Smile Time
Part One
'In our secret backyard we can make the day more fun and less hard...' Connor laughed with pleasure as the theme song came on, and tried to sing along with it: 'no moe fowning, 'ts get learning - ABC n 123s…'
The early morning sunshine shone through the apartment. In the background, the little boy could hear his dad getting his breakfast ready and grumbling about the T.V being on. But he couldn't do anything about it, Connor had just learned how the remote worked and he was already much better with it than the grouchy vampire. And now the little boy could watch whatever he wanted - and he liked the singing puppets best of all.
...
'Everything from words to weather - we'll discover it together…' across town, in a much poorer neighbourhood, another little boy sat watching the exact same show. He was still wearing his pajamas and was lying on the couch, a thermometer stuck in his mouth - he was sick, and had been getting sicker for days. 'Time to strap your thinking cap on, thinking things are gonna happen...'
His mom was already dressed in her waitresses uniform and was pacing up and down beside him, talking on the phone to grandma: 'he's sick - yeah he's running a fever.' She took the thermometer from his mouth and checked the temperature. 'Well what am I supposed to do? My shift starts in half an hour…'
'Every day's a new beginning, all your friends are here and grinning 'cause it's Smile Time…'
'No, Ma - I can't.' She paced away from the T.V, headed into the little kitchen.
'That's right - you're on Smile Time … In our secret backyard we can make the day more fun and less hard …'
As his mom walked away, the little boy watched as Polo, the red headed puppet, detached from the singing group and came right up to the screen - as if to peer out of it. It's little felt hands looked like they were touching the inside of the glass. 'Oh good, she's gone!' Polo said. The rest of the puppets carried on singing behind him. 'OK, Tommy, you know what to do.'
The little boy shook his head. He didn't want to - he'd done it before and that was when he started getting sick. 'Tommy, you should never break a promise,' Polo told him earnestly. 'You don't wanna be a bad apple do you? Come on, you know Smile Time isn't free.' But Tommy still refused to move, and now Polo's little felt brows furrowed angrily. 'Now get over here and touch the screen,' he yelled.
Reluctantly, Tommy got to his feet and stumbled his way towards the television. 'That's it Tommy, come on, touch the screen,' Polo encouraged - his voice friendly again now the boy was on his feet.
Tommy reached out and placed both palms onto the glass. There was an immediate purplish glow which emanated from beneath his hands … and Tommy, already unsteady, began to wobble. He felt weaker and weaker - and more feverish - as the purple light glowed brighter and brighter.
And Polo could feel it too - but rather than making him weaker, it was making him stronger. 'Yeah that's it - come on!' he cried out, 'good boy, Tommy.'
Tommy's eyes rolled back in his head - and he collapsed onto the floor, breaking contact with the screen. Polo gasped and ran back to continue singing with the other puppets.
Mom came back in, 'OK Tommy, grandma's gonna be here in a few hours. Listen - I don't want you watching this crap all day…' She came to a dead stop. Tommy was lying in front of the television, seemingly unconscious and frozen rigid. But his eyes were open and his face was lit up in an impossibly wide and deeply creepy smile.
...
'Cause it's Smile Time. That's right! You're on Smile Time.' Angel came into the living room with a bowl of cereal for Connor just as the theme tune finished. 'I don't want you watching this crap,' he said, and picked up the remote - making the T.V go blank. Connor started to cry.
Fred peered down her microscope at the specimen under the slide, hoping she could make a breakthrough in the pathology of the case she was dealing with. So far no luck - but it was getting urgent.
Knox came down the stairs from her office and handed her a load of papers. 'Couriers brought these in,' he told her, 'looks medical.'
'Oh, right, good.' This was what she had been waiting for, maybe this would shine a light on her problem. She began to flip through the reports. 'So what you got?' Knox asked her, conversationally.
'Mini epidemic here in L.A. 11 children between the ages of 5 and 8 hospitalised due to collapse in the last three weeks. None of them have woken up. I'm working under the assumption that this thing is mystical in nature.'
'Why's that?'
She lifted a photo out of the reports and showed it to him. The picture showed a little girl in a hospital bed - her arms held rigid above her head and her mouth frozen in an eerie, rictus grin. She slipped it back into its place and rifled through some more of the papers … pausing when she came to a valentine's card that had been placed in between the pages. She opened it up - and then turned to look at Knox, who smiled at her sheepishly. 'I know Valentine's was last week but ...um - I didn't take the discount on the card.'
