I don't own anything (but a girl can dream)…its all Joss

Angel couldn't understand how things had gone so badly. He had driven from L.A to Sunnydale so he could warn Buffy about an upcoming evil the powers had warned him were headed her way. But before he could get to her house, he was attacked by 20 unidentifiable demons. In the cloak of the night all that was visible were their neon green teeth and glowing swords. Angel was a little nervous, he wasn't used to these odds. "Come on guys…can't we talk about this?" For a moment the demons looked at each other, it seemed like they were communicating telepathically. The one in front let out a nerve shattering scream and spit purple slime on Angel's shirt. 'Man he needs a breath mint' Angel thought as he looked at the goop now dominating his shirt. "Guess not."

Angel lunged at the demon that had spit. He put on his game face and started to punch the demon. As soon as fist met stomach he cried out in agony. The skin was so hard it felt like adamantium, and Angel was soon on the floor cradling his broken hand. 'Oh this isn't good' he thought in agony as one of the demons picked him up and another come forward, sword at the ready. He began to struggle but it was no use, there were too many and he couldn't find a single weak spot. But still he didn't give up. Three more demons came over with their neon green swords. The first lifted his sword up to the side of Angels face and made a deep gash on his cheek. Two more came forward and made similar cuts on his forearms and legs. Angel tried to cry out but another demon came and placed a steel cold hand over his mouth, further restricting his movements.

At this point Angel began to notice that the purple slime on his chest had eaten away at his shirt and was now starting on his flesh. He felt his skin start to burn and tried to ward off his attackers, but to no avail. The final demon stepped up and shoved his sword in Angel's gut. Angel let out a strangled gasp as the demon turned the sword and moved the blade across the left side of his body. They appeared to be done, the demon holding Angel had loosened his grip, but Angel didn't notice because he began to loose consciousness.

He was still aware of the pain and vaguely aware of his surroundings as he was carried over to she side of the road. One demon pulled the sewer drain open and the other unceremoniously dropped Angel in the sewer before they all gathered together and left Sunnydale. All Angel was aware of was the bitter taste of raw sewage in his mouth as everything went black.

OOOOO

Spike was doing his rounds in the sewers looking for rats to eat. He couldn't help but revel in how pathetic it was, the slayer and her flunkies were out of town for two weeks on some Hawaiian vacation (all except for the watcher of course), and he was reduced to scavenging the sewers for food. Bloody chip. How he missed those days with Dru when he could just go out and look at all the happy meals with legs and pick which one he wanted. Sometimes there was even a prize inside…

He detested the sewer. It always reeked of feces, decaying matter, occasionally blood, oh and garbage, but tonight there was something different about the smell. It was a familiar scent in the air that he just couldn't place. "Smells a little like… Peaches…" now that was ridiculous. He was in L.A. But Spike couldn't shake the feeling so he followed the scent. He seemed to walk for two blocks when he noticed a strange figure in the distance. And that's when Spike's vampire senses noticed an increase in blood. "Peaches?" he asked timidly. When he received no response he ran towards the crumpled figure. When he got to where Angel was he found him face down in the sewage. "C'mon Peaches, lets get you turned over." He turned Angel over and noticed all of the cuts on his face. He pulled Angel out of the water and saw the huge gash in his stomach and all of the burnt flesh. "Oi! What the bloody hell happened to you?" he wondered out loud as he took in his grandsires appearance.

It was clear to Spike that Angel needed to be moved to some place safe, and no matter his personal feelings for the older vampire, he decided with the slayer on vacation the safest place for Angel would be his place. "Come on you big poof, let's get you out of here" He picked him up and for the first time noticed that all of Angel's wounds had strange purple slime mixing with his blood and sewage. He also noticed how bad Angel smelled, and wondered how long he had been down there, and who had done this to him.

All the way to Spikes flat he was brooding. No one had a right to harm his grandsire without his permission. And if anyone was going to kill Angel- or come bloody well close- it was going to be him. It took half an hour for Spike to get Angels limp body out of the sewers and into his flat. It disturbed him to think of how light Angel was and how much blood he must have lost. Spike roughly placed/dropped Angel down in the bushes as he opened his door (he may be hurt, but he was still Angel, it didn't change anything). He picked him up again and carried him into the bathroom.

It was clear Angel needed a bath, there was no way Spike was going to allow that smell to penetrate his home. He drew Angel a bath and figured he'd do his part to help clean him up because the older vampire was still unconscious. A wicked smile crossed his face: Angel was going to owe him big-time. He put his hand in the water to check the temperature. It wasn't to cold, or to hot, he began to undress Angel. He found the task was not that hard considering his shirt and jacket had been mostly eaten away by something. Now it was time for his pants…

Spike slowly unzipped Angel's pants, and then wondered how to proceed. He could do this the fast way…or he could do it slowly and grab his camera, take embarrassing pictures of Angel in provocative positions and keep them as blackmail for when he woke up. Although the thought of blackmail was tempting, Spike took another look at Angels wounds and noticed that the purple slime was starting to pulse and looked like it wanted to seep out of his skin. 'The fast way it is then'

"Okay Peaches, on three. One, two, three." He ripped off Angel's pants and underwear, lifted him up again and placed him into the bathtub. As soon as the wounds hit the water, blue sparks emerged where the purple slime used to be and it was gone. "Well that's odd. What kind of demons were you fighting mate?" Spike wondered aloud. The lack of response he was receiving was really starting to get to him. He had never known anyone to knock Angel out for a few hours- a few minutes at the most.

Spike gently laughed aloud. "I bet I know what happened. You came in here all 'oh I'm Angel, I'm a big poof and I can take on any demon that comes my way, all you Sunnydale demons are beneath me.' See how well that worked out for you mate, I reckon you ran into a big demon and he kicked your poofy, arrogant little ass." He finished cleaning Angel's body and watched as the water slightly turned green from all of the sewage. "Lucky I was around, eh Peaches. Lucky I found you in the sewer." He cleaned off angels face and examined the gash on the side of his cheek. It was really deep, Spike could even see bone.

"Alright now Peaches, lets dry you off, wrap you up, and put you to bed." He lifted Angel out of the tub and noticed how light he was… had he been this light when Spike had brought him in? 'Poof probably needs blood' Spike thought as he carried Angel into the bedroom to dress his wounds. He dressed the wounds half hazardly (all except for the one on Angel's stomach) figuring vampire healing could handle the rest. He put sweats over Angel's legs and brought the covers up to cover his chest. There, no one could ever say he never helped his grandsire out. He went to the closet to grab himself a blanket, and lazed out on top of the covers next to Angel.

OOOOO

Thump, thump

Thump, thump

He was asleep. That he knew. He was in the sewer chasing rats. He was so damn hungry. But he was distracted… all he could hear was a heartbeat. Thump,thump,thump,thump. But it wasn't a rats' heartbeat. No. This one sounded almost…human.

Spike groggily woke up. He was starring at the ceiling wondering about that damned heartbeat that was still ringing in his ears. But now it was louder, and had picked up speed. 'What…' he reached his right hand over to Angel, but felt nothing. 'That's strange, I could have sworn he was right here…'. "Peaches?" he asked as he turned around to look at Angel. "WHAT THE HELL!!"

There looking back at him was a frightened four year old human. He was clutching the blanket tightly, and breathing heavily. In fact Spike would say he was hyperventilating, his eyes were darting all around. This kid must have been Angel, because he had brown eyes and short wavy hair… he even smelled like him. "Who are you?" he asked in a small voice.

Spike just starred in shock.