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He didn't know how long Angel had been awake, but the older vampire was<br />
crouched down in the darkest spot of his shadowed corner, watching them, his face<br />
hidden behind his brood-mask.<br />
"You wanna tell that story, dear Angel?" Spike offered. When Angel didn't answer,<br />
Xander asked another question to draw the focus away from the broody one. He<br />
didn't care all that much what Angel had to say, anyway.<br />
"So, what's the longest you and she ever spent apart?"<br />
Spike thought on that for a little while. "We were separated for almost a year once.<br />
It was Chicago, the 1930's. I was in prison for tax evasion, and there is no way that<br />
you are ever going to hear the rest of that story, so don't even ask." Xander grinned<br />
at that, trying to envision how such a scenario could possibly have transpired, and<br />
just came to the conclusion that Spike was lying.<br />
"And these past few months, with us…well, it's weird, isn't it?" Xander's brain<br />
started firing and small events started to piece together in his mind. "You've been<br />
chained to a wall for three months. You've been forced to put up with me and him.<br />
You've been yelling and screaming about not being able to hunt and kill and smoke.<br />
You've been saying how much you missed her." He took hold of the manacle on<br />
Spike's right wrist. "And you could have left at any time."<br />
Xander got up quickly and crossed the crypt to stand in the middle of the beam of<br />
light. "And you really could have killed me at any time, too. All those times when it<br />
was just the two of us alone," he vaguely heard Angel stand up behind him, "you<br />
could have killed me, broken the chain, gone back to your precious Drusilla and left<br />
town before Angel was even home." The panic was just about full-blown now. "Am<br />
I right?"<br />
Fucking evil vampire just grinned.<br />
Xander started pacing back and forth in the light, talking almost to himself. "I think<br />
that I convinced myself that you wouldn't kill me when we were alone because it<br />
just wouldn't do to have Angel come home to find my dead cold body on the bed<br />
and you still chained to the wall. He would dust you in an instant. It never occurred<br />
to me that you could get away." Then that brief interlude of panic-mode vanished.
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