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Spike walked in with a sulky look on his face, mainly because being summoned to Angel's office reminded him that, hard as it was for him to swallow, Angel was the boss.
The sulky look disappeared the moment he saw Rose, and he was drawn to her side as if magnetized.
"What are you doing here, luv?" He tried to keep the worry out of his voice, and wasn't entirely successful. He stood behind her, hands resting lightly on her shoulders, little realizing just how much tension he was conveying through that contact.
"Someone seems to think that I'm evil for living with you, and our children are too, because they're ours," Rose explained quietly. "They felt so strongly about this that they had to put it in writing and mail it to me."
The look on Spike's face suggested that he'd eaten something that really didn't agree with him.
"Do you want to see it?" Angel asked, handling the paper as if it were radioactive.
For once, Spike actually thought before he spoke. "No," he said finally. "It's eating away at me now, just knowing. If I read it, I'd like as not get so worked up I couldn't concentrate on the important things." The kiss he placed on the top of Rose's head suggested what he thought the important things were. Almost unconsciously, his hands began kneading the tension out of Rose's shoulders. She closed her eyes, and Angel could almost swear that he heard purring.
"So, you gonna have Fred and her lot go over that, are you?" Spike asked when Angel made no reply. His hands continued to massage Rose's neck and shoulders.
"And the psychics," Angel added. "And anyone else who might be able to get a line on who this lunatic is."
"You won't go after them without me, will you?" Spike inquired, half-accusingly. "After all, it's my family being threatened. I take that a bit personally."
"I'll keep you posted," Angel promised. If Spike got involved, it could get messy, but he didn't have the heart to tell him no. "Why don't you take Rose up to your apartment now?" he suggested. "It looks like you put her right to sleep."
When Spike scooped Rose up in his arms, she mumbled drowsily, "I can walk." But her arms twined loosely around his neck.
"I know you can, pet," Spike murmured. "But you don't have to." She didn't make any further protest. Spike reckoned that she hadn't been more than half awake for those few seconds anyway. When Angel just remained behind his desk, Spike said, "Why don't you get your big spotty backside off that chair and open the door for us, you dumb git?"
&&&&&&&&
Angel carried the letter into the lab as if it were about to bite him. "Fred." He waited a moment until he was sure that he had her attention. "I want you to go over this from A to Z, then give it to the psychics and have them do the same. That is, unless you can give me a name first."
Fred shook her head and clucked her tongue. She picked up a rubber glove, and without even bothering to put it on, used it to take the letter. "How many people besides you have had their hands all over this?" she asked.
Angel winced, he hadn't thought of fingerprints, even though he doubted that the writer had been stupid enough to leave any. "Rose, since it was sent to her," he mused. "Oh, and Lorne. That's it, I think."
Fred had laid the paper down and was reading it. "I doubt if handwriting analysis will tell anything, since the writer has gone to a lot of trouble to disguise it," she said, thinking aloud. "Maybe a shrink should have a look at it. Figure out what kind of sick mind could come up with this garbage."
"Whatever it takes," Angel replied. "Give it top priority, Fred. I want to get all the wackos cleared out of the way before Rose has those babies." He paused a moment. "I wonder if Rose would have willingly become human if she'd known what she was in for?"
Fred gave him a pitying look. "Well, duh," she said. "Of course she would have. You men can really be thick sometimes." Her look turned speculative. "I kind of miss having a direct pipeline to the baby info, now that Rose isn't working. I wonder if she and Spike have decided on names yet."
"Alaric William and Ariel Vivienne," Angel supplied with a grin. "Guess who's the pipeline to the baby info now?"
Fred smiled back. "I bet that I can even guess who picked which names. Rose would go for names with significant meanings, so, we have a chosen soldier. Spike went for what sounded pretty."
"Since when are you an expert on the meanings of names?" Angel asked.
Fred rolled her eyes and gave him another 'well duh' look. "At last count, everyone who was thinking about putting in their two cent's worth if Spike and Rose were stalemated much longer," she replied. "Now," she added severely. "If you want me to get on with this, why don't you get out from under my feet?"
&&&&&&&
Spike tenderly tucked the covers in around Rose. Poor poppet, he didn't know what was more wearing on his precious girl, being pregnant, or the various maniacs that seemed to want their little ones out of the way. Rose stirred and mumbled something incoherent in her sleep. "Hush, luv," he soothed, stroking her hair. "Spike's here to take care of you." Even though Rose had stilled, he could swear that he heard someone crying. He knelt beside the bed and whispered. "Daddy won't let anything bad happen to you or your mum." The crying died down to the merest whimper, but he could tell they were still upset. He looked at the time and decided to screw the rest of the workday. His family needed him. He started singing softly, and the twins, soothed by the familiar voice, followed their mother's example and went to sleep.
&&&&&&&&&
Rose was restless that night, partly due to having slept a large part of the day. Another part may have had to do with a good, swift kick in the ribs. She climbed out of bed, rubbing her bruised side. Spike no longer questioned her middle of the night forays. Between cravings and multiple trips to the bathroom, they'd have spent half the night talking between the questions and the explanations.
She went to use the bathroom almost by force of habit. Amazing what it could do to you, having a couple of squirming bodies resting on top of your bladder. The next stop, which was becoming almost as much of a habit, was the kitchen, but once there, she was at a loss. Nothing appealed tonight. With a sigh, she retired to the living room and flipped on the late late show with the sound down way low, barely audible. She watched for a while, then, her eyelids seemed to grow heavier and heavier, and it just seemed like too much effort to go to to return to the bedroom. Rose fell asleep in front of the television.
