Joyce inched her way onto the step next to Spike, being very careful to maintain contact. Her slender fingers trailed across his bony shoulders in a gentle caress. Long minutes passed before anyone else felt the urge to move. Dawn moved silently in to sit on the sofa, wide blue eyes staring at the blank television screen. Xander followed the teenager, a concerned frown on his handsome face. Carefully, he tipped her face up with a gentle finger under her chin. After ensuring he had her full attention, his whiskey dark eyes searched hers. Reassured that the girl was all right, he released her face with a soft caress down her cheek. He picked up the television remote and pushed the power button before handing it to her. Everyone jumped when the sound broke the unnatural silence of the room.

The unexpected sound of a male voice washed over Spike's tense body like a sheet of icy water. He jerked his face up from his hands, demon to the fore. Startled, Joyce retreated as close the wall as possible. As soon as he was freed from her soothing touch, the vampire scuttled backwards up the stairs. From his new vantage point, Spike paused so he could attempt to assess the latest threat.

Feeling marginally safer from his perch six steps higher, Spike looked around the room. Joyce was still on the step where he'd started, her back pressed tightly against the wall. Her huge hazel eyes gazed up at him with fearful concern deep in their depths.

Xander moved from his position near the sofa to stand with one hand on the newel post. One foot was poised over the first step of the staircase. Spike stared down at the male Scooby with clear threat in his golden eyes. Xander took one look at the bared fangs and set his foot back down on the floor. His free hand rose in a conciliatory gesture, patting the air lightly in a 'calm down' motion.

Spike watched the man closely. He still wasn't quite sure the human male wasn't a punisher. His inability to speak frustrated and frightened him. It was far too reminiscent of when that woman had directed her helpers to hold his mouth open so she could drip holy water into his throat. It had taken nearly a week for his vocal cords to heal enough for speech to be possible again. The only thing comforting him about his silence this time was that no one else could speak either. He pulled himself up into a crouch, steadying himself with one hand on a stair rail, ready to leap either way should the human make a move towards him. He balanced on the step, feral, tense and game-faced. The blood on his face was drying into rusty streaks; his golden eyes remained watchful and suspicious as they swung from one human to the next.

Once more the occupants of the house were frozen waiting for the unpredictable, damaged vampire to make the first move.

Outside....

Michael thought about the confrontation he'd just provoked. He couldn't believe he'd been able to make the small connection he had without the ability to speak. He dry-scrubbed his face with his hands and raised his head, more thankful than ever that Miss Drusilla had taken him away from the Initiative. He tensed as memories of his former job crossed his mind. Some of Professor Walsh's more 'creative' techniques caused him to shudder. Snippets of gossip passed from each duty shift floated through his mind. The laughter of the guards he'd relieved soon after Spike had been captured echoed in his ears. He gasped sharply as his agile mind played 'connect the dots'. Hostile 17... throat... holy water.... inability to speak... 'Holy shit!' He thought as he shot up from the step and frantically dashed back into the house.

Giles' apartment....

Rupert sipped the latest in an endless procession of cups of tea. He was beginning to feel incredibly weary as the interminable day wore on. Xander and Mike had been gone for several hours. Without the ability to speak a phone call was unfeasible so all the Watcher could do was sit and worry. It would be dark soon and he desperately hoped the young men would return before Drusilla made an appearance. He wandered out of the kitchen slowly, mentally reviewing which books he needed to pull out next in his seemingly impossible search for the cause of everyone's muteness.

He stopped abruptly at the sight of Anya huddled into the corner of his sofa, her eyes wide with horror. The unfamiliar sounds of what seemed to be a children's show played softly in the background. With a frown, Giles sat gingerly on the coffee table so he could attempt to determine what was frightening the ex-demon. He placed his teacup carefully on the table and tapped gently on the message board she clutched tightly in her fingers. With a show of difficulty, Anya pulled her huge brown eyes away from the television. Giles indicated the message board again. She gave a shaky nod and forced her fingers to work the marker.

