(1)

"Bloody hell …." Spike muttered dropping the wrench and grabbing his knuckles.

At this rate, he thought, I'll never get the bike in shape for the weekend.

He looked at the parts, carefully cleaned and ready for reassembly, laid out on the newspaper next to the black low slung motor cycle.

He had promised Willow a trip into the hills this weekend.  Willow had been working so hard at school, she really needed to relax and if he had to spend one more evening watching Anya mentally undress Xander or listening to the Slayer whine about missing Riley or how lonely patrolling was; chip or no chip, someone was going down.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Willow's arrival.  With his sensitive hearing, he heard the front door close, the thump of her backpack
on the dining room table and her approaching footsteps.  He smiled and lay down next to the bike.

As the door from the kitchen to the garage opened, he called out, " Red, get over here and give us a hand with this."

Willow walked around the bike and knelt next to him, " what can I do?"

He rolled over and pulled her down on top of him.  With one hand on her shoulders and one on her bottom, he held her to him and gave her a deep
forceful kiss.

When it was over, she raised her head, " why sir, what ever do you have in mind?" she asked fluttering her eyelashes.

She put her hand between them and ran it down over his stomach, " I think I know what you have in mind," she said giving him a gentle squeeze.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," an unfamiliar voice said.

Spike held onto Willow and pulled them both up to face their visitor.

"Sorry, " the man in uniform said, " I apologize, but ….."

Spike let go of Willow and managed to catch the unconscious man before he fell.

"You recognize him, right?" Spike asked.

Willow nodded, " it's Sam the sheriff from North Kalish."

Spike carried the larger man through to the living room and put him on the sofa.

"What do you think it is, " Willow asked.

Spike examined Sam's face, even peeling back an eyelid.

"I think he's just exhausted.  He looks like he hasn't slept for days. Probably hasn't eaten either.  Could you fix him something to eat luv?  It might help bring him back?"

They left him lying on the sofa.  Spike sat at the counter and watched Willow get together eggs, bacon and coffee.

"Spike, cut some of that good bread from last night for toast, " Willow instructed.

He took the bread and got a knife, " there must be some kind of problem in our favorite demon village."

As they went about their tasks, they both remembered Sam and their search for the Talisman.

It had all started when Spike asked Willow to help him get a soul so he could have a chance with Buffy.  Although her heart was breaking because of her own feelings for Spike, she agreed.  Research led them to a lawyer named Hart who sent them after a lost talisman that Willow could use to summon a soul.  His price being the talisman itself after the spell was completed.

Willow, opening the fridge, smiled at the memory of them riding out on Spike's new motor cycle; he was out to win the Slayer's love and she was
happy just for the chance to be with him for as long as the journey lasted.

They found that the talisman had been divided between two towns, towns that appeared to be models of small town America at least on the surface.

The truth, they quickly found out, was that the normal appearing town's folk were in fact demons who had separated into two feuding camps.  They disagreed over most things, key among them being the legend of the talisman.  They all agreed, however, in their extreme hatred of vampires.

Luckily, they fell in with Emily the young leader, or Tanish, of one of the towns, North Kalish.  She and her fiancé Sam, the sheriff, agreed to help
them get the talisman.  Emily had discovered that the talisman legend was simply a story used to cover up the fact that it had been stolen from a tribe of vampires, who had all been killed by the thieves.  The hatred of vampires had been instigated to prevent any future claims of ownership.  Emily believed the legend and the hatred were destroying her people and saw Willow and Spike as her chance to rid them of it once and for all.

With Emily and Sam's help, they obtained both halves of the talisman, but not before Spike was severely injured.  In an isolated mountain cabin, Willow worked to spiritual and physical exhaustion to save Spike.

Spike remembered waking in the cabin, knowing how close he had been to, not death, but nonexistence. She lay unconscious, exhausted from the effort to save him.  He held her and he talked to her, for hours.  He told her everything, he thanked her and through the long night he slowly realized why she had done it.

Later, Willow performed the talisman spell and turned to him, " do you accept this gift?"

He said no.

He explained that she loved for who he was, and that was more important than all the spells, talismen and slayers in the world.

He told her that he loved her.

When the food was well along, Spike went to rouse their guest.

They entered the kitchen together, Sam was blinking and rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, it's just been so …."

Willow interrupted him, " eat first, talk later, " she said placing the food on the table.

He ate steadily and soon emptied the plate.

"I have to apologize again, I've been going since it happened.  What day is it?" he asked.

"Friday, " Willow responded.

"Almost four days with no sleep and not much food, I guess I was running on fumes and lucky to make it here."

Willow gave a concerned look, " what happened?"

"It's Emily, they took her.  It was sometime Tuesday morning.  I was out on a call, and when her assistant came to pick her up, she was gone.  I should have been there, " he said with a look of total desolation.

"I'm sorry Sam, what can we do, " Willow said with sympathy.

"Hold on Red, I think we need to find out a few more things, " Spike interjected.

He turned to Sam, " why come to us?"

"It's the Talisman.  Later in the day, we got a note.  They want the Talisman for Emily, " he said.

