Alternate Universe: Unexpected
Story Title: I Run to You
Chapter Title:

Tug of War

Time line:

August, 2004 - September, 2004

**

History:

Joshua "JJ" Harris was born on April 21st, 2004

The twins (Danielle, "Dani" and William, "Billy") were born on February 12th, 2004

Annie turned five on February 14th (she was born in 1999)

Spike and Buffy have been married five years in February. (seems longer, doesn't it?)

Buffy turned 23 on January 19th.

 

All the Potentials were endowed with full Slayer power in February 2003.

Buffy and Spike learned of the other dimensions in May, 2003.

Summary:

 

Spike and Angel both contemplate change and the tug of war that is life…

 

Notes: Heartfelt thanks to my "ET" and wonderful Beta, PaganBaby, for her wonderful suggestions, much needed corrections and always appreciated encouragement!!  

**

Music Referenced:

Tug of War, Paul McCartney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8IL9QW8keU

**

I Run to You, Lady Antebellum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs38lKxmtI4

 

**~**

ScreenCaps courtesy of ScreenCap Paradise:

http://www.screencap-paradise.com/?cat=3

 

Rating / Warnings:

NC17. 

Content is only suitable for mature adults. Contains explicit language, sex, adult themes and other adult situations that some people may find objectionable. If you are under the age of 17 or find any of these themes objectionable – GO AWAY. Parents, it is up to YOU to control what your children are reading.

 

 

Tug of War, Paul (and Linda) McCartney 

 

It's A Tug Of War
What With One Thing And Another
It's A Tug Of War
We Expected More
But With One Thing And Another
We Were Trying To Outdo Each Other
In A Tug Of War

In Another World
In Another World We Could
Stand On Top Of The Mountain
With Our Flag Unfurled
In A Time To Come
In A Time To Come We Will Be
Dancing To The Beat Played
On A Different Drum

It's A Tug Of War
Though I Know I Mustn't Grumble
It S A Tug Of War
But I Can't Let Go
If I Do You'll Take A Tumble
And The Whole Thing Is Going To Crumble
It's A Tug Of War

Pushing Pushing, Pulling Pulling
Pushing And Pulling

In Years To Come They May Discover
What The Air We Breathe And The Life We Lead
Are All About
But It Won't Be Soon Enough
Soon Enough For Me
No It Won't Be Soon Enough
Soon Enough For Me

In Another World We Could
Stand On Top Of The Mountain
With Our Flag Unfurled
In A Time To Come We Will be
Dancing To The Beat Played
On A Different Drum

We Will Be Dancing To The Beat
Played On A Different Drum
We Will Be Dancing To The Beat
Played On A Different Drum

It's A Tug Of War, A Tug Of War
A Tug Of War
What With One Thing And Another
It's A Tug Of War
We Expected More
But With One Thing And Another
In A Tug Of War

Pushing Pushing, Pulling Pulling
Pushing And Pulling
 

 

(Back in time about 2 weeks), Early morning hours, Monday, August 16th, 2004:

 

Angel stood on the sidewalk holding his meager possessions from his time with Buffy in the high school in a shopping bag in his hand and watched the cab she was in pull away.  He watched until it turned a corner and disappeared from view, then sighed heavily as he turned his eyes towards the Hyperion.

 

Spike suddenly appeared next to him on the sidewalk, thumbs hooked over his belt buckle, smirking. “You just gonna stand there like a git or ya gonna go embrace your destiny?”

 

Angel looked at Spike – he thought the hallucinations had stopped. “There was a time I thought Buffy was my destiny … until you came along.  I should’ve never let Dru turn you – you’ve been nothing but a thorn in my side ever since.”

 

“Every rose has its thorns,” Spike pointed out, still smirking. “But Buffy wasn’t your destiny.” Spike tilted his head towards the Hyperion. “Your destiny is still waitin’ – you can still be a real boy, have a real life – the prophecy …”

 

“Give me a break, Spike!” Angel exclaimed as he started walking away from the blond. “That prophecy is so vague – Which Apocalypse? Today’s? Tomorrow’s? The one a hundred years from now? It’s just a big carrot hanging on a string and no matter how fast you run, you can’t reach it.”

 

“Not true,” Spike informed him, running ahead of Angel and blocking his path. Angel stopped short and looked at Spike with disdain.

