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Chapter 13: The Trouble with Angels

Lorne drove up to the gate slowly, he didn’t want to have to go up to the house and interrupt the couple, but it wasn’t like they really gave him a choice.

‘Sheesh.’ He thought to himself. ‘Try to do something nice for people and all it gets you is screamed at by everyone you know.’

Not like anyone had taken the time to explain to him what he did that was so wrong, or why they needed Spike and Buffy back right away.

No, he was just the errand boy, the stooge.

He gave a deep sigh and started up the long driveway

He was getting really tired of all of this. He missed the good old days when he was just a club owner. He really just wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

“Oh! Sweet, merciful Cher!” He exclaimed when he reached the house and saw a limo in the driveway. He quickly got out of the car and rushed inside to find absolute chaos.

There was a female demon running around spraying air deodorizer through the air screaming. “My house, they defiled my house.” She never let go of the release nozzle on the can. “Dirty, nasty humans, leaving secretions and flakes of epidermal layer in my house!!”

She managed to spray the deodorizer right in his face as she ran by him. He began coughing and his eyes started to burn and water.

She didn’t even seem to notice the other large demon who just rolled down the stairs.

The demon who was now at the base of the staircase was only down momentarily before standing back up and running right back up the stairs.

“What the bloody hell do you mean ‘don’t hurt him.’” Spike stood at the top of the stairs yelling over his shoulder so he wasn’t prepared when the demon tackled him. There was the sound of a struggle and then the demon rolled back down the stairs. “Have you noticed he seems pretty damned determined to hurt me?”

Buffy came running out. “I’m just saying if we are breaking and entering we can’t kill him.”

“So what do you want me to do then, just keep playing this game until he wears…OOF!” The demon had come back up the stairs and tackled Spike again. Buffy stepped forward quickly and grabbed one of the demons horns and used it to lift his head.

“Excuse me, Mr. Demon Sir. We didn’t really know that anyone lived here. You see a friend of ours told us no one lived here and we could use the house, we would have never, um, never used it if we knew it belonged to someone.” The demon reached out to claw at her. “Hey now!!”

The female demon ran towards Lorne again, it appeared her can had now run out of juice, but she still wouldn’t let it go.

Lorne reached out and grabbed it from her causing her to stop and look at him in surprise. “The environment is pleading with you to give it a rest.” He told her.

There was a loud crash as her husband fell back down the stairs. “Uh, guys, I think I can explain.” Lorne yelled loudly. Everything stopped and everyone turned to look at him.

Uh-oh.

They all rushed him yelling at him loudly.

“Wolfram and Hart was supposed to be taking care of our house not using it for a den of pleasure!!” The demon at the bottom of the stairs growled, slowly moving to him.

“What the hell were you thinking leaving us here?” Spike demanded as he raced down the stairs.

“Its all dirty, now.” The female demon screamed in his face and grabbed the empty can back from him. “I must make it clean again.”

She ran off again, frantically, leaving Lorne to face the two angry males. Buffy was slowly making her way down the stairs carrying their things she had gathered and two swords.

“…I put my trust in that firm…”

“…one hell of a wake up call…”

“…after a long trip to find…”

“…not expecting to be used as a tackling dummy…”

“I do not allow lesser beings in my house!!” The demon grabbed Spike by the shoulders, surprising him, and threw him out the open front door into the sunlight. Lorne gasped in fear.

“Spike!!” Buffy ran down the stairs and out the door, shoving the demon out of her way. Lorne followed after her.

Spike was on the ground a few feet from the door and rolling around trying to find shade and stand and run all at the same time. Buffy was by his side in an instant and she was the first to notice it.

“Oh my god.” She said.
“Well that’s something you don’t see every day.” Lorne said in shock.

Spike wasn’t smoking at all; he didn’t seem to be reacting at all.

Spike finally noticed that he didn’t smell anything burning; he stopped panicking and looked up. The first thing he saw was Buffy kneeling next to him in the sun, smiling brightly.

He forgot the miracle that was allowing him to even be in the sunlight, instead mesmerized by how beautiful she looked.

“Is it the Shanshu?” Lorne’s voice broke his gaze.

“What would shampoo have to do with anything?” Buffy asked confused.

Behind them the door slammed shut. They could still hear the female inside.

