Lies My Parents Told Me

New York City, 1977

It's pouring rain, and Nikki and Spike are fighting. They're in a park, and wee Robin is watching from behind a park bench, crouched down, hiding. Nikki is wearing the coat, Spike is wearing a short leather jacket over what might be the same shirt from FFL. He's also wearing a heavy chain around his neck, and his hair is spiky. Also very wet.

Spike is obviously having fun with the fight. At one point, Nikki does a cartwheel that ends with a kick to Spike's jaw, knocking him backwards. He rolls with it, comes back to his feet. "Well, all -right-!" he says. A flash of lightning illuminates his face. "Got the moves, don't you? I'm going to ride you hard before I put you away, luv."

Nikki cocks her head. "You sure about that?" she says. "You actually look a little wet and limp to me." Ouch. Score one for the Slayer. "And I ain't your 'luv'." More fighting. Spike gets her down and punches her a couple of times, she kicks him off, they trade punches some more. Nikki goes for a gut-punch, but Spike gets around behind her, arm around her neck. It's the perfect moment; he starts to bite, but wee Robin, frightened, knocks over a wire trash bin. The noise startles Spike for a moment, and Nikki takes advantage of the distraction with a head-but that makes Spike let go. She flips him over, and as he's rolling, whips out a stake and throws it at him. But he catches it inches from his chest.

"Spent a long time tracking you down," he says. "Don't really want the dance to end so soon. Do you? Nikki." The fact that he knows her name gives her a start. "Music's just starting, isn't it?" He tosses the stake to the ground, steps up onto the low retaining wall, looks down at what is obviously a big drop. "By the way," he says, turning back to Nikki, "Love the coat." He steps off the wall, dropping straight down. Nikki is confused, a little worried.

She goes to check on wee Robin, and they talk about the Mission, how it's the most important thing. She plans to take him to her Watcher, since it's not safe at their home. They start to leave, but Robin runs back and picks up the stake that Spike threw down. "Robin?" Nikki calls after him.

Cut to a Sunnydale alley. The grown-up Robin is fighting a vamp, and we pull back to see Spike and Buffy, each fighting a vamp. Spike dusts his, using a shovel to decapitate it.

"Spike!" Buffy directs his attention to Wood, who's having trouble with his vamp. Spike looks over; Wood is dishing it, but taking more. And he's got a stake in his hand, but he's not using it. The vamp lands a couple of solid punches, knocking the wind out of Wood, then picks him up and throws him against a wall. He lands on a couple of plastic trash bins, rolls to the ground. The vamp comes closer, teeth bared. Wood, not quite able to get up yet, watches him, knowing what's coming. But the vamp explodes into dust. Spike has used the handle of the shovel to stake him.

Spike reaches down to help Wood up. "Little tip, mate," he says as he pulls Wood to his feet. "The stake's your friend. Don't be afraid to use it." He tosses the shovel aside and turns, but there's something about Wood's expression...

"What?"

Wood, his face impassive, shakes his head, and Spike goes to help Buffy, who's pummeling the last vamp. She really doesn't need any help, of course.

Wood watches Spike walk away. His grip on the stake tightens until blood runs freely, dripping off his closed hand. He's shaking. "Just waiting for my moment," he murmurs. Unguarded now, his face shows grief and rage.

Xander is fastening the manacles on Spike's wrists. "We couldn't put these chains back up a week ago," he says, and he's just the faintest bit cranky about it. "No, we have to work on Spike now, of all times."

Spike, only half listening, catches something in the tone. "What?"

Oops. Xander looks at the rest of the gang, standing across the room. "Nothing," he says, and pats Spike on the shoulder before he goes to stand with the rest of them. He hands the key to Buffy. Wood is there, watching with a carefully blank expression.

"What are -you- doing here?" Spike asks him. Not pleased to have to do this in front of strangers. "You come to see the show?"

Wood's voice is calm, friendly. "I just thought you might need...support." Buffy, watching Wood answer, looks grave.

