Back to Work
Rose was slowly working her way up the alphabet to no avail. So far, she hadn't found a single spell mentioning the blue moon or a vampire's blood. It had to be somewhere. She'd never known Lorne to see anything wrong. But the blue moon was quickly approaching, and they had to find the spell soon. To save Angel. She loved him dearly and would hate to see anything happen to him. And so, she thought, despite all his snide remarks and bickering, would Spike. And the children would be absolutely devastated. With a sigh of despair, she gritted her teeth and got on with it. No one was going to hurt Angel. Not if she had anything to say about it.
&&&&&&&
Oz was teaching the twins to read and write. They already knew the alphabet, it had been one of the first songs they had learned. He figured from there, it was just a short step to recognize the letters in written form. Their writing, of a necessity was going to be rather crude, to be sure, given that they only had a toddler's coordination. But they were smart as whips, and from listening to Rose and Spike read to them had already absorbed a remarkable amount of information, stuff most people would think was way beyond their capacity to understand. If they even believed it. Alaric and Ariel were bent over their papers, giving it, if they had but known, the same amount of grim determination as their mother was giving her current project. They were surprised that mummy hadn't thought of this. They liked it, it was fun. And soon, they would be able to read for themselves. But even though they knew they had to know the letters, it was getting a little boring. They wanted something a little more interesting.
"Tired of just the alphabet," Alaric grumbled. "I want to write something."
Oz considered for a moment. He didn't see why not, and it would start them on their way from recognizing the letters to actual words. "What would you like to write?"
"I love mummy and daddy," Ariel said promptly. "Then we can give it to them when they get home."
"And our names," Alaric demanded. "So they know who it's from." The beginnings of sibling rivalry were starting to show, as the children tried to see who could do the best job, and which one of them their parents would be more proud of.
&&&&&&&
Angel had decided to call a high level conference. He didn't want anyone excluded, and you never knew when someone who wasn't directly involved might hold the key piece of information.
"So far, none of us has located a spell which meets the specifications that were set down," Wesley said. "And we've all been working on it to the exclusion of everything else. As far as the demon languages, I'm bogged down in the d's you have no idea how many demons start with d."
"Lorne and I have all our contacts checking things for the word on the street," Gunn said. "If it's out there, we'll hear it."
"Angel, have you got that Q'xlzr demon looking for information too?" Rose asked. The little demon was something of a friend, besides being a valuable snitch.
"I haven't seen it around for a while," Angel admitted. "But I'll do some checking. The more people we have looking for information, the more likely we are to strike paydirt."
"R&D have been checking out what sort of properties the blue moon might have," Fred said. "We could use a sample of your blood too, see if there's anything special about it."
Spike sniggered, and Rose, who was sitting next to him, of course, kicked him in the ankle. Spike straightened up.
"Want a bodyguard?" he asked, all innocence, until you looked at his eyes and saw the impish gleam in them. "Can't see what else my department could do."
"I don't need a bodyguard," Angel snapped. He didn't like the thought of trusting his well-being to anyone else. Besides, most of the ops team were human. He could do better at taking care of himself than they could.
"Angel," Rose began tentatively. "I don't know whether or not this means anything, but the other day, Oz took the children to the park, and they left rather abruptly. It seems that the children picked up on the thoughts of someone who thought he recognized Oz from Sunnydale. And they said that he was a bad man."
"Doesn't exactly narrow things down, does it?" Spike remarked. "If you took all the bad people that ever passed through that place and laid them end to end, they'd go on for miles."
"Rose," Angel said with a sigh. "The next time something like that happens, will you please tell me right away? Or have Oz do it, if he's the one with the kids? Anyone that has ever committed some sort of mayhem in Sunnydale bears watching."
"I'm sorry," she apologized in a small voice. "But what with one thing and another, I just kind of forgot about it until now."
"Stop picking on her, ponce," Spike growled.
"I'm not picking on her, Spike," Angel snapped back. "But there could be a connection between the bad man from Sunnydale and whatever spell needs my blood." He thought a moment. "Rose, do you think that the kids got a good enough look at the guy that they could describe him?"
"I don't know," Rose admitted. "But we could always ask. Do you want me to call them now?"
Angel handed her his cell phone. "Yes, please."
Rose punched in the number and waited for what seemed to the listening ears around her as an eternity. Finally, she gave up. "There's no answer," she announced. "Oz must have taken them out somewhere, so I guess that we'll have to wait till later."
"Rose," Angel said. "Do you think you could go leave a note where Oz could see it? And ask him to bring the kids here to me as soon as they get back? I wouldn't ask, but we don't seem to have a lot of time."
Rose nodded, then stopped, and qualified her assent. "Only if you promise not to give them any candy."
Spike sniggered again, and Rose let it pass.
"But what if they are able to give me some help?" Angel asked, working the puppy eyes for all it was worth. "Surely they'd deserve some kind of reward then."
Rose shot him a dirty look, then buried her face in her hands. "Why don't any of you want my children to have good teeth?" she moaned.
Conspiratorial grins were exchanged all around on that one. Despite the seriousness of the situation. Or, perhaps, because of it. Sometimes you just needed something to lift the mood a little.
