Title: From Out of the Darkness 2/9
Author: Forsaken2003
Pairing: S/X
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own none, all belong to Joss Whedon
Comments: Always welcomed!
Summary: Spike finds Xander living in New Orleans. What could have happened to caused him to up and leave his friends?
Warnings/Spoilers: Post Season 2 Becoming Part 2
Beta'd by: My sister
Part Two
Xander couldn't believe he had just danced on stage in front of a room full of men wearing practically nothing. Or the fact that these guys willingly gave him their money for it! Because of this he was finally going to have something that was his. Something he thought would never happen. Something at one point he didn't think he deserved.
He went into the locker room and did a quick wipe down of sweat. While that was sexy on stage it wasn't when serving drinks. Xander froze when he looked at himself in mirror. What would the others think if they saw him? Who was he kidding? They wouldn't care. They wouldn't care if they had known he had been living on the streets for months before coming here.
Turning away Xander reminded himself that what he did was the right thing. He made the call no one else was willing to make. Now, he had to live with the consequences even if that meant that he lost everything.
With a fake smile plastered on Xander's face he left the locker room. He bounded over to Max. "Damn, Max. That was insane!" He was now wearing the same garb as Max. "That car is as good as mine."
"You did good, kid," Max said supportively. "Now, why don't you show this gorgeous man to a table and grab him a beer and bottle of Jack?"
"I'm on it." That was when Xander's focused on his patron. He felt his smile disappear and his heart speed up. "Spike?" he whispered.
"Hello... Lex." Spike greeted with a predatory smile. It faded away quickly when he didn't even get a whiff of fear from Xander. How disappointing. "Fancy meeting you here. Why aren't you in Sunnydale with your little friends?"
Max was listening to the conversation butted in, "you're from Sunnydale? I had a cousin that lived there. He just up and disappeared one day."
"Yeah… a lot of people disappear from Sunnydale," Xander replied quietly. Him being one of them, though Xander atleast got out alive.
"So, you two know each other? You got any stories about Lex? I know the guys would love to know… well anything about him," Max asked with excitement clearly not reading the room.
Xander needed to put an end to this. "Hey, Max, a guy at the end of the bar is trying to get your attention."
Max pouted really hoping for juicy gossip. He really wanted to know what Xander's story was. After four months they still knew nothing about him. "Fine." He left.
Xander turned away to get the beer and Jack Spike wanted. "Let's find you a table." Xander walked around the bar not waiting to see if Spike followed or not. There was a table in the corner away from everyone else. It was as good of table as any. Setting the drinks down Xander took a couple steps back and watched Spike take a seat. "Where's Drusilla?"
Spike snarled. How dare this human ask about Drusilla as if he cared. "That's none of your bloody business."
"She left you," Xander said with a sympathetic tone. "Consequences to betraying Angelus?"
"What the fuck would you know about it?" Spike's hand wrapped around the whiskey bottle having to fight the urge from bashing it over Xander's thick skull. He couldn't wait to kill him.
Xander's hazel eyes met Spike's piercing blue ones. "You'd be surprised."
"What time are you done?" Spike asked intrigued by what Xander said. Maybe he wouldn't kill him quite yet.
"I'm closing tonight so not until after two. Why?" Xander looked at Spike suspiciously.
Spike leaned forward. "I think you and I have some catching up to do. I'll meet you in the alley at two thirty. If you don't show I'll come back here tomorrow night and kill everyone who walks through that door." He pointed at the entrance.
Xander wasn't a Scooby anymore but he couldn't purposely be responsible for the death of innocent people. "You aren't giving me with much of a choice."
"Angelus was right about you being a white knight." Spike watched as Xander flinched at those words. Almost as if he had just been struck. Spike could not wait to hear Xander's story.
Two thirty on the dot Xander was out the back door finding Spike propped against the brick wall with a lit cigarette between his lips. He was wearing jeans and a black hoodie. "I don't know if you're brave or stupid for showing up."
"Maybe both. Maybe neither." There was a crate beside the garbage bin. Xander dragged it closer to the door and sat on it. "So are we actually playing catch up before you kill me?"
"We are definitely catching up before I drain you dry and ship pieces of you one by one back to your friends."
Xander laughed mirthlessly, "make sure to tell Buffy she's welcome. You'll be making her year."