"Uh-huh. Right, let's get this over with," Spike says. Not thrilled, but if this will reassure Buffy... "What are you going to do, some hypno-beam or disarming spell?"

Giles steps forward. "Exactly. The First has brainwashed you. There's something in your subconscious that it's using to provoke a violent reaction." He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a small box. "So," he says, opening it, "we have to put this in your brain. He lifts up the object in the box. It's a small, vaguely worm-shaped black stone.

Brain? "Bugger =that-," Spike says.

But Giles ignores him. "The Prokaryote Stone will move within your mind to reveal the root of the trigger's power," he says. "Hopefully, once you understand wht it is that's...setting you off, you can break its hold on you."

"Hopefully?" Dawn is less than thrilled with that, and from Xander's expression, he's right there with her. "So it might not work?" She's trying not to sound worried.

"Well, the stone's just a catalyst for the process," Giles says. "The rest is up to Spike."

Right. Of course it is. "And how do you expect to get that hunk of rubble into my cranium?"

Giles turns. "Willow...?"

Willow steps up, holding the book. She reads the spell, and at the end, the stone liquifies into a squirming silver blob. Giles looks at it, leaning back a little with an expression of distaste, or perhaps caution. He turns, shows the thing to Spike, who is not at all happy with what he sees.

"Oh, you have -got- to be joking." Giles says nothing, just waits. "What now?" Spike says, a little tiredly.

"It has to access the cerebral cortex via the optic nerve," Giles says.

"Oh, bollocks." Spike is resigned, now, and tries to make light of something that is probably going to hurt. "All the rubbish people keep sticking in my head, there's a wonder there's any room for my brain."

"I don't think it takes up that much room, do you?" Spike sighs as Giles steps forward and holds the box to Spike's face. The silver blob wriggles out of the box, up Spike's cheek, and under his upper eyelid. We see it wriggling under his forehead for a moment, and then he stiffens, cries out, puts his hand to his head.

"Ow! OW!"

Buffy is immediately by his side. She's worried. "Spike?" She takes the hand he has pressed to his temple, pulls it down. "Spike, listen to me."

"What?" If it were any voice but Buffy's, he'd probably ignore it.

"Are you all right?" Her voice is gentle, soothing.

The pain is fading, and Spike sits up a little straighter. "How am I supposed to know if this bug-ugly's doing its j..."

The light changes. Spike, eyes wide, hears a familiar voice and sees a familiar room. It's the parlor of the house he grew up in and William is reading a (VERY bad) poem to his weak, frail mother.

"Oh, William," she says when he's done. Her eyes are shining, and it's obvious she thinks the poem was just swell.

"It's just scribbling," William says, embarrassed.

"Nonsense! It's wonderful! But I wonder... This Cecily of whom you write so often, would that be the Underwoods' eldest girl?"

(NB: NO, it would be the -Addams'- eldest girl, and I can show you the note from Fox that says so. Hrmph. Continuity, dammit!)

William is soooooo busted, but glad it's out now. "No, no, no," he says. "I do not presume."

"Well, she's lovely," Anne says. "You shouldn't be alone. You need a woman in your life."

William looks at her. "I =have= a woman in my life," he says, as though it were obvious.

Not obvious to his mother, though. Her eyebrows fly up. "Well, you nev..." He looks at her over his glasses, smiling a little, and she gets it. She laughs, putting her hand to her cheek in embarrassment at having been gotten so easily. William laughs, too

"Well, do not mistake me," he says, teasing her a little, still. "I still have hope that one day there will be an addition to this household." His voice turns serious. "But I will always look after you, Mother. This I promise." She smiles up at him, but the laughter has taken its toll, and she begins to cough. It wracks her, though she tries not to let him see how bad it is. She muffles the cough with a handkerchief as she holds onto the arm of the sofa to brace against the force of the spasm.

William immediately goes to pour her a glass of water from the side table. She takes it, drinks a little. He sees the spot of blood on her handkerchief and is immediately alarmed.

