"Falling..."

PG-13

Summary: There's yet another fool for love in the Buffyverse...

Archived...With the song...At the Buffy Rebecca verse, "normal" Buffyverse page, www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/falling.html...

Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Wolfram-Hart Inc. , Mutant Enemy, all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Including some guy name Josh, er Joss...

"Men flutter to me like moths around a flame...But if their wings burn you know I'm not to blame...Falling in love again...Never wanted to...What am I to do?...I'm helpless..." the voice broke off...

"Whadaya think?...I think I kept some of that singing thing...?...Xander?..." "Well...Ms. Jenkins...I knew Marlene Dietrich...Marlene Dietrich was my friend...Ms. Jenkins...You're no..." "How did you know Marlene Dietrich?..." the tape cut off...

"Xander!!!..." Andrew's voice boomed through the room... "Hey, mission accomplished!!...Ms. Dana the Psycho Vampire Slayer is safely in custody..." He strode in, followed by two Slayers...

"Had to throw my weight around with Angel and the scum-sucking if well-coiffed Wolfram-Harters...But they got the message in the end..." he beamed...Xander eyeing him...The two Slayers nodding in support...

"Mr. Wells was just great, Xander..." one beamed...

"Just great, Andy...Buffy will be pleased..."

"Xander!!..." Andrew lost what cool poise he'd managed to affect...

"Spike is back!!...He's alive!!...Missing hands last time I saw him!...But alive...In his usual Undead way, I think...But..."

"What?!...Spike?!..."

"He was contained in the amulet...His spirit survived as a ghost or phantasm as we Watchers say...Then someone helped him corporealize..."

Spike?!...God...Xander sighed...Not all over again...

Hmmn...No hands?...Potentially good news, perhaps...

"He..." Andy's face fell... "He didn't want me to tell Buffy...I don't quite know why..."

He's not on Angel's team though...He's fighting for the Light on his lonesome in LA...Trying to keeping Angel to the straight and narrow as he can...Andrew nodded solemnly...

"Though it may be harder with no hands..." he paused thoughtfully...

"Why didn't he want you to tell Buffy?...He wouldn't say?..." Xander shook his head...Unbelievable...Spike with a moral sense?...

Andrew however had seen the tape player...Xander...he frowned...

"Have you been playing it again?...Xander?...You know what Buffy and Mr. Giles said..."

"I don't care what Buffy and Mr. Giles say on this one, Andy...And I don't want you telling them I was playing it again, please...I'm fine...I just need to hear her voice every once in a while..."

He continued..."But you said Spike was fighting on our side in LA...And not with the Wolfram-..."

Andrew stared at him... "I never heard you yell at Buffy before the day she tried to take that tape away...Even she was scared of you that time..."

"It wasn't hers...And it was none of her business...I haven't told her how to run her life...Or how to mourn her dead..."

"You locked yourself in a dark room for four days playing it over and over..."

"Sorry I missed the new Watchers' field trip...I think I have a right to my own life though, thanks..."

"You can't mourn forever, Xander...She wouldn't want you to..."

"An...?...Andy, my Anya would be furious that I wasn't wearing a hairshirt and all in black..."

"And have you taken off the hairshirt?..." Andy eyed him narrowly...

"No, still got it on..." he admitted... "And you're still wearing black pants..." Andrew shook his head...

"Buffy mourned too, Xander...She did love Spike, you know..."

"I know she did...Well, William at least...But we all have to handle these things our own way, Andy..."

"Should I tell her?..." Andrew looked at him... "She'll find out eventually..."

"I don't think so...Not if he asked you not to...But why, Andy?..."

Xander stared at him... "Why would Spike not come or let her know?...Is he?...Was he angry at her?...Did he blame her?..." A tenseness in his voice...

"Does he hate her for what happened...?"

"I don't think so...He told me he nearly did come but decided it wasn't best not to...For now...Maybe he's on some kind of quest...To be fully worthy of her, maybe...A noble, uplifting quest like Frodo's...Though with a less laudable goal at the end, perhaps..."

Or maybe he got Drusilla a soul and they've hooked back up...he noted...

"No..." Xander shook his head... "I'm sure you were right the first time...William's on a quest..." he sighed a moment...

And turned the tape back on...

"Some goddamn foolish Angel quest...Probably to regain full humanity before he shows...Making her wait...Thinking...He died not believing that..."

"And now when she finds out he's alive but didn't come or call...Damn him...Damn him..."

"Is he undamned now?..." Andy asked, curious...The Slayers as well...

"I mean...Did the soul thing and saving the world clear the books for him, you think...?"

"Falling in Love again, never wanted to...What am I to do...I'm helpless..." the tape warbled on...

"Yes..." Xander said quietly... "Dying to save the world...And the one you love clears the books..."

Or so help me, God...When I die...I will tear your Heaven to shreds if she's not...he thought...

"Xander?..."

Andy...he sighed...

"Tell her..."

***

The tape finished...

"You do know she got the lyrics wrong?..." Andrew eyed him...

"Yeah..." Xander smiled... "And now it's our song...

***