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Becca (cowritten by Allison)
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Date Posted: 18:45:00 01/13/02 Sun
In reply to:
Becca (cowritten by Allison)
's message, "TCO Episode1:Everything Changes Chapter 2" on 18:14:25 01/13/02 Sun
Chapter 3
Luke came out of his office, into the half-empty club and frowned at the unattended bar. "Claude! If you don't get out here right now, you're fired!"
"Sir, Claude is off tonight," one of the waiters said, passing by on his way to the kitchen. "Oh, well, he's fired anyway," Luke grumbled, walking behind the bar. "Where's the other bartender, then?"
"On his break," the waiter offered, pushing open the kitchen door. "He'll be back in ten minutes."
Luke grumbled to himself and poured a glass of bourbon. He was in the middle of gulping it down when a man in a long, black coat walked up to the bar. He had dark hair that was sort of spiky, and broad shoulders.
"Hey, what can I do ya for?" he asked, setting a cocktail napkin in front of him. He figured since there was no bartender present, he'd have to do it himself.
The man shook his head. "Nothing, thanks. I just got into town and thought I'd check this place out."
"I thought you didn't look the least bit familiar," Luke joked, leaning on the counter. "I'm Luke, I own the place. You looking for a job? I just fired my bartender."
"No, but maybe you can help me. I'm looking for a girl named Elizabeth Webber. I think she goes to the University here."
Luke studied the man for a moment, all of his senses suddenly on alert. A tall, dark, handsome man asking about Elizabeth? "Why are you looking for her?"
"Um, it's kind of complicated. Do you know her?"
"She's my son's best friend. His soulmate, actually, although neither of them realizes it yet. I don't normally pry into other people's business, except when it involves people I care about, so forgive me for asking, but how do you know her?"
He shrugged, glancing around the dark room. "Friend of a friend."
"Then why aren't you asking your friend about her, instead of a complete stranger?"
"Haven't seen the friend yet. Has anything strange happened around here lately?"
Luke frowned at the question, wondering what was up with this guy. "Aside from the usual drive-by shootings, the bloodsuckers out on Spook Island, and people coming back from the dead, it's business as usual."
The man looked at him strangely, wondering how he could be so glib about something like that, and also wondering how he knew so much. He made a mental note to find out about this 'Spook Island' and got up from the barstool. "Well, I guess I don't have to tell you be careful, then."
Luke grinned. "Nah, careful's boring. I've lived in this town for years, trust me, I've seen everything by now."
The man nodded and turned to leave, but stopped when he saw a dark-haired woman enter the bar. He watched as she approached, his senses on alert. She looked at him as she passed, noticing that he wasn't quite like everyone else in the room, that there was something about him, something she should
probably recognize.
"Hey, man!" Luke shouted. "I never got your name!"
"Angel," he said quickly, before hurrying out of the building.
"Angel? What kind of name is that?" Luke muttered. He shook his head, then smiled as the woman stepped up to the bar. "Hey, Hannah, what brings you here? Isn't it your night off?"
"I'm so sorry to do this to you, Luke, but I'm quitting. I know I should give two weeks notice, but something came up, and I can't work here any longer," she said quickly. Luke studied her for a moment.
"You look different somehow. You aren't sick, are you?'
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Like I said, I'm sorry to quit like this, but I can't help it. I'm sure you'll be able to find a replacement, and I know Sonny had you paying me much more than anyone else, so I'll bet you're even a little bit relieved."
Luke chuckled. "Nah, you were a good worker. It was worth every penny. I'd ask what happened to make you leave like this, but I have a feeling you won't tell me, so I'll just be quiet. Is everything okay with Sonny?"
She nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. Anyway, I have to go. It was really good to work here, thanks again for taking a chance with me."
"Any time, darlin'," He said, smiling as she left. Once she was gone, he sighed and finished his drink, stepping aside as the bartender came back from his break. He set the empty glass down loudly on the bar and turned to him. "Hey, John, you're fired!"
"What?" he asked nervously. "I'm...but sir..."
Luke laughed and walked by him, clapping him on the back. "Just kidding. Claude's not here, so I gotta fire someone. Nothing personal."
John sighed in relief, knowing how Luke fired Claude daily, just for fun. "Oh, okay."
"Get back to work," Luke scolded, walking back to him office for another drink. It had been a very strange night, and something told him from here on out, things were only going to get weirder.
~*~
"I don't know if I can do this," Liz sighed as she and Buffy made their way through to the cemetery. "Plus, hanging out in graveyards doesn't exactly rate high on my to do list."
