Things Change
Chapter Sixteen

Why did it always have to be goats?

Where there was a spell to be done, there was always a goat that had to be sacrificed. Ed dragged the drained carcass across the room and tossed it into the room so the Morbobick demon could eat it. With a repulsed shudder, he wiped his hands on a towel he had wisely hung by the door. He was always well prepared. He straightened his jacket and opened the door into the makeshift prison.

"Hello, there," he smiled. "Everything to your liking, I hope?"

"Well, we could do with, y'know, a little freedom," Todd shrugged.

"Ah, well, I'm afraid not," he smirked at Chrissy, slumped sullenly in a corner. "And you, Chrissy? Surely you have something to say?" he came into the room, closing the door behind him and prowling towards her. "My, my. Can it be that I have broken the great Christina Joyce Summers?"

"No, you haven't," Todd hissed and punched him in the face. "She doesn't break easy."

Ed staggered back slightly and pulled a hankerchief out of his pocket to dab at his nose.

"You know, your mother did something quite similar to that the other day, only she used her elbow."

"Good," Chrissy snapped. "I hope it hurt."

"It did," Ed chuckled. "I'd tell you that you'd pay for that, my boy, but I'm afraid I've put a spell on you. I can't touch you. Sadly, no one else can either."

"Bastard!" Chrissy yelled at him and jumped up, her arm flying out to punch him.

He ducked to one side and sighed.

"Christina, do calm down. I don't want you hurting yourself before tonight. Now, if you'll excuse me, the Great Glorificus needs me."

He slipped out of the room and the door clicked closed behind him.

"Chrissy? You ok?" Todd asked as she leaned back against the wall with a dull thump and slid down slowly, drawing her knees up and leaning her head on her arms. "Chris?"

She looked up slowly and there was no smirk, no confident lift of the chin or grim determination. There was just fear. And that was what scared him.

"Todd, what was he talking about? What happens tonight?"

"You came back then."

"In case you hadn't noticed, Buttercup, now's not the time to be stating the obvious."

"Sorry, Spike. Thought you might want your mind taking off things."

"I don't think you took your mind off things when your kid went missing."

Over at the desk shoved against the wall in the Summers' living room, Wesley stiffened and glanced at Angel.

"Yeah. I know," Angel shot Wes a look and shifted awkwardly before he continued. "Spike…" his voice tailed off and he wondered how to proceed. "I heard about Lydia…"

"How?" Spike snapped.

Wesley looked up and hesitated. Then he stood and walked over to the two vampires.

"I heard actually," he stated. "Gunn and I were talking to a source and he happened to come from New Orleans. I inquired after you on Angel's behalf and he… well…"

"Spike, I'm sorry about what happened," Angel said quietly.

"Bugger off, Angel. The only reason I actually ever stopped in on you lot was 'cause of her. She wanted me to be civil to you. Now she's gone, I don't have to pretend I like you anymore."

"Don't tell Fred that," Wesley answered in a flat voice before going back to his books, trying to discover the ritual Ed used in Cordy's vision.

"You don't think you owe me?" Angel asked suddenly, losing the gentle tone he had used before.

"Owe you? Owe you what exactly, Angel?"

"I could have told Buffy anytime that you were in New Orleans. I didn't because we're family and I like that about as much as you do. But like it or not, you owe me."

"What do you want?" Spike gritted out.

He really wasn't in the mood for this.

Sure, he had made the odd trip to LA and Lydia insisted he dropped in on Angel every once in a while. They never discussed Buffy.

Fred would hand him a mug of blood while Gunn asked him about the nightlife in New Orleans. Cordy would ask after Lydia, Lorne would try to get him to sing, Connor would mutter some comment and skulk off to his room or the weapons cabinet. Wesley would ask after his soul and Angel would ask how he was. Then he would leave and he wouldn't see them for another year, maybe two.

Ok, so maybe he thought Fred was all right, and Cordy wasn't as irritating as the rest, but he didn't really like them.

But over the fourteen and a half years he had spent in New Orleans, he had perhaps dropped into LA seven times and the visits never lasted more than about half an hour. It wasn't like he and Angel had suddenly bonded. Spike could grudgingly admit that it was good of Angel not to tell Buffy where he was, but he could also happily admit that Angel was the asshole who hadn't told him about his bloody kids!

