SITCOA Ep2 Welcome to the Hellmouth

"Good evening gentlemen." Sullivan's accent was straight from the old country, and obviously faked. A ruse to fool the locals which didn't fool either vampire, no one could live in America that long and still sound fresh from the peat bogs and whatever else they had in Ireland. "Can you spare me a moment of your time?"

The shotguns pointed across the street by two of the police Captain's bodyguards suggested this might be a good idea. Spike and Browne therefore crossed the street hands well away from their concealed weapons.

"Thank you lads, so nice of you to take the trouble." Sullivan's smile spoke of gratitude his eyes told a different story. He looked at the vampires as if they were vermin, vermin to be destroyed.

Dublin born, LA raised, Jesuit college trained, he had volunteered for the army at eighteen and was a Vietnam veteran of two tours with the Air Cavalry, proud recipient of a Silver Star and two purple hearts as a result of that service he had come back from the Far East and gone straight into LAPD. As he liked to put it "Straight from one war, to another."

That had been thirty years ago and since then he'd killed four men in the line of duty and risen as far as he thought he could go when he made lieutenant, he'd been ready for retirement when his world changed.

Then the Chief of Police had personally told him about vampires and offered him a captain's bars.

The reason for the assignment was simple, Sullivan was old school, the kind of cop who hates camcorders. It was his sheer unreconstructability that had got him his new job, kicked upstairs and given this special role, with a squad of similar minded individuals beneath him. Their task to infringe the civil liberties of the one minority group nobody in authority gave a damn about, demons. They enjoyed their work, and none of them would ever face prosecution for doing it, and doing it the old way.

"Ow Can we 'elp you officer?" Browne gave Sullivan his usual superior smirk. He never saw the lead sap that whistled through the night air and connected with the back of his head. He dropped like a stone. The cop who had wielded the weapon stashed it away as quickly as he had produced it and stepped clear.

"That's just to get your attention," Sullivan said good humouredly to Spike. "As I understand it, you're the not particularly well equipped with them brains and your man there is the annoying big mouthed bastard brawn who does the killing, but what he got was easy compared to what you get if you piss me off sonny."

"I understand mate." Spike regarded the fallen vamp without any great concern. He was rather glad the vetala was out of it. The bloke was always talking them into unnecessary fights. "What can we do for you?"

"Stop fucking making my life difficult. Leave town and don't come back." The cop took in the lack of fear on Spike's face and didn't care one bit. He could break the vampire; he had done it so many times before. "Or work for me instead of the demon, the girl, and the Kike."

"The demon isn't my boss, the girl is, and Mr. Gelfman is a good man tryin' his best to keep order." Spike was waiting for the or else but until it emerged he intended to take no shit. "I bet he's done more to keep the vampires of this city......"

Then Spike stopped speaking as Sullivan pulled a Colt .45 from a holster under his left arm.

"Your man there must think he's clever, dreaming up his nasty little trick with the garlic, but I started doing that twenty years ago." The cop pulled back the hammer and pointed the pistol into Spike's groin. "Just for the rep as a hard case you understand, it wasn't till much later that I found out what that kind of bullet will do to a vampires guts."

"Yeah, burn em out." Spike shrugged nonchalantly. "Look mate, I'm gettin' bored here, just tell me what you want and we can all go home?"

The growls that came from Sullivan's squad members wouldn't have disgraced a vampire, and for a second Spike thought he had gone too far, as the police Captain's finger whitened around the trigger, but then the man laughed, deep and hard. "Why boyo arn't you the brave one? I think we may be able to do business you and I, so here's what I want."

Sullivan eased the hammer back down as he spoke. "You don't hit any clan leaders without prior consultation, half the vamp leaders you've killed kicked back to me. You don't kill vamps who've broken the code. Jackson was going to hand those guys over to me but you let them escape. Now I have to chase the ungodly heathen bastards down before I can record their dying screams as I lower them slowly into my garden pool."

