Good Enough Chapter 7: Crestfallen Divergence, a buffy: the vampire slayer fanfic

Good Enough
By MsBigBad

Chapter 6: Crestfallen Divergence

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or any of the characters from the show. They belong to UPN, FOX, Mutant Enemy, and the wonderfully talented Joss Wheedon whom I love and adore! I'm just using them for some entertainment cause I'm an obsessed freak! Any original characters belong to me and may not be used w/o my permission. (I'd be happy to let you borrow but please no stealing!) Series title belongs to Sarah Mc Glaghlan, and is used w/o permission. "Just a Ride" is by Jem and is used w/o permission. Any quotes and/or poems will be disclaimed in the text. Flashbacks are in italics.
I don't own Buffy or any of the characters from the show. They belong to UPN, FOX, Mutant Enemy, and the wonderfully talented Joss Wheedon whom I love and adore! I'm just using them for some entertainment cause I'm an obsessed freak! Any original characters belong to me and be used w/o my permission. (I'd be happy to let you borrow but please no stealing!) Series title belongs to Sarah Mc Glaghlan, and is used w/o permission. "Just a Ride" is by Jem and is used w/o permission. Any quotes and/or poems will be disclaimed in the text. Flashbacks are in italics.
Ships: Spike/Buffy, Xander/Anya, Willow/Tara, Wesley/Cordelia, Gunn/Fred, Clem/Lorne, and Connor/Dawn.

Spoilers: Through "Seeing Red" on Buffy and " " on Angel.

Summary: After overhearing a prophecy concerning the chosen one, Spike decides to return to Sunnydale leaving Africa and the 15 years he's spent there behind.

Note: From the time of "Seeing Red" and " " this story is A/U. Which means there was no death of Tara, No nicely boxed Angel at the bottom of the ocean, no vainy Willow, and absolutely no flaying of Warren! If you want to know what has replaced that part I suggest you read my timeline (which I promise will be done soon! Sorry!).
From the time of "Seeing Red" and " " this story is A/U. Which means there was no death of Tara, No nicely boxed Angel at the bottom of the ocean, no vainy Willow, and absolutely no flaying of Warren! If you want to know what has replaced that part I suggest you read my .
Feedback: Please! I'd love to know what you think! You can reach me at I want to thank my best friend Lauren for always believing in me and for giving me this little obsession! You are what keeps me alive! I've never had such a good friend that I could laugh and cry with till it hurt! And of course have long LOTR discussions and kinky fantasies of parts (he, he, he!) of the fellowship. You know what I mean I need to stop now cause then they'll be reading this for too long to even think about reading the story! I want to also thank my other friend Heather for wanting to read my stuff and for making me laugh enough to forget some of the angst in my stories! To everyone who archives/reviews my fics! I'm soo grateful for all you've done! Of course I need to thank Joss and his crew of talented writers, producers, directors, actors, and special behind the scenes guys! Thank you guys so much for the 2 best TV shows ever in existence! Really wanna thank James Marsters for being my snowman! (Don't worry if you don't get that! It's a seriously disturbing inside joke!) I love James! Good luck in everything that you do. And I really wanna thank you for reading my fic! Especially if you read through all this nonsense and bonus points if you actually pondered the snowman thing! (Seriously just let it go! It'll drive you insane and your head will explode! Yuck!) Lot's of luvs! Enjoy! Mwahhh!

Life, it's ever so strange
It's so full of change
Think that you've worked it out
Then bang
Right of the blue
Somethin' happens to you
To throw you off course and then you breakdown
Yeah you breakdown
Well, don't you breakdown
Listen to me
Because

Why'd it have to be him? Out of all the people or creatures she'd met over the years, why him? Now? She has to get home. Jeremy will be back from his business trip soon. He'll wonder where she's been if she's not at the house when he gets there. Why did Angel have to bring her into this? Why now? He hadn't given a damn in so many years. Why start now?

Siltha demons did he mention that he hated them? Not that Angel would care or even appreciate that he'd helped him. Why the hell had he helped him?

He drops his bag in the floor of his room and collapses in the armchair.

He can't keep his mind off her. She's so beautiful, age has had no effect at all on his love for her. But she isn't herself . She's broken. Everyone around here seems to be broken, and he gets the feeling that it won't take long till he's broken too.

"Long night?" The ice clangs in his sea breeze as he leans against the door frame.

"You have no idea, or maybe you do but I don't recall humming or anything as of late."

"No honey exhaustion and confusion and about every other emotion are all over your face right now not your aurora."

He looks up at the green demon and sighs. "That obvious huh?"

"Ehh." Lorne says tilting his hand from side to side.

"Bloody hell! What the fuck am I supposed to do? I came here thinking it'd be easy."

Lorne stops mid glass raise to look over at him.

