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Author's Chapter Notes:
In case the story looks familiar, this is a slightly edited version from the original at FF.net.
Chapter 2

Charlotte Taylor was having a crappy week. Her building had suffered some mysterious collapse, waking her up in the middle of the night having to evacuate, and now she had to clear everything out of her apartment that could fit in her car. Luckily, she had a unit at the opposite corner from the damage, so it was still stable enough to be inside, but the fire department was making all the tenants move out in a day, before they marked the building for demolition.

Thankfully, her boss had given her time off with pay, upon hearing about the situation, but Charlotte had nowhere to go. She really didn’t want to move back in with her mother, who lived two hours away. She was just about to finish her first year as a music teacher at a high school in the city. Getting a hotel room was technically an option, but it would really deplete her savings. She’d barely been able to afford this tiny apartment.

All the furniture had been bought at thrift stores or yard sales, except her bed, so replacing it would only come to $100. The only appliance she owned was the microwave. Charlotte boxed up all the sentimental things as fast as she could, and took her clothes from the closet and stuffed them straight in the car. Still, despite working since the early morning, she was finishing up after dark. As she placed a box in the back seat and bent to pick up another one, she noticed a group of young men coming towards her in the alley. She picked up her pace, trying to get everything in the car and get it started before they reached her.

Charlotte opened the driver’s side door, only to have a clammy hand wrap around her throat. She froze, her face cringing at the alcohol stench radiating off the man at her back.

“Please, I’ll give you my cash…just let me go,” she pleaded.

“That’s not really what we’re interested in, are we, boys?” he replied. She was spun around and backed against the door to the back seat of her car.

These men…their faces! Her stomach dropped as she came to the realization that monsters could very well be real.

“Aren’t you a pretty treat?” The vampire leaned into her neck and sniffed her. “And she smells really nice…What should we do first, boys? Dinner and a fuck, or a fuck, then dinner?” They laughed cruelly, relishing her fear.

Oh, God…I’m going to die in an alley. Guess you were right to worry about L.A., Mom…

Fangs pierced her throat, only to disappear in the next instant. Charlotte opened her eyes to see a man in all black fighting with her attackers. She was frozen in shock, watching in disbelief as the…monsters…turned to piles of dust. When they were gone, her savior approached her, passing through the path of a streetlamp, illuminating his platinum hair. She smelled the leather of his coat as he came near.

“Sorry I didn’t get here before he bit you,” she heard him murmur. He spotted a rag on the floor of her car and handed it to her. “Hold this to your neck. You need to stop the bleeding.”

He’s English. What’s an English guy doing here in L.A. fighting monsters?

He waved a hand in front of her eyes, and she blinked. “You have a place to go, luv?” She shook her head ‘no’. “Looks like you were one of the unfortunates to live here. Is this all your stuff?” he asked, indicating the loaded car.

“N-not quite. I had one more trip left,” she answered automatically.

“Come on, pet. We’ll get your things and take care of that wound, alright? Do you have your keys?” Charlotte pulled them out of her pocket and handed them to the nice stranger. He locked the car for her, then took her by the elbow and guided her to her apartment.

“Sorry it’s a mess,” she said absently. She padded into the bathroom in search of band-aids and antiseptic. Spike heard a ‘thump’, and looked in just in time to see her sliding down the wall with her eyes closed, on the verge of unconsciousness.

‘Balls! She lost more blood than I thought.’ The fastest way to stop the blood flow was to seal the wounds himself, so Spike propped her up on his lap and licked over the puncture holes, cleaning the blood off her skin and sealing the bite. She moaned as his tongue passed over the bite, but didn’t stir, so he hoped he wasn’t causing her much pain. Satisfied that the holes had stopped seeping, he searched in the cabinets for ointment and plasters, and dressed the wound. He then picked up the petite girl and laid her on the couch.

‘Sugar…humans need sugar when they’ve lost blood. Sugar and fluids…’ Luck was with him, as he found a partial carton of orange juice in the refrigerator that was still cool.

