A Very Ordinary Evil

Part 3 – Of Puppies and Pets


Immediately after Part 2


“Pet,” Spike whispered. “You still haven’t told me about ‘puppy’.”

Willow looked at him, mentally reviewing their conversation, and realised that she had still not mentioned that particular subject. She smiled, and looked Spike squarely in the eye. “You have to promise not to laugh, at least not until I finish the story, okay?”

“I’ll do my best pet. I can’t say more than that. Sometimes things just make me laugh. ‘The Goon Show’ was like that. I could not remain quiet when I listened to it.”

“Goon Show? Never mind, tell me later or we’ll be here ‘til the turn of the next millenium.” Willow observed. “Okay, puppy. Well … Oh god, this is just so embarrassing.”

“C’mere pet.” Spike pulled Willow to him again, holding her close. He looked into her eyes as he asked “Are you sure you want to tell me?”

“Sure? Yes. Comfortable? No.” Willow gave him a wobbly little smile as she said so. “I’m going to be brave now. Puppy … my double told me a lot of things about her world while we were waiting for Giles to find the right ritual to send her back. It’s a real scary place. One thing I remember she said was ‘In my world, we have people in chains, and we can ride them like ponies’ She said that to Anya too.” Willow shuddered at the thought. “Puppy is even scarier. Puppy belonged to my double. He was a vampire she liked to keep locked up and … torture, in a y’know, naughty way.” Willow blushed then.

“Naughty torture? … Oh!” Spike laughed openly. “You mean she sexually tortured him?”

Willow could only nod and look down as she went a beet red again.

“That’s not the worst of it, Spike. Puppy was … was … Angel.” The name of Spike’s grandsire came out in a high pitched squeak.

Spike looked at her incredulously. Then he began to snigger. The sniggering developed into fully fledged laughter until he was crying tear of blood. He fell from the chair and lay helpless on the floor, continuing to laugh hysterically. He couldn’t stop laughing. “Oh God! Why aren’t there pictures?!” Spike slowly hauled himself up, still doubled over by his uncontrollable laughter.

Spike looked at Willow. “I’m sorry pet, I know I promised to try not to laugh, but the image of him all tied up …”

“Caged and chained.” Willow informed him quietly.

“This just gets better and better. I am sorry luv, truly, and I’m not laughing at you, I’ve just got …” Spike olveolved again.

Spike began to recover once more and looked back up at Willow, who was looking down at him with an unreadable statement. “Sorry pet, it’s just the idea … Peaches, like that, with anyone. He’s a control freak, with or without his soul. The next time you see your double, ask her for some piccies. Please.” Spike grinned evilly at that thought.

Willow smiled gently and said “You recovered faster than Xander did, at least. He eavesdropped on the actual conversation, until he started to laugh. He was laughing for days, at both Angel and I. At least I know you’re not laughing at me. And no, no pictures, not even if she offered.”

Spike calmed himself and moved over to the little redhead, embracing her in a way that was neither brotherly or as a lover, but somewhere in between and also profoundly more intimate than either. “Pet, I’d willingly tear the world itself apart before I’d knowingly hurt you. But you must tell me if I ever do anything to hurt you accidentally. Will you promise me that? If I do hurt you, and I can put it right, I give you my word that I will.”

Willow was left speechless again. He promised to never hurt her? “Even if your chip gets taken out? You still wouldn’t hurt me?” She asked, “Damn Spike! You change subjects so quickly I can’t keep up!”

“Sorry pet, and yes even without the chip.” Spike made the statement simply, quietly. It had all the more impact because of it.

“But … but … but …” babbled Willow. “I don’t understan

“Because I love you. It’s that simple. I may not love easily, and I may not understand the finer points of modern romantic etiquette, but I know when I love someone. You’re the only third in about 145 years.”

Spike smiled gently. “I think it’s time that I told you the whole truth about my background, pet.” So saying, Spike began to detail his childhood, and then his adulthood as a human. He left nothing out.

“That explains a couple of things that were confusing me,” Willow said, as she thought about his story. “Your facility with language and wordplay, for example. That would have been developed while you were writing poetry.”

“Red, I was a bloody awful poet. I wasn’t able to tell that then, but now, with distance, I can see that I would’ve given MacGonagal a good run for his money.”

Willow laughed. “That’s the other thing that I’m seeing. You have the soul of a poet. That fundamental, almost brutal honesty; and when you let someone see that, you make yourself vulnerable to them. When you give, you give your whole self, withresereservation. Did you ever write prose?”