“Dirty, its all ruined, now.”

”Helen, shut up.” The male screamed.



Riding back in the car Spike insisted on having all the windows open so he could enjoy the sunlight more. The green demon was hoping he would forget about the incident at the house in light of the new developments, but there was no such luck.

“So you want to tell what was going on back there?” Spike growled at him.

“Um, I must have gotten my houses mixed up. That was the one we were watching for the Bolcof demons.”

“Brilliant.” Spike snapped.

Buffy laughed, she hadn’t stopped smiling since she realized he wasn’t burning. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled him. He immediately let go of his anger and wrapped one arm around her waist.

“Come on, Spike. This is US. It’s always going to be something. We’re lucky we had as much time as we did.”

“You’re right, kitten. Still a couple more hours would have been nice.” As he said this Spike was reminded that Lorne wasn’t supposed to be back for them until sunset.

“Why were you here so early, mate?”

“Well, the thing is…” He began and then hesitated. Spike groaned.

“Just spit it out.”

“There’s some trouble back at the office.”

Buffy laughed again. “See.” She said in triumph. Spike rolled his eyes.


The offices of Wolfram and Hart were almost as chaotic as the house they just left. Everywhere people were running around frantically. Dawn walked up to them as soon as they got off the elevator.

“Ok here’s the situation. Angel and Willow turned Angel’s woman into a werewolf, without restraining her first. Not too smart. Willow got scratched up pretty bad, but she’s ok. She’s out cold thanks to some good drugs. The girl got away and is currently munching on the citizens of Los Angeles. We think someone else has taken advantage of this and released a bunch of other demons with similar MO’s to confuse us.” They crossed the lobby over to Angel’s offices.

“We don’t think it’s the firm.” Dawn continued on. “They seem as upset about the unwanted attention as we are. There have been 25 deaths, so far, that we know about. More keep coming in every few minutes.” The walked past Harmony, who was sitting at her desk, she was just hanging up the phone. She opened up her mouth to say something but before she had the chance, Buffy, nonchalantly lashed out and punched her in the face. Spike stopped short. Dawn looked over, but didn’t even pause.

“Wolfram and Hart have their security teams, the elite non-human kind, out searching the sewers. Two teams have gone missing and another we know was destroyed.” She said. “Nice one, by the way.” She added as she opened the doors to Angel’s office.

Spike looked down at Harmony, in shock. Lorne patted him on the back. “She may have some jealousy issues you should look into.” He told him seriously. Spike just looked over at him in disbelief.

“Are you kidding me? She’s bloody perfect.” He hurried to catch up to the Summers sisters.

“He is a vampire.” Lorne said to himself. He looked inside at all the commotion going on inside Angel’s off, he just didn’t feel like dealing with it right now. He looked at Harmony, still unconscious on the floor and sighed. “I don’t know about you Harm, but I think a stiff drink is in order.”

Inside the office Dawn was still debriefing Buffy and Spike. Angel was on his phone at his desk.

“We have six police officers that look like they were put in a washing machine, on spin cycle, with a case of razor blades.” Gunn could be heard over the speakerphone.

“We have sent out some Slayers, no reports have come back yet. We lost contact with one team about an hour ago.” Dawn said. “Oh! And there haven’t been any sightings yet of either Nina or the other creatures. So how was your evening?” She asked with a smile as she finished up.

Just then Giles walked in. He noticed Buffy right away. “How nice of you to join us.” He said snidely.

“Did I mention Giles is pretty peeved at everyone right now?” Dawn asked.

“Um no.” Buffy glared at her sister.

Spike sensed a presence and cringed. “SPIKE!” He didn’t turn around, hoping it would go away. Then he felt arms wrap tightly around him and a head lay against his back.

“I’ve missed you.” Andrew sighed.

“Spike, did I tell you Andrew was looking for you?” Dawn asked innocently.

She followed Giles over to Angel’s desk.

Spike looked at Buffy. “I’m not loving the vibe in here right now. What’s say we do what we do best?”

“Spike, we can’t do that right now. People are dying!!” Buffy said exasperated.

“Not that. I meant go out and track down one of these beasties. Give some of these new skills we have a real challenge, a real hunt.” Spike leered at her. “But I must say, you are right, that is what we do best.”

Buffy turned pink with embarrassment, but smiled up at him happily. Spike grinned back at her.

