Part 2 - "Apprehensions"
- interesting to note, the word not only means 'anxiety', but 'understanding, realising'. Yes, I have been spending too much quality time with my thesaurus. I've been trying to expand my already too large vocab more for the upcoming English exams (I'm almost as bad as Giles for people not understanding me). And if anyone needs any Latin translated for a fic, I'm taking Latin too. Stupid stupid stupid. Bloody British examining boards. I'll stop ranting now.
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Cordelia kept staring, but he wouldn't disappear. Angel appeared to be trying the same technique, while Wesley was frantically to digging around the messy apartment for a crossbow. Eventually, she felt she'd have to say something.
"Well, we can't just leave him there. It's cruel." Angel looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "To me! Someone might see. Someone important. Why don't you take him and dump him in the nearest trash can, and he'll be so out of it when he wakes up he probably won't even remember..." Unfortunately, Angel didn't seem to like that idea.
"No, he'll just go and hurt someone. Or come back more sober, and try to hurt you. We need to keep him somewhere where we can keep an eye on him before sending him back wherever he came from."
Cordelia sighed. "Fine. Come in, Spike." She looked expectantly at Angel. "You can drag him in now, right?" Angel just stared at her as if she had just done something... incredibly stupid.
"I actually meant that we could take him to the Hyperion and chain him up in the basement, where the decorators aren't going."
"Oh. Oh no. Uhh, I uninvite you, Spike?" she said, hopefully. "Not gonna work, is it." Angel shook his head. "Oh well, the chains are in the bed room. What?" she asked, taking in Angel's shocked look. Getting it, she added: "Ew, no. No, really not into that. No, it's in case you decide to become Mr Killing Spree, again. You think I trust you that much?" Angel nodded his understanding, a little hurt. So it was true, but still. He supposed he deserved some apprehension from his friends after the last couple of months, and the tight-rope between good and evil he had been walking, but for some reason, having it come from Cordelia hurt. Although, she had always been brutally honest.
Spike hadn't moved an inch during the entire exchange. Angel wondered why the hell he was here. He'd thought that Spike would be far, far away, probably in a foreign country, sulking over Dru. She'd obviously left him again. Drusilla wasn't really a long term girl, and, although Spike's end of the relationship had been for the long haul, Dru was continuously cheating, and using Spike as her backup, supporting guy. Spike was just a little too thick to notice, poor boy. Or too in love. That had always been a weakness of his. His capacity to love. Angel just wondered what had happened that he was drunk on Cordelia's doorstep, of all people. Maybe it was about Drusilla. But why come here? And how did he know where Cordy lived? Last time Spike had been shoving hot pokers through Angel's side, Cor hadn't found her new apartment yet. It was strange, but when Angel had gone to Sunnydale that Thanksgiving last year, he could have sworn that he had briefly seen Spike, in Giles' house. Angel had thought he was hallucinating, out of guilt. For some reason, the pain always got worse around Thanksgiving, and he had been so distracted by his constant staring at Buffy, he hadn't given his apparent sighting of Spike a second thought.
"Wesley, give me a hand." Wesley jumped out from where he had been hiding, and started protesting quite heartily.
"Angel, you surely cannot be thinking of allowing that... well, letting him into Cordelia's house? I never had the displeasure of coming face to face with William the Bloody, but I'll have you know that he is thought to be one of the most dangerous vampires of all time. I simply cannot allow you to endanger us all..." Wesley stopped as he thought through what had just happened... " but really, we'd be in more danger if we didn't chain him up here, as he has an open invitation, and this is not good." Angel looked at Wesley, as if to say 'are you quite finished?'. "Right."
Angel and Wesley both grabbed one of Spike's arms, and dragged him in, with Cordelia following them, carrying the empty liquor bottles that had been cluttering up the hallways. "Ugh, guys, could you please not make a mess of my nice clean carpet? And I do not want to know what was in some of these bottles. How much is it possible for one person to drink? My apartment is going to reek of alcohol for days." She looked with distaste at the bottles, and threw them in the nearest bin. Going to the cupboard in her room, she reached for the manacles and chains. She pulled all the covers off her bed, and Angel proceeded to chain Spike to it.
A good ten minutes later, after making sure that there was no way that anyone could ever escape the chains, they stood back to survey their handiwork. Cordelia didn't know why, but she almost felt sorry for the blond vampire. Something pretty horrible must have happened to him for him to have gotten in this state, and resorted to tracking Angel down in what was obviously a cry for help. At a guess, it was love-related. She remembered seeing Spike like this once before, and it was about love then.