Willow jumped in, " It's because we stole the half from those people in the other town isn't it?  It's all our fault."

Sam shook his head.

Spike added, " It wasn't them was it?  They wouldn't have touched Emily would they?"

"No"

Spike considered for a few moments, "vampires, right?"

Sam nodded and took a paper from his pocket.

Spike took it and read.  His expression didn't change, but Willow noticed his jaw muscles tighten.

"Willow, " he said slowly, " could you leave us alone?"

Willow smiled grimly, "too late, you're my guy now.  I'm staying."

He looked at her 'resolve' face and sighed, putting down the paper he said, " it's Drusilla."
 

(2)

Willow's face fell, "Drusilla?"

"You know who did this?" Sam asked.

Willow sat stony faced.

"A very old  friend of mine, not a vampire to trifle with.  But why?" Spike mused.

"I have a pretty good idea, " Willow said pointedly.

"Now Red, …"

Willow interrupted, " if that skanky ho thinks she can come here and ….."

Spike walked to Willow and took her hand, "no chance, luv … no chance," he said softly.

He turned to Sam, " she wouldn't pull something like this just for personal reasons, not even one as handsome as …" he threw a grin at Willow, she didn't seem amused.

Sam spoke, "whatever the reason, do you still have the talisman?"

"No, unfortunately we don't.' Spike replied.

Willow quickly added, " right, but we can take you to where it is."

Spike rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.  Sometimes, he thought, she's too damn naive.

He sighed, " yeah, a friend of Willow's has it for safekeeping."

Sam rose, " can we go there now?"

Willow jumped up, glad for something to do, "sure, I'll drive."

As it was, they waited for twenty minutes, time for the sun to go down. Spike insisted that he go with them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giles looked up as they entered the shop.

"You just missed Xander and Anya, I'm about to close, " he said.

Willow took a deep breath, " it's the talisman. You see Sam's girlfriend, I mean Princess not girlfriend, well she's a kinda Queeny thing really.  They
used to have the talisman, not all of it but half of it.  Then Spike and I stole half, not their half the other half and, did I mention it used to belong to vampires.  He's not a vampire he's a demon, not a bad demon a good demon.  Emily, the Queeny girl friend, is gone and I'm not letting that ho, not Emily, get Spike.  So we need to get it back from you, not us but Sam the boyfriend to the Queeny girl."

Giles looked at Spike in desperation as Willow took another breath, " please, by all that's holy, tell me what she's going on about."

Spike touched Willow's arm and shook his head, " let me try this time."

He explained the situation to Giles in a few sentences and introduced Sam.

"Now do you see?" Willow asked.

"Yes," Giles said, " I can't imagine how I missed it."

"Mr. Giles, " can I have the talisman?" Sam asked in a weary voice.

Giles removed his glasses, " I wish it were that simple.  I've been studying and researching it ever since it arrived.  I haven't discovered the depth of
its power or its true purpose, but I have seen enough to know that it is extremely dangerous and in the wrong hands it could do untold damage."

"But Emily, " Sam said.

"I'm terribly sorry, I can't risk it," Giles said quietly.

Sam sighed, "OK, maybe there's something about it, something we can use to figure out why their asking for it.  If we knew that, we might have a chance even without the talisman itself."

Giles considered Sam's suggestion, " it's the least I can, " he looked at Willow's grim face, " the least we can do.  Willow, go up to the book loft and pull the usual vampire references.  Spike, could you help her?"

They both started for the stairs at the rear of the shop.

"Maybe we could examine the pieces themselves, I may be able to help you understand some of the symbols.  My people did study the talisman for
generations, " Sam suggested.

Giles agreed and motioned him behind the counter and into the back room.

"Let me open this cabinet and unlock this panel and, " he turned with a leather box, " here it is."

He placed the box on a large table and opened it to reveal two fist sized hemispheres of translucent blue material covered with engraving.

"Do you know the meaning ….." Giles stopped in mid sentence, frozen by the change in Sam.

He seemed to have grown in both height and breadth, he had removed his hat and a prominent blue bony ridge on his head was pulsing.  His eyes, Giles couldn't look away from his eyes.  They were glowing a deep crimson.

"Rupert, do you hear me?" Sam asked in a deep and hollow voice.

"Yes, " Giles said in a strange flat tone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well folks, I guess we're in luck, " Sam said as he and Giles emerged from the back room.

"It seems that Mr. Giles made copies of both halves of the talisman."

"Yes, " Giles said, " so as to be able to safely study the engravings, I had identical castings made."

"I figure it's better than nothing.  Using the copies, we might be able to stall them somehow or at least get close enough to try a rescue, " Sam said
holding out a black velvet bag.

Holding out his hand, Sam said, "Thank you Mr. Giles.  We should be going. They didn't give us much time and we've got some driving to do."

"You're welcome, Willow knows how to contact me if I can be of any help," Giles returned shaking the proffered hand.

As the door closed, Giles thought to himself, what a lucky idea it was to make those copies.  Then he proceeded to the back room and locked away the empty leather case just as he had been instructed.
 

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