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curiouswombatWe have finally got rid of the two giant shelves in the spare bedroom, aka the old bunk-beds. S2C took them apart last night, and we took them to the Waste Disposal Site this afternoon. To facilitate bunk destruction we also had to move some storage boxes, wherein we have found some things that, mainly S2C and I, have fallen on going - 'I've been looking for this!' D-d on the other hand is having a wonderful time going through loads of old photo albums that were also there.
As promised, I am posting the next chapter of Ten Years After here. In the Watchers Tales on S2C's website I put an 'in which.....' for each one, and I keep thinking I should be doing it for this story - so
CHAPTER SIX.
Dawn and Spike walked through the Parisian night to some nearby public gardens. There were other people strolling in the still warm air, but not enough of them to prevent private conversation, and the couple attracted little attention apart for one or two admiring glances from, Dawn was glad to notice, about equal numbers of men and women.
“And you,” Spike said as they entered the gardens, “ten years, long time – my little Bit’s all grown up.”
‘Was there a hint of query in his voice?’ Dawn wondered, as he continued speaking.
“So – boyfriends, lovers?”
“Enough of them.” Dawn answered. “No-one at the moment though. My heart’s still intact and in one piece, it’s just been slightly bruised on a couple of occasions! How ‘bout you? Ten years, long time – girlfriends? Lovers?” she finished, grinning.
“Enough of them!” Spike laughed. “Was just asking. I mean the Council might want their researchers to live like nuns – I don’t know! Wanted to be careful not to say anything to … em… to…”
“Upset my sensibilities, shock my virgin mind, and sully my innocent psyche, etcetera etcetera?” Dawn suggested, grinning. “Well, much though my sister tried, I think my innocent, virgin sensibilities were fairly well non-existent by the time we got to Rome, and the virginity itself didn’t last much past my eighteenth birthday.
"Don’t think you could say much to shock me these days – not that you ever did! Buffy still looks pained if I say fuck, but can’t see it bothering you.”
“No,” he said, “I’m a pretty quick learner sometimes. My little bit is a grown up bit, I’ll cope with that!”
He stopped, spun towards her and held her by both shoulders at arms’ length.
“And turned into the stunner I always said you would. Good job I wasn’t around when you started dating – I’d have wanted written guarantees that they were going to keep their hands to themselves, prowled around like a Victorian Father if I knew you were out without a chaperone, and quite possibly talked Buffy into having you fitted with a chastity belt. With an alarm on it!”
Dawn blushed at the compliment, glad that it was dark, but knowing Spike could see the blush and would wonder why, if she was so unshockable, she still blushed so easily.
They sat on a bench, and Dawn said “Now give, Spike. There are so many things I don’t know, or don’t understand.
"Giles said that the amulet thing delivered you up to Wolfram and Hart. Actually he also said that it was probably a shock to them; they’d have been expecting Angel to wear it and be delivered gift-wrapped, not you. Bet getting you totally 'threw a spanner in their works'!
"But I don’t really understand why you didn’t let us know you were alive – well as alive as usual. I mean... me – well I was still being all Bloody Awful Teenager I know, but Buffy….”
“Wasn’t that easy pet! When I found myself in the Wolfram and Hart building I couldn’t have picked a phone up to ring anyone – or a pen to write a note – I was a bloody ghost! Insubstantial; can’t pick things up.
"And I couldn’t even leave the damned place – could only get so far away and ‘Stop! No further!’
"Took me a while to adjust to not being totally and terminally dead but stuck in that bloody place – like being in a hell dimension it was! And being stuck with Angel for what looked like it could be eternity. Wasn’t much point in letting you guys know I was still in this dimension when I might as well not be!”
“I never really understood why Angel was at Wolfram and Hart anyway – nobody told me much then, and when Giles did talk about it, afterwards, he just said that it looked like Angel had planned to destroy it from within from the beginning.” Dawn commented.
“Nah – I don’t think that was really in his mind, even if he believes it himself now. Not that I was there when him and his mates first moved in, but really, they just bribed him – him, the Great White Hope – they just knew what button to push, and he gave in like anyone else would.
"Was a pretty big button mind, although he didn’t exactly take me into his confidence at the time. I think he was probably well over Buffy, you know, even if people thought he was still brooding about her. He was totally in love with Cordelia, and they offered him the best medical help, of any sort, to try and pull her out of her coma. But I think maybe Connor was the...”
“Cordelia? Angel? Coma?” Dawn interrupted. “I mean I knew she was working for him, but in love with Cordelia? She was a bitch! I remember her being really horrible to Buffy. And coma? What happened? No-one ever told me anything.”
“Mmm… I'm not really sure exactly what happened. It was some demonic thing before I turned up and no-one liked to talk about it much – but everyone seemed really sad about her, so I’m guessing she’d mellowed a bit.
