Complexities
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Don't even own pocket lint. Lost it in the bankruptcy.
Summary: Some interesting things are revealed.
Reviews: Yes, love em, need em, live for em. Hugs and kisses to everyone who reviews. Readers rock but REVIEWERS RULE!!!
A/N: Sorry for the delay but I spent a day in a lust filled haze following WayWard Childe's last review (Spike in nothing but chaps, yum, some sweet dreams there) and another day in denial (Angel in a french maid's uniform, not-so-yum, nightmare city). It's not that Angel isn't attractive its just…well…think about it. I was going to go back to Jake's house but Wes and Susan had to have their little thing. Then they all just stopped. I know its slow moving but, please, have you ever tried to get these people to rush at anything?
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Earlier, at the Hyperion.
Dawn and Buffy wanted to leave immediately and go to where Spike was now living. Angel echoed the desire but couldn't let anyone know he did. So he kept silent and let the girls talk to Susan about it. Susan was reluctant to let any of them have any information about Spike, or Will as she called him, and Jake. All she would say was that they did not live in the LA area.
"Please, I need to see him." Dawn was trying her puppy dog eyes on Susan. Unfortunately for the teenager, Will had used the same tactic on her so she was now pretty much immune to big pleading blue eyes. She refused to admit how many times the beguiling vampire had actually gotten away with it before she'd toughened up.
"Tell you what. I promised Jake I would call him today. I could do it from here and put them on speaker. Okay?" Susan compromised. She held up her cell phone. She didn't want them to be able to obtain the number so she pushed a few buttons to conceal the entry from anyone who managed to take a peek at the display. She turned the volume all the way up and activated the speaker function. They listened to it ring. Once. Twice. Then it was answered.
"Hello, Cutie."
Buffy's knees went weak at the familiar greeting. She sank down onto the sofa as tears once more welled in her eyes. Dawn's joy was incandescent. She literally glowed as she heard his beloved voice. The accent was subtly different but they could all tell. It was Spike.
"Hi, Handsome. How are you?" Susan's face took on a worried expression as she greeted Will.
"You sound funny, Luv. Are you on the bloody speaker phone?" They could hear Will ask the question with amusement in his voice.
"Yes. Um… Will? I have some people here with me." Susan hesitantly started to explain as she looked at each one in turn. Dawn with her huge grin, Buffy with her trembling hand covering her mouth as tears slipped down her face and at Angel whose stoic features couldn't hide the emotion reflected in his dark brown eyes.
"I thought I could hear more than one person breathing. Vampire hearing, you know. So who's there? Some new boyfriend I need to scare off?" Smiles became evident as they listened to the teasing care in his refined British voice.
"No. God, I thought Jake would answer. This is hard. Will, I'm with some people who say they know you. They wanted to talk to you." Susan told him quietly. Her gray eyes landing on Dawn, motioning for her to be the first one to speak.
"O-okay." They could hear the hesitation in his voice and his fear transmitted itself over the phone.
"Hi. Will? I'm Dawn. I really miss you. Can I come see you?" Dawn couldn't help the tremor in her voice. She was talking to Spike! She'd believed him lost forever and vowed to herself she would let him know how much she loved him.
"Hi Dawn. I…um…don't know what I'm supposed to say." She was just a little disheartened when he didn't appear to recognize her voice.
Buffy opened her mouth to have her turn when Angel interrupted. He'd tried to wait but he had to talk to his Childe. He only said one word.
"Will?" The elder vampire held his unneeded breath waiting for Will's reaction. What they all heard sent terror through their hearts. They heard the phone hit the floor and a growl of agony sounded through the tiny phone speaker.
"Oh my God! Will! Can you hear me? Will!" Susan frantically tried to find out what was happening on the other end of the line. They heard the phone get picked up and a new voice sounded over the speaker.
"Suzy? What's going on? What happened?" A deeper American male voice asked the questions angrily.
"Jake! Oh Thank God! Where's Will? What happened?" Susan was grateful her cousin was there.
"He's on the floor holding his head. I asked you what happened." Jake answered her, hostility still evident in his voice.
"Angel said his name." Susan was still confused about why Will had the reaction he did.
"That's it? Someone said 'Will'?" Disbelief colored Jake's deep voice.
"Yes." Susan confirmed.
"It was Angel?" Jake asked. Another anguished moan burst from Will at the name. They could hear his panting with the pain and were astonished when they heard him speak.
