By The Shadower
AN: Sorry it's taken me this long to update. Real life can be really screwed up sometimes. I hope to have my next update sooner.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything I don't own.
Archive: Yes, please, I would be honored, but please tell me where. I just like to know.
Feedback: Vital. Gives me the boost I need to update.
Dedication: To my reviewers. Especially Imzadi, kitty-kat12, and The Asylum who reviewed my last chapter, even though it took me forever to update. Imzadi, sorry there's no Lindsey in this chapter. He should be in the next one. Kitty-kat12, thank you for the suggestion, I'll probably use it, though this will definitely be primarily FaithAngel. FaithLindsey is maybe a good friendship and a useful plot device, but that's it.
Of the three officers, only one knew what he was dealing with. Or thought he did. In truth, Jeffries only knew part of what he was dealing with, but this did not prevent him from feeling superior to his fellows, more experienced and better armed.
To the other two, this was merely a mild situation at the checkpoint, a man who might have resembled the creature that had so recently broken out of prison. Perhaps, if they had been truly honest with themselves, they would have realized that the odds of this being anything other than that which they sought were astronomically small.
But five years of relatively harmless busywork combined with their intense desire for this encounter to be equally harmless altered their perceptions. This wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was merely a formality, something they had to do in order to earn their pay. This man wasn't the one they were looking for. He wasn't nearly imposing enough to be.
And really, how many blondes were there in the area in and around New York, anyway?
Even if this one had almost white hair, indicating that it had been bleached, which was something that was no longer commonly practiced.
To the two who were ignorant, he was merely a blonde man in black clothes, leaning absently against the barrier and staring at them in a fashion that indicated boredom.
To Jeffries, however, this was a very dangerous situation, and he couldn't alert his colleagues to this fact without alerting the creature on the other side of the barrier to the fact that he knew.
And if the creature- the one he knew to be Prisoner 17 knew that Jeffries could recognize his face, Jeffries was likely to end up dead.
All this was going through Jeffries' mind as soon as he recognized the creature. He'd assisted with the arrest of Prisoner 17, was one of the few cops to actually meet this legend- and live, anyway.
He struggled to keep his face blank as he stepped forward to ask for the creature's card, deciding that he had no choice but to let this pass, and that the only way he could live was if Prisoner 17 did not recognize him, did not have the slightest inkling that he knew.
He did not know that all his efforts to appear unconcerned with his enemy were useless.
She had done all the necessary research, examined every fact on every page of every report ever filed by any member of the Baltimore police. Perhaps, once, it would have seemed monotonous, but under the current circumstances it was a welcome escape from boredom.
After all, there was very little else for her to do. Plan and plot and consider and strategize, yes, but nothing to do except stare at hazy images on computers that were practically antique, looking for information that might be useful for when her partner would finally escape.
She had turned up a good deal of potentially useful information. The officer in front, the fat one with the red face and doglike jowls, was harmless. He'd never done anything but Internal Affairs before the Exposure, and since that time he hadn't once been called to action.
The one flanking Jowls, he was nothing to worry about either. Far too young to have any dangerous memories. In fact, he had a childlike innocence about him that made him seem to be in his late teens, though she knew that he was, in fact, twenty-five. His birthday was in July, the sixteenth, to be precise, and he'd been an officer for only three of those sixteenths. He was married, had been for three years, and had a child on the way, sex as of yet undetermined.
It was the third that disturbed her. His face was all too familiar; he'd been an arresting officer six years ago, in Texas. He had seen prisoner 17 before.
And just like that, their fates were sealed. Of no importance were the wife and child of the young one, or the law offices that were about to be opened by the son of the older one. None of it was relevant now. The dangerous one- Jeffries, his name was- posed an intolerable threat.
Because he knew the identity of the man at the gate, Jeffries went down first. The others did not hear the shot that killed him, silenced as it was, and because he was hanging back, behind the others, his death would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the involuntary cry that escaped his lips when he fell.
In the time it took for their colleague's death to register, both of them were also on the ground.
Spike's face betrayed no emotion as he watched the officer's fall. It was only when he turned to greet their killer, that he allowed himself to smile.
