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Wordsmith
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"So, we don't know anything for sure?" Xander looked from Angel to Willow.
"We know what Lilah knew, but frankly she's too far down in the power structure to be given full disclosure," Angel said with a sigh.
"But she thinks this is temporary?" Xander said. "That Glory will dissipate, or leave this plane. That's not good?"
"Not if Buffy loses cohesion too," Willow said softly.
"So. They come as a pair, all or nothing," Xander said.
"For now. Lilah was operating on the assumption that Glory had no host. They tried to tie her to a vampire, thinking it would be stronger and be able to survive longer between her. feedings. But the intended host didn't survive the ritual; it er, exploded. Buffy is stronger than a normal human, she's stronger than most vampire. There is no telling how long she has or how strong Glory could become. I hate to say this but I think. I think one of the reasons Giles wants to get back to Sunnydale is, well, in case." Willow trailed off, unable to meet either Angel's or Xander's eyes.
"Not again," Xander said softly. "I'm not letting him go through that again."
Angel watched them share a dark look. The weight of their many battles shone
plainly on both young faces. As quickly as it came the brooding look left Xander's
face, his mobile feature taking on an optimistic look. "So we don't let
it happen. We find a way to either evict Glory and still keep Buffy or lull
the bitch queen into dreaming away the next century or so."
~~~
"This is my favorite part," Dawn said softly. She smiled at Buffy. She glanced at Lindsey, almost dozing on the loveseat. Tara had stepped out to get Buffy something to eat, with a nod to the sleeping bard. Dawn had understood that to mean she felt Lindsey could slow Glory down, at least enough for her to bolt and call for help should the Hellgod crash her sister-time. Looking down at the book she read, "Since leaving the warren of the snares they had become warier, shrewder, a tenacious band who understood each other and worked together. There was no more quarreling. The truth about the warren had been a grim shock. They had come closer together, relying on and valuing each other's capacities. They knew now that it was on these and on nothing else that their lives depended, and they were not going to waste anything they possessed between them. In spite of Hazel's efforts beside the snare, there was not one of them who had not wondered, like Blackberry, what would become of them now. Without Hazel, without Blackberry, Buckthorn and Pipkin -- Bigwig would have died. Without himself he would have died, for which else, of them all, would not have stopped running after such punishment? There was no more questioning of Bigwig's strength, Fiver's insight, Blackberry's wits or Hazel's authority." [1]
"Do you remember Mom reading it?" Dawn bit her lip as Buffy got what was becoming a habitual dazed look, as if she were watching a video of the past that only she could see. The trouble was, as far as Dawn could tell her sister's memories were written on an old tape and sometime she saw their shared memories and sometime she saw the events taking place with no Dawn in the picture. Dawn fiddled nervously as she waited for Buffy to respond, and then added in a burst of Willow-like babble, "It's kind of like the Scoobies; see, Spike has the strength and Tara the insight, Willow the wits and Xander the authority... although that leaves me as Pipkin and there isn't anyone for you." She glanced down at the book and said, "Oh, you can be Bigwig and Spike could be Woundwort. He likes being scary although... Xander should be the General so maybe -"
"Dawn," Buffy said. Dawn stopped her ramble with a quick intake of breath and snapped her eyes back to her now clear-eyed, quietly smiling sister. "I remember," Buffy said. "She read it to us in LA just after they - they stopped shouting and started being disturbingly polite to each other, and then we took turns reading it to her in the hospital."
A crash sounded outside the room, waking Lindsey. Dawn was up and out the door before Buffy could stop her.
~~~~
"I could tell Wesley," Willow was finishing up a recap of just what she did with the holy water that reduced LA's nexus of evil into a straight-to-video disaster flick that had caused even Angel's eyes to glaze over from information overload.
"But then we'd have to kill him," Xander interrupted, smoothly preventing Willow from jumping up to diagram the process.
"Xander," She huffed and rolled her eyes, before noticing Angel had stopped taking notes. "TMI?"
"No, it's fascinating," Angel lied.
"He's just glad you're on our side." Xander winked at Willow and turned his attention back to Angel. "I was serious about taking the lawyer - so far he's our best bet at keeping glamourapocalypse girl from reassembling her scabby little minions and rebuilding the tower o' crap."
"First, you can't trust him," Angel said. "And then there's the prophesy - "
"I'm not taking him over state lines," Xander sprung to his feet and paced restlessly, "and who the hell said I trusted anyone? Hello, Xander here. I still think you're going to go all evil so why would I trust a lawyer? He endangers my people I'll kill him myself."