And now he had found out that not only did Angel know about Chrissy and Todd, they knew him too and he popped in every now and again to visit.

"I want to know why you came back," there was a sullen edge to Angel's voice when he spoke.

"Why should I tell you anything, Angel? Ok, so you didn't tell Buffy I was en-souled in New Orleans, but did you tell me about my bloody children!"

"You never showed any interest in knowing what when on in Sunnydale!" Angel protested, but the sentence ended in an ashamed mumble. "And anyway, why would I have told you? You left for a reason, you wouldn't tell me, and Buffy wouldn't tell me, so I figured it was bad. I still love her, Spike, I love Cordy, but I'll always love Buffy too. Why would I send you back here to hurt her again?"

"Because I wouldn't hurt her!"

"Then why did you come back here? Something tells me it wasn't something simple."

"It's none of your business."

"Fine."

They turned to the weapons chest and Spike removed a hefty looking axe.

"Because she asked me to," Spike muttered suddenly.

"What?" Angel asked, frowning at him.

"Lydia. She told me to come back here. That's why I came."

"Oh."

"Good job too, seeing as you would never have told me."

"You want the truth, Spike?" Angel asked, throwing the sword he had picked up back into the chest. "The truth is I didn't want you to get together. Me and Buffy couldn't make it, why should you two?"

"Why do you care? You got the Cheerleader! Who, I might add, also didn't tell me that I had kids! You too, Wesley! You didn't tell me! Neither did Fred, Gunn or Lorne! It was all a bloody conspiracy!"

"Spike," Wesley began patiently. "If you must know, we did all know and most of us wanted to tell you, but -"

"I didn't want to tell you and they all decided it was my decision," Angel cut in.

"Why not?" Spike nearly screamed. God, if it wasn't for the damned soul, he'd kill Angel right there, Wesley too. Probably the whole Angel Investigations team, even if it meant a trip to LA to finish off Fred and Gunn who were looking after the office.

"Because you don't deserve her, Spike!"

"I know that! I know I'm damned lucky to have her!"

"Well… Good!"

"Are either of you gonna kill each other, because I'd like to watch."

The vampires turned to see Xander, standing with his arm casually around a beaming Anya.

"But you should really put that off until later 'cause we have to save your children, Spike," Anya added. "Oh, and Buffy's crying in the bathroom. Do you want to go see her, or shall I?"

"Bloody hell," Spike ran his hand over his face and sighed. "I can't take this."

"Go and look after her," Angel muttered gruffly. "I'll sort out the weapons and help Wesley with the research."

"Thought you said I didn't deserve her?"

"You don't. But for some reason, she thinks otherwise."

Spike nodded and started toward the stairs. Xander and Anya returned to the kitchen to help Willow with her hacking. Which basically meant standing around making "helpful" comments because they didn't have anything else to do.

"You know," Wesley started quietly, looking over at Angel hunched over the chest. "He's right. You do have Cordy, you should have told him about the twins or told Buffy where he was."

"You never made a mistake, Wesley?" Angel retorted.

Wesley clenched his jaw for a moment and answered, in a firmer voice, "You admit it was a mistake then?"

"It didn't feel like a mistake at the time."

"And now?"

"And now at least he's got them."

"So, we have a plan?" Xander asked.

They were seated back in the living room, in the same positions they had sat in hours earlier when Wesley and Cordy presented their information.

"We have a plan," Giles confirmed.

"And that would be…?" Cordy prompted.

"We get the biggest, baddest weapons we have," Buffy started, her voice grimly determined. "You, Willow and I will use our powers to hold off Glory and Ed before they start the ritual. That way, all the demons they're bound to have can be killed by the rest of you."

"Then," Spike continued. "You guys release the mojo and Buffy and I gatecrash the ritual. Giles, Wesley, one of you will have to come with us, doesn't matter who, so you can tell us at what point we stop the ritual -"

"I can do that," Cordy interrupted. "I had the vision, I know the opening."