“Hey, Shorty, you need to wake up, pet.” Spike lightly patted her face, trying to rouse her. Hazy blue eyes peered at him under half-dropped lids. “Got some juice for ya, pet. Come on and open your eyes.”

“I’m dizzy,” she muttered.

“I know, but this will help. Drink up.” He held the open carton to her lips, and she raised her hands to hold it for herself. She downed the liquid quickly, then placed the empty carton on the floor.

“Can you get me some water? There should be a bottle still in the fridge.” After a few gulps, she maneuvered herself to a sitting position and looked at him fully. Wow. Major hottie!

“Feeling better?” She nodded. “Good. You mentioned one more load of stuff?”

“The box is in the bedroom. I just need to take a final look around so I don’t forget anything.” He helped her stand, then followed her into the bedroom. Spike picked up the box on the bare bed and waited for her to take her last perusal of the apartment.

Charlotte moved about the place with slow steps. The apartment was drafty in winter, the hot water usually ran out, and her next door neighbors had fought all the time, but it was home. The first place she’d lived in alone, paid for on her own. Nothing was left but the cheap furniture, so she walked to the door, her savior in her wake. She stayed silent as they walked back downstairs to the car. And she didn’t question it when he unlocked the passenger door for her and insisted on driving. She gave him the address for the storage facility she’d rented and settled into the seat.

She handed him the boxes to go in the space, then got back into the car.

“Where to, pet? Do you have family, or a friend you can stay with?” he asked.

“Those monsters…what were they?” she asked instead.

“Vampires. Nasty ones, too, by the smell.”

“Vampires…he bit me. I have holes in my neck from a vampire…how many other myths are real?” she asked more to herself.

“You should get a real meal to replenish your strength. Do you like Chinese?”

Charlotte turned her head to face him. “Yeah, I do,” she laughed. Hysterical, sobbing laughter, the kind that only comes when the shock wears off from something terrible, and you realize you’re still alive. She fumbled in the glove box for some tissues and dried her face, feeling foolish in front of this handsome man. “I’m sorry. I’m blubbering like a big baby.”

“It’s okay. You’re beginning to feel again, and that confirms that you’re alive. That’s worthy of a few tears, in my opinion,” he responded kindly.

“Thanks. For everything. You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty tonight. What you did in that alley…was amazing. I’ve never seen someone move that fast in real life. Are you some kind of superhero?”

He chuckled. “Nothing as pure as that. You could say that I’m a reformed evil-doer. Changed who I was for the love a woman, and now I fight for the right side.”

“Did it get you the girl?” she asked innocently.

Several emotions flickered across his face before he answered. “A little. It’s a long, complicated story. So, back to the question of food…”

“Chinese sounds good.”

“Then I know just the place.”
~+~
“Ohhhh…”

“See? I told you you’d love it.”

“This is the best tea I’ve ever had.” Charlotte took another sip while they waited for their meal. “So, you’ve been helping me out all night, and I don’t even know your name.”

“Spike.”

She arched a brow, dubious. “Spike? Do I even want to know how you got that nickname?”

“I can tell you that it’s not for any reason you’re thinking of.”

“Okay, Mr. Mysterious. How does a Brit find himself fighting vampires in L.A., and moving faster than any human would have the right to? What did you do before you reformed?”

“Your first question requires a long, bloody answer. The answer to the second is that I killed and ate people,” he answered honestly.

“I believe you.”

“And yet, you’re not running away screaming?” Spike was sure after the scare she’d had tonight that she would want to get as far away as possible if he revealed what he was.

The girl tapped her temple. “Intuition. I’ve always known instinctively whether I can trust people or not. And you don’t send off my danger vibes.”

“I’ll have you know I’m right bleedin’ dangerous!” he insisted.

She leaned forward to keep their conversation private. “Oh, I bet you are. Just not to me. You had plenty of opportunity for that when you were licking the blood off my neck.”