"Xander!" Willow said sharply.
"Er, or I'll let Wills turn him into a rat. Amy could use some company, right?" Xander rocked on his heel and looked sheepish.
Angel marveled at the lightening quick transformation the young man could make between alpha male making decisions and defending his group to the wheedling tone of an over-indulged child. Willow's rueful grin indicated she knew he was playing her and the vampire wondered which one of them would strike first should MacDonald or anyone else threaten their family. The Sunnydale home team might just prove far more dangerous than any prophesied champion or Slayer with a built-in destiny. Willow's raw power and creativity paired with Xander's strategic skills and ruthlessness rivaled the Scourge of Europe in their destructive potential. Xander was right about Angel being glad Willow was on his side, he was glad they both were. He remembered the vampire version of Willow - turned at fifteen she had been frightening. If she were turned now she would be unstoppable, especially with Xander at her side.
Abruptly, Xander threw himself back into the chair. "Anyway," he continued, and Angel wondered where Xander would jump into the conversation, not having Willow's gift for following the rapid associations of Xander train of thought, "he's safer away from the LFH, right? And Giles and Wes can both work on the prophesy - it's not like you're sure it's him right? We promise we won't let him get killed, unless we have to."
"LFH?" Angel asked
"Lawyers from hell," Willow and Xander said in unison.
Riley skidded to a halt breathlessly leaning on Angel's desk and simply pointed back to the upper floor.
~~~
The world was blood-red. Heat, movement, the soft whimper as the prey struggled for breath -- its rapid escalating heartbeat crescendoing as it valiantly struggles to pump nonexistent oxygen to the rest of the body only to rupture into the silence of death. No! Not fast. Spike loosened his hold on the Slayer's neck. She noisily pulled in a gasp of air. Throwing her to the floor, he pinned her with a knee to her chest and watched tears slip from her dark eyes. She had ceased to struggle though both her hands still tried to pry his viselike grip from her throat. Envisaging peeling her skin off inch by inch, he was startled by the crash of Dawn suddenly hurling herself bodily into Gunn. She sent herself and the stake-wielding vampire hunter over the coffee table and though an antique straight-back chair. He appreciated having someone watch his back but wished it wasn't his fragile girl. Spike knew he would have stopped the human long before Gunn had made it across the scattered furniture but Dawn must have thought he was too focused on revenge to see the large lumbering human charging with his stake. Spike was able to admire how well she remembered her lessons, as she had managed to both surprise the larger man and use him to cushion her landing, while simultaneously mentally cursing his errant charge for distracting him from killing the Slayer.
The crash happened at the feet of the startled ex-commando. While Miller imposed his bulk between Dawn and Gunn to prevent either from entering the fight, Tara warily inched toward Spike, her hand low and extended as if it were a rabid dog glaring at her instead of a pissed-off vampire. Spike was torn between ripping off the stupid human's hand and rolling his eyes. It was impossible to get a decent disemboweling in when surrounded by children - and they were everywhere.
"Spike," Tara said, contriving to sound calm and in charge but coming off more like a game show host. "You're not going to kill her. You don't really want to kill her -"
"Why the bloody hell not!" Spike hissed.
"Uhm..." Tara hadn't apparently expected conversation.
Buffy came down the corridor Dawn had emerged from, followed warily by her musician. She turned a confused look on Xander, who came up from the lobby followed by Angel and Willow.
"Did she try to kill you?" Xander asked, strolling in ahead of the witch and Angel. He crossed to Spike but made no attempt to free Faith. Warm strong fingers carded though Spike's still-damp locks and Xander cupped his lover's chin to turn his face this way and that, as if looking for rapidly healing bruises.
"Tried to kill you, love," Spike whispered.
Xander smiled and looked pointedly down at his long bare legs. He held his arms out and tilted them one way and then the other. Shrugging he said, "Funny, she usually does a better job." His grin faded when Spike failed to laugh. "Come on, Spike, we're practically out the door and we haven't offed Angel or one of his crew. That offer still stands if we make it back to Sunnydale without killing any of them."
"She doesn't count. She touched what's mine." Spike growled.
"Bullshit. You just want your hat trick." Xander scuffed his bare foot on the area rug and then nudged Spike with it. "You're giving that whole thing way more meaning than it deserves.... please..."
