NOTHING
IS FOREVER 2
by
flaming
muse
"What… what are you doing here? We thought you were dead," Xander
said.
"I am," Spike said with a shrug. "More than a century. Must've
missed the obituary."
"No, I mean… we thought you were dust.
Gone."
Spike's lips quirked into a humorless grin.
"Sorry to
disappoint."
"No, I… Spike, what happened? Where have you
been?"
A commotion at the kitchen door caught the vampire's
eye.
"Look, I'm rather busy here," he said. "Can't stay and chat. Enjoy
your dinner."
Before he could move off, Xander caught his arm and was
momentarily struck speechless by the feel of the strong muscles beneath his hand
and the absolute reality that Spike was here and alive - or whatever - and right
in front of him. He swallowed down the lump in his throat.
"You going to
let me go, mate?" Spike asked, his eyes narrowing.
"You can't just run
off now that I've found you."
"I've got other
obligations..."
"But… Look, I've got a lot of work to do," Xander said,
releasing the vampire's arm and gesturing to the papers on his table. "I'll be
here all night. Come by when you have a minute. Please."
Spike looked
like he was seriously going to refuse, but he finally sighed and
nodded.
"Don't blame me if it's close to closing," he said and turned on
his heel toward the kitchen.
Xander sat and tried not to fidget as he
waited for Spike to return. He shuffled his papers and attempted to pay
attention to them, but his brain seemed to be stuck on auto-repeat that Spike
was alive and he was here. It was all he could do not to go running after him
and demand to know everything.
It's not like the two men had been friends
at the time of Spike's… well, obviously not death. But they had become sort of
grudging compatriots. They were two bastions of testosterone in a house full of
estrogen. (You couldn't really count Andrew; he had been more like a puppy. A
comic book-reading, cake-baking, nervous little puppy.) They had both worshipped
at the altar of Buffy, and they had been through a lot together. Sure, they had
frequently been on opposite sides of the a lot, but there was history. By the
end, there had even been some respect.
Then, when Spike had died to save
the world, Xander had had to face a cold, hard fact. Despite all of their
wrangling, he had actually liked the vampire. Yes, he had also hated him at some
points with every fiber of his being, but he had turned out to be a good guy. He
had supported Buffy when she had needed it most and had done the right thing at
the end with no reward in return. When all of the dust had settled, Xander had
found that he had missed him. He had mourned him.
Except now it turned
out that none of that dust was actually Spike's. Instead the vampire was here in
Boston, somehow involved in this restaurant, and obviously not happy to see
Xander.
I guess the warm fuzzies weren't returned, Xander thought
and forced himself back to his work.
Finally, close to midnight, Spike
slid into the seat across from Xander. A waiter placed a plate of something rich
and chocolaty at the edge of the table.
"What's this?" Xander
asked.
"Dessert. A Chocolate Tornado. Seem to remember that you liked
chocolate. Go ahead. It's all yours."
Xander moved the plate in front of
him and took a bite of the confection.
"Mmm, good," he said. "I'll
probably gain back twenty pounds for eating the whole thing, but I'm not
sharing."
Spike smirked.
"You're looking good," he said. "Much
trimmer than when I saw you last."
"Well, lots of hard work and fewer
apocalypses seem to be good for my metabolism. Now stop interrupting me and let
me eat. You talk."
"About what?"
Xander rolled his eyes and
swallowed.
"You know damn well what. What happened to you?"
"Well,
there was this party, and then Drusilla found me in an alley, and…"
Spike
smirked again as Xander glared at him.
"Not much to tell," he said. "The
amulet did its job, I guess, and I woke up sometime later with the clothes on my
back and a mangled piece of jewelry. Saw a demon I know, sold the jewels, came
east, ending up starting a restaurant."
"This is your
place?"
Spike nodded.
"It's nice," Xander
said.
"Thanks."
"But you kind of left out some stuff in your
little tale," Xander said.
"Like what?"
"Like what the hell
happened to you? I mean, the school fell on you. Hell, the whole damn town fell
on you. How did you end up wherever you ended up? Where did you wake up,
anyway?"
"The whole town? Really?" Spike looked both sad and impressed by
the thought.
"Yeah. Supposedly a giant sinkhole or earthquake or
something. It was all over the news. I'm surprised you didn't hear about
it."
"Well, I was out of commission for a while. I remember being dusted,
which was a bloody wild ride, and then I came to in some old warehouse in LA.
Lucky, really, because I had contacts in the city. Turns out it was two months
or so later than the day we went into the school."
"LA? Why didn't you go
to Angel for help?"
Spike rolled his eyes and laughed.
