Title: Love, Hellmouth Style 27-28
Author: Gileswench
Contact: gileswench@yahoo.com
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome. Praise abjectly sought.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc., etc., etc. I just let them have all the fun Joss won't. I own nothing except my twisted mind which you really don't want. Please don't sue.



Angel rushed to the door of the crypt and forced it open. Somebody within was suffering the torments of the damned and it was his job to save him.

The sight that met his eyes as he rushed in, his coat swirling after him like a cloud of vengeance, gave him pause.

"Spike? Is that you?"

"Help me, Angelus. For the love of Beelzebub, help me!"

Angel's lips twitched themselves into one of his rare smiles. He gazed around the room to the tune of a singing crab. The walls of the crypt had been painted pink - within the last few hours by the smell of it - and hung with unicorn posters. And as for Spike himself...Angel only recognized him by scent.

"What happened to you?"

"What do you think, Peaches? Bloody woman wasn't it? Cherchez la femme and all that. Deranged, she was."

"Oh, so Dru came back?"

"Worse. Dru talked to stars and suchlike, but she never made me listen to Barry sodding Manilow."

"I kinda like Manilow. Mandy's a pretty song."

"Not after fifteen times in a row, mate. Look, will you just get me out of here before Harm gets back? I really don't fancy any more Disney bilge, and she was threatening to come back with a VCR and a copy of Beauty and the Beast."

Angel shuddered.

"Nobody deserves that."

A glance at the handcuffs made it clear Angel couldn't break them, but the slats of the headboard were made of wood. He broke the one Spike was cuffed to and dragged his suffering childe to freedom.

Once they were clear of the crypt, Spike turned panicked eyes to Angel.

"I don't know where to go. She'll find me. And that was my buggering crypt! I let her stay there!"

"Come on. She could be back anytime. I'll get you somewhere safe."

*****

"Feeling better now, luv?"

Buffy nodded. A good cry really had helped more than she wanted to admit.

"I'm sorry. I can't believe what a baby I'm being about this whole thing."

"There's no need to apologize." Giles kissed her temple as he held her close.

"Yes there is. I haven't even asked how Mom's test went. So...how did it go? She's okay, right?"

Giles wrapped his arms about his wife just a bit tighter.

"Oh, God. Something bad happened, didn't it? What did they find?"

"They don't know yet. Buffy, they found a shadow. Now it could turn out to be any number of things, or nothing at all."

"So what happens now?"

Buffy hoped her voice didn't shake as much as she thought it did.

"An exploratory surgery will have to be performed. It will be a couple days yet before it can be arranged."

"I should be with her. I should be helping her."

"There's nothing you can do. And you need to take care of yourself just now. Your mother understands that."

"I just feel so...so useless. Mom needs me and I have to lie here and do nothing. It shouldn't be like this."

There was no argument to that, so Giles just kissed her and stroked her hair. After a moment, he released her with a final kiss.

"It's late, and we're both tired. Why don't we try to get some sleep?"

Buffy nodded as Giles went upstairs to undress. A few minutes later, he returned in his pajama pants and crawled into bed beside her, laying his glasses carefully on the end table beside the bed. He pulled Buffy to his bare chest and kissed her softly. She snuggled closer and initiated a second kiss as her fingers trailed through the crisp curls on his pecs.

"Buffy (kiss) darling (kiss) what are you (kiss) doing?"

"I've been alone all day. Don't I deserve a couple smoochies?"

She leaned in to kiss him again.

"Of course you deserve them, but I don't think it's wise. You know what it will lead to, and we can't do that right now. Doctor's orders."

With a growl of frustration, Buffy flopped on her back.

"I wasn't asking you to do me doggie style for an audience. I just wanted a couple kisses."

Giles loomed over her propped on his elbow.

"You didn't want the audience, I realize."

She glared at him.

"Damn you for always being right."

"Oh, for a tape recorder!"

His grin was infectious. Buffy couldn't repress her own smile. Her retort was left unspoken as a frantic pounding was heard at the door.

"Giles! Let us in!"

Giles rolled out of bed and hurried to the door, pulling his robe on as he went. He flung the door wide to allow Angel access. The vampire was stopped when his burden struck a barrier.

"Giles, you have to invite him in."

The Watcher folded his arms across his chest.

"Why would I invite yet another vampire into my home. Who is he, anyway?"

"It's Spike. He was being tortured."

"That's Spike?"

"I swear it is. I'd know his scent anywhere. Giles, he's my childe, I can't just leave him to suffer."

Buffy joined them in the doorway.

"Rupert, he saved my life the other night. We can throw him out later, but we need to know what happened to him. Please."

She laid a hand on his arm and plead with her eyes.

"Very well, Spike, you may come in."

*****

"All the other Slayers who died have causes of death listed. And the other Watchers who survived their Slayers all seem to have done pretty well in the Council. I even found one Watcher who failed the Crucimentium like Giles did, and he wasn't fired. He was just demoted and never held a position of authority again. I don't get it. It's like the rules all change if your name is Giles."

