Chapter 18
Angel was sitting behind his desk, looking through some files. The snow globe was sitting on the table in front of him. Buffy sat in the chair across the desk from him, going through a few files as well.
Fred and Gunn looked in on them through the opening from the lobby.
"It's funny. Sad, actually. I keep expecting to find... It's weird, seeing Angel sitting behind that desk." Fred said.
"It was his when I got here. It seems right that it's his again." Gunn replied.
"Yeah, but things have cooled down a little since. I'm just saying, maybe it's time. Look, he doesn't have to forgive Wesley."
"I'm glad you think so, 'cause not happening."
"No. Right. They shouldn't. But isn't there some way to I don't know, come back from this?"
"Not unless Wes comes back with that baby under his arm. And even then, Angel 'd probably kill him on principle."
"You don't really think that."
"He took their son. Probably best we never mention the guy's name again."
Gunn walked off and Fred turned back to watching Angel and Buffy.
Cordy and Gru were scrubbing at the pentagram drawn on the floor of the lobby.
"Ah, I give up. I've tried soaking it out. I've tried scrubbing it out. No question, we've got ring around the lobby. I say we toss in the towel and buy a big-ass throw rug. Who's with me?" Cordy said.
"That honor is mine, princess." Gru said.
Gru walked over and leaned down and to give Cordy a quick kiss.
Cordy got up. "Gru, honey, will you do me a favor and dump out this bucket?" Gru picked up the bucket. "Thanks."
"Cordelia?" Fred asked, turning to Cordy.
Cordy watched Gru leave. "He is such a sweetie. So loyal and loving like a puppy dog."
"Cordy..."
"I know that didn't sound very good, but he is. A puppy dog. A sexy, well- built, go-all-night puppy dog. Okay, that sounded worse."
"Cor..."
"No. You want me to say something to Buffy and Angel about Wesley. Sorry. Can't. Won't."
"Why? Why can't won't you? You've known them both longer than anybody. Angel would listen to you."
Cordy straightened up from gathering up the cleaning supplies. "Probably. But they don't wanna hear it, which is why I'm not gonna burden them."
"Look. Whatever he did, he's Wesley. You care about him. I know. Can you imagine how much pain he's in? How horrible he must be feeling?"
Cordy, not noticing that Gru was coming back with the empty bucket, said, "Buffy and Angel's feelings are the only ones I care about. They're my priority. I got dosed with demon DNA for Angel. I'm semi-demon and I still don't know what that means."
In the background, unnoticed, Gru set down the empty bucket and slowly turned to leave.
"Apart form the random float-iness and seizure less visions, which is keen, sometimes it's hard to tell when I'm. Angel?"
Cordy saw Angel getting flung across the lobby.
Angel was leaning on he window frame of the office window with Buffy in front of him, leaning back and lying on his broad chest. "What's going on?"
Lorne entered the Hyperion. "Oh, I tell you what's going on. Big bru-ha-ha at the juice bar across the street. Only light on the ha-ha. Some guy over there is cracking up."
The man that had been at the Hyperion earlier was at the bar, his skin now a pale gray and showing big cracks in it. He grabbed a hold of the one of the attendants.
"Here, get a save ticket, just don't hurt me..." the attendant said.
The guy tossed the kid on the floor and started to drink the juice right out of the blender. The last remaining customers hurried out just as Angel, Buffy and the others walked in.
"One minute you're standing there all shocked looking, then whammo! You're thrown across the..." Cordy was saying.
"Cordy, can we talk about it later? I'm working here."
The attendant picked himself back up and was running past Angel and Buffy.
"Look out! The dude's got Ebola or something." The attendant said.
"Is Ebola a weapon forged in magic?" Gru asked.
"No, forged in monkey poo." Lorne answered
"Okay, sir, you wanna just put down the super size or..." Angel trailed off as the guy lowered the blender and turned around, spraying the wall with juice in the process.
"I know you." Buffy said.
The guy went back to gulping the juice remaining in the blender.
"You do?" Gunn asked.
"This is the guy that came to the office this morning." Angel informed.
"You didn't mention he was a mummy, man."
"He's not. I mean, he wasn't. He's..."
Fred picked up the wallet left lying on the counter. "Phillip J. Spivey from Ingelwood according to his license."
"Mr. Spivey? Phil? Hi. Remember me? We're just gonna take a walk to my office across the street and ah, and figure out what's what. Is that okay with you?" Angel asked, slowly inching forward towards Phil.
