78

All Cats are Gray

"Welcome to my humble home," Lorne said, flinging the door open. "Spike, you've been here before, why don't you show Rosebud around while I go to the powder room?"

"You okay now, babe?" Spike asked. He had his arm wrapped around her rather more tightly than usual. It had fair thrown him for a loop, her fainting like that. As much, if not more so, than the kids brandishing crosses.

"It doesn't feel right," Rose muttered, leaning into him. "Spending the night away from my babies." She still hadn't gotten over the habit of referring to the twins thus, despite their repeated reprimands, spoken and unspoken.

"I don't like it either, luv," Spike replied. "But until we can put them on the plane to England, Oz' place is probably as safe as they can get." He sighed. "Much as I hate the idea of being apart from you, I wish I could talk you into going along with."

"Please don't get her started on that again," Lorne begged, re-entering the room. "The whole trip home was enough. Blossom, are you up for a hit of caffeine?"

"Always." Rose summoned up a smile. It wasn't Lorne's fault, what was going on, and he was being extremely hospitable. It behooved her to show some appreciation for the effort.

Spike shuffled his feet a moment. "Think I'll just be popping out for a bit," he mumbled. "Got a bit of shopping to do."

Rose eyed him suspiciously. "You're not getting anything alcoholic, are you?" To the best of her knowledge, he didn't seem to be able to spend any significant amount of time with Lorne without drinking.

"Just beer," Spike protested. "Besides, I'm betting that Lorne hasn't got any of the ruby red stuff in stock either."

"Unless you mean grapefruit juice," Lorne broke in. "You're right, Spikester. Go ahead and run your errands. I'll look after Rose."

"Don't be gone long?" Rose tried to make it sound like an order, but it sounded more like pleading.

"I'll make it as fast as I can," Spike assured her, giving her a kiss before he went out.

&&&&&&

"It's not going to be as fancy as you're used to," Oz warned, turning the key in the lock. "But at least you'll be safe." He opened the door to his modest apartment. "You're just lucky that I've got a sofa that turns into a bed."

"How does it do that?" Alaric asked. The realities hadn't settled in enough for them to start missing their parents yet.

"I'll show you." And with more inexpert help than he needed, Oz pulled the bed out. But it was too early to think about going to bed yet. "Are you guys hungry?"

"It's not going to be something gross, is it?" Ariel asked suspiciously. Fred had offered dinner at her place, which the twins had politely picked at. Even their mother didn't insist on them eating broccoli.

Oz grinned down at her. "I think we can bend the rules this once," he said musingly. "Double pepperoni, right?"

"And mushrooms," Alaric ordered.

"I won't eat fungus," Ariel complained.

"Half with mushrooms," Oz offered in compromise. "How does that sound?"

"Ice cream for dessert?" Ariel suggested. "And soda pop?"

Both twins were looking up at him expectantly. Oz caved in. "I guess we'll just have a junk food night tonight," he conceded. "I hope it goes without saying that..,"

"We won't tell mummy," Alaric promised. "She'd have a cow."

&&&&&&&

Drusilla nudged the recumbent figure next to her. "The sun's going down," she observed. "That little man was a bit thin-blooded, I thought." She rose and stretched. "Why don't we go out and find someone nice and tender and juicy to eat?"

"I think I could deal with that," Angelus admitted. Then, as Drusilla was already headed for the door, he said, "Dru? How about putting some clothes on first?"

&&&&&&&

"Sugarplum if you don't stop wearing a rut in my carpeting, I'm going to cut off your coffee supply," Lorne warned. "The moppets will be fine with Oz, and Spike hasn't been gone that long."

Rose whirled to stare at the Pylean. "He wants to turn me," she said shortly, and she obviously wasn't referring to any of the people the empath had mentioned. "For some reason that I can't even begin to guess at, he wants to turn me. And he seems to hold a particular amount of antipathy for myself and Spike."

