FOOLS FOR LIFE:
CHAPTER 27: What goes around.
"Alright, that settles it." Rack smiled at Spike and Anya. Spike nodded back, obviously very pleased with himself.
"Yeah, so if we can see the lady in question now.." he prodded.
"Yeah man, sure..." Rack said and walked to a door in the room that Spike could have sworn hadn't been there before.
"I...feel....so used!" Anya said, glaring at Spike.
"Oh, come on, pet, 's not so bad as all that." Spike shrugged.
"Easy for you to say!! You're not the one who's going to have to......."
"Here we go...." Rack said before Anya could finish as he opened the door. They walked up to it and looked inside. There was another room, only slightly better looking. Some furniture, a bed and a fridge. And couch where they saw Halfrek, looking a little bored reading a cosmopolitan in front of a cheap TV.
She looked up, saw them and her eyes grew wide. She dropped the cosmo and jumped to her feet. "HEY!" she shouted at Rack. "I thought we had a deal!"
Rack shrugged. "What can I say baby, you hadn't paid rent for today yet. Besides, relax. These are friends of yours, right?"
Halfrek glared at him with her mouth in a tight line. "Great..." she mumbled.
"Come now, luv," Spike said as he walked in the room. "He's right, no one's here to hurt you, but you do have some thing to set straight here don't you?"
Anya followed him in when Rack stopped her. "Hey now, let's.....not forget your end of this deal here. I delivered, now it's your turn."
"Yes! Yes!" Anya growled and pulled her arm loose. "Relax! We're not gone yet."
"Just a reminder...." he smiled.
Anya closed the door in his face as she joined Spike And Halfrek. She walked up to her and folded her arms. "Hallie, what were you thinking?? First you pull a 'Drunkard's Wish'......" Behind her Spike grumbled a little.
"Oh, you shut up!" Anya snapped. "After what you just pulled!" She turned back to Halfrek who had slumped back on the ragged couch. "And then not only do you leave that, that mess of a spell just flying around, you hide out with this 'molester uncle' version of Merlin?? D'Hoffryn is going to be SO pissed! He'll have you cleaning out the larger demons' toilets for a decade!"
"Oh stop it Anyanka!" Halfrek countered. "Don't you think I KNOW all that??"
"Well you tell me! Did you really think you could hide from D'Hoffryn here? If he wants to find you, he'll find you!"
"I wasn't hiding from D'Hoffryn! I was hiding from you!" she looked at Spike for a second. ".....and ....you. I knew you'd be looking for me."
Spike slowly walked forward and put his hand on Anya's shoulder. "Luv, why don't you go handle things off with Rack back there. Now's as good a time as any, and Halfrek and I can have a little chat."
Anya looked at him with a scowl. Then looked back at Halfrek who was avoiding both there gazes, and she threw up her arms. "FINE!" she growled and turned to the door. In passing she pointed a finger in Spike's face. "But SOMEONE is going to pay for this, you hear me?"
"Oh yeah, sure luv, no problem." He nodded trying to look earnestly.
"Yeah, right!" Anya muttered and walked out of the room.
She entered Racks main room again and faced him. He smiled and stood up out of his chair.
"Let's get this over with." she said bitterly.
"By all means." Rack agreed.
Then Anya grabbed a piece of paper from the table, a pen from her pocket and started: "Alright, so that was 3 crystals of Baizon, 12 packs of incense with the strawberry smell and 3 charms from Shararnt with the necklaces included and a second edition of Wolforts Chantings....That's it, right?"
"Don't forget the 3 black crystals from Orgoth." Rack said, and added: "Why didn't you say you had a magic store? And such quality, I have to get this stuff from the black market!"
Anya grumbled as she wrote on the list.
"Oh," Rack remembered. "And Orbs of Cthonn! Do you have those?"
Anya cursed under her breath. "....maybe..."
"Oh great! Those are so rare. I'll take five."
Anya gasped and put her pen hand on her hip. "Okay buster, don't push it! Do you know how expensive those are? I just got them in!! And what did you do? Open a door for us in your own room? Oh, THAT's hard!"