This was the first time that Spike really noticed Xander's eyes. It was almost like they were dead. Back in Sunnydale they were always so full of life even when Spike almost killed him. The fight that had once been there was gone. "What happened in Sunnydale?"
"I was a traitor. I made a call knowing it would change everything. A decision that would destroy my world to save everyone." Xander didn't know why he couldn't look Spike in the eye. It's not like any of this mattered. He'd be dead in ten minutes anyway. "That night with Angelus and Acatha. Willow woke up from her coma and had the spell to give Angelus back his soul. She told me to find Buffy and to get her to stall so she had the time to complete the spell." Xander stopped. It was a crazy plan, especially coming from Willow.
Spike waited for several minutes. He knew that wasn't it because Angelus was dead. If Angelus was dead then so was Angel. "I know that isn't it. I know Angelus is dead. So, if you think taking your time on telling me will somehow give you a chance to escape you better think again."
"I'm not trying to escape and you're right that isn't it. It's only the beginning." Xander realized how tired he sounded. He really didn't want to do this but he didn't have a choice. "I met up with Buffy before going to face Angelus, only I didn't give her Willow's message but a fake one."
And just like that things got interesting. "And what message did you end up giving the slayer instead?"
Xander finally looked up at Spike. "I told her Willow said to kick his ass."
Spike howled with laughter. "The balls on you, mate!"
"While Buffy was fighting with Angel I saved Giles and got him out of there. After the battle was over Buffy met up with us at the hospital. The world hadn't ended so obviously she won. Willow asked her if her spell had worked. When Buffy had a confused look Willow explained her plan. Buffy got so mad and demanded to know why she wasn't told the plan."
Spike whistled. "You devious bastard."
Xamder found it hard to swallow. "Willow told her what she told me. I've seen Buffy mad before but when she found out what I did? She wanted to kill me."
With a roll of his eyes Spike said, "you humans are so dramatic. She would have forgiven you. You're her friend."
"Did that pipe organ cause unknown brain damage? If that was true would I be this far from my home working at a strip club?"
Spike couldn't hide his disbelief. "Slayers have a code. They don't kill humans."
"Well, tell her that. She wrapped her hand around my throat so hard I couldn't talk for almost a week. It took Giles, Oz and security to get her off me. She did leave a souvenir." Xander pulled the collar of his shirt down revealing scars that Spike could only guess were from Buffy's nails. "I betrayed the only family I had. I did what I thought was right."
"You did do the right thing and that's coming from the bad guy. The slayer is strong but if she knew what your little friend was up to she would have been soft going into the fight and she would have lost. Yeah, Angelus might have gotten his soul back but at the cost of the world. The trade wouldn't have been worth it." Xander really did see more than most people. "And the others? They agreed with her?"
"No, they didn't agree with how I handled the situation but they believed she overreacted. She then told them that she would let me live if I left town and never came back. Everyone started arguing with her but stopped when she said if I didn't leave she would. The decision became pretty damn easy for them. The Hellmouth needed Buffy, it didn't need me."
This was unreal. Xander did what no one else was willing to do to save the world in the process and he was ostracized. "They just gave up without a fight?"
"Will hugged me and said 'the need of the many out weight the need of the few.' My best friend used Spock against me."
The quote sounded vaguely familiar. But that didn't matter. What mattered was the hypocrisy. "They did exactly what you did and you're the only one punished?" The disgust was evident in Spike's voice. He pushed himself off the wall and threw the butt of his cigarette to the ground as he strolled over to Xander and leaned over him. "Because of you Drusilla is still unalive and walking the earth. Even though that chapter of my life is over I will always be thankful to you for that. I owe you a life debt."
Xander was exhausted and it seemed like he was not going to die tonight. "You don't owe me anything. Now if your not going to kill me I'm going home to sleep."
"You working tomorrow?" Spike asked. He took a step back allowing Xander to stand. He was curious about Xander's apartment.
"I work every night except for Sunday and that's only because we're closed." What else did Xander have to do? Work was a distraction and that was what he needed.
Spike nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow night." He didn't wait for a response and left the alley. He didn't go far though. He stuck to the to the roof tops as he followed Xander home. The apartment wasn't the nicest in the city but it could have been worse. Once Xander was in the building Spike left because he had something he needed to do.
