Ok, so there's a fair bit of talking heads in this chapter, and if you were filming it, you'd need to bring some action in (cue visual of Sir Wanksalot slaying the dragon with voice-over), but I think the structure works very well, not just from the point of view of Alex/Xander's character, but in terms of developing Spike. I love that we get to watch Spike discover that maybe he thinks more of Xander than he ever realized. If this were being filmed, that would be the gem: watching Spike's face as he makes that discovery. And you know James Marsters would nail it.

Then on top of that, we get the delicious irony of Spike acknowledging Xander's strengths in a way that would shock Xander, were he in a position to understand the compliment.

I was pleased to get some background at this point - I'm prepared to wander in the wilderness with the clueless POV character for a while, but at some point, I want to have a couple of clues to put together, and this was the right time for it. Even if the information may turn out to be less than accurate as the story progresses, it gives me something to be going on with.

Love the fic, keep up the good work, can't wait to see where you take it.