"We're thirsty!" Phil cried.
"I take that as a no."
Phil picked up the base of the blender to brain Angel with it, but Buffy stepped up and quickly knocked him out giving Phil a disgusted look, then turned to the others with the same face.
"His skin was icky feeling." Buffy said.
"Okay, people, looks like we got a case." Angel said.
Gru carried Phil's unconscious body as everyone tramped back into the Hyperion.
"Ah, lets get him on the couch." Angel said.
Gru put Phil down on the couch.
"Oh my god. Look at his face." Fred said.
Angel pulled her back away from Phil. "Yeah. Fred, do we, do we have any water in the fridge?"
"In bottles I think."
"We, we're gonna need them."
"And some lip balm wouldn't hurt either, kitten." Lorne said.
"Angel?" Buffy asked, stepping up to him.
"We." Angel said quietly.
"Glad you're having fun with this." Gunn said behind them.
"No. 'We,' he kept saying we. This morning it's we have to go. Now it's we're thirsty."
"Okay, so he's pretentious." Buffy said.
"Angel, we need to talk about my vision." Cordy piped up.
Angel looked through Phil's wallet. "Well, it can wait."
"No. It can't. You think the Powers beam me pretty pictures purely for my amusement? They tell me when someone's in danger and that someone is you!"
"Oh, gee. I'm in danger. What else is new? Look, I wanna deal with somebody else's problem for a change. I wanna deal with Mr. Phillip Spivey of Inglewood who came to us this morning for help. He's the one we should be concerned with, not me! This has nothing to do with me!"
Lorne and Fred came back carrying some bottled water. Fred's eyes went wide and she let out a gasp.
Phil was standing next to the couch pointing straight at Angel and Buffy. "You! This is all happening because of you two! This is all your fault."
With that, Phil toppled forward, his body shattering to pieces as it hit the floor.
"Our fault?" Angel asked.
"That's what the sandman said." Buffy answered.
"How is this our fault? We were just trying to help him. What'd he go and say that for?"
"Uh, he didn't. That did." Lorne said.
Lorne pointed at the body and as something moved under its jacket, then the ghost shrimp skittered out of Phil's collar. Cordy lets out a scream and jumped up to sit on the lobby counter in an effort to get out of its way as it skittered across the floor.
"Okay. That was a thing." Gunn said.
"A big, ugly slug thing." Buffy said staring after the thing.
"Where did it go?" Cordy squeaked.
"It has vanished. Just like the glass eels in Scrag swamp in Uxemburg. I'm just making an observation." Gru said.
"So, what the hell was it?" Buffy asked.
"Don't look at me. I don't know what it is or what it has to do with us." Angel said, looking at Buffy in bewilderment.
"Um, Angel?"
Angel looked down where Buffy was looking and noticed that Phil landed right in the middle of the faded pentagram.
Angel walked over to the weapons cabinet and handed out swords.
"I'm not really the hunter type. Can't I just come along for moral support?" Lorne asked.
"Hotel shut tight." Cordy said.
"Good. I don't want anyone else getting infected."
Gru reached past Angel and picked an ax from the cabinet. "This weapon should serve me better."
"Ah, a little big for our purpose, don't you think?" Angel asked.
"I've had no complaints."
"Yeah, great. Okay, Cordy, you and Gru start with the third floor. Make a sweep, work your way down."
"Hey, exactly how do we know that slicing and dicing is going to do the trick on Mr. Sluggo, here?" Lorne asked.
"We don't. That's why Fred's gonna hit the books and see what we're dealing with."
Fred looked up from sucking up Phil's remains with the dust buster. "I am? Angel, I, I don't even know where to begin to look."
"Start with Thaumogenisis."
"Thaumo..?"
"Creatures manifested as byproduct of using of dark magic."
"Oh."
"I'll stay with her. Keep watch." Gunn said.
"Watch close, this thing's hard to see."
"This thing drank every speck of moisture out of a man's body. Well, I'm just saying, don't you think we should wait to see what Fred finds out before we go around chasing after it?" Cordy asked.
"The longer we wait the sooner that thing finds a way out of here and into the world. I'm not gonna let that happen. Lets go." Angel said.
Lorne followed Buffy and Angel down some stairs.
"I don't wanna hear it." Angel said.
"I didn't say anything." Lorne said.
"Let's keep it that way."
"Well, uh, was I wrong?"
"Lorne, it's our mess. We're cleaning it up. What more do you want?"