Closing all the blinds, Angel sat down in the chair by the bed. "I'll stay here and watch him." Cordy nodded.
"Angel? I'll... I'll be in the next room. If you need me to watch him for a bit, just call. Or, if you get bored, and you want someone to talk to..." he smiled at her. Smiling back, for some reason feeling all warm inside, she nodded, and quietly left the room and closed the door behind her. She wasn't sure why, because it was highly unlikely that Spike would be woken by anything. He hadn't even moved as they had fairly roughly tied him to the bed. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought the alcohol had killed him. He'd certainly had enough.
The apartment was very quiet. Almost too quiet. Wesley had fled to his apartment, saying that he wanted nothing to do with the 'monster we seem to be looking after.' She was glad he had gone. There was only so much research a girl could take, and Spike's little interruption was a slight relief. She curled back up on the sofa, with one of her magazines, and found herself thinking about Angel again. She'd been doing that a lot lately. She would be doing something completely unrelated to him, like reading, or cooking, and suddenly she would be thinking about how glad she was to have him back. She had missed him over the past months. It had been horrible going to work, and not hearing him complain about her filing system, or her coffee, or asking more personal questions that obviously made him a bit uncomfortable, like who she was dating, how the acting career was going. He wasn't a very casual guy, and he obviously had to make an effort to make small talk sometimes, but she thought it was sweet. What had been even worse was not having him smile at her. He didn't smile a lot, but when he did, he looked absolutely gorgeous, and she went all gooey inside. Well, he always looked gorgeous, and she more or less always felt butterflies when she was around him...
Oh god, she'd developed a crush! On her boss! Okay, breathe Cordy, breathe. She couldn't believe she hadn't worked out what it was. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Well, there was no way he felt the same. No. And it would pass. Definitely. She'd just have to try to behave normally around him. Although, it wasn't a sudden thing. She'd thought he was very handsome from the first time she met him, back in Sunnydale, and tried to steal him from Buffy. Then he had gone all evil, and it had put her off a bit. Only a crush, only a crush, it'll pass, she repeated to herself. She just prayed that no-one else would notice.
* * *
Angel had decided that volunteering to babysit unconscious Spike had definitely not been a good idea. It gave him too much time to sit and think. Not that he didn't do that all the time anyway, but being in Cordelia's bedroom sent all his thoughts in one particular direction. The fact that maybe, there was a slight chance, that perhaps he had a small fixation on his secretary. Ever since she had kissed him the previous night - on the cheek, but still - he had been trying to place the tingly feelings in the pit of his stomach. He had since realised that he might just have a slight crush on Cordelia. If a slight crush meant that every time he saw her, he had to think of some of the really nasty things he had done as Angelus to stop himself from grabbing her, telling her how he felt, and kissing her senseless. He knew that she didn't feel anything similar for him, that she would probably laugh, then become really uncomfortable around her crazy, crazy boss, but he could only resist the urges for so long.
He had no idea why he had suddenly developed a crush on her. The best explanation was that it wasn't sudden at all. If he really admitted to it, he had felt at least a little something for her for a long while now. That also explained the insane jealousy and protectiveness towards her whenever she spent time in the company of other men. She had often been angry with him for scaring off her potential dates with the third degree, and Wesley was constantly reminding him that 'nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition', but he couldn't help it. He didn't think that any of them were good enough for her. Unfortunately, he didn't have the courage to let her know how he felt, just to see how she might react. He just didn't want to ruin their friendship.
Looking at the clock, he realised that it was getting close to sunrise. He had better get himself some blood before the sunlight flooded her apartment. Spike was still in an alcohol sodden dream world.
Walking into the living room, Angel could see her curled up on the sofa. He couldn't stop himself from walking over to get a better look. She was only wearing a pair of silk boxers, and a spaghetti-strap top. He couldn't help being fascinated. Kneeling down next to her, he carefully studied her face, trying not to let his gaze shift to her chest area. She was moving a little, and her eyes were flickering back and forth under her lids. She moaned. "Mmm. Ohhh, oh, that's nice." A very good dream. Angel just wanted to know who she was dreaming about so he could kill them. "Oh, yes, Angel..." Angel fell backwards with shock, knocking over the coffee table rather noisily. She opened her eyes, somewhat muddled by her dream. "Angel? We, we were just..." then she fully woke up. She turned bright red, and Angel jumped to his feet, pretending that he knew nothing. "Angel. Hi. Uh, I was... I was sleeping."