"Hey, I delivered! You needed to find her, and there's no way you would have if I hadn't let you. I'm entitled."
" No way! You're getting one, tops!"
"Four!" Rack countered.
Anya rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I KNOW I don't like Buffy *that* much!!"
Inside the other room, Spike calmly sat down next to Halfrek who was still not looking at him. He took out his cigarettes and offered her. She just shook her head. He took one out and lit up.
"Now then, luv." He said. "What was that all about then? You got some things to set straight, and I don't care what you were planning here, you're going to do just that."
Halfrek shifted in her spot. "Hey, everyone makes mistakes.....I'm a Vengeance Demon you know. Just doing my job."
"Yeah," Spike said, "and me here being pretty much Buffy's little whipped puppy was the perfect candidate for revenge. That what you're saying? It's NOT what I wanted and I got a feeling you bloody well knew that!"
She looked all the way to the side now and swallowed.
"I know she hurts me and kicks me around in every way I can think of, and then invents a few more.....but I'm also pretty sure I've never once had the urge to have revenge on her with curses and whatnot."
"I know....." she said, sounding like a little girl again.
"So here I am, thinking, I meet this lady I was all gaga over about a century ago and who told me to piss off....and now we're both demons. And it's actually nice to have a few chats with her. Kinda removes that old bad taste.....and then she pulls one over me. That the only reason you looked me up then?" He blew out some smoke. "'s Alright luv, you can say it. It's the least what you and your fellow girls have done to me over the years."
"No," she looked him in the eyes now. "It wasn't."
She fell back into the couch with a tired sigh. "I hadn't been doing so well lately with getting the vengeance done. You saw what happened on Buffy's birthday. That was one in a line of goof ups. I was feeling pretty depressed, and the pressure never lets up, you know?"
She took his pack of cigarettes and took one out after all. "And suddenly there you were. From a life I'd almost managed to forget. And it was actually nice. In the beginning I was mainly curious...you looked so different."
Spike chuckled. "I bet..."
"And....you'd become quite the.....dashing vampire killer, really." She avoided his eyes again. "Oh may as well tell all now, D'Hoffryn is probably going to turn me into a maggot anyway....doesn't matter now...."
He started to say something but she gestured him to stay silent.
"Ah, William....it's strange, I really didn't want you even near me back then. But throughout the years, I remembered you."
"And why would that be. The poems get to you after all?" he smirked.
She laughed a little and touched his hand. "In a way," she said softly "because no one had ever, ever loved or wanted me as much as you...And when a girl goes on in her life, demon or not. you tend to find that there are few men who are willing to write how....'effulgent' your beauty is."
Spike's eyebrows went up.....he never would have thought she'd have remembered that one.
"And there you were, suddenly all bold and fearless, a man of action. And like me, a demon." she shrugged. "Which was only fitting in a way. And everything you lacked back then you had in spades now...it just.....got to me....I don't know.....I wanted to feel that again...to know that that famous vampire Warrior had wanted me so much."
"Luv, we were different people back then. It was nice seeing you again, and.....well you've become quite the catch, as demons go. Couple of years ago, I'd have gone all out for you probably. But we don't rightly know each other."
"I know...." she sighed. "But I still....felt that.....I'd had such bad times, and you were....." She hesitated a little. "...pretty charming."
Spike cleared his throat. "There's some people who'd disagree....."
"I know. I saw. I hated her for treating you that way...but I also hated her for being in my way." She frowned. "And when you were drunk I ...well all you cared about was her and it.....hurt me. There, maybe that makes us even after all these years. I was hurt and I desperately needed a vengeance spell to work out so I used that to get back at her. And at you for..." she looked at him, "....well, for not wanting me again."
Spike sighed....."Ah it don't work that way, luv. And as for how she treats me.....didn't look familiar at all to you?" he gave her a look.
Halfrek avoided his gaze again. "I know. Probably another reason. Reminded me of how I used to be. I like myself better as a demon!"
Spike stood up and extinguished his cigarette. Not like Rack would notice on this carpet.