"Hey, I warned you Angel-face, you mess with powers of darkness..."
"There's a price to pay. I know there's always a price. The question is: is it one worth paying?"
"So, was this?"
"No. That spell we did was for nothing. I didn't find our son, so now he's gone forever. So, you ask me, was it worth it? Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, because he was my son."
They heard some slurping noises and Angel led the way into one of the hotel rooms. He turned on the light as they made their way across it to another door. Angel slowly pushed it open to reveal one of the ghost shrimps hanging on the side of an open toilet tank, slurping up the water in the tank.
The thing let out a squeak and jumped towards them. Lorne raised his sword to strike at it. He breaks the light bulb in the lamp hanging above him, plunging the room into darkness. Angel grabbed a hold of Lorne's arm.
"Angel, what are you..." Lorne started.
Buffy threw her dagger, nailing the glowing worm thing to the floor.
"Well, go team!" Lorne said.
They crouched closer and watched the thing's struggles cease.
"Now that wasn't so..." Lorne started.
Suddenly the thing streaked away as if the dagger no longer pinned it.
Cordy and Gru were walking down one of the hallways in the Hyperion.
"Poor Buffy and Angel. It's eating at them." Cordy said.
"Having another vision, princess?" Gru asked.
"What? No. Knowing it was the spell they performed trying to find Conner that made this, whatever it is, that we're hunting. Knowing that it caused a man's death."
"They are your priority."
"What?"
"You said earlier that Buffy and Angel's feelings were your only concern. They were all that mattered."
Cordy stopped and turned to face Gru. "Oh. Oh, no, Gruey, I, I meant 'work' priority. Work. You see, you, you're my, other stuff priority. You get that, right?"
Gru slowly lifted his ax.
"Gru, honey. We can talk about this."
"Do not move."
Cordy heard the liquid skittering of one of the slug-things behind her and spun around. She slashed at the wall. She missed the thing completely and it skittered away into a mail slot in the wall.
"It's going down. Come on." Cordy said.
"I instructed you not to move."
"Well, gee, forgive me for saving my own life."
They hurried down the hall together.
"I would not let harm come to you." Gru said.
They opened a door and ran into Angel, Buffy, and Lorne coming the other way.
Angel and Cordy said together, "We saw it! You saw it?!"
Angel was sitting behind his desk, looking through some files. The snow globe was sitting on the table in front of him. Buffy sat in the chair across the desk from him, going through a few files as well.
Fred and Gunn looked in on them through the opening from the lobby.
"It's funny. Sad, actually. I keep expecting to find... It's weird, seeing Angel sitting behind that desk." Fred said.
"It was his when I got here. It seems right that it's his again." Gunn replied.
"Yeah, but things have cooled down a little since. I'm just saying, maybe it's time. Look, he doesn't have to forgive Wesley."
"I'm glad you think so, 'cause not happening."
"No. Right. They shouldn't. But isn't there some way to I don't know, come back from this?"
"Not unless Wes comes back with that baby under his arm. And even then, Angel 'd probably kill him on principle."
"You don't really think that."
"He took their son. Probably best we never mention the guy's name again."
Gunn walked off and Fred turned back to watching Angel and Buffy.
Cordy and Gru were scrubbing at the pentagram drawn on the floor of the lobby.
"Ah, I give up. I've tried soaking it out. I've tried scrubbing it out. No question, we've got ring around the lobby. I say we toss in the towel and buy a big-ass throw rug. Who's with me?" Cordy said.
"That honor is mine, princess." Gru said.
Gru walked over and leaned down and to give Cordy a quick kiss.
Cordy got up. "Gru, honey, will you do me a favor and dump out this bucket?" Gru picked up the bucket. "Thanks."
"Cordelia?" Fred asked, turning to Cordy.
Cordy watched Gru leave. "He is such a sweetie. So loyal and loving like a puppy dog."
"Cordy..."
"I know that didn't sound very good, but he is. A puppy dog. A sexy, well- built, go-all-night puppy dog. Okay, that sounded worse."
"Cor..."
"No. You want me to say something to Buffy and Angel about Wesley. Sorry. Can't. Won't."
"Why? Why can't won't you? You've known them both longer than anybody. Angel would listen to you."
Cordy straightened up from gathering up the cleaning supplies. "Probably. But they don't wanna hear it, which is why I'm not gonna burden them."
"Look. Whatever he did, he's Wesley. You care about him. I know. Can you imagine how much pain he's in? How horrible he must be feeling?"
