A/N : Hey gang! Yes, I'm back - did you even noticed I was gone? Well, it has been just over a month since I updated this fic, which I apologise profusely for. If you want to know why I was gone so long, check my profile page. Thanx so much for all the supportive reviews on the previous chapter, Amandamanda3, Xtremely-Canadian, aphelant, sunnyhell, Mr Lennox I pressume, GoldenAngl99, Kez, Mariana, hopefulhappiness90, Raven, msberry, spikeswife1. I am really pleased to know you like this story still. It's kind of developed a life of it's own and run off in a slightly different direction to originally planned but then this seems to be happening with a lot of my stories lately. Not to worry, at least I have some idea of where it's going, that's always of the good. Now, here's the latest chapter which I hope you enjoy.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 14
12 months ago
"Tell me again, Spike" Drusilla sighed as they lie together in his bed, his arms around her, "Tell me the pretty story of how it'll be"
Spike smiled at her childishly innocent tone, and kissed the top of her head. This was the first night in a long time when Dru had managed to get away for a decent amount of time. Angel had taken Darla out, something he hardly ever did, but it was a fair assumption that they wouldn't be back til the early hours of the morning, giving Drusilla and Spike a good amount of time together. On nights like this they would go to his apartment and after they'd made the most beautiful love she would often ask for the story of their future that he painted so brightly.
"We're going to leave here, Dru" he told her, "I'm going to get the money and we're going to go anywhere you want to start over. I'll treat you like the princess you are, luv" he promised her "And we'll go where we want and do what we want..."
"We'll have parties" she grinned, "With streamers and songs"
"That we will, my love" he said as he kissed her tenderly, "You and me Dru, the world will be ours"
"Princess wants to go now" she said, suddenly looking sad, "Daddy asks to play too much" she looked away and Spike hated knowing she was stuck in this awful situation. That Angel bloke was a prize git but Dru was too afraid to tell her mother how he tried it on, and even more petrified of mentioning Spike to her.
"Soon, pet" her boyfriend promised her, "Won't be long now and we'll escape"
"Fly away on fairy wings?" she asked with tears in her eyes that it almost killed Spike to see.
"Yes, luv" he nodded, pulling her body close to his, "On fairy wings"
- - - - - - -
On the third floor of an apartment building, two people sat either side of a table, both with stone cold coffee mugs held in their hands and tear stains on their faces. The sun had risen an hour ago, but neither one had noticed the change from dark to light. Despite the bright rays of day that came in through the window, a dark cloud still hung over them alone.
Buffy felt almost numb after the events of the night before. Too many tears spilt and too many emotions felt, she thought she'd run out of feelings and salt-water to cry after so many hours. Her world had been turned on it's head in the past few weeks, but last night had been the final straw. William Blood, who's police file told of violence and murder, had so far turned out to be nothing more than a man who loved a woman. Her life had ended too abruptly, but at whose hands was as yet not completely clear.
Buffy was filled with this terrible mixture of feelings. She wanted and needed to know what happened next in the terrible tale from his past that Spike told. At the same time she hated the pain and tears all this was causing him and herself. Like a news report on some huge highway traffic accident, you don't want to watch but something you can't understand fixes your eyes to the bloodied bodies of the injured and the twisted metal that proved how much destruction had been caused.
"It wasn't easy making money" Spike was suddenly talking again, his voice cracking with more feeling than he should have left and hoarse from crying so much, "That part of town, unqualified as I was, it was all I could do to pay my rent, clothe myself and eat each day. I waited tables, worked as a bar tender, and helped out at a garage, spending any spare time I could with Dru...nearly killed myself trying to save her, and it wasn't enough" he shook his head, looking down at his fingers, tracing patterns in the wood of the table top.
"What happened next?" Buffy knew she had to ask, and immediately Spike's hands stilled their movement, before nails dug into the wood hard enough to leave marks, "Spike?" Buffy said worriedly, noticing the angry expression on his face now.
Though he knew he had to tell her, Spike had trouble finding words as fury almost strong as it had been then surged through his veins. A memory he wished he could lock away settled in the front of his mind and two empty coffee mugs sailed from the table, crashing onto the floor.
Buffy was on her feet in seconds, trying to hide how startled she was but failing miserably. When Spike looked up at her, his anger was subsiding. He realised how his behaviour affected her and felt sorry for it. Desperate to be calm for her sake if not his own, he took a couple of deep breaths with his eyes closed before he spoke again.
"It got worse" he said, swallowing hard, "after Darla died..."
- - - - - - -
"Dru, sweetheart, please don't" Spike begged as she sobbed into his shoulder. He'd suffered many a physical and emotional blow in his time but nothing hurt so much as the sight of his darling girl's tears.
"She was mean and nasty to Princess" Drusilla cried, her words somewhat muffled by the leather of Spike's coat, "but she was Mummy, and there'll never be another"
"I know, pet" he said softly, holding her tight to him and rubbing a hand on her back. Despite Darla's terrible behaviour towards her daughter, the young woman was mourning as if her greatest friend had just passed away. Spike felt awful for her naturally, and though he hated it, he knew that he understood why she cried. His parents were not the best in the world but when he received the news of their deaths he still mourned, still felt some kind of loss, even though it was several years since he'd last seen them.
