AN: Sorry for the long wait but not only do I have a new laptop, I also have wifi now. So, no more month long waits I promise. This fic will have two more updates, chapter 10 and then an epilogue. I have an original work nearly ready for publishing that needs my attention so I'm trying to keep my fanfiction from distracting me too much. Thanks for sticking around after all the long gaps between chapters. Again, I'm very sorry about that.


Angel swept in the door a few minutes before sunrise.

"Where'd you go last night?"

Angel shrugged. "You guys had it under control. You didn't need me."

Spike's eyes nearly fell out of his head. "So what? You're giving up?"

Angel sighed. "I was never going to fight you for Buffy. I mean... when I got here and I saw the two of you... I was more than ready to fight, but ultimately, it's her decision. She's made her choice."

"So that's it then?" Spike looked disbelieving.

"That's it."

"You're done. Just like that?"

Angel shrugged and looked irritated."What do you want me to say? You're not good enough for her, leave her alone, she deserves better?"

"Well yeah."

"Sorry, boyo. Not this time." He shook his head.

Spike plopped down in his arm chair. "Are you leaving then?"

"Soon, but not tonight."

"Can't wait."

"I'm sure."

"What's keeping you?" Spike eyed his sire curiously as Angel looked toward the small window.

"Huh?" He said thoughtfully.

"Why not leave right away?"

"I have some things I have to do."

"What things?"

"It's none of your business, Spike." Angel gave him a look.

"You're a guest in my crypt. I should know what you get up to long as your here." Spike leaned back in his chair and rested with his hands on the back of his head.

"It was my crypt first."

"No it was Angelus's crypt," Spike argued.

"Same difference."

He shook his head. "Not really."

Angel didn't say anything this time. He was busy thinking of another time they'd argued lightly over ownership of other things in a place far from California. Well, they hadn't argued about her directly. They'd argued about things with the very obvious implication of who they really meant. None of it mattered. No matter how much they argued, Drusilla belonged to Angelus, but she would always run to her Willy when she felt the need be more than a childe. Spike never really understood that. He said they were in love and they had a bond or they were soul mates. Vampires don't have souls. Not unless they're Angel.

Spike watched his sire as he stood silently like a broody, big foreheaded, statue. There was something off about him and he certainly wasn't going to find out by asking. He waited until he was certain Angel was paying him no attention. Then, as quietly as he could, he took a deep breath. He caught the smell immediately and he wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. Why he hadn't noticed her.

Angel was still standing in the center of the room when Spike went to bed. The blond went down stairs in climbed under the sheets hoping a nice, long, dreamless sleep, but her scent had infected him. He tossed and turned far more than the average undead often do. When his mind finally drifted into unconsciousness, he saw only her.

He saw her at all the times he admired her the most. Drusilla, dancing, laughing, and singing. She was so beautiful and so carefree. She killed so gracefully. It was a game to her, but it looked more like a dance. A dance to be performed only in the grandest of ball rooms. She wasn't the ballerina she wished to be, she was far more delicate, far more stunning. She brought out the William in him. Even in sleep.

He woke when he heard the crypt door clang shut. He'd slept soundly through the entire day. It had been a long time since he managed that, but he didn't have time to reflect. Glad, he'd slept in his clothes, he stuffed his feet into his boot and grabbed his coat.

Angel hadn't gotten far. Spike picked up his trail as he swung on his coat. The sun had barely set and the fading light made Spike's skin twitch. He didn't usually go out this early. Angel obviously intended to leave before Spike woke so he wouldn't be followed.

Spike was concerned that Angel would notice him. He stayed back far enough that he relied mostly on Angel's scent to keep up the trail. Hopefully, Angel would be too busy in his thoughts to notice Spike's presence at the back of his mind.

It didn't take Spike long to figure out where they were going. Of course Drusilla would go back to the only place she knew. It was probably the only place that was safe for her. Not that she would consider that. There was a reason she needed someone to look after her.

Spike stood near the edge of the woods as Angel entered the factory. He heard the chime of Drusilla's voice as she greeted him.


"Daddy!" Drusilla said cheerfully. Angel refused to give her the smile she was after. "You came back. You said you wouldn't come back, but we knew better."

