thismaz | Prompt 103 - Epilogue

Okay, this is it - the end of the ice cream 'verse. This one is dedicated to Maggie. It was fantastic to finally meet you face-to-face, hon. I had a seriously wonderful time the other day.

Also,

mwrgana made me a new banner, as a birthday present. Doesn't it all look delicious?

Title: Epilogue
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 103 - Temptation
At:

tamingthemuse
Rating: Older Teen/Adult
Summary: Part 42 of the ice cream 'verse. 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.
Some dialogue borrowed courtesy of http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/
Word Count: 3,275
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

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

Vamp Xander story

42. Epilogue

Dru had still not regained consciousness as they all trailed back up to the house. Spike had allowed Angelus to continue carrying her while he walked with Xander, his arm securely around his boy's waist. The sky was clear, the stars were bright without a moon to dim them, and he took deep breaths as they walked, enjoying the smell of clean air, with just a hint of soot. Xander appeared unaffected by the night's adventure, unless the extra bounce in his step from the adrenaline hype counted. Spike on the other hand still had some concerns about Dru. He'd seen the spell in operation, but he couldn't feel totally happy until she woke up.

Angelus carried Dru like the precious burden she was, her head resting against his shoulder and every few moments he glanced down at her, his expression soft in a way that Spike had never witnessed before. He seemed to be recovering his strength with each step away from the burnt out wreck behind them. The spell might have knocked him for six for a while, but the effects didn't appear to be long lasting.

Unlocking the front door, Spike pushed it wide and held it open for Angelus to enter. "How you feeling, mate?" he asked. "I mean, did it work?"

Shaking his head slightly, Angelus smiled. "I felt it," he said. "I felt something. Yes, I think it worked."

I spite of Dru's continued unconsciousness and her drawn expression, a small portion of Spike's worry lifted with that reassurance. Leading the way into the living room, he gestured at Ethan, sitting still shacked on the sofa. "Off," he ordered. Ethan hurried to obey, hovering close as Spike waved Angelus forward. "Lay her out there," he said. "I'll get you some blood and you can feed her as soon as she wakes."

In the kitchen the pantry was empty, but there were half a dozen hospital bags in the fridge. Just this once Spike would lower himself to eating old blood. He wasn't leaving the house again tonight. Not until he saw Dru awake and well again. And if that didn't happen... he shoved the thought away. Maybe he'd still eat the wizard.

Pulling a large pan out of the cupboard he half filled it with water and put it on the stove, adding all of the remaining bags of blood. Eating bagged blood was one thing, but he wasn't going to eat it cold. Behind him he could hear whispering and movement coming from the living room but he kept his attention focussed on the water in the pan, checking it with a finger tip at regular intervals. It didn't take long to warm the chill off and it was better to err on the side of caution, to avoid it starting to cook.

It seemed to take forever, but eventually it was ready. Hooking three mugs and the kitchen scissors over his finger tips, he picked up the pan with both hands and pushed through the door into the living room, plonking the lot down on the coffee table. Dru was now stretched out comfortably on the sofa, Angelus perched next to her. Ethan was sitting on the floor, as far from them both as the chain around his ankle allowed, and Xander had flopped down in Dru's chair.

He hauled himself up as Spike returned and knelt down next to the coffee table, straightening the mugs. Looking up at Spike he picked up the scissors. "Shall I?" he asked.

Spike nodded absently, his focus on Dru. "What's taking so long?" he asked. "Why is she still out?" Catching Angelus' eye again, he added, "You sure you felt something?"

Angelus raised an eyebrow. "You did see the light show back there?" he asked. "Yes, something happened. I felt the strength flowing out of me, into her. I'm certain it worked." Leaning forward, he stroked a loose lock of her hair away from her face. His hand looked huge, his fingers like sausages against her delicate beauty. Spike knew that the apparent fragility of her bird-like frame was an illusion, but he'd lived with her illness for so long, it was almost impossible to imagine she could ever again be the fierce, strong willed, invincible sire he had once believed her to be.

Angelus briefly gripped her hands, where they lay loosely clasped below her breasts. "Is that the last of the blood?" he asked.

"Yeah. I reckon we'll be leaving tomorrow. You'll have to sort out your own supply from now on."