"Well okay not easy. Nothing's ever easy with Buffy. I don't know. I just thought it'd be different. Somehow I thought…"

"You thought she'd be different, or less different, the way she was when you left. Well here's some news cowboy. Lot's of things have happened since the last time you were in the barn. She's changed and you're gonna have to deal with it if you're gonna help her."

His eyes hit the floor and his voice lowers. "I know that."

"Do you? You might think you love her. You defiantly love who she used to be, but can you love what she's become?"

Why? That's the only question that runs through her mind as a eight car pile up on the freeway delays her further. She checks her watch, 12:44. Shit! She's gonna be late, his plane lands at 1:30 and this will take at least that long. They live ten minutes away from the airport which means he'll be there before her. What is she gonna do? Why should she worry about this? Angel's right. She is not helpless. She can stand up for herself. That's just what she's gonna do.

It's just a ride, it's just a ride
No need to run, no need to hide
It'll take you round and round
Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down
It's just a ride, it's just a ride
Don't be scared, don't hide your eyes
It may feel so weird inside
But don't forget, it's just a ride

"Spike, Wes and Gunn need you. They're waiting down in the lobby." Angel forces more than asks.

"Whoa. Whoa. I don't know how you came to the conclusion that I was your little lap dog, but you need to forget it. I've got things I need to do. Came here for a reason you know." Spike reminds him.

"Yeah, yeah. You found some glowy ball thingy that says the slayer's gonna die. In case you haven't noticed, Buffy's not the slayer anymore. Maybe you should take this up with Faith."

"Already have thank you, an' she thinks it's about Buffy too." Spike brags.

"Well isn't that swell! You've got everybody rammed so far up your ass they can't see straight don't you? It's not my problem Spike and it's not yours either it's Buffy's."

"Oh what, so your just gonna let her die?" Spike scoffs.

"She doesn't want my help!" Angel quickly reminds him.

"Yeah well that don't mean she doesn't need it! But that's right you don't care. Don't care about anything! Least about anything cept yourself! What a perfect piece of work you've become! The immaculate contrast between Angel and Angelus! Congratulations!" He says throwing his hands up in the air.

"What do you think you're gonna do?" Angel asks looking back over his shoulder at Spike who had proceeded to leave the room. "Your gonna ride in on your white horse, sweep her off her feet? Save the day? That's what you could never get William. Sometimes you lose. And when you lose you back off. You let it go."

"Like you let your son go?" Spike replies curtly.

Angel charges at Spike in a fury at the blatant remark, but he has the foresight to move first leaving angel to fall to the ground. Spike's boot is quickly on his grandsire's back holding him down. "You don't know anything about my son." Angel manages.

"I know a lot more than you think gramps. So what boo hoo, my son's a vampire without a soul. What did you expect? Get with the program! You're supposed to be the good guy! I'm the one in the middle remember?"

"Like I said, you don't know anything about him." Angel shakes Spike off.

"Whatever, I don't have the time for your mamby pamby pissing around. I've got a Slayer to save." He says finally exiting the room.

"She won't leave him." Angel shouts. "She told me the same load of bullshit she probably told you. She doesn't need me. I'm not in her life anymore. It's the same lie she keeps telling herself over and over just so she can live with it."

"Yeah, and you don't have the courage to tell her that! You could at least try."

"She's not gonna let you in. So you might as well deal with it and get the hell out of my city." Angel advises.

"I don't deal Angelus. I make it happen. Thought you knew me better than that. You used to."

Why did demons have to mess everything up? You're having a perfect night and then bam! There goes yet another scaly clan of demons trying to destroy the world! Cordy and Fred were just discussing every detail of the wedding plans when they'd overheard a few robed figures talking about ending the world. The guys were already out on some other mission to kill some type of alien egg things and that left them all alone. Oh well, after this long they'd gotten used to it (didn't make it any less annoying!), but they could deal.

"Got you're weapons?" Spike asks grabbing a large battle axe from the display case that served as the Angel Investigations armory and tossing it over his shoulder.

Wesley holds up a rather large sword and Gunn is sporting a similar battle axe.

"Good. Let's got then. Don't have all night." Spike sighs.

"If you'd rather be somewhere else I'm sure we could manage on…" Wesley starts.

"Just tell me what we're fightin'."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too!" Gunn smarts off.

"Hey, William the Bloody aka Spike. Slayer of two Slayers, descendant of the line of Aurelius, and general all around good guy! Nice to meet you!" Spike says smugly, holding out his hand for Gunn to shake and flashing his game face.

"Right, you're a badass, don't mess with you!" Gunn responds getting Spike's warning, but not heeding it.

His head is busting. He really needs some Tylenol. It seems every noise is personified by about a million times.

"Can't sleep either?" Clem asks shyly from his place behind the front desk.

"The first time alcohol has kept me up, unless there was an overwhelming urge for more. Not tonight. Uh. I'm mostly trying not to trip over my own two toes. No wait I don't have two toes, that's the ninja turtles… never mind."

"Here." Clem says, handing him a red pill.

