Not at work, they're not worthy.

edit: Though I may wear my extra-sparkly one tonight as I stay up late planning mean things to do.

A little bit of V!Giles in the night ...

Sammy headed downstairs to the lower level of the Sunrise Grove recreation center. It had been a long night, and he was anxious to get to bed. He and Fred and Angie and Pamela had been scrounging for nights for this information, and maybe now they could get back to the killing and screwing and lazing around that made vampiric life worth living. Vampires weren't supposed to have causes and quests, they were just supposed to have fun.

Whistling a Cindy Lauper tune, he knocked on the half-open door of Ripper's workroom. "Come in," came the answer.

"Morning, Ripper," he said as he went in. He checked the floor, just to make sure nothing had been drawn on it that he might accidentally step in. "Oh, hey, Spike. Man, you still look like shit."

Spike, laid out on the couch on the other side of the room, lifted a single finger in mute reply. A bandage still covered the hole in his skull, and the bruises on his face were just past the most colorful stage. He lifted a bottle to his lips and took a long drink.

"Good morning, Sammy," Giles said, looking up from the books and papers on his desk. "You have news?"

"We've got the location," Sammy grinned. "Me and Pam scouted it out tonight. There's a bunch of those hooded geeks and crazy guys building a big-assed tower in the junkyard."

"Yes, finally," Giles said in satisfaction.

"About bloody time something goes our way," Spike muttered. "You got that time frame locked down yet, Ripper?"

"Just about. A few more calculations, I should have it pinpointed."

Sammy shifted uncertainly. "Uh, Ripper? About the whole Glory thing ..."

Giles looked up again. "Yes?"

"Well, we stopped at Willie's, and there were a bunch of guys there talking about all this and how it's going to be a demon free-for-all when Glory goes home. Why are you trying to stop it?"

Spike and Giles glanced at each other. "Sammy," Spike said, "what do vampires eat?"

"Blood."

"Whose blood?"

"Human blood. Well, except for Louie the Freak, he likes dogs."

Giles frowned. "How in the world does he survive on dog?"

"Don't ask," Spike said. "Sammy, Glory opens the portal, romps on home, unleashes demon Mardi Gras on earth."

Sammy grinned. "Yeah."

"What happens to the humans?"

He grinned harder. "All sorts of stuff."

"They likely to survive all this stuff?"

"Probably not."

"And what do we eat when all the humans are dead?"

Sammy started to speak, hesitated, started to speak again, then frowned. "Oh."

"I've bitten into some of the demons out there. Let's just say, acquired taste does not begin to describe it."

Giles gave Spike a queasy look. "Do I want to know why you decided to see what demon tasted like? What kind of demon?"

"Chaos. I was drunk. Never mind." He frowned at the knowing look that went across Giles' face.

Sammy was still pouting. "So if we want to keep eating, we have to stop the party. Shit. I was looking forward to some balls out mayhem."

"Hey, if nothing else, we might go invade Glory's building site, do a bit of smashing up."

"Yeah," Sammy sighed, "but it's not the same as torching the town and chasing people through the streets."

Spike paused in nostalgic thought. "Yeah, that's fun. But sometimes you have to take the long view." A noise from Giles caught his attention. The ex-Watcher was scribbling rapidly and muttering to himself excitedly. "I think he's got it. What's up, Ripper?"

"Leave me alone, Spike," Giles said, waving a hand at him. "I've almost--yes, apply that value to d'Grevit's Variant of Planck's Constant, divide by the Section of Ka'aarb, carry the six--yes! Dawn, three days from now, that's the time when the Key must be used to open the portal or lose the chance forever." He sat back and rested his chin on his fist. "Dawn. I wonder if that's why she's named--"

"Ripper!" Spike interrupted.

"What? Oh." Giles blinked at Sammy, then shook his head. "Oh, yes, sorry. I've found the time."

"We guessed," Sammy grinned.

Spike pulled out his pocket watch. "Less than 72 hours to go. Glory must know this too, right?"

Giles nodded grimly. "Yes, she must. So she'll be getting desperate." He looked at Sammy again. "Thank you for finding the location, Sammy, that's a great help."

Sammy nodded. "And on that, I'm out of here. We got anything in the larder for a before bed snack?"

"Check with Fred," Spike said. "I think he went shopping."

"Right. Morning, guys."

"Tah."

"Good morning, Sammy." Giles stared at his figures, running recalculations for accuracy. "Three days," he said once the door was closed. "I'm tempted to say we can do this easily, but Glory will be going on the offensive."

"We'd best tell the others."

"Right." He found his cell phone to call Anya at the Magic Box.

Brilliant! Love the bit with Spike and the Chaos demon? Look, I said 'bit'! It's so meta.

it's so meta

I'll thank you to keep your higher literary thought away from my taradiddles, missy. Melodrama is my specialty.

Speed should be your specialty. Just for my amusement, of course.

Say, I wonder what would happen to Spike and Xander in a steam room these days?

Seriously, I love the little touches you're doing in this story. Xander, as usual, is my main focus and I think that you're being brilliantly subtle with his reactions to wounded!Spike.

t laughing the delighted wicked laugh of an author who knows someone is just going to have so much fun when certain parts appear

And by parts I mean ...

