Murderer Too Young
Chapter 6 – Real Friends Don't Leave
Author's Note: Yeah, I know. Been over a week since I updated. Sorry 'bout that. Life stuff got in the way. So yeah, here's the final chapter of "Murderer Too Young". Hope you all enjoyed these last 6 chapters and thanks to everyone who did show their support by reviewing.
Oh, and just a little heads up. I know nothing of court cases and trials so please excuse the horrible scene that you're about to read. Beware, the first part of this is really slow and not with the rest of the story. I was a bit shaky when I started again but it gets better.
"Has the jury reached a verdict?" the judge asked. All eyes were on the group of jurors as one of them stood up.
"Yes your honor, we have," he replied. "The jury finds Mr. O'Connor guilty of murder one and is guilty on all charges held against him."
"Very well. This case is adjourned."
Angel didn't seem to be listening to his sentence at all. At this point, he was pretty much done trying to blame Spike. No one had even tried to listen to him when he was talking, so he didn't think he would listen to anything the law had to say.
He was too busy looking over his shoulder at the small group of people that had come to support him. He watched as his parents numbly stood up and followed most of the people out. That didn't hit him hard as seeing his three best friends looking right at him. Well, Xander was anyway. Willow was busy wiping tears from her eyes and Buffy wasn't even looking up. He stood, wanting to get one last word with the three of them before he would be locked up for probably life.
Instead, the first person to walk over to him was Spike.
"Hey, too bad about the trial huh? Those damn jurors had it in for you ever since the note was shown to them. Never stood a chance," Spike said to him, fake sullen expression. Angel fought the urge to punch his lights out and just stood there. He felt there was no more need to fight and accuse. Spike had already had that down pat.
"Get the hell out of my face," Angel mumbled under his breath, but wanting Spike to hear.
"Hey, don't get mad at me for your little predicament. I wasn't the one who got caught," Spike said. One of the guards ushered him toward the exit and Angel couldn't do anything in his handcuffed state but oblige.
"Wait! Wait a minute," Xander cried out, trying to get past the people that were exiting as well.
"Look Xander, I don't think there's anything else to say..." Angel started to say but Xander waved that away with his hand.
"I don't care what all the evidence says. Just because it all points to you doesn't mean you did this. You were set up weren't you?" he asked. Angel nodded and looked over toward Spike, who was trying to comfort Buffy.
"Yeah, I was set up. But that doesn't matter. Nothing I or anyone else can say will matter. Listen, stop by and visit me sometime today or tomorrow. I'll tell you everything then, I promise," Angel said. "And one more thing. Get her away from him now."
Xander looked over toward Buffy, Willow, and Spike before realizing that Angel was being led outside the courtroom.
He often said that high school was a lot like prison.
Boy, was he wrong.
Not only was Angel new, but he was constantly pushed around by a lot of the other guys. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that he was the punching bag in many fights. Not only that, but Xander hadn't come to see him like he was supposed to. It had been over a week since he'd arrived here and still no one.
"O'Connor, you have a visitor," the guard, Frank, called out to him from the door. Angel literally jumped up from his bed and followed Frank toward the hall exit. Once he got there, he came to the visitor area. It looked exactly the same as all the other glass windows he'd seen in movies. Walking to an empty chair, he looked on the other side of the glass and saw three pairs of eyes giving him sympathy. Probably for how beat up he looked.
He started to speak but then remembered that it was a soundproof glass and he picked up the hanging phone.
"Hey guys, thought you forgot about me," he said.
"Angel, what happened to you?" Willow asked. Xander took the phone from her next to talk.
"Sorry, we came as soon as we could. As soon as I knew that we could ditch Spike," he said. Angel nodded.
"Thank Xand. You've been making sure he's keeping away?" he asked. Xander nodded and handed the phone to Buffy, who couldn't help but look down.
"Angel, I'm sorry for what happened. But tell us what happened, please?" she asked. Angel looked casually behind him to make sure that the guards weren't around to hear.
"I didn't kill Riley. That's all you guys need to know right now," he said. Willow took the phone from Buffy.
"Wait, what was that? Not everyone hears at the same time y'know," she said. Angel repeated what he just said before.
"Give the phone to Xander. He can tell you what I said afterwards. This phone switching thing is confusing me," he added. Willow did as he asked and Xander now had the phone.
"Listen, I'm going to tell you everything. Don't tell them everything though. There are some things that they don't need to know," he told Xander. "Ok, remember that night were you watched Dawn? At Buffy's house?"
