The Birthday Present

Chapter 18


Spike was panting heavily when he once more became aware of his surroundings. He felt his face shift back to his human form and moaned at the pain in his jaw. It was held open somehow and felt on the point of dislocation. He opened his eyes to see three pairs anxiously staring back. He pushed himself up until he was sitting and wiped his gaping mouth on his arm. Spike tried to turn away but was too weakened by the shocks that he couldn’t move and his useless legs were like a dead weight. He dropped back down and covered his face with his hands.

“What’s wrong with his mouth?” asked Oz quietly, appalled at what he was seeing. “Is that because of the shocks?”


“I don’t think so,” replied Willow. “I think that he has had some additional things done to him.”


“It looks uncomfortable, Will. I’m going to take a look and see what we can do for him. Do you want to help?”


Willow nodded.


“Is he safe?” asked Oz. “He’s not going to try to hurt you again is he?”


“I think that he’ll be okay. He was just afraid when he sensed that I was the Slayer. I might be out of action since The Initiative moved in, but I still give off the same vibe to the vamps.”


They unlocked the cage and walked inside, with Buffy leading the way. Spike rolled over so that his torso was exposed when Buffy got close to him. Oz recognised it as submissive behaviour. Spike was still afraid of the Slayer but knew that he couldn’t fight. If she wanted to stake him, he was offering her an easy target. He could see the vampire trembling and that he was keeping his eyes closed.


“Hey, Spike, shh, it’s okay. I promise you that you’re safe. I just need to see what has happened to your mouth.”


She spoke softly as she approached him; she laid a hand on his chest and stroked it gently. Spike opened his eyes but didn’t meet her gaze. His panting slowed a little and so she thought that he must understand that she was no longer a threat. Buffy took hold of his jaw and angled his mouth so that she could see in it more easily.


“God, Willow. Look what someone has done.”


Willow peered into Spike’s open mouth and gasped as she saw the device implanted right at the back of his jaw. “We need to get that out.”


“Can you do it, Willow?” asked Buffy.


“I think so, but he can’t be awake for it – it will be far too painful for him.” She reached out and touched Spike’s face. “I’m going to have to put you to sleep for a little while, so we can get this contraption out of your mouth. Is that all right?”


Spike lifted his eyes to her. The last time that he’d been made unconscious, he’d woken up strapped to that table in McDonald’s basement. He was terrified but had no option but to trust her. He nodded slightly.


Willow whispered an incantation and Spike’s tense body went limp, his eyes closed. Somehow this made his widely gaping mouth seem even worse.


“He’ll be out for a few hours. We can get his other injuries assessed too,” said Willow. “But first, I need some tools to get this out of his mouth.”


“Tools?” said Oz weakly. “Can’t you, like, use magic or something?”


Willow smiled as she shook her head. “I’m afraid this has to be done the old fashioned way. It’s been fixed in there like a tooth and it’s going to have to come out the same way. Vampire’s mouths usually heal pretty quickly though.”


“I’ll go and get your bag,” offered Buffy. “Oz, do you want a drink or anything?” The poor man looked white and ready to faint.


“Uh…no…I don’t think that I could keep anything down,” replied Oz, confirming Buffy’s thoughts about how nauseous he was feeling.


Willow stared at Spike. She’s seen her fair share of abused vampires but he really had been worked over. She peered at his navel, why were there three tubes there? There should only be the one for the lubrication of his anus and rectum. She noticed that he no longer had a feeding tube in his neck, so that accounted for a second, but she had no idea of the use of the third. She pulled off the pants that Oz had dressed Spike with and grimaced as she saw his swollen and torn penis. The ring would have to go. She heard a bit of a cough and glanced back at Oz.


“He…er…he…um.” Oz waved his hand towards Spike.


Willow regarded him patiently.


“He’sgotsomethingstuckuphisass.” Oz babbled blushing crimson.


The only part that Willow had understood was the word ‘ass’. She could guess at what Oz had seen. They had never had a vamp come in without a plug. Without it the lubrication system would fail and it would be uncomfortable for their owners when they used them. She rolled Spike over and couldn’t help but gasp. No wonder that Oz had been so upset. The plug was incredibly wide. Spike’s hole stretched to the point of tearing. Before the partial shut-down had paralysed him it must have been very painful.


