What had started out as a routine check on his incapacitated charges ended in an unforeseen outburst of excitement. One of his so long still guests had moved. He had seen it with his own eyes and rejoiced. That one small movement was no idle wished for dream, it had actually happened. Mister Conners had moved his left hand! For one hundred and twenty years or so it had lain palm down, now it was twisted into a somewhat uncomfortable palm upwards position. It had moved entirely of it's own volition. This was one of the signs he had so long waited for, that Messers Connors and Becker were waking up. Not that he thought they were anywhere jumping from the beds they had lain on for so very long and dancing a jig round the room. Far from it in fact. Yet it was an important first step, and marked a change in his normal care routine. He would have to exercise their bodies more often to facilitate their comfort whilst waking up. And it could all only mean one thing; that his dear William was himself once more. No doubt still a vampire, but his own sweet self, or as close as would make no matter to him. His William had finally recalled their charges. That his inner soul was once more in control, dominating the parasitic demon symbiot that was forever grafted onto his being; sustaining him, yet tainting him all the while.
It cheered him, knowing that his demon charges were finally wakening from their long hibernation. It was not only that his dear William was the only one able to work this miracle. It was that no matter where his charges went, he would go too. Most probably straight to his dear William's side: where ever that was. They were the only connection to his William left to him, and that made them as family to him. And family was all that mattered to any Trasker demon.
He quickly brought a writing desk into the chamber in which Messers Connors and Becker lay. He would watch them as he completed his journal entry. All his little thoughts he had for so very long wanted to share with his William might finally have their destiny fulfilled. Writing soothed his whirling thoughts. Let him focus on the very real requirements for modern transport. His charges were tall enough to be unusual humans, but he himself was slightly taller still, and a rather distinctive pale lilac into the bargain. It has been so long since he had worn a physical glamour to disguise himself for any length of time that he thought he had surely better start practising once more.
Somehow he knew he faced a journey of far greater importance than his weekly trip to Sainsbury's for his groceries. He was going home. And home was where ever his William was.
***
She was beautiful. Asleep, curled up safely in her father's belly. And beautiful. So beautiful he didn't think he'd ever manage to express just how beautiful she truly was.
And if Glory weren't already dead, he kill her himself, slowly, painfully for what she had done to that totally innocent girl... And to Dawn too! He had to be honest with himself and admit that he cared little as to what had happened to Xander Harris. It was hard to care for someone who hated you quite so much. That was something he would only do under very special circumstances, like now; still loving his childe that had so many reasons to hate him. Least of all the beautiful girl sleeping inside of him.
"She is so beautiful!" He whispered, he didn't want to raise his voice and make Spike fully aware that he was still there. Sitting beside him, looking up at the projection the senior God of Healing was casting of the baby nestled inside Spike's body.
"That she is." The God smiled as he replied. "And only that one hip took any damage from Gorificus' touch. But I believe a lot of that damage will repair itself before she's born. And of course Glory can't touch her ever again." The God, Apollo, snarled at the name of their late opponent. "If she weren't already dead I'd introduce her to my little brother..." He muttered on to himself almost below even a vampire's ability to hear.
"I thought you had a sister. Artemis?" Angel was lost. It had been literally centuries since he'd had any reason to study the Greek Gods. Not since he had left school had he read anything much about them in fact.
"Yeah, and all of my father's other children. I was thinking of Ares. He'd have shown her what Gods think of those other Gods that choose to hurt children. Especially children under our protection!"
"Ares... he's the God of... of War isn't he?" Angel's face was contorting with the effort at such deep thought. All he wanted to do was sit and stare at the image of his daughter. The one he forced on his childe's body when he raped him.
As always that remembered guilt was like a shock of ice water over him. He couldn't get away from the fact that he had caused his childe such hurt, such humiliation over and over again. It was possibly the worst day in history for his sweet William, the day they met, even if it was the greatest day in all of creation for either Angelus or Angel.
His hands instinctively curled around Spike's hand as the younger vampire lay on Apollo's examination couch. He caste his eyes down, away from the sight of their tiny sleeping daughter. A child the like of which no vampire had had in many centuries, and she wasn't even the product of a loving act.
"He is indeed. And a very inventive God of War he is too. He's fanatical about children. The first ever murder trial the world ever saw was Ares' trial over his then youngest kid. He'd killed one of our Uncle Poseidon's sons for raping his daughter. He was acquitted too. Ares hates rape in all its excuses." Apollo seemed to think for a moment about his patient and how he gained him as such. He turned to face Angel once more before issuing his warning, such as it were. "I guess it's just as well, for you that is, that he's not here at the moment. He's not over keen on what you did to young William here."
"I'm neither proud nor keen on my actions either. I have caused Spike nothing but pain since I first met him. And it doesn't even matter if I'm Angelus or Angel. My actions always seem to end up hurting him." The despondent older vampire didn't relinquish his hold over Spike's hand. All he did was hold it ever tighter, like the almost living embodiment of a life line. A life line neither could aford to let go in danger of losing their lives for ever.
"Excuse the hell outta me the pair of you, I'm still here, still have an opinion and all. Being pregnant doesn't make me either deaf or stupid, you know?" Spike dislodged the disc sitting over the growing bulge in his belly making the image of the child within him flicker and break up. "I know what happened, I was there after all. You broke in and beat me up, raped me, shoved this collar on me and promised to do it all again the following night. I don't think that's at all coverable by such a namby pamby word like hurt. I really don't. And all because your beloved Buffy asked you to." The amount of pure hatred Spike got into the name Buffy impressed even the single God in his very small private audience.
