Disclaimer:
Willow: Wow! (she smiles as they look around Kelley and Spike's cave) I think you have every computer game known to man in here!
Kelley: What can I say? It keeps me from doing homework.
Anya: Oh, look! Whack-a-Mole! (goes over and starts playing the game) Come hit heads with me, Giles.
Giles: (groans and shakes his head) As you wish, Anya.
Drusilla: Ooh! Skeeball! You know God plays Skeeball! He's from New Jersey!
Xander: That's it. No more Kevin Smith for you!
Willow: So you guys really weren't having sex in here?
Kelley: No-oo! Geez, where were your minds?
[Everyone shrugs for a moment.]
Willow: Oh, look! Balls! (she blushes) I mean, the little plastic ones that the kids play in at Chuck E. Cheese!
[Angelus and Cordelia sit down and begin playing Egyptian Ratscrew. Shelley and Xander raid the stack of movies in the corner, eventually deciding on "Airplane." Kelley and Spike watch as everyone invades their cave and slump to the floor.]
Spike: (smirks) Ready to get back to what we were doing before?
Kelley: (smiles) Oh yeah. Bring it on!
Spike: One two three four…
Kelley: I declare a thumb war!!!
Cordelia: Joss Whedon and all those other rich people own all of us! Now read the stinkin' story and let us get back to Egyptian Ratscrew.
A/N: Another chapter! Do you feel lucky? Probably not, but at least pretend. The story is going to start picking up soon so stay tuned!
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Lilah entered the Sunnydale branch of Wolfram & Hart. "Well, that was weird," she mused as the door closed behind her.
Charlotte looked up from her paperwork. She really liked the downtown office. Everything was exactly where she wanted, and even better, her boss was nowhere in sight.
"How'd it go, Ms. Morgan? Did you get a confirmed sighting of the slayer?"
Lilah smiled. "Most definitely. You know, for someone who defends the world against evil, she's a short little thing. Kind of ditzy too." She snorted. "Makes sense that Angel liked her."
"Did you recognize the two young men with her?" Charlotte asked. "They seemed close."
Lilah shook her head. "I'm not up to speed on the Sunnydale profiles. I only recognized the slayer because of her link to Angel. That, and she has this habit of killing our clients."
"I've seen them around the slayer several times while observing her, but I haven't figured out exactly how they fit into her life yet."
"Hopefully, the bug I planted will help in that department," Lilah reasoned. "The dark headed one was weird though."
Charlotte looked up from the file she was reading. "Really? How so?"
"The three of them came in to tell the older man something, but the second they saw me, they went on this ridiculous tangent. That wasn't the strangest thing though. When the dark haired kid looked at me, he lost it."
Charlotte frowned. "Lost it?" she asked, confused.
"Clutched his head, doubled over in pain," Lilah elaborated.
"You think he's psychic?" Charlotte asked.
Lilah paused. This development could have possibilities. "Did you get pictures of them? We can send them to L.A. and get some info from the archives. Wolfram & Hart has got to have something on them." Putting that thought aside, she met Charlotte's eyes and smiled. "What's the situation with our unexpected visitor to the Hellmouth?"
"A crew picked him up and he's being transported to L.A. as we speak. He wasn't very happy about it. He kept yelling about not even getting his car back. You'd think he'd be more afraid of what was going to happen to him."
Lilah laughed. "Him? Never." She walked over to the nearby chair and sank into it with a sigh. "Everything is coming together. We know the slayer's alive. She has friends who she depends on. That makes her vulnerable. Our infiltrator in L.A. is approaching success rapidly every day. We play our cards right, and we'll have them both right where we want them."
Lilah and Charlotte gathered their files and exited the office. They never realized that someone was watching them with a smile on her face.
*****
Buffy, Spike, Giles, and Xander entered what had become Drusilla's room to see Willow and Dawn watching the huddled, whimpering form of Drusilla rock back and forth on the bed. After a moment, she noticed their presence and looked up. Her eyes met Xander's.
"Pet, are you all right?" she asked, for once a smirk not lighting up her features.
Xander shrugged. "Yeah, I'm good. How about you?"
"Those nasty pictures don't frighten me," she told him.
"What happened?" Dawn asked with concern. "Drusilla was having a major wiggins."
"Yeah. Tell us what happened," Willow said. "What did you see?"
