Title: Family Part 3
Email: tirel@pcnuthut.com
Author: Velvet Crypt
Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.
Spoilers: Umm…total non canon.
Summary: Secrets are found out.
"Oh, my God, that was
amazing!" Lys bounced up and down in front of her uncles and her brother.
Nate exchanged grins with Xander and Spike. "Have you ever seen a cooler
movie, Uncle Wil?"
Spike shook his head, smiling.
"Nope, Nibblet. Never in all my years." He looked fondly at her as
she bounced down the street regaling them with tales of the glory of the flick
they'd just finished seeing. He shifted Ellie on his shoulders as she tried to
lean backwards.
So into the moment, it took Spike a
second too long to realize that they weren't alone. Lys skipped down the road
and bounced into a hard, large body that wrapped arms like steel bands around
her, pinning her arms to her sides.
They stopped.
Spike counted eight. Five fledges,
three who must have been older, because they weren't in game face. He glanced
behind them. Shit. Seven more. He brought his gaze back to those in front of
him and gently tugged Ellie down.
He pushed her into Nate's arms. Nate
caught her up and looked in wide-eyed terror.
"Uncle Wil?" Ellie piped
in. "What's wrong with their faces?"
The vamps laughed. Lys stood
trembling, her eyes entreating her uncles to do something.
"Let the girl go." Spike demanded
quietly.
More laughter. "Awful bossy for
someone as outnumbered as you. Even if you are William the Bloody, Scourge of
Europe." Derided the one who held Lys.
"Fine. You know who I am.
Obviously you're here for me. Let the kids and the man go, and you can have
me."
"No, Spike." Xander
refused. "I'm not leaving you with them." He put his back to Spike's
and faced the seven behind him. "Stake."
Spike smiled. Course he wouldn't
leave. Stupid White Knight complex. Fine. He pulled a stake out of his pocket
and passed it to Xander. If his hand lingered on the warm flesh for a second
longer than it had to, oh well. They were about to get their asses kicked.
"Nate. Stay there. Keep a hold
of Ellie. When Lys is free, I want you three to run like hell. Go to
Buffy's." He pulled his own stake out.
"Let's do this."
He and Xander launched themselves at
the vamps. Spike’s first target was the vamp holding Lys. He flew by him;
turning at the last moment and kidney punched him. Grunting with pain, the other
vamp stumbled. Lys did her part by stomping on his instep. A minor irritation,
at best, but he'd obviously not been dead long enough to realize that.
He loosened his hold on her and she
spun free of his arms. She flung herself towards Nate and Ellie and the three
of them frantically looked for a way out to do as Spike had said. None was
there. The vamps had them cornered. They huddled in a pile and watched in
horror as the monsters attacked their uncles.
Spike grinned at Lys' spunk, and
then jammed the stake in the vamps back when he'd ascertained that she'd made
it to safety. He threw himself into a cluster of vamps, not realizing that his
own game face had made an appearance. Kicking, punching, and whirling...he was
like a black blur. Bodies flew and dust filled the air. He was having the time
of his life.
Xander approached his opponents more
cautiously. He waited until the first one made its move and then flung himself
to the side. His flight seemed to confuse the vamps, who were expecting him to
meet them head on like Spike. Uh Uh. Sorry. Frail human here. He tackled one of
the confused vamps and rolled with him.
He pulled away and let the vamp keep
rolling off of him. With a hard jab, he slammed the stake sideways into the
prone body. It exploded in a flurry of dust. He looked up just in time to see
another vamp taking advantage of his reclining position. As the vamp lunged
down on him, he braced his stake on his chest. The vamp had a moment to look
startled and shamefaced before it impaled itself.
He scrambled to his feet. He was
being circled. As one, they leaped at him. Picturing a corny Saturday morning
cartoon, Xander crawled out from under the pile, stabbing random body parts as
he went.
Spike looked down at vamp number five
as it whooshed into dust. Stupid bastard. He swung his arm backwards and caught
the next vamp; the human faced one, right on the chin. It went down, but so did
he. A blinding pain shot through his head and stars filled his vision.
He screamed in pain and staggered
towards the last place he'd seen Xander.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He
growled. "Xander? They're fucking humans!"
