13

Planning Stage

Rose was scanning down the pages of a book as fast as her eyes could move. When she heard the door to her office open, she tried to pick up the pace.

"I'm reading as fast as I can," she grumbled. "I'll find your demon for you, Wesley. And I'll probably do it a lot faster if you don't keep popping in here to look over my shoulder."

"That was a pretty good speech," said Fred approvingly. "It's a shame you wasted it on the wrong person."

"Fred." Rose raised her head from the book. She could swear she heard her neck creak as she did so. "What brings you here? And would you mind terribly killing Wesley for me?"

"I'm here to remind you that it's time for lunch," Fred replied. "And while we're on our way, you can explain why you asked the second question. And by the way, the answer's no."

"I wasn't serious," Rose protested, as they left the office. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed, hardened a bit.

Fred looked to see the cause of Rose's consternation only to see her beloved headed down the hall in their direction.

"Hi, sweetie." Fred breezed up to Wesley for a quick kiss.

"Hello, darling," Wesley replied distractedly. "Rose, have you located that reference to the demon with two faces for me yet? And if you haven't, why aren't you still working on it?"

"Fred, forget about what I asked you," Rose murmured. "I believe I'll do it myself."

"Wes, is your deadline so tight she has to give up lunch for it?" Fred inquired, trying to pour oil on troubled waters. "It's not like we didn't have enough trouble getting her to eat lunch in the first place."

"It's not even for a case," Rose snapped. "It's for the book he's writing. I've done more research for that book than he has. On company time, yet."

"Well, it's not like we've been particularly busy of late," Wes muttered, starting to look a little shame-faced. "Surely I haven't been driving you that hard, have I, Rose?"

Rose thought that he'd been pushing harder on this than he had when they were researching leads on the most recent apocalypse. But she didn't say so. She just folded her arms and looked at him.

When Fred joined in the silent treatment, a flush started to creep up Wesley's face.

"Er.., why don't you take a long lunch today, Rose?" he suggested. The cat-like stares of the two women were starting to unnerve him.

"Thank you," Fred answered before Rose could. "She will."

&&&&&&&&&

"Havoc & Associates is sort of a grandbaby, or maybe a great-grandbaby corporation of ours," Gunn told Angel, while leafing through his notes. "You might call them a Wolfram and Hart wannabe."

"They don't like the way we've been switching sides over the years," Angel muttered. "But why has it taken them this long to say something? And as far as threats go, it's not very specific. I'd think they'd have exactly what they were planning to do in mind."

"Maybe they do," Gunn remarked. "They may just want to keep you guessing. Or maybe they think that you'll figure it's something so bad that you'll cave in before you even find out what it is."

"They obviously don't have Wolfram and Hart's investigative capabilities if they think that," Angel commented. "Have we specifically stepped on their fingers recently? Or are they just blaming us for a loss of profits?"

"I don't know," Gunn admitted. "But I could find out."

Angel nodded. "Do it," he ordered. "I want to find out what the kids are up to before they start causing trouble."

&&&&&&&&&&

"Do we have to read that, Oz?" Alaric grumbled. "That's way too easy for us."

"And it's boring," Ariel added. "Is that what real people our age read?"

"'Real people'?" Oz repeated. "What do you mean by that? Don't you think you're real?"

"Well..," Ariel faltered. "Other people. Regular people. Normal people."

"Not like us," Alaric elaborated. "Like those silly kids at the preview Uncle Lorne took us to. They're..," He paused a moment, and could only find one phrase to truly express how he felt. "They're a bunch of bloody stupid gits."

Oz sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately. "Look, guys," he started. "I know that you're different, but that doesn't mean that you're not real. And most kids your age are just starting to read."

"But we've been reading for ages," Ariel protested. "We can read anything." It was a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one. The twins had started learning to read at eighteen months. At six, they were quite proficient.

"I know you can read that whole book in about ten minutes," Oz replied. "But you still need to know what's in it, so that you can pass the test. And you are beginners at the other subjects. We didn't start on them until you started your lessons."

"I don't see why we have to do this anyway," Alaric groused. "It's all a load of codswallop."

Oz had definitely come over to Rose's side on Alaric's insistence on mimicking his father's speech patterns. But, he let it slide once again. "The law says that you have to learn this," he pointed out. "And right now, it's my job to teach you. Would you rather have someone else for a teacher?"

The twins blinked in surprise. They couldn't imagine having anyone else but Oz teaching them anything. Unless it was their parents.

"You wouldn't go away, would you, Oz?" Ariel batted her eyelashes at him. "We wouldn't like that at all. We like you."

"I like you, too," Oz replied. "But if I can't do the job, your parents are probably going to have to hire someone who can. Either that, or send you to a public school, where you'd have to spend the whole day with kids like the ones you met this weekend." If that didn't do it, he thought, nothing would.

"We'll do it," Alaric growled. "I don't want to hang around with a bunch of namby-pamby nits like that."

Oz sighed again.

&&&&&&&&&&

"I know that Wes has been putting in a lot of hours on that book of his," Fred said. "He was very flattered when Giles asked him to write it for the new council's records. But I had no idea that he was working on it here, too. Or making you help him."

"I don't mind helping," Rose replied. "You know that I care about Wesley. All that grumbling was just that, grumbling. But I swear, he acts like it's the end of the world. And we haven't had to deal with that one, yet."

Fred raised her glass of fruit juice. "Here's to it not happening anytime in the near future," she said. A thought struck her. "You wouldn't happen to know..,"

"No," Rose replied, clinking her glass against Fred's. "There are some things I simply was not allowed to remember. And something of that magnitude would definitely be on the list."