"Angel used to go and sit and brood over her, in a sort of hospital wing inside the Wolfram and Hart building, for hours when he thought no one was around to notice. Think he only decided to screw up the company after Cordy died and there was no need for all the medical research. Although, if you ask me, they probably weren’t working that hard on her recovery – I mean if she’d recovered Angel could have just taken all his team and walked out. Except for the Connor thing and they’d already done that so…”
“I heard from Willow, sometime, that Cordelia had died; but I can’t say I was bothered – I though she’d probably crashed a sports car whilst posing around in Hollywood, or been hit on the head by falling scenery, or something.
"I mean, so much not one of my favourite people. I would have been much more upset if Willow had told me her cat had died. I didn’t realise Cordy’d been ‘demoned’ and died in the line of duty so to speak – poor Cordelia.
"And hey – who is this guy Connor? It rings a bell… wait a minute; Andrew said Angel had a son … Connor… Angel’s son? They fixed it so that Angel had a son? How? Was Cordelia his mother?” Dawn asked.
“The son wasn't anything to do with Wolfram and Hart... hewas born before Angel went to work for them. Some demon with a long-term plan arranged things so’s Darla and him had this baby – but it’s not something he’s entirely chatty about. You know Angel – chatty is not his style, so I guess they did the usual thing but some mojo meant totally unnatural pregnancy!
"And all sorts of things had gone wrong – kid went off the rails tried to kill people, and Wolfram and Hart offered to take the kid and put him into a new family with a whole new set of memories as if he’d been there for ever and…” Spike trailed off.
“Whoa! Been there, done that! I didn’t realise it happens all the time – that is one scary thought. I mean some of my friends may not be who they think they are either... I’m having enough trouble coping with me and now you are, like, telling me we are all living in some kind of science-fiction B movie!”
“Now hang on," Spike replied, "don’t go getting all upset – don’t think it’s all that common, pet. I mean... I’ve only come across you, and you’re special! And, you know, move in weird and unnatural circles you get to know about weird and unnatural things – um – digging myself into a hole here aren’t I?”
Spike paused and fidgeted with his hands, which is when it occurred to Dawn that he didn’t have a cigarette in them to play with.
“Anyway didn’t work too well in the end – kid ended up with both sets of memories after a while. Turned up in the end to help his real Dad – still there as far as I know. You and him should get together sometime – you’ve got things in common! Mind, he’s a bit inclined to brood – gets it from his father,” he ended, with a wry grin.
“So is he a vampire?” Dawn asked, somewhat distracted by the thought of Connor. “And how come Angel never mentioned him when he was in Sunnydale – was Connor with Darla? So who looked after him when Darla was dusted?”
“It’s a long story – don’t really know all of it, but Connor is human, well not a vampire anyway, and he hadn’t even been conceived when Angel lived in Sunnydale. Yeah I know that doesn’t make any sense – I reckon he was conceived about two years before he was a teenager, and three or four years after his mother, who’d already been dead for about three hundred years anyway, was turned into a pile of dust. Told you some major demon type thing was involved!
“Far as I can tell Wolfram and Hart had Darla brought back from her dust for some reason, and the lad was stolen as a baby and taken to a demon dimension where he grew up to come back again only months after he’d been taken.
"Bloody sneaky, the demon that organized that one. Never have found out exactly what it was that happened next, but it had something to do with Cordelia ending up in a coma. No-one in LA ever seemed able to tell me about it – probably all forgot as part of the deal Angel made, and Peaches is never going to tell me himself – whatever it was, don’t think it could have shown him in a very good light.”
“Hey, and I think I’ve got problems!” Dawn said, and then added “although I don’t think I want to talk about me just now. You seem to have been doing far more interesting things, I mean didn’t you just say a minute ago that you’d been a ghost?”
“Yeah – not all it’s cracked up to be, haunting! At least haunting Wolfram and Hart wasn’t, after I got over the idea that ‘I aten’t dead’ and that I didn’t have to open doors to get from room to room, it wasn’t such great fun.” Spike answered, wryly.
“Hey – you read Terry Pratchett – neat!” Dawn cut in.
“Hey - you read Terry Pratchett as well – neat!” Spike laughed. “Bet I read them before you did, Bit!”
“Well….maybe. Anyway – how come you not only aten’t dead, but you aten’t a ghost either?”
“Fred kind of sorted it for me – was frightened I was just going to fade away, then Fred got me back into solidity. She was a lovely girl, Fred.” Spike answered.
“Fred – lovely girl? Fred was a lovely girl? Who was Fred, and what happened to her?” Dawn asked, feeling slightly jealous of this unknown female.
“’Course, you never met her,” Spike said. “She was a scientist. Really nice girl who loved Mexican food, and, eventually, Wesley. And she’s … dead.”
‘Sometimes,’ Dawn thought, ‘it is probably not good to ask how or why someone is … dead.’
