Title: Don't Fear the Reaper 2/?
Author:
Ajay
Rating:
PG ish for language.
Disclaimer:
All characters in the BtVS and AtS verse
belong
to Josh Whedon and others who are not me. I
just
take them out for a walk sometimes. Okay, so I
forget
to Spike back on occasion but who wouldn't
forgive
me that?
Warning:
Ummm, don't wanna do this but, character
'death'
and a little Buffy bashing.
Description:
Post 'Fade Away' a wish is made, a wish
is
granted and everyone will pay.
Many
thanks to my amazing beta: Ghosts Forge who is so
good
for my ego
Authors
Notes: Thanks for all the feedback, guys.
Hope
you like this part as well. BTW, all you Anya
fans
who realised I didn't include her, it was
writer's
error. In transcribing from long hand to
computer
I skipped the paragraph that I had written on
her.
She'll be included in the story, eventually.
*****************************************************
She
hadn't been in LA for a while, wouldn't be here
now
if it wasn't for a directive from Giles. Not one
but
three potentials in the same family. She shook
her
head. It was hard enough to explain to parents
that
you wanted to train their daughter to fight
demons
but to knock on the door, say "Hi! I'm with
the
Watcher's Council and I'd like to recruit your
triplets
as Slayers", was going to be impossible and
probably
dangerous.
She
needed to let off some energy before tackling
this.
She stepped into an atmosphere of loud music
and
beer fumes. She still missed the cigarette smoke
that
used to accompany them. Yes, she was a Slayer,
an
adult and she was supposed to be a role model for
the
younger girls in her care. But, damn she wanted a
smoke
and a drink or three and she was going to have
them.
Forty
five minutes later she had downed two beers and
spent
at least half that time on the dance floor. The
place
had a variety of men and she had danced with
most
of them. She was headed out of the rest room
when
she collided with someone. She looked down at a
dark
curly head that was emitting a hearty guffaw at
his
predicament.
She
reached a hand down to offer him help to stand
back
up. He raised his head and she gasped. She
found
herself looking into eyes she had only seen this
close
twice before. His laughter petered out and he
cocked
his head to the side to look at her.
Faith
finally found her voice. "Spike!?!"
"I'm
sorry?"
"No,
I'm, ummm, I'm sorry. you look like someone I
used
to know." Faith was confused. This had to be...
She
smiled. "I'm Faith McDaniels.'
The
grin he gave her just enhanced his cheekbones.
Spike's
cheekbones. "Jaime Ross."
He
shook the hand he still held. "Can I buy you a
drink?"
Faith
nodded and let him lead her to a table. It
would
give her time to ask some questions.
"What's
your poison?" He had a nice baritone voice
with
no trace of an accent. Still, it sounded enough
like
Spike that she couldn't shake the certainty that
she
was talking to the vampire.
"A
draft will be fine."
He
nodded then headed off to the bar. She took the
opportunity
to watch.
Faith
was a connoisseur of male bodies. She enjoyed
them
the way some would enjoy fine art. While under
certain
circumstances she had been known to treat a
guy
as a tool for her own needs she preferred to take
her
time and get to know everything about the man she
was
with. Even those men who had been important in
her
life in passing had been studied.
Wesley,
whom she had initially found lacking had not
only
grown a backbone but, when he broke her out of
jail
she found he had developed a musculature that
would
have been highly attractive if the past hadn't
been
a factor.
Xander
Harris had also been a surprise upon her return
to
Sunnydale. The boy whose virginity she had
callously
taken was a man who could wield an axe as
well
as a hammer.
Angel
had always been seen as a shield. Initially she
wanted
him to piss Buffy off then she realised she
really
was attracted to him. Trying to kill him
didn't
help her cause any. Then again he wouldn't
have
given her a chance anyway. Buffy was his soul
mate.
Robin.
Well, Robin was a special case and they were
still
good friends despite ending their relationship.
But,
the one body she had studied and lusted after had
been
Spike.
He
wasn't large and blocky like Angel. He appeared to
be
almost as skinny as Xander and Wesley had once been
but
looks were definitely deceiving. She remembered
the
feel of his body against hers when she was Buffy.
The
man had muscles to spare. She was pretty sure
that
an encounter between them would have been a fight
for
dominance but she never got a chance to find out.
If
Buffy hadn't interrupted that night in the
basement...
She
watched Jaime walk back to her. Even without the
duster
or the Docs this man had the same swagger and
the
same whipcord musculature as the vampire. She was
going
to get to the bottom of this.
***************************************************
Angel
took another swing at the Halthwa'a feeling the
iron
like band of muscle holding the head on give.
