The Fever, Part Ten Author: Elsa Frohman Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: Post Chosen. This is my AU AtS S5. Summary: Spike is back, and he's human -- sort of. He's
working for Wolfram & Hart as an outside contractor.
Maria stepped out of the stall and twirled in front of Spike. He
was still a good judge of female size, he thought with
satisfaction. The clothing fit Maria perfectly. The short skirt
showed off her long legs admirably, and the top, made of a
shiny, stretchy material, clung to her breasts just enough. All
those years of finding new outfits for Dru had been good for
something, after all.
"What do you think?" she said.
Spike gave her an assessing look. "It'll do," he said.
Maria looked down at herself. "Not my color, I think," she said
with a frown.
"Good luck," Linda called from the other stall. "Hope
everything works out with the wedding and all."
"You're our savior, pet," Spike said. "We'll name the first sprog
after you."
Maria rolled her eyes, and Spike hustled her toward the door.
They made their way through the smoky bar. At one point,
Maria tried to snatch a drink from a table whose occupant was
distracted, but Spike caught her hand and pulled her toward the
exit.
Outside on the sidewalk, Maria frowned at him and stamped
her bare foot petulantly. "What are you, the police?" she asked.
"Last thing we need is to get into a bar fight, love," Spike said,
starting to walk.
Maria scrambled to keep up with him.
"You're turning out to be no fun at all!" she said with a pout.
"Focus, pet. Bad people looking for us. Black helicopters,
automatic weapons, Kevlar vests and visored helmets. We've
got to find a place to hide for the day."
"That's easy enough."
"Oh? If you've got a place in mind, now would be the time to
tell me about it."
"A few blocks over. The warehouses. There are a hundred
good spots in there."
She was referring to the industrial park near the docks where
he and Gunn had first run into Ralph, and Spike had to admit
she was probably right. It was the sort of place where the
W&H team would start looking for them, but at the same time,
it was such a warren of occupied and unoccupied buildings that
it would give them considerable cover.
"Good thinking," Spike said.
"You're getting soft," Maria said with a chuckle. "You used to
be the best at finding a lair on the spur of the moment. I bet you
have an apartment now -- with a mailbox and a lease."
"Matter of fact, I do. After a while you get used to things like
running water and kitchen appliances."
Maria made a rude noise.
They walked in silence for a while. Spike kept his ears trained
for helicopters. It almost seemed like this was going too well.
The black ops team had a starting point for their search -- the
alley where they had abandoned the truck. Circling out from
that spot would bring them here in very little time. Yet, other
than the helicopter he'd heard before they went into the bar,
he'd detected nothing.
A car turned the corner ahead and came toward them. Maria
moved close to Spike and put her arm through his. Except for
her bare feet, they looked like a couple on their way home after
a night out.
The car passed them without incident, and Spike let out the
breath he was holding. Maria didn't move away from him.
"You're really worried about these black ops guys," Maria said,
looking a bit incredulous. "The Spike I remember would have
laughed at them."
"Things change, pet."
"So you keep saying. I guess I don't see why they have to,"
Maria said.
Spike stopped and faced her. "That's something you're going to
have to come to terms with, pet. Things have changed for you,
too. If you want to survive now, you're going to have to get
your head around that. When you can't just eat anyone who
gets in your way, you have to work out better ways to get
things done."
Maria flashed him a smile. "I think I'm going to be OK. I've got
you to look after me."
Gunn led Ralph through an alley to a door in an otherwise
featureless wall. There was a peephole and a sodium vapor
light up high on the wall, shining down to illuminate the space
in front of the door. Gunn positioned himself so that his face
would be clearly visible to anyone who looked. He motioned
for Ralph to stand off to the side. He knocked five times and
waited.
There was a pause; the door cracked open just a few inches.
"What's the password?" asked a very young voice from behind
the door.
"Password!" Gunn said incredulously. "Password? What is this,
a Marx Brothers movie?"
"I gotta hear the password," the boy on the other side said. "I
ain't letting nobody in without they say the password."
"Get Rondell, man. He knows who I am."
There was silence from the other side of the door. Gunn turned
to Ralph.
"Rondell and I didn't end up on the best of terms, last time I
saw him. But I don't think he'd turn me away when I need
help."
"You don't know..." said the voice on the other side of the door.
"I don't know what?"
"Rondell... he's gone."
"What? He walked out on y'all? He'd never do that."
"He didn't leave. He's gone. The bloodsucker's got him."
Gunn's face fell. "Oh, God... I didn't know. Oh, shit. Who's in
charge now?"
"Kareem."
