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Angels and Demons by TalesofSpike
 
Chapter 1.07
 
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Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 1 - HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life

((Jim Steinman wrote it, I think, even though the site where I found the lyrics says it's Bonnie Tyler) - Bonnie Tyler




Chapter 1.07
Saturday, May 25th, 2002


"Wes is staying here ?" Gunn's voice was full of accusation.

Angel, despite his own misgivings, found himself compelled to defend the situation. "Buffy and Spike are coming to help. They want Wes to be part of the team. They say that there may be some form of magical deterrent and they're right. If there is, Wes is the best shot we have, short of bringing in an outside contractor. Now, I can't think of any magic user for hire that I want to trust to share a thirty three mil payday... Not that I really trust Spike with thirty three million either.

Now, will someone please go and make up three rooms?"

"You want English here, after everything he did, then you can make up your own damn rooms," Gunn argued.

"I'll do it," Fred offered more to try to keep the peace than anything else. They all knew that whether it was cleaning up lopsided pentagrams, disposing of bodies or making beds, Angel was always excused, basically because he always seemed to assume that he should be. It was the 'Can somebody...' syndrome. He seldom directly gave that sort of order, but the job always seemed to fall to anyone else. 'Can somebody clear that mess off the floor?', 'Can somebody dismember that, burn the pieces separately and scatter the ashes over as wide an area as possible?'... Can somebody do the jobs I think I'm too good for... only this time Charles wasn't going along with it.

"No," Angel insisted. "We need you going over those plans, looking for our way in."

"It won't take but-."

"I said no. Where's Lorne?"

"He had a gig."

"A gig? At nine thirty in the morning?"

Fred looked slightly uncomfortable. "He's doing the kiddies' story hour... down at the library."

"He really went back? I thought he was joking..."

"I think he sort of got his agent to put out some feelers in that direction."

"But what if we need him?"

"He'll be back around lunchtime."

Angel scowled at Gunn. "Fine. I'll go fix the rooms... but, Gunn, when they get here, you better can the attitude. Remember why we're doing this."

"I remember. If it wasn't for Cordy I'd be kicking his Anglo Saxon butt out the door the minute he got here."

"He's coming. Live with it. I have to." Angel slammed the office door behind him as he headed for the stairs.








"I said I was sorry."

Buffy looked back and forth between the two closest people in her life as Spike maintained a stony silence, his jaw clenched tight.

"I somehow doubt the whole 'punk is deader than you' speech convinced him of your sincerity, Dawn... Even if it is."

"Fine. I'd rather stay at the motel with Rogue and eat McDonalds than go out to dinner with Angel, anyway."

Spike grunted. It could have meant anything.

"Actually, if you mean the nice motel with the pool where a gang of psychotic vampires terrorised all the staff looking for us, we're not staying there." Buffy's words were cautious, as if she were bracing for impact.

"Well, we can't be staying with dad and his floozy, not after the last time we were here..." Dawn's mouth formed into a silent O as comprehension settled in. "You're joking? Right?" Dawn nodded at Wes. "You can't expect him to stay there ."

"All I know is that in theory Angel's invited us to stay. If the invitation doesn't apply to Wes then we'll all go elsewhere."

"There's no need," Wes interrupted. "Honestly. When I quit my apartment, I had to give a month's notice, so, technically-."

"Technically, it's a few empty rooms with a bare mattress and no utilities," Buffy replied. "We'll... Look, we shouldn't be staying overnight, anyway, but if we need to, we'll get rooms somewhere. We pretty much roped you into this, so one way or another, we're in it together."

Wes shook his head. "Lorne may have asked me to come because you and Spike wanted me, but I accepted because Cordelia at least used to be my friend. You don't need to feel like I'm your responsibility."

"We don't. We just feel like your our friend." Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn and Spike. "Why else would you put up with two hours of The Cold War?"

Spike pulled off the freeway, the DeSoto merging into the downtown traffic. Buffy just hoped that once they reached the hotel and she got a chance to talk to Spike privately that she could get him to ease up a little, not so much for Dawn's sake, but for everyone else's.








Bee waited while Marie moved enough files from the bench she was sitting on to make room for the blonde to sit down. She passed one of the two mugs of frothy coffee that she was carrying to the attorney who was watching over her child playing at the far end of the garden.

