Remember

by

Padfootz-luvr

A/N: Right so...first Buffy fanfic on FFN. Feel free to correct me on anything at all. Right so Annabel Lee Lambourne is mine...Um, OC. This story is a little AU, by the way. Not a ton, just a few events and maybe some of Spike's past (although that is pretty mysterious itself, yeah?) I've mainly been using Wikipedia for my source of dates and stuff, and it says that William "the Bloody""Spike" Pratt was born circa 1853...and was sired between the ages of 25 and 30 in 1880. I am gonna say he was 25 when he was sired, was born in 1855, and that Anna is 6 years younger than him. That would allow some of his protectiveness of her, and stuff. This is mainly one-sided Spike/WillOC and partially Spuffy, with some Spike/WillDru and one-sided WilliamCecily and some other one-sided infatuations of William's. A lot of this is set in the late 1800s, some in the mid 1900s, and a lot of confrontation in Buffyverse 6th and 7th seasons. Okay well...On with the show.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Anna.

I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

Remember the good times that we had?
I let them slip away from us when things got bad
How clearly i first saw you smilin' in the sun
Wanna feel your warmth upon me, i wanna be the one

I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so tired but i can't sleep
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard

But I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories
Weep not for the memories

-Sara McLachlan

"Sometimes when you look back on a situation, you realize it wasn't all you thought it was. A beautiful girl walked into your life. You fell in love. Or did you? Maybe it was only a childish infatuation, or maybe just a brief moment of vanity."

-Henry Bromel

Prologue:

Remember

Anna had never thought of herself as a vampire. Though she had been sired well over a century ago, back when vampires were widely acknowledged to exist, and had to drink animal blood from packets on a regular basis, Anna had lived as a human for so long that when she was addressed as "Vampire" she didn't look up at all. True, her "living-as-a-human" facade was hindered a lick by the whole blood-drinking, can't-go-out-in-daylight, never-aging-and-therefor-having-to-find-a-new-job-and-place-to-live-every-decade-or-so deal...but that didn't matter. She had a soul, she had never killed a human being, and she never planned to.

Therefore, Annabel Lee Lambourne was not at all please when she realized that a man was addressing her as "Vampire". It pleased her even less when, a moment later, he repeated this title followed by "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you murdering--"

He, however, did not finish that phrase as Anna turned and shot him a glare that burned the words inside his throat like acid.

The "man" who had addressed her was not, as she had previously thought, a man at all, but a tall, bulky green demon with a dozen spiraling horns that shot out of his crown like the shining ringlets of a babe...but there was nothing else about this demon that could be related to an innocent child at all. His thick-looking skin was rippled with ridges and scales that shone with an irredescent green that was oddly appealing, but his close-together eyes were high on his forehead and blazing orange in arrogance and hostility. Who he was to call her a murdering anything when he was standing there looking like he was capable of taking on Charles Manson in an all-out I-am-so-much-more-evil-than-you competition, Anna didn't know, but she wasn't about to take any of his bullshit—nor would she allow him to just push her out of her seat in the back corner of the bar, or steal her money or--

"Can I sit here? Maybe buy you a drink?"

--hit on her. Anna stared at him. What is going on? She wondered. Why has the demon community been acting so...strangely all of a sudden? Vampires and demons don't normally...

"Uh, sure," Anna answered, stunned. She looked down at her untouched gin-and-tonic, wondering if he could help her find what she was looking for. He called me 'murdering', she thought. Although, I suppose in some ways 'murdering' could be taken for a compliment around here... She glanced despairingly around the small, smoky pub.

"Name's Dan," the demon said, holding out one huge, green hand. His fingernails, if you could call them that, were thick and dark and jagged, and Anna winced slightly as she took the offered handshake. He shook her hand much gently than she would have suspected, though, and his palms were surprisingly soft and supple. She pulled her hand away quite quickly, and was silent for a moment before realizing he was waiting for her name.

"Oh, uh...I'm...Liz," she lied. If he had any information she wanted, she didn't want him going all over spouting off about how some vampire named Anna was looking for a famed master vampire. She wasn't stupid—she knew that he had influence and nearly everyone in taverns like these knew who he was. The question was whether or not they knew what she needed to know, and whether they were willing to give her what she wanted—or if they would sell her out to him, or give her purposefully incorrect information. It wouldn't be the first time, if the latter occurred.

"So...Liz...you're not from around here," Dan said, beckoning a seedy-looking waiter over. Dan turned his attention back to her. "Can I get you anything? A refill?" He glanced at her full glass. "Or something else to drink?"

"Um, I'll just," Anna turned to the short, thin waiter despairingly. "I don't suppose you have any...soda? Coke...Pepsi?" She grimaced, knowing she had been lucky to even find gin-and-tonic at a place like this. To her surprise, however, the waiter nodded.

