A/N: Alright, u know the drill, lol....flashbacks are in italics. ^^ lol I hope u like this chappie! SxF will start 2 warm up 2 each other a bit, lol. Please R&R, and of course...ENJOY! ^,~
"When this is over, I'm leaving the syndicate."
Julia frowned, her haunting blue irises remaining completely devoid of all emotion as she gazed upon her lover within the moonlight, insisting darkly, "They'll kill you....you know how they work."
"Let them say I'm dead," Spike contradicted, allowing a scornful chuckle to escape his thin lips as he extended a small piece of paper within his hand towards her. "I'll be waiting in the graveyard....by the graves, not in one."
"Spike...," Julia began sorrowfully, "I can't come with you."
"Yes, you can," he insisted, his voice laden with a desperateness that deeply frightened him since he was normally so cool and calm about every little thing. "We'll leave here.....we'll get out of this."
Julia closed her eyes and let out a troubled sigh, demanding rather tartly, "And go where? Do what?"
"Live....be free," Spike returned wistfully, a small smile coming to his lips at just the mere thought of their ultimate dream coming true. "It'll be like watching a dream."
Allowing her eyes to once more gaze upon the small piece of paper within her lover's hand, Julia gingerly took it from his fingers and gasped, realizing that the simple parchment sealed both of their fates, fore she had accepted.
"Julia...."
"What was that?," Faye demanded, sending Spike a funny look over her shoulder as she continued to unpack her luggage within the shabby hotel that they were currently staying.
He immediately shook his head, muttering a dispirited "nothing" under his breath before plopping down dolefully upon the edge of one of the twin-sized beds within their room.
"The name 'Julia' doesn't sound like nothing," Faye insisted, turning around sharply from her belongings in order to face him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Spike grimaced. "If you already knew what I said, why the hell did you even bother asking?"
"Because....because I'm......I'm worried about you," she admitted, folding her hands meekly before her as she allowed her head to bow forward in order to conceal her emotions. "Every time you mention that woman, you seem to get even worse. I don't want to see that happen anymore, Spike.......ever."
"Faye..."
"No," she interrupted, pointing her finger towards him as she took a small step forward. "The way I see it, Julia has already condemned you to death since you're wasting away just thinking about her! Forget her, Spike....please! If not for me, then for yourself!"
"Faye, that's enough! I took you here with the hopes of us both getting a break....not to deal with the past!," Spike growled, immediately shooting up from the bed before turning his back on her within his sudden fit of untamed rage.
Faye bit her lip as her eyes began to fill up with tiny, prismatic tears of pain and woe, her breath catching in her throat as she acknowledged shakily, "A-alright.....I promise that I'll never worry about you again......not ever."
Spike stiffened. "Faye, don't be like that, I just-"
"Please....leave me alone," she begged, turning her back to him, as well, as she pulled her jacket about her small, slender frame and headed on over towards the door. "I'm going to go out for a bit in order to clear my head."
Spike frowned deeply. "Faye, wait."
"Good-bye, Spike," she returned sorrowfully, immediately ripping open the door and dashing out into the hotel hallway before another word could be exchanged between them.
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"It's so beautiful," Faye thought, gazing on with wonder and delight as the space ship that she currently occupied continued to drift towards the bedazzling moon that now captivated everyone onboard. "I've never seen anything like this......it's absolutely magnificent."
A warm smile formed its way along her full, rosy lips as she felt an indescribable joy over being one of the very first civilians to be bathed within the moon's luminous glow up close, her reverie immediately shattering into nothingness the moment that the woman beside her pointed a trembling finger towards the floating beverage upon her tray, demanding shakily, "I-is that supposed to be able to float like that? Just a second ago it was defying gravity!"
"I...I don't know," Faye admitted, suddenly growing fearful. "Perhaps it's just a-"
BOOM!
Faye screamed the moment that one of the main thrusters of the space ship exploded, the tremendous force of gravity now compressing the shuttle so that is was being torn apart as each unsuspecting passenger began to panic and pray for their lives.
Levitating up from her seat and into the air, Faye gasped as the window beside her cracked down the middle and contorted the moon into a broken image of destruction, her heart hammering wildly within her bosom as she suddenly grew faint, her world painting out into a sea of obscure darkness that engulfed her like a suffocating blanket of quietus.
"NO!," Faye screamed, trembling as she stood before the vacant site of her childhood, her brow prickling with perspiration as she suddenly dropped down to her knees and drew a box within the dirt with a nearby stick. "No....this can't be happening....it can't! I don't want to remember anymore.....ever!"
Shaking like a leaf, Faye wrapped her arms about her legs and held herself close, wondering why on earth she had been cursed with the worst punishment known to man.
"How could this have happened to me? I was always a good little girl....wasn't I?," Faye wondered, fighting off tears as she watched the sun begin to set behind the trees. "Why was I the one to get cryogenically frozen and brought back in the year 2071, only to find that everyone and everything that I ever loved were gone?!"