&&&&&&&
Oz had taken the children to a music store. As much as the pair loved music, he thought there just had to be some sort of instrument that they could play. He finally settled on a small keyboard. There were ample funds available in the 'gadding about money' to cover it. And the only other choice he could see was percussion instruments, which he guessed would probably not go over too well with their parents at this point. And while their little fingers couldn't reach to make chords yet, he could teach them to pick out a few tunes. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. This job was turning out to be a lot more fun than he could have imagined.
&&&&&&&&
Rose had put the note where Oz couldn't possibly miss it. She had taped it to the front door of the apartment. Oz scanned it quickly. It looked important, what with all that was going on. He shrugged and without bothering to open the door long enough to put away the shopping, said, "How would you guys like to go see Angel?"
Ariel started to smile, then, her face fell. "We can't," she pouted. "Mummy said so." Evidently, if mummy said so, it was word from on high. Which it technically wasn't, at least, not anymore.
"No, it's okay," Oz hastened to reassure her. "The note is from your mother. We're supposed to go to Angel's office."
Both little faces lit up. "Candy," Alaric said excitedly.
Oz sighed. He was beginning to see Rose's point on the whole candy deal.
&&&&&&&&
When they neared Angel's office, Oz was a little disconcerted to see Harmony. Spike had mentioned her, but what with everything else that had been going on, Oz had been on sensory overload, and the name hadn't truly registered on his consciousness. It came flooding back now. The last time he had seen Harmony, she'd been trying to bite Willow. Which in and of itself was enough to put her on his bad list. He was just about to turn the other way and take the kids to Rose's office first, when they pulled their hands out of his and dashed up to the desk.
"Auntie Harm!" They swarmed over her.
Harmony had been frowning over what the temp had done to her desk while she'd been on vacation. She couldn't find her nail polish or file, and someone, presumably the temp herself had been into her bag of candy.
But the frown turned upside down on an instant. "Hello, sweeties," she cooed, scooping them onto her lap, and giving each of them a kiss. "I missed you."
"We missed you too." Alaric looked up at her and gave her a dose of eyes. If Harmony's heart hadn't melted yet, it would have, on the spot.
Harmony gave them a squeeze. She was so excited to see them that the fact they were with someone hadn't registered yet.
"Did you bring us something, Auntie Harm?" Ariel asked, conveniently forgetting that it wasn't polite. Besides, Harm had promised.
Harmony pretended to pout. "Is that why you're being so nice to me?" she teased. "Because you want presents?"
"'Course not," Alaric scoffed. "We love you."
"We'd love you even without presents," Ariel said artfully.
"Of course I brought you something." Harmony finally relented. "I promised that I would, didn't I? But you're going to have to get down. The bag's under my desk, and I can't reach it with you guys on my lap." And it still didn't fully register on her that someone else was there when Oz helped the children down off her lap. She was intent on getting the presents out and seeing the reactions. She'd spent the week in a resort in Mexico, and her gift buying was of the typical touristy sort.
"There we are." She pulled a couple of child-sized sombreros out of the bag and set them on the twin's heads. "You are just too cute for words." Finally, she noticed that there was someone with them, and that it was neither Spike nor Rose. "Oz?"
"Hi, Harmony." No one could have told that he'd been even the slightest bit rattled at the sight of her.
"What are you doing here?" Harmony's eyes couldn't possibly have gotten any rounder at the sight of him. "And what are you doing with my babies?"
"Not babies," Alaric stated, then added, "Oz is our nanny."
Oz suppressed a sigh. They were going to have to do something about the job title. Nanny sounded just a bit.., effeminate for his tastes. Although it was probably too late, now. The kids had latched on to it, and they weren't too likely to let it go.
"That is way cool," Harmony approved. "If we get any more Sunnydale people in here, it will be like a high school reunion."
"I'd love to stick around and let you and the kids get caught up on things," Oz lied. "But Angel wants to see them about something."
Harmony pouted, but just for a moment. She fished around in her desk for a moment. "Here you go." She pressed something into their little hands.
"Rose doesn't really like everybody giving them candy all the time," Oz felt obliged to point out.
"I've been away for a whole week." It is difficult to flounce in a seated position, but Harmony managed it. "I'll give them candy if I want to." But she paused for a moment. "You won't tell Rose, will you?"
Oz sighed. Why did everybody want to complicate things? Life was complicated enough. "Tell you what," he offered. "I won't volunteer the information. But if Rose specifically asks, I'm not going to lie to her."
"Good enough, I guess," Harmony conceded. "Go on in, I think he's waiting on you. I knew he was waiting on someone, because he keeps sticking his head out that door about every ten minutes."
As if on cue, Angel stuck his head out the door. "Hi, kids," he greeted them with a smile. Then he noticed what they had on their heads, and the smile changed drastically. In fact, at that point, it was hard to tell exactly what emotions were going through his head. Sombreros were over the top enough, and these went the whole nine yards with the fancy needlework and all the other attendant decorations. They were also truly garish shades of turquoise (Ariel's) and purple (Alaric's). "My, don't you look.., special, today," he ventured weakly.
"Auntie Harm gave them to us," Alaric informed him.
"They're.., they're..," For once, Ariel had bitten off a bigger word than she could chew, so she resorted to doing it the other way. 'Souvenirs.'
Angel and Oz exchanged glances and shrugged. No accounting for tastes.