Prompt 90 - Home truths - BtVS

[thismaz]

 Title: Home truths
 Fandom: BtVS
 Prompt: 90-Colourless
 At: tamingthemuse
 Rating: Older Teen
 Summary: Part 29. Set during the summer before season 1, Xander's life is changed radically when vampires invade it. In the meantime Angel and Spike have their own, separate agendas.
 Word Count: 2,530
 Comments: Are greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
 Previous parts: In reverse order, in tags here
 In my memories.
 Or, starting here with links to the next, at the end of each chapter.
 Disclaimer: here.
Now beta'd by the wonderful laazikaat
 Some snippets of dialogue borrowed courtesy of http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/

Warning (highlight the white area to see the warning text):

Demon Spike/Vamp Xander story

dark_amia made a wall paper and she turned it into a banner for me.

Isn't it pretty?

29. Home truths

They made a strange procession, Angel thought. Jesse trailed along at the rear, carrying the limp body of the woman. Spike and Xander were in the lead, Xander still with a firm grip on Ethan. Angel and Liam were in the middle, walking next to each other, although Liam had pulled away from Angel, so he no longer had his arm around the boy's shoulders. Angel understood that, he remembered that humans, especially young male humans had some strange responses to physicality, except when they were drunk. Now they were out of the underground, Liam seemed to be regaining his confidence, walking smartly, casting his eyes around the streets, watchful and alert. His change in demeanour reassured Angel that he would be alright.

They headed uphill towards the town centre and Crawford Street, beyond. Angel wondered if Dru was okay, Spike's brief explanation, that she had had a plan to distract Luke, had been reassuring. She couldn't be too sick if she believed she could run around town alone. He hurried his steps and drew level with Spike. "You never told me what was wrong with Dru," he said.

"You never asked."

"I'm asking now."

Spike squinted up at him, apparently assessing the sincerity of his interest. "She got caught by a mob in Prague," he said. "I don't know what it was, exactly, but she's not been right since. Sometimes she's fine. Others..." his voice trailed off and silence reigned for a few moments while Spike gazed blankly into the distance, then he took a deep breath. "Some sort of magic," he explained. "While I was tracking you down, she found the cure. But it needs the new moon, a church, some magical thingy that she says she's located and the power of the Hellmouth. And the new moon isn't for three more weeks. It needs her sire too." He looked sidelong at Angel, a challenge in his eyes. "So are you going to help?" he asked. "Since we've come to you? Dru's come to you? It was leaving town that was your problem, wasn't it?"

Angel glanced over his shoulder. Liam was walking close and obviously listening in. Angel gave him a small smile of reassurance before he turned back to Spike. "Yes," he sighed. "I'll help."

Spike nodded tightly and walked on, while Angel dropped back to Liam's side.

Liam glared at him. "Why would you help them?" he asked.

"They're family. Dru... it's complicated, but she's my responsibility."

"She's a vampire too?"

"Yes."

"But you kill vampires. Why would you help this one?"

"I said -"

"Yeah, she's your responsibility. I heard you." He shut up then and looked away from Angel, concentrating on the ground in front of his feet. Angel opened his mouth a couple of times, but on each occasion he hesitated, knowing that the bond of family was beyond his capability to explain. Hopefully, when Liam saw Dru he'd understand.

They were passing one of Sunnydale's newer Cemeteries before they saw another human being. A single man stood in front of the entrance gates staring up at the sign proclaiming the place to be Restfield Cemetery. After studying it for a moment he looked down and appeared to write something in a small notebook.

"Strange sort of tourism," Spike observed. "Could get a bloke killed, behaving like that."

Angel growled. "Behave, William," he warned. Spike just grinned at him.

The man glanced up, startled, as the sound of their approach reached him. Cautiously he took a step back, so he had the wall behind him. He shoved his notebook into one pocket and his pen into the other, leaving his hands there as his eyes swept across the group and widened in surprise. Angel's puzzlement over which of them he knew was answered immediately by Ethan, who attempted to pull himself free of Xander's grasp. "Hello, Ripper," he called.

'Ripper' looked unimpressed, but nodded. "Ethan," he replied, his voice guarded.

They had all, somehow, come to a halt, Jesse crowding in behind Angel. Liam took a step to the side to avoid the minion and in the process ended up on the far edge of the group, over by the wall, while Angel was stuck near the curb, next to Spike, with Xander and Ethan beyond him. He wanted to go over to the boy, but if this Ripper was another sorcerer, it could be dangerous to do anything to attract his attention.

Obviously realising that Xander wasn't going to let him go, Ethan gave up the struggle, but his move had made it clear to anyone that he was a prisoner. "What? No hug? Aren't you pleased to see your old partner, Rupert?"