"Do you ever miss it?" Fred was curious, and Rose's status as a one-time Power was still a topic of speculation amongst the inner circle, they being the only ones who knew.

"I don't really think about it much any more," Rose admitted. "Between working, and taking care of the children, and Spike, I just don't have much time to spend thinking about what used to be. But I think that if I had to go back, I would miss this. I like being human. I like being a mother. I enjoy being around and working with people I care about. I love Spike. I don't think I really gave up anything. I gained much more than I lost."

"Some people would think that you gave up a lot of.., power," Fred suggested. "They might think that you gave up everything."

"They'd be wrong," Rose stated firmly. She looked at the time. "How long do you think Wesley meant when he said a long lunch break?"

&&&&&&&&&&

"I did some checking into the Powers children, sir," Travers said. "It seems that their entire family lives in what was once the senior partner's suite at Wolfram and Hart. Whoever they are, they must be extremely well placed."

Stenslow sniffed. "And hand in glove with the vampire, I have no doubt." He hadn't used Angel's name in conversation in months.

Travers nodded. "The strange thing is that our research suggests that their father is a vampire as well," he remarked. "An unprecedented occurrence to be sure."

"A vampire fathering children?" Stenslow was stunned. "You have a marked talent for understatement, Travers. What about the mother?"

"Human, as far as anyone can tell," Travers replied. "Perhaps you would like to set up a meeting with her? Ostensibly to discuss her children's comments on the preview."

"It could be used to give us some insight into how things are going at Wolfram and Hart," Stenslow mused. "But do you think she would come alone? The children's father might insist on being included."

Travers shrugged. "We can try, sir. And a records search shows that they are not legally married. That could be used to exclude him from the invitation."

"Invite Ms. Powers then, by all means," Stenslow ordered. "I'd like to meet the woman who has had children by a vampire. If they are his."

"I have it on the best authority that they are," Travers assured him. "The little boy is the spitting image of him. Including the vocabulary."

&&&&&&&

Angel walked into Rose's office.

"Angel, what can I do for you?" Rose looked up from her book gratefully. She was starting to get sick and tired of tracking down Wesley's illusive demon, and was happy for any kind of interruption at this point.

"I wanted to know if you could translate this for me," Angel replied, handing her a piece of paper. To the untrained eye, it looked like someone's scribbling. But it had been delivered to him as a message, so he took it as such. Just one that he couldn't read.

"Let me see." Rose peered at it, scanning it slowly, lips moving ever so slightly. "It's from the Q'xlzr demon," she explained. "It says it has some important information for you, and for you to meet it in the usual place."

"Does it mention a time?" Angel asked. The Q'xlzr was a valuable informant, and since it had made friends with Rose, it put Wolfram and Hart at the top of its clients list.

Rose went over the note again, then shook her head. "It just says to meet it," she answered. "But I'm not entirely sure about this one symbol here, let me check." She turned to her computer terminal and began clicking away at the keys. "There it is. I was right. It implies waiting. So I think that wherever you meet, it's waiting for you there."

"Thanks," Angel said. "Hey, aren't the kids starting those home study courses?"

"Today," Rose said. "I'm interested in seeing how they're doing. I know they're bright, but do you think perhaps they're a little.., oh.., lopsided?"

"Rose, your kids are fine," Angel said soothingly. "Once they get a little older and you can start trusting them out amongst other people without your supervision, I'm sure they'll fit in just great."

"Am I being silly again?" Rose inquired. "I want my children to be able to get along in this world. As far as I know, it's the one they're going to live in for their entire lives. But I know they're always going to be different."

"I'll tell you a little secret, Rose." Angel leaned close enough to whisper to her. "Everyone is different. Stop stressing. Those kids are special. They're the start of a new race. They're never going to be just like human kids."

"If those children on some of those stupid sit-coms are anything to go by," Rose remarked. "Then, I guess I should be grateful. But I still worry."

Angel patted her shoulder. "All mothers do."

&&&&&&&&&

Down in the deep shadows of the storm sewers, a little blue-gray figure paced, ears atwitch.

"You had some information for me?" Angel appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

"It about time, vampire," the Q'xlzr complained. "I been waiting all day. And not getting paid for it."

Angel sighed. The Q'xlzr's loyalty, such as it was, was to Rose's friends at Wolfram and Hart, but that didn't mean that it didn't expect to get paid. Luckily, he had prepared for the event and had drawn a liberal amount of money from petty cash. Petty cash by Wolfram and Hart standards. He pulled out some bills and thrust them at the demon. "That ought to pay for your time," he said. "There'll be more if your information is useful."

The little demon bristled, ears pointing straight up. "I's information always useful," it replied scornfully. Its orange eyes got a calculating expression. "How much vampire pay I for the dirty on Havoc & Associates?"

Angel offered a few more bills. "I've been hearing a lot of noise from them lately," he admitted. "What are they up to?"

"I not be knowing that," the demon confessed. "But what I do know is that it going to cost vampire a lot more money than that. I not be working cheap. Vampire want quality stuff, have to pay for it."

Angel doubled the amount of money in his hands, and the little demon's eyes lit up. It reached for the cash.

"Uh-uh," Angel said, holding the money out of its reach. "Give me the information first, then, you get paid."

The Q'xlzr sighed. "Havoc & Associates got net out looking for all sorts," it answered. "Witches, warlocks, sorcerers, even gypsies. They got some kind of magiks they want working, but I not be knowing what they needing for it." It looked longingly at the money that Angel still held.

Angel handed it the money. "Keep your ears open," he instructed. "There's more where that came from if you can find out just what kind of magic they're interested in."

"I's ears always open," the demon said. "They I's living." The ears twitched. "They be beautiful too."