Previously: They ran on; Angelina slightly ahead of Lorne now. Finally they reached the apartment building. Angelina pushed Lorne inside and over to the elevator. They headed to the floor of the Summers' apartment and belted towards the door.

When they reached it, Angelina gave three sharp knocks. The door opened and both demon and girl tumbled through it, falling into a tangled heap of green and non green limbs.

Chapter 29

We were all kinda surprised to find Angelina's and some green limbs on the floor. Xander, who had opened the door, stood there open-mouthed. Either from shock or the view he may be seeing up the bird's skirt, I'll never know.

A few groans were heard from the floor and Angelina slowly tried pulling herself into a sitting position. Turns out she had her arm twisted around and was trapped under the green guy. That and a white suited leg was between hers.

To me, it looked like sex, to everyone else it probably looked somewhat painful.

'Umm… is everyone aware that that guy's a green demon?' Anya stated.

Everyone took this into account. The demon snapped into a sitting position.

'Hey, hey, hey! Friendly green demon thanks'

Everybody seemed unconvinced. Angelina stood up and bent over, just a little too much, and helped the demon to his feet. He wouldn't run; not if he knew what was good for him.

'It's true Buffy' Angelina said. 'He's harmless. Everybody this is Lorne. He met Willow in LA' she explained.

Lorne nodded his head. 'True story cherubs'

Did this 'Lorne' just call me a cherub? Hell no!

'I'm not a sodding cherub mate. If you can't tell' I changed into game face 'I'm a vampire. And I'll kill you where you stand if you do it again'

'Oh I know you're a vampire Spike. I've heard a lot about you'

I raised my eyebrows and locked eyes with Angelina. She shook her head

'Mostly from a mutual friend'

'And who is this 'friend'?'

'Angel'

Everybody seemed to relax, but only a little.

'You say you know Angel. And that Willow met you…' Buffy was slowly piecing it together.

'That's right pumpkin'

'Well we'll ask Will. Just to be sure'

I froze. Willow? She was meant to have left for the funeral already. They weren't allowed to know. Shit.

'I'll go. And bring back the photo she showed me' Angelina hurriedly volunteered, and ran out of the apartment.

We were now left with Lorne. He seemed uncomfortable, now that he's friend had left him. He shifted slowly from foot to foot.

Wonder if Angelina had gotten into the apartment ok? Only her and I knew about Willow's situation and we weren't gonna tell anyone.

Giles had taken off his glasses and started cleaning them. 'So… er, Lorne is it? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of demon are you?'

The ice broke. Lorne smiled 'Well because you asked so nicely. I'm an empath demon. Can read auras and thoughts, etc but only if you sing'

'Oh really!' Anya exclaimed. She looked like she was about to sing. I silently groaned.

Anya sang a couple of bars from 'The Rose' and Lorne told her that what she was going to do to her ext client wasn't a good idea. 'Better to stick to something less sticky' he had said.

What was taking Angelina so bloody long?

A knock sounded on the door. Had she forgotten that she could turn the handle and walk in?

I left my place on the couch to search for blood or beer. Either one was good right now.

'You know Ange, you could let yourself in' Buffy huffed as she crossed the room to open the door.

'What took you-' Buffy paused. '…Angel'

WHAT!? THE PONCE WAS HERE!

I almost ran into the room, just to shut the door in his face before anyone could invite him in. I reasoned with myself though. If he came in, then I beat him while he was here. I refrained from shutting him out and leant against the wall, with beer in hand.

'You look like you've all just seen a ghost' he joked.

'Angel?' Lorne looked he had seen a ghost.

'Lorne?' the demon had surprised the great Angel?

'Oh my word…' and Lorne fainted.

Angelina arrived back a moment later.

'What happened!' she ran to the unconscious Lorne on the ground. She threw the photo towards Xander and then took her shoes off. A friend unconscious on the ground and you take off your shoes? What was she going to do, wave them under his nose?

She swung his arm around her neck and carefully lifted him, supporting him on her hip. She dragged him over to the couch where I had previously been sitting and lay him down.

'I see there's more than one slayer here' Angel noted.

'That we do' Giles said. He sounded rather sour. So old Rupert liked Angel almost as much as me. Nice.

'Good to see you again mate. How long's it been?' I greeted.