Xander glanced at the redheaded witch. She was way too chirpy at the moment. He shook his head. "There was something seriously wrong about that lady."
"She made your head hurt," Drusilla cooed.
"Yes, actually," Xander replied. "I had this paranoid feeling of being watched. Anyway, I saw Angel being attacked by something. I saw Tara yelling at that Lilah woman who was just smiling back at her. I kept getting flashes of this building. I don't know why. It doesn't make sense. Why do I have to get these stupid visions anyway? It's not like we're running low on seers at the moment."
"It is quite cliché," she replied in sing-song.
Everyone looked at Drusilla for a moment, confused, then dismissed it. She was crazy after all.
"Oh my gosh! Who would attack Angel?" Buffy asked.
Spike rolled his eyes. "It's Angel. Who wouldn't want to attack the poofter?"
Buffy glared.
Giles shrugged. "He does have a point unfortunately."
"I don't see anything wrong with it," Xander supplied.
"Well, what did you see, Drusilla?" Willow questioned.
"I saw my White Knight and Spike in a dark room with that evil lawyer," Drusilla answered.
"What evil lawyer?" Buffy asked.
"The one visiting," Drusilla muttered.
Everyone looked at each other dumbfoundedly, not having a clue what she was talking about.
"You'll make friends and enemies there. There are rats all around. Filthy rats who want to eat you. Don't let them use you."
"You think the visions could be related?" Willow asked.
"We don't know. The whelp's memory isn't working too well right now," Spike said sarcastically.
"Hey! I'm doing my best, fangless!" Xander cried.
"Maybe he traumatized," Buffy reasoned.
"I'll show you traumatized," Spike retorted with a leer.
Buffy's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Spike just nodded and continued grinning evilly.
"Eww!" Xander yelled suddenly from where he sat on the bed. "I don't even think that's physically possible!"
"Stop reading my thoughts, whelp, or your Babylon 5 commemorative plates are history."
"You do that and I'll make sure you never see 'Passions' again!"
"Oh yeah," Spike recovered. "Then I'll read all your comics and dog-ear the pages!"
"You wouldn't!" Xander gasped.
"Yes I would. I'm evil."
"I'll put garlic powder in your duster!"
"You do that and I'll buy the His and His towels!" Spike threatened.
"I'll paint your bedroom pink and plaster the walls with Christina Aguilera posters."
Spike gaped at Xander. "You wouldn't."
Xander's smirk rivaled some of Spike's most evil ones. "I would."
Spike glared. "You're just one step away, mister."
Xander's eyes widened in mock fear. He looked at Buffy for a moment, and smiled at her wickedly. "Buffy, help! Spike's going to scold me!"
Buffy and Drusilla burst out laughing simultaneously. After a few moments, Buffy got control of herself and looked up to see everyone but Drusilla staring at Spike and Xander in shock. A few seconds later, Spike noticed everyone's stares.
"What?" he asked innocently.
"You…you live together?" Willow asked, surprised.
"Uh, yeah," Xander answered nonchalantly.
"Since when?" Willow asked in disbelief.
"I don't know. It just kind of happened," Xander tried to explain. "Buffy knows all about it."
Suddenly Dawn squeaked and ran from the room, blushing furiously.
Spike smirked. "What's the matter with her?"
From the bed, Drusilla giggled.
Buffy froze, suddenly remembering something.
"Wait a second! When I got the wacky psychic powers, Angel told me I couldn't read a vampire's thoughts. Why couldn't I read Angel's thoughts, but you can read Spike's?"
"Oh please," Spike scoffed. "The poofter doesn't have any thoughts. His head's a bloody wind tunnel."
"Spike's special," Xander explained with a grin.
"Thanks," Spike replied. He narrowed his eyes. "Hey!"
Xander and Drusilla snickered. Drusilla took the opportunity to move over and start petting Xander's hair. Xander didn't even seem to notice.
"Ok, vision-explanation over. What are you we going to do about it?"
The rest of the room looked at Buffy for a second. Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them. "I believe the best course of action would be to contact Angel and warn him of the possible threat."
*****
"Stop it! Stop it! I can't take it anymore!" Gunn exclaimed.
Tara laughed evilly. "You brought this upon yourself. No one dares to challenge me."
Gunn whimpered. "Come on, Tara. You're my friend, right? Please, have mercy."