“Hey…I thought you were unconscious.” He was pouting, and it was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

“Not quite. I have a tendency towards low blood sugar, so losing more than a vial’s worth of blood makes me woozy, hence the sliding to my butt. If I go completely out, I lose those minutes of memory, and I distinctly remember feeling like there was a cat licking my neck.” She cocked her head, considering. “Do all vampires have rough tongues?”

Spike did a very good fish-out-of-water impression, at a complete loss for words. “Listen here! You can’t just go about asking personal questions of vamps out of the blue!” he finally sputtered.

“So, you do admit to being a vampire, then,” she responded smugly.

“You are an infuriating chit, anybody ever tell you that?” he sulked

“Thank you! So, how did you go from killing and eating people, to saving them? Did it just happen overnight?” Charlotte asked curiously.

Spike let out a loud sigh, wishing he could smoke inside. Damn L.A. health laws… She was looking at him with this adorable eager puppy expression, waiting for his reply, and he relented, planning to give a very brief overview of his past.

“I had to consider another way to feed when the bloody government put a chip in my head. If I even thought of biting a human, or harming them in any way, it gave me a migraine. Starvin’ and on the run from the soldier boys, I finally swallowed my pride, and asked the – that girl – to help me, give me sanctuary. She didn’t trust me, o’ course, but they gave me a chance to plead my case because she’d already seen the commandos wanderin’ around at night. I spent weeks at her mentor’s apartment either tied to a chair, or chained to the bathtub, but once she was sure I was harmless, I finally got out to get my own place. Found a nice, cozy crypt, too.
But before that, I was right depressed that I couldn’t fight anything. I’d spent my entire unlife taking on challenges, and now I couldn’t even defend myself from the weakest human. Found out accidentally one night that I could hit other demons, and I was me again. Didn’t help my rep any, killing my own kind, but violence was violence. Anyway, this demon/cyborg hybrid offers me a chance to get the chip out if I help him defeat the girl. Never liked the chit, anyway, and she was always beatin’ me up for information, so I said ‘sure, why the hell not?’ I knew her little group well enough to prey on their insecurities, and I did – almost broke them up, too. Before the big fight, I figured out Mr. Ugly wasn’t going to help me with the chip – he’d been stallin’ forever – so, I switched sides again. Didn’t like his plans for world domination, anyway.” Spike paused as the waitress brought the tray with their dishes. He piled kung pao beef on his plate.

“Where was I?” Spike asked.

“Going against the cyborg.”

“Ah, right. Well, the girl, hero that she is, defeats the bad guy, blah, blah, blah. Fast forward months to her having a little teen sister that’s actually a mystical key to dimensions, and I’m protectin’ the kid all the time. She keeps coming over to my crypt, sneaking out, and I know her big sis will have my dusty remains if I let one hair on her head get hurt. The catch was, the more the little one came around, the more she grew on me, and she wormed her way into my heart. So, little sis has a hell god after her that wants to use her to get back home. Between my love for the girl, and for the kid sis, I’m not letting that happen. I did some bloody stupid things, bollocksing things up because I wasn’t thinkin’ again, so the heroine of our piece doesn’t trust me anymore. Even blocked me out of her house.
Somehow, that insane hell bitch got it into her head that I was her key, and had me vamp-napped. ‘Course, the key was supposed to be pure, and she figured out right away what I was and that I couldn’t possibly have her key…”

“But you probably knew who did,” Charlotte added.

“Give the lady a Kewpie. So, she does her worst to torture me when I didn’t talk. When I get out of there, I look like hell, feel worse, and the girl comes to test me. She pretends to be…someone else, and asks why I didn’t tell the hell bitch about kid sis. She must have liked my answer, for she gives me a quick kiss, and now I know it’s her. I’m trusted with little sis’ life again, and tons of drama unfolds, leading to the heroine’s sacrifice to save the world…”

“She died? That must have been awful for you, and everyone.”

