Trickster´s Treat Sequel –
Janus´ Shadow 16
The sharp beeps sounded familiar as Xander listened to the noise from a distance. As he slowly wandered back to himself, he went from thinking the alarm was going off to thinking he´d left the television on to thinking that he might be hearing his own heartbeat announced in mechanical tones.
The realization that he was in a hospital made his heart race, and the machine echoed his alarm.
"He´s waking up. Giles, he´s waking up," Willow´s voice sounded like she was bouncing as it faded in and out. Either that or his hearing was fading in and out.
"I did notice," Giles offered.
"´bout bloody time. You lot are just lucky that he woke up."
"Spike, don´t even start that again."
"You bloody bag of bones, if he´d died, I would have ripped your heart out your naffin´ chest."
"Considering that you´re neutered, I´d enjoy watching your roll around on the floor pathetically whining after you tried," Buffy snapped back in a tone that made Xander moan as he struggled toward consciousness.
"You soddin´ little pillock–"
An unfamiliar voice interrupted the argument between Buffy and Spike. "You cannot disturb Mr. Harris, and if you insist on making so much noise, I will put you all out no matter what the chart says." Shoes clip clopped away quickly.
Xander was grateful since he couldn´t seem to get up the energy to open his eyes much less yell at them for acting like five year olds.
"If you had taken him to hospital when he broke his bloody ribs in the first place," Spike snarled far softer than before.
"It´s not like I knew. I didn´t know," Buffy´s voice faded, as if she´d turned away, and Xander fought to get one eye open a crack. Spike hovered an inch from his face, blue eyes staring at him.
"Spike," he whispered, or he tried to whisper. His throat felt dry.
"Give him a chip of ice," Giles suggested, and Spike´s fingers mysteriously appeared at his lips with a sliver of ice that tasted like nicotine. Xander sucked at it and struggled to swallow as he finally got his second eye open.
"Daft bugger. No fair goin´ and gettin´ yourself killed now. Got to make fun of the slayer, now don´t we? Turns out the boy she fancies was runnin´ into walls down there."
"But–outsville, Spike," Buffy hissed, and Xander looked over to her in surprise. He hadn´t even known she had fallen for anyone, especially not the way she kept sighing at Angel. Angel who was missing. Xander slowly put the pieces together, and he had to admit to feeling a slight twinge of pain for the vamp. Hopefully he hadn´t heard the story.
"Peaches wanted ta eat the wanker," Spike whispered with a sly smile, and Xander closed his eyes in sympathy for the other vampire. Vampires shouldn´t be alone, and the only ´divorce´ in the vampire world included a sword and a neck– or a stake and a heart– or if someone was really pissed off, the sun and a lot of chains.
A cool finger touched his hand, and Xander opened his eyes to find Spike looking at him confused. Giving his childe a small shrug since his connection with Angel didn´t exactly make sense in vampire terms, Xander looked around the room. Giles sat in a chair with a book across his lap. Willow and Buffy stood near Giles, and even Uick had made an appearance. He had an old–fashioned fedora pulled low over his ash–grey face, and he had stuffed his thick hands deep in his coat pockets.
"Uick?" Xander croaked out. The demon shifted a little closer to the open door and nodded briefly.
"You´ll be back to work soon, yes?" he asked. Xander smiled. He never would have thought his boss would show up, especially with the slayer glancing back and forth from him to Uick. That would be enough to make any demon get the wiggins.
"Yep, no problem. I´ve been concussion–boy before, and it never keeps me down long," Xander answered. Uick´s nose flared in confusion.
"Pet, you´ve been unconscious for three days now," Spike offered softly.
"But he is awake. He will be back to work soon," Uick insisted mulishly, and then he turned and walked out. Barqu rarely showed emotion, so Xander was touched just by the visit. Touched, and more than a little confused.
"Um, days?" he asked the rest of the group. Spike stayed on his left, and the girls crowded to the right side of his bed, hands resting on an arm that an IV that made Xander think of the Borg.
"Three cracked ribs, a concussion, and most seriously, an electrolyte imbalance that threatened to put you in a coma. The doctors have been utter gits and as annoying as Spike in their curiosity about what happened to shut your body down so completely, but they did save your life," Giles offered without getting up from the chair. The man looked tired.
"Coma?" Xander struggled to put all the words into an order that would actually make sense in his brain.
"There is no dying on my watch, mister," Buffy threatened him with a finger pointed at his nose. "And if you ever hide injuries like that again, ass–kicking will be in your future."
"Get in line behind me, slayer," Spike added.
"Okay, you two ganging up on me is feeling– strangely familial," Xander finished with a small smile. Buffy looked slightly confused, but Willow and Spike grinned back at him.
"Yeah, luv. Just don´t ever do that again," Spike asked in an accent that suddenly dropped all of its harsh Cockney edges.
"Didn´t mean to do it this time," Xander said. He would have pointed out that he did it trying to save Spike, but from the way Spike kept looking at him, he didn´t feel like rubbing that in.