 

“How do you know?” Angel asked him tersely.

 

“Saw it – other dimension; I was made into a real boy … I Shanshued.”

 

“Oh, wonderful! So what’s the point? If you’re gonna get it, why even try?” Angel asked him, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at Spike.

 

“’Cause, you nit, I don’t want it in this bloody dimension! I got Buffy – she’s immortal ‘ere – she don’t want a real boy. I have the Gem of Amarra all tucked away, safe and sound, got a family – I got all I need – you can ‘ave it. You just need to figure out which side you have to be on to earn it…”

 

Angel looked at Spike suspiciously. “Who are you?”

 

“You lost your bloody mind again, wanker?” Spike asked him. “You know who I am.  You think that bloody trawler just happened to haul your sorry ass up from the bottom of the ocean? You know what I’m talkin’ about. How much do ya’ want it? What would you do to get it, Angelus?”

 

Angel reached a hand out towards Spike, but he disappeared instantly, leaving Angel standing alone on the sidewalk.

 

“The First,” Angel muttered under his breath. First!Spike’s words rang in his head, Which side are you on? What would you do to get it, Angelus?

 

Angel shook his head – it was a trick. The Powers had brought him back … right? They’d sent the vision to Buffy so she’d help him – he was destined to save Annie and JJ, Buffy had been sure … right?

 

Angel suddenly felt like the rope in a game of tug-o-war being played by powers much larger than himself. Where did his destiny really lie? With good or evil? The prophecy wasn’t clear, his own heart, even his soul, hadn’t always been clear – he straddled the line between the two, sometimes leaning too far one way or the other with no one to pull him back, no one to help him walk the tightrope.

 

“Angel!?”

 

Angel looked to see who’d called his name and saw Cordelia running down the sidewalk towards him. The sky was just starting to lighten with the coming sunrise – she’d come out of the hotel to pick up the paper when she’d seen him standing there.

 

“Oh my God, Angel!” she exclaimed as she reached him and flung herself at him, grabbing him in a hug, knocking them both to the ground, and sending the shopping bag that was in his hand flying out into the street – its contents scattering along the pavement.

 

“Is it really you!? Am I dreaming again?” Cordy asked as she sat up on top of him and touched his face and chest to make sure he was real. “Please don’t let this be a dream!”

 

Angel reached a hand up and touched her face. “It’s me … I’m back,” he told her softly.

 

Cordy covered his hand with hers, leaning her face against his palm, and closed her eyes as tears welled behind her lids. “I didn’t think we’d ever find you … I looked and looked – I thought I’d lost you forever.”

 

Cordy opened her eyes and looked at him. “God, Angel, I love you … I love you, I love you,” she confessed as she leaned down and kissed his lips softly.

 

“I love you, too, Cordelia,” Angel murmured against her lips – as she straddled his hips, still on the sidewalk.

 

Angel wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down against him as he deepened the kiss. Cordelia ran her hands through his hair, over his face and down his shoulders – still afraid to allow herself to believe that he was real.

 

“Get a room!” someone yelled from the other side of the street and they both laughed against the other’s mouth.

 

Angel suddenly felt like he’d wasted too many years pining for someone he could never have, not seeing the treasure that was right in front of him – he didn’t want to waste another precious moment. It was time to make a change – take a leap of faith, open his eyes and follow where his heart was leading him.

 

“Marry me?” Angel asked as Cordy began to sit back.

 

Cordelia studied his face, he was thin, but it was Angel – his brown eyes were soft and full of love and it was for only her – not for Buffy – for her. How long had she waited for this? Forever, it seemed. Cordy nodded as the tears that were threatening rolled down her cheeks. “Yes … yes – God YES!” Cordy screamed to the heavens, throwing her head back.

 

“Christ, don’t you people have any shame?! Get a fucking room!” came the same voice from across the street.

 

Cordy stood up – a wide grin plastered on her face as she wiped the tears of joy away, and Angel followed. He grabbed her into a tight hug and lifted her feet up off the ground as he twirled her around and kissed her again before he started carrying her towards the hotel.

 

“Mrs. Liam … hey, what’s your last name, anyway?” Cordelia asked him, her brow furrowed. She pulled her face back to look at him as Angel still held her tightly in his arms.

