Title: Don't Fear the Reaper 5/?
Author: Ajay
Rating: PG 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 put
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: Ghostsforge who is so
good for my ego
***Let's call this a transitional chapter just to get
me back into the
swing of things. Advance warning:
next chappy will have a one time het
pairing that
several regulars
have asked for. It's not just for
them, it will
help advance the story. So, onward.***
Archived at www.the-crypt.com and
www.geocities.com/Jess-Lair
*****************************************************
Faith had left a
message at each of Jaime's phone
numbers and he
called her back less than five minutes
later. At
Cordelia's insistence she turned the
speaker on.
Everyone listened intently, each of them
easily
recognizing the timbre of the voice and
agreeing that it
sounded like Spike without the
accent.
Faith breathed a little easier, maybe she
wasn't all that
crazy.
They met at a
local pub/restaurant that offered a
variety of food
styles allowing Fred to order her
beloved tacos,
again. It was an inside joke that even
Faith was
familiar with and it made her feel even more
comfortable with
these people. She was seriously
considering
moving her base of operations to
Angeles
Jaime/Spike thing
going down and Fred's earlier,
"Faith?"
"Yeah?"
"Ummm. I don't really know a lot of
women and I know
you're living in
bridesmaid,
please?"
"Wait!
You're getting married? When? To who?"
"Whom." Wes corrected, ignoring everyone's stare.
"I thought
you knew but how could you if none of us
told you,
right? I mean we never mentioned it did we?
So I can't expect
you to..."
"Wes finally
got up the nerve to ask her when we all
returned.
Surprised me since my last memory was that
our Fred was
snuggling Gunn over there." Cordelia
broke in.
"Yeah.
Last time I was here that was my impression,
too. Damn,
Gunn, I thought you had been taken out of
the running,
there." She winked at the blush staining
Charles' dark
face.
"Naw, we finally realized we were better as friends
then it took me
forever to get Wesley to realize I had
finally gotten my
foot outta my butt and seen what was
in front of me
all the time and then I died then Wes
died and, and,
well ya'll know the rest."
Faith took a deep
breath noticing the others at the
table doing the
same. Maybe they could give it to
Fred by osmosis.
God, the woman could talk as much as
"So, who
else is in the wedding?"
"Well, Wes
asked Angel to be best man but since he
can't sign legal
paperwork without a last name he
suggested Charles
stand instead and he'd just be a
groomsman.
So, that means an evening wedding which is
fine with
us. Oh, and Connor has agreed to be a
groomsman. Cordy is my maid of honor but I'd
really
like it if you
could be there, too. PLEASE?"
Faith couldn't
resist the begging brown eyes.
Besides, no one
had ever asked her to be in their
wedding. It
was such a normal thing for this group to
be doing in their oh so very strange lives.
"You know,
Fred, I'd be thrilled to be in your
wedding."
She smiled at the other woman who had tears
in her eyes.
"Now, she
has to come up with one more maid."
"Why?"
Cordelia looked
at Faith as if she'd turned into a
Fyarl. "There are
three groomsman, there should be
three
maids. The brain over there isn't close to any
of her female
relatives and like she said we don't
know too many
other women with the type of job we do.
She surely
wouldn't want to ask a client."
Fred
grimaced. "I would've asked Nina but since Angel
stopped seeing
her without even properly breaking it
off, I don't
think it would be a good idea."
"Nina?"
"A female
werewolf Angel was seeing for a, Oh my
Lord!"
Jaime had walked
up as Wesley was speaking and the
sight of him
nearly caused the Englishman to choke on
his own
breath. The others at the table were in a
similar state and
he noticed, Fred was in tears,
again.
**************************************************
Angel awoke to
the dark. He didn't bother to turn on
the light as he
made his way to the bathroom. He felt
worn out and knew
that the upcoming shower wouldn't
help. He finished
what he had to do then headed down
to the lobby
which was once again totally silent.
Before he could
become too worried he noticed the
folded paper on
the front counter, his name written in
box car letters.
ANGEL
Faith is in town.
We went out for dinner and some fun.
Call if you want
to join us and I'll let you know
where we are.
C
Angel put the
note down. It was nice that they were
having fun.
He'd have to spend some time with Faith
before she left
but tonight he really needed to head
back out and try
to find the newest Oracles. He had
it on good
authority that they were in
They would help
him bring Spike back. They had to.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Hey,
Jaime." Faith stood up to greet her new friend.
"These are
the friends I was telling you about last
night. The
ladies are Cordelia Chase and Fred
Burkle," she pointed at
each of them in turn. "Dark
and dangerous is
Charles Gunn and the dude catching
flies is Wesley
Wyndham-Price."
