Title:
A Measure of Happiness
Author:
Valerie
Disclaimer: All characters
owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox, etc. I own nothing.
Summary: More post-Giftage.
This is essentially a B/S romance (with sex, of course), but also will eventually
deal with grander themes of good and evil. Maybe.
Rating: R for adult
concepts, language and semi-descriptive sex.
Spoilers: Through the end
of Season 5
Feedback: Yes please!
Distribution: Sure. Just
let me know.
Author's
note: The title is from a song of the same name by Matthew Sweet. The Angel folks cross over into this chapter and it is
INCREDIBLY ANGSTY! I was an emotional wreck
after writing this. Enjoy!
Chapter 13: Thought I
Knew You
Anya sat behind the counter
at the Magic Box at the end of the day, plugging inventory into the new
computer. She had dumped the old cash register and installed a state-of-the-art
computer system, with a much faster connection to her credit card swipey thing.
She hunched over the old inventory book for a minute, then went back to typing.
The bell at the top of the
door rang loudly as Xander came in. "Hey, baby," he said, ducking
behind the counter for a kiss. He pulled the inventory book off her lap and put
his arms around her, smelling her hair as he hugged her. "Isn't it about
time you bagged this for the night and came home with me?"
Anya struggled out of his
embrace. "I just wanted to try to finish this so I could get rid of this
old musty book once and for all," she said, indicating the old inventory
log. She tried to turn back to the computer, but Xander forced her to look at
him.
"An, it's almost 9:00,
and you haven't eaten. I promise this book will be here tomorrow," he
said, pulling her off her stool and from behind the counter. "Come home
with me."
"Fine. Fine. Let me
just get my purse," she said, reaching behind the counter.
"And another thing,
Anya, how many times have I told you to actually lock that door after you
close? Now that you are managing this place, you are the proverbial Spinal Tap
drummer in this analogy." As she turned back to him, he reached out and
touched her face gently. "I worry about you when you're here by yourself
after dark."
Anya rolled her eyes.
"I know. I promise I'll be more careful." She moved to kiss him,
wrapping her arms around his waist.
They stood together for a
while, their kiss becoming deeper. But they were interrupted by the ringing of
the bell again, and they looked up to see some unexpected visitors.
"Sorry to interrupt,
guys," Angel said as he came down the steps, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn on
his heels.
"You see what can get
in when you leave the door unlocked?" Xander said under his breath.
Angel fixed Xander with his
gaze. "Call the others. We've got a situation."
---------------------
Buffy's heartbeat began to
slow as she lay on her back, savoring the feelings she'd just experienced. She
rolled onto her side and looked at the man lying next to her. He was like a
drug to her, she realized; she had initially assumed she could stop this any
time, but she was realizing that maybe that wasn't the case.
"What is it,
pet?"
"Nothing," she
said, kissing him quickly on the lips. "We should get up. Dawn might be
back soon."
"No she won't. She's
at the Bronze with her friends. If you told her to be home by 10:30, then that's
when she'll be here, or possibly later, but certainly not earlier. She's
fifteen, remember?"
Buffy sighed. "I guess
you're right." And she pinned him to the pillows with a kiss that put all
thoughts of Dawn squarely out of their heads. Spike's arms came up and
encircled her, pulling her close against him. After a while, Buffy pulled away
and began kissing him seductively down his neck and to his chest. She gradually
worked her way down as Spike moaned in anticipation. Her hair tickled his
stomach as she teased him with her mouth. Spike arched his back and closed his
eyes, overcome with longing for her.
The phone rang.
Buffy looked up. "I
should answer that."
"No, I bloody well
think you shouldn't," Spike growled, his voice thick with desire.
"I have to," she
said, scooting to the edge of the bed, "it might be Dawn." She
grabbed the phone off the charger and pressed 'Talk'.
"Hello?"
"Buffy, it's
Xander."
"Oh, hey,
Xander," she said as Spike groaned and gave her an I-told-you-so
expression. "What's up?"
