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Life is Change	By : trudyw000 Category: BtVS Crossovers > Misc - Slash - Male/Male Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Sentinel, I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Authors Note: Hi, sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday, I've been really distracted lately with job hunting and this week I received a job offer, it's just sinking in that there's no reason, beyond my own paranoia, that my ex-employers should mess up my references and in three weeks I'll finally be back at work. Anyhow, here it is, chapter 11. Big thank yous go to Lydia Monroe, Mayweed and sang for their reviews, always a pleasure to hear that the story is being read and enjoyed.
Chapter 11
The next morning - 852 Prospect
Jim Ellison woke slowly, stretching luxuriously after the best nights sleep he'd had in a while. Gradually the events of the previous evening came back to him. He remembered the long discussion with Blair and the immense surge of relief he had felt when Blair had agreed to stay. After that things became a little blurry, he'd felt so drained by all the emotional turmoil that he had just sat there, unable to summon the energy to move. Blair had seen the state that he was in and ushered him into the bathroom to get washed up for bed before packing him off up the stairs to his own space where he'd gone out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Now as he lay there he could hear the sounds of Blair moving about in the kitchen down below and delicious aromas began to drift up to him, it smelled like time to get up. Yawning widely he made his way down the steps into the main room of the loft apartment where he was surprised to see that the remains of last nights meal had all been cleared away, it appeared Blair had stayed up somewhat later than he had the night before.
Wandering into the kitchen he found Blair humming to himself as he got started on preparations for tonight's meal.
"Good Morning Jim, go, shower, I'll have breakfast ready when you get back." Blair sounded cheery despite the early hour, it was only now that that chirpiness was back that Jim realised how it had been fading steadily over the preceding weeks and months.
Thinking back on it Jim understood that he would need to pay much closer attention to his guide's moods and feelings if they were going to make this work. As it was it looked like he'd be cooking for the next week, they normally shared the work but after all the cooking and cleaning that Blair had done over the last couple of days Jim had to make a serious effort to pull his own weight.
Grunting an acknowledgement Jim headed off for his shower returning 30 minutes later washed, dried and dressed to face the day. "Thanks Chief, I needed that."
"No problem man, grab some plates, this is about ready." Moments later both men were sat at the kitchen table tucking into blueberry pancakes. They ate their meal in comfortable silence, each man lost in his own thoughts of the coming day. Eventually they finished eating and Blair made to start clearing the table but Jim stood swiftly to stop him.
"My turn I think Chief. Go put your feet up for a few." Jim took the plates from his partners hands and moved easily around the kitchen, clearing plates and rinsing off the breakfast things, there wasn't much to do, Blair had long been in the habit of tidying up as he went along, after all, organisation was key, especially when as often happened both men were working together in the small amount of kitchen space available.
Blair didn't follow Jim's suggestion but instead spent the time pottering around the kitchen getting as much prep work as possible out of the way for the evening meal. If they had another Sentinel coming to dinner he wanted to make sure they had something special to serve.
When he had finished putting away the breakfast dishes Jim glanced at the clock noticing that it was time that they were making a move if they wanted to get to the station on time. They'd been putting in all the hours God sends on their most recent case, until eventually Simon had put his foot down and packed them off home for one quiet evening to recharge their batteries. The case had stalled and so Simon had sent them off with strict instructions not to return to the station before 9am the following morning otherwise they would find the doors to the bullpen locked against them. He hoped that a few hours of relaxation would allow both men to return to the case with renewed energy and maybe with the some new insight into the string of murders across the city.
"Grab your stuff Chief, it's time to get going." Jim drew his partner's attention to the time and both men headed to their own rooms to pick up jackets, notes etc. Blair made it to the front door first, scooping up his keys from the basket kept on the small table there for that very purpose.
"You ready to go?" he called out as Jim crossed the room to join him at the door.
"Not quite” Jim replied as he stepped deliberately into Blair's personal space and Blair found himself pressed back against the door as he looked slightly up at his Sentinel. His breath caught in his throat at the intensity in those crystal blue eyes. Jim brought up his left hand to cup Sandberg's jaw and his heart leapt as he felt his partner lean into the caress. Bringing his right hand up to rest on Blair's shoulder he slowly leant in, all the while studying Blair's face for any sign that he was moving too fast, but all he saw was arousal darkening those beautiful blue eyes, gently their lips touched. Jim's left hand slid back to entwine in that glorious hair and cradle the back of Blair's head, Jim felt the moan of ecstasy that fought it's way up from deep within Blair and then his partners lips opened and Jim's tongue swept through the warm moist cavern that was revealed, revelling in the taste of his guide. Too soon Jim had to pull back in order to breath and both men stood against the door, foreheads touching as they struggled to regain control of their wayward libidos.
