Note #1: First of all, let me apologize for the delay. The Muse was tired and stressed out and didn't want to sing. Hopefully, after a much needed and long overdue vacation, she's now back to her usual cheerful self. :-)

Note #2: Freezyboncoolipants, I have just started to read your "Inner Child, Outer Child" fic, and so far it's very good, so funny and cute! I'll make sure to leave a review.

Note #3: Imzadi, I'm afraid there'll be no Lindsey in this story. I watched only a few episodes prior to season 5, which means I know very little about him. I'll have to do some research before I can write a story with him, but I promise that I'll give the idea some thought.

- x x x x x -

"So," Angel said, joining Fred as she stood before the counter, "any progress?"

"No," she sighed, shaking her head as she turned the Bunsen burner off and carefully put the beaker aside. "From a physical approach, he seems to be absolutely human and normal. His blood type is AB, by the way."

"It's a good thing that his attention span is so short," she added, looking at Spike, who was across the room nagging Knox to let him hold the electron microscope. "Unless Wes' team is doing much better than we are here, I suggest you start thinking of sleeping arrangements."

"I see you already know about the Senior Partners' answer," Angel said bitterly.

"Yes," Fred said, pursing her lips in discontentment as she turned her attention back to the contents of the beaker. "Gunn stopped by earlier."

"Stopping an apocalypse isn't a small deal," Eve's nonchalant voice made Angel and Fred jump in place and they turned around to face the blonde as she glided into the lab "You can't very well expect them to go out of their way just to meet your personal agenda."

Fred's tart answer was cut off by a commotion across the room.

"You little monster!" Knox was saying angrily. "I'm gonna show you…"

He reached out for Spike and the boy bared his wannabe fangs, but Knox suddenly found himself restrained by the strong hand that grabbed his wrist.

"Don't call him that," Angel hissed, glowering at him.

"But you…" Knox stuttered, vainly trying to free his arm from Angel's steely grip. "You've been calling him worse since he first showed up here," he protested lamely.

"And I sustain it," Angel said, frowning. "Every word. But that's between him and me."

"He bit me!" Knox whined, showing the small tooth marks on his forearm.

"Spike!" Fred chided as she joined them. "Honey, it's not nice to bite people."

Spike pouted and scuffed his foot to the floor, and Fred placed her hand on his shoulder, already mollified.

"This whole thing isn't easy for him," she said, turning to Knox. "We have to be patient: he's just a little boy."

"Well, little boys shouldn't try to snatch highly expensive, state-of-the-art equipment from the hands of grown ups," Knox muttered, glaring at Spike.

"Oh, sweetie," Fred said, kneeling down to Spike's level, "these things are fragile and very expensive. You can't play with them."

"But I'm bored," Spike argued.

Fred looked around, trying to think of something that might entertain him, but nothing in the lab seemed fit for the hands of a five-year-old.

"He's been here for almost two hours," Angel sighed. "I suppose I could find something for him to do upstairs," he muttered, grudgingly.

"I'm sure you can," Fred promptly said, giving him a grateful look. As much as she liked the little boy, trying to get some work done with him around was burdensome.

To Spike, she said with a smile:

"It's almost dinnertime. Why don't you go with Angel for a while, and I'll join you two for dinner when I'm done here?"

"I don't wanna go with Peaches," Spike complained. "He's no fun."

"It won't take long," Fred promised. "Besides, Angel has a scary face, too," she added, remembering how excited the boy had been to see Harmony's game face. "Even scarier then Harmony's."

"Please," she pleaded sweetly when he still didn't look convinced, and Spike finally relented with a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay," he mumbled reluctantly.

Fred smiled with relief and gave him a kiss before she went back to work, while Spike lightly patted the plastic battle axe that was resting in the holster strapped across his back, saying:

"Let's go, Doombringer."

"Doombringer?" Angel repeated, raising his eyebrows.

"I strongly advise you not to mess with Doombringer," Knox said in a less than sympathetic voice before he turned on his heels and followed Fred.

Angel sighed and rolled his eyes when Spike stuck his tongue out at Knox's back, but decided that it just wasn't worth the effort.

"How come you can't recall anything that happened yesterday," he said to Spike as they left the lab, "yet you seem to remember every insulting name you used for me during the last century?"

- x x x x x -

Wesley raised his eyes from the book he was reading when he heard Angel knocking at the door.

"I hope you're here to bring me good news from the tech front," he said wearily as he looked at Angel standing at the doorway.

"Nothing?" Angel asked in dismay, pointing at the several books spread around his friend's office.

"Nothing," Wes sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "It's rather difficult when I don't know what I'm looking for in the first place; I was hoping that either Fred or Gunn would be able to tell me what was actually done to him before I started looking for ways to revert it."

"Fred is still waiting for the results of some of the tests that they ran," Angel offered, entering the room and sitting on a chair across the table from Wes. "Maybe she'll have something for you tomorrow."

"I certainly hope so," Wes said. "Where is he, by the way?"

"Lorne agreed to watch him for a while," Angel said. Glancing at his watch, he added: "But he has dinner plans, so he should be dropping Spike here any minute now."

"Here?" Wes said, raising his eyebrows.

"Harmony and Gunn have already left, and Fred is busy in the lab," Angel told him. "Once Lorne leaves, there'll be no one left."

"What about you?"

"I'll have to baby-sit for the whole night," Angel pleaded. "Come on, allow me a few last moments of peace before I'm left alone with him."

As if on cue, Lorne entered the room with Spike.

"And here we are," he announced as he ushered the boy into Wes' office.

Angel and Wesley stared agape as Spike proudly walked into the room, wearing a costume that consisted on a large black hat, a silvery mask a la Phantom of the Opera, a black cape with a hood… and Doombringer.

Seeing the looks on the faces of the two men, Lorne said, adjusting his own bow tie:

"Big Bads can be stylish, too."

"Now, remember," he said turning to Spike and friendly patting the boy's face, "you behave tonight, and tomorrow I'll bring you a piece of Paris Hilton's birthday cake."

The boy nodded happily, and Lorne straightened up, looking at Angel and Wes again.

"Ciao," he said with a smile and light wave of his hand.

While Lorne left, merrily singing "Music of the Night", Spike walked towards Wes' desk and climbed on the chair next to Angel's.

"What are you doing?" he asked Wes, leaning over the desk to peer at the book open before the ex-Watcher. "Don't you have books with pictures?" he said, frowning at the pages covered in Sumerian writing. "Did you know that Lorne can tap dance?" he asked without as much as a pause.

"Well," Angel said, standing up, "I see that the two of you have a lot to talk about. I'll be in my office if you need me; but I'm sure you won't," he added, giving Wes a pointed look.

"No more bitting," he warned Spike before he left.

"He has bitten someone?" Wes asked, alarmed.

"Not someone," Spike said disdainfully. "Just Knox."

"You bit Knox?" Wes said, perking up.

"He was being a pain in the ass," Spike said.

When Wes' smile widened, Angel admonished him:

"Wes, don't encourage him."

"I would never do such a thing!" Wes protested in a totally unconvincing way.

As Angel left, rolling his eyes, he turned to Spike again and asked conspiratorially:

"How did he taste?"

"Like socks," Spike answered in the same tone, grinning. "And he screamed like a girly girl."

Sensing that he had an ally here, he asked:

"Are you staying to have dinner with Fred, Peaches and I?"

"As a matter of fact," Wesley said, grinning back at him, "I am. Would you and Doombringer like to order some pizza?"