Things That Go Bump in the Night

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Chapter Twenty-Three
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Doyle and Cordelia stumbled into the room at the same time as Xander and company, to find Willow, Tara, and Giles all smiling.

"We did it!" Willow announced happily, bouncing on her toes.

"You're sure?" Adam and Spike asked almost in unison, both of them sounding both hopeful and wary.

Cordelia almost laughed. They sounded like two little boys who'd gotten promised there might be ice-cream for dessert, but were afraid to believe the promise.

"Yes, yes," Giles replied, his smile almost as broad as Willow's. "With one minor . . . hitch," he continued, his smile faltering slightly.

"What hitch?" Adam asked suspiciously -- not that Cordelia blamed him. His experiences here with magic hadn't exactly been positive.

Giles cast a quick glance toward Mr. Dawson. She supposed it was supposed to have been surreptitious, but neither she nor the person it was directed at missed it. Neither did Adam.

"Don't worry about him. He knows far more about me than you'll ever know," Adam stated bluntly. "What *hitch*?"

"Quite. Well, the thing is, we couldn't find another way to make your living body release its hold on Spike's soul."

**Oh no,** Cordelia thought. She'd only made that suggestion in jest.

Unaware of Cordelia's thoughts, Giles continued. "We did find one spell that was promising, but it would have worked only if the 'transfer' wasn't complete."

"Yes," Willow piped in. "It was the one we used when Kathy was trying to steal Buffy's soul."

Giles nodded absently, and continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "We took the base of that spell and . . . rewrote it for our purposes. Of course we could continue looking, but our sources here are tapped out. It would take--"

"Another way?" Dawson asked.

Holding up a hand toward his friend, Adam finished Giles' interrupted statement. "Take time, and, if I guess right, a lot of it," he said. "I think I can safely say that considering the circumstances neither Spike nor I wish to wait," he continued, but did tilt his head questioningly toward Spike.

It was *still* weird thinking of Spike when looking at the dark-haired man. Of course, it was just as strange to look at Spike and realize that Spike wasn't home -- so to speak.

"Nope, doing it the quick way doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to it," Spike replied smugly.

Adam rolled his eyes. "I--"

"*What* are you all talking about?"

Adam sighed. "I, or rather my body, has to die in order to release Spike's soul, so that we can both switch back."

Dawson's eyes widened, and he appeared to be horrified.

Cordelia frowned. Adam had intimated that this man knew about his Immortality, why was he so worried?

"Not the permanent kind, Joe," Adam hastily assured, half glaring at the man. "Do you *really* think I'd be encouraging this if it was?"

Snorting in relieved laughter, Dawson shook his head. "No, of course not. I don't know what I was thinking."

Cordelia grinned. "You were thinking you had found yourself with a group of nuts and that nothing was beyond the realm of possibility," she said.

Dawson grinned back at her, then burst out laughing. She liked his laugh, she decided. It was a hearty, gravelly kind of laugh. It made her think of her grandfather.

"I wouldn't go quite that far," he replied when he managed to control his mirth.

"Yes, you would, Joseph Dawson," Adam retorted. "You just wouldn't say so out loud."

Now it was Richie's turn. He bent nearly double with laughter. "He's got you pegged, Joe," he replied wagging a pointed finger at the older man.

Dawson blustered, but didn't deny the accusation. He suddenly frowned, however, and Cordelia wondered what it was he'd thought of.

He turned toward Willow and Giles, his expression uncertain, as if he couldn't believe he was really here having this conversation -- which his next words confirmed.

"I'm not at all certain I buy everything that's been thrown at me tonight, but on the off chance I'm not completely off my rocker, I have to ask; have you factored in the Immortal factor?"

Giles and Adam frowned in confusion. Cordelia had to admit she was little confused as well. If they hadn't, why had them been talking about death versus permanent death?

"Yes. . . ." Giles replied slowly.

