EARLIER EVENTS
(Fragments of events presented for your enjoyment.)
Fragment 1:
After BLOOD CALLS (fanfic):
"Sorry about the intrusion, Sheriff," Spike said, following Ann inside and shutting the door. "But I wanted to talk to you, and I didn't think you'd agree. This is about the murder over in Sylvandale."
"We have a tip line."
"This is a mixed media demonstration," Spike said, and displayed.
Paterson looked at the vampire. "Oh."
"Right. I saw the body before the police got there--don't bother asking how, I won't say--and I took some pictures." Spike shifted back to human.
"You just happened to have a camera with you?"
"I brought it to use, just like tonight. Now, someone over there knows I'm a vampire."
"Don't ask, you won't say?"
"You interrupt a lot, do you know that?"
"I'm supposed to ask the questions."
"Maybe I should have her gag you," Spike wondered aloud.
"Get on with it."
"I'm interested in seeing that vampires don't get blamed for killings some human does. We didn't do this," Spike said.
"The scene agrees with classic descriptions of vampire murders," the sheriff said.
"Which anyone can read and attempt to duplicate. Fortunately, the writers made up a lot of the details."
"Like not being able to enter a house uninvited?"
"That depends on the company you keep. No more interruptions. You need to know, one, vampires are a lot stronger than humans. While that hiker was in good shape, he was only human, and one of us wouldn't have had to knock him around the way he was to drain him. Two, vampire dentition, like human dentition, is unique. Unlike human dentition, vampire fangs continue to grow, very slowly, over all of a vampire's life. This vampire would have been over five hundred years old, judging from the depth and the spacing of the bite marks. That old a vampire probably wouldn't need to use force at all. A lot of what we do is seduction and persuasion, and the older we are, the better we get at it. Think of Jim Jones getting everyone to drink the poisoned soft drink, and remember, he was only human.
"Third," Spike said, "the angle of the bite is screwy. I'll show you." He looked over at Ann, who came forward.
"You're watching dinner theater, Sheriff," Ann said reassuringly. "Not a murder." She produced a glass of wine from somewhere, drank half of it, and handed it to Frank Paterson. "Pay attention and don't worry." She removed her jacket, revealing a black tube top and pale, untanned skin.
"Let's assume I'm just hungry, and not interested in getting laid before dinner. Fast food style, it goes like this:" The vampire shifted, then turned Ann around and pulled her back against him. One arm reached around under her bust, gripping her left arm. Spike's left hand covered her mouth and he pulled her head back onto his left shoulder, his mouth finding her throat. "If I don't mind if she screams, I can use her hair to hold her, with the same result," Spike raised his head and released Ann. There were two spots of bright blood on her neck. Spike used the camera.
Ann wiped the blood away, revealing an unscared neck, and waited, calmly.
"Face to face, it works like this." Spike embraced Ann, bending her head back over one arm and again biting her throat. He shifted back to human and took a second picture. "Thanks."
Ann wiped the blood away, donned her jacket and sat down.
"Now, it's possible to bite someone like this," Spike produced a third picture from his jacket pocket, "but not comfortable, considering the victim could bite my ear off."
"So you beat him unconscious."
"I would have had to have hit him only once, not like this. Finally, there had been a lot of blood out in the open, I could still smell it. When we just feed on humans, we're a tidy lot. The blood goes from them to us, with no splashing. At the scene, there wasn't any spilled on the ground or anywhere else, so where was it? That I don't know. I could follow the smell out of the area, but I quickly lost it. The breeze, I guess. I think the killer bled him into a bucket and carried that away. Somewhere, there is a bucket with ten or eleven pints of blood. Or a drain, or something. The guy over in Sunnydale who runs the Magic Box, he studies about vampires as a sort of hobby. Ask him. Most of what he knows is more or less the truth." Spike seemed ready to go.
Ann spoke again: "Bite this." She handed Spike a long cucumber. He looked at it, then at her. "I'm not leaving my neck for the crime lab," she pointed out.
"OK." Spike changed, found the curve on the cucumber that was the same as Ann's neck, bit it, and laid it on the coffee table. "Yuck."
"You display a totally immature attitude toward vegetables," Ann said severely.
The vampire and the woman left.
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Fragment 2:
After DEAD END (series title)
The pickup started missing, then died. Lindsay pulled over and got out. He walked around to the tail gate to get his took kit and flashlight. He stopped and read the sign there. Angel. Talk about doing something immature.
