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Chapter 7

He was awoken by an absurdly bright ray of sunshine shining through a crack in the curtains and right into his eyes. With a groan, he pulled the pillow out from underneath him and put it over his head. That’s it, he was never going on a drinking binge again. He felt like utter crap. Just as he was drifting back to sleep he heard some keys in the lock. He sat up as someone opened the door. Well it definitely wasn't Xander, unless he had decided to dye his hair, wear a suit, and age about thirty years.

He stood up, and then his instincts took over and he promptly sat back down again. William decided to change tactics. He cleared his throat and waited for the stranger to acknowledge him.

"Good Lord, its true!" The stranger stared at him in disbelief.

Okay, certainly not the reaction he was expecting. "Um, what’s true?"

The man set his bags on the floor, and was obviously searching for something to say. "Ah..um..that Xander has a nice apartment. I never thought I'd see the day when Xander actually had things that were adult in nature."

"Uh, okay. And you are?"

"My name is Rupert Giles, and who might you be?"

"William Shaw. I'm a friend of Xanders. We drank a little too much last night, so I crashed here."

"Well, in that case, I'm pleased to meet you"

"Likewise."

The man kept staring at William, which was starting to make him feel extremely uncomfortable. It made him feel like he was being held under a microscope and studied in minute detail. Looking at the clock, he decided to head back to the motel. It was time for lunch, and despite the splitting headache, he was feeling rather hungry. He had a package of Ramen noodles with his name on them.

William hurried and put on his shoes and then made his excuses. "Well, it was great meeting you, but I'm going to head on out. Xander is in the bedroom, I think. Tell him that I’ll see him at work on Monday."

With that, he hurried out the front door. That British guy was seriously creeping him out.

"Xander! Xander! Wake up!"

"Mmph...mom...."

Giles gave a sigh of disgust, bent over and picked up one of Xander's a href"work20boots" onmouseover"window.status'work boots'; return true;" onmouseout"window.status''; return true;">work boots /a>. He contemplated the damage the shoe would cause, grinned and then tossed it at Xander's head. Unfortunately, he missed and it hit him in the chest, but he still got a rather spectacular reaction.

"What the Hell?!?" Xander shot out of bed, scrambling for something. An axe, a sword, anything. . .hell, even a spoon would work. After he’d calmed down and realized that nothing was about to tear his throat out, Xander turned around and noticed Giles standing there trying to hold back his laughter. It wasn’t a very good attempt. Xander gave him a dirty look.

"I thought you weren't getting in until tomorrow."

Taking a deep breath and getting his voice under control, Giles explained. " I caught an earlier flight out, and I must say, that was the hardest I have laughed in a long time."

"I've been hearing that a lot lately." Xander turned around and reached for the glass of water that was on the a href"night20stand" onmouseover"window.status'night stand'; return true;" onmouseout"window.status''; return true;">night stand /a>. Thankfully, he didn't really feel hung over. Suddenly remembering who had crashed on his couch, he reeled around and started toward the living room.

"Spike! . . .I mean William! Did you see him? Is he still out there?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I think I startled him into leaving, though. I don't think he looked too comfortable to begin with. I'm sure waking up in a strange place will do that to you. But he did say that he'd see you at work on Monday."

Looking back at Giles, Xander breathed a sigh of relief. " Good, I was worried for a moment."

"It really is quite remarkable. The resemblance, I mean. It was Spike, yet it wasn’t. I don’t think I made a very good impression. I ended up standing there like a statue. He probably thought I was quite odd."

"It's okay, Giles, you are odd, but if it makes you feel any better, he thinks I’m off my bird, whatever that means."

Giles was impatient. He wanted to know what was going on, and so far all he had found out was that William looked like Spike. He started to question Xander, "Have you learned anything about how he came to be here or, if indeed he is Spike, why he's alive?"

"Hold your horses, G-man. Let me take a shower and wake up a bit, and then I'll give you the low-down on Mr. Mysterious."

"Oh right, sorry about that. I guess I can wait for a few minutes. Go get ready, I assume you have coffee or tea or something?”

Searching for a towel, Xander answered over his shoulder, “Um, yeah, its somewhere in the cupboards, help yourself."

Giles rolled his eyes and started toward the door, "Oh and Xander, can you please act your age and quit using names for me that you created back in Sunnydale."

With his trademark smart-ass grin he turned back and nodded."Whatever you say, G-man."

Giles groaned and closed the door behind him.

About half an hour later, Xander walked out of his room holding a piece of paper. He walked up to Giles and handed it to him. This is "William's" passport. I made a copy of it."