'Spike… The gem of Amara' The brooding vamp's mood darkened.

'Oh yea… Good times'

'For some'

Angelina straightened and looked Angel right in the eye. It looked like she was sizing him up, as if she was gonna slay him sometime soon. I wish.

'So you're the infamous Angel I've heard so much about'

'Well… I'm infamous?' he's mood was back to its happy self.

'By what Lorne told me, you kicked some major demon ass. The Senior Partners and all.'

'Haha… Well I do what I can'

The arrogant prick.

'Hmpf' Angelina didn't sound too impressed. It was obvious the vampire didn't make a great first impression.

'So… what's new?' he asked Buffy.

An hour later, groans could be heard from the couch. Angelina left the catch up conversation in the kitchen, to go and check out what the groans meant. The whole time the gang talked to Angel, the whelp and I had hung against the wall. Neither of us were impressed to see Angel. Which was quite apparent to him. He tended to ignore our comments and proceeded to talk to Buffy, Giles, Anya and Dawn.

Angelina walked back into the room and over to the tap. She poured a glass of water and left as silently as she had entered.

I peeked around the corner of the wall and saw that Lorne had come to and Angelina was giving him the water to drink. I would have fainted too, if I had seen the poof after saying I wouldn't ever again.

'Well I'm guessing Lorne's awake. Think I'll go say hi' Angel excused himself from the kitchen and headed out.

Angelina had sat down on the couch, Lorne using her lap as a pillow. He still looked pretty out of it. As Angel came closer, Lorne groaned and closed his eyes, rubbed them, then opened them again slowly.

'So it's not a dream' he mumbled. Angelina was absentmindedly playing with Lorne's hair while looking at nothing in particular. It was as if she was seeing another world, other than the one in front of her.

'Nope. It's me, Angel. Non-beating heart and all' Angel sat in a couch opposite the two.

'So how've you been Angel?'

'Oh you know. Good days, bad days. Slaying things. That's pretty much it'

'Uh huh. So how's Wes?'

Angel's face fell and he shifted in his seat. At the same time Xander walked into the room. He was looking for Angelina. He wanted to know how Willow was doing.

'Umm… he's, he's dead Lorne'

Lorne looked pained. He must've really liked this 'Wes'.

'Gunn?'

'Dead'

'Fr- Illyria?'

'Well, she lived… but disappeared to who knows where. She found Wesley and he died in her arms' Angel tried to end on a positive, but it just didn't work as well as he had hoped. He also missed the company of his team.

Xander decided now wasn't the time to ask about Willow. There was an awkward reunion going on and he didn't want to be part of it. Or interrupt it. He slowly pretended he was looking for the cd that was lying on the shelf, and turned around, heading back to the kitchen.

I was on my way out to make some wise crack at Peaches, but Xander stopped me.

'Don't do it. There's a weird reunion going on there. Angel could just stake you for interrupting it'

I thought about this for a moment. If I interrupted this, I could fight Angel; something I had wanted to do for a long time. If I didn't interrupt this, he would probably stick around a while.

I was about to interrupt the reunion, despite what the whelp said, when Buffy saw me.

'Spike, tonight's patrol? Could you please go with Giles? Willow still isn't feeling well and that leaves him all alone'

'I'm perfectly fine on my own Buffy' Giles protested.

'What if I don't wanna?'

'Then you can patrol with Angel and I'll patrol with Giles'

'Giles it is then' I wasn't going to patrol with Peaches. I would rather be staked than that.

'Actually Buffy, I needed to talk to you' Giles said.

In 'old man' terms that meant 'I don't want to patrol with Spike'.

'Oh, ok then. Sorry Spike… You're gonna have to patrol with Angel' Buffy gave me those damn sodding puppy dog eyes.

'Fine. But if he pisses me off, I think I'm entitled to stake him' I grumbled.

A slight smile crossed the Watcher's lips. Either from me staking Angel or me having to patrol with Angel, I wasn't sure.

'Thank you Spike' Buffy placed a chaste kiss on my cheek.

Tonight was going to be a sodding 'blast'.

Note:

Fanfiction doesn't want to add in the lines I used for different characters right now.

So I'm working on ways to help you distinguish different characters.

I may end up using bold print…

Just thought you should know why the last chapters seem funny.