, sparks flowing from several burst light bulbs.
“Damn!!” Another voice came out of the darkness that sounded like Xander. “And I just had replaced all the bulbs recently.”
“Why would you have needed to replace them?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to know.” Xander answered sarcastically, then “Ouch!” as he tripped over something. A strong hand helped him up and it took him a while to realize that it was Angel.
“Of course, you can see in the dark.” Xander muttered. “We need to find some flashlights for those not-being-able-to-see-in-the-dark people and then get the lights back on working again.”
A little while later, as well as some minor to bigger ouchies coming from constantly bumping into things during the search for the flashlights, they now had light again. And they had brought chairs so that everyone could be finally seated in the living room to discuss the situation. It wasn’t long that it became noticeable just how much Buffy fidgeted around on the couch. She hadn’t had the time to talk to Spike before the lights had went out and she felt this huge feeling of concern deep inside her. She missed him and wanted to know whether he was okay or not, but she couldn’t risk turning on the television; not with Angel in the same room. He’d probably demolish her TV and she so couldn’t afford a new one.
Her problem was solved by Xander plopping down next to her on the couch after getting back from the kitchen with some drinks and accidentally sitting directly on the remote control.
“Xander NO!” Buffy shrieked, but it already was too late. Angel would see Spike on the screen and there wouldn’t be anything that stopped him from finding out what exactly had happened to the other vampire. Plus he would get so mad he’d kill the television to get Spike and she didn’t want that any more than she had wanted before. Did she mention that she also didn’t want Spike to get hurt? Ah well, now it was too late and with the first flickers the television came to life Buffy really expected all hell to break loose and braced herself for the explosion. And she couldn’t get the remote fast enough from under Xander’s butt.
Nothing happened.
“Uh, I didn’t wanted you to think that I am into these stupid game shows that are running all over the mornings.” Buffy stuttered, not even having to fake the distress that showed up on her face. She hastily grabbed the remote from Xander and turned the television off. “Where were we, ah yes, the problem about Spike…”
“We’ve already discussed the problem with Spike.” Angel growled, not having missed the sort of dreamy sound at her mentioning the other vampire’s name. And what was that about those game shows? He really liked them and it wasn’t as if he had that much entertainment during the day other than Connor. Angel smiled at the thought of his little son, Spike immediately forgotten.
“We wanted to have a war council which sure is much better then the Watchers Council and sounds so much more exciting.” Willow started, she too had noticed the change of voice when Buffy mentioned Spike, but was that worry she’d heard there?
“Yes, I’m afraid we still don’t know anything or have the slightest idea of a plan.” Wesley chimed in, a bit miffed though because he might no longer be an active member of the Council, hell he didn’t even know whether he still was one in the first place, but that didn’t mean that anybody should badmouth the Council.
“But we have a plan, we just don’t know anything about it yet.” Xander said, smiling inwardly at the daggers Anya shot towards Buffy for touching him where only she was allowed to. “The plan is to find Spike and save him. Then kicking some serious Nerd butt.”
“I’m not sure I got you there right.” Gunn told Xander disbelievingly. “You want to save Spike? The vampire Spike? Whom you can stand even less than Angel from what I heard?”
“Yes, got any problem with that?” Xander snapped back. He finally seemed to have gotten his spine back and for the moment wasn’t ashamed anymore of his friendship with Spike or who knew about it.
Buffy on the other hand still sat silently on the couch and her mind raced. Spike hadn’t been in the television when it was turned on accidentally but he had been there before, just before the lights had gone out. Since she was pretty sure he couldn’t have switched channels without being displayed on the screen he must have jumped somewhere else. He couldn’t have vanished just like that, could he? She just couldn’t loose him like that.
***
It was dark again when Spike came around later that day.
But of course it still was bright outside with the sun shining down on Mother Earth in full force. Only Spike couldn’t see that from where he currently resided. But that was the part he had yet to discover.
“Bloody Hell!! Where am I now?”
