His Childe

Chapter 43 - Research

At last, it was closing time for the Magic Box. The day had been long and nerve-wrecking for Buffy. It had started with Spike’s little announcement about his chip. It had grown even worse with Warren and his rampage. Even if bullets couldn’t kill her, Buffy sincerely hoped not to encounter one again any time soon, or even ever. The experience had been unpleasant to say the least. Thankfully, the events had gone slightly better after that. Willow and Tara had healed her and Spike, before solving the problem that was Warren with a nifty little memory spell. Then they had called the police, and made up a nice story about Warren breaking into the house. Dawn had come home from school just as the police was leaving, which had given her a slight panic episode. Even now, a few hours after the fact, she still seemed a little pale.

As Anya locked the door behind the last customer, Buffy’s gaze traveled around the room. Dawn was sitting on the ladder, listening as Willow was retelling for Xander’s benefit what had happened earlier. Anya had already heard most of it when the Witches came for supplies. A bit puzzled, Buffy noticed that only herself, Spike and Anya were actually sitting around the table. Willow and Xander were perched up on the counter, and Tara was standing next to them. Abruptly she realized why her friends were avoiding the table, and she felt a new wave of satisfaction run through her at the idea that the nerds were locked away. No more messing up with her life…

“And so the mighty Scoobies have defeated one… errr, three more Big Bads!” Xander said cheerfully.

“Oh please,” Spike snorted, “more like three big idiots!”

The two men bickered back and forth, like they always did, but the quips weren’t meant to hurt as they used to be. They hadn’t been after each other’s throats since the happy couple had returned from their honeymoon, and not for the first time Buffy wondered what could have happened to change things between Xander and Spike. Right after she had been turned, Xander had been adamant about Spike deserving to be staked. And now, it seemed like the farthest thing in his mind.

“The bad guys are in jail,” Anya interrupted the banter, “so why are you all here?”

All eyes turned to Buffy. She had been the one to request that everyone gather at the Magic Box. It was time to tell them why.

“I called a research meeting to… actually, to help a demon instead of killing one, for a change.”

She took a deep breath before continuing, human habits were hard to break, and reached for Spike’s hand. He had agreed to ask the Scoobies for help, but he had also made it clear that he didn’t expect much from them.

“We need to find a way to de-chip Spike,” Buffy said slowly, enunciating each word clearly.

Five pairs of eyes looked at her with surprise. Xander was the first to find his voice back.

“Uh, Buffster. Are we sure we want to do that?”

The faintest smirk appeared on Spike’s lips, and Buffy was sure she knew exactly what he was thinking. It hadn’t taken much time for Xander’s natural mistrust to resurface. But then, the same Xander said something completely unexpected that made both Buffy and Spike stare at him incredulously.

“As dead as the bleached evil is, messing with his brain can’t be that good.”

There was a pause, then Spike shifted his focus to Willow and asked:

“Red, can you magic the bloody thing out of my head? Like you did for the bullet in the Slayer’s chest?”

Absently, Buffy rubbed the spot on her chest that was still a little tender. Spike had said the scar would fade, but she would never forget that particular wound, inflicted not by a demon but by a human.

Willow shook her head and her voice sounded contrite when she answered Spike’s question.

“There was an open way for the bullet to come out. If I do the same thing for you, the chip could rip through your brain really badly.”

Spike only nodded, but Buffy could guess his disappointment.

“We can look for another spell,” Tara suggested almost immediately.

“Or we can try to find a doctor demon or something like that,” Dawn chimed in.

After only a couple of minutes, everyone was around the table, and various books were being researched for any relevant information. Buffy noticed that Spike was the only one who wasn’t actually reading, and he certainly looked as baffled as she felt.

“Wait a minute you all,” he said after a while, his voice raucous. “No one has any objection about me being able to hurt and kill humans again?”

Looks were exchanged around the table, and finally Anya asked:

“You’re not going to, are you? Kill humans again, I mean.”

Everybody looked expectant, but at the same time the Scoobies seemed to already know the answer to that question.

“No, I’m not going to,” Spike mumbled at last

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his duster, and Buffy could almost have sworn his hands were shaking. Both she and Anya gave him a disapproving look as he was about to light his cigarette, and he rolled his eyes at them before striding to the backroom.

As the door closed on him, Buffy cleared her voice, bringing everybody’s attention back to her.

“You all really mean it?” she asked quietly. “You really trust him?”

Dawn answered first, with an almost exasperated “Of course!”. Tara simply nodded, Anya shrugged.

“I can’t deny there’s a little voice in my head that says it’s a bad idea,” Xander said slowly. “But there’s that other voice that says, Spike has been working with us for so long, even when we all treated him like a thing. Why would he throw everything away now that we treat him like a Scooby?”

Willow nodded, agreeing with Xander’s words.

