Author Restive Nature
Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series. They belong to the almighty Joss and I just play with them for my own amusement before putting them away neatly.
Spoilers: Buffy Season Three "Amends"
Chapter Twenty-three
Good To See You Too
December 24th, 2003
Angel emerged from his apartment in the offices of Wolfram and Hart ready for another long day, doing what he wasn’t certain. Ever since taking over the law firm, he and the rest of his team from Angel Investigations had been on a roller coaster ride. The evil permeating their days had to be beaten back constantly. And it was a struggle for all of them. And while they certainly were trying to get a handle on what was real, what was false, and what they would never know for sure about, the world kept turning.
Angel sighed as he approached his office. Harmony was there, waiting for him, trying to be the perfect efficient secretary. Something he was sure they both knew she’d never achieve. He rolled his eyes as he took in Spike, nattering on about something with the female Vampire. Theirs was a strange relationship, or non-relationship. Angel was never sure which it was. He just wished that Spike would leave everyone alone and let him or her work.
Harmony jumped out of her seat upon seeing her employer approach. She pasted on a great big smile and snatched up the messages already accrued for him. He paused by her desk as she dutifully rattled off the messages, went over his schedule for the day and reminded him of his appointments. After he perfunctorily thanked her, he was about to enter his office. But he snatched a package from her desk. She handed it to him, and he took it reluctantly.
"It’s already been checked," Harmony assured him. "They were suspicious because there was no return address. Looks like it was routed here after a failed delivery," she noted, proud of herself for paying attention to details.
Angel’s look changed from suspicious to surprise hen he took in the address it had originally been delivered to. It was that of the old Hyperion Hotel. Obviously someone didn’t know that he’d moved. Or, perhaps it was a simple ploy at disarming him. He snorted quietly. This law firm was making him a hundred times more paranoid than he’d ever been in the past. He would have taken the package into his office to open carefully. They’d learned from previous experience that packages weren’t the innocuous things they appeared to other people. He would have, but a strangled noise from Spike caught his attention. He sighed at whatever little scheme Spike had come up with to garner attention.
"Bloody hell," the blonde whispered. Angel studied him, but was offered no clues to Spike’s little outburst. Finally he had no choice but to ask.
"What is it, Spike?" he demanded harshly. He didn’t feel like dealing with anything to do with his old nemesis. There was silence as Spike gestured to Harmony’s desk. Angel stepped forward and when he read one of the sidebar headlines, he realized exactly why Spike had reacted as he did.
‘Local artist dead at Age 23.’ And underneath was a very familiar face. In shock, Angel set the package down and reached with shaky hands to bring the paper closer.
"What is it?" Harmony demanded.
"Hush," Spike admonished. Angel glanced at him, stunned to see a shimmer of tears in Spike’s eyes. He was truly surprised to see him reacting in such a manner. He took the paper, lifted up the package once more and manipulated his office door open.
"Come on Spike," he invited him in with low tones. He didn’t bother to see if he was followed. He shut the door after Spike seated himself and set the package on his desk. He took his own seat and spread the paper flat on the desk to read the article. He read it through once and then again. It didn’t offer much in the way of information.
"What was it?" Spike choked out. Angel glanced up at him in surprise.
"It says here that she had a drawn out illness," Angel replied slowly. The same thought had occurred to him. But they both knew that bad things happened in ways that were totally unrelated to the things they were fighting against. Buffy’s mother Joyce was a prime example. "There’s not much else here. Just some information on her final showing and how the art is going to be much more valuable."
"Just typical, isn’t it?" Spike growled. "A vibrant young dies too young and the vultures are already circling." Angel raised a solitary eyebrow.
"Why do you care?" Angel queried. "Last I remember you wanted to kill her and the only thing stopping you was her visions."
"Hell of a lot you know mate," Spike sneered. "Who do you think was the one that kept giving her all those chances to escape." He grinned sadly at Angel’s stunned expression. "Didn’t know about that now, did you?"
"I did," Angel confessed. "I just didn’t know that it was you."
"You knew?" Spike demanded. "How did you know?"
"I saw her a couple of time since then," Angel murmured. "We talked."