Spike blinked, thought a moment and then observed “I don’t have a soul, pet And no, I never tried to write anything else.” {Perceptive lass, though. I have to give her that. She’s the first person to see through me completely, down to the real man underneath the demon. Not even Dru and Peaches were able to do that.}

Willow looked up at Spike, lost in thought. “I’m not so sure about that Spike. I’m beginning to get some rather … radical ideas. Are you willing to help me with an experiment? You get to hit a variety of people and things,” she added, hoping to sweeten the pot.

Spike looked at the redhead, confused. “Luv, you aren’t the only one here who gets confused by rapid changes in the topic of conversation.”

Willow grinned happily. “Sorry, I can’t help it, I’m always thinking. Research girl, remember?” She tapped her forehead before continuing. “ I’ve just worked out how to tell what the chip in your head is. Listen carefully. We’ll need a selection of volunteers for you to hit.” She grinned at the smile Spike flashed. “Now, we’ll need the following test subjects. Buffy, because she’s sort of superhuman, Xander, as he’s a human, a vampire without a soul, Angel and two demons, one nice, the other nasty. We’ll tie them all to chairs and give them padding. Then you have to hit them as hard as you can, twice. Once in game face, once while ‘normal’. We know that you hurt when you’ve tried hitting Buffy and Riley in the past, but we would need the experiment to be done under controlled conditions.”

“Other than giving me a major migraine, what’ll that prove?”

Willow was growing excited at her idea. “Well, lets say you only get a headache when you hit Buffy and Riley. That would show that the chip is a demon detector it it hurts you to hit Angel as well, then it’s a soul detector. If it hurts when you hit those three and the nice demon, it’s an evil detector.”

Spike began turning the idea over in his mind. It would help the gang if they knew what the chip was. Even if they couldn’t remove it. He’d thoroughly enjoy seeing Slutty, Chubs and Peaches all tied up and helpless while he hit them. The down side was that Willow would have no chance of ever arranging it. Also catching the other vampire and the two demons would take some doing. Spike began to run the ramifications of her experiment over in his mind. He could think of some rather useful potential benefits, such as restraints with chips wired into them, so that they were fundamentally impermanent. An understanding of what the Initiative had been working towards, because he was utterly certain that they hadn’t shut down, just relocated and continued. A precise idea of what his limits were would also help, because he knew he’d protect Willow at any cost. {Shit, I’ve just fallen over the soddin’ line.}

“All right pet, I’m game for this. I’ll make you an offer as well. After the experiment, we’ll teach each other something. What do you say to that?”

“Deal.” Willow rapped out the response so quickly that it appeared as if she was scared of it being withdrawn. “What do you want to learn?”

“How to use a computer properly. How to be as good a hacker as you. All I can do is to surf the net, and slowly at that.” Spike responded. “And you, what do you want to learn luv?”

“How to fight. How to fight well. I’m fed up with being the weakling. Spells are good, {when I get them right} but they can take too long to cast. I need to be able to defend myself, make a proper contribution.”

“Done then.” Spike proffered his hand. She took it and shook firmly. Both secretly thrilling at thech och of the other.

* * * *

It dawned on Spike that he had been led off the path of what he had been saying earlier. “Willow …” Her head shot up, looking at him. {He used my real name, What dthatthat mean?} “I really do love you. The time we’ve spent together over the last two days has cleared my eyes, confirmed to me what I already thought. I’m not talking about infatuation or convenience. That dopey bugger Harmony was a way to pass the time while I grieved over losing Drusilla, and Buffy—don’t look so surprised pet, I do actually know her name—was a response that I think was due to my seeking someone totally opposite to Dru. But she isn’t the one. I think I assumed that her being a goody meant she was the opposite; in fact, what I was looking for was you. You’re the genuine article. The emotional opposite of Drusilla, strong, caring, giving, compassionate. Also, you’re several hundred times brighter than the slayer.” Spike grinned as he finished.

Willow drew a breath, preparing to speak, but he held his hand up. “I haven’t quite finished pet. You know more about me now than any person living. There is one other thing I have to say, so that all of my cards are laid out before you.

“If you love me as well, it’ll be for eternity. I won’t be able to watch you grow old and die. At some point, you’ll have to agree to be turned.”

Willow looked shocked and surprised. “Spike, I love you, with all my heart I love only you. I have done for months. But can I have some time to think about that last part. It surprised me, and I don’t know what to say.”

“Take all the time you need pet. You know how patient I am.”