“And we could still give him a soul if he looks like he’s going to… uh… slip,” she said thoughtfully. “Or even, we could give him one right away.”

Buffy considered the idea carefully. A soul… Spike with a soul… It sounded weird, really. For a second, she wondered what he would be like, whether he would be the same Spike or become William the bloody poet as he had been when he was human, or maybe even someone completely different. No way to tell, really. And one thing was sure, she wasn’t willing to risk losing the man she loved, not after admitting to him she trusted him.

“He doesn’t need a soul,” she said after a moment, realizing that they were all waiting for her to say something. “I have one, that’s enough for the two of us.”

Spike closed the door behind him and leaned against it, finally lighting his fag. Of course not, his hands were not shaking. Why would they? Why would he care that the bloody Scoobies were looking for a way to take the chip out of his brain?

He took a long drag on the cigarette, his head coming to rest against the door. He could hear them talking. They did trust him, it wasn’t just an act they had pulled up while he was there. Even the Whelp. Even Red…

His eyes narrowed when he heard her propose to give him a soul. They wouldn’t dare, would they? They wouldn’t turn him into a bleeding nancy boy without even asking his opinion, right? He didn’t want a soul. He didn’t need a soul. William was still inside him, had always been. Not strong enough to fight the demon, but he was there…

She said no. His Slayer had said no to giving him a soul. If at all possible, he loved her even more for it.

He had finished the cigarette already, but he couldn’t go back there yet, he needed to calm some more before that. Sitting on the floor, he pulled out another cig. Who was he kidding… He didn’t need a soul to turn into a nancy boy. He just needed a bunch of humans to treat him like one of them.

After several hours, the research had yielded no result, and everyone was losing hope. There didn’t seem to be any spell to remove a foreign object from a brain without damage, and it didn’t seem like there was any demon out there whose hobby was to play doctor. Angrily, Buffy closed the book she had been going through, the loud noise startling all the Sccobies.

“It’s useless,” she said with irritation. “We’re not going to find the answer in these books.”

She eyed Willow’s laptop, and completed her rant:

“Or on the Internet.”

They all looked tired and discouraged, even Spike. Yet, Dawn tried to sound cheerful when she said:

“We can’t give up! We’ll just have to find more books.”

“It might have helped if Giles hadn’t taken some books back to England, “Anya commented with a touch of resentment. “He said they were his, but…”

“Giles! That’s it!”

At her exclamation, all gazes turned to Willow.

“He has tons of books,” she said brightly, “but he can also ask the Council. Maybe they would know how to help…”

She stopped, realizing what she was saying. It was very unlikely that the Council of Watchers was going to do anything at all to help the Vampire that had slain two Slayers.

“Well, maybe Giles at least could help,” she said, not sounding at all convinced.

“We’ll just try,” Buffy said with a sigh, though she doubted that her Watcher would give even the time of day to Spike. Then again, she had thought the same things about the Scoobies just a few hours before.

“Hi Giles!”

A grunt was the only answer, and Buffy wondered whether she had made a mistake while dialing.

“Giles?”

“Buffy, do you know what time it is on this side of the Atlantic?”

Buffy grimaced, realizing that in her haste she had forgotten about the time difference.

“Sorry, I forgot.”

Giles sighed, and Buffy could picture him pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Well, I guess you want to know about the Council? I’m surprised you didn’t call sooner, by the way. I explained the situation to them. I think they understood it would be a very bad idea to try anything against you.”

“Oh, good. But that’s not what I’m calling about…”

She hesitated, suddenly sure that this was a stupid idea. He was either going to yell, or get a cardiac arrest.

“Buffy? Could you go on with it so I can go back to sleep?”

“Oh, yes, sorry. We’ve been trying to figure out a way for Spike to get rid of the chip and we have found nothing, and we thought maybe you would know of someone or something to help.”

Silence. Deep, ominous silence.

“Giles? You’re still there?”

“Yes I am. But could you repeat what you said? I thought I heard you say you wanted Spike to be chip free, and of course…”

“That’s exactly what I said, Giles.”

“Oh.”

Again, silence.

“You realize that without the chip he will be able to kill humans.”

“Yes Giles, I know. But we all believe he won’t.”

“Who is ‘we all’?”

“All the Scoobies.”

“All the Scoobies,” Giles repeated, bemused.

“Are you going to help us?”

Long silence. His silences were so much worse when she couldn’t see Giles face. No hint of what he was thinking, no way to know what he would decide until he actually voiced it.

“I do not know if I will find anything,” he said at last, sounding tired. “But I will research the matter.”

Buffy let out a big sigh, and gave a thumb up at her friends still gathered around the table. Spike arched an eyebrow at her, probably not believing that Giles would even accept to help.

“Thank you so much, Giles!”

“Yes, well, I don’t promise anything. I’ll let you know. Oh, and Buffy, I’ll be the one calling next time, alright?”