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How to Treat Your
Lover
by Tami
Chapter 41
Chapter 41: Step 3 – Estrangement (Part
8)
Los Angeles, Pacific Coast Highway
“We could have been back to L.A. by now,” Spike complained as he watched the scenery slowly go by. “If I was driving we’d be there and back already.”
“I’m driving the speed limit. We’ll get there,” Gunn said as he drove with one hand and rested his head on the other that was perched on the window.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. Her two companions had been sniping at each other ever since they passed the ‘Now Leaving Sunnydale’ sign. The bed of Gunn’s truck was loaded down with Gunn’s hunting gear, Spike’s hunting gear, a couple of Spike’s luggage bags, and Cordelia’s entourage of bags that she said carried necessities.
“Who taught you to drive anyway?” Spike snapped.
Cordelia jerked back, almost knocking her head on the back window when Gunn’s hand shot out, shaking a finger at Spike.
“One more word out of you about my driving and you’ll meet a sunrise dusty ending when you’re hitchhikin’ to L.A.,” Gunn warned.
Spike scoffed at the offensive hand and stared out the passenger window.
“Would you guys shut up? Anymore of this and I’ll get out and hitchhike,” Cordelia said.
“If you get out then you’ll be lugging the crap in the back along with you!” Spike commented. Cordelia punched him in the arm. “Hey!”
“Those are Versace! I’m not dragging them anywhere!” Cordelia screeched so loud that Spike and Gunn both cringed at the shrill noise.
“Let me guess, you were a cheerleader in high school?” Gunn surmised.
“And you thought she wouldn’t be? With those legs --- I mean lungs,” Spike said which earned him another slap on the arm. “You hit me one more time woman and I’ll throw you in the back and bring the luggage up here.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Cordelia said outraged.
“Vampire, pet . . . known for being evil,” Spike shrugged. He sat forward and glared at Gunn. “Can’t you go any faster in this junk heap of a truck?”
“Goddamn it, Spike, why didn’t you take your car,” Gunn ranted. “And don’t go dissin’ my girl. She’s gotten me through a lot of vampire hunts!”
“We were all going to the same place!” Spike said. “Had I known we’d be taking a jalopy that only went two miles an hour and get me there sometime next week, I would have taken my car!”
“Oh, that’s it! You’re dead!” Gunn yelled as he slammed on the brakes, causing the wheels to squeal in protest. He jerked the door open and got out, went around to the back of his truck and grabbed a stake.
Spike got out and went to the other side to confront the vampire hunter. “What the bloody hell are you doing? Get back in the truck!”
“Not before you’re a pile of dust!” Gunn threatened as he brandished a stake.
“Guys, wait! Don’t kill each other,” Cordelia said anxiously as she climbed out of the truck. “Gunn, you can’t dust him! Angel wouldn’t forgive you!”
“Angel can --” Spike started to say.
“Angel doesn’t even want him down there. Spike’s making a wasted trip,” Gunn said without thinking.
Cordelia’s eyes widened and they both slowly turned to look at Spike’s crestfallen expression.
“Aw, man, I didn’t mean for that to come out like it did,” Gunn apologized.
Spike sniffed and squared his shoulders. “No, you’re right. It probably wouldn’t bother Angel that I made the choice to come down here and save whatever relationship we have. He hasn’t been exactly caring about what I want. He sent me off to do something he doesn’t have the bollocks to do himself. All Angel knows how to do is make demands of the people around him. All he cares about is that fuckin’ slayer up in Sunnyhell. Then, he dropped Cordy off. Does he stop by to see me? Does he ask how I am? No! He leaves with nothing!” Spike paced the length of the truck and then stepped up to Gunn with his arms outstretched. “He mated with me and doesn’t want me near him. So, do it Gunn.”
Cordelia threw herself between Spike and the stake. “Don’t listen to him Gunn! Once we get him down there and him and Angel in the same room. They’ll fight it out, make up and everything will be like it was before.” She looked between them, “Right?”
“’S not going to work like that, princess,” Spike said as he took her by the shoulders and moved her out of the way, “The next time I see Angel I’ll impale him on something sharp and pointy; ’S better this way.”
Gunn twirled the stake around and scoffed, “God Spike, you and Angel are such drama queens. Get in the truck.”
While Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief, Spike smirked, “Maybe I should drive. I can get us there faster.”
“The hell you will! You’re not driving my truck!”
“Selfish bastard!” Spike sneered.
“Spoiled brat!” Gunn shot back.
“Vampire hunter hack!”
“Pansy ass, Billy Idol wannabe!”
“Billy Idol stole his look from me!” Spike said indignantly.
“Would you guys get in the truck? I don’t want to be stuck on the Pacific Coast Highway all night,” Cordelia yelled over her shoulder and she got in the vehicle.