"Well, you've got to admit that soul or no soul, he and Spike aren't exactly bosom buddies," Lorne pointed out. "But as far as turning you, I'm as much in the dark as you are, sweetpea."

Rose was doing some hard thinking. "Maybe," she said slowly. "It's because of what I am. Or was. Or whatever. Maybe he thinks that he can change the way things are if he turns one of us."

Lorne couldn't repress a shudder. It was a thought to give the nightmares, nightmares. "Then that makes it extra important to see that he doesn't get hold of you, honeybunch." He sat down abruptly. "Blossom, could I trouble you to hand me that bottle over there?"

&&&&&&&

Oz emerged from his bedroom where he'd been gathering up sheets and blankets, to see the twins using the sofa-bed as a trampoline.

"Hey," he protested. "I don't jump on your furniture, do I?"

"But it's fun, Oz," Alaric said pleadingly.

"It's really nice and bouncy," Ariel added. They had stopped jumping up and down, but they were still standing.

Oz dropped the bedding and took a flying leap at them, knocking them over onto the mattress and pinning them down with an arm apiece. "What am I going to do with you two monsters?" he complained. He quirked an eyebrow at each of them in turn. "Maybe, I'll just have to do this." Upon the final word, he started tickling.

&&&&&&&

Debbie shivered. The temperature was dropping, and she didn't have a jacket on.

"Cold hon?" Tim asked. He put his arm around her. "That better?"

"A bit," she admitted. She looked up at the night sky. "It is beautiful here." Here was the park nearest to Wolfram and Hart, where the twins and Oz had spent many an hour over the years. But to Debbie's eyes, it was starting to look a little bleary.

"You're beautiful," Tim said. He kissed her. Personally, he thought it was a little hokey, smooching on a park bench, but the girls seemed to get off on it. It had certainly worked well for him in the past, that and a little chemical help. Then, he felt the bench on the far side of him give slightly, as if someone had sat down beside him.

"Find your own bench," he muttered. What kind of damn pervert would get off on sitting there watching them kiss?

"Oh, isn't it sweet, Angelus?" Drusilla cooed. "Don't they make the prettiest couple?"

"Adorable," Angelus agreed. It was easier than getting into a battle of semantics with Dru. He sat down next to Debbie, arm draped across the back of the bench, turned towards the original occupants.

The kiss broke off.

"I don't know what kind of creeps you guys are," Tim said heatedly. "But we're not a peep show. Get the hell out of here."

Debbie was tugging on his sleeve. There was something about the newcomers that unnerved her. "Maybe we should just go home, Tim," she suggested. She even started to get up, but her reflexes were slow, she felt like she was moving underwater, and then the man next to her grabbed her arm and slammed her back down onto the bench.

"He wants to know what kind of creeps we are, Dru," Angelus said, voice bubbling over with laughter. "Shall we show him?"

"Oh, let's," Drusilla replied enthusiastically. "Watch closely now, children." In the twinkling of an eye, the unusual couple turned into monsters.

Debbie tried to get up again, but Angelus had never let go of her arm. With just one hand, he held her easily.

Tim bounded to his feet and started to run, forgetting all about Debbie, and the fact that less than a half hour previously he had told her that he loved her and that she was his reason for living. He only made it a few yards away from the bench before Drusilla brought him down.

"Naughty boy," she scolded. "Leaving your girlfriend behind with Angelus." She brought her face closer to him, whispered in his ear. "Angelus is very bad. He'll do terrible things to her."

"Wh.., what kind of things?" Tim stammered. He was the star runner on the track team, and this.., whatever she was had caught him as easily as if he had been an old man stumbling along with a walker.

"Terrible things," Drusilla repeated. "Very nasty, unpleasant things." She giggled and nuzzled into his neck. "The same sort of things I'm going to do to you." She sank her fangs into him.

Angelus was standing over them, the now lifeless form that had been Debbie, slumped on the bench. "Will you quit playing with your food, Dru?"

