The Birthday Present

Alwaysand - Lindsey is just so indenial about his own sexual actions that he has stuck his head in the sand a bit about his father. :) Thanks for your reviews :)

Chapter Twenty-Two


Oz sat in the back of the cab that was taking him home and tried to get his head around all that he’d learned. He was appalled at himself for not really paying much attention to the plight of vampires caught up in the program - they weren’t so much different from him after all. But it was Spike that he was most concerned with and not just controlled vampires in general. He liked him. But he did wonder whether what he’d seen was simply a product of the conditioning or whether Spike really was like that.


“We’re here,” said the driver when Oz hadn’t moved despite the cab stopping outside of the building where he lived.


“What?” Oz glanced around. “Oh, sorry, was miles away.”


He got out of the cab, paid the fare and walked wearily inside. He thought of the blood that Spike had left on the handrail as he walked up the stairs. It was just so wrong to abuse someone like that. He walked straight to the bathroom when he got into his apartment, stripping off his clothes and taking the hottest shower that his skin could bear. He felt soiled by the discovery that a friend had helped to orchestrate such terrible physical abuse. He shivered as he towelled himself dry as he thought of the mental anguish that Spike must have gone though before he was sold. He fervently hoped that the girls could make things right for Spike, but he’d seen their faces and he wasn’t sure that they could.


Oz pulled on a pair of sweat pants that served as pyjama bottoms and made his way to the lounge. He had just flopped down on the couch when his cell phone rang. For a moment, he thought that he would just let it ring but if it was news of Spike, he wanted to know. He groaned as he got up from his seat and reached to pick, the phone from the side table where he’d left it. Oz checked the caller i.d. and froze when he saw that it was Lindsey.


Crap! What do I do?


He really didn’t want to talk to him right now, but Buffy’s words rang in his ears and so he pressed the button to answer the call.


“Um…Lindsey, hi,” said Oz, hoping that his voice sounded normal.


“Oz,” said Lindsey, perilously close to tears and not really knowing how to begin.


“Hey, man, are you okay?” asked Oz. As if I fucking care!


“No, not really,” said Lindsey, deciding to tell Oz as much of the truth as possible. He desperately needed to talk to someone.


Oz walked back to the couch and lay down on it, putting his feet up in its arm.


“What’s wrong?” He was surprised to feel a pang of sympathy for Lindsey. His friend sounded really upset.


“It’s Spike,” said Lindsey. “He…” Lindsey’s words trailed away and Oz could hear him take a couple of gasping sobs.


Oz sat up and swung his feet to the floor. Just how much more raw emotion was he supposed to take today? He’d been friends with Lindsey since they’d started university and as much as the thought of what he’d done to Spike revolted him, Oz couldn’t just turn his back on Lindsey.

“Hey, take it easy. What’s happened? Is he ill?” asked Oz.


“He…he’s gone,” said Lindsey, giving in and weeping openly. “Have you seen him?”


“What? Me? Seen him? No! Why would I have?” Well done, Oz. Babbling guiltily – that’s not suspicious at all!


“I don’t know – I just hoped that he might have come to you. He…he doesn’t really know anyone else,” replied Lindsey between sobs, luckily too upset to notice anything off about Oz.


“I thought that the two of you were away for the weekend?” asked Oz. That’s better – get some information.


“Um…no…I went on my own. Spike was supposed to be…er…helping my dad with some repairs around the house, but they argued –”


Yeah, helping with repairs, is that what you call it? thought Oz in disgust.


“And Spike walked out. Oh, Oz, I don’t know where he’s gone.” Lindsey’s voice rose to a wail.


“He’s a grown man, Linds, I’m sure he’ll be fine. What about his family? Would he have gone home?”


“What?” said Lindsey. He tried to gather his wits – he hated lying to Oz but he couldn’t tell him the whole truth could he? “He has no family, and he’s not…well you’ve met him, he’s vulnerable.


Oz gripped the telephone so tightly he could hear it creak under the pressure. Damn straight, he’s fucking vulnerable! He remained silent; he just didn’t trust himself to speak without ripping into Lindsey.