**************************
Fifteen minutes later, Gunn had developed a lead foot.
“Are you sure you can’t go any faster?”
“I have it pushed down to the floor, man!” Gunn protested.
“I’ve been on horses that can trot faster than this!” Spike said.
“Well, we ain’t in the nineteenth century,” Gunn snapped.
“Bloody hell, if you let me drive!” Spike said as he reached over and grabbed the wheel.
“Hey!” Gunn yelled as the truck swerved into oncoming traffic. He jerked the wheel back to get in the right lane. “You try that again and you can walk your undead ass to the Hyperion!”
“You’re all swagger you know that? Gave you an opportunity to stake me a few miles back . . . You didn’t take it,” Spike scoffed.
“That’s it!” Gunn tried to drive and leap over Cordelia to get to Spike, causing the truck to swerve again. Then there was a halting siren sound of a patrol car behind him. Gunn sat down and looked in the rearview mirror to see the flashing lights. He pulled over and cut the engine.
“Now you gone and done it,” Spike accused.
“Me?! This is your fault, you blood-sucking --” Gunn started to say when the uniformed officer tapped his flashlight on the driver’s doorframe.
“License and registration, sir,” the officer said.
“Just a sec,” Gunn said as he pulled his wallet out to get his driver’s license, mumbling, “At least I have a valid license unlike some of us.”
The officer took the proffered laminated card. “Registration, sir?”
Gunn glared at Spike as he opened the glove compartment and searched for the pink paper.
“What was that for? It’s not like we’re in my vehicle. Had we been in my car, I would have never gotten pulled over for swerving into three lanes of traffic while still driving in the carpool lane.”
“Shut up, Spike,” Cordelia hissed.
“Do you realize that you were driving in the wrong lane and swerving into oncoming traffic?” the officer asked.
“Yes and no,” Gunn answered as politely as he could manage.
“Which is it?”
“Yes, I know I was swerving but I didn’t realize that I was in the wrong lane,” Gunn clarified.
“Uh huh,” the officer acknowledged as he wrote the ticket, “I’m making this out for reckless driving and improper lane usage.” He dotted his I’s and crossed his T’s before handing it to Gunn. “Drive more safely now. See you in court.”
“Yeah thanks,” Gunn said as the officer walked back to his car. He tossed the ticket at Spike, “You are so gonna pay for that.”
“I didn’t cause that,” Spike said with a cringe as he tossed the paper back. “For me to cause that I would have to be driving.”
“Oughta call him back and give you ticket for being a pain in my ass,” Gunn mumbled as he started the truck. He gave a false smile and wave as the highway patrol drove by.
Gunn was not-so-merrily driving down the highway as fast as was legally allowed when, out of nowhere, the tire blew out.
“I’ll be . . . bloody, soddin’, bastard, son of a bitchin’, piece of tin crap,” Spike yelled as he beat on the dashboard.
“Spike! Do you think you used enough expletives?” Cordelia asked.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it, baby,” Gunn cooed to his truck as he caressed the steering wheel.
“I think the fates are telling you to get a new bloody truck!” Spike seethed.
“Calm down, it’s just a flat tire. Easy to fix,” Gunn said as he pulled over and got out.
He lugged the spare tire out of the truck bed and went around to the back passenger wheel. When help didn’t seem to be forthcoming, Gunn straightened up.
“Hey! I’m not providing a catering service. Someone get out here and help me.”
Spike grudgingly got out and went to the back wheel. He grabbed the rim of the truck and slowly lifted up until the wheel was off the ground enough for Gunn to change it.
“Don’t need a jack when you got vampire strength, huh?” Gunn quipped as he replaced the lug nuts.
When the tire was secure, Spike let go and the truck bounced on the axles. He ran around the front and got in the driver’s side with Gunn yelling after him about the truck not having great suspension.
“Hey, man, what are you doing?! I didn’t say you could drive,” Gunn said through the passenger window.
“Sorry, can’t stay . . . got to get to L.A. before the sun rises and toasts my delicate skin,” Spike said as he started the truck and burned rubber screeching away, leaving Gunn on the side of the road screaming after him.
Cordelia looked through the back window at Gunn yelling and waving his hands, but he was rapidly becoming a dot on the horizon and then nothing. She looked aghast at Spike.
“You know, being a vampire and stealing a vampire hunter’s truck isn’t the best idea you’ve ever had. You have to go back and get him, Spike,” Cordelia said anxiously.
“Can’t do that, luv. Vampire on a mission here,” Spike said as he steadily sped up.
**************************
Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Spike screeched to a halt in front of the Hyperion, jumped out and walked purposefully through the gates, not waiting for Cordelia to catch up. When he threw the door open and walked in bellowing Angel’s name, he was brought up short by the still silence. The lobby that was now clean of Wolfram & Hart goons was empty.
