ensouled16

The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy

The Angel/Spike Zone of the BtVS Writer's Guild

Chapter XVI - Parenting

Summary: Spike comes to LA looking for Angel, together they try and figure out what it means to be Ensouled.

Rating: Mainly R/NC-17

Pairings: Angel/Spike, Angelus/William, Lilah/Wesley, Buffy/Spike implied, Angel(us)/Darla Implied

Timeline: Runs the gamut

Disclaimer: Joss created my darling boys, I just let them run around in my head until they must come out.

Distribution: Please ask, although why you would want to house a 41,674 word long story is beyond me.

Feedback: Please, by all means, Email Tania

Wesley rested his head on the arm of the couch and looked at Lilah. She had fallen asleep a couple of hours ago. At first her sleep seemed peaceful, but she had suddenly begun to groan and mumble. Now here he sat, silently, trying to make out the words she let slip out in her sleep. The one word that played most prominently was ‘Mama’. Over and over she whispered mama.

Wesley could hardly pretend to like Lilah, though she was at times an amusing cohort. Tonight though, she had seemed truly pained for the first time, granted he had only known her for a few years, but he rarely saw her lose her composure. He watched her otherwise peaceful face contort into one of sheer terror as her mumblings became hushed cries. After several moments he couldn't stand watching anymore. He stood up and wandered to the bookshelves and eyed the varied titles that lined their shelves. There were a few he had read and many others he had seen referenced in works he was familiar with. One in particular grabbed his attention. Moralia by Plutarch. The binding looked hundreds of years old. Wesley slowly took the book from the shelf and opened the cover. He was holding a complete account of a visit to the Delphic Oracle. Could be helpful, he thought.

"That’s a real page turner, you're going to love it." Wesley gave a little jump at Lilah’s voice and hurriedly walked back to the desk.

"You won’t mind if I borrow this will you?" Wesley gave her a hand up from the couch and tucked the book under his arm.

"No, it's your office, take what you want." She said while running her hands down her dress. Her absent minded gesture drew Wesley’s attention from the book and he focused on her fidgeting. He had to admit, even in this ruffled state she could be quite lovely. Until she opened her mouth that is.

"I was going to wake you. You seemed a little, well, upset."

"Why Wes, are you saying you care?" Lilah batted her eyes at him and stepped into her heels, which were lying on the floor.

"No, you just seemed quite fixated on your mother. You know Freud would have something to say about that." Wesley tried to sound less fierce when he added, "Is that who the call was about earlier?"

"Wesley, I really don't want to talk about my mother with you."

"Fair enough, I’m going home. I imagine you’ll be by later."

"No, I’m going back to my place. I might see you later." Lilah pressed the button on the desk again, resealing the hidden passageway to her office she had left open earlier, and opened the door.

Wesley left the office and instinctively locked the door behind him. He passed Lilah in the hall and headed for the elevator.

"Wesley?" She called after him. He turned his head but did not answer. "Will I see you here tomorrow?"

"No Lilah, I don't work for Wolfram & Hart." He left, with the book still in his hand.

"You know Harmony used to go around Sunnydale turning all the guys she’d ever dated."

"And why do I need to know that?"

"I’m just saying you could have done a lot worse than me."

"I'll remember that the next time I’m cleaning blood off of my sheets." Angel was scrubbing at the pillow top of the mattress, trying in vain to get rid of the crimson splatter pattern.

"I was just trying to be helpful." Spike gave Angel a little pout and threw himself onto a nearby chair. "I could have just left you sleeping and then you would have.."

"I would have what Spike? Not had to clean blood off of the damned mattress. Not have woken up with scalding A positive covering my chest, you know this isn’t going to heal overnight, I've got third degree burns here." Angel pointed at the red skin on his chest that was already beginning to peel off.

"I was trying to give you breakfast in bed." Spike huffed. "You know it's all that Fred’s fault."

"Exactly how is this," Angel cast a hand in the direction of the blood soaked sheets that were now piled on the bedroom floor, "at all Fred’s fault?"