He didn’t think the novelty of her showing this easygoing affectionate side to him would ever go away. He had always known this was a side of her, but he had never really had much opportunity to be around it.
He moved forward to kiss her, suddenly needing to feel her lips, when he realized that Andrew was still wrapped around him.

“Andrew let go of me before I rip off your arms.” He growled.

“Oh sorry, did I wrinkle the jacket.” Andrew said letting go. “Is that a new jacket? It isn’t as soft as the old one.” He complained.

Buffy’s smile widened.

“How the hell can there be this many grizzly deaths, but no one’s seen anything?” Angel yelled into the phone.

“I don’t know, but so far no one has seen anything and lived to tell about it.” Gunn’s voice was scared through the intercom. “Word from above is the senior partners are about to get serious about this if we don’t do something soon. They don’t like people working their territory with notice.”

“Wonderful. The last thing we need is an underworld war.” Giles muttered.

“We need to get out there, Spike.” Buffy said.

“Agreed.” They turned to leave, but of course Angel picked that moment to notice them.

“Where are you two going now? Off for another love-in?” Angel snapped at them.

Spike turned around. “Back off.” He warned. Spike really didn’t want to have to put him in his place.

Well, really he did, but he didn’t think Buffy would appreciate it.

“Don’t tell me to back off.” Angel left his desk, leaving Dawn and Giles to talk to Gunn. “I’m not the one who ran off for a quickie while people were dying.”

“Oh don’t pin this on us, I heard you caused this trying to fix Nina.” Spike stepped up to the larger vampire. “Who would wake a werewolf, and not restrain them?”

“I didn’t know she was going to wake up like that!” Angel defended himself.

“Willow could have been seriously hurt, Angel.” Buffy stepped up next to Spike.

“I don’t even want to talk to you right now.” Angel said to her.

“Well, you aren’t going to talk to her like that.” Spike growled.

“Excuse me?” Buffy said to Angel at the same time. “What do you have to be mad at me for?”

Angel turned on her in a fury. “What do I have to mad at you for?” He yelled. “Well let’s see. How about trying to kill me? How about almost killing my girlfriend? How about moving in and not even having the courtesy to let me know first? How about the fact that you were supposed to be my salvation?” His voice got louder with every answer.

“Uh, is everything ok there?” Gunn asked over the speaker.

“Yes, some children just need to work out their petty differences.” Giles answered him, throwing them a glare.

“Everything I have done for the past five years has been for you.” Angel continued, his voice lower, but the intensity still as high. “So we could be together. So I can be good enough to Shanshu.”

“Why does everyone keep talking about shampoo?” Buffy yelled.

“Shanshu, luv.” Spike answered her. “It’s a prophecy that says a vampire with a soul will turn human.”

“But you aren’t human, are you?” Buffy was confused, Lorne had said that Spike had done that, but he wasn’t human. “You can just go out during the day now.” She said.

“What?” Angel whipped his head around to look at Spike.

Spike shrugged, but couldn’t help the gloating look on his face. “That’s right. Yours truly can sun bathe now.”

Angel turned back to Buffy. “What was that speech about cookie dough for? Why even bother letting me think I had a chance? I mean first the Immortal, now this?”

Buffy felt bad, she did lead him on when they were in Sunnydale. She didn’t mean to, she just wanted to avoid the drama their relationship talks usually brought up and telling him she didn’t want him anymore but she was in love with Spike definitely would have caused drama.

“Angel, I’m sorry.”

Angel started laughing, it sounded very bitter. “You know what, just forget it. You threw away the future we might have had, just so you could be with someone who could fuck you? I don’t need you.”

Spike didn’t think, his arm flew on its on to strike Angel for his words, but his fist met with air. Buffy had beaten him to it and punched Angel across the room. Giles and Dawn looked up in surprise.

“Did I forget to mention that Angel’s had serious ‘tude since you guys were found to be gone?” Dawn asked innocently.

“Give us the address of the last known sighting, Dawn. Its time we got to work.” Buffy said.

“Past time, some might say.” Giles muttered.

Buffy shook her head. ‘Oh surprise. Its going to be a day.’ She thought.

Spike squeezed her shoulders, rubbing them slowly.

‘A great day.’ She amended in her mind.





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