"Yesss," he hissed in a very snake-like manner. "Would you believe it, we actually do...Lately a lot of vampiresss have been bringing their human--"he spat the word out like tobacco. "--matesss in here, so the bosss figured we better ssstart ssstocking it. One Coke then? And you'll have...?" He turned to Dan.

"Refill of this," Dan replied, holding up his nearly empty glass of...whatever it was he was drinking. It was thick and syrupy-looking, and had an odd dark grey color like spoiled milk. It didn't smell, but it was letting off curls of steam every now and then.

"Coming right up," the waiter said before sauntering off.

Dan turned back to Anna. "So, Liz. Where are you from?"

Anna shifted her gaze to the fraying edges of the vinyl seat and played with some of the loose strands of netting that was beneath the vinyl, above the actual foam cushion. "Originally I hail from London..."

"London, huh?" Dan echoed, sounding surprised. "You don't have an accent that I can tell! Well...at least not an English one."

"Yeah I lost that a while back...I lived in France for a good many years, then Canada, when things got bad in France. I moved to New York from there...and stayed on the East Cost a while before coming to California about a year ago," Anna finished, looking back up at Dan. His torso was huge: sitting down, he still towered about her.

"That's a lot of traveling," Dan commented. "You came a long way...if you don't mind me asking, how old are you, exactly?"

Anna smiled a little despite herself. "You should never ask a woman her age," she chided lightly.

Dan, however, actually appeared embarassed. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean--"

"No, it's fine, I was just kidding," Anna interrupted his apology. "Doesn't matter at all, really...I don't age, so you know..."

There was a sort of awkward silence as Anna went back to playing with the edges of her fraying seat while Dan just shifted in his seat a little, moving an arm to rest on the back corner of his side of the booth.

Just then the slithery little waiter came over, appearing as silently as anything. He dropped a soda in front of Anna and a glass filled to the brim of that muck Dan had been drinking. The oozy sort of drink had a thick froth on top and there were no longer curls of steam (or smoke, at this point Anna couldn't tell which it was, it was so thick) coming off, but thick billow that disappeared into thin tendrils about six inches from the glass. The steam calmed and Dan took a slurp with apparent relish, and Anna tried not to look to disgusted at the types of drinks that some people (no, not really people, per se, she reminded herself)delightful. Dan set the half-empty glass back on the table and Anna masked her clear, abeit justified, disgust with a thin smile.

"I'm one hundred-and-forty-one. At least..." she regarded her age carefully, thinking back. "I was born June 5, 1861...and it's—what? The fifth of November? 'Remember, remember...' 2002 now...so yeah, 141, sorry." She smiled a little too cheerfully at him but he didn't seem to notice.

"Wow," he said quietly, taking another sip of his drink. He set it down before repeating. "I only know two other vampires who're that old."

Anna's eyebrows shot up: could one of those two vampires be...her vampire? She scolded herself mentallyin a voice that sounded very much like her dead mother's: He isn't your vampire, Annabel, honestly! Good God, woman, look at yourself...in love with some bloody prick who doesn't give a damn whether you lived or died in these past few decades. He hasn't tried to seek you out at all anytime recently, has he Ann?

Dan misread her expression and immediately corrected himself. "I didn't mean old, really, I just meant...um...Dammit...Er..." Open mouth—insert foot.

Anna laughed a little. "No, the age thing doesn't bother me at all! You have to know tons of demons who're ages older than me!"

"Yeah, I do," the demon admitted. "It's just that...with a few slayers out there now, and especially this one we got in Sunnydale, you don't see these old-tim vamps anymore, you know? It's mostly the newly turned ones...around here, anyways. I guess the older ones got wise and stayed away."

"Guess so...really, though, I was wondering who these two older vampires you know are..." Anna said, trying to introduce her motive, her true want, gently. "I mean, maybe I know them. Or maybe I don't...either way it'd be nice to know who they are...know what I mean?" She looked up at him through her dark eyelashes, focusing on willing him to divulge whatever information he had.

He fell for it. "I understand, completely. I hadn't seen any demons like me for a while...then someone mistook me for a friend and it turned out they'd been in California all along..."

Anna nodded, though she didn't entirely understand his vague story. "Exactly," she agreed. "I just sometimes feel so...alone..."

Dan leaned close, conspiratorily, and Anna followed his lead. "If I tell you," he said in a low voice that was both frightening and oddly attractive. "If I tell you...I need you to promise me two things."

Anna nodded. "Yes," she said clearly, urging him on. "Yes, yeah...whatever you want." He gave her an odd, appraising look, and she tried to seem less eager. "I mean...I just am really curious now..."