"Oh, you know, the
usual. Big honkin' evil afoot. Cordelia's had a vision, and it wasn't of the
good."
"As I understand it,
they never are. What's the plan?"
"We're meeting at the
magic shop, ASAP."
"Be there in a
few," she said, hanging up. Buffy stood up and started pulling on her
clothes, which were scattered around the room. "Get up and get dressed.
We've gotta go fight evil."
-------------------------
"What's the
story?" Willow said as she and Tara approached the war table in the back
of the magic shop. Wesley was working at a laptop computer, pouring through the
scanned images of one of Giles' books. Cordelia looked over his shoulder,
absently massaging her temples. "Oh, you guys are actually all here.
All Xander said was Cordelia had a vision, so I assumed you had phoned it
in."
Angel turned to her.
"This is too big. We've gotta get in there and put a stop to it
tonight."
Willow raised her eyebrows.
"What is it?"
"Well, I don't want to
go into a lot of detail before Buffy gets here, but –"
"I'm here." Buffy
trotted down the steps and toward the back of the magic shop with Spike on her
heels. "What's the story?" she asked, looking around with a surprised
expression. "Must be bad for you guys to have all come from L.A."
"That's it!"
Cordelia yelled, pointing at the screen. "That's the demon I saw."
Wesley frowned.
"Polgara demons. That's not good at all. They have –"
"Bone skewers that jut
from their arms. We've run into one before," she added, off Wesley's look.
"And then later we ran into one of the arms attached to something else,
but that's a much longer story. What else do you know?"
Cordelia took a deep
breath. "In my vision, I saw six of them, standing around a hole in the
ground. I don't know what exactly was coming out of that hole, but I got the
distinct impression that it was going to be very, very bad. I know that in our
line of work, things are always very, very bad but I mean it this time.
Bad."
"So, anyone got any
guesses as to what might be coming out of that hole?" Xander asked.
"This doesn't sound
like your typical Polgara M.O.," commented Anya. "They tend to be the
loner type."
"The Rise of the
Ba'ar-Pama," Wesley said in a hushed tone, still reading.
"You're kidding,"
said Angel.
"The what of the
what-what?" asked Xander.
Angel began to explain,
circling the table. "The Ba'ar-Pama is an ancient creature of evil. It
exists between dimensions, and can be summoned through a fairly complex ritual.
I'm guessing that's what Cordy saw." Angel's pacing had taken him directly
behind where Spike was standing. He stopped walking, and almost imperceptibly
his nostrils flared and his eyes widened. "It, ah, it…"
Wesley picked up the story
when Angel faltered. "It uses demons like the Polgara, who act very much
on instinct without a lot of higher thought. It… contacts them psychically
somehow, forces them to perform the ritual that will free it, allow it to exist
in our dimension."
"I'm just knowin' I
don't wanna know, but I gotta ask," said Gunn. "What happens if they
free it?"
"Mass destruction. It
will make the Mayor's Ascension look like a picnic by comparison," Wesley
said to the room at large.
Everyone shuddered at the
thought of that. "OK, so we stop them from freeing it. How do we stop them
from freeing it?" Tara asked nervously.
"Buffy, can I talk to
you alone?" Buffy jumped at Angel's voice in her ear, looking up to find
him standing next to her. She looked at him questioningly.
"Sure." She
headed toward the training room and he followed. She absently listened to the
group brainstorming about stopping the Polgara as they went.
When they were in the
training room, Buffy turned to Angel. "What is it? Is there something
about this Ba'ar-whatever that you don't want the others to hear? Is it worse
than Wesley said?"
"Did you think I wouldn't
know?" His voice was like ice.
"What?" Buffy
asked, completely confused.
"You and Spike,"
he said very slowly through clenched teeth.
"I don't know what you
mean," she said, her mind racing. Please let him be talking about
anything else, please –
"Buffy, I'm a vampire,
remember?" He grabbed her arm, squeezing it painfully, and said very
softly and with dead calm, "I can smell him on you."
