Spike stroked Willow´s forehead. She slept an unnatural sedated sleep. The doctor left her in his care after he mentioned their engagement. He smiled as he soothed away the frown that creased her forehead and bent his head, to rest his fangs on her slender extended neck. So tempting, he felt the chip vibrating dangerously and thought about using Giles´ tools to rid himself of the annoying electronic gnat.

Xander stared at Spike with murder in his eyes. Angel and Buffy waited patiently for Willow to begin to dream. With the first flutter of her eyes, Xander strode to her body and took her hand. He yanked her astral body out of its flesh cocoon as instructed by Giles.

"Xander!" Willow protested. Peeling her hand away from his, "You could kill someone … like… that…" She finished lamely, looking at her friends she´d thought she´d lost. Her tears refused to come, but she knew they understood the deep sorrow she felt.

Drusilla wafted in with a pout. "Owwwwaaa, you started without me! Naughty daddy and Slayer." Her eyes lit on Xander and glowed with pride, "My brave deer– eyed boy! Is the hunt a foot?"

Xander stared blankly at Drusilla´s strange appearance, Willow stared too, and then suddenly she smiled. "It´s going to be alright, isn´t it? Giles has a plan…"

Xander exchanged looks with Angel, Drusilla and Buffy, and then he smiled and nodded. "Yep, he has a plan. May take a while to complete, but, he has a plan."

The attendant flipped open the spy hole in the thick steel door. The patient was in the same position as the last time he checked, twelve hours ago, at the beginning of his shift. Strange! This man had been his old High School´s Librarian! What would make him snap and brutally murder an ex–student? All the staff in the hospital had their theories; his own pet favourite was the victim was an ex-lover.

Giles concentrated on the grains as they ran through the timer in his hands. Counting the seconds to the Apocalypse. He´d masked its presence from the orderlies easily enough. Two hundred turns before Spike´s return, then his trial would begin.

Turn. Thank Xander.

Turn. Thank Buffy.

Turn. Thank Angel.

Turn. Thank Drusilla.

Turn. Thank Willow. He blinked heavily and tears streamed down his grizzled face.

The shadows lengthened in his cell, finally a moment before the two hundredth turn, the light blazed on signifying sunset and Spike stepped in through his open cell door.

Spike leaned his leather clad shoulder on the cold wall and lit his cigarette. He inhaled and shivered at the zing of nicotine hitting his long dead nerves. He exhaled through his fangs. He watched Giles watching him. "Gave you a chance Watcher. You could´ve stopped, an´ then the whelp´d still be here, swiggin´ soda an´ stuffin´ pizza…" He looked at Giles accusingly, then smirked and turned his left shoulder to the wall. He stared through the high, small, barred window. "S´ full moon old man. You gonna stay ´ere and ´owl? Or come wiv me?"

Turn.

Turn.

Turn.

Spike got impatient… He flicked the cigarette butt into a far-off web and watched as the Spider sizzled. "Hey! " He watched a faint movement in Giles´ trouser pocket. "Didn´t come ´ere to watch you play pocket billiards! You comin´ or not?"

Giles´ expression, lit by moonlight, had taken on a demonic quality which gave Spike pause. "I´ll come…" His voice had a hollow, otherworldly timbre in the small room, as if his mind were as scrambled as Xander´s brain.

Willow opened the door when she sensed Spike approach. She remembered everything from her astral dream, but the sight of Giles took her aback. His gaunt face showed little emotion as he entered the rented apartment.

"Willow," Spike inclined his head slightly, "Would you get our guest some tea?" Willow disappeared into the kitchen after first uttering an audio enhancing spell so she could overhear their conversation.

"Watcher… I´ve protected her family for generations! It´s time I got payback; all I want to do is rule the world. Eat, drink and be merry… Now, tell me, what´s wrong with that?"

Turn.

Turn.

Turn.

"Everything. You, in charge? The world would end. I will stop you." Giles´ sombre voice tolled true in the silent moonlit night.

Spike´s gaze zeroed onto the Watcher´s pocket, the almost clockwork motion of Giles´ fingers through the cloth. Spike hissed in irritation. Giles regarded him languidly.

The kettle shrilled and he blinked as Willow bustled in with the tray, it seemed he saw her in colours for the first time. Her hair was long and rich mahogany; she flicked her fingers carelessly through it as she set the tray on the table. Her skirt was long, bias-cut and aubergine; her moss-coloured, multi-layered gossamer top hugged her swelling bosom. She straightened from her task and gazed at Giles. Her eyes showed no fear only a willingness to do whatever it took to rid the planet of Spike.

Giles´ eyes gleamed softly with gratitude. Xander got the message through!

