| Rescue Chapter 3 |
[Jan. 16th, 2006|10:59 am] |
Title: Rescue
Chapter: 3
Pairing: Xander and Spike
Rating: NC17
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em and I won’t be making any money off of them either.
Summary: Post Canon of BTVS and ATS
The kid turned out to be named Tyrell and he had been helping Spike and Angel because of some gun or some guy named Gunn, which Xander didn’t quite understand but didn’t really care enough about to question. They grabbed a taxi and Tyrell gave directions to an industrial park.
“So you bring blood to them?” Xander asked.
“Gross eh?” The kid grimaced.
“Yeah, pretty gross.” He flashed to a memory of Spikes’ blood ringed mugs in his sink.
“If that Angel dude hadn’t saved us…well, lets just say ashes to ashes, man!”
Xander sat in the backseat, watched the buildings pass by the window and wondered what Grace, Peter and Thomas were doing right now.
They stood in front of the abandoned warehouse.
“Don’t these guys ever read a copy of Better Homes and Gardens? ‘Another’ dark and scary warehouse!” Xander followed Tyrell into the darkened interior and through a labyrinth of corridors. There were bizarre looking symbols painted here and there. It belatedly crossed his mind that this could be a trap. “And here I am without any breadcrumbs.” He muttered under his breath.
“Almost there.” The boy said quietly as he skipped down a dimly lit stairwell.
Broad strokes of black paint, this time on the ceiling as well, formed more of the symbols.
Around a corner, through a doorway and suddenly, they had reached Spike and Angel.
Or what he assumed was Spike and Angel.
There was a mattress, shoved up against a damp wall with a pile of old blankets on it.
“ Spike man, I’ve got your blood.” The kid whispered and looked worriedly at Xander.
The blankets moved and Spike crawled out and then inelegantly staggered to his feet. He blinked his eyes a couple of times in exaggerated slow motion. “Harris?”
“Yeah Spike, it’s me.” Jesus Christ! The vampire looked like he’d been dragged behind a car for a hundred miles. The ripped bloody clothing wasn’t new but the hollowed circles under his eyes and pasty gray skin were.
Spike focused on the blood bags in Tyrells’ hands and shuffled forwards a few steps. Seeing those pathetic little movements made Xander gasp. Not even after Glory had Spike ever seemed so broken or small.
“Okay, that’s enough. I’m no vamp doctor but even I can tell that you need to be sitting the fuck down.” He grabbed the blood, pushed the trembling figure down to the mattress and sat next to him. Tearing the corner of one bag he lifted it to Spikes’ mouth. It finished glug-glugging down his throat and Xander reached for another one.
“No…wait…Angel.”
They both looked at the motionless blankets. Now that he was up close to them, Xander could smell the stench and wondered what the hell Angel would be doing in a place like this. Spike carefully pulled aside the filthy material and revealed the other vampires’ face. He was completely still.
“What’s wrong with him? For that matter, what the hell is wrong with you?” Looking pointedly at the vampires’ torn, filthy clothing.
“It’s a long bloody story and right now…” He sighed. “Right now, I just want to get this blood into him, yeah?”
They stared at one another for a moment until Tyrell cleared his throat. “Um…no offence man but I gotta get back.”
Spike rustled around in the blankets until he found his leather coat and pulled out a few bills. “Here you go kid. Thanks. Listen…I’m thinking that if the one-eyed wonder here could find you that something nastier might be able to as well. Why don’t you lay low for a bit and we’ll see how it goes.”
“He didn’t find me. I found him. I ain’t stupid man!”
“Never said you were. Just don’t want to be taking risks with any more lives. You understand?” Spikes eyes sharpened up for the first time since they’d entered the room and Xander wordlessly dropped his protest about the one-eyed comment. His pride didn’t seem that important in comparison to whatever new and improved nightmare was going on here.
After a slight hesitation the boy nodded and then slipped away into the darkness of the hallway.
When Xander turned back towards the mattress Spike was dripping blood into Angels’ slack mouth and massaging his throat.