Xander kicked the vamp off of him
and rolled to his feet. He saw Spike swaying on his feet, rubbing his temples.
With a curse, he ran past the blonde. As he went, he pressed his stake against
Spike's chest.
"Here, switch sides."
Spike shook the last of the pain
away, though everything seemed really bright now, and charged into the four
remaining vamps.
Xander took a running jump and his
feet connected with the chest of one of the humans. With an oomph of air, the
human was knocked down. Xander hit the ground too, but was up and moving in
less than a second. He and the second human traded blows for a long minute, and
Xander felt worry growing in the pit of his stomach.
He was taking too much time. The
others were going to gang up on him any second now and he'd be down for the
count. Sure enough, he felt a grip on each arm and he was pulled back away from
his foe. The first two humans held him, squirming, as the third began to rain
blows to his midsection.
He was beginning to see spots when
the grip on his right arm was loosened. Then his left arm. Then his attackers
were falling. What the hell? The man in front of him looked around, then turned
and ran. Xander turned around wobbling and saw Lys and Nate standing behind
him, Lys holding a metal bar and Nate holding a rusted metal car part. He
looked down at his feet where the knocked out humans lay, and he grinned.
Spike turned all of his fury onto
the last vamps. How dare they attack him when he was with his family? How dare
they threaten his family? If he found one scratch on any of them, he'd
resurrect them and kill them again. He felt curiously bereft when the last bit of
vampire dust floated away on the wind.
He fell to his knees and gasped for
air. Not that he needed it, it was just a reflex. And it made him feel more
connected. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Xander crouch
before him.
They shared a smile, which grew to a
grin, which grew to a laugh. Xander plopped down in the street and looked
behind Spike's head. "Are you guys okay?"
Footsteps, then a hiss of indrawn
air. Spike glanced up. Nate and Lys were staring at him like they'd never seen
him before. Ellie crawled into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and
looked into her eyes.
She reached out a hand and touched
his forehead with a very serious expression on her face. "Why do you look
like the monsters?" She asked. Spike shot a horrified look at Xander and
quickly shook his head, his features melting back into their human visage.
"Because I am one of the
monsters, poppet." He whispered, a sick, cold feeling settling in the pit
of his stomach.
Ellie stared at him a moment longer,
then nodded and snuggled down into his coat. "Okay." she said.
"I'm cold. Can we go home?"
Spike shut his eyes against the
tears, fearing to meet Lys and Nate's gaze, and then stood up. "Sure,
poppet. I'll take you home." He began walking, not looking back to see if
anyone was following. Just holding the little piece of heaven he knew he'd have
to give up as soon as he got her home.
_________________________
Nate and Lys watched them go. Xander
watched Nate and Lys. They turned as one to him and stared. He smiled.
"Spike is a vampire." He
said simply. The gig was up. No use trying to explain it away. They were too
smart for any lie he could think of now anyway. "He's 126 years old. He
has a chip in his head, implanted by the government, that won't let him hurt
humans. He drinks blood, but only from a bag or from someone who offers it to
him.
He can't hurt you. It hurts him
every time he's violent with a human. He will blow away to dust if he's staked
through the heart or if he walks into the sun. It hurts him to be touched with
holy water or crosses or garlic."
"Y-you have had a vampire watch
us to keep us safe?" Nate asked incredulously.
Xander looked at him
disapprovingly. "No, I have had Spike watch you to keep you safe."
Nate continued to stare at him.
Xander sighed. “Come on. Let’s take this conversation home. I don’t want to get
jumped again by whatever the hellmouth has to offer tonight.”
He herded the flummoxed teens
towards home, following the black duster in the distance. Ah, Spike. He winced.
What will happen if they don’t understand? Will they be afraid of you? I don’t
think you could take that. Will they hate you? I couldn’t stand to see your
heart break over it. Will they never want to see you again? You’d still watch
over them, I know. You’d be there in the shadows, killing anything that dared
threaten your family. But then I wouldn’t have you either. And I think that
hurts as much as losing the kids.
When did you sneak into my heart?
When did I let you into my life? Was it when you defended three kids you’d
never met? Was it the first time you held Ellie in your arms as though she were
the most sacred of beings? Was it the first time we shared a parental smile?
