TITLE: Working Out The Issues

AUTHOR: Clockstopper

RATING: NC-17

PAIRING: Spike/Angel

DISTRIBUTION: Currently playing on FanFiction. Net. You want just ask! Tell me where my baby's going though.

DISCLAIMER: The Characters in this story are not mine. I wish they were, but they aren't. They belong to Joss and Co. I do own the situation I put them in though. It's MY PLOT. You think if I did own these characters I'd have signed on for the cheap free homepage? Don't sue me I have nothing of value but this, my computer and a few Buffy posters.

SPOILERS: A few for AtS season five's DESTINY

SUMMARY: Spike finally takes Angel's advice and goes to see a therapist. Of course nothing's ever simple in Angel land and Angel himself gets roped into the psychoanalyzing mix through blackmailing secretaries, cohorting coworkers, irritating therapists and Spike's own brand of charm.

Chapter 3:

Okay Mulligan's is a colorful place. It seems to be a half demon half-human bar. Something like Caritas only less bright. There's no karaoke machine, which I guess I'm grateful for, but it's not what I expected. I mean Wesley's been here with him and I just thought it would be something more... British and less demon. Of course it's more of Spike's type of hang out I guess.

Wesley didn't blink an eye when I asked him how to get here. To be honest he had the address already written down. He just handed it to me and told me that he had a ton of work to do when I stood there looking a bit shocked.

I've been sitting in this uncomfortable bar stool for at least fifteen minutes. He's late, but what's new with Spike. He can never show up on time for anything. Of course he did say he probably would show up. He better because I didn't want to com here for nothing. I could be at home... sleeping or doing something more important than this.

"Hey stranger. Care to buy a girl a drink?" I look to my side to see a girl... no make that a vampire slinking up against me.

She's got raven colored hair and emerald green eyes. She's wearing the skimpiest outfit I've ever seen and I've seen a lot. She's batting her eyelashes at me in what I guess is supposed to be a charming way, but it looks like she's got something in her eye.

"No, that's okay." I say going back to my whisky.

I see her pout in the corner of my eye. I really should kill her and half of the people in this place, but some how I don't think that's the best way to announce my presence.

"Oh come on. I know I'm new at this whole seduction thing, but you could at least give a girl points for trying." She says to me.

"You're not a girl."

"Yeah well you're not exactly a real boy either."

"Look you don't wanna talk to me. You don't wanna try and get into my pants. It's not a pretty sight."

"Looks pretty good from where I'm standing." She says and I can feel her eyes looking me over. I've noticed it a few times before with women. "Really I'm here waiting for someone." I say.

"Well aren't we all?" She asks me all with what I can only describe as a 'duh' expression on her face.

"I'm waiting for a specific someone. Maybe you know him. About yeah high. Leather coat, bleached hair, and an annoying personality." I say.

"You had me till the annoying part. Depressing is more like it. Guy comes in here at least three times a week and just sits at the bar and stares at his drink. I've tried to hit on him a few times, but got nothing. Guess this explains it." She says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Why don't you tell me? You're the one that's waiting for him." She says.

"It's not like that... it used to be like that, but its not like that anymore. This is just therapy."

"Is that what they're calling it nowadays."

I sigh. Why does everyone seem to think that Spike and I are having sex?

"Really it's not like that."

"Sure it isn't. Should have known you were gay. All the good looking ones are."

"I'm not gay!"

"No, he was just born this poofy." I turn around to see Spike standing behind me.

"You're late."

"Yeah and fashionably so. Tammy, why are you hitting on the poof. Well running that dry?" Spike asks her.

She makes a face at him and flips him off. "It just so happens there are plenty of guys that want me. You're just weird is all. I bet if I looked a little bit more like him you'd give me the time of day." Tammy says pointing to me. Spike smirks at her.

"If wishes were horses." He says which seems to piss her off more.

"Whatever. Have your gay sex. See if I care." She says storming off. Spike sits in the seat that she was sitting in and orders a beer. The bartender gives him one and Spike pulls out a bottle opener from his jacket. "

Always let vampires get away." I ask.

"She's really not that dangerous. One of those ugly duckling daddy wasn't there I'm going to shag everything that walks to find that father figure. We seem to have a lot in common." He says.

