The Slayer And The Witch- Chapter 13/? - Peas In A Pod

["Stefan Akerblom" <nagarek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again all.

After much (well ... Some anyway) demand, here finally is
chapter 13, Enjoy.

Stefan Akerblom
nagarek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ICQ: 156764542



The Slayer And The Witch - Stefan Akerblom - nagarek - nagarek@xxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Critique:	Yes please, but no flames (I'm flammable)
Warning:	Building to NC-17, f/f relations, possibly f/f/m
Characters:	Willow, Buffy, Xander, Anya, Giles, Tara, Angel, Dawn,
Spike,
Wes, Cordy, Oz (?), nurse Becky Chapel, nurse Erin
Lonsdale,
Main Pairing/s:	Willow & Buffy, maybe Giles/Becky/Erin - who wants to
see
that? :o) (not sure yet about Anya/Xander ... maybe)
time will
reveal all!
Disclaimer:	Joss Whedon owns all in the Buffy Universe, I have
merely played
and embellished, not claimed any rights, apart from a
couple of
nice nursies!
Brief: Buffy and Willow have both recently lost their partners,
Willow is
hospitalised and Buffy is almost paralysed with guilt
over it, both
Willow and Buffy realise how much they really mean to
each other,
they embark on a voyage of discovery and figuring out a
way to
break their new relationship to their friends while
keeping the
minions of the hellmouth from taking over. Meanwhile
solutions
present themselves which can have far reaching effects
on Buffy
and Willow's future.
Distribution:	Anyone who likes it enough to host it, just please give
me a
link to where it's hosted

Many thanks go to:
Crys Loch (pagansoul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) for answering my email, and
a lot of inspiration and much encouragement (you said just the
right
things to make me think while I channeled Willow),
Dan Spector (danspector@xxxxxxxxx) for some much needed help
with authenticity,
Casandra (jeepy91@xxxxxxx) for answering some silly and some
very
awkward questions, you're very special
Thanks also to all the other great people on BuffyWantsWillow,
you
make this worth so much to me,
and to Cairo (played at ear-splitting volume) for setting the
mood.
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Chapter 13 - Peas in a pod

"Oh God ..." Willow reached out her arms and stretched, then
looked sideways a little self-consciously "... I hurt uh ... all over
this ... morning. I think ... I might think about going back to bed
after breakfast, the uh ... climb up the stairs last night ... wow ...
that took a lot out of me!" Willow blushed and looked in Buffy's
direction,and saw her leaning on the breakfast bar, trying to cover a
grin with the back of her hand.

Xander sat on a stool leaning his head on his hand at the bar.
He had an unusually pensive face on, eyes flashing back and forth across
the bar, licking his lips and trying to come to terms. He absently spun
his half full coffee cup with his other hand, almost slopping out the
contents. Characteristically Xanderishly, without thinking, he'd sat
down in the middle chair between Willow and Buffy. Buffy looked at
Willow, disappointment obvious in her eyes and on her pouting lips.
Willow tilted her head at her and smiled, it was all right. Buffy broke
the pout and returned the smile.

"Let me get this straight ... you and Will, and ..." Xander
scratched his fingers through his tangled hair. "... explain how that
happened? Something ... something in the food maybe? How do these things
keep happening, h ... ohhh I knooowww ..." He straightened up and his
face cleared. He snapped his fingers. "... the hellmouth ... there's
obviously a curs ..." Willow interrupted.

"No Xander, not the hellmouth, it's not responsible for
everything that happens here ya know, just ... just most ... things ...
the bad things! But anyway, this is something wonderful, and ..." Xander
sighed and went back to leaning on his hand, his fingers buried in his
tousled dark brown locks. His right hand toyed again with his coffee
cup. " ... well ... how it happened is ... uh ... I was walking around,
not looking where I was going and ..."

"Aaaand ... you walked into Buffy?" his eyebrows shot up.

"No doofus, I walked in front of a car and ... well I wound up
in ..."

"Buffy's bed?"

"Xanderrrrr ... stop it! I wound up in the hospital." Xander
looked across at Dawn, who stood at the stove with her back turned to
them, tending to something sizzling in a frying pan. She didn't turn
around.