Rupert, Ripper, neither name meant anything to Angel, but he knew he was completely out of date in his paranormal connections. He hadn't even known who Ethan's master, Aldric, was.

"Why am I not surprised to find you in town?" Ripper asked. "I should have realised that a hellmouth would be irresistible to the likes of you."

Ethan shrugged. "Well, you know me, never could keep my curiosity in check. But in this case it's not exactly my choice."

Spike snorted. "Was your choice to take the job."

"Yes, well, that's different," Ethan asserted. He looked back at Ripper. "Vampires," he said. "Not really the people I would choose as companions. Force majeure, dear boy. Don't suppose you'd help out an old mate?"

Pulling his hands out of his pockets, Ripper brandished a cross in each at arm's length. Angel felt the surge of aversion and noticed how both Xander and Jesse stumbled back a step, hissing and sliding into gameface. Spike held his ground. "Now that's just rude," he asserted. "We aint doing no harm. Just out for an evening stroll with my friend Ethan, here. No need to get nasty. We're not even hungry."

Ripper laughed and it was a harsh and unforgiving sound in the quiet of the night. "That I will believe," he said, still talking to Ethan.

"Rupert, please? I know you're playing at being the Watcher now, champion of innocents and all things pure and good, but can you really walk away and leave an old mate with creatures like this?"

"I'm not playing at anything. It's who I am. And you've made your bed, Ethan. You'll have to lie in it."

"Watcher?" Spike growled. "So where's your slayer?"

"Not here. Ethan, leave this place and never come back. Because if I see you again..."

His speech was interrupted as Liam broke away from the group and made a rush towards him. He swung one of the crosses around, obviously expecting it to bring Liam to a halt. It didn't. Liam ran right up to the cross and pressed his chest against it. "Please, I'm not a vampire," he gasped.

Ripper drew his cross back and pointed it back at Angel and Spike, both of whom had taken a step forwards, although Angel was willing to bet for different reasons. They did stop. Angel watched helplessly as Liam slid close to Ripper and the protection of the holy symbols he held. "They're vampires," Liam said, "all of them. That one," he pointed at Angel, "he was going to kill me."

"No! Liam!" Angel cried. "What are you saying? That's not true. I told you you'd be safe. I-I told you... I-I thought..."

"You bit me."

"No! I mean, yes, I did. But you agreed. I explained and you agreed. I needed to heal. We talked about it and you understood that I had to, to keep you safe." Liam edged behind Ripper, who swung his two crosses from side to side, as if fearing they would attack and snatch the boy back. Angel felt Spike's hand descend on his shoulder, but he was too preoccupied to even shrug it off. He kept talking past Ripper, to Liam. "All that time we were locked up together, we shared stuff, I trusted you. I thought you liked me." Even he could hear the whine in his voice and Spike's snort of derision made it clear he'd heard it too.

Liam, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. "I could never like you," he spat. "I could never care about you. You took my blood." He laughed incredulously. "What? You thought I trusted you? You thought we shared? You talked a lot, man. But all I did was listen and watch. And I learnt what you are. You're a monster!"

Angel felt a growl forming in his throat as his face shifted under the overwhelming humiliation of being addressed in such a way, in public, by a mere human and he did his best to choke it back. Years ago he'd taught himself to suppress his rage, to cultivate an indifferent attitude to the world around him, but he felt that control slipping now. Spike's hand tightened on his shoulder, offering both support and restraint.

Meanwhile Ripper began to edge backwards, along the sidewalk. "I don't know what the hell's going on here," he said, adding, over his shoulder, "And I don't know who you are. But I would advise you, for both our sakes, not to taunt a demon, under any circumstances. Stay behind me and stay close. They can still move faster than we can and these crosses will only hold them away." He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, assessing the direction of the sidewalk. "I think it is time we left. Slowly and carefully." He turned back to Ethan. "I mean it, Ethan" he warned. "If you know what's good for you, you'll get out of town, because if I see you anywhere near the hellmouth again..."

Ethan struggled to follow and Xander's grip tightened. "Rupert," he cried, despairingly.

Grinning widely, Spike stepped in front of Xander and Ethan, following Ripper and Liam, step for step. His hands were dug deeply into the pockets of his duster and there was a cocky swagger to his gait. "What if I said he really is an unwilling prisoner?" he asked.

Ripper smiled grimly in reply. "I'd say to you, what I'd say to him: there's not a ounce of good in Ethan Rayne and if he's got himself into trouble? Well, it's no more than he deserves. I'm sure he'll manage to work out a deal with you. That's what he's good at, making deals with demons."

Laughing, Spike turned his back on the watcher and looked at Ethan, who paled. "I'm thinking there's no love lost there, mate," he observed.

Ignoring Spike, Ethan continued to plead with Ripper. "Please, after all we've been through together. We used to be friends. When did all that stop?"