"Judging by the smile on your face, your date went a bit better than mine," she commented.

"It didn't go too badly," Marie admitted, "except for the whole breaking up incident, but that probably only lasted about five minutes. You?"

"Well, our break up was just a bit more permanent."

"Okay, talk to Marie. What did the jerk do?"

"The jerk was charming, funny, considerate. We had dinner at Bringazi's." Bee raised an eyebrow as she mentioned the most exclusive restaurant in Sunnydale that catered to demons.

"Okayyyy... This is sounding rather better than your average date, so, I have to ask where the problem comes in."

"Well, he brings me home... and you could just tell that Rupert was going to act all jealous, but, no, turns out..." Bee strung together a string of tuts and clicks. "...Even managed to win the little monster over. That might have been something to do with bringing home salmon in a kitty bag, though. But how often does that happen? So we've got a great guy, we have a happy Rupie, we've got Enigma, we've got a couple of Mojitos and all is going rather well... until... Let's just say anatomical incompatibilities and leave it at that."

Marie's eyes opened large in surprise, but then she shook her head. "You're right. I don't want to know."

Bee continued regardless. "Turns out Waruni men have certain commonalities with your average domestic cat."

"Ouch. At least if you mean what I think you mean..."

"They have barbs where... well, you can guess. So, I mean, one minute full steam ahead, the next I'm seeing him to the door and it's awkward as hell because he's this really great guy but there is just no way. And I just can't believe that my doctor was the one who set us up. And now every time I have to go for a check up I'll be thinking about... you know..."

The demi-demon sighed and took a deep draught of her cappuccino. "Tell me you and the boss were having more fun."

"We did the whole break up thing. Rosa came trotting over and talked us out of it. We had dinner, watched a film, put madam to bed, watched another film, tried out the jacuzzi... and before you ask he was wearing trunks and I wouldn't tell you anyway, and then we fell asleep on the sofa before the other film finished."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much."

"No rampant sex in the hot bubbly water?"

Marie shook her head. "No rampant sex anywhere."

"Damn! You could at least let me have some vicarious thrills seeing as how my date was a total wash out. Smoochies?" the blonde demanded. "There had to be smoochies."

"There were a few smoochies."

"Date number four?"

"Tomorrow, if he gets back from LA in time."

"He's in LA?"

"Don't ask. He went with Spike and Buffy. He didn't tell me and I didn't think as an ADA that I wanted to know."

Bee lit up a cigarette and exhaled a long plume of smoke. "Well, damn," she said in an exaggerated drawl. "My boss is cheating on me."








Spike flung open the double doors between the kitchen and the hotel reception. When he spotted Angel with Fred in his office he barged straight in without any preamble. "Where's these plans, then?"

"Spike," Buffy snapped. "At least try to be civil. It's not their fault that you're..."

"And I'm quite sure grandpa doesn't give a toss about civil, just so long as I'm useful. This them? Let's have a look, pet." He swivelled Fred's pad toward him, comparing the words on it to the plans on the desk.

He poked at one section of the notes with his forefinger. "Too complicated. Periscopes."

Even as Fred saw how the vampire's mind was working, Buffy was trying to get him away from the group.

"Angel, I think we should take our things up to our rooms and maybe freshen up a bit before we get too involved in all the planning."

"Sure, I'll show you where they are." He rose from his seat at the desk, leading the way from the room. "I put you and Spike in the same room you had last time. Wes is in the room next to it and Dawn's just the other side of that... Wes... Dawn." Angel nodded to each of the two who had yet to make it into his office. There was no warmth in his voice as he addressed the watcher and only little more as he spoke to Buffy's sister but at least it passed for the frigid side of civilised. Buffy took Spike's hand with a firmness that was not to be denied as she followed her ex out of the office. Short of a major scene, he had no option but to tag along.

The group made its way to the third floor cloaked in a blanket of uneasy silence. Angel passed out the three room keys, and if he made particular efforts to avoid coming into physical contact with Wes, then, most people wouldn't have noticed, but, he wasn't dealing with most people.

"We'll be downstairs when you're ready. Dawn, maybe you could show Connor some of the places where you used to hang out when you lived in LA."