Willow screwed up her face as she gripped the plug with her right hand. She twisted it from side to side a couple of times before putting her left hand on Spike’s ass and pulling the offending item out. Not only was it wide but it was much longer than she would have expected. She wasn’t surprised to see that blood was mixed in with the lubricant coating it. Willow threw it to the floor in disgust. She wiped him down, pleased that the enhanced healing that Spike had would make that gaping hole more normal by morning.


She had just rolled Spike back over when Buffy reappeared with her bag. Oz sat on the floor and decided that he didn’t want to know how his friend had come to have such an extensive bag of surgical equipment.


“Can you hold the light so that I can see it, please,” said Willow as she handed Buffy a pen light and bent over to study the contraption in Spike’s mouth.


Buffy took the light and held it for her. “Can you get it out?”


“I think so. It looks like it had just been screwed in to his jaw where a tooth has been extracted. The spring loaded part fitted in to where another tooth had been removed.”

“Will those teeth grow back, like you said his fangs will?” asked Oz.


“No,” replied Buffy. “For some reason, if a vampire’s human teeth are removed that’s it – just the same as us. We had one poor vampire whose owner had kicked all his human front teeth out. He had to have false teeth fitted. The poor thing had to take them out every time that he vamped up.”


Using a simple short handled screwdriver, Willow removed the anti-biting device that Warren had fitted. She gently eased Spike mouth shut. She turned her attention to Spike numerous other injuries. She used bolt cutters to remove the penis ring. She cleaned the area carefully, before deciding that a suture would make it heal more quickly and without the risk of disfigurement. Oz decided that he needed some air right about then. By the time he had returned, Willow had sutured the split in his left hand where he had ripped the ring through it. The scar would compromise Spike’s invulnerability to the sun, but a heavy leather glove would do the job if he went out in the daytime.


Willow and Buffy were amazed at how few of the vampires that they had helped, who had been given the protective coating, actually did go out in the sun when given the choice.


“What do you think is going on with that?” asked Buffy, pointing to the third valve in Spike’s navel.


“I’m not sure. It’s an addition that I haven’t seen before,” replied Willow. She turned to Oz. “Did you say that Spike appeared to be in love with his owner?”


“With, Lindsey, yeah,” said Oz, not liking to here his friend referred to as an owner of what was essentially a slave. “I’d say that he was in love – not that he appeared to be. He once told me that it was all that he knew. That if he made Lindsey happy, then he was happy.”


“That sounds like the additives that you can get so that you don’t have to use the controller or give commands all the time,” said Buffy. “You know, the one that means the sex is more natural, more lifelike?”


“If he’s had that permanently in his system, he is going to be in a bad way, when it is completely out of his system. God knows what effect withdrawal will have on him; it totally controls his mind.” Willow glanced up at Buffy with tears in her eyes. “You’re right – he may be beyond our help.”


“Don’t give up on him, please,” said Oz desperately, standing up and leaning on the bars of the cage.


“Don’t worry, Oz we won’t, but we do have to be aware of the possibility,” replied Buffy sadly.


“I think that I’m going to have to take these reservoirs out,” said Willow.


“What?” said Buffy. “Why not just leave them in, like we usually do?”


“Because the lube one doesn’t seem to bother the vamps but one of these is definitely ruptured judging by the blood leaking from it. We take the feeding tube out of their necks and in Spike it now runs alongside the one that we suspect had that love stuff in it. I don’t think that he’ll be able to feed normally until it’s removed.”


“That sounds like major surgery, Willow. Are you sure that you’re…um…able to do it?” asked Oz.


“There’s no one else, Oz. It’s not like we can take him to a hospital. And it’ll only be a case of disconnecting what is there. The big plus is that if we can get Spike well fed, whatever I do will be healed in a couple of days.”


“What else do you need, Willow?” asked Buffy.


Willow told her what to get and as soon as Buffy returned, she set to work. She made a small horizontal incision near Spike’s navel before boldly slicing one of around six inches down his torso, ignoring Oz’s gasp and subsequent swift exit. She swabbed away the pool of blood that had gathered in the ruptured reservoir. The blood was tinged a slightly greenish colour confirming that it had held another drug. She followed it down to where it entered Spike’s stomach. A narrow tube also went in to the top of the stomach. She gently teased both free and a couple of sutures were all that was required to close the breach. She was pleased to see that it had gone to the top of the stomach as healing would be very quick and he would be able to eat right away.


The lubrication reservoir was trickier to remove as it looked like it had been there longer and also because it was still half full. But working carefully and methodically it soon joined the others in the metal dish beside her. Willow sprinkled antibiotic powder in the wound before stitching Spike back up. No sense in taking any chances, vampiric healing or not, it hadn’t been done under the most sterile of conditions.