"She's a vampire Spike."

"She's needier then Harmony, Angel."

"Fine, whatever. Let her go off and kill people. You're a real hero."

"I didn't see you tripping over your feet to stake her. Course I wouldn't blame you. Chit's like the village bicycle. Tried to play coy I bet." Spike says.

"I didn't want a whole bar of demons to know I was fighting for the good side." I say.

"Well neither did I. They aren't all bad demons. The occasional bad ass comes in, but that's it. Most are harmless."

"Except the vampires." I say.

"Well, yeah, I guess. Look we didn't come here to discuss this stuff. We came here to discuss... us."

"What's there to discuss? I told you how it is. I don't know why you keep dragging me in with your stupid schemes." I say.

"Look I thought we came to an understanding. I've got issues, you've got issues. We can both get rid of those issues if you try."

"I don't have issues. My only issue is you!" I yell at him.

"Exactly and my only issue is you!" He yells back at me.

"What problems do you have with me Spike! How did I screw you over?" I ask.

"Oh just by existing! Geez, Angel, you really don't feel bad about anything you did to me?" He asks and his voice is so small.

I didn't know he could sound so... wait yes I did. I just thought that that person was long gone.

"I didn't say that. I'm not saying that." I say.

"Then what are you saying because whatever it is you're doing a helluva a good job NOT saying it." He says to me.

"I don't know... okay I don't know."

"Oh that can't happen. Angel knows everything. Angel's the bloody hero. Angel will solve all your fucking problems and save the girl and keep the poofy hair. Never used to be the strong silent type, Angelus, don't start now." He says.

I throw him a glare for good measure. He calls me Angel, for the most part anyway. Some times it's poof or something equally degrading, but for the most part it's Angel. He only says Angelus when he wants to get my attention. Well, guess what Spikey you've got it.

"What do you want me to do Spike? Apologize for treating you like an evil soulless thing. Sorry, you de..."

"Don't you dare say I deserved it Angel. Make up you're bleeding mind. You tortured me so I could be a monster and now you're saying I deserved it because I was a monster. What the fuck!" He says.

"I never made you anything you didn't want to be."

"Bullshit! I was made to be Dru's little plaything and I know it, but I lasted much longer then you thought I was going to last. Final started taking a sick interest in me after I was still around by a year didn't you. I was your little hunting partner for as long as it would last, but when I lasted is when you really started to get bothered."

"I wasn't bothered by you." I say to him and he gives me a perplexed look.

"That was you not bothered. Bloody hell I'd like to see how you are with people you are annoyed with."

"Did I treat you like that much of a shit? I thought you said there were good times?"

"Well, yeah, but those were few and far between. Come on Angel either you were on my ass for being too human or you were on my ass for being too good a vampire or you were literally just one my ass." He says.

He has no problem discussing everything in our past. Including the sex, which was... okay it, was good, but like Dr. Sarah Johnston said it can't be the only thing between us. Not that I want there to be anything between us... not that there is anything between us. Just a hundred or so years of bad history.

"Spike I was evil. I did bad things when I was evil. If you want me to apologize for something I did a hundred years ago then fine I'll apologize. I'm sorry for treating you so badly when I was Angelus." I say.

"Bloody hell forget a hundred years ago. I'm talking mostly about six years ago." He says.

Six years ago. That wasn't what I thought he was talking about. Didn't he say I was a bad Sire? That would mean he was talking about how is was when I raised him. I wasn't raising him six years ago. Hell I wasn't even... oh.

"Yeah mean in Sunnydale."

"For the most part you were a good Sire. Tough, but fuck Darla was around. I saw how she treated you. not much better then a piece of shit in her perfectly cut lawn unless she was looking for some violent kill or fuck. That's all behind me really. I mean yeah you were an asshole and I still hate you for that, but you were nothing like the old Angelus six years ago. You were... meaner." He says.

"I was?"

"Oh come on you must have noticed some change. I mean you never used to be that bad." He says.

Great now he has me brooding. I didn't notice a difference. I seemed like the same evil bastard to me. I mean it's all still kind of hazy, but I seemed like the same me. A little obsessed with Buffy, but still pretty much the same. Now I'm told I was worse.