"Should I send a coach for Dr. Gull?" he asks, keeping his voice level. They've been through this before, probably more than once.

Anne shakes her head no as she gasps for breath. "I'll be all right," she says, and takes another breath. "Oh...." The breath seems a little easier. "Oh, it's passed." She looks up at him, and it's clear that she doesn't want him to worry, but she still needs him there. "Just sit with me a while, will you?"

"Of course." He settles himself on the floor and leans against her knee. She kisses the crown of his head, and takes up her embroidery. As she sews, she begins to sing.

"Early one morning, just as the sun was shining..."

William listens to the familiar tune, and his eyes close as she sings. When he opens them again, they glow gold, and his face morphs into the demon's.

Spike, fully vamped out, turns to Buffy, who's still sitting on the cot next to him. He's obviously out of it; he grabs her by the throat and tosses her across the basement. Giles backs up a step, and Xander reaches for a weapon. Spike roars and lunges at the Scoobies, picks up the cot and flings it at them. It hits Dawn, knocking her down. Willow goes to her side.

Buffy gets up. Spike is still roaring and trying to get to the humans, but suddenly he stops, puts his hand to his head, and the roar changes to one of pain. The liquified Prokaryote Stone wriggles out of his head and drops to the floor. Giles and Xander relax a little.

Spike, now in human face, looks at Buffy. =What the hell just happened?= his look says.

Buffy isn't sure, but she knows it was bad. She also knows they're going to fix it, whatever it was. However they have to.

Spike, very grim, gives her the tiniest of nods. He understands.

Wood watches the silent conversation, and his face is eerily blank.

Song.

Spike is sitting on the basement floor. Giles, Wood and Buffy are watching him from across the room. He looks up at Buffy. "Get these soddin' things off me. I'm fine."

"Don't you think you should take a little time?" she says softly. "To calm down."

"I am calm." But he says it through his teeth, and his hands, though open, are tense and rigid.

Calm. Yeah, right. Buffy tries not to smile at the patent lie.

Spike turns to Giles. "This stone of yours is out, right? Did it's job. So, I'm detriggered, right?"

But Giles isn't committing himself. "Spike, what do you remember about the song?"

"Oh, right. The song." And maybe then you'll answer the question? "It's called, uh, 'Early One Morning.' Old folk ditty."

"What's it mean to you?" Wood sounds calm.

But there's something in his tone that's maybe a fraction off. Spike looks at him. "Mean? Nothing." Eyebrow lift from Buffy. "It's just, uh, my mum," he goes on. "It was her favorite. She used to sing it to me." Beginning of lifted eyebrow from Giles, but Spike's already going on. "When I was a baby." Just the tiniest bit defensive; he knows what kind of Mama's Boy he sounded like, there.

"And?" Clearly Giles is waiting for more.

"No 'and,' that's it." He really doesn't want to go on with this, and tries t change the subject. "Look, shouldn't you check on Dawnie? I clocked the Nibblet pretty fierce." Not just a change of subject, though; he's a little worried about her.

"She'll be okay," Buffy says, clearly not willing to play his game. "She's tough." Cut to Dawn, whining as Willow tends to the cut on her head. <G>

Willow gets the phone call from Fred. Meanwhile...

"Spike, listen to me." Giles is very focused. "What is it about your mother?"

"I don't know. I got along fine with her . She was a nice lady." Very patient, as though he's talking to a four-year-old. But that patience is already fraying.

"Well there has to be more than that..."

And the patience snaps. "Well, there BLOODY WELL ISN'T!" Spike roars. Giles sighs and grits his teeth.

Buffy starts toward Spike.

"Buffy, what are you doing?"

She turns back, and her voice holds the same frayed patience as Spike's did a moment before. "I'm going to unchain him. "

"Buffy!" Giles grabs hold of her arm as she tries to go to Spike. She whirls on him.

"This is pointless, Giles, he doesn't know anything. Your...prophylactic stone didn't work."

