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Warning: Angst, character death.
Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to the characters and I make no money.
This is for entertainment only.
Feedback is always welcomed.

OUR SPECIAL PLACE

Angel walked briskly through the old cemetery, heading straight for Spike's crypt. It wasn't hard to find the old mausoleum that his only childe was calling home, considering he had choked the directions out of a reluctant demon unfortunate enough to cross his path.

There was a great deal of guilt for the big vampire after he had gotten his soul back and although there wasn't much he could do to right the wrongs that he had inflicted when he was Angelus, at least he could make amends to Spike. That's what he kept telling himself as he stood outside the rust-colored door, hesitant to knock.

He knew Spike was there. He could smell him. The familiar scent that was uniquely William, his childe, whom he hadn't seen in more than a hundred years. Now that he had returned from Hell, there was a lot of making up to do. Angel stepped up and rapped quietly against the aged metal door and waited.

Nothing.

Angel grasped the brass ring that was hanging from the ornate lion's mouth and turned it, pushing against the door until it squeaked open. The dark vampire coughed at the stench that pushed past his nostrils and he moved aside quickly as a pair of rats scuttled across his shoes, seeming to be fleeing the horror of what he would find inside.

"Spike?... Will?" Angel called out, only to have his own voice bounce back at him from the semi-darkness.

Angel stepped gingerly into the crypt, not expecting to find the broken glass, leaves and twigs that crunched underneath his feet as he walked. Neither did he expect to find the broken coffins with their contents spewed out obscenely throughout the large space intermingled with some old, beat up furniture. He had expected to find Spike, but the blond vampire was nowhere to be seen.

A faint ray of moonlight that was struggling to escape the desolation led Angel to move deeper inside. He kicked at the broken beer bottles and toed at some long dead cigarette butts that decorated the dusty floor wondering if he had misread his instincts about Spike. The mess screamed out to him that Spike had been there at one time, but now he wasn't sure. He gave the place one last cursory glance over, then turned on his heels toward the door, deciding to leave.

Suddenly, as he reached out to pull the door to the crypt closed behind him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He had heard it. He was sure of it. A sigh, barely audible to his vampiric hearing, but it was a sigh.

"Fuck!... William... is that you?" Angel cried out as he scrambled back into the crypt, kicking and forcing away anything in his path. Spike was there... somewhere.

Angel blindly upended coffins, knocking out their brittle contents to clatter and break at his feet. He effortlessly broke into any sarcophagus that he found and pushed the stone lids off in hopes of finding his childe. He had even destroyed the filthy couch that was there by tearing out its crumbling foam looking frantically for Spike, but it was to no avail.

"Will... w'ere are ye?" Angel called out, slipping into his natural Irish brogue.

"Childe?..."

Angel heard it again. A weak sigh... coming from behind a urine stained mattress propped up in a dark corner. He lunged toward it and pulled it away from the wall without difficulty and gasped in horror at what he saw.

Laying naked on a dirty, tattered blanket on the cold stone floor, surrounded by maggot infested vomit, debris and old blood bags was Spike, or what was left of him. Nothing more than a living skeleton with pale, crystalline skin stretched painfully over jutting bones looked blankly back at Angel with sunken black eyes.

"Mother Mary, Will..." Angel's voice cracked and tears rolled down his face as he fell to his knees in front of his childe.

The dark vampire's hand trembled uncontrollably as he reached out to gently touch Spike's cheek with one finger, afraid that the small vampire would shatter if he kissed him.

A single tear managed to make its way down Spike's gaunt cheek as he remembered the scent of family and he made a herculean effort to speak.

"S-sire?..." was breathed out so softly, it sounded like a whisper on the wind that Angel could barely hear.

"Yes, Childe... Sire..." Angel cooed gently to Spike as he tenderly and carefully gathered up the emaciated vampire into his arms and pressed him to his chest.

Spike whimpered softly in pain as Angel lifted him and held him carefully to his chest. It would be all right now. Sire was here.

