Spike glanced up from his jeans in the direction of the bathroom. "You all right in there, Kitten?"
"Fine." The sound of the shower door sliding followed.
Jeans up and on. Black t-shirt over his pale chest and he was nearly dressed. All Spike had to do was find his socks and he could be on his merry way.
"Gemini, where've you put my socks?! I thought I told you to leave things where I drop them." There was no answer from the bathroom.
But neither could he hear the shower running. "Gemini?" Spike knocked on the door. "Gem, you all right in there." No answer. Cautiously, aware of his childe's ever changing moods, he pushed the door open. "Ah, Love."
Christina was huddled, naked, in the far corner of the immense shower, as far from both the door and the faucet as she could get.
Her scream of terror was short and strangled at the sound of Spike's feet on the cold tiles. "No, please," she whispered to herself, eyes glassy with unspent tears.
"Shh, shush now," he crooned, holding her until she loosed herself from the rigidity he felt the moment his arms went around her. "It's all right, Kitten, it's all right. No one's going to hurt you. I saw to that didn't I?" Spike felt her body melt into his. "That's right. That's my girl. Come now, let's get you cleaned up," and he stood and turned on the water as hot as it would go.
*
"Chris?"
The vampiress turned. "Carlo?"
Older than she had remembered, her childhood friend stared at her in wonder. "Wow. You look-- Wow. You're beautiful."
Blinking rapidly she could only mumble a thanks.
"I can't believe it's been six years since we've talked. And you were pregnant last time I actually saw you. How long ago was that, fourteen years?"
They still stood some feet a part, as if wary of each other. But they had been best friends. They had each been one part of the Three C's.
That couldn't be a breath caught in her throat. Really she was too old for such nonsense. "How's your wife?"
Carlo nodded. "Good, good. So are you in LA long?"
"I, uh, I live outside of town. A couple of hours away." She should just kill him and get it over with.
"It's just, you know, everything-- Ah, what the hell am I saying?" And whatever had been holding them let go. They embraced as they hadn't since the fateful death of the third C, Carmen. "It's so good to see you, Chris. You have no idea."
Oh, God, was she crying?
"Oh, wow, are you crying? Wait, I think I have a tissue."
They pulled back. Laughing and hastily wiping away the damning ruby tears, she stopped him. "You know me, Miss Sentimental. I guess I didn't realize how much I've missed you. And Carmen. My life's been one non-stop train for so long."
"Maybe it's time you pull into a station."
She laughed. "Oh now your giving me advice in cliches?"
He joined her. "As if you'd ever listen. Imagine if our kids could hear this, their parents talking like them. They'd want to sink into the ground and die."
Her answering smile didn't touch her eyes. "I really have to go. My Si--" She'd almost said 'Sire,' but she wasn't sure she could make 'husband' come out of her mouth. "They're expecting me at home."
"You had more kids?"
"Um, yeah. A son and then his friend kind of adopted me."
"That's good, that you have family. They don't tell you to slow down?"
She laughed for real. "I don't think they'd notice the difference unless I did."
They hugged. "Hey, you know, I'm only in town until tomorrow. How 'bout we go out somplace to eat? Catch up."
Just kill him, she thought. It's what Angelus or Spike would do. It's what she should do. Her mouth against his soft neck she couldn't even make the mask of humanity slide away. Why couldn't this be her reality? "Sure," she said with a smile instead.
Carlo smiled back.
*
"Fight me!" The doors slammed behind her in a thunderclap. Minions two steps below her, laying about in the main room and those above, hanging over the balcony, stopped and stared. "I said fight me!"
Slowly, as not to incite her wrath, they pulled away from her. "Damn you all to Hell! Are you all afraid of me?" Silence was her answer. Roaring her rage, she stormed through their ranks, picking up and tossing any that had not moved out of her path. "Will none of you fight me?!"
"I will."
She was almost through with them when she heard his voice. Her laughter was a harsh bark. "Oh, I'm sure you will Angel." One hand out in invitation she waited for him in the thick of lounging, stunned vampires. He lept over the railing. She threw her head back and laughed "Show off" and threw him across the room. "This isn't playtime, little Angel," she ground out, stalking his prone body, not quite caring if he were conscious enough to hear her. "No holding back tonight. No stroking your ego." Standing over his body now. "My anger, my rage -- I win." She snapped his neck.
Angelus yowled in pain. "That may hurt but it doesn't do much."
"I don't want to kill you. I want to hurt you."
"Mmm, tell me more, baby."
Her angry screech made the minions cringe. The crunch of bones being ground into dust and Angelus' answering howl opened their eyes. "Not" kick "playing" kick "tonight!" Kick! If he was lucky his ribs would be better by morning. There was no telling for the wrist. Breathing hard as if, somehow, she needed to, she whispered "Not playing" just for him. Just for the two of them.
