I am pleased to post the final chapter of Murder at the Neptune Express!!! Eeee, I’m very excited to have completed my first multi-chapter fic. The entire story lives here and is just over 9,000 words. Thank you to everyone who’s been reading and commenting, it’s been very encouraging!!

I must take a moment and give a huge thanks to savoytruffle and spookymonkey, who have beta’ed every chapter of MNE for me. Not only have they cheerfully helped me to improve my fic each week, but they also pushed me to stretch myself as a writer. It’s such a joy to have them as betas (and as friends *g*), and I appreciate them giving so generously of their time. Applause and flowers to savoytruffle and spookymonkey.

Title: Murder at the Neptune Express
Author: cordelianne
Chapter: 8/8
Pairing: Spike/Xander, Logan/Weevil
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,921
Feedback: Yes please. Concrit is very welcome by email.
Disclaimer: Sadly not mine, Joss and Rob Thomas own them.
Summary: This is set in the summer of 2005, after season one of Veronica Mars and 2 years after BtVS ended (one year after AtS ended).
Spike and Xander are a couple when the story starts and are both working with Buffy, Giles and the other slayers and watchers, etc. They go to Neptune to investigate some suspicious reports.
A/N: Thanks to the completely awesome and wonderful savoytruffle and spookymonkey for the invaluable betas. Any mistakes are mine.


Previously...
There was a woman weaving slowly towards them across the parking lot. “This should go well,” Veronica murmured. Xander kissed the sleep and sex plan good-bye.

“Logan!” It was Trina, and like her brother she was unsteady on her feet. The vamps must have drugged them. “Where are we? Who are these people? Why are you covered in soot?”

“She picks now to ask good questions?” Logan said, more to Weevil than anyone else.

Trina staggered closer. “And why are you draping yourself all over some boy? Is this your way of getting my attention?”

Murder at the Neptune Express
by Cordelianne

CHAPTER EIGHT


“It’s creepy, isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah.” Spike chugged his drink and nodded to the bartender, holding up his empty glass.

“It’s Willow from another dimension.” Xander snuck a peek in the mirror. “The vapid, self-involved rich girl dimension.”

“That’s most of this state, love.” Spike took a healthy swig of his new drink. “Willow’s just not a California girl.”

Trina punctuated her endless monologue with a loud, very fake-sounding laugh. Veronica and Mac just sat there, and Logan’s head, which had been slowly drooping toward the table, snapped upright.

“Yeah, Willow’s not the French bikini on Hawaii island type, and I wouldn’t wish it any other way. Even when she was evil she was never this scary.” Xander wasn’t a fan of the whole multi-dimensional thing. Cool in SciFi, not so much in real life. “Can we leave now?”

Spike slammed his empty glass down on the bar. “Let’s go.”

“Shouldn’t we…?” Xander gestured to Trina’s un-rapt audience.

Spike leaned over and spoke into Xander’s ear. “Right now I’m picturing you spread out naked on the bed.” Xander’s body temperature rose at least a degree and he gulped his martini.

“Right. We’re going.” He threw money on the bar and dragged Spike all the way out of the Neptune Express. He stumbled at the door and next thing he knew he was in the shadows of the alley, his back to the wall with Spike right there.

Spike was right there, his body against Xander’s. His chest pressing against Xander’s. His hands running along Xander’s arms. His dick pressing against Xander’s.

If Xander could freeze a moment in time, it would be this one.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t the most romantic or comfortable setting. And there was a bad smell. But Spike was right there.

He was right there. Looking at Xander. Really seeing him.

And then there was no more looking, instead there was kissing. Kissing that was slowly killing Xander because it was so intense and sweet and hard and deep. Kissing that said way more than some big declaration or the word ‘boyfriend’ ever could.

Xander pulled back gasping, way more than just overwhelmed, so far beyond overwhelmed he felt like he was filled with helium and floating. Spike was nuzzling his neck in a way that reminded him of Spike’s vampireness when he heard voices at the alley’s entrance.

“Drugs worn off?”

“Yeah. I’m no longer acting like a wannabe extra for Dazed and Confused.”