"Well, if I hadn’t been so busy convincing her that The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy aren't as exciting in real life as they are on paper, I wouldn't have forgotten to take your breakfast out of the microwave."

"The adventures of who?" Angel walked towards the sink to rinse his washrag out, then added over his shoulder, "You have been spending way too much time around Xander."

"Can’t we just forget the bed, it's not like you don't have a hundred more. It smells like this whole room was char broiled anyway. Let’s get another one."

"I like this room. I've lived here off and on since the fifties, it's homey."

"Okay, Peaches, please promise you’ll never use the word homey in my presence again." Spike jumped up from the chair and blocked the larger vampire's path back to the bed.

"Yeah, all right, not homey, maybe just familiar." Angel gave Spike a light shove and moved him out of the way. I just want to wipe this down one more time then we’ll go down and see if Fred has gotten any closer to finding Cordy."

"Fair enough." Spike took a rag from the end table and made like he was going to help, then grabbed a corner of the mattress and flipped it over. He quickly took a pillow from the floor, threw it on top and grabbed Angel's arm. "Done. Let’s go."

Defeated, Angel followed Spike downstairs.

Angel and Spike found the rest of the Angel Investigations team, such as it was, hard at work in the back office. Fred was crunching numbers at the desk, Gunn was on the phone with Lorne trying to get the number of an oracle and Connor was reading through a stack of books. Spike stood behind Angel for a moment waiting for him to start asking questions, when it didn't happen he sat on the corner of Fred’s desk and started snooping through her papers.

"Are you two just going to watch, or are you here to help?" Fred asked without looking up from her equations.

"I’m here to help as always. But, my charming sire here was just thinking how much he'd like to get some fresh air." Fred looked up to see Angel staring at Connor. His mouth was slightly ajar like he was searching for the words to speak to his son. "So whatcha say little brother, care to take a stroll around the block with brood boy here and make sure he doesn’t tire himself out?"

"I guess." The young man stood up and moved towards the door. "I mean if you want to." He added.

"Um, sure, a walk. We could take a walk. You and I together. Just a walk around the block...like normal people."

"Christ Angel, you don't need to go all Woody Allen on the boy, just go for a walk." Connor headed for the main doors while Angel grabbed a duster from the coat rack. He turned to Spike and Fred who were eagerly watching him squirm. "What am I going to say to him?"

"Well why don't you start with ‘I’m glad your evil plan failed.’ and take it from there. Or don't talk at all. I have a feeling little brother has plenty to say to you." Spike pushed him towards the door and gave Connor a little wave through the window. Angel followed his son into the cool night air and closed the heavy door behind him.

The two men had walked a couple of blocks up Hyperion Avenue before either of them spoke. It was finally Angel who broke the silence.

"So, I didn't get a chance to ask Fred how you guys were doing. I mean with the research. Anything new there?"

"A few things, I’m not sure how helpful it will all be, but I think if you want Cordelia back you’ll find a way." Connor said. He did like Cordelia. She was beautiful and she had tried to help him. He had come back to the Hyperion months ago ready to make peace, but when she had told him she was a demon he had been so angry. To watch his father, the vampire, sit in a place of such luxury surrounded by green skinned demons and demons that could pass as human had so enraged him, he wanted to kill her. Yet, with a touch she had released some sort of rage from his body. He still felt anger, but it was not generalized. Her being a demon did not make him want to kill her. He was still angry with Angel for the wrongs he had done to Holtz’s family, but he could not hold that against the people that surrounded him.

Now here he was, talking shop with Angel on a midnight stroll through Los Angeles. It struck him as being very funny and he could not stifle a laugh. Angel must have got the joke, because he too laughed.

"Well here we are, on a walk, in the middle of the night."

"Suppose that's really the only time we can have these little bonding experiences huh?" Connor asked.