The 'please' more than anything else shook off the remainder of Spike's blood lust. Looking around he realized he had quite an audience and that just maybe his mate didn't want them to know about his past with this Slayer. Spike was torn between anger at Xander for not telling him about Faith and a need to protect his mate's pride. Sure, the signs had been there if he had cared to look - back when Giles and Xander had been hunting the Slayer, the boy's scent had held fear and pain, but that had been long before Xander had become Spike's world.
Abruptly Spike stood, leaving Faith gasping at his feet. He pulled Xander flush against him and buried his face in the crook of the human's neck. Inhaling deeply, he shifted to his demon visage and hissed, "Mine."
"Yours," Xander responded instantly, bucking instinctively into his mate as Spike's fangs penetrated his neck.
~~~
Cordelia hated to be the last on the scene. She had been in the kitchen when she heard everyone running up the stairs. The tableau before her told her she had missed a great deal. She arrived at the back of the crowd just as Angel turned away from the sight and, if she figured correctly, the smell of Spike feeding from Xander. Meeting his yellow eyes she watched Angel duck his head the way he always did when he had trouble controlling his demon.
He wasn't the only one affected by the scene. Riley was visibly shaken and couldn't seem to look away, his breath hitching noticeably. She watched Graham pull Riley to him and turn him away from the pair. The two men rarely displayed any physical affection so she was stunned when Graham chose to distract his lover with a dominating kiss.
She turned to see Fred, Wes and Giles coming up the stairs. Consoled that she wasn't the only one out of the loop, Cordelia stepped closer to Angel and took his hand. "It's okay," she whispered, not knowing if she was talking about the situation, or his reaction to it.
Gunn was kneeling next to Faith. The Slayer just smiled and clasped his hand when he asked if she was all right. Cordy figured it would be a while, even with Slayer healing, before Faith would be speaking without pain.
Buffy walked over to Dawn, who upon seeing no one else attacking Spike, had stayed behind the overturned couch. She held out her hand and as Dawn took it and stood, said, "Don't I remember some rule that says you never run toward the fighting?" Cocking her head, Buffy watched Spike and Xander a moment and then turned to Lindsey. When he smiled, she smiled back and looked around at the crowd of people. She stopped smiling when she saw Riley, still in Graham's arms. She turned a confused look on Giles and started to speak, then stopped. Finally she said, "I want to go home."
~~~
Their audience dissipated. Some went down to the lobby to discuss heading home; others went back to their rooms. Spike hadn't let go of Xander after removing his fangs from his mate's neck. He shifted back out of his feeding face but kept his lips ghosting softly against the bite. He drank in Xander's scent as he licked the taste of his blood from his lips. When he lifted his eyes to Xander's he was surprised to see no condemnation for his behavior. Xander, in fact, sported a dopey lovesick smile and Spike realized that they were both swaying to some unheard music - almost dancing.
"Hey," Xander said, resting his forehead against Spike's.
"Hey, yourself, luv," Spike answered.
"Now would be the time I poke fun at you for being - what was it? All puffed up and manly or was it splotchy and possessive?" Warm brown eyes and the tilt of his lips took away any sting the words might have had.
Spike smirked and hoped he didn't look as silly as Xander did. "Yeah, whatever, as you lot say. You should have warned me, Xan. You know- I never want to- Well that's not true, I love overreacting, but I need to know -"
"About every thing or person who has every caused me discomfort, let alone pain or heartache?" Xander finished for him.
"Basically, yes," Spike said, pulling his head back just far enough for Xander to know he was serious without losing the delicious heat of his body against his.
"Spike - you're my now and my forever. Let that be enough. As much as you want to - kill Faith and possibly hunt down Sarah Olinsky, who called me a boogerhead in third grade, you just have to live with the me all that pain and heartache crafted. Can you do that?" Xander was taking unfair advantage as he was peppering his speech with tiny nips and kisses along Spike's jawline.
"I can try, Pet," Spike said.
"That's all I ask," Xander answered and added, "Look, we're dancing."
They stayed in each other's arms kissing softy until a noise at the top of the stair caught their attention. Surprisingly it wasn't Angel come to chuck them out now that the Scoobies were talking of heading home, but Lorne.
"Hey, glad we got to see you again before we left," Xander said and he started to release his hold on Spike, only to be pulled closer as his mate growled and shifted to gameface.
