A/N : Well, as you may have noticed we're heading towards an end with this story, but in the meantime I'd like to thank the reviewers for their support; Moonjava, AnononA, kim, Demonica Mills, Xtremely-Canadian, sheilamarie, msberry, Celestia Nailo, you're all awesome.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 20
"Did I mention how much I hate this?" Spike asked, his hand shaking in Buffy's as they stood on the doorstep of a very unsavoury apartment in a filthy and unhygienic building on the bad side of town.
"It'll be worth it" Buffy promised him as she she knocked on the door, and a rough looking brunette opened it, looking pissed off at the interruption to her day.
"Hi, you must be Faith" the blonde said carefully, feeling a little strange not just busting in here, flashing her badge and threatening to arrest anyone who got nasty.
"Who's askin'?" the young woman asked, looking ready for some kind of fight when she looked at Buffy and a different kind of physical work-out when she looked at Spike.
"We know your friend Xander" Buffy half-lied, since she didn't know him at all until today, "And we need to talk to your room-mate, Amy"
There was a moment's pause when the girl who seemed to be Faith looked over the two people on her doorstep before finally stepping back and letting them into the apartment, ever wary of attack.
"Stay there" she said as if she were talking to a dog before disappearing through a door, never fully turning her back on her 'guests'. There was some thumping and clattering before a young man emerged from what seemed to be a bedroom, clutching his pants and T-shirt in his hands.
"But Faith, I thought..." the guy protested.
"Well, there's your first mistake" she told him, giving him a shove towards the door, "Don't think so much" she told him "Thanks for the ride, now get out of my face" she snapped, slamming the door shut behind the him.
Spike and Buffy shared a glance, trying to stay in the centre of the room and not touch any of the less-than-sanitary surroundings.
"Amy's in there" Faith jerked her thumb back through the door, "To the left" she signalled, "You're not out of there in five minutes or I hear anything weird, I'm coming in there and you two won't be walking out" she told them nastily, stressing the word 'walking'. Buffy wanted to hate the girl but she couldn't. She'd seen too many before, used and abused, force out on the streets by families or boyfriends that didn't care enough.
She nodded in understanding as she and Spike went through the door to where they would apparently find Amy. Neither of them expected what they saw as they entered the make-shift bedroom. A young woman, hair streaked blonde and brown lay under the thin covers of the bed, shaking like she was freezing though it was far from cold in the room.
Buffy suspected it was drugs that had done it, or rather the withdrawal from not taking any in a long while. She hated the fact she'd brought Spike here, the look on his face when she glanced over was somewhere between pure horror and terrible guilt as he saw the girl he believed he'd cheated on Drusilla with the night she died.
"Amy?" Buffy ventured, stepping closer to the bed. The fragile-looking girl drew away from the uninvited guest and Buffy now understood why she shook so much. It wasn't just cold turkey from drugs that was causing it, it was pure fear. Bruises marred a face that was probably once pretty, and further purple marks covered the top of her arm visible where the sheets on the bed had shifted.
"What do you want?" she asked nervously, whole body still twitching.
"Need to know if you remember me, pet" Spike asked gently, feeling terrible for the girl that had clearly been beaten badly by someone and was suffering a great deal. He had no blame for her, he couldn't. He saw only himself when blame was to be apportioned for the night Dru died. He had betrayed his girl, there was no reason why Amy shouldn't have offered herself to him, he just never should've accepted.
"I don't...I don't know you" she said, looking away and Buffy encouraged Spike to step back a second.
"Amy, you don't have to be afraid of us" she said gently, hoping her training and previous interaction with girls like this might come in handy now, "We're not accusing you of anything, we don't want to hurt you it's just...I need you to tell me if you remember meeting Spike at a bar eight months ago, try to think for me, please"
Amy looked over at the bleached blond, brow creasing as she studied him and he tried not to look at her. Of course she remembered him, and their little charade. She wouldn't be lying here now, covered in bruises if she hadn't got involved in a plot against this guy.
"I remember" she said almost too softly, "Sort of, but...I can't" she squirmed, turning over in the bed so she didn't have to face him, almost burying herself beneath the covers like a frightened child would. Buffy sighed, glancing back and Spike and wishing she knew how to make this easier for everyone, but there just was no other way, just this.