"Yeah I heard that. And that's where you two declared ... what
exactly?" He turned his eyes on Willow, who pinked and wriggled on her
stool.

"Well ... it's ... it was ... wasn't ... we didn't exactly
declare anything ... uh ... until later ... it ... it sorta just
happened ..."

"Well paint me dumb but ... the gay slayer? How does THAT
suddenly happen? I mean it's not like you'd just dumped guys is it? All
of a sudden you just thought ... hmmm ... this straight gig's just not
all it used to be ... wait a minute, I'll just go try ... girls instead
... yeah, that's an idea!" He shook his head, his eyes betraying his
confusion. "Jeeze Buff, I would have thought it more likely that ...
that you'd have tried to latch onto Giles ... or ... or maybe Spike or
something before you'd do this!" Buffy's head snapped around, her face
betraying her panic. But Xander wasn't looking at her, Willow grimaced
and cuffed Xander's shoulder.

"Euuhhh ... nothing against Giles ... but gross, Xander! And
Spike ... pfftt ... as if that'd happen ..." Willow turned to Buffy with
a crooked smirk. Buffy smiled nervously and tried to appear calm,
thinking to herself that if this conversation didn't change soon her
heart would be out there, palpitating and flopping around on the
breakfast bar. Soon she would have to tell Willow about Spike ... but
not right now, and not in front of Xander, not yet anyway. She needed
more time to get comfortable in her new life with Willow before she
could let her liaison with the blonde bloodsucker become common
knowledge ... well at least common knowledge to Willow, she was unsure
she could or should tell anyone else, she'd told Tara, who had honoured
her promise and had told no-one else. "Anyway we haven't seen goldilocks
around much lately, Giles had the lowdown on some ... lowdown demon
hanging around again, something to do with that amulet and trying to use
it to bring back Angelus. Spike was the one who told Giles about the
demon, but we haven't heard or seen him since Angel went to talk with
him."

"Uh ... yeah, I got that from what Angel said last night, about
the day that he got here. He went and had a little heart to heart, and
Spike apparently wasn't very co-operative." Willow rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, nothing's changed since you went to your uncle's, he's
still mooning around. He's just not getting over Buffy in any kinda
hurry."

"Ok, move people ... pancakes coming through, plates please."
Dawn brought over a pan with cooking hot cakes. "They're a bit shapeless
but they should taste ok." She used a spatula to move the pancakes onto
three plates. "You sure you don't want some Xan, there's still a little
mix left?" Xander seemed to consider this deeply for a whole second.
then his brow cleared and he smiled at Dawn.

"You talked me into it ... darn you're a persuasive girl!" Dawn
grinned back.

"Take one of the plates, I'll make mine from this." Never one to
let free food go to waste, Xander almost leapt forward on the bar and
pulled the plate in front of himself, Buffy passed him a plastic bottle
of maple syrup that she had been using on her own pancakes. Xander
squirted a generous helping on his own cakes and passed the bottle to
Willow. Grabbing a knife and fork from the pile on the bar top, he began
shovelling food in his mouth, and using the fork as a pointer he stabbed
it towards Willow while looking at Buffy, his voice muffled by the wad
of pancake in his mouth.

"I'd have thought nothing of it because of Willow and ... uh
..." He eyed Willow nervously "... Tara, but this ..." He noticed Willow
didn't react negatively when the blonde witch's name was mentioned which
was contrary to how she had been behaving up until recently, so
shrugging his shoulders he bent to carving off another piece of pancake
and stuffing it into his mouth. Buffy just sat silently and ate, letting
Willow take the lead. "You Buffy ... this is something I wouldn't have
expected in my wildest fa ... uh ... well in my ... my dreams ...
anyway." Embarrassed, he realised what he'd almost said and looked down
suddenly, concentrating on his pancakes, Buffy looked up at him and
chewed silently. Willow swallowed her mouthful.

"Well Xander, do you have a problem with it ... cos if you do
... Buffy wanted me to tell you about all this, and I agreed to do it
cos we've known each other the longest ..." Willow began and broke off,
licking her lips appreciatively. "Mmm ... Dawn, this is really scrummy!"
Dawn turned and smiled at Willow.

