Chapter 23
A few hours later, Angel pulled up to the place Willow and Tara had found. He know knew what they meant. If Darla and Dru were here, he wouldn't be shocked, but for some reason, he knew they weren't.
Spike, joining him, as they crept toward the mansion-like place, said,
"I don't think there here."
"You get that feeling too, huh?"
"Yeah...'sides, if I remember correctly, Darla likes to showboat. Gotta 'ave luxurious accommodations and all, doesn't she? Or did you always make those arrangements?
Angel ignored the barb.
"Yeah, she does," was all he said.
Spike grinned.
Damn, he thought. He's not taking the bleedin' bait. Oh well, I'll just torture him more later.
As they crept up into the place, they looked around.
"I think they were here, first."
"I get that feeling too. But they're not here now. I think they've been gone a good week or two."
"Yeah. They left plenty of minions, though. Wanna go in, say 'Howdy'?" Spike asked with a wicked grin on his face.
Angel grinned with him.
"I think that would be the decent thing to do."
They vaulted over the wall and strode into the place together.
An hour later, they vaulted back over the wall, and strolled down the grounds.
"I still say we go back and get that TV," Spike was arguing.
"Spike..."
"But yours bleedin' sucks, Soul Boy. That one was really nice."
"We're not going to get the TV, Spike."
"But we could...who's gonna miss it. There's no one left in there. And no one's probably gonna come by within weeks, months even."
"Spike...part of being the 'white hat' is NOT looting the place when your done whipping the bad guys."
"Awww...but Dad," Spike imitated a whining child.
Angel cuffed him on his head.
"Behave boy."
Spike chuckled.
He also decided to try again.
"But I was a 'Good' Vamp. I ought to get some reward. Being all soul-less and all. You know, reward for good behavior, give the demon his due, and all that rot."
Angel chuckled.
"The due you get, my boy, is knowing you helped rid the world of a few more, evil and people terrorizing demons."
"Man, the benefit package on this job, bites."
"No...that's us."
"Oh look, Angelus cracked a joke. I think I'll bloody swoon."
Angel laughed.
"You know, I think I'm the only one on the planet with the worst benefit package to my job."
"Why do you say that?"
"The food sucks, I don't get paid, and I don't get any perks."
Angel laughed.
"But Spike...lots of people feel that way, or have the same problem."
"I don't think so, mate."
"Why are you so special...and don't call me mate."
"You sound like Xander."
Angel sighed.
Spike chuckled and decided to drop the Angel-sounds-like-Xander teasing and answer his question.
"The reason I'm different is because, while some people have the same problem, they probably don't love their jobs like I do."
Angel laughed.
"You actually like it, don't you?"
"Well...yeah. Once you get past the whole...'your on the good guys team now' bit, it's not so bad."
Angel just laughed as they reached the car.
The sound woke Xander up.
He looked first at Angel, then at Spike.
Spike winked at him, and Xander took down the crosses and let them in, before being asked.
Spike knew he could have said something, but he didn't.
Xander looked at Angel strangely,
"Did you just laugh?"
"Yeah. What, can I not laugh?"
"No...it's just...that the only time I've ever seen you laugh, Mr. I've-only-got-one-expression man, is when you were all 'Evil Dead Guy'."
"We're not back to that again are we? I'm not evil again, Xander, and I haven't been that way for a long, long time. And I sure as hell have more than one expression."
"Hah!!"
"It's true."
"Yeah right! The only expression I've ever seen you have, as long as you've still got your soul intact, is a deep, dark brooding one."
Angel gave Xander his, your-getting-on-my-nerves look.
"Okay, I have seen that one before. So I was off by one expression."
Angel sighed.
Spike chuckled. He was finding the whole scene extremely amusing.
Xander looked at him, but remembered he had to be nice to Spike, so he didn't say anything.
"Well you don't have to worry about Angelus here, Xand," Spike said, deciding it was time to get Xander in on teasing Angel.
"Why not?" Xander asked, still looking suspicious.
"'Cause if he wasn't such a 'Brooding Nancy Boy', he'd have, for the hotel, if not for himself, a brand spanking new 57 inch tele, with speakers on the side."
"What?"
"Yeah. It was in that place we were last in. Mr. I'm-so-good-cause-I-have-a-bleedin'-soul didn't feel it was right to pinch a tele no one would miss."
Xander's eyes glazed over.
"Did you say a 57 inch
TV?"
"Yeah mate. A bleedin' 57 inch tele, with speakers for
extended surround sound."
Xander looked at Spike, with a twin expression to Spike's, and said,
"Think it'll fit in the van?"
"Now that's what I'm talking about. See 'Soul Boy,' this is what I mean. Even Xander, who is beyond the righteous side, sees that it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab a great tele like that, which no one is gonna miss.."