A soft laugh came from behind him. He turned. There was a silver Mercedes parked there that he hadn't seen as he had stopped. A tall woman was leaning against the driver's door. As he watched, she straightened and walked over to stand in front of him. He took his gun from the tool it and waited.
"You don't need the gun or the tools," the woman said. "It will start again. I just didn't want you to drive through some of the small towns around here with that sign on your back."
"Thanks. How did you know it was there?"
"I sometimes keep an eye on Angel, when he's dealing with Wolfram and Hart."
"I've resigned from Wolfram and Hart."
"Blessings and good fortune be yours, as well as my heartiest congratulations." The woman frowned at him "It appears I lied. I want something else. May I see your hands?"
"If you know Angel, you should know about my hand."
"Angel doesn't know all about it," the woman said, holding out her own hands. "Call me Ann, by the way."
Lindsay's eyes flickered over her. She smiled. "Without an 'E' this time."
"I'm Lindsay McDonald." He put the gun in the kit and the kit back in the truck.
"I know. I do dislike Wolfram and Hart," she said softly and with decision. She was holding his new hand.
"It's been pretty normal lately." .
"I think I can keep it that way. Make a cup," she told him. He turned his hand palm up and waited. She took a bottle of wine out of the air, opened it and poured the wine into his palm.
Watching, he saw the wine sink into his hand. "Neat trick."
"Bone cancer," she said softly. "In a few years, five or ten. Another way for Wolfram and Hart to keep control of you. Now, they would probably just let you die." She handed him the bottle, and he took it in his left hand. She raised his hand to her mouth and kissed the palm, then moved it back and looked at it. She nodded. "Not now."
He believed her: both about the cancer and about his freedom from it. He felt a little giddy and took a long drink from the bottle, which proved now to contain tequila, not the dark wine she had poured from it. Then, with his free hand, his evil hand, he gripped her neck, pulled her to him and kissed her.
Her arms went around him, under his jacket. She held him strongly and kissed him back. After he released her, she laughed. "Surprising, and intriguing. I want a third thing." She kissed him again. Raising her head, she stroked his cheek. "You. I want you." She stepped back. "On your way home, are you driving through Taos?"
He nodded, "I can."
"If you want to see me again, do so. Plan on staying overnight here." She handed him a card with only an address on it. "Put it on the dashboard or you won't get in. I'll be there before you." She returned to the Mercedes. He watched her drive off, west, back to Los Angeles.
He made a call: "Without mentioning names, do you know a woman, tall, very beautiful, green eyes, black hair, one earring, great taste in wine?"
"You do get around. Yes."
"Is she safe?"
"I would say she's always safe. Other people, maybe not."
"Can I trust her?"
"What she says she'll do, she does. How did you meet her?"
"She doesn't like practical jokes."
"She told you about the sign, didn't she?"
"No, she stopped my engine and let me discover it for myself. You and I will discuss that another time."
"When I least expect it?"
"How else?" Lindsay rang off.
Until he made the turn into the street, he told himself he was just curious, that he had no real intention of staying with her, but he was disappointed by the neighborhood: local taverns, warehouses. She had fooled him. He pulled into the address, intending to turn around, and the door opened. He hesitated, then drove in.
The interior of the warehouse was dark, then the lighting grew brighter as the door closed behind him. The warehouse was full of cars--classic luxury and classic south-western, including some pick-ups older than his. There was a man by the side of the car, wearing boots, jeans and a flannel shirt. He glanced over the '56 and asked:
"Mr. McDonald?"
"Yes?"
"We'll take care of your car. What luggage?"
"Just the duffel bag," Lindsay said. "I'll carry the guitar."
"Through here," the man said. "We'll bring your bag right up."
Lindsay went through the door in the wall. Outside, the building was free standing, with alleys on either side, but this door led directly into a hotel lobby, wide, very quiet, high ceilinged, carpeted, leather chairs and benches, and potted palms, with double doors to the left and right, and a hotel desk straight ahead. He ignored the potted palms, the other doors and went straight ahead.
"Lindsay McDonald," he told the being behind the desk. A tasseled key on the board behind the desk started glowing.
"Yes, you're already registered. Take the elevator up to the third floor, turn right and it's the fifth door on your left."
"Thanks."