 

Angel laughed. “It’s just ‘Angel’ now …”

 

"Well, 'Just Angel Now', I feel it's my duty to remind you that proposals of marriage usually involve a large, shiny, absurdly expensive ring ... and the man going down on bended knee in a fancy restaurant full of people." Cordy held her left hand up, showing him the lack of a ring on it. "So, you'll have to do that again ... I'll pretend to be surprised."

 

Angel rolled his eyes, but smiled at her. "I'll get right on that..."

 

**~**

 

(back to the present)

Monday, September 6th, 2004 (Labor Day):

 

Spike stood on the third floor porch of the beach rental, dressed in his swim trunks, just outside their bedroom in the moments before the sun rose over the horizon. He leaned against the railing, facing east, watching and waiting for the sun to show itself.  Today was their last day here – tonight they’d go home, tomorrow Annie started first grade at her new school – it would be a new routine for all of them. 

 

Spike was reminded of an old adage as the rays of the sun began to brighten the sky … Change is life’s only constant. The ebb and flow of life was like a tug of war … pulling them forward, then back, then forward again – change was inevitable; it couldn’t be stopped any more than the sun could be stopped in the sky or the waves stopped in the ocean.

 

He’d seen a lot of change over his life, but perhaps the changes that had affected him most were the ones that had happened since he’d come to Sunnydale.  The last years had been full of change for him, for all of them, really – but for him most of all.  He wondered how many more changes were in store for them over the next five, ten … fifty years. 

 

As the sun’s rays filtered through the trees to the east and began to trickle up his body like soft fingers of light, Buffy walked up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and laid her head against his bare shoulder.

 

“Are you happy, luv?” Spike asked her as he laid his hands over hers at his waist.

 

“Very…” Buffy sighed.

 

“I’m still a vampire,” Spike pointed out as the sun began to warm his skin, chasing away the coolness from the early morning air.

 

“I should hope so,” Buffy said with a smile, dropping a kiss on his bare shoulder blade.

 

Spike turned in her arms to face her. “What I mean is…I can walk like a man – I can go in the sun like a man now, I even have the soul of a man, but I’m still a demon, Buffy. My blood doesn’t flow, my heart doesn’t beat … I can’t warm you on cold nights, I can’t give you more children – not without divine intervention...”

 

Buffy looked at him and shook her head. “You still think you need to be more than you are? You think you aren’t everything that I want? You’re wrong – I love the man, I love the demon, I love you.

 

“I know every time we start talking about that Shanshu thingy you start thinking that you aren’t everything I need – but you’re just exactly what I need, just exactly the way you are.

 

“I want to spend my life with you. Whether that’s a year, a decade, a century, or an eternity, I want to spend it with you, with Spike, the vampire with the soul of a man and a heart of gold. If you Shanshued, who would I spend eternity with?” Buffy asked him, laying a hand gently on his face.

 

Spike smiled and nodded, then wrapped his arms around her and held her against him in a tight hug, tucking her head under his chin. She was right, of course.  He just wanted to give her everything – he wanted to be everything for her, but he couldn’t Shanshu and spend eternity with her, too.

 

“And, for the record, you warm me up just fine on cold nights, warm nights … well, really every night,” Buffy told him with a sly smile.

 

“Do I, now?” Spike asked with a smirk.  “Well, I reckon, now that I’ve ‘Shanshued’, we should start working on warmin’ your days, too…”

 

“Mmmmmm,” Buffy moaned, lifting her face to his and pulling his head down so his lips hovered just over hers. “I think that’s an excellent idea,” she breathed before nibbling his lower lip lightly with her teeth. “I think we should start right now…”

 

**~**

 

I Run to You, Lady Antebellum 

 

I run from hate
I run from prejudice
I run from pessimists
But I run too late


I run my life
Or is it running me
Run from my past
I run too fast
Or too slow it seems


When lies become the truth
That’s when I run to you
 

This world keeps spinning faster
Into a new disaster so I run to you
I run to you baby
And when it all starts coming undone
Baby you’re the only one I run to
I run to you

We run on fumes
Your life and mine
Like the sands of time
Slippin’ right on through
And our love’s the only truth
That’s why I run to you

This world keeps spinning faster
Into a new disaster so I run to you
I run to you baby
And when it all starts coming undone
Baby you’re the only one I run to
I run to you

 

 

**END**

 


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