"NO ... no ... no! No ... problem ... not ... well, not a
problem as such ... I'm just ... a bit ... well no, more like a LOT ...
surprised, that's all. I always thought with Captain Body of the
Infiltrators and Angel of the Stony Grim there, that you were so
completely straight and ... you know ... like something ... completely
straight ... in the non-bendy sort of way. I'd never have picked you as
... uh ... well ... gay." Xander looked a little uncomfortable with the
word. Buffy put down her knife and fork and drank from her coffee before
she looked up.

"Well I never would have picked it either Xan, a ... and to tell
the truth, I honestly don't know if what I am ... we ... what we are, is
... gay." She looked at Willow who just looked back at her and smiled as
she chewed. "But like Will said, it just ... sorta happened ... there we
were ... and ... and there it was, like ... like out of the blue ...
sorta ... kinda ... it just happened, and now h ... here we are. A ...
anyway I just knew ... somehow, that this was right." Xander looked like
he had something on his mind and was trying to find a way either to say
it or not to say it. "Xander, as one of our best friends in the world,
we hoped you'd be able to come to terms and ... well accept ... even if
... if you didn't exactly ... approve or whatever. But then, this is
Willow and me, and if it comes to that, we don't need anyone's approval.
We want this ... and this is how it will be, and that's all there is to
that." Xander looked up at Buffy. "Either you'll accept this and still
love us for who we are and who we've always been ... or you won't!
Simple, right?" Xander looked at Buffy earnestly and sighed. He took a
deep breath.

"Buffy, I accept and approve of anything you do ... well ...
almost anything, some of the ... well ... most things anyway, I accept
... most things you do. If you want or need my blessing in this ..." he
put his right hand holding the fork on his chest "... then you have my
blessing. Hey ... I love you guys, you know that, and you know I'd do
anything for you ..." a look of resignation came over his features. "...
and ... anything you want is ok by me. Anyway even if I wanted to, I'd
have no right to protest about anything you decide, it's your life, and
you should do what's right for you ... after all, I'm doing the same ...
with Anya." I hope, he thought to himself, the next time it'll work for
us too. He put the knife on the plate after gathering up the last bits
of pancake onto his fork. "I'm just a bit stunned, that's all, call it
... a ... a straight guy thing, I just think it's a ..." he looked from
Buffy to Willow apologetically. "... a waste ... and I can't help
feeling that way. It's sexist, it's macho crap, and it's the way I am. I
look at you two, and you know how I really ... REALLY feel about you
both, and I think to myself that if things had been a little diff ..."
he sighed again and looked away licking his lips nervously, gathered
himself, then looked back, the Xander grin back in place. " But hey ...
I'll get over it!" He shovelled the forkfull into his mouth and chewed
vigorously and stood up. He bent over and gave Willow a soft careful hug
around the shoulders, then turned around to Buffy's side, and gave her a
tight hard emotional embrace.

"Thanks Xander ... it really means a lot." Buffy looked up at
him, he looked down into her eyes and nodded, his mouth smiled, but his
eyes held a look of sad resolve.

"And by the way .... I agree with Willow, great pancakes Dawnie,
extra vanilla in the mix huh? You're a pretty cool chef ya know!" Dawn
turned to Xander and beamed a big smile at him. "You should get a job
down at the Doublemeat ..." Dawn stuck out the spatula threateningly at
him, eyes casting daggers.

"DON'T ... pleeease ... don't ... even ... go there Xander ...
if I never see another one of those burgers again, it'll still be twenty
minutes too soon!" Xander held his hands up before him.

"Hey ... I'm backing up here, peacefully ... quietly ... I meant
it as a compliment, you should go down there and teach them ..." Dawn
rolled her eyes and turned back to continue cooking and Xander sat back
down. Willow grinned at Xander while Buffy just continued eathing
silently. Xander held his hands out, shrugging his shoulders. "What? All
I said was ... WHAT? There's pseudo-meaty goodness and splendour in
those pre-masticated and wholly cholesterol reduced, re-modified and
regurgitated vege-burgers! But they need a personality transplant for
most of the people down there, and Dawn could ..." The wall phone rang
and interrupted Xander's rambling. Buffy got off her stool to answer it.