&&&&&&

Superstores, thought Spike. The combination of convenience and inconvenience all wrapped into one. He'd already gotten the blood, it was tucked in the boot of the car in a nice insulated carrier. Be good for a while. He'd come to this place for his beer as a matter of expediency, it being handy by Lorne's place. But how in hell did anybody find anything in this maze? He spotted a pimply faced youth wearing a brightly colored tunic that proclaimed him an employee.

"Here, sport," Spike said. "Can you clue me in where they keep the beer in this place?"

"Go down to the end of the aisle," the boy said, voice squeaking in the throes of changing. "Then right at ladies lingerie, left again at the next aisle and straight on to the back."

"Thanks, kid." Spike started following the directions, but got sidetracked en route. Ladies lingerie? It wasn't just for him, he rationalized. It would help keep Rose's mind off of missing the kids.

&&&&&&&

The twins had been fine right up until it was time for lights out. Suddenly, instead of their usual boisterous selves, they were a pair of scared kids.

"You're sure mummy and daddy will be all right?" Ariel asked.

"They'll be fine," Oz soothed. "And so will you. I won't let anything happen to you."

"If someone tried to hurt us you'd turn into a wolf, wouldn't you, Oz?" Alaric tried for a bit of bravado, but he sounded nervy too.

"You bet I would," Oz assured him. "Are you guys going to be all right?"

"Could you sing to us, Oz?" Ariel pleaded. Music had surrounded them all their lives, and it was an auditory security blanket for them.

"Anything in particular?" Oz asked, ready to do whatever it took to calm their fears.

"Brahms' Lullaby," Alaric said, and his sister nodded in agreement. "It's the song daddy used to sing to us before we were born."

&&&&&&&

"I was starting to think you'd gotten lost, Spike," Lorne remarked as he let Spike in the door. Actually, that wasn't what he'd been thinking, but he wasn't going to vocalize any of the more gruesome visuals that had haunted him. Rose was tense enough without it.

"I sort of did," Spike admitted, a little shame-faced. "I think I've been in towns that were smaller than your local Wal-Mart there, Lorne."

Lorne nodded. "I've been lost in there a few times myself," he admitted. "But you'd better get on in here. Our lovely little flower is about to start climbing the walls."

Spike sniffed. "While you've just been deadening the nerve-endings," he commented. "Dammit, Lorne, did it ever occur to you to stay sober at least until I got back? Just in case?"

"We've Angelus-proofed the place," Lorne protested. "As of right now, you, Harmony and Val are the only vamps that can set foot in here without an invite."

Spike sighed. No use arguing with him now, he supposed. And Lorne did have a point. It was probably just his nerves talking. That and feeling a bit ashamed for being gone so long. He'd barely set his burdens down when Rose came flying at him.

"You were gone an awful long time," she mumbled into his chest. "Lorne and I were starting to worry about you."

"Sorry, pet," Spike apologized. "Won't happen again."

Rose looked at the bags he had set down. "I thought you were just getting blood and beer," she said accusingly.

"Well, those superstores, you know," he muttered, a little sheepishly. "They've bleeding well got everything. Just picked up a few odds and ends."

"What sort of odds and ends?" Rose asked suspiciously. She started rummaging through the bags. She pulled out a pair of baby-doll pajamas, in a sheer, translucent green. She gave Spike a slightly exasperated look.

"Sorry, luv," he apologized again. "I just couldn't help myself."

&&&&&&

Drusilla was practically dancing back, in high, good spirits. But Angelus was lagging ever further behind. "Is something wrong?" she inquired.

"Groggy," he mumbled. "Feel drugged." He tried to think how he could have gotten drugged, then it hit him, and he sputtered a laugh, even though he was half-comatose. "I'll be damned. Little son of a bitch must have given her one of those date-rape drugs." His feet started tangling with each other.

"Let me help," Dru said. She took his hand and wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. "I'll get you back home."

"You do that, Dru," he said. He stumbled again. "Shit."