"Mom?"
"Grace," she growled, eyes steady on Angelus' pain twisted face, "don't touch me unless you want to fight."
"Mom? Dad?"
Christina's laugh was delicately cruel. "Oh, yes. You might want to help your father, Honey. We fought." Turning away, she stormed through the parting sea of vampires.
*
"Where is she?" Spike demanded of Angelus. Grace, called Honey, stretched out beside him, tending his bruised and broken ribs. "Christina do that to you," he indicated Angel's limp and bandaged hand.
"What do you think?" Angel spat.
Spike chose to ignore the insolence. "Now where has my Kitten run off to?" he asked as if finding her later would be just as fine as sooner.
"I'm surprised you don't know."
"Some of us were doing productive things with our nights instead of falling for their ex's taunts. Or under her heels."
"Some of us don't know what it means to be a Master Vampire. Some of us will always be the childe," his voice a soft, vicious needle.
Spike crossed the room in two loping strides. "Hurt your pride she did," he said softly, almost purring. "Finally showed you who's who 'round here, hmm? Make you want to lash back," he drew a lazy finger down Angelus' nose, "doesn't it?" They were so-- Spike's lips nearly brushing Angelus' as he spoke. "Got you by the balls, doesn't she? You want her, want her power but can't have either and it bloody well kills you."
He backed away suddenly. "Any idea where she might be, Honey?"
"Outside, maybe."
Spike smiled, lazily, "That's a good girl, but how's she gonna do that with the sun blazin' overhead?"
Angelus' laugh was hearty -- and annoying. "You don't know about the cuff do you?"
"What cuff?"
"It's kind of a family tradition," and now he's the cat that ate the canary. The Cat who Saw Too Much. "Chris' mother gave it to her, when she died she gave it to Grace and when she died she gave it back to her dead mother. Rather sweet don't you think?"
"And what's so special about a bloody cuff, Angelus. 'Less you want to find out what's worse than having a powdered wrist." But the large vampire laughed still.
Grace spoke for him. "It will protect her from the sun."
Spike growled. "Another Gem? And you bloody well didn't tell me?"
She shook her head fervently. "It's something about the engraving or the stone but she's not immune. She's weak as a human out there. Maybe weaker, I don't know, I've never used it."
"But she's all right?"
Grace, called Honey, nodded. "Make sure he doesn't scream," Spike shot over his shoulder, leaving the room.
*
"You all right out there?"
"Yeah. Just, you know, missed the sun."
"No, I don't bloody well know. You've got the minions thinking your some kind of dark goddess."
Laughter, weak. "Only Druscilla. I'm just a twisted little vampiress so desperate to be warm she let herself be weak as a kitten."
"You're my Kitten."
"Yes, I am yours aren't I."
"Gonna be out there long, Kitten?"
"Till the sun sets."
"I should give you a once over for pulling a stunt like this."
"Will it do any good?"
Sigh, also weak. "With you? Probably not."
"Spike? Spike?"
No answer.
*
The room was empty as she glided 'cross the threshold. Angelus was lying, hurt still, in the center of the large bed watching her. His eyes questioned her. She climbed onto the bed. "I saw Carlo," she whispered.
"And why are you telling me?" he asked sullenly; a muted kind of anger.
She slid alongside his body, down his length 'til his cast-covered hand was at eye level.
"And why are you telling me? About Carlo?"
Lying on her side, propped up on her elbow she looked down at him, studying him. "Even if you are an evil bastard, Angelus, somewhere in there is the man this body loved. The man who killed her." Her hand hovered about his prone form, but it was her own neck she lightly caressed. "You're the only one who knows what it means, seeing him."
Angelus' laugh was sharp and cruel, and pained. "I'm not Angel," he reminded her, darkness glinting in his chocolate eyes.
Her smile was slow and lazy as any cheshire cat's. It knew. "Is that what you tell Spike, what you told Druscilla and Darla and Buffy? Mmm, I bet it's even written in the Watcher's Diaries." She paused. "Yes, it is. But, I know. You told me I know even when I had no idea what you meant."
"You're lover's dead, little girl."
SMACK!
The sound hung heavy in the quiet room. "I couldn't kill him, Angel. I should have but I couldn't," she whispered as if her hand weren't stinging from the blow and Angelus' cheek wasn't quickly turning red. Curling up into his side, she lay her head in the crook of his shoulder.
"You crying down there?" but it was far more tender than any would believe could come from Angelus. She laughed, a tinkle of shattered glass. "Of course. Of course I am. God, I loved you."
Angelus had no answer for her.
*
He met Spike's eyes over Christina's sleeping, purring body and the answering purr of his own.