[Reviews - 115]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 6369 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Please give this a read. I posted the prologue before the crash and I am re-posting it and the next chapter tonight.
Thanks, spuf
LITTLE MISSY; THE MARKER


Summary and Prologue:


But first, an author’s note: (oh come on, it’s me, I always have to throw this in here!)

Okay, here goes. I was going to wait and introduce my newest fiction, until I finished one of my other WIP’s, however…

The world is so full of misery and crap right now and I thought ‘hey’ let’s do it. Let’s go for it, spufette! Start your new WIP (a fairly short one for me) and let’s get the fluffy, sentimental (some Spuffy angst) going!


First, a question???

‘Who loves old movie classics? You know what I’m talking about here…old Damon Runyon stories; Guys and Dolls; The Broad Street, etc. etc.?

(A little side note: If my 14 year old daughter had been a boy, his name would have been Damon!) Anyway, I digress.

Who is familiar with ‘Little Miss Marker’ with Shirley Temple? How about ‘Sorrowful Jones’ with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball?

Well, that’s the plot, basically for this new fic of mine. ‘Little Miss Marker’ is a sweet, silly, sometimes sad and angstsy story from Runyon.

It’s set in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s, doesn’t really matter and the locale is New York City. There’s gangsters (the gentler, softer kind) and dolls; you know the ones I’m talking about. The gals that have the tough exteriors and the hearts of gold! Like Buffy Summers, our heroine.

Buffy is a torch singer in a club, circa late 1920’s. She’s ‘involved’ with Angelus O’Connor (which is a nice way to say that she’s his mistress). Angelus is the head honcho in this one, but he’s not really going to be around much. (I have to get him out of town so that the Spuffy plot line can progress!)

Although Buffy is youngish (about 25) and beautiful and appears to be a gold digger, at least where Angelus is concerned? She harbors an old flame in her heart. Guess who???

Right, William ‘Spike’ Jameson, her ex-lover and Angelus’s most trusted employee. While Angelus runs the clubs, illegal gambling, etc. in their neck of New York, it’s Spike that is his main bookie or numbers runner. For some reason, Angelus trusts Spike with everything in his life, except, maybe for his woman, Buffy Summers. Which makes sense, really, since Buffy and Spike were lovers before and all.

While Spike appears to be cold, sarcastic and strictly business; he also harbors the old torch for Buffy. So, you may ask…why did Buffy run off from Spike, nearly four years before? (Silly Buffy!)

That my dears, will be answered in the text of the story. This is where little ‘Missy Dawn’ enters the tale. The six-year-old girl is a pawn in an illegal bet by her widower father, Theodore Merrick.

So, who’s the bookie that Theodore ‘Ted’ Merrick entrusts with his most precious marker, Dawn? Why Spike of course.

What follows, if you’ve seen the movies, is a silly, sentimental and sometimes bittersweet tale of hard men and a tough as nails woman who are changed by an innocent, but very wise little girl.

A lot of characters from BTVS and ATS will show up, since it is based on them actually. Keep on the lookout for Xander in this one, who plays Dawn’s version of the ‘White Knight’! Dawn is enraptured by the Tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

I’m hoping that people will read and enjoy this fiction. I’m going to tweak some of the characters and plot lines from the original Runyon story.

Spike is not a cheapskate in this tale, but he’s hardened in life. He loves Buffy and can’t stand the idea that she left him years ago. Also, it’s Spike that is the moody/broody one here, for good reason.

Buffy is tough, a little wild and yes, a gold digger in her way. However, there’s a reason for it, even if it’s not excusable, it might just make sense later in the plot.

Angelus is all tough talk and bluster, and yes, he can be a monster in his way. Most of the real hard gangster stuff will be alluded to, not really graphic. Oh, and Angel/Buffy will not be graphic at all, promise.

The rest of the cast of characters will make appearances, including a very special race horse by the name of ‘King Arthur’s Steed’ that Dawn just falls in love with.

So, without further ado, I give you:

Spufette’s ‘Little Missy; The Marker’

(Oh, and of course, none of the BTVS/ATS characters are mine. Oh, how I wish they were! They belong to Joss Whedon and ME)


Proglogue:


Spike stood on the balcony of Heaven’s Haven, Angel O’Connor’s beloved club. The blond bookie watched, through narrowed blue eyes, as Buffy warbled her latest torch song.

Buffy was blathering on and on, something about the ‘man she loved’ and such rot.

‘Too right,’ Spike snorted as he strained to hear his ex-lover’s words over the packed to the gills room. ‘What would Buffy know about a man and love?’ His musings echoed back to him, bitterly, as he gazed at the honey blond beauty on the small stage.

‘You’ve never loved anyone but yourself, kitten,’ Spike whispered to the empty air in front of him. God, how he hated that bitch, Buffy. No, that was bullshit; he loved her, still.


‘The Man I Love’

“Someday he’ll come along
The man I love
And he’ll be big and strong
The man I love
And when he comes my way
I’ll do my best, to make him stay”


“Is she lookin’ at me?” Spike whispered in stunned awe as he stared at his ex, longingly.

‘What the hell is Spike doing here?’ Buffy groaned inwardly as she tried to remember the next stanza of the new song. ‘Leave it to the blond menace to come in here; screw up my night and…’

“He’ll look at me and smile
I’ll understand”

‘Now there’s a contradiction,’ Buffy snorted to herself as she took a breath. ‘Understanding Spike? That’d be a miracle!’

“Then in a little while
He’ll take my hand
And though it seems absurd
I know, we won’t have to say a word”

‘Why does Angel keep that two-bit hustler around anyway?’ Buffy wondered angrily. ‘And why do I care,’ she added sheepishly before she finished the last of her song.

“Maybe I’ll meet him Sunday
Maybe Monday, maybe not
Still I’m sure to meet him someday
Maybe Tuesday will be my good newsday…

He’ll build a little home”

‘Oh yeah, right. Spike and building, that’s a laugh,! All’s he can do is add up gambling numbers and…’

“That’s meant for two
From which I’ll never roam
Who would? Would you?”

Spike snorted again, loudly, waking up his right-hand man, Xander Harris who sat on the lone stool on the balcony.

“Is it dinner yet?” Xander mumbled half-heartedly, barely awake at the moment.

“Go back to sleep!” Spike growled at his best friend, Harris.

‘Never roam,’ Spike snorted again, ‘there’s a bloody howl. You took off the minute things got tough, Princess,’ he muttered down at the gorgeous blond minx on the stage.

“And so all else above
I’m dreaming of, the man I love”


Buffy finished on a hopeful, high note, bringing the crowded room of patrons to their feet. She curtsied, all lady-like, but rolled her hazel/green eyes sarcastically.

‘It’s probably the cheap gin Angel serves,’ she surmised ruefully. Buffy was well aware that she was no Helen Morgan, or any kind of real singer for that matter.

No, it was Angel O’Connor that kept Buffy on the stage and off the streets. Even she knew that, just as the blond, ex-lover of hers up on the stage knew.

‘And oh how William hates it,’ Buffy chuckled gleefully as she sashayed into her dressing room at the back of the club.

Yup, William, or Spike as he ridiculously insisted on being called, detested Angel O’Connor, even if Buffy’s patron was his boss. No question, she reasoned merrily; Will was still madly in love with her and wasn’t that just grand?’


A/N: Well, that’s the start. This one won’t be long, promise, and it’s just for fun.

I love old classic movies and I hope you’ll read and review. There’s lots more drama and silly sweetness coming up.

Thanks, spufette.





You must login (register) to review.