"Let me guess, he's not allowed to get involved either. Like I haven't stolen more than all the rest of you put together."

"You have something constructive to add to the plan, then, fine," Spike snapped, "but I think you'll find that we're talkin' about a step or ten up from five finger discount on lipsticks and tacky jewellery, and as to what the rest of us have done or are capable of doing, you have no bloody idea."

"Okayyy," Buffy pulled Spike into their room. "We might be a little while. See you guys downstairs."

She pushed the door with her foot, so that it shut with a loud click. "We are not leaving this room until you are done acting like some volcano that's one step short of a major eruption. So what's it going to be? Talk, fight, screw or all three?"








Angel cleared his throat, coughing to cover his surprise and discomfort at what he had just overheard.

Dawn flounced into her room, with all the aggrieved righteousness her fifteen years could muster, leaving Wes and Angel alone in the corridor. The watcher opened the door to his room just enough to slide the bag he had brought inside and then jogged a couple of paces to catch up with the vampire as he headed back downstairs.

"Angel?"

"What, Wes?" The vampire sounded more tired than irritated, but only just.

"I know I'm only here on sufferance, but I'm still glad you allowed Lorne to ask me and I wanted you to know that even though I'm not sorry for what I did, if I had been able to see any other possible alternative then I would have taken it."

Angel stopped as he reached a landing between floors, turning to face the other man. "Don't you think that I know that? Even in the hospital, I knew that, but I lost my boy. I lost him and even though he's back and he's living here in this building, I don't know if I'll ever be able to really get him back and regardless of what I know, I can't help but feel like you're to blame. So, for Cordy, I can put up with you being here, but if you're looking for forgiveness you're plumb out of luck."

Wes shook his head. "I don't need your forgiveness, Angel, because so far as I'm concerned, I have nothing to feel guilty for. If Justine hadn't slit my throat, she would have taken him from Lorne just as readily, though perhaps, given her predisposition regarding demons, she might have taken a few extra moments to ensure that he was dead rather than just leaving him."

"You know how much Connor means to me? How could you take him away and say it's nothing to be guilty about?"

"Because I knew if I didn't prevent the prophecy coming to fruition and you were responsible for his death, then it would destroy you. At least, my way, you hated someone else rather than yourself." Wes moved downstairs again, his piece said, but Angel stayed where he was while Wes's words sank in.

Connor, too, paused to absorb all that he had overheard before making his way to the back stairs and heading for the reception area via the kitchen.








"Oh... My... God!" Cordy was too overawed by the sheer animal magnetism that Spike seemed to radiate like heat from a forest fire to consider whether his and Buffy's talents would be better employed elsewhere.

They didn't even have to touch. With six feet between them. Buffy slid off her coat, her eyes never leaving his, and the vampire followed suit. All his previous anger had been sublimated in a matter of seconds to a brutal passion that centred solely on Buffy and she was more than ready to reciprocate in kind. They each discarded item after item of clothing or footwear, throwing them aside without ever allowing their gazes to wander from the other's face.

Finally, when Spike wore nothing but his jeans and Buffy was dressed only in her underwear they grabbed for each other, Buffy's arm wrapped around his neck, and her other hand tangled in his curls, pulling his lips down within reach of her teeth. Spike lifted her with one hand on either side of her pelvis, slamming her back against the nearest wall and then lifting a knee, pressing it upward between her thighs to keep her pinned with her feet off the ground as his hands rasped their way along her sides and on up, pulling her hands from his hair and drawing them upward until he could clasp both her wrists with one hand. His other hand unfastened his belt and his jeans with an economy of movement born of years of practice.

Buffy writhed against him, not in fear but in impatience and, as she moved from tasting his lips to his neck and shoulders, her teeth sank more firmly into his flesh every time, inciting him even further.

With an effort of will, Cordy broke off her surveillance, returning to the scene in the hotel reception, where both the plans of the security system and the notes Fred had made so far were passed around for general discussion. Cordy fanned a hand in front of her face, even though she knew, with no real physical presence, her "flush" had to be psychosomatic. "You know, I was kinda thinking after the whole rescue thing, maybe soft lights, sweet music... Now, I'm kinda thinking that Tall, Dark and Broody best just get me out of here and screw me into the carpet."
 
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