Part 4

When the doctors had gotten Fred stabilized, I invited the others into her room. Spike and Wesley were first, but Gunn, Lorne and Knox followed shortly. We stood around her bed, except for Wesley, who sat down beside her. At the disturbance to her mattress, Fred finally stirred and opened her eyes.

She looked at all of us and said softly, "Handsome man saves me." Wesley reached out to take her hand. The rest of us tried to comfort her in soft words and platitudes, but everyone in the room knew that Fred was dying. Unless we did – I did – something drastic, Fred would be gone. The doctors told me the infection was eating away at her organs, liquefying them. And Spike claimed he knew how to save her, that he had a vision. It was time for drastic, and if that included going along with Spike's idea, so be it.

I led the way from Fred's room, surprised that Wesley didn't leave with the rest of us. I turned to Spike, who was at my side more often than not lately. "Wes and Fred?" I asked him, sure he would know. He was always a terrible gossip.

"Hmm," he nodded, "You didn't know?"

I crossed my arms and shook my head. I knew that I had been pulling away from my team since we took these jobs, but I was surprised that I didn't even know when two of my best friends had started seeing each other. Oh, I wasn't surprised at the two of them. I had seen that coming for a long time now. I was just surprised I hadn't noticed when it started.

Wes bent and kissed Fred lightly on the lips before joining us in the hallway. Wes was kissing Fred, and I had kissed Spike. Why had I done that? It didn't make any sense.

Anyway, I led the boys away from the hospital wing and to the lobby between my office and Wes and Gunn's offices. This had become a fight, and I was the general, marshaling the troops. It was a role I played much better than law firm CEO.

"The doctors say she doesn't have much time, so whatever we're going to do, we have to do it fast. Her organs are cooking. In a day's time, they will liquefy."

"No," said Spike. "Not this girl, not this day." His sentiment was shared by all, I could feel it. Please, God, not Fred.

I looked at the men ringed in front of me. "Knox," I said, starting at the easiest order, "you keep working on the science side of identifying this parasite."

I moved to look at Wes. "Have you had any luck figuring out what sort of thing would be in a sarcophagus like this?"

"No," he said, the frustration evident in the strain in his voice. "It appears to be older than anything in our records."

"Keep at it," I said. "Fred's only chance is if we work this in time." I turned to Gunn. "Any idea where it came from?"

"No luck, boss," he said, shaking his head. "No one seems to have seen it delivered except Knox, and there's absolutely no paper trail."

"See if you can dig any more up. If we can determine where the coffin came from, we might be able to figure out where to get it back to."

"Sure thing, Angel."

I looked to Spike. "Lindsey and Eve have been playing us this whole time. This might be one of their tricks. Gunn found Lindsey's address, so I'm going to go see if either is there, beat some answers out of them. Twice the muscle," I said pointing to him, "will make this go twice as fast." He nodded sharply.

"And baby makes three, if the jailbird feels like singing," said Lorne. I was grateful he thought of someway he could help, because I had nothing.

I nodded at him, "Great." I paused, pursing my lips and trying to come up with the right words. Saving Fred was a war and this was the rallying cry. "Let me just say this," I said, thinking of the words that would get everyone doing their best, "Winifred Burkle. Go."

We split up, Spike and Lorne following me into the elevator. We couldn't fail, could we? Not with all of us working the problem. We wouldn't fail. It was just something I had to believe.

I looked over at Spike, who kept his gaze steadfastly forward. Maybe I was a little glad he hadn't taken me up on my offer. He was blood and as much as he pissed me off, it was kind of nice having him around. I wasn't so special anymore. I wasn't the only vampire with a soul. But maybe that could be a good thing. There were two of us now. Maybe I could spread out the burden, not feel so beaten down by what I was.

When I looked over at Lorne, I was surprised to see him looking back at me. He raised an eyebrow in my direction, but didn't say anything as he turned to face forward. Was he reading me? Did he know I kissed Spike? I didn't even sing!

It was a relief when we reached the motor pool and were on the way to Lindsey's place.