CHAPTER FOUR
What in the hell am I getting myself into? The sun was trying to thread its way through the tall buildings when I abandoned the purple car and darted into Wolfram and Hart's main building, the pictures clutched in a hand that had decided it needed to peel at least one more time before it'd be content to be healed. The guards paused at seeing me and some of the lawyers and paralegals split like the Red Sea as I headed for the elevators. Yep, I'm still double-bagger ugly from the burns.
Wes and Fred were in the office with Angel when I strode past Harmony. She dropped her blood down her pristine baby blue dress seeing me. You know you have to be uglier than a bulldog chewing a wasp when you can scare a vampire. Fred gasped. Even Wes raised an eyebrow.
Peaches got to his feet, his big hands clenching the edge of his desk. It'd only be a few seconds before those hands were around my neck. "What did I tell you about coming back here, Spike?"
"Your old lady sent me," I said, waving the pictures. "She had something she wanted me to show you."
"What would Buf...."Angel's jaw clamped shut. "Darla?"
"That's not possible. Holtz killed her," Wesley said. I was surprised he knew that given what Darla had told me about the spell. I guess Wolfram and Hart left in Holtz and just removed the bit about the pregnancy. I wondered what they thought happened to Holtz.
"This is best without the audience," I said, waving a hand at Wes and Fred. Both of them bristled.
"We'll continue this later, guys. Spike and I need to talk," Angel said.
"Are you sure?" Wes asked and Angel nodded.
Fred shot me a guilty look. "Spike, if I knew-"
"When I say I need help, Fred, I usually mean it," I blew her off and her head drooped as she left.
When they were gone, Angel grated out, "What are you playing at Spike?"
I tossed the pictures on his desk, one by one. "Nothing. Darla's spirit found me last night to tell me why you tried to beat the shit out of me then she wanted me to come here and tell you that you're getting screwed."
"Why would she do that?" he asked, stubbornly not looking at the pictures.
"She feels bad I got kicked out of the family." I tried for a grin but who knew what it looked like without lips. Angel's brow lowered. "You're not family, Spike."
"But he is." I shoved a picture into Angel's face. It was an ugly one of Connor strapped onto Wolfram and Hart's examine table with Knox drawing blood.
He stumbled back a step then snatched the picture away from me. I might as well have stuck a stake in him. Angel fell into his chair, his whole body shaking. This is what he must have looked like when Willow told him Buffy had died. This was the worst I've ever seen him hurting and I didn't even enjoy it. His hands moved over the other pictures, trembling as they went.
"How...Darla...you're not lying." He looked up at me, begging to say yes I was.
"Not about this. She'll go meet him again tonight, Angel, at least according to Darla. I don't know what they're doing to him in that lab. Darla didn't say. She probably doesn't know. Science isn't Darla's thing. I know Eve is drugging him and she's shagging the kid. You decide which is worse."
"I made a deal." I had never heard Angel sound so defeated. I'd laugh, only I was feeling too sympathetic, damn my soul. Occasionally it got in the way.
"Darla said you forgot about how much Wolfram and Hart wanted the kid. She understands, given what was happening at the time, that you thought you were doing the right thing."
"I was trying to save him."
"Well, you're getting another chance. This time you might want to think it through and remember who your real friends are," I said, scratching at my itching head. It felt like I had rolled in a patch of poison ivy, thanks to all the healing skin trying to shed the dead tissue.
"And that would be you?" His voice filled with venom. His little brown eyes fixed on me.
"No, well, maybe. I'm family. That's different." I shrugged. "I meant Wes, Fred and Gunn. Giles, Buffy and the rest. They can help you come up with a way to help the kid."
"His name is Connor," Angel snarled.
"Whatever. My point is, if you leave Connor like he is, he'll never be able to keep Wolfram and Hart from getting him and you know they will. Even if you kill Eve and Knox for this betrayal, you know the Senior Partners will send others. You need to bring the kid home."
Angel shook his head more to clear it than to say no to me. "What are you getting out of this, Spike?"
"Nothing," I said and he gave me a look. "Seriously, no angles, no one upmanship, no 'I've got Angel by the short and curlies,' no I want the Shanshu. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do and because you're my sire in all ways that count. When we were fighting over that cup of Mountain Dew, I said that you were to blame for all the evil shite I've done. I said it to hurt you, which I'm not even sure why it would except you're you and you like wearing that hair shirt." I paused at his snort. "But it's true whether we like it or not. I am what you shaped me to be. Maybe some of the good I am now is your doing, too. Maybe it's what's left of William. Who knows? Who cares? But I saw Darla acting more human now that she's a ghost than ever I've seen before and sod it, she's right. Someone needs to stop it so she volunteered me."