"Hello ... uh yeah ... right ... when? Anything? No ... oh ...
ok, we'll be over shortly but it might take a while, Willow's still a
bit sore and can't ... yeah ... right ... that's right, ok ... ok, well
see you soon then." Buffy hung up the phone. "That was Giles, Angel went
out looking for the Van Dien crypt last night and it had already been
broken into. So it looks like Spike or that demon has already found the
amulet if it was there. I'm hoping it's Spike, but we won't know for
sure until he checks in. If he doesn't turn up after sundown, I'll go
patrolling tonight and see if I can find him. Can you drive us to the
Box after breakfast? My car's not the best thing for Willow to be
climbing in and out of right now." She referred to the Jeep left by her
mother.

"Surely ... I have to report in anyway ... sort of ..." he
shrugged and grinned "... penance, I suppose, she doesn't let me out of
her ... uh ... the Harris express delivery service is at your command."
he bowed awkwardly sideways and almost fell off the stool. Feeling a
little foolish he grinned sheepishly, sat upright and continued
finishing his coffee.

---------------------------------

The clothes lay on the table, long black leather jacket, boots,
a red silk shirt, black undershirt and a black pair of jeans.

"I found these outside the Van Dien crypt. They ... they're the
clothes Spike had on the day I ... spoke with him." Angel looked at the
clothes, his eyes clouded and the look on his face was indecipherable.
All of them remained silent for many minutes. Giles paced the floor,
Anya leaned up against the shop counter with Xander standing behind her
holding her around the waist, Buffy and Willow sat at the table with
Angel and Wes, Dawn stood in the center of the shop floor looking at the
pile of clothes, her hands clutching a leather thonged necklace around
her neck and her eyes misted and red rimmed.

"I ... it looks like he's ... there ... ah ... there was no
other signs, just a big scorch mark on the grass and these lying
nearby." Angel licked his lips and blinked. Dawn walked up to the table,
and took one of the red shirt cuffs between her fingertips, rubbing the
silky fabric and feeling the texture, a silent tear falling down her
reddened cheek. Everyone could see she was affected badly by this new
development. Spike had protected Dawn after Buffy's death and had always
been there for support, when nobody else had been. "I've been through
the pockets and there was nothing that could tell us anything." He
didn't need to add that there had been no amulet.

"So ... scorch mark ... does ... did it look like he was ... um
..." Buffy couldn't bring herself to say it. Angel considered her
statement then looked up from the clothes, his eyes betrayed nothing.

"Dusted? No ... I don't think so, there seemed to be no sign of
that, more like he was blasted by some kind of energy, there was a
manshaped blast pattern on the ground. It looks like the demon took him
out some other way, probably supernatural." Willow sat quietly and
stared at the table, she spoke after a few seconds.

"I ... I didn't ... even after knowing him this long, I didn't
even know his last name ..." Angel cleared his throat.

"Windsor. His last name was ... Windsor I think ... he told me a
long time ago, just after ... Drusilla made him her childe." Giles
stopped in his tracks and spun on his heel.

"Windsor ... as in the house of Windsor ... Windsor?" he removed
his glasses and brought out the handkerchief, his brow crinkled in
amazement. Angel looked at him with a vacant stare.

"Yeah ... I think he was ... uh ... an earl ... the earl of ...
um ... Glaston ... something ... I'm not really up on that whole English
Royalty thing, but he ..."

"He's ... he was related to the Queen's family?" Giles put the
glasses back and considered Angel critically.

"Yeah ... I vaguely recall that from somewhere ... but that was
a long time ago. And time does cloud some memories, even for vampires."
Giles wandered off and stood leaning against a bookshelf, face pensive,
hands in his pockets.

"My god ... no wonder the council was mortified when I told them
about Spike coming to Sunnydale, they even warned me off him, not to
attempt killing him. They would never go into detail about their
reasons, and now I begin to see why." Anya broke away from Xander and
walked into the middle of the floor, hands spread wide and an
exasperated look on her face.

"Well why are we all moping around acting like we're all so sad?
Spike was annoying at the best of times, I for one thought that as a
demon, he was pretty lame, I should think we'd all be glad he was gone."
Xander crooked his finger and drew Anya back behind the counter.

"Well ... normally I'd be the first to agree with you Anya my
sweet, especially about the bleached one ... but as he pointed out a
number of times. Spike DID help us a lot ... and in a weird, enemy sort
of way, he was a friend." Anya just looked at him incredulously, and
shook her head.

