I've Got You Under My Skin

Part One

The team were down in Angel's kitchen, the men were sitting around the table. Doyle was shuffling his playing cards, Cordelia was hovering by the oven, waiting for the timer to go off. Angel was examining a dagger that Wesley had procured for him. 'The mark of kekfedlorem' the vampire said, placing the knife back on the table 'I've heard of it but I've never seen it before.'

'A knife with that mark on it is the only thing that will kill a Kek demon' Wesley informed him. 'Could come in very useful.' Doyle raised his eyebrows and craned his neck over to get a better look at the dagger, although his hands never stopped the incessant shuffling of the cards.

'Very useful' Angel replied 'especially if Kek demons weren't extinct.' Doyle chuckled appreciatively. Wesley looked dismayed. 'They are? Oh dear. Well perhaps there's one hibernating eh? Ready to wake up any moment and go on a grisly rampage.'

'I'll keep my fingers crossed', promised the vampire, Doyle laughed again. Then the timer went off.

'They're ready!' Cordelia exclaimed in excitement 'No touching!'

'She's baking' Angel explained to a confused looking Wesley.

'Oh is that what I smell? I thought I'd tracked something in.' Doyle shot him a disapproving glare, although the ex watcher did have a point.

'This recipe was handed to me from my mother' Cordelia informed them, taking the pan out of the oven 'and she got it from her housekeeper. Plus I improvised a little. You're gonna love them.' she turned her big, bright smile on her two non vampire colleagues. Doyle did his best to grin back enthusiastically, Wesley looked put out. 'Us? Doesn't Angel have to - get to try any?'

'These are brownies' she said, as if explaining that two plus two equals four to someone very young and not very bright. 'They're full of nutty goodness, not red blood cells.' She was having trouble cutting into her brownies, she sawed away with the knife she held, but her baked goods seemed to be fighting back. 'Maybe if he branched out into solids once in awhile, Angel might keep a decent knife around here', she said in exasperation and then, spotting the dagger lying on the table, seized it triumphantly and went to work on her brownies with that.

'That is not appropriate' yelled Wesley, jumping out of his seat 'It's for killing extinct demons. Angel, make her stop!'

Doyle and Angel were too busy laughing to sympathise too much with Wesley, but Angel attempted to be the boss and intervene on the British man's behalf 'Cordelia' he started, a rare smile lighting up his face as he spoke to her.

'That blade is very old' Wesley interrupted him, using a much more hectoring tone of voice 'Who knows what kind of corrosive effect your baking is having on it.'

Cordelia whirled around, dagger in hand 'Corrosive effect?' she repeated in an offended tone, looking for all the world like she might carve Wesley with the knife instead of the brownies. Doyle threw his head back and laughed out loud 'Cordelia, just put the very big knife down, yeah, darlin'? We don't want any accidents.'

'They don't smell right' Wesley told Cordelia, gesturing at the Brownies, he turned to the other two men for support, they both became suddenly very interested in anything besides the fight between Cordy and Wes.

'Oh, ho hey hang on a moment! I think Mr. too much cologne is the pot calling the kettle stinky.'

'No more fighting, OK?' asked Doyle 'Cordelia, put Wesley's knife down, I'll help y' cut the brownies and then we can all enjoy them, yeah?' He looked around sternly at the other two men 'yeah?' he repeated in a more forceful voice.

'Yes, OK' said Wesley, snatching his dagger back off Cordelia, carefully brushing crumbs off the blade.

'Absolutely' agreed Angel with forced enthusiasm. Doyle nodded at them both and then went to help Cordelia cut into her rock hard baking.

A while later, as Doyle and Wesley struggled through their indigestion, Cordelia went to look for Angel. She found him alone, upstairs in the office, reading one of his pretentious, old books. Or at least, he was pretending to. Cordelia had it on good authority, well... Doyle's, that the vampire stashed photographs of Buffy inside his reading material and often spent the long night hours just gazing at the slayer's image. It wasn't healthy, so it was a good job she was here to interrupt him. 'Hey Angel' she said, sitting down in the chair across from him. He put his book down to talk to her. 'What's up?' he asked.