"No, don't blame Buffy. All she asked me to do was to speak to you. To get you to back off. Well, actually she wanted me to get you to leave her alone and to stop declaring your love for her. Only she didn't know she was talking more to Angelus than Angel. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know that I'd been driven half insane by Wolfram and Hart. I blame them, and myself. She didn't know I'd go off the deep end declaring that you were never to touch what's mine. Shit, I even lied to you and myself. What I really meant was no one was to touch you. That's why I didn't want you declaring your love for Buffy. You had been entirely faithful to Dru for over a century! I didn't want you being as faithful to Buffy as you had been to her." Angel took a deep steadying breath before continuing his narrative. "There's this firm of lawyers, they're called Wolfram and Hart. They set this young hot shot lawyer on to me. He had them raise Darla from Hell and between them they dragged Angelus out from behind the soul, kicking and screaming all the way. But, he had to share the spot light with the soul. I never lost my soul, only my mind, any semblance of self control. His insanity flooded both our minds. His lack of control took over until the morning after I attacked you. And we both remembered what we had done. The demon and the soul were finally in accord. But, by then, as I thought, it was too late. When I finally got back to your crypt I was going to take you home with me, nurse you back to health. Feed you all the Sire blood you could drink. Beg you for your forgiveness. I had such plans to make it all up to you. Only I got there and Buffy told me you were dead." Angel could go no further, he buried his head in his hands, and ironically Spike's hand that he had never relinquished hold of. Wetting them both with his tears.
"He's telling the absolute truth!" Apollo sounded totally amazed. He had clearly had as much scepticism at Angel's motives as Spike had had himself.
"It's all in his memories. I'm surprised the soul held on so strong. I'd hate think what would have happened to you had he not held on so damn tightly to that little spark of humanity. The horrors those alien bastards put him through... it beggars belief."
"It really was Wolfram and Hart's fault then? Not just him wanting to do all that? All this?" Spike sat up a little more and used his free hand to gesture to his distended belly.
"Trust me, I'm a God, more than that I'm one of your Gods." Apollo smiled at Spike, a warm reassuring gesture.
"It's a good thing their time is almost up then, isn't it? Only they don't know revenge is on its way!" Spike laughed. He let rip with a burst of genuinely warm laughter.
"How, who? Did you send a hit man after them? They're demons, that wouldn't work with them!" Angel looked up and never let his eyes drop from the sight of a highly entertained Spike's joyous smile.
"I know exactly who they are, you moron. I used to work for them!" He stared at his now totally confused Sire. "Can you recall what I did for a living way back when you first met me? Like when I was actually still living."
"You worked in an office, that much I remember. I'm sorry I was too busy enjoying all these fantasies involving you, me and a decade or two's privacy to pay strict attention to the ins and outs of your mortal life. It was something you did during the day while I couldn't be with you. And something that occasionally took you away from me of an evening too for that matter.."
Angel couldn't help it, he frowned in annoyance at that long ago job.
"I was a lawyer, I work for a big firm in London. Messers Connors, Wolfram, Becker and Hart. Only I worked with the two nicest demons you ever met. Mister Conners and Mister Becker. They were the then senior partners and suffered the most gruesome take over. Which I was blamed for by the way, seeing as I was by then a vampire and had been for seven years." Spike glared at Angel who had the grace to blush.
"And you'd worked for these demons how long exactly?" Apollo knew the answer, he simply wanted Angel to realise why his Spike had never had any fear of him.
"Since leaving University with my Law Degree. About twelve years by the time I finally lost control of the demon inside." Spike shrugged and blushed remembering his actions back then. "My mum had just died and Messers Conners and Becker had just told me what they were going to do. Go into hiding. They gave me a trigger phrase and sent me on my way. Familyless! That was when I teamed up with Drucilla. I had to leave my bosses with my step father, but since he's a Trasker demon I knew he'd live long enough to take care of them. And I said the trigger phrase in court when I appealed for clemency for Faith. So they're bound to be waking up.." He stopped talking when he realised that the God with them was now laughing almost hysterically. "Care to share, do we?" He didn't care if he were talking to a God or not, his voice dripped pure sarcasm.
"Yeah, well they got out of Hell all right; their souls that is. Along with this really nice guy called Lindsey McDonald. His soul anyway. But I'll leave your afternoon visitor to fill you in on his sorry tale later, like afternoon later. Suffice to say they are waking up even as we speak. Their souls are now safely in Tartarus." Apollo saw the fury in Angel's face at the mention of the third soul. He couldn't deny him his right to be angry, he knew from the dark haired vampire's own thoughts and memories just what part Lindsey McDonald had to play in his attack on Spike. "And I agree Angel, you will get the chance to face Lindsey McDonald again. Only this time try talking to him, don't just rip off his head and send him back again. He might have had a change of heart or other such epiphany whilst in their Hell. Rather like another demon might have at one time or another?" Apollo managed to calm down and simply enjoy the feral look on the older vampire's face.
"And?" Spike asked, demanding an explanation from one or other of them. He didn't mind which.
"Lindsey McDonald was the young lawyer I was talking about earlier. He was the one that raised Darla! He was the one that drove Angelus and me both merrily on our way to joint insanity! He was the one that had me in such a state that I did what I did to you! He was the one whose head I ripped clean off his shoulders, right before I killed Darla, yet again!" Angel looked at Spike as he spoke. And Spike finally realised that he had never had the full power of either Angel or Angelus' wrath directed at him.
"You don't like this guy, do you?" He tried a gentle tease at Angel's expense. He couldn't help but laugh at Angel's startled expression. Yet, when his laughter triggered Angel's laughter he couldn't help being encouraged as to their chances of some sort of stable future, if not together then at least a lot closer than they had had in the past.
"What gave away that clue?" Angel finally managed to ask.
"I could hear the exclamation marks. I swear I could." Spike smiled at his Sire, the look that that one small action triggered almost had the younger vampire running for safety.
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