“It bloody well was, luv. I would have met the sunrise, if I hadn’t promised to look after her sister. She was gone 147 days, until her friends decided to bring her back. The idiots didn’t stop to think she might be having her proper reward, and pulled her out of heaven, or something like it. She had to claw herself out of her own coffin. So, my girl – she’s a wreck, convinced that her life is now in hell because she was ripped away from her final peace. Things go arse over tit, for everybody, not just her, and we end up having a secret fling…the best and worst time of my life. I finally had the woman I loved in my arms, only to have her treat me like less than dirt as soon as I was done making her ‘feel’. She hated everything in those days, including me, and including herself. We were on this vicious, self-destructive cycle…and one of us had to break. It ended up being me, and I hurt the girl.
I knew then that things had to change. I couldn’t be the vampire I’d been before, and I couldn’t be a man as a soulless demon. So, I sought out a legend.”

“And? Then what happened?” Charlotte was completely riveted, and she knew he was leaving a lot out.

“I had a request, and I passed the trials, and the legend granted me my soul. I had to make sure I never hurt the girl again. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay away, unless she staked me or ordered me to leave, so that was the only option. Hurt like hell. I eventually made my way back from Africa, and I’m out of my mind more than half the time. Those I killed are haunting me, and those I know are dead are there, too. Figured out later, it was the source of all evil trying to make me its puppet, and it almost did, for a while.
Girl finds out I have a soul, now, so she’s willing to help me. Past wiped clean, for the most part, and we work up to being friends. I can see that she cares, and that’s all I can ask for, after what I did, so I offer my services in the fight for Good and try to help out.
She ends up leading her group into an ambush, no fault of her own, and they throw her out of her house the next time she has an idea. I make with the pep talk, she asks me to stay and hold her while she sleeps, and it’s the best night of my life. We’re almost to the end, the big showdown, and she comes to me each night just to be held. Night before the big battle, her ex shows up with an amulet that might help. I wear it, the nasties are beaten, and Sunnydale becomes a big crater…”

“That’s what happened to that town? The crater was on the news.”

“Anyway, I burned up savin’ the world. Ashes, done – my loved ones safe and free to live a normal life far from here. 19 days later, I pop out of that damned bloody amulet in front of my grandsire, who I can’t stand. My first thought is for my girl – is she alright? Is she safe? Where is she now? He doesn’t want to give me much, ‘cause he doesn’t like me, either, but he says she’s fine and she’s in Europe. I try to leave, only to discover I’m a bloody ghost! It was horrible, pet. I spent months trapped there, not able to leave this blasted city, and barely able to affect anything. June to November, I’m stuck without a body, even with the help of a brilliant lady friend of mine whom I miss dearly…”

“How did you get your body, then?” Charlotte asked eagerly.

“Would you believe, a parcel in the bloody post? Box opens, bright flash of light, and Spike’s a real boy again. We take care of a crisis, ‘cause there’s at least one a week, and then I’m ready to go find my lady-love. Had the boat ticket, and everything.”

“So, I’m assuming that since you’re still here, you didn’t go?”

Spike shook his head. “I chickened out. Sat there on the pier watching the boat sail away. I got to thinking, ‘How can I possibly show up on her doorstep now after the way I went out?’ She saw me start to burn up. She knew I died. And – I was scared of what she might say, afraid she might take back the words she’d said…
So, I stayed here to help my grandsire fight the good fight, help the helpless, yada, yada. And for the first time, I decided to do something just because I wanted to do the right thing. Not for my love’s approval, or anybody else tellin’ me to. I’ve missed her every day since I saw her last, but the year apart has been good for me. It had been years since my life wasn’t all about her, in some fashion…and over a century before that in the service of the lady before her.”

“Love’s bitch, huh?” He looked up in surprise at her keen observation.

