Her Saving Grace, Spike/Fred, R, 3/? by Nebula

[authoressnebula.livejournal.com]

Title: Her Saving Grace
Rating: R
Pairing: Spike/Fred, mentions slight Fred/Wesley
Spoilers: Angel S5
Chapter: Three of ?
Prompt: #19 - Insurance
Warnings: Character death (not the permanent variety)
Summary: An accident one night changes Fred's entire world. Shunned by the people who should care the most, she turns to the one person who does care, and finds something beyond friendship.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously. Not even my mind these days.

Word count: 2138

Previous parts here

Pretty under the cut!





Pretty by spikeshunny; thank you so much sweetie!


< --- >

There was nothing harsh bothering her. It came as a shock, this freedom from the noise that had seeped through her skin and into her bones. There was nothing there.

And no lights that were piercing through her closed eyelids and burning into her eyes themselves. No pain pulsing through her body as it touched various things. In fact, she felt rather...relaxed. A feeling she didn't think she'd ever get again.

As long as she was pain free, she was going to enjoy it for however long it lasted. She kept her eyes closed, just letting her weary body enjoy the peace and relaxation it hadn't been given earlier. This was nice.

Something touched the back of her neck, and she tensed, waiting for pain, but it was cool, smooth, and gentle. She tried to open her eyes to see what was going on, and found with surprise that she couldn't raise her eyelids. She felt like a kitten, too weak to even see yet.

She was raised up slowly, and the scent of something wonderful wafted near her nose. She immediately leaned forward, and felt something cold and hard against her lips. A few moments later, the delicious something was passing through her lips, and her taste buds and her stomach rejoiced. It was something she'd never tasted before, something wonderful in liquid form. It was like a meal in a drink, a liquid manna, and she greedily gulped it down.

It was gone a few seconds later. She whimpered and continued following the scent, until she met something soft. Her nose bumped into it first, and she would've frowned if it hadn't taken so many muscles to do so. Then, that scent once again, and she found the source once more.

One tiny lick, and she realized it wasn't what she'd had before. It was the same texture, the same taste, but it felt...stronger, spicier, headier. She felt as if it were an elixir, the mead in the Holy Grail, and it sent her nerves on fire. They were hyped and strong and she could never get enough of this.

She was pulled away once more, but before she could make any sound to show her displeasure, a voice said quietly, “Rest.”

It felt as if her closed eyelids were closing again, and she felt herself being lowered back onto whatever her soft surface had been. Almost immediately, she fell asleep.

Two hours later, her eyes decided to open. The rest of her woke up slowly, and Fred felt like stretching like a cat. She would've, if she hadn't been afraid of aggravating her wounds. The bed felt wonderful beneath her, and she felt rejuvenated. She felt as if she could take on the world. But her wounds were still there. She could feel...well, she actually really couldn't feel them right now. But surely they were there...?

She blinked, sitting up to glance down at herself. Paler now, and that was going to take some getting used to. But she didn't have a mark on her. Her clothes were tattered and torn, but her skin was unmarred.

“Blood'll do that for you,” Spike's voice said, and she turned to see him seated in a chair across from her. His elbows were perched on his knees, his chin resting on his folded fingers and hands. His eyes were dark as they watched her, and there was anger and something else there as he gazed at her. “It's more than a life sustenance: it's a healing mechanism. It's like medicine or a vitamin: it'll strengthen your immune system...well, whatever counts as an immune system in a vamp. Don't think we have one.”

Fred bit her lip. His voice held no emotion, and she wondered if he was mad at her. It wasn't really her fault that she was a vampire now. Well, if she was going to be brutally honest, then yes, it was. She'd followed the guy despite her misgivings, and she briefly allowed herself to wonder what would've happened if she'd stayed in the club.

“Fred?” he said, and he didn't sound happy. She sighed and let her head fall, her hair hanging around her face like a curtain.

“I'm sorry,” she said softly. Her nervous fingers began picking at the blanket, having nothing else to do. “I-I shouldn't have headed out alone. I just felt so...no, it's not an excuse,” she dismissed sharply. She shouldn't have left the club, no matter how alone she'd felt. “I shouldn't have, and I did, and it's my fault, and I'm sorry. No wonder Angel was so mad at me; I was stupid, and I got myself into this, and I...”

A gentle touch held her fingers until they stopped picking. She glanced up through her shield of hair, and Spike surprised her by giving her a wobbly smile. “It's not your fault, luv,” he said softly, blinking rapidly to clear the tears in his eyes. “Never is with a situation like this. You didn't beg to get turned, and if it's anyone's fault, it's the vampire who did it and apparently abandoned you afterwards.”

Fred blinked, frowning. “How did you know...?”

Spike ignored her and continued. “It's also Angel's fault. He should've been watching you, making sure you were safe.” His softer voice held a touch of a gentleman in it. “And why was he mad at you?”

“He...I went to find them, the others that is, to tell them I was all right, and Angel acted like I'd gone there to eat everyone, and I didn't! I mean, I was hungry, but I wouldn't have eaten them; they're my friends! Well, they were. I don't really know what they are now. I mean, did he really think I'd do that? He was so angry, and he had that same angry look that you did when you looked at me, and I just wish I knew what...”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Spike said, holding up his hands to slow her babbling. “Time out. First of all, I wasn't angry with you. I was angry for you. Big difference. You...you were a mess when you fell in, luv,” he said quietly, and there was a pain in his eyes that made her not ask how bad she'd been. “It made me hurt to see you like that.