Out loud she said “Well I’m glad you’re solid now. Actually I’m pretty glad that you survived the whole Wolfram and Hart thing, because Council records say that there was a big battle, with smiting, and even a dragon, and an Ancient God-King and things.
"But they are a bit short on detail; just that Angel and you were involved, and won, and must have been the good guys because you winning stuffed Wolfram and Hart totally. That’s all we got. How did you beat an Ancient God-King?”
“Beat her? She was on our side!” Spike started, but was interrupted by Dawn.
“Her? I thought the records said ‘God-King’, shouldn’t that be ‘him’?”
“Guess properly it should be ‘it’” Spike answered, slowly, as if he was looking back to a picture in his mind. “But Illyria ended up with poor Fred’s body. ‘S a long story, and not Illyria’s doing, no point in blaming her – because how could we think of Fred’s body being anything but a ‘her’?
“Illyria ended up stuck in a body that couldn’t do what she’d always been able to do; in a dimension that she couldn’t control or take over. She was lost really. Someone that should have been all-powerful caught like a bird in a cage.”
‘Probably a good job she didn’t know where to find a Key,’ Dawn thought to herself.
“OK, so come on, why was there a big battle? How come you won it - apart from the fact that you’re a hero?” she asked out loud.
“No, love, sorry to disappoint you, but old Spike is no hero. Was once, ‘cos I felt it was the right thing to do, thought my time had come and I needed to atone and all that, but that was it for being a hero.
"No, this one was Angel’s battle, and I could’ve backed out, but that would’ve been being a coward, and I’m not that either!” Spike said, somewhat wryly.
“You lot could get on with your lives fine without me. Only Buffy’d wanted me around anyway, and she was coping fine, the rest, yourself mainly excepted, always preferred my space to my presence anyway. Dru didn’t need me, and Angel was the only ‘family’ I’d got left. Why not go out in a blaze of glory together? But it wasn’t heroics, it just seemed a good idea at the time – didn’t have anything else planned...”
“So you did a big battle scene out of boredom? Sure you weren’t drunk? Me – I’d have read a good book, or had a holiday. But, seeing that it’s you, I’ll accept that you got yourself involved in, if not The Apocalypse, then the Apocalypse of the Week, just you, and Angel, and a God-King disguised as a scientist lady.”
“Hey, Apocalypse of the Year at least!” Spike interjected, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, of the Year,” Dawn acknowledged. “Anyway, why on earth were the guys from Wolfram and Hart so pissed at Angel, and how come you beat them? I mean, I know I wanted to talk to you about me – but your life is so much more interesting!”
“There were more than just the three of us," Soike began, "Wes and Gunn were there too, ‘least to start with. Angel decided that the best way to try and do as much damage to his employers as possible was to take out the Board of Directors – Black thorn something or other they called themselves.
"So we all set off together to try and kill as many as possible at the same time. Did pretty well, except Wes was killed by his one and Illyria had to finish the job for him. Right upset she was – Wes’d loved Fred, and he’d been good with Illyria, so she was really pissed off about it.”
Spike grimaced and drew in a deep breath. “Angel had told us to meet up with him in an alley. We all got there, well except Wes, and Gunn was pretty badly hurt. Then we realised the Wolfram and Hart top brass’d found us and set the hounds of Hell with all their friends and relations on us. Helluva scrap. Gunn didn’t make it.
"Connor arrived just after the fun started – typical son – Angel had told him to get out of town an’ make himself scarce. Just like you at Sunnydale, innit?
“Where was I? Oh yeah, all the things of your nightmares, the bad guys from every childhood book you ever read, even a soddin’ dragon, they were all there. Poured out of a portal and came down on us – I can still see ‘em. Me and Angel just went chargin’ in there, like fights in the old times, Connor was just behind; but we’d not have lasted long.
“Only, every one that Illyria hit she seemed to get brighter, bluer, till she was bloody glowing. Heard her yell something about power, and that she would show the bastards for killing Wes, ‘pursue them even unto their own dimension’ – and she just walked through this horde, killing bloody everything that got near her.
"Got brighter all the time she did, like a blue sun – and she just walked up into the air, still killing things, ‘till she stood right in the portal. Then she looked at this dragon that was still hovering, trying to fry me and Angel, and said ‘Bow puny lizard’, or something like that. It stopped in its tracks – which was when Angel chopped its soddin’ head off – then she stalked in through the portal and it just snapped shut behind her. Was one helluva a bloody sight, never forget it.”
Spike had closed his eyes during the telling of this tale, and Dawn, who wanted to ask lots more questions like ‘Blue? Like in Avatar?’ and ‘Gunn?’ decided that this wasn’t the time and stayed silent.
“Never thought I’d see anything like that," Spike said after a minute or so.
“Guess she got the power she needed from their dimension, staged a take-over or something – but she never sent us so much as a soddin’ postcard since, so we’ll never know!