# How can they put things like THAT on a kiddy show? #

Rupert frowned as he glanced back towards the television and the brightly colored foursome bouncing around. He gently took the board and wrote his question under hers.

# What things? #

She glared at him fiercely and pointed back at the television, her finger shaking with fear. Again the Watcher turned towards the show which was now displaying a somewhat disturbing image of a baby's face superimposed on a sun. The scene shifted yet again and a meadow occupied the screen. He turned back to Anya when he felt her jump. Her eyes were beginning to fill with tears of terror and she reacted by snatching the board back, viciously erasing the two previous messages and writing in letters as large as she could manage on the small surface.

# BUNNIES!! #

He pasted an 'Oh, I see' expression on his face, took another look at the television to verify that, yes indeed there were several rabbits hopping around the artificial meadow, and nodded in sympathetic understanding. He picked up the remote control from the coffee table and changed the channel before handing the device to her. She heaved a sigh of relief and smiled shakily. He nodded again, patted the hand holding the remote, picked up his tea and retreated back to the kitchen. There, he hurriedly shoved his teacup onto the counter and grasped the edge of the same counter desperately. His shoulders trembled with effort and his breath hitched painfully. His head hung low until his chin rested on his chest but he lost the battle and silent laughter overtook him. For just a moment, he thanked whatever had caused their inability to speak so the distraught young woman in the next room could not hear the great whooping howls of laughter he knew he would otherwise be making.

Summers' house....

The sound of the front door slamming open startled everyone. Joyce relaxed visibly when she recognized Michael in the entryway. Xander glanced back over his shoulder without any further movement and nodded when his dark eyes met the tinted ones of the former soldier. Dawn's head turned slowly that direction before returning to her mindless contemplation of whatever she could find on the television. She figured that the adults could handle everything so she tried to distract her mind from the thought that her vampire friend could be permanently damaged by his ordeal.

Mike paused and assessed the scene. Spike was game-faced, perched warily on a step halfway up the staircase. Joyce was seated on the second step up from the ground floor with her back pressed hard against the wall. Xander was at the foot of the stairs with one hand on the post, poised as if to ascend the steps in pursuit of the vampire. Mike slumped against the door he'd let swing shut, let his head drop forward and closed his eyes. Xander would have been amused if he'd been able to read the other man's lips. It was a lament he himself had muttered more than once in the past few days.

"I have not had enough sleep for this." With a deep breath, Mike squared his shoulders, stood up straight and caught Joyce's gaze. He raised both hands and mimed writing since he and Xander had left their message boards in the car. She rose gracefully and with a quick nod, hurried to the kitchen for their paper and pencil, returning in seconds.

The redhead accepted the pad and took a moment to look over the messages written on the paper. He briefly closed his eyes at the pang in his chest caused by the childish lettering of Spike's words. With a sharp inhalation, he flipped to a fresh page and slowly climbed the stairs. He stopped two steps down from the silently snarling demon. Carefully making sure Spike could see what he was doing, Mike wrote a note.

# It's ok now. You are safe. Do you still want a shower? #

He held the note up where Spike could read it and waited patiently.

Spike tilted his head as he read the note held by the familiar human. Letting his demonic visage fade away, he nodded slowly. The fact that it was well past the middle of the day was playing havoc with his system. Everything in him was shrieking for him to be asleep. But he wanted to be clean more than anything. He gazed thoughtfully at the burgundy haired man. He desperately wanted to know who this human was and why he smelled the way he did but had nearly resigned himself to waiting until they could actually talk to find out. His basic impatience had him reaching for the paper and pencil though. He laboriously wrote his questions.

# Who are you? Why do you smell like... # He stopped, unable to finish, the thought too painful to be borne on top of the other stresses of the day

Mike took the pad back and scanned the note. His back was to the other humans in the room so none of them saw the flicker of sorrow pass over his handsome face. Spike noticed and waited, his blue eyes trained on the other face intently. Mike thought hard for endless seconds before taking a deep breath and the pencil. He wrote his answer carefully and turned the pad around with a tiny smile, knowing that, to the vampire at least, his secret would be revealed.