"Wow Jim" Blair panted as his breathing slowly returned to normal "that was... wow."
Jim smiled, "Yeah, right back at ya."
They stood together for a few moments more just enjoying the physical closeness before Jim finally stepped back allowing Blair room to open the door and they left the apartment, heading off to the police station to see if there had been any breaks in their case overnight.
Federal Way.
After finishing the phone call to Sunnydale Spike and Xander headed out into Federal Way to enjoy some freedom after having been cooped up the car for so long. They found a small all night diner five minutes walk from, the motel where they stopped so that Xander could get a slice of pie.
After that they roamed the streets for a while until Sentinel hearing, and soon after vampire hearing, picked up strains of music and laughter mixed in with the noise of clinking glasses. They followed the sounds and before long found themselves outside a lively looking bar. Inside they were lucky to find the pool table unoccupied and so Xander stayed to set up a game while Spike made his way to the bar to collect two beers.
They soon settled in to a normal boys night out, no-one else seemed interested in the pool table so they were able to monopolise it for most of the evening, knocking back a few beers, knocking in a few balls and generally enjoying a companionable chat about absolutely nothing of any world shattering importance.
Eventually the patrons began to thin out until there was only one bartender left wiping down tables and closing up for the night. Spike and Xander called out a friendly goodnight and thanks as they left the bar, Spike grabbing a packet of cigs from the machine as they went.
Standing on the sidewalk outside Spike lit up before by mutual agreement they set off walking away from the motel to explore some more, neither of them ready for this night to end. They strolled through residential neighbourhoods, industrial areas and down darkened shopping streets just enjoying the night and the lack of world ending disasters on the horizon. Suddenly Spike stopped dead “What the hell!"
Xander had taken a couple more steps before being brought up short by his companion's harsh words. Turning he saw Spike staring at what appeared to be a drip of paint running down the wall outside of a butchers shop. Xander looked around him in confusion, trying to see what had caused such a strong reaction from the vampire. Seeing nothing else to explain Spike's reaction he stepped closer to examine the drip on the wall. Normal vision could see nothing more than a dark line running down the wall, however as he focussed in Sentinel vision could see a drip of fresh red paint running down the wall for a length of about a foot. He sniffed the air carefully but could smell no scent of drying paint so although the drip looked fresh it was probably at least a day or two old. He reached out to touch it in order to confirm his supposition that it was paint and not something more sinister but found his hand slapped away by Spike in a sudden blur of movement.
"Don't touch that!" Spike barked out sharply.
"What's going on here Spike?" Xander asked. "So the painter got a little sloppy, what's the big deal?"
"You see any other red paint on this building?" Spike asked his tone still unusually sharp as he finally dragged his eyes away from the drip and scanned up and down the street as if expecting an attack.
Stepping back Xander had to admit that he had a point, there was no red paint on this shop front or even any of the neighbouring stores. In fact it didn't look like any of these shops had seen a fresh coat of paint in several years. The existing paintwork was dirty and scuffed but here, running down the wall, was a pristine drip of bright red paint that obviously had Spike seriously spooked.
"OK, I see your point but why has it got you so freaked out?" Xander could see that it was unusual but was still having a hard time understanding why Spike was reacting so strangely.
"Look, have you heard of hobo signs?" Spike asked.
Xander hated it when people answered a question with another question but he decided to play along for now, they'd been having a good time and he didn't want to spoil it if at all possible. "You mean signs on the walls or path outside houses to pass on information to other vagrants, 'this household will give food for work', 'this household will pull a shotgun on you' that kind of thing?"
"Yeah, that's the idea. Well hobos, vagrants aren't the only one to use signs like that, this is a vampire sign, it means human blood available here."
Xander spun around in shock from where he had been examining the drip, "Wait, What, do you mean like that place Riley went, where humans allow vampires to feed from them?"
"No, if it were straight from the vein then the drip would branch and it would be in blue. No this is more likely to be bagged blood." Spike finally seemed to decide that there was no immediate danger, but the relaxed mood of earlier was gone and Xander now stood in no doubt that he was in the presence of a dangerous predator.