"Like to think of her kicking the asses of all the so-called Senior Partners, though; doing it still looking like Fred, as well. Didn’t take her long – the Wolfram and Hart building in LA turned into a pile of rubble in almost no time. Hear some of the other branches survived but whoever was top man, or woman, in them suddenly found they’d no higher authority to answer to. They could just get on with screwing the public like lawyers are supposed to!
“Anyway, me and Angel and Connor just stood in that alley and gawped. Must’ve been minutes but it felt like days. Then Connor said we’d better get out before the cops eventually turned up, and he picked up Gunn, and me and Angel followed him like a pair of bloody sheep. We’d not expected to have any afterwards to deal with, but there we were again – still standing. Wonder why sometimes.” He paused.
“But not often – or I’d end up off my bleeding trolley!” he said, suddenly, with a change of tone. He reached over to Dawn and pulled her up to her feet.
After that they walked for a while, talking about ‘things to see in Paris’, books, and TV programmes; avoiding anything else by unspoken mutual agreement.
Spike eventually walked Dawn back to L’Hotel du Vieux Saule, and told her that, at first, he’d only intended to meet up with her for an hour or two; but he’d had the best evening for ages. He knew that Dawn had something on her mind, but it was too late now to talk about it and so, if she could put up with his company, how about shopping tomorrow? If she was still the Queen of The Mall that was?
Dawn wanted to know how he was going to cope with day-time shopping, and he explained that one of the best things about Paris was the Metro – you could go anywhere by tunnel! The twenty-four hour city concept meant that it was easier to shop at night; but these days even Paris had indoor malls that opened directly from Metro stations, so no problem shopping by day either. He’d meet her mid-morning for coffee – and, after giving her the address of the relevant coffee shop, he kissed her lightly on both cheeks (trés Francaise!) and strode away into the night.
If you've missed anything and want to catch up
Previous Chapters are here
The next chapter is here.
As promised, I am posting the next chapter of Ten Years After here. In the Watchers Tales on S2C's website I put an 'in which.....' for each one, and I keep thinking I should be doing it for this story - so
CHAPTER SIX.
Dawn and Spike walked through the Parisian night to some nearby public gardens. There were other people strolling in the still warm air, but not enough of them to prevent private conversation, and the couple attracted little attention apart for one or two admiring glances from, Dawn was glad to notice, about equal numbers of men and women.
“And you,” Spike said as they entered the gardens, “ten years, long time – my little Bit’s all grown up.”
‘Was there a hint of query in his voice?’ Dawn wondered, as he continued speaking.
“So – boyfriends, lovers?”
“Enough of them.” Dawn answered. “No-one at the moment though. My heart’s still intact and in one piece, it’s just been slightly bruised on a couple of occasions! How ‘bout you? Ten years, long time – girlfriends? Lovers?” she finished, grinning.
“Enough of them!” Spike laughed. “Was just asking. I mean the Council might want their researchers to live like nuns – I don’t know! Wanted to be careful not to say anything to … em… to…”
“Upset my sensibilities, shock my virgin mind, and sully my innocent psyche, etcetera etcetera?” Dawn suggested, grinning. “Well, much though my sister tried, I think my innocent, virgin sensibilities were fairly well non-existent by the time we got to Rome, and the virginity itself didn’t last much past my eighteenth birthday.
"Don’t think you could say much to shock me these days – not that you ever did! Buffy still looks pained if I say fuck, but can’t see it bothering you.”
“No,” he said, “I’m a pretty quick learner sometimes. My little bit is a grown up bit, I’ll cope with that!”
He stopped, spun towards her and held her by both shoulders at arms’ length.
“And turned into the stunner I always said you would. Good job I wasn’t around when you started dating – I’d have wanted written guarantees that they were going to keep their hands to themselves, prowled around like a Victorian Father if I knew you were out without a chaperone, and quite possibly talked Buffy into having you fitted with a chastity belt. With an alarm on it!”
Dawn blushed at the compliment, glad that it was dark, but knowing Spike could see the blush and would wonder why, if she was so unshockable, she still blushed so easily.
They sat on a bench, and Dawn said “Now give, Spike. There are so many things I don’t know, or don’t understand.
"Giles said that the amulet thing delivered you up to Wolfram and Hart. Actually he also said that it was probably a shock to them; they’d have been expecting Angel to wear it and be delivered gift-wrapped, not you. Bet getting you totally 'threw a spanner in their works'!
"But I don’t really understand why you didn’t let us know you were alive – well as alive as usual. I mean... me – well I was still being all Bloody Awful Teenager I know, but Buffy….”
“Wasn’t that easy pet! When I found myself in the Wolfram and Hart building I couldn’t have picked a phone up to ring anyone – or a pen to write a note – I was a bloody ghost! Insubstantial; can’t pick things up.