"I used to think if Darla wasn't around you'd be... I don't know... nicer. That she was the cause of it all. Used to curse her name all the time hoping some lucky peasant would just stake her good and proper so she'd be dust in the wind. Suddenly I realize I was lucky to have Darla there. She may have wanted to kill me most of the time, but she kept you occupied. You needed me around to keep Dru in line so you and the bitch could fuck like bunnies. So when there's no Darla there it's worse isn't it. She's not there to keep you from torturing me. You can devote all your attention to it. Funny how I thought that's what I wanted when I was a fledge." He says.

"Spike it wasn't like that. Whatever I did to you in Sunnydale... I don't even remember most of it, but the parts I do remember... I didn't do those things to hurt you. I did them because I could." I say.

"You hurt me because you could? That doesn't sound like an apology, Angel."

"I thought we weren't apologizing?" I say. Ha take that. I'm using your own psychobabble against you.

"Okay fair enough. No apologizing. Though you have to do the most when it does come time to apologize. You say you don't remember, fine let me remind you. Let me remind you of all those nights you used to fuck Dru till she bled and was screaming for you to stop. Let me remind you of those times you'd tip me over off of my chair and even when I would beg you to put me back even tried to seduce you into doing it you'd just stand there and laugh." He stopped to take a drink of is beer.

"Let me remind you how you used to fuck me. How you used to make me bleed and scream. How you used to humiliate me and never once gave me any of your blood so I could stay your little whipping boy. How you used to let the minions... just so you could hurt them because I was too beaten to 'play' with. Yeah you were the same Angelus you were back in the day... and I'm the bloody queen of England." He says and emotion is right on his face.

I really honestly don't remember much of what happened in Sunnydale. It's a just a blur of blood and screams and death. I guess I just never realized how many of those screams were from Spike.

"You humiliated me and made me feel like less of what I was just because you had issues. Well guess what the apple never falls far from the tree and neither do the problems."

"I... I don't know what to say. I'd never do those things now."

"You know sometimes I wish you would. Because this," He says motioning between the two of us.

"This is just sad. Two vampires who used to be somewhat friends don't even know how to act with each other. You're so busy brooding you don't even notice I'm around. At least when you were torturing me I knew you knew I was there."

"What the fuck! What is it you want me to feel sorry for Spike. Torturing you or not paying attention to you? Do you even know?" I ask.

"No I don't know. I don't know what I want. I just... there was something there. There was always something there between us Angel. Do you remember France?" He asks.

That's a loaded question. I was there twice with Spike. Once with the girls and once when it was just the two of us. Darla and Dru had left to be with the Master. I had refused to go because I hated seeing him. Spike was too young to be viewed by the Master so we stayed in Whales. Of course the weather got bad there and Spike had some how talked me into going to France. He always did like France.

Flashback

"That was bloody marvelous. How did you do that?" Spike... William asked me.

He was still William back then. His hair was honey colored and long and his movements were a little wobbly and unsure. He wasn't swaggering about like he is now. He was almost stiff looking.

"Oi, it wasn't hard dear William. Just a flick of the wrist and... pop the head flies off like a rotted melon." I said to him practically floating down the street.

"It was... I've never see you do that before. It was like..." He said leaving his sentence open.

He was so in awe of me in the early days. He copied everything I did. Everything I said he would parrot it days later. Every time I did something he found 'bloody marvelous' he'd be in awe of me again.

"Yes, sweet William. You're always saying how marvelous I am. It isn't that hard. You could do it... with the proper training." I said to him.

"Seems like everything you do I have to be trained to do. I bet no one taught you how to do that."

"Well you see, my boy, there's a difference between you and me. You're young and fairly new to the game. I've been around for over a hundred years, but you, you are still but a babe." I said to him.

"That's not true. I'm almost ten years old."

"That isn't old, Willie. When you've reached thirty then we will discuss you being a Master. It is a long way off."

"So it's going to be a long time before I can do anything like that." He said as he scoffed the ground with the toe of his boot. He had a pout on his face and looked extremely like a petulant child.

