Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything.

Spoilers: Pretty much everything from School Hard to Chosen

Chapter 6: Readings and Reactions

Willow finished reading the text about half an hour after she went up to her room. Kennedy came upstairs a few minutes later. She and Faith had been training with some of the newer Slayers.

"What are you reading, hon?"

Willow looked at Kennedy with a slightly dazed look.

"Hmm?"

Kennedy looked at Willow with an amused smile.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh. It's Spike's history since he showed up in Sunnydale when we were in high school."

"What? Where'd you get that?"

"Buffy was reading it. Giles wrote it. I guess that's what he was doing earlier this summer."

Kennedy looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Could I read it? I mean I've always wondered how he ended up with a soul and why she trusted him so much. And why you guys even let him near you in the first place, so..."

Willow shrugged and handed it to her.

"You're a Slayer, now, I guess you have the right to know."

Kennedy took the book downstairs with her and was going into the training room when Buffy came back in. She saw the book in Kennedy's hand.

"Where did you get that?"

"Uh, Willow gave it to me. She was reading it. She said that you were reading it, but I thought you were done. Could I read it?"

Buffy nodded.

"There are other copies. Could I have that one back? I know it seems silly, but that's the one that Giles gave me, and it kind of feels like mine..."

Kennedy smiled; she and Buffy had reached a better understanding after the battle on the Hellmouth.

"Sure, where are the other ones?"

****************************

An hour later, Kennedy was handing the book to Vi. Rona saw the book and wanted to know if they had any more copies. Kennedy showed her the other copies. Within minutes all of the Slayers who had been with Spike when he had sacrificed himself were clamoring for a copy of the book. The first to grab copies were those who had trained with him in the early days of the battle with the First Evil.

By nightfall the house was abuzz with Slayers talking about Spike.

Xander, Dawn, and Faith all finally managed to get their hands on copies of the book for themselves.

By the time Dawn finished, she was in tears. She sought out Buffy in her room, where she sat talking quietly with Willow.

"Buffy, I'm so sorry. You really loved him, didn't you?"

Buffy nodded tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, I really did."

Dawn sat down.

"You know, when you were gone, he was really great. He used to play cards with me all the time. And he was never too busy to talk to me, or listen to me talk."

She sighed. "I'm glad that I had that time with him. I'm just sorry that things got so messed up. I mean I wasn't still threatening to set him on fire or anything at the end, but we weren't exactly friends again, either. I wish we had been."

Willow smiled. "Yeah, me too. Spike and I were never quite as close as you guys were, but we got along well during that summer. Oh, and, okay, weird but he was really nice when he was trying to bite me after he first got the chip. And I'll never forget when he punched Tara. That was a great moment."

Buffy smiled and talked and cried with her sister and her best friend until she could barely keep her eyes open. Willow and Dawn left her alone to sleep.

Dawn went to bed as well, while Willow went downstairs. She noticed a shadow outside on the back porch.

"Xander, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking."

Willow nodded and started to turn away.

"I didn't hate him you know."

"What?"

"Spike, I didn't hate him. I mean...I did, before. But this past year, not so much. After he moved in with me I started to see it. He wasn't the same. For one thing he was quieter. And when I insulted him, he either ignored me, or agreed with me. It wasn't that we stopped fighting. He stopped fighting and it's kind of hard to fight with someone who doesn't fight back."

He shrugged.

"Maybe that's why I could figure out the trigger thing so fast. He had stopped fighting, so even though part of me wanted to believe he'd gone evil again, because been there, done that, it didn't fit with what I'd seen, you know. Then there was the whole thing with Spike being the one saying 'I'm evil, stake me, I'm going to kill somebody', not me. It kind of makes it hard for me to feel all self-righteous when he's the one saying it."

He gave her a sad, kind of lopsided smile.

"But, I guess I saw what Buffy saw, Spike changed. And yeah, he changed for Buffy, only then he sort of decided that he didn't deserve her, so he stopped chasing after her. I don't know."

He sighed.

"I guess seeing it all there in black and white, all the stuff he did. I mean he pulled alot of crap, tried to kill us a bunch of times, hurt Buffy alot, but he saved us, all of us, twice as many times as he tried to kill us. And he helped us save the world three or four times even before he got his soul. It just got me thinking about all of the stuff I said to Buffy about him. And some of the stuff I said to Anya."