"But where would they get quantities of bagged human blood?" Xander wondered, he knew Willies place often stocked human blood but he had carefully avoided thinking about where that had come from.
"They may have a contact in a local hospital, sometimes someone can smuggle out donated blood that has been rejected for one reason or another." Spike explained before turning to head back towards the motel, it looked like their relaxed evening was over. "Come on, time to head back."
Spike walked briskly away and Xander had to run a few paces to catch up before falling into step beside his friend.
"If you think that they're selling reject blood from the hospital, what has got you so spooked?"
"Dunno, but there was something off about that mark." Spike replied looking back over his shoulder at the shop receding in the distance with a furrowed brow. "Oi, master vampires don't get spooked." He added as an afterthought once Xander's words had sunk in.
Xander thought back to his careful examination of the mark, he conjured up a picture of it in his mind and examined it again until suddenly it struck him, "how easy is it to get hold of this reject blood?" he asked.
"Not that easy, it's virtually impossible to get a steady supply that way." Spike answered, wondering where Xander was heading with this.
"So, is there a mark to say 'out of stock' I mean I imagine most people want to avoid having to tell an irate vampire that O neg is off the menu tonight." Xander mused.
"Yes, a black drip over the red" supplied Spike.
"OK, well that drip was fresh and it looked like it had been renewed several times but I didn't see any signs of black paint, only fresh red poured over the old."
Spike just nodded in reply, Xander had hit the nail on the head, he'd seen those marks occasionally, but never pure red, there was always a trace of black running through it, fresh human blood never stayed in stock for long.
They walked the rest of the way back to the motel in silence, each reflecting on the possible implications of the small drip of red paint running down a wall that had brought their evening’s entertainment to an abrupt halt.
Police Department
It was almost nine when the battered blue and white truck driven by Jim Ellison pulled into the parking lot at the Police Department in downtown Cascade. It took a few minutes to find a parking space and then to take the elevator up to the third floor so it was exactly nine when Jim and Blair pushed open the doors to Major Crimes and walked into the bullpen. Simon Banks was already busy at his desk as were most of the other officers of the Major Crimes department and the two men moved quickly to their desks to see if there had been any breakthrough in their current case overnight.
Thus it was that with no new information they were deeply immersed in reviewing everything that they had found so far on the case when they were shocked back to the present as Simon Banks threw down his phone cursing a blue streak before grabbing his coat and yelling for Jim and Blair to follow him.
"What's up Simon?"
"Is it another one?" both men spoke simultaneously as they shrugged into their jackets and rushed to catch up to their Captain's long legged strides. As human beings they dreaded the thought of another crime scene and the desecrated bodies that it would bring, however as police officers they were well aware that it was their best hope to find the information that they needed in order to catch this killer.
"Another crime scene, four more bodies." was the terse reply causing both men to wince. The crime scenes were coming faster and with more bodies. It had been irregular to start with, just one body now and then, so much so that they hadn't even realised that they had a serial killer on their hands. It was only after the bodies started piling up on a more regular schedule and they began looking back over cold cases that they realised how long this had been going on for. The last deaths had been 3 bodies, 4 days ago with three more bodies a week earlier.
"Where is it this time?" asked Jim as the elevator let them out on the parking level.
"The abandoned theatre at Fourth and Maple, I'll meet you there." Simon called out as he climbed into his police issue sedan while Jim and Blair hurried off to find the spot where they had parked Jim's truck just hours before.
Silence reigned on the tense drive to the location Simon had given them, they made short work of the mid morning traffic and were soon pulling up outside the abandoned movie theatre. There was already a heavy police presence on site and flashing their id's to the officers standing guard outside the building they entered through the dilapidated box office and into the main auditorium. Inside they found uniformed officers working their way through the rows of moth-eaten seating looking for any clues to help solve this case. Meanwhile the crime scene techs were busy on the stage in front of the large cinema screen. Simon was up there too, standing to one side and they swiftly joined him.
As they reached his side they saw the cause of all this activity, there at the side of the stage, stacked like cordwood were four bodies, two men and two women all in their early twenties from the look of it. They were dressed for a night out on the town, women in mini dresses and the men in smart jeans and open necked shirts. One of the large curtains had been pulled down and discarded, from experience of the previous crime scenes they assumed it had been used to cover the bodies.
