A/N : Wow, good response to this story then. I'm glad about that since I really wanted to write this and it makes fic even more enjoyable to write when you know others like reading it too. Also, this is my first proper Angel fic and therefore has some different characters for em to right - kind of a big deal. Thanx to; Moonjava, BatdzAngel, Charmed-angel4, EMBER91, Demonica Mills, Sydney, Xtremely-Canadian, kori hime, Shadowhawke, Amandamanda3, iluvglorfindel, Alliegirl, Celestia Nailo, Brunettepet, goldenshadows, bella-lover, and ShalBrenfen for the reviews. Just so you know, this story is not going to be majorly long, at the moment my plan is no more than ten chapters. Anywho, on with the story, and parts of this chapter are taken directly from Just Rewards.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 2
Spike looked down with some concern at his body that was half inside a desk.
"What? What's happening to us?" he wanted to know, looking between Buffy, Angel and the gang.
"Well, I'm no doctor" Gunn shrugged "but I'd say you're ghosts"
"We can't be" Buffy said a little worriedly as she reached out a hand and watched it pass through Angel's arm "Can we?" she shared a look with Spike who also looked bemused.
In the background, Harmony screeched something almost indecipherable about Spike and Buffy together being disgusting and gross, before storming out of the room and back to her desk.
"Where'd they come from?" Fred eyed the pair of what seemed to be ghosts as Spike stepped out of the desk and reached for Buffy's hand.
"From this" Wesley explained, picking up the amulet from the ground and watching it twirl in the light. Angel stepped forward for a closer look.
"You gave that to me" Buffy realised, turning to her ex-love "for the battle with the First...oh God" she suddenly gasped "did the others get away?" she panicked as Spike pulled her close.
"I heard from Willow" Angel told her, not wanting to turn around and see the Slayer in his grand-childe's embrace "they're all okay. Dawn, Giles, Xander, Faith...they lost Anya, and they thought you two" he said, finally turning around. It had hit him hard when he'd heard that Buffy had passed away for the third and final time, at least it had been assumed to be her last exit. Now, here she was again but completely untouchable, except by Spike, and that was the worst part.
"Where are they?" the bleached blond asked, "The Nibblet and the Scoobies..."
"Europe, last I heard" Angel told him, retreating back to his desk and sitting on the edge as Buffy, Spike and the gang had their own discussion.
"We have to see them, call them" the Slayer said firmly but Fred shook her head.
"That could be a little complicated...in your condition"
Buffy look set to cry and Spike instinctively held her tighter, kissing the top of her head.
"When I saw you I thought this was heaven" he whispered into her hair "then I saw him" he gestured towards Angel with his head "reckon it must be hell" he said grumpily.
"Uh, no. L.A." Lorne pointed out "but a lot of people make that mistake" he really had no idea what was going on, and he wasn't alone in that.
"So Spike and Buffy are...?" Fred turned to Wesley and Gunn, and the Englishman shook his head.
"They were, um, allies for some time" he tried to explain as the group looked over at the apparent ghosts as they held each other close "at least that's what Angel told me. That's all Angel told me" he said pointedly. The older vampire didn't really hear, he was too busy concentrating on looking like he wasn't looking at Buffy and Spike.
"So he's a good-guy vampire?" Gunn gestured towards the bleached-blond, "Like Angel?"
"He's nothing like me!" Angel snapped indignantly, wanting that point to be abundantly clear. Spike was half way to kissing Buffy when he heard what was said and was quick to point out the differences between himself and his grand-sire too.
"Got that right" he said sternly, "I'm not some Poofter like Angelus!"
Buffy rolled her eyes as she mumbled to herself;
"Oh good, more jealous vampire crap"
"I have nothing to be jealous about!" Spike yelled indignantly "And anyway, what have you done to us!" he continued loudly, looking around the room, seeming as if he'd just suddenly remembered his situation "What is this place! Who are you people? What the bloody hell is happening!"
"Spike, calm down" Buffy urged, hands on his arms to stop the wild gesturing "We'll figure out what's happening but in the meantime, can't we just be grateful we're still together?" she said with a soft smile as he took her back into his arms.
"Why did you stay luv?" he sighed, running a hand through her hair, grateful that despite their ghostly appearance they could still touch each other "I told you to run"
"I couldn't lose you" she shook her head slightly "not after everything...I meant what I said before" she said in all but a whisper, the other occupants of the room seemingly forgotten now. He smiled as he remembered exactly what she had said - that she loved him.
"Me too, Slayer" he promised right before their lips met and they kissed passionately.
The gang all looked away, a little embarrassed by the turn of events, and Fred couldn't help thinking just how cute they looked. Angel pushed himself up from the edge of the desk and headed for the door.