"Oh, now William why are you pouting so. It isn't that bad, being the baby."

"Right, then why does Penn treat me like the shit on his boots. I'm only here to take care of Dru when you and the bitch wanna shag. I wasn't even supposed to last this long." He said.

"If that were true then you would be dead. I want lie to you and say that that wasn't what you were made for, but you're so much more then that now. I took you under my wing, William. Don't shame me." I said to him. He still stood there looking sullen.

"Well are you going to just stand there like a pouting child or are you going to come home."

"I don't know. I still feel a little hungry. Can't we find some pretty chit and eat her?" He asked me.

"You've already fed off of four people tonight." I said.

"Yeah, but I'm still hungry. Please!" He asked.

He caught early on how to read my moods. Most of the time he knew when to stay out of my way. Some of the time he'd get in my way when I was in a bad mood just to push me. Every once in awhile he'd use his special powers against me for his favor. At that point I was feeling extremely high and giddy. He knew if he just asked nicely I would give him everything he wanted.

"Ah, William you know just how to play me don't you. All right, but make it fast." I said and a smile graced his face.

He spent a few minutes prowling around before he found someone. She was a pretty thing. Flowing blonde hair with a little bit of brown and big blue eyes. She looked lost and worried as though she were waiting for someone and they were late.

Her dress was plain and betrayed her status. She couldn't have been more then a book keepers daughter living in a small but tasteful home. She wasn't beautiful, but she wasn't something to scoff at. Just William's type. Pretty but not overtly so. I watched as he dazzled her with his smile and charm.

It wasn't an overconfident charm but a sweet and innocent type. She giggled and covered her mouth as she was taught to do when being courted by a cute boy. He some how made her walk with him into an alley and I followed close behind.

He was playing with hr hair when I caught up to them. I hid in the shadows and watched as her breath turned into visible puffs in the air. William leaned in for a kiss and she had a look of total ecstasy on her face as he leaned into her.

She was waiting for him to touch her lips, but he went for her neck. I saw the look of surprise in her face when he bit into her neck. I think she saw me in the shadows. Her eyes went wide and she breathed out a small help before her eyes closed and her heart stopped.

William had pulled her close to him and was draining the life out of her with his back to me. I watched as his muscles tightened when he pulled her closer. When she was dead he let her go and plopped her lifeless body to the ground.

He turned to face me and shook of his demon visage. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Was it good William. Did she taste sweet and ripe?" I asked.

He shook his head yes as if not trusting himself to speak. He was still on the blood high. It was then that I noticed the trail of blood from his lips to his chin. Something about that small trail made me hungry even though I had eaten earlier that night. I had to taste it.

I walked up to him and pulled him close in my arms. He was compliant and molded perfectly into my body. I lowered my head and licked the blood away from his face. I pulled away from his face, but I still had him in my arms. His body was warmed from the blood he had recently drunk.

He looked up at me with heavy lidded eyes. They weren't their normal clear blue. This was a stormy blue that drew me in. I dipped my head again and captured his lips with mine. He didn't hesitate to open his mouth for me. Our tongues battle but I could tell his was only half-hearted.

It was like he wanted me to control him... to dominate him. I was more than happy to oblige. After what seemed like hours I pulled away from him. He was slightly panting, but doing his hardest not to show it.

"William." I said lightly.

"Are you going to punish me Angelus?" He asked in that little voice he used that at the right moments drove me crazy.

I had only taken him in the roughest circumstances. Punishment like he called it. It was meant to humiliate. It wasn't meant for pleasure yet every time I was inside him... I just couldn't control myself. I was always waiting for him to trip up so I could 'punish' him.

"Would you like it if I punished you, William. Do you like it when I fuck you so hard you bleed? That you can't see straight and your left a withering mass of pleasure. Do you like how I punish you, William?" I asked.

A frown mars his beautiful face as he thinks what I said over.

"I... I know I shouldn't, but sometimes... sometimes I do like it." He said to me as he bit his lip nervously.

"Ah, and like to punish you William, but tonight. Tonight there is no pain... only pleasure." I said taking his lips in a kiss again.

He wrapped his arms tightly around my neck. I pushed him against a wall as I unfastened his pants. I pushed them down to his ankles and he shivered slightly from the cold.