"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry, I... I needed to get some blood, and I tripped over the corner of the table, and knocked everything over..." Cordelia decided it was best not to question him, especially as she was having trouble distinguishing reality from a very, very nice dream. Although, if that had really happened, she would have to be chaining him up to the bed now, and searching for an Orb of Thessulah.
"Oh. Right. Did, uh, did our little drunken friend wake up with the world's worst hangover yet?"
"No, no, he's still very much asleep. Could you, uh, watch him for a bit, while I get something to eat?" Cordelia smiled. She could have some fun with this.
"Sure! Take your time." She jumped up, and almost skipped towards the bedroom with an evil look in her eyes. And Angel most certainly did NOT ogle her in her flushed, underclothed, slightly sleep-hazed state. Really.
Cordelia closed the bedroom door quietly behind her. Grinning, she crept up to the vampire on the bed. She just could not resist messing with him, especially as in this state he was definitely not able to hurt her. Also, it might help her forget about her dream, so she wouldn't do something stupid around Angel.
She leaned down just next to his ear. Everything was silent, and he was obviously just asleep at this point. Taking a deep breath, she yelled:
"Morning!!"
"Fucking hell!" Spike shouted. Grimacing at the pain radiating from every part of his body, his head even worse, he looked down at the chains, obviously a little disoriented and confused. "What happened?" he asked groggily, as he slowly recognised Cordelia. What the hell was he doing here?
"Well, you turned up on my doorstep, talked complete crap, got a bit amorous, I tried to seduce you and then... you lost consciousness." Cordelia quietly smiled at her embellishments, as she watched him try to sort through the blurry memories.
"Did I?" He asked apprehensively.
"Yeah! Took all my clothes off, dancing about, got out the baby oil, but it was no good." Spike groaned. Not that he didn't fancy her, but he didn't really want her like that. It would mean facing the wrath of the poof.
"You didn't, did you?" That didn't mean that he wouldn't have minded seeing it.
"Nope," she grinned, "but it wouldn't have made any difference if I had."
"You should have tried." She hit him over the head. "Ow! What was that for? And why the bloody hell have you got me all trussed up like this?"
"Uh, duh Spike! I didn't exactly feel like becoming a midnight snack for a hungover vampire."
"They didn't phone you and gloat?" She frowned. "Ask Willow. She'll tell you. Y'see, last year these lovely little soldier boys came prancing into my life and put this wonderful piece of scrap metal in my head. I can't bite anything. I can't even hurt anyone. Anyone human, that is."
"Why should I believe you?" Angel had been at the door, sniggering at Spike since he'd heard the yelling. He had felt more than a little jealous when Cordelia seemed to be coming on to Spike, but then realised that she was just fooling about with him.
"Angel. Didn't think you'd see me again for a while, did you? Did little miss Bitchy not tell you? I'm a neutered vamp now. Slayer's little lap dog. Although, she doesn't seem to tell you a lot about what goes on in good old Sunnyhell any more. You're not missin' out on much. I hate that girl. I wish she'd just hurry up and stake me in the heart. Save me some agony. Although, someone else could do it for me, not give that little cow the satisfaction."
"So, let me get this straight. You're here, because you want us to kill you." Angel wasn't really paying much attention to Spike's hungover ranting, but he did find it strange that the insults and references to Buffy didn't really make him feel anything much any more. He had a new life here, she had hers. Maybe he'd finally moved on. Funny how little the Slayer's name came up any more. He certainly hadn't bothered checking up on her by phoning Giles recently, which explained why he seemed to be so out of the loop when it came to Spike. Perhaps Spike was telling the truth. Why else would he come here?
"Dead straight. Be a love, make it quick." Spike looked hopefully at Angel, then at Cordelia. Neither of them came forward, however tempted Angel was. Cordelia moved towards the door.
"It's, what, 6 am? I'm sure Willow won't mind. I'll just check." Angel followed her out, while shooting a warning glance at Spike.
"What? 's not like I could try anything, even if I wanted to." To illustrate his point, he rattled the chains. Angel went to get his blood out of the microwave. "And, mate, if you're not going to do me the service of offing me, any chance I could get any of that..." Angel slammed the door on Spike's moaning, while Cordelia went to get the phone. That irritating bleached dimwit had the worst timing ever.
