Chapter 8: Hello, Lover.
By: Hope
Buffy slowly made her way up the stairs, clutching onto the railing the whole time as though she was afraid that she was going to fall. When that green demon…when Lorne had looked at her she had suddenly become overwhelmed with so many emotions, everything from the pain of losing her first tooth to being ripped out of heaven and dealing with the consequences of kissing Spike.
She reached the top of the stairs and began walking through the long corridors. "…Fred?" Buffy said quietly, that was what Lorne had said her name was?
Buffy heard a loud thud then footsteps coming from one of the rooms to her left. She held her stake out at her side, ready incase a vampire were to attack when she heard the screaming. "No! Please don't hurt me…please." Buffy picked up her pace and began running to the room where the screams were coming from. She entered and looked around the room, it was empty except for the tall vampire towering over the small brunette who was lying down in the corner, looking all over the room for any way to escape. "Hey, buddy." Buffy said, trying to divert the vampire's attention from the girl.
The vampire turned and faced Buffy, growling as he did so but when he saw her he smiled. "Your not the real one…" he muttered, turning back to his prey.
"Excuse me? Real one?" Buffy said, beginning to get pissed off. This vampire looked as though he was only sixteen to seventeen years old when he was turned, his face was slightly chubby and his brown hair looked like it hadn't been washed for weeks, along with his ripped Hanson shirt.
He turned around, looking at her again as though he was tired of explaining himself. "My friend told me about you…before he was dusted." The brunette slowly got up from the corner and began edging towards the door as the vampire walked closer to the slayer, sizing her up. "But any type of slayer is a good slayer…" he said, putting up his fists. "Bring it on, babe." He added sardonically.
"Buffy…" the girl whimpered. Fred's face went blank when she heard the name…Angel's buffy. This was the one person in the world that Angel actually cared about as much if not possibly more than his new son. Buffy the vampire slayer. The vampire charged at buffy with a punch, she grabbed his arm and flipped him over. "There is only one kind of slayer." She said as she launched the stake at his heart. "And that's me…" she whispered as his ashes covered the floor where he was just laying moments ago, looking up at her in fear.
Buffy turned her head to the brunette. She was skinny and although was safe from the vampire still looked frightened…but not for the same reason. "Hi…" buffy smiled weakly, picking up her stake and walking out the door of the room, turning her head back to make sure that Fred was following her.
Fred followed the blonde out of the hotel room, watching her every step very closely. After being stuck in that alternate universe for so long, Fred had become a good judge of what a person was like, or their defense and attack at least by the way they walked and their minor body movements. "Are you here because of the baby?" Fred finally asked as Buffy stopped and turned around to look at her, confused. "What…"
"Fred?! Are you here?" Buffy heard the doors bursting open to the front of the hotel. She quickly ran over to the small balcony thing that was at the top of the stairs, lookng down at the lobby.
Standing in the doorway was Angel, his face was streaked in dirt and his eyes darted from Spike to Lorne, not knowing what was going on.
Spike and Angel's eyes met and Spike smirked, giving him a little mocking wave. "What are you doing here…" Angel growled, his gaze not leaving Spike's.
"I'm here for the party…mate." Spike added, throwing his cigarette onto the ground and putting it out with his foot. Without any signs, Angel charged at Spike.
"No!" Buffy yelled, jumping off of the balcony, swinging onto the chandelier that hung on the ceiling and then landing in-between the two vampires.
"…Buffy?" Angel asked, once more confused. His eyes darted from each part of the room, from Lorne, to Spike and then to Buffy again.
Fred stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the scene. How could she ever have feelings for Angel or even think that there could ever be a chance between them? There was obviously no way she could ever live up to Buffy…in any realm of thought. Angel didn't even notice her when Buffy was mentioned, whether she was actually there or not. The only woman that Angel could ever love was Buffy.
"I know this seems weird but…" She looked back at Spike then at Angel again. "Spike's with me, he's here to help." "Help?"
Meanwhile….
"Who are those people with them?" Lilah Morgan pointed out Spike and Buffy with her finger on the TV screen.
"We don't know yet, running image test on both of them as we speak." The technician answered with as much emotion as a computer as he typed away furiously on the keyboard. That was all that Lilah expected of him though, for all she knew he WAS a computer, or an android at least. "Matches found. Bloody, comma, William the. Summers, comma Buffy, semi colon, slayer."