"So do you always like to sit in makeshift boxes beside piles of rubble, or is this just a new thing for you?"
Faye gasped due to the shock of overhearing the familiar voice, immediately whirling around from the dismal view of her home in order to face the dreaded being behind her.
"S-Spike!," she choked, her breath instantly catching in her throat. "What are you doing here? Why did you follow me?!"
"Well I couldn't just let you leave by yourself...Earth is a very dangerous place," he insisted as if it were obvious, flawlessly able to mask his concern as he stuffed his hands within his pockets and gave her a stubborn look. "Now if you don't mind, I think that it'd be a very good idea to get back to the hotel."
Faye snorted, then turned her nose up into the air before insisting firmly, "No."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "No? What do you mean by that?"
"Just what I said...NO!," she rebuked sharply, sending him a look that naturally would have caused all Hell to freeze over. "I-I just need some time alone, alright? This is where I grew up as a child, so please....just let me have this moment to mourn over what I've lost."
Spike's iron clast gaze suddenly softened, his hand gingerly falling down upon her shoulder as he agreed good-naturedly, "Alright....but only if you promise that you'll come back to the hotel when you're ready."
Faye returned his intense gaze and managed to bestow him with a small smile, conceding softly, "If that's what you want, then I will."
"Thank you," he acknowledged softly, sending her on last wary glance before he began to head back on over towards his zip craft, the distance between them rapidly leaving a large void within Faye's heart as she bowed her head and shielded her pained gaze from the world behind a curtain of violet.
"I want to confide in him, but he couldn't possibly understand," Faye told herself firmly, warm, prismatic tears gently streaming down along her porcelain cheeks as she held herself close and choked on a sob. "I mean, how could he possibly know what it's like to fall asleep one moment, only to wake up nearly a century later with no one or anything to belong to?!"
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It was well past midnight when Faye finally returned to their shoddy hotel room, her eyes swollen from crying and her heart weighing her down with each advancing step that she happened to make as she shuffled past Spike's bed, only to freeze instantly.
"Spike?," she questioned breathlessly, cocking her head at an angle as she continued to listen. "Are you....crying?"
"I am not," came the pained voice, causing her to frown with concern.
Gingerly approaching his bedside, Faye gasped once she laid her eyes upon his broad, trembling frame, his cheeks pale and moist amidst the moonlight as he continued to take in slow, labored breaths.
Spike wasn't crying like a child, and she knew and understood that. His actions very much reminded her of those of a wounded soldier; he was strong, yet even stronger to allow his true feelings to show through his iron visage.
"Julia...," he suddenly choked, shaking like a leaf, "Julia....please, don't leave me. I love you, Julia.....please...."
Faye began to tremble due to observing this painful display, her heart going out to her mournful comrade as she placed a gentle hand upon his moist cheek and began to stroke his face, her voice calm and even as she urged softly, "Relax, Spike....everything will be ok. I'm here, now."
"Julia?," he questioned, rolling over with the sole hopes of lying his two-toned irises upon his blonde beauty. "Julia.....is that you?"
"No," Faye admitted, suddenly feeling guilty since she was not, "it's me....Faye."
"Faye?," Spike reiterated, dazedly sitting up in bed in order to meet with her troubled gaze. "Oh, Faye....I-I think that I had another goddamned nightmare....I'm sorry for the inconvenience, I-"
"No, hush....I'll just go, now," she immediately interjected, placing a beautifully-manicured finger upon his lips in order to silence him. "I can see that you still need a lot of rest, so I'll sleep in the next room so that I won't disturb you."
Spike frowned deeply. "No you won't, Faye."
She blinked. "I....what?"
"Please, Faye," he begged, taking her hands in his with a sudden desperateness that she could not quite explain, "please don't go.....stay with me, tonight."
She gasped the moment that he buried his face within the crook of her neck and began to shake, her arms immediately wrapping about him as she felt his tears seep within her blouse and stain the material with their pain and woe, her fingers lightly stroking his hair as she breathed, "Don't worry, Spike....I'll be here for you.....all through the night."
He pulled Faye closer as his silent acknowledgement, her heart heavy and swollen with sorrow as she felt herself relax within his demanding embrace, the two fallen souls drifting off to sleep with the aid of one another's desperately needed presence.
A/N: ::looks @ u hopefully:: So how wuz that?? Please don't tell me that Spike wuz OOC, lol, cuz if u ever listened closely during the commercial thingy 4 Ballad of Fallen Angels, Spike says that it's like "the peeling of an onion", meaning that he wuz crying, lol. Well...that's how I interpreted that, heh. -.-' Sorry if this chappie wuz boring, or n-e-thing...I promise that it'll get better later! . lol Luv ya bunches! ^,~ R&R!!!!!!
3 Kendra Luehr =^-^=