"Times up, dynamic duo" Faith called as she bust into the room, "Amy didn't want no visitors anyway, I think you two should get out before I throw you out"
"Come on Buffy, we're wasting our time" Spike said sadly, turning towards the door, but she shook her head.
"Amy, if Spike goes will you talk to me?" she asked the shivering lump beneath the covers, "Just for a few minutes"
Amy didn't know what to think. The voice of this Buffy girl was kind and caring and she hadn't asked anything about Angel yet. Maybe it'd be okay to talk to her about it, she needed to talk to someone. Guilt had wracked her for so long, and if she didn't confess to someone soon it might be too late. There'd been so many times lately when she wondered if she'd wake up in the morning...
"You want me to throw her out, A?" Faith checked and her friend turned back over in the bed.
"No" she said, "It's okay Faith, she can stay"
"And Blondie?" she asked, tilting her head towards Spike.
"I'll be downstairs" he said to Buffy, pushing past the brunette and disappearing. Faith gave Buffy a long, non-trusting look before leaving the two women alone and closing the door. Amy pulled herself up to a near-sitting position in the bed, showing off a few more choice cuts and bruises as she did so.
"Amy" Buffy sighed, "I know this is hard but...I need an honest answer from you, lives might depend on it" she told her, "One night, eight months ago you met Spike in a club. You bought him a couple of drinks, I'm guessing you slipped something in one of them because within the hour he couldn't even walk a straight line. You took him to a place you called home, he passed out on your bed. You took off his clothes and your own and made him think you slept together. Is that true?" she asked, hoping she didn't come off to police-officer-ish.
"We did sleep together" she protested weakly, looking away. Buffy steeled herself against the anger that rose inside her before she spoke again.
"Okay, you slept together" she conceded, "But you didn't have sex with him, did you? You set him up, to make him feel guilty" she pressed, "You set him up for Angel, didn't you?"
"Yes" Amy suddenly yelled, tears steaming down her face, "Okay, I said it, yes...I didn't know what he was going to do"
"Angel?" Buffy guessed, "You didn't know that he'd hurt you?"
"Not me" the young woman shook her head, "Spike's girlfriend. He said she didn't belong with Spike, she belonged with him, and if I could keep the guy away it would give him a chance to prove his love for her"
Buffy felt sick as Amy explained what had happened. To finally have some kind of proof that Angel was the monster he seemed to be, it make her feel terrible. It wasn't exactly helpful for the case, since Amy's evidence was unlikely to stand up in court, even if the poor girl wasn't so scared she'd never do it. It was bad enough though just to know her suspicious were true that a man she worked with, looked up to in some ways was such an awful person.
"He showed me a picture and sent me to the bar" the shaking girl went on to say, "He said I didn't have to sleep with him, just make it look like we'd..." she trailed awkwardly before continuing, "He gave me the stuff, to put in his drink...he said it'd look like he was just sick with something for a while, then he'd black out"
Buffy looked away then, feeling awful. Somehow hearing stories like this was just about bearable, and in her line of work it was necessary for her to ask about and be told such things. It was being in the middle of all this that made it so difficult to take in this time, she guessed.
"I didn't know what he was going to do" Amy cried, "I'm not this terrible person you think I am...I just did a guy a harmless favour, at least I thought that was what it was" she sobbed.
"It's okay" Buffy said softly, "I know, it's not your fault"
"Isn't it?" Amy laughed humourlessly, "I don't know...that bastard hates me enough he..." she glanced down at her bruised arms and then away and out of the window.
"Angel did this to you?" she checked and the look Amy gave her told her it was true, though she'd never say the words, she just wouldn't dare.
Spike hated this part of town, it reminded him too much of days gone by. Hiding in alleys to avoid fights as a teen, and then hiding in the same kind of places in an attempt to see Dru. He closed his eyes briefly, wished it all away, painful memories that he knew as long as he lived would never leave him. In his head he could hear Drusilla's voice, feel her body close to his as she whispered in his ear, told him he was her saviour, her precious, and how much she loved him. Coming here and seeing Amy, it only made him feel ten times worse.
"Hey" Buffy said behind him as she appeared from the apartment block, "You okay?" she asked, hugging him when it seemed evident he was far from okay.
"What did she say to you?" he asked about Amy and Buffy looked to the ground.