&&&&&&&&
Spike was in that half-way, dreamy lethargic state. He was often this way when Rose got up. He usually settled back down to a sound sleep when she came back to bed. It occurred to him in a drowsy, off-hand way that she'd been gone a long time, but he couldn't surface enough to investigate. Not, that is until he heard a loud sob from the living room, then he was up and alert in an instant.
One glance told him that she'd dozed off in front of the telly. But whatever dreams she was having weren't the restful sort. She was thrashing and crying, and it took a flying dive for him to keep her from rolling off onto the floor.
"Don't hurt my babies," she moaned without waking. "Please, don't hurt my babies."
Spike sat cross-legged on the floor, then carefully pulled her down onto his lap. "Rose, luv, wake up." She snuggled into him, but continued crying and sleeping. "Rose," he said a little louder. "Please wake up, babe. It's just a bad dream. Wake up."
Rose's damp eyelashes fluttered open. She looked around in confusion for a few moments before she realized where she was and how she'd gotten there. Then, the memory of her nightmare homed in for a final fright. "Oh, Spike," she whispered in horrified tones. "It was awful. There was someone with a knife. They were going to.., going to..," she broke off, sobbing.
"It's all right now, pet," Spike murmured. "You know I wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt you and our kids." He tipped her wet face up to look at him, and couldn't resist a kiss. "You know that, don't you sweetheart?"
Rose nodded absently. "It just seemed so real," she mumbled. "Like it was actually happening. Why are the bad ones so much more vivid?"
"Beats the hell out of me," Spike admitted. "Why don't we turn the lights back off and go back to bed?" Rose hesitated, and he could see that she was afraid to sleep again for fear of the nightmare returning. "I know it was frightening, babe, but it was just a dream. Dreams can't hurt you."
Rose still seemed a little dubious, but acquiesced. As they snuggled back into bed, she gave one, last leftover shudder at the horror of it. "You'll hold me all night?" she pleaded.
"I'll hold you until the end of time," Spike promised. "Try to sleep now, luv. No more bad dreams."
&&&&&&&&
"Is it just me, Spike, or do you look a little tired?" Fred asked, as their paths crossed in one of the rat's maze of corridors.
"It's not just you, Fred," Spike replied. "This past week, Rose has been having some godawful nightmares. Been keeping me up quite a bit just getting her settled back down again. Do you think it could have anything to do with that sodding letter?"
Fred considered. "It could, I suppose," she said slowly. "But according to the literature, a lot of women have vivid dreams and nightmares when they're pregnant. It could just be that kicking in."
"Then you don't know for sure if the damn thing was spelled or not?" Spike pressed.
"All I know is we didn't get bupkiss out of it," Fred replied. "The psychics have it now, and I wish them well of it. My lab ran every test known to forensic science and even made up a few new ones."
"That sucks," Spike commented. "I was hoping to get a line on the bastard that sent it. The wondering and waiting aren't doing too well by Rose, either. But when I offered to see the ponce about getting some vacation time and spend it looking after her, and she liked to have ripped me a new one."
Fred smiled at the thought of the Big Bad vampire being intimidated by petite little Rose. "It'll all be over soon, Spike," she comforted him. "I'm sure once the children are born, Rose will go back to her usual sweet self."
"Can I hold you to that?" Spike's voice was joking, but there was a desperate look around his eyes that said he wasn't entirely kidding.
&&&&&&&
"Harmony, have you finished that report yet?" Angel asked a little irritably.
"Uh, well, no," she admitted. "I haven't gotten the figures from accounts receivable yet. Maybe I should go down there and shake them up a bit?" She surreptitiously slid said report under a stack of similar paperwork.
"Yeah, why don't you do that," Angel agreed absently. "But don't take too long, okay? I need that report by the end of the day."
"No prob," Harmony assured him. "If they give me any trouble, I'll just show 'em a little fang and scare them into shape."
"That's fine." Angel didn't even seem to hear her reply, and wandered back into his office.
As soon as he was out of sight, Harmony slipped a package out from under her desk. Another quick look towards the boss' door to make sure he wouldn't see her going the wrong way. And then, she cautiously headed out.
&&&&&&&&
Rose was sipping at a glass of water and wishing for a cup of coffee. At the last visit to the o.b.'s, her blood pressure still hadn't come down, so Dr. Mitchell had banned caffeine. Spike may have spent the whole time looking daggers at the man, but he still held her to the dietary restrictions he'd placed on her.
It wasn't until she heard the knock on the door that Rose remembered that she'd left the system turned off when Spike had left that morning. Lately, he had been making return trips to the apartment on the grounds that he'd forgotten something. 'Something' usually turned out to be giving her one more kiss, or at least, that was part of it. But if it wasn't turned on by the time he got back, he'd have a fit.
Checking the video monitor though told her that all was well. No evil axe murderers or kidnappers or anything of the sort. She opened the door.
"Hello, Harmony," Rose said, letting her in and getting a hug. "How did you manage to get away in the middle of the day?"
"Angel thinks I'm in accounts receivable," Harmony replied with a grin. "He'll buy just about anything when he's got something on his mind. Lucky for me, he did." She held out the package. "I know I already got you something, Rose. But I saw this in the store, and I just couldn't resist."
Rose tried to keep her smile warm and friendly, but little did Harm know, that the 'I just couldn't resist' gifts were piling up at an alarming rate. She opened the box. It was a mobile. Depending from its dozen or so lines were several tiny, pouty faced cherubs.
"Isn't it cute?" Harmony gushed. "Little guardian angels to protect Auntie Harmony's little darlings."
"It's lovely, Harmony," Rose agreed. She liked the gift and the thought behind it, but in the back of her mind, she wondered how Spike was going to react to it. She shrugged. There were angels, and there was Angel. Spike would just have to deal with it.