16

A Quiet Sunday?

Small hands, tugging at the bedclothes, disturbing him, waking him up. Spike didn't feel like waking up, and was about to say so, forcefully, when he came to the surface enough to realize what was going on. He rolled over carefully, so as not to disturb the sheets and lose all dignity. "Good morning, kids," he remarked. He looked at the time. They were up awfully damn early for a weekend. "What's got you up and about at this hour?"

"Uncle Angel is at the door," Alaric said. He was pouting again. Probably because he and his sister had to depend on someone else to answer the door. The locks were way too high for them to reach.

"He's very upset about the lady we saw last night," Ariel added. When Spike immediately latched on to the reference, she had a name to put to the face. "Drusilla."

Spike fell back on the pillows with a groan. He gave Rose a nudge. "Wake up, sweetheart," he said. "Ain't even eight o'clock in the morning and it's hitting the fan already."

"Mmph?" Rose snuggled back into the pillows without even waking up.

Spike sighed, then turned to the twins. "Why don't you two go wait in the other room while I get your mum up and decent?" he suggested. "You can tell the po.., Angel that we'll be out in a few minutes."

The twins trotted off immediately, with the look of concentration on their faces that said they were in a telepathic conversation. Probably with the pouf.

"Rose, luv." Spike started tugging the covers off her. "We've got company, pet. Time to rise and shine."

&&&&&&

As soon as Spike opened the door, Angel thrust the morning paper into his hands. "Read that," he ordered. "Where's Rose?"

"She'll be out in a minute," Spike replied. "You woke us up, you big dumb git. Wouldn't have even noticed it, but the kids got us up." He started perusing the front page. Which story Angel wanted him to read wasn't hard to pick out. Murder tended to get a person's attention, and they'd all become rather adept at picking up on the hints and allusions that were used when the death was attributable to a vampire. "What makes you think this was Dru's work?" he asked. "I'm assuming that you do think it was Dru."

"Look at the address where the bodies were found," Angel directed. He'd already made himself at home, taking a seat, with a child on each knee. "Recognize it?"

Spike scanned the article for the pertinent details. "Bleeding, suffering hell," he swore. "It's our old digs."

"Darling, please watch your language in front of the children." Rose emerged from the bedroom, still a little rumpled and heavy-eyed from sleep. "Our what?"

"Our flat," Spike answered. "The one those tongueless twits trashed trying to get you as a gift for dog-boy."

"What happened there that's so important?" Rose asked.

"The people that were living there were killed last night," Angel filled in quietly. "It looks like Drusilla is trying to track Spike down."

Spike was re-reading the article. "Much as I hate to admit that you're right," he said grudgingly. "It does have the earmarks of Dru's style. Always did like playing with her food, like you." He saw that he was getting a pained look from Rose. "Sorry, pet."

"I'm not sure that murder is a suitable topic to be discussing in front of the children," Rose sighed. She gathered up the twins. "If you two want to go on talking about it, fine. I'll be giving the children their breakfast."

Spike and Angel looked at each other. "Why does she do that?" Angel asked. "It's not like you can keep secrets from them. They'll just read it in your mind anyway."

Spike shrugged. "I dunno," he admitted. "Sometimes I think she likes to maintain the illusion that we're a normal little family. Whatever the hell normal is."

&&&&&&&

"Well, that was a bust," Den remarked, as they just beat the rays of the rising sun to the lair.

"Not completely," Val protested. "We did get a meal out of it."

Drusilla was looking pensive, her head cocked as if listening to someone or something that no one else could hear. Which quite possibly was the case. "Spike is hiding from me," she murmured. "But we'll find him, won't we, Henrietta?" She turned to her two companions. "Tell me about Spike's little human playmate," she demanded.

"Well," Val floundered, thrown by the change of topic. "She's about so high." He held his hand up off the ground to indicate it. "She has kind of reddish-brown hair and gray eyes. Very pretty."

