(There's a desperate pounding at the door. Spike bursts in, sheilding himself with a blanket)

SPIKE: Close the door!

XANDER: Spike? You may want to give up these morning jogs.

SPIKE: Soldiers boys are out in force. I've been trying to keep them off my scent. Run them in circles. But they keep coming.

GILES: And . . . how is this our concern? Seeing as how you've expressed the desire to have nothing more to do with us.

XANDER: Spike said that?

GILES: Mm-hmm.

XANDER: (to Spike with feeling) . . . That hurts.

SPIKE: (exasperated) All right. What do you want me to say? I need help. (points at Giles) And no cheek from you. (shrugs his coat off his shoulder) Look! The buggers shot me. In the back.

GILES: Remind me. Why should I help you?

SPIKE: (scoff) Because you do that. You're the goody-good guys. You're the bloody freaking cavalry.

GILES: No, you can come up with a better answer than that. Why should *I* help *you*?

SPIKE: (thinks) Ooh! Because I helped you! When you turned into that Fyarl demon, I helped you, didn't I? (smug)

GILES: And that was out of the, um, evilness of your heart?

SPIKE: (grinning) Oh, hell no. I made you pay me--

(he stops grinning and looks at Giles' stoic, but hard, expression)

SPIKE: You right bastard.

(he digs out the money from his coat pocket and slams it into Giles' palm)

SPIKE: That's all that's left. I spent the rest on blood and smokes, which I'll never see again. Ah, come on! Circle the wagons. Tend to the wounded here. No time for layabouts.

• Scoobies
• Spike's defanging
• Spike's uneasy truce with the gang

written by: David Fury; Transcribed by Joseph B. Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/69theiinteam.html