She allowed herself to drop out of the tree she'd climbed an hour ago, just prior to the initiation of the checkpoint, and faced her partner. It had been too long since they had last met, and she was glad to see him now.
He opened his arms to her, and she stepped into his embrace, burying her face into the cloth of his duster.
"Hi, Spike," She said, her voice steady and controlled, yet holding just a hint of the exuberance that had once possessed it.
"'ello, Niblet."
Angel brooded. He had no leads, nothing left to go on. Spike was no longer accessible, and Faith apparently didn't want to be found, though her reasons for running eluded him. All in all, there was nothing he could do but sit and wait for clues that might never come. So he did what he did best.
Brooding about Faith was nothing new for Angel; his thoughts had been full of her all to often when she had been in prison. He had hashed and rehashed hopeless escape plans, looking for a way to get her out. Now she was out, and he had to find her. He had to help her face whatever inner demons she might still be dealing with.
Just as he'd been doing eight years ago, right up until the Exposure. He had continued to visit Faith in prison even after he'd taken control of Wolfram and Hart. She'd gone back after the battle with the First, determined to serve out her sentence, despite his assurances that she'd already had more than enough penance for her sins.
He'd wanted her out of prison and running Wolfram and Hart with him. Though he'd never actually voiced this idea to her, he'd always thought she would be an invaluable aid to him in his attempts to combat the firm's inherent corruption; after all, she knew almost as much about darkness as he did. She would have kept him grounded, kept the darkness from consuming him.
And he would get to see her every day; that had certainly entered into his thoughts.
With this on his mind, Angel rolled over in his bed and drifted into sleep.
He dreamed.
The Madge lowered his hands and the lights disappeared. Shadows encompassed the Madge, pushing him out of view, but Angel had more important things to worry about.
Faith was on top of him. He felt himself shift to his vampire countenance at her nearness, at the heat of her body pressed up against his cold.
And suddenly he needed to feel more of her heat. He needed her closer- closer-
Helpless against himself, he pulled her mouth down to his, and the world seemed to explode. He knew nothing, felt nothing but her.
He felt something digging into his back suddenly. He broke off the kiss with great reluctance to see he was in his office at Wolfram and Hart. Faith let out a moan at the lack of contact, and opened her eyes.
He felt electricity crackle as their gazes locked. Faith seemed to gasp for breath for a split second, then grinned at him and gestured to the office around them. God, he loved her grin.
"Like what you see, Angel? I hope so, because it's all you'll have anyway."
And she was moving away from him, moving toward the window. She now appeared terrified, as she had in the alley, bringing up her hands to guard against him.
He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't hurt her, that she was safe, but all that came out was a low growl. He realized, to his horror, that he was still in Vamp Face.
Faith dove out the window behind her and into the night. Running to the window, he managed to catch a glimpse of her running out of the alley below, before she disappeared.
He threw his head back and screamed.
And woke up.
Damn, that one had been especially bad.
This wasn't the first time Angel had dreamed about that night, years ago, when, while trying to see if Faith was working for the Mayor, Angel had been required to kiss her. It wasn't the first time he'd thought of it, either.
He'd been all too eager to take the assignment at the time, an eagerness which he'd preferred not to examine, and still didn't. And when he'd kissed her, even pretending to be Angelus, it had been-
No.
He forced his thoughts away from that subject. It wasn't proper and it wasn't smart. He couldn't feel that way about Faith. He was her mentor, her rock in the trauma of her mind, and she needed him to be something free of selfishness. Something honest, and good.
Never mind that she'd ran from him in the alley.
Faith would never see him that way, she shouldn't, and that was good.
So the dream didn't really mean anything. Other than that he was worried about her. And that he was nervous about what was left of Wolfram and Hart. That was all.
AN: Now, please review. I don't know if this is going to be Spawn or not yet. It might be, I have nothing against Spawn, but I haven't really decided. Also, I really appreciate suggestions, and any constructive criticism is also wanted, if you have any. Thank you.
I do not see the ship as pedophilic in nature, indeed, I cannot as I am the same age as Dawn on the show. However, if you have a seething hatred for Spawn, or have another, conflicting ship you want to see, please let me know. (Yes, I am considering Spuffy)