"Because he's not cooperating," Giles hisses in a fierce whisper. "This process takes time. He's blocking whatever's flooding his consciousness, and while he does... He's endangering us all." Eyeroll and crossed arms from Buffy, who so doesn't want to hear this =again=.

"So the trigger's still working?" Wood glances back at Spike, and Buffy sets her jaw.

Giles sighs. "As much as ever."

Spike, who's clearly heard the whole exchange, rattles his chains in frustration. He stares at his hand, as though something were happening to it, and when he turns it over, a woman's hand in a black lace glove closes gently over his fingers. It's Drusilla. She pulls him up, into her arms, and they begin to waltz.

"Oooh, what a pretty house you have, sweet Willie," she says gaily. "It smells of daffodils. And viscera." She smiles as they dance.

"Don't get too attached, now," William says, and twirls her under his arm. "Won't be here long." She pulls away from him and sits on the settee.

"Well then," she says, her voice arch as she thumps the seat. "Shall we give it a proper goodbye?" She growls at him, snapping her teeth and looking at him from underneath her eyelashes.

His eyes darken. "You're a saucy one, aren't you?" he says, his voice low and rough. He comes to the settee, rests a hip on it as he pushes Dru back against the arm and kisses her. It's a very thorough kiss, and she's responding enthusiastically (NB: DUH!). Still kissing her, he flips her around so that she's half-sitting on his lap. She squeals at the suddenness of it, and he grins at her. Then he leans in and kisses her again. Joy suffuses his face, and he closes his eyes, making a noise part growl, part purr. As he breaks off the kiss.

"Ohhh, Dru," he says, "We'll bring this world to its knees." He likes the feel of the words in his mouth almost as much as the feel of her tongue.

"It's ripe and ready, my darling. Waiting for us to devour its fruit." She likes the words, too; they're making her hot.

And so he keeps going. "We'll ravage this city together, my pet," he says. "Lay waste to all of Europe. The three of us will teach those snobs and elitists, with all their folderol, just what..." But she's frowning now, and he breaks off.

"Three?"

"You, me, and Mother," he says, as though she should have guessed. It seems to have thrown him off the mood a bit; he struggles a little to get back to the poetry of blood. "We'll open up their veins and bathe in their blood as they scream our names across the..." He breaks off again. The words aren't working the magic they were a moment ago. "What?"

"You...you want to bring your mum with us?" She can't quite believe she's heard it right.

"Well...yeah." A little puzzled at her reaction. Then, with more enthusiasm, "You'll like her."

Dru makes a noise that starts off like a surprised laugh and turns into a "Hmm." She looks up at Spike. "To eat, you mean...?" He =really= can't mean... But there are footsteps at the door, and William looks up.

Anne is there, leaning heavily on a cane, dressed in her nightgown and wrapped in a shawl.

"William?" Her voice wavers. She's been through hell, from the sound.

"Ah, Mother..." William swings Dru off his lap and stands hurriedly, for all the world like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

But Anne doesn't seem to have noticed the lapful of girl. "Where have you been? I've been beside myself for days..." All the worry of the last few days makes her tremble.

William is immediately solicitous. "You needn't have worried about anything, Mother," he says, going to her. "You'll never have to worry about anything again. Something...has happened. I've changed."

It's starting sink in that he's really standing before her. "I...don't...Who is this woman?"

"I'm the other who gave birth to your son." Dru is matter-of-fact, and it confuses Anne.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It's true, Mother." Spike holds out his hand, and Dru steps forward and takes it. "Drusilla... She's made me what I am. I am no longer bound to this mortal coil." His words are serious, laden with portent. This is obviously a conversation he's scripted in his head. "I have become a creature of the night. A vampire."

Anne looks at him blankly. "Are you drunk?

Whoops. Busted. "A little bit," William says. Knowing William, it's from the words, and Dru's kisses as much as alcohol. He lets go of Dru's hand and comes toward his mother, eyes shining with the gift he wants to give her.

"Think of it," he says. "No more sickness. No more dying. You'll never age another day." His voice rises as he plays his trump card. "Let me do this for you."