He took out a packet of cigarettes, offered the vampire one. Spike shook his head so Sullivan lit up and continued. "You should have seen Father O'Leary's face when I asked him to bless it. Still if you won't go along with what I propose, it won't be wasted. The boys and I spent hours setting up the rope and pulley, and the meat hooks."

"Where was I? Oh yes, vamps who go over the line are mine." Sullivan blew smoke in Spike's face, the vampire didn't even flinch. "You'd be a bugger to interrogate by the way.....ten percent of all you take kicks back to me." Spike's eyes narrowed. "Now that got ya. I've been suffering financially. It's up to you to recompense me."

"And if we go along with what you say, will you leave us alone?" The blond knew his chance would come, but this wasn't it, but he was good at waiting. "We have a job to do after all."

"Of course, and I applaud the diligent way you do it." Sullivan extended his hand. "Shake on it son, and I'll even throw in a list of really profitable places you can hit."

The hand contact was brief. Sullivan knew that the vampire wasn't cowed, that didn't matter, he was more than able to keep track of the Briton. "Goodnight to you then, Spike. I'll be in touch."

"I'm curious about something." Spike said to Sullivan's back. "Do you expect these rules to apply to the Slayer?"

"The Slayer is a force of nature, like a hurricane, she blows through the vampires world, scatters them, culls the weak, but always behind her they reform." Sullivan got into his car and one of the officers moved to close it. "And the girl has a sacred mission, Spike unlike you. So no, no rules apply to her, I'm to good a catholic to stand in her way, but you, your demon scum, please note the difference, it's why you pay. Goodnight, I won't say god bless."

Laughing the cops unblocked the De Soto and drove away. Spike waited till they were out of sight and looked down. "You alright down there?"

"Course," Browne opened his eyes and looked up. "You don't think that little tap on the noggin did me any 'arm do ya? I bin 'it a damned sight 'arder than that in me day." He struggled upright. "Thought I'd best let you do the talkin' though, knifein' rankin' coppers can get you noticed. Do we pay the ponce?"

"Do we fuck!" Spike unlocked his car door. "I bet Sol will be really happy to hear about this, an I bet he knows a bigger fish in LA law enforcement than Captain bloody Sullivan."

********************************************

Spike looked at the envelope again. He was alone now, sat on a mattress in his room in the vamps current hideout, one of so many that they had accumulated over the time they had been in LA. There was little furniture in this one and the mattress lay flat on the ground. Spike was sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, fully clothed, just staring at the envelope.

The handwriting was still the same, copperplate, he had always been amazed she had retained the ability to write so neatly, but then she had always amazed him in so many ways.

Why had Angel sent it on to him? Why hadn't he just burned it?

*Cause the wanker wants me gone, and he hopes this will do it. I oughta burn the wretched thing meself, right here and now, soddin' bit........Oh fuck it.*

The hand that was about to pull the lighter from his pocket paused, and tore the envelope open instead. There was a single sheet of pink writing paper inside.

"My Dearest Spike

I hope this letter finds you in good health, I wish that you are happier than I.

The Chaos Demon and I had a big fight, we split up an' I am all alone and sad. I miss you my love, why did we fight so? Just because you helped the nasty Slayer try to kill our Daddy, who after all had treated you so badly, an me so nice, grrrrrrrhh.”

*Still as insane as ever.* Spike thought shaking his head. *Who mentions their own bloody adultery in a letter like this?*

"I know now that what I did was naughty, that I should be punished for being horrible to you, please come back and do bad things to me, please Spike, I promise I won't laugh like I did in Brazil.

Knowing our Daddy is back from hell where the Slayer sent him, and being good again I have sent this letter to our lovely old house, in the hope he will be able to send it to you.

I will be in San Francisco all December, please come join me there, I'll leave my address at the 'Castravalla' a vampire friendly 'Bistro' on 14th Street.

