Chapter 5: You always hurt the ones you love
By: Hope
Angel had become so weak from the lack of blood that he thought that he was beginning to have hallucinations. First he thought he saw a little light swirl around his 'coffin'. The light had origonally reminded him of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan or the green faerie from Moulin Rouge (Lorne had forced everyone in the Fang Gang to watch it with him, while he critiqued everyone's singing.) And now Angel almost laughed at what he thought he saw in front of him. William the bloody was swimming up to Angel's tomb, half naked. He searched all over the box to try and find a way to break it open but then swam away off into the night. Angel passed seeing Spike off as a delusion from hunger until he realized that Spike came back again, only twenty minutes later, and with a large, iron crow bar.
He used it to pry off the large bar that had been welded onto the box when Connor had trapped Angel inside. Angel watched Spike work for ten minutes, still not sure if it was a delusion or not, until the bar came off and Angel fell forward out of the box, too weak to be able to swim up himself.
Spike cursed under his breath in the water as he swiftly grabbed a hold of Angel and carried him to the surface. Even after being locked underwater, starved for weeks, Peaches still weighs as much as a bloody ox. Spike thought to himself as he slowly dragged a now unconscious Angel to the surface.
- - - - - - -
Before Connor could react, the slayer hit him with her full
strength, which knocked him against the wall of the alley. He wasn't badly
injured but he was amazed at the strength that Dawn's sister possessed, but then
it hit him. The sister must have been turned into a beast. A beast like his
father.
Buffy rushed at Connor, already beginning to pull a stake out of her sleeve. Connor easily dodged the attack, causing Buffy to ram into the wall. Connor turned around and ran up to her, Buffy was already back on her feet but didn't see Connor soon enough. He launched a series of kicks aimed at her chest. To his surprise she was able to dodge half of them and at the last one, grabbed his leg and flipped him over onto the ground.
"Buffy! NO!" Dawn finally screamed as she ran up to Buffy who now had Connor, who was currently unconscious from his head hitting the pavement, pinned down underneath her. Dawn hadn't been able to say anything at first, still amazed at how Conn--er...Stephen fought.
"Dawnie. I have to do this." Buffy said, surprised that Dawn wasn't able to realize that the boy was a vampire. She had never met another human, one that wasn't a slayer at least, that could fight like that, plus he gave her the creeps. Like there was something dark about him and it was the same feeling that she had gotten from Angel so she just knew that there was something abnormal with the boy.
"Buffy, he's NOT a vampire." Dawn said when she reached them. She took off her cross necklace and put it against Connor's hand. "See? Nothing!" Dawn said while she put the necklace back on. "He saved me from this huge gang of vamps!" Dawn stated as she began telling the story of what had happened before Buffy had caught up to Dawn.
"Wow." Buffy said, looking at Connor who still remained unconscious on the floor. "Well no matter what." She said, now looking back at Dawn who was standing in front of Buffy and Connor. "He knows things, and he can fight...." "Like he's not human." Dawn said, finishing her sister's thought.
"Exactly." Buffy said as she bent down to pick Connor up. "Lets bring him back to the hotel, make sure I didn't break anything..." Buffy saw the suddenly worried expression on Dawn's face. "Although I'm almost sure I didn't." Buffy finished, trying to cover-up for what she just said.
With that being said, the two sisters began to make their way back to the hotel. Most of the walk back was in silence, with Connor still unconscious, his limp body being carried in Buffy's arms. Most of the people that they passed in the street would stare at them as they passed, not seeing how such a small girl would be able to carry a teenager that was clearly half a foot taller than her, at least.
- - - - - -
"So I got Peaches out of the bloody water." Spike said. He
had pulled Angel out of the water five minutes ago and Cordelia, who Spike now
thought of as "the light chick", had been examining Angel ever since, not saying
one word to Spike. "Now what?" Spike said, still trying to get Cordelia's
attention. Thats when he noticed that she was crying.
She was looking at Angel and although Spike was certain she was happy to see him, she was crying, and Spike was convinced that it wasn't a happy cry. "Cordelia?" Spike asked.
Cordelia turned around and acknowledged Spike for the first time since he had brought Angel up. "Thank you, Spike." She said as she wiped her tears off of her face.
"If your so happy to see him then why are you crying, luv?" Spike asked, concerned about her. He walked up to her and reached out his arms to hug her but his arms only hit air. Confused, Spike took a step back and looked at Cordelia again.
"I...I can't stay here." Cordelia said. "I'm a higher being now." She said, now turned completely away from Angel. Spike noticed how much she now cared for Angel. She had cared for him before, but not like this. Maybe it was a special feature that Spike got from his soul, but he could tell that Cordelia now loved and cared for Angel more than almost anything else in the world. Just the way Spike cared for Buffy, it seemed that Cordelia had done the impossible to be able to see her beloved again. "This...this is just an image of what I used to be. I don't exist on this plain anymore, a-according to the higher guys up there." Cordelia said, pointing up.
"Just..." Cordelia continued, now looking at Angel. "Tell him that I love him." She looked back at Spike and forced a weak smile. "I just don't want to hurt him by leaving - -"
"You always hurt the ones you love." Spike said, remembering what he had said to Buffy when she had tried to turn herself into the cops for killing a girl.
"I..." Cordelia said, as though it was now tiring even to speak to him. "The spell's wearing off. I...I have to leave now....goodbye." Cordelia said as she began to shimmer and disapear. "Say hi to Buffy for me!"
And with that, Cordelia Chase was gone, leaving Spike on the beach with an unconscious Peaches. Spike took a deep breath, it wasn't like he needed it but he had become accustomed to breathing, from being around humans so much. He looked up at the sky. "Now that's something you don't see everyday." He said, admiring how the clouds had turned a light orange as the..."BLOODY HELL!" Spike screamed as he realized his own stupidity.
He grabbed Angel and ran off the beach and to the first open, abandoned building he could find. He then threw Angel onto the floor and closed the door before any light was able to leak in. Spike then sat down, with his back to the door and put his hands on his head, resting his elbows on his knees.
Because part of Spike had wished that the sun's light had caught up to him while he was running and ended his miserable un-life right there. Part of Spike was still mourning his victims and wishing death upon the demon that had killed them.
"Spike." Spike heard Angel say angrily, and before Spike could say anything or do anything to defend himself, Angel attacked. Oh yea... Spike thought to himself in the 5 milliseconds before Angel reached him. Last time I saw Peaches was when I tortured him... Another person that Spike had hurt. Another powerful person, (even in Angel's weak condition) that wanted him dead. Oh joy.