“Exact quote, pet. And that brings us to the present day. Your building was the casualty of our latest battle to prevent another apocalypse.”

“Another?”

He waved it off like it was nothing. “Oh, yeah. They happen quite often, though mostly on Hellmouths. Might want to steer clear of Cleveland, for future reference.” He finished off the last of the beef, and moved to the sweet and sour shrimp.

“Does food actually do anything for you?” Charlotte asked, watching him inhale his dinner.

“Nah. Just tastes good. Love spicy food…and chocolate.” He grinned, dipping the shrimp in more hot mustard.

“Well, you can have my share of anything spicy. I don’t like it, and it don’t like me. Chocolate, on the other hand, I’ll fight you to the death for,” she countered.

“Is that a fact? And just how do you think you would win…Shorty.” This girl’s spunkiness was fun.

“It’s not like you’re tall,” she huffed.

“Compared to Shaq, no. Compared to you, definitely.” Spike smirked around his latest bite of food. He loved riling her up. This was the most fun he’d had in months.

“I could so kick your ass.”

“You can’t reach my ass!”

“Chutes and Ladders.”

“Huh?”

“I challenge you to ‘Chutes and Ladders’. I teach elementary school. The box is in my car.”

“I’m not playing a bloody tot’s game!”

“Afraid to lose?” Charlotte taunted.

“I don’t lose at games,” Spike retorted.

“I don’t, either. You gonna throw down, or do I call you ‘chicken’.”

“I may be all souled up, little girl, but I’m still the Big Bad.”

“Good. Then we’ll play once we get to wherever I’m sleeping tonight. You gonna eat the last egg roll?”

He snatched it off the plate with lightning speed. “Yes!”

“Okay,” she said, shrugging, and snuck a fried shrimp from him.
~+~
“Where are we going?” Charlotte asked, once they were back in the car. That was after a ten minute game of ‘keep-away’ where Spike wouldn’t let her have her keys. He was still driving.

“Do you always ask this many questions?”

“Yes. Are you going to answer?”

“The Hyperion Hotel. My grandsire owns the joint. It’s a free room for the night with a decent bed.”

“Alone, I hope,” she teased.

“Have I been anything other than a gentleman all night? Now, if you were offerin’…”

“Pig.”

“Oink, oink, baby.”

“I have just a couple weeks left to the school year, and then I can go home for the summer.” She sighed. “And find a second job.”

“Why?”

“Teachers don’t get paid in the summer. We’re not at the school, so there’s no work to be rewarded. I don’t make enough yet to live off my savings in July and August.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I knew what I was getting into when I took the job. I had plans for the summer, but with no apartment, I’m kinda starting over. But, I’m young, and I’m not completely broke, so it’s just a phase to work through,” she replied.

He patted her knee. “Smart bird like you, I’m sure you’ll find somethin’ right quick.”

“Thanks. Everything happens for a reason, eh? I got to meet you, and keep my neck. I’d have been lunch if you hadn’t come along. Oooo, it’s Art Deco! Does the inside match?”

“Pretty much. What in all this do you need to bring in tonight?” waving a hand at her stuffed vehicle.

“I’ll get it.” Charlotte pulled a duffle bag out of the back seat. “Is it okay to leave my car on the street?”

“I can move it around back, if you’re sure you have everything.”

She patted the bag. “Packed on purpose. Just lead me to a room.”

Spike nodded, and moved ahead into the hotel. The lobby was bustling with sparring Slayers. Bollocks! Forgot about the teen brigade.

“Uh, just ignore them and follow me,” he muttered. Charlotte arched a curious eyebrow, but didn’t say a word.

They went up to the second story, Spike checking rooms by smell until he found one satisfactory. “Here you go, luv. Sorry about the dust, but nobody’s been here for a while, until recently.”

“It’s not too bad. Does the plumbing work?” She set her bag on the bed while he checked the bathroom.

“Yep. Now, you and me have a game to play?”

“Right. It’s in the trunk.”





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