“So…deadboy seems to be deader than usual. What’s the deal?”
“Dragon venom.”
“Dragon…you’ve got to be kidding?”
A raised eyebrow was his answer.
“So…complicated?”
“There were evil lawyers.”
“Geez! Worse than I thought.” He exclaimed in mock horror.
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“What are you doing in this dump? I mean the décor, not so lovely.”
“Who the fuck are you, Martha Stewart?”
“Hey, that’s just nasty. Is she even human?” Xander responded with a smile and handed over another blood bag. “Seriously Spike, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on here so I can help.”
“Look, all you need to know right now is that they’re still after us. See the pretty pictures?” He asked acerbically and nodded towards the symbols lining the walls. “They’re keeping us off the radar for now. Some kind of magic hoodoo.”
“Ooookay!” Magic and he were so not mixy. “Well, I’ll call Giles and we’ll fig...”
Spike interrupted him. “No. You can’t involve them. I’m not getting anyone else killed over this. Bad enough what we lost already.”
Christ! This was fucked up. What was he going to do now? Xander looked around the dank room and at Angels’ slack features. Spikes’ thumb softly passing over the Adams apple. Alright! He could do this. He could get these guys to safety at least. It ought to be a walk in the park.
Right! What kind of park would that be, he asked himself silently. Jurassic perhaps?
“Why don’t you just run along.” The vampire mumbled.
Xander grinned again. “What…and not have you owe me one? Forget it. I’m going save your undead ass and then rub it in for as long as possible.”
He leaned against the wall and watched the blood slowly disappeared down Angels’ throat. “Is he going to make it and what’s with the Florence Nightingale routine? I thought you guys hated each other?”
“Things change.”
“Understated much?”
Spike frowned and looked down at the unresponsive face. “I dunno if he’s gonna…never heard of anyone getting into it with a dragon, have I?”
“We need to get him some help then. Get both of you out of here.” Xander shoved both hands into his pockets, turning away from them to pace the length of the room.
“Without the symbols they’ll find us. Don’t know what they’ve got left to hit us with but I’m not anxious to find out.”
“Where’s everyone else? Wesley and the others?” Xander knew the answer as soon as Spike looked up.
“Everyone’s gone. Blue…she’s some kinda godking. She got out of the fight in one piece but said she was going home, whatever the hell that meant.” A deep breath. “Wesley…don’t think he really tried. He’d lost his ladylove and didn’t want anymore. Charlie…you didn’t know Charlie, did you? You would’ve liked him. Smart mouth like you. Anyways, he’s gone too.”
Xander could hear the exhaustion in his voice.
“What about Cordy?” Somehow already knowing .
“Hmm. Oh, yeah. Angels’ seer bird. She died a couple of weeks ago. Was all mystical and shite.” The vampires’ eyelids were drooping.
Xander felt a deeper pang than he’d expected at that news. Two women he’d loved. Both dead.
“Harris, I’m sinking fast here. Need my beauty sleep.”
“You can say that again..” They both chuckled feebly. “Before you go all Rip Van Winkle on me, tell me how the invisible-making symbols work.”
Spike pointed to a book and an empty paint can. “It’s all in there. The Watcher gave it to me before the end. That’s how I figured he wasn’t planning on coming out the other side.”
He had to get out of this place and think things out.
“I’m going take a look at the book and I’ll be back in a few hours.” He was starting to get a few ideas on what they could do. The energy of it was slowly replacing the lead weight that had been on his chest since he’d entered this depressing little room.
“I’m serious about not getting anybody involved. Leave your damn Scoobies out of it…just…don’t, right?” The vampires’ eyes were closed but there was steel in his words.
Calling in the troops would have been very comforting right about now but after living the life he’d had for the last year, Xander was sure that he could handle this. Almost 100%…well, let’s be honest and admit 80%. He picked up the book and headed out the doorway. “Oh don’t you worry about that. It’ll be so much sweeter if you and dust-for-brains over there have me and only me to thank for your rescue.”