“Oz, are you still there?”


“Yeah, I’m here.”


“I can’t – I can’t bear to be here on my own, can I come and stay with you tonight?” asked Lindsey.


Hell, no! “What if he comes home? Don’t want him to arrive and find that you’re not there do you?” said Oz quickly.


He won’t come back to me after what Dad did to him. “Er…yeah, suppose you’re right.”


Thank God. Oz sighed with relief. Although he did have some sympathy for Lindsey, the last thing he needed was to have to spend the remainder of the night in his company.


“Oz, will you come and stay here tonight, please?”


Oz pulled the phone away from his ear and grimaced. Oh, holy crap! I can’t do this. He glanced to the bedroom where Spike had lain, broken physically by the shut down and mentally by what he’d had to endure. You’ve got to do it – it will help keep him safe. He took a deep breath and put the phone to his ear once more.


“Yeah, okay.”


“Oh, Oz, thank you so much,” said Lindsey, he didn’t know if he would have been able to cope with being alone with his thoughts if he’d said no.


“Well, I’ll see you soon.”


“Thanks, Oz,” said Lindsey quietly. “You’re a real friend.”


Oz felt bad that Lindsey thought that he was going over there for his benefit and not Spike’s. He hung up the phone and reluctantly got dressed and headed over to Lindsey’s.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Buffy’s hand was just about to touch the telephone in the kitchen when it rang.


“Hello?” she said as she picked it up.


“Buff, I’m glad you’re in. I’m on my way with a new friend. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes, is that okay?”


“Hi, Xander. Yes, of course that’s okay. I didn’t realise that you had a collection planned today.”


“I didn’t. The poor sod was stood in his owner’s front yard with a for sale sign around his neck. He’s not sun-proofed so they had him out at night with a light shining on him, in the hope that someone would spot him,” replied Xander. “Well, I guess it worked.”


“Look, I’d better go. I need to move some things around before you get here. Just honk the horn and I’ll come and give you a hand to get him inside.”


“Okay, Buff. See you soon.”


Buffy hung up and called out to Willow. “Xan’s bringing another one in. We need to make up another bed,” she said when Willow walked in to the kitchen.


“We need the cage for the new one. Do you think that Spike will be okay not locked in? I mean, I know he isn’t locked in now, but he hasn’t really got used to the idea of his legs working again, has he?”


“What if he runs away like he did from his owners? He’s totally confused,” replied Willow.


“So what do we do?” asked Buffy.


“I think maybe the best thing to do would be to chain one ankle. Then he can still move around but can’t run away. We can’t shackle the newbie – he’ll never trust us,” said Willow.


Buffy nodded but hated the idea of chaining up the damaged vampire. “We’d better get to it. Xan will be here in a few.”


Together, the girls walked down into the basement.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Spike curled up as small as he could on the bed, arms wrapped around his head, his body rocking gently, making the cot’s springs squeak. He felt like his head was about to explode. His mind was full of memories and he vamped out for a few seconds at a time every now and then. Things were slowly becoming more ordered. He became aware of footsteps and moved his arms away from his head so that he could watch the girls approach him. He sat up as they got nearer.


“Hey, Spike, how are you feeling now? Things any clearer?” asked Willow.


Spike nodded, but his eyes were fixed on to Buffy. Slayer. I came to Sunnydale to kill you. You should have been my third and now you’re having to look after me like I’m a sodding baby.


Willow glanced at Buffy who was staring back at Spike, just as intently, her cheeks coloured with a faint blush. Uh, oh, thought Willow, she’d seen Buffy like this once before, only with a very different looking vampire. How a Slayer could be attracted to the creatures that she should slay, she’d never understand. Okay, so Angel had a soul when Buffy was with him, but it still wasn’t natural. Buffy had been distraught for weeks after Angel had disappeared but even though he was soon rescued, the treatment had affected him and his relationship with Buffy faltered and then died altogether when he had opted to run the L.A. operation. But to fall for one as broken as Spike was a recipe for disaster.


“Buffy,” she said sharply, giving her a nudge in her side.


“What? Huh?” said Buffy, tearing her eyes from Spike’s. God, they were so blue. “Oh, sorry.”


