TITLE: Earth Shattering Conversation
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRT
CLASSIFICATION: Spike/Angel interaction.
SUMMARY: Angel's ready to make some serious changes...
SPOILERS: Set about three weeks after the end of "Damage," so if you haven't seen it yet there are a few major spoilers.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, I don't own it. Joss Whedon, Kazui Sandollar, The WB, UPN, et. al. most likely do.
FEEDBACK: Please send it offlist and let me know it's feedback; I do rapid delete on my account due to a lot of spam.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Answer to the Buffyverse Lyric Wheel, where the story is due on Friday, February 13th. So I got in done in 20 minutes or so. The lyrics I had to use are at the bottom.

***

Spike looked at the bandages running up and down his arms. Bloody hell, he thought. She'd really gone and done it. Cut off his bleedin' hands for something he never did.

It's bloody bull, he thought. He wanted to be saved. He wanted to save people. This whole superhero thing had started off as a way to get Angel's knickers in a twist, but the truth was, he liked saving people.

"These dreams they pass me by," Spike said aloud, sensing Angel nearby. "Like a fool, I try and stop them, view them, make them...real."

When Angel didn't reply, Spike continued. "She's a bloody monster, you know."

"I know."

"And the Slayers, they won't control her."

"I know."

Anger boiled up in Spike. "The why in the bloody hell didn't you fight to keep her here in our custody, and maybe get her some real help, not some psychobabble from Andrew?"

"It wasn't my place."

"Bull. You could have taken him. Taken the Slayers, too. Taken them all."

Angel shook his head. He realized, now, that telling him it was Buffy's orders that had Dana taken away was not a smart thing to have done. "No, Spike, I couldn't have."

"Wonder what she'll do when she finds out I'm here. Told Andrew not to tell her, but if the pissant double crossed you he was probably lying to me."

Angel stayed silent. He already knew the answer; she would do nothing. It had been three weeks. She had called. And yet when she asked about Spike, her voice sounded flat.

Angel knew she preferred to remember Spike as a dead hero and not Angel's unwilling ally.

Angel also knew that they were through, forever. But he kept that bit of information to himself.

"'Cos this life is a farce," Spike had continued while Angel momentarily tuned out. "We help the hopeless and the Slayers come and muck it all up."

"We?"

Spike paused for a moment. "We may have different guides, Angel, but we're doing the same thing. Course, I'm not the one working with the big bad, but..."

Angel shook his head. "As soon as you're healed, we're gone."

"We?"

Angel smiled slightly. Spike had sounded just like he had a few moments before. "This salvation I desire...the same salvation you desire...we'll never find it here. Wesley wants to go. So does Fred. I think...I think we lost Gunn." He cleared his throat. "But he'll do good work, here. He doesn't need us."

"So, mate, where do we go?"

"Anywhere but here."

***

"It's a Fire"
by Portishead

(Lyrics used in the fic are in italics)