There was that sound again. Angel slowly turned around to face Spike who was still cowering in the corner. 'That's the sound the victim had made…' he thought distantly as he observed Spike thru the bars.But that's not right; Spike couldn't be the victim. He had chosen to live in the sewers (naked), hadn't he? It would be the 'Spike' thing to do: live in defiance of Angel, stay under the radar and then when Angel would least be expecting it, pop back up and ruin his unlife. The victim was someone who needed his help, and Spike was perfectly capable of taking care of himself… well maybe not in his current state. In this state he clearly needed help. Lorne's voice suddenly popped into his head: 'The powers tell me you know who he is.' Angel walked closer to the cage. 'Well that's just not right, I mean the victim was burned.' He looked over and saw that there were remnants of burns all over Spikes chest. 'Well… that could be from anything' he thought a little less convincingly. Spike who was now panting heavily while clutching his twisted arm to his chest, just stared as he watched Angel pace the length of the cage. 'But the victim had been fed to a vampire. Ha! There's no way Spike could fake that.' He thought he had finally gotten him. That Spike had somehow done this to himself –probably pissed off the wrong demon- and there was still someone out there that needed him more. But then he looked at the arm that was cradled to Spikes chest. It was covered in bite marks. "No!" Angel gasped. The victim hadn't been fed to a vampire; the victim was a vampire. This vampire; the victim was Spike. "Oh God, Spike." He whispered as he opened the cage again. He felt an overwhelming need to hold Spike in his arms and protect him from every bad thing that had happened. 'He must have had to drink his own blood to keep from starving' he suddenly hated this A.R.F person very much.
When he attempted to approach Spike, he let out a vicious growl and morphed into demon face. Ready to attack if he came to close. A sudden pain shot thru Angel's chest; his childe didn't recognize him. He put his arms up in surrender and slowly backed out of the cage. "Take it easy Spike. See I'm leaving." He said as he made his way out of the cage and locked the door. He would have to keep him locked up for a while until he stopped acting so feral. He briefly wondered if this is how he had acted when Buffy had found him after he'd spent two hundred years in hell. His first few days back were still fuzzy, but he couldn't think about that now, Spike needed to feed.
He took one last look at the emaciated vampire and headed upstairs to look for blood. Unfortunately, since he hadn't been there in months; there was no blood. However, once he started looking in the cabinets for any kind of food, he found live rats, oatmeal and hot chocolate. He grimaced; rat blood wasn't very nutritious and judging by Spikes current state, he had been living off of rats for a while. But it would have to do for now.
He quickly grabbed a rat and began looking for a cup to put the blood in when a thought struck him: Spike always liked putting things in his blood. For some reason unknown to Angel, the younger vampire loved textured blood. So he decided he would cook some oatmeal in blood and feed it to the vampire. Spike would most likely like it, and the added vitamins and protein would do him some good. He opened a few more cabinets and found three nice sized rats. He quickly drained them into a pot and waited for it to boil.
While he waited he went to the basement to check on Spike. He was oddly quiet and Angel realized that the younger vampire had fallen asleep in the corner, curled up in a ball and still clinging to his injured arm. He was shivering, Angel sighed at the sight. He looked so frail; Angel hoped that the blood and oatmeal could help put some meat on his bones. Spike had never been this skinny, he was lean and muscular, but this was near anorexia. He swore to himself that if he ever found A.R.F he would kill him for this.
He returned upstairs when he smelled the blood boiling. It was an awful smell; sort of like he was trapped in an airtight room full of pennies and someone had turned the heater up to 102 degrees. He quickly lowered the heat and added the oats. It was cooked in less than a minute, he poured the contents into a cup and brought it down for the feral vampire to eat. Once he was downstairs, the smell instantly woke Spike. Angel wondered if his current state made him a lighter sleeper. 'It probably does.' he thought as he approached the cage. 'Being as weak as he is he can't afford to sleep to deep. No place is really safe.' He reopened the cage and placed the cup in the center. Spike sat up and then didn't move a muscle; he sat there watching him. "Here you go. I brought you some food." He said as he slowly backed out of the cage. "I mixed some blood with some oatmeal, hopefully it will hold you over until tomorrow when I go stock up on supplies." Spike sniffed the air and could tell there was food, as soon as Angel finished backing out of the cage, he crawled over to the center and curiously sniffed the cup.
Angel winced as he watched Spike struggle to the center of the cage. He needed medical attention and soon. He stood outside the cage watching as Spike stuck his nose inside the cup and tried to lick the contents. Apparently it was too hot because the vampire yelped, jumped back and morphed into demon face preparing to attack the cup. Angel had to stifle a laugh. After a while he calmed down and tried the cup again. This time he licked it and seemed to like what he had tasted. He tried to stick his whole face in the cup but quickly realized it wasn't going to work, so he used his good hand instead. Angel watched as Spike would scoop out the oatmeal and then lick it off of his fingers. It was rather amusing. Once Spike began whining again, he realized he was done and was still hungry. "More huh?" he asked as Spike threw the cup at the bars. "I'll see what I can do…" 'Good thing I made enough for two' he thought as he climbed the stairs to refill the cup.
This time instead of entering the cage, he slipped the cup thru the bars and watched Spike crawl the distance to get to it. He finished it quicker then the first and then began to wine again. "Sorry. You're gonna have to wait, there's no more blood." He said with a sympathetic look on his face. He really wished he could do more, but there wasn't much more he could do until he got more blood. Spike seemed to understand the look and returned to his corner. Angel looked behind him and found the nest Spike had made. He decided he was going to sleep there tonight, just to make sure that Spike really was alive and he wasn't dreaming. He made himself comfortable in the covers, noticing that they smelled as bad as Spike did, but he was too tired to care. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he heard shivering in the distance. Sighing heavily, he stood up and grabbed a blanket and pillow from beneath him and carried it over to the cage. He quickly opened the cage and quietly snuck in, he soon gave up on being quiet when he noticed Spike was surreptitiously watching him, but he did not try to move away. Angel placed the pillow by his head and then opened the blanket and carefully laid it over Spikes body. He crouched down and put out his hand to stroke Spikes arm in a reassuring way. He wanted the smaller vampire to know that he was safe here, but his arm hovered over Spikes body as he thought better of it, stood up, and quietly left the cage. He settled himself back into the remaining cousins and blankets on the floor and went to sleep.