'I wanted to ask you something … about Doyle' she said a little hesitantly. The vampire looked at her, expectantly, waiting for the question. 'Is he living here with you, right now? What's going on? He went through a phase of not showering or changing his shirt a couple of weeks ago, but he appears to be over that now, thank goodness, but now he seems to be here all the time, like, all the time.'

'He's going through a rough patch' Angel told her, 'It isn't safe for him at home at the moment.'

Cordelia snorted, 'Why? What'd he do?'

Angel thought back to their late night scotch drinking session a couple of weeks ago, the night they had helped Jheira escape, and thought about all the problems the little half demon had eventually confessed to him. He wondered where to start explaining it all to Cordelia, without betraying too much of Doyle's confidence. 'He owes someone, big time.'

'Well if he needs money, I ...' Angel shook his head at her 'It isn't always about money, it's about favours. He asked for a big favour from someone he was already in debt to, real bad news, reminded him he was alive, which wasn't the best thing for his health. Now he doesn't know how or when this guy will collect, hence avoiding his place,'

'Why would Doyle get in contact with someone he owes money to?' Cordelia asked 'I've seen him dodging his creditors, he goes a long way to avoid some of his contacts. Why would he just change his mind and ask for a favour? Did he have, like, a surprise lobotomy or something?' She sounded annoyed at her colleague's stupidity.

Angel sighed and then looked her dead in the eye, she wanted to know, and Doyle deserved to not have her thinking badly of him. 'He did it for you.' He told her. Cordelia looked confused. 'He rang this guy when you got pregnant, that's how he found Wilson Christopher and identified the Haxil Beast. This guy's some big noise in the demon underworld, very well connected, he was Doyle's best shot for getting the info he needed and saving your life.' Cordelia said nothing for a long time, she gazed down, staring at her hands which were twisted in her lap. She bit her lip. Angel waited patiently. 'Why would he do a thing like that?' she asked eventually, barely raising her eyes to meet Angel's, her voice a whisper. She sounded like she very much regretted her annoyance from moments before. 'Why would he put himself into so much danger, just for me?'

'Because he loves you, Cordelia' the vampire told her, kindly. Her head shot right up at those words. 'I know he hasn't said anything' Angel continued 'But I know he does.'

Before she could reply, the noise of elevator announced the arrival of Doyle and Wesley. Wesley pushed the gates aside and ushered Doyle into the office. The Irishman was looking rather the worse for wear, and it wasn't because of a bad reaction to the brownies. He had had a vision. Cordelia left her seat and held it out to Doyle, who collapsed, gratefully, into it. 'It was a family' He told the others 'two kids and their dad, 1256 Acacia Avenue, seem to be in trouble.'

'I'll set off then, Wesley?' Angel and Wesley left the office and Doyle slumped further into his chair, breathing deeply, trying to ignore the pain that still hammered away in his skull. Without a word Cordelia retrieved the scotch bottle and poured him a generous glass. He looked at her in surprise, she didn't usually aid and abet his drinking habit. 'Can I get you some aspirin?' she asked as she handed him the tumbler.

'Please.'

She went and got the pill bottle as well, removing the cotton wool for him, as she knew he always struggled with it. He tipped out a couple of aspirin and tossed them back with his drink. 'Can I get you anything else? Do you want to lie down?' she wanted to know

'No' he replied 'thanks'. He was bemused as to where the Florence Nightingale act was coming from, it was not like his Cordelia to be so attentive and gentle, though he certainly wasn't complaining. She sat down in the chair Angel had just vacated and the two of them waited companionably for their colleagues to return from the case.