The room was a suite. The sitting room was light, airy and empty. He turned and shut the door to the hall. When he turned back, Ann was there. She was wearing a blue cotton kimono, with a pattern of tied-resist treskelions in white. Her feet were bare and her hair was pinned up with a tortoise shell fork. She was fresh from a bath and looked more lovely than he remembered.
"I was wondering if you had had second thoughts?"
"Some. Actually quite a few, but I found myself going around a forecast of possible showers as if it were a flash flood warning, and coming here just to see what the address looked like."
"That's just the outside. It keeps away the mundane tourists. Your bag's in the bedroom. Do you want a shower? Lunch?"
"You," he gave her words back to her. "I want you."
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Fragment 3:
After FOREVER (series title):
"Spike," Dawn said.
"Bloody hell! Don't do that!" Spike said. He rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"
"Nearly sundown. Look, I want you to take me to Ann's."
"Buffy will shit bricks. She's mad at me..."
"Well, you're stalking her."
"....and she's mad at Ann because Ann's not mad at me."
"She said Buffy was just like Drusilla."
"Ann did?" Spike asked. "Why?"
"Something about using you. Will you drive me to Ann's or do I have to walk?"
"Obsessed women, that must be what Ann meant. She's right: I'm the unwilling plaything of obsessed women. You're one of them. You're going to be a holy terror when you grow up. Let's go."
"We have to hurry. Buffy will figure out real soon that I'm not where I'm supposed to be, and this crypt is the first place she'll look."
***
"There's that noise again," Dawn said.
"You can hear it, too?"
"Buffy and Giles can't. Is it real?"
"I'm not sure you could say that. It's Ann's guardian lions," Spike said. "She's not human, you know, and any old vampire can just walk in the front door. The lions make it hard for them get to the door."
"The lions stop them?"
"The lions eat them," Spike said.
"But not you?" Dawn asked.
"Ann likes me." Spike stopped the Viper and got out. Dawn bounced out and started for the front door. She got to the entry garden and stopped.
"Spike," she whispered. "Spike. SPIKE!"
"Hi, guys," the vampire said. "This is Dawn. She's been here before. Can she come in?"
"We just wanted to see her, since there aren't any humans around to get scared of us," a lion said.
"Jingwu says we should not scare humans, except for thieves," another lion said.
"We didn't scare you, did we? You should know us," the third lion said.
"These are the cubs," Spike told Dawn. "They haven't picked their names yet. They're a little younger than you are."
"You guys look like the statues," Dawn told the lions.
"The statues are warning signs," the first lion, the biggest, said. "Cave canem, Spike says, although we aren't dogs at all."
"We're lions," a slightly smaller lion announced.
"They're cute. You're cute, too," Dawn said.
"Spike," Ann Grove said, from the French doors to the dining room, "call Buffy before she panics." She tossed him a cell phone. "Keep that. I programmed the first four speed dials: one is Buffy, two is the Magic Box, three is Rupert's home and four is the mundane phone here."
"Good idea," Spike said, ringing Buffy. "Dawn's safe," he said at once.
"Hi, Dawn," Ann said.
"Hi," Dawn said. "I...."
Ann sat on a bench and smiled at the girl. "Would you like some tea?"
"Ginger ale?"
"Here." Ann waited quietly.
Buffy's voice, angry and tinny, sounded out of the cell phone as Spike pulled it away from his ear. He swore, and rang off. He shrugged at Ann and Dawn, then moved back beside the Viper and rang Buffy's number again.
"Why do you like Spike?" Dawn asked. She settled down in front of the fountain with her ginger ale. The lion cubs sat around her, the biggest putting her head in the girl's lap and purring; the other two pressing close against her.
"I didn't always," Ann said "I started liking him when I saw how brave and clever he can be."
"Oh?"
"When the Watchers were fooled by Arlack Armel, and were going to kill Buffy and Rupert, Spike found out about it. Now, he could have run, he has the Viper, after all, and my cars take care of their people. The Viper can take Spike anywhere he wants, hide him, shelter him, feed him and keep him safe. If he had run, though, Buffy wouldn't have been warned and might have been killed."
"He loved her back then?"
"Yes. He loved her enough that, scared as he was, he came to me, hoping I could help him save her, even though I might be mad because he stole the car from me."
"Why was he scared?"
"Think about it: Seven Watchers who knew how to kill a vampire were in town, seven vampire killers armed with crossbows, stakes and holy water. Spike was all alone and he can't even defend himself against humans. Have you ever watched High Noon?"