Drusilla has stopped lugging her beloved Miss Edith around under her arm. She must have broken the habit while she was out on her own. That didn't mean she didn't still talk with the doll.

"I told you to leave Drusilla. You don't belong here." Angel was pleading under his false shortness.

"You came to make sure I was safe." Drusilla hovered into Angel's personal space. He felt the slight warmth of her fresh blood fed skin.

He grabbed her arm in frustration. "I told you not to feed here," he growled. "If Buffy catches you, there's nothing I can do for you."

Drusilla pouted. "You would choose the girl over your princess?" She whined. "Always alone no matter how close he gets."

"You need to leave now. Pack up your things and go back to Europe." He tried to keep himself calm, but seeing her like this put him on edge. She was miserable, he could tell. It put him in a position where instinct was to care for her even when his soul said she couldn't be here. He couldn't kill her, but he couldn't let her stay either.

"Even when he's inside it's not close enough."

He dropped her arm and walked away, practically floating. Her hand drifted through the air as though she were trying to catch dust.

"Cold, alone, not close enough. Closer, closer," she whispered. "Closer."

Angel felt Spike enter the building. He whirled around and looked at the blond with pure, concentrated irritation.

"Now you can get out of bed before nine?" he grumbled.

Spike didn't even see him. His eyes were locked on Drusilla as she danced in a daze. There she was. The only woman that meant anything to him in all his unlife. Up until Buffy, she was the only one he saw. She left him because of Buffy and he let her go because she deserved better. She deserved someone devoted to her, someone to worship her the way he did once. His dead heart ached to hold her, but if he didn't deserve her then, he certainly didn't now.

Her name fell from his lips and she drifted down from her daze to look at him with a soft smile.

"My Willy. My heart sings for you. Do you hear it?"

There was a light in her eyes. A light that he'd missed. "I do," he breathed.

She walked toward him with the speed of a falling snowflake. She caressed his cheek with back of his hand. His eyes fell shut and every nerve in his body felt electrified. Drusilla was his everything and she was back.

"Spike." Angel's voice was thick with warning. "Don't you have some place to be."

Drusilla tisked. "Your heart belongs to the sunshine. Sunshine holds the key to the cage now. No more heart for princess." She took her hand away and looked away sadly.

Spike couldn't stand to see her anymore. He ran from the factory. He didn't know where he was going, but he had to get away. Finally, he stopped when he couldn't smell her anymore. He closed his eyes and tried to wash the image of her delicate face from his mind. He could still hear her voice, "My heart sings for you". He shivered.


"Please, Dru." Angel closed his eyes and tried not to see her.

Drusilla shook her head. "That's not the way to grandmother's house. Without the big bad wolf we'll be lost and there will be no treats for good children."

He could order her to leave. He could give her no choice. He only had to say it. Go back to Europe. Please, Dru. If he said it just right, she'd be gone. She would be sad, but she would be safe. Safer than here at least.

"Don't be sad, my Angel." She laid a small hand on his cheek. "There's sweets for you, too. If only he doesn't fight the wolf."

Opened his eyes and tried to convince her. "We're not like you anymore, Dru. We don't kill. Not me and not Spike."

"Because of the sunshine." She nodded. She took her hand away to run a finger delicately over her collar bone. "But the sunshine doesn't own you anymore, my Angel. Sunshine couldn't save you."

"Save me?"

Drusilla whimpered and squeeze her eyes shut. Her hands pressed against her temples. "Fire," she whined. She spoke so fast he almost missed the words. "Screaming, fire, burning, chains." She moaned. "Trapped," she whispered. "Torn to pieces and trapped in the flame." She entire body shook for a moment and then she stopped, perfectly still.

Realization hit and stared at her as his mind reeled with new information. "You did this."

She was busy with something else in her head now. Her head rock side to side as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Drusilla, how did you do it?"

"I did what they told me."

"What who told you?"

"Those Who Be. Pixies in my head. Pst pst pst, always whispering."

"Did they say why?" Angel took her wrists to draw her attention back to reality.

She blinked and looked at him. "They need you. You're the champion."

He let her go and sighed. "They can never do anything for themselves can they?"


AN: Quick fyi; "Those Who Be" refers to "The Powers That Be" or "The PTB" as they are from Angel: The Series. If you've seen Angel, you know what it is they're up to, but it's not relevant to this story.