"Thanks."

"No problem. So, any good clubs to hang at around here?"

"You wouldn't 'hang' at any of the clubs I'd suggest. Trust me."

"Yeah, right." Clem says, grabbing his soda and stepping out into the garden to feel rejected.

"Great!" Lorne mumbles massaging his forehead.

1:47. She's screwed. Jeremy will be home any minute and she's still stuck on the freeway. How long did it take to clean up an eight car pile up, that's what she'd like to know. God why was this always happening to her.

Truth, we don't want to hear
It's too much to take
Don't feel out of control
So we make our plans
Ten times a day
And when they don't go our way we breakdown
Yeah, we breakdown
Well, don't you breakdown
Listen to me
Because

They'd came they'd fought, they'd conquered, they'd been covered in egg yolk. They were on their way back to the hotel when they'd caught sight of Fred and Cordelia who were also seemed to have fought something ickily messy.

"OMG! Fred are you alright?" Gunn asks, running to his new found fiancée's side.

"Cordelia!" Wesley starts.

She holds her hand up to hush him. "No, I'm fine."

"You wore my jacket on patrol? Oh bloody hell it's ruined! What on earth were you thinking?"

"What was I thinking? What was I thinking? Well let's see Wesley I was thinking: Wow this smells like him, I'll take it with me so I can bask in the scent of someone who supposedly loves me! What I was never thinking on the other hand was : Gee I hope I get in a fight with an evil gooey demon clan who by the way could have killed me which I guess was stupid of me cause doesn't that happen every night? But you wanna know what I'm really thinking? Now I'm thinking maybe I should just stop trying and find someone else. You know Margo would have already married me by now and I'd be popping out his 4th kid! But right now I'm thinking it's time to go home! Good-bye! Fred, Gunn, Congratulations." She flashes her best smile and clicking her high heels as fast as she can to the curb and jumps in her car.

"Cordelia wait!" Fred pleads. "Charles and I will take you home. You shouldn't be driving if you're upset."

"I'm not going to leave my car."

"Gunn can drive a stick." Fred informs her friend.

Spike giggles at that loaded comment.

Gunn ignores him and tosses Wes his keys. "Follow us?"

Wesley nods his head in conformation.

Cordy's mid-sized sedan hums to a quiet start and pulls away.

Wesley hands the keys to Spike "Would you drive? I feel a headache coming on."

"Wow. She just done a number on you!" Spike whistles opening the driver's side door.

"Yes, indeed." Wesley agrees.

"Nice to see there's still a few cars that haven't switched over to electric." Spike notes, turning over the loud engine of Gunn's beloved truck.

He looks over at Wesley who is rubbing his throbbing head. "But, your alright then?"

"No, not really… I'm so stupid!" Wes says laying his head on the dashboard with a rather hard bonk!

"I wouldn't say that. I hear you're pretty alright upstairs. It's just the women's department you're having your troubles with, and what guy's never been there before?" Spike questions.

"Gunn apparently."

"I know I'm not one to be giving advice, but did you ever think about telling her how much you love her? They like to be reminded that there's no one else but them. A woman like Cordelia might be pretty high maintenance, but she sure does seem to be worth it. Are you trying to get rid of her?"

"Of course not!" Wesley exclaimed.

"Well don't be yellin' at me about it, tell your byrd." Spike verbally bitch smacks his fellow brit.

"Spike where are you going?"

"The hell if I know! Lost Shaft a long time ago!" He says shrugging and taking a long drag off his cigarette.

"Go straight!" Wesley directs.

"Sod that! There's no traffic moving up there. Can hear all the cars slowin' down." Spike informs him opting for a more scenic route.

"Where are they going!" Cordy points Fred and Gunn's attention to the truck rumbling down the shoulder of the highway past them and then sharply turning to the exit ramp.

"I'm gonna kick Wes's ass!"

"Now we're talkin'" Cordy chimes in.

"You can bet that we'll be getting there before anyone else! Got a game plan?" Spike asks.

"Oh, well I guess I'll get some clothing and my car and spend the night at the hotel. I'm sure Angel wouldn't mind having another guuuueeeessstttttt!" Wes has a deathgrip on the dash as the truck swerves and Spike yells a sting of curses out the driver's side window. The white SUV had nearly collided head first into them.

Slowly, oh so very slowly

Accept that there's no getting off

So live it, just gotta go with it

Because this rides never gonna stop

Breakdown, don't you breakdown

No need to breakdown, no need at all

Because

"What's going on Charles?"

" Looks like a wreck. We might be here for awhile.

"How could he not want to propose to me? I love him! And the sex, well let's just say it's damn good! What would make him not want me?" Cordelia asked out of nowhere.

"Cordelia, he does want you it's just…" Fred starts.

"I'm fat! I'm fat and old and I'm poor! That's got to be it!"

"Cordelia!" Fred and Gunn say in union.

A/N: Please please review!