"You'll be too busy helping Willow drain Glory and Ed," Buffy answered.

"Drain them?" Connor asked. "I thought you said these people were tough?"

"They are," Buffy said. "But Cordelia and Willow are tougher. You do your best to drain them of whatever power you can. When the opening arrives, Spike, Angel, Connor and I will take on Glory and Ed. Xander, Anya, Josh; I want you to get Chrissy and Todd out. Get them away, you don't listen to them if they say they want to fight, ok?"

"Sure," Josh nodded. "Got it."

"The rest of you will be on stand by," Buffy continued. "Any little minion appears, kill it. Dawn, think you can run that part?"

"Sure," Dawn nodded, squeezing Josh's hand.

"Will, Cordelia, you two need to kick start the mojo again, but not until the twins are out of there, ok?"

"Yeah," they nodded.

"What about Glory and Ed?" Dawn asked. "How you gonna kill them?"

"I intend to cut their heads off," Buffy answered. "Angel, Connor, don't waste any time kicking their asses. As much I want them to hurt for what they've done, I want them dead more. So as soon as you can, cut their heads off."

"And keep them," Giles added.

"Ewww, Giles!" Cordy cried.

"Why do we have to keep them?" Connor asked. "We kill them, isn't that enough?"

"There's a ritual -" Giles started.

"When isn't there?" Connor muttered.

"This ritual will mean that the Jackal and Glory will be well and truly dead," Giles stated, ignoring Connor.

"And they wouldn't be anyway?" Josh asked.

"The Jackal's a powerful guy," Anya explained. "He's got serious power. He raised Glory once after Buffy kicked her ass, that takes huge amounts of power. She's a God, that should wipe out any other evil immortal person. There's no way of knowing that he doesn't have the power to regenerate or possess someone."

"Ok, then I'm all for more ritual!" Xander said.

"So is everyone happy with the plan?" Buffy asked, her expression clearly stating that they had to be happy with it because she wasn't changing it.

"Apart from the part where someone's definitely going to get killed," Cordy murmured.

"Cordy, no one's going to die," Angel told her. "It'll be fine."

"Cordelia, if you're not up for this, leave now," Buffy ground out through clenched teeth.

"Buffy, we need her," Spike reminded her.

"She'll be fine, Buffy," Angel assured her. "She's tough."

He smiled at her and she grinned back.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'll be good. I'll kick her ass!"

"Good," Buffy nodded. "You all know what to do, get on it."

With an impassive face, she turned and stalked out of the living room into the kitchen. Spike had watched her the whole time she been telling them the plan and a tiny part of him was thankful that Angel, Cordy, Connor and Wesley had shown up.

Giles didn't have any books, so Wesley's information had been invaluable. Cordy's powers would be vital in holding off Glory and Ed. And Angel and Connor would be needed when fighting Glory and Ed because he knew how strong they were.

But that didn't mean he had to like that Angel was there, it didn't mean he had to like needing Angel.

But he had focused on Buffy while she was talking and the world fell away. This was when he loved her best, faced with something so difficult, but she took control. It didn't matter that only an hour earlier she had been sobbing in the bathroom that it was her fault the twins had gone, because now, everyone was looking to her to tell them how to save them. She was strong, his Slayer.

He followed her into the kitchen to see her leaning against the counter. He came forward and laid a hand on her back. She let out a long shuddering breath before turning to him.

"What if Cordy's right?" she asked.

"Right?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "Ever heard of her being right about anything?"

She smiled slightly.

"The plan isn't dumb?"

"No, the plan's good. I like the plan. In fact, I love the plan. It's the best plan I've heard in a long while, it's -"

"It's a long shot."

"It was always gonna be," he sighed. "C'mere," he pulled her to him and she held him tightly.

"Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

He had a hazy memory of himself lying on the couch, barely conscious after being brought back from his torture session at Glory's hands. He remembered gentle words and a soft kiss on his forehead. He thought it might have been "I love you," but he convinced himself otherwise, because it was easier that way. That way, he didn't think she loved him so that if it came to an end, it wouldn't hurt so much.

"I love you too."

He didn't care if it hurt if it ended, because for the time being at least, she loved him.