"Thanks love," Spike murmured affectionately, patting her bottom as he came to pour the tea. Giles´ eyes blazed. "Ooh, Watcher, can´t tell you how you frighten me…" Spike chortled.

Giles forced himself to relax and counted the last ten turns of his timepiece.

"Ready?" Angel asked. Xander and Drusilla nodded in unison, they made an unlikely pair of allies. Buffy stood apart from the group thinking how many times she had failed to kill Spike simply because of a few ounces of government hardware. "Buffy?" Angel´s softened voice called her from her regrets.

"Yes, ready. I hope Giles can last!"

Angel smiled. "Giles is tough, Buffy, he´ll last."

He swallowed the last sip of his tea and revolved the timepiece for the hundred and ninety-seventh time. His fingers cramped and complained after hours of the constant activity.

Giles didn´t see Spike until too late. The cup crashed to the ground as spike dragged his hand from his pocket.

The precious timepiece skittered along the floor to land inches from Willow´s feet.

Spike held the Watcher´s wrist in an iron grip and squeezed until bone snapped through the sinews. Giles screamed in terror and rabbit-punched Spike´s stomach with several gut blasting blows. The pressure released and Giles barely had time to draw breath before Spike kicked his knees.

Swooping down on the fallen Watcher Spike covered him as a vulture would cover a fresh kill. As the darkness surrounded him Giles announced to Willow: "Three more turns!"

Spike´s head swivelled on his shoulders and stopped his advance on his weakened victim. His amber eyes focussed on the small brass hourglass, that contained oddly coloured sand. He saw Willow bend to retrieve it and smiled. She placed the glass on the table and turned it, the ash flowed quickly through the neck and into the lower bulb.

Spike snarled and took a step toward her… His feet were swept from under him and he landed with a satisfying thud. His surprised gaze fixed on the Watcher, who stood to fight him. Spike sprang to his feet with a roar and landed jabs and punches too numerous to count on the sagging Watcher.

The sound of the second turn of the hourglass stopped him; he glanced back and tried to ignore the kernel of fear that split open in his chest. Giles´ linked fists jolted Spike´s chin back making him briefly see stars.

Giles staggered after delivering the blow and cast a weary glance over to the table and saw how long he had on this Earth. Spike´s face in front of him made his head jerk back, an iron hand grasped his throat and throttled the breath from his lungs.

"Now Watcher, " Spike hissed through torn lips, "You see how it is to turn…" He lifted Giles up and flipped him over. Then followed, seconds after, locking his fangs in Giles´ relaxed neck.

He felt the unnatural pull, and strangely, his cock responded. The sensation was the same as someone drawing on it. His hasty breath brought his demise closer; he pushed against Spike with a desperate strength and managed to dislodge him as the hourglass turned for the final time.

He slithered to the table leg and hauled himself painfully to his knees. They didn´t hurt anymore. His heart pumped as slow as a funeral dirge; his fingers grasped the hourglass as the last few grains trickled past the waist in the glass. He smiled with pale lips and flung the carefully crafted object at Spike´s feet.

A roar greeted the rising wall of a legion of behemoth, led by four familiar faces all bent on Spike´s destruction.

Faced with overwhelming odds, Spike backed away a step and glared arrogantly at his enemies, who overcame him quickly. He bellowed above the seething river of righteousness that bore him away. "Pity poor, pale, Willow!"

He shuddered awake. Pain greeted him in his first breath. Heart beating rapidly and precious moisture wasted in sweat leaked from every pore. He blinked, why was he awake? Then he saw her, Willow, pure and pale with vivid fern green eyes. She held a cool wet cloth in her hands to clean the crusted blood from his mouth… blood! He jolted away from her and held out his uninjured hand. "No! Willow, leave me…He made me, " he swallowed his sorrow, "drink…" Willow knelt up toward his face and bathed the blood away from a cut on his chin, "No, Giles he didn´t. He wanted you dead." She smiled so sadly that it made Giles´ heart skip a beat… She held out the water bottle for him and he drank deeply from it.

She rose gracefully to her feet and walked to the window. "It´s almost daybreak."

Fear gripped Giles; he turned toward the window and saw Willow´s pale hand reach round the curtain to pull it back. "Willow!" He shouted and immediately regretted it, she turned toward him and the faintest rose of dawn glowed on her cheek. "Come away, come to me darling, please! I need you Willow…" He croaked desperately. She took a faltering step away and then another until finally she collapsed in a tearful heap by his side. He crooked an arm awkwardly round her and felt her cry bitter, relieved and anguished tears. He kissed her cool head and she sank closer to him.

After all their trials they deserved this little respite before the challenge that lay ahead. A Watcher and Vampiress living on a Hellmouth, oh how Watcher tongues would wag!

The End

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