Willow made a note to have a serious talk to Buffy about this. “Spike,” she said. “We’ve got another vampire being brought in and we always put them in here, in the cage until we have got them stabilised.”


Spike looked at her, fear evident in his face. They don’t have anywhere for me to stay.


“We’re going to make up another bed for you over there,” said Willow, pointing to the wall to the left of where he was now.


Spike let out the breath that he didn’t know that he was holding when she said that. Tears of relief pricked at his eyes. He closed them for a second. I will not fucking cry again!


Buffy went to a cupboard and took out some sheets, a pillow and a blanket. She began to unfold a cot that was leaning against the wall. Spike stared at her. I should be doing that. Lindsey told me that was my job. I keep things tidy. He shook his head. But I’m not fucking Lindsey’s am I? I’m a vampire. I’m free to do what I want. He slowly stood up, glancing at Willow to make sure that it was okay to move. When she didn’t react to it, he walked on slightly wobbly legs to where Buffy was making up the bed. He took the covers from her and began to put them on the bed.


“Um…thank you, Spike,” said Buffy, raising an eyebrow at Willow, who shrugged.


Once it was made he sat on it and glanced at the girls. “I stay here, right?”


His voice was low and tremulous. He fiddled nervously with his fingers. Was I right to help? Was I good? He hated that he was still afraid of doing wrong – but the memories alone couldn’t remove the effects of what had happened to him. He still wanted to please, wanted to be unpunished. Maybe if he was good, he would be fucked soon? His body was desperate to be screwed.


Willow smiled kindly. “That’s right, Spike. We need you to stay there for now. Soon you’ll be able to come upstairs with us.”


Spike nodded and sighed with relief. Did good. Then he stiffened. Buffy had a long chain in her hands. He glanced around the basement, and tried to control his breathing. Chained in a basement – that meant pain. Lots of pain. He began to shake.


Please no, I’ll be good. Don’t let them… He drew his legs up to his chest and shuffled backwards on the cot as far as he could go. He wanted to be fucked but by one person, not many. Not chained up. He dropped his head, unable to meet their eyes any longer. He rocked backwards and forwards, moaning softly.


Buffy glanced at Willow. “I can’t do this to him,” she mouthed so Spike wouldn’t hear.


Willow nodded adamantly. “You have to, he’ll rabbit if you don’t – especially now that he’s frightened,” she said firmly.

Spike glanced up. What rabbit? What the fuck does that mean?


“Spike, honey,” said Willow softly putting a hand on the terrified vampire’s knee. “We won’t hurt you – we’ve told you that you’re safe here. We’re just worried that you might try to run away like you did when you went to Oz’s place. You’re still very confused.”


Spike stopped rocking and risked a peek at her. She was looking at him with a kind expression on her face. He felt that she was saying the truth, but he looked at the chains and shuddered. The Slayer was holding them – what if she knew that he had wanted to kill her? Would she stake him or worse – give him back to The Initiative? What if he lunged at her now? Would he be strong enough to snap her neck? He knew that his fangs were useless to him. Do I want to kill her? Why don’t I want to kill her? Why isn’t she killing me? That’s her job? He put his hands over his head to try to stop the thoughts. It was too much to think about. He resumed the rocking.


“Do it, Buffy,” whispered Willow. “We have no choice.”


Buffy knelt and clasped his right ankle, as she touched it, Spike’s left hand grabbed her wrist. She looked up into his amber eyes, buds of fangs showing as he bared his teeth at her and growled.


She felt rather than saw Willow tense behind her, arming herself with magics. Buffy raised her free hand to let Willow know that she was okay. Spike’s grip was weak and she could easily subdue him if she needed to.


“I came here to kill you, Slayer,” growled Spike. “I’ve killed Slayers in the past. Why are you helping what you should be slaying? Why don’t I just kill you now?”


Memories of him watching her ‘dance’ with other vampires before dusting them swam through his mind. He remembered how his mouth had watered at the thought of taking her on – of dancing with her, until he killed her. Drained her. Grew stronger with her potent blood thrumming in his veins.