"Xander, I am well aware that Ethan tends to– exaggerate– the truth. Have you trained with him at all?" Giles asked from the chair. Spike looked over and the two men exchanged a look that left Xander feeling slightly uncomfortable. Out of the loop uncomfortable.
"Not even one day. That guy is creepy, like the cockroaches you find behind the toilet creepy," Xander said with a shudder. "I found out after the fact that he vouched for me when I did work in the bazaar, but there is no way I´d ever trust him enough to take magic lessons, especially after he offered to tie me up and lick honey off my body."
"EWWWW," Buffy and Willow both shrieked as they backed away at the same time. Xander smirked.
"Not a good image. Not a good image," Buffy added while Willow squinched her face up.
"Oi, speak for yourself," Spike offered with a leer, and Xander raised his hand to weakly swat at his unruly child.
"So Nusa was your only teacher?" Giles ignored everyone else´s theatrics.
"Yeah," Xander agreed.
"My guess is that she never taught you shielding." Giles pulled his glasses off and looked at Xander with an expression that stuck somewhere between disappointment and sympathy.
"Shielding?"
"Living creatures who tap the sorts of magics you used must shield themselves from having the magic drain their own life forces. However, you learned to cast spells when you were dead, so you never learned how to shield."
"And I´m guessing shielding is important?"
Willow made a strangled sound. "Important?" she practically squeaked in outrage. "Xander, you shouldn´t even levitate a pencil before learning to shield. You could have had all your magic sucked right out of you or had your life sucked out of you or turned yourself into a big popping balloon of magic that ripped open a new Hellmouth, and not only do we not need another Hellmouth, but I would miss my Xander–shaped friend who can sometimes be a real idiot." Willow closed the distance and slipped her hand into Xander´s right hand.
"Right, no turning myself into a Hellmouth," Xander promised as a cold shiver ran through his body.
"Ya mean when he did magic, he was hurtin´ himself?" Spike asked.
"Every time he said a spell, he risked being utterly destroyed," Giles agreed. Spike´s eyes locked onto Xander as though his gaze could keep Xander in place. Yeah, Xander didn´t expect to be getting any more privacy any time in the near future.
"No more magics," Xander promised as he held up his free hand in surrender.
"Better not, because if you get yourself killed, Spike cannot move into our bathtub," Buffy said as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Spike. When Spike ignored the insult, Xander realized just how upset the vampire was. Xander reached out with his left hand and curled his fingers around Spike´s wrist.
"Girls, perhaps we should give them a minute," Giles suggested as he stood up.
"But he just woke up; we haven´t had hardly any time with him," Willow protested, but Giles put an arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the room.
"I do not want to even think about why they need privacy. Giles, that is just ew," Buffy complained as she went into the hall, and Giles stood in the doorway with his hand on the handle of the door.
"Xander, I´m very glad you´re going to recover, but I will have you know that I will stand in line behind Spike and Buffy to kick your arse if you should you ever consider doing anything so dangerous and foolish again," Giles said in a tone that Xander had only heard the older man use once– when a student checked out an occult book on accident and then dropped it in the boy´s toilet.
Then Giles´ voice grew much softer. "And if you intend on doing any further spells, you shall come to work with me on proper shielding before you so much as freeze water."
"But I´ve done lots of small–"
"Luv, don´t make Ripper throw a wobbly," Spike interrupted. Xander looked over in confusion, since interrupting a sire was up there will pissing in your own cornflakes as far as being stupid. Spike´s expression stopped him from any more argument.
"Right. Absolutely no magic without learning how to not kill myself," Xander promised. Giles nodded briefly and then left, pulling the door closed behind him.
As soon as the door closed, Spike gently pushed Xander over in the bed to make room for himself. He pulled out a cigarette and then sat on the edge of the bed with the thing between his fingers.
"Okay, so spill. What is going on with Giles, and why are you looking so– I don´t even know what that expression is, but it´s not good," Xander said as he watched Spike´s profile. Spike grinned and looked over.
"Can´t fool ya, can I?" Spike asked.
"You don´t seem to be trying very hard, so just spit it out," Xander said as he reached back to pull the pillow out from under his shoulder. Immediately, Spike was there supporting his body and pulling out the awkward pillow before slipping it back in place behind Xander´s head.
"Ya nearly died tryin´ to keep that spell up. That plus your injuries, and I thought I´d be out another sire," Spike said as he sat back down at near Xander´s hip. The tilt of the mattress meant that Xander pressed into Spike´s back.
"Hey, I´m harder to kill than that," Xander promised. "Mummies and mantis and hyenas, oh my," he sing–songed in Wizard of Oz style. Spike didn´t smile, but then Xander wasn´t sure whether Spike had seen Wizard of Oz.
"Told Ripper that I wouldn´t risk ya tryin´ any soddin´ spells to get the chip out, not knowing that you´d do this to yourself just ta protect me," Spike added, and fingers played with the unlit cigarette.
"We´ll find a way. I won´t do a spell, but there´s always blackmail and bribery. The nice thing about Ethan is that he´s very bribable."