"There's good news and unfortunately there's bad news" she admitted, "The bad is that she won't testify that Angel had her come after you, and to be honest even if she agreed I doubt her word would stand up in court"
"But there's good news?" he said hopefully, feeling as if he were hanging on by a rope that was slowly snapping, and that this might be the only thread still holding him up.
"Spike" she said, putting a hand to his face, "You didn't do it, you didn't betray Drusilla" she told him there in the dim light of the back street, "Amy was 'employed' to set you up, to make you think you...but you didn't" she assured him.
He was surprised to feel tears well up in his eyes, but she wasn't so shocked to see them. He was bound to be overwhelmed by relief and such, now at least he could let go of some of the guilt that didn't truly belong to him, and he did so by going into her arms and crying like a child.
It was the next morning as she sat at her desk feeling way beyond miserable that Buffy finally found a way to prove Angel was the sick and twisted lowlife that killed Drusilla Walker. She couldn't believe how simple it really was when it occurred to her, she figured she must have started over-complicating things lately. It certainly wasn't unlikely since most parts of her life were so complex it made her head hurt to think about it.
She was in love, for the first time ever she was certain, but the guy she chose was a man she'd been taught to despise. Instead of getting a confession for murder and sending him to jail as was the plan, she'd fallen in love with William 'Spike' Blood and realised he wasn't capable of that which he was accused. Instead her superior officer Liam 'Angel' O'Conner was the guilty party and she'd spent the last couple of weeks trying to turn things around on him, all the time lying about that she was really doing and how close she was getting to a confession of guilt from her supposed target.
It was mostly Riley she'd had to lie to, and that was easier. Angel had been away a lot and nobody was certain why. Buffy wondered vaguely if perhaps he knew something or at least suspected, and that was how Amy had come to be beaten as she was and the girl with the fake name of Illyria had refused to admit she'd seen something strange at the apartment the night Dru died.
Unfortunately it seemed today he was back and all full of smiles and leers as usual. He'd been watching her through the internal window room his office to the main one where she sat. For the most part she'd been ignoring him but she knew eventually he'd want to call another little meeting, ask her progress on the Blood case. She was running out of time, Spike was even more so, and still she was coming up with nothing but dead ends.
"Hey, Summers" Riley snapped near her ear, making her physically jump out of her dazed thoughts, "Y'know all these meaningful looks from the boss doesn't mean he trusts you to do your job" he said nastily, and Buffy knew it was only because he was jealous. He liked her and therefore hated the fact that he had what he saw as competition in Angel, but he also wanted promotion and respect from the boss, which was something it seemed was reserved purely for Miss Summers.
"Screw you, Finn" she snapped turning away from him, "Not that anybody would"
"At least I know how to do my job" he shot back, "You're such a great under-cover cop" he continued sarcastically, "So great the decision has been finalised, on your next meeting with Blood you're going in wired"
Buffy was about to yell something obscene when she stopped, not because it occurred to her it would be inappropriate in the office, or because she knew he was right about her work because he wasn't. She stopped because the cogs in her head turned just far enough to link two things Finn had said. Angel's attraction to her and the wire.
"Riley" she called, standing and going after him, "Can I ask you something?"
He folded his arms across his chest and looked down at her, waiting for the derogatory comments she was so good at, that only made him want her more because he knew he couldn't have her.
"Do you trust me?" she asked simply and Riley looked a little wary before he nodded.
"If I tell you something, something important that matters like life or death, I'd like to think I could trust you with that kind of thing" she told him quietly so no-now else heard. They said awful things to each other, but when it came down to it Buffy was pretty certain Riley was someone she could trust if she had to.
"Is this thing with Blood getting more out of hand than you told O'Connor?" he checked, looking excessively worried for her. Buffy was a little surprised by that, convinced up to this point that he only really wanted her for one thing. Maybe he cared more than she'd given him credit for, not that it made a difference now, she was with Spike and wanted to be so forever.
"The case got out of hand" she admitted, "but not how you think" she shook her head, "You were right about that wire, I do need it if this case is gonna get cracked, but we can't tell Angel"
"I don't understand" Riley admitted, frowning hard by now.
"Meet me after work" she whispered conspiratorially, "Weatherly Park, by the fountain, and by the time we're done, you will understand"
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : Reviews would be of the good, please, and I'll update again as soon as I can.