Closer examination of the female bodies showed ligature marks around their ankles. Jim stepped back and examined the curtain runner above their heads and even without sentinel vision it was clear that it was bent, as if some heavy weight had been hung from it. On closer inspection he could see that some of the brackets holding it up were beginning to pull loose from the ceiling. So far everything that he could see matched up to the previous scenes, he turned his attention back to the bodies for the final confirmation, there was no sign of lividity on any of the bodies, none of the usual discolouration of the skin as the blood settled down to the lowest areas of the body under the pull of gravity. Just like all the previous victims these young people had died of exsanguination, there would be found to be barely a drop of blood in any of the bodies at autopsy.
"It's just the same as the other scenes." Jim pointed out what everybody else could see, "they were hung from the curtain runner by their ankles and all the blood was drained from their bodies. Are there any other wounds on the bodies?" He asked the closest crime scene tech who was currently examining one of the young women.
"No, just the usual, ligature marks around the ankles from where they've been suspended and small puncture wounds in the arms where the needles were attached to drain the blood from them." was the reply.
"OK, well that confirms what we've suspected, there has to be more than one of them, probably three or four at a guess." Jim seemed to be thinking out loud rather than talking to his companions as he stood looking from the stacked bodies to the curtain rail overhead.
"Why do you say that?" asked Simon, wanting to hear his detective explain his reasoning.
"Look at that rail Simon" Blair answered when it became clear that Jim was too engrossed in his examination to answer the question. "They couldn't have hung more than one body at a time, you see where the brackets have almost pulled free, it would never have taken the weight of multiple bodies, but there are no signs of any other restraints on any of the bodies and no wounds, so they weren't knocked out or disoriented. It would have probably taken two people to handle stringing up each victim and draining the blood, then another one or more likely two to control the other victims while they waited for their turn." Several of the other officers and techs in the vicinity gave Blair odd looks at his enthusiasm, although after all this time they knew well how excited the anthropologist could get it still seemed somewhat indecent to see such liveliness at the site where four people had lost their lives in such a gruesome way.
"OK, I follow you so far, but why is this only proved now, we've had other scenes with multiple bodies, wouldn't the same apply for them." Simon was playing devil's advocate now, getting the detectives to verbalise their findings, to talk them through and gain clarity.
"Yes, there have been other scenes with multiple bodies, but they had each been taken individually, one strong perp could have overpowered each victim individually and dealt with them one at a time, but this time, well just look at them, they just kind of match some how, I'd bet my next months paycheck that we'll find that these four were all out together and were taken together. In fact I think I know where we should start looking."
"OK Kid, where's that?" asked Simon interested to see what the young detective would suggest.
"Hex, it's a new club just down the road from here, it opened a couple of months ago in an abandoned church. When Jim's finished here we should head on down there and see if anyone knows anything."
As Blair had been speaking his partner had been examining each of the bodies in more detail as they were unstacked by the coroner's assistants. After hearing Blair's suggestion he moved quickly between the bodies checking the backs of their hands. He checked the hands of the final body, a young man, well dressed in expensive jeans and a button-down shirt, "good call Chief, they all have stamps on the backs of their hands." he confirmed Blair's hunch "let's go" and the two men headed out of the building to see if anyone was around at Hex to answer some questions.
"How does he do that?" muttered one of the crime scene techs as he stared at the hands of one of the victims, he'd be damned he if could make out a stamp impression but after long years of experience working with the detectives of Major Crimes he knew that when they got back to the lab and ran the necessary tests Jim would be proved correct once again.
That afternoon, a motel room in Federal Way
It had only been a few hours before dawn when Spike and Xander got back to their motel and they had quickly changed and gone to bed. It was late afternoon when Xander awoke and he found that he was grateful for the black out curtains that he had bought with him, not just because they prevented his companion from bursting into flames at inopportune moments but also for the extra sleep in the practically nocturnal existence he had been living since leaving Sunnydale.
Easing his way from the bed Xander quietly picked up his clothes and turned to head into the bathroom to wash and dress.
Spike drifted up from the depths of sleep only sufficiently for vampire senses to register that the sun was still high in the sky and was about to settle back down to sleep when he realised that something was amiss. Pulling in his senses to focus on his immediate surroundings he became aware that the warm body he had wrapped around in his sleep was no longer there. As that realisation sunk in he jerked fully awake and lifted up to support himself on one elbow, the other hand scrubbing through his hair.