"I really don't understand humans and I can see that I never
really will. You kill vampires for a living, then you make friends with
a vampire who has tried to kill us all any number of times, then you
carry on like he's the best friend you ever had when someone else does
us a favour and bumps him off for us!" Dawn finally broke her silence,
tears coursing down her cheeks, she stamped her foot and bleated out.

"How can you all just talk so calmly about this like it doesn't
matter? Spike's DEAD ... and he was ... m ... my friend ... he was our
friend ... to all of us ... and we owe our lives to him, we owe him so
much. He's saved us all so many times ... a ... and now he's gone ..."
She cast her eyes down miserably to the red silk shirt, her voice
sinking to a whisper. "... he's gone." Buffy walked over to her and
tried to hold her, but Dawn tore herself free from Buffy's grasp and
stepped away angrily, crossing her arms in defiance. Sensing the
futility of the gesture, Buffy didn't attempt to hold her again, instead
she just spoke quietly.

"Dawn, please calm down. Everybody ... nearly everybody is upset
about this, but what can we do? We have to assume he's gone, it's not
like Spike would have ... ta ... taken his clothes ... off with ...
without a good reason ..." Buffy looked around awkwardly "... and once
he's killed, it's the final death for a vampire, the demon inside him is
cast back into hell." Dawn turned and glared.

"But Angel came back! H ... he went to hell and came back."
Angel licked his lips and sat up straighter.

"Yeah Dawn, but Buffy didn't actually ... kill me with a stake
or with magic, she ... uh ... used a sword on me and ... ran it through
my heart." Angel looked very uncomfortable talking about what had
happened to him, Buffy looked pained at the memory of what she had done.
"I never actually died, and I was back to ... normal, I ... I had my
soul back, Spike doesn't have a human soul any more, that part was
released when the demon killed him and took his body." Dawn turned to
Angel, her face drawn in sorrow, her red eyes imploring.

"You don't know that, h ... he ... he's helped us so ... ho ...
much and he's protected us and ... you're just using that as an excuse
because you all hate him." Giles strode over and stood before Dawn,
looking down at her and speaking softly.

Dawn, Spike did have a spirit, but it's not the same as a soul,
it's an evil energy entity, the complete antithesis of what it means to
have a soul. What inhabited Spike's body for the last hundred and twenty
odd years was a being from a hell dimension." Dawn looked like she would
collapse at any time, her tears coursed relentlessly down her cheeks.

"Well ... uh ... Bu ... Buffy died too, and that was
supernatural, you brought her ... she ... she came back ... she ..."
Willow took Dawn's hand from where she sat, her fingers stroking it
gently, her eyes wide and sad.

"Dawnie, everything Spike was ... everything he had been since
the time he was turned into a vampire, that part is gone. The demon soul
was sent back to the hell dimension it came from. Even if we could
somehow get his body back, it wouldn't be the same Spike. The Spike you
knew is gone." Giles nodded and walked across the floor, again removing
the handkerchief from his pocket and absently rubbing it across the
lenses of his glasses. Dawn collapsed into one of the chairs, and just
sat and cried miserably, her quiet sobs punctuating the awkward
stillness in the room. Giles attempted to steer the group to more
fruitful thoughts..

"If the demon has killed him, then whatever spell or power he
used only affected Spike's body, it left his clothes intact, there's not
even a scorch mark anywhere and that's surprising considering he was a
smoker ..." he considered the oddness of his words for a moment "... a
smoking ... alcohol drinking vampire ... ye gods ..."

"Kinda like a neutron bomb for demons ... you know, kill the
inhabitants but leave the houses intact!" Xander quipped, drawing
curious looks from the crew, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to
holding Anya's waist. Buffy walked across to the table and looked down
at the clothes. She touched the pants absently, running her fingers
across the denim, feeling the texture of the cloth and the rivets, her
fingers toyed absently with the zipper.

"And that probably means the demon has whatever it was that
Spike found in the crypt, possibly the amulet." Angel looked up and
stared around from face to face, finally settling on Wes. Licking his
lips he spoke in a quiet voice.

"And that means you're all in a lot of danger, if ... if he
releases the curse and ..." Buffy interrupted him.