Her expression spoke
volumes, answering any remaining question in Angel's mind. If she had just
denied it, he might have believed her, the alternative being so repugnant to
him. He dropped her arm with disgust and stalked out of the training room.
Buffy put her face in her hands.
"The Polgara are
strong, but I remember Buffy said if you can break those bone-things off,
they're much more vulnerable," Xander was saying when Angel came back into
the room. He didn't hesitate. In vamp face and before anyone could react, he
went directly up to Spike and punched him hard in the face. Completely
unprepared, Spike hit the floor hard.
"Bloody – What the
hell is your problem?" Spike roared, his own demonic features coming out
in reaction to Angel's.
"You probably wanted
me to find out this way, didn't you?" Angel yelled.
"What?"
"You reek of
her." With that, Angel fell on Spike and began pummeling him mercilessly.
The others watched in mute horror, unsure what to do.
"STOP IT!" Buffy
had come out of the training room. She marched up to the two vampires fighting
on the floor and kicked Angel hard in the side, causing him to roll off of
Spike. She stood above them, her fists clenched at her side. "We don't
have time for this right now," she seethed.
Angel stood slowly, his
human visage returning. He faced off Buffy, then pointed a finger in her face.
"What you've done makes a mockery of all the sacrifices I made for
you," he said coldly, then paced to the far side of the room. Buffy closed
her eyes as they filled with tears.
"Angel, Buffy's right.
Whatever… this is, it must wait. We have serious matters to attend to."
Wesley turned to Buffy. "We need a battle plan."
Buffy took a large, shaky
breath and shook her head as if to clear it. "Right," she said, and
it was almost as if she physically donned the mantle of the Slayer. She stood
taller and looked around at everyone, the tears gone from her eyes.
"Willow, what can you and Tara do about this psychic connection between
the Polgara and the Ba'ar-Pama?"
Willow gave Buffy a
supportive look, having understand quicker than anyone what was going on
between Angel and Spike. "I've been thinking about that. I think that if
Tara and I link, we can attempt to break the connection. It will take all our
concentration, but I think we can do it."
"Good," said
Buffy. "Cordelia, where's this going down?"
"The cemetery over on
Main and Chestnut, I forget the name."
"Shady Rest,"
interjected Xander.
"Fine. We need to
split into two groups and flank the demons. I'll take Xander and Anya; Angel,
you bring your people around from the other side. We need axes," she said,
and Xander immediately headed for the weapons cabinet in the back. "Go for
the arms first, we need to disarm them. Literally." She looked at the
witches. "While we're fighting the Polgara, you two do your thing. Get as
close as you need to, but be careful."
Finally, she turned to
Spike, who had gotten up off the floor and now leaned against the ladder to the
loft. "Spike. You stay with Willow and Tara. Protect them. They won't be
able to defend themselves while they're doing this spell, and I need you to
keep any of these demons away from them."
"Count on it."
"OK, everybody
clear?" she said as Xander came back loaded with weaponry.
"Great." She grabbed a large battle axe. "Let's move." And
with that, Buffy marched out of the magic shop. Xander and Anya followed her.
There was a beat of silence
after they left. Then Spike walked up to Angel and faced him, invading his
personal space. "I'm gonna say this once. One, I didn't know you were
going to be here, so no, I didn't want you to find out this way." He
enumerated the points on his fingers. "Two, even if you're feeling ten
times the pain I felt when you took Dru from me, it isn't enough as far as
I'm concerned. And three, if you take any of your jealousy out on Buffy, I will
kill you. Count on the fact that as many times as I've threatened you, I've
never meant it more than I do right now." He backed away. "Come on,
girls, you two have work to do," he said to Willow and Tara, maintaining
his eye contact with Angel. Finally, he broke the contact and preceded the
witches out of the magic shop.
---------------------
Buffy kept up her march,
forcing Xander and Anya to trot to keep up. "Buffy! Slow down a little,
will ya?"
