Home is the Traveler?

"Calm down, Spike," Angel advised. His words lacked conviction, however, since he couldn't imagine an innocuous reason for Rose to be missing either.

"Bugger that." Spike stood so abruptly that the chair he had been sitting in toppled over. "I've been over the entire ruddy airport from top to bottom half a dozen times. No sign of her, but I found her bags in the unclaimed luggage. And the kids couldn't find her mind anywhere."

"Too many people?" Angel suggested weakly. He was grasping at straws, and he knew it.

"That's what mucked up her scent, you dumb git," Spike snapped. "The kids know what the inside of her head looks like, so to speak. And they couldn't bloody find her anywhere in the airport either."

At the mention of them, Angel looked down at his godchildren. Despite the fact that he and Spike had made no attempt to modulate their tones, the twins were crashed. It was late, and it had been a long, stressful day. Week, he amended silently. They weren't used to being apart from their mother.

"We're not going to accomplish anything more here then," he remarked. "Why don't we get the kids home to bed?"

Spike was almost of a mood to argue simply for argument's sake. But a glance at his offspring stilled his tongue, and he picked up his daughter, stopping long moments to gaze at her innocently sleeping face, so like her mother's.

Angel sighed, picked up Alaric's limp form and headed for the nearest exit.

&&&&&&&

"I'm sorry, Richard," she said. "But I am very tired. Besides, it somehow doesn't seem right, when I can't remember being with you before. It would be like sleeping with someone I just met."

Richard heaved a long-suffering sigh, and reluctantly released the woman he held in his arms. "Are you saying that you'd like to sleep apart until you get your memory back, hon?" he asked, trying to inject a note of desperation into his voice.

She flushed slightly, but the clear, gray eyes remained calm. "If you wouldn't mind, sweetie," she said apologetically. "It just really, really doesn't feel right."

"You win, baby," Richard conceded. "But if you don't start getting your memory back soon, we may have to send you to a specialist of some sort." He leered at her even as he pulled away. "I guess I'll be moving into the guest room then, because you're just too sexy for me to be around and be able to behave myself."

&&&&&&

Everyone was in the senior partner's suite in various stages of sleep deprivation, called to an emergency meeting.

Fred had been diligently tapping away at her laptop when she crowed triumphantly (but softly, mindful that the twins were asleep). "Aha, got it." She paused while everyone gathered around her. "I've managed to hack in to the airport's security system." All was silent for a few moments, as Fred resumed her frantic typing. Soon, a picture started forming on the screen. It wavered, then sharpened, and became one of the airport's many terminals quite unmistakably.

"That was the gate where Rose was supposed to be arriving," Fred muttered, still clicking away. "Now, we just need to get to the time when her flight arrived."

The picture blurred as it sped by at breakneck speed. But soon, it slowed down again as people began debarking from a flight.

"There she is!" Spike and Angel shouted in unison, both pointing.

Fred prudently let the scene unwind until Rose was nearer the airport's camera before she froze the action.

"She's not alone," Wesley stated the obvious. "But I wonder who the chap with her is."

"Richard McDaniels," Gunn supplied. "Word is that he's going to be putting in a bid for the state senate."

"He can run for Queen of the May for all I care," Spike snarled. "What I want to know is, what in bloody hell is he doing with my wife?"

"Gunn, do you know anything else about the guy?" Angel asked. Like everyone else, his eyes were still riveted to the computer screen and the image of Rose.

"Just that he appeared pretty much out of nowhere and suddenly started making a big noise," Gunn replied. "No one has been able to find out much about him."

"Not even us, with Wolfram and Hart's resources?" Wesley inquired.

"Pardon me for sticking my two cents in," Lorne interjected. "But most of the time we don't have the leisure to check into everyone's private profile unless there's a call for it. I haven't heard that call yet."

"Consider yourself called, Lorne," Angel stated. The pieces still weren't falling into place for him. Such as.., "I can think of several reasons why he would make off with Rose," he mused. "But why would Rose go with him?"

&&&&&&&&

"Yes," Richard said into the phone impatiently, but quietly. Rose.., no, Lily, mustn't slip up, was still asleep in the next room. "I want all the paperwork that says that we got married a week ago. I even want a wedding notice from the local paper. Everything that will make it seem legit. Especially to her. And I want it five minutes ago." A pause. "Her signature? No, I don't have a copy of her signature, especially since the name I'm calling her isn't hers. You're not going to find her signature with that name. What? She said she lived in the Wolfram and Hart building, so my best guess is that she works there too. Her first name is Rose. I never got her last name. Yes, get the whole personal profile. Well, if you keep talking to me and asking me stupid questions, you'll never get anything done." He hung up the phone with thump, then picked it up again.

"It's Richard, Master," he said softly. "I have found the necessary sacrifice. All will be in readiness as you have ordered. Yes, that is being taken care of even as we speak. We shall reach the seat of power. And Rose will be the conduit that gets us there."

"Master?" Richard added a little hesitantly. "Before she lost her memory, she said that she lived at Wolfram and Hart. I know that you have a great deal of power, but will it be enough if the senior partners decided to take issue with us?" There was a long pause. "As you wish, Master."

&&&&&&&

As the sun began making itself evident, a gentle hand came down on Spike's shoulder.

"Listen, Spikey," Harmony began. "Val and I really can't do much here, but we could take the kids off your hands. Let you get some rest."

"Thanks, Harm," Spike mumbled, half-asleep, but fighting the good fight. "But we'll get by." He'd already managed to lose Rose, he didn't much fancy having the kids be too far away from him at the moment.

"Don't be silly, Spike," Fred chided gently. "You're almost out of it now."

