Summary: As Angel continues to rest, Spike finishes his story by explaining everything that happened to him whilst in Los Angeles with Angel and his gang.
Author's Note: Well, do you like where this is going? Please, give me some feedback, because reviews are always welcome. Angel will get better soon and I will have some action in the next couple of chapters.
Rating: PG: - WARNING – LOW LEVEL COARSE LANGUAGE
Chapter Five: Storyteller (Part Two)
When morning came, everyone had breakfast. Everyone except Spike and Angel. They had spent the night in the living room together, Spike staying awake to protect his grand-sire and watch over him. He could tell that Angel was getting better, because a few times during the night he had stirred, once even waking to see Spike. He had whispered feebly, 'What are you doing in here?' and Spike had simply replied, 'watching over you.'
Now, mid-morning everyone was dying to hear the rest of Spike's story. What had happened back in L.A. to cause both of these vampires so much pain and so many injuries? What had Spike been doing that made him so busy he couldn't even call Buffy to tell her he was alive? There were many unanswered questions that Buffy and her friends were dying to have answered.
Everyone gathered in the living room around Angel, who had Spike by his side. Angel was awake and was listening, still getting over his blood loss. He'd had some blood warmed up for him in a mug by Spike just before everyone had gotten up, which seemed to have done him some good.
'So, do you want to start where you left off?' Buffy asked.
'Sure, it's as good-a place as any.' Spike replied.
'So after your fresh brush with Hell, what happened?' Willow asked.
'Lorne threw a Halloween bash with everyone invited to Wolfram and Hart's big offices. Apparently, he had his sleep removed and was telling people to do things. Some of the things he told people to do, they went and did. He as making us do things without even meaning to.'
Willow, Buffy, Dawn and Xander laughed softly. 'Like what?' Dawn asked.
'Well, I was being overly positive about everything; Wes and Fred got drunk after only drinking a small amount of liquor; Gunn was pissing everywhere and Angel here slept with…' he stopped, realising that he probably shouldn't mention the night Angel spent on the couch with Eve.
'Angel slept with…?' Buffy asked curiously.
'No one pet.' Spike said quickly. He looked down at Angel and saw him trying to hide his actions by showing no emotion. He simple stared at his knees.
'Spike.' Buffy slapped Spike on the arm and looked him sternly in the eyes. 'Tell me who Angel slept with.'
'Eve.'
'Eve?'
'Yeah. She was the liaison to the Senior Partners' until Hamilton stepped in and she gave it up. That's when we rescued Lindsay from a suburban hell dimension.'
'Wait, who's Lindsay?' Xander piped up.
'He slept with a liaison to the Senior Partners?' Buffy cried, angry yet confused. She glanced over at Angel, who was staring at Buffy feeling a little scared.
'I wasn't myself Buffy.' He whispered weakly. 'I'm sorry.'
'Well, about this Lindsay guy.' Willow interrupted. 'Who was he?'
'You remember last night when I mentioned Doyle?' Spike asked. Everyone generally nodded. Spike looked at Angel, and saw his dark expression. He still didn't know who Doyle really was, even though he had actually met Doyle back when he came to L.A. about three or four years earlier to get the Gem of Amarra from Angel.
'Spike? Is something wrong?' Buffy asked as she noticed Spike watching Angel very closely.
'No, nothing.' Spike said. 'Anyway, the guy who said his name was Doyle was actually Lindsay. Lindsay apparently knew Angel from years back and as I said last night, wanted to kill him.'
'Wow, this is really complicated.' Willow commented.
'Kind of.' Spike admitted. 'But there's still more. Do you want to hear the rest of it?'
'Well, there hasn't been much action around here lately so why not? I've got a few hours before I have to patrol.' Buffy said.
'Okay, so there's Lindsay who posed as Doyle, Pavayne who tried to drag me into Hell, Eve who slept with Angel and then we get to Dana.'
'Ah, Dana.' Xander said. 'The delightfully psycho Slayer Dana.'
'Yeah, took me a while to get my tongue around that too.' Spike chuckled.
'Spike, Andrew never told me what happened with Dana. He told me they picked her up, and he said something about her hurting someone. Was it Angel?' Buffy asked.
'God no. It wasn't bloody Angel.' Spike snapped. The thoughts came flowing back, like a flooded river with the levees giving way.
'Then who was it?'
'It was me! The bloody bitch hacked both my hands off, after tormenting me. She thought I bloody kidnapped her as a child and tortured her!'
Everyone was silent. 'I'm sorry Spike, I never even knew you were alive then remember?' Buffy spoke up.
'Yeah, I know. At least Angel got the Wolfram and Hart doctors to sew my hands back on for me. As you can see, I'm doing quite well with them.' Spike held up his hands, revealing a large and nasty looking gash on the back of his left hand that he'd received in the fight back in L.A.