She stopped, then turned
around to wait for them. Xander looked at her uncomfortably. "Ah, Buff, what
Angel said … Did he mean, uh –"
Buffy's voice was cold and
completely without emotion. "That Spike and I are screwing. Yes. But
Xander, we aren't going to have this conversation right now." She turned
around and kept walking.
---------------------
Willow, Tara, and Spike
could see this interchange from further down the street, but couldn't hear what
was being said. Spike's posture positively hummed with anger as he stalked
along just ahead of the two witches. Tara and Willow exchanged nervous glances,
but neither could think of anything remotely helpful to say. Finally, Tara
trotted a little to catch up with Spike and took his cold hand in her own.
Spike looked at her with surprise in his eyes and she gave him a small,
sympathetic smile as she remembered facing a jealous man-turned-werewolf in the
halls of U.C. Sunnydale. They continued walking in silence.
---------------------
The gang from L.A. brought
up the rear of the group of warriors led by three people trying to stay as far
away from each other as possible.
Gunn smirked. "Wow, I
didn't know there was gonna be an angst parade. I should go get me a lawn chair
and a flag."
"Hush," said
Cordelia, eyeing Angel, who stalked a few paces in front of them.
Gunn lowered his voice.
"So lemme get this straight. The Slayer's doing the nasty with the Billy
Idol reject? The vamp that can't bite anyone, right?"
Cordelia shrugged. "I
guess."
"Has anyone told her
she's a Vampire Slayer, not a Vampire Lay—"
"Gunn, be quiet."
This from Wesley.
"I'm just sayin'. And
Angel could tell this cause he could ... smell it?" he said, wrinkling his
nose. "Man, I wouldn't –"
Angel turned suddenly.
"Yes and I can hear pretty well too, so why don't you take their advice
and shut your mouth."
Gunn raised his hands
placatingly. "Sorry, man." They continued on their way to the
cemetery.
------------------------
They assembled as three
distinct groups. Buffy had already scouted ahead and found the tableau that
Cordelia described. She returned and began issuing commands. "They're over
there," she said, pointing. "Xander, you, Anya and I will veer to the
north, attack from there. Angel, the you guys take the south, count to sixty,
then move in. Willow, how long will this take?"
"I don't know, Buffy.
It could take several minutes."
"We'll hold them off
the best we can. Ready? Go," she said, ducking low and running in the
general direction she had indicated. Wesley followed, leading Angel, Cordelia,
and Gunn. Spike, Willow, and Tara followed last.
Buffy used a nearby
mausoleum to shield herself from view of the demons. They stood in a circle
around what was indeed a large hole in the ground, chanting and occasionally
throwing things into the hole. She watched, counting. "57 ... 58 ... 59
... 60. Here we go." She ran out, axe swinging, and beheaded the first
demon she came to. His body toppled over and his head rolled into the hole.
"What happened to
going for the arms?" Xander yelled as the demons turned to face them.
Buffy shrugged. "I saw
an opportunity."
At that moment, with all
the demons facing Buffy and Xander, Angel and Gunn leapt out and attacked the
two closest to them. Although the Polgara were facing the wrong way, they were
aware of a threat this time and their reflexes were faster. Three of them swung
around at the sound of the attack from behind and met Angel and Gunn and now
Wesley, who had joined them. The remaining two continued advancing on Buffy and
Xander. On each side, Anya and Cordelia hung back. They would fight if they had
too, but neither was skilled enough in battle to enter the fray at this point.
The fight was ugly. The
bone spurs that were the Polgaras' weapons were long and deadly, and kept the
combatants from approaching too closely. Angel finally managed to get in a good
swing with his axe and injured one of the demons, causing it to drop to its
knees. Stepping on the protruding bone spur and pinning the demon to the
ground, he dropped his weapon, grasped the demon's head and gave a sharp twist.
It fell lifeless in front of him.
"Two down
already," said Wesley. "This is going quite well."
At that very moment, all
four of the remaining Polgaras whipped their heads around as one and looked off
to one side. Following their gaze, Buffy could make out Willow and Tara
standing several yards away, their hands clasped. Spike stood guard in front of
them. Again, as one, the demons ran for the two witches at full sprint.