"Yeah. That was the night that Riley was killed. So what happened?" Xander asked.
"Riley was making a move on Buffy the day before and I was jealous. So Spike helped me with a plan to beat up Riley so he would miss his date. There was no plan to ever kill him. Anyways, things went bad and Spike pulled out his knife, and stabbed Riley in the arm. Since he was unconscious, we didn't want him to rat us out and so we put him in the freezer. I didn't know that's what it was at first. So we went home. I couldn't sleep so I went back to check on him. That's when I saw that the freezer was on and it was locked. By the time I opened it, Riley was dead. I called Spike then and he suggested that we make it look like a suicide so we wouldn't get caught. I wrote the note, and we finished. After that, I thought it would go away. But things got worse. Spike only helped me with all this so that he could make it backfire on me and he could get Buffy. So you can see why I want the son of a bitch dead, right?" Angel explained. Xander's jaw was open and when Willow asked what Angel said, Xander closed it and cleared his throat.
"Wow, you should have said something man. Too much guilt and worry isn't good for you," he replied. "Yeah, I can see the reason for hate. But how are you gonna get him to confess. I don't think he's gonna volunteer."
"I have a plan. But it involves you talking to the police. Tell them that I have a way for him to confess without him even knowing it. Please Xander, don't tell Buffy that it's Spike. I want him to be there when she finds out," Angel said. Xander nodded and gave the phone over to Buffy, who had been bugging Xander about it for the last few minutes.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" she said. Angel was a little taken back, but he figured he deserved it.
"What makes you say that?" he asked her. She sighed.
"Because all this time you knew and you never said anything. Plus, you made it seem like it was you at school last week," she said. Angel raised an eyebrow at that.
"What makes you think I didn't do it?" he asked her.
"Because it's not in you. You're not a killer. I should have remembered that from the start," she replied. Angel smiled at that but winced at the slight pain from the cuts and bruises on his face. "What did they do to you here?"
"The other occupants here aren't very friendly. I miss you guys, everyday. It's so hard here, I don't know how long I can last," Angel replied.
"Well, just keep your head high and show them that you're not weak," she said. Frank the guard tapped Angel's shoulder and told him his time was up. Angel said goodbye to Willow, Xander, and Buffy before walking back to his cell.
"Ok Xander, spill it," Willow told him as soon as they were in the parking lot. Xander tried to ignore them until he figured out exactly what was ok for him to tell them. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Willow and Buffy both smacked his arms.
"Hey! What's with the aggression?" he asked defensively.
"You were the one who heard Angel's side of the story. What did he say?" Buffy asked him.
"Ok, I'll tell you the basics. Angel didn't do it, someone we know was in on it too, and Angel's gonna try to get the other guy in jail and prove his innocence," Xander explained.
"Wait, what do you mean someone we know? Who was in on this as well?" Willow asked. Xander tried to say something, anything, that would get them off that question.
"Angel didn't want me to tell you..." he started to say.
"Xander, is it Spike?" Buffy asked him. Xander sighed and nodded. "So that's why Angel was so pissed off at Spike that day. Well, so why did Angel get caught and Spike didn't?"
"Because Spike was the one who turned Angel in. He had planned this from the start and was able to get all the evidence to point to Angel. Spike figured that when Angel was out of the picture, he would get what he wanted in the first place. You," Xander told her. Buffy shook her head and chuckled.
"So that's why he started to talk to me all of a sudden. I can't believe this!" she said.
"Spike set up Angel? But why did he want Angel out of the picture. If he wanted to ask Buffy out, all he had to do was ask before Angel did. Did he have to set him up for murder?" Willow asked.
"Well, we are talking about Spike here. I don't think he's smart enough to ever have though about doing everything the easy way. Listen, we need to make Spike think everything is fine. Angel has a plan on getting him in jail and Spike needs to think we know nothing about his involvement for this to work," Xander told both girls.
"What's the plan?" Buffy asked. Xander grinned widely.
"It's a good one, I'll tell you that," he replied.
As Angel was led by Frank, he prayed that Spike was dumb enough to fall for this. All he needed was for the right things to be said and he would be home free. Key word being free.
Frank opened the private visiting room door and motioned Angel inside. Once he took the handcuffs off of Angel's wrists, he gave him a pat on the shoulder before leaving. Angel took a seat at one of the chairs and waited. The door opened and Spike strolled in, big smile on his face. Angel inhaled silently and gave his best glare toward his ex-friend.
"Anyone ever tell you that orange is your color?" Spike asked once he sat down. Angel didn't reply. "Oh c'mon mate, you're not still mad about me tattling are you?"
