Chapter 13 Remember When

December 22 Sunnydale: Just after dark

Clem wasn't all that hard to run down. He was lurking out in the back room of Willy's with a basket full of kittens and a sour attitude.

Why're you gripin' me, Harris. I don't know nothin' from nothin'.

Didn't say you did. Come on, pal, we can help each other out.

I took the basket of kittens out of his hands and sat them on the floor. A couple of the smarter ones scampered away to the dusty corners and stacks of liquor boxes to hide.

Hey, get your tight mitts offa me, man. You're letting my winnings get away.

Catch em later. Tell me about August 7 in Los Angeles, Clem.

Oh man, why'd you want to bring up that shit now. Gawd, that was one nasty mess. I'm gonna have nightmares about...

Spill, Clem. I picked up a gray tabby that was making a move on my ankles and tucked it into my pocket. Clem gave me the evil eye, but started in on the real inside story. Some of it I already knew, mostly the bare bones. Slayer and her husband have a falling out, she takes off for the big city, hooks up with a crime fighting partner named Angelus. Clem gave me a little more than that.

See, I'd been working the Strip all summer. Nothing fancy, just the usual song and dance. Clem was a dip--a pickpocket--when he wasn't running a shell game or some other kind of con. Ran into some trouble outside of Grauman's. A nest of vamps decided to make my lady friend their dinner. I objected, he continued. I was getting the living hell stomped out of me. Probably would have killed me too, if it hadn't been for the Slayer and her boy.

You mean Spike?

No, Angelus.

Tell me about it.

Not really that much to tell. The Slayer was trying to get all the wild ones into line and Angel was helping her. She's out there slaying five, maybe six, a night. She was something to see, that Slayer. Anyway, I guess she felt sorry for me or something, because she hired me to drive for her. I'm not really that good for much in the way of heroics.

She was like that, picking up the strays and the poor useless ones, like me. Like Andrew. She was too good for her own good.

Anywise, we were in one of those gin joints over off the strip one night and Spike just showed up out of the blue. You know how those vamps are. All a bunch of show-offs with their mighty power of.. He mimed a slinking walk.

Yeah, yeah. I've seen him.

I think I hurt his feelings, but he went on, I didn't know who he was at the time. I just figured he was another vamp with a nasty attitude. He and Angelus seemed to be getting along just fine when he spotted the Slayer. It was like he went berserk. Tried to go after her. Angel had to give him a real beating. Buffy, she was gonna slay him right then, but Angel told her it was family business. I guess they worked it out, because before too long, the three of them were as thick as thieves. Every night the four of us went out to make with the slaying. Well, they slayed.

Everything was hunky-dory for a month or so, but then I started getting this funny idea that there was something odd going on with Spike, and Angel was walking around with this permanent snarl. There were a couple of real nasty fights between those two vamps and right around the first of August, Angel sent me and Spike to Vegas. Supposedly a set of succubi running an illegal brothel. I don't know, it wasn't all that important cause, Vegas, baby! I love Vegas--it's my kind of town.... he mused.

Could you get to the point?

I'm getting there. Say, do you suppose I could have a ginger ale and some of those cheesy snacks? I'm getting a little hungry. His eyes flickered to the wiggling kitten in my pocket. God! Demons are such a pain in my ass. Nothing but trouble. I gave Willy a holler and ordered up some snacks. After some smacking and crunching, Clem was ready for the next installment of the story.

Well, when we got back, the coppers were already on the scene. Man, I have never seen a mess like that. We'd holed up in this abandoned hotel off Figueroa and there was an ambulance and two cop cars out front of the place. Some flatfoot let us in to identify Angel.. Man, I never threw up so much in my life!
He looked a little green around the gills right now. Clem took another big gulp of soda and shook himself, wrinkles rippling like a plate of jellyfish.
He was alive, I mean undead, or whatever you call it. You know what I mean. The flats didn't give a rat's ass about Angel. They just stood around and stared, took a raft of snaps and blew.

Yeah, a 13-13, the department smart asses, like Goodman and Brown, called it: Demon, D.O.A. I figure they all went back and had a real big laugh at HQ. Another demon down, 40 million more to go.

Spike said he couldn't let Angel die there. He wanted to take him to someone who could ease him, he said. You could feel the magic that Giles had used to keep Angelus aware beginning to fade away. Creepy stuff, magic. Anyway, we both figured Angelus was gonna take The Big Dust. I mean, if you'd seen him....

Clem nervously poked at a gob of cheese with a wrinkly forefinger and licked his lips nervously. Spike was crying, man. I've never seen him like that. Off the track. He wanted whoever had done this and he knew who it was. Freakish. We loaded Angel up into the convertible and breezed. He was still awake, though. Spike was covered in his blood. Clem's sad eyes drooped further and he seemed to have lost his appetite.

I thought about those pictures Granatello'd brought me. There wasn't any way anything could have survived that hell and come out sane.
We drove out to the barrio.

So, Spike saved him?

Far as I know, he croaked after we left him off at the lady's house.

What kind of lady was this? Getting answers out of him was like pulling hen's teeth. Was she a vampire ?

He shrugged his broad shoulders and wrinkles cascaded in fleshy waves. Dunno, might have been, but I thought maybe she might be some kind of a witch. She was really pretty. Dark hair, big eyes. Would have been just about perfect if she hadn't been so tight skinned.

I wondered just what Clem found attractive. In fact, I wondered what the female of his species looked like. Brr, scary thought.

Anyway, she seemed to have been expecting us. She picked him up and carried him inside on a table. Laid him out real pretty, rose petals and everything. I don't know what happened after that. Spike stayed for a few minutes with her and then we took off. He was frantic worried about the Slayer. Guess he figured she needed him now. Spike said this Dru would take care of Angel. I just figured she meant until he dusted, y'know. We burned rubber for Sunnydale and we woulda been there sooner if we hadn't rolled the convertible on the canyon road. Too bad about that. I liked that car. It was a real classic vehicle.

Enough about the damned car. What happened after you got here?

Not too much, I guess. It took a while for Spike to heal up and he'd cooled down by then. Got smart. He and the Slayer met up some on the sly. He kept an eye on little sis for her. Then all the big stuff went down. You know. Yeah, I sure remembered that.

Thanks Clem, you're a good pal to Spike.

So this Dru had taken in a dying Angelus. If she'd been some kind of sorceress, maybe she'd raised him from the dead, the way we'd done with Spike in Arashmahar. Days of torture, though. That had to make a difference. I wondered if this Dru was a good witch or a bad witch? From the looks of this latest massacre, I had to figure she wasn't one to prefer sweet soul-having-helping-the-innocent-lambs, Angel.

tbc

Music: Dizzy Gilliespie, Things to Come