Chapter 5:

Hark, The Herald Angel Sing

With a sigh, the vampire put down her lipstick and reached for the ringing telephone. “Wolfram and Hart, this is Harmony speaking.”

“Harmony?”

“Yeah? Do I know you?” She glanced around the office. Things seemed fairly normal here today. Well, if you didn’t include the odd vampire randomly running around or a demon throwing up in the lobby. All in all, a fairly good day. She took a sip of her blood.

“Umm…could I speak to Angel?”

“I’ll have to ask whose speaking, if you don’t mind. My boss is kind of busy these days,” she said dryly.

“This is Buffy Summers.”

Harmony sat bolt upright in her chair. “Oh my god! How have you been? Sorry to hear about the whole apocalypse thing over there.”

“We managed.”

“Great to hear that!”

“Could I talk to Angel, Harmony?”

“Oh yeah, sure. Let me just find him.” Quickly, she set the receiver down and stepped out from behind her desk. She walked over to Angel’s office door and knocked. “Angel?” After a moment with no response, she opened the door. “Angel?”

“What the hell was he doing there in the first place?” Angel paced around the room, completely unaware of his new audience.

“Witnesses say he seemed to be handing out religious pamphlets,” Wesley tried to explain.

“You don’t hand out pamphlets at a frickin’ coven house!”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, he won’t be doing it again.”

“Angel?”

Angel’s head snapped up. “What do you want, Harmony.”

She smiled apologetically at him. “You have a call.”

“Can you take a message?”

“It’s Buffy.”

“Oh.” He looked around at his roomful of friends. “You guys don’t mind…”

Gunn shrugged. “Hey man, go for it.”

Angel sighed and sat down at his desk, picking up the phone. “Buffy?”

“Hey, Angel.”

“How’ve you been?”

“Oh, fine. Listen, I’ve kinda got a question for you.”

Fred glanced over. “What does she want?”

He waved her away. “Yeah?”

“Have you ever heard of any prophecies that can turn vampires into humans?”

Angel started coughing.

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Spike glared at the blonde as he paced back and forth across the kitchen. From what he could hear, the wanker wasn’t cooperating very nicely with his girl. He had half a mind just to grab the phone away from her and start yelling at the whelp…

“Don’t you-but I-hey!” Buffy let out a soft growl. “We were just wondering-”

“Sod it,” he muttered through clenched teeth as he yanked the phone out of her grasp. “Listen, you yellow-bellied wanker, you bloody better give my girl the information she’s asking for.”

“Spike!” Reaching out wildly, she attempted to reclaim her phone.

“Nice to hear from you, Spike,” Angel snarled. “Although I must say, aren’t you being a bit possessive for so early in the morning?”

“Tell us about the damned prophecy!”

“Why should I?”

“Oh come on,” Spike scoffed. “Are you telling me you don’t even have the decency to help her?”

“Her, yes. You, no. Listen,” he said, his voice lowering to a dangerous pitch. “You stay away from the Shan-Shu.”

Chuckling, Spike sat down in a chair. “And why is that, Peaches?”

“Nice try. I’m never going to tell you anything.”

“Then may I ask to speak to Fred, perhaps?”

“No!”

Buffy frowned, crossing her arms in front of her. “Why do you want to talk to Fred?”

Covering the receiver with one hand, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her in closer to him. “The Nancy-boy ‘s being a brat, as usual.”

“Give me the phone.”

“No.”

“Give it!”

After several seconds, the bleached blonde let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine.”

“Yay,” she cheered quietly.

“Yay? Buffy?”

“Yeah, me again.” Snuggling down onto Spike’s lap, she switched the phone to her other ear. “Alright, I don’t really care if you two want to beat each other to a bloody pulp or what have you, but I seriously need to find out more about that prophecy. If you aren’t going to help me, then I’m going to need the names of people who can.”

“Buffy…”

“Fine.” With that, she slammed the phone down. Then, she picked it up again, and redialed the number.

