After the emotional scenes in Angel's office, Wren decided she wanted to take a break from the spotlight for a while, and retreated to her room. When she had first arrived with Fred only the day before, she had been truly awe-struck by how beautiful the apartment was, and was determined to get as much use out of it as possible. 'Especially that training room,' she thought, with no small amount of glee, 'that will come in handy!'
She had just walked into the kitchen area to investigate the contents of the fridge, when she became aware of someone stood behind her, on the other side of the room.
"Certainly a cosy place you've got here, love."
Without turning around, Wren responded, "Anyone tell you, Spike, that sneaking up on people is very rude?"
"No, generally they're too dead to say anything much," Spike said, smirking and walking further into the room, sitting down on one of the chairs around the dining table.
"Sure, whatever," Wren said, her tone oozing sarcasm. Opening the fridge door she peered in at the contents, suprised to find that someone had had the foresight to store a couple of blood packets in there, as well as more traditional forms of food. 'Just in case Angel decided to stop by for a drink, I guess,' Wren thought with a smile.
Taking one of the packs out and holding it up so Spike could see, she asked "Fancy a drink?"
Smiling himself, he replied "Sure love. Don't suppose you've got any Weetabix have you?"
"Erm...no, and I'm not even going to ask why you'd want them," Wren said, a small grimace passing over her face as she pictured just what they might be needed for.
"Pity. But yeah, sure, why not."
Opening the blood and emptying it out into a mug, Wren put the whole lot in the microwave and set it going. Moving back over to the fridge she grabbed herself a Coke and waited for the microwave to finish. Once the blood was heated to an ideal 98.6, Wren went and sat down across the table from Spike, placing the mug in front of him.
"Cheers, love," Said Spike, taking a sip and savouring the taste.
"So, not that I'm complaining or anything, but why exactly have you stopped by? And how did you get in? I didn't hear the door," Wren asked, with a slightly accusatory tone.
"Used the same door you did love...or should that be window? And as for the social call, well, after that little show downstairs there was something I wanted to ask."
"Ah, marvelous, more questions," said Wren, clearly entirely unthrilled by the prospect. "Ask away," she prompted with a wave of her hand.
"Very kind. So what I was thinking, pet, was that if you'd killed all these demons and got all the ancient mojo working, how come we didn't hear about it sooner?
"Ah, what I think you mean is, 'Why didn't Buffy tell us about it?' am I right?"
Laughing slightly, Spike replied, "Nothing gets past you, does it? Yeah, I suppose that's what I'm saying."
"Well, she did't tell you about me, quite simply, because she doesn't know. No one knows, except you guys."
"How exactly did that happen then?"
"Well, after I went all psyco-crazy and killed everyone within a 500 metre radius, there was pretty much no one left to tell the tale."
"That's pretty much a given, yeah."
"And then, well, a few months later I guess some news must have got out about demons being killed in the area, or a seer must have seed me, 'cause Buffy and Co showed up at my door looking for a Slayer."
"And then what happened?"
"I hid."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I was quite happy living my solitary existance of occasional demon killing fun, and didn't particularly want to be found out."
"Why's that then pet?"
"As soon as people know that you exist, they start coming up with new and inventve ways to kill you, or control you. Not really my thing. As far as the world was concerned I didn't exist. Some storied got out about a massive vampire cult being taken out by some kind of hell-warrior, demons don't let silly things like facts and evidence get in the way of a good story, and people are kinda disinclined to come near something which could end in them being all kinds of dead."
"I can see that. So if you hid from them, how did you end up here?"
"Well, bloody persistant lot that they are, they kept coming back. Each time with some new kind of locator spell to try and find me. I mean I'd been living in this place for nearly a year on my own,and my entire life before that, so I knew all the good places to hide, but eventually I just ran out of luck."
"So they found you then. How long did that take?"
