Paradise for a day
Chapter ??: Fill-In
By Hope

"I bloody hell won't let you affect me slayer…" Spike said, furiously lighting a cigarette. He couldn't stand seeing them together, no matter what it was about. It was as though the second that she saw Angel, Spike no longer existed.

"E-e-excuse me…." A small voice said from the door. Spike turned around and smiled at the petite brunette. There was something on her face that he hadn't seen cause by him for too long. Fear. She obviously noticed that Spike had no reflection and walked cautiously closer to him, revealing a large cross from behind her.

"It's alright mate, I'm harmless." Spike said, throwing his cigarette to the ground.

"Y-you came here with Buffy." She said it more like a statement than a question.

"Yea, I came with the slayer." Spike said, picking up the chair that he threw across the room and sitting in it.

Fred stood across from him in silence, looking around the room and then the floor. "Well are you going to ask me anything? It's not like I'm getting any younger mate, I'm already a few hundred years old." Spike said while lighting another cigarette.

"Oh right…" Fred said, looking at Spike but then quickly looking back down at the ground. "Do you know why you came…it's just its so…."

"Sudden?" Spike finished the thought, looking out the large balcony style windows, at the full moon.

"Yes…" Fred said, looking back down at the floor.

"The slayer said she needed to see Angel, that he needed her help…" Spike said, throwing another cigarette to the floor with as much rage as possible. "She'd never do that for me. Possibly for that Riley boy that packed up and left her last year but never for me." Spike said, fumbling through his pocket for yet another cigarette. "The problem is that she denies that I exist…she can't make me go away, she could never make me go away…" Spike began rambling as Fred tried to gain the courage to ask him another question.

She had never seen a vampire besides Angel or Darla, none that she had a conversation with at least and she could sense that this one didn't have a soul…a little trait that she had picked up by being stuck in that hell dimension for five years. But why would he… "So I went with her, figured that I might be able to help, get back on her good side." Spike finished, throwing his carton of cigarettes onto the floor.

Fred didn't understand what he was even talking about. From what she had heard, in this dimension and the one that she had been imprisoned in, vampires and demons alike feared the slayer more than almost anything else. Why would he want to help her?

~`~`~`~`

"How long will it take for you to fix this damn thing?" Gavin asked as he paced back and fourth, trying to make the time go by faster.

"I'm working on it as fast as I can sir." The technician replied robotically.

Lilah could hardly contain her childish giggles as she watched her in-work nemesis pace back and fourth, waiting for his precious camera's to be reinstated so that he could watch Angel and his friends walk back and fourth through the hotel.

"What are you laughing at?" Gavin snapped a Lilah, noticing her smirk.

Lilah shuffled the papers that she had recently gotten from the bookkeeper in the basement. The full files of William the Bloody a.k.a. Spike and Buffy Anne Summers were placed in the palm of her hand…along with a few videos where Buffy was spotted with Angel. To Lilah, no matter if the slayer would be a valuable ally, she liked the affects that her presence was having on her fellow lawyers. "Nothing. Nothing at all." She replied swiftly as she held the papers tightly in her arms and walked out of the old tech. Room and towards her office.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"So…" Buffy said, looking down at the floor. Dawn had called to make sure that she was alright and that Angel hadn't gone crazy demon boy again (she thinks that Xander wanted Dawn to ask that part) but she had gotten off of the phone with her five minutes ago and since then she had been sitting there in silence with Angel, alone.

"Buffy…you didn't need to come here. I can handle everything that's going on and I really don't want you to be put in any da…"

"Danger?" Buffy asked, looking back up at Angel, into his once unreadable eyes. There had been a time when she would do anything for him. They had loved each other and everyone understood…no one tried to stop them. But they really were cursed, not just Angel, both of them.

"Buffy?" Angel asked, looking at her.

Buffy realized that she had spaced out and stood up and faced Angel. "My whole life is danger Angel. You don't need to try to shield me from it by not telling me what's going on, especially if any of you might be in danger." Buffy found herself beginning to speak louder and louder, unable to control the rage that began to boil up inside of her. Her yelling wasn't about Angel, in ways it was but it was about everything that had happened to her since she came back.

"I wasn't trying to." Angel stood up and walked near buffy, trying to put her arm around him but she pulled back. Suddenly uncertain of why she had come there, he didn't need her…had he ever needed her…?

Yes. He had needed her, once. And when he did need her she sent him to hell.

Angel took a step away from Buffy, not knowing what he was supposed to do. "You aren't there anymore Angel…" Buffy said, not knowing what exactly she was talking about, only know that it was coming from deep inside of her beating heart. "Your not there anymore…I…when I came back." Buffy began to say as tears started swelling in her eyes. She looked up at Angel and almost wished she hadn't but she couldn't stop now…once she started anything she was never able to stop it…

"I saw you when I came back, we met there but…something was different Angel, you and I both know it. And I don't want it to be different!"

"Buffy I can…"

"No! Listen to me!" She said, interrupting Angel. "I never wanted you to leave Sunnydale but I could deal with it. I thought that at least I would see you that you might even ask me for help if you ever needed it but you didn't. You made the message clear but I never wanted to believe it. Even when I was with Riley I didn't want to believe that you didn't want to be with me." She was sobbing now, unable to control her emotions but losing her original purpose…telling Angel about her dream. "You weren't there when I needed you the most and I know that I'm sounding selfish but it doesn't change the fact that you weren't there. For god sakes, Angel the only person that was really there for me was Spike! SPIKE! He was there when I needed someone. He listened and he kept his promises, and he might be a demon but he's there for me when you aren't there Angel. He came here to help me HELP YOU. You who are arch enemies even while you don't have your soul. He came here because I need him and he knows it. I need someone Angel…" She hesitated, lowering her voice to almost a whisper. "…even if it isn't you."