"You've got a lot of nerve to actually come here and see me," Angel finally said, his face expressionless. Spike chuckled.
"Nice to see you too Angel."
"Why'd you do it Spike? Why'd you turn me in when it was you who actually killed him?" Angel asked. He didn't think Spike knew he knew that it was all about Buffy in the first place. That was better for him.
"I needed you out of the way is why. Did you think you were the only bloke in school who was in love with Buffy?" Spike replied. Angel laughed.
"So that's it huh? You love Buffy so you decided to what, set me up, kill Riley, and then make a move?" Spike looked content at that moment.
"Yeah, that's about it," he replied.
"How'd you do it?" What was the master plan?" Angel asked.
"Does it really matter now?" Spike asked. Angel smirked.
"Oh c'mon Spike. Humor me. It's the least you can do for me now. Besides, a lot of the other guys keep asking me how I got in here. I wanna give 'em a good story," he said.
"Oh right. Tell all your prison buddies the truth. Well alright. Doesn't make much of a difference now I guess," Spike said. "Well, you see I needed something that without, I would've never been able to do this."
"And what was that?" Angel asked.
"A ponce like you. I needed a bonehead so I could make this all happen. Remember when you found Riley in the freezer? Well guess who turned it on?"
"You said a janitor turned it on," Angel said.
"You're so damn gullible aren't you? Think Angel! Would there really be a janitor at school at 11 at night?"
"So then what? What about the note?"
"I needed some evidence to show Snyder and the cops. Your handwritten note was the key. Was almost too easy. I mean, who writes a draft of a suicide note? Only someone as brain-dead as you," Spike replied.
"So you led Riley into the school cafeteria, he saw me, you attacked him from behind, stabbed him, locked him in the freezer, which you told me was a pantry," Angel clarified.
"Doing good so far," Spike replied.
"Then you tricked me into writing the note, you take the master copy, show Snyder, and I get arrested," Angel concluded.
"Ding, ding! We have a winner... or in you're case, a loser," Spike said.
"I have to say, it's a great plan. Real brain thinker. And all this time I thought you were helping me," Angel said. Spike smirked.
"What can I say? I'm the world's best actor," he said. Angel's face went dark.
"Second best," he corrected. Spike frowned.
"What?" he asked. The guards came in through the door and one picked up Spike by the shoulder while another handcuffed him. Angel slowly stood up and unbuttoned the top of his orange uniform. There was a black wire taped to his chest.
"See Spike, not only do I use my brain, I use it well. Enjoy prison. I'll come by and visit you every ten years," Angel said to the blonde. With that, he walked out of the room and shook hands with Frank.
Buffy, Willow, and Xander were well into their movie. That was until the doorbell rang. Buffy got up to answer it.
"This better be important. I'm missing a good part," she mumbled. When she opened the door, she came face to face with a grinning Angel. "Angel? Oh my god, you're back!"
"Yeah, I'm back for good," Angel replied, returning the hug she was giving him. Xander and Willow came running out from the living room, big smiles on their faces.
"So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it worked?" Xander asked.
"They let you go? Spike's locked up now?" Willow asked. Angel nodded.
"Yup, he fell right into the trap. The police are clearing my record, although I do have to do 60 hours of community service for withholding information on the murder. But otherwise I'm free," he told them.
"So everything is good now? No more badness?" Willow asked.
"No more badness," Angel assured.
"Hey, wanna join our movie viewing? It kinda just started," Xander asked. Angel nodded. "Cool. Hey Will, wanna get more snacks?"
"Sure, soda ok with everyone?" Willow asked. They all nodded and the redhead nearly ran into the kitchen while Xander walked back into the living room.
"Wait a minute? What about school? Snyder expelled you," Buffy asked him. Angel smirked.
"Oh I'll be back first thing Monday. The Governor made Snyder let me back in," he replied. Buffy smiled.
"I'm glad you're ok. I don't know what I would have done if you would have been locked away forever," she told him.
"I can mutually agree with that. I would have gone crazy in there without seeing you everyday," Angel said. Buffy inhaled deeply and sighed.
"Look, I know what you went through when you saw me with Spike. But if I'd have known what he did to you, I would have never had gone out with him. I hope you know that." Angel replied by leaning down and kissing her.
"I do," he replied after a few moments.
"Good," Buffy said, before continuing their kiss.
THE END
Ok, there it is. Hope you all liked! And as a last request, review and tell me what you thought. Pretty please?