V.I.S.S
by Lilithangel

2. Meetings

Climbing in a window in a back alley, Spike found himself behind a small stage with old tatty curtains giving him an ideal place to hide.

Creeping closer he could hear voices including Harmony's very distinctive one.

"Let's get started shall we?" a voice called out from the stage in front of Spike "I call this meeting of VISS to order. We have a number of items to get through tonight before we get to the reason most of you are here. Item one, our name" the voice sighed, "We have already settled this, alright then, the chair recognises Marilyn."

"Thank you Reggie. I know we all agreed to change our name from Vampires Anonymous but I do not believe enough consideration was given before VISS was chosen."

Spike manoeuvred to where the two curtains did not quite meet to try and get a view of the proceedings.

The rather strident tones of Marilyn still continued, drowning out murmurs of discontent from the others. "Vampires In Search of Souls is not why we started this group. This was a way for those of us with a mutual distaste for drinking human blood to gather together and support one another."

Unsurprisingly Spike saw that Marilyn was an older blowsy woman with appalling taste in clothes. The real surprise was that a vampire had chosen to turn her. She looked and sounded like someone's overbearing aunt who was fond of horses and referred to her husband as 'mister'.

"Now Marilyn" Reggie the chairman interrupted her tirade "the name was decided upon at our last meeting after much discussion and by a majority vote."

Marilyn snorted "A meeting you knew full well Gerald and I would not be attending. We informed you all that we were going to be on retreat all that week coming to terms with out inner demon."

Spike smothered a laugh at the thought of Marilyn searching for her inner anything. The not so muffled sounds of snickering from the others in the hall suggested that everyone found the thought just as amusing.

Marilyn huffed in disgust "the name change should only have occurred at the AGM or a SGM. Believe you me it will be brought up at the national AGM in October. Gerald and I started this group in an attempt to foster better standards of behaviour within the vampire community. I am distressed to see it degenerating into a mere fan club and a foolish quest for something as ridiculous as souls. We are vampires, we should be proud and attempt to improve vampire and non-vampire relations in an orderly way."

"Now Marilyn" Reggie said sternly "all of us here want to be more than we are. We have talked about this over and over again and the consensus is that looking for ways to restore out souls is the way we want to go. We thank you and Gerald for all your tireless work with V.A but we want to go in another direction now. You cannot halt progress."

"Well, all I can say is that you have not heard the last of this. Come Gerald we have said what we came here to say." Marilyn swept out of the hall towing a small non-descript man in her wake.

Spike sat back from the curtain biting down on the sleeve of his duster to choke back his laughter. Harmony had managed to find a group of vampire geeks.

As the meeting continued Spike considered leaving but he still had not found out what Harmony had grabbed all that stuff for so he stuck around.

His patience was rewarded when Reggie introduced their guest speaker for the evening, Harmony.

"Hello fellow VISS's, my name is Harmony and it has been four months since I last drank human blood." She began.

"Hello Harmony" the group chorused, applauding.

"I became a vampire in Sunnydale" there was a quiet murmur of excitement at the mention of Sunnydale, "before moving to L.A I was Spike's main squeeze" she bragged "and now I am Angel's personal assistant at Wolfram & Hart."

There was a moment of awed silence then a clamour of questions.

"Quiet everyone, one question at a time!" Reggie commanded. "Kathy, you first."

A youngish woman wearing blue jeans one size too small and a t-shirt which read 'Soul Purpose', jumped up.

"Tell us what it was like to go out with Spike" she gushed.

"My blondie bear was great, we were going to rule Sunnydale, I even had minions" Harmony reminisced fondly "we would have too if those nasty soldiers hadn't put that awful chip in Spikey's head. Spike drank a wee bit too much and he could be very sarcastic but we had great dreams. And..." Harmony giggled, "He was a great lover."

Spike was a little bit miffed at Harmony's comment about drinking but he preened at her last remark.

"Tell us about how Spike got his soul back" a man dressed all in black leather asked.

"Well I wasn't around for it but I believe he went to Africa and fought a demon for it. He came back all crazy like and then went and sacrificed himself to save the slayer and her friends" there was a noticeable shiver at the mention of the slayer and harmony hurried on with her story.

"Then Spikey turned up as a ghost out of an amulet until some more magic gave him back his body. We have had a relations since then but he spends too much time arguing with Angel and isn't interested in physical relations."

Spike bristled at Harmony's insinuation that he wasn't interested in sex, it wasn't that, he just wasn't interested in sex with Harmony.

The man in black looked disappointed "So it was really painful the way he got his soul back?"

"Oh yes" Harmony said gleefully "He was almost killed and he came back all crazy like, talking to people who weren't there and everything."

"What about Angel?" another man, rather effeminate looking spoke up "are the stories true, was he really cursed with his soul?"

"Oh yes. Angelus really was the scourge of Europe; Angel has sworn never to allow him out again. That is why he will never find true love, it is the only way Angelus can get free."

The young man sighed "that is so sad, not able to find true happiness, always staying on the edge of things, always alone."

"That's why he's so broody," Harmony agreed.

"So now they fight evil and protect the innocent?" an older female waxed lyrical. "So noble and strong" she sighed.

The questions continued and Spike listened in increasing disbelief as Harmony told them everything she knew about him and Angel. The questions got more and more outrageous. The woman and some of the men wanted to know all the romantic details, the others wanted to know if all the stories were true. Harmony confirmed the ones she knew and told them ones they didn't.

"So Angel was a puppet?" the incredulity in the voice of the young man in leather was almost Spike's undoing. He obviously had a major case of hero worship for Angel and the concept of his idol as a puppet was a serious blow.

Spike found himself desperately wanting to tell Angel all about this strange group and he started to sneak away but was halted dead when Reggie announced it was time for the auction of the goodies provided by Harmony.

"These items are of a personal nature from both Angel and Spike and the proceeds will go towards finding less painful ways of regaining out souls." He explained.

Personal nature? Spike wondered just what else Harmony had flogged.
 

A/N next Spike finds out exactly what Harmony has flogged and reveals his presence.