"And I couldn’t even leave the damned place – could only get so far away and ‘Stop! No further!’
"Took me a while to adjust to not being totally and terminally dead but stuck in that bloody place – like being in a hell dimension it was! And being stuck with Angel for what looked like it could be eternity. Wasn’t much point in letting you guys know I was still in this dimension when I might as well not be!”
“I never really understood why Angel was at Wolfram and Hart anyway – nobody told me much then, and when Giles did talk about it, afterwards, he just said that it looked like Angel had planned to destroy it from within from the beginning.” Dawn commented.
“Nah – I don’t think that was really in his mind, even if he believes it himself now. Not that I was there when him and his mates first moved in, but really, they just bribed him – him, the Great White Hope – they just knew what button to push, and he gave in like anyone else would.
"Was a pretty big button mind, although he didn’t exactly take me into his confidence at the time. I think he was probably well over Buffy, you know, even if people thought he was still brooding about her. He was totally in love with Cordelia, and they offered him the best medical help, of any sort, to try and pull her out of her coma. But I think maybe Connor was the...”
“Cordelia? Angel? Coma?” Dawn interrupted. “I mean I knew she was working for him, but in love with Cordelia? She was a bitch! I remember her being really horrible to Buffy. And coma? What happened? No-one ever told me anything.”
“Mmm… I'm not really sure exactly what happened. It was some demonic thing before I turned up and no-one liked to talk about it much – but everyone seemed really sad about her, so I’m guessing she’d mellowed a bit.
"Angel used to go and sit and brood over her, in a sort of hospital wing inside the Wolfram and Hart building, for hours when he thought no one was around to notice. Think he only decided to screw up the company after Cordy died and there was no need for all the medical research. Although, if you ask me, they probably weren’t working that hard on her recovery – I mean if she’d recovered Angel could have just taken all his team and walked out. Except for the Connor thing and they’d already done that so…”
“I heard from Willow, sometime, that Cordelia had died; but I can’t say I was bothered – I though she’d probably crashed a sports car whilst posing around in Hollywood, or been hit on the head by falling scenery, or something.
"I mean, so much not one of my favourite people. I would have been much more upset if Willow had told me her cat had died. I didn’t realise Cordy’d been ‘demoned’ and died in the line of duty so to speak – poor Cordelia.
"And hey – who is this guy Connor? It rings a bell… wait a minute; Andrew said Angel had a son … Connor… Angel’s son? They fixed it so that Angel had a son? How? Was Cordelia his mother?” Dawn asked.
“The son wasn't anything to do with Wolfram and Hart... hewas born before Angel went to work for them. Some demon with a long-term plan arranged things so’s Darla and him had this baby – but it’s not something he’s entirely chatty about. You know Angel – chatty is not his style, so I guess they did the usual thing but some mojo meant totally unnatural pregnancy!
"And all sorts of things had gone wrong – kid went off the rails tried to kill people, and Wolfram and Hart offered to take the kid and put him into a new family with a whole new set of memories as if he’d been there for ever and…” Spike trailed off.
“Whoa! Been there, done that! I didn’t realise it happens all the time – that is one scary thought. I mean some of my friends may not be who they think they are either... I’m having enough trouble coping with me and now you are, like, telling me we are all living in some kind of science-fiction B movie!”
“Now hang on," Spike replied, "don’t go getting all upset – don’t think it’s all that common, pet. I mean... I’ve only come across you, and you’re special! And, you know, move in weird and unnatural circles you get to know about weird and unnatural things – um – digging myself into a hole here aren’t I?”
Spike paused and fidgeted with his hands, which is when it occurred to Dawn that he didn’t have a cigarette in them to play with.
“Anyway didn’t work too well in the end – kid ended up with both sets of memories after a while. Turned up in the end to help his real Dad – still there as far as I know. You and him should get together sometime – you’ve got things in common! Mind, he’s a bit inclined to brood – gets it from his father,” he ended, with a wry grin.
“So is he a vampire?” Dawn asked, somewhat distracted by the thought of Connor. “And how come Angel never mentioned him when he was in Sunnydale – was Connor with Darla? So who looked after him when Darla was dusted?”
“It’s a long story – don’t really know all of it, but Connor is human, well not a vampire anyway, and he hadn’t even been conceived when Angel lived in Sunnydale. Yeah I know that doesn’t make any sense – I reckon he was conceived about two years before he was a teenager, and three or four years after his mother, who’d already been dead for about three hundred years anyway, was turned into a pile of dust. Told you some major demon type thing was involved!
“Far as I can tell Wolfram and Hart had Darla brought back from her dust for some reason, and the lad was stolen as a baby and taken to a demon dimension where he grew up to come back again only months after he’d been taken.
