38. Lulled
“Good
Lord, Buffy!” Giles objected with an outraged gasp, stepping forward to
stare down at the fallen form of the unconscious little redhead. “Was
that really necessary? She was fully under control.”
“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, gazing down at Willow with grim determination on
her face. “But for how long?”
“What?” Jenny asked with a frown of confusion. “What are you talking
about?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Buffy informed them, her eyes still focused on
Willow. “Right now…we need to get these two restrained.”
“I hardly see how that’s necessary now that you’ve knocked her…”
“*Giles*!” Buffy snapped, cutting off the Watcher with a tone that she
had never taken with him before.
The older man stared at her in stunned amazement, waiting for her to go
on.
Buffy let out a heavy sigh, raising a hand to her forehead as she
relented, “I’m sorry. It’s just…could you just trust me on this one? I
don’t want to…to say it right now. I’ll tell you later. Just go with me
on this for the moment.”
Giles was quiet for a moment, taking in the tense lines of her
expression, and the solemn certainty in her eyes. “All right, Buffy,”
he conceded at last. “What do you need us to do?”
“Do you have any shackles strong enough to hold a vampire?”
“I believe I do,” Giles replied, a bit taken aback by the question, yet
moving toward his weapons chest in search of the requested item.
“Just…one moment…”
“We could always just knock him unconscious as well,” Spike suggested
in a low, teasing tone of voice that brought a smile to Buffy’s face in
spite of herself, as he edged in near so that only she heard his words.
“Well, you know,” she shrugged. “We could do that anyway. Probably
will.”
Spike laughed as Giles returned holding two sets of shackles. “These
will do. Not only are they made of the strongest iron, but they’re also
treated with powerful magicks. Only the one who fastens them can unlock
them.”
Buffy frowned thoughtfully. “Even if the person wearing them has some
pretty strong mojo going for them, too?”
“Even then,” Giles assured her. “It’s a very powerful spell.”
“Great.” Buffy nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s get these two chained up
and out of the way somewhere until we can get to the Magic Shop. I
don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted.”
Miss Calendar gave her a sympathetic nod. “It’s been a long night for
everyone. We all could do with some rest.”
“As much as I agree with your sentiments,” Giles pointed out
cautiously. “Chained and unconscious or not, we must not leave Angel
and Willow unattended. They’re both quite clever, especially Willow,
and by all accounts she has a level of magical power at this point that
is truly frightening. Someone will need to keep a watch…”
“I’ll do it,” Spike offered without hesitation.
The room fell silent as the Watcher gave him a dubious look.
“Very well, then,” Giles finally replied, a cool note of sarcasm in his
voice. “Spike’s watching them. Who’s watching Spike?”
“If you haven’t bloody well figured it out by now, you pillock, I’m on
your *side*!” Spike fairly snarled in frustration. “I’m not out to
drain the lot of you in your sleep. I’m trying to keep the piss poor
future we *all* have ahead of us from happening! I’m trying to *help*
you, but if you’d rather stay here on your own with them…”
“I’d rather Buffy stayed,” Giles cut him off dismissively, turning his
expectant gaze on his young charge. “She is, after all, the Slayer, and
most equipped to deal with any threat they might provide. Also, she has
taken the time and effort required to earn my trust,” he added with a
pointed look in Spike’s direction. “Buffy…if you wouldn’t mind…”
Buffy nodded. “I was already planning on it. In fact…I think it’s best
if we all stay nearby, don’t you? I mean…this isn’t exactly the best
time to split up, not until all this is settled…one way or the other.”
The others all seemed to agree, expressing their assent with nods and
murmured words.
“All right, then,” Buffy concluded with satisfaction. “Let’s all settle
in for the next few hours, and as soon as the Magic Shop opens, Miss
Calendar can go get what we need for the spell.”
For the next few minutes, the little group went about their
preparations to ensure that they could sleep in peace for the next few
hours.
The old fashioned iron piping that ran through the ceiling and floor of
Giles’ apartment, in the far corner of his living room, served as a
strong enough focal point to which to attach the chains they used to
bind Angel and Willow. The younger vampire remained unconscious as her
wrists were chained behind her back and around the thick iron pipe, but
Angel didn’t stop complaining.
“What if someone turns the heat on?” he demanded indignantly. “That
would be cruel and unusual punishment! You could end up dusting us both
without even meaning to!”
