*****

~I am an actor. So unfeeling
Then a flower, I am crushed
I am a villain, unstable and anguished
Then an angel, you trust~
- Human Drama

Chaos reigned in the compound, and screams echoed from adjourning rooms. Buffy and Riley only had the liberty of pausing a moment, lacking the time for any final goodbye.

"I need to get to Adam. Like, now. Are you able?"

"Go."

Buffy left the scene swiftly and intact, but the wounded commando remained to battle his former friend. Riley ran towards Forrest, yet was flipped over in vain. He attempted to regain control by grabbing his opponent's stomach and was rewarded with a backhanded elbow in the face. Without much effort, Forrest threw Riley to the ground. Still undeterred, Riley arose once again-only to have Forrest kick him in the abdomen. Summoning the reserves of his strength, Riley jumped on Forrest and kneed him in the stomach. Unfortunately, the man-demon hybrid still remained largely unwounded. He grabbed Riley's head, attempting to put him in a headlock, and then threw him across the room.

Filled with a god-like feeling of supremacy, Forrest mocked his former friend as he approached him. "What're you makin' me do this for? Not that I'm not enjoyin' myself..." Riley felt as if his head would explode, as he received a kick in the face that sent him flying backwards.

As Forrest paused a moment, debating which injury he would inflict next on his former friend, a sharp voice rang out.

"Now, now...don't tire yourself out just yet. We have a bit of unfinished business to attend to..." Spike sauntered over, oozing confidence. "I think we left off with you attempting to rip my head off. Want another go at it mate?"

Forrest made a sound of annoyance in the back of this throat. "Sit down and take your turn. I don't have time for interferring failures right now." His cursory glance at the vampire was heavy with disdain.

A flash of anger shown in Spike's eyes, but his expression never altered. "You're right." Spike gave him a bright smile, tinged with a viciousness that sent a slight tingle of warning up his opponent's spine. The vampire leaned against the wall, his outward appearance calm and relaxed. "I'm just wasting your time and mine. I never was one for the elaborate and dramatic muckity-muck confrontation scene, that was more Angelus' style than mine." He turned around and walked towards the exit, giving the impresssion that he had washed his hands of the situation.

Then abruptly he whirled around, barking out in a commanding voice, "Heads up soldier! Catch!"

A small round object sailed through the air, and Forrest instinctfully reached out to grab it. Before he had time to realize just what he'd done, the grenade exploded in his hands.

Spike smirked, and chuckled to himself in amusement. "Funny what kinds of toys a bloke can come across in a place like this...That'll teach 'em not to mess with the big bad."

The gun fire and growls still echoing throughout the complex quickly brought him back to the situation at hand. He strode swiftly over to the slayer's fallen boyfriend and hauled him to his feet.

Riley stared at Spike in shocked confusion as the vampire pulled on him impatiently.

"Come on soldiar boy! Do you trust me?"

A pointed look from Riley reminded Spike that the human had met him before. He shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

"Fine. Do you trust that I'm protecting you in order to protect my _own_ hide from the Slayer?"

Riley relaxed a notch, yet still retained a skeptical air. "I thought she was helping you anyway...Aren't they already hiding you out?"

Spike actually found himself appearing a slight bit sheepish. Demons _did_ have a code of honor. A loose one, but a code nevertheless. *But I'm _evil_! Can't go about being pals with the Slayer...and that mind-fucking son of a bitch promised to get my chip out...* "We had a bit of a...falling out... But the rule is mate, `always be on the winning side'. And right now, the Slayer is going to be the winning side. I can just smell it."

"Smell it?" Riley's stomach churned, his mind picturing the dead bodies piling up outside the door.

"Not literally!" Spike yanked on Riley's arm, pulling him towards the exit while grumbling under his breath. "Stupid, bloody humans...take everything so seriously. William the Bloody guarding happy meals with legs! Angelus would be laughing his ass off if he could see me now."

Riley started scanning the battleground as soon as they left the room. "We have to find Buffy!"

