~*-*~

Two Weeks Later

Angel limped into the Hyperion leaning onto Spike's shoulder for support. It was early morning, and the two vampires were returning from saving yet more people. Fred and Gunn were upstairs asleep and Wesley was working hard and strong in the office.

"I cannot believe you got a sword in the gut. Again!"

"I can believe it rather easily Spike. The blinding pain is hard to forget."

On their mission to kill the offending demons, Angel had managed to get stabbed. Although Angel in his 250 years had learnt the art of being stealthy, Spike had yet to accept this as a tactic. He'd stormed in completely removing the element of surprise and levelled the playing field, which in this situation was not a good thing.

"Either way, I'm blaming you for this."

"Whatever. Here."

Spike handed Angel a glass of blood in an attempt to help him heal faster. Angel quickly swallowed, or as quickly as he could considering the pain. Meanwhile, Spike had now returned with first aid goodies.

"Now, hold still will you?"

Spike proceeded to peel the blood stained shirt off his sire and inspect the stab wound, which was funnily enough a mirror of the same one that Angel had received the week before. Spike wasn't going to mention it, since he would be blamed for that one too. A glint crossed Spike's eye, and before Angel noticed, Spike doused some cotton wool in iodine and attacked Angel's lower abdomen.

"Ow! What did you do that for?!"

Spike smiled a sickly sweet smile at this.

"What? Don't want you getting a nasty infection do we?"

Angel groaned. He saw right through it.

"An infection won't kill me. I'm already dead. You're just being mischievous."

"Maybe. Still, was fun to hear you scream like a girl."

Angel didn't even respond to that. Spike was just trying to get a rise out of him one way or another. Angel sighed as Spike continued wrapping him.

"There we go! All better."

"You're babying me. Don't baby me."

Spike took the first aid pack away and threw Angel a new shirt that was oddly in the study. Spike didn't want to go into the story that led to Angel's shirt being left in there.

"Fine. In future you can dress your wounds yourself."

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Thank you for the help."

Spike's venture into the study pulled out Wesley, who had been working on new information. Although technically still a member of Angel Investigations (its head was still listed as Wesley Wyndham-Price), he was mostly only investigating work for himself.

"You're back. I take it you were successful."

Spike grinned in satisfaction.

"The Los Angeles snake population has decreased!"

"I shall go and tell Katherina the news."

Angel looked up from his position lying on the lounge couch to take a glance at Wesley's appearance. Something was slight off.

"Wesley... is your hair wet?"

"Maybe."

This earned him a questioning glare from both vampires, the one in pain on the couch and the one who was beginning to clean off some swords.

"I went swimming."

Wesley could do this now of course since upon receiving the mermaids the pool was now habitable. Pleasant to swim in. The fact that there were two semi-naked girls in the pool didn't make it too bad either. Spike smiled at the thought of the second point, as he knew that was more likely to be the reason. He was wrong, as Wesley's reasons for swimming were quite different. It was always nice to be around people who didn't judge you.

"How do you feel?"

Wesley gave a satisfied smile.

"Exhilarated. You?"

"Exhausted."

"Angel, how about you?"

Angel just glared at Spike before answering Wesley.

"Like somebody turned my own sword on me."

"Terribly sorry."

"Don't be. It's Spike's fault."

"My fault?! How is this my fault?"

Wesley took this opportunity to leave. He'd been privy to some of Spike and Angel's arguments over the past few weeks and so he knew it wouldn't be over just yet. After all, there were some mermaids downstairs who probably wondered if the vision they had was averted. Neither Spike nor Angel noticed Wesley's disappearance however. They were too busy fighting, yet again.

"This never would have happened if you didn't just run in there half-cocked."

"I went in fully-cocked, I assure you."

Spike? Miss a chance at innuendo? Not bloody likely.

"Spike, don't be an idiot."

Spike rolled his eyes at this. It was hardly his fault if Angel didn't know how to have fun with the job.

"And are you wearing my coat?"

Now Spike was getting annoyed. Angel was so damned materialistic. Spike responded though how he always did. With humour and sarcasm.

"Would you rather I wandered around naked and catch a cold?"

Angel didn't get the sarcasm.

"Spike, you don't have a body temperature. Strip."

"You strip!"