"Like the
Hair Gel Brigade would have helped me."
"Buffy was there," said Xander,
setting down his fork on the now empty plate. "We all were."
Spike's
expressive face shut down.
"Didn't need help, did I? Did just fine. The
amulet's magic was gone, but it was worth a pretty penny."
"And you
didn't think that we'd want to know that you were okay?"
Spike
shrugged.
"What - I was supposed to go rushing back and be welcomed with
opened arms? To do what? Sit in the basement again until I was needed for
muscle?"
"I see your point. I don't agree, but I see it. Still, you can't
imagine how happy everyone's going to be to hear…"
"You don't tell them,"
Spike growled as he leaned across the table. Xander suddenly remembered how damn
scary the vampire had always been. "You. Don't. Tell. Them."
"Spike,
I…"
"I may have my soul, but I'm still chip-free, Xander. Don't think
that I'm harmless. Don't tell them."
"Why?"
"Because I said so.
That's enough. Do you think that I've forgotten how to use a phone these past
two years?"
Xander stared at the beautiful, dangerous face in front of
him until his eyes burned. He sighed, torn, but finally nodded.
"It's
your business. I won't tell them." At least I know. Spike's alive. Spike's
alive.
"Good," said Spike, sitting back in his chair. "Well, it's
close to closing time…"
"Don't you want to hear about
everyone?"
Spike's mouth pressed into a tense line for a moment before he
relaxed.
"Sure." He crossed his arms over his chest and
waited.
"Well, Willow and Giles are starting up a new Watchers' Council
in England, and Andrew went with them. He has actually become quite helpful,
believe it or not. They spent a while rounding up the new Slayers out there,
trying to find 'em all and let them know about their powers, but now they're
settling down and doing the book thing. Faith is off on the prowl as a
Slayer-at-Large, as is Kennedy. They're working with the new Slayers. We hear
from them off and on.
"Dawn graduated from high school this year, and
she's off to Oxford now. I think she'll be a Watcher when she's
done."
Spike's expression became less guarded at the mention of Dawn, and
he almost smiled.
"She's great. We're all really proud of her. Especially
Buffy."
And there went the barriers back up. It was no surprise, really,
given how much he had loved her. Probably still loved her. Xander didn't relish
telling Spike the rest of the news.
"Buffy's still in LA. She and Dawn
have an apartment near… uh…"
"You can say his name. I won't bite. Might
vomit, but..."
"Yeah, Angel. Most of us moved near him after everything,
and Buffy's still there. She's still Slaying, and he's still doing the Not
Really Evil Corporate Lawyers Fighting Crime thing. She's in college again,
majoring in literature or something, and he's paying for it. But they're not
together together or anything. Just friends."
Spike's bland expression
didn't change.
"I know that you don't want them to know about you, but
they'd really…"
"No."
"But maybe just Dawn…"
"She would let
it slip out."
"But…"
"No, Xander," Spike said
firmly.
Xander sighed.
"And what about yourself?" Spike asked.
"You left yourself out of the story."
"Well, uh, I'm working for a
company that builds new buildings and restores old ones. I'm out here working on
the Fogarty building. It's right around the corner from here, just off of
Harvard Square."
"But you live in LA, yeah? Just out for a
visit?"
"I've got an apartment there, but I'm here for the duration of
the restoration. I'll go back over the holidays to see Buffy and Dawn, but for
all intents and purposes I'm a Bostonian now."
If anything Spike's
expression grew even more unreadable.
"And what about Anya? Will she come
visit, or has she found some profitable venture on her own?"
Xander was
proud to say that he no longer teared up at the mention of her name, though he
did have to clear his throat before he spoke.
"She died. At the
school."
For the first time of the night, Spike's face was entirely
candid as he took in the news. He looked genuinely distressed.
"I'm sorry
to hear that. She was a good lady, and you two seemed to be on a road to
reconciliation."
"She was a great person, but we never would have worked
out. I realize that now."
"That's how life goes sometimes."
"I've
learned a lot about myself these past two years. Still miss her,
though."
"Yeah."
They sat in silence for a moment before Spike
looked over at the bar.
"Well, I've got to help with closing," Spike
said, bracing his hands on the table to slide out. "Take care,
Xander."
Xander reached out and clasped one of Spike's hands. The vampire
looked at him, startled.
"I'm really glad to have seen you, Spike," he said,
drinking in his face and wishing that he could make him stay. "You look good. A
little different, tired maybe, but good. Are you good?"
Spike smiled
slightly, his eyes oddly devoid of emotion, and nodded.
"Take care," the
vampire said and slipped away.
PART 3
