Pairing: Angel and Spike
Disclaimers: I don’t own any of the Buffy or Angel characters. Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy etc do. No copyright infringement is intended or inferred and no profit is being made…blah, blah, blah.
Notes: Spike’s favourite TV show has been cancelled. Angel comforts him.
Spoilers: None
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“Will, are you coming to bed?” Angel called through from the bedroom having fallen asleep waiting for his Childe, only to wake up now, hours later to find that he still wasn’t there.
“In a while,” was Spike’s hollow answer.
“William?” Angel questioned, getting out of bed and coming into the lounge, then “Will, what are you doing?” As he found his youngest sitting in front of the TV, starring at it dumbly as two cartoon weiner dogs silently repeated the same dance over and over beneath the words stating that Weiner Brothers would be back at 6.00am.
“Don’t,” Spike’s voice was full of desperation as he suddenly came to life when Angel reached out to flick off the set.
“It’s finished,” Angel stated as if Spike hadn’t noticed.
“Don’t. If you turn it off then it’ll really be over,” Spike sunk back into himself.
“Huh?”
“August. It’s, it’s gone,” Spike whispered as if he couldn’t actually believe it.
“August? Your show? August the good guy, Augustus when he’s bad? Tonight’s was the last one? I thought that was next week.”
“No, that was the last one…ever,” Spike’s breathed the last word, disbelievingly, looking up at Angel with the most sorrowful eyes his Sire had ever seen.
“No it can’t be,” Angel dismissed Spike’s fears, sitting down beside him, putting an arm around him and pulling him to rest against him. “I’m sure you’ve still got it wrong. It’s one of the top rated shows, they were even celebrating their 100th episode the other day weren’t they? Josstin Wheedal wouldn’t be that dumb.”
Angel knew about the show, knew because Spike loved it, but he didn’t really have a clue what it was about and hadn’t been following all of the news.
“Told you, wasn’t him, it was that fucking network,” Spike reeked of bitterness, “not the first time they’ve done it either…still at least they warned him this time…half way through the bloody season,” Spike spat sarcastically. “Oh and nice move by good o’le Weiner Brothers with that 100th episode, making sure they got all of that publicity in *before* telling them they were going to cancel the show. The August cast smiling away oblivious through interviews, before being stabbed in the back once the network had used them
“Josstin didn’t know it was coming? How did he manage to bring the show to a close with only half a season to work with? You’ve been watching that for years now, well if you include its predecessor Duffy.”
“He didn’t manage to end it, didn’t stand a chance. It’s worse than when Duffy ended. You know how I cried when that was over? I wanted it to go on, but I could handle it, you know? It had a sense of completion, left you sad but able to understand…and you knew that you still had August to turn to. But this? This has just been left hanging, abandoned, loose ends trailing all over the place. It doesn’t feel like the end…but it is…it’s, it’s gone,” Spike finally broke down and turned into Angel’s arms.
“It’s like…God Angel, this feeling, it’s like someone died. It hurts. I know it’s stupid…it’s only a TV show. There are people starving out there, dying and I’m losing it over a show,” Spike sniffled out between sobs, “It’s just made up characters, but…”
“But it’s more than that,” Angel finished softly, knowingly for him when Spike’s voice wouldn’t cooperate. “You’ve watched them for this long, right from the beginning, been drawn into their world, seen them grow, go through all of life’s up and downs, cried along with them, felt their pain, shared in their happiness. That was more than a show, that Josstin was a God, brought his creations to life, made you care about what happened to them, made them a part of you.”
Spike nodded against Angel’s chest, confirming that this was how he felt.
“All of that work we did, the fans I mean, sending postcards, letters, e-mails, running campaigns, begging Weiner Brothers not to cancel the show, telling them how important it was, asking for just one more season so that we could watch August go out the right way…it, it wasn’t enough. They didn’t listen, didn’t care…fucking cunting bastards,” Spike began to sob again. Angel held him tighter.
“Maybe they’ll, I don’t know, do a movie or something, finish it off that way, give you the closure you need,” Angel tried to think of something that might give his boy hope, might ease some of his pain.
Spike shook his head ‘no’ against Angel’s chest. “They said that at first but now…I dunno. Davy, you know the one that plays August? He’s not interested in playing that part anymore…and with the way he’s been fucked around you can’t really blame him. But Jim, you know the one who plays Spear? We’ll he’s up for it…but there’s nothing set in stone, it’s all just rumors, maybes and stuff, nothing definite to cling to.”
“What about the books, they’ll continue won’t they?”
Spike shrugged, “Probably. Don’t know how long for though. There’s an audience there, but,” Spike sighed heavily, not finishing what he was going to say. “….‘sides, it’s not the same.”
“What about those board thingies you visit, the ones with all the August loves Spear’s type stories? Surely they’ll carry on right?” Angel was really trying to give his boy a shred of hope to cling to.
“I hope so,” Spike hushed, but he still sounded lost, broken. “I just hope people don’t start forgetting, or give up…they’re all suffering you know, all feeling this way.”
Angel didn’t know what else to say, just held his boy as he sobbed his heart out, crying until finally exhausted he fell asleep in his Sire’s arms.
Angel gently scooped him up and took him through to bed, lay him down and covered him up before heading back into the lounge.
He walked past the shelving units, eyeing all of Spike’s Duffy and August books, his action figures, DVD’s, discs of stories downloaded from the internet, statues, busts, collectors cards, games…hell you name it, it was there. Angel cried too then, feeling for his hurt Childe, he knew it was more than just some TV show to his boy, it had become a part of his life and now those evil fuckers at Weiner Brothers were uncaringly tearing a big part of him away.
Angel starred accusingly at the TV. How dare those arseholes hurt his boy, cause him pain….if Angelus could just get his hands on them for one moment…show them what their thoughtless money grabbing decisions were really doing to their fans…
Angel held his thumb over the power switch, hesitated for a moment then switched it off.
“Burn in hell WB, burn in hell.”
THE END