"I think I'm gonna be sick"
"You're not the only one" Harmony replied as he arrived outside the office and closed the door behind him. The blonde was back at her desk, staring through the glass of the window and trying not to cry as she watched her ex kiss the Slayer all but senseless, "It's perverted and gross! A vampire being with a Slayer like that..." the blonde's voice trailed away to nothing as Angel looked daggers at her, "Oops, sorry boss" she mumbled, turning to her computer and trying to look busy. She still couldn't help stealing glances up at the window that separated the lobby from Angel's office, however painful it was to see her Blondie Bear in the arms of another.
"Honey of a story" Lorne commented as Wesley leant over a microscope in the science lab.
"Story?" the Ex-Watcher quirked an eyebrow at his demon friends words and he was quick to explain, with dramatic gestures as only he could.
"Yeah, the Vampyr and the Slayer, sacrificing their lives for each other in a moment of fire and glory" he enthused "Oh, I could sell that to any studio in a heartbeat. I see Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom" he continued dreamily until it became clear that Wes thought he might just be crazy "But then I see them a lot, sorry...hazard of running the entertainment division. Gotta get out more" he mumbled walking off towards Fred who was walking around Buffy and Spike with some kind of scanning machine.
"So what are you then?" the vampire asked her "Scanner girl?
"I'm Fred" she smiled nervously as she ran the device over the pair "I head up Wolfram & Hart's Science Department"
"Wolfram & Hart?" Buffy frowned thinking the name sounded familiar.
"Heard of that" Spike nodded "Thought it was a law firm"
"It is, among other things" the Texan explained vaguely as she wrote some figures down on her clipboard.
"I thought Angel told me before that they represented the worst evil in the universe" Buffy realised with some alarm as she stood in Spike's arms, she'd pretty much spent the whole of the day there and seemed to have no intention of moving.
"I did" the dark vampire replied, coming over to join the conversation "but it's different now. I'm in charge.
"Are you now?" Spike tilted his head and observed his grand-sire. What exactly was 'Peaches the Champion of the World' doing running an evil law firm?
"Weird" the little science girls voice broke his train of though and took everyone's attention "I'm getting electromagnetic readings consistent with spiritual entities, but there's no ectoplasmic matrix" she told her mini audience. The blank looks she saw amongst them made her explain further.
"Ectoplasm is what makes ghosts visible to the human eye" she told them all "If they are ghosts, technically we shouldn't be able to see them...and I'm detecting brainwave activity" she noticed
"On Spike?" Angel chuckled half-heartedly "That is weird"
"Angel" Buffy managed to reprimand him and make him feel so bad with just the one word. How could his girl have ended up like this, and in the arms of his unworthy grand-childe!
"Also, ghosts generally absorb light and heat energy making the area around them a few degrees cooler" Fred continued "These two are radiating heat"
That got a smirk out of Spike as he turned to Buffy.
"Always knew we were hot stuff, luv" he told her, giving her a quick kiss as she smiled.
"Actually, lukewarm" Fred told them with a smile of her own, excited by the scientific opportunities of this if nothing else "Just above room temperature"
"So if we're not ghosts" Buffy asked, suddenly serious as she looked between Fred and Wes who seemed to be there two people most likely to know "what are we?
"Whatever you are" Wesley sighed "you're clearly tied to this amulet" he told them and the group, holding the item by it's chain and making the light pass through it, casting pretty patterns up the walls and people' faces "Your essences, for lack of a better term, must have been held within it. Do either of you have any memory of a strange sensation when it released its energy?" he asked putting down the amulet and turning back to a clipboard and pen.
Buffy shifted awkwardly almost blushing as she glanced at the gang and then up at Spike.
"There were sensations" she admitted "but I don't think it was all about the amulet"
Her vampire lover gave in to the smile that threatened and kissed her with some passion, much to Angel's disapproval. He turned his back on the pair as he spoke to his people.
"Okay, they're connected to the amulet" he repeated "Last I heard it was buried deep in the Hellmouth. How did it end up here?" he wanted to know.
"Maybe they're here for a reason" Fred suggested, not knowing what else to think right now "Y'know, some higher purpose or something they're destined for. Sent to us by the powers that be to help us or to..."
"Soddin' Powers and their bloody tricks!" Spike interrupted loudly. Clearly he and Buffy had broken from their kissing at some point when no-one was paying attention, "You do your bit, save the world in a moment of fire, glory, and love, and they just-"
His sentence ended abruptly as he began to fade before disappearing completely, leaving Buffy standing alone.
"Spike!" she said warily looking around. It was so weird, one second he was there and the next...? The rest of the gang also looked bemused as they glanced around. Fred moved to quickly scan the area beside Buffy where Spike had been standing but didn't seem to be able to detect anything different.
"Now what?" Angel asked her.
"Where the hell did he go?" Buffy added, clearly a little panicked and her old lover longed to hold her. Knowing he physically couldn't killed him inside.
"I don't know" Fred answered with a worried look "He just...what did he mean by 'saved the world'?" she asked suddenly, looking at Angel and then Buffy when he walked away from her. Clearly he'd been keeping things from them and that was not appreciated.