'Thanks - um…' she looked uncomfortable. 'We talked about this.'
'I was thinking maybe we could talk about it again.'
She shook her head. She had made up her mind and already let him down gently. The discussion was closed - but now he was making things awkward. And she didn't want things to be awkward … She wanted the problem to go away. She handed him the reports and the card and some vials of blood. 'Sorry - you have work to do.'
'I do,' he nodded, looked at her sadly - and then backed away.
The elevator door opened and Nina stepped out, looking around the lobby hopefully. She had dressed up for the occasion, she had been looking forward to it since she was last here - she didn't want to miss... Sure enough, she saw Angel come walking down the stairs, his nose buried in a file. 'Um, hey!' she called.
He looked up, smiled and bounded down the last of the stairs when he saw her. 'Hey! You back for the Wolfram and Hart bed and breakfast?'
'Full moon cycle starts tonight.' She checked her watch, 'in 38 minutes actually.' They began to walk through the lobby. Harmony got to her feet, as they passed. 'Hey there, Nina, we've got your suite ready.'
'It's OK Harmony, I'll take her.' Harmony sat back down and Angel steered Nina in the right direction.
As they walked off, Gunn appeared at the front desk. 'Harmony, did you get a receipt from the county clerk on that filing I did for the Wayburn case?'
She thought about it - and then her expression cleared as she remembered. 'Oh yeah! Clerk's office called - said you filed the wrong papers.'
'What?'
'Yeah.' She glanced down at her notepad. 'You sent them a motion to change venue rather than a motion to dismiss. Unless you meant to do that. Some kind of sneaky lawyer trick to keep 'em guessing. That it?'
'Uh yeah - keep 'em on their toes.' He walked away, but his expression was deeply worried.
...
Angel opened the door to the basement room and ushered Nina towards the cage. 'Seems like you're getting used to the routine though.'
'Yeah,' she walked in the cage and turned round to face him. 'In a weird way I'm starting to like it. These stayovers, I mean. Not the going all hairy part. But I don't know - coming here … there's always something interesting going on.' She dipped her head and looked up at him coyly. 'And getting to see you. I look forward to that - you - all month, actually.'
Angel flushed and looked around, not wanting to meet her eyes. 'I - I should probably close this,' he stuttered, slamming the cage door in her face. She took a step back. 'Insurance thing,' he explained, 'OK - um - bye,' and flustered, he turned tail and tried to flee out of the room.
'Anyway I was thinking,' she called out after him - before he could leave. He froze at the door and looked back, reluctantly. 'I mean - what are you doing for breakfast tomorrow?'
'Oh you know…' he shifted awkwardly, 'drinking blood.' He chuckled - but it was uncomfortable.
Nina nodded, sensing the rejection, 'right, yeah,' she said sounding disappointed.
'Uh - see ya,' and he slammed the door and ran away.
Spike smacked the vampire a hard right cross, it staggered back a couple of paces and tumbled into a stack of cardboard boxes. They flew in every direction - and by the time it had flipped back to its feet, Spike was already on top of it, and seized it by it's throat, slamming it against the wall and raising his stake.
'Wait,' the vampire cried out, 'you don't wanna do that.'
'Oh I'm pretty sure I wanna do that. Lemme spell it out for you. You're the bad guy, I'm the hero. 'Do that' is what I do.'
But the vampire chuckled. 'I'm connected,' it told him, 'you ever heard of Wolfram and Hart?'
'Evil law firm headed up by a Nancy Boy CEO who wears too much hair gel? - yeah I know 'em.'
'Then you know you don't wanna be crossing their path. I work for 'em. If you kill me …' he left the sentence dangling.
Spike squeezed the vampire's throat harder, 'if I kill you what?'
'Then you're in for a whole world of trouble.'
He shrugged, 'trouble's where I live.' He reared the stake back and plunged it deep into the vampire's heart. 'But I'll send the Nancy Boy your regards.'
'She invited me to breakfast,' Angel said heavily. He was leaning on the edge of Wes' desk, his arms folded tightly across his chest and his brow lowered as far as it would go. Wesley worked away behind him, looking through papers. 'Breakfast,' he nodded, 'how did you respond?'