The frown Spike received was enough for him not to continue down that path. He shrugged off the coat and placed it on the side.

"Okay! Okay! Jeez, it's just a damned coat."

"Can't you get anything of your own?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't get my own clothes, I haven't been home for the past 3 months or so."

And Spike hadn't. He'd left Sunnydale in mid May, and it was already October. What was Spike saying, three months? It was nearly five.

"Why do you have to take everything that's mine?"

"I don't!"

Angel was hitting rant phase now. He'd be hitting the roof too, if it wasn't for the pain that left him seated.

"Yes, you do! If it's not my clothes, it's my friends! If it's not my friends, it's my weapons! Or it's my son, or my self-identity or damn it Spike, even my women!"

"Your women?! Oh please! Dru and... Dru was never yours to have!"

Boy that was close.

"You've been forever horning in on my territory."

The two were starting to reopen century old wounds by bringing up such issues. Fair to say, they had been unable to really tackle their problems over the years because they hadn't been around each other much. No time like the present.

"It's not my fault you're so possessive and territorial. If you could think for a moment, you'd realise none of that's true."

"Oh yeah? My son *idolises* you. And you're setting a bad example. You've been undermining my authority the whole time you've been here!"

"It's not my fault if the boy likes me."

Spike couldn't see where Angel was coming from, and so the elder tried to make it painfully clear.

"You know how much trouble I'm going to just to try and be a good father for Connor, why are you making it so much harder?"

Spike shuffled his feet. He'd forgotten about this. Over the past few weeks, Spike had been making himself at home, but in turn he wasn't being the best of a role model for young impressionable hellspawn. But surely it couldn't be that much of a problem right?

"Well sorry, I didn't realise it was such a big issue."

"Yes well it is. If you thought about anyone besides yourself for a change, you could have realised that. How is it that over the course of a hundred years you just won't grow up? Why are you so self involved?"

Spike took offence.

"I'm hardly self involved. I just didn't think it mattered to you."

Angel rolled his eyes. He began to wonder if the person in front of him even knew what being self involved meant. Not thinking about how your actions affect others? Implies a certain level of self-involvement.

Idiot.

"You've always been this way, ever since the day we made you."

"Hello? You're my Sire. You turned me into what I am today."

"Dru, bless her heart, she had no idea what she was doing. You never should have been turned. Darla was right, we should have killed you that night."

Spike, believe it or not, turned pale. Even paler than usual.

"What?"

Angel suddenly realised what he'd said, and that he'd mixed up his thoughts and his words. Spike had heard Angel loud and clear, and he didn't like it. Angel quickly backtracked and apologised.

"Spike, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

It was too late for apologies. Spike was mad.

"You didn't want me? Is that what you're saying? You always said that Dru picked me out. I was 'special', remember?"

Having realised that he'd just opened an extra large can of worms, or more of a huge vat of giant demon snakes similar to what they had slaughtered earlier, Angel decided that it would just have to be dealt another day. The pain in his side agreed with him.

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just go to bed."

Spike would have none of it.

"No, I want to talk about this now."

Although not in agony anymore, he was still in quite some pain. A few hours and sting would disappear, and a day or two would bring him back to full health.

"It's dawn, I'm tired."

"Yeah, well I don't care if you're tired. You're going to talk to me."

"Forget it Spike, we can do this another time. Just sleep."

With that Angel tried to find his way up the stairs, all the while ignoring Spike's insistence that he stay and talk things out.

"No. Don't you walk away!"

After being ignored for a while, Spike was in a frightful state. He grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on, even though it wasn't a bright idea. By this point Angel must have regretted not having locked the weapons cabinet on his way. Spike took a heavy sword, ignoring that Angel was in no condition to be able to retaliate and went straight for the beaten figure edging up the stairs.

"God Angelus, stop turning your back on me!"

~*-*~


Author's Note: Wahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

That means I'm happy BTW.

I crossed the 100 review mark. Ahhhh! You have no idea how much that helped me! It actually did help you know. I had Pure 4 Maths on Tuesday afternoon, and I was floating around like a mad thing like I'd taken Opium or something cause I was so damned happy. Happy J is a passing J. The exam went alright actually. I have Economics tomorrow morning. It's all good.

All that aside, thank you guys so much. I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Sigh. If only things could go this way next season...