"Risky, given I was ready to tear you to shreds and throw what's left out in the mid day sun," Angel said.
"So I told Darla. She didn't much care and I gambled on you being reasonable." I sat on the edge of his desk.
That Neanderthal brow of his furrowed. "Why?"
I laughed, still scratching. "It's been said I'm as bloody thick as brick."
"No argument," he said as my scratching fingers peeled a huge hunk of dead flesh off my scalp, down my face and neck. I dropped it in his dust bin and he made a face. "What the hell happened to you? As much as I wanted to, I didn't do this."
"Little Miss Eve so I want her dead almost as much as you do," I joked and he didn't laugh. Damn, he really did want her dead. I'm no longer chipped so I could kill her if I wanted to and I really felt so inclined.
"Harmony," Angel bellowed. He was always good at that. "Get Spike something to eat. You, rest up. When the sun sets, you're taking me to where you found them." He shoved me off the desk.
"You got it, Peaches." I still sounded a little mocking. I can't help it. Angel just brought it out in me.
I left. Wes and Fred were still out in Harmony's office. Harm was busy heating me something from her own private stock.. She kept a little fridge and microwave by the coffee maker now. "Fred, sorry about earlier. You have no idea how much this hurts," I said, waving at my burns. "You have anything that might help?"
She bobbed her head. "Come to the lab with me."
Harmony shoved the blood into my hand. The mug was deliciously warm. "Thanks, Harm."
"I'm still mad you upset Angel." Harmony pouted at me.
"Understood."
I drank greedily as I followed Fred. She gave me some medical soap and brushes and silvadene creme which she said helped burns heal. She didn't know if it worked on vampires. She gave me dressings, too, then she decided to hang around and help me take care of the burns.
I got into the shower in my suite and started scrubbing with the medical soap. I had to grit my teeth against the pain. Flesh globbed off, hitting the tub's porcelain, finally stopping it up. Blood ran, turning the puddle pink. I got out, dried off and let Fred bandage me up. We were both oddly silent. She was still angry with me on Angel's account and probably guilty, too, that she hadn't offered to help when I asked. I didn't press her. I kinda liked her. She was sweet so I'd let her take her time and decide how she felt.
Once she had me bandaged up, and I probably did look like Claude Raines at this point or maybe Boris Karloff, I tumbled into bed, dead asleep almost instantly.
What in the hell am I getting myself into? The sun was trying to thread its way through the tall buildings when I abandoned the purple car and darted into Wolfram and Hart's main building, the pictures clutched in a hand that had decided it needed to peel at least one more time before it'd be content to be healed. The guards paused at seeing me and some of the lawyers and paralegals split like the Red Sea as I headed for the elevators. Yep, I'm still double-bagger ugly from the burns.
Wes and Fred were in the office with Angel when I strode past Harmony. She dropped her blood down her pristine baby blue dress seeing me. You know you have to be uglier than a bulldog chewing a wasp when you can scare a vampire. Fred gasped. Even Wes raised an eyebrow.
Peaches got to his feet, his big hands clenching the edge of his desk. It'd only be a few seconds before those hands were around my neck. "What did I tell you about coming back here, Spike?"
"Your old lady sent me," I said, waving the pictures. "She had something she wanted me to show you."
"What would Buf...."Angel's jaw clamped shut. "Darla?"
"That's not possible. Holtz killed her," Wesley said. I was surprised he knew that given what Darla had told me about the spell. I guess Wolfram and Hart left in Holtz and just removed the bit about the pregnancy. I wondered what they thought happened to Holtz.
"This is best without the audience," I said, waving a hand at Wes and Fred. Both of them bristled.
"We'll continue this later, guys. Spike and I need to talk," Angel said.
"Are you sure?" Wes asked and Angel nodded.
Fred shot me a guilty look. "Spike, if I knew-"
"When I say I need help, Fred, I usually mean it," I blew her off and her head drooped as she left.
When they were gone, Angel grated out, "What are you playing at Spike?"
I tossed the pictures on his desk, one by one. "Nothing. Darla's spirit found me last night to tell me why you tried to beat the shit out of me then she wanted me to come here and tell you that you're getting screwed."
"Why would she do that?" he asked, stubbornly not looking at the pictures.
"She feels bad I got kicked out of the family." I tried for a grin but who knew what it looked like without lips. Angel's brow lowered. "You're not family, Spike."
"But he is." I shoved a picture into Angel's face. It was an ugly one of Connor strapped onto Wolfram and Hart's examine table with Knox drawing blood.