'Good for you.' Xander said, not realising how sarcastic his comment sounded until it came out. 'Sorry – I didn't mean it like that, honestly.' He corrected himself.
'It's al'ight mate.' Spike brushed it off.
'Spike, how did you and Angel end up here? I mean, after Dana and your brush with Hell and Lindsay, what have you been doing since then?' Willow asked.
'Well, we've been kept pretty busy with Fred's death.'
'What? Fred's dead?' Willow gasped. 'How? When?'
'Well, Angel called Giles to come help but he said you were on another plane of existence. Basically, he didn't trust Angel because of the whole Wolfram and Hart thing.' Spike explained.
'I will kill Giles.' Willow exclaimed. 'How could he let Fred die?'
'Willow, he wasn't the only one who let her die. Angel and I let her die, Gunn let her die, and I don't actually think Wes let her die but…'
'How did you all let her die. How could you?'
'We didn't have a choice Willow. Fred's body was being hollowed out so that an ancient God named Illyria could be brought back into this world. Angel and I went to the Deeper Well, her cemetery, as you might like to call it. The keeper of the Well, Droggyn, said that there was a way to save Fred but if we went through with it then everybody between her and the Well would die. 100's of 1000's of people would have died, after being contaminated with Illyria's presence.' Spike stopped, as he saw Angel stirring. He never realised how much of his recent past he was able to remember so clearly.
'As much as I loved Fred, I couldn't let that happen.' Angel whispered, his voice sounding a little louder and stronger than before. He was healing, but was hating having to hear everything that had happened all over again.
Willow sighed. 'I understand. I don't want to know how the others played a part in her death, because by the sounds of it she had no chance.' Spike nodded in response.
'It's alright love. We all had some loss when she died. But, then her body was taken over by Illyria. And now, Illyria is dead. She was killed back in L.A. when we fought the Black Thorn.' He stopped, realising that no one had any idea what he was talking about.
'The Black Thorn?' Buffy asked, slightly confused.
Spike breathed heavily. 'Okay.' He began again. 'Within the past week or so, we began to suspect that Angel was acting kinda unlike himself. As it turned out, he was planning to bring down a secret society known as the Circle of the Black Thorn. He can explain it to you in more depth when he's fully healed, but I'll give you a little idea of what this thing was.'
'Was it evil?' Dawn asked.
'Well, from what I heard from Angel, who heard from Lindsay, to be a Black Thorn is to be a Senior Partner's instrument on Earth.'
He looked around the room at the faces of his audience. 'Spike, what happened back in Los Angeles?' Buffy finally asked. 'Did it have something to do with the Circle of the Black Thorn?'
'Yes.' Angel wheezed, straining to sit up straight on the couch. Spike reached over and helped him sit forward.
'Angel, you need to rest.' Willow said.
'I'm fine, thanks. You want to know about the Black Thorn? I'll tell you.' Buffy stared at him in disbelief, astounded by everything she was learning. Spike being alive, being tortured by a Slayer and having his hands chopped off; Fred dying and being taken over by an ancient God named Illyria and Angel trying to bring down a secret society known as the Circle of the Black Thorn. Everything was so complicated.
'Okay Angel, if you're sure you're up to this.' Buffy said. Angel nodded.
'To join the Circle of the Black Thorn, I had to kill Droggyn, the keeper of the Deeper Well.'
'Wait, you joined this secret society you were trying to bring down?' Xander asked. 'What's with that?'
'I had to get inside, know who the people were. The demons, at least a dozen of them, are all dead now.' Angel confirmed.
'We killed them.' Spike added. 'That's what happened before we came here. And since we took on a society that was connected to the Senior Partners, they rained Hell on us.'
'That's how you two got so battered.' Buffy concluded. Spike nodded and Angel hung his head.
'That's not all.' He said.
'What more can there be? That's everything up until now, and that's what we asked for.' Xander asked.
'I… I signed away the Shanshu prophecy.' Angel looked up to find everyone staring at him, even Spike.
'Angel, what the Hell did you do.' Spike said in a deep, firm voice.
'Angel, why did you…?' Willow was stopped mid-sentence.
'I had to. It was the only way for me to get into the Circle and to have them trust that I was for real. You know, going evil again. They had to be sure that, as I was playing a pivotal role in an upcoming apocalypse, that there was no chance of me becoming human. They took away my hope, but the hope for me now is that Connor is safe.'
'Connor? Who's Connor?' Buffy asked.
Angel sighed heavily, relaxing gently back into the couch. 'Connor is my son.'
A/N: Next chapter, what happened back in Los Angeles when the fight began?