The car pulled up outside number 1256 just in time for the two men to witness a little boy, in his pajamas, crossing the road. He was walking right in front of the path of an oncoming vehicle. Angel dove out of the car and pulled the boy to safety, getting clipped on the shoulder by the oncoming car as he did so. The car beeped at them as it passed, but the boy was safe. 'You alright?' Angel asked him. The boy looked at Angel's shoulder and saw the injury the vampire had sustained. 'You're bleeding' he said 'are you going to cry?'

'I don't think so' Angel looked at his shoulder and then back at the boy with a smile 'Let me think, no … yeah … uh no, I'm not going to cry.' The boy laughed 'What's your name?' Angel asked him.

'Ryan'

At that moment a man came running out of the house, calling frantically for Ryan. Ryan and Angel got to their feet and the man grabbed the boy, shaking him slightly 'you know better than this, what were you doing?' he demanded. A woman followed him out of the house, Ryan's mother. She swept her son up in a hug 'Ryan! Oh my God! What happened?'

'He was out in the street' the father said 'he nearly got hit by a car.'

She hugged her son even closer when she heard her husbands words. 'God, my baby!' She spotted Angel. 'Thank you, thank you for saving him.' Then she, like Ryan, noticed his shoulder 'Come inside, I'll fix you up.' The father did not seem pleased at the invite, but Angel went along anyway, it didn't seem likely that the powers had contacted Doyle just to tell him about a sleepwalking child in danger...

The woman, Paige, was concerned that the cut was beyond her abilities to clean up, that he might require stitches, but Angel assured her there was no need to fuss. She kept on laughing and thanking him and then laughing again. The father still did not seem happy, he kept trying to get Angel to leave, without saying so in as many words. It just made Angel more determined to stay as long as he possibly could.

'So how do you think Ryan got out onto the street?' Angel asked.

'Climbed out the window' the man was still not giving anything away.

'We have burglar bars' Paige explained 'but he must be able to fit in between them, we never even thought to check.'

'So, where do you think he was going?'

'Going? he wasn't going anywhere.' The man sounded like he was barely controlling his temper.

'Then he was trying to get away from something?'

'What would he be trying to get away from in his own house?' The two men stared at each other in silent challenge.

Meanwhile, Wesley was investigating the outside of the house. In the beam of his flash light he noticed some yellow streaks running down the side of the house. 'Oh dear.'

The father had started smoking, Paige had bustled off to get some bandages and the two men were left in uncomfortable silence. Noticing the boxes stacked all around the house, Angel decided to break the oppressive air of quiet. 'Have you just moved in?' he asked. The man nodded. 'Where did you live before?'

Paige came back with the bandages but exclaimed in surprise when she saw Angel's shoulder, his vampire healing meant that it had mended itself almost completely in the time she was gone. 'This was much worse!'

'It's just a scratch, Your husband was just telling me where you've moved from.'

'Akron' she grimaced 'one winter there was enough.'

'You know it's getting late' the man said, trying to usher Angel out of the house. But his wife had not finished thanking their saviour, was not ready to let him disappear into the night. 'Come to dinner?' Paige asked him 'Let us repay you for what you did.'

'We've taken up too much of Angel's time already' her husband told her. Angel looked between the two of them. He noted the way that Paige was all eagerness, wanting to open up, but her husband kept putting up barriers - and forcing his family to hide behind them as well as himself. There was a secret in this house and the father was determined to keep it. Angel was equally determined to find out what it was. 'Can I bring something?' he asked.

Outside in the car, Wesley and Angel compared findings. 'There's something wrong in that house' Angel said 'The mom wants to talk, but the dad won't let her. I'm going back tomorrow night.'

'Be careful'

'I always am.'

'Be especially careful' Wesley held up a vial of the yellow slime he had found on the foundations of the building. Angel took it off him, examining the substance carefully; 'Plankticine'

'I found it all around the outside of the house.'

'So now we know.' The vampire said.

'Someone in that house is possessed by a demon.'