"Couple of weeks. To be honest by the end I was getting a bit bored of hiding under floorboards and behind walls, the cobwebs were awful! So, anyway, one day I just thought 'Well, I guess I'd better face up to this,' I mean, if they'd found me hiding I'd never have been able to live it down, and that's not the sort of reputation I was looking for."
Spike laughed at this, shaking his head slightly in amusement, "You really do have a unique perspective on things don't you. I like that. Reminds me of me."
"Oh please don't start on that prodigal child crap," Wren said, smiling, "I get enough of that from Angel."
"Sorry love, please, go on."
"Anyway, they show up and I let myself get found. I go for the whole cowering in the corner, terrified out of my life routine. Start babbling some nonsense about a beast, or a monster, or something like that. Guess they must have heard the rumours too, 'cause they thought that what ever it was that killed the vampires must have taken me captive. So we rush out of there pretty damn quickly, and next thing I know I'm in London, in some posh flat, being told that I'm a Slayer and they were going to take care of me blah blah blah."
"Yeah, that sounds like the way it generally goes," Spike said, remembering back to the time a few years ago when the Scoobies had first started on their mission to find the Potentials. "But then, why did they send you here? I thought Rupes' New Council would be perfectly able to handle one more Slayer."
"They wanted to, they certainly did, but there was no way I was hanging around there any longer than I had to. Not spending the next God knows how long having a load of touchy-feely types try to help me channel my inner something-or-other, so I played the crazy card. Eventually they sent for some witch or other to come read my aura, and she really didn't like what she saw. She couldn't tell them exactly what I was, but she said there was a great evil lurking in my future, and if I stayed there I would bring about destrustion for them all. Personally I thought that was a little over dramatic, but it got the point across."
"So they sent you here! Oh great! Bloody wonderful!"
"Pretty much, yeah. I think the reasoning was 'two vampires with souls should know quite a bit about containing inner evil so they could probably be of the most help to her. And then if I she does bring about Armageddon then at least it would be inside an evil law firm.'"
Spike snorted in disgust, "Great, bloody fantastic. Here I thought we were being trusted with some important duty, instead we're playing baby sitter to a ticking time bomb."
"Hey!"
"Sorry love. I just meant you're a fairly big potential threat."
"What? No not the bomb part, the first bit. I don't need a bloody baby sitter!"
"Oh. Right. Sorry."
"Damn straight," Wren said in a commanding tone, but she was smiling while she sad it.
"So, why did you carry on acting the way you were when you go here? Or should I ask why you let us find out that wasn't the truth, not very covert of you."
"Why did I keep up the act?" asked Wren, incredulous, "I've been studying demon lore for the last 18 months, you think I've never heard of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart? As far as I was concerened I was being led into the belly of the beast, couldn't afford to let the most powerful organisation in te underworld find out about me. That's like number one on my 'What not do to' list."
"Ok, fine," Spike sighed "I get that we're not exactly trusted around here. But the why, not even having the chance to find out whether we were dangerous, did you let your secret drop so quickly?"
"Well for one you guys quite blatantly needed my help," said Wren with a smirk. Spike opened his mouth to reply, but Wren cut in "And! I wasn't expecting to be found out so quickly. I figured the screaming crying act should have bought me at least an hour or two of peace before you were brave enough to come into my room. Honestly haven't you people heard of giving a distraught girl some space!"
"We were worried about you is all" Spike nearly said calmly, "We've had one too many experiences with criminally insane slayers to risk another one getting out and doing some serious damage," during this little speech, Wren noticed Spike had started to rub his wrists alternatingly, and was now gazing down at them with a distant look on his face.
She smiled a small, sympathetic smile. "Yeah, I heard about Dana. It was one of the arguments against my coming here. Don't worry Spike, all of your bits and pieces are perfectly safe with me," she said with a wink. "Promise."
Spike grinned mischeviously at this, but didn't take the subject any further. 'This girl could turn out to be alright,' he thought.
Wren went back to her drink and settled back in her chair, while Spike finished off his now much cooler blood. An easy silence fell over the room, and a small amount of trust began to grow between the Slayer and the vampire.