Chapter Seven
Bite Me
Angel didn’t return until the next day and his timing couldn’t have been worse. He walked in as Spike was being cleaned up after having what was essentially his diaper changed. Spike’s face was burning as two female nurses matter of factly saw to him, washing him and attaching a new bag to the catheter for his urine.
“Get the fuck out, you git!” roared Spike when he spotted Angel transfixed in the doorway. Angel turned and fled.
“That wasn’t very nice,” admonished one of the nurses, a middle-aged rather stout lady with a severe face.
“Wot can I say, I’m not a nice man,” snapped Spike. To his dismay she just chuckled at him.
“There you go, all good as new,” she said cheerfully, “Come along, Sara, let’s leave Mr. Williams to his own company.
“Spike, my name is Spike,” he sighed as they left the room. “Trust Peaches to get my name wrong when he brought me here.”
Every time he heard them call him Mr. Williams it made him cringe as he knew he was now more pathetic than good old ‘William the Bloody Awful Poet’ had ever been. He reached over and turned on the TV, anything to try to keep from thinking too much.
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An hour later Angel peered around the door.
“Can I come in?”
“Yeah, suppose so.” Spike hated to admit it but he really didn’t want to be alone.
Angel sat in the chair on the left hand side of the bed.
“Angel,” said Spike, causing him to look up astonished. Spike never called him that. “Will you do me a favour?”
“Yeah, of course I will. What is it?”
“Bite me,” replied Spike, staring him in the eye, “Kill me or turn me, I don’t care but don’t leave me like this.”
Angel slid the chair away from the bed. “I can’t, Spike. Don’t ask me to. I just can’t.”
“Angel, don’t make me beg, for God’s sake.”
Angel got up and backed away from him, shaking his head.
“No, Spike, I won’t.”
“You’re family, you can’t let me stay this way.”
“I can’t take another life, Spike, and I can’t take your soul.”
“Oh, so you won’t help me because you don’t want another life on your conscience, you brooding bastard. I didn’t want to be soddin’ human, I want to be back how I was.”
“I’m sorry, Spike.”
Angel walked out of the room. He leant back against the door.
“I’m no use to him but he can’t go through this alone.”
He made a decision and quickly left the hospital.
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Spike stared at the door for a long time after Angel had gone, expecting him to come back in at any moment. He was taken down for x-rays on his spine, again feeling humiliated by being manhandled into position, like the useless piece of meat that he thought he was.
When he was back in his bed, Spike pondered his relationship with Angel. They’d never really gotten along, except just lately after they took out the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart. As his grand-sire Spike had had a bond with Angel but he realised that the tie had died when he was made human. He was nothing to Angel any more, but he’d never thought that Angel would just abandon him.
The door opened and Spike looked up in the hope that it was Angel returning but instead was greeted by a good looking athletic man of about twenty-five who burst into the room.
“Hi, Spike, how are you doing?”
Just looking at the ease with which the man moved set Spike’s teeth on edge.
“It’s Mr. Williams to you and how do you think I soddin’ am? Who are you anyway?” he snarled.
“I’m Brad, I’m your physiotherapist,” he replied cheerfully.
“You’re kidding, right?”
Brad chuckled, “Why would I be kidding? The doctor wants me to take a look at you because you’re scheduled for surgery tomorrow and I’ll be part of the team that works on you afterwards. Now let’s get started.”
He started to pull the sheets off of Spike’s legs. Spike grabbed at them with his left hand.
“Hey, no, I’m not ready. I don’t want to.”
Brad just calmly pulled the covers away.
“We’ve got to make a start, Mr. Williams.”
“Wot’s the point?” said Spike wearily.
“We need to get you as strong as we can, then it’ll be so much easier for you when you leave here.”
“What’s with all the ‘we’ shit? I don’t see you having much trouble getting about.”
“Look, I know you’re angry at what has happened to you, Mr. Williams, but we have to work together if you’re going to make any progress. It’ll be all right, I’m sure you’ll be back home in no time.”
“Brad, I get that it’s your job to be all positive and cheery but don’t waste it on me, mate. I’m not sure that I even have a home to go to anymore, so what’s going to happen to me when I leave here like this? Where will I go?”
“Oh, “ said Brad, his smile fading, “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Williams, I really am.”
“Call me Spike, all right.”
“Okay, well Spike, that’s all the more reason to try to get you as fit as we can. So work with me, yeah?”
“Okay,” sighed Spike. He just didn’t have the energy to argue.
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Angel picked up the telephone three times, putting it back down again without dialling, before he finally found the nerve to call the number he knew by heart but had never used before.
“Pronto?”
“Buffy…”
Click – the line went dead.
Angel looked at the receiver for a few moments before pressing the redial button. He knew she’d be angry with him. They hadn’t spoken since the debacle where the guy he had tailing her had been spotted and she had told him in no uncertain terms to butt out of her life.
The phone rang for a long time before it was once more picked up.
“What?” snapped Buffy.
God, he’d missed hearing her voice even if she was snarling at him.
“Don’t hang up again, please,” said Angel quickly.
He heard her take a deep breath.
“Okay, I’m listening,” she said, her tone of voice only slightly more conciliatory.
“Er…you heard about the big fight then?” he asked tentatively.
“Yeah, I heard it all, but not from you, Angel. Why didn’t you keep me in the loop with what you had planned? After all we’ve been through together, I thought I deserved that.”
Angel didn’t really have an answer to that, well, not one that she’d like, so he hesitated before he spoke.
“I did contact Giles for help but he wouldn’t listen to me. He thought I’d been corrupted by Wolfram and Hart and was evil again.”
He half closed his eyes waiting for the phone to be slammed down again. Instead he heard her sigh deeply.
“I might have known,” she said wearily, :“When will the people around me stop trying to decide what’s best for me. They just end up causing me more pain.” Aloud, she continued, “So what happened exactly? We thought everyone had been killed yet here you are calling me up. God, Angel, do you know how hard it’s been? Thinking I’d lost you after losing…um…closing the Hellmouth?”
“That’s why I’m calling,” said Angel.
“What, the First? Is it back?”
“No, it’s Spike who’s back.”
Click.
Angel put the phone down into its cradle when he heard Buffy hang up again. This time he didn’t call her back. He knew that she’d call him. He knew that she’d loved Spike, probably even before she knew it herself. He’d been able to feel it, her love for his grand-childe. He settled back in to his chair in the office and waited.
tbc
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BANNER BY DAWNOFMEAuthor's Chapter Notes:
Thanks as ever to Carol for betaing all of my work - bless her!! :)