“That piping’s not even in use anymore,” Giles informed him in a voice
of barely restrained impatience. “It’s merely left over, never been
taken out. It won’t be heating up, I’ll assure you.”
“Too bad,” Spike smirked at his sire-turned-childe. “Would have been
funny.”
Angel snarled at him defiantly from his helpless position seated on the
floor, but Spike merely smiled down at him in smug satisfaction.
“I’m going to get out of this, Spike!” Angel declared furiously. “You
can’t just *do* this to me! I’m going to get out of this, and I’m going
to knock some respect back into…”
“Oh, Slayer, that reminds me!” Spike turned toward Buffy as she came up
beside him, an eager, expectant expression on his face, and she smiled,
realizing immediately what Angel’s words had brought back to his mind.
“Can we, still?”
“Of course.”
“May *I*…?”
“Knock yourself out,” Buffy shrugged with a sly smile before amending,
“Except…well, you know…not exactly *yourself*…”
Spike wasn’t listening. He had already drawn back his fist in
preparation to strike, knocking the older vampire’s head back sharply
against the pipe behind him, and before the Slayer could even finish
her remarks, Angel was silent…unconscious on the floor beside the
little redhead he had sired.
Buffy and Spike stood side by side, surveying the handiwork of the past
few minutes, the two vampires bound on the floor and unconscious. They
nodded as they exchanged an approving look.
“Much better.”
**************************************
Once Angel and Willow were under control, Spike took the opportunity to
explain to Giles what he had already explained to Buffy, about his
swiftly fading control over Angel…and by extension, Willow. He was
relieved to have the pair of them unconscious. During the process of
chaining Angel up, the older vampire’s resistance to his domination had
almost been enough to break Spike’s hold on the upper hand.
Almost.
Spike had no idea whether or not Angel knew how close he had come to
actually breaking free.
“Perhaps you should take this time, while they’re…otherwise controlled,
to rest, Spike,” the Watcher suggested with a surprising note of
genuine concern. “Would doing so make your hold on him stronger when
you…resume it?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. But…but I s’pose
I should sit up with ‘em. Make sure I know it just the first instant
Angel’s awake, yeah? So I can make sure I don’t lose control of him.”
He paused, shrugging as he added with an air of confession, “And, you
know…so if either of ‘em wake up…I can knock ‘em out again.”
Giles suppressed a grin of amusement with an effort as he agreed,
“That…sounds wise. Perhaps…you and Buffy both should keep watch, in the
living room? Jenny and I…well…” The Watcher’s voice suddenly trailed
off, and his eyes went wide, as he realized what sleeping arrangements
that left for the older pair.
“I’ll just…take the couch,” Jenny offered awkwardly, her dark eyes
averted, a crimson flush staining her olive cheeks.
“No, no, of course not,” Giles objected. “Don’t be silly. I’ll take the
couch, of course, and you shall have my bed for the morning.”
Buffy rolled her eyes at the teacher and the Watcher, neither of whom
seemed willing to so much as look at each other at the moment. It was
so obvious that neither of them would really have had a problem sharing
a bed, but they were not quite to a stage in their budding relationship
where either was ready to admit it.
*Thank God.*
“Good. Now that that’s settled,” she said with a falsely bright smile,
turning away from them as she added under her breath, “and I’ve been
spared the unpleasant mental images that any other arrangement would
have caused…”
Spike gave her a smile of sarcastic amusement as he finished for her,
“Right, then. Time for you lot to get some kip.”
Alarm clocks were set and each member of the little group got
comfortable, ready to pass the next five hours in much-needed rest.
Jenny was alone in Giles’ bedroom, the door mostly closed, but left
open just a crack in case anything happened to cause a commotion in the
living room, so that it would give her fair warning. Giles lay down on
the sofa, while Buffy immediately claimed Giles’ one comfy chair,
leaving Spike to take a seat on the floor, leaning against the wall.
*Only right,* she reminded the subtle voice of guilt in her mind.
*Ladies first and all that convenient chauvinist crap.*
Giles was the first in the living room to fall asleep.
When the quiet sounds of his snoring reached the Slayer’s ears, she
exchanged another dubious smile with Spike…and immediately found
herself wondering when exactly she had come to share this tentative but
surprisingly comfortable camaraderie with Spike. She had gone from
hating him and making his death a major life goal, to joking and
sparring and exchanging secretive looks, in a matter of hours.
