24

The Opening Bars

"Any plans for the weekend, Lorne?" asked Gunn as they left the office.

"As a matter of fact," the Pylean replied, standing a little straighter. "I have a date."

"Good for you, Lorne." Gunn smiled, genuinely pleased. He thought his gentle demon friend deserved a shot at happiness. "Is it anyone I know?"

"Corinna." Lorne seemed a little defensive. When Corinna had first come to the law firm, she and Angel had had an on again, off again relationship for two or three years. After the final break up, she had drifted from partner to partner, seemingly seeking something she wasn't finding.

"You could do worse," Gunn acknowledged. "And if you can get past the fact that she's a part-time spider, she's a damn fine looking woman."

"As long as I don't delude myself that the Corinna stops here," Lorne sighed.

"Stranger things have happened," Gunn said. "After all, this is Wolfram and Hart."

&&&&&&

Spike was congratulating himself on not being home too late despite the call of duty. He opened the door to see Rose speaking to one of the maintenance staff who, after retracting his tape measure, was jotting down some figures. Right in front of the empty frame where their balcony door should be. Of the kids there was no sign.

"How in the hell did they manage that?" The question was purely rhetorical. Spike didn't really want to know how they had done it, and he had no doubts whatsoever that the twins were responsible.

Rose turned eagerly to greet him. "Hello, darling. I.., ow!" At the last syllable, Rose sucked in a pained breath and cradled one foot in her hands. A crimson rivulet trickled down the sole of her foot.

Spike sighed. "Babe, didn't anyone ever tell you not to walk barefooted where there's broken glass?" Heedless of the presence of Harry, he swept Rose up off her foot and carried her into the bathroom and sat her on the counter.

"I'm not quite that naive, love," Rose replied reproachfully. "But Ariel told me that they'd cleaned up the broken glass."

"And of course the kids always do such a wizard clean-up that you didn't think there'd be anything left behind, did you, pet?" Spike tossed the sliver of glass he'd extracted from her foot into the trash. And then, because she sat there just looking so guilty, he kissed her. "Silly, little nit," he murmured fondly. "You can't take everything they say at face value, no matter how much you love them."

"The way I do with you?" Rose asked innocently.

"Well, that's different, innit?" Spike muttered, carrying on with tending to her wound. "This is going to sting a bit, luv."

The warning wasn't quite enough. When the mercurochrome hit the open cut, Rose let out a loud yelp.

The twins, despite having been confined to their rooms were there on the instant.

"Is Mum okay?" "What happened to Mummy?" burst out of the pair of them in a nearly unintelligible jumble.

Rose was actually starting to feel bad about having been so angry with the children at all. Even more so now that they were showing such genuine concern for her.

"She'll be fine, no thanks to you two," Spike snapped. He loved his kids dearly, but Rose was still the center of his existence, and they wouldn't have had to be concerned about their mother if they hadn't screwed up in the first place.

Rose almost cringed at the harshness of Spike's tones, especially knowing that it was his love for her that caused it. But they had long ago agreed to present a united front to the twins' faces and discuss any differences of opinion later, in private. Or at least as private as they could get. Maybe she could distract him and turn his wrath aside a little. Then, she became distracted.

"Spike, darling, what happened to your hand?" Rose was aghast that she hadn't noticed it before.

Spike glanced at the back of his hand and saw distinct signs of charring. He hadn't noticed when it happened either, his full attention having been on Rose. "Must've got a bit of sun on me when I picked you up, babe," he replied. He looked at his offspring severely, but said nothing.

"Gee, Dad, we didn't mean to," Alaric stammered, horrified.

"We wouldn't deliberately hurt you and Mummy," Ariel squeaked, near tears.

"You guys may have been royal pains lately," Alaric added, neatly side-stepping his sister's elbow. "But we still love you." The last three words were so low as to be barely audible.

"Back to your rooms," Spike ordered. He sounded stern enough, but after Alaric and Ariel had filed out of the room, he'd come up for a hug with a half-smile.

"Oh, Spike." Rose leaned her head against his shoulder. "They're really not that bad, are they?"

"Of course they're not." Spike bent back down to finish with the first aid. "After all, you're their mum, luv."

&&&&&&

"I've heard your name mentioned around the firm already," was how Eve reacted to her first meeting with Sweet.

Sweet laughed, albeit a little uncomfortably. "I haven't even really turned up the heat yet," he protested. "And though it pains me to admit it, I'm not exactly a household word."