"No."
"I'll get you a copy, the Gary Cooper movie, not the remake, although I like Tom Skerrit, too. Watch it, and remember Spike."
"Why does Glory want me?"
Very carefully, Ann said: "You can give her power, and help her take more. At the moment, she's hampered by going crazy and weak every few days. Perhaps she thinks you will let her stay here and be sane enough to take over this world, or you might help her go home and take over that world. I've never talked to her, those are just guesses."
"Would I be alive?"
"No. You would not have a body, not this cute girl body, not your original one of simple energy."
"Do I have a soul? Would my soul be alive?"
"Yes, you have a soul, you had a soul when you were just pure green energy, you have that same soul now. Yes, it will be alive, but it will be in heaven, not here in the material universe, like Joyce's soul."
"Are you telling me the truth?"
"I'm keeping to a little simpler vocabulary than I would use with Giles or Spike, but yes, I'm telling you the truth. If we get through this mess alive, we--you and I--will go see the Dalai Lama, the next time he's in town, if you want. He knows more about human souls than even your sister, and he also tells the truth, and you can ask him anything you want."
"OK. Does Spike really have a soul? Buffy told Willow that you told her that Spike has a soul just like hers."
"Not exactly just like hers. Vampires do have souls, it's just that they can't access all of them, like a computer file you don't have the password for. Vampires can't hear their conscience."
"Can you fix Spike?"
"Not unless he asks me. I like him just the way he is."
"But Buffy doesn't, and if he had a whole soul, she would."
"Maybe, maybe not. I think the reasons she gives for not liking him are pretty damn silly, but she may just not like him," Ann said. "And she has the right to like or dislike whom she chooses, you know. So do you."
"I do like him."
"Thanks, little bit."
Dawn turned around. Spike stood in the gateway to the driveway.
"Your big sis says I should leave you here. She's getting Giles to come pick you up."
"Why can't you drive me home?"
"She's afraid I'll hurt you."
"Can you hurt me?" Dawn asked.
"I don't know," Spike admitted.
"You should be able to," Ann said. "She's not human, either."
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.
"When I wanted him to know I wasn't human, I tricked him into hitting me. It hurt his hand."
"Try," Dawn said to Spike.
He looked over at Ann. She nodded.
"This is just an experiment," Ann told the lion cubs. "Don't get excited."
"All right, Jingwu."
"Go ahead," Ann told Spike.
He smacked Dawn. The cubs hissed.
"Ow," the girl said. The cubs crowded around Dawn, rubbing their heads against her thighs until she sat down beside Ann. She was crying. The lions started to lick her cheeks.
Spike shook his head. He had not felt his chip activate.
"I was still sort of hoping I was really human," Dawn said.
"No," Ann said. "But that doesn't matter to me, Spike or the lions; or to your sister or all your friends. And it doesn't matter to your soul."
***
"Why is she crying? What did you do to her?"
"Spike hit her," Ann told Buffy.
"Oh," the Slayer said. "Oh."
"The chip?" Giles asked.
"Not a twinge."
"Why did you let him bring her here?"
"I wasn't offered an option at all," Ann said. "and the only choice she gave him was to drive her or she'd walk."
"Dawn, you scared me," Buffy said.
"I know, I'm sorry, but I overheard you tell Willow what Ann told you about Spike. I wanted to ask her about me. You wouldn't bring me, so I got Spike to do it."
"Dawn," Rupert said. "You must see that since Spike knows you're not human, you must exercise extreme caution in your dealings with him."
"He's known about that as long as I have, we found it out together, when you were all lying to me. If he was going to hurt me, he could have done it then, and you'd never have known anything about it."
"You've been listening to Ann," Buffy said.
"I think she's telling me the truth. I don't think Spike lies to me, either."
"Ann does not have an entirely human perspective on this," Giles said.
"Well, that's all right, then, since neither do I," the girl said. "And I like Spike, and I like Ann."
"Once Glory has been dealt with, we'll talk about this," Ann told her. "Until then, concentrate on staying alive. Let your sister focus on Glory, don't make her worry about you."
"I should go play and not bother the big kids?"
"You should keep your head down while they're shooting at you," Ann said at once.
Buffy flinched, but Dawn just looked at Ann. "Oh," she said, after a short pause. "OK. Thanks for the video."