"And what does? Hanging out with Mr. Blue Eyes?" Buffy teased.
"Lucky and I are just friends, nothing more," Liz stated defensively.
"He's awfully cute and charming-how can you not fall for him?" Buffy pushed, the truth was she was finding Lucky completely irresistible and the complete opposite of Angel. If he wasn't attached to Liz, he'd be the perfect person to help her get over Angel.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I've never felt anything more for him," Liz began as they sat down on a bench in the cemetery. "When I first came to Port Charles he was the first person I met-other than my Gram and sister Sarah. Lucky was so cool, but in a way that meant something. I knew in that instantly he was special . . .and instantly had a crush to end all crushes."
"Oh, one of those," Buffy laughed.
"I was head over heels obsessed with Lucky, but he of course wanted my perfect older sister Sarah. Blonde, straight A's, perky cheerleader type . . ."
"Makes me glad to be an only child," Buffy chuckled, cutting her off.
"Anyway, I did everything I could to make Sarah's life miserable and to get Lucky to notice me. I tried to make Sarah look bad by planting a stolen test on her, but her boyfriend Nikolas . . ."
"Lucky's brother?"
"Yeah, before he started, well whatever he is doing with Emily, he was dating my sister-with Katherine Bell in between."
"What?" Buff asked.
"Long story-don't ask. After the test answers I went even further and planted condoms on both Nikolas and Sarah."
"And what made you think Lucky would be impressed by that?"
"Thinking back . . .I have no idea. It did succeed in getting me a night alone with him," Liz noted with a smile.
"And that is when you decided romance wasn't in the cards?"
Liz bit her lip and shook her head. "No, that was when I really fell for him. See we went to stop Sarah and Nikolas from sleeping together and ended up sliding on the ice and getting in a car accident. For the first time I felt connected to someone. Even though we argued the whole time, he listened and understood me. I knew from then on even if I didn't 'get' him, I'd always have a friend in Lucky."
"So when did it all change?" Buffy asked, twirling a stake in her fingers.
"That would be Valentine's Day. I asked him to the dance and we were going to meet there, but last minute Sarah asked him on a 'real' date and he decided to go with her. I still went to the dance, and he talked to me, but we didn't dance at all-probably because I didn't ask him," Liz accounted the evening.
"And what happened with Barbie? How come she didn't land Ken?" Buffy asked, scanning the graveyard for vampires.
"Oh, Lucky realized she was just as vapid as I always said. Sarah went to Europe to visit my parents and Lucky and I . . ."
"Became best friends . . .you know Liz, if I didn't know better I'd say that is the making of a great love story," Buffy noted, jumping off the bench and stretching her legs.
"Maybe, but if it happens it will happen naturally, I won't mess up our friendship by forcing anything. "
Buffy bent down and picked up a crossbow, handing it to Liz casually.
“I’m supposed to use a . . ." she paused, not knowing what to call it.
"It's a crossbow, I don't particularly like to use it--never seems to work," Buffy said scratching her head. "As for the fighting, I was a Valley Girl Liz-fighting meant breaking my nails, I never did it. But now . . . I've killed the Master . . ."
"The Master?" Liz asked, again, confused.
"The big nasty vampire. Well I outlived him, I drove Spike and Dru out of town, I led my senior class to stop the ascension of the mayor-I've done it all Liz, and I've grown to enjoy it. It's my job, my life, my . . ."
" . . .destiny," Liz sighed, cutting her off. "So you think I'll be able to handle this? I won't conk out?"
"It's in your blood Liz, you are a slayer, and eventually it'll be the most natural thing for you to do," Buffy grinned. "Duck."
"What?" Liz said, spinning around to see a vampire charging at her. She quickly ducked, sending the vamp toppling over her, landing on his back in front of Buffy. Buffy quickly cocked her arm back before jamming the stake into the vamp's chest. As he became dust, Liz sat on the ground, her jaw hanging open in shock.
"Good ol' Mr. Pointy," Buffy sighed, spinning the stake in her fingers. "Oh, and nice work."
"Does that . . . does that happen every time?" Liz asked, still in shock.
"The turning into dust thing? Yeah, that's why it is called dusting them," she explained, helping Liz to her feet.
"What was wrong with his face? It looked, well, weird."
"It's just a thing that happens, even happened to Angel, I can't explain it-maybe it has something to do with the demon within," Buffy shrugged her shoulders. "The next vamp is yours-you get to dust him."
"Really? Do I have to?"
"That would be best Elizabeth," Alexis said, appearing from the dark.