"Not…Angel… Angelus…. Aaaah!" He cried out again and then a thud was heard.
"God! Look I gotta go, Will's passed out. Find out what the deal is with this Angel/Angelus dude. This is the second time that name has done a number on Will. I'll call you later." They heard the phone hang up with a slam.
Silence blanketed the old hotel as Susan turned cold gray eyes on the vampire at the root of Will's pain. She closed her phone and pocketed it.
"Well?" Her icy voice broke the quiet, as she demanded an answer from Angel.
"Angelus called Spike 'Will' when he was a fledge. It wasn't easy being a Childe of Angelus. But I don't think that's the reason for this. It's something else. He used to call me Angelus all the time. He insisted that having a soul didn't change the inner being. He used to tell me that Angelus and Angel were two parts of the same whole." Angel spoke quietly, still in shock that just the sound of his voice and name brought that reaction in his Childe.
"You are not allowed to talk to him again until we find out just what it is doing this to him. Understand?" Susan's frosty instruction annoyed Angel but since she was their only link to Spike, he nodded that he did understand.
"I'm leaving now. Wes? Give me a ride back to the gallery please." She turned to Buffy and Dawn. "I'm sorry but we have to make sure he's okay before we can attempt another contact."
The sisters nodded their understanding. They clung to each other, partly in joy that Spike was indeed alive, or undead as it were, and partly in fear for the intense pain they could hear in his voice.
Buffy brushed a lock of hair behind Dawn's ear. "We'll have him back soon." She promised.
"We'll see." The slayer shot Susan a poisonous look at her statement. Susan held the look calmly, not in the least afraid. She turned and left with a confused Wesley behind her.
"Wes!" Angel stopped the former watcher.
"Yes?" Wes asked.
"When you get back, I need you to get a hold of Lindsey. We have to find out about that amulet. I want to know what it is, what it does and why it brought Spike back." Angel instructed. Wes nodded and followed Susan.
In the car, Wes drove in silence for a moment. "So Spike is alive." He observed quietly.
Susan nodded. "As alive as a vampire ever is, I suppose."
"And he has absolutely no memory of anything before he…what was it? Burst out of the amulet in a cloud of ash?" Wes was attempting to insure his facts were straight.
"Jake told me he found the amulet in the center of the Sunnydale crater. He took it home and when he looked at it closer it heated up and started to glow. He dropped it and a big cloud of ashes erupted out of it. Will…he kind of rematerialized from the ashes. He was unconscious for more than twenty-four hours. A couple of days later when he began to waste away despite eating several meals a day, they discovered he was a vampire. Jake cut his finger and Will's face changed. Scared the hell out of both of them." Wes interrupted her narrative.
"It scared both of them?" He asked incredulously. She nodded. "Fascinating. Please, continue." He added.
"There's not much more to tell. They get along famously. Jake buys blood from the butcher, at a ridiculous price, and Will's quite content with it. For a vampire he's pretty laid back. He watches television and plays the guitar. He reads. He works out in the basement gym Jake has. And he sleeps, a lot, mostly because so much of his sleep is interrupted by nightmares." Susan looked at Wes as he pulled the car up to the gallery.
"He reads?" Again Wesley was amazed.
She nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I was shocked too. I've run into a couple of vampires here and they didn't strike me as very intellectual. Will's very smart. He just hates to show it. I found out he reads from Jake and it took him almost a month to catch Will at it. I won't tell you what he reads; he threatened to bite me if I ever ratted him out. Let's just say it's not comic books or horror stories and leave it at that."
Wes frowned in confusion. What would make Spike threaten to bite if it got out what he read? It couldn't be anything one would associate with violent types. From Susan's description, Will was far from violent. If he didn't read comics or horror stories, which in truth was pretty much what Wes figured would be exactly what Spike would read. That left several genres, most of which Wes discarded immediately. Intellectual. Something he didn't want people to know about.
Susan watched in amusement as the expressions changed on Wesley's handsome face. She grinned when he got it.
"He reads poetry?" Wes asked in shock.
"Along with some other stuff. I'm not telling, mind you." She said.
"Mysteries?" She shook her head. "Not…?" Wes couldn't voice the guess. She nodded. He smiled. "Well, well." It seemed that William the Bloody was much more complex than any one ever dreamed.