It didn't matter that Spike hadn't seen Angel in over a hundred years... that he hadn't known where his sire was in all that time. It didn't matter to the small vampire that he had faced loneliness and abuse by himself without Sire's comfort and protection.

All that didn't matter now. All that mattered was that Sire had found him. Sire would love him and protect him... make the hurt go away.

"Will... what happened to you?... When did you last feed?" Angel murmured against Spike's long, auburn curls and wondered by what means the once blond and powerful vampire had come to be in such a fragile state.

Without waiting for an answer, Angel bit into his own wrist and watched as the blood oozed up before he pushed the wound against Spike's lips. He had to do something. He couldn't lose Will... not now... not again.

Spike tried to protest when Angel pushed his bloody wrist against his lips; wanted to tell Sire that he was unable to feed... couldn't... feed since they put that sodding chip into his head, but he was too weak. Instead, he convulsed around the wound, coughing and gagging as his dying body fought to reject it.

When Angel saw that Spike couldn't feed, his undead heart broke in two. What had happened to his beloved Will? Slowly, he moved his arm away from Spike's parched lips and gently wiped the blood away from his childe's bony cheeks.

Angel carefully shrugged one arm out of his leather duster and wrapped Spike's trembling form into it, drawing him as close to his body as he could without causing more pain. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily as he started to gently rock the small vampire in his arms.

"It's alright, William," Angel said lovingly. He already knew that his sweet boy... his Will... was dying. Had known it since he first saw him... had smelled the stench of death on his only childe, but he didn't want to believe it.

Spike trembled uncontrollably and tried not to scream out in pain when Angel wrapped him in his duster. He didn't want to seem ungrateful. Sire had found him and now he wouldn't have to die alone, forgotten in a dirty corner of an abandoned mausoleum. It was the least he could do, not to scream out like a nancy boy...

"Will?... my love..." Angel whispered softly. "Remember that special place we always dreamed about where there would be no pain or sorrow... no guilt... just the two of us walking together in the sunlight?"

Spike did remember and his lips tried to form a slight smile. When he was first turned, he and Sire had always talked about the special place that they would like to find when they were facing the end of their existence. They would make sweet love to each other slowly, no regrets, before they held each others hand and waited quietly to greet the sun.

Spike struggled hard to speak, only managing a throaty rasp. He could already see the sunrise.

"Yess, S-sire..."

Angel didn't know how long he had been sitting there, in the filth of the old crypt, gently rocking his broken childe. He had sobbed uncontrollably as his eyes roamed over William's wretched form, but he had to memorize every line so he would never forget. He had softly murmured words of love to his sweet boy and had begged his forgiveness for abandoning him for so many years, only to finally find him when it was too late.

"Willum? W'uld ye like ta go ta a're special place now?" Angelus asked softly as he, too, saw the sunrise.

When Spike's brain was able to process what Angelus had just said, he felt a sudden burst of energy course through his body. Sire was going to make it all right now. No regrets...

Spike's eyes were suddenly their azure blue again as he raised his head and looked adoringly into Angel's eyes.

"I'm ready, Sire," Spike said clearly and smiled.

Angel couldn't help the tears that ran down his face as he gently moved Spike so that he could stand to remove his own clothes, letting them lay where they fell. When he was stripped naked, the big vampire lovingly picked up Spike in his arms and gave him a tender kiss.

Spike kissed Angel back softly, knowing the pain would soon be over.

"I love you, Angelus..." William whispered.

"I love you, Willum..." Angelus said quietly.

Ignoring the debris that cut into his bare feet as he walked toward the shaft of light flooding the crypt, Angelus kissed and stroked William's skin tenderly, receiving the same amount of love and affection from his childe in return.

"Our special place..." William said softly, locking his gaze on Angelus' chocolate eyes.

"Our special place..." Angelus smiled as he stepped into the sunlight with William in his arms.


~ fin ~