Feeling the Love

"It's very simple, Jason," Nathan explained as patiently as he could manage. "He has a pure heart, but he's being mislead and won't listen to reason. The path he's on now will cause more harm than good. Now do you see?"

"I think so," Jason replied slowly. "I'm glad you're here, Nathan. If you hadn't explained that to me, I would have called the whole thing off, and we would have missed our chance."

"That's what I'm here for, Jason," Nathan said smoothly. "To explain things to you. To make sure you do the right thing."

&&&&&&&

"Come in." Lorne didn't even look up from his appointment book where he was doing a juggling act trying to make everything fit.

"Uncle Lorne!" The twins rushed to greet him. They did almost everything at a dead run.

"Hello, munchkins." Lorne flipped the book shut. "What are you two doing down here? And does your mother know?"

"Mummy's working," Ariel said, climbing, with help, up onto Lorne's lap.

"We're showing Oz around," Alaric added, claiming the other knee. "He's our nanny."

"He's a werewolf." Ariel seemed to feel compelled to impart this bit of information to everyone they met.

"And he plays the guitar," Alaric added.

"Always happy to meet a fellow musician," Lorne said cordially. "You'll excuse me if I don't get up?" He nodded at the little people sitting on his lap.

"No problem," Oz assured him. He had initially nixed the grand tour of the law firm, but now somehow found himself being escorted around by his precocious charges anyway.

"So, what brings you to my little slice of Wolfram and Hart?" Lorne inquired. "I would have thought that Rosebud would have put it off limits."

"She didn't really mention it," Oz replied. "But I did say that I thought it was a bad idea and got talked into it anyway. I suspect mind control at this point."

Lorne blinked. He wasn't quite sure how to take the newcomer. The words he'd spoken sounded completely serious, delivered as they were in Oz' deadpan manner.

"He's joking, Uncle Lorne," Ariel said, snuggling into the demon.

Lorne trusted the twins' judgment. To the best of his knowledge, they hadn't called one wrong yet. But he made a mental note never to play poker with Oz.

"But he's starting to wonder now," Alaric remarked. He looked at Oz. "We can't do that." He turned back to his sister. "Can we?"

Ariel thought about it for a moment. "Mummy wouldn't like it," she stated finally, and that seemed to settle matters.

&&&&&&&

Spike had a new operative to train, and a right cocky one too. He kind of liked taking the arrogant ones down a peg. As far as he was concerned, the only person who had cocky in his job description was him.

"You don't look like much," the newcomer scoffed. He was over six feet tall and built like a tank. "I could take you out without working up a sweat."

Spike stood from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "So, why don't you give it a shot?" he suggested. He stood there, calm, casual and confident.

Spike's lazy self-assurance got to the guy, and he rushed him. Spike let him come, and at the last moment, stepped to one side and held out an arm. The aggressor, unable to check his momentum, ran right into the arm, which didn't move a millimeter.

Spike leaned over the form currently sprawled out on the floor. "I think you ought to know," he said softly. "That my eighteen month old twins are so tough that we had to hire a werewolf as a nanny." He gave the idiot a dose of smirk for good measure.

The rest of the crew stood around watching with grins in various stages. It was kind of fun to watch the boss in action. When they weren't the ones on the receiving end, anyway.

"When that big ape can move again," Spike told the rest of his lads. "Why don't you lot start getting him trained? And see if you can get him to move it. He's slower than the seven-year itch."

&&&&&&&&

They were on the last leg of the tour, and Oz was feeling a little apprehensive about this one. Especially since the voice coming out of the office they were headed for didn't sound all that happy.

"Have you been saving up all the administrative chores since I've been on leave, Wesley?" Rose demanded. "You've got stuff here that goes back at least six months."

"And you were on your leave of absence for nearly two years," Wes pointed out. "So no, it's not all the routine paperwork." He gave Rose an appealing look. "I've been short-handed for the whole time you've been gone, Rose," he said plaintively. "There was important work to do, and the mundane things just got pushed to the side."

Before Rose could reply, she heard a familiar pair of giggles. "What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"My fault," Oz apologized. "I let myself get talked into a tour against my better judgment." He looked over at the other half of the discussion, and though you couldn't tell, received something of a shock. He remembered the Watcher as being pompous and prissy, dressed with fussy formality. Now, he looked like a regular guy. "Hi, Wesley."

"Oz?" That seemed to be the standard reaction to his presence.

"The one and only," Oz confirmed. "Listen, Rose, I'm sorry about this. It won't happen again."

"Well." Rose wavered. She knew just how persuasive and charming and conniving her offspring could be. Just like their father. "No real harm done. And I didn't think to specifically forbid it." She gave all three of them a stern look, but didn't manage to hide the twinkle in her eyes. "But I am now," she added. "So no more trips down here, understand?"

"My word on it," Oz promised.

Rose looked to see if it had sunk into the twins' heads just in time to see Wes slipping something into their little hands.

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," she said in exasperation. "You're going to..,"

"Rot their teeth out?" Oz supplied, then realized that he was giving the game away.

"Who else has been giving them candy today?" Rose asked tiredly. Ever since Alaric and Ariel had been old enough to eat the stuff, it seemed that everyone in the law firm had taken to keeping some on hand. And doling it out whenever they saw the little dynamos.