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Fragment 4:
Before Buffy's funeral:
"Quiet," Ann ordered. "I'm tired of these non-cerebral reactions you all indulge in. I said, quiet, Angel." She looked around. "Good. Buffy rejected Spike, that's true, but at one time, she rejected all of you, didn't she?"
"No."
"She denied her Slayerhood, Rupert. She didn't want to be a Slayer, have a Watcher or have anything to do with you, did she? Did she?" Ann repeated.
"Only at first."
"Xander, when you thought you were in love with her, she didn't even bother rejecting you, she just ignored you. She started to like Angel, but rejected him for a while when she discovered he was a vampire. That got complicated, and in the end, she sacrificed him to save the world. Eventually, she rejected the Council for Angel. She didn't want anything to do with Riley Finn, at first, and in all their time together, she never told him about Dawn."
"She didn't tell Spike, either," Giles said.
"No, he found that out for himself," Ann said. "Here we're beyond anecdotal history: we all saw this. Buffy needed a guardian for Joyce and Dawn while she was interviewed by the Council--you all were there, all but Angel and Spike. She didn't trust the Council with either the knowledge of Dawn's nature or her sister's safety. What did she do?"
"She took us to Spike," Dawn said.
"Yes, yunu. And what did she say?"
"He was the only one strong enough to protect us."
"And what did he say?"
"Well, he doesn't want anyone to know he's got feelings, you know," Dawn said. "He shoots himself in the foot, and he uses his mouth to do it."
"Dawn," Giles said, pained.
"He keeps up a stoic and indifferent front, using a camouflage of words which makes any real communication impossible," Ann said.
"What I said," Dawn agreed.
"And makes us all think the worst of him," Willow said.
"Frequently," Ann said. "I say, you should stop listening to him and watch what he does: starting with you, Angel."
"Ann," Spike said.
"If you can do it, you can stand to let them know about it," Ann said coolly. She waited until he shrugged and looked away, then continued, "Spike suggested I tell Angel about Joyce's death."
"Why?" Angel asked him.
"No one else had, as far as I could tell," Spike said. "And I knew you and Ann were friends and she could bring you here safely, if you wanted to come."
"Why?" Giles asked Spike.
"She needed someone. He could comfort her. No one else could. She needed someone," Spike repeated.
"And he and Gang Long were watching over the two of you all night," Ann said, "and not gambling despite his careful insinuation that that was where they were going."
"How did you know that?" Spike asked.
"I always know where Gang Long is, where the Viper is. I can tell where you are, if you're within twenty miles of me. None of you were in Sylvandale that night, you were here."
"But what about the Buffybot?" Giles demanded.
"Sort of sad, really," Xander said.
"And, you know, there was only one consenting adult involved. It was weird and distasteful--"
"It was gross!" Dawn said.
"--but it didn't hurt anyone but him," Willow said.
"And it did hurt," Ann said quietly. "Spike is smart enough to know the difference between what he had and what he wanted."
"Well," Tara said, obviously trying to find something good to say about the situation, "it's not as if he were unfaithful."
"Technically," Anya, the ex-vengeance demon started to say, then halted. "Well, I don't know. It would depend on how Buffy felt about it."
"We all know how Buffy felt about it," Xander said.
"And we all know she didn't care about it when Dawn needed protection a few days later," Willow said.
"Just a minute," Giles said.
Ann overrode him: "I agree with Anya and Willow. That seems to have been a private matter between Buffy and Spike. The next matter for us to discuss is Glory."
Angel asked: "What about Glory?"
"Glory tortured Spike, looking for Dawn. Spike didn't talk," Xander said.
"Who would?" Giles asked.
"The only people we're sure wouldn't are Tara and Spike. If that's good in her," Ann smiled at the girl, "it's also good in him."
"And he did help us," Anya agreed. "When we couldn't remember about Ben and Glory and all that."
"He hit me," Xander objected.
"And you remembered after that," Anya said.
"And he was the first of us to remember about you, Angel, after Buffy died," Willow said. "We weren't thinking too clearly right then, but he said you should know. He said I should go tell you."
"All of which is why I say he can come to Buffy's service and also why I say if any of you continue to verbally object, I'll muzzle her, or him," Ann said.
"I think Ann's right," Willow said.
"You do?" Tara asked. "OK. I don't want him to come to my funeral, though."
"But he can come to mine," Xander said.
"I look forward to it," Spike said.
"Stop that," Willow told the younger vampire.