"Can he do this anytime he wants, does it need some special time
for this ritual to happen?" Giles put his handkerchief back in his
pocket and put his glasses back on.

"Only to return control of his soul back to Angel, that requires
a power day, a solstice or the equivalent, Angelus can be released any
time the demon chooses, simply by destroying the amulet." Angel again
raised the issue.

"And that makes me a great danger to you all. Giles, have you
got anywhere secure you could lock me up just in case ..." Giles pointed
at the door to the cellar.

"I ... I only have a ring in the cellar floor, strong enough to
put a chain through ..." he looked apologetic "... but no secure room
where you could stay, sorry. H ... however, that should both shelter you
from the sun and effectively bind you. We'll move some furniture in
there to make it as comfortable as possible." Angel looked at Buffy who
eyed him with a sad expression, then at Wes who just nodded and tried to
look supportive. Angel looked apprehensive, obviously uncomfortable with
the idea of being shackled again. Giles stared at the clothes on the
table. Wes spoke quietly.

"I'd better call Cordy and tell her we'll be a while longer ...
I'll just leave out the bit about you possibly becoming ... a ... and
the chains ... for now ..." Angel nodded again and looking at Buffy,
gestured for her to come to his side. As Giles continued speaking, Angel
whispered something to Buffy. Her face blanched and she turned white as
a sheet, she looked down at Angel, a horrified expression on her face,
he seemed to re-iterate something, his hand reaching out to rest on top
of hers, she clutched at his hand spasmodically. After a while of
listening to his words, she reluctantly nodded in affirmation, and
dropping his hand, she turned to listen to Giles who was completely
oblivious to her conversation with Angel. Her pale and drawn face still
bore a look bordering on panic.

"I am extremely concerned about this demon's power, if it was
able to catch Spike off guard and then destroy him with either a spell
or something magically powered ..." Angel shook his head.

"Spike didn't seem to be that tough ... or ... or smart, when we
spoke ... he just did his usual thing and tried to bluff. I think we can
pretty much assume he was taken fairly easily. So you all just have to
be on your guard and not let each other down, you must protect each
other's backs."

"Quite. Angel's correct, we have to be on the lookout for this
demon, and not let our guard down. I'll help you settle into the cellar
a little later Angel. Hopefully Thassoq is pre-occupied for now or
resting, it's still broad daylight and he's a night creature. I for one
am going to spend a little time researching Spike afresh, now that I
have this new information about his past. I've run out of ideas about
Thassoq. I'd like you all to join me and try to find something in the
books." Buffy looked at him with concern etched across her features, her
eyes manic and casting about as if to find something.

"GILES! Shouldn't we be out looking for this guy, not sitting
here on our hands reading books? W ... who knows what he's up to ...
shouldn't we be trying to comb the city or something? I ... I just can't
sit around here studying when I know that at any moment Angel could ..."
she broke off, not wanting to say what everyone was thinking. Giles
turned and looked at her, his calmest exterior on show.

"You propose tramping about all the cemeteries in Sunnydale I
suppose? And then what, all of the hotels? And then all the bars and the
poolhalls, few of them as there are, but then what, maybe the sewers? Do
you even know where he would be, where he could be?" She looked up at
him, her eyes imploring him to help her, but he missed the cue of her
emotions, he didn't see her panic for what it was. "Buffy he could be
anywhere." Buffy shut her eyes and shook her head, throwing her hands in
the air.

"Giles, for Pete's sake, I can't just sit here and do absolutely
nothing!" she turned back to him, her eyes pleading "Please ... I have
to do something ..." Giles began to show irritation with Buffy's
apparently irrational outbursts, his own temperament seemingly shorter
than normal.

"Then sit down and have a cup of coffee and help us look for
clues within the books. I ... I have drawn a blank with Thassoq and I
have no idea where to find him, maybe ... maybe your viewpoints could
shed some new light on things, where I can't see anything any more
because I'm staring myself blind." Buffy stood and tried to continue the
argument, but Giles turned away and walked off. She gave out a final
sigh of resignation, looked at Giles' back as he bent over the table
stacked high with research books, and with a final look of despair she
slunk off off to the kitchen. The conversations and plans continued as
Buffy worked in the kitchen, making coffee and tea for everyone. In
frustration she banged and clattered cups and spoons and jar lids,
spilling things on the counter top and raging. Her mood did not go
un-noticed.