"Well, not naming names or anything," Oz started. "At last count, everybody. If you want numbers, though, I kind of lost count a couple of floors ago."

"They're not even going to touch their dinner tonight," Rose moaned. "And now I have all this boring paperwork to go through because someone was too lazy to do it. Whose stupid idea was this, anyway?"

&&&&&&&

"The kids aren't coming down with something, are they?" Spike asked Rose as they were preparing to turn in for the night. "They hardly touched a bite of their dinner."

"If they aren't sick now, they ought to be," Rose commented. "They talked Oz into a tour of the law firm and all and sundry stuffed them with candy."

"I see." Spike didn't carry on with the subject, since he'd been an offender himself all too often. Whereas Rose, who had once had not understood why pre-packaged foods weren't all that good for her had now become a nutrition nazi. "The kids seem to be getting along all right with Oz, then?"

"They seem to like him," Rose replied, getting into bed. "It helps that he's a musician, they always have loved music."

"Small wonder since they've had people singing to them since before they were born," Spike remarked. "And you really don't have a problem with him being a werewolf?"

"Actually, it's something of a comfort," Rose said musingly. "If anyone tries to hurt them, they'll have a werewolf to protect them."

"I hadn't thought of that myself," Spike admitted. "I hate thinking that they need protecting by anyone but me."

"You can't be everywhere all the time," Rose pointed out. "Are you coming to bed or not?"

"How was your first day back at work?" He settled under the covers and pulled her close to him.

"I hate Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," Rose muttered into her pillow.

"That bad, hmm?" Spike started nibbling at her earlobe. "Want daddy to kiss it and make it all better?"

&&&&&&&

A pinch of this herb, a sprig of that, all fed into the little fire, which suddenly flared up a lot bigger. The owner of the hand feeding the fire was muttering something in an incomprehensible language. A noxious smoke filled the room, but he hardly noticed. Just concentrate on the spell. Suddenly, the little fire shot up again, nearly to the ceiling. Then, it died down and went out completely. "There," the spell caster murmured. "That ought to help stiffen your spine, Jason my lad." He gave a self-satisfied chuckle. A white magic spell that required a death? They were all either innocents or fools, or deliberately fooling themselves. And Jason was the worst of the lot. If he could keep Jason under control, then things would work. Just not the way the rest of the coven thought it would. His way.

&&&&&&

Angel had waylaid Oz as he'd been leaving work, and they had ended up sitting in his penthouse, drinking beer and swapping stories. For quite a while now. He'd initially made the offer out of politeness, since his association with Oz had been limited, but he was finding him to be good company.

Oz looked at the time. "It's getting late," he remarked. "I ought to be getting back to my place." He didn't add that 'his place' was currently a cheap dingy room in a grubby little motel in one of the less fashionable parts of town. If he had gone much longer without a paying gig, his place would have been in his van, as it had many a time before.

Angel looked at the clock and confirmed Oz' observation. "I had no idea that it was that late," he said apologetically. "And you've put away a few too, Oz. Why don't you just crash here for the night?"

Oz hesitated. "I don't want to impose," he replied. "On the other hand, the way my van looks, cops just tend to pull me over on general principle. And they usually want to do a sobriety test."

"Which you probably wouldn't pass tonight," Angel pointed out. "It's no big deal, Oz. And you can sleep in a little later seeing how close you'll be to work."

"You talked me into it," Oz conceded.

"Actually, it will be nice to have a guest that doesn't keep me up half the night," Angel remarked. "The only other times I've had someone staying here, it was always Rose and Spike. I used to wonder if the two of them ever got any sleep at all."

"I'm so beat I don't think I could do anything even if I had someone in there with me," Oz admitted. "Those kids are enough to run anyone ragged. I'll just run down to my van and grab a few things."

&&&&&&&

'They've started.' Ariel's voice said in her brother's head.

'I know,' Alaric answered. They stopped communicating even telepathically for a while, just tuning in to their parents.

Hearing the moans and hoarsely whispered endearments. And mostly, feeling the intense emotions that passed between Rose and Spike. Quite literally, feeling the love.

'Why do they insist on shutting us out of this?' Alaric demanded, as things started to wind down.

'I think it's a grown-up thing,' Ariel replied vaguely. 'I like it when they do that though. It feels like the whole place is filling up with love.'

&&&&&&&

Spike kissed Rose again. "It just keeps getting better and better between us, babe," he remarked, utterly contented. "You're absolutely bloody amazing."

"I had a good teacher," Rose teased. She returned the kiss. "I love you, Spike."

"I love you too, sweetheart," Spike replied, suddenly serious. "But I don't think I really taught you anything. I think you had all that love in you all the time. You just needed something to do with it all."

"You're daft," Rose murmured, snuggling into him. "I didn't have any emotions whatsoever. You're the one who taught me how to love. And you keep teaching me more all the time."

"If that's the case then," Spike returned, unconvinced. "Are you up to another lesson tonight, luv?" He started kissing her neck, working his way down to the base of her throat.

And in the next room, the twins slowly lost the battle against sleep, and drifted off, contented as their parents were.