Angelus nodded. "I don't think I'll be staying either," he said seriously. "You were right, I haven't a chance of helping the slayer, not with her watcher knowing what I am."

A nudge at his elbow distracted Spike from answering and caused him to look down. Xander was holding a mug up for him to take. Dismissing Angelus' comment as irrelevant, he took the blood, draining it without attention or pleasure, as he sat himself down on the arm of the sofa next to Dru's head and watched her face.

Together they sat vigil over her body. With each passing moment, as she continued to lie motionless and didn't fade to dust, Spike felt himself relax a little more. Half an hour passed, then an hour. Still Dru lay unmoving, but solid, in front of him.

Some small sound made Spike look up and he found Angelus studying him intently. He raised an eyebrow in question and Angelus smirked. "Good moves, in there," he said.

Spike was flabbergasted. Angelus paying him a compliment? Unsolicited? "You too," he acknowledged, grudgingly.

"No, I mean it. You got us all out. I didn't notice the door to the loft." Angelus looked slightly embarrassed and shrugged. "I was still a bit out of it," he explained, in excuse.

Spike decided to go with the flow and enjoy this strange, genial Angelus while he could. "Wish I'd got the watcher though," he admitted. From the corner of his eye he saw the wizard react to that and turned to glance at him. "Yeah, your old mate was there. And he got away." He jerked his head towards Angelus. "He didn't tell you?"

Ethan was sitting cross-legged by the coffee table. "No," he replied drily. "We didn't get that far." Sitting straight, he grinned. "I wish I could have been there."

"Think you could have helped take him down, do you?"

"No. But then, I wouldn't want to. I might have helped distract him though." He gave an impudent smirk. "People like Ripper... they come in useful for all sorts of reasons." There was a hint of a question in his voice when he added, "Rather like me."

Spike grinned back. "Useful, eh? So I should just let you go?"

Angelus cleared his throat. "Spike, you promised."

Waving his hand airily, Spike agreed. "I promise a lotta things."

"But this is one you're going to keep."

Was that a threat? Why was Angelus suddenly so serious? "And why should I?"

"Because he's human." Angelus closed his eyes as he apparently realised that he'd just made a supremely stupid statement. He frowned and tried again, "Because I'm asking you to?"

"And you're asking because he's human?" Spike suggested. Angelus nodded tightly. "No!" Spike stared at Angelus' face, watching it twitch in response to his blunt refusal. "That's not the reason. You want something." He injected a sneer into his voice. "This isn't about your mission. You're in love with the idea of humanity, but you don't give a damn about them individually. There's something more here." He glanced at Xander, who was sitting on the edge of his seat, ready to jump if Spike gave the signal. Turning back to Angelus he stared him down. "If you want me to spare him again, you'll have to come out and give me a very good reason why."

Angelus' face went blank and Spike recognised that expression - he was thinking, trying to work out if he could lie, or whether he'd really have to tell Spike the truth. The fact that he didn't point out that it wasn't Spike who let the wizard go, last time, was itself an indication of how serious he was. Spike waited.

After a pause that seemed to stretch for whole minutes, Angelus sighed. "The other night," he said. "Ethan told us a story about a demon..."

Spike thought back to the evening they spent getting drunk and swapping stories and being a family. "The one in Africa," he agreed.

"Yes, that one..." Angelus stopped abruptly as Dru stirred, her hands twitching before falling still again.

Spike leant forward, gazing down into her face as her eyes opened. He twisted off his perch onto his knees at her side and bent over her. "Hey, baby," he whispered. "How do you feel?"

Slowly Dru sat up, Spike helping her with a hand at her back. She twisted in her seat, placing her feet on the floor and reaching out her hand, ran it gently down his cheek. "Shhh," she murmured. She turned to look up at Angelus and it was only then that Spike realised there were tears in his eyes. Angrily he scrubbed at them. "My Angel," Dru continued, pulling her hand away and offering it to her sire, who took it and held it tenderly. "You saved me." Spike opened his mouth to make some protest, but she turned back to him. "You both saved me. I'm strong again!" Slowly a smile spread across her face. "I'm well! I can feel it, the power, the wonder, the call." She looked around the room, fixing at last on Ethan, who tried to scramble back but was prevented by the chain at his ankle. "And I'm hungry."