Willow sighed and stretched her back when she had tied the last suture. She glanced at her watch; she’d only just finished in time. Spike would be waking up soon. She kicked herself for not doing the spell for a longer duration but had been worried about doing a spell at all so soon after a maximum length shock.


“He’s going to be sore,” said Willow sadly. “It’s not going to help him to trust us, is it?”


“Well, he’ll have to,” said Buffy matter of factly. “He can’t go anywhere at the moment, can he?”


They couldn’t work on reversing the shut down until he was much stronger. The prolonged full power shock meant that it wasn’t safe to access the chip for several days. They learned that the hard way, when one of the first of their rescued vampires had dusted as they had established a connection to the chip.


Spike stirred slightly on the bed. They had elected to leave him on the bed in the cage for now, rather than moving him.


“Buffy, why don’t you go and get some sleep, I’ll watch over him,” said Willow.


“Willow, you look exhausted,” said Oz. “Why don’t you go to bed, too? I can sit with him; there’s no way that I can sleep after all this.”


Willow smiled at him gratefully. “I’d appreciate that, thanks. Call me if you are worried about him in anyway.”


The two women walked slowly up the stairs and out of the basement. Oz pulled up a stool and put it next to Spike’s bed. He sat on it and watched Spike anxiously as he began to move and moan softly. Oz was unsure whether he should offer comfort to Spike or not but in the end, he couldn’t continue to sit without doing anything. He gently laid a hand on Spike’s arm.


“It’s okay, Spike, you’re safe,” he soothed.


He nearly jumped off the chair when Spike’s eyes flew open, turning to amber as his features changed. Spike hissed and bared his mutilated mouth at Oz. He tried to back away but gasped as the pain of his abdominal wound hit him. He glanced at the neat T shaped line of sutures and began to tremble uncontrollably. The look that he gave Oz was one of pure terror.


“Hey, Spike. Don’t be afraid. It’s to make you better, I promise,” said Oz, reaching out once more.


He stopped before he touched Spike as it looked like the vampire might try to bite again, and Oz really thought that if the chip fired again that it would kill Spike. Instead, he put his hands up palms forwards.


“Sorry, I won’t touch you. I’m sorry,” said Oz. He leaned back on his stool to give Spike a little more space.


Spike’s eyes never left Oz’s face and although he was still panting raggedly, his face faded back to human. Oz found it quite unsettling.


“I know this must all feel very strange to you, but you’re safe,” said Oz.


Spike just stared back.


“You remember me, right?” Oz asked.


Spike blinked.


“Oz, yeah? I’m your friend.”


Spike nodded slightly and tried to shift towards Oz. Oz stood up to try to help him. Spike’s hands grabbed the waistband of Oz’s jeans. Oz laughed softly. “That’s one way to get up I suppose.”


Spike’s fingers deftly unfastened the button and then the zipper and his hand slipped inside Oz’s pants before he could react. Oz yelled and pulled Spike’s hand away, stepping back and almost falling over as he hit the stool.


“Stop! What the hell are you doing?”


Spike cowered, hunching his shoulders and dipping his head. “B…b…boyf..friend,” he stuttered, not looking up.


“What?” gasped Oz. “I’m just a friend, not your boyfriend!”


It was obvious from Spike’s expression that he just didn’t comprehend what Oz was saying.


“F…fr…friend?” Spike glanced up at Oz through his eyelashes. “D…do…don’t un…und…” His eyes filled with tears. He didn’t know what to say. Spike had wanted to do what he knew that he should but he hadn’t been allowed.


Oz’s heart went out to Spike, he was obviously completely confused. “You don’t need to think about anything just now. Go back to sleep, okay?”


Spike looked at him again for a moment, before lying down and trying to curl in to a ball. He made a pitiful noise as his legs wouldn’t move, and then pulled each leg up with his hands until he was on his side with his knees drawn up to his middle. He closed his eyes. He’s been told to go to sleep and so he would.


Oz sat back down on the stool. He wondered whether he ought to call Willow but the vampire was settled again. Maybe it was just the aftermath of the magics and his traumatic experience at the hands of McDonald. Perhaps it would all be okay when Spike woke up later? Oz wished that he could believe it. He shuddered at the thought that Spike might be badly damaged; irreparably damaged. He offered a silent prayer for his friend.


Tbc