'Well … of course … I … um … ignored it completely, changed the subject and locked her in a cage.'
'Sorry - what?'
He turned to look at his friend - surprised he even had to explain it. 'Wes, it wasn't just breakfast - You know - it was… breakfast. I mean here we had this very good, very platonic thing going on and then all of a sudden out of the blue…'
'Are you blind?' Wesley interrupted his self-involved rambling. Angel looked up in shock, and began to shift uncomfortably as Wesley explained the concept of signals to him. Odourless, invisible - but unmistakable , and apparently Nina had been casting them Angel's way for months.
Angel shook his head, 'no - I would have noticed.'
'This isn't just from me. This is coming from people who know. This comes from the ladies.'
'The ladies?'
'Fred, Harmony, the girls in transcription… as Harmony put it: Why else would a chick who's coming to spend three nights in a jail cell dress like it's her first date?'
Angel stared at Wesley in panic. 'Oh god - the ladies are right.' He slumped into a chair, still panicking. 'Right now Nina's down there, turning into a werewolf and liking me!' He turned back to Wesley for support. He didn't … he couldn't … he had no time for that kind of … he had no right to … they all knew what would happen if…
Wesley shook his head, 'if what? You achieve a moment of perfect happiness?'
'I turn back into Angelus again - we don't want that.'
But Wesley snorted with derision. 99.9999 ad infinitum per cent of the best couples in the recorded history of the world had had to make do with acceptable happiness. Angel had no business hiding behind his gypsy curse when there was a beautiful, engaging … admittedly sometimes hirsute young woman who actually wanted him.
'Wes, it's not gonna happen.'
'Why?'
He stood up to make his point. 'Because! I'm not that guy. That guy is charming and funny and … emotionally useful. I'm the guy in the dark corner with a blood habit and 200 years of psychic baggage.'
'Get over it!' Wesley yelled at him.
Angel looked injured, 'Why are you yelling at me?'
'Because!' he sighed and moderated his tone. 'Angel - if there's a woman out there … who you find truly attractive, who you think about let's say, most of the time. Who represents even part of what you think makes the world worth fighting for and who doesn't view you as an entirely sexless shoulder to lean on … you have to do something about it.' His voice trembled as he spoke.
Angel frowned. As self involved and emotionally unavailable as he had a tendency to be - even he could see what was going on here. Even he could tell that the subtext was rapidly becoming text. 'Who are we talking about here?'
'Fred…' Wesley was now staring past Angel, looking towards the door. Angel turned, Fred was standing there - she came in, clutching a report. 'Hey guys - I think we have a case.' She explained her epidemic to them - and all the work she had already done to rule out this being a physiological illness. She was sure it was a mystical one.
Angel took the report from her and began to flip through, 'T.V,' he said absently. The other two turned to look at him, confused. 'Parents said all the kids collapsed between 7 and … looks like 7:30 AM. And all of them in front of the T.V.'
'Huh that could be something. But I'd still like to get a handle on the pathology.'
But Angel was off - she should do that, he'd chase up this lead. He'd clear his schedule. These kids needed saving … and he disappeared through the door.
She turned back to Wes, 'wow - he really jumped on that one.'
The watcher smiled - and explained. Angel had just discovered Nina had feelings for him. He was now employing avoidance tactics. He could be rather dense sometimes.
Fred giggled, and then looked a little nervous. 'Uh - by the way - my car is in the shop again and I was thinking…'
'Of course …' he picked up the phone and smiled at her.
'Maybe you and I could …'
'Yes, Ms. Burkle needs a driver to take her home tonight ...511 Windward Circle.'
He smiled at her reassuringly, and she stifled her disappointment and smiled her thanks.
Gunn sat at his desk, looking through his paperwork - he couldn't understand how he had sent in the wrong form. And he couldn't even find the receipts of what he'd done - his whole desk was awash with random reports and papers and he couldn't sort one from the other. This wasn't like him - his office was usually meticulous. But now he had a mess on his hands and a fog in his brain and he couldn't sort the one because of the other.
He suddenly sensed someone standing in the doorway and looked up. It was Lilah. 'What do you want?' he snapped.
She raised an eyebrow. 'The Senior Partners sent me down to check on you,' she told him.
'Yeah? Why they do a thing like that?'
'I just follow the orders. So … is everything OK?'