"Oh no you don't. You humans are damn fragile and I'm not bringing the Slayer's toy back all broken."

A large brown demon snarled and leapt at Spike from behind. Hearing a slight displacement of air, the vampire instinctively ducked. Unfortunately, Riley lacked Spike's supernatural senses and awoke to find himself laying on his stomach and splattered with demon blood, the source of his pain dead on his right. The room seemed to be shifting as Spike helped him to his feet, and his legs felt like jelly.

Spike shook him roughly and the battered soldier moaned. "How many fingers mate?"

Riley took a guess. "11?"

"Shit."

Spying an iron door on their left, Spike dragged the other man towards it. Dodging a flying commando, the vampire shoved Riley inside. "Good! It locks."

Once he had latched the door securely, Spike gave himself a moment to study their hiding place. It appeared to be a small conference room. The room was sparsely furninshed, with the metal table and matching chairs in the center taking up only a small portion of the available space. The walls remained stark gray and bare, except for a single iron cabinet.

*No wonder that bloody doctor had a few screws loose...this is worse than the ridiculous mansion my sire had us holed up in. Windows and a garden? What was he...*

Hearing a thud, Spike turned around to see that Riley had been unable to support himself by leaning on the wall. The other man had slumped to the floor, and was swaying ever so slightly back and forth. It was clear that he only retained a tenuous grip on consciousness.

*Bugger _me_!* "Alright...you..." Unaccustomed to the role of comforter, Spike searched for appropriate words. "You just...sit tight and I'll...figure something out." Racking his brain, Spike spied the cabinet and decided to investigate its contents. Pawing fruitlessly through the clutter on the shelves, Spike grumbled in annoyance. *Humans are always banging themselves up, they've gotta have one of those little white boxes lying around...* His assumptions proved to be correct-well, the box turned out to be red...and it didn't have that much in area of first-aid (just some bandages, pain killers, and anti-bacterial ointment)... But that wasn't the important thing, he reasoned. What _was_ relevent was that he had everything under contr..

"No! No sleeping!" Spike rushed over to the commando's side to shake him awake. "It's no good for a bloke who's been hit on the head so much." Spike fished out two Vicodin from the first-aid box. "Can you shallow these things dry?" Riley vaguely nodded an affirmative and Spike shoved the pills between his lips. "This'll help a bit...Now to figure out how to keep you awake.." Spike paced slowly back and forth, sifting through his memories. Drusilla had been seriously ill for quite a long period, he simply had to remember how he dealt with such matters then... *Let's see. Don't have any humans around to torture for entertainment. And I doubt he'd participate much in plotting against the slayer.* Spike smirked. * He's in no shape for dancing. And that puts the most ridiculous pictures in my head anyway...* Spike laughed out loud, imagining himself leading Riley in a tango with a rose between his teeth. *That can't be bloody all...what else?! `Course I'd shag her...but I don't think that's much of an option now either.*

Yet Spike felt a stirring in his pants, despite his words to the contrary, which prodded him to re-examine his companion. A nice shape-some muscular tone, but not all stone and hard edges. His brief touches of the man's skin had revealed it to be soft and pleasantly warm. His eyes... Spike approached the fallen commando, who remained too muddled to notice the obvious attention he was recieving, and tilted his face up for a closer inspection. Yes, beautiful eyes..a sort of liquid green. Spike's thumb slid over the other man's cheek, cataloging it's smooth and pleasing texture. Thoughts still hazy, Riley unconsciously leaned into the caress. His thumb next moved down to the lips, gliding over the bottom one to feel a sensation like... rose petals... that was it. Like those deep red roses he would bring Dru to sprinkle across their bed at times. Deep red. "I want to lay in the silky blood again, it smells so sweet," she always begged...

As he watched, entranced, a pink tongue darted out to brush against his thumb. Hot, wet velvet tasted him, and Spike's eyes jumped up to meet Riley's. He found no answers there however-the eyes were lovely, but glazed and impossible to read.