To be continued...
- interesting to note, the word not only means 'anxiety', but 'understanding, realising'. Yes, I have been spending too much quality time with my thesaurus. I've been trying to expand my already too large vocab more for the upcoming English exams (I'm almost as bad as Giles for people not understanding me). And if anyone needs any Latin translated for a fic, I'm taking Latin too. Stupid stupid stupid. Bloody British examining boards. I'll stop ranting now.
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Cordelia kept staring, but he wouldn't disappear. Angel appeared to be trying the same technique, while Wesley was frantically to digging around the messy apartment for a crossbow. Eventually, she felt she'd have to say something.
"Well, we can't just leave him there. It's cruel." Angel looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "To me! Someone might see. Someone important. Why don't you take him and dump him in the nearest trash can, and he'll be so out of it when he wakes up he probably won't even remember..." Unfortunately, Angel didn't seem to like that idea.
"No, he'll just go and hurt someone. Or come back more sober, and try to hurt you. We need to keep him somewhere where we can keep an eye on him before sending him back wherever he came from."
Cordelia sighed. "Fine. Come in, Spike." She looked expectantly at Angel. "You can drag him in now, right?" Angel just stared at her as if she had just done something... incredibly stupid.
"I actually meant that we could take him to the Hyperion and chain him up in the basement, where the decorators aren't going."
"Oh. Oh no. Uhh, I uninvite you, Spike?" she said, hopefully. "Not gonna work, is it." Angel shook his head. "Oh well, the chains are in the bed room. What?" she asked, taking in Angel's shocked look. Getting it, she added: "Ew, no. No, really not into that. No, it's in case you decide to become Mr Killing Spree, again. You think I trust you that much?" Angel nodded his understanding, a little hurt. So it was true, but still. He supposed he deserved some apprehension from his friends after the last couple of months, and the tight-rope between good and evil he had been walking, but for some reason, having it come from Cordelia hurt. Although, she had always been brutally honest.
Spike hadn't moved an inch during the entire exchange. Angel wondered why the hell he was here. He'd thought that Spike would be far, far away, probably in a foreign country, sulking over Dru. She'd obviously left him again. Drusilla wasn't really a long term girl, and, although Spike's end of the relationship had been for the long haul, Dru was continuously cheating, and using Spike as her backup, supporting guy. Spike was just a little too thick to notice, poor boy. Or too in love. That had always been a weakness of his. His capacity to love. Angel just wondered what had happened that he was drunk on Cordelia's doorstep, of all people. Maybe it was about Drusilla. But why come here? And how did he know where Cordy lived? Last time Spike had been shoving hot pokers through Angel's side, Cor hadn't found her new apartment yet. It was strange, but when Angel had gone to Sunnydale that Thanksgiving last year, he could have sworn that he had briefly seen Spike, in Giles' house. Angel had thought he was hallucinating, out of guilt. For some reason, the pain always got worse around Thanksgiving, and he had been so distracted by his constant staring at Buffy, he hadn't given his apparent sighting of Spike a second thought.
"Wesley, give me a hand." Wesley jumped out from where he had been hiding, and started protesting quite heartily.
"Angel, you surely cannot be thinking of allowing that... well, letting him into Cordelia's house? I never had the displeasure of coming face to face with William the Bloody, but I'll have you know that he is thought to be one of the most dangerous vampires of all time. I simply cannot allow you to endanger us all..." Wesley stopped as he thought through what had just happened... " but really, we'd be in more danger if we didn't chain him up here, as he has an open invitation, and this is not good." Angel looked at Wesley, as if to say 'are you quite finished?'. "Right."
Angel and Wesley both grabbed one of Spike's arms, and dragged him in, with Cordelia following them, carrying the empty liquor bottles that had been cluttering up the hallways. "Ugh, guys, could you please not make a mess of my nice clean carpet? And I do not want to know what was in some of these bottles. How much is it possible for one person to drink? My apartment is going to reek of alcohol for days." She looked with distaste at the bottles, and threw them in the nearest bin. Going to the cupboard in her room, she reached for the manacles and chains. She pulled all the covers off her bed, and Angel proceeded to chain Spike to it.
A good ten minutes later, after making sure that there was no way that anyone could ever escape the chains, they stood back to survey their handiwork. Cordelia didn't know why, but she almost felt sorry for the blond vampire. Something pretty horrible must have happened to him for him to have gotten in this state, and resorted to tracking Angel down in what was obviously a cry for help. At a guess, it was love-related. She remembered seeing Spike like this once before, and it was about love then.