“Whatever, mate.” Spike grunted before laying his head next to Angels’ and covering them both with the tattered blankets.
Xander had watched enough police movies to know about phone taps, credit card monitoring and satellite photos. He also had a good dose of Sunnydale paranoia. It was time to play a little game he liked to call ‘secret agent man’. He hummed the 007 theme all the way back out to the main road, wishing that he had a cool car with lots of gadgets.
He made it back to the hotel and the first thing he did was call up Andrews’ room. A couple of well placed sniffles about how the search was bringing back too many memories of Anya and he’d convinced the distraught watcher-wannabe that he was leaving town. Xander knew that it would filter back to the gang but he could explain later and if those evil lawyers were listening, hopefully they’d bought his sob story as well. He felt a twinge of guilt at using Anya like that but if anyone had been practical, it had been Anya. She’d have understood.
He spent the next few hours running around like a crazy person. Ha! Crazy was putting it mildly considering what he was contemplating doing.
He was back at the warehouse before the end of the day. It seemed important that he not leave the two vampires alone for too long. The image of Spikes’ drawn face was forefront in his mind as he rushed back.
“Hey fang. I’m baaaack!”
“Ghmmm.”
“As always, the charming conversationalist.”
“Sod off!” Came muffled from under the blankets.
He started lugging crap into the room and thunking around. It worried him that Spike didn’t seem to have enough energy to check out what he was doing.
When Xander pull-started the portable generator he actually stopped and waited for a reaction.
Nothing.
The mini-fridge was plugged in and the camping shower was hung up.
The mound of rags still didn’t stir.
Not to worry! The Xan-man had a secret weapon. He opened the mini fridge and pulled out a bag of human blood that he’d bought in the delivery bay at the back of St. Mary’s Hospital.
Aha! A pale hand stretched out.
He put the bag into Spikes’ hand and it disappeared. They repeated this little routine four times before Spike sat up and started feeding them to Angel.
“Will the human stuff help him more?”
“Yeah. Hope you were bloody careful getting it. Lawyers aren’t complete twits.”
“And you’re welcome. No problem at all. Anything for you guys.” Xander closed the fridge door and finished rigging the shower. “There’s soap, shampoo and towels. It’s not much but it’ll have to do until I finish with the van.”
“What?” Spike looked over at the shower. “Oh thank fucking Christ! The stink in here is bloody unbearable.”
“I thought you mi….” Xander stopped as the vampire rose and started ripping his t-shirt off.
“You didn’t pick up any clothes did you? These are done for.”
“Ummm. Yeah. Got you both something.” He turned away from the sight of a naked Spike examining the shower but not before seeing the damage, complete with scabbed over wounds and dried blood. “Just stand under the bag and turn the nozzle. Don’t waste the water or I’ll have to go back to the gas station to get more.”
“Thanks mate.” A groan and the sound of water landing on the plastic tarp.
Xander walked over to the mattress and slowly unwrapped Angels’ eerily unmoving body.
He gasped.
Angel wasn’t wearing a shirt. Probably because there was an open gash stretching from his shoulder to his hip. It had a thick wet sheen and was obviously infected.
“Oi, what are you doing?” Spike yelled from the other side of the room.
“I…uh…I was….”
“Just leave it. Nothing to be done except getting that blood into him.”
He ignored Spikes’ mutterings and continued to pull away the dirty covering. This was gross and bad and really, really gross. Why was there always puss? He hated puss.
The slap of wet feet on the concrete startled Xander and he stepped away from Angel. “This is…”
“Yeah. I know. Gotta get him some help, I guess.” Spike rubbed himself with a towel and Xander did his best to ignore the fact that Spike was naked. What was the required amount of distance when the other guy was naked? It seemed like it should be more. He took another step back.
As they both looked down at the gaping hole in Angels’ body, it became obvious that he was going to have to actually put his plan into motion.
He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. It was probably a very bad idea to get involved with whatever these two idiots had started and Spike probably wouldn’t agree anyways. He took a mental deep breath to calm himself and the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“I’ve got a plan.” |
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