Willow slumped in her chair.

"Perhaps they do." Wesley mused.

The others looked at him.

"So there's something...different about the Giles family?"

"Not necessarily so much different in reality, Tara, as in the perception. During my training, nobody liked very much to talk about Giles despite the fact that he was the active Watcher of the most infamous Slayer in generations."

"Infamous? But that's a bad, isn't it? And say what you like about Buffy, she's good at what she does." Cordelia frowned in puzzlement.

"And so is Giles."

"I'll second Will on that. He's saved us all more times than I can count."

"Precisely, Xander. I must say, I didn't expect this level of mystery. I wonder what it all means."

"We could always ask Giles" Anya offered. "He might know, since it's his family and his father."

"But would he tell us?" Willow turned to Wesley for guidance.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

*****

While Giles heated some blood for Spike, Buffy surveyed the damage to the vampire.

It was gruesome.

His bleach-blonde hair had been cropped into a buzz cut and dyed a mousy shade of brown. Gone were his tight black jeans and close fitting matching tee shirt. They had been replaced with baggy chinos and a plaid dress shirt worn with a knitted tie. His boots had been taken from him in favor of a pair of tasseled loafers over pale yellow nylon socks. A pair of geeky Buddy Holly glasses finished off the ensemble.

Buffy was torn between laughter and tears. Spike glared at her. It wasn't nearly so impressive now that the looked like a high school math teacher.

The deciding vote was cast.

Buffy laughed until her side ached.

*****

Crystal shivered. A shadow. What did that mean? Did that mean that Joyce might die? Did that mean it was her fault? Was that why she was having these dreams?

She threw off the covers and headed down the hall to the bathroom.

Once there, she splashed some water on her face and looked herself in the mirror.

It couldn't be happening.

Not like this.

As she headed back to the bedroom, she took a moment to compose herself. She had to be brave.

For Joyce.

*****

"So who gets to be the lucky winner in the Ask Giles Embarrassing Personal Questions About His Family drawing? And let me take this opportunity to say I don't want it to be me. It's not that I'm scared, it's just that I've kinda got used to breathing and would like to continue to do it for a while."

"God, Xander! Grow a spine, already, would you?"

Cordelia" Wesley admonished gently. "As crudely as Xander put the dilemma, he does have a point. Giles is somewhat touchy about his past and his family. Whoever takes on this task would do well to be...diplomatic about it."

"I'll do it."

"Are you sure, Anya? 'Cause...tactful? Diplomatic?"

Willow was trying her best not to say what she really thought of the idea.

"Oh, please. It won't be any problem. I work with Giles. That gives us many opportunities to have intimate conversations."

Dubious looks circled the room. Finally, Welsey cleared his throat.

"Have we any other volunteers?"

The dubious looks pivoted to the floor.

"Well, Anya, it would appear that you have the job."

PART 28

Harmony sailed in the door of the crypt, Parker trailing behind with a DVD player.

"Spikey? Are you ready for this? We've got Beauty and the Beast, two Winnie the Poohs, and 101 Dalmatians. Oh, and Lady and the Tramp. We couldn't find The Aristocats, but the clerk said it'd be in next week. You'd have liked her, she was delici...Spike? Where'd you go? Darn it!"

*****

"Would you at least take the glasses off, Spike? I can't stop laughing and it hurts."

Buffy continued to giggle despite her best efforts. Spike shifted uncomfortably and muttered an unfamiliar swear word under his breath. The glasses, however, remained perched on his nose.

"He can't" Angel informed her. "He won't be able to see where he's going if he takes them off."

"Huh? He's never worn glasses before."

"He did when he was alive. He's almost blind without them."

"Wait a minute. Doesn't all that stuff get sorta fixed when you get turned?"

"Some of it does" Giles told her. "Diseases and conditions such as diabetes, tuberculosis, venereal diseases and so on disappear. Most of them are connected at least in some degree to blood, you see. But nearsightedness isn't necessarily connected with that, so it can remain."

"So if you got vamped, you'd still need the specs?"

"Precisely."

"But Spike has never worn glasses in all the time I've known him."

"I'm in the bloody room."

Spike glared at them all. He continued to intimidate no one.

"He tried to do without the glasses for a long time after he was turned. It was pathetic. He was always crashing into things."

"So what changed?"

"Contacts. All right? I've been using 'em since they came out. Nobody fears the Big Bad if he's got sodding Coke bottle lenses."

"Well nobody's feared you in a long time, Hostile Seventeen." Buffy sat up and glared at the vampire.

"Buffy" Giles admonished.

"It's true. Nobody's afraid of the big, bad vamp. He can't bite and we proved we can get past his mind games. You're not the Big Bad anymore, Spike. You'd starve if you didn't get blood money from Rupert."

"Yeah, rub it in that I'm the bloody Slayer's Pet. I shouldn't have rung the ambulance the other night. Should gotten a glass and gotten me some free Slayer's blood."