Spike went into the manager’s office and started going through the papers on the desk. Cordelia followed him and pretended to do the same thing with her work space. She didn’t know what she was searching for . . . Or for that matter, Spike. When it seemed that Spike wasn’t paying attention, she went to the inner office and leaned against the doorjamb.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
Spike tossed paperwork around the desk when they didn’t give him any answers. “A clue as to where they went. What’s it bloody well look like?”
“There’s no need to get snippy with me,” Cordelia said.
Spike glanced up from the paperwork in his hand. “Sorry, luv.”
A little while later, they were disturbed by the front door banging open. They both looked out the manager’s office window to see Gunn stalking into the lobby.
“How did you get back so quickly?” Cordelia asked as she joined him.
“Luckily, we were near a pay phone when the tire blew. I called a cab,” Gunn said. “Do you know that I had to listen to the dispatcher laugh at me when I told her where he had to pick me up?”
“Buck up, Charlie boy,” Spike said as he walked out of the office.
“You owe me, fang-boy: thirty-five dollars for the ticket and thirty for the cab fare. And you best not have damaged my truck racing it back here.”
“That ticket was your fault and you ended up taking a cab because you were a soddin’ selfish prick who wouldn’t let me drive,” Spike argued.
Cordelia rolled her eyes as their earlier argument picked up where it left off in the truck on the 405. “Would you two grow up?”
“He started it!” Gunn gestured towards the vampire.
“I don’t see why you’re complaining, you’re here in one piece,” Spike sneered.
“Cause your undead ass got me a ticket and you stole my truck!”
“So, it’s my fault that you drove erratically in the wrong lane?” a scarred brow rose questioningly. “By the way, I find ‘stole’ crass. I borrowed the truck to get back here.” Spike shrugged. “Besides, I have a get-out-of-jail-free card. I’m evil.”
“In that case, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, instead give me my money,” Gunn said holding out his hand.
“What’s going on here? I thought I told you to go to Lorne’s,” a deep voice said from the entrance.
Spike and Gunn never looked at Angel, instead choosing to glare at each other. Cordelia ran around Spike to address the other vampire, her pseudo-Prada shoes click-clacking on the polished lobby floor. They could be real Pradas if Angel wasn’t such a cheapskate.
“Angel, tell them to act like adults. They’ve been like this since we left Sunnydale,” she whined.
“Huh?” Angel acknowledged. He told Gunn to bring Cordelia back, but why had Spike come? Wasn’t Spike still upset with him for making him stay with Buffy?
Gunn turned on his heel, stormed up the entrance steps and shoved the speeding ticket and the cab fare receipt towards Angel. “I’d like to have these paid. Your boy is a nuisance and I never want to be in the car with him again,” he said, “Ever.”
“Uh-huh,” Angel said as he took the slips of paper in a loose grip, his dark eyes never leaving Spike’s stiff body. He willed the other vampire to look at him. He’d tried to talk to the other vampire so many times, but the link between them had been blocked since that regrettable event in Spike’s shower.
Spike?
The name gently brushed the younger vampire’s mind. Angel sighed in relief when he didn’t feel the barrier that Spike had built up since they parted ways.
Please look at me.
Spike turned and blue eyes met dark brown. They were both full emotion. Blue eyes filled with hurt. Brown eyes full of regret. Then the blue eyes darkened in anger and the next thing Angel knew, Spike had knocked him on his ass with a solid punch to the jaw.
“That was for the shower, you manipulative bastard,” Spike hissed.
“Spike!” Cordelia cried as she rushed forward and skidded to a halt beside him. “You were supposed to talk out your differences.”
“Best get out of the way girl. Looks like they’re going to duke it out,” Gunn said.
The vampire hunter pulled her out of the way just as Spike rushed forward at the same time Angel had got to his feet, Gunn’s ticket and receipt momentarily forgotten on the floor. The dark vampire wasn’t on his feet long before Spike barreled into his stomach with his shoulder and shoved him out the entrance doors. They flew over the terrace and landed with heavy grunts on the courtyard pavement. Gunn and Cordelia rushed out behind them to watch the fight.
“Watch out for your girl, fine. Even though she’s had more boys between her legs in the last two years than you’ve had sex in the last decade.” Spike punched Angel in the face. “Take care of my human grandsire while she’s dyin’. That was low, but I took it, pillock.” That was accompanied by another punch to the midsection. “Tell me that I have no choice but to go back to a hell I never wanted to revisit because of your bloody guilty conscience over Buffy being back?” Spike grabbed Angel by the shirt collar and yanked him up. Tears of pent up anger rose to the surface as he yelled, “I’ve hated you for a lot of things, Angelus, I thought that was the worst you could do. But then, you invaded my mind and forced me to do what you wanted. Well, guess what, lover? I’m back from the hell you sent me to, to tell you to go there and do the job yourself.”
Angel had taken the impact of the fall easily enough. He took the brunt of Spike’s fists like he felt he should. He deserved his boy’s anger, rage and pummeling. Maybe if Spike got it out of his system . . .
Spike watched in a surreal state as Angel’s head snapped with every punch to the face. “Come on, brooding hero, fight back! Don’t you dare make yourself out to be a martyr! You don’t get to be the sacrificial lamb in this, bastard. You fucked with me so much and I let you do it. If anyone’s the martyr it should be me!” he growled as his fists repeatedly met flesh and clothing.
Angel grabbed Spike around the waist as he rolled to his feet and slammed Spike back against the stone wall of the terrace stairs. He felt the guilt weigh heavier in his soul as the younger vampire grunted from the impact. Guilt for Spike not being here to protect Fred when she was left alone with Wesley and Gunn; because Cordelia had to go to Sunnydale for help, and Fred, too, when her parents’ visit frightened her. He didn’t deserve to feel anything but Spike’s anger for sending him away.
Spike cracked his forehead against Angel’s forcing the larger vampire to release him and stumble back. Then, he took a wild swing and punched Angel in the jaw. He grabbed Angel around the neck in a headlock and brought his knee up into his Sire’s chest. The only time Angel hit back was to block the more critical blows. He caught Spike’s knee and tripped the younger vampire, going down with Spike when he didn’t let go.
“We’re supposed to be mated you emotionally-challenged dick,” Spike said as he tried to scramble out from under Angel’s weight. Finally succeeding, he kicked against the leg of a wooden bench until it splintered and broke off.
Grabbing the makeshift stake, he rolled back towards Angel, straddling his Sire and raised his arm to stake him. The air was thick with anticipation. Cordelia’s breath caught in her throat, just knowing Spike would follow through. Angel and Spike stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, daring the other to make a move.
“Go on do it!” Angel said hoarsely. When Spike didn’t react, he grabbed his mate’s wrist and pulled the stake closer until it nestled against his chest directly above his heart. “All you have to do is lean in and it’ll go through me like air. I’ll be gone. You won’t have to deal with it anymore. Won’t have to deal with my guilt, my burdens. I’ll be dust and you can walk away, no strings, no obligations. It’s what you want.”
Spike’s eyes reflected the pain he felt of what Angel’s words implied until that last bit sank in. Then, he sneered, “What I want? Since when the soddin’ fuck have you cared about
what I want? You don’t deserve to play the victim in this. You sent me away, not the other way around.” He got to his feet and tossed the wood away. Glaring down at Angel, “You deserve to burn in hell, but then again, so do I,” he added quietly and walked away leaving the other vampire to pick himself up.
“If you two are finished with the big show of testosterone, can we go to Caritas now?” Cordelia asked. “And you can fill me in on why we are stationed there. I didn’t even get an abridged version on the ride down, due to two grown men henpecking each other.”
“Well, you see, fair Cordelia, there’s this vamp cult that we didn’t get rid of entirely. So Angel has us hiding out,” Gunn filled in.
Gunn and Cordelia led the way to where the cars were parked. Spike followed not even glancing at his Sire. Angel sighed and followed Spike, tenderly feeling his jaw where Spike had gotten a few good punches.
**************************
Los Angeles, Caritas
Wesley paced in front of the bar, wearing a path in the floor under him. Fred sat beside Lorne reading the instruction leaflet that accompanied the magic-machine the handyman was installing when Lorne fired him. Lorne was currently trying to impersonate said fired handyman and finish the job.
“Okay, okay, I’m convinced I got it this time!” Lorne announced.
Fred smacked Wesley on the shoulder as he paced by.
“Ow!” Wesley said blandly as he pivoted and went the other way.
Lorne grabbed the manual away from Fred, “Let me see that.”
Fred and Wesley looked towards the doorway when the sound of stampeding feet came down the stairs. Angel appeared with a scowl, a black eye and busted lip. Then, Cordelia’s voice was heard before the woman herself appeared in the door.
“I’m just saying that if you two would talk it out, maybe you’d get past this and then you can make out like wild jackrabbits . . . er, whatever.”
“Now we’re jackrabbits? What happened to the antelope and elk analogy?” Angel asked acerbically.
They were followed by the appearance of a haggard-looking Gunn and Spike who had the same dark scowl as Angel only he was favoring his ribcage.
“Well, being a jackrabbit is a hell of a lot better than being a poncy, self-centered bastard,” Spike said to himself. He smirked when Angel glared at him.
Lorne set the instruction manual aside and joined the group. “Boy, I need some fresh air. The waves of animosity are suffocating. Am I sensing a little lover’s spat with the roosters in the henhouse?”