Cordelia almost giggled, shooting a covert glance at Doyle. It looked to her like he was hiding amusement too. Giles had sounded as though he was speaking to a particularly slow student.

". . . .we have. If Adam wasn't Immortal we'd *have* to take the time to find another way to release Spike's soul. It's Adam's Immortality that will allow the 'temporary death' that will affect the release."

Dawson shook his head, his expression showing irritation. "I'm well *aware* of that," he replied, his tone carefully controlled, "and it wasn't what I was referring to."

"What did you mean, then?" Doyle asked, taking a step forward.

"Well, it's something that has been debated among those of us who have known about Immortals for any length of time. An Immortal's soul -- for lack of any better term -- doesn't leave when an Immortal dies temporarily. Near as we've been able to guess, the power of the quickening holds it in, or at least near, the body." Joe's eyes traveled the room, briefly meeting the gaze of everyone involved in the spell, participants and casters alike. "What's to keep Adam's quickening from holding onto Spike's soul, as if it were the soul that belonged to it?"

A stunned silence followed Dawson's unexpected question.

"Bloody hell!" both Adam and Spike exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, I see only one way to find out," Doyle remarked quietly into the silence that followed.

Giles nodded slowly, and with obvious reluctance.

Cordelia remained silent, instead taking the time to watch the people around her. She was surprised to see a flash of fear cross the dark-haired Spike's eyes -- and that was just plain creepy -- before emotion was quickly hidden. And judging by the, also quickly hidden, expression on the blond Adam, Cordelia was certain she really didn't want to know what was going on in his head. To her way of thinking, it looked to be . . . unpleasant.

"You mean, go through with all this without even being sure it'll work?" Richie asked incredulously.

"That's exactly what they meant," Adam replied tartly.

"It worked the first time," Tara offered quietly, "r-releasing Adam's s-soul to S-Spike's body."

Dawson nodded. "True."

Adam brightened considerably. "Well, that certainly makes me feel a little better about the whole thing."

"Why are you so worried about it? Does this 'spell' hurt or something that you wouldn't want to go through it twice?"

Cordelia's mouth twitched upward when Richie suddenly looked away from Joe, in fact refused to look at anyone. Adam, even, looked a tad uncomfortable. No one else answered, though all eyes in the room trained on either Spike or Adam.
Spike just smirked and waited for whatever Adam would say. He looked as though he was thoroughly enjoying this. She had to admit, though she didn't like the idea of agreeing with Spike about anything, that this was the most fun she'd ever had at a 'research' session.

"Why do I get the feeling that something really important has been left out?" Dawson asked suspiciously.

"Because you've got eyes?" Spike inquired facetiously.

Joe just glared at him, quickly returning his attention back to Adam.

Adam sighed and shoved both hands into his jeans pockets. "No, Joe, it doesn't hurt. Well, until the spell actually works. That part hurt."

"It did?" Willow exclaimed, her voice horrified.

Adam nodded her direction curtly, but immediately turned back to Dawson. "It's just . . . I'm not looking forward to the process. Is it really necessary that you know why?"

Dawson stepped backward, his shoulders slumping slightly. To Cordelia it looked like Adam's reticence had hurt. "I guess it isn't," Joe replied stiffly, shrugging.

"Oh, Bloody hell!" Adam exclaimed, his posture sagging a bit too.

"You already said that," Cordelia quipped.

Richie snickered, but everyone else just looked at her.

"What?" she asked, "he did."

Next to her, Doyle shook his head, chuckling quietly. He reached out and took her hand raising it and kissing it lightly. "Never change, Princess," he whispered over her hand.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Adam beginning to reply. Unfortunately, Spike beat him to the punch line.

"We had sex," Spike blurted, waving a hand toward Willow and Tara. "When the witches got busy with their dark mojo, we were busy too."

Adam rolled his eyes, and glared at Spike.

"Well, it's the truth," Spike retorted with an indifferent shrug. "I see no reason to pussy foot around it."