He stumbled back a step then snatched the picture away from me. I might as well have stuck a stake in him. Angel fell into his chair, his whole body shaking. This is what he must have looked like when Willow told him Buffy had died. This was the worst I've ever seen him hurting and I didn't even enjoy it. His hands moved over the other pictures, trembling as they went.
"How...Darla...you're not lying." He looked up at me, begging to say yes I was.
"Not about this. She'll go meet him again tonight, Angel, at least according to Darla. I don't know what they're doing to him in that lab. Darla didn't say. She probably doesn't know. Science isn't Darla's thing. I know Eve is drugging him and she's shagging the kid. You decide which is worse."
"I made a deal." I had never heard Angel sound so defeated. I'd laugh, only I was feeling too sympathetic, damn my soul. Occasionally it got in the way.
"Darla said you forgot about how much Wolfram and Hart wanted the kid. She understands, given what was happening at the time, that you thought you were doing the right thing."
"I was trying to save him."
"Well, you're getting another chance. This time you might want to think it through and remember who your real friends are," I said, scratching at my itching head. It felt like I had rolled in a patch of poison ivy, thanks to all the healing skin trying to shed the dead tissue.
"And that would be you?" His voice filled with venom. His little brown eyes fixed on me.
"No, well, maybe. I'm family. That's different." I shrugged. "I meant Wes, Fred and Gunn. Giles, Buffy and the rest. They can help you come up with a way to help the kid."
"His name is Connor," Angel snarled.
"Whatever. My point is, if you leave Connor like he is, he'll never be able to keep Wolfram and Hart from getting him and you know they will. Even if you kill Eve and Knox for this betrayal, you know the Senior Partners will send others. You need to bring the kid home."
Angel shook his head more to clear it than to say no to me. "What are you getting out of this, Spike?"
"Nothing," I said and he gave me a look. "Seriously, no angles, no one upmanship, no 'I've got Angel by the short and curlies,' no I want the Shanshu. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do and because you're my sire in all ways that count. When we were fighting over that cup of Mountain Dew, I said that you were to blame for all the evil shite I've done. I said it to hurt you, which I'm not even sure why it would except you're you and you like wearing that hair shirt." I paused at his snort. "But it's true whether we like it or not. I am what you shaped me to be. Maybe some of the good I am now is your doing, too. Maybe it's what's left of William. Who knows? Who cares? But I saw Darla acting more human now that she's a ghost than ever I've seen before and sod it, she's right. Someone needs to stop it so she volunteered me."
"Risky, given I was ready to tear you to shreds and throw what's left out in the mid day sun," Angel said.
"So I told Darla. She didn't much care and I gambled on you being reasonable." I sat on the edge of his desk.
That Neanderthal brow of his furrowed. "Why?"
I laughed, still scratching. "It's been said I'm as bloody thick as brick."
"No argument," he said as my scratching fingers peeled a huge hunk of dead flesh off my scalp, down my face and neck. I dropped it in his dust bin and he made a face. "What the hell happened to you? As much as I wanted to, I didn't do this."
"Little Miss Eve so I want her dead almost as much as you do," I joked and he didn't laugh. Damn, he really did want her dead. I'm no longer chipped so I could kill her if I wanted to and I really felt so inclined.
"Harmony," Angel bellowed. He was always good at that. "Get Spike something to eat. You, rest up. When the sun sets, you're taking me to where you found them." He shoved me off the desk.
"You got it, Peaches." I still sounded a little mocking. I can't help it. Angel just brought it out in me.
I left. Wes and Fred were still out in Harmony's office. Harm was busy heating me something from her own private stock.. She kept a little fridge and microwave by the coffee maker now. "Fred, sorry about earlier. You have no idea how much this hurts," I said, waving at my burns. "You have anything that might help?"
She bobbed her head. "Come to the lab with me."
Harmony shoved the blood into my hand. The mug was deliciously warm. "Thanks, Harm."
"I'm still mad you upset Angel." Harmony pouted at me.
"Understood."
I drank greedily as I followed Fred. She gave me some medical soap and brushes and silvadene creme which she said helped burns heal. She didn't know if it worked on vampires. She gave me dressings, too, then she decided to hang around and help me take care of the burns.
I got into the shower in my suite and started scrubbing with the medical soap. I had to grit my teeth against the pain. Flesh globbed off, hitting the tub's porcelain, finally stopping it up. Blood ran, turning the puddle pink. I got out, dried off and let Fred bandage me up. We were both oddly silent. She was still angry with me on Angel's account and probably guilty, too, that she hadn't offered to help when I asked. I didn't press her. I kinda liked her. She was sweet so I'd let her take her time and decide how she felt.
Once she had me bandaged up, and I probably did look like Claude Raines at this point or maybe Boris Karloff, I tumbled into bed, dead asleep almost instantly.