Dru pouted in thought. Except for the height, the description could have matched the little girl she had seen. The one that had been with the pretty blonde boy that looked like Spike. Even her dysfunctional brain could make that connection. "I wonder how they managed it," she mused aloud.

"Managed what?" Den asked. Drusilla's fits and starts were making him uncomfortable.

"The other night I saw two pretty little babies," Drusilla replied. "The little boy looked like Spike. And the little girl looked like the girlfriend."

Val saw where she was going with this. "That can't be right," he protested. "Vampires can't have kids."

"Sometimes they can," Drusilla said mysteriously. "But it takes something or someone very powerful to make it happen." But her head suddenly filled with visions of her and Spike together with those two children. "It would be nice to have some little children," she remarked. "Maybe I ought to have Spike bring them with us." She looked down at her doll. "Wouldn't you like to have some little playmates, Henrietta?"

&&&&&&

The silence had hung heavy for some minutes now. But Spike was starting to feel a bit peckish, and if he didn't mind his manners, he'd hear about it. "You want a cuppa?" he asked, rising from his seat.

"I wouldn't mind," Angel replied. "I left mine half-drunk, sitting on the kitchen table. That story kind of rattled me."

When Angel made no move, Spike said, "You coming or not? I'm not a bloody waiter."

Angel followed.

In the kitchen, chaos reigned. An untouched cup of coffee sat on the countertop while Rose, on her knees was wiping spilled milk up off the floor. As the two men entered, they saw Alaric launch a spoonful of cereal at his sister. He lacked aim and velocity, so it pretty much just followed the dictates of gravity. Straight down. On Rose.

"What in the bl..,ue blazes is going on here?" Spike asked irritably. Further inspection showed milk and cereal on the table, counter, and even a lucky shot that had made it to the wall. Not to mention all over the twins.

"I just turned my back on them for a few seconds," Rose replied tiredly. "Just long enough to pour myself some coffee, and when I turned around..," Despite the fact that the adults were on to them, the children had continued their game, and this time, Ariel's missile hit Rose's shoulder and sent a soaking trail down her blouse. "Who told them about food fights?"

Angel fought back a grin. He supposed that if he were in Rose's shoes, not that she was wearing any, it wouldn't seem particularly funny. But he ingrained the picture firmly in his mind, intending to do a drawing of it at a later time. "Stop that," he scolded gently. He took Ariel's spoon away from her.

Spike followed suit, confiscating Alaric's spoon.

"Hey," the little boy protested. "We're not babies. We can feed ourselves."

"You've got food all over the kitchen, and your mum," Spike snapped. He shoved a spoonful of cereal into his son's mouth before the child could talk back. "If this happens again, there's going to be a pair of backsides getting smacked."

The twins exchanged alarmed looks. They'd obviously crossed that mysterious, invisible line this time. Until now, punishments had usually consisted of loss of privileges or early nap times. They had yet to have a spanking, and decided that they didn't want to find out about it.

"We're sorry," Ariel mumbled. She looked up appealingly at her doting uncle, hoping that someone besides her brother was still on her side.

"I think it's your mother you should be apologizing to," Angel commented. "You made a pretty big mess for her to clean up."

"Not to mention the pair of you and herself," Spike added. Then, he realized that there was someone else who ought to be sharing the burden, and it certainly wasn't the ponce. He looked at Rose. "Why don't you run along a get yourself a shower, luv?" he suggested. "Then you can look out some clean clothes for these two while I give the little demons a bath."

Rose gave him a warm smile, and an even warmer kiss in passing. "Thank you, love, I believe I'll take you up on that," she said.

Angel watched her leave the room. "How did you guys get cereal in her hair?"

&&&&&&

Drusilla had been listening to the voices again. They didn't set her wrong very often. "There she is." She pointed for Val and Den's edification. "She was the one that was with the babies. She'll know where to find them. If we find them, we'll find Spike."