I pulled my mouth away from his and he whimpered slightly from the loss of my lips on his. I began to nibble at his neck and he moaned at my administration. I scraped my fangs along his neck and heard him gasp in shock.

I had only ever taken his blood when I wanted him to do something for me. The taste of his blood in my mouth instantly made me hard. It was such a sweet taste and warm as if he was a human. I tore my mouth away knowing that I had opened his pretty flesh for a reason. He whimpered at that too.

"Shhh, William we're just getting started." I whispered in his ear.

"Please." He said in a voice only slightly higher then a whisper. He wasn't even sure what he was begging for. He was so inexperienced at the time, but it seemed he knew what he wanted with out really knowing what it was.

"Shhh, just wait." I said. I gathered the sticky blood on my fingers. I was tempted for a few seconds to just lick it off, but the blood had a purpose.

"Turn around." I said.

He turned around without hesitation and a smile graced my face. His ass was right there in my face waiting for me to fuck him so hard he wouldn't remember his name. I put my sticky fingers to his hole and he hissed in pleasure.

I pushed past the tight muscle of resistance. He moved around trying to get used to the intrusion. If he was in pain he didn't say anything and I couldn't see his face. His emotions were always evident on his face. His muscles contracted around my fingers and I felt just how tight he really was.

"You have to calm down, William. Just relax a bit." I said in a hushed sweet tone I didn't know I was capable of. He nodded and I began to move my fingers slowly thrusting them in and out never pulling them all the way out.

When he started to thrust back against my fingers I knew he was loosening up so I began to make little scissoring motions. The nail of one of my fingers brushed up against the small nub I knew was inside of him and he let out a big moan.

"Oh, fuck." He said in a whispered tone. He began moving against my fingers more moaning and calling me Sire.

"Are you ready for me?" I whispered to him.

"Yes, Angelus, yes please Sire." He whispered back. I was tempted to take him from behind like we were, but something told me to turn him around.

"Wha?"

"Shhh, just let it happen." I said taking off his pants all the way.

I pulled him up and wrapped his legs around my waist. I took my cock in my hand and positioned it against his hole. He hissed again as I rubbed the head against his puckered hole.

I unbuttoned his shirt slightly and with my sharp vampiric nails I created a gash on his chest. He moaned at the pain. He and I are both vampires and pain was very much a part of the pleasure despite how gentle he tried to be. The blood followed from the gash and I gathered it in my hand. I used the sticky blood to coat my cock indulging a little in the warm feeling.

"Angelus, please, I... I need you... please." He whispered.

I looked into his blue eyes, which were dark with lust I almost had to breathe. I pushed in slowly not wanting to hurt him for some reason. I had been violent with him on many occasions. That night was just special. He was gasping and moaning and groaning and mewling and making sweet sounds that made me want to pound into him.

"Oh... bloody hell that feels so fucking good. Please Angelus, fuck me." It had taken me a long time to get him to swear even a little.

He was so proper and noble that he didn't even think of uttering such terrible words. Now all the words out of his mouth were cuss words. I didn't expect him to have a clean mouth when I came to this, but I didn't expect my reaction to it to be so strong. I had to thrust in all the way. He wrapped his arms around my neck and held on tight as I moved out again making sure to change my angle so I hit...

"Oh FUCK! Oh... shit, fuck, bloody hell. Harder, Sire, please harder." He said in a slightly higher voice. I moved out again almost all the way until only the head of my cock was still inside him and then rammed back inside pushing his back hard against the wall.

I kept thrusting setting hard but deliberate strokes always making sure to his prostate. He began to move against me pushing down as I pushed up. His hard cock was pushing against my stomaching and I could tell he was close. I moved one of my hands which were holding up his legs to stroke hi cock in time with my thrusts.

"Oh, Sire, fuck... I'm..." I began to push harder feeling my orgasm coming in strong waves.

All he could do was hang on and try to meet my thrusts with his own. The hand I had on his cock was moving faster playing with his foreskin and using the precum as lubricant making it easier for me to move my hand up and down his cock.