"Where do you think you're going then?" he asked.
Xander spun around in surprise at the voice coming from the bed, "You're awake." He noted the obvious in a bid for time. "I thought I'd go back to that butcher's store and see if I could get any more information in daylight."
"Are you nuts?" came the angry response "you're not going within a mile of that place without someone to back you up."
"Oh yeah, and who's going to do that, combusto boy?" asked Xander sharply stung by Spike's apparent lack of faith in him.
"I know that you can handle yourself with vampires and demons and all the things that hide in the dark, but these are likely to be humans, they won't all necessarily be bad guys and they are going to be in a shop full of sharp implements that they are happy to use against you if they see you as a threat." Spike tried to explain his concerns to Xander, after all he'd gone to great pains on this trip to try to show the boy just how much faith he did have in him but he knew how low Xander's self esteem had been beaten down by the slayer, the witch and especially by the sperm and egg donors commonly known as Tony and Jessica Harris.
"I need you to have someone to watch your back if you venture into that shop, preferably me, but definitely someone." He stopped talking to look at Xander and see how his words were being received. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the lessening of tension in Xander's shoulders which conveyed the message that he was getting through.
"Well what do we do now then?" asked Xander.
""How about we talk to Ellison and Blair tonight at dinner and see if they have any information to add, if not then I'll go with you tomorrow evening immediately after sundown, they have to stay open after dark if they cater to the combusto crowd."
Xander ducked his head and gave a shy grin as he acknowledged Spike's sly dig at his earlier outburst. "Alright, well we've got three hours to kill before we set off" he pointed out after checking his watch.
"Go take a long, hot shower, then we can see what's on the goggle box when you're done." Spike suggested.
Xander just looked at him like he'd lost his marbles, "Huh?" and Spike just pointed to the TV in response.
Shrugging off another weird Britishism Xander headed into the bathroom to follow Spike's advice.
Spike waited until he heard the water start to run before grabbing his phone off the side table and dialling a familiar LA number from memory. The phone rang twice before it was answered, "Angel Investigations, we help the helpless" Cordelia's voice rang cheerfully through the speaker.
"Hey cheerleader, is the poofter in?"
Spike immediately felt the energy in Cordelia's voice drop as she realised that there was no profit to be made from this call. "ANGEL, it's the bleached wonder" Spike flinched as the strident tones suddenly pierced his ears as Cordy barely moved the phone from her mouth before calling for her boss.
Moments later he heard the click as the vampire who'd been more of a sire to him than his true sire had ever been lifted the receiver, "Spike?" came the querying tone.
"Hi Angel, I need a favour" Spike got straight down to business.
"What have you done now?" came the weary reply and Spike's first impulse was to take offence but thinking back over recent years he conceded that the older vampire might have a point.
"Nothing really, just, it seems Xander is a Sentinel, and I'm his guide."
"YOU WHAT!" came the shout from LA "how the hell did that happen?"
Spike gave a classic double take "wait, you know about Sentinels and guides?"
"Sure, met a Sentinel Guide pair back in the day when Darla and I were travelling through South America. They were the cutest couple, totally devoted to each other. The Guide would do anything for his Sentinel and the Sentinel was just as protective of his Guide.” Remembering how the story ended Angel stopped there.
"OKaaaaay, moving swiftly on, that wasn't why I called, you remember when Xander got kidnapped a while back?" Spike moved the conversation back on track.
"Of course, he's alright now though isn't he?"
"He's fine, apart from the Sentinel thing but we're getting that under control. No the problem is that he lost his job because of it, well that and Slutty's incompetence in the friend department." Spike paused, waiting for the explosion at the insult to Angel's true love, but surprisingly it didn't come, maybe his sire had finally moved on.
"So I was thinking about that crew you had in to work on the mansion in Sunnydale, do you think they might have an opening for him,"
"But that's a demon crew." Angel sounded shocked at the idea.
"I know, the demon-magnet should fit right in, and he needs a job where they might be a little more understanding of the issues Xander has from working with the slayer."
"OK, well what do you need from me?"
"Do you still have their contact details?" Spike asked glancing quickly towards the bathroom door, he didn't want to let Xander know what he was planning until he was sure that it would work out.
A/N: there it is, chapter 11 hope you enjoyed it. I'm fairly sure that Spike and Xander will make it to the loft in chapter 12. Please review, reviews make me happy.
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Life is Change