"That´s just it. Told Ripper that I wouldn´t let you keep tryin´ because Ethan knew he had ya by your short and curlies, and I didn´t like what he´d make you do. Told him I was going to take off before you woke up." Spike´s fingers went still, and Xander felt a rage roll through him.
"You are my childe, and you will not leave," Xander snarled. "I would go to L.A. and bring you back in chains if I had to."
Spike´s lips twitched. "Not a bad offer, luv. But I told Angel to piss off. Ya wouldn´t find me in L.A."
"I don´t think Dru would–" Xander stopped as the expression on Spike´s face told the story. Dru had turned him out, he wouldn´t go back to Angel, and he thought his human sire was dying. The chip meant that he couldn´t make childer or minions of his own, and the minions wandering the Hellmouth weren´t going to have much respect for a vampire who couldn´t bite. Those facts added to the fact that vampires just didn´t live alone equalled a grim picture.
"I would follow you to hell and make you sorry you ever stepped foot on earth if you even thought it," Xander hissed through clenched teeth. "You have survived too much to just give up."
"Not considerin´ it now."
"You´d better never consider it again."
"Right, well, that´s not the bit I´m tryin´ to tell ya," Spike changed the subject. "Ripper and I talked, and when we knew you were going to survive this, we came to an agreement," Spike waved the hand that held the cigarette around the hospital room at the word "this."
"And would this agreement have anything to do with why you´re calling him Ripper?" Xander asked.
"He can be a right bloody bastard." After a second, Spike added, "I like him. Anyway, we both decided that we couldn´t let you try to take the chip out. Spell that delicate would take a lot of power, and it´d take years for ya to learn how to do that kind of mojo as a human."
"And?" Xander asked. It wasn´t like Spike to dance around the topic so much.
"Made an oath ta not touch innocent blood," Spike finally confessed. Fingers worked his shirt buttons as the cigarette bobbed up and down. "Look like a bleedin´ steno pad," he complained as he pulled one side out. Under Xander´s runes, three wavy lines stood out in faint blue.
"But, why?" Xander traced the figures with his finger, and part of him felt rage that someone else had marked what was his. Yeah, he was definitely going to have a word or two with Giles about who got to leave scars on Spike´s body.
"He got Ethan ta do the spell. The chip´s out, luv. We figured this way, you wouldn´t go and do somethin´ stupid." Spike scratched the back of his head and smiled.
"Giles– Ethan– How?" Xander stuttered to a stop. "Do I want to know?" Xander asked. He smiled slowly as he realized his hellcat had reclaimed his power.
"Bloody impressive with a whip. By the time Ripper finished, Ethan would have given him anything. Too bad Giles doesn´t want a full time chaos mage at his feet."
"Giles?" Xander wailed. "Oh no– no, no, no. I do not want to know about Giles–sex. He´s like old," Xander complained.
"Not as old as me," Spike pointed out.
"Yeah, but you´ll be young and beautiful forever. Giles is–" Xander stopped as he thought of Giles with his sharp gaze and grey hair. "Okay, you are giving me not–good thoughts. Giles and sex will never again be mentioned in the same sentence," Xander finally decreed. "Ew."
Spike laughed. "Right. No more talk of Ripper. Are ya feelin´ alright? Doc said ta get some nibbles in ya, but the glop they got around here looks a mite bit questionable."
"I just want to rest," Xander said as he pulled Spike down so that his vampire lay next to him. Xander rubbed a thumb over the silk of Spike´s shirt. "Three days, no wonder I´ve had such strange dreams," Xander whispered as he felt Spike´s body curl around his.
"Yeah? I show up naked in any of them?" Spike asked.
"I don´t remember," Xander answered as he shifted to get his arm around Spike. "I remember Harmony vamping through and then there was this Frankenstein guy who kept crying for his mommy, and right in the middle of that, Dracula shows up and throws a Halloween party only he wreaks Joyce´s house after you keep trying to get Buffy to dance with you," Xander said, fragments of the dream bobbing up while most of it remained buried in sleep.
"Loony as Dru," Spike said in a voice already half asleep. He reached over and dropped his cigarette on the side table.
"Not even," Xander snorted. "It was just a dream. Yeah, Dracula– not the sort to vacation in California." Spike turned so that his face was to the scratchy hospital gown, and Xander moved his hand up, rubbing a shoulder. When Spike started a soft rumble that sounded suspiciously purr–like, Xander closed his eyes and let himself start to drift back to sleep. The IV would fix what his bungled magic had done.
As his hand moved up, Xander realized that Spike didn´t have any gel in his hair. Xander´s fingers stroked through soft, silky curls with the tips of his fingers. He remembered the very first night he´s seen Spike through a vampire´s eyes. That night he had promised himself that he would keep his hellcat, and as his fingers combed through Spike´s loose curls, he let himself sink into sleep. Even the memory of Dracula´s eyes peering at Xander through a nightmare couldn´t keep him from feeling content.
The End