Closing all the blinds, Angel sat down in the chair by the bed. "I'll stay here and watch him." Cordy nodded.
"Angel? I'll... I'll be in the next room. If you need me to watch him for a bit, just call. Or, if you get bored, and you want someone to talk to..." he smiled at her. Smiling back, for some reason feeling all warm inside, she nodded, and quietly left the room and closed the door behind her. She wasn't sure why, because it was highly unlikely that Spike would be woken by anything. He hadn't even moved as they had fairly roughly tied him to the bed. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought the alcohol had killed him. He'd certainly had enough.
The apartment was very quiet. Almost too quiet. Wesley had fled to his apartment, saying that he wanted nothing to do with the 'monster we seem to be looking after.' She was glad he had gone. There was only so much research a girl could take, and Spike's little interruption was a slight relief. She curled back up on the sofa, with one of her magazines, and found herself thinking about Angel again. She'd been doing that a lot lately. She would be doing something completely unrelated to him, like reading, or cooking, and suddenly she would be thinking about how glad she was to have him back. She had missed him over the past months. It had been horrible going to work, and not hearing him complain about her filing system, or her coffee, or asking more personal questions that obviously made him a bit uncomfortable, like who she was dating, how the acting career was going. He wasn't a very casual guy, and he obviously had to make an effort to make small talk sometimes, but she thought it was sweet. What had been even worse was not having him smile at her. He didn't smile a lot, but when he did, he looked absolutely gorgeous, and she went all gooey inside. Well, he always looked gorgeous, and she more or less always felt butterflies when she was around him...
Oh god, she'd developed a crush! On her boss! Okay, breathe Cordy, breathe. She couldn't believe she hadn't worked out what it was. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Well, there was no way he felt the same. No. And it would pass. Definitely. She'd just have to try to behave normally around him. Although, it wasn't a sudden thing. She'd thought he was very handsome from the first time she met him, back in Sunnydale, and tried to steal him from Buffy. Then he had gone all evil, and it had put her off a bit. Only a crush, only a crush, it'll pass, she repeated to herself. She just prayed that no-one else would notice.
* * *
Angel had decided that volunteering to babysit unconscious Spike had definitely not been a good idea. It gave him too much time to sit and think. Not that he didn't do that all the time anyway, but being in Cordelia's bedroom sent all his thoughts in one particular direction. The fact that maybe, there was a slight chance, that perhaps he had a small fixation on his secretary. Ever since she had kissed him the previous night - on the cheek, but still - he had been trying to place the tingly feelings in the pit of his stomach. He had since realised that he might just have a slight crush on Cordelia. If a slight crush meant that every time he saw her, he had to think of some of the really nasty things he had done as Angelus to stop himself from grabbing her, telling her how he felt, and kissing her senseless. He knew that she didn't feel anything similar for him, that she would probably laugh, then become really uncomfortable around her crazy, crazy boss, but he could only resist the urges for so long.
He had no idea why he had suddenly developed a crush on her. The best explanation was that it wasn't sudden at all. If he really admitted to it, he had felt at least a little something for her for a long while now. That also explained the insane jealousy and protectiveness towards her whenever she spent time in the company of other men. She had often been angry with him for scaring off her potential dates with the third degree, and Wesley was constantly reminding him that 'nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition', but he couldn't help it. He didn't think that any of them were good enough for her. Unfortunately, he didn't have the courage to let her know how he felt, just to see how she might react. He just didn't want to ruin their friendship.
Looking at the clock, he realised that it was getting close to sunrise. He had better get himself some blood before the sunlight flooded her apartment. Spike was still in an alcohol sodden dream world.
Walking into the living room, Angel could see her curled up on the sofa. He couldn't stop himself from walking over to get a better look. She was only wearing a pair of silk boxers, and a spaghetti-strap top. He couldn't help being fascinated. Kneeling down next to her, he carefully studied her face, trying not to let his gaze shift to her chest area. She was moving a little, and her eyes were flickering back and forth under her lids. She moaned. "Mmm. Ohhh, oh, that's nice." A very good dream. Angel just wanted to know who she was dreaming about so he could kill them. "Oh, yes, Angel..." Angel fell backwards with shock, knocking over the coffee table rather noisily. She opened her eyes, somewhat muddled by her dream. "Angel? We, we were just..." then she fully woke up. She turned bright red, and Angel jumped to his feet, pretending that he knew nothing. "Angel. Hi. Uh, I was... I was sleeping."
