Wilson let Spike stay in the tank with Xander for almost an hour before having a couple of the techs pull him out. Spike started to argue, but Wilson cut him off. "Sorry, Spike. I know you're not feeling it yet, but you would be soon."

Spike glared at him through the green goo covering his face, "Feeling what?"

"The heat. You're body temperature is considerably lower than a human's. If you'd stayed in there any longer you'd start to cook. I don't recall Vampire Stew being on the menu." Wilson pointed to the far side of the room. "We have a shower set up for you, you'll want to get the gel off before it dries. Trust me on that. Then I want you to get some sleep. And no arguing. I'll have Rom bring you something to eat. You can't help Xander if you wear yourself out."

Spike grumbled, but had to admit that the shower felt wonderful. A couple of the techs were staring at him when he came out of the bathroom, "What?"

One of the pointed to Spike's head, "Uh...I think the gel did something to your hair."

Spike's hand immediately flew up to his head, "What's wrong with it?"

"It's kinda...green."

Spike cursed, "Bloody Hell, well that's just fucking ducky, now isn't it? Harris is going to pay for this." Spike continued to grumble to himself as he crawled into the cot Wilson had set up for him, but fell asleep before he could decide what a proper punishment would be for the violation of his hair.

*****

The smell of fresh blood woke Spike just a few hours later. He opened his eyes, smirking at his childe, "Rom. Nice to see you. Where you been?"

Rom shrugged, "In the lab. I brought lunch." He said, pointing at an overly large mug sitting next to the bed.

Spike grabbed the mug and lifted it in a toast. "Cheers, mate." Rom didn't respond, he just stared at the tinted windows covering the far wall. Spike watched him carefully, waiting for his childe to tell him what was wrong. When it became obvious that Rom wasn't going to volunteer the information, Spike sighed, he hated touchy feely stuff, but Rom was his responsibility now and he was determined to do a better job than Angelus had done. Not that that would be hard.

"What's wrong, Rom? And don't bother lying to me, won't work."

Rom shook his head, "Nothing major." The young vampire finally turned his troubled eyes to his sire, "Really, I can handle it."

Spike growled and pulled Rom onto the bed, tucking his childe against his chest. "Not good enough, mate. I'm your sire, when I say talk, you talk. And you don't handle anything. That's my job. So tell me what's going on."

Rom's voice was quiet, but Spike could hear him well enough, "I finished the first series of tests in the lab. We're dead."

Spike really wanted a drink before getting into this conversation, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. "Knew that, mate. So did you. You change your mind about this?"

Rom shook his head, "No. It's just...when Oz was working on your chip, you had a heartbeat."

Spike chuckled, "Could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that." Spike ruffled the curly brown hair under his chin, "I don't why that happened, Rom. Never felt it before. Figured it was something to do with the chip."

"No. Mine does it too. But it's not us. It's the demons."

Spike drew back, "My demon has a heartbeat? Why didn't I ever notice it before?"

Rom sighed, "Demons, Spike. As in multiple. Our blood is full of them. Individually, they aren't much, but together, Jesus. They act like ants or bees, hive mind mentality. Each individual has it's own specific job, but they all work together to do whatever needs to be done. But it explains about Blake and the others."

Spike half smirked, trust him to pick a childe that was so much smarter than he was. "I don't understand what you're talking about, Rom. Explain it to me. And use words I can understand."

Rom threw Spike a horrified look, "I'm sorry, sire, I didn't mean to..."

Spike started laughing, "Rom, a Victorian education isn't exactly up to your standards. And it's not like I spent a lot of time studying the last hundred years." Spike nudged Rom with his foot. "I'm not stupid, mate, but insects aren't exactly anything I've ever worried about before. Now, if you want to know about the mating rituals of Varlog demons, I'm your man." Spike said with a smirk.

Rom chuckled, "Okay, okay. I'll try to keep the drama down to a minimum." Rom scratched his head, trying to figure out how to explain this without talking down to his sire. "Okay. Entomology 101. Ants and bees both live in hives. Each individual in the hive has a specific job. Everything from collecting food, taking care of the young and defending the hive. But, if something threatens the hive, everyone works together to make sure the hive, as a whole, survives. That's what our demons do. They invade the body just like a virus would, spreading out to infect as many cells as possible, then reproducing at a fantastic rate. Once the virus takes hold, it treats the host like a hive."