"You spoke too soon,
English," said Gunn, and they ran after the demons.
As the demons approached,
they were faced down by a lone vampire who stood leaning almost casually on the
handle of his battle axe. He wore his game face and smiled. At this point,
violence was just what he needed.
As the first demon met him
and prepared to impale Spike with its natural weapon, Spike swung his axe in a complete
circle and connected with the demon's shoulder. The entire arm fell harmlessly
at Spike's feet and the demon roared and staggered backwards. Blood poured from
its shoulder, but the demon rebounded and attacked again, as if driven by some
unseen force. Spike swung the axe again, this time sinking it deep in the
demon's chest. The demon was defeated, but Spike lost precious seconds
dislodging his weapon, and two of the other demons were an instant away from
the oblivious witches.
Coming out of nowhere,
Buffy and Angel almost literally flew at the two Polgara, leaping onto their
backs and dropping along with them to the ground. They had dropped their
weapons, but in this close combat the ejectable bone spurs proved difficult to
use as well. Still, the demons were very strong and soon got the upper hand.
Angel bellowed in pain as
one of the spurs went through his arm, pinning him to the ground. The demon
positioned his other arm against Angel's chest. Angel flinched. It wasn't wood,
but it would hurt.
Buffy had rolled over and
over with her demon down a small hill. The demon headbutted her hard and she
was disoriented. She struggled, hoping that Willow and Tara would have long
enough.
Spike was locked in combat
with the last demon. He swung the axe but the Polgara caught it, jerking it out
of Spike's hands and dropping it. Spike roared and threw himself at the demon.
Suddenly, the ground
shuddered slightly and a loud clap like a sonic boom was heard. Willow and Tara
let go of each other and collapsed on the ground. The three Polgara demons
paused, looking around themselves in a disoriented way that indicated that they
weren't sure where they were or what they were doing. It was all their foes
needed.
Angel brought his free hand
around and cold-cocked the demon, grunting in pain as the bone spur moved in
his wounded arm. Wesley, standing over them, swung his axe and beheaded the
demon.
Buffy rolled over and
gained the upper hand over the Polgara who had been on top of her. Leaping up
and holding out her hand, she felt rather than saw Xander's presence as he
slapped his axe into her outstretched palm. With a biting strike, she brought
it down like a woodcutter into the demon's chest.
Spike straddled the demon
he had leapt upon and with a swift movement, broke its neck.
There was a moment of
silence.
"Willow!" Xander
ran to help Willow, who was coming around, into a sitting position. Tara
groaned and pushed herself up with her hands, then sat up as well.
The two witches grinned at
each other. "It felt like we did it," said Willow.
"We did. But your nose
is bleeding again, sweetheart." Tara smiled at Willow as she wiped her
nose with her sleeve. They struggled to stand.
Xander supported them on
either side. "Yeah, I'd say you definitely did something. It was real
wrath of God-type stuff. Ground shaking, loud thunder clap, and then the demons
all looked like they were waking up after a night of binge drinking."
Wesley and Gunn came up to
congratulate the two witches. Cordelia helped Angel dislodge himself from the
demon and then she wrapped a makeshift bandage around the wound in his arm.
As most of the group
congratulated themselves on their success, three stood apart from the warm
celebration. Angel's eyes met Buffy's, and for a long moment they stared at
each other. Then without a word, Angel ripped his eyes away and turned, walking
toward the cemetery exit. Buffy watched him go, a look of pain in her eyes.
Cordelia smiled
apologetically at the others. "That's sort of our ride home." She,
Wesley, and Gunn said their goodbyes and turned to follow Angel.
As they left, Gunn could be
heard saying, "Man, I am not looking forward to this ride."
Buffy met Spike's eyes on
the other side of the group. He took a hesitant step toward her. She turned
away and fled the cemetery.
"Buffy!" Spike
called, preparing to chase her, but Willow put a restraining hand on his arm.
"Let her go."
TBC.