Gunn shook his head. "Don't know him. Is Tater still with
you?"
"No Tater here."
"Who's still around who's been with the crew for a couple of
years, then? Anybody who's been around awhile'll know me."
"Who'm I gonna say's asking?"
"Tell 'em it's Gunn."
"Gunn? You Gunn? Man, I heard about you. Damn!"
"Yeah, I'm Gunn. So, you gonna let me in?"
Another silence.
"Come on, man. I know things was crazy last time anybody
around here saw me. But I got a problem. You wouldn't turn
away a brother, would you?"
"I don't know, man. I heard you went uptown. What you want
with us?"
"I got the man on my tail," Gunn said. "I need a place to stay
outta sight for a couple of days."
There were footsteps on the other side of the door.
"What you standin' there with the door open for?" asked a
second voice from inside.
"It's Gunn, man. He out there, and he want in."
"Gunn?"
The door opened wide.
"Jake! Thank the lord," Gunn said with relief, recognizing the
teenager standing in the doorway. Jake had been no more than
16 the last time Gunn saw him. He'd been among the youngest
with the crew. It seemed like he'd grown at least six inches
since then. And there was something very weary in his eyes.
"Gunn! You a sight for sore eyes. My momma always used to
say, when you really need somethin', the lord sends it to you.
Get your ass in here, bro. Don't be standin' out in the alley."
"I got a friend with me," Gunn said. "This is Ralph."
Jake peered around the doorframe to get a look at Gunn's
companion. He looked Ralph up and down.
"Well, I guess it's OK. I mean, better you hangin' out with
honkies than bloodsuckers."
Ralph took a self-conscious breath. Gunn ushered him through
the door.
Jake turned to the boy who had been watching the door -- who
couldn't have been more than 12. He was short, but sturdily
built. He eyed Ralph warily.
"This is Sonic," Jake said. "He's new 'round here, but he pulls
his weight."
"What's been happening?" Gunn asked. "Rondell bought it?
Man, I can't believe it."
"Week and a half ago," Jake said. "Just after the vamps started
gettin' extra nasty. We've been takin' casualties, man. And the
vamps, they've been crazy."
Gunn nodded. "Yeah, I've been hearing about that."
They followed the older boy down a staircase to another steel
door at the bottom. Jake knocked.
"Who's there?"
"It me, Jake."
"Password."
"Whup-ass."
The door opened.
"What is this 'password' shit?" Gunn asked. "You came up the
stairs two minutes ago. Like they don't recognize your voice?"
"We gotta be careful," Jake said.
They went through into a large storeroom. There were a dozen
or so young teens there, gathered around a taller boy who had a
crossbow slung over his shoulder.
"Kareem," Jake said. "Look who I got. This is Charles Gunn!
You heard of him, ain't you? Well here he is, big as life."
Kareem regarded Gunn suspiciously. He was as tall as Gunn,
but thinner, with a prominent scar on one cheek. His head was
shaved smooth, and his expression was hard. For all that, he
couldn't have been older than 20.
"So you the famous Charles Gunn," Kareem sneered. "You
think you gonna walk back in here and take over like you never
been gone?"
Gunn frowned. "No, man. No way. I came here because I need
some help. I ain't takin' over nothing."
As Gunn looked around the room, he recognized only Jake and
a couple of others. There was nobody here who looked to be
old enough to buy a drink. He wondered what had happened to
the older ones -- the ones he'd called his brothers just a few
years ago. These fighters were much too young. They were
street kids.
"These are hard times," Kareem said coldly. "The brothers
been fallin'. If you bringin' your trouble with you, we don't got
no use for you."
Gunn shook his head. "Look, I can see you got trouble. Maybe
I can help out some. I've got a strong arm and lots of
experience. I'll pull my weight. All I need is a place to stay
outta sight for a little while. And if you got to defend your
ground, I can swing a stake or an axe, or shoot a crossbow with
the best of them."
"What about him?" Kareem asked. "He don't look like he'd be
much in a fight."
"He ain't," Gunn said. "But he's with me, and if you want my
help, you gotta take him, too. He's OK. He'll stay out of the
way, and he don't eat much."
Kareem scowled. "You can stay."
"Thanks, man. Now, tell me. What's been going on? How'd you
lose a guy like Rondell?"
Kareem shook his head. "We lost Rondell, Cable, Ali, Tom and
Ned in the first attack. Georgie, Kylie, Tater and Lyle in the
next. Then we started getting' tough. The vamps just keep
comin'.
