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Secrets and Lies by angelic_amy
 
Shamu, Shanshu and Spike.
 
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Thanks to Megan as always for betaing



Chapter 15: Shamu, Shanshu and Spike.


Everyone looked at Harmony as if she had grown a second head.

“Honey, if it’s about that new Colin Farrell movie, we all know already,” Lorne answered in response to her excited entrance.

“It’s not about Colin,” she replied, only to find her train of thought becoming distracted. “What new movie?”

“Harmony, not now,” Angel grumbled.

“But it’s about Eve!” she blurted out desperately. Harmony was always excluded from these little meetings and for once she had something to share that she knew was of value. And they were going to hear her out!

“What about Eve?” Angel demanded.

“I think she’s planning something. Something evil.” Harmony detailed how the woman had looked around the room nervously during the small conversation she had overheard, gesturing wildly and imitating her body language for emphasis.

“Well that’s just… great,” Angel muttered sarcastically. It did sound suspicious but so far all he knew was that Eve had been twitchy. “Did you hear any actual content of the conversation?”

Harmony nodded proudly. “She was talking to some girl named Lynn about Shamu.” She frowned quizzically before continuing. “Isn’t Shamu a whale? Why would she be so interested in that?” Shrugging her shoulders she continued, “Anyway, she said that ‘you bought it’ to this Lynn person.”

“Lynn…?” Wesley repeated. “Are you sure it wasn’t Lindsey?

“And Shamu, sounds almost like Shanshu don’t you think?” Fred posed to the rest of the group.

Harmony shrugged her shoulders in response. “Could’ve been, I guess.” A thought occurred to her and another frown marred her expression. “As for the ‘you bought it’ comment, that sure sounds suspicious. Unless she was talking literally… did you buy a whale, Bossy?”

Angel blinked in bewilderment for several moments before dismissing Harmony with a wave of his hand.

“But I was--” she began.

“Not now, Harmony,” Angel cut off.

The blonde vampire walked out of the office with her shoulders slumped dejectedly, muttering beneath her breath.

Angel’s expression became black as he recalled the earlier conversion with Eve.

“It’s about Cordelia,” Eve informed with a Cheshire-like grin. When Angel’s expression blanked, she continued. “Are you sure you want to finish that sentence?”

“I’m listening,” Angel grunted.

“What I am going to tell you is going to blow you away.”

Angel pursed his lips, his arms folding across the broad expanse of his chest and highlighting his annoyance as he leaned back on his swivel chair.

Sensing Angel’s impatience, Eve continued quickly. “They have a deal on the table. Seems that there may be a way to wake your friend from her little coma. Something that my sources say the PTB’s would be very happy with.”

Angel’s stoicism faltered. A way to awaken Cordelia? He had delegated a whole department to research of the mystical and physical causes of her condition and had paid extraordinary amounts of money to fund the research team. So far, they had found nothing.

And now the Senior Partners may have found a way to wake her. It had to be a trick.

“What’s the catch,” Angel questioned.

“You’re brighter than they give you credit for, Angel,” Eve complimented and derided at the same time. “As you may be aware, Cordelia Chase’s condition is complicated. Whilst the cause of her coma is known, how to wake her from it is another question. The Senior Partners have consulted with the PTB--”

“Really? Angel scoffed. “I wasn’t aware the Powers made deals with the devil.”

“You’d be surprised who they do business with,” she responded confidently, a knowing smile teasing its way across her face. “Ever wondered why the Catholic Church is so powerful?”

Angel’s scowl intensified. Eve was skirting around the issue, drawing out her information for effect.

“It’s sort of a ‘you-scratch-our-back, we’ll-scratch-yours’ kind of deal.” Eve stood up from her perched position on the corner of Angel’s desk. She placed both hands palm down on the wooden writing table, leaning towards the vampire in an almost conspiratorial way. “All the Senior Partners require in lieu of Ms Chase’s place in limbo—which is what my sources say is the most accurate description of her current state—is a signature. From you.”

“They want me to sign something, that’s it?” Angel repeated in disbelief. There had to be more to this, it seemed too easy. “Why hasn’t the paperwork been drawn up?”

“It’s not so much paperwork as it is a scroll,” Eve supplied. “Nyazzian to be precise.”

Angel’s expression blanked. The Nyazzian scroll… But that was the scroll that contained the prophecy. “The Senior Partners want me to sign away the Shanshu,” he realized.

“Clever boy,” Eve nodded. Standing up to her full height, she turned on her heel and began walking towards the office door. Upon reaching it she turned around to face Angel again. “You’ve got the paperwork, we’ve got the pen. A signature in blood and your friend is awake again, Angel. Think about it.”

Before Angel could respond, she had gone.


“Well thanks for the not so interestin’ chat. I think I might head out,” Spike announced sarcastically, breaking through Angel’s reverie. Spike looked over at the brooding vampire before continuing proudly, “Gotta find my girl.”

Before he could get too far, Fred called out. “Spike, wait. Please?”

Spike stopped his departure, turning slowly to face the group. “Fred, I really don’t ‘ave time to --”

“Help us?” The petite scientist placed her hands on her hips. “After everything I did trying to find a way to re-coporealize you, this is how you repay me—running off when I need…we need your help?”

The others in the room seemed surprised by Fred’s tone of voice, and by her method of persuasion. Apparently Spike could be guilt tripped, by the right person.