This isn't her shy, blushing boy. "What are you talking about?" Anne asks, a little tremulously. "And why are you acting so strangely?"

"Don't worry, Mother," William says softly as he comes to her. "It's only me" He smiles, folds her into an embrace. "We'll be together forever," he whispers in her ear.

"William..." She's confused, still. Why is her boy so cold? And has he gone mad? We hear the bones in William's face shift, and when we see his face again, he's vamped out

"It only hurts for a moment...," he says tenderly, and pulls the collar of her nightgown back. Then he bares his fangs and plunges in for the bite.

The vision fades out, leaving Spike staring into space.

Willow comes down and tells Buffy she has to go away. Maybe she'll bring back some good news. Buffy's glad; they need some of that right now. When Willow leaves, Buffy goes straight to Spike.

As she passes him, Giles admonishes her, "Think about what you're doing."

She never slows down. "I have," she says through her teeth.

She unlocks the manacles, helps Spike up. As the two of them head for the stairs, Giles tries again. "Buffy..."

"Don't." The word is sharp, cold, and final.

Wood unlocks a padlock on the garage door.

"Live in the garage?" Spike says. He's not really thrilled to be here.

"It's just a work room," Wood says. "Kind of my, uh, sanctuary." He takes the padlock off and opens the door, goes inside. Spike follows. It's dark in there.

"A little place to unwind, eh?" Spike says. If he can see well in the dark, he's not really paying attention. "A hard day's principaling got you down, you need a place to cut loose, let your hair down." Wood closes the door without replying. Oh, wait... "So to speak."

Wood flips a switch, and the overhead light flickers for a moment, then comes on.

The walls of the garage are covered with crosses of every size and description.

"What the bloody hell is this?" Spike's paying attention now. And clearly, something is Just Not Right here...

But Wood is polite, maybe even friendly. "I told you, it's my, um, sanctuary." Spike's expression says he is not really mollified. "It's the Hellmouth, Spike," Wood says. "You can never be too careful. Just, uh, stay away from the walls. You'll be fine." He walks over to a table across the room, wakes up his computer.

"It's a bit much, isn't it?" Wood, fiddling with the computer, doesn't answer. Spike's eyes narrow. Something is definitely off. "What's your story? Wood..."

Wood doesn't turn around. He's absorbed in what he's doing with the computer. "No story, really," he says. "Just...trying to do what's right. Make a difference." Now he turns. "How about you?" he says, and there's a flash of something dangerous in his voice. "What kind of man are you, Spike?"

"Sorry," Spike says. He hasn't missed the threat. "Not much for self-reflection." He's cautious, on his guard now.

"Yeah, makes sense," Wood says, turning back to the computer. "See, you strike me as the kind of guy who just careens through life." He takes off his shirt. He's wearing a gray muscle shirt underneath. He reaches down, opens the table drawer. There are several knives and some studded gloves in it. He continues talking as he pulls out one of the gloves. "Completely oblivious of the damage he's doing to EVeryone around him." He fastens the glove, which has a metal brace for the forearm.

"That right?" Spike says.

Wood buckles the brace over his forearm. "Oh, I know more about you than you think, Spike," he says. "See, I've been searching for you for a very, very long time." Spike, finally able to see what Wood is putting on, tenses. "Ever since you killed my mother."

Spike goes still for a moment. He knows who Wood's mother was. But he's not giving it away just yet. "I killed a lot of people's mothers," he says carefully.

Wood pulls a smaller glove out of the drawer. "Yeah," he says, taking off the bandage on his hand, "You'd remember mine." He pulls the glove on. "She was a Slayer."

Spike isn't surprised. "So that's it, innit?" he says. "Brought me here to kill me?"

Wood turns to him. "No," he says. "I don't want to kill -you-, Spike. I want to kill the monster that took my mother away from me." He reaches out, taps the mouse, and the computer begins to play a song. It's Spike's trigger song.

Spike tries to fight it, but he can't, and after a moment, he's vamped out and snarling at Wood.

