103

Tea and Sympathy

Oz leaned back in his seat wearily. The farther the plane got from the ground, the less weight there seemed to be pressing down on his shoulders. He hadn't realized just how much the tension had built up over the past couple of days until it started lifting from him. Good thing the full moon had been and gone this month, or it might have played hob with his self-control. The past few years had somewhat changed his perspective on his wolfishness, though. Most of the people he associated with neither pitied, nor feared, nor envied him because of it. It was just part of who he was. And their acceptance of him had given him a certain amount of acceptance for himself. He looked at the seats next to him.

Alaric and Ariel were bouncing excitedly, trying to see the rapidly disappearing lights of L.A. through the window. They weren't speaking out loud, but sometimes, like now, Oz suspected, they mind-talked when they were so excited that normal speech wasn't fast enough for them to express themselves. He hoped the awe and excitement continued for a while, but he knew it wouldn't last indefinitely. And when the rush wore off, he had the feeling he'd be dealing with a pair of very homesick youngsters.

&&&&&

"Why don't you take the day off tomorrow, pet?" Spike suggested as he and Rose got ready for bed. "You're due some time off. What with all that's been going on, I don't think anyone would blame you. Don't think you've taken a sick day since you came back after the kids were born."

Rose shook her head. "Thank you for the thought, darling," she murmured, slipping under the covers. "But I think I'll be better off being around other people, with something to do. If I stayed home all day, I'd probably just end up crying most of the time."

Spike turned off the light and slid into bed beside her, and pulled her close, holding her tight. "Cry if you need to, luv," he said softly. "I know it's tearing you apart. I was so proud of you at the airport, holding it together in front of the kids."

All was silent for a moment, then there was a sniffle, and Rose choked out, "Oh, Spike." Then she did cry.

&&&&&&&

At long last, they had cleared customs and collected their luggage. Oz was tired, he'd only slept fitfully on the plane, and the twins were downright grumpy with fatigue. Oz looked around the bustling airport. There was supposed to be someone there to meet them, and they had phoned their e.t.a. to the council. So, where was the welcoming committee?

Then, amid the unfamiliar sights and sounds, another sense kicked in, and Oz caught a familiar scent. He turned his head to look in the direction that the scent came from.

"Oz, good to see, you, it's been a long time." Giles pumped his hand enthusiastically. Then, he looked at the two small figures slumped against Oz, half-asleep. "Good Lord, is that really..,"

"Alaric and Ariel," Oz supplied. "It has been six years since you saw them, Giles."

Giles blinked, then removed his glasses and gave them an ineffectual swipe or two. "They're the absolute image of their parents, aren't they?" He made a gesture, and a handful of young women, Slayers, Oz guessed, came and started collecting their luggage.

"Even, to a certain extent, their personalities," Oz confirmed. "I mean, they're very much themselves, but Ariel is more sweet and understanding, like Rose."

"And Alaric is what, short-tempered, like Spike?" Giles guessed.

"Not to mention having a lot of Spike's vocabulary," Oz replied. "I think Rose has given up on Spike, but she still keeps working on Alaric."

The bags were all cleared away, but the twins showed no signs of moving. They were almost asleep on their feet. Come to that, so was Oz.

"May I?" Giles asked tentatively. He may not have seen the children since he'd delivered them some years back, but the occasional trans-Atlantic calls had filled him in on a few things. He made as if to pick Alaric, who was closest, up.

"Try Ariel instead," Oz suggested. He picked up Alaric, who allowed his head to droop onto Oz' shoulder. Giles followed suit with Ariel, with the same results.

"Poor little things," Giles murmured. "They really are all in, aren't they?"

"There's been a lot of adrenalin flowing," Oz replied, following Giles to the waiting car. "When it wears off, you crash."

"Wesley didn't go into a great deal of detail on the phone," Giles remarked, getting himself and the little girl settled in the back seat. Ariel, without waking, snuggled into him, as though she were using him as a live security blanket. Giles glanced down at her for a moment, and his features softened for a moment. Then, it was back to business. "I know that there is something going on that is so dangerous that Rose and Spike were willing to send the children away for their own safety, and that was all I really needed to know to welcome them. But what precisely is the nature of the danger?"

