Justine knocked on the door again. Buffy and I were lying naked in the tub and neither one of us felt like getting out, but I think Justine was getting suspicious.
"Almost done," I called out, "The healing spell, was a success, I just need to, um...put the spell in park and make sure it doesn't drift to other parts of the house."
"Put the spell in park?" Buffy whispered.
"She's not a witch," I whispered back, "She doesn't know how spells work. I can tell whatever I want."
Buffy and I just lay there for a while, limp and relaxed. I knew I had to get out of the tub eventually, but the exquisite feeling of Buffy's warm, naked flesh against mine was making it hard to motivate. I might have spent another hour in the tub with Buffy, but Justine came knocking on the door again just a few minutes later and yelled, "
The vampire is awake and he says he wants to talk to the Slayer!
"
Almost instantly Buffy and I rose up out of the water and we hurriedly grabbed towels. Now that Spike was awake, it didn't seem like a good idea to leave him alone with Justine.
"Is one of you the Slayer?" Justine called out through the door.
"I'm the Slayer," Buffy called out through the locked door, "I'll be out in a minute!"
We got dressed quickly. Spike still had that chip in his head, but somehow my head was filling with disturbing pictures of Justine lying in a pool of her own blood, while Spike stood menacingly over her dead body. It may not have been logical, but Buffy and I both dressed with a sense of urgency.
Buffy was in such a hurry to get dressed, that the rips in her clothes got even wider. Her jeans were a lost cause now. That was a real pity, I loved those jeans on Buffy. They were the extra-tight jeans that looked almost like they were spray-painted on. They really showed off the shape of Buff's thighs and her super-firm butt.
Buffy and I burst out of the bathroom, looking for any signs of violence or foul play, but all we found were Justine and Spike standing around, looking to us, as if for answers.
"So, there you are," Spike said, actually sounding pleased to see Buffy, "I was starting to wonder. Last thing I remember we were fighting that shape-shifty thing at the high school, and now I'm here. And where is here, exactly?"
"My living room," Justine answered.
"Fremont," I told Spike.
Spike raised an inquisitive eyebrow and asked, "Fremont? Where the blood hell is Fremont? And why are we in Fremont when there's evil afoot in Sunnydale?"
"We're in Fremont because I did a spell that brought us all here," I told Spike, "You and Buffy were both unconscious and that thing was going to kill all three of us, so I thought...anything would be better than getting killed...so I did a spell and here we all are...not torn into ground chuck and blood spatters on the school floor."
"And since when do you care about stopping the forces of evil?" Buffy asked, incredulous.
"Hey, I might not be the Slayer, but I still fight the forces of evil," Spike boasted, "I'm sort of like Batman...only without the embarrassingly tight spandex costume. Did you not see the way I threw myself against the forces of darkness?"
"I saw the forces of darkness pick you up and swing you around like a tennis racket," Buffy countered.
"Last time I underestimated him," Spike conceded, "Next time I'm gonna kick his ass!"
"Wait, I thought you were a vampire," Justine said awkwardly, "since when do vampires fight the forces of evil?"
Justine looked from Spike to me and then to Buffy. She seemed to be hoping that one of us could answer her question, but I was just about as mystified as her. I remember it wasn't that long ago that Spike was trying to Buffy and me. For Spike to want to help us in vanquishing the doppelganger, just seemed way out of character for him.
"Everybody needs a hobby," Spike said simply, as if that explained everything.
* * * * * * * * *
It took some time, but we eventually convinced Justine to drive Buffy, Spike and me back to Sunnydale. Justine was even nice enough to provide Buffy with a change of clothes, since the doppelganger shredded her jeans and her shirt.
I eventually figured out Spike's radical change of behavior. Spike had spent a century or so as a predator, and it had really traumatized him when he found out that he couldn't kill humans anymore. It was like being the biggest, strongest lion in all of Africa, with the strongest jaws, the sharpest teeth, but still somehow unable to kill any of the zebras on the sub-Saharan plains.
That was a huge blow for Spike. Despite all of his power, he couldn't use any of it.
At least that's what he thought until his fight with the doppelganger. Now he knows he can still hunt. He can't hunt humans anymore, but he can still hunt other things. So, instead of being a lion who can never hunt again, he's more like a lion who's simply been forced to hunt hyenas instead.
It's a much smaller adjustment, and Spike seems to be very happy about it. He can still be a predator, he just has to switch targets.
"
Demons
," Spike yelled enthusiastically in my ear, "
Nasty buggers! Let's fight that evil!!
"
Buffy sat right next to me on my left and said, "Spike, you do realize that you're still a vampire, right?"
"What? A vampire can't fight evil?" Spike asked defensively.
"I'm pretty sure there's no rule against it," Spike continued, "And even if there were, I've never really been real keen on living my life by someone else's rules. If Spike wants to be the vampire that fights evil, Spike will
bloody
well
be
the vampire that fights evil!"
"I think I liked him better when he was trying to kill me," Buffy said irritably.
"And before we can fight that evil, we're going to have to
find
that evil," I told Spike. "The doppelganger looked like Chip the first time we saw him. He can probably look like anyone in town. Right now, he could be another one of the students on campus. Or maybe one of the teachers."
""Yeah," Spike conceded, "But if you had a blood sample or a lock of his hair, you could do another tracking spell and find him, no matter
who
he looked like."
Spike gave me a smug grin and I had a feeling he wasn't just talking about a hypothetical situation.
"Spike, are you saying
you
have something like that?"
His smile seemed to get even more extreme and he pulled something out of the pocket of his leather duster. It was a lock of hair.
"Spike, have you been pulling people's hair again?" Buffy asked, accusingly.
"Hey," Spike snapped, "I had the bloody demon in a bloody wrestling hold! I just ended up with a handful of his hair when he grew like three bloody times his normal size and broke free!"