Cordy, not noticing that Gru was coming back with the empty bucket, said, "Buffy and Angel's feelings are the only ones I care about. They're my priority. I got dosed with demon DNA for Angel. I'm semi-demon and I still don't know what that means."
In the background, unnoticed, Gru set down the empty bucket and slowly turned to leave.
"Apart form the random float-iness and seizure less visions, which is keen, sometimes it's hard to tell when I'm. Angel?"
Cordy saw Angel getting flung across the lobby.
Angel was leaning on he window frame of the office window with Buffy in front of him, leaning back and lying on his broad chest. "What's going on?"
Lorne entered the Hyperion. "Oh, I tell you what's going on. Big bru-ha-ha at the juice bar across the street. Only light on the ha-ha. Some guy over there is cracking up."
The man that had been at the Hyperion earlier was at the bar, his skin now a pale gray and showing big cracks in it. He grabbed a hold of the one of the attendants.
"Here, get a save ticket, just don't hurt me..." the attendant said.
The guy tossed the kid on the floor and started to drink the juice right out of the blender. The last remaining customers hurried out just as Angel, Buffy and the others walked in.
"One minute you're standing there all shocked looking, then whammo! You're thrown across the..." Cordy was saying.
"Cordy, can we talk about it later? I'm working here."
The attendant picked himself back up and was running past Angel and Buffy.
"Look out! The dude's got Ebola or something." The attendant said.
"Is Ebola a weapon forged in magic?" Gru asked.
"No, forged in monkey poo." Lorne answered
"Okay, sir, you wanna just put down the super size or..." Angel trailed off as the guy lowered the blender and turned around, spraying the wall with juice in the process.
"I know you." Buffy said.
The guy went back to gulping the juice remaining in the blender.
"You do?" Gunn asked.
"This is the guy that came to the office this morning." Angel informed.
"You didn't mention he was a mummy, man."
"He's not. I mean, he wasn't. He's..."
Fred picked up the wallet left lying on the counter. "Phillip J. Spivey from Ingelwood according to his license."
"Mr. Spivey? Phil? Hi. Remember me? We're just gonna take a walk to my office across the street and ah, and figure out what's what. Is that okay with you?" Angel asked, slowly inching forward towards Phil.
"We're thirsty!" Phil cried.
"I take that as a no."
Phil picked up the base of the blender to brain Angel with it, but Buffy stepped up and quickly knocked him out giving Phil a disgusted look, then turned to the others with the same face.
"His skin was icky feeling." Buffy said.
"Okay, people, looks like we got a case." Angel said.
Gru carried Phil's unconscious body as everyone tramped back into the Hyperion.
"Ah, lets get him on the couch." Angel said.
Gru put Phil down on the couch.
"Oh my god. Look at his face." Fred said.
Angel pulled her back away from Phil. "Yeah. Fred, do we, do we have any water in the fridge?"
"In bottles I think."
"We, we're gonna need them."
"And some lip balm wouldn't hurt either, kitten." Lorne said.
"Angel?" Buffy asked, stepping up to him.
"We." Angel said quietly.
"Glad you're having fun with this." Gunn said behind them.
"No. 'We,' he kept saying we. This morning it's we have to go. Now it's we're thirsty."
"Okay, so he's pretentious." Buffy said.
"Angel, we need to talk about my vision." Cordy piped up.
Angel looked through Phil's wallet. "Well, it can wait."
"No. It can't. You think the Powers beam me pretty pictures purely for my amusement? They tell me when someone's in danger and that someone is you!"
"Oh, gee. I'm in danger. What else is new? Look, I wanna deal with somebody else's problem for a change. I wanna deal with Mr. Phillip Spivey of Inglewood who came to us this morning for help. He's the one we should be concerned with, not me! This has nothing to do with me!"
Lorne and Fred came back carrying some bottled water. Fred's eyes went wide and she let out a gasp.
Phil was standing next to the couch pointing straight at Angel and Buffy. "You! This is all happening because of you two! This is all your fault."
With that, Phil toppled forward, his body shattering to pieces as it hit the floor.
"Our fault?" Angel asked.
"That's what the sandman said." Buffy answered.
"How is this our fault? We were just trying to help him. What'd he go and say that for?"
"Uh, he didn't. That did." Lorne said.
Lorne pointed at the body and as something moved under its jacket, then the ghost shrimp skittered out of Phil's collar. Cordy lets out a scream and jumped up to sit on the lobby counter in an effort to get out of its way as it skittered across the floor.
