[Reviews - 116]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2456 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Well it's taken me long enough, so I really hope you like it.
Angel didn't fear death; it just wasn't something that frightened him. In fact, if it really was just like going to sleep, being at peace then there had been many times in his life he would have welcomed it. But then there had always been these people in the way, people he knew would be hurt if he died even when he didn't care about himself. There had always been someone there to help keep him alive even if they didn't know it at the time... or ever.

He was a brooder, he reflected to himself, as he wandered through the large building. He tended to internalise things far too much. Buffy was much the same and that was probably the reason their relationship would never be peaceful. He would have a problem and she would notice it and start to wonder if it was her fault and he would notice her getting stressed and wonder what was wrong, making him brood more... Then, it would all come out in a blazing row that would always end in her tears, something he couldn't bear to see.

He felt the doorway as he took the stairs two at a time and felt the wood carefully. It was cold so he entered the room and instantly smelled smoke. He moved towards the smell like a blood hound.

Spike had been different he thought suddenly. When he was younger you could always tell what Spike was thinking; he had lived on the outer edge of his skin and every emotion could be seen clearly on his face. Spike had been the one to pull him out of the house, drag him to parties and force him to have fun. That was the reason he had avoided him. He hadn't wanted to be cheered up, hadn't wanted to be happy and by the time he had come out of his depression it had seemed far too late to try to patch it up with the brother he had ignored for three years.

His fun loving brother had changed though. He could still read the play of emotions across Spike's face, but that wasn't because he was open anymore, it was because Angel could always read him and he had to admit Spike could read him just as well. He was hiding himself under layers and it made Angel sad to think that there was little left of the fun-loving teenager he had left behind. They had both changed, grown up and some changes weren’t always for the better.

He was getting closer, the air was getting warmer and he could hear the wood of the building creak in the heat. He hurried, going from room to room in the maze that was the upper level of the warehouse. Feeling each door, he worried that Katie might have already inhaled too much smoke, she only had little lungs and...

And those little lungs could make one hell of a lot of noise he realised as he opened the final door to reveal his daughter, much bigger than he remembered and standing up holding onto the edge of the play pen she had been left in. The fire had started in the next room, but smoke was quickly seeping under the door. He looked at his daughter. She was standing, he thought suddenly and she had features now, she didn’t look like a baby anymore. She was a little person. A little person, who could die if he didn’t get her out of there...

And suddenly, his problem of cosmic proportions shrank down to an adorable little blond girl, who was his. Looking into her eyes, which were so much like her mother’s, he felt his heart melt.

“Hello sweetie,” he said to his daughter walking to get her out of the playpen. “I’m your daddy.”

Angel, spending the last few seconds working through his issues and having them worked out for him quite simply could be forgiven for being a little distracted. Unfortunately though, it meant that he simply wasn’t on his game; he felt the impact on the back of his head and fell to the floor beside his daughter.

Pain exploded in his head once he hit the floor and before he sank into the darkness he heard a voice.

“Isn’t that sweet, daddy and daughter together again, isn't it a shame they are going to die together.”

***************************************************************************

Buffy was frantic, Angel had only been in the building for a few minutes, but to her it already felt like a lifetime. Please God let my baby be okay, she prayed silently. I’ll do anything, just don’t take her away from me.

She looked at Spike; he was watching the rear loading entrance intently, with his gun at the ready. Where did he learn to do that? She wondered, thinking that really she knew very little about him. She knew that he grew up here in Sunnydale and sure she knew silly things about him, like his obsession with black and red and that he had his steak barely cooked and still dripping in blood, but she didn’t really know him.

God he was sexy though and they had something. She wasn’t exactly clear what it was and she really didn’t have any idea what she was going to do, but she felt it deep inside.

Spike could feel her looking at him and he wished he knew what she was thinking. It was hard not to think of her lying under him, the look on her face as she came. He could feel the heat in his blood and he knew he needed to think about something else, anything else. God the little bit was in that building, he could hear sirens now though. The fire engines were on their way and hopefully, so was the FBI.

It happened so fast that looking back he was hardly sure how it happened; a tall, blonde man opened the door and calmly walked out. He moved funny, Spike thought later, like he wasn’t quite used to walking upright and he looked a little strange, the kind of person that you might cross the street to avoid. But then there was Buffy, she had gone for the man and was raking her fingernails across his face and kicking.

Her mind had gone blank; all she could think about, was that this man had stolen her Katie. The man fell to the floor, trying to fend off the enraged mother, unable to gather himself enough to muster any offensive. He was just trying to prevent any serious damage. Buffy however was intent on causing permanent damage to this… this monster.

Spike had been shocked at first, moving to help but seeing that Buffy had it all in hand, he just kept his gun trained on the pair, ready to get involved if necessary. He had always known that she was a firecracker, but this was something else. You really didn’t want to cross this woman.

He did pull her off him once she started to bash his head against the pavement. The man had to be unconscious and quite honestly, despite what he had done, he really didn’t think that Buffy could live with killing this piece of shit.

As he hugged Buffy to him muttering meaningless endearments to calm her down he wished he had some whiskey. A mouthful of that would do her the world of good. It was then that Gunn and two other FBI agents rounded the corner. Gunn stopped looking at the unconscious man on the floor in shock and looked at Spike.

“Did you do that?” he asked bluntly, with a slight smile on his face.

“Nope,” Spike replied with a grin. “Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.”

Gunn returned his grin, “You’re the brother?”

Spike raised an eyebrow “Yeah”

“Then you know what to do.” He gave Spike a meaningful look, “I’ll take Buffy; we should get the paramedics to check her out.”

“Yeah,” was Spike’s only response as he relinquished Buffy to the agent and watched as they all walked away, none of them commenting on the man on the floor. They all knew what Angel had been through and a trial, well that could just make things worse.

Spike knew this as he looked at the unconscious man on the floor. He thought back to his brother and what this scum had done. He could read Angel just as well as Angel could read him and he knew exactly what his brother had gone through.

He pointed his gun. Enough was enough.





You must login (register) to review.