Chapter Six
His face felt like it was on fire. He couldn't move his jaw without having pain shoot up the side of his face in white hot stabs.
Bloody wonderful. Take weeks to heal, he thought, sitting down gingerly on the edge of the bed and stretching out his leg in front of him. The wound was closing nicely, but the muscle beneath was sore and raw. He thought briefly about asking someone to look at his cheek, but then wondered if they could really do anything about it. His eye was swollen shut and the bone beneath was broken into a few nice pieces. He'd had worse. Hell, Buffy saw to that…
Closing what was left of his vision, he leaned back and lay down on the bed. He thought about undressing and properly getting into it, but the pain was making him feel less and less like caring. It had taken all most all the energy out of him to ask Angel for a place to stay and by the time he made it up to the room, his reserves were fried. It was just better to sleep.
Just as he was about to drift off, a warning sounded at the edge of his conciousness and his eyes opened to stare into the darkness of the room. Someone was standing just inside the door. He pressed his hands into the mattress and propped himself up to see better. After a moment of silence and no movement, he slumped back a little bit, wondering if he'd imagined it.
"I'm sorry." a small voice pronounced from the doorway. Spike squinted in the darkness and saw the outline of a young girl.
Oh, hell…
"For what, love?" he asked cautiously, wondering if the Slayer was going to royally thrash him again. He chuckled at the thought and realized that that wouldn't really be tough to do in his condition.
The girl stepped forward into a bath of moonlight and he could see her blonde hair catch a few drops of it. Her expression was calm, almost wary, as if she were about to ask permission for something. When she was close enough to him to be able to see his face, her expression changed to guilt.
"For this." she whispered, reaching out a hand and touching a rather deep gash just below his eye. He didn't flinch away, but he did keep a watchful eye on her as she traced the bruises on his cheek. "I didn't mean to hurt you so much." she continued, absorbed in her ministrations.
"Be healed in a week." he replied. At that she chuckled and dropped her hand.
"Spike." she smiled. Just a smile. She didn't mean anything by calling his name. It was just his name, that was all.
"An' what do I call you, love?" he asked, watching her smile fade as she turned slightly away from him.
"Angela."
Spike nodded and watched as she walked over to the window where the blinds were half drawn. They were open just enough to let the innocent slates of moonlight light the floor.
"How's your leg?" she asked, looking out at the city below. Spike narrowed his eyes a little before answering.
"Hurts."
"I guess it would."
"Does Angel know you're here?" Spike asked quickly before she could go on. She chuckled at that.
"Angel doesn't know much."
"Bloody right." he agreed.
"And in answer to your question: no. He gave me a room, but I like it better here." she replied, reaching up a hand to push the blinds down a little. "It's so pretty up here." she stood a moment longer, then turned again back to Spike.
"You should have someone look at you." she suggested, standing in front of him again. Spike just sighed and shrugged.
"Wont do much. Best to just let it heal up on it's own."
With that look of shame and guilt, Angela reached out again and cupped the side of his face. She pressed down a little on his cheek with her thumb. He let out a little yelp and slapped her hand away before she could do any more damage.
"Hey! Watch it." he chided, leaning back away from her. She pulled her hand quickly back and nodded.
"You need to set this."
"I'm fine." he assured her harshly, narrowing his eyes again. His vision was a little better when he did that. Silently he watched through slanted vision as Angela dropped her hand to her side and moved to sit down next to him.
"Next week you'll have to break it again because the bone just beneath your eye will have set wrong. Fred'll do it because you don't trust Angel enough to break it in the right place. It will swell back up and you'll lose the vision in your eye for two months." she said simply, as if reciting a memorized speech. Spike cocked his head slightly in disbelief.
There was a long moment of silence. Spike looked like he'd been slapped. Finally he raised an eyebrow and huffed in defeat.
"Right. Set it." he said curtly, turning a little so that it was more comfortable to look at her.
"This might hurt."
Spike nodded.
Angela cupped his cheek with her left hand and put her right hand behind his head. "I wont count to three. I know you hate that." she whispered as she placed her thumb just below the bone in question. Spike braced himself for the hard crack he knew was coming.
The pressure on the back of his head increased and her thumb sank into the bruised skin. With a quick jerking motion she brought the sunken bone back to the surface with an audible "pop". Spike seized slightly when a flash of pain shot through his eye and down along the back of his neck. When the motion was finished, her smooth fingers lingered at the back of his head and waited. Spike didn't say anything for a long time and for several minutes he had his eyes closed. Angela wondered if he'd passed out.
When he finally opened his eyes there was a glint of relief.
"Better?"
"A bit."
"Good."
"How'd you know to do that?" he asked suddenly, shifting on the bed again so that her fingers released his head and fell back to her sides.
"I've dealt with broken bones before," she replied, shrugging and looking down into her lap. Spike drew in a deep breathe and fingered his cheek slightly. It felt a little better. A little quieter now that the burning had stopped.
Again there was silence. Spike looked out the windows at the brightly lit town and Angela continued to stare down at her hands. What was there to say? Spike wasn't even sure of the real reason the girl was here. Three hours ago she'd tried to kill him. Three seconds ago she'd saved him a month of agony.
Everyone's got a story. Somethin' tells me hers ain't all she's tellin'
Continued…