"Where were you? You were supposed to meet us here a while ago," Liz said, staring her watcher down.
"Sorry, Jax distracted me," Alexis told the girls.
"Wow, a watcher with a social life-who would have thunk it?" Buffy mused, pulling a stake from the bag and tossing it to Liz. "Here."
"I don't think I'm ready for this . . ."
"Don't worry, Buffy will watch your back, you'll be fine," Alexis said confidently, patting Liz on the back.
"Here's your chance," Buffy pointed to a vampire that was staggering toward them, obviously he had just risen.
"Umm," Liz groaned, holding the stake up as he walked toward them. She shot her arm forward, missing his heart and hitting him in the gut. "Whoops!"
"Pull it out," Buffy ordered with a laugh.
"Ok," she yanked the stake out, but before she could try again the vampire hit her with a backhand and sent her flying. "Owe," Liz moaned, rubbing her head as she pulled herself back to her feet. "Who do you think you are?"
"Uh oh, she's not ready for hand to hand," Buffy interjected, rushing to stop a charging Liz from engaging in fisticuffs with the vampire. "Hey big guy-they say blondes are more fun, come try me out for size."
"What are you doing?" Liz asked as the vamp headed for Buffy. "I can handle him!"
"Come on, taste this!" Buffy said crisply, swinging her left leg around-sending the vampire flying threw the air and landing at Liz's feet. "Now Liz!"
With that Liz stabbed the vampire in the heart with the stake, watching him turn to dust. Jumping to her feet, Liz danced around happily, a grin on her face. "I did it, I killed a big ugly!"
"Team work at it's best! You are a much better partner than Faith," Buffy declared, making her way over to Liz. "Congrats partner, the first slay is always the hardest."
"That was so . . . empowering! I feel like . . .I feel like I'm going to like this," Liz smiled, looking to Alexis. "What do you think?"
"You were great sweetie, I'm very proud of you," Alexis smiled, giving Liz a warm hug.
"Giles never calls me sweetie-he only drugs me on my eighteenth birthday," Buffy complained. "I really need to talk to him about pet names. I would like pet names, pet names are nice."
"This is so amazing, I can't wait to tell Lucky . . ." she stopped, realizing she couldn't.
"Not yet Elizabeth, you don't want . . ." Alexis began.
"To put him in danger, I know. I just hate lying to him, it feels so wrong," Liz sighed, sitting down on the bench.
"Don't worry, if he's anything like my friends he'll understand-and find out accidentally," Buffy reassured the rookie slayer.
~*~
Spike strolled leisurely along the docks, already feeling at home in the new surroundings. Port Charles was well suited for creatures of the night such as him, with its dark alleys and dank, gloomy warehouses. The docks were rather shadowy as well, allowing him to hunt with relative ease. As he turned a corner, he spotted an attractive young woman sitting on a bench. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, and was nervously playing with a rather garish strand of pearls that hung around her neck. After sizing her up from afar, he decided she would make a nice snack, as well as a possible playmate for Hannah, whom had already begun to get on his nerves. Maybe with this woman to talk to, she would stop babbling incessantly in his ear.
With a stealth that had been perfected from over a century of hunting, Spike crept up behind her and sank his teeth into her neck before she even realized he was there. After a short struggle, he drained her to the point of death, then quickly slit his wrist and forced her to drink his own blood. It wasn't something he enjoyed, but being in a new town, he had to build up a band of followers, other vampires that he could count on to do his bidding. So far he had Hannah, and he could already see she wasn't going to be much help. This woman, on the other hand, had spunk. He could feel it while he was drinking from her, she had a fire in her, an attitude. He liked attitude.
Starting to feel woozy, he pulled his arm away from her, forcing her to stop drinking. She wiped her mouth and looked up at him, her face already taking on a preternatural glow.
"Spike, there you are!" Hannah called out, rushing over to him. She stopped in her tracks when she saw they had company and grimaced. "Carly."
"Hannah," Carly retorted with distaste. She turned to Spike and reached up to feel her neck, startled when there was no wound there any longer. "What did you do to me?"
He frowned at the accusatory tone in her voice. "I gave you eternal life, be a little more grateful."
"What?" both her and Hannah asked at the same time. Hannah turned to glare at him. "You made her one of us?"
"One of you?" Carly asked loudly. "What is that supposed to mean? What are you, anyway?"
"I, my dear, am a vampire, and now, so are you," he explained proudly.
"Vampire? That's ridiculous, there is no such thing!" she insisted.