"Yeah luv. So do I."
She got up too. "Really?"
"Yeah, wouldn't go for Cecily today. Halfrek is a far better catch in my book."
She smiled shyly at that.
"But it don't change the fact that I love Buffy. You don't have a choice in those things. I didn't have a choice but to write those soddin' poems for you all those years ago and I don't have a choice now. And I'd be a lot angrier at you right now for making me do this to Buffy if she didn't hate me already!" He rubbed his forehead. "She'll probably stake me for this."
"There's....something else.." Halfrek said as she looked at her shoes.
"What?"
"The reason you got so drunk was because she'd come to you all angry, right?"
"Yeah, she.....well not our first session like that but one of the 'better' ones." Spike sighed sadly.
"Well, I-I....I sort of...that same evening, after I left your crypt, you know when we had watched TV with Clem....."
"Yeah...." Spike said eyeing her suspiciously.
"Well I saw her on her way to your crypt, in the graveyard, and when she was occupied with some vampires, I teleported back inside your door and I walked out again."
"What?" Spike asked remembering hearing his door clank again just before Buffy had stormed in.
"And, I sort of....undid my blouse and stuff...so when she'd see me she'd think we'd....."
"WHAT???" Spike roared. "Oh bloody HELL!" He paced the room, squeezing his own face.
"I'm sorry." Halfrek said, looking smaller and smaller on the couch. "Really!"
"Argh!!" He leant against a wall with his eyes closed for a moment. So that's what Buffy had been referring to. He'd had no idea. Of course he'd confirmed Halfrek had BEEN there...
Then suddenly he opened his eyes as another realization hit him. His face cleared up. A little. He turned to Halfrek who was sitting there with her eyes almost closed as if she was expecting him to hit her.
He sighed. "Alright....right....well, sitting around and talking is just a waste of time now. Don't worry about it. Just....just come with me and lift that damn spell, okay?" He thought of Buffy and wondered how she was doing. He hoped she didn't LOOK like him by now!
"Uh," Halfrek said, "I want to, but...."
"Good!" Spike said, "then do it. Let's go."
Halfrek tried to say more but Spike had already opened the door to Rack's room and heard him and Anya still haggle about his price.
"Okay, when we scratch the Bazoin crystals, you can have 2 Orbs of Cthonn, provided the charms now come without the necklaces included. As for the incense...."
"Oh no!" Rack said "I'm keeping the strawberry incense! And I want at least one Bazoin!"
Anya added up the costs of it all again and frowned. She rubbed her forehead with a painful look. "Look! Wouldn't you rather just.... have your way with me after all? I mean, taste my energies and stuff. ...?"
Rack smiled. "Well....I can be persuaded to drop the Bazoin..."
"Just the Bazoin??" Anya said, agitated. "Please, have you looked at my energies? No way am I THAT cheap!"
"Alright, for a nice.....looong taste I can drop both the charms too."
Anya thought deeply for a second. "Uhm, and that whole 'tasting' thing....how long does that take exactly?"
"Too long!" Spike cut in. "Look, we have to get going."
"What, scared Buffy actually HAS grown a penis?" Anya said. Spike visualized and swallowed.
"This is MY merchandise you so easily sold down the river buster! And somehow I don't see you paying it off in regular installments. Besides, what is the hurry? Halfrek doesn't need to go to Buffy to lift the curse remember?"
Spike's eyes lit up. He cursed himself for being an idiot. He hadn't remembered.
Anya turned back to Rack. "Now then, that 'tasting' of my energies.." she smiled a little "how does that feel for ME? I mean....if it's nice for me too..."
"It has it's moments." Halfrek said, as she joined them. She folded her arms and glared at Rack. "Your magics feel like they need a thorough bath afterwards, but ......"
Rack shrugged and grinned.
Spike looked at Halfrek. "You can lift your curses from anywhere, right? Can you do it? Right now?"
"Sure she can." Anya said. "And you really should have by now, Hallie."
Halfrek sighed. "Well that's what I tried to say.....I can't. I would have done so right away if I could! I just CAN'T!!"