The whole thing took a little…adjusting.
Under the circumstances, given her state of exhaustion and the trauma
of the ordeal with Willow, it was a bit more adjusting than Buffy was
up to at the moment. She pushed the somber thoughts out of her mind,
not wanting to deal with it just then, and in a classic instance of
subconscious avoidance, like a small child faced with the pain of a
major injury…she was asleep in five minutes.
Spike smiled affectionately at her across the room, before rising and
taking a throw blanket from the back of the couch, moving to her side
and covering her as he had done the night before. Of course, Buffy’s
drunken state that night, and the hangover that had followed, had
served to make that rest of little benefit to her. It was no wonder
that she was so exhausted now, considering all she’d been through.
“Looks like it’s up to me,” Spike murmured to himself as he took his
seat again on the floor, casting his bored gaze on the two unconscious
vampires, who had not showed any sign of recovering yet.
Not that Spike would mind in the least giving them a second dose of
their sleeping medicine if necessary.
As he sat there, enjoying the first sense of quiet and solitude he had
felt in far too long, Spike’s mind began to play back over the
tumultuous events of the past few days. I really had been a stressful
time, for him as well as for the Slayer.
Beginning with his ordeal at the hands of that mad scientist and her
military henchmen, the horror of the chip they had implanted in his
head, followed by the torment and starvation Angelus had put him
through, and culminating in the powerful spell that had left him
chipless, souled, and in possession of some rather troubling visions of
the future…well, it had all been quite a bloody hell of a lot to
process.
*’S nice,* he thought, leaning his head back against the wall and
closing his eyes for a moment. *Just to have the quiet…just for a few
minutes…*
************************************
Willow’s head was throbbing.
That was the first thing she was aware of as she drifted back to
consciousness. She winced as she tried to open her eyes against the
light that seemed far too bright, though it was only the dim rays of
sunlight filtering through the drawn living room curtains. When she
finally managed to open her eyes fully, Willow looked around, blinking
as she took in her surroundings. The pipe behind her to which she was
chained, her sire beside her…and the three sleeping “guards” around
them.
A slow smile spread across her face, as she realized that she could no
longer feel the bonds of Angel’s commands upon her.
She was free.
*Well…in a manner of speaking…*
She jerked against the chains that bound her in frustration, then
glanced up through wide eyes at first the Slayer, then Spike, biting
her lower lip as she wondered if the noise she had thoughtlessly made
would wake them.
It did not.
*Okay…think, Willow…you can work with this…*
Buffy and Spike were both capable of physically subduing her, and
should Spike awaken, he could have her under control in moments,
regardless of her magic, simply by waking Angel and commanding *him* to
control her.
But…Giles….Giles, she could use.
***************************************
*Wake up…*
Giles stirred on the couch, frowning in his sleep at the sharp command.
*Wake up…*now*!*
He sat up suddenly on the couch, staring straight ahead with a blank
expression on his face. A small part of his mind tried to discern where
the voice had come from…but his head felt too muddled, clouded and
heavy, to begin to put the pieces together.
*Take the chains off.*
The Watcher turned his distant gaze on the redhead across the room,
gazing at him through wide, solemn eyes, her intent gaze locking onto
his and refusing to let him go. A quiet voice in the back of his mind
warned him, softly but insistently, that something was wrong, but he
couldn’t quite figure out what, as he rose to his feet and moved slowly
but steadily toward her.
*It’s all a mistake…unchain me…help me, Giles…*
Slowly, mechanically, as if not really even aware of what he was doing,
the Watcher knelt by the side of the little redhead who had become like
a daughter to him, taking from his pocket the shiny silver key to her
shackles…the key which only his hand could effectively wield, due to
the magicks that covered the bonds.
He hesitated a moment, his hand hovering over the keyhole, the faintest
beginning of a confused frown creasing his brow.
*Do it, Giles…you have to! Help me!*
Willow’s terrified, trembling voice pleaded with him in his mind, and
the plea was so desperate, so effective, that Giles did not register
the magical command behind it.
Without a second thought…or a first one for that matter, as the
capacity for thought seemed to have left him for the moment…Giles
inserted the key in the lock and turned it, allowing Willow’s chains to
fall away to the floor.