“Roost – Roosters now?!” Angel cried as he threw up his hands, walked over to a table and plopped down heavily in a chair.
Lorne looked between Angel who had crossed his arms over his chest and the others. “Was it something I said?”
“Leave off it, mate. Tall, dark and forehead over there is just licking his wounds after having his ass kicked around his courtyard for being a selfish prick,” Spike said as he headed for the bar.
“Yeah, Angel hit Spike, totally body slammed him into the stone wall of the courtyard at the Hyperion,” Gunn said.
“Oh Angel, you didn’t hurt him did you?” Fred asked horrified. She rushed over to Spike and started checking for wounds.
“It’s okay Fred,” the blonde vampire said as he batted her hands away and reached for a beer bottle. “I’m made of stronger stuff than Angel gives me credit for.”
“Yeah, blondie wiped the courtyard with him,” Gunn added.
“Hey! I held my own. I defended myself just fine!” Angel said adamantly.
That was answered by a smack to the back of the head by Cordelia. “If you weren’t such a stubborn . . . vampire, you’d tell him you were wrong!”
Spike scoffed and nearly choked on his drink at that. “Hell will definitely be frozen solid when that happens.”
“I can’t believe you Angel! You’re supposed to be a champion,” Fred said as she gave the dark vampire a censured look.
“Yeah Angel, you’re supposed to be a champion,” Spike mocked into his beer.
“Do I have to remind you how those people up in Sunnydale treated him? They hate him up there Angel. They were mean to him and you’re just as bad,” Fred said.
Angel rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, “He beats me all to hell. He gets a few bruises and he gets coddled.” Cordelia slapped him again. “What did I do?”
“You made him go to the Hellmouth and Buffy was awful to him. She storms into his house making demands and expects him to do what she says,” Cordelia complained.
“His house? I’m the one footing the bill on that place so he doesn’t have to live in a crypt,” Angel said irritably.
“Right now, I’d take Cordelia’s lumpy couch over anything you have to offer. I’m not your fucking kept boy or your lapdog, you high-handed son of a bitch,” Spike grumbled.
Angel got to his feet and moved menacingly closer, “If you hate me so much then why did you come back?”
Spike spun around on his barstool, got to his feet and stepped closer until they were inches apart and glaring at each other. “To tell you that I’m not your bloody nursemaid, if you wanna take care of the Slayer, you can go up there and do it yourself!”
“Time out on the lover’s spat,” Gunn cut in. “I just wanna know who’s gonna take care of my speeding ticket and the cab fare.”
“If everyone would just calm down, we can discuss this rationally,” Wesley stepped in and made a placating gesture.
“We left rational back when peaches here told me I had to give up my happy L.A. home and gave me a one-way ticket to the Hellmouth,” Spike answered with a challenging glare at Angel.
Tired of being the scapegoat for everything and the glares of his team, Angel turned on his heel and stalked away. “That’s right, ponce, walk
away when the going gets tough. It’s what you’re good at!” Spike yelled after him. When he got the American one-fingered salute, Spike’s brows furrowed in anger and he stomped after him to the back where Lorne’s living quarters were.
“Don’t you walk away from me acting as if you’re the wronged party here,” Spike growled angrily. “You left me! Told me I had to be a bleedin’ babysitter to all the people you drop on my doorstep. You don’t want a lover, Angel. You want someone to clean up after you.”
“What I want is for you to be gone. I don’t want you down here. Go back to Sunnydale,” Angel yelled back.
“I don’t know if you’ve realized this in the century we’ve been acquainted, but I quit taking orders from you after the first time I caught you in bed with Drusilla,” Spike sneered.
“Ah, wonderful memories that: your crestfallen expression when you saw that she wasn’t a one-demon vampire,” Angel mocked sarcastically.
“Do you ever get tired of being a dick when you don’t get your way or is it a favorite pastime of yours?” Spike asked irritably.
Angel finally spun around and faced his annoyed mate for the first time since Spike followed him to Lorne’s bedroom. And how ironic was it that they’d end up arguing in a bedroom – decorated in loud, garish colors though it was? Angel didn’t know whether to throw a punch to see where it landed and ended up bruising Spike’s flesh or his ego . . . or throw his persistent childe on the bed and fuck the anger out of both of them.
“For someone who hated me for the last month, you seem to be nipping at my heels,” Angel snapped. “Why didn’t you stay in Sunnydale like I told you to?”
“First, oh great hulking master of your own universe, I don’t give a fuck what you want anymore. There are two of us in this godforsaken relationship . . . such as it is. And second, with all my duties as babysitter, I have no clue who the bloody hell I’m supposed to look after with all the women you drop on my doorstep.”