Wood looks at him with a fierce pleasure. "There he is..."

William walks into the parlor. His collar is undone and he looks quite rumpled. The room is empty, but Anne's cane is leaning against the settee.

"Mother?" William says, perhaps a little alarmed.

Anne comes in from another room, carrying a box. She's still in her nightgown. She is completely different from the frail, sick woman of the previous scene; her hair is down, flowing loose around her shoulders, her eyes are clear, her lips are full. She looks healthy. She's...beautiful.

William is very pleased with the change. "Look at you," he says, his voice full of...pride? Awe?

"Mmm, yes," Anne says. "All better."

He looks at her, a quiet joy in his face. "You're glowing."

"Am I?"

"Yeah..." William's answer is soft.

"Well," Anne says, "I suppose you to thank for that, don't I? However will I repay you?" She seems to be making an effort to be polite, but there's very little real emotion in her voice.

"Seeing you like this is payment enough," William says. He's brimful of love and joy at the change in her.

"Oh, William," she says, and comes toward him. "You're so...tender." She gives a slight chuckle as she says the word. She moves away from him, sets the box down on a table.

"Well, this is as it should be, Mother. You and I together. All of London laid out before us."

"Ah. Yes," she says. "Us. Hmmm..." Still being polite.

William doesn't seem to notice; he's too wrapped up in his plans for them. "First, we'll feast," he tells her. "Then, the night is yours." He comes to her side. "The theater, perhaps?" He touches her back, lightly, his eyes twinkling. "Dancing?" He's teasing her, a little. " Tell me. What's your pleasure?"

"Pleasure?" she says, turning to look at him. "Why, to take my leave of you, of course." Still very polite.

It rocks him back. He frowns, and then she speaks again. " 'The lark hath spake from twixt its wee beak'?" He smiles at the quotation from the poem he'd read her before he died, but her next words strike him like a blow. "You honestly thought I could bear an eternity listening to that twaddle?"

(In the garage, Wood punches Spike. His head rocks back, and he growls.

"That's right, dog," Wood shouts at him, "Bite back!" Spike lunges forward, and Wood knocks him down.)

"I feel extraordinary!" she says. "It's as though I've been given new eyes." For a moment we see how happy she is with her transformation. But... "Understand..." She looks at William, and her happiness fades away. "Everything." The word is weary.

"Mother..."

"I hate to be cruel," she says, and then, realizing, "No. I don't. I used to hate to be cruel, in life. Now I find it rather freeing." For a moment she's happy in her new freedom, but once again, seeing William destroys the mood. "Nothing less will pry your greedy little fingers off my apron strings, will it?" she says, and the words are deliberately cruel.

"Stop," William says, his voice shaking. "Please."

But she's relentless. "Ever since the day you first slithered from me, like a parasite," she says. (In the garage, Wood punches Spike hard in the face.)

William backs away from the pain. "What are you s..."

"Had I known better," she says, stalking toward him, "I could have spared myself a lifetime of tedium and just..." (Wood pushes Spike against the wall of the garage, onto the crosses. Spike starts to smolder.) "Just dashed your brains out when I first saw you." She's not being cruel now, just stating facts. William can't back up any farther; he's up against the wall. He turns his face away, unable to bear the horrible words. (Wood puts a hand on the side of Spike's face and pushes his head back against the wall. Spike snarls in pain.)

Anne turns away from her son (her father) in disgust. "God," she says, "I prayed you'd find a woman to release me. But you scarcely showed an interest. Who could compare to your doddering, housebound mum? A captive audience for your witless prattle." (Spike pushes Wood away, comes toward him, growling.)

William grits his teeth, pushes off from the wall. "Whatever I was," he says, his voice rough, "that's not who I am any more." He'd never have spoken to her that way when he was alive, so perhaps he has a point. But Anne thinks otherwise.

"Darling," she says, as though to a child. "That's who you'll -always- be." She comes close to him, leaning in as though to share a confidence, but it's not a kind one. "A -limp-, sentimental fool..."