"Depends on the household," Eve observed. "My information is that you met one of our current employees when you visited Sunnydale."

Sweet sighed. He didn't like being reminded of Sunnydale. "Who?"

"Does a bleached-blond vampire named Spike ring any bells?" Eve queried.

"Like Notre Dame on Sunday morning," Sweet replied. "He was the hardest one to affect there. Not to mention that he was the cool voice of reason that kept the Slayer from igniting."

Eve stifled a giggle at the thought of Spike ever being the 'cool voice of reason'. "Not to rain on your parade," she said apologetically. "But he's married to the reason you're here."

Sweet was suddenly wearing a very malicious smile. "You ever seen a vampire spontaneously combust?"

&&&&&

"Hey, princess." Lindsey greeted Ariel as she walked into his office. "What brings you to corporate America?"

"The mail," Ariel replied grumpily, dropping a stack of correspondence on his desk. "'Ric and I have to do this stupid job for a whole week."

Lindsey shook his head and fought off a grin. "Child labor, could be grounds for a lawsuit," he suggested, not really meaning it, just showing Ariel that he was on her side.

Ariel managed a smile. Despite the fact that most of her extended family tended to treat him like a disease, she liked Lindsey. And it was sweet of him to try to cheer her up. "It's all right, Lindsey," she answered. "But we have to do this to pay for replacing the glass in the balcony door."

Lindsey winced. It would probably take everything the kids earned this week plus dig into any savings they might have. The necro-glass was expensive. "You broke it, you bought it?" he guessed.

Ariel nodded. "Actually this is the easy part," she admitted. "After Mummy cut her foot on a piece of glass, Daddy made us go over the whole living room with a fine-toothed comb. Literally."

"Sounds like fun," Lindsey remarked, handing her his outgoing mail.

It was Ariel's turn to wince. "Not when Mummy found out how many spiders live in the carpet. Daddy had to send her to Uncle Angel's and call an exterminator." She glanced at the time. "I'd better get going, I guess."

"Wait, don't go," Lindsey sang. He shook his head as if trying to clear it, but the compulsion was too strong to fight.

"You're young, I know

Scarcely more than a child

And yet now for years

You've driven me wild

I'd happily worship the ground under your dainty feet

If you would just give me a sign that you will wait for me."

"I'll always have a soft spot for you." Ariel's voice was a clear, ringing soprano. "Always a friend. Someone upon whom to depend."

"But I want more." Lindsey's voice nearly cracked. Not from the pitch, but from emotion.

"I've waited years for you to grow up

And I can't bear to see you slip away

Now that you're nearly a woman."

"I don't want to hurt you," Ariel sang softly. "But I love someone else." Her eyes got dreamy.

"He's tall and he's strong and he's handsome.

He's kind and he's gentle as well.

He's smart and he's funny, the light of my life..,"

Ariel had whirled around, and when she came face to face with Lindsey's glare, she faltered.

"It's him, isn't it?" Who knew that someone could snarl and sing at the same time? "He got my job, he got my life, but not you too, I couldn't bear it." Lindsey turned to stare sightlessly out the window.

Ariel came up behind him, but just as she was opening her mouth to sing, the compulsion dissipated.

Lindsey turned and looked into Ariel's eyes for a moment, then buried his face in his hands while Ariel fled, blushing furiously.

&&&&&&

In the research department, Wesley sang, "Books and spells and talismans, demons by the score..,"

In the science lab, Fred heard one of her lab techs chanting, "Feed the virus and watch it grow..,"

In the practice room, as Spike toppled Angel on his back, Angel began.., singing, for lack of a better word. "Today you win, tomorrow I will, in the end does it even matter who wins?"

"Oh, bleeding hell," Spike muttered. Looked like the ponce wasn't as paranoid as he'd thought. And as Angel kept warbling, he felt a growing urge to join in. Had to nip that in the bud. He put his right hand against the wall and slammed the butt end of his staff into it, barely biting back the cry of pain. He didn't really want to do too much vocalizing right now, make it too easy for the demon to get hold of him again. But it seemed to have worked. He wondered if using pain as a distraction would work once someone had already got caught in the spell. Only one way to find out.

Angel, still singing, was pulling himself to his feet when Spike's staff caught him across the back of the skull.

&&&&&

There was already a small crowd outside of Angel's office when Spike half-dragged his grandsire back. Well, a crowd consisting of the home team, as it were.

"Did you have to hit me so hard?" Angel grumbled, gingerly rubbing the rising lump on the back of his head.