**No,** Cordelia thought, **he's not fooling anyone. He's not indifferent. He's *really* enjoying the shock he just caused.

Dawson opened his mouth a couple of times, and shifted to lean on his cane a little more. "So?" he asked finally. "What does *that* have to do with anything?"

Cordelia watched as Adam and Richie's friend sat silently absorbing Giles' explanation of sex and blood magic. *She* was suffering serious deja vu, however. It hadn't been that long ago that this conversation had already taken place.

When Giles concluded, Dawson nodded slowly, then crossed and sat on one of the straight-backed chairs. "Let me see if I've got this right. All this sex and blood and magic all combined to make some kind of . . . super spell, and it'll take a super spell to reverse it?" he asked skeptically.

Giles nodded.

"But you still don't really believe any of this, do you?" Adam asked.

"Frankly? NO. I've seen some pretty incredible things in my life, but vampires? Magic spells? Body switching? Yes, you," he pointed toward Adam, "act like Adam, and you sure as hell don't. . ." he continued pointing toward the dark-haired Spike, ". . .except for that damned smirk."

Adam and Richie snorted in response to Dawson's exception.

Clearing his throat, Richie spoke first. "I'm the first to admit that there's been a lot of freaky stuff happening since I hit this town, so I've got to say, the body switching stuff is about the easiest of it all to believe."

"You really believe it, don't you, Rich?"

"Yeah," Richie nodded, "I have to. I've seen too much not to believe."

Adam and Richie shared a look that she couldn't quite figure out, both of them shrugging.

"Seeing is believing," Richie said, as if in answer to a question of Adam's.

Adam stood slowly, and suddenly Cordelia knew what he was going to do. With a slight shake of his head, he morphed, allowing the demon's game face to show.

Dawson gasped, instinctively pulling back. "What the--?" he exclaimed, the snapped his mouth shut.

"That's a vampire's 'true face'," Cordelia said quietly.

"I fell asleep on the plane," Dawson muttered. "That's the only explanation."

"Afraid not, Joe. This is all very real," Adam replied softly.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Giles said, stepping forward, "but tonight is an opportune time to cast this spell. Unless you would all like to wait until the night after tomorrow?"

"No," Spike said, jumping up. "Tonight's perfect."

"Why not tomorrow night?" Joe asked.

"Long story."

"Tonight would be my preference as well," Adam replied, shifting back to human guise. "I'm really not comfortable trusting the protection of my body to someone other than myself. Putting this off seems too much like tempting fate, if you ask me."

Cordelia's eyes narrowed. **Yeah, tempting which fate?** she thought. She wasn't really sure what it was, but Adam's given reason wasn't his real one. She was sure of it.

Just as everyone began moving, gather the supplies needed, the front door to the mansion opened, admitting Buffy, closely followed by Angel.

Xander stood quickly, heading toward the pair. "Did you find anything out?"

Buffy shook her head. "Not really, Xander, sorry," she replied apologetically, then noticed the stranger. "Who's this?" she asked as she crossed toward Richie.

Angel quietly slipped over to stand by Cordelia. She smiled at him then returned her attention to the ongoing conversation.

"A friend of mine and Adam's," Richie replied, slipping an arm around her waist, "Joe Dawson."

Buffy nodded toward Dawson. "So, you've gotten all caught up then?" she asked cautiously.

Richie chuckled. "Yeah. He's kinda having trouble believing."

"And this surprises you how?" she asked in amusement. "It's not exactly easy stuff to believe."

"And that's the sanest thing I've heard all night," Joe replied, pushing himself up to stand. "Glad to meet you. . . ." he said, letting his voice trail off questioningly.

"Oops, sorry Joe," Richie said hastily. "This is Buffy, and that's Angel," he continued pointing toward the vampire.

"Not to cut the introductions short here, but what's the what?" Buffy asked, waving to indicate the gathering and the packing.


TBC