(Wood throws Spike into a bookcase, shattering it and scattering the books. Spike falls to the floor, dazed. "Hurts, don't it?" Wood says, taking savage joy in the words. "That's what it felt like?" He punches the woozy vampire. "When you beat the life out of her?" Another blow. "When you toyed with her?" Another blow, and now his voice is ragged with rage. "When you SNAPPED HER NECK???" One final, massive blow, and Spike is nearly unconscious. Wood moves away from Spike. "Animal like you," he says, stripping off the gloves, "Never cared for anyone but yourself. No one else mattered. Just..." He reaches for his shirt, puts it on, goes back to Spike. "All about the hunt." He pulls Spike's arms out of the coat, tugs it from underneath him. Folds it, puts it on the table. Spike lies there, still vamped out, still groggy. "Yeah." He goes to the wall, wrenches a cross with a sharp point off the wall.)

"You want to run, don't you?" Anne says, stalking forward, getting right into William's face. He backs up, trying not to look at her. "Scamper off and cry to your new little trollop? Do you think you'll be able to love her? Think you'll be able to touch her without feeling me, hmmm?"

It takes a moment for the implication to sink in, and when it does, his eyes widen in horror. Anne moves closer, puts her hands on his chest. "All you've ever wanted was to be back inside," she hisses. He tries to fend off her hands, which are suddenly all over him, touching his face, his hair, his chest. "You finally got your wish, didn't you?" she says. "Sank your teeth into me, an eternal kiss."

William is extremely squicked. "No!" he says, using his forearms to hold her away, "I only wanted to make you well!"

"You wanted your hands on me," she says, and puts her own hands on his chest, his face. He tries again to catch hold of her hands, keep them away, but he can't. She's using force, and he's trying not to hurt her. "Perhaps you'd like a chance to finish off what you started?"

He's nearly sick, trying desperately to get away from her, to keep his eyes averted. "I loved you," he says. "I did. Not like this..."

"Just like this," she hisses. She's too close, too close, and her hands.... "This is what you've always wanted," she says. She leans in, and the air from her words are an obscene caress. "Who's my dark little prince...?" She's trying to kiss him.

It's too much, and now he's not worried about hurting her, he has to get -away-. "No!" He shoves her, hard. She staggers back.

"Get out!" she shouts, furious. "Get OUT!" She picks up her cane, brandishes it at him, brings it down. But he catches it, and as they struggle for control of it, the cane snaps. We hear Anne shift into vamp face. "There, there, precious," she says, "It will only hurt for a moment..."

"I'm sorry," William says. He knows what he has to do, and it hurts.

(Wood, holding the sharpened cross like a stake, comes to stand over Spike. "What?" Wood is taken aback.

"I'm sorry," Spike mumbles, but he's not seeing Wood.)

William grits his teeth and uses the cane to stake his mother. Before she turns to dust, her face changes back to human, and he gasps. She smiles a little, as though in apology, and then crumbles. The firelight gleams off his face as he stares at the empty space where she'd been.

In the garage, Wood brings the cross/stake up, ready to plunge it into Spike's chest. But Spike catches his hand on the downswing, twists the stake out of his hand, and shoves him away. Wood stumbles across the room and fetches up against the opposite wall. He turns, glares at Spike.

"Sorry?" he says, bitterly. "You think 'sorry' is gonna make everything right?"

Spike gets to his feet with a fluid grace that was completely missing while he was vamped. "I wasn't talking to you," he says. Wood rushes him with a spinning high kick, but Spike avoids him, moving out of his way with effortless grace. He punches Wood once, twice, elbows him in the face. Wood staggers back; Spike isn't using anything like full strength. He's playing.

"I don't give a piss about your mum," Spike says. His patience is starting to wear thin. "She was a Slayer, I was a vampire. That's the way the game is played.

"Game??" Wood tries to circle, get in a better position. Spike swings his leg high, kicks Wood upside the head. The blow flips Wood over, sends him tumbling.