Angel fought back a yawn. "Listen to them, Spike," he advised. "I don't think either one of us is up to looking after kids. Especially your kids."

Harmony hadn't waited for permission, but had already gone to get the twins up and dressed. Soon, the three of them re-entered the living room.

The twins made a beeline for their father, but stopped short right in front of him, hand in hand, just looking at him.

The rest of the crew noticed that despite his protestations, Spike was already asleep. And the frantic flickering of his eyelids pointed out the fact that he was already dreaming.

The children continued to look at Spike for a while longer, then turned and looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, evidently holding a telepathic conference.

Ariel turned to Angel and crawled up into his lap. She loved all of her extended family, but Angel was almost invariably the one she went to for comfort.

"He's dreaming about mummy," she whispered loudly, snuggling into him.

Alaric reached up to put his arms around Harmony's waist and leaned against her. Harm's hand came down to ruffled silky blond-white curls.

"Bless their little hearts," Lorne said softly. There was a quick application of the handkerchief to the corners of the eyes.

Ariel slid carefully out of Angel's lap, as he began to fade as well. She went over to where her brother was, and Val scooped her up in his arms and cuddled her.

No more words were spoken. Everyone exchanged a glance, then at a gesture from Wesley, they all filed out as quietly as possible, with even the Watcher trying to move silently while stumping along on crutches.

&&&&&&&&

She woke hearing a murmured monologue in the next room, and curiosity got the better of her.

"No, Master," Richard replied to an unheard question. "She remembers nothing of her real life. All she knows is what I have told her."

Her brow furrowed in thought at the pronouncement. Either Richard knew someone else suffering from amnesia, or he was talking about her. She listened even more intently, to see if she could garner any more information. But the voice had fallen silent, and soon she heard the tell-tale sound of approaching footsteps. She hastened away from the door, trying to appear as though she had just risen.

There was a soft tap, then, Richard let himself in, quietly, lest she be sleeping. "Good morning, Lily, dearest." He bent to brush his lips across her cheek. He would have liked to be a little less impersonal, one, for the act he was playing for his 'wife' and the other simply because he was a healthy male with an equally healthy libido. But the Master had cautioned him against it. Best not to get too attached to a sacrifice. It could make it difficult to function later.

"Good morning, Richard," she murmured. She was unsettled by what she had heard, but was reluctant to quiz him about it openly. She resolved to keep her eyes and ears open and find out what she could. Maybe then, she would be able to make head or tail of it all. But she was beginning to be pretty sure that Richard was not her husband. She looked down at the wedding band on her left hand with a frown. It looked like it belonged there, and she wondered who, if anyone, had really placed it on her finger.

"Ready to go shopping?" It almost seemed a waste, but the Master hadn't set a specific time for the sacrifice, and until he did, appearances must be kept up. Therefore, his 'wife' must be attired as befitted the position he was aspiring to.

"If you like," she murmured. "At least, I will be if you'll let me get dressed. I'll be out in a minute."

"Works for me," he avowed. "Now get a move on." He gave her a little swat on the backside before leaving her.

She rubbed the aforementioned body part thoughtfully. The sensation was not unfamiliar, but she was becoming more sure than ever that Richard wasn't the one who belonged in her life. She wondered who did.

&&&&&&&

Angel's and Spike's eyes opened nearly simultaneously.

"Thought they'd never leave," Spike remarked. He rose from his chair in one lithe movement. "You ready?"

"How about some breakfast first?" Angel asked. "We have been up for over twenty-four hours. If we can't take the time to sleep, we could at least..,"

"Oh quit whining," Spike interrupted. "I'll bloody well give you a cuppa if for no other reason than to shut your gob."

Spike's snappish manner didn't keep him from joining Angel at his repast though. By tacit consent, they both rushed through it, eager to be gone.

"So," Spike broke the silence that had fallen. "Where are we headed?"

"The storm sewers," Angel replied shortly. "We need someone to start gathering information about Richard McDaniels. And unless I miss my guess, there are even better sources than the ones that Gunn has."

"The Q'xlzr demon?" Spike asked. "How can you be sure that it's round and about? It does tend to move around a bit, you know."

"I pay it a small retainer fee just so it will report in regularly and be available if I do need it," Angel explained. "It just so happens that today's payday. It will be there."

&&&&&&&

Harmony and Val watched helplessly as the twins sat in silent communication. They were cross legged, facing each other, and they hadn't uttered a word in over an hour.

"This is creepy," Val muttered. He now felt as much affection for the twins as anyone else, but they still made his skin crawl sometimes. "Do you think maybe we should try to pull them out of this?"

"You can't," Harmony whispered back loudly. "We've tried it before. You just have to wait until they come out on their own. But I've never seen them gone for this long before."

Almost as if on cue, Alaric and Ariel's eyes seemed to cross briefly, uncross, unfocus, then finally focus.

"Any luck?" asked Harmony in as positive a tone of voice as she could muster. She didn't even know what they'd been searching for.

The children looked thoughtful.

"We're not sure," Alaric offered. "Ariel thinks we may have found her, but it doesn't feel quite like mummy should."

"It feels like mummy," Ariel corrected her brother. "But it didn't think quite like mummy. If it was mummy, she would have been thinking about daddy and us. Not somebody named Richard. Do we even know anyone named Richard?"

"Doesn't matter," Alaric replied, failing to notice the open-jawed expressions on the adult's faces. "Mummy wouldn't be thinking about anyone else as her husband. Just daddy."

"Husband?" Harmony asked weakly. That was it. No matter how tired he was, Spike had to know about this development. And she didn't think he'd like the idea of anyone other than him laying claim to Rose's affections. A quick glance in Val's direction told her that he was thinking pretty much the same thing.