Judas: Act II

A/N: This is set in an AU version of the early part of the series. It directly follows Judas: Act I (chapter 1). The theme: dash.

Her basic plan in life was to take the money and run. It had always served her well in the past. It kept her from getting killed over her constant debts, and since she generally took the money from people outside the law, it didn't bother the ISSP.

But this wasn't working out the way she'd intended. The plan had gone off exactly as planned. Then it was time to get her money, and of course she had to stay a night or two. Then it looked like, if she stayed for a couple days more, she could draw even more money out of him. And pretty soon, this was starting to seem like a permanent gig. She kicked herself for not being happy. It was pretty much evident that she could live out her days in luxury with little effort, and she didn't want to.

She wasn't entirely sure why her feet had led her down to the cell where Spike was being held. The plan had just sort of bubbled from nowhere. There was a guard, of course. He was dispatched with a few suggestions about what might be done involving him, her, and the bottle of wine stashed in her room.

There he was. Faye had heard the rationale for why he hadn't been killed yet at least six or seven times. Only Vicious could kill him; he was being treated more than fairly; he was offered a chance to come back, no hard feelings, and rejected it. The only truth in this seemed to her to be his treatment – his cell was a finely appointed room, one more than adequate, if barred.

He scowled when he saw her, but she held up a hand. "You know how to get out of here, right?"

Spike smirked. "If he hadn't changed the lock, I'd have been gone from here days ago."

She lifted her skirt. Spike considered whether or not to look, but she stopped at the holster on her thigh.

"You might want to move," she told him, stepping back. He scrambled out of the way as she shot the lock off. She shoved the door aside, and a klaxon started sounding from somewhere upstairs.

"Why did you-"

"No time! Just go!"

And then he drew her in and there was a kiss. Unlike the first, it was hurried and genuine and completely unexpected. Then, too soon, he broke away and dashed up the stairs.

It took her a few beats to collect herself. Then she was off behind him.

A/N: Wow, half done! I'd really like to thank everybody who's reviewed, and everybody who's taken the time out to read (the hit count's past 5000 :boggles:).

A few notes before I go on:

1. Just in case it wasn't clear, these fics (with the exception of Looking and Seeing and the Judas trilogy) are all stand alone. Some of them compliment each other quite well, but that was mostly accidental. I may continue one to two of them (no promises); but the quick-glimpse style is what I'm best at, so I'm sticking to that for now.

2. Under the rules of the challenge, the "kiss" can be literal or figurative, and it doesn't have to be between Spike and Faye. So if you think I'm missing one, look again.

3a. I happen to like Jet/Faye, and I happen to think that Jet's quite the sexy man. When you hate on Jet in reviews, it makes me not want to write. So no more hating on Jet. Yes, this is extortion.

3b. Same goes for Julia, though I understand Julia-hate.

4. I know some of you're looking at the chapter numbers and going, "Er, wait, there's two stories missing!" Certain of the chapters are a bit much for this site, and I have plans for a few more in that vein. They can be accessed either through AdultFanFiction (pen name's SabineLaGrande) or through the memories section of my livejournal (link's on my profile).

Once again, I'd like to thank all my readers, especially my reviewers. See you at chapter 30!