Spike was ready to offer the wizard up for her, but Angelus jumped in first, "Drink from me, Dru," he offered. "Come and drink from me." He flicked a glance over at Ethan. "We need him, remember?"

She turned and smiled back at him. "Oh yes, I forgot."

Before Spike could demand an explanation for that statement, Dru had lunged forward into Angelus' lap and her mouth was at his throat. Angelus closed his eyes, a blissful expression on his face, and when he opened them again he was looking straight at Spike. "I thought I had a mission to help the slayer," he said, apropos of nothing. "But I think Whistler talked in riddles and the obvious interpretation was not the true one." He stroked his hand up Dru's back, fisting it in her hair and Spike thought he was going to pull her away, but instead he released his grip and sank back into the seat, petting her head. After a moment he looked up at Spike again. "I can't go on without believing in something. I need that. I need to know that there's something beautiful in the world. I need to know that there is worth in what I'm doing. That I'm doing good."

Puzzled by this sudden burst of confidences, Spike did his best. "So you're an idealist?" he hazarded. "An idealist with a soul?"

Angelus sighed. "William, you're a poet. Don't fuck with me. You were never wrong. Without my soul, I'm a bastard."

Spike grinned at him. "Won't hear me argue with that," he agreed.

Unable to nod with Dru at his neck, Angelus gave a slight smile in acknowledgement. "I was a bastard," he repeated. "I'd never felt love. I didn't believe in it. I didn't even know what it was." His eyes flashed yellow before returning to brown. "But somehow I found it. And it was staring me in the face the whole time." He paused a moment and frowned, apparently trying to find the words to explain his thoughts. "We have eternal life," he continued. "We have to do something with that. We have to do good." He paused again and studied Spike, then he amended his statement, "I have to do something good."

Cautiously, Spike nodded. "And so you are. You have. You've cured Dru. 'Course, you owed us that."

"I owed Dru that."

"'S what I said."

"No, it isn't." Angelus hesitated and his voice was soft when he continued. "Dru and I..." A flicker of dread uncurled at the back of Spike's mind, ready to bloom into full flower and he realised that he didn't want to hear whatever it was Angelus was leading up to, but he couldn't stop him. "I think Whistler showed me the wrong woman," Angelus finished.

Spike stared at his grandsire, but was met by such a steady gaze that he had to look away. Across the coffee table from him, Ethan was watching with an expression of avid curiosity. In Dru's chair Xander looked as alarmed as he was beginning to feel himself. Slowly Xander began to edge forward out of his seat, onto the floor.

Spike looked back at Angelus and Dru just as she pulled away from her feed and sat up. "It's all... wrong!" she moaned, "I can't abide it! The Moon started whispering to me... All sorts of dreadful things. Temptation and truth and sin and guilt. And then she went dark and I knew... psst, psst, psst, psst, psst... He fills my head. I can't hear anything else. He calls me." She twisted around and fixed her mad gaze on Spike, her voice abruptly normal. "I have to go to Africa. Want to come, pet?" she asked.

Behind her Angelus stirred. "No!" he said. Looking over at Spike he added, "You need to go out and prove yourself."

Suddenly angry in his confusion Spike pushed himself to his feet, yelling, "I've been fucking doing that for a hundred years. I don't need to prove myself to anyone!"

Angelus pulled Dru against him and put his arms around her. She wriggled back into his side and settled her hands over his. "You do!" Angelus pronounced. "You may not think you do, but you do. Once you're alone, without your sire... it's different."

Spike refused to recognise the significance of Angelus' wording, concentrating on the petty accusation. "Yeah, like you did? When did you go out on your own? Let me think... Oh yes, that would be a hundred years ago, when you abandoned us!"

Dru smiled at him from Angelus' arms. "My beautiful boy," she whispered, "all grown up. Ready to be a daddy."

"No! Dru! You don't..." Spike couldn't go on. He fell to his knees, a tearing sensation ripping through his chest and he clutched at it. It felt like his heart was breaking. Literally.

Dru sighed. "It's time," she pronounced.

Spike curled forwards, his head bowed over his arms which were clenched at his waist. Dimly he was aware of a scrabbling sound, then strong arms closed around him and he was pulled into a hug and rocked.