Doesn’t really matter. You’re here now. Ensconced so firmly in my life and my
thought that I don’t know how I’ll ever get you out.
I don’t want you out. I want to be
with you. I want to share every second of the day with you, with the kids. I
want us to be a family. I need you. I can feel you tugging at my soul
sometimes. When you’re sad, or lonely; I can tell. I don’t know how, I just
know I need to be there for you. And you can tell when I’m wound tighter than I
can handle. When I want to scream and beat my head against a wall. You know.
And every time, you put a hand on my shoulder. You sit next to me and have a
guy chat. You hand me Ellie to hold and go about the business of taking care of
whatever frustrated me.
I’m afraid. I’m afraid to have you
in my life. You’re an evil vampire. Right. Okay, being realistic, that’s just
stupid. You’re a man. Yes, you are a man. And Nate has already expressed
his feelings about a gay uncle. Could he handle his gay uncle’s a gay vampire
lover? Probably not. And then there was the idea of your past. How could I hope
to compete with 100 years of Drusilla? Or of however many years of Angelus?
They were beautiful. They were
powerful. They had a part of you I could never touch. They inspired a devotion
in you such as I’ve never seen before. How could I compete with that? What do I
have to offer? I’m just the donut boy. No special witchy powers. No
Slayeryness. Just Xander Harris. The guy who gets his ass kicked.
He looked up and realized that they
had made it to the apartment. With a sigh, he went forward to meet his fate.
They found Ellie at the table,
eating a pop tart and drinking a juice. Spike was quietly gathering his
belongings together. “Spike?” Xander said. The vamp twitched, but didn’t look
up. “I think we need to talk about this.”
Spike shook his head, stuffing a
pile of t-shirts into the bag. “No, I don’t think we do Xander.” He replied.
He finished and zipped the bag up.
Heading to the door, he found his way blocked by Xander. “Move, whelp.”
“No.”
“Xander, don’t make me move you.”
“Cause you’re such an evil vampire
that you’ll do what? Ask me to move again?”
“Don’t start with me, whelp. I was
the Big Bad for 100 years before I met your gang of scoobies and got chipped. I
may be biteless, but I still have connections.”
“I’m not afraid of you Spike.”
“Yeah, well…seems to be the story of
my life lately. Now move.”
“Please, Spike. Don’t walk out until
we’ve talked about this.”
“Xander, what is there to talk
about? I am a vampire. I am a killer. I am an evil fairy tale come to life. The
kids are terrified of me. And if they aren’t, they should be. I’ve overstayed
my welcome. Just let me go while I still have some dignity left.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Wil.” Nate
said hesitantly. Spike turned his gaze to the boy. “I have to admit, I’m a little
freaked out by the idea that vampires are real and you happen to be one of
them. But I’ve seen you everyday for months. You’ve watched movies with us,
you’ve taken us for ice cream, you’ve made funny shaped pancakes for us, and
you’ve read bedtime stories to my little sister. I may be afraid of vampires,
but I’m not afraid of you, Uncle Wil.”
Xander’s eyes filled with tears. He
saw Spike’s ironclad will weaken. And when Nate stepped up to him and gingerly
slid his arms around the vamp’s waist, he saw it shatter. Spike dropped his bag
and drew the boy into a tight embrace. His eyes were squeezed shut and he
looked as though he was trying desperately to keep his own tears in check.
“I love you, Uncle Wil. Please don’t
leave.” Nate said against the blonde’s chest.
Spike drew in a shuddering breath.
“I’ll be here as long as you want me, luv.”
Lys threw herself against her
brother and each male freed an arm to gather her into his embrace. Xander
smiled and put his hands in his pockets. Nate lifted his head and smiled
through his tears. “Uncle Xander?” He whispered, and moved so that a space was
opened next to him. Xander joined the group hug with a laugh.
A moment later, Spike felt a tug on
his duster and looked down to see Ellie standing demandingly with her arms up.
He picked her up and put her in the center of their hug. Everyone’s arms
wrapped around her. They stood for long moments, just drinking in the feeling
of being held by family. Had Willow been there, she would have seen a green
glow surrounding them and faint green lines connecting them to one another.
They couldn’t see the glow, but they
could feel it.