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