The thing that made him frenzy almost instantly was that he couldn’t hear his own voice anymore, no matter how often he repeated his question or how loud he was cursing to heavens, it remained silent to him and the world. He raged even so hard, he almost didn’t hear himself when finally something penetrated the little world he was reduced to for the moment.
“Spike?”
“Who are you?!!” The vampire raged anew. “And why can’t I see anything. And how come you know me? And…”
“Spike?” The voice asked again, this time sounding definitely confused, almost as if the owner of that voice was trying to pinpoint the exact location of the sound that somehow sounded like Spike, if a bit mangled that was. “Is that you?”
“Who else, now who are…” Spike finally recognized that voice as it came a bit clearer through the fogged senses. But it was still muffled, just like his own was to him once he’d accustomed himself to that fact. “Dawn?”
“And here I thought you knew me so well.” The teen answered sarcastically. “Took you long enough, by the way, where are you and why the hell were you screaming so loud. They’ll hear you two blocks from here.”
“Dawn, language.” Spike scolded her then he frowned slightly. Could he do that where he was? Right now, he didn’t care about that little fact and returned to the topic at hand. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?” Now it was Dawn’s turn to look confused.
“Where I am.”
“Oh. Well, we don’t know that either, that’s why we are looking for your body and where these geeks have brought you.” Dawn explained slowly.
“I know that part, Bit.” Spike returned. “But I rather meant now. Where am I?”
“Uh, you’re in Buffy’s room, but I don’t know where you are exactly.” Dawn told him and smiled. “Does she know that you’re hiding in her room?”
“But I’m not hiding!” Spike protested all too loudly. Not that hiding somewhere in Buffy’s closet would be something he’d loved doing once, him being evil and all that. But he clearly wasn’t right now.
“And why are you not down in the television, Buffy’s worried sick about you.” Dawn told him sternly.
“Buffy’s worried about me?” Spike asked, forgetting for the moment that he needed to find out where he was. “But I’m right here, been here for the whole bloody time right now.”
“Well, yeah if you say so, but I still can’t see you so wherever you are, don’t you think it’s time to come out and tell Buffy that you are yourself again?” Dawn sounded sad. Why would he do that and leave Buffy thinking that he’d gone forever.
“Because I can’t, Nibblet.” Spike answered her truthfully, recognizing the sadness in her voice and immediately realizing the reason for it. “Believe me, if I’d been in my body again, don’t you think I’d come rushing back to big sis’?”
“But where are you then?” Dawn wanted to know impatiently. If he wasn’t lying, and he’d never lie to her she was sure about that, then he had to be somewhere. Then she had an idea. “Wait, keep talking and I’ll follow the voice.”
“Alright, but I’m not so sure this’ll work.” Spike sounded unsure, but Dawn cut him off.
“Keep talking and we’ll find out.” Dawn tried her best to put some confidence in her voice. Maybe she’d feel it then as well.
“Well, can’t hurt to try then. So Bit, how’s school then?” Spike asked her. “Oh, well, since that’d require an answer from you, wouldn’t help you find me, right? So, do you have someone you’ve set your eyes on?”
“That’d require an answer from me, too.” Dawn chuckled. “And besides, I’m a lady and I keep that one for myself.”
“That only goes for perfect gentlemen with the whole remaining silent and enjoying part.” Spike returned, grinning as well, though she probably couldn’t see that one either. “But remember, if he hurts my little girl, I’ll kill him.”
“As if you could with the chip in your head.” Dawn reminded him and was sure to earn a distinctive sour look for that remark from him, at least she could hear it.
“Right, I was just offering. No need to get all snippy about that one.” Spike told her, unsure of where she’d gone when she remained silent.
“But it was thoughtful of you to offer it anyways. Oh, I got good grades on that test, well not as good as I’d have gotten on it if you had studied with me like you’d promised to. And since you’ve been a television all the time, you’re forgiven for that one.” Dawn said absently, going through Buffy’s room in order to find out where Spike was. Since Buffy did not own any television he could hardly be in there then. And he wasn’t in the stereo; that was the place she’d checked out first. But where could he be then. Spike still continued talking about how she needed to be careful with that boy and what kind of danger the youth of today could be. Something was wrong though, she just couldn’t pinpoint the source of his voice. With a big sigh she plopped down onto Buffy’s bed, filled with some of her stuffed animals.
