by Melville
I'd held off working on this, a follow-up to my last effort (see Posts 263, 264, 265), not wanting to interrupt Archer mid-story. He hasn't returned yet, but the idea for this story was his, since he wondered (Post 267) if the New York Spike of my first story might have met up with the scraping-bottom Angel of the time just pre-Sunnydale. That was the inspiration, and the recent discussions on the Season 6 thread about Spike got me going on it again. Thanks, all, for the ideas.
The only liberty I've taken with the Canon is that, in "School Hard", Spike says he hasn't seen Angel "in ages". If you can say that two years qualifies as "ages", I hope the rest fits in. The place is New York City. The time is 1995. Angel has been pulled out of the gutter by The Powers That Be, who have sent Whistler to inform him he has a mission, but he has not yet seen or heard of Buffy...
Old Friends
"Old friends,
Old friends,
Sat on their park bench like bookends...
The old men...
Memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fear."
-Paul Simon, Old Friends
The two men walking in the late evening made an unusual pair, but that area of lower Manhattan was used to much odder sights, so they got little attention. The small, pasty-faced man in the baggy suit and porkpie hat struggled to keep up with the taller, even-paler man in the black leather jacket.
Whistler: Why are you doing this? You trying to save souls already?
Angel: I thought that was your job. Besides, he doesn't have a soul.
Whistler: Exactly. So what's the point? You've got a plan?
Angel: You'd know more about any Plan than I would. You're the one in touch with The Powers.
Whistler: I told you, I'm a messenger...
Angel: So how do you know this isn't part of the Plan?
Whistler sighed. Trouble, he thought, why is it always so much trouble? He kept silent until they reached their destination, a dingy vampire bar.
Angel: This is as far as you go.
Whistler: Damn right it is. You couldn't get me in there on a bet.
Angel: This shouldn't take long. I'll be back before midnight.
Whistler: What if you're not?
Angel: Then wait longer.
Whistler watched him enter and waited for a moment. He had to have some reason for wanting this meeting. He couldn't stop him, only let him play out his hand. He thought, There must have been some easier job They could have given me, sighed again, then turned and left.
"I won't go!"
"Oh, now, Dru..."
"I don't want to see him."
"You don't want to see Daddy?" Spike used the cooing tone that was most effective with her.
"It's not Daddy. I won't see him."
"Of course it's Daddy. I'm sure he wants to see you"
Drusilla turned to look at him. "He wants to see you. He wants to take you."
Spike grinned. "You took me, my love, the both of you, a long time ago, remember?"
"He wants you to go where he is, and then you'll never be happy, never again."
"Aaah, Angelus was never happy, no matter how many he killed, it didn't make him happy. Bugger got on my nerves after a while. You can't expect him to change."
"He's not happy now."
"Well, then, we'll go and cheer him up."
"No!"
Spike knew better than to argue with her when she got in this mood. He put on his jacket and headed for the door.
"Spike."
"Yes, sweet?"
"If you get too lost, I'll never be able to find you. No one will."
"Now, now, a bad penny always turns up somewhere. Don't wait up."
Angel studied Spike as he came toward him. He hadn't changed, still happy in his element, bouncing from table to table as he greeted those he knew. They embraced, ordered drinks, and as Spike talked enthusiastically about old times, Angel had to remind himself to be careful, especially when Spike started asking about what he'd been doing in the years since they'd travelled together:
Angel: Nothing as exciting as what you've been doing. I heard you got another Slayer.
Spike: Oh, Angelus, you should have been there! I found her, stalked her, killed her. It was a thing of beauty. Not far from here, either. I think that's why I stay here. Nostalgia, y'know?
Angel: So you like it here, do you?
Spike: What's not to like? The dirt, the violence, the confusion, it's my kind of town.
Angel: You can find that all over the world.
Spike: Well it's our kind of world, then, isn't it?
Angel: The world was made for vampires?
Spike: Of course it was! If it wasn't, how could we live in it?
Angel: "If He did, we wouldn't."
Spike: What?
Angel: It's a line from a movie about Hitler. One Nazi general asks if God exists, and the other Nazi general answers, "If He did, we wouldn't."
Spike: The Nazis had the wrong idea. They hated the world, they wanted to change it by killing everyone in it. What would they have left when they finished? I love the world just as it is. I love living in it.
Angel: A vampire who loves the world?
Spike: I'm not surprised you don't understand. That's the difference between us, my friend. You don't think I know why I haven't seen you for 90 years? Why nobody has?
He knows, thought Angel, he knows about the curse, and about the new mission. He remained impassive, hiding his panic.
Angel: What are you talking about?
Spike: You always hated the world, Angelus, I never knew why, but you did. You would have killed everyone in it if you had the chance. When you dropped out of sight all those years ago, I figured you'd just gotten so sick of the world you'd left it. I don't make judgements, so whenever anyone asked me what had happened to you, I said I didn't know, but I knew that was the reason. Am I right?
Angel (smiling): Something like that.
Spike: And now you're rejoining us?
Angel: Not the way you think.
Spike (smiling): Getting enigmatic on me, are you? That's the Angelus I remember. (rising to go) I'll see you around, then?
Angel: Definitely. And Spike...
Spike: Yeah?
Angel: I'm trying to love the world now.
Spike: That's my boy!
It was nearly midnight as he turned into the empty street, when Angel realized he wasn't alone. "You took an unnecessary chance, Big Man," said Whistler, falling into step beside him. "Mind if I ask why?"
"Do you know what Spike was before, I mean, before he became a vampire?"
"William the Bloody, a bad poet."
"A bad poet, but a good man. Have you met many good men, Whistler?"
"Hardly any, but that may just be the circles I travel in."
"Me too, but he was one. That's how we turned him. He wasn't like me, or Darla. We figured the world was monstrous, so it was easy for us to become monsters. And Drusilla, well, she didn't know anything about the world, so she just accepted the darkness we fed her. But William, he knew love, he saw beauty in the world. When he lost faith in that, just for a moment, we turned him. But it's still in him. Even as a vampire he loves the world."
Whistler snorted. "He loves what he can get out of it."
Angel shook his head. "That's still more than I can love in it. Even without a soul, he has more in him worth redeeming than me. Except that you can't be redeemed without a soul."
Whistler said nothing. Angel looked over at him and saw an odd, unreadable expression on his face. Finally, the Messenger said, "I can't say what The Powers That Be have planned. For anybody."
"Can't say, or can't know," asked Angel, wondering just who he was referring to.
"Say, know, whatever." He looked over at Angel. "We go west tomorrow. You got anymore business to take care of?"
"Nothing. Do you know what they have for me out there?"
"I couldn't say."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dru: Did you have fun?
Spike: Yes.
Dru: He didn't.
Spike: Probably not.
Dru: Good. He has to pay.
Soike: Does he, then?
Dru: You have to pay, too. We all have to pay.
Spike: And when we've all paid, then what?
Dru: Then comes the mystery.
The End