"And we're just going to go up and ask her and she'll tell us?" Val was skeptical.

Den smacked him on the back of the head. "Don't be such a dumbass," he said. "We'll take her to a dark alley, scare the information out of her and then have a snack."

"She's one of us," Drusilla informed him. "Can't you tell?" She giggled. Of course, she had resources not available to her two new friends.

"Then how are we going to get her to talk?" Val demanded. "She's not going to be afraid of vampires when she is one."

Drusilla, standing between them, reached up and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Surely two charming gentleman like you could think of a way to get a lady to tell you what you want to know." She smiled up at them sweetly, batting her eyes at them to help it sink in.

"Are you going to come with us?" Den inquired. He knew Drusilla was crazy, it was pretty obvious. But they weren't too comfortable about going on even such a simple quest for information without someone along to do the thinking, and Drusilla was easily the brightest of the three of them.

Dru shook her head. "She knows me," she replied. "She wouldn't talk in front of me. And she wouldn't talk to you if she knew we were friends."

"We.., er.., just sweet talk her," Val muttered. He'd never been too good at it as a human, and hadn't really felt the need to since he'd been turned.

"That's right," Drusilla cooed approvingly. "You go make nice with her. Make her your friend. Sooner or later she'll tell you about the children."

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Den asked miserably. Patience wasn't a virtue of his. In fact, he pretty much didn't have any virtues.

"Good things come to those who wait," Drusilla said in wheedling tones. "It shouldn't take too long, though. I think that one likes to talk. She'll tell you everything."

&&&&&&&

Harmony was walking along, just window-shopping for the most part. She'd had to pay her rent this week, and since budgeting was foreign territory to her, she was pretty much broke until payday rolled around again. Still, it didn't hurt to look. And what else was she going to do when both of her galpals were hooked up with someone and there wasn't a boyfriend in sight?

And then, suddenly, she wasn't alone.

"Hi there." Den gave her his best smile. "I'm Den, and this is my friend Val, and we were just wondering what a pretty girl like you was doing all by herself."

"And we were thinking that maybe you might like a little company," Val added.

Harmony gave them a critical once over. Definitely a minus on the fashion end of things. But score right off the board for the fact that they were male, and they were showing an interest. "I'd love some company," she said, smiling back at them. In high school, she thought, she wouldn't have given either of them the time of day. "My name's Harmony."

"That's a pretty name," Den commented.

Val knew they were supposed to be getting information from her, but he was hungry, too. "Why don't we find someone to eat first?" he suggested.

Harmony gave them a second look and realized that there were no signs of respiration. Not just male but vampires as well. Something was definitely going right for a change. "I don't feed off of humans anymore," she replied. "Company rules where I work. But I have plenty of blood in the fridge at home."

Den and Val exchanged glances. They'd just met her and she was inviting them to her place? They would have to remember this for future reference. If a vampire was this easy with a little small talk, it might work on human women too.

&&&&&&

Angel looked at his drawing with satisfaction. It was, he thought, one of his better efforts. There was Rose, on her hands and knees, cleaning. And Alaric throwing cereal. He'd pretty much gotten it all, even the pissed off expression on Spike's face. He had considered giving it to Rose and Spike, but he wasn't overly sure that they'd appreciate it. Maybe he'd just hang it on his wall.

&&&&&&

Spike was massaging Rose's feet. He decided she merited a little pampering. The kids had been rowdy all day, and she'd taken the brunt of it.

"Mmm," Rose murmured. "You haven't done that since I was pregnant."

"Thought you deserved something after what the kids put you through today," Spike remarked from the end of the bed where he sat with her feet on his lap. He lifted one up and kissed the instep.

Rose giggled. "That tickles."

Spike grinned at her. "Maybe I'll just work my way up and see what else I can tickle," he said softly. "Or maybe I'll just see what else I can rub the right way."