"Stop it! Both of you!" Angel stood between the battling factions. Giles squeezed his wife's shoulders gently and laid her back in bed. Angel faced Spike until he sat again. "Buffy doesn't need this stress right now and Spike has been through something terrible tonight, too. I think it's time we heard what happened to him."

*****

"So what are you gonna say to Giles?" Xander held his girlfriend under the covers. "Y'know, to get him to talk about his Dad."

"I'll just ask him."

"That's it? Just ask him?"

"Why are you all so afraid to do it? He'll answer a question. That's what people do. You ask a question, and it gets answered."

"An...it's not that simple with Giles. He's the stubbornest person I know - and that's going some since I know Buffy, too. He never talks about anything in his past if he can avoid it."

"So are you saying I'm going to fail?"

"No, Honey, that's not what I'm saying exactly. Just...don't be too disappointed if he doesn't give you anything on the first try. And if he doesn't want to talk, he never will."

"How do you know? Have you ever interrogated him?"

"No, but I've seen what he can last through."

His mouth set in a grim line. After a moment, Anya looked at his face and felt a cold shiver down her spine. Whatever Xander had seen, it had clearly traumatized him deeply.

"Xander? What happened?"

For the first time, Anya wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to a question.

"I don't want to talk about it. It was a long time ago."

Anya just nodded and held him tighter.

*****

"Oh, Wesley!"

Cordelia held him tighter as he rocked into her harder still. Her thighs clamped around his hips in a vice-like grip. With a few more thrusts, Wesley gave a deep moan as he found his release.

As they quieted, the two embraced tightly. Wesley kissed his lover gently before extricating himself from her arms to dispose of the condom.

"That's the thing I hate" Cordelia grumbled.

"Hmm? What was that?"

"I can't wait until the pills kick in and we can just cuddle after. I hate that you have to get up right away."

"Well in another two weeks or so I won't have to."

"I know. I just hate that we always have to think about this stuff. If you'd just go get a vasectomy we wouldn't have to worry about it."

"A - a vasectomy? Good lord, Cordelia, you don't mean that, do you?"

She shrugged. "I don't see why not. It would make it all easier."

Wesley returned to the bed, but sat on the edge looking down at his lady.

"A vasectomy is a permanent thing. We would never have the option of having children. Is that really what you want?"

"I'm sorta thinking yeah."

"Cordelia, you're only nineteen..."

"And that has exactly what to do with it? Buffy's only nineteen and nobody asked her if she was sure about having a kid, but you don't think I'm old enough to make up my own mind."

"Buffy's the Slayer. It's a rather special circumstance."

"See, that's what I don't agree with. Lots of people know what they want to do with their lives and how they want things at nineteen, but nobody believes it when I say I do. I've thought about this a lot more than Buffy did."

"And you think that gives you the right to decide for me as well?"

"Well it's not like you've been jumping on the let's make a baby bandwagon. If you wanted kids, why haven't you had them by now?"

"One doesn't always have the option. And what of Giles? He's older than I am by a considerable margin and this is his first child, to the best of my knowledge."

"God, Wesley! I never thought you'd be all keep 'em barefoot and pregnant."

"I'm not! I simply feel that this is entirely too important a matter to decide on a whim."

"A whim? You think this is a whim? Well if that's what you think, buddy, you can go find somewhere else to sleep tonight!"

"You can't throw me out."

"Why the hell not?"

"The room is in my name."

"Fine. Then you can sleep on the couch, Mr. Macho Shithead!"

"All right I will!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

He grabbed the blankets off the bed leaving Cordelia with only the sheets.

"Hey!"

*****

"What the hell did you think you were doing, Spike?"

Giles whipped off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You know that Harmony is surprisingly powerful, and terribly childish, and yet you deliberately provoked her by torturing her childe."

"How I treat my family is nobody's business but mine!"

"What do you think this is? The Twelfth Century? I think we've evolved a little since then."

The Slayer shot a disgusted look at the biteless vampire.

"It doesn't work like that anymore, Spike. In fact I'm not sure it ever really did."

"Look, Peaches, just because you were Sire-whipped doesn't mean I'm not in charge of my own family."

Giles dropped his gaze to his wife.

"As fascinating as all this may be, I believe it had best wait a few hours. Buffy needs her rest and all these arguments aren't helping. I'll make sure the loft is lightproofed and you can stay there during the daylight. It's almost dawn."

He marched up the stairs to arrange matters.

Angel approached the bed.

"Sorry. I didn't really think..."

"It's okay. You're sorta a night owl. So am I usually. But Rupert's right; I need my rest. And he'll never admit it, but so does he."

"Let me know if Spike makes too much noise or anything."

"I will. And I'll get Rupert to lightproof down here before he goes to the shop in the morning. At least then I'll have some company. I thought I was gonna go crazy today by myself."

"Sleep well, Buffy."

"I will. I'll have Rupert here."

Angel tried not to be stung by her words. He nodded and started upstairs. Spike moved to Buffy's side.

"Nicely done, Slayer. Why don't you just tear his bloody heart out while you're at it?"

He too, headed upstairs.


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