Chapter 4: Give it up, already
Meanwhile, at the Magick Shop, Wesley and Gunn were trying to get the owner to hand over the only copy of the Arishma'hm Oricle that was in the entire Northern Hemisphere to them. The owner was not going to just hand it over. "I'm sorry, I just can't let you have it. It's very strong magicks. I could not in deepest consciousness allow the likes of you to hold the key to time travel. Who knows what you'd do with that power? No, you two hoodlums have to leave now." The young lady seemed nice at first dressed in a long flowing dress that the Wicca's seemed to prefer, but she'd taken one look at them and thought them to be gangsters. Damn sterotypes.
"Yo. Lady, we ain't 'hoodlums'. We're good guys. We own a business and we really need that book. So, why don't you just hand it over? We'll pay you." Gunn attempted to be civil to the woman, but inside he was steaming. He thought that he'd escaped the racism and prejudice in LA. But it seemed that this 'white people-ville' didn't seem to know that the race wars were over and that they were all equals now. "I hate the suburbs," he muttered under his breath.
"No. Now I mean it, you both leave or I'll call the police."
"Alright, there's no reason to get upset. We'll leave now. You have a pleasant day." Wesley took Gunn by the arm and pulled him out the door.
"Wes, man. We need that damn book. That bitchy woman won't let us buy it."
"I know. So we'll just give ourselves the five finger discount. We'll come back after six when she closes and we'll break in and just take it."
"Wes. Are you okay? You, YOU are actually thinking of stealing something? Wow. I never thought this day would come. YES." Gunn pumped his arms up in the air. "You the man, English." The gave each other high fives and continued to walk back to the hotel to let the others know that they did indeed find the book and that they would get it, no matter what the owner said. From what Spike had told them earlier, the owner would die soon anyway. He'd kill her in order to get the love spell from Willow, after Dru had broken up with him. There was nothing that could be done about that. They couldn't change the future too much. Surely stealing a book wouldn't lead to the end of the world, would it?
They both walked back to the hotel. Knocked on the door, gave a warning that 'sunlight was acomin' and opened it slowly. They entered the hotel, a smile coming to their faces when they saw that Spike and Angel were hiding under their covers. It was quite a sight. Wesley took a minute to go check on Faith in the other interconnected room. Faith seemed to be asleep, but Wesley noticed that she was sweating. He went over to where she was lying and gently put a hand on her forehead. She stirred lightly, but kept the groan from escaping her lips. It seemed to be getting worse, but she couldn't tell them. They all had other things to worry about. They needed to get home first. Wesley satisfied that she didn't have a fever left her to sleep and went over to the other room to go over the plans with the others.
Moments later there was another knock on the door and the "suns a-coming" warning was given out again so that the two vampires could hide as the two ladies came in holding loads of shopping bags. As soon as the door closed they all jumped up to help put the bags down. It was one of those woman things the men guessed. Never let a woman go on a shopping spree. They'll never return with less that eight bags of supplies. This time the shopping spree was warranted. The ladies seemed to know what the plans were, as if they were psychic, because they not only brought knives, rope, pieces of wood to turn to stakes, but also toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and the most comfortable black attire they could ever wear to break into a shop ever created. (Black ski masks also included.)
"Cordy, how in the world did you pay for this? The business credit cards don't work yet, because technically we don't have a business yet." Before Cordy could answer Angel, the door suddenly opened to reveal a small monster covered in mud followed by an adult size mud covered man.
"Mommy," the flash of light from the door quickly dispersed as Robin shut the door. The monster threw himself on his mother's legs. Hugging her and liberally spreading all of the mud all over her.
"Hello, my little angel, I was going to ask if you had fun, but I can see that you did. Oh, boy. You sure did make a mess. You're going right in the tub."
"NO. no, bath."
"Yes, bath. Uncle Will can help you make bubbles if you are good. We'll be very fast," then she turned to William, "Will, can you please get Connor cleaned up. I can't bend down like I used to, in the good ol' days."
"Not a problem, Princess. Your wish is my command." William gallantly reached down kissed her hand, then quickly gathered the mud monster for a bath. Maybe you should take one too, Robin. Unless mud splatter is the new 'in' style?"
"Shut up, Spike," Robin muttered. He still hated Spike. The evil that he was killed his mother. He still wanted Spike dead, but at the same time recognized his attempt to gain redemption. He was, with the help of Angel, turning into quite the champion. All of his feelings were conflicting; he truly didn't know what to do. He hated the vampire, but was being to like the man, if that made sense at all. Forgetting Spike for a moment, he went to go check on Faith. What he saw scared him. "ANGEL, CORDY, get in here. NOW."