“I only have three women: Cordelia, Fred and you when you’re bitching at me,” Angel said smugly.
Spike automatically hit him and blackened the other eye. “I wouldn’t have to say anything if you weren’t a selfish . . .”
Angel grabbed Spike’s wrists to stop the next punch and said gravely, “You’re a distraction I can’t afford right now.”
Spike’s expression changed in a kaleidoscope of emotions ranging from shock to hurt to devastation. “I’m a . . .? I’m a distraction!? Have you gone completely around the bend? You’re the one that put the claims on me. You tracked me down and completed them. You forced me to stay in Sunnydale to look after Buffy, yanking me back and forth like a rubber ball and you have the gall to say I’m the distraction?!”
“You’re still arguing? I thought you’d have this hashed out by now,” Gunn said as he led the team into the room.
“Angel, is that a black eye forming?” Fred asked concerned.
Angel tenderly touched the spot where Spike slugged him for calling him a woman. “It’s all right, Fred. He’s just letting off steam.”
“It’s no more than you deserve for the way you’ve been treating him,” Fred scoffed as she walked past him without so much as a glance at his injured face.
“Gotta admit, she’s gained a backbone since you stopped her crush,” Spike chuckled. “Between slugging Xander in the Bronze and that display, they’re two of my favorite memories.”
“Uh yeah,” Angel said watching Fred ignore him as she walked out. Then, he turned back to Spike. “Why are you here again?”
“You’re unbelievable,” Spike said as he pulled free of Angel’s grasp, glaring at him. The sense of awe he had for Fred’s display was shoved away by his Sire’s obtuse behavior.
Wesley looked between Angel and Spike and motioned for Angel to step out of the room with him. Spike’s brows furrowed as he watched something pass between his Sire and the former watcher. He didn’t move when Angel followed Wesley out.
Angel closed the door and turned to Wesley, “What? What is it?”
“It’s deplorable how you’re treating him. We could use his help while he’s down here. Why are you trying to drive him away?” Wesley asked.
“Because I don’t need him here,” Angel hissed. “I don’t want him here. I want him gone.”
“You’re protecting him,” Wesley observed. “But from what? It seems that Spike is equipped to take care of himself if your face is anything to go by.”
The thunder rumbling outside matched Angel’s dark mood. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is for Spike to go back to Sunnydale where he should have stayed. I don’t need his help to clean up my problems.”
“That’s a little late coming don’t you think? You sent him there to look after Buffy. You sent Darla and Cordelia to him. All he’s done is deal with your problems. He’s not a manservant, Angel. He’s your mate and with this Tro-Clan business we could really use his help,” Wesley insisted.
“He’s right Angel,” Cordelia said as she joined them.
Angel pushed past them, bumping into Gunn. Spike was pacing the room as he listened to Lorne advising him with drink in hand.
“What is this, an intervention? We’re vampires, not a human couple bent on divorce. Lorne, get out of here,” Angel said as he gestured wildly towards the door.
“It’s my room,” Lorne pointed out as he got to his feet. When Angel gave him a dark look, he slunk out.
“Way to handle that, ponce. Kick the demon out of his own house,” Spike said bemused.
Lorne walked away from his door with a cringe when he heard glass break. He didn’t want to think about what that could possibly be. He joined the rest of the group in the club area.
“Are they still arguing it out?” Gunn asked.
“No, they’re past arguing and moved into fighting it out,” Lorne said glibly.
“This isn’t going to end well, is it?” Fred asked apprehensively.
“I think they just need time alone to hash it out,” Cordelia said, hoping she was right.
The mood of the group had turned somber with Angel walking around acting like a grumpy Papa Bear. To lighten the mood, Lorne piped up optimistically, “Okay! Everybody’s drinking. I’m buying.” He went over to the bar just as Holtz walked into the club. “Oh, hello,” Lorne said.
Holtz looked at the demon with distaste and returned the greeting.
“Well, we’re not open at the moment. Why don’t you come back tomorrow night?” Lorne said as he handed over a flyer. “It’s the grand re-opening. Here’s a flyer.”
“Thanks,” Holtz said as he accepted the paper. Lorne nodded and walked behind the bar to pour the drinks he had promised the team.
Holtz took a slow look around the place. Then, he turned and walked out, singing quietly, “Sleep, my love and peace attend thee.” Lorne started to hum along as he busied himself. “All through the night, guardian angels God will send you, all through the night . . .”
Lorne’s eyes widened when he unintentionally read Holtz. He dropped a bottle and glass back onto the counter. “Run!”
“What’s going on?” Cordelia asked. All she saw was a frantic Pylean demon rushing towards her, telling her to run for no apparent reason. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Just run! Run!” Lorne yelled as he headed for his apartment at the back of club. Spike and Angel’s shouting reunion would have to wait for another day when impending doom wasn’t hanging over their heads. The others got up and followed him, more concerned that Lorne may be insane than whatever he was running from.