"Someone stole Angel's soul," Oz answered. "We think it has to do with a company called Havoc & Associates, but that's become what you might call a secondary concern at the moment."

"The primary concern being getting Angel's soul back where it belongs," Giles commented. "I'm surprised that they didn't request Willow's services. She has had some experience in that field."

Oz said nothing, but gazed out the window for a moment. On a strictly intellectual level he knew that Willow was here, and that he'd probably see her. However, his intellect had nothing to do with the way his stomach was tying itself into knots. But his voice remained calm. "They must have had their reasons for not calling her," he said cautiously. "But I've kind of been out of the loop. As soon as we knew Angelus was loose, we started making plans to get the kids away. They stayed at my place with me until Gunn got their passports for them."

"Am I to understand that Angelus is running Wolfram and Hart as the CEO now?" Giles inquired. "And that the others are continuing on as usual?"

"They figured it was the only way they could keep tabs on Angelus," Oz replied. "And from what I've heard, the senior partners don't have a problem with Angelus. Not surprising, really."

But Giles was only half-listening. His mind had already returned to the subject of the twins. "Have they started school yet?" he asked.

"I'm doing home-study courses with them," Oz informed him. "I've had to do a little tailoring of the lesson plans. They could probably be finished with the first grade in a couple of months. And they're already way beyond that as far as reading goes. I taught them to read before they were two."

"Absolutely amazing," Giles remarked.

&&&&&&&

Spike escorted Rose to Wesley's office and made sure the Watcher was there before he left her. He knew they all had to be on their guard, but the way Angelus had been eyeing Rose made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. And while he didn't bear any ill-will to any of the rest of the team, fact was, Rose was the center of his universe, and he automatically thought of her safety, first and foremost.

Wesley took one look at Rose's face, and noticed the swelling around her eyes, and correctly guessed the reason for it. "You didn't have to come in today, Rose," he said sympathetically.

"Please don't," Rose begged. "If you start in on that, I'm going to start crying again. Which is why I didn't stay at home. I want you to keep me insanely busy today, Wesley. I don't want to have a moment to call my own. Then maybe, just maybe, I can hold it together."

"Luckily for you, insanely busy just happens to be on the agenda for today," Wesley replied.

&&&&&&&

Spike, none too happy about it, but bowing to what he saw as the necessity, was waiting in the practice room when lunch time rolled around.

Angelus strolled in, seeming almost surprised to see him there. "Glad to see that you got the message," he commented. "But then, I guess you're used to taking orders now, aren't you? Especially from Rosie."

"Her name is Rose," Spike corrected him. "Not that I much care to hear it coming out of your gob anyway. Did you come here to shoot your fat mouth off, or get your ass kicked?" Spike started to perk up a little. Here was a chance for him to pay back some of the shots he'd been taking ever so meekly.

"What are we fighting with today?" asked Angelus. "Bare hands, stakes, swords, or those big sticks you like so much? Must be some sort of sexual inadequacy thing going on there."

"I've had no complaints," Spike replied, tossing him a quarterstaff. "As you should know, seeing how many times you've been right next door to me'n Rose."

"She could hardly be called a critical audience," Angelus pointed out, starting to circle him. "She's never had anything better. Yet."

"If you're talking about yourself," Spike asked, taking a test swing at Angelus. "Then that's a step down, a big step. And Rose ain't interested, ya big ponce."

Angelus decided to switch tactics, both in fighting and sparring. For the first, he feinted a swing, then made a pass at Spike's feet, intending to topple him over. Spike just barely managed to dodge it. As for the second.., "I see that you shipped the kids off to England," he remarked conversationally. "Going to surround them with Slayers to keep them nice and safe?"

"What makes you think we sent them to England?" Spike asked suspiciously. He'd almost been startled into asking how Angelus knew they'd sent the twins to stay with the council.

"Shit, Spike, can you even dress yourself? Or does Rose have to do it for you?" Angelus shook his head. "I'm the CEO of a branch of a large, multi-national, multi-dimensional corporation. With, I might add, an excellent information network. I don't think you sent the little freaks to England. I know it."