She looked up from the ground and back at Angel who wasn't even looking at her…just past her. "So you have nothing to say…" She asked, her anger building up again.

Angel looked at her then back at the things that were past her, behind her. He looked nervous, scared almost. But Angel never got scared, not for himself at least. "And don't think I'm stupid." Buffy said as she did a back flip, landing behind one of the five vampires that had made their way into the room.

She took out her stake and slayed him before he even knew what was going on. She then took another stake out from her sleeve and stuck each out to the two sides of her, slaying another two careless vampires who had decided at that time to pounce her.

The two other ones seemed to have no interest in Angel and also began charging at the slayer. Buffy quickly ducked down and kicked the vampire to the left, sending him against the back wall. When she got up the other vampire punched her in the face, causing her to fall back.

Angel wanted to run forward and protect her but… "Slayer?" A voice yelled as Angel saw Spike run into his bedroom. Spike saw the situation and quickly ran to Buffy's need, punching the vampire that had knocked her down and then kicking him in the chest, sending him right into Angel, who was just about to join the fight.

"Just an added bonus…" Spike said to himself as he began to walk to help the slayer up. But before he could reach her something grabbed him from behind. The two remaining vampires grabbed Spike, pulling him away from the slayer and into a wall. One of them broke the leg off of a table in the room, causing everything that it was holding to come crashing down on the floor…on top of Buffy. The vampire charged at Spike with the stake in hand, looking to shove it in his chest.

But the vampire suddenly stopped, looking down at his own chest, confused. Right before he turned to dust and the slayer was revealed standing behind him, stake in hand. "Spike." She said, looking at him then at the confused vampire next to him.

"Oh yea…" He said as he turned and punched the vampire in the face, then holding him against the wall as Buffy walked up to him.

It was as though she had forgotten that Angel was even there. But he knew that she still had questions to ask him, why all these demons were attacking him and why Darla had come back and why all of these things seemed to happen to them. Angel stood behind Buffy, ignoring the bad looks from Spike. "Why are you here?" Buffy asked, holding the stake close to his chest, ready to stake him at any given time.

"I…i…" the vampire looked at them all then at the stake pointed to his chest. "I work for Wolfram and Hart…We were told to take the slayer and William the Bloody into custody and bring them back to the office…"

Buffy moved the stake closer, thinking that he was lying. "A law firm that works with demons I highly doubt that…"

"Actually…" Angel started, Buffy handed the stake to Spike and turned around, looking at Angel. "Wolfram and Hart is sort of how all of this started." Angel said, now knowing that he would have a lot of questions to answer.

Angel noticed that Spike was whispering something to the vampire. Angel ignored it and looked back at Buffy who was pressing him for answers. Her sadness and tears were gone and all that remained was Buffy the vampire slayer. Not Buffy the little girl, not Buffy the love sick woman. Just Buffy the vampire slayer, the girl that he had fallen in love with so long ago... "How what started?" Buffy asked.

Angel told her the story of Wolfram and Hart, leaving out the few details of him sleeping with Darla and her having his child…just like Buffy had left out the part that Angel had played in her past when she had told Riley about her life before college.

Buffy slightly nodded and turned back to Spike who had been standing next to a pile of dust. "Uh…he tried to escape." Spike said as he put the stake down and began walking out the door.

Buffy turned back to face Angel. "I'm not leaving. Not until I know that everyone here will be fine, Willow can handle things in Sunnydale until I…"

"Willow?" Angel asked, not knowing about Willow's sudden burst in magic powers since she had died.

"And Anya, and Xander, I'm sure that Tara would help too…" Buffy said, not wanting to tell Angel about Willow's magic problems, not knowing what he would do about it, even if he would do anything.

"Can we talk about this in the morning?" Angel asked, beginning to walk out the door of his room.

"No Angel." Buffy said, making him hesitate and turn around to face her. Her tone was firm and unresolved. Her tears had totally cleared up from her outburst before and her face was emotionless. "Tell me what's going on. Now."

Neither of them moved for what seemed like hours. Angel didn't want Buffy involved in this, she would get herself hurt or killed and he wouldn't be able to live with having to lose her again. He couldn't bear it, even if he had his son, Buffy was his oldest and purest link to the world. "Wolfram and Hart is after something that we have…" He said quietly, not being able to look Buffy in the eye.

"Well what is it?" Buffy asked, taking a small step towards Angel.

"…" Angel stood there, unable to know how to tell this to Buffy. He had slept with Darla last year when he was on a road down the wrong path and he had thought that it had been buried deep in his past but it seems that X's always come back to haunt you.

Buffy looked at him, trying to read his eyes or his face for any emotion at all. The strange part was that she could, he was sad and even afraid, and tired. When Buffy had first met Angel the only way you would know what he was feeling is if he told you or when he was Angelus, by how he left the dead bodies laid out. "Well? What is it Angel? I can help you, want me to or not I will help you." She said, her voice not yet faltering.

"…" Angel looked at Buffy trying to contain the sadness that began to rip through his soul. "We don't know." He finally lied. "That's why I need to head back to Cordelia's. I'll be back in the morning." Angel said, turning back around and walking out of the hotel room. Leaving Buffy to stare out into the empty hallway.