“Wolfram and Hart, this is Harmony speaking.”

“May I speak to Fred, please?”

Spike smirked.

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Grabbing a few changes of clothes, she stuffed them into the duffel bag lying on her bed. After a few quick glances around the small apartment, she zipped up the bag, grabbed her coat, and headed towards the door.

Fred squeaked.

“Fred?”

“Just a minute…” Dropping her bag and coat around the corner, she scurried to the door. “Hey, Wesley.”

“Hello, Fred. May I…”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Checking her watch, she opened the door wider, smiling nervously.

Eyeing her, he stepped in. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Uh-huh. Perfect. In fact, I couldn’t be better.”

“Gunn said you left because you were feeling ill.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh yeah. I’m really not feeling all that good, now that you mentioned it. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to not even be around me right now. I might be contagious.” Nodding seriously, she grabbed the arm of his sweater and started leading him back to the door.

He pulled away, frowning. “Did I miss something?” Glancing down, he picked up her bag. “Are you going somewhere?”

Fred bit her lip. After a second, she reached out and took the bag from him. “Yes, I am. But you can’t tell Angel.”

“Why?”

“You didn’t hear?”

Wesley frowned. “All I heard from him was that Spike had called.”

“He wants to know about the Shan-Shu.”

Blinking several times, he processed the information. “And you’re going there to help?”

She looked at her watch again. “I can’t talk now… I have to go… just please, don’t tell him, okay?” With that, she darted out of her apartment.

Wesley waited until she was down the hall to respond, locking and closing the door behind him. With a sigh, he followed her. “Alright.”

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“Tell me again why you feel the need to take a ‘lil road trip in the middle of the bloody day?” Spike asked as they walked towards his car.

Buffy sighed. “We’re going to the airport.”

“Again I ask, why.”

“To pick up Fred.” Sliding into the passenger seat, she hunted around for the seatbelt. After finding it, and pulling it across her lap, she looked up at him. “She’s going to help us.”

“So she knows about this Shan-Shu dealie, I take it.” He started the ignition, pulling out of the driveway and speeding down the road.

“Yeah.”

Spike glanced over at her. “And what makes you think she’s not going to go running back to his bloody arms the moment she finds out I’m not a demon anymore?”

“Becauseshealreadyknows,” Buffy muttered under her breath.

“Excuse me?”

“Fred already knows-I told her when you left the room.”

His eyes widened. “Are you serious? Are you telling me that Peaches may already know I’m no longer “among the unliving”?”

“She wouldn’t have told him,” she said quickly. “She knows that Angel’s being a bit… immature about this whole thing. Telling him would only upset him further.”

“Oh yes. Let’s protect our beloved Dr. Forehead. No one worry about the poor, incredibly hot recently human who he’s out to kill.”

She chuckled lowly, unbuckling herself so she could slide closer to him. “What, you want me to worry about you?”

“No,” he said stubbornly.

“Then stop complaining.”

He glared at her menacingly. “Little minx.”

Buffy grinned, leaning in to nibble his ear. “You like it.” Feeling the car swerve slightly, she pulled away again, settling with laying her head on his shoulder. Her fingers came up to trace the contours of his chest, hesitating over the subtle rising and falling of his heartbeat. Placing her entire palm upon his heart, she closed her eyes, concentrating on the soft rhythm pulsating through her. After a minute, she murmured, “You know I’d never let them hurt you.”

He smiled softly, removing a hand from the wheel to overlap hers. “I know, pet.”

Fred waited patiently until the little sign above her head turned off, telling her it was okay to unbuckle her seatbelt. Grabbing her bag from beneath her seat, she glared again at the figure beside her. “You know, you didn’t have to come with me.”

He sighed. “How could I not have.”

“You could have, you know, not come.” Nodding stubbornly, she stood up.

“Fred…” Sighing, Wesley grabbed his bag and tried to catch up with her as they exited the plane. “I want to know what’s going on here as much as you do. Besides,” he added, jumping in front of her and straightening his jacket a bit, “out of all of us, I believe it’s safe to say that I know the most about Shan-Shu.”