"We closed the Hellmouth, well actually mostly Spike..." the Slayer was just explaining when she felt something strange behind her, as she turned she came face to face with the very vamp she'd been talking about.
"What?" he said as she looked at him like he'd just come back from the dead (again) and threw her arms around him delightedly "What?" he asked the others over her shoulder.
"You took the 'what's' right out of our mouths" Lorne told him, making the vampire frown.
"Where'd you go?" Gunn was eager to know but the look on Spike's face said he either didn't know or wasn't willing to tell.
"I was, er..." Buffy pulled back to look at him and the worry in her eyes made him feel awful, "You!" he yelled suddenly, pointing a finger at Angel across the room. "This is your fault" he announced as he strode over towards his grand-sire who also moved forward to meet him half-way, right in the centre of everyone.
"My fault?" Angel couldn't wait to hear this theory.
"Here we go again" Buffy rolled her eyes, making Fred smile a little. Seemed the Slayer was used to being argued over by the pair of vampires, but it was starting to look as if they argued this way over just about every little thing.
"You brought that bloody amulet to Sunnydale!" the bleached blond raved, waving an arm emphatically "You would have been the one to use it, until you chickened out!"
"What did you...!" Angel couldn't believe what he was hearing, but Spike didn't mind explaining it at all.
"You heard me! You left town in the nick of time, didn't you! Before the death and mayhem? Abandoned the woman you claimed to love..."
"Buffy would you tell him, it wasn't my choice!" Angel pleaded with her, but she threw her hands up in a 'keep me out of it' way as Spike carried on.
"And this bloody hell wasn't my choice either!" he pointed out "I'm not you. I don't give a piss about atonement or destiny. Just because I got me a soul doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself be..."
"Excuse me?" Fred interrupted, as she glanced up from her clipboard in astonishment at his words.
"Did you just say...Spike has a soul?" Wes asked his boss who looked decidedly uncomfortable "You never said"
"Didn't seem worth mentioning" he mumbled and Buffy felt like screaming. For vampires who'd been in the world for decades, even centuries more than she had, they could be such kids!
"Seems to be a lot of that" Gunn commented, with a shake of his head.
"Or maybe Captain Forehead was feeling a little less special" Spike smirked, walking back towards Buffy "Didn't like me crashing his exclusive club, maybe? Another vampire with a soul in the world"
The older vamp couldn't help but take the opportunity of getting right up in Spike's face then.
"You're not in the world, Casper" he pointed out with a nasty look and if either could have thrown a successful punch at the other, everyone in the room knew they would've.
"You gonna start calling me that too?" Buffy's voice made them both turn away from each other and pay attention to her.
"Of course not, Buffy, I..." Angel's expression softened immediately as the Slayer stood before him, eyes glowing furiously as she did her best to hide the fact he'd hurt her with that comment.
"No, Angel" she stopped his sentence mid-flow, holding up a hand as if to block his words "You wanna make fun of Spike you do the same to me" she told him firmly, reaching for her lover who gladly took her back into his arms "We're in this together" she continued "We fought, we died, and now we're back, all of it together. You have a problem with him being here then you have a problem with me, so maybe the both of us should just leave" she said, taking hold of Spike's hand and heading for the exit.
"So long, Peaches" the younger vampire smirked, throwing a little wave over his shoulder as he was happily dragged toward the door.
"Buffy, you can't just..." Angel tried to stop them but apart from pleading with her to stay, he couldn't physically force her to stay in the building, not when she and Spike had he ability to pass through walls!
"So you're gonna stop me, huh?" she challenged, stopping right by the door and turning back, arms folded over her chest "Oh, but you can't can you" she said with fake realisation "I'm just another Casper, not really in the world at all" the pain and tears she'd been trying to hard to quash spilled forth then and Spike pulled her close to him, one hand rubbing her back soothingly.
"Ssh now pet come on" he comforted her, and Fred couldn't help thinking how sweet and remarkable it was, especially when one considered he used to be such a vicious vampire, and she was the greatest Vampire Slayer the world had ever seen "You're in my world" Spike told Buffy, lifting her chin to make her look at him "you're the centre of it, always" he promised her and she sniffed as he wiped her tears away.
"I wanna see my friends" she told him "I wanna see Dawn and Giles and..." she glanced over her shoulder at Angel "I just don't wanna be here"
"Then we'll go" he said, copying her and throwing a look at his grand-sire before he continued "I don't care if we have to walk from here to Europe, we'll do it" he said firmly, taking her hand as they went straight out the door together this time.
"You handled that real well" Gunn told Angel, a hand on his shoulder. The vampire shrugged it off.
"Shut up"
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : This is kind of strange for me, having to write Fred, Wes, Gunn, and Lorne since mostly my fics have always been about the Buffy characters. Still, I hope I'm doing okay so far. Next chapter will be less with the episode stealage! In the meantime please review, thanks.