He looked at the ground.

"He may have been undead, and he wasn't perfect, but he wasn't evil. Not a real nice guy, but not a real bad guy either. I just kept seeing the guy who tried to kill us on Parent's Night and then I'd see Angelus sneering at me while he was holding you by the throat and I couldn't let go of the image of Spike as the evil undead. It wasn't fair to Buffy."

"You know, I'm not really the one you should be telling this to."

"I know, but I don't know how to tell her."

"Consider her told." Came a voice from the doorway.

They turned around to see Buffy standing in the doorway. She smiled softly.

"I got thirsty. Thank you, Xander. It means alot to me to hear you say that."

She walked to him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.

Then she returned to the house and went up to bed.

Willow and Xander exchanged a smile and a hug before heading to their own rooms, as well.

**************************

Faith finished reading her copy of the book and thought about Robin. She knew that he still thought that he had been right to try and kill Spike when he was under the First's trigger, that Buffy hadn't been seeing Spike clearly. Faith had always thought that Buffy saw Spike more clearly than the people around her.

Now after reading this, she was more convinced than ever that Buffy had been right about Spike. She put her copy of the book next to her bed. She didn't know if Robin would want to read it or not, but she'd offer him the chance.

****************************

By the next afternoon, everyone who lived in the large house that Giles had secured for them had read the book, and there was no other topic of conversation.

"Did you really train with him? What was he like?"

"Mmm, girl, he was hot."

"Oh, and you should have seen him and Buffy together. They were like so.."

"Hot."

"But not just that, they were like this great team. They knew each other's moves and could anticipate what the other one was going to do. And the level of trust they had was like...amazing."

"Do you know who it was that he punched, you know to prove she was human?"

Kennedy answered that question.

"Yeah, it was Tara, Willow's ex-girlfriend. She told me the story last night. She's really proud of him for that."

By the time Buffy and Faith gathered everyone for patrol that night the girls were full of questions for Buffy.

"What was he like?"

"Are there other vampire like him?"

"How come other vampires don't get their souls back?"

Buffy and Faith laughed as they held up their hands for silence.

Buffy shook her head.

"How many of you read the prologue of Giles' book?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"Okay, then you have answers to all of your questions. Except, what was he like? He was like what you read in the book, and he was sharp, and snarky, and funny, and smart. And he could be cruel and cold, hurtful and vicious. He could also be gentle, loving, generous, supportive, and sweet. He loved Manchester United, The Sex Pistols, Passions, and the flowering onion."

"And you" Faith smirked at her.

She smiled and nodded, "And me".

"Now," she said in a firm businesslike voice, "anymore questions, or can we start patrol?"

Everyone nodded and they headed out.

**********************************

After patrol that night, Buffy stopped in the kitchen to grab a snack before bed. She found Giles getting his own bedtime snack.

"Well, your book was a rousing success. Of course, you've set them up; they're going to think that all research is this easy."

She smiled at him.

"Thank you. It's been really good. Being able to talk about him, grieve for him with my friends. I needed that."

Giles returned the smile.

"You're welcome."

He put his dishes in the dishwasher before leaving the kitchen.

"Oh, one more thing, Buffy. I sent a copy of the manuscript to Wesley in LA."

"Why?"

"Well, I thought, he's a former Watcher, and with Angel and Spike being family, so to speak, Angel might want to know what happened eventually. I thought that it might prove interesting, even useful for Wesley and Angel."

Buffy cocked her head at Giles, then nodded.

*******************************

About two weeks later Wes opened his mail to discover that his mail was still being forwarded from the old address. Then he noticed a small package with a postmark from Cleveland.

He opened it and found the small book with a title and an author, both of which he recognized. He picked up the book and began reading.

Less than an hour later, he was done. He sat for a moment, contemplating his choices.

Finally, reaching a decision, he reached for the phone and dialed the interoffice extension.

"Spike, could you come to my office? I've just received some interesting research materials that I think you may need to see."

FIN

A/N: No, it does not take two weeks to get mail from Cleveland to LA, but if you've ever moved and had to have mail forwarded, you know that it can add several days to the delivery process.