Jaime shook
Gunn's outstretched hand then turned to a
bemused Wes.
"It's nice
to meet all of you." When his eyes met
Fred's he tilted
his head in an oh-so-familiar way.
"You seem
familiar. Did you major in English at
USC?"
Fred
giggled. "No. I was at UCLA in the physics
program."
He smiled.
"Okay. You must remind me of someone."
Faith led him to
a chair and called the waiter over
for another
menu. The group took a few minutes to
study the
offerings before each of them placed their
orders.
Jaime drew another stare from Fred when he
ordered a
blooming onion. She and Spike had spent
many hours
together talking food and she knew that he
considered the
blooming onion to be a 'bloody good
thing'. He
often lamented the time the Bronze took it
off their menu
after the troll destroyed the place.
She got lost in
her own thoughts as she recalled
afternoons during
Spike's ghost hood when he'd sit and
listen to her
rambling without complaint. His
contributions to
the conversation were always amusing.
God, she missed
him.
"So, Jaime,
I can assume from your question that you
attended
USC?"
"Yeah,
man. I have a BS in English. I'm seriously
thinking about
getting my Masters, though."
"Looking
toward teaching?"
"No,
actually I enjoy what I'm doing. I work in
editing right now
but I'd like to publish eventually."
Wes was
intrigued. "Poetry?"
Jaime
laughed. "Oh, no! My poetry is
awful. I've
written a couple
of short stories in the
mystery/horror
genres. I particularly like the late
1800's
that sort."
"I notice
you don't call them the Jack the Ripper
murders."
Jaime gave a
quick tilt of the head. "It was never
proven that the
person writing the letters was the
killer so I try
to be more politic about it."
"Have you
been to
home?"
"I lived in
fascinated with
the history and did a lot of studying
of the area, the
architecture of the period, any
information I
could find on crimes committed around
the turn of the
century and the decades immediately
preceding
it."
Wesley was
impressed. If this was Wolfram & Hart's
doings they had
covered any possible slip ups in such
a way that the
young man would never question how he
would have knowledge
of certain things. Of course, he
shouldn't expect
anything less of the evil law firm.
Dinner discussion
was lively and quite often wandered
into areas Spike
would have been familiar with. Jaime
realized this and
as the AI gang as a whole voiced the
regrettable end
to the evening he had to ask.
"So, do I
pass?"
Everyone looked
at him with shocked faces. He smiled.
"You were
all testing me, I believe, in reference to
your friend
Spike, right? I must really look like
this guy,
huh?" He looked from one of them to
another.
Seeing sadness in each pair of eyes he
continued.
"You must have all really loved him."
Gunn and Wes
snorted. Fred nodded her head and
Cordelia was, for
once, speechless. Jaime raised his
right hand to
forestall any comment.
"It's
okay. I just... you know you just want to be
liked for
yourself not because you're someone's
replacement,
right?"
Wes spoke
then. "You don't have to worry about that.
You and Spike are
as different as two beings can be.
I would like you
to know that I find you very
interesting and
would enjoy talking to you more about
your
writing. While I may not know much about 1880's
Whitechapel I
have spent a large part of my life in
you'd like."
Jaime
smiled. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"Why don't
we give you our phone number and all so you
can get in touch
with us and, maybe, you could do the
same?"
Fred asked tentatively.
Jaime handed over
his card and collected one from
Cordelia.
"I'll be in touch."
The crew left
Jaime and Faith seated at the table.
"Do you have
to work tomorrow?"
"No.
Unless we're on deadline I can actually take an
occasional
Saturday off. Do you want to go some place
else?"
Jaime replied. "What about you? How'd it go
with your
recruits?"
Faith silently
chuckled. "I think I have one of them
hooked for sure
and the other two will probably follow
her but the
parents are going to take a little more
work. I'm
definitely siccing Giles on them."
She looked in to
blue, blue eyes and smiled.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"So?"
"It's him."
"Wes?"
"I really
have no doubt, either. The mannerisms, the
speech
pattern," He shook his head. "If
you had been
around when we
were working together, he'd fall back
into the speech
of his youth, very intelligent, upper
class, formal
speech patterns. Jaime displayed those
same
tendencies."
"Yeah.
That is definitely our Spike. There are too
many coincidences
when it came to food preferences,
the left
handedness and did any of you notice the
sadness that came
over his face when he talked about
his family?
Spike always had that same look when he
mentioned his
mom." Fred's compassion for the young
man as well as
the vampire they all knew was typical
but they all knew
it also meant that that was the last
word on the
subject. Jaime Ross was Spike.
Now, how do they
tell Angel?