Giles took it and studied it closely. It was definitely Spike. No one could replicate that smirk. He compared the picture and his knowledge of Spike to the mental image of the man he had met briefly that morning. This William seemed so unsure, so cautious. Giles tried to pinpoint the exact feeling he got from the man. William reminded him of certain kids in school when he was a librarian. The type of children that came and chose books about poetry and quantum physics, and reviled any sort of social interaction. The loners. So completely un-Spike like. Even when he had the soul, Spike had always sought out human contact. Giles searched through his memories from that last year in Sunnydale. No, now that he thought about it, he was wrong. During that last year in Sunnydale, when he had been paying the vampire any attention, Spike had been severely withdrawn. The only person Spike had talked to at any length had been Buffy. Oh, he didn’t know what he thought. This was so complicated. Spike was so complicated.

Ever since he had found out what Spike had done down in the Hellmouth, what his part had been, he had regretted many of his opinions and actions concerning Spike. As a result of his refusal to acknowledge Spike’s soul, he lost out on the opportunity to learn and study the vampire. With the time and distance that now separated his sojourn in Sunnydale, he was able to look back on Spike with an objective eye. He should have talked with him and learned from him. Any vampire that would go against his nature and willingly change himself for the better was nothing short of spectacular. . .not to mention unheard of. Why he didn’t see that then, he’d never know. Spike had proven him wrong, and he was sorry that he hadn’t believed Buffy. Well, he now had the opportunity to right the wrongs he had done. He looked back up at Xander, "Tell me everything you know."

"Well, to make a long story short, he woke up in an alley covered in blood. Somehow found a job at a construction job, which was incidently run by my old boss from Sunnydale. After a year he decided he wanted to start over someplace new. His boss called me and I hooked him up. Then I called you. That’s about the extent of it. Oh, and he can't remember a damn thing. Amnesia or something like that."

"And how is he taking it?"

"Pretty bad. Last night, when I finally got him to open up about it, I noticed three things about him. He's scared, confused, and angry. Which is understandable, I'd probably freak too."

"You've talked to him, do you think that he is Spike?"

"That's the weird thing. I don't think he is, but every now and then you might see a flash of something Spike-like."

"If he is Spike, then there is a possibility that he might have reverted to his base personality. Without the experiences of Spike to help form his character..." Giles trailed off. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "This is too confusing, even for me."

"Hear, hear. You don’t have to tell me twice."

"I need to talk to him. Do you think we could go and find him?"

"I don't think so Giles. William opening up to me was a fluke. Well, not so much a fluke as an event preceded by massive consumption of fine hops. So I highly doubt he'll be wanting to spill his guts to you on the spur of the moment."

"That's not what I meant Xander. I just want to talk with him, so that I can get a sense of who or what he is. Not that I don't trust your opinion, I just need to start somewhere."

Xander tried to think of something that they could do without seeming obvious. He already felt like he was starting to push his luck where William was concerned. Maybe they should just fall back on the normal, getting to know you event. Hopefully Giles would agree. "How about we go out to eat Sunday? I'll go over and invite him later tonight."

"That sounds like a good idea. I don’t know how else we’d do it. So it’s certainly better than nothing. Now, do you mind if I borrow your couch? I'm completely knackered."

"Have at it, I have errands to run today anyways. I also have to go see Spike."

Giles sank into the a href"sofa20cushions" onmouseover"window.status'sofa cushions'; return true;" onmouseout"window.status''; return true;">sofa cushions /a>, with a sigh of relief. "Bloody airplanes..."

For the next few minutes Xander puttered around the apartment getting ready, finally sitting down on the chair to tie his shoes. To Giles, it seemed as if he were stalling. Xander wanted to ask him something, but at the rate he was going, Giles would never know what. Sighing, he sat back up and put thoughts of sleep aside.

"Xander, what is it?"

"Um...what do we do about Buffy?"

"What about her?"

"She needs to know. We can't keep this from her, it's too important."

"I'd like to keep this to ourselves, but you’re right. I just don't want to put her in the middle of something like this again. Not until we have something concrete to tell her."

"Giles, she dated the freaking Immortal. No matter what we do she's going to be attracted to the freaks. Besides, you know she loved him."

Giles looked confused, "Who? The Immortal? I surely hope not!"

"You know for someone who is known as the brains of this outfit, you can be remarkably thick sometimes. You know he's my least favorite person. . ., well one of my least favorite people,” he corrected himself, thinking of his other souled vampire buddy, “But she loved Spike. So bottom line, we're calling her after you talk to Spike. She deserves that much."

For a few moments, Giles just sat there looking at his hands. "Every now and then, you manage to surprise me, Xander Harris." He paused and then added, "We'll call Buffy, after I talk with Spike."

Xander smiled and then got up and finished getting ready. Giles sighed and then collapsed back on the couch. Maybe he'd get to finally rest once he died. Maybe, just maybe, peace would be within his grasp then.

The front door slammed with a loud bang as Xander finally went out.

Then again, probably not.





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