“It’s Logan and Weevil,” Xander whispered to Spike, who hmmed in response. Xander nudged Spike back a bit and nodded at the boys.

“Guess, same as your sister, you don’t remember much?” Weevil asked, in what sounded to Xander like a disappointed tone.

“It’s blurry but I don’t need Polaroids to remember.” Logan put his hand on Weevil’s shoulder. “Sorry about your cousin, man. Shouldn’t have happened. It’s always the ones we’ll miss the most.”

Weevil nodded his head, more of a slight motion than a full-on nod. “Not looking forward to telling my grandmother.”

They stood there, Logan’s hand on Weevil’s shoulder, both looking at the ground.

“She was Chardo’s sister, I was supposed to look after her,” Weevil continued after a short silence. “I failed her.”

“No.” Logan’s voice was low. “You killed the things that killed her and you rescued me.”

“You saved my life, I saved yours. We’re even.”

“You put your life on the line for me.” Logan’s hand moved up to Weevil’s neck. “I meant what I said about repaying you.”

“Really? And here I was thinking you’d try and be a tough guy.”

“Maybe later. Almost dying brought out the sentimental fool in me.”

They leaned closer, and this time Xander didn’t have to wonder if they were going to fight or kiss because they were so going to kiss.

They kissed with just their lips touching and Logan’s hand on Weevil’s neck. After a moment his other hand came around to rest on Weevil’s back. Weevil’s hands hung there for a couple of moments before he reached around and pulled him closer.

Xander hit Spike on the arm, grinning. Spike rolled his eyes but the corners of his mouth were twitching into a smile.

A door slammed shut nearby, and Logan and Weevil broke apart, looking in opposite directions and adjusting their jackets.

“Logan! There you are. Thanks for sticking us with Miss Congeniality.” Veronica approached them, stopping when Logan and Weevil both took a step away from each other. “Am I interrupting something?”

She looked from Weevil to Logan. Logan looked at Weevil. Weevil looked at Logan.

“I guess the cat’s out of the bag.” Logan sighed. “We’re planning your surprise party.”

“And making out is preparation? Or, sorry, was this something you thought I wanted to see?” A smile flickered on Veronica’s face.

“Too much man for you?” Weevil asked.

“More like too much ‘i’, as in TMI.” Veronica looked around. “Did Spike and Xander leave?”

“No, we’re here.” Xander clasped his hand over his mouth as his brain caught up with him and pointed out that he and Spike were eavesdropping. Spike just sighed and dragged him over to the alley entrance.

“We weren’t spying on you. We were just …” Xander considered Looking for our keys or Lost, and discarded them. “There was a … vampire. A vampire who was –”

“We were snogging,” Spike interrupted, slinging his arm around Xander’s shoulder. “There was going to be sex, but then you two got all hot and bothered, and Xander here wanted to watch...”

“So that’s what happens at gay clubs,” Veronica exclaimed. “I guess this means Mac and I are fag hags. Which, by the way, is not a sexy term.”


***


“That was good.”

“Course it was.” Spike draped his arm over Xander’s chest and rested his head on Xander’s shoulder. “I’m good.”

“Mmm.” It was hard to argue that point when Xander was still breathless from the whole naked writhing thing. And, oh yeah, the intense – and what felt like hours long – orgasm.

He stared at the half-full water glass on the room’s one table and willed it to come to him, but it didn’t so much as budge. Clearly his Jedi mind powers needed some work. He could get up and get it but that would involve moving, and Xander’s legs were very much of the Jello consistency. Ooh, Jello! He could go for some of that right now. Or, even better, a big steak dinner with mashed potatoes and lots of gravy.

A Three Musketeers bar landed on his chest.

“Oh!” Xander ripped open the packaging and bit off a big chunk, savoring the yummy whipped chocolate. He offered it to Spike.

“All yours, pet.”

He grinned and took another bite. “Thanks,” he mumbled, mouth full.

Spike hmmed into his chest. It sort of tickled and felt good. Xander ran a hand through Spike’s hair, unsettling it into messy curls that he found very sexy. “What do you think will happen with Logan and Weevil?”

“Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll or whatever music’s in right now.”