"Had to stop you singing, didn't I?" Spike asked innocently. He didn't bother to tell the pouf that he hadn't been any more gentle with himself. His hand still throbbed.

"I'm sure there's many a person that's considered it after hearing you sing, big guy," Lorne tried to joke. But everyone was so tense and serious that it totally failed to lighten the mood.

Angel led the way into his office. "I take it this means that everybody has started singing?"

"Pretty much," Wesley replied. "I must have heard half a dozen people just coming here from research.

"The lab people were forming up a conga line," Fred said. "If I hadn't managed to leave when I did, I'd have joined them."

"So, we know what the problem is, and even who's causing it," Gunn remarked. "The question is, how do we stop it?"

Everybody turned to look at Spike.

"Hey, I've already told everything I know," Spike protested. He thought a moment, and then spoke, but it was more like thinking out loud. "I don't think it was because he didn't get to see the Slayer combust, I think that was just a bit of fun for him. Seemed a little bit irked that the Bit had his amulet but hadn't cast the summoning spell. Something about taking her back to marry him." He roused himself from his reverie. "See? No new info."

"Have you been able to find anything in research, Wes?" Angel asked.

Wesley shook his head. "It took me all morning just to discover that all the files on Sweet, files that I wouldn't have thought were all that sensitive compared to some that are in there, have suddenly become highly classified. We can check, but I'm not sure even your access codes will be enough."

"Who would be able to classify stuff like that, that quickly?" Fred asked, looking very serious.

"I smell a rat," said Gunn.

"More like a Wolf, a Ram and a Hart," Angel muttered. "They're the ones with the power to make things like that happen around here. But why this?"

"Darling, didn't you say that people tended to sing about things that they normally wouldn't talk about?" Rose asked Spike. "The things they kept closest to their hearts?"

Spike nodded. "Like Buffy telling them that they resurrected her from heaven instead of hell. Matter of fact, I think that the whole reason that that towering fount of wisdom, Xander cast the spell was tryin' to find out if him and Anya could make a go of it. Stupid git."

"So that gives us the senior partners going on a fishing expedition trying to find out someone's secret," Wesley mused.

"And whose big secret have they been trying to find out for years?" Fred asked, looking pointedly at Rose.

As Rose sat there looking dumfounded, Gunn added, "That's almost got to be it. The senior partners have been trying to find out who or was Rose is ever since she was pregnant with the twins."

"Probably before that," Angel put in. "Like when she swapped spook status with Spike and then came back human. And when I was..," He looked away from his friends, it was a painful subject. "..,When I was Angelus, one of the first things they did was to send Eve to me, trying to find out what I knew about Rose."

"Think it would help if we sent Rose away?" Spike suggested. He didn't like the thought of having Rose away from him, but he liked the thought of the senior partners knowing about her origins even less.

"We'd all have to go away, Spike," Lorne pointed out. "After all, everyone in this room, plus the kids knows about Rose. And maybe Corinna, too. And I wouldn't put money against Lindsey taking a few educated guesses."

"Not to mention which there are other places they could find the information even if we found a way to shield ourselves against the spell," Wesley added. "There's Oz, teaching at U.C.L.A., and Harmony and Val with their half-way house."

"And Red and Rupes in merry olde England," Spike finished. "With that many people knowing about it, I'm surprised the partners haven't found out already."

"More to the point, would it really hurt to let them know?" Angel murmured. "When I was.., when I threatened Rose with exposure, she said go ahead and tell them. Piss-poor blackmail subject." He smiled at Rose.

"But Angel, I was just bluffing," Rose protested. "I honestly don't think that the senior partners should have that knowledge. Even if they didn't try to use it against me, I'm afraid that they might decide to try to do something to my babies."

"You bluffed Angelus?" Spike asked incredulously, a grin spreading across his face. It was known to one and all that Rose was about the worst liar around, and Angelus, evil bastard that he was, was nobody's fool. Bloody amazin' woman.

"Well, I'll be damned," Angel said softly. He wouldn't have believed that Rose could bluff Angelus either. "Okay, we're agreed that we have to find a way to stop this, and make sure that it can't happen again. But as Gunn said, the question is, how?"

"The partners may have classified the information as far as the firm goes," Wesley said. "But Wolfram and Hart's resources aren't the only ones available to us. I think I'll just put in a little call to the council and see what they can give me. Even if they no longer have the records, they have access to people that were there. I'm sure that some other perspectives could add something to what Spike gave us."