He clenched its teeth. 'It's fine. It's late. Get out.'
She raised an eyebrow. 'Well - you know where to find me if you need me. See you around.'
She vanished from the doorway, and Gunn put his head in his hands and started to worry in earnest. Something was up with him - and The Senior Partners knew it.
The office was teeming - even though it was late, the lamps cast the strange, misshapen shadows of their strange, misshapen clients across the walls and on the floor; elongating them to monstrous proportions.
Doyle was behind the computer screen, it's sickly glare was giving him a headache. Cordelia was working the phone and speaking with all the people congregated in the small space, reassuring them.
Ever since they had successfully got the Frona demons out of the city, snatching them out from under the nose of The Scourge, they had been working on building a network to help get other demon families like them to safety - and now their little office heaved like it was Grand Central Station, packed with worried and fretting demons hoping for an escape.
'I know it's frightening ma'am, but I assure you we will get everyone to safety. We just need you not to panic,' Cordelia said to the elderly demon in front of her. The old lady wore spectacles attached to a string and a rope of pearls around her neck … and had purple scaly skin and horns.
'It's just, we're not as young as we used to be. Not 300 anymore - not by a long way. And Arthur, well he has rheumatoid arthritis in all six of his knee joints, and his mind wanders. It's down to me to do all the practicalities - and we can't possibly leave my Great Aunt Ethel's ashes behind, or my daguerreotypes of our honeymoon…'
'I promise you - I'll sort everything. I'll find a way out for you that will be easy on Arthur's knees and means you can take all your treasures with you. I know it's hard, but try not to worry.'
'You know I've never known a human girl take such good care of her elders.'
Cordelia smiled at her.
Doyle meanwhile was filling out a list of groups who could travel by truck up to the Washington safehouse. Harri would be back in town soon and she could do another run. But not everyone was northward bound and he was still waiting to hear back from an old contact of his who worked down at the station to see if he could help one demon family onto a freight train headed for New Mexico.
The computer screen continued to glow sickly green at him, the phone rang loud and shrill - and the clamour of the frightened demon groups rose up to a crescendo. It almost came as a relief when he was hit by a sudden vision, the burst of pain taking him out of the office for a moment.
When he came round it was to find the whole place in silence, and everyone staring at him, fearfully. 'Oh … no,' he shook his head. 'That wasn't a Scourge vision … it was … somethin' else.' He felt the atmosphere palpably relax and the noise and clamour started up again.
He got to his feet and squeezed his way through the crowd towards Cordelia. 'You OK?' she asked him. He nodded, 'yeah - look I better go out and see to this vision. Will you be OK if I leave for a bit? Shouldn't take long.'
'Are you sure you don't want me to come with?'
He looked around at the packed little office. 'No - our work here is way more important. You stay here, help these people. I'll be back before you know it.'
She leaned up for a quick kiss, 'take care,' she warned.
'I always do,' and he grabbed his brown leather jacket from the coat stand and - with no small amount of relief - exited the overhot, overcrowded building and stepped out into the night air.
Lorne and Angel were closeted in Angel's office, going through the papers Fred had brought in. Lorne was perched on the edge of the desk, flipping through the sheaf of papers - but more interested in the Nina problem. 'Oh the signals are there, el jefe, loud and clear. Nina definitely wants a piece of the Angel cake.'
Angel rubbed his head. 'Lorne - could we just get back to the job?'
'Your wish, dreamboat, my command. You know - I know most of the station runners in town and none of them are really up to this sort of big league, sinister …' he stopped talking and began to chuckle. '7:00 to 7:30?'
'Yeah.'
'Well - that'd be funny … if - you know - it wasn't. There's a real popular kids show in the So-Cal regional market. It's in the right time slot, it's in the right demographic…'
'What's it called?'
Lorne held up the photograph of the frozen little girl and her eerie, rictus grin: 'Smile Time.'
The set lay abandoned and in darkness. Angel ignored the 'strictly no visitors' sign and walked straight across, heading for the offices at the back. He made his way down a deserted hallway, it was dark and gloomy and he could feel some...thing, cloying at the air. Like invisible fingers trying to grab at him. He shuddered and pushed away the thought, trying to ignore the susserating disturbance in the air that pushed at him like a silent murmur.