"Slayer…" Lilah said, smiling at the camera as the looked at the image of Buffy Summers. "Maybe she'll be of some use to us, they do kill vampires don't they?" Lilah asked no one in particular when Gavin Park walked into the room, obviously hearing her last comment.
"Buffy Summers…" He laughed, crossing his arms and looking at the picture. Lilah turned around and faced her fellow lawyer and rolled her eyes. He was new to the firm and was getting closer and closer to the top of Lilah's hit list with every remark he made about her or anything else for that matter.
"And you find this funny how?" She asked him, peering over her shoulder to see him opening up some folders from inside of his brief case and handing them to her.
Lilah took the papers and skimmed through them. "You obviously haven't been doing your homework on Angel, Lilah." He said.
"You'd be surprised at all the things I know about Angelu…."
"Yes, you probably do know more things about Angelus, his demon form than he himself might know but have you ever considered looking for things AFTER he got his soul." Gavin said as Lilah turned around to face him, giving him her full attention. "A vampire in love with the slayer. Two years ago Angel reverted back to his old self, lost his soul and all that. You know how the curse goes Lilah, don't you?" He asked, not trying to hide his glee of triumph at all. "Yes I am well aware of the boundaries and…"
"One true moment of happiness and he loses his soul. This Buffy Summers gave him that moment of happiness, they were in love. And from what my sources tell me, they still are." He continued, beginning to stride back and forth in the small room. "A few weeks ago Angel left L.A. to go meet this Buffy Summers whom has seemed to come back from the dead yet again, we still haven't figured that part out totally but we will soon. They met at a secret location and hardly knew what to say at each other, it was quite amusing to watch let me tell you." He began to chuckle.
"Does this have a point?" Lilah asked, throwing the pile of papers on Buffy and Angel onto the side of the desk.
"The point is that this girl is a bigger threat to us than Angel himself is. You've met Faith, you and Lindsay also hired Faith if I do recall so. This slayer isn't like that." He said, looking back at the screen then at Lilah. "This girl has averted over 4 apocalypses, overcome the unbearable and survived under the toughest conditions. She is certainly an enigma. She sent her own lover to hell Lilah. And from what my sources…"
Lilah was tempted to make another comment about 'his sources' but remained quiet, wanting to know the rest of the story. "The point is that this girl will stop at nothing to defeat what she sees as evil. If she wants it dead it will eventually die a slow and painful death and…."
"Sir." The technician interrupted Gavin. "We have lost all visual and audio feed from the hotel."
Gavin rushed over to the technician's side and looked at the snowy screens. "Dammit!" He yelled, pounding his fist onto the table.
Back at the hotel….
"A chip? In his head?" Angel laughed, still not able to believe that William the Bloody, Spike, or whatever he was going by now was incapable of hurting any living being.
"Yea." Buffy said as she looked around the room, trying to see if she could recognize anything about it. Maybe if she saw something that she remembered then she would be able to recall that memory of him being human, of his touch… "I don't mean to sound rude…I'm happy to see you but…" Angel hesitated, looking at a stuffed bear that was placed on a chair near his bed. "Why did you call me before?"
Buffy looked down at her hands and smiled sheepishly. "Angel…two years ago, I…I came here to confront you about thanksgiving…" Angel looked at her with such longing. There wasn't a moment that passed where he didn't think about what could have happened to them if he had never asked to become a vampire again. He now knew that Conner would never be born but he still couldn't help wondering…wanting. "I need to ask you something, I need to know that I'm not just crazy…or hallucinating." Her eyes began to tear at the edges as the last few words came out of her mouth. "But…"
"Slayer." Spike walked into the room with his usual 'bad boy' swagger. He saw Buffy and Angel sitting on the bed and swallowed hard, hoping that his emotions wouldn't take over and control him, no matter how much he wanted them too. "The lil' bit is on the phone." He finally said, throwing the phone to Buffy and then walking out of the room.
Spike made his way into an empty hotel room, finding a small chair and throwing it across the room in rage. Buffy had just saved his life from Angel who would have no doubt...well lost to him but it was a good gesture at that. So one moment she's doing the heroic thing, trying to make it seem like she was saving Spike and then the next minute she was up in a hotel room with her ex. And the only thing that this did to Spike was give him more reason to kill Angel, and soon.