Just as they cleared the room a red metal barrel tumbled down the stairs and came to rest on the inside of the security doorway. A few seconds later, a grenade bounced down the steps and landed beside it. Then, the building rocked as the grenade exploded and a big fireball swept through the club, destroying everything in its wake.
In the apartment, Angel helped Spike up off the floor. He and Angel were arguing until they heard the click of the grenade. Angel threw Spike down on the ground and covered him with the bulk of his body as the building rocked with the explosion. Their hands were still clasped when the group ran in.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Spike asked annoyed.
“We’re being attacked,” Wesley offered.
“Attacked?” Angel repeated. His brows furrowed in confusion. “I thought you had double protection sanctorum spells?”
“I was working on it when you showed up,” Lorne said anxiously. “It’s a thing with the door, and the stairs and the world and that other thing. Never mind!”
“Apparently you can be outside and shove stuff in,” Gunn translated.
“I just said that,” Lorne said, sounding as annoyed as Spike.
Just then, a burning beam crashed through the ceiling between Spike and Angel. The younger vampire let out a string of expletives as he sidestepped the flaming wood: two things that every vampire should avoid at all costs. He carefully made his way around the beam to join the others.
“It’s Holtz,” Angel announced to no one in particular.
“What?” Spike asked over the blazing fire.
“Come on, we got to move the bed,” Lorne told the others and they moved to help him.
“How is that possible?” Spike asked.
“He’s here. This is why I wanted you gone. I can’t have you distracting me while he’s hunting me. You’re a liability,” Angel said.
“A vampire hunter from the seventeenth century is hunting you in the twenty-first century and I’m the distraction. I would think you could use me. He doesn’t know I exist. You’ve only told me stories about him and even then it wasn’t like I paid attention,” Spike shrugged.
“Darla and I killed his family. Darla turned his daughter as a message,” Angel said, giving the memo version.
“You killed that family?” Spike asked with a raised brow.
“What? I was evil then,” Angel replied.
**************************
The group pulled the bed out while the vampires argued. “What’s behind the bed?” Gunn asked.
“An old loading dock door,” Lorne replied as he pulled other items out of the way. “I had the whole place converted.”
“What’s on the other side?” Wesley asked.
“An Alley,” was the distracted reply.
**************************
“Angel, a vampire hunter that should, by rights, be dead is here now, hunting us!” Spike emphasized.
“I know that! I didn’t want you in the middle of it, but you have a cement block for a brain,” Angel yelled over the blaze.
“Well you weren’t exactly clear,” Spike shouted back.
“Are you so dense that you have to have things spelled out for you? I thought you were a scholar when you were human,” Angel said scathingly.
“Well, excuse the bloody hell out me for coming down here to rescue something that wasn’t worth it to you. If we get out of this, I’ll disappear and you’ll never see me again, you ungrateful pillock!”
“When,” Angel stressed, “we get out of this you’re going back to Sunnydale and staying there like I told you to.”
“To hell with you, Angel,” Spike sneered. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I think I’ve proved I can force you to do anything I need you to,” Angel said.
“I’ll stake you myself when we get out of here,” Spike promised.
“Goddamn it, Spike! Holtz is hunting me. I just as soon not make you a target. Why do you always have to argue with me? Can’t you see I’m trying to protect you?”
“No. I see you trying to make decisions for whatever you think are right for our relationship as well as dictate my life and where you want me in yours.” Spike held up his hand with his fingers a few millimeters apart. “‘Oh, there’s Spike, I wonder where I can fit him into my life when it’s more convenient for me’,” he mocked. He dropped his hand. “I’m not a convenience! I may not have a soul or a beating heart. But I’m not something you can just squeeze into your schedule. So what if a hunter from the Old World is here? It shouldn’t matter. What’s the point in having a mate if you don’t want them around?”
**************************
“Do you have a hammer or mallet, anything?” Gunn asked.
“Buddha head,” Wesley said, perplexed at the garish accessories Lorne collected. He handed it to Gunn.
“A rhino,” Cordelia offered as she handed it to Wesley.
The vampires continued to argue over the important things in life as the humans hauled back with the statues and attacked the wall.
“Angel, Spike, we could use some vampire strength here!” Wesley yelled over his shoulder.
They looked over to see the humans putting dents in the wall of Lorne’s bedroom. They moved between Wesley and Gunn who stepped aside and watched them batter down the wall with fists and feet, taking out their anger with each other’s obstinate behavior on the wall. Unbeknownst to them, Holtz walked through the burning remains of the club, moving steadily closer to his target.