At some point I felt him nibbling on my neck. He was trying as hard as he could to bite me with his blunt human teeth, but it wasn't working. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to allow him to do it. Maybe I was just caught up in the moment, but thinking back on it, it was probably one of the best orgasms I've ever had.

"Do you want to bite me?" I whispered in his ear as I pounded into him. He whimpered which I took as a yes.

"Go ahead then." I said. It wasn't long before I felt sharp incisors sink into the flesh of my neck. It didn't take long for him to orgasm his cum leaking onto my hand and his scream muffled in my neck.

It was weird that the feeling of him draining my blood would feel so good. Darla would bite me every once and a while, but it didn't feel like this. The feeling of him drinking my blood and the incredible tightness of his muscles around me as he came made me cum stronger then I have ever come before.

I tried to muffle my scream, but it still came out loud to my ears. We stood silent and not moving in the haze of orgasmic bliss. His legs were still tightly wrapped around my waist and his arms around my neck. He had unlatched from my neck and was panting hard. My hands were wrapped around him tightly. I'm not exactly how long we stayed like that, but it felt like an eternity.

"That was... that was..."

"Bloody marvelous." I said in a teasing tone.

"Yeah. Really amazing." He said.

He lifted his head from my neck and looked at me with bright twinkling eyes. I fell into those dark blue pools for just a few minutes before pulling out of him and putting him back on the ground.

"I don't know if I can walk."

"Don't worry sweet William. I'll help you."

"Thanks Angelus." He said to me as he pulled up his pants using the wall for support.

"Sire?"

"Yes, William?" I asked as I pulled up my pants as well.

"Can... can we do that again?" He asked in a bit of a timid tone.

I smirked at him and looked down at my hands. His cum was still on my finger and hand. It smelled sweet and when I licked a little of it and it tasted just as sweet.

"Of course we can do this again, William. The night is still young."

End Flashback

"And then we rode off into the non-existent sunset and shagged until the girls came back. Then you started to acting like an asshole again." Spike says and suddenly I'm vaulted back into the present.

"It was a nice night." I say in a low voice.

"Yeah it was. One of my best. I thought I was the Big Bad until you knocked me down a peg. I always thought you did it to piss me off. I never knew just how young I was back then."

"So what are we doing here Spike. I'm not exactly sure. You're the one who's been doing this therapy thing longer."

"Well we certainly can't focus on only the good despite what we'd like. There was just too much bad to focus only on that." Spike says.

"I'm not sure what you want from me. I was who I was. I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I acted like such a prick when the girls were around, but I did. If it makes you feel any better he did care about you... in some weird vampire way." I say.

"I always knew that, Angel. I always knew that my Sire cared. That's why it was so hard for me when he just took off. That's why it was so hard for me when he came back again only to have him different."

"Geez how many issues do you have."

"A lot. Too many to count. I'm not exactly sure what I want from you Angel." He said.

"If you're not sure then why invite me to your therapy session."

"The Doc said it was a good idea. Apparently she didn't trust us to work out the issues ourselves. Thought things might come to blows."

"It's the way with us." "We're either fighting or fucking right. That's the popular conception anyway."

"I don't know what you want from me. I don't know what I want from you. I didn't think I wanted anything from you." I say.

"And now."

"We have issues Spike. I was joking when I said that you needed a therapist, but... my way isn't working and we can't just pretend the other doesn't exist. We sort of do the same thing unlife wise. Maybe this... therapist idea isn't so bad." I say and I know I'm caving and I hate every minute of it, but he's right. I wonder what there is to the Angelus of Sunnydale being different from the one that Spike knew. Maybe he's on to something.

"Uh huh. Course brooding really isn't working for you. Caving, it's something that I never thought I'd see you do."

"I've changed Spike."

"Yeah well so have I." Spike says and for the first time since he came to us from that amulet I'm starting to see just how much he's changed.

"I have to go. Things to do, you know how it is. If you decide to go to the next session with the Doc then it's at three on Wednesdays. Come don't come. It's up to you." He says putting down some change for his beer. He gets up from his bar stool and walks to the door.

"Angel?"

"Yeah." I say turning towards him.

"Is it just Angelus that cared?" He asks me.

"I... I don't know. Get back to me on that one."

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