“Alright,” he muttered begrudgingly. “What do you need me for?”

~~~

“I’m sorry,” Buffy apologised a final time before finally hanging up the telephone. The weight that had been hanging over her shoulders seemed to immediately lift, and she knew any residual guilt would dissipate the moment she told Spike.

It was over. She’d broken up with Juan—the Immortal. The conversation had been trying at first, with Buffy constantly being interrupted by her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend spouting about his time for the last few days. When she had finally managed to get a word in, she had to fight back the urge to flaunt that she had in fact cheated on him. At first she had fed him the standard ‘it’s not you, it’s me’, ‘this isn’t working,’ lines—along with several others—before she had finally been forced by his insistence for a real reason to confess that she was in fact in love with someone else.

He didn’t take it very well. Apparently Buffy had been the first person to end a relationship with the ‘great lover’—as he named himself. With unsympathetic ears, Buffy had let him vent for two minutes, finally telling him to grow up before apologizing that final time.

With a deep sigh, she sank down into the pillows of her bed.

A soft knock on her bedroom door cut through the silence, and Buffy readjusted herself into a seated position before answering. “Come in, Andrew.”

His arrival with several of the elder newly called slayers in L.A. this evening had come as a surprise. Their presence couldn’t have come at a better time. Buffy felt more comfortable working with her own team than she did patrolling a pack of uniformed marine-like operatives.

After the argument with Angel she had returned to her hotel, which is where Andrew and the girls had made their presence known. After quickly stowing their small amounts of luggage in her room, they had headed out for patrol. Buffy had decided it would be best if she were the only one to focus on Dana’s known hunting strip of the docks, with the rest of the girls keeping a few blocks back—far enough away that they wouldn’t be likely to spook Dana if she appeared, but close enough to move in if backup was required.

Andrew had remained mobile with the two youngest girls of the group, and after securing the area, had set up a command centre of sorts. The van he had hired with Council funds contained medi-kits along with enough tranquillizers and restraints to keep Dana docile and restrained for the return trip to England.

It was a good thing they’d shown up when they had; Buffy didn’t know how she would have explained away carrying an unconscious female into her hotel suite.

“It’s over?” Andrew inquired as he cautiously entered the bedroom.

Buffy nodded. It was over. She was now free and unattached; there was nothing stopping her form being with Spike any longer. All she had to do was tell him.

And somehow that thought scared her more than that one time she had to perform on stage when she was still a student at Sunnydale High.

Andrew frowned as he slowly made his way to her bed and gently sat down on the edge of it. Buffy didn’t appear to look very happy and he would think that was exactly how she should be feeling right now. It was no secret that none of the Sunnydale Alum—himself now included in that group—approved or liked for that matter, her newly ex-boyfriend. And with Spike alive, he would think that she should be rejoicing. If Spike still loved her even half as much as Andrew himself had witnessed in the past, then she should be in high spirits. Not looking decidedly anxious.

“Is something wrong?” Andrew asked delicately, his hands fidgeting in his lap.

“Just tired,” Buffy lied.

Another frown appeared on Andrew’s face. He didn’t believe her. The past six months working with Buffy in England had taught him a few things about the Slayer. They weren’t by any means close, but he respected Buffy Summers more than he let on. If it weren’t for her he wouldn’t be a watcher. No if it weren’t for her, he would probably be dead, buried deep beneath the Hellmouth.

He shuddered for a moment as he thought of the evil deeds of his past. That was behind him now. No longer was he an evil genius. No, Andrew was a bonafide member of the Scoobies now. A warrior of the light, a redeemed evil doer, a--

“I’m going to find Spike,” Buffy interrupted his thoughts, her tone determined as she stood up abruptly.

“Huh? Wha-?” Andrew mumbled, shaking his head to clear the fog.

Buffy was halfway to her bedroom door before she stopped and turned to address Andrew. “I can’t hide anymore. I’m not—” She sighed before continuing. “I’m not going to run anymore. He’s not like the others.”

And he wasn’t.

Buffy had known that Spike was different to all of her other boyfriends—make that different to all of the other men in her life, period. And she was afraid of that. Afraid that she’d put her trust into him completely and he wouldn’t want that, afraid that he wouldn’t want her.

His words on the Hellmouth—his rejection of her expression of love—had burned. Countless conversations with Willow had offered just as many reasons as to why he would say such a thing, with one prominent one standing out from the pack. He wanted her to live. She could almost hear Willow’s words echoing in her head.

“If he’d accepted it, if he’d told you that he loved you too, what would you have done?”

And she knew the answer to that question—she would have stayed. She would have fought by his side, would have gotten him out of there alive—or died trying.

“Spike couldn’t let you do that.”

Willow was right. Spike had sacrificed himself, so that she may live.

That knowledge still wouldn’t quiet the little voice in her head that insisted that maybe—just maybe—his words were truth.

Shaking away her doubts, she finally decided that she couldn’t allow herself to be afraid anymore. She couldn’t sacrifice a possible future with Spike because of her fears of history repeating itself. Buffy had to give Spike a chance; she had to give them a chance.

No more running.

No more running…

Andrew watched with a smile on his face as determination flooded Buffy’s features. He hoped that she found what she was looking for.

“Good luck, oh prosperous leader,” he whispered as the front door to the suite closed with a click.

~~~

Spike was unconvinced. There was no guarantee that Lindsey would fall for their plot, no guarantee that he would even show up at the bar.

But Angel seemed pretty confident.

“Lindsey has a problem with gloating; he can’t just do the job and leave. He likes to witness the mayhem he causes,” Angel explained when he noticed Spike’s uncertainty.

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Spike shot at Angel with a pointed look.

Pursing his lips, the elder vampire let the comment slide. “Are we all clear on what’s to happen?”

At the resounding nod of heads, Angel dismissed the small group and they began filing out from the office. This was going to end tonight.



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A/N: Hope you all liked! More will be up in a few days.
 
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