The back alley was lit by Chinese-style lanterns. Angel broke through into it first from Lorne’s bedroom. Wooden shards flew as the hole became larger as Spike burst through his side and he stumbled outside. Cordelia stepped through it, followed by Wesley, Gunn, Fred and Lorne.
“You can drop dead . . . again,” Spike yelled over the burgeoning storm.
“Come on, baby, you don’t mean that,” Angel mocked.
Spike threw a punch and clipped Angel on the jaw. The dark vampire tripped him and he landed on the damp ground. Spike put his foot up and pushed against Angel’s chest when he bent over to grab him by the shirt.
“Fred and I are going to get the car,” Cordelia said as she dragged Fred along with her.
“I think I’ll go with you,” Wesley said.
“I’m coming with,” Gunn said as he followed. “Think they’ll be done by the time we get back?”
“Damn it, Spike, quit playing around. Holtz is right behind us. We don’t have time to deal with your issues,” Angel said as he tried to grab his errant childe again.
“My issues?” Spike inquired as he rolled to his feet out of Angel’s reach. “Fucking prick, if one of us has issues, it’s you! You’re not trying to protect me! You’re easing your guilty conscience. What is it, Angel? The past won’t stay dead for you with Holtz back?”
“Did you come down here just for the purpose of starting a fight with me?” Angel asked angrily as he moved closer.
“I did not agree to be your mate so that I can be ordered around like a minion,” Spike said. “I’m bloody well sick of it. I didn’t sign on to be a catch-all babysitter. If you can’t see that through all your brooding, self-centered egotistical . . . If you can’t see me as more than your childe, where all I did was take care of Dru for you then we can’t do this. I can’t do this anymore, Angel.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Angel yelled over the rain. “You can’t mean that. After all we’ve been through the last few years. You’re going to give up now?”
“I’m not the one giving up. I didn’t give up when you were forced to leave me a century ago. I didn’t give up when you kicked me off that submarine in the Atlantic. I didn’t give up back in Sunnydale. I wasn’t the one that kept turning his back on whatever convolution this relationship morphed into. You did. You always do!”
Holtz stepped through the hole in Lorne's wall into the alley. He lifted the crossbow and aimed it at Angel as he grabbed hold of the person with him.
Angel grabbed Spike by the arms and pulled him against his body. “We’re mated for life. You can’t just undo that when you want to.”
“I’m not undoing it. I knew what I was saying yes to. Did you? I knew what being mated meant. I even prepared myself for being mated to you. But I won’t let you throw me like a boomerang hoping I’ll come back at your beck and call. I know, compared to you, I don’t have much of a life, but it’s mine.”
Holtz watched them over his crossbow, his finger easing onto the trigger ready to send the demon that killed his family straight to hell.
Angel could feel the vampire hunter behind him. He could smell the human through the scent of the rain. Just as he knew the hunter had a weapon pointed at his back. He could very well lose his life at this moment with Spike hating him. With his mate giving him an ultimatum.
“You can’t escape me so easily,” Angel said.
“If I wanted that, I wouldn’t follow you as I do. But I can’t deal with this anymore. It has to change, Angel. I’ve changed over the last few years, but you refuse to see it because you’re still the same. There’s got to be more to your life than brooding over things you’ve done a century ago. You have to face Holtz on your own and get past it or there won’t be a future for either of us.”
When Angel turned to literally see Holtz pointing an arrow at his back, Spike reached out and stopped him. He pulled the other vampire closer and pressed a kiss to the rain-cool lips. After a moment, Angel crushed Spike against him, extending the kiss. When he tried to do more, Spike pulled away.
Head bent, Spike walked through the rain without a backward glance. He didn’t see Angel watching him, motionless, or Holtz, weapon still trained on Angel, but following his progress.
Holtz turned back to lock eyes with his enemy. Angel, thunderstruck at what transpired in the past few minutes, stared back at Holtz. The repercussions hadn’t sunk in quite yet. Did Spike mean to leave him for good: still mated, but unfulfilled? Did Spike mean they had a chance? If he really did lose Spike tonight, couldn’t Holtz just pull the trigger and end his existence?
Angel’s car came to halt at the mouth of the alley and Wesley got out with weapon in hand. When Angel noticed the car, Spike was nowhere to be seen. Holtz slowly lowered his crossbow allowing Angel to pass as an idea formed in his mind. Something that was better than shooting his nemesis in cold blood.
“Do it! Now’s your chance,” Sahjahn yelled as he came into view from a crevice in the wall of another building. “Do it! Finish it while you still can! You can’t just let him walk away! Not after what you swore to me!”
Holtz ignored Sahjahn as he watched a broken demon slowly trudge back to his car and waiting friends. “I swore that I would show no mercy.” He watched Angel speak to Wesley before he got in the car and it drove away. “And I won’t.”
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