Something Gray chapter 14/26

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Chapter 14
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Spike had lost a lot of blood. In all his years of taking on the biggest of the big bads, he couldn’t remember having quite so many broken bones to show for it, at least not at one time. The only time he ever remembered being this badly hurt was after Angelus had established the pecking order in their little family soon after William was turned. He wondered just how he had managed to get to the Watcher’s flat. His last memory was of the blinding pain in his head as he tried to defend himself against a pack of hairless gorillas masquerading as college students.

“So you’re back amongst us, I see,” said Giles. “There’s a cup with blood next to you. I think it advisable that you drink down as much as you can hold for now,” he advised softly. Giles was not without compassion, even for a vampire. “I think we can wait until you’re feeling more the thing before we discuss what happened.”

“How did I get here?” Spike choked out softly.

“Buffy and Anya brought you here from the alley behind the Bronze. A young lady led them to you, thinking you were dead. You really do need blood and rest for now, however. There will be time enough for the sharing of information later.” Giles stood and began to move away from the injured vampire.

“Bloody bastards! I wasn’t even cheating. Won the blunt fair and square. Wasn’t my fault they couldn’t hold their drink or play a decent game of billiards. Actually trying to do the straight and narrow for once. See what it got me? Damn buggerin’ chip won’t even let me fight back against a pack of pups,” he lamented.

It was clear from his tone of voice and facial expression that he was feeling no small amount of shame at having been laid low by a group of college boys.

“Yes, well, you have been handicapped by the wiring put in your head by those scientists that you promised to lead us to,” Giles reminded him. “I’m sure you would have decimated the lot of them had you not been chipped,” he offered in sympathy.

“Damn straight, Watcher, woulda drained the lot of ‘em! Used to eat gangs of bullies all the time,” Spike spat out in a mixture of anger and pride.

“Of course, if that had been the case, Buffy would have simply staked you, rather than hauling your carcass over to bleed on my sofa,” Giles replied dryly.

“There is that,” Spike agreed. “Still don’t seem right–a group of humans being able to do this to a bloke and it’s okay, but not okay for a fella to defend himself.”

“No, Spike, it is not okay. Humans have laws to deal with such behavior, however. These criminals will be dealt with in a human way by humans with human laws,” Giles promised.

“Your human laws don’t protect demons. What, I’m gonna go to the police and press charges on the lot of ‘em? Even in blind Sunnydale the cops’ll figure out I’m not quite human. Don’t see any justice happenin’ in this case, old man. Don’t think those
jackals knew or cared if I was human or not either. What’s that say about your soulful human justice?”

The watcher and the vampire looked at each other with a tense silence between them. Spike drained the blood, then groaned in pain as he eased back on the pillows and closed his eyes.

Giles found it difficult to sleep with the moral questions highlighted by this night’s events. Things were much simpler when one merely staked the vampires and left the criminal element to the police. Suddenly Giles felt years older than he had earlier in the evening.

Tomorrow he would try to talk to the girl that had alerted Buffy to Spike’s situation and try to sort out what needed to be done. Spike was right–they didn’t do this to him because he was a vampire. For all they knew, Spike was a human. This couldn’t be swept under a carpet.

Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/198874.html