"It's a little thin," Angel replied. "But unfortunately, it seems to be the best we have. Fred, what about the lab? Do you think there might be some way or another you could immunize us against these attacks? As has been noted, way too many of us know about Rose. And all it would take would be one of us to burst into song about it."

"I'll give it a shot," Fred promised. She didn't sound too hopeful, though.

"The rest of you, turn over some rocks and see what you can turn up. Maybe we can locate where the demon is," Angel directed.

"And we need to find out who's wearing that bloody amulet," Spike added. "I know that's part of his price. A bride."

"Well, let's all get on it, kiddies," Lorne urged, rising to his feet. It may have said something about his devotion to Rose that he hadn't made any moves toward the bar other than a few longing gazes.

"Lorne," Angel said before the empath hit the door. "Any time you hear anyone singing, try to see if you can get a reading. There may be some sort of key to the spell there."

"I'll do my level best," Lorne promised. Then he, and everyone else, made their exit.

&&&&&&

Eve was sitting on the edge of the desk, feet gently swinging. "We haven't heard anything about Rose yet," she pointed out. "As a matter of fact, you haven't gotten a note out of either Rose or Spike."

"A little patience if you please," Sweet replied smoothly. "The deeper the secret, the longer it takes to bring it to the surface. Sometimes it only comes out just before the end, if then. Besides..," He shrugged helplessly. "It's not an exact science."

"You were going to show me a vampire spontaneously combusting," Eve reminded him, pouting prettily. "I don't even really care which one it is."

"You did hear Angel sing, didn't you?" Sweet asked, wincing. He wasn't sure if Spike had hit him over the head to stop him singing or.., to stop him singing.

"No pain, no gain," Eve replied flippantly. She looked back at the crystal ball. Sweet's magic could allow them to hear, but this enabled them to see. As many of Wolfram and Hart's devices, this was a hybrid between state of the art technology and magic. You didn't need any special powers to use it, and you could keep it playing continuously. And change views to anywhere programmed into its parameters.

"I wish we could hear them talk, though," Eve remarked. A nasty confrontation with Angel early in his tenure as C.E.O, had brought a halt to the use of bugs.

"Sorry, lovely lady," Sweet apologized. "But my magic only works when all the magic is working, so to speak. No singing, no sound."

"They're going back to research," Eve observed with a superior little sniff. "I guess they haven't figured out that isn't going to help. As soon as they summoned you, the senior partners had me pull all the info there was on you. Anywhere they find where you should be mentioned, they're only going to come across a flag saying classified."

"Hey, look at that." Sweet had changed the focus of the ball, and they saw a janitor dancing with a mop. The dance became more and more frenzied until finally, the inevitable happened.

&&&&&

"Afternoon shift, taking over." Alaric came to replace his sister at the mail cart, and was mildly surprised when she said nothing. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Oh, god," Ariel moaned. She thrust the cart at her brother and ran.

Alaric shrugged and let it pass. His twin had been getting awfully moody of late. He figured that it must be one of those girl things. He moved on to the next office on the route. Thanks to living in the building, the twins knew most of the people who worked at Wolfram and Hart, but this one, better than most.

"Mail call, Mum." Alaric shuffled through the incoming stuff, but didn't see any for his mother.

"I don't have any mail to send, darling, I'm sorry." Rose seemed to think that it would disappoint him that she didn't have anything for him to do.

Alaric rolled his eyes. "It's no big, Mum." He sounded more than somewhat condescending. But while he was here, he thought he'd see if his mother knew what was going on. "Hey, do you have any idea what's eating Ariel? She was acting like she had a real bad morning, but she didn't say anything but, 'oh, god'."

Rose frowned, she didn't like seeing any of her family upset. "I don't know, dear. She didn't come here. Or if she did it was while I was in a meeting." Her brow furrowed in thought. "Has she been acting any differently lately?" she asked, not stopping to think that a great deal of the recent discord in their home came from both twins acting differently.

Alaric shrugged again. "I dunno," he mumbled. He suddenly felt a right git. Suppose whatever was wrong with his sister was something that she didn't want their parents to know? If that was the case, he had ruined everything by breaking their personal code a maintaining a united front against adult interference.

Rose didn't look entirely relieved, but she was no longer as concerned. She was sure that if there was something seriously bothering her daughter, then her twin would surely know. "Well, don't let me keep you then." She dismissed her son. "I'm sure there are lots of other offices you have to visit."

"Yes, Mum," Alaric sighed. Parents.