“Any luck, Bit?” Spike asked her and Dawn jumped. The voice had sounded so near this time, almost as if she was sitting directly next to him, if a bit muffled. But there was only her and Buffy’s animals on the bed. Curiously she started to remove them one by one until only one of them was left. Immediately Dawn exploded into a hysteric fit of giggles.
“What is it now?”
“The good news is I found you.” Dawn managed to get out between giggling. “And the funnier news is … I found you.”
***
Meanwhile in the Nerd’s Lair, Andrew just had finished his task. He collected his things and stepped back, presenting his fellow Nerds with the fruit of his hard work.
“Well, what do you think?” He asked them, grinning proudly at his handiwork. “Am I good or am I good?”
His two companions looked critically over his work, eying it from head to toe and back upwards again.
“Hm…”
“What?” Andrew grew impatient. He’s spent the better part of the last hour or so in working over the mute vampire and all they had to say was “Hm?”
“Well, he does look healthier now.” Jonathan supplied after a while. “A bit green-ish on the cheeks if you ask me, but I guess that couldn’t be helped. Guess that’s mandatory for the whole attire.”
“Looks okay to me.” Warren told him. “Okay enough for the next stage of the plan. But you could loose those ears before we’ll start again.”
“What’s wrong with those?” Andrew asked confused.
“Let me put it that way.” Warren explained carefully, once more repeating his list of descriptions for moron inside his head directly towards the other boy; a list that was growing with every minute he spent in the company of the other two. Maybe he’d really rethink that idea of creating him some robotic allies again. “He didn’t have them before and I think the Slayer would notice something wrong if her pet vampire suddenly sported pointed ears, don’t you think?”
***
“Won’t you tell me then why you think the current place of where I’m in is so funny?” Spike asked the teen, sounding a bit miffed. “And please don’t forget to breathe, wouldn’t want you to suffocate now, will we?”
“Sorry, it’s just that it is too funny and I really can’t tell you.” Dawn managed to say, before another fit of giggles overtook her. “Maybe you should take a look at it yourself.”
With that she took his current residence and shoved it in front of the mirror. And waited.
“And what am I supposed to see, Bit?” Spike asked indignantly. Truth was, he didn’t see anything, he didn’t even see her which made him wonder. He had been able to perfectly see when he still was inside the television or even when he was inside his car and that part he hadn’t figured out yet. But then, he was but a vampire and not a physicist or any other similar genius.
“You can’t see?” Dawn asked rather disappointed. And here she so would have given anything for his reaction.
“Blind as a mole.” Spike replied. “And I seem to be stuck in wherever you don’t want to tell me I am. Have tried to get out a couple of times now without effect. Where the hell am I?”
“You’re inside one of Buffy’s stuffed animals and…”
“I’m WHERE??!!!” Spike shouted out rather loudly what only brought Dawn into another giggle fest. “How can that be?!”
“Maybe…snort…that one’s a talking stuffed animal, you know with a …snort…chip inside so that’s where you got stuck after the black-out. But don’t worry, we’ll get you out of there in no-time.”
“Like you got me out of the television?” Spike said and Dawn sobered instantly at his tone.
“It’s not our fault, you know, that you got stuck there.” She scoffed at him.
“I’m sorry, Nibblet.” Spike told her earnestly. “But this is just a bit too much for me right now. I didn’t mean to be mad at you.”
“I can understand, you are afraid…” Dawn said, hearing the pouting at that rather than seeing it from the vampire. “And don’t try to deny it, I know you better than that. But we’ll find a way, I promise.” She repeated his own words from last night somehow. “But we might need some help.”
“Right, but first things first, is that a baby I hear from next doors?”
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