"Bloody sneaky, the demon that organized that one. Never have found out exactly what it was that happened next, but it had something to do with Cordelia ending up in a coma. No-one in LA ever seemed able to tell me about it – probably all forgot as part of the deal Angel made, and Peaches is never going to tell me himself – whatever it was, don’t think it could have shown him in a very good light.”
“Hey, and I think I’ve got problems!” Dawn said, and then added “although I don’t think I want to talk about me just now. You seem to have been doing far more interesting things, I mean didn’t you just say a minute ago that you’d been a ghost?”
“Yeah – not all it’s cracked up to be, haunting! At least haunting Wolfram and Hart wasn’t, after I got over the idea that ‘I aten’t dead’ and that I didn’t have to open doors to get from room to room, it wasn’t such great fun.” Spike answered, wryly.
“Hey – you read Terry Pratchett – neat!” Dawn cut in.
“Hey - you read Terry Pratchett as well – neat!” Spike laughed. “Bet I read them before you did, Bit!”
“Well….maybe. Anyway – how come you not only aten’t dead, but you aten’t a ghost either?”
“Fred kind of sorted it for me – was frightened I was just going to fade away, then Fred got me back into solidity. She was a lovely girl, Fred.” Spike answered.
“Fred – lovely girl? Fred was a lovely girl? Who was Fred, and what happened to her?” Dawn asked, feeling slightly jealous of this unknown female.
“’Course, you never met her,” Spike said. “She was a scientist. Really nice girl who loved Mexican food, and, eventually, Wesley. And she’s … dead.”
‘Sometimes,’ Dawn thought, ‘it is probably not good to ask how or why someone is … dead.’
Out loud she said “Well I’m glad you’re solid now. Actually I’m pretty glad that you survived the whole Wolfram and Hart thing, because Council records say that there was a big battle, with smiting, and even a dragon, and an Ancient God-King and things.
"But they are a bit short on detail; just that Angel and you were involved, and won, and must have been the good guys because you winning stuffed Wolfram and Hart totally. That’s all we got. How did you beat an Ancient God-King?”
“Beat her? She was on our side!” Spike started, but was interrupted by Dawn.
“Her? I thought the records said ‘God-King’, shouldn’t that be ‘him’?”
“Guess properly it should be ‘it’” Spike answered, slowly, as if he was looking back to a picture in his mind. “But Illyria ended up with poor Fred’s body. ‘S a long story, and not Illyria’s doing, no point in blaming her – because how could we think of Fred’s body being anything but a ‘her’?
“Illyria ended up stuck in a body that couldn’t do what she’d always been able to do; in a dimension that she couldn’t control or take over. She was lost really. Someone that should have been all-powerful caught like a bird in a cage.”
‘Probably a good job she didn’t know where to find a Key,’ Dawn thought to herself.
“OK, so come on, why was there a big battle? How come you won it - apart from the fact that you’re a hero?” she asked out loud.
“No, love, sorry to disappoint you, but old Spike is no hero. Was once, ‘cos I felt it was the right thing to do, thought my time had come and I needed to atone and all that, but that was it for being a hero.
"No, this one was Angel’s battle, and I could’ve backed out, but that would’ve been being a coward, and I’m not that either!” Spike said, somewhat wryly.
“You lot could get on with your lives fine without me. Only Buffy’d wanted me around anyway, and she was coping fine, the rest, yourself mainly excepted, always preferred my space to my presence anyway. Dru didn’t need me, and Angel was the only ‘family’ I’d got left. Why not go out in a blaze of glory together? But it wasn’t heroics, it just seemed a good idea at the time – didn’t have anything else planned...”
“So you did a big battle scene out of boredom? Sure you weren’t drunk? Me – I’d have read a good book, or had a holiday. But, seeing that it’s you, I’ll accept that you got yourself involved in, if not The Apocalypse, then the Apocalypse of the Week, just you, and Angel, and a God-King disguised as a scientist lady.”
“Hey, Apocalypse of the Year at least!” Spike interjected, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, of the Year,” Dawn acknowledged. “Anyway, why on earth were the guys from Wolfram and Hart so pissed at Angel, and how come you beat them? I mean, I know I wanted to talk to you about me – but your life is so much more interesting!”
“There were more than just the three of us," Soike began, "Wes and Gunn were there too, ‘least to start with. Angel decided that the best way to try and do as much damage to his employers as possible was to take out the Board of Directors – Black thorn something or other they called themselves.
"So we all set off together to try and kill as many as possible at the same time. Did pretty well, except Wes was killed by his one and Illyria had to finish the job for him. Right upset she was – Wes’d loved Fred, and he’d been good with Illyria, so she was really pissed off about it.”
Spike grimaced and drew in a deep breath. “Angel had told us to meet up with him in an alley. We all got there, well except Wes, and Gunn was pretty badly hurt. Then we realised the Wolfram and Hart top brass’d found us and set the hounds of Hell with all their friends and relations on us. Helluva scrap. Gunn didn’t make it.