“And secondly, this whole bit with Angel...I think I need to hear the entire story from the start,” he said. “I need to know everythin' that happened last night.”

“Sure you want the entire story?” she asked. “It could take awhile.”

“I don't mind,” he said, and he gave her a small smile.

It was the smile that made her nod. “All right, but get comfy. For just one night and one day, an awful lot happened.”

It only took an hour to get it all out. From her meeting with the young man all the way up to her running from Wolfram and Hart, it was all laid out before Spike. A few of her personal feelings had gotten in there despite her wanting to keep to the facts: she was a scientist, and that meant she was good at keeping with the facts. This time, though, she hadn't been able to completely.

Spike's face had been an interesting thing to watch: he'd gone from angry to sympathetic to worried to absolutely raging furious when she'd explained about Angel and company. He'd actually stood up from the bed and had left the small room for a few minutes. She hadn't heard anything, but when he'd come back, he'd been calmer, and he'd taken a seat on the bed once more.

He'd also given her that other look that she'd seen in his eyes before but hadn't been able to identify. She still didn't know what it was, but it looked as if he was gazing through her, not really seeing her. He looked thoughtful and pensive, and she wondered what would make him look that way.

When she finished her story, she sat quietly, feeling the urge to pick at the blankets again. She decided instead to look at the room around her: she'd never actually been in his apartment before. She'd stopped by to give him blood and to talk with him a little bit, but she hadn't really been in past the front door's length.

The place looked bare. The walls were a light aquamarine if she was being generous: they really looked like someone had painted on a green and then blasted it with water several thousand times. There was a brown dresser in one corner, and a small nightstand to the right of the bed. There was a book on the dresser, and despite it having been more than three feet from her, she could easily see every word, every mark on the front cover, and she turned away quickly, scared by her ability to see so much.

There was a closet to the left, with pull out doors that were a simple white. The carpet was a light brown, and the entire room looked very...empty. Not personalized. It was as if this was just a place Spike existed. It wasn't somewhere he lived. Okay, she knew he wasn't alive, but he still lived, still ate and kicked off his boots and slept and probably brushed his teeth. The room looked barren and hollow, and it surprised her. It didn't look like a place that Spike would be in. Spike was bright and sarcastic and very much full of energy and a different kind of life. He drank, he joked, and he danced. That same vibrant energy was nowhere to be found here.

“Your room needs help,” she found herself saying. Spike glanced up at her, his eyebrow asking the question his mouth didn't.

“It's so...bleak!” she said. “You need color. You need something that says 'Spike was here'. This room just...it doesn't even look like anyone's been in here for months or years.”

“And I suppose your livin' quarters have color?” he asked, sounding amused.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course there's color. It's a tiny little apartment, but there's golds and blues and my walls are a rich red. Not as dark as burgundy, but...I think it was a berry color. I like my apartment. I...” She stopped, the thought of never being able to enter her apartment again suddenly hitting her. She was a vampire now: would someone have to invite her in to her own apartment? Gunn might've, once upon a time. She didn't think he would help her anymore.

“It's your place luv, whether you're dead or not. You can still enter it,” Spike said, and the fear that had knotted up within her released.

“Good. I...I like my place. And I have things there that I'd want to get if I had to leave it.” She blinked, before glancing up at him. “N-Not that I'm saying that I'd move in here, because I wouldn't just invite myself over like that. Or that I wouldn't have an apartment to go to, but...”

Spike held up his hands again, halting her babbles before they could gather speed. “I think it'd actually be a good idea if you didn't stay at your place. If the others are bein' this unfriendly with you, then I don't want you somewhere that they can find you. My place still hasn't hit their radar yet; you were the only one workin' there who knew where my place was, so unless you told someone else...”

Fred shook her head. “No one else knew. I just kept it to myself.”

“Good,” Spike said. “Makes things a little easier. We'll head over to your place this evenin' and grab clothes and trinkets and whatever else you might need. We'll start fillin' this room up with evidence that someone DOES exist here,” he teased, and she smiled for the first time since the club.

“While we're out, we'll grab another supply of blood. If there's to be two vamps in this apartment, we're gonna need double the blood,” Spike said, rising from the bed. “You still don't have your strength fully up; we'll keep you on the good stuff until you are.”

“Um...isn't the good stuff expensive?” she asked hesitantly. She didn't know where Spike got his money from, but she knew that the occasional cash job was from Angel. She didn't want to put him out. He was already going to let her stay here, and now...

He glanced back at her, grinning from ear to ear. “You had insurance through the company, right?”

Fred nodded slowly. “Lemme show you how to collect on it,” he said, his grin getting impossibly wider. “Then we'll have fun.”

Concrit equals love. Lemme have it!

~Nebula

Comments

[umbralillium.livejournal.com]

Noooooo! *resists mightily*

Everyone enjoys picking on Snyder; it's a fact of life. ^__^

...I'm a sucker. *crosses arms and pouts prettily*

[authoressnebula.livejournal.com]

*gazes at you with a quivering lip* But...but...

Snyder's so awesome to pick on. The funny thing is, in the actual movie I based it off of, the man Snyder replaced (by the name of Myerson) is actually short and bald too. And bad tempered. Hee! ^_^

Awww...but see, I can make it worth your while! *kisses you* So see? ^_^

~Nebula

[umbralillium.livejournal.com]

*resists a little less mightily*

*snicker* Y'know, the actor who played him on the series was in an episode of Numb3rs a few weeks ago and he was one of the people that got arrested. XD

Well, when you put it that way....^__~