Please come, I have such nice games planned, we'll feed like a Princess and her Prince, and make love all day.

Your Ever Loving

Drusilla"

Spike's hand tightened around the paper, and it crumpled into a ball. "Why now? Why fuckin' now? You bitch! I was free, but now you reach out an' you try to pull me back in, why?"

Then slowly he smoothed the paper out again, and started to read it afresh, even as a single tear ran slowly down his face.


***********************************************


Buffy got home very late or very early, dependent on whether you're a night or a day person. As she crawled in through her window, she was glad to see no Mom reception committee. That was a major wiggins she could do without, she needed to sleep not be shouted at.

Hastily she stripped, and pulled on her night things, she had showered at Angel's......with Angel. She was aching nicely in some interesting places. The vampire might be jealous in a way that should make her cross with him but it was difficult to be angry with a guy who loved you that ardently and with such.....skill.

Make up removed, she slipped into bed, wishing that she could have stayed over at her lover's house. Tomorrow Spike would be there, and for several nights, which meant no smoochies with Angel unless her unsouled vamps were out. She didn't want Spike to have to listen to her screwing their Sire. She didn't want to have to know he could be listening either.

Vampiric hearing was a boon to Slayage but a curse at other times.

Snuggling up inside her bed, more from habit than from any need for warmth, Buffy thought about her two lovers, what a contrast.

One so dark and brooding, yet so attentive to her so loving in his regard for her, so guilty still over what he had done, and so possessive. She didn't want to be owned, but Angel seemed to want to own her.

Then there was the other vampire, he had no guilt, he did what he did because it was fun, and she liked that. Her demon loved the hunt, the kill, killing vampires had become a pleasure for it. It still lay in wait for any slip that might let its hunger for blood rule her, but for now it seemed to be contenting itself with the violent deaths of other demons.

And she couldn't help but conclude that it was the demoness who loved Spike, even though he was light in so many places that Angel was dark. His love for her was a consuming passion, and yet she knew the hurt over Dru still lingered in the remnants of his soul.

*So is Angel my soul mate and Spike my demon mate?" Buffy mused sleepily. *I'm so the split personality girl.*

With that she drifted off to sleep.

********************************************************

Thunder flashed in the night air, the booming noise mixed with that of the artillery shells exploding in the distance. Wind and rain tore through the trees as the troops advanced towards their hidden enemies.

Her hand tightened on the pistol grip of the M-16, Buffy's lips parted into a feral grin as she high stepped forward, Flesch at her side. Her eyes flicked between the ground and the trees ahead looking for mines, and the enemy.

She was beginning to enjoy herself.

********************************************

"Rise and shine," Joyce shouted just as Buffy's alarm went off. "You came in real quiet last night, I didn't hear a thing."

"Yeah," Buffy said sleepily, but all the same refreshed, Slayer's recharge their batteries quickly, they have to. "I'm gettin' real good at creeping in through windows. Maybe I should consider housebreakage if my grades at college don't turn out good."

"I think as you're a vampiress I should be worried by that statement," Joyce drew back the curtains, as her daughter sat up in bed. She was pale, her skin could stand the sun but was too delicate for tanning. The bronzed girl she had been before her death was gone, Joyce still wished she could get her back.

But Wesley had still found nothing.

"Your grades are good anyway, keep this up and you'll graduate, you won't need to take up a life of crime." Joyce laughed as she added. "And won't that be a disappointment to the year book staff."

"That poll was so rigged." Buffy had been so pissed when she'd first read the yearbook Superlatives. Then remembered how much she'd wanted to be in it. "But still I got to dust Harmony and since she was behind it......" Buffy pouted at her Mom's stern expression. "What? I was just saying...."

"That was a girl you knew Buffy, I don't think you should talk about dusting her like that." But all the same Joyce couldn't stay angry. Harmony had been trying to kill her own parents at the time. "You get ready and I'll get breakfast, you doing what you usually do Thursdays?"