** **
TBC!
CHAPTER 27: What goes around.
"Alright, that settles it." Rack smiled at Spike and Anya. Spike nodded back, obviously very pleased with himself.
"Yeah, so if we can see the lady in question now.." he prodded.
"Yeah man, sure..." Rack said and walked to a door in the room that Spike could have sworn hadn't been there before.
"I...feel....so used!" Anya said, glaring at Spike.
"Oh, come on, pet, 's not so bad as all that." Spike shrugged.
"Easy for you to say!! You're not the one who's going to have to......."
"Here we go...." Rack said before Anya could finish as he opened the door. They walked up to it and looked inside. There was another room, only slightly better looking. Some furniture, a bed and a fridge. And couch where they saw Halfrek, looking a little bored reading a cosmopolitan in front of a cheap TV.
She looked up, saw them and her eyes grew wide. She dropped the cosmo and jumped to her feet. "HEY!" she shouted at Rack. "I thought we had a deal!"
Rack shrugged. "What can I say baby, you hadn't paid rent for today yet. Besides, relax. These are friends of yours, right?"
Halfrek glared at him with her mouth in a tight line. "Great..." she mumbled.
"Come now, luv," Spike said as he walked in the room. "He's right, no one's here to hurt you, but you do have some thing to set straight here don't you?"
Anya followed him in when Rack stopped her. "Hey now, let's.....not forget your end of this deal here. I delivered, now it's your turn."
"Yes! Yes!" Anya growled and pulled her arm loose. "Relax! We're not gone yet."
"Just a reminder...." he smiled.
Anya closed the door in his face as she joined Spike And Halfrek. She walked up to her and folded her arms. "Hallie, what were you thinking?? First you pull a 'Drunkard's Wish'......" Behind her Spike grumbled a little.
"Oh, you shut up!" Anya snapped. "After what you just pulled!" She turned back to Halfrek who had slumped back on the ragged couch. "And then not only do you leave that, that mess of a spell just flying around, you hide out with this 'molester uncle' version of Merlin?? D'Hoffryn is going to be SO pissed! He'll have you cleaning out the larger demons' toilets for a decade!"
"Oh stop it Anyanka!" Halfrek countered. "Don't you think I KNOW all that??"
"Well you tell me! Did you really think you could hide from D'Hoffryn here? If he wants to find you, he'll find you!"
"I wasn't hiding from D'Hoffryn! I was hiding from you!" she looked at Spike for a second. ".....and ....you. I knew you'd be looking for me."
Spike slowly walked forward and put his hand on Anya's shoulder. "Luv, why don't you go handle things off with Rack back there. Now's as good a time as any, and Halfrek and I can have a little chat."
Anya looked at him with a scowl. Then looked back at Halfrek who was avoiding both there gazes, and she threw up her arms. "FINE!" she growled and turned to the door. In passing she pointed a finger in Spike's face. "But SOMEONE is going to pay for this, you hear me?"
"Oh yeah, sure luv, no problem." He nodded trying to look earnestly.
"Yeah, right!" Anya muttered and walked out of the room.
She entered Racks main room again and faced him. He smiled and stood up out of his chair.
"Let's get this over with." she said bitterly.
"By all means." Rack agreed.
Then Anya grabbed a piece of paper from the table, a pen from her pocket and started: "Alright, so that was 3 crystals of Baizon, 12 packs of incense with the strawberry smell and 3 charms from Shararnt with the necklaces included and a second edition of Wolforts Chantings....That's it, right?"
"Don't forget the 3 black crystals from Orgoth." Rack said, and added: "Why didn't you say you had a magic store? And such quality, I have to get this stuff from the black market!"
Anya grumbled as she wrote on the list.
"Oh," Rack remembered. "And Orbs of Cthonn! Do you have those?"
Anya cursed under her breath. "....maybe..."
"Oh great! Those are so rare. I'll take five."
Anya gasped and put her pen hand on her hip. "Okay buster, don't push it! Do you know how expensive those are? I just got them in!! And what did you do? Open a door for us in your own room? Oh, THAT's hard!"