"We got kids here, little kids, 'cause their families is gone. The
bloodsuckers've gone crazy, man. They're killing four, five, six
times a night. They don't stop 'til the sun comes up. And they
ain't followin' the rules. They been bustin' into houses, man.
Vamps ain't supposed to be able to do that."
A couple of hours before dawn, Spike and Maria holed up in one
of the steam tunnels below the industrial park . A quick raid on
the office of one of the warehouses yielded a battery-operated
lantern, a couple of bottles of soda from the office refrigerator
and a bag of sour cream and chive potato chips out of
someone's desk drawer. Maria stole a tarp off a pallet of boxes
out in the warehouse proper, and they called it a night.
They had a circle of light around the lantern, the folded up tarp
to sleep on and little else. The dark tunnels stretched out
around them. Spike sat down against the wall and munched on
the chips.
Maria stretched out on their make-shift bed.
"I'm not going to have any boot-juice until tomorrow," Maria
said.
Spike nodded. "Make it last," he said.
Maria turned over on her side and propped her head up on her
hand. "What will we do when it runs out?"
Spike shrugged. "I hope we've got something to bargain with
by then."
"Like what?"
"I don't know... We'll have to think of something, love.
Otherwise, you're going to have to go to work for them. You
won't have much choice."
"That can't be so bad," Maria said. "It's what you do, isn't it?"
Spike shook his head. "There's a difference. I don't have to
work for them. In fact, I'm pretty sure tonight's festivities added
up to tendering my resignation. All I need's enough dosh to
keep m'self fed and a roof over my head. And I can get by
without the roof. I can sling burgers at the Doublemeat Palace
if I have to.
"But there's only one source for your juice, love, and you're not
going to have a lot of options."
Maria sighed. She sat up and drew up her knees, wrapping her
arms around them.
"Not having options, I remember what that's like," she said
quietly. "Before I was sired. Growing up in the colonia, where
everybody's your uncle or aunt or cousin, and everybody thinks
your business is their business, and nobody's got any money.
"You know what the worst kind of slavery is? It's being poor
and Puerto Rican in a city of rich Anglos. It was West Side
Story, but without any nice Anglo boy to take me away. I never
even got to go on a date before Ramon came and opened up the
world for me.
"So, if I've got to work for these people, I think I can live with
that. As long as I don't have to be poor again."
Spike shook his head and smiled. "You don't have a pot to piss
in. We're holed up in a steam tunnel with a lantern, a piece of
canvas and a bag of crisps. And you're worried about poverty?"
"Poor isn't always about what you have. It's what you don't
have that everybody else has," Maria said. "It's having to take a
bus when you can see limousines all around you. I haven't been
poor since Ramon took me, 'cause now, when someone's got
something I want, I take it."
"And that's what's got to change, love."
"Why? Just because I can't eat people, doesn't mean I have to
be their doormat," Maria said with a frown.
"I know it's hard for you to understand," Spike said slowly. "It
took me a long time to get it. I'm not even sure I can explain it
to you, but here's the long and short of it. Vampires don't live
in the world. You live off it. Things are going to change for
you now, if you let them. You can keep on the way you are and
just survive. Or you can start making connections, and learn,
and grow. You can change yourself into something more.
"Vampires are frozen at the moment they're sired. You think
you've gained eternal life, but you haven't. It's eternal death.
The moment of your dying is stretched out forever. I know you
probably can't see that. I couldn't, not at first. I couldn't see it
until I really connected to someone who was alive.
"It's up to you, love. If you choose to reach out and become
part of the human world again, you can beat the eternal death
sentence. You can live again."
"Live again? Like you? My heart could beat again?"
"I don't know about that, pet. What's happened to me was ...
well, unique, I think. But you don't have to have a heartbeat to
be alive. You just have to be able to grow."
Maria gave him her most flirtatious smile. "Well, maybe I'm
just lucky then. I've got my living person right here."
"Don't get any ideas, love."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Spike said carefully, "you'd better get some sleep."
He reached over and turned off the lantern.
"Aren't you going to come over here? You don't want to lie on
the cold floor, do you?"
"Doesn't bother me, pet."
"What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing wrong with you, love."
"Then why won't you sleep with me? Am I too ugly for you?"
Spike sighed. "Don't start that. There's nothing wrong with
you."
"You just don't want me. Is it because I'm a vampire?"
Spike switched the light back on.
"It's not because you're a vampire. It's because your memory is
shorter than a Frenchman's dick," he said irritably. He dug a
pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and lit one.
"My memory? What have I forgotten?"
"Ralph," Spike snapped. "Four bloody hours since you've seen
him and you've forgotten he exists."