AUTHOR: Kelso (kelso28@excite.com)
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: "Chosen"
SUMMARY: Sick of experiencing technical trouble at FanFiction.Net? So is Spike.
WEBSITE: see my author profile for the link. I have some B/A, B/Aus, B/S, and miscellaneous stories posted.
DISCLAIMER: "Buffy" characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc.
NOTE: Almost every time I've accessed FF.Net lately, I've gotten that same irritating error message at least once: "site experiencing overload.. please come back in a few minutes." It happened once too often today and inspired this story. Written out of sheer frustration.
*****
Eagerly, Spike logged onto his computer and went straight to his favorite website: FanFiction.Net. He had been following several involving stories written about him and he was anxious to see if any of them had been updated.
The site was extremely slow but finally it showed up on his screen. He clicked on the "TV shows" link, waited impatiently for that page to load, and then selected the "Buffy" section. Another minute dragged by before the desired topic came up. Spike forgot the pokiness of the site, though, when he saw that "Because It's Not Wrong," "The Resurrection of Spike," and "Vortex" had all been updated that very day.
The summary for "Because It's Not Wrong" read: "Final chapter up! Buffy and Spike's wedding takes place." Spike had been following that story for months. At times he had wondered if the author would ever finish. Now he was seconds away from reading the conclusion of the gripping saga. He positioned his mouse and clicked on the link.
The story didn't come up. Instead a disturbing message appeared on an otherwise blank screen. It read, "site experiencing overload.. please come back in a few minutes." It must be a one-time glitch, Spike decided. He hit the reload button. The same damn message greeted him. By this point, Spike was beginning to get really annoyed. He paged back and clicked on the title again. This time the first chapter of "Because It's Not Wrong" displayed properly. All he had to do was access the last chapter and find out what happened at the wedding. He selected the 33rd chapter from the dropdown box and waited.
"site experiencing overload.. please come back in a few minutes."
"Goddamn bloody hell!" Spike screamed in frustration. No matter what combination of buttons he hit or pages he tried, chapter 33 would not show up.
After several minutes of clicking and cursing, he managed to make his way back to the main "Buffy" page for another try. There, two new chapters of "The Resurrection of Spike" awaited him. The story had left off at a crucial point: Following Spike's death, Buffy had reconciled with Angel, but she had just found out that Willow had performed a spell that had brought Spike back as a human. How would she react? Desperate to see, Spike selected the new link.
"site experiencing overload.. please come back in a few minutes."
"Fuck!" Spike shouted. Then, with a great effort, he managed to calm himself. "Vortex" was his last chance. That one had to show up correctly, right? He went back to the appropriate page, chose the title, clicked, and waited.
"site experiencing overload.. please come back in a few minutes."
The next sound heard was a crash as Spike heaved his computer out the window.