"Okay. That was a thing." Gunn said.
"A big, ugly slug thing." Buffy said staring after the thing.
"Where did it go?" Cordy squeaked.
"It has vanished. Just like the glass eels in Scrag swamp in Uxemburg. I'm just making an observation." Gru said.
"So, what the hell was it?" Buffy asked.
"Don't look at me. I don't know what it is or what it has to do with us." Angel said, looking at Buffy in bewilderment.
"Um, Angel?"
Angel looked down where Buffy was looking and noticed that Phil landed right in the middle of the faded pentagram.
Angel walked over to the weapons cabinet and handed out swords.
"I'm not really the hunter type. Can't I just come along for moral support?" Lorne asked.
"Hotel shut tight." Cordy said.
"Good. I don't want anyone else getting infected."
Gru reached past Angel and picked an ax from the cabinet. "This weapon should serve me better."
"Ah, a little big for our purpose, don't you think?" Angel asked.
"I've had no complaints."
"Yeah, great. Okay, Cordy, you and Gru start with the third floor. Make a sweep, work your way down."
"Hey, exactly how do we know that slicing and dicing is going to do the trick on Mr. Sluggo, here?" Lorne asked.
"We don't. That's why Fred's gonna hit the books and see what we're dealing with."
Fred looked up from sucking up Phil's remains with the dust buster. "I am? Angel, I, I don't even know where to begin to look."
"Start with Thaumogenisis."
"Thaumo..?"
"Creatures manifested as byproduct of using of dark magic."
"Oh."
"I'll stay with her. Keep watch." Gunn said.
"Watch close, this thing's hard to see."
"This thing drank every speck of moisture out of a man's body. Well, I'm just saying, don't you think we should wait to see what Fred finds out before we go around chasing after it?" Cordy asked.
"The longer we wait the sooner that thing finds a way out of here and into the world. I'm not gonna let that happen. Lets go." Angel said.
Lorne followed Buffy and Angel down some stairs.
"I don't wanna hear it." Angel said.
"I didn't say anything." Lorne said.
"Let's keep it that way."
"Well, uh, was I wrong?"
"Lorne, it's our mess. We're cleaning it up. What more do you want?"
"Hey, I warned you Angel-face, you mess with powers of darkness..."
"There's a price to pay. I know there's always a price. The question is: is it one worth paying?"
"So, was this?"
"No. That spell we did was for nothing. I didn't find our son, so now he's gone forever. So, you ask me, was it worth it? Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, because he was my son."
They heard some slurping noises and Angel led the way into one of the hotel rooms. He turned on the light as they made their way across it to another door. Angel slowly pushed it open to reveal one of the ghost shrimps hanging on the side of an open toilet tank, slurping up the water in the tank.
The thing let out a squeak and jumped towards them. Lorne raised his sword to strike at it. He breaks the light bulb in the lamp hanging above him, plunging the room into darkness. Angel grabbed a hold of Lorne's arm.
"Angel, what are you..." Lorne started.
Buffy threw her dagger, nailing the glowing worm thing to the floor.
"Well, go team!" Lorne said.
They crouched closer and watched the thing's struggles cease.
"Now that wasn't so..." Lorne started.
Suddenly the thing streaked away as if the dagger no longer pinned it.
Cordy and Gru were walking down one of the hallways in the Hyperion.
"Poor Buffy and Angel. It's eating at them." Cordy said.
"Having another vision, princess?" Gru asked.
"What? No. Knowing it was the spell they performed trying to find Conner that made this, whatever it is, that we're hunting. Knowing that it caused a man's death."
"They are your priority."
"What?"
"You said earlier that Buffy and Angel's feelings were your only concern. They were all that mattered."
Cordy stopped and turned to face Gru. "Oh. Oh, no, Gruey, I, I meant 'work' priority. Work. You see, you, you're my, other stuff priority. You get that, right?"
Gru slowly lifted his ax.
"Gru, honey. We can talk about this."
"Do not move."
Cordy heard the liquid skittering of one of the slug-things behind her and spun around. She slashed at the wall. She missed the thing completely and it skittered away into a mail slot in the wall.
"It's going down. Come on." Cordy said.
"I instructed you not to move."
"Well, gee, forgive me for saving my own life."
They hurried down the hall together.
"I would not let harm come to you." Gru said.
They opened a door and ran into Angel, Buffy, and Lorne coming the other way.
Angel and Cordy said together, "We saw it! You saw it?!"