Limping slowly, Willow hobbled into the kitchen to stand behind
the Slayer. She spoke softly so only Buffy could hear.

"Hey ... you ok? What did he ... what did Angel say ... to you?
I saw the look you gave him in there." Buffy turned and looked at
Willow, an odd mixture of expressions on her face, sadness and resolve
and somehow an utter calmness, all of which began breaking into jagged
shards of despair. Her lips pulled down into a deep frown. She turned
back and cast her eyes down at the cups and spoons and closed them
tightly for a moment, then opened them again. Willow limped around to
stand beside her, trying to be there to comfort her, to understand what
Buffy was raging at.

"He ... uhhn ..." she cleared her throat and swallowed a hard
lump, her cracking voice betraying her emotions "... uhm ... h ... he
made me promise ..." she looked up to Willow, her eyes glazing over with
tears "... made me promise th ... that if ..." she closed her eyes
tightly and tried to stop the tears but they just pushed past her closed
eyelids, her bottom lip quaking with anguish "... udhh ... that if he tu
... turned ... that I be the one to ... to kill him, to stake him this
time, to ... to make sure Angelus can never return again."

--------------------------------

"With this new information about Spike, I was able to do some
more research." Giles walked over and leaned against a bookshelf,
holding an old moldering leatherbound book open in his hand while his
finger traced words down the page. "It seems our blonde friend was
indeed the eleventh earl of Glastonshire, an honorific bestowed upon him
after his father's death, he inherited the title, he was also the
Viscount of Mar, there's quite a lengthy list of titles he seems to
possess ownership of. But more to the point, he was also linked to the
house of the Hapsburgs, the royal German family, and through them, there
is a link to the Boyars of Slovenia, but of far more interest, the royal
house of Leopold Romalkovitch of Rumania and Ruritania. I have
ascertained Spike was directly or indirectly linked through almost every
major royal family throughout all of Europe." He looked up with
incredulity written in his eyes. "Spike was indeed of a most noble
lineage. Now according to this, Duke Vladislas Romalkovitch, a nobleman
of Gypsy origin, was one of the people responsible for setting the curse
upon you in the first place, it was his step-daughter that Angelus
killed. There are all sorts of incestuous little loops throughout
history that bind Angelus and Spike together, almost as if the fates had
decreed they would meet and be inextricably linked. Vladislas had a
Gypsy bastard half-brother who Angelus supposedly tried to kill, but was
unable to because the fellow was too strong, a veritable giant of a man
..." Angel licked his lips and snapped his fingers.

"I vaguely remember this, Spike had convinced me there was a
Romany witch he knew about from his travels to Rumania as a mortal ...
as the earl. The high priestess of the Kalaari I think, the ones you
know of now as the Kalderash. she had the ability to cast a spell on us
so we'd be able to walk in the sun, which was one of the reasons why we
were in Rumania. That's where we met this guy, we'd made it to the
outskirts of their encampment in the middle of the night, and this guy
came up to us. He was huge, big as a grizzly and carrying a big double
headed wood chopping axe. He knew we were vampires. I tried to bite him
but he was just too strong, he nearly took my head off with the axe and
then threw me across the field as if I was a toy. Spike leapt up on his
back while he was distracted with Darla, Dru and me. And he finally did
it, Spike killed him ... I know of the guy ... but I just can't remember
a name ..."

"His name, according to this book was Kolya Scorczenyi, and he
was indeed killed by Spike, the gypsies tried to cleanse his spirit
afterwards but failed, I believe Spike infected this Scorczenyi fellow
as they fought and turned him, Spike was probably wounded and
accidentally or intentionally bled into the chap's mouth as they fought.
The history says the body was stolen in the night, but I believe it
simply got up and walked away. Whatever is the case, he was never seen
again, or if he was, apparently never in the company of Spike or anyone
else the Council knew about, and certainly he never drew untoward
attention to himself. Unusual really for a vampire, but considering the
man was supposed to be as big as a draft horse, he'd do well to keep a
low profile, otherwise he'd be too easy to spot throughout the years."