Finally.
He was covered in dung colored ichor and
smelled
amazingly like a cheap perfume Cordy had worn
once
before throwing the bottle, a birthday present
from
Buffy, away. He wanted to get back to the hotel,
take
a shower and go to bed. Not that he really
expected
to be allowed to.
Cordelia
had seemingly returned to her pre-ascension
self,
not quite as selfish as high school but not the
mature
woman who had helped them with Lindsay, either.
She
was once again on her quest to get Angel to be
more
sociable. And, this time she had Fred backing
her
up. A Fred who was the confident scientist who
ran
the Wolfram & Hart lab before the
Maybe
he'd get lucky. If the two of them were still
looking
at wedding magazines he could make it to his
room
unnoticed.
His
crew had made it their mission to live their new
lives
to the fullest and they were determined to drag
Angel
with them, fanged and bumpy if need be.
Wes,
no longer morose and bitter, had proposed to Fred
the
second he saw her. Amazed, Fred was still trying
to
understand how she had woken up in her old bed in
the
Hyperion. Upon hearing Wes' question she fainted.
Gunn
chose that moment to walk through the front door
and
Cordelia came storming out of Angel's office. Had
he
not been a master vampire Angel would've joined
Fred
on the floor.
Maybe
he was dreaming. While he was contemplating
this,
Fred came to, Cordelia slapped him on the arm
demanding
to know what the hell was going on and they
all
began to talk at once. No, he was not dreaming.
Eight
months later found them back to business as
usual.
They were a little busier than before the
whole
Wolfram & Hart debacle, probably an after effect
of
the opening of the dimensions, but they were doing
well.
They even had a permanent contract with the
city
as official demonology specialists.
After
Angel explained the circumstances of their
sudden
return he had to deal with their feelings of
amazement,
gratitude and guilt. Each of them felt it
was
their fault that Spike was gone. And, Angel's
obvious
heartache at the loss of his Childe was a
constant
reminder of that.
He
finally got them to understand that Spike was in a
situation
that didn't afford him a choice of 'life' or
death.
He had simply made the best of a horrible
situation.
It didn't lessen their guilt but their
appreciation
of the blonde vampire increased.
Fred
tried to work through her grief at losing her
friend
on her own before realising that talking to
Angel
might help them both. It was several weeks
before
he was willing to talk about it but he would
sit
for hours listening to her relieve her affection
for
Spike both as herself and
retained
some of the God's memories.
He
sighed. It was one more reminder of how little
chance
he had given his Childe.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Buffy
sat on a low stone wall behind Giles' palatial
home.
The last few months had found her reviewing her
every
move since the beginning of the Glory fiasco.
Could
she have done anything differently? What? She
had
chosen what she thought was the only option at the
time.
Had it been a selfish decision?
She
thought of the words she'd told Dawn up on that
platform.
'The hardest thing to do in this world is
live
in it.' Then she had chosen death. So, maybe
she
could see how some others would consider it self
serving.
Her
sister's name brought a sigh to her lips. She had
had
some major bridge building to do there. Yes, in
her
grief at losing her mom she had blamed Dawn. She
had
believed at that time that the monks had used
Joyce's
cells to make the key human, thereby causing
the
condition that killed her.
After
she learned that it had actually been her own
genetic
blueprint that created the child, she knew
better.
She had just never communicated that to Dawn.
And,
she never realised her sister blamed herself for
their
mother's death as well as Buffy's. It had been
Spike
who Dawn credited with pulling her back from a
rapid
spiral into darkness caused by this self blame.
Spike.
That brought up a whole new level of self
reflection.
She had realised too late how she really
felt
about him, leading him to negate her last minute
vow
of love. And then, then Andrew and Giles plotted
to
keep his return from her. Yes, she admitted that
Angel
had also withheld that information from her but
she
could understand that. He was insanely jealous of
anyone
she dated. He surely didn't want her to
continue
her relationship with his nemesis. But, she
really
was closer to Spike than to Angel. The
admittance
of that surprised her.
Angel
had come to her already cursed with a soul. he
had
been told by his demon guide that helping the
Slayer
was a step towards his redemption.
Spike
had arrived as an enemy. An amusing one, yes,
but
still an enemy. his helping her had always been
self
serving but at least he admitted it. Until that
last
year, after the soul. She believed that his
helping
her then had more to do with being in love
with
her than any thoughts of furthering his own
interests.
After all, he was almost eager to die for
her.
A
few tears fell as she headed back to the house. It
was
almost time for her to take the trainees on
patrol.