"Connor arrived just after the fun started – typical son – Angel had told him to get out of town an’ make himself scarce. Just like you at Sunnydale, innit?
“Where was I? Oh yeah, all the things of your nightmares, the bad guys from every childhood book you ever read, even a soddin’ dragon, they were all there. Poured out of a portal and came down on us – I can still see ‘em. Me and Angel just went chargin’ in there, like fights in the old times, Connor was just behind; but we’d not have lasted long.
“Only, every one that Illyria hit she seemed to get brighter, bluer, till she was bloody glowing. Heard her yell something about power, and that she would show the bastards for killing Wes, ‘pursue them even unto their own dimension’ – and she just walked through this horde, killing bloody everything that got near her.
"Got brighter all the time she did, like a blue sun – and she just walked up into the air, still killing things, ‘till she stood right in the portal. Then she looked at this dragon that was still hovering, trying to fry me and Angel, and said ‘Bow puny lizard’, or something like that. It stopped in its tracks – which was when Angel chopped its soddin’ head off – then she stalked in through the portal and it just snapped shut behind her. Was one helluva a bloody sight, never forget it.”
Spike had closed his eyes during the telling of this tale, and Dawn, who wanted to ask lots more questions like ‘Blue? Like in Avatar?’ and ‘Gunn?’ decided that this wasn’t the time and stayed silent.
“Never thought I’d see anything like that," Spike said after a minute or so.
“Guess she got the power she needed from their dimension, staged a take-over or something – but she never sent us so much as a soddin’ postcard since, so we’ll never know!
"Like to think of her kicking the asses of all the so-called Senior Partners, though; doing it still looking like Fred, as well. Didn’t take her long – the Wolfram and Hart building in LA turned into a pile of rubble in almost no time. Hear some of the other branches survived but whoever was top man, or woman, in them suddenly found they’d no higher authority to answer to. They could just get on with screwing the public like lawyers are supposed to!
“Anyway, me and Angel and Connor just stood in that alley and gawped. Must’ve been minutes but it felt like days. Then Connor said we’d better get out before the cops eventually turned up, and he picked up Gunn, and me and Angel followed him like a pair of bloody sheep. We’d not expected to have any afterwards to deal with, but there we were again – still standing. Wonder why sometimes.” He paused.
“But not often – or I’d end up off my bleeding trolley!” he said, suddenly, with a change of tone. He reached over to Dawn and pulled her up to her feet.
After that they walked for a while, talking about ‘things to see in Paris’, books, and TV programmes; avoiding anything else by unspoken mutual agreement.
Spike eventually walked Dawn back to L’Hotel du Vieux Saule, and told her that, at first, he’d only intended to meet up with her for an hour or two; but he’d had the best evening for ages. He knew that Dawn had something on her mind, but it was too late now to talk about it and so, if she could put up with his company, how about shopping tomorrow? If she was still the Queen of The Mall that was?
Dawn wanted to know how he was going to cope with day-time shopping, and he explained that one of the best things about Paris was the Metro – you could go anywhere by tunnel! The twenty-four hour city concept meant that it was easier to shop at night; but these days even Paris had indoor malls that opened directly from Metro stations, so no problem shopping by day either. He’d meet her mid-morning for coffee – and, after giving her the address of the relevant coffee shop, he kissed her lightly on both cheeks (trés Francaise!) and strode away into the night.
If you've missed anything and want to catch up
Previous Chapters are here
The next chapter is here.
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no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 08:30 pm (UTC)Dandy Chapter!
Julia, attempting to become highly motivated and effective and go do the Sunday shopping. Isn't happening.
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Date: 19/06/2005 08:37 pm (UTC)We've done shopping as well - really exciting stuff like knickers from Marks & Spencers!
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Date: 19/06/2005 10:11 pm (UTC)Yep you're right. The reasons are twofold - (1) I was doing the ironing during the original episode and didn't take a lot of notice, so I wasn't totally clear how it had happenend myself - but in the context of the story (2) Spike has rather telescoped the whole thing, for ease of telling, no mention of the Lindsey/Doyle thing, and so on - and Fred was the only person who seemed to bother trying, so he's giving her the credit she deserves. Also ten years later, because she was the only person who seemed to be bothered enough to try to help, he may genuinely believe she had something to do with it - she cared, she tried, and having died, she's not around to remind him exactly what happened.
Glad you liked my Alley scene - I've had it in my mind for a while - it was the only way I could see there being any post NFA stories!
no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 09:18 pm (UTC)Enjoyed. :]
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Date: 19/06/2005 10:12 pm (UTC)Thanks - I like that mental picture myself!
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Date: 19/06/2005 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 09:57 pm (UTC)I always loved Dawn. I feel badly for her when she is refered to as a whiny brat. The child had good reason! Just look at the "life" she had from the onset. I loved her openness to Spike and her love for her sister (and Tara). I think she, as an immortal, would be wonderful for Spike!