"When you started to worship chaos," Ripper snarled, causing Spike to laugh again.

Angel registered the exchange, but his attention was fixed on the boy behind Ripper. He stepped out onto the road and tried to approach the pair from the side. Ripper's right hand, with the tightly clutched cross, swung around to block him and Liam moved around Ripper's body to keep the cross between him and Angel.

"Liam?" Angel asked.

"Stay away from me, you freak," Liam shouted. Then he glanced at the watcher's face and muttered, "Sorry," before he clamped his mouth shut and kept it that way.

They made their way slowly down the street for about twenty yards in silence, Spike stalking forward for each step the watcher took back, Xander and Ethan behind him and Jesse cowering in the rear. Angel maintained his position slightly off to the side, waiting. The initial shock at Liam's betrayal was gradually fading, but the rage that replaced it seemed to grow with each step they all took. With it came the urge to grab the boy and force him to understand that he, Angel, was not the monster Liam had judged him to be. He had a soul, damn it! By definition that meant he was not the vampire he'd been, or the vampire Spike still was. He just needed to get to the boy. If he could explain... He took another step and found himself blocked by a parked car.

Ripper and Liam stopped on the far side of it, by the driver's door, and Ripper spoke over his shoulder, "Liam, is it?"

"Yes."

"Do you drive?"

"Er, yes."

"Good. There's another cross in my back pocket. Take it." Angel couldn't see what was happening, but suddenly Liam's hand came up, clutching a cross of his own. Giles shot him a quick glance. "Right jacket pocket," he instructed. "My keys. Take them and get in. Start the engine."

Ripper kept his eyes fixed on the vampires as Liam fumbled in his pocket. When he pulled back, keys jangling from his fingers, Ripper took a step towards the front of the car, while Liam managed the lock one handed, holding his cross up in the other. The door swung open and Liam scrambled in, pulling it closed behind him. A moment later the car coughed, then roared into life. Ripper slid around the wing and across the front to the passenger side, his eyes darting constantly back and forth between Spike and Angel, both crosses raised against them. Inside the car, Liam reached over and pushed open the door and Ripper paused there. "Bring me the woman," he called.

Spike stepped up close and cocked his head. "If you want," he agreed genially. He waved over his shoulder to Jesse, who came reluctantly forward.

Getting an unconscious woman into the car with them would require Ripper to drop one of his crosses. It would also require one of the vampires getting close enough to pass her over. Angel watched as Ripper figured the manoeuvre through and saw the moment he realised it was unworkable. Ripper's eyes narrowed and his mouth hardened into a bitter line as he clambered backwards into safety, slamming the door shut.

Spike was forced to jump out of the way as the car sprang forward. He spun on the spot and watched as it disappeared down the street. Then he started to laugh. "That was fucking priceless," he gasped eventually. "My god! You should have seen your face."

Angel tore his eyes away from the fast fading tail lights ready to roar his sorrow and impotent rage into Spike's impudent face, only to find Spike was looking at Ethan. "You really thought a starched up council watcher would risk his pretty suit over a degenerate chaos worshiper?" Spike asked.

"He wasn't always like that," Ethan said sadly.

"Well, he's like that now," Spike replied. "Tell you what, I haven't had so much fun for months. For that, you might just get to go free, once you've done your concealment spell for us." He turned to Angel and his face sobered. "Sorry mate," he said, coming over and laying a consoling hand on Angel's shoulder. "I know you wanted him. But come back with us now and if you like, once Dru's better we can go find him again for you. You know where he lives, right?

Angel nodded glumly. The rage had faded now and he found himself confused by his previous reaction. He looked into Spike's eyes and saw something there that he didn't really want to address immediately. "Sure," he said, his voice flat and colourless to his own ears. "I've nowhere else to go, have I?"

Continued here.

Comments

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That was...that was...Whoa. Sometimes when you read a story (okay, this might just be me), you think you know how its going to go. That was so totally contrary to my expectations, my jaw actually, physically, literally dropped.

Part of it was that I'd forgotten what a prig Giles was in the beginning. A naive one, but a prig just the same. The other reason I'm so shocked is that Angel is such a sympathetic character here that Liam's rejection of him is almost heartrending. I know Spike and Ethan are evil, but in this story, their humanity shines so clearly...

Sorry, I'm still stuck at whoa. But this is wonderful. Really and truly wonderful.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

*hugs self* Can I admit to being chuffed to bits that I managed to take you by surprise? Yes, Giles was very much the Council's creature at the beginning, wasn't he? It was the fact that he ended up having to deal with a whole group of young people that made him change, and probably that resulted in him becoming a good watcher.
I have to admit to being surprised in turn by your calling Angel sympathetic *g* Yeah, I feel sorry for him, he had invested all too much in Liam, without really considering Liam's responses, but sympathetic? *g*
As for Spike... family is a big thing in this story. He might have complex feelings for Angel, but they are strong feelings.
I am completely and utterly bowled over by your praise. Thank you so much. It seems to have taken me forever to reach this climax to the Liam arc, I am so relieved that you enjoyed it.