"Hey, I delivered! You needed to find her, and there's no way you would have if I hadn't let you. I'm entitled."
" No way! You're getting one, tops!"
"Four!" Rack countered.
Anya rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I KNOW I don't like Buffy *that* much!!"
Inside the other room, Spike calmly sat down next to Halfrek who was still not looking at him. He took out his cigarettes and offered her. She just shook her head. He took one out and lit up.
"Now then, luv." He said. "What was that all about then? You got some things to set straight, and I don't care what you were planning here, you're going to do just that."
Halfrek shifted in her spot. "Hey, everyone makes mistakes.....I'm a Vengeance Demon you know. Just doing my job."
"Yeah," Spike said, "and me here being pretty much Buffy's little whipped puppy was the perfect candidate for revenge. That what you're saying? It's NOT what I wanted and I got a feeling you bloody well knew that!"
She looked all the way to the side now and swallowed.
"I know she hurts me and kicks me around in every way I can think of, and then invents a few more.....but I'm also pretty sure I've never once had the urge to have revenge on her with curses and whatnot."
"I know....." she said, sounding like a little girl again.
"So here I am, thinking, I meet this lady I was all gaga over about a century ago and who told me to piss off....and now we're both demons. And it's actually nice to have a few chats with her. Kinda removes that old bad taste.....and then she pulls one over me. That the only reason you looked me up then?" He blew out some smoke. "'s Alright luv, you can say it. It's the least what you and your fellow girls have done to me over the years."
"No," she looked him in the eyes now. "It wasn't."
She fell back into the couch with a tired sigh. "I hadn't been doing so well lately with getting the vengeance done. You saw what happened on Buffy's birthday. That was one in a line of goof ups. I was feeling pretty depressed, and the pressure never lets up, you know?"
She took his pack of cigarettes and took one out after all. "And suddenly there you were. From a life I'd almost managed to forget. And it was actually nice. In the beginning I was mainly curious...you looked so different."
Spike chuckled. "I bet..."
"And....you'd become quite the.....dashing vampire killer, really." She avoided his eyes again. "Oh may as well tell all now, D'Hoffryn is probably going to turn me into a maggot anyway....doesn't matter now...."
He started to say something but she gestured him to stay silent.
"Ah, William....it's strange, I really didn't want you even near me back then. But throughout the years, I remembered you."
"And why would that be. The poems get to you after all?" he smirked.
She laughed a little and touched his hand. "In a way," she said softly "because no one had ever, ever loved or wanted me as much as you...And when a girl goes on in her life, demon or not. you tend to find that there are few men who are willing to write how....'effulgent' your beauty is."
Spike's eyebrows went up.....he never would have thought she'd have remembered that one.
"And there you were, suddenly all bold and fearless, a man of action. And like me, a demon." she shrugged. "Which was only fitting in a way. And everything you lacked back then you had in spades now...it just.....got to me....I don't know.....I wanted to feel that again...to know that that famous vampire Warrior had wanted me so much."
"Luv, we were different people back then. It was nice seeing you again, and.....well you've become quite the catch, as demons go. Couple of years ago, I'd have gone all out for you probably. But we don't rightly know each other."
"I know...." she sighed. "But I still....felt that.....I'd had such bad times, and you were....." She hesitated a little. "...pretty charming."
Spike cleared his throat. "There's some people who'd disagree....."
"I know. I saw. I hated her for treating you that way...but I also hated her for being in my way." She frowned. "And when you were drunk I ...well all you cared about was her and it.....hurt me. There, maybe that makes us even after all these years. I was hurt and I desperately needed a vengeance spell to work out so I used that to get back at her. And at you for..." she looked at him, "....well, for not wanting me again."
Spike sighed....."Ah it don't work that way, luv. And as for how she treats me.....didn't look familiar at all to you?" he gave her a look.
Halfrek avoided his gaze again. "I know. Probably another reason. Reminded me of how I used to be. I like myself better as a demon!"
Spike stood up and extinguished his cigarette. Not like Rack would notice on this carpet.
"Yeah luv. So do I."