"Right," he said. "Right, well okay, two conditions. First: if by any chance you find them, and they ask you who told you where they were or their names, you did not hear it from me."

Anna agreed readily. Obviously, these were some major vams he was about to tell her about.

"And the second condition?" she prodded him a bit, tryign to get him to continue. She was being impatient, she knew; but honestly she couldn't wait much longer.

Dan's orange-gold eyes softened a little bit. "Go on a date with me."

"A—wha—huh?" Anna sputtered, taken aback. From the seriousness in his voice, she had thought that he was about to tell her something of dire importance...but he wanted a date?

"A real date, I mean," he continued quickly, pulling back a little. He gestured around the smoke-filled room. "Without the bar and the card games and whatnot."

"I uh...sure," Anna heard herself answer him. What is with this guy? She wndered. He's sort of sweet and all...but a demon and a vampire? Since when was this normal?

"I know it's a bit unorthodox," he explained quickly, as though reading her thoughts. "Me, being a demon, and you...a vampire...but I have never had much luck dating other demons and where I come from it's really not such a big issue. Plus...I just have a thing for vampires...I guess..."

"Right..." Anna trailed off awkwardly. "So..."

"Yeah, about those vampires," Dan said, leaning close again. "Alright. So there's this guy one...over two hundred, I suspect. Tallish, brown hair..."

Anna's heart jumped. If his hair was back to its natural color...

"...Burly dort of guy, with a wide neck and broad shoulders...muscley, solid, know what I mean?"

Her heart sank. Not him...

"His name's Angel."

Her ears perked up. Angel? That sounded familiar...ish...But still unfamiliar, too.

"And...the other one?" Anna prompted him, holding her breath.

"Oh, uh...dark hair, younger than the other guy. British accent--"

Anna's heart leapt. If he was talking about who she thought he was talking about...

"...bit of a nut, though. Little reckless, and completely crazy."

"What was—is—his name?" Anna asked eagerly.

Dan looked confused for a second. "'He'?" he echoed. "No, this one's a girl. Her name was like...Camille, or Camilla, or Cruella, or Ella...I dunno, something like that."

Her stomach dropped again in defeat. Maybe I should just give up...I'll never find him...

"Okay, well thanks," she said sadly, standinbg and unable to hide her disappointment. She just wanted to get the hell out of that stupid tavern before she broke down in complete defeat. A decade of searching had led her here...to this dead end...once again...

"Yeah so...you'll call me or something? Here's my number," Dan held out the paper to her and she took it. She didn't really intend on calling him. She hadn't found what she was looking for. He continued, "Or...or maybe I should call you? I dunno, I--"

"Sorry, I don't really have an established phone number anyplace, yet," she informed him, turning to head out the door.

"Right, of course, sorry. Well it was nice meeting you, Liz," he called as she walked quickly toward the exit.

"You too, Dan," she muttered, pushing the door open into the darkness of early, early morning.

"Oh wait! Liz!"

She turned, more than a little exasperated after that day she had had. "Yes?"

"I remembered the girl vamp's name," he said.

Anna sighed. It didn't really matter, did it? It wasn't who she was looking for, anyways, so--

"Drusilla."

Oh.

Anna's head snapped up to him.

"Yeah, her name was Drusilla. Um...they came with another guy but I never actually met him. But yeah...her name was Drusilla. Those two that I talked about aren't in Sunnydale anymore, but I am pretty sure they either killed or left the other guy behind...or something."

"Sunnydale, then?" she said, a smile spreading across her face.

"Yeah."

"Okay, see ya Dan. And thanks. I'll call you," she said, reaching up and giving him a kiss on his rough, scaly cheek before turning and heading out into her big red VW bus.

She'd found her man.

"Oh Will...I really have missed you," she said aloud with a smirk, turning on the radio to the only station it got. She hummed along with the AC/DC song that came on, and turned right onto a long, straight road.

Just as the song was rising to its bridge, she passed a sign that said "Welcome to Sunnydale".

"Right," she muttered to herself. "Welcome to Sunnyhell...'Hey, Momma, look at me...I'm on my way to the promised land...'"

A/N: Right well:

Anna's name is a reference to Edgar Allen Poe's tragic poem about love and death ("Annabel Lee") and her surname is a reference to her lamb-like innocence (at first) and the location of her family's manor.

I am going off of what Joss Whedon says about Spike's name being William Pratt...I like the idea of the character being named after Boris Karloff.

The song at the end was AC/DC's "Highway to Hell", for those who didn't know...

Cookies for anyone who catches most of the references, metaphors, significances in names, dates, etcetera.

You'll find out more about Anna's nature and relationships with Dru, Will/Spike, and Angel/Angelus (she knows him as Angelus) later on...

The next chapter will be set in the mid 1800s.

Just for those who care.

Review, please...feedback is welcome.