"Well all I know is that Spike took off shortly after that, the
plan for the spell now out the window with the gypsies attacking in
numbers, they tracked Dru and Spike but Darla and I got away somehow
without the gypsies discovering us. We stayed in Rumania for a while
after that, but one day Darla ... she ... gave the gypsy girl to ... me
... as a ... a ... gift." he looked down at his feet uncomfortably. A
brass bell sounded it's peal at the front of the shop. Giles stepped
away from the bookshelf he'd been leaning against, and placing the book
on the table on top of Spike's clothing, he walked to the front door, to
be greeted by a familiar face.

"Why ... hello nur ... Becky ... miss Chapel ... how nice to see
you ... uh ... ah ... can I help you?"

"Well hi, I just knew I recognised you in the hospital ... Mr
Giles ... I remembered I'd seen you somewhere before, and now I know I
was right. I've been in once or twice."

"Call me Rupert ... please."

"Ok then ... Rupert, and it's Becky, not nurse or miss Chapel,
just Becky." She smiled at him with wide eyes that betrayed much that
made him feel a little uncomfortable. He smiled nervously back at her
and looked around her eyes, finding it difficult to settle on them for
any length of time. Becky continued. "I'd been this way several times
and seen the shop ... and well I thought I remembered seeing you, when
you came to the hospital. Looks like I was right."

"Really? Well then indeed you were correct, although I cannot
place you coming in, but I suppose maybe Anya was serving at the time.
Is ... is there something I can be of assistance with?" He removed his
glasses and pulled out the crumpled handkerchief, giving him an excuse
to stare down at his hands.

"Yes, there was someone else serving, I bought some candles
here, and a blonde girl served me. Well anyway, that's not why I'm here
now. Before I say anything though, I want to wait for my partner, Erin,
this concerns her. She's just parking the car up at the K-mart ...
there's not much space outside in the street right now. She'll be here
shortly." Giles replaced the glasses and pocketed the handkerchief, he
looked up briefly into her eyes and gave her a look of understanding.

"I see ... well then perhaps you will permit me to introduce you
to the rest of the people here." Giles led Becky back towards the rear
of the shop. "Becky, this is ... Angel and Wesley, uh ... friends from
Los Angeles down for a visit, this is Dawn, Buffy's sister, Anya and
Xander over there behind the counter, and the rest you know of course.
This is nurse Chap ... um ... Becky, she looked after Willow so well
while she was convalescing." Hello's were exchanged all around, and the
brass bell rang from the front of the shop again. Becky spread her hands
and looked around at the group before her.

"I realise this may seem a little weird as a request, but I have
something I wish you to see before I say anything else, something which
amazed me no end when I was in the hospital tending to Willow. And after
that I have come to seek your assistance and ... your help. I believe I
... we ... have a problem, Erin and I, a ... and maybe you too, we all
may be in a lot of trouble. And I'm at my wits end what to do about it.
L ... let me get her." She gave Willow a quick look and a nervous smile,
then turned away and walked to the front of the shop. Looks of surprise
and confusion were cast from face to face while Becky walked away. Soon
enough she returned with her partner. Becky looked nervously around the
room. The entire Scooby gang almost as a whole, rose from chairs or
stood upright, eyes goggled and there were gasps of utter amazement.
Becky was quite athletic and tall, almost the same height as Angel and
today she was dressed in a tee shirt and training pants with jogging
shoes, but Erin was dressed in a short skirt with black stockings, a
fleecy top of cream wool and plain white sandshoes. she was shorter than
Becky by several inches, quite slender, very pale with a light dusting
of freckles covering almost every visible inch of her skin, eyes of a
deep and very vivid emerald green. She had a mane of magnificent
chestnut red hair, almost the same length but perfectly identical in
colour to Willow's. To all outward appearences, Willow and Erin could
have been un-identical twin sisters. The only person apparently not
completely dumbfounded by all of this was Willow, who just sat calmly
and quietly while everyone else stared back and forth between Willow and
Erin.

"Everybody ... I'd like to introduce you to my wife, Erin." Erin
smiled sweetly, looked nervously around the room at all the wide open
eyes and gave a tight, quick little Willow'esque wave of her hand.

A pin could be heard dropping somewhere, possibly it came from
the haberdashery store across the road.

Continued in Chapter 14 - Who put the mo in mojo?