Truth Denied

I hope people are still reading this. I wrote this while babysitting a seven year old and three year old, my apologies if it's a little choppy, the eldest was a self proclaimed ninja and kept sneaking out of bed or finding some reason that she couldn't sleep.....*Sigh*.

Pairings: Spander (eventually)

Appropriate Ratings: NC17 overall but this chapter... hard PG13

Warnings: Just a little death..... oh gawd, don't hate me

Beta:  and

X-posted to: List on my LJ



They got a call the next day, even the ringing of the phone sounded ominous. When When Spike answered the phone the police officer on the other end sounded somber. He said there had been a new development in the case and that they should stay in their apartment until their unit had talked to them, it was just the officerhe was just making sure the ones officers going to their apartment weren’t going out in vain. Spike said no problem, then sat on the couch, brooding. Xander plunked himself down beside him on the couch, having heard one end of the conversation.



“So we gotta wait for them to get here?” Xander’s leg jigged up and down, showing his nerves as he plucked at the material of his sweats with trembling fingers. He had a sick feeling developing in his gut



“Yeah pet, they’re sending some people over, need to talk to us about something or other,” Spike replied. Spike’s body was as still as a statue, giving more away about his state of mind than if he’d been pacing the room.



Xander nodded and sat there, staring at the sun through their large windows. They looked like clean giant factory windows, with leading between the panes, holding them in place. The sun looked warped as it reached the edge of each pane, then straightened out over the large panes of glass. Neither of them even turned on the TV or radio. The buzz of the outside buzzer made them jump, startling them both out of their solitary thoughts about the same things.



Spike looked out the window and saw the flashing lights, and pressed the buzzer to open the downstairs door and opened the upstairs door. The cops were quickly in their apartment, beat cops, still in uniform, hats in hand, they looked at each other, then, one of them swallowed and licked his lips.



“Uhhhh, we need one of you.” He spoke to the room at large, not looking either man in the eye.



“What for mate? We’re just a dance show.” Spike retorted.



“Look, we asked Ben, and we couldn’t get a coherent word out of his mouth before he passed out, he’s in the hospital because of his nerves, too doped up to give a proper statement, and the quicker we do this, the quicker we can work the case.”



“Case?” Xander asked nervously.



“We… we need you to identify a body,” the first cop continued, the second one stayed silent, he was obviously a junior partner, still fresh out of the package as it were, he was learning the ropes.



“If you could come with us please, it would be a great help.” He he said. Xander swallowed hard, Spike didn’t fare much better, they both knew something big and bad was going to happen. There was no way either man would let the other go alone for this, one shared look and a subtle nod of head had them both moving. They grabbed their keys and wallets and went with the officers.

~*~



They stood in front of a window, a body on the other side, covered with a white sheet. Xander squeezed Spike’s hand nervously as they stared. The cops cleared their throats and paced from foot to foot. Finally the medical examiner came in to the windowed room. She had her mask on, and pulled back the sheet from the body’s head.



Xander fell down, his fingers falling from Spike’s grasp.



Spike ran up to the glass and started screaming, just howling, snarling his anger. “Greg, you better pray the cops find you first!” He he vowed with passion.



“So… you know who it is? We need you to actually say his name,” The the cop said almost lamely.



“It’s Steven Parkers,” sniffled Spike, wiping his watering eyes on the backs of his hands. He broke down into sobs, just shaking with grief, Xander held him and stroked his back as he cried, his own eyes leaking profusely, tears dripping down onto Spike’s hair. The cops nodded and jotted something down.



“Thanks.”



“W-what happened?” Sniffed sniffed Spike, as he checked his pockets for something to blow his nose on. Xander silently handed him half of a napkin he’d found in his own pocket search.

 

“We think he’s the donor of your latest heart, but he wasn’t in a dumpster like the rest, he was actually buried, so we’re probably going to try running a new angle at this. Killer is trying to hide the bodies now, making our job harder.” The cop privately congratulated himself for not gagging at the sounds of wet, snotty, nose blowing going on in stereo in front of him.



“Where’s Ben?” Xander asked.



“In the hospital,” the talkative police officer said. “We checked him in after he passed out.” They seemed rather callous to what was going on around them.



Xander glared at them. “Will you at least give us the room number? That man was his husband, his life! Show some damned respect!”



The cops looked bashful suddenly, chastened, and the younger one spoke for the first time, “Room 429, St. Mike’s”



“Thank you.” He hugged and held Spike, helping him up and out. They signed a few papers at the front desk, then he hailed a cab and they both went to the hospital.



~*~



Spike slept in a chair and Xander stood over him, staring at the large man on the hospital bed, his friend passed out with worry and grief, . it It was almost eerie, they seemed to be breathing together. Finally Ben stirred, his motions and words all slurred, obviously still chemically restrained. What was odd though, was that the doctor had just been in and injected him with something, then told them to go home, that Ben would sleep through the night. He’d obviously not taken Ben’s body mass into consideration… or something… because that was the only reason they could come up with, that the doctor had miscalculated the dose of whatever it was he’d injected him with.



“Ben, Ben, calm down or the nurse will have to come back here.” Spike shushed him. Spike had moved from the chair so fast that he’d reminded Xander of the speed he used to be capable of when he was a vampire.



Ben calmed almost, staring at them. Then his eyes crumpled and he whimpered loudly, then wailed his grief out. The nurse came running in, Xander stood interference, saying he’d just woken up and was crying, and no, they didn’t need more sedatives, he just needed a good old fashioned cry. Eventually the nurse gave up trying to intervene, and left, hands in the air.



Meanwhile, Ben was crying and sobbing his eyes out, curling up into a ball and just wailing his grief, shaking and shuddering. Spike sat on Ben’s bed, rubbing his back and holding the huge man as he cried. Xander watched on, again feeling like an unwelcome third wheel. He heard Spike talking to Ben.



“Shhh, we know sweetheart, we know… we’ll be together, okay? Next time you need another person, you call for me, always, okay? I mean it Ben… Oh Ben, we’re going to miss him so much.” And he started crying himself, shaking softly, but still holding on to Ben.



Eventually they sniffled out, and Ben lay back. “Damn head feels like it’s going to explode pink fluffy bunnies. You let them sedate me… you didn’t know, did you? You still don’t know… Steve never said a word to anyone… Oh god, Steve…” He sobbed wretchedly, a pile of snot and spit and tears, quivering and helpless. Spike cleaned him up with a box of Kleenex, and then started on mopping down himself.



“Shouldn’t… Shouldn’ta… Shouldn’ta let ‘em gimme… gimme a sed, sed, sedative.” To Xander’’s Xander’s ear, this sounded like Ben was drunk.



Spike looked at him confusedly. “You needed it mate, you were in pieces, they just wanted to let you have some calm for you to grieve in… That’s all…”



Ben looked at them and explained in two words something that turned their world right around again. “Not human…”



Xander and Spike looked at each other and uniformly sighed. This was starting to smell like a Scoobie caper, and neither one of them liked that.