“I do still slay vampires, Spike,” said Buffy firmly. “The reason that I am helping those who have been through the program is because you can no longer harm people. The chip is still there. It will fire if you attack a human. You’re no threat to humanity, Spike, so there’s no reason for me to dust you.”


Rage filled Spike. She was unafraid of him. He was a vampire. She should be afraid of him. He growled and found that he couldn’t stop himself from snapping at her neck. He moved only an inch in her direction when the chip picked up on the intent and fired at maximum strength. Spike screamed and flung his hands to his head. Buffy quickly snapped the cuff on his ankle and by the time that Spike was once more aware of his surroundings, she had secured him to the wall with a six foot length of chain.

Spike rolled over on the bed, still panting heavily and exposed his chest. He’d attacked and now would surely be dusted. He couldn’t have been more bad. What did this mean? Not a toy but not a proper vampire either. What was he? What was his use? He closed his eyes and thought of the affection that Lindsey had given him - he wanted Lindsey. Spike tensed as he felt a warm hand on his chest. He opened his eyes and peered at it before nervously glancing at its owner’s face.


The hand moved from his chest to cup his face. “Spike, come on, sit up. That was a bit silly wasn’t it?” said Buffy. “Does your head hurt still?”


Spike closed his eyes and leant into the hand, wishing that it was Lindsey’s, he nodded.


“You won’t be staked, Spike. If you continue to try to attack us – you’re the only one that will suffer. You’ll be able to live your own life again soon. Just trust us to make you well again.”


Spike nodded. He shifted his legs and cringed as he heard the chain rattle. What option did he have but to agree? He jumped as the doorbell rang.


“We’ll need your help upstairs, Buffy,” said Willow over her shoulder as she climbed the stairs to go to let Xander and the newest rescued vampire in.


“I’ll be right there,” said Buffy. She leaned forwards and kissed Spike on his cheek. “You’ll be okay, Spike. I promise.” She stood and hurried after Willow.


Spike touched his cheek. He had been able to smell her arousal and he didn’t know what that meant? He glanced at the chain. Was he going to be used after all? The men with McDonald had smelled of arousal too. What would a woman do? His muddled memories didn’t include any sexual encounters before being in The Initiative and being trained in what to do with your owner. None had ever been female. He stayed huddled up as he heard movement and indistinct voices upstairs. He resumed rocking. It felt soothing.


*~*~*~*~*~*


“How is he?” asked Willow as soon as she saw Xander.


“Same as usual. Poor devil looks half starved. I cuffed his wrists for transport as he former owner wasn’t sure that the remote was working properly.”


Buffy caught up with them as Willow and Xander were just getting the vampire out of the car.


“He’s controlled by the handset – not voice activated,” said Xander. “Basic model, so hopefully he’ll be easy to deprogram.”


Xander pressed a few buttons and the vampire struggled to climb out of the front seat of the car. His wrists were cuffed behind his back. They saw his eyes narrow as he got a sharp jolt of pain for being too slow to obey. He still wore the collar that he’d been issued with, obviously several years before due to how tatty it looked. He was thin, and it was clear why he had been aimed at the cheaper end of the market. He was very plain to look at. He had deep set muddy brown eyes and his dark hair was straight and lank. It must not have been cut since his purchase and probably not washed since then either. He had a pug nose and his teeth were slightly prominent.


“He’s called Roger,” said Xander.


Willow grimaced as she noticed the abrasions on his hands and elbows. Roger’s mouth was also abraded at the sides. She shuddered at what might have caused that.


“He looks like he hasn’t been cared for, for years,” she said walking behind Roger and pushing his hair up to see his barcode. “Crikey, he’s one of the really early ones. He’s one of the first that was produced. He was sold eight years ago.”


“The good thing is that he’s too early to be fitted with GPS,” said Buffy.


She hated it when they had to go hunting for the transmitter. Especially given that The Initiative had taken to implanting them in the genitals these days. Thankfully, Willow could deactivate them magically, rather than having to remove a testicle. The Initiative was aware of the rescue of vamps and so had got more inventive with where things were lodged.