"Yep, free period, Faith visiting." Slipping her feet out of the bed Buffy stood up smoothing down the long tee she was wearing. "And for all the good it does I'll give her your love."

*********************************

Sipping her blood through a straw, Buffy wondered on the strangeness of it all. Here she was game faced, drinking blood at her Mom's kitchen table, and her Mom wasn't even wigged anymore.

She should of course be at UC Sunnydale, rooming with Willow, but that would have meant keeping the glamour up all day, and eventually after a good deal of complaining on her part she had been forced to accept Giles assertion that that would be to much for her. So here she was still at home, while Willow and her friends spread their wings and left the nest.

"Why do my grades matter?" She suddenly asked. "I mean I'm either going to work with Giles at the store or you at the gallery. I can't get any job that would take me from my duty or that would involve a medical. I'm stuck here......not that working with you wouldn't be swell, it would, honest, but you know travel....the sights.....as opposed to same old same old."

"Yeah honey I know." Joyce gently squeezed her hand. "And if you don't try hard and Wesley finds a cure you'll still be in Sunnydale, but working in the Peach Pit with Xander. Which I know makes me sound like a mean horrible Mom who wouldn’t give her college drop out daughter a job. But just to encourage you to keep working so hard don’t count on it."

"Thanks I’ll bear that in mind, and Xander doesn’t need to work there anyway." Buffy muttered, business on the loot front was even better since they'd started selling the abandoned vamp vehicles off the Alibi's lot. Willy had known a guy, their individual cuts weren't great but it was enough for Xander to quit if he wanted to. "Cover story, huh, Mr Secret Identity."

"Isn't that what you'll need Buffy, after all most of this ‘found money’ isn’t exactly clean is it?" Joyce noted that Buffy didn't say a word in response to her question about a cure, she never did anymore. "Or are you just going to be a millionaire vampire's girlfriend?"

"Sounds good." Buffy didn't mean it though, reliance on Angel was a bad idea. Enough heavy thinking, she got up. "Got to dash if I'm going to have quality time with Faith and make classes, see you later Mom. Love you."

"Love you too, honey." Joyce let her daughter leave the room before adding. "Always, whatever you become, but please Wesley hurry."

*****************************************************

The hospital had grown familiar, she had been here so often, though now there was a cupboard door just across from Faith's room. She couldn't look at without a feeling of regret at what See's had had to do. If she had been here with her reactions...the man might not have had to die.

Thank god they were in Sunnydale home of the unexplained death, and the lazy police department. See's wasn't a wanted fugitive, just a guy who wished he hadn't had to kill a man to save a girl's life. But nobody in the Scooby gang blamed him for it.

What the Watcher's Council made of Carmichael's disappearance was an unknown, Wesley wasn't trusted with much information these days. Buffy guessed the bosses figured they had a leak, and the source wouldn't be too difficult to guess. Doubtless they would try again, and next time she prayed she'd be here.

As she opened the door she heard singing as well as the sound of the monitors. "Hey Nurse May Belle how are you?" The Nurse was busy with a big vase of flowers, she looked around with a smile.

"Oh I'm just fine sugar, I's just rearranging these, the girls on the night shift don't no squat about how to arrange flowers properly, they just shove them in any old how, so here I is." She carried on till satisfied. "There....isn't that nice. Faith is stable, but don't you be afraid to talk to her now, it does her good to here voices, she's lucky to have so many friends come visit her."

Buffy looked at the flowers again, and a fearful thought gripped her. "Did you say the flowers got delivered at night, do you know who by?"

"By a fine lookin' very well dressed colored gentleman from what Cassie was sayin', wish I'd bin here to see him." With a smile May Belle headed towards the door. "I'll see you later in the week sugar, you take your time here."

Walking to the display Buffy picked up the card. "Oh shit no, not another one!"

'With Infernal gratitude.' T

"Bite me!"