Please continue, this is delightful.
Kathleen
jealous of the Illyria fixes the alley stalemate idea!
no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 10:20 pm (UTC)Glad you liked the Illyria solution - I am quite proud of it because I don't think I've seen the same solution anywhere else.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 11:09 pm (UTC)Again, you tease us with hints of Spike's love-life but no actual detail, you evil woman.
The highlight of the chapter has to be Illyria's triumph, however.
Glad you liked the Illyria solution - I am quite proud of it because I don't think I've seen the same solution anywhere else.
I bet you'll see it again before too long though...
no subject
Date: 19/06/2005 11:21 pm (UTC)I bet you'll see it again before too long though...
Well if I do I will at least have the satisfaction of knowing it was my idea! And you can all point that out in feedback to anyone who borrows it!!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 12:20 am (UTC)I tend to be be a Spuffy fan, but a grown-up Dawn and Spike makes all kinds of sense. (Teen aged Dawn and Spike is eww, on the other hand) You are writing a very believable relationship for them, too.
I suppose that Paris would be a great place to be a vampire. Just what i need-- next time I'm there I'll be looking around and picturing Spike on the metro. My friends will love me; it'll be worse than the "Highlander" commentary i really couldn't help the last time I was there. I'll blame you!
no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 07:21 am (UTC)Thanks!
Spike on the metro
Central London would be pretty good for the same reason, although further out 'The Tube' goes above ground.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 01:08 am (UTC)Interesting to hear Spike's "take" on Season 5.
Next up? What's Spike been doing since, and what's the what with his "Come-back", and ---- how's his love-life?
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Date: 20/06/2005 07:23 am (UTC)Thank you.
And as for what Spike's being doing since, more wil be revealed over the next few days, Paris time!!
no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 03:22 am (UTC)One question, though. Has Dawn been in and about the UK long enough to have started saying 'spanner' and 'whilst'? My impression would be that her speech patterns would be pretty much fixed by the time she was a teen (oh, you know, even if she isn't really).
no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 07:37 am (UTC)Re: 'spanner in the works' - this is a complete phrase which I reckoned she would have picked up after nearly nine years. Out of curiousity what would an American call a spanner - it's not a monkey wrench, because that is an 'adjustable spanner' - a spanner is totally non-adjustable, and I don't know another name for it.
But as for 'whilst' - I hadn't realised it was a word that Americans didn't use. Would they say 'while' instead? It would sound like the wrong part of speech to my ears, but I could change it.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 02:22 pm (UTC)And Illyria sorting out the apocalypse also makes sense in terms of her not wanting to be controlled by Angel. She does things on her terms, after all.
Congrats on the end of the bunk beds too!
no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 04:46 pm (UTC)Should be able to get the next Chapter up Wednesday.
no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20/06/2005 09:21 pm (UTC)Thank you. It's probably the shortest version of it you're likely to come across!!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 07:24 am (UTC)Hope we've not seen the last of her.
Well I'm afraid that we probably have for this story anyway. Although never say 'never' - you know what characters are like!!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 07:27 am (UTC)Thank you.
I'm interested to see Spike going shopping... ;)
He didn't seem very big on going with Buffy a lot of the time - but he did show signs of thinking hard about gifts and things on occasions!
no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 03:52 am (UTC)There is so much common sense here--a laid back but cool presence, like Oz has blessed the universe with his personality! (sorry, just came from reading an Canis Familiar and the metaphor popped out of nowhere).
I can't wait to see where this goes!
no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 07:31 am (UTC)Thanks - it's always good when you achieve what you set out to isn't it?
I like the Oz metaphor - but then Canis Familiar is one of my current favourites as well.
You must be almost chained to the computer catching up after your cruise - can't wait for pictures of you with Amber in PJs!!
no subject
Date: 22/06/2005 07:39 pm (UTC)Your brief Illyria bits were very in-character. "Bow, puny lizard." So wondrous. Though I wish Wes and Gunn weren't dead and Illyria wasn't gone- it's nice to be able to hope for cameos in the future. Oh well; it's not like they aren't in a bajillion other fan fics, most of which are not nearly as cool as this one.
And Spike and Dawn read Pterry! Yay!
I know I said I had a problem with exclamation marks, but the whole "not eating lunch" has gotten me to the giggly point of low blood sugar, and I think I'm going to go fix that now.
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Date: 22/06/2005 08:13 pm (UTC)Thank you - I really do appreciate the compliment.
Write more!
I've just posted Chapter Seven - and I've got about two more written and ready to go.
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Date: 25/06/2005 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 25/06/2005 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 07/11/2006 05:11 am (UTC)Karen
no subject
Date: 07/11/2006 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 07/11/2006 08:18 pm (UTC) - Expand