"Daddy cries" Drusilla's voice brought him back to the present and Spike tensed at the mention of O'Connor, even if it was not yet by name, "He cries and tells me I am all he has now Mummy chose to be with the stars"
"You are not his to have, luv" Spike told her, pulling away til he could see her face and wiping tears from her cheeks with his thumbs, "You're my precious, dearest, darling, princess, Drusilla" he emphasised each word with a kiss across her face until his lips landed on hers.
"Make it stop, Spike" she whispered between kisses, "For a little while, make it stop"
"Whatever you want, baby, it's done" he promised her, as he began to make love to her. It was all he could do for her right now, though there was so much more he wished he could do.
Now Darla was gone he had no doubt Angel's advances would only become worse and more frequent towards Dru. He'd offered her to come and live with him but Spike knew she wouldn't leave unless they were getting out of town. It was a complete break or none at all, she knew she'd never be free just down the street in another apartment. Angel would find them and Drusilla had got it into her head that he would kill Spike for sure.
Though he swore he had no problems fighting off his enemies, Drusilla still refused to hear of her 'brave knight' taking on 'Daddy'. If she lost Spike she would truly have lost everything, whether it be in death at Angel hands or emotionally broken from committing such a crime as murder himself.
"When we leave this place" Spike told her as he lay her down on the bed, "It'll be a new start for us, and our lives will be whatever you want them to be"
"The world will be our oyster" she smiled, unbuttoning his shirt, "and all the bells will ring, ring, ring..."
- - - - - - -
"She said the weirdest things sometimes" Spike smiled in spite of himself as the memories washed over him, "but she loved me, Buffy" he said, painfully serious again as he looked over at her, "She loved me and she trusted me and...I let her down"
"I don't understand" the blonde shook her head slightly.
She remembered all too well the various stories she'd been told were the truth about Drusilla Walkers demise. It couldn't be all Spike's fault she knew that now, and Angel, despite all that he'd done had so far not seemed so very violent in Spike's version of the past. That only left suicide and surely Spike couldn't feel this guilty if Dru took her own life. She wanted to ask if it were true, wanted to just get it over with, but the words wouldn't come. Instead she urged him to proceed with the painful tale.
"Eventually you got out of LA" she said slowly, "You came here?"
"We did" Spike nodded once, "but it didn't do any good"
The look on his face when his eyes met hers made Buffy phyically shudder and when he spoke his tone was so cold and lost in the deafening silence that she could hradly breathe.
"There are some things that are impossible to outrun"
- - - - - - -
"I didn't mean it, Princess didn't mean it" Drusilla cried, as she ran from the doors and down the street. Spike was stunned when he saw her and she fell into his arms sobbing.
"Drusilla, luv, what the bloody hell's happening?" he asked with a frown.
"Didn't mean it, Spike, Princess is sorry, she didn't mean it" the young woman continued to ramble on and on and Spike tried to make sense of what she was saying. He'd been on his way to meet her, around the corner from her home as planned, after Angel went out for more alcohol supplies. He guessed O'Connor was behind Drusilla's wild behaviour. If he'd hurt her, Spike was not going to be responsible for his actions...
"Pet, what did he do?" he asked, pushing her away enough to see her tear stained face.
"Bad Daddy. Bad Princess. All bad and dark..." she continued with her incoherent run of words and Spike knew he was going to get no sense from her til she was calm again. He cared more for her welfare right now than pummelling the one who might have harmed her.
"Come on, luv, home with me" he said gently, wrapping an arm around her and checking no-one followed as they set off towards his apartment.
"He knows, Spike" she whispered after a while, "He knows my knight watches over me"
"You told Angel about me?" the young man was surprised and not entirely sure whether he should be glad about her confession or not.
"He held so tight" Drusilla said, almost guilty, "Said if baby couldn't breathe, she couldn't scream..."
Spike's blood started to boil in his veins as he realsied what his woman's devil step-father had tried to do to her, but there was a slight releif in that the bastard hadn't succeeded.
"I remembered what I saw, my Spike" she said, ceasing walking and turning to look up at him with wide, dark eyes, "Remembered how the ruffians in the street fight their battles...and I lashed out, lashed and bashed, til Daddy bled all rosy red" she smiled slightly at the thought before turning deadly serious again, "I did scream, Spike, I screamed and said I loved you, I love you, I love you" she repeated over and over as she reached up to kiss him deeply, "I love you and he knows it now" she whispered.
"It's okay, kitten" Spike told her gently, pushing her hair from her face, "We have enough money to get out of here now" he decided, already doing calculations in his head, altering their plans to fit, "We can't go as far away as we wanted but, it'll be alright"
"My sweet boy will protect me" Drusilla smiled, hugging him tight out of pure love and pure relief combined.
"Always, pet" Spike swore, holding her close and breathing in the scent of her hair, "I promise"
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : With any luck the next chapter will be up in much less time than it took for me to get this one posted! In the meantime please do review. I hope no-one has been put off reading by my lack of updates...
Also updated today : So Mote It Be