"It's been swell, handsome. Can't tell you what insight meeting Junior has given me to tall, dark and brooding," Lorne said, unfazed by Spike's antics. "I wanted to see Linds before he left. I know he and Angelkins never bonded but he's a sweet kid. You all keep an eye on him; word travels about Sunnydale and it's not the home I would have picked for him.
"I knew Peaches would find a way to saddle us with the lawyer and probably the bloody prophesy to boot," Spike hissed, his eyes flashing to gold and back to blue.
"Buffy likes him," Xander said in his ending-all-arguments voice. "We'll see he keeps in touch, Lorne."
"I appreciate that, dark eyes, but that's not why I came up. You're good. Between the jokes and using your friends as shields you are the one person who didn't get a reading. And you, besides Junior here, were the whole reason Angel arranged readings." Lorne sat down on the one chair that had remained upright during Spike's display of demon testosterone.
Xander looked away as if trying to find a way out. Spike chuckled and refused to relinquish his hold on his lover.
Lorne ventured, "I thought it might be easier here, alone. I have endured Angel and Cordelia - trust me you can't be that bad."
Xander shrugged and blushed and asked, "What should I sing?"
"Why don't you sing to him?" Lorne said. "You don't seem to care if he laughs at you."
Pulling Spike close and starting their swaying, almost dancing, again. Xander sang softly, almost whispering, "You make me laugh. Cause your eyes they light the night. They look right through me. You bashful boy. You're hiding something sweet - please give it to me. Yeah, to me. Talk to me some more, you don't have to go. You're the Poetry Man - you make things all rhyme. You are a genie all I ask is for you to smile each time I rub the lamp. When I am with you I have a giggling teen-age crush, then I'm a sultry vamp. Talk to me some more, you don't have to go. You're the Poetry Man-you make things all right." [2]
Spike pushed Xander back into the wall. He silenced him with a heated kiss. What Lorne may or may not have read would have to wait as the tall green demon slipped silently down the stairway, leaving the lovers to either make it back to their room or not.
~~~
Shortly before midnight, Angel watched Xander and Gunn exchange email information. Faith hung back until Xander nodded to her then she stepped up and Gunn put his arm around her. Cordy was making loud keep-in-touch noises to Willow, in between hissing warnings about Lindsey under her breath. Dawn hugged Fred while Wes looked on in fond amusement. The two girls were separated by years but had become quite close, sharing a common ground in being normal but surrounded by supernatural creatures. Dawn was the last to get into Giles' car.
Giles would be driving Lindsey, Buffy and Dawn back to Sunnydale. He was pretty sure that the extra space wasn't the only reason that Dawn had claimed the front seat. Angel wasn't sure what was more frightening: the thought of Willow in the confined space of a car for three hours on all the caffeine she had consumed, or of just what the mischief twins could get up to in the back seat. He couldn't help being relieved that they were leaving earlier than planned or that they were taking MacDonald with them. If Lindsey was the bard mentioned in the prophesy, it was probably smarter to stash him somewhere away from Wolfram and Hart.
Spike had implied that he wouldn't mind if Angel happened to see if he could find out where Xander's ex was, just to make sure she was doing all right, as he had put it. Angel almost believed that his now chipless Childe had no intention of tormenting his mate's former lover and said he would look into it.
Graham and Riley had disappeared after Spike's little claiming display. Angel wondered if he should wait until his scheduled time with Riley, tomorrow morning, to talk to him. Riley hadn't, as far as Angel knew, spoken with Buffy since she came back from the dead. Adding in Faith, who had tricked him into bed, Dawn's open resentment, and Spike, who went out of his way to rub in Finn's addiction at every chance, it was understandable that Riley was feeling off his game.
As Giles drove away with his carload, Xander walked over to Angel and extended his hand. As he shook it Xander said, "Deadboy, don't be such a stranger." Hugging Cordelia he added, "You're all coming up for Thanksgiving, right?"
Cordelia began to stammer out an excuse that they were far too busy at that time of year and Spike laughed loud and long. Pushing Xander in ahead of him, he climbed into the back seat while saying, "Right, so, we'll all be back same time next year." On that note Willow drove away honking her horn.
"He was joking, wasn't he? Wasn't he? Angel?" Cordelia followed him back into the hotel. He briefly considered pointing out that this visit had been her idea in the first place but simply shrugged and went inside to increase the insurance on the hotel.
[1] Watership Downs by Richard Adams
[2] Poetry Man - Phoebe Snow
The End
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