The vampire hesitiated for a moment, but the mortal was too tempting to be ignored. And he _was_ responsible for keeping the man conscious. Self-justification complete, Spike continued his assessment. Hands strayed down the neck, as he eyed the man's juglar-until a sharp pain in the head urged him to move on. *What?! I can't even look? This is bloody insane...* He explored the collarbone next, smoothing the soft skin with his thumbs and then trailing fingertips down muscular biceps and back up again. Simply breathtaking.

Spike's head swam with desire. It had been so long since he had been with a human...too long. Fingers drifted back up to lips, caressing them lightly. Then lips replaced fingers, brushing softly across in the faintest kiss-careful not to frighten the object of his fascination.

A barely audible sigh came from Riley, and the vampire was stunned to find lips kissing back. An avalanche of sensation, and then all was a blur. A warm body encirled him, and his tongue bathed in liquid silk. His hands moved with a mind of their own-grasping hot flesh, pulling at clothing in a fevered pitch. He _needed_ to feel bare skin, wanted to taste hardened nipples and explore firm stomach muscles. Riley was breathing hard, and gulping for air whenever their lips parted. Mindless passion seemed to have consumed him also, as he allowed himself to be gently pushed back towards the wall.

Spike slid off his knees to lie languidly upon the floor, supported by one elbow. Impatient hands unbuttoned the commando's pants and unearthed a demanding hardness. The vampire cautiously grasped it and slid a finger over the tip, listening for any sound of protest. Yet all he received was a low moan, encouraging him to venture further. The scorching heat of the organ seemed to be almost burning his hand...the heat seeping through his skin...traveling up the length of his body. Spike sent his tongue to investigate this phenomenon and shivered. His tongue mapped out the veins, following the pulse of blood beneath the skin. It tasted so salty and _alive_. Trailing the tip of his tongue along the head and winding around underneath, Spike took his time relishing the moment. Then, without warning, he engulfed it in its entirety. A shocked gasp came from above, and Spike smirked around a mouthful of flesh. Eager for more desperate noises, he began working steadily on the organ. The groans and breathless sighs were music to his ears-this was just what his bruised ego needed. As the other man built up to his release he almost sounded panicked...and Spike had to suppress a self-satisfied chuckle. *Yeah.. I still got it..* Then his mouth was flooded with sticky bitterness...and it was over.

In one fluid move, Spike sat up and re-fastened Riley's pants. His own aching erection was calling, and he planned to coax a few favors from the mortal.

Suddenly, the load click of a door being unlatched. And then..."Spike?!" The slayer and her gang were standing in the doorway, a master key hanging from the watcher's hands.

*Oh no. This isn't happening.*

Buffy rushed over and pinned him to the wall, so furious that she could barely get any words out. Finally she ground out, "I should just kill you where you stand."

"Wait a minute slayer, I saved your little boyfriend from certain death. Lucky for you blighters I was there, eh??" He smiled smugly.

Giles sighed. "Yes, thank you. Although your heroism has been slightly muted by the fact that you were helping Adam to start a war that would kill us all"

Not to be left out, Xander threw in, "You probobly just saved him so we wouldn't stake you right here."

"Did it work?"

The group shook their heads in disgust, yet turned their backs to him and lifted up a now unconcious Riley to be dragged out of the compound.

Spike breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, then everything's alright. And we all get to be not staked through the heart. Good work team!"

The door slammed in his face, and he kicked it with all of his might. *I can't _believe_ this! If I didn't have enough reasons to kill the slayer before.. I'm bloody well going to do it now! Damned fool goody goodies..comin' in before a mate's finished with his shag...I've got a bit of a problem now, and no one to relieve it...* He stomped out into the hall, grumbling under his breath and punctuating his thoughts every now and again with the twist of some weaker demon's neck. *I've really _got_ to get out of this town...*

~Close as I come to catching my stumble
I tumble to you
Shields and armour bear no resistance
I tumble to you~
-Human Drama

*****

the end