“Kids today and their music.” Xander snickered. “You’re such an old man.”

“Well, yeah, I am a hundred and … something.” Spike waved a hand in the air. “Lost count sometime in the ‘70s. Or maybe the ‘60s? Basically the same decade anyway.”

“That’s what happens when you’re old.” Xander kept running his fingers through Spike’s hair. “And do you really think it’ll be like that for the boys?”

Spike gave a short laugh. “Nah. More like one of those fancy British costume flicks with lots of repression.”

Xander sighed. “Guess we can’t stop them from playing out Sense and Sensibility: American Style.”

“Not likely. But we could…” Spike’s hand slid down Xander’s side.

“Do you think that’ll distract me from –”

There was a knock on the door.

They looked at each other. “Veronica Mars?” Xander asked.

Spike tossed the blanket back, took the couple of steps to the door and flung it open. “You’re right. It’s Veronica Mars.”

“I’m impressed that you were expecting me. Of course, I’d be more impressed if you were actually wearing clothes.” Veronica gestured to the very naked Spike. Xander groaned.

Spike arched an eyebrow. “More impressed?”

Veronica’s cheeks flushed but she straightened her shoulders. “I’m not that easily impressed.”

“Really?” Spike stretched. Veronica rolled her eyes.

“Spike!” Xander tried to disappear under the covers, at which point he remembered that he was naked too. He tightened his grip on the blanket.

Spike waved Veronica in and sauntered casually over to his clothes. Xander couldn’t decide whether to laugh or be annoyed. He carefully avoided eye contact with Veronica until Spike was half-dressed, a state Xander had been hoping not to see him in until much later in the day, or possibly tomorrow. Unless Spike was half-dressed because he was taking off his clothes rather than putting them on... Veronica was still standing by the door, so Xander gave her a smile and a wave.

“I wanted to return this.” She held up the stake Xander had made her take before they went into battle.

“Keep it.” Spike pulled on a t-shirt.

“You may need it,” Xander added.

“I hope not.” Veronica slipped the stake back into her bag. “I've got enough to deal with in this town without adding the Ouija board to my contact list.”

“Keeps things interesting,” Spike said.

“Right you are. Our lives are never dull.” Xander sometimes wished for boring and uneventful but secretly suspected it would bore him. And besides, he’d miss the adrenaline rush of barely escaping death over and over again. Why retire when there were such good times to be had?

“Here’s hoping I don’t see you guys again,” Veronica said, her hand on the doorknob. “No offense. I just know if you two are here it’ll be bad news, and we have plenty of that here already.”

“Yeah, Neptune’s a regular slice of Americana,” Spike said.

Veronica smiled and clasped her hands to her chest. “Apple pie, beachfront properties and gruesome murders, we have it all.”

“Be nice to Logan and Weevil,” Xander called after her.

She turned and placed a finger on her cheek, adopting a thoughtful expression. “And what fun would that be?” She gave them an innocent-looking smile, spun around and, with a sashay of her hips, walked out.

***


The coast was flying by outside Xander’s window, turning the lights reflected on the water into one sparkling band. Probably not a good idea to check how fast Spike was driving, Xander decided. Besides, he had no complaints. Getting out of Neptune seemed like a good plan.

A motorcycle passed them and beeped its horn once.

“Wow, that PCHer’s really speeding. I hope – hey! Was that two guys on that motorcycle?” Xander strained to see the shapes on the bike before it turned a corner and disappeared from sight. “Do you think …?”

“Could be.” Spike stretched his right arm out and onto Xander’s shoulder. “Where’d you say Buffy’s sending us this time?”

“Ah yes, the Buffster General’s orders. You know, she should totally meet Veronica.” Xander guessed from Spike’s silence that he wasn’t into that suggestion. “We’re heading to some Kansas town, Lawrence, I think. Maybe that’ll be more vacationy.”

Spike snorted. “Yeah, ‘cause middle America’s not dangerous.”

“It can't be all bad, Kansas is home to the World's Largest Ball of Twine." Xander rested his head on Spike’s shoulder. “Relax, I have a good feeling about this.”



**end**