There was a squeaking sound - and then a janitor came round the corner, pushing his cart. Angel tensed - expecting to be questioned, ready to pull out his business card and throw around how important he was … But the janitor didn't pay him any attention - even though he was stood in the middle of the hallway, almost blocking the path.
As the janitor reached him, he waved his hand right in the man's face - but he didn't react, didn't look up, didn't stop - and carried on down the hallway, pushing his cart. Angel stared after him until he disappeared from view and then went on his way. He could hear someone else coming towards him, hear their heartbeat, hear the sound of their shoes squeaking against the floor. He turned the corner …
'Dear … sweet … Angel, man - you tryin' to give me a heart attack?' Doyle stumbled back, his hand clutched over his heart protectively - as if to prove his point about the heart attack. 'What y' sneakin' around here for?'
'I wasn't sneaking. I was just … have you noticed anything weird going on here?'
'You mean all the lifeless stiffs wanderin' around like zombies, blind to everythin' around 'em? Yeah I spotted that.' They began to walk down the hall together, falling into step like it was the old days.
'Why are you here?' Angel asked him.
'Vision.'
'No Cordy?'
'We're too busy back at the office. So I came to do a reccie. Didn't realise the situation was big enough for the dark avenger himself to be on the case.'
'11 kids have collapsed in 3 weeks and they're not getting any better. I had reason enough to suspect this place was something to do with it - but if you're getting visions about it…'
'Then that's proof beyond reasonable doubt.'
'Exactly.' Angel stopped by a door that claimed to lead to the CEO's office, tried the handle and then broke the lock. The two of them went inside. The room was decorated with the show's logo and cardboard cutouts of the puppets. Doyle stopped in front of a shapeless purple one almost the same size as him. 'This one must be a guy in a suit,' he said, sizing it up. 'Imagine that being your job? Dressin' up in a big purple costume and prancin' around with a load of puppets on a kids T.V show. Bet the guy had dreams of bein' the next De Niro when he got into the actin' business.'
'No different to being a teletubby,' Angel shrugged.
'Who wants to be a teletubby?'
'Shh,' Angel held up his hand to silence his friend, they both listened carefully, 'you hear that?'
There was a low rumbling sound, coming from somewhere nearby. 'What is that?' Doyle frowned. Angel looked around - and noticed that the filing cabinet, pushed against the far wall, was vibrating slightly. He pointed to it. 'My guess is it's coming from behind there.'
They crossed the room and shoved the cabinet out of the way, and sure enough - they found a hole had been cut in the wall behind it. The rumbling noise was louder now. They climbed through the hole, and Angel flipped the light on.
'What the…?' Doyle cut himself off. Both men stared. There was a guy sat in the room, in pants and a vest - his head was bowed and there was a towel draped over it. He was sat completely still. Behind him, attached to the wall was a large metal plate in the shape of an egg. It was from this that the rumbling emanated. Doyle whistled. 'Whatever's goin' on I'm guessin' this is it.'
Angel, took a few paces forward. The man didn't get up, didn't take the towel from his head. But as he sensed Angel, his hands began to twitch and tremor. 'You .. shouldn't be … here,' his voice was weak and croaky.
The men ignored him. 'Angel - what is that thing?' Doyle asked, nodding at the rumbling metal egg.
'I don't know but…'
The egg suddenly split open along the bottom curve, forming a smile. The rumbling grew louder and louder and a bright purple light began to shine from inside the split. It grew brighter and brighter - and the rumbling got louder and louder - as the smile split wider. 'Angel, man - maybe we should get outta here…'
The smile suddenly stopped growing - now fully formed; the bright light pulsed inside of it and shot out a force which knocked both men off their feet. Doyle was flung back through the entrance hole, Angel was flung across the room and crashed into a stack of boxes which all tumbled on top of him.
The metal egg stopped smiling, the rumbling grew less, the light grew dimmer and slowly the split was closed up; leaving the whole place quiet and dark.
Trapped under the massive boxes, Angel groaned. 'Doyle!' he called out, 'Doyle, you OK?' He began to fight his way free of the cardboard - but it was big, and took a lot of effort to shift. Slowly, he managed to clamber out of it, pulling himself upwards out of the mess and emerging into the room. And that was when he noticed his small, fuzzy, felt hands. He stared at his weeny little puppet hands in confusion, not understanding what he was seeing. 'Huh?'