After a moment, she shrugged and looked down. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be angry with you.”

He smiled at her, and reached out to grab her bag. “Come on. Buffy should be here by now.”

Buffy stood up on her toes, trying to see over the crowd of people. “Can’t…see…” With a frustrated grumble, she turned towards Spike. “Do you see her?”

He looked up from the newspaper he’d been browsing. “Hmm?”

“Fred.” Stalking over to where he was sitting, she crossed her arms. “I can’t see over all the people.”

Slowly, a grin spread across his face as he watched her pout. “Poor baby,” he purred, standing up slowly and teasingly leaning over so he could look her in the eye.

Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “You’re so not as funny as you think you are.”

He grinned again. Taking her hand, he walked through the crowd, searching for the small, brown-haired girl he’d met months before. After a second, he pointed hesitantly. “Isn’t that her?”

She looked over, her face lighting up. “Fred!” She rushed up to her, not noticing her companion until he was right in front of her. Her eyebrows shot up. “Wesley?”

“Hello, Buffy,” he murmured.

Spike approached the group. “Oi, what’s Watcher Boy doing here?”

“Spike!” Fred leapt in to give him a hug. “Hi!”

“Er, hey there pet,” Spike said uncomfortably, pulling away from her embrace. He looked over again at Wesley. “Hello…you.”

Buffy frowned. “Wesley, what are you doing here?”

“I just came here with Fred, I swear it. Plus, I do know about-”

“Yeah yeah yeah, so does everyone else on this bloody planet,” Spike said sarcastically, turning around and stalking towards the parking ramp.

The other three watched him awkwardly for a moment. “Um, let’s go.” Buffy smiled brightly and followed the blonde.

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“So, is it-”

“Yeah.”

“You’re-”

“Mmhmm.”

“Are you su-”

“Yes,” Spike hissed between gritted teeth.

Buffy carried a plate of cookies into the living room, followed by Wesley with some cans of soda. “Cookie, anyone?”

Fred smiled politely, taking a cookie and a napkin. “Yes, please.”

“So, Watcher-Boy.” Spike waited for Buffy to sit down beside him before continuing. “Tell us about this Shan-Shu prophecy.”

“I will, but first, why do you want to know?”

Fred shook her head. “Wesley… just tell them, okay?”

He looked at her confusedly. “Alright… Well, it was a prophecy we discovered, a sort of loophole we found for Angel-”

“For Angel? I thought it was for a vampire with a soul?” Buffy asked quickly.

“Yes, of course… the thing is, when we first came upon it Angel was the only vampire with a soul, so we just assumed it was intended for him. Now of course, with you… it complicates matters a bit.”

Spike snorted.

“What it says, basically, is that a vampire with a soul may become human if they perform an extraordinary act, or acts, of heroism to better mankind.”

***AUTHOR NOTE: I don’t know the Shan-Shu word for word, but that is the basic gist of it, if I’m correct. Sorry if my improper phrasing offends anyone!***

“Like preventing an apocalypse, for instance?”

Wesley looked up slowly. “Well, yes…”

Smirking, Spike leaned in. “I’ll tell you why I wanted to know then, mate. I just had to make sure. You see, I’m… a little different now.” He stood up, walking to the window. Slowly, he opened the shades so the sunlight streamed in. Squinting, he peered outside. “I seem to have a slight case of humanism.”

Buffy smiled.

Wesley’s jaw open and shut several times as he struggled to phrase his thoughts. “I…it’s…are you sure?”

Spike turned to face him. “Considering I have a heartbeat, pulse, breath, can go in the sun, sleep at night, hate the taste of blood, don’t have pointy teeth… yeah. I’m pretty sure.”

“Yay,” Fred cheered quietly.

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Wasn’t that worth waiting for? I know it’s a little later than I thought it’d be… but it’s here. And that’s really all that matters… Right?

You all still love me…Right?

…Right?!?

*whimper*