She got up too. "Really?"
"Yeah, wouldn't go for Cecily today. Halfrek is a far better catch in my book."
She smiled shyly at that.
"But it don't change the fact that I love Buffy. You don't have a choice in those things. I didn't have a choice but to write those soddin' poems for you all those years ago and I don't have a choice now. And I'd be a lot angrier at you right now for making me do this to Buffy if she didn't hate me already!" He rubbed his forehead. "She'll probably stake me for this."
"There's....something else.." Halfrek said as she looked at her shoes.
"What?"
"The reason you got so drunk was because she'd come to you all angry, right?"
"Yeah, she.....well not our first session like that but one of the 'better' ones." Spike sighed sadly.
"Well, I-I....I sort of...that same evening, after I left your crypt, you know when we had watched TV with Clem....."
"Yeah...." Spike said eyeing her suspiciously.
"Well I saw her on her way to your crypt, in the graveyard, and when she was occupied with some vampires, I teleported back inside your door and I walked out again."
"What?" Spike asked remembering hearing his door clank again just before Buffy had stormed in.
"And, I sort of....undid my blouse and stuff...so when she'd see me she'd think we'd....."
"WHAT???" Spike roared. "Oh bloody HELL!" He paced the room, squeezing his own face.
"I'm sorry." Halfrek said, looking smaller and smaller on the couch. "Really!"
"Argh!!" He leant against a wall with his eyes closed for a moment. So that's what Buffy had been referring to. He'd had no idea. Of course he'd confirmed Halfrek had BEEN there...
Then suddenly he opened his eyes as another realization hit him. His face cleared up. A little. He turned to Halfrek who was sitting there with her eyes almost closed as if she was expecting him to hit her.
He sighed. "Alright....right....well, sitting around and talking is just a waste of time now. Don't worry about it. Just....just come with me and lift that damn spell, okay?" He thought of Buffy and wondered how she was doing. He hoped she didn't LOOK like him by now!
"Uh," Halfrek said, "I want to, but...."
"Good!" Spike said, "then do it. Let's go."
Halfrek tried to say more but Spike had already opened the door to Rack's room and heard him and Anya still haggle about his price.
"Okay, when we scratch the Bazoin crystals, you can have 2 Orbs of Cthonn, provided the charms now come without the necklaces included. As for the incense...."
"Oh no!" Rack said "I'm keeping the strawberry incense! And I want at least one Bazoin!"
Anya added up the costs of it all again and frowned. She rubbed her forehead with a painful look. "Look! Wouldn't you rather just.... have your way with me after all? I mean, taste my energies and stuff. ...?"
Rack smiled. "Well....I can be persuaded to drop the Bazoin..."
"Just the Bazoin??" Anya said, agitated. "Please, have you looked at my energies? No way am I THAT cheap!"
"Alright, for a nice.....looong taste I can drop both the charms too."
Anya thought deeply for a second. "Uhm, and that whole 'tasting' thing....how long does that take exactly?"
"Too long!" Spike cut in. "Look, we have to get going."
"What, scared Buffy actually HAS grown a penis?" Anya said. Spike visualized and swallowed.
"This is MY merchandise you so easily sold down the river buster! And somehow I don't see you paying it off in regular installments. Besides, what is the hurry? Halfrek doesn't need to go to Buffy to lift the curse remember?"
Spike's eyes lit up. He cursed himself for being an idiot. He hadn't remembered.
Anya turned back to Rack. "Now then, that 'tasting' of my energies.." she smiled a little "how does that feel for ME? I mean....if it's nice for me too..."
"It has it's moments." Halfrek said, as she joined them. She folded her arms and glared at Rack. "Your magics feel like they need a thorough bath afterwards, but ......"
Rack shrugged and grinned.
Spike looked at Halfrek. "You can lift your curses from anywhere, right? Can you do it? Right now?"
"Sure she can." Anya said. "And you really should have by now, Hallie."
Halfrek sighed. "Well that's what I tried to say.....I can't. I would have done so right away if I could! I just CAN'T!!"
** **
TBC!
