Inside Man
is an Angel fanfic by Holly DB.
Spike had this perfect memory of them together—her holding his hand, looking at him with tears in her eyes, telling him she loved him. If a man had to die, that was the way to do it. But in their world, the dead don’t stay dead. Completely canon-compliant retelling of Angel Season 5, beginning with Harm’s Way.
Written as a Fix Fic, it completely retells season 5 from Spike's point of view with the added plot of immediately contacting Buffy after getting his body back and her asking him to stay in LA as her inside man, spying on both Angel and Wolfram and Hart. The pairing is Spuffy, and it's rated Explicit/NC-17 for sexual content.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Amazon Chaser: Spike assures Buffy that, even if he becomes human, he has absolutely no issues with her being stronger than him.Spike: Hate to break it to you, pet, but you've always been stronger than me. Bloody turn-on, is what it is.
- Aroused by Their Voice: Buffy and Spike end up having phone sex a number of times, which basically stems from this.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Spike and Buffy have moments when he's in pain and she's comforting him.
- Completed Fic
- Deconstruction Fic: The story asks the question 'Would Spike really not contact Buffy the second he gets his body back?', answers 'no', and goes from there.
- It also deconstructs Buffy and Angel's romance, pointing out that she really didn't know enough about him to love him properly and shows how she would react to the number of times he's lied to her or made a decision without her consent. Case and point, it revisits the events of "I Will Remember You" and completely destroys Angel's "selfless" decision, pointing out that it really came down to Angel refusing to be weak around Buffy and not even trying to give their relationship a shot beyond "one crappy demon hunt". Spike even points out that there are plenty of human demon-fighters out there.
- False Soulmate: Angel, for Buffy. She's come to realize that she really doesn't know what kind of man he actually is.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: Buffy talks to Spike about her relationship with Angel, explaining that she was so devastated by him that she was reluctant to open up to anyone else, partly out of fear of getting hurt again and partly out of hope that Angel will return to her. She's since grown to realize how naïve she was.Buffy: That love wasn't good love. It almost killed me and I almost let it.
- Fix Fic: This fic is the author's attempt to make sense of the plot holes and character inconsistencies of season 5. Up to and including:
- Spike contacting Buffy after he gets his body back.
- Spike being completely aware that Dana is a Slayer and feigning ignorance in order to hide his status as Buffy's inside man. Because, as the author puts it, there's no way that Spike, a known Slayer killer, would not know she's a Slayer.
- Buffy and Spike actually talk about their relationship issues and work through them like adults.
- Buffy learning of the events of "Why We Fight" and realizing that Angel lied to her back in Buffy season 1 when he told her he'd never hurt a human after gaining his soul, both in regards to siring Sam Lawson and the time he spent with the Whirlwind after getting cursed with his soul.
- Buffy also re-learning the events of "I Will Remember You", allowing her to finally put her feelings towards Angel to rest with the realization that he wasn't willing to put in the effort and live a normal life with her when given the opportunity.
- Rewriting the entire story arc with the Immortal, in that he's dating another Slayer who looks a lot like Buffy, and due to complicated demon politics, she pretends to be Buffy. Spike is aware of all this, while Angel isn't. It also punishes Angel for having Buffy followed, in that his men are following the wrong girl.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Spike in regard to Buffy and Angel's previous relationship, despite the fact that Buffy is over Angel by this point. He's also, as per canon, not a fan of the Immortal.
- Buffy doesn't react well to finding out that Spike slept with Harmony after getting his body back. She also gets a bit jealous upon learning that the "Fred" Spike keeps mentioning is a woman, though that's mostly Played for Laughs.
- Happily Ever After: The fic ends with Spike becoming human and beginning to build a life with Buffy.
- Heartbroken Badass: Both Buffy and Spike, for each other. At least, at the beginning.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Angel constantly lied to Buffy and repeatedly ripped her heart out, the biggest example being the events of "I Will Remember You". The fallout of those events, however, means he can no longer Shanshu, so loses out on the big reward he believed would finally allow him to be with Buffy.
- Loving a Shadow: Buffy has come to realize that she never really knew Angel and that the Angel she loved isn't the same man as the one in real life.Buffy: I can't love like that anymore because I'm not that person anymore. I'm not sixteen. I'm not... naïve. That love wasn't good love. It almost killed me and I almost let it. [...] I don't want to suffocate ever again.
- Offscreen Breakup: Willow and Kennedy broke up at some point during the story, having had an argument over Willow realizing she needed more time to grieve over Tara properly. Then Kennedy dies in the final battle before they can properly reconcile.
- Old Flame Fizzle: Buffy is surprised to hear that Angel's dating Nina, but isn't hurt by it, and reasons this means she's really over him. In contrast, after hearing that Spike had slept with Harmony, she cried for three hours.
- Power of Trust:
- Buffy asks Spike to be her inside man in Wolfram and Hart, trusting that he won't let her down. Even when she offers to get him out when things get hard, he sticks to it.
- In chapter 2, Buffy mentions how she once trusted Angel with her heart, only for him to devastate her repeatedly, leaving her so broken that she was reluctant to trust anyone with her heart again. The fact that she opens herself up to Spike proves how much she's grown and how much she loves him.
- Spike spends a good chunk of early chapters debating whether or not he can trust that what Buffy feels for him is real. To the point where he refuses to let Buffy tell him she loves him until they meet in person, so he can be sure she means it.
- Pre-Climax Climax: Buffy and Spike sleep together right before the big battle in "Not Fade Away".
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: The story is canon-compliant for Angel season 5, adding in missing scenes and reframing the story so that Spike is working for Buffy as her inside man, spying on both Angel and Wolfram and Hart.
- Stalker with a Crush: As per canon, Angel is having Buffy followed by spies. Only in this story, his men are actually following a doppelganger, thanks to Buffy taking precautions to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Spike still thinks Buffy will be angry enough to actually stake Angel for good.
- The Stations of the Canon: Unavoidable, since it's a canon-compliant retelling of season 5, though most of the episodes are retold via phone conversations between Buffy and Spike with only a few episodes being shown.
- Wrong Guy First: Angel for Buffy. She's since gotten over him, though both she and Spike spend time worrying that she may never love that strongly again because Angel messed her up so badly.