Or maybe not.

Hey, it's the Extra-Sparkly Tiara of Taunting! Who knew?

BWAH! t it's funny cause it's true

I'm very much looking forward to the next few installments.

t ask and ye shall receive

Tara didn't think Willow had had any caffeine when she wasn't looking. It was theoretically possible that the bounciness came purely from the gorgeous spring day.

"We ought to just peek into the Magic Box," Willow said, "it's on the way to the Cultural Fair. Maybe pick up some business cards to give to folks, since Anya won't let us run a tab, like Giles did. Then maybe she'd give us some store credit."

Tara smiled fondly. "I don't think the word credit exists in Anya's vocabulary. Unless it's credit card."

"Probably not. Here we are!"

Willow bounced into the shop. At the counter, Anya turned with a bright smile, which immediately faded into the familiar "Oh, people we like who hang out here but who probably won't buy anything" look. A customer was perusing one of the magic books for sale, comparing the text with something on a Palm Pilot. In the back part of the shop, Xander was on a ladder changing a light bulb in the ceiling fixture.

"Hello, lovely ladies," he called. "What brings you to our fine establishment today?"

"Hi, Xander!" Willow called. "And hi, Anya. We're on our way to the Cultural Festival down by the river. Why aren't you at work, Xander?" She gave him a scolding glare. "Are you playing hookie?"

"Au contraire, mon amie," he said, climbing down the ladder. "My team is ahead of schedule and they let us off early. So I came down to give my favorite girl a hand."

"It's a wonderful system," Anya said. "He works for free, and I get someone strong and decorative to do the boring heavy lifting."

Xander bowed. "We bloom where we are planted. So, Cultural Festival?"

Willow began rapidly explaining all the things on display at the Festival. Tara put in the occasional comment, but most of her attention was on Anya, who had gone to answer the phone. Anya was whispering to whomever had called, and she kept glancing at Xander. She looked very thoughtful when she hung up.

Xander saw her and frowned. "Who was that, Ahn?"

"Someone who you said just this morning that you didn't care if you never heard from again because you didn't give a damn what vampires were up to, so I don't think you want to know."

Willow blinked. "Giles?" Xander muttered and turned away.

Anya lowered her voice. "He says he found out when Glory needs to open the portal, dawn three days from now. And his minions have found where, there's a tower being built in the junkyard by Glory's demons and those crazy people she's making."

"Well, that's wonderful," Willow said. "Now we know when and where we have to avoid." She blinked. "Giles has minions?"

Anya waved her hand. "His minions, Spike's minions, somebody's minions."

"How is Spike?" Tara asked.

"Healing, apparently. I heard him in the background, yelling at Giles and telling him what to say." She turned to watch happily as Xander folded up the ladder and carried it back to the training room.

"We should tell Buffy," Willow said decisively.

"Probably so." Tara swallowed her disappointment at losing a day she'd hoped to spend solely with her lover. After all, this was important.

Willow looked at her closely, then frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, baby. We'll call Buffy, then go on to the festival, it won't take very long. I wonder how he figured it out," she added. "I wonder if he used magic or the books or--ooh, maybe he called up one of those demon informants of his and asked."

"Honey," Tara frowned, "I don't think you should sound so excited at the idea of calling up demons."

"I don't see why not. How is it any different than going to Willy's and asking about stuff there?"

Tara stared at her, but Willow seemed completely serious. "I'm pretty sure the kinds of demons that hang out at Willy's are different from the demons you have to summon. You generally have to promise them things, and they're a lot nastier."

Willow shrugged. "OK, I know that lending your body to something like Eyghon is pretty stupid, but just summoning one into a circle strong enough to hold it doesn't seem that risky. And you could learn so much."

"But that means consorting with creatures from the lower planes, from the hell dimensions themselves. Those kinds of creatures are truly evil, they offer bargains that you don't want to keep."

"So you don't accept them. We've dealt with evil, nasty things before. The Mayor, he was spooky."

"Yes, I remember you telling me about him, how he wanted to turn into a true demon. Those kinds of forces, they're not the sorts of things you should just play around with."

Willow hugged her. "Honey, it's not like I'm asking you to summon one yourself. I don't blame you if you're scared of them--

Tara pulled away. "I'm not scared of them, I'm scared for you! The powers of evil are a whole different level than the scaly things at Willy's."

Willow blinked, hurt. "You don't think I could handle something like that."

"That's not it at all." Tara put her hands on Willow's face. "You're strong, so very strong. But someday something's going to be stronger. That's what I'm afraid of. And if it's something evil and horrible, it could do--terrible things to you."

"I'm not stupid, I wouldn't try anything I didn't think I could handle."

"Like that My Will Be Done charm?" Tara said very softly.

Willow jerked away. "That was an accident, Tara. And I've apologized for that, over and over. If you and Giles had your way, I wouldn't do anything more involved than--than charm warts off of people or bless the pigs or something. I'm stronger than that."

"I know," Tara nodded sadly. "And I'm not. I never meant to hold you back--"

"Oh, honey, no, that's not what I meant--" Willow tried to take her hands, but Tara stepped back.

"It's all ri