Spike sighed. "I prefer to avoid using cheap visual tactics for this sort of thing, but I can see you're going to be hard to convince otherwise, so here goes." He took a deep breath and hissed, baring his fangs, his face changing to vampire form, then quickly reverting to his previous facade.
Carly shrunk back from him, startled, while Hannah giggled. She shook her head, still not willing to believe him. "Fine, so you're some kind of monster, but I'm not!"
Spike shook his head and stepped closer to her. "Do you feel different now? More powerful, stronger, even invincible?"
She thought for a moment, then nodded. "And hungry."
He grinned, reaching out to take her by the shoulders. "You're a vampire, might as well get used to it. I sired you, both of you, to assist me in my reign of terror on this fine city." He put one arm around her, then reached over and draped the other across Hannah's shoulders, leading them down the docks. "You will be my faithful companions, carrying out my orders, generally wreaking havoc."
"Companions? You mean, you expect me to actually be associated with that little slut?" Carly asked, pointing over at Hannah. "No way, man. That's just not happening."
"As much as I hate to say it, I agree with Carly. There's no way we can work together, let alone be in the same room," Hannah added.
Spike sighed and looked up at the sky. "Figures, of all the people in this town, I have to pick two that despise each other. I really need a new screening process."
"Hold on a second," Carly said suddenly, stepping away from them. "If I'm a vampire now, does that mean I have to start sleeping in coffins and stuff?"
"No, that's just a myth, although they are quite cozy," Spike responded. "You can do whatever you wish, just stay away from the sun. Oh, and you can't eat or drink anything but blood anymore."
"No sun?"
"Duh, Carly, sunlight kills vampires!" Hannah said, rolling her eyes. Spike shot her a dirty look, recalling how he had to explain that to her himself earlier that day.
"Great, as if AJ isn't suspicious enough of me," Carly lamented, pacing.
Hannah sighed and turned to Spike, choosing to ignore her. "Spike, I ran into this guy before, and got a strange feeling from him. I don't know what it was, but I thought you might. He said his name was Angel. Is he a vampire, too?"
Spike groaned, rolling his eyes. "What do I have to do to get away from him?" He turned back to Hannah. "Where did you see him?"
"At Luke's. It's a blues club, I used to work there. I went over tonight to quit, and he was leaving. So he is a vampire?"
"Yes, although he's a sorry excuse for one. See, he's the only vampire with a soul. It was a curse, put on him by gypsies to punish him for all the evil he committed. Now he only does good deeds, it's rather sickening. He even fell in love with the Slayer."
"Slayer?" Hannah asked.
"Yes, Buffy...oh lord, if Angel's here, then she must not be far behind. I should have known this was all too good to be true."
"Buffy? What are you talking about?"
"I'm sorry, I forgot to speak slowly. Buffy is the Slayer. She was put here for the sole purpose of killing vampires and vanquishing demons and other evil things. We don't like her."
Hannah nodded. "Okay, so why don't we just kill her?"
Spike clapped his hands in front of him sarcastically. "Oh gee, how come I never thought of that?" Becoming serious again, he sighed and turned away from her. "Buffy doesn't die easily. Trust me, I've tried."
"Yeah, and she kicks your ass every time," a voice called out behind him. He spun around and grinned.
"Well, speak of the Angel."
Carly looked at the newcomer and smiled. "This is Angel? Wow, you never said he was hot!"
"Back off, Carly, you already have two men!" Hannah shot at her, then turned to study Angel. "Although, he does have that silent, brooding thing going that you like so much about Jason. Maybe he's your type after all."
Ignoring her, Angel stepped in front of Spike. "I see you've wasting no time starting your little band of minions." He glanced from Hannah to Carly, then back to Spike, a wry smile on his face. "As always, I see you went for beauty over brains."
"Hey!" they both shouted defensively.
"I take it Buffy is in town, then?" Spike asked, ignoring them as well. "I know how you two can't stay away from each other."
"I haven't seen her yet, but yes, I heard she was coming. She's helping the new slayer."
Spike flinched. "New slayer? So Faith finally bit the dust?" he asked, chuckling at the pun. Angel nodded, then walked away, having no desire to continue the conversation, becoming uncomfortable at the way Carly and Hannah were staring at him.
Spike wandered to the edge of the docks and gazed out at Spoon Island. "Two slayers in one town, that's never good. It looks like I'm going to need to gather some more backup here." He paused, studying Wyndemere. "Now that looks like the kind of place I could live."
Carly stepped up behind him. "Stefan Cassadine lives there right now. My Uncle Luke always said he was a vampire."
Spike rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, maybe he will be."
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