The oppressive heat struck Xander even before he followed Spike across the threshold of the tiny room. The light streaming through the door seemed to violate the space, and Xander quickly pulled the door shut behind him and tried to ignore the claustrophobic combination of stifling warmth and dim yellow lamplight.

A thin, shaking voice emerged from a tangle of blankets and pillows.

"Mar - ?"

"Here, pet," Spike answered quickly, not allowing the voice to finish its query. "Brought you a surprise, I did."

Xander watched him cross the narrow room in two long strides, drop the bag on the bed and kneel down by the mattress, slide his hand into the blankets with a tender gesture. He didn't want to watch the expression of pain cross Spike's face when William shook with coughs, but he did.

Spike's brows came together - eyes wide and hurting, whispering to Will too low for Xander to hear. So much younger-looking than Xander had seen him yet. A pale hand, slim and shaking, emerged from the blankets, stroked through Spike's hair and rested on his bowed head like a blessing, and Xander had to look away - fidget.

"Don't joke."

"Not joking, luv. The great pillock is standing over by the telly - acting like he's not watchin' us and listening to every word we say."

"I'm not - " Xander stopped and shook his head. He was not going to rise to the bait every time Spike decided to - be Spike.

He approached the bed instead, not sure whether to stand over Spike or to kneel beside him or to sit on the edge of the mattress. He ended up in an awkward hunch with an awkward smile on his face as he gave an awkward wave. He felt like - *what was that Spike had said?* - a great pillock.

"Hey, Will."

"Xander." The voice was still weak, but the smile on Will's face made the awkwardness - and everything he'd just gone through with Spike - one hundred percent worth it.

*Oh, yeah. Got it bad's a major understatement, Harris.*

"Missed you, Will. How ya been?" Xander asked, as if he couldn't tell and as if the sight of it wasn't tearing him up inside.

"How do I look?" William responded with a small laugh that turned into a cough that turned into a series. In an instant, Spike was cradling the back of Will's head with one hand as he held a bottle of cough medicine up to Will's lips with the other, and Xander could see this was an all-too-familiar routine.

When the coughing subsided and Spike leaned back, Xander tried for another smile. "You look gorgeous."

Will smiled and shook his head. "I'm the brains. He's the looks," he said, tilting his head in Spike's direction.

Xander glanced at Spike and back to Will again, rolled his eyes. "Well, you're half right."

"Oi! I'll have you know my Will's bloody brilliant." Spike's fingers slid through William's hair, tugging curls straight and letting them spring back into shape - smirk on his lips.

And Xander wondered when they'd landed in Bizarro Land because "Did you just joke? With me?"

Spike gave him a 'how stupid are you?' look and rolled his eyes back to William. "Never knew you liked them pretty and stupid, pet."

"I like you, don't I?" William started to smile, coughed, and burrowed into the blankets. "I'm hungry."

"Think you can manage some soup, luv?" At William's nod, Spike grabbed a can from the grocery bag and started for the door. "I'll go warm it up in the lobby, then. Back in a mo'."

As soon as the door closed behind Spike, William unburrowed a bit and smiled up at Xander, who still hovered awkwardly over the bed.

"Alone at last," William said. When Xander didn't move, William just smiled wider and he rolled his eyes. "Get down here already. It's not going to take him that long to heat soup."

Xander unfroze and sat carefully on the side of the bed. He looked down into William's face, but hesitated to reach out and make contact.

William rolled his eyes again and sighed.

"Why does everyone act like I'm gonna break if they breathe too hard? I can be touched, you know. I could probably even be kissed..." William's eyes were so large in the gaunt face - impossibly blue. Xander didn't even jump when warm fingers curled around his hand and pulled him closer with insistent tugs. "I might even want to be kissed..." he breathed and looked so hopeful, and Xander found himself resting with one elbow on the other side of William's chest - so thin he seemed to disappear beneath the cheap blankets.

And Xander got it then. Got what it was to - ache for someone, and William's lips were warm under his. Soft and tasting of medicinal grape and water and - "Will," he breathed, felt William's breath, William's fingers in his hair - holding him with surprising strength when the door opened - and stayed open.

Xander closed his eyes. An open door had never come with so much silence before.

Slowly, Xander broke his contact with William's lips as he reached up and placed his hand over William's wrist, drawing William's fingers out of his hair, yet relishing the trace of those fingers across his jaw as he guided them down to rest on William's own chest.

The silence continued, roared through the room, as Xander slowly sat up and turned toward the door. Spike wasn't moving, only staring, and Xander couldn't read the expression on his face. It wasn't anger. It wasn't embarrassment. It wasn't jealousy. It was more like shock. Like disbelief. Like betrayal.

And then that expression was hardening, darkening, and suddenly looking a whole lot less confused about what it wanted to do and to whom it wanted to do it. And Spike was moving forward, and Xander was standing and backing away with his hands up, and there was adrenaline and his instincts were urging fight or flight and if Spike weren't between him and the door, the choice would have been more than clear.

"Spike, I... I'm..." *Not sorry, not sorry, not sorry. Scared as hell, maybe, but not sorry.*

And then William was there, out of bed, standing between them - shaking - and everyone was breathing hard.

"Will, get back into bed." Spike's voice was quiet - so quiet that Xander was proud of himself for not wedging himself into the corner between the television and the wall.

William was less impressed. He stood - trembling - took two staggering steps to place himself firmly between Spike and Xander and stopped - shook his head to clear it as the world spun.

"Will - fucking hell, Will get back in bed now!" Spike grabbed at William's shoulders - lifted him so William stumbled backwards, head still shaking, fingers clutching at Spike's shirt. And Xander's fists clenched - fingernails digging, marking his palms - and he shouted at Spike when William wouldn't - or couldn't "Why don't you just stop - "

"Shut your fucking gob!" Spike and William hit the bed hard and bounced - Spike's fingers tearing at William's shirt. Buttons popped - pinged off the cheap headboard and William arched, gasping for breath under Spike's assault.

Desperate whimpers emerged from Will's throat and Xander saw red. The next thing Xander saw was Spike, under him on the floor, landing hard. And he could hear his own voice. "Keep your goddamned hands off - !"

Bruised and battered knuckles crashed into Xander's jaw and he tasted blood. He rolled off Spike - gagging - and curled around the pain blossoming in his gut. *Fucker kicked me!* "Will - shit - "

Whimpers and short panicked gasps came from the bed. Xander could see Spike out of the corner of a swelling eye - watched him scramble onto the bed. He lunged - made a grab for Spike's leg - was kicked away.

"Leave off, tosser! He's having an attack, you gobshite!"

And just like that, the entire scene came into new focus: Will's trembling as he stood between Spike and Xander. Spike's insistence not that Will get out of the way, but that he get back in bed. The way the brothers had fallen onto the bed. William's whimpering and struggling. Spike's desperate efforts to loosen Will's clothing and let him breathe.

It all made horribly perfect sense now and Xander watched from the floor, terrified and helpless, as Spike tried to calm Will, to get his lungs working again.

"Come on, luv. Breathe for me, pet. It's okay. No more fighting. Just breathe for me."

But William would not breathe, would only pant and gasp, and his lips were losing color, and it scared the hell out Xander and he wanted to ask Spike what the fuck was happening and what he could do. But he'd already interfered once and only made the situation worse, so he just watched and listened and dug half moons into his palms with his fingernails.

"Call emergency services."

It took Xander a second to realize Spike was talking to him. And *what?*

"Emergency services?"

"Nine-nine-nine! Or nine-one-one or whatever the hell it is. We need to get him to a fucking hospital. Now."