"You saw her," Spike repeated numbly. He hated asking of this Vampire, but he really wanted to know. "How was she?"
"The first time," Angel shrugged, "she was still trying to work through what had happened. We talked about that then. The second time was here in LA. I was really shocked when I saw her."
"Why is that?"
*****
November 15th, 2002
Angel had just finished off another Vampire attack in a dark alleyway. That was to say, he had staked another Vampire attempting to feed off the unwary population of the city he had adopted for his own. It was a sad relief to be doing something so familiar, but now so much simpler compared to the things he’d been facing recently. He continued down the street to where he’d parked his car, lost in thought when he heard his name being called.
He stopped short and glanced around. The street was hardly deserted. He waited and his name was called again. He turned to his right and saw her. His face lit up as he recognized whom it was. Sitting at a little café table, enjoying the night air with a mug of something warm, was Dylan McKenzie. Angel backtracked to the opening to the restaurant and approached the girl.
His eyes widened in surprise as she clambered to her feet and held out her arms to him. He gave her a quick squeeze, careful not to put too much force in it, then waited for her to take a seat again. He slipped into the seat across from her
"Well, it’s good to see you," Dylan grinned.
"You too," Angel returned. "Although I didn’t expect this."
"Expect what?" she asked teasingly.
"I didn’t expect you to be pregnant," he burst out. Her eyes widened and she dropped her glance to her stomach.
"Well what do you know," she squeaked. "When the heck did that happen?"
"Dylan!" he laughed outright. She chuckled too.
"Yeah, it wasn’t exactly planned," she shared with him. "But then, sometimes the best gifts aren’t." He smiled in agreement, thinking back over the gifts he’d received over the years. A waitress approached and Angel ordered the same as what Dylan had. He wasn’t surprised when the waitress confirmed that it was tea.
"So when’s the big day?" he asked.
"Still have a little over a month to go," she told him with an exaggerated sigh. "I don’t know if I’m going to last."
"Oh, I have faith you will," Angel smirked. "Anyone who could handle what you have will find a baby to be no problem. In fact, given your dealings with Spike and Dru, I’d say you’ll be an excellent mother."
"Thank you," she giggled. "Yeah, those two were really a handful." She paused for a moment. "Have you heard from them?"
"Every once in a while," he shrugged, hedging things. He didn’t really think that she needed to hear that the duo was still terrorizing the world. "What about you?" He switched topics quickly. "What are you doing in LA?"
And so she filled him in on her life since Sunnydale. She’d gone on to art studies after graduating. But soon found herself concentrating solely on the art after a tiny gallery offered to show her work. She was just starting to make a name for herself when she discovered that she was pregnant. Her fiancé did an abrupt turnabout and decided he was much to young for all the responsibility. And she was actually glad about it. She’d been very unsure bout marrying him and while they’d taken things slow, his true nature came out. She didn’t regret having a child and was full of dreams and plans for her and her child.
Angel in turn, told her about his decision to leave Sunnydale and why. And she surprisingly understood about it. Sympathetic, but supportive. Especially when he’d gone on to tell her about life in LA. He’d found his purpose, just like she had believed he would. He was helping the hopeless, making a difference. They talked most of the night, until Dylan’s yawns were more frequent than her replies. So he gave her a ride home and a warning that LA was just as bad as Sunnydale. She in return, admonished him not to be such a stranger. He never thought it would be the last time he ever saw her.
*****
"She had a kid?" Spike grinned. He could just imagine what a little hell on wheels the kid would be with Dylan as a mother.
"I guess so," Angel shrugged. "I didn’t see her after that."
Spike sighed and ran his hand down his face. "It’s a bloody shame, That’s what it is." Angel nodded. But there was nothing he could do about it. With a heavy heart, he slid the paper away and turned his attention to the package Harmony had given him. Spike stood. "I’m gonna go," he announced for no reason. Angel didn’t answer as he ripped open the package, unworried anymore about the possible threat unlabelled parcels meant anymore. Whatever would happen would happen. He grappled with it for a moment, before sliding out a gaily-wrapped gift. The card on top was addressed to him with startlingly familiar handwriting.
"Hang on a minute Spike."
No comments:
Post a Comment