# My name is Michael Adler Caden. #

Spike's mouth dropped open and he gaped foolishly at the young man in front of him. Adler, his own last name, dropped upon his turning and long hidden from any of the Watcher's Council records. His wide sapphire eyes locked on the unnaturally green gaze of Michael. The younger man nodded slowly and his lips formed two impossible words.

"Uncle Will."

Giles' apartment....

Rupert pulled the crocheted afghan he kept draped across the back of his sofa over Anya, careful not to wake her up. It had been over an hour since the phone had rung, an obnoxious song had played over the line that the ex-demon informed him was from one of Xander's favorite movies, Caddyshack.

"I'm alright.

Don't nobody worry about me."

The younger man had let the two lines of lyrics play followed by several seconds of silence before they began again, repeating the pattern several times. As soon as Anya had identified the song and who could be playing it, Giles had hung up to let Xander know he'd gotten the message. It had been an inspired move on the male Scooby's part.

Now, Rupert stood watching the pretty young woman sleep. Her earlier fright had worn her out and her relief at knowing Xander was all right had allowed her to relax and drift off to sleep. He picked up the television remote and pushed the power button, turning the noise off. A footstep on the stair caught his attention so he turned to watch Drusilla descend the rest of the way down.

The vampire smiled at Giles as he backed slightly way from her. She walked to the back of the sofa and peered down at Anya. With an evil glint in her eye, Dru licked her lips. Giles violently shook his head, telling her that the new human was off the menu. The dark-haired immortal simply smiled and turned away, gliding in to the kitchen. She sat at the small table and waved an imperious hand toward the refrigerator. Rupert, following behind her cautiously, caught the hint and pulled several bags of animal blood from the cold depths. He proceeded to heat the bags in the microwave, decanting one into a cup, refilling it as soon as she emptied it. She grimaced in distaste but made no move to leave the apartment for more appetizing fare. This caused Giles no small amount of concern. If the current threat was bad enough to keep a Master Vampire indoors, what chance did his Slayer have against it?

He left briefly to fetch one of the message boards.

He wrote: # Michael went to Buffy's house to help with Spike. I don't know when he will be back. #

She nodded and held her hand up for the board. He erased it for her and handed it over.

# William has been in a bad way. My Pretty has been helping him. He and Kitten will return shortly. #

The vampire's handwriting was elegantly old-fashioned and precise. Giles had long ceased to wonder how she knew things.

With a grimace of distaste, Drusilla drained the cup of the last of the blood and handed the empty container back. Rupert carried it to the sink and rinsed it out trying not to think about its former contents. She rose from the table gracefully and glided back into the living room.

Giving the appearance of not exactly knowing what she wanted to do, the immortal drifted over to the bookcase and trailed her elegant fingers over the spines of the antique books resting on the shelf. Giles watched carefully, fearful of his irreplaceable books. She frowned slightly and moved on to a short row of books sitting on top of a small chest. Her lovely face changed to a smirk as she plucked a book from its place and held it gently in both hands. The Watcher approached her cautiously and peered at the volume. It was bound in red leather with a golden image of a medallion below large gold letters on the front that gave the title as 'Fairy Tales'. With a smile, she handed the book to Giles and went silently back upstairs.

Bemused, Giles took the book with him to the kitchen so he could prepare yet another cup of tea. He settled at the table and wondered what it was he was supposed to be looking for in this particular book.

The sound of someone entering the tiny kitchen a while later brought Giles' head up from the book. Anya smiled uncertainly and crossed over to the refrigerator, withdrawing a soda. She waggled the can at him in response to his smile as she wandered back to the living room.

The ex-demon moved curiously over to the window, peering out into the darkening landscape with concern. Xander and Michael weren't back yet. A movement at the corner to the building caught her attention and she pressed closer to the glass to see if it was the missing men. Her unopened soda can slipped from her suddenly lax grip and clattered onto the floor as she jumped back, her mouth wide open in a silent scream when a face appeared right outside the window.