Angel banged his head on the steering wheel.
Why me, he thought.
Xander and Spike chuckled.
Xander, although he was seriously gonna talk with Spike about going back to get that TV, decided to join Spike in driving Angel insane, cause it was such fun.
Xander looked over at Spike and said,
"Shall we make plans."
Spike winked, knowing Xander just wanted to annoy his sire more.
"Okay. First rule...we gotta do it at night...seeing as if we did it in the day...I wouldn't be a big help, being a 'Big Pile of Dust.'"
Xander chuckled, but nodded.
"Xander, Spike..."
"Not now, Soul Man, we're busy," Spike said, hiding his smile.
Xander looked at him, " Got
anything we can make a list on?"
"Nope...but never fear,
we can remember this all."
"Alright. Rule number one, sunlight's a bust. Next?"
"Rule number two, we keep it in my crypt."
"Hell no."
"Why not? 'its my plan and if it hadn't been for me, you'd have never known about the bleedin' TV anyway."
"Excuse me...your crypt is no where to hold such a great TV. It would be like taking a girl to McDonalds when they're looking forward to a real restaurant."
Spike rolled his eyes. "Hello, 'Lackbrain'. Not living, ergo, usually don't take my dates to McDonalds. Unless it was to pinch someone coming out or walking home from it."
"Okay...maybe here's one you understand. It's like taking your bloodsucking date out to grab a person, and only finding pigs and dogs."
Angel snickered, and said in a low, half chuckling voice,
"Dogs named Sunshine."
Spike leaned back, lifted his left leg over Xander's, and kicked the back of his sire's seat...hard.
Angel had to jerk, to keep the car in the correct lane. It wasn't much, but Spike felt he had been appeased a little.
"Now," he said to Xander, "where were we? Oh yeah, I remember, okay...point taken. Besides, sometimes, if it rains, my crypt may get sodden, that's not really good for TV. So, where should we take it, that's not your place?"
"Why not my place? We're there often enough."
"I'm not...and if I'm helping to carry it, I'm sure as hell not getting it to help you carry it in, and then never see it again."
"Okay...your point taken."
The boys thought for a minute on where the best place for the TV would be, it was a toss up between Giles's apartment, Giles's store, and the Summers' residence, cause that's where they would all go, and would get the best benefits out of either of the places.
Angel had given up trying to talk them out of it by now, all he got where their," be quiet, we're thinking, " and " Not now, 'Soul Boy' to any reason he tried to give them.
He just hoped they would forget all about it in the upcoming battle.
When they reached 3 miles away from the last destination, he told them, with a smile in his voice, but not on his face,
"You guys will have to think more on this later, cause we're here.
Xander, you put up crosses, and grab the gun and crossbow that's in that box. Spike, let's go searching."
Spike leaned his head to the side and felt outward, towards it.
"I think this is the place."
"Me too."
"Okay, if you guys think that this is the place, shouldn't we go back and make some plans?"
"We will, but we want a closer look first, gotta make sure. We don't want to come here, just by guessing and they have been here but be gone now."
"Okay...understood."
"Spike?"
"Ready to rock and roll daddy-o."
Angel groaned and grabbed Spike by the collar of his neck.
"Come on, son."
Spike and Xander chuckled.
Spike looked at Xander and said,
"Remember what I told you at the last place?"
"Yeah."
"Good...keep it in mind. And be careful in this car, do you hear?"
"Yeah, yeah...go already."
Spike chuckled and followed Angel into the night.
******
About two hours, Angel and Spike returned to the car.
Getting in the car, they were both silent.
They made Xander so nervous, he kept one cross in his hand.
Spike leaned over and grabbed the cross, while his hand sizzled he told Xander, " I'm not gonna hurt you, we're only quiet cause we found them."
Xander nodded and put his cross down.
They all waited until they were 15 minutes away before Angel and Spike spoke.
"Do you think they felt us?"
"I don't know. I know Darla didn't, but Dru?"
"Yeah...Dru."
"What did you guys see? What was so bad?"
"We'll tell you when we get back to the hotel," Angel said sighing, he didn't want to have to tell the story more than once.
Xander nodded and getting sleepy, fell asleep.
Once he was sound asleep, Spike asked Angel.
"How much of what we saw are you gonna tell them?"
"All of it."
"Are you sure they need to know all that? They're gonna be frightened. Hell...I'm frightened. Dru's beyond mad now. And Darla...hell, she looked madder than Dru."
"I believe your right. But they've got to know. Their lives are at stake here. If they're both mad, now, then they're at least three times more dangerous than before."
Spike sighed. Then after being quiet he said,
"I don't want to loose any of them."
"I know...me either."
Those were the last two words either of them spoke until they reached the hotel.
TBC…