Gradually he relaxed into the comfort of the body holding him. The pain of separation faded quickly, as if it had never been, and in it's place he felt... a lightness... like relief and power and... It felt like freedom? He stayed where he was though, unwilling to share the sensation, beyond the arms that held him so tight.

When he eventually raised his head it was to see Xander's concerned face peering down at him. Xander who was wrapped around him, like an octopus. Sitting back on his heels he allowed Xander to squirm around so he was seated on Spike's lap, his face buried in Spike's neck. Spike stroked Xander's hair, offering comfort in return for that which he had just received. He looked around the room. They were alone. "They gone?" he asked.

Muffled as it was in his neck, he had no trouble understanding Xander's reply. "Yeah, they just up and left. Took Ethan with them."

"Supercilious, condescending bastard," Spike growled.

Pulling back, Xander looked up at him. "Who? Ethan?"

"No, Angelus! Bloody coward couldn't hang around long enough to check I was alright."

"Um... Are you alright?" Xander's forehead scrunched again with worry. "What happened?"

Spike grinned. "Never felt better in my whole bloody unlife, pet." He shifted, so he was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him, with Xander still on his lap, holding the boy close. "I just got my freedom." He took a deep breath and let it out again. He felt almost giddy, "A hundred and twenty years, and at last, I'm free."

Looking down at Xander, the boy didn't appear much happier. "It looked like it hurt," he ventured, tentatively.

"Yeah, for a moment it did. But then... then..." There were no words to describe the sensation. The night Angelus released him, in China, he'd been too hyped up on slayer blood to recognise it for what it was. But this time... this time he was fully aware and the feeling of release that replaced the pain was something he'd remember and treasure for the rest of his existence.

Xander, however, was apparently not on the same page. He gave Spike's t-shirt a tug, to get his attention. "Promise you'll never do that to me," he begged.

Spike smiled. "I promise not to do it until you're ready," he agreed. Xander looked like he was going to say something else, so Spike got in first. "Fancy a trip to Blighty, pet?" The euphoria coursing through his body causing him to laugh out loud at the expression of confusion on Xander's face. "Britain. England," he clarified. "It's a crowded island, compared to here - twenty percent of the population in two percent of the space. Lots of good hunting grounds and lots of people to go missing without anyone raising the alarm." He studied Xander's face critically. "You could pass for eighteen, now you've fined up a bit, lost that human puppy fat and built up some good muscle." He leant back against the sofa. "But there's still loads of wilderness, if you want to see the stars. Places you can go where you'd think humans had never been. We could have some fun there."

Xander grinned back at him, apparently happy now that he could see his sire really was okay. "I need a new name," he announced.

Spike considered that proposal. "How about Alexander?"

"No!" Xander shook his head. "Xander's parents only called him Alexander when he was in trouble. I don't want the reminder."

"Huh! You're still too attached to the human, pet." He gave Xander a hug. "But I don't mind. I liked the human." Again he studied Xander's face. "But I like you more," he added with another laugh.

Smiling in return, Xander suggested, "How about Nightwing? That's dark and mysterious."

Spike pushed the boy off his lap and got up, stretching his arms above his head and luxuriating in the physical sensation of stretched muscles. "Phhh! Rubbish name!" he said, walking to the door to get his duster from the hall.

Xander scrambled to his feet and followed. "Lex? As in Luthor?"

"Hmm.. Has promise," Spike conceded, opening the front door and stepping out into the night. "Tell you what, why don't we try it for size and see how you go. You'll find your new name by proving yourself. Or you'll find the one you have fits you after all." He looked around as he dug in his pockets, checking that his fags and his car keys were there. At least they hadn't taken the wheels. Turning back to his childe, he held out his hand. "Come on. Either way, I reckon we're going to have some serious fun, finding out."

The end

Note: If you've enjoyed this story, please pause a moment and let me know. It is always lovely to hear that people have enjoyed what I've written. I won't write any less if you don't; it's just really nice for me. *g*

Oh, and there is a final question, here.

Current Mood: chipper

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bumpkin-is.livejournal.com

Very cool end - fit the story to a tee! I loved the comic refs for the new name at the end there - so perfectly teenage Xander!

thank you so much for sharing,
Marns
~pN

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Prompt 103 - Epilogue - BtVS

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