"She knew what she was signing up for," Spike says.

"Well, I didn't sign up for it." Wood glares at him from where he's sprawled on the floor.

"Well, that's the rub, isn't it?" Spike says. "You didn't sign up for it and somehow it's my fault."

Wood gets to his feet. "You took my childhood," he says, and swings at Spike. He blocks the punch, but doesn't try to hit back. "You took her away," Wood says, and takes another swing, which Spike also blocks, seemingly without any effort at all.

But he's had enough for the moment; he lands an open-handed blow to Wood's chest, just hard enough to push him back a couple of steps. Not even breaking a sweat, here.

"She was all I had." Wood advances toward Spike. "She was my world."

"And you weren't hers," Spike says. Not moving, not threatened. "Doesn't that piss you off?"

"Shut up!" Wood is furious. "You didn't know her." He spins a kick to Spike's chest. It lands, but it's not enough to move him more than a step back. Wood aims another kick, but Spike catches his leg, twists, flips him onto his back. Undeterred, Wood tries to kick with the other leg, but Spike catches that, too, and uses it to fling Wood across the room, high into the wall

"I know Slayers," Spike says as Wood slides down the wall. He's broken inside; definitely ribs, maybe other, softer things. He stays where he lands; he's not able to get up.

Spike comes closer. "No matter how many people they've got around them," he says, and it's clear he's not just talking about Nikki here, "they fight alone." He heaves a disgusted sigh. "Life of the Chosen One." A trace of bitterness has crept into his voice. "The rest of us be damned. Your mother was no different."

"No," Wood gasps. "She...she loved me."

"But not enough to quit, now, was it?" Spike comes over to where Wood is lying. "Not enough to walk away... For you." He squats down beside Wood. "I'll tell you a story," he says, "About a mother and son. See, like you, I loved my mother. So much so, I turned her into a vampire. So we could be together, forever." Wood looks a little surprised. Behind the pain. "She said some nasty bits to me after I did that," Spike goes on. "Been weighing on me for quite some time. But you helped me figure something out. See, unlike you, I had a mother who loved me back. When I sired her, I set loose a demon. And it tore into me." His face is calm, composed. "But it was the demon talking, not her. I realize that now." He stands up, starts walking toward the table with the computer.

"My mother loved me. With all her heart. I was her world." He gets to the table, reaches out, clicks the mouse. The song begins to play. But he doesn't vamp out. He listens, quietly, perhaps remembering his mother's voice as she sang the song. "That's a nice little song you've got there, he says, and reaches over and pushes the power button, shutting the computer off. The music stops. He turns to look at Wood.

"Thanks, Doc," he says. "You cured me after all." Wood, realizing, lets his head fall back. Spike walks slowly toward Wood. "I got my own free will, now. I'm not under the First's or anyone else's influences now." He stops. "I just wanted you to know that," he says, and his face morphs into the demon's. "Before I kill you." Wood's eyes widen as Spike hauls him to his feet. It hurts. It hurts worse when Spike plunges his fangs into Wood's neck.

Buffy, not too swift on the uptake, has finally figured out that Giles is stalling her. She takes off running for Wood's house.

Spike is just coming out of the garage. He's putting on the coat when Buffy arrives. "Spike?" she says, panic fading to relief in her voice. He's not dust... And it occurs to her what that must mean. "What happened?"

Spike says nothing, only pushes open the garage door so that she can see a badly beaten, bitten, but still living Robin Wood. "Oh, my God..." She looks at Spike, horrified, but a little surprised that Wood isn't dead.

"I gave him a pass," Spike says, very matter of fact. He's telling her what happened, but he's done explaining himself to her. "On account of the fact that I killed his mother." Buffy's eyes widen as she realizes which Slayer Robin's mother must have been. "But that's all he gets." Spike's voice is even, calm. Deadly serious. "He even so much as looks at me funny again, I'll kill him." He turns and walks away, leaving Buffy standing there. She closes her eyes, her face a mask of pain and worry.

--

Dori

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