Spike had been managing to hold it in for what seemed like a very long time now. All the shots at him, at Rose, but calling his precious children freaks was the last straw. With a howl of rage, he attacked full out.

&&&&&&

"Are you quite all right, sir?" Travers asked, mimicking solicitude.

"I'm fine," Stenslow growled. "I've been assured that I'm not going to become a vampire, I haven't lost a dangerous amount of blood, and I've been given every immunization known to man. I think my ass hurts worse than my neck." He brooded over the situation for a moment. It was something he'd been doing off and on since he'd regained consciousness. "We lost our best bargaining chip with Angelus when he regained possession of his soul. We need to come up with a new plan of action."

"Mutual self-interest seemed to serve before," Travers suggested tentatively. "If you could find some common ground, he might cooperate simply to gain something that he wants as much as we do."

"But what could that be?" Stenslow mused. "Aside from offering him a steady supply of virgins, and that would be a challenge, what could we offer him that would put him firmly on our side?"

"I've had our operative at Wolfram and Hart scattering bugs around with a will, sir," Travers answered. "We've picked up a few odds and ends of information before the bugs were discovered."

"Such as?" Stenslow demanded. Damn, it had better be good.

"A great deal of it does seem to be inconsequential," Travers replied apologetically. "But when Angelus was the one doing the speaking, one name seemed to come up more frequently than any other."

"And what name was that?" Stenslow inquired.

"Rose," Travers replied. "And a study of Wolfram and Hart's employment records shows only one Rose in the establishment."

"Rose Powers," Stenslow interjected. A grin broke over his features, and it was not a pleasant one. "See if you can set up another appointment with Ms. Powers, Travers. I think she and I should have a little talk."

"Given the precautions that were taken for her last visit," Travers ventured. "Do you think she will come, sir?"

"If we dangle the right bait," Stenslow replied. "Tell her that I want to see her to discuss a soul."

&&&&&

After a great deal of thought, Giles had put Oz and the twins in the set of rooms adjoining his. He'd decided against the more recent structure that was the Slayer's dormitories. Word would spread, but in the meantime, housing a werewolf and two pint-sized vampires in the center of a group of Slayers seemed to be the height of folly. But he had invited Oz and the children to dine with him.

They arrived punctually, the children now wide-eyed and alert, taking in every detail of their new surroundings. And, unbeknownst to Giles, who had mercifully forgotten such things, their host's thoughts as well.

"We eat food like regular people too," Alaric informed him scornfully. "We're a different kind of vampire."

"But it is 'way past teatime," Ariel said, giving her brother a look. "I'm awfully thirsty."

As a startled Giles looked at the twins with a glazed look in his eyes, Oz filled in a few of the gaps.

"Teatime is the family euphemism for their afternoon cup of blood," he informed the dazed Watcher. "I hope you did lay in a supply of it?"

"Yes, surely." Giles seemed to give himself a shake. "And I've laid on a slightly more traditional tea as well."

"Good," Alaric approved. "We're starving."

Ten minutes later, the mood had changed, and not for the better.

"What is this?" Alaric demanded, opening up his sandwich and eyeing it suspiciously. "It looks like buttered grass."

"That's watercress," Giles answered. He looked over to Ariel, hoping that he was faring better there.

"Cucumbers in a sandwich?" Ariel asked. "Cucumbers belong in salads." Both she and her brother pushed their plates away.

Giles looked rather helplessly at Oz, who either didn't have a problem with the food offered, or was adult enough to be polite about it.

"What do you think your mother would say about your manners right now?" Oz asked quietly. He wasn't sure that it would do the twins' spirits any good, reminding them how far away they were from her. But on the other hand, he knew that Rose would never tolerate such behavior.

The twins immediately became much more subdued. They pulled their plates back and started eating the sandwiches. It seemed like almost every bite needed to be washed down with the red liquid in their mugs.

"May we have some more blood?" Alaric asked.

"Please?" Ariel added. They figured they were going to need it if they had to eat food like this. They were going to miss their mother's cooking almost as much as their mother.