"No way! Me, merciful? It's only a façade. You're going to wish you'd never crossed me."
"What did I ever to do you?"
The phone rang loudly, cutting off Tara's response. She rolled her eyes before leaving the couch. "Don't touch anything," she snapped. "I'm undefeated in Super Mario Kart and I'm not about to lose to the likes of you. Mess with the game and I'll turn you into a newt!"
"Witch!" Gunn called to her retreating back.
Flipping Gunn off with one hand, Tara answered the phone with the other. "Angel Investigations. We help the helpless."
"Um, yeah," the voice on the other end of the line stammered. "My girlfriend went away and now I don't have anyone to cuddle with except the cabana boy."
"When did you get a cabana boy, Willow?" Tara asked with a grin.
"About the time Xander and Spike moved in together."
"What?" Tara exclaimed.
"That's what I said. We're starting to lean toward the 'Xander's a psycho' theory."
"Well, Spike's not really that bad of a guy."
"Yeah, he smokes," Gunn interjected. "He totally defies the fact he's extremely flammable. He's kinda cool for a demon that way."
Tara put her hand over the phone receiver. "That's nice, Gunn. Now leave me alone. I'm trying to flirt with my girlfriend."
Gunn's eyes lit up. "Can I listen?" he asked with a smile.
Tara glared, pointing a finger at him. "Newt," she said warningly.
"I'll get better," he muttered before staring back at the controller.
"Sorry about that, honey. Gunn was being a pain. Of course, he's always a pain," she said loud enough for him to hear. She sent a final glare in his direction before continuing. "Anyway, Spike and Xander have gotten closer ever since the whole Anya thing. I'm sure you're just overreacting."
"At this moment, I'm watching Drusilla play with his hair," she whispered. "And he's letting her!"
"Oh," Tara replied. "Petting. That's unexpected."
"Did you just say something about petting?" Gunn asked.
"I'm talking about Xander," Tara told him.
Gunn turned back to the game. "Lucky bastard," he grumbled.
"Newt!" Tara sing-songed before going back to the conversation.
"That's not the weirdest thing that's happened. Xander had another vision, and we think he might be hearing other people's thoughts."
"Hmm," Tara thought aloud. "Maybe this is something natural that the spell brought out. He always seemed kinda different."
"Really?" Willow asked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, he has this sort of glow about him. Everyone has a sort of spirit that envelops their body. If you know how to look you can see it. Xander's has always been brighter than most. He stands out. I was surprised when you told me he was the 'normal guy'. He always seemed so strong to me."
"He's always been great with people," Willow agreed. "He always knows how to cheer all of us up."
"Has he ever picked up on things before everyone else?"
Willow thought for a moment. "Oh, goddess."
"What?" Tara asked in concern.
"The night Angelus came back, Xander and I saw him in the school hallway. The lights were out, so we couldn't see his face. He told Xander to go get the others while he showed me something. Oh, I can't believe I never noticed it before!"
"What happened?"
"He never got the others. He was back in the hallway right after Jenny got there. He was the one who got Angelus to let me go! I never asked him what stopped him from getting everyone else."
"So, Xander's always known what other people were feeling?" Tara probed. "He realizes when you guys feel bad even if you don't say anything?"
"I guess he's always been observant," Willow admitted. "I just never really noticed it before. He's just Xander."
"Maybe there's a part to him you never noticed before," Tara tried to reason with her. She quickly switched topics. "What was the vision about anyway?"
"Xander isn't sure. He said it was all kind of jumbled. He came to the Magic Box with Buffy and Spike. They were arguing, as usual, but then he saw this woman and started freaking out. He kept saying there was something bad about her, but she seemed okay to me. I think she even gave Giles a card from her law firm."
On the other end of the line, Tara gripped the phone tighter and paled. "What was her name?"
"Lilah Morgan. Why?"
"Gunn and I will be there in a few hours."
"What's wrong?" Willow asked, alarmed.
"I'll explain when we get there. Just don't talk to Lilah. I love you. Bye."
Tara hung up the phone and turned to Gunn.
"I take it there was bad news?" Gunn asked, seeing the expression on Tara's face.
"Wolfram & Hart is in Sunnydale."
"The Hellmouth?" Gunn asked.
Tara nodded.
Gunn grabbed the keys to his truck. "We'll leave Angel a note."