“Let’s get him inside and I’ll get to work on reactivating his voice and hearing just as soon as we’ve given him a blooming good feed,” said Willow.

Spike watched in fascination as the vampire was brought down the steps. The new arrival glanced at Spike, his eyes widening in surprise at the site of the vampire huddled on the cot, recognising one of his own kind. Xander was well versed in the use of the remote controller and Roger walked smoothly into the cage and sat on the edge of the cot. Spike shuddered as he saw the control device; he could still hear that hateful voice shrilling issuing its commands.


He had never seen another like him and it felt weird to see Willow remove the collar and access the feeding tube. Buffy had brought some blood down with her when she’d followed them down. She poured it down the tube as the vampire sat impassively waiting for more commands.


The team never put a vampire into stand-by or shut down mode – knowing that neither was pleasant for the vamps. So Xander manoeuvred Roger until he was lying in what looked like a comfortable position on the bed and then they left him and locked the cage. Until Willow worked on him he couldn’t hear or speak, so there was no point in trying to reassure him.


“You okay, Spike,” said Buffy. “This is Xander; he helps us too.”


“Hey, Spike,” said Xander with a friendly wave.


“Hi,” said Spike quietly, looking at Xander from behind his eyelashes. Was this the person that he would be expected to ‘thank’? There was no scent of arousal on him.


“We’ll be down again later, okay? Just call us if you need us,” said Buffy as the humans walked up and out of the basement.


Spike stared at the vampire in the cage. It hadn’t moved since being put on the cot. It didn’t smell of fear – rather it made Spike think that it was content. It had a belly full of blood for the first time in a long time and was happy to have new owners. Spike stood up and walked as far as the chain would allow. He could just reach the bars of the cage. He ran his fingers over them, making a metallic noise. The vampire simply remained staring at the ceiling, blinking occasionally.


Spike remembered that the vampire wouldn’t be able to hear him so he jumped up and down a few times hoping to catch his attention. The prone vampire’s eyes rolled over to Spike for a moment before going back to staring at the ceiling. Spike sighed and gave up. He returned to his bed and glared at the chain on his ankle as he brought his knees to his chest. No matter what they told him, the sight of the chain made him feel sick to his stomach. He glanced fearfully up the stairs. Was Xander going to come down? Spike suddenly didn’t want to be fucked anymore – not when he was chained and not by someone other than Lindsey. He knew that Lindsey had given him to his father and that he must have known what was going to happen, but Spike couldn’t help but still yearn for the boy that had been the centre of his world for as long as he could clearly remember – albeit a drug induced one.


Spike started as he heard footsteps on the steps; he glanced up and saw that Willow was walking down them.


“I’m going to remove the block on his speech, hearing and take out the feeding tubes,” she explained. “It won’t hurt him as much as it hurt you because he hasn’t had the modifications that you had done.”


Spike just stared at her. He didn’t know what she expected him to say. Spike flinched as the vampire tensed and then went limp as Willow’s sleeping spell took effect. Spike found that he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Willow as she worked. He touched the scar on his neck that had been left by the feeding tube’s removal, and then looked at his abdomen. His had been moved there. He blinked back tears as he remembered how much his stomach had hurt.


It didn’t take Willow long to reprogram Roger – the basic models were always the easiest. She walked out of the cage and locked the door carefully before smiling at Spike and walking upstairs.


Spike got up and walked tentatively towards the cage. The vampire was sleeping; a bandage covered the wound on his neck where the tube had been removed. He stood watching curiously as the vampire began to stir. Spike glanced at the door to the basement - should someone be there for the vampire? He turned his attention back to the cage and gasped as he came face to face with the demon face of a very angry vampire. Before Spike could move a hand was thrust through the bars and caught him around his neck, pulling him to the bars. His head hit the bars hard enough to make him see stars.


“Who the fuck are you? Where am I?” roared the vampire, increasing the pressure on Spike’s throat.


Spike gurgled, unable to get enough air in to his lungs to form words.


“I think I’ll just rip your fucking head off!”


Spike’s head was rammed against the bars again as Roger’s other hand joined the first and then everything went black.


TBC