Rom's eyes lost their focus for a minute, obviously thinking about something, "Huh, that explains a lot." Shaking his head, Rom continued, "The virus has to kill the host to take over. The host's immune system would try to fight off the infection otherwise. Which is probably why vampires drain their victims first, put the host body into shock and the virus won't have to work so hard to take over. But then the virus would have to repair any damage done to the hive. The demons will do whatever necessary to make sure that the hive survives. That includes making the heart beat every few minutes to keep what blood there is from stagnating."

Spike was fascinated. He'd never really given his demon much consideration before, there had never been any need. But the more he heard about this, the more he wanted to know. "So what about Blake? Why didn't he and the others turn? I didn't drain you before I turned you. And you said they were dying. Wouldn't they have already been in shock?"

Rom nodded, "They were. But I tried first aid before I gave them some of my blood, and my blood isn't as strong as yours. I sealed the wounds, hooked up the IV's and pumped them full of antibiotics, when they didn't stablize, then I tried the blood. They basically went into a deep coma while their bodies and the drugs I'd given them fought off the virus. So, on one hand, we have the virus trying to heal the body for it's own use. But on the other hand, the antibiotics are keeping the virus subdued until the body healed enough to finish them off."

Rom's eyes lit up, "Do you know what we could do with this? How many diseases and injuries that could be healed? Christ, the possibilities are endless."

Spike shook his head, "We've got to be careful here, Rom. I don't really want to be locked in a lab again so some wanker can experiment on me. And there's no way to know who will turn and who won't."

Rom slumped, his enthusiasum gone. "Yeah, you're right. That sucks."

Spike cuffed him across the back of the head, "You keep working on it, but keep it to yourself. You've got time. Now, why isn't your blood as strong as mine? I feed you more than enough, ya greedy bugger."

Rom grinned, "Antibiotics. My blood was full of them. And then we have the wonders of clean living. I was always careful to eat right, exercise, didn't drink much and never smoked. If I hadn't been, well, missing some parts, the same thing that happened to Blake probably would have happened to me." Rom shrugged, "But another 30 seconds and it wouldn't have mattered either way. I'd be dead. Really dead, instead of just kinda dead. The blood we drink is probably the healthist blood on the planet. It's more than enough to keep my demons happy, but it's also keeping them from multiplying as fast as they normally would. I'd be willing to bet that your blood isn't as infested as it was before we got you out of that lab."

Spike was quiet for a minute, thinking about how he had changed since he'd started working with Xander. "You're probably right about that. I don't feel like I used to. I'm calmer now, more in control. Don't get me wrong, I still like a spot of violence now and then, but I don't need it like I did before."

Spike raised one brow at his childe, "As interesting as this has been, I warned you about lying to me, Rom. Now, tell me the rest of it."

Rom hung his head, "My parents, they had a memorial service for me today. I tried to explain, but they wouldn't listen. As far as they're concerned, their son is dead, and I'm just some kind of sick joke."

Spike felt his fangs starting to drop and struggled for control, Rom didn't need to see his sire lusting after his human parents' blood. His childe was hurting enough as it was. There was nothing Spike could say to make this go away, or to make Rom not care, so he did the only thing he could do. Let his childe know that he was wanted and would never be alone.

Spike pulled Rom back against his chest, pushing his wrist against Rom's mouth. "Drink, childe." He ordered, putting enough force in the words to make sure Rom obeyed.

Spike smiled when he felt his childe's razor sharp fangs slice through his skin and then the gentle tugging begin. Rom started to purr as he fed, feeling Spike's pride and affection pouring into him along with his sire's blood. Rom eventually withdrew his fangs and watched as Spike's wrist healed before his eyes. "Thank you, sire." He said quietly.

Spike hugged him lightly, "You're my childe, now, Rom. I'll always take care of you. Now, I need you to do something for me."

Rom nodded, "Anything, sire."

"Find some way to fix my hair." Spike whined petulantly.

Rom started laughing, "I wasn't going to ask."

"I spent some time in the tank with Xander."

Rom turned to look his sire in the eye, "How is he? Has there been any change?"

"He opened his eyes once. Knew who I was. Wilson seems happy enough. We just have to wait."

"Are you going back in?" Rom asked.

"Yeah. As soon as Wilson says it's okay. Why?"

"We should probably wait before we try to fix your hair. It'd really suck if it all fell out."

Spike groaned, "Harris is going to owe me big time for this. I think this should be considered going above and beyond. Think I'll get a metal?"

Rom just laughed. Maybe his parents wouldn't speak to him, but his life, or unlife, wasn't all bad. Not bad at all.

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