"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry, I... I needed to get some blood, and I tripped over the corner of the table, and knocked everything over..." Cordelia decided it was best not to question him, especially as she was having trouble distinguishing reality from a very, very nice dream. Although, if that had really happened, she would have to be chaining him up to the bed now, and searching for an Orb of Thessulah.
"Oh. Right. Did, uh, did our little drunken friend wake up with the world's worst hangover yet?"
"No, no, he's still very much asleep. Could you, uh, watch him for a bit, while I get something to eat?" Cordelia smiled. She could have some fun with this.
"Sure! Take your time." She jumped up, and almost skipped towards the bedroom with an evil look in her eyes. And Angel most certainly did NOT ogle her in her flushed, underclothed, slightly sleep-hazed state. Really.
Cordelia closed the bedroom door quietly behind her. Grinning, she crept up to the vampire on the bed. She just could not resist messing with him, especially as in this state he was definitely not able to hurt her. Also, it might help her forget about her dream, so she wouldn't do something stupid around Angel.
She leaned down just next to his ear. Everything was silent, and he was obviously just asleep at this point. Taking a deep breath, she yelled:
"Morning!!"
"Fucking hell!" Spike shouted. Grimacing at the pain radiating from every part of his body, his head even worse, he looked down at the chains, obviously a little disoriented and confused. "What happened?" he asked groggily, as he slowly recognised Cordelia. What the hell was he doing here?
"Well, you turned up on my doorstep, talked complete crap, got a bit amorous, I tried to seduce you and then... you lost consciousness." Cordelia quietly smiled at her embellishments, as she watched him try to sort through the blurry memories.
"Did I?" He asked apprehensively.
"Yeah! Took all my clothes off, dancing about, got out the baby oil, but it was no good." Spike groaned. Not that he didn't fancy her, but he didn't really want her like that. It would mean facing the wrath of the poof.
"You didn't, did you?" That didn't mean that he wouldn't have minded seeing it.
"Nope," she grinned, "but it wouldn't have made any difference if I had."
"You should have tried." She hit him over the head. "Ow! What was that for? And why the bloody hell have you got me all trussed up like this?"
"Uh, duh Spike! I didn't exactly feel like becoming a midnight snack for a hungover vampire."
"They didn't phone you and gloat?" She frowned. "Ask Willow. She'll tell you. Y'see, last year these lovely little soldier boys came prancing into my life and put this wonderful piece of scrap metal in my head. I can't bite anything. I can't even hurt anyone. Anyone human, that is."
"Why should I believe you?" Angel had been at the door, sniggering at Spike since he'd heard the yelling. He had felt more than a little jealous when Cordelia seemed to be coming on to Spike, but then realised that she was just fooling about with him.
"Angel. Didn't think you'd see me again for a while, did you? Did little miss Bitchy not tell you? I'm a neutered vamp now. Slayer's little lap dog. Although, she doesn't seem to tell you a lot about what goes on in good old Sunnyhell any more. You're not missin' out on much. I hate that girl. I wish she'd just hurry up and stake me in the heart. Save me some agony. Although, someone else could do it for me, not give that little cow the satisfaction."
"So, let me get this straight. You're here, because you want us to kill you." Angel wasn't really paying much attention to Spike's hungover ranting, but he did find it strange that the insults and references to Buffy didn't really make him feel anything much any more. He had a new life here, she had hers. Maybe he'd finally moved on. Funny how little the Slayer's name came up any more. He certainly hadn't bothered checking up on her by phoning Giles recently, which explained why he seemed to be so out of the loop when it came to Spike. Perhaps Spike was telling the truth. Why else would he come here?
"Dead straight. Be a love, make it quick." Spike looked hopefully at Angel, then at Cordelia. Neither of them came forward, however tempted Angel was. Cordelia moved towards the door.
"It's, what, 6 am? I'm sure Willow won't mind. I'll just check." Angel followed her out, while shooting a warning glance at Spike.
"What? 's not like I could try anything, even if I wanted to." To illustrate his point, he rattled the chains. Angel went to get his blood out of the microwave. "And, mate, if you're not going to do me the service of offing me, any chance I could get any of that..." Angel slammed the door on Spike's moaning, while Cordelia went to get the phone. That irritating bleached dimwit had the worst timing ever.
To be continued...