[kaydee23.livejournal.com]

Poor Angel. He thought he'd found a buddy, or something.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he really, really did. Poor Angel, he is *so* clueless about humans, he didn't notice that the relationship was pretty much all one-sided.

[smwright.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* This is all becoming such an intrigue. *g*

Before anything, I have to tell you how I laughed at And I don't know who you are. But I would advise you, for both our sakes, not to taunt a demon, under any circumstances. That was so adorable, and I could head S1 Giles saying that so easily.

This chapter, for all that it covers just a little while, does so much! Your action bits remain as flawless as ever. I could really see the movements unfolding, each of them. Liam's break surprised me a little, but then again, I'm not sure why. Angel's anger surprised me more. I'll be interested to see how that plays out, although I suspect it will at least benefit Spike/Dru temporarily.

Really well done here, hon.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

*smiling widely* I am so happy you picked that particular Giles line, I have to admit, I was pleased with that one.
Liam's break surprised me a little, but then again, I'm not sure why.
I was concerned that that would come as a huge surprise, but because Angel was deluding himself about the nature of their interactions, and we only ever saw Angel's POV, it was difficult to flag Liam's lack of involvement clearly. It is difficult to make a point about someone not saying anything if the POV character doesn't notice.
Angel's anger surprised me more.
That, I thought I had flagged more clearly, with Angel's dreams and semi-conscious desires, and the way he walked away from any situation he thought he couldn't handle. I'll be interested in your reaction to his behaviour in the next few chapters.
Thank you, as always, for the lovely comment.

[smwright.livejournal.com]

with Angel's dreams and semi-conscious desires, and the way he walked away from any situation he thought he couldn't handle

Oh, you did that! I think my surprise was residual from my shock over Liam, and that was entirely my wanting him (Liam) to have been more trustworthy. :)

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

That's a relief, thank you. As for poor Liam? He was just scared and coping the best he could.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Poor Angel is so completely clueless on how to deal with people. The fact that he thinks if he just can grab Liam and explain is priceless. He didn't even realize that their "sharing" time was all angel talking. It's always so interesting how Angelus can manipulate people so well but Angel is a complete failure at the interpersonal tango. Possibly because he's trying to be sincere while lying to himself. I think in this case one of the things he's lying about is what he wants from Spike and Dru. I'm really looking forward to him seeing Dru. I'm also thinking he's blown any chance of helping Buffy.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

The fact that he thinks if he just can grab Liam and explain is priceless
Thank you. I really try to avoid any suggestion that the soul and the demon are somehow separate from each other or worse, separate from Angel himself, but I think that Angelus' clarity came from the fact that there was no conflict inside him, while Angel's awkwardness is a result of the fact that with a soul, he is a demon with unnatural urges.
Possibly because he's trying to be sincere while lying to himself.
Thank you. Yes, that is it, exactly.
I don't think he knows (if) he wants anything from Spike and Dru. And yes, I think Giles will remember him for a good long while.
As always, thank you for your lovely comments.

[sparrow2000.livejournal.com]

I was kind of blindsided by Liam's actions as I said to you yesterday, but of course in retrospect I shouldn't have been. Liam was level headed enough to make pragmatic decisions which would keep him alive and if that meant temporary deals with the devil, then that's what he'd do.

Your Giles is so much the Council's man at the moment. I do wonder how he will develop when his Slayer arrives. Would Buffy still hang with Willow without Xander and Jesse there, and would Giles become less stuffy and more human without a gang of kids to huff and puff over. Hmm, ripples in a pond - and I'll stop now before I get all philosophical *g*

Great stuff, hon.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon.
I'll have to read this chapter again, in the context of the whole thing. Maybe I'll do a little edit, to try and point up the one-sided nature of the exchange, a bit more. *g* Or maybe I'll not.
Yes, Giles is very much a Council member at the moment. Since I don't intend to extend as far as Buffy's arrival (I mean, it's taken 29 chapters to cover 3 weeks, six months would take.... like whoa *g*) I am not too concerned by what would happen then, but I have been wondering to myself lately if this is not a version of the Wish-verse. *shrugs* Sort of academic anyway. Buffy could very well arrive on schedule, it'll just be after this story is over.
Thanks so much for the comment.

[laazikaat.livejournal.com]

Poor Angel, he's such a blind fool sometimes.

I did like Spike's offer to go fetch Liam back for him later, like a stray puppy that's wandered off.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Isn't he just.
Heee, I hadn't thought of it like that. Stray puppy, *snerk*
Thanks, hon.