"Well unless you want to be known as Son of Dust." Angel gave the boy a light punch on the shoulder and jumped out of the way when he went to return it. Angel was going to pounce again when he heard some shuffling coming from an alleyway they had just passed. Connor’s acute hearing had picked up the sound too and both men became silent as they slowly back tracked their steps.

They entered the alley, which was only dimly lit by the sparse streetlights that littered Hyperion Avenue. Angel caught a small movement at the rear of the alley, near some dumpsters. He made a small motion to Connor to stay back and inched his way quietly towards the back of the alley. He saw a body sprawled across the ground. Already dead. Her throat was torn and still bleeding, but her green eyes had already dulled and glazed over. Connor knelt down and touched her wrist but knew he would find no pulse.

Angel was nearly upon the vampire he knew lay hidden behind the foul smelling dumpsters when he heard Connor make a small noise of disgust as he looked at the crushed throat of the girl. Angel again turned his attention to his prey, letting his vampiric visage move to the front. He licked at the jagged teeth that filled his mouth and felt his strength peaking as his eyesight became clearer. Angel made a sudden movement towards a row of cans next to the largest dumpster that caught Connor’s attention. The vampire hidden there let out a snarling growl and lunged at Angel. He was dressed in nothing more than rags and smelled horribly of dried blood and sewage. Clearly not a townie. Even the sewers in central Los Angeles were cleaned frequently. It just wouldn't do to have the sewers stinking up the city.

Angel easily sidestepped the other vampire's attack and pushed him to the ground from behind as he passed. He withdrew a stake from the inside pocket of his leather duster and placed it swiftly against the vampire's chest. The vampire on the ground burst into the familiar cloud of dust and was gone.

"It still amazes me to see you do that." Connor said from the girl’s side.

"It's hard to do, knowing that one day it's going to be you on the receiving end of the stake." Angel bent down next to his son and reached a hand over to shut the girl’s eyes. "There’s really nothing else we can do for her now. We'll call the police when we get back to the hotel and tell them where to find her. At least then her family will be able to give her a proper burial." He stood to go, Connor however did not. He was fixated on the wound at her neck.

"Do all victims look like this, after a vampire gets them." He traced a finger over her torn throat.

"Most of them do. When you're feeding you're usually not really worried about the mess you make." The effect of his words on Connor’s face made Angel cringe, then he realized he was still in his game face. He let his features slip back into the human, but Connor jumped up and yelled for him to stop.

"Change back!" Connor demanded. Not sure what his son needed to see, Angel let the demon rise again. Connor stepped closer and put his hand on Angel's brow. Angel closed his eyes and the boy lightly touched his lips, lifting them to see the razor sharp fangs they covered. He ran a fingernail over the jagged pattern that they formed. Connor put his arms to his side and looked at the ground. "You could never leave a clean mark could you?" He asked quietly.

Angel's face became human once more and answered by shaking his head. ‘I don't blame you Connor." He looked hard at his son and moved to put a hand on his shoulder, which the younger man did not resist. "You did just what Holtz wanted you to do. He raised you to hate me for no reason other than his own revenge. He made sure that if you thought I had killed him you would come after me. It's not your fault. He may as well have programmed you with a computer. We always become the men our fathers make us out to be, sometimes you can't fight it. Sometimes you shouldn’t try."

"He made me a killer. He turned me into a killer." Connor’s shoulders slumped under Angel's grip and the vampire pulled him into a hug. "How could he do that?"

"I made Holtz what he was, just as he made you." Angel held his son tight in his arms. "But Connor remember this," He pulled back and looked into Connor’s eyes, "No man has the power to decide what kind of men we are. Anyone can fight their dark side."

"I guess so." Connor stayed close to the strong arms of his father. "I suppose if you and Spike can do good anyone can."

"That’s the upside to being ensouled." Angel said with a pained smile.

"What’s the downside?"

"It doesn’t make parenting any easier." Angel released Connor from his hold and they made their way back to the hotel.

Have wondered how it would all end.

Violators will be beaten to death with a shovel

(A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend)