Interlude

Angel loitered around his room for as long as he could the next morning, remaining up there even after he heard Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn arrive for work in the hotel's lobby. The brunette was uneasy - although it was more like terrified, really - about the reactions Spike's sudden presence would bring to the other employees of Angel Investigations. Angel knew he was still on shaky ground with the others after the whole Darla fiasco, and his preoccupation with yet another blond vampire might well be the last straw. Even if Cordelia didn't try to insert a piece of wood into his ribcage he knew there was no way he'd get off easy for this.

He had briefly toyed with the idea of simply not telling any of them that Spike was there, but had quickly abandoned it when he realized how impossible it was to keep Spike busy and quiet for eight hours a day. Even this new, subdued William the Bloody had more energy than Angel had ever dreamed of.

No, in the end he had to pay the piper. Face the music. Privately, though, it felt more like he was facing a firing squad. He only hoped the bullets would be metaphorical.

He stomped down the stairs deliberately, listening to the idle chatter from below. At least everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

Finally reaching the bottom step, Angel paused long enough to observe the arrangement of the other employees. Cordelia was typing something into the computer while Wesley leaned against the desk, reading the morning newspaper. Good. Gunn sat carving stakes on the other side of the room. Less good.

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to quell his desire to turn around and head back upstairs, Angel addressed the room in general. "Good morning, guys...I kind of need to talk to all of you about something."

The brunette noticed Gunn and Cordy exchange an impenetrable look.

Pushing on, he continued, "There's someone who is going to be staying here from now on-"

Immediately Cordy jumped to her feet. "Darla! You let Darla -"

The Irishman held up his hands to fend off her words. "Not Darla," he corrected quickly.

The young woman sat back down with a relieved sigh. "Oh. Well, good."

With three pairs of eyes boring into him, Angel knew there was no way he could put off the inevitable. "It's Spike."

If anything, the reaction was even more negative. "WHAT!" Cordelia shrieked, drowning out the more quiescent protests that Wesley made. "Spike? Bleached Spike? Spike who tried to kill you and me and all of us like a dozen times? Are you nuts? He *tortured* you, Angel. Hot pokers ring a bell?" She finally ran out of breath, and in the silence that followed, Gunn's quiet question could be heard across the room.

"Who's Spike?"

No one answered until Angel finally realized that the question had been addressed to him. "He's...well, he's a vampire that-"

"-is a homicidal fucking lunatic," Cordelia finished for him.

"He *was* that," Angel corrected quickly.

Immediately Cordelia whirled around to glare at him. "What? Oh, I get it. Because he's got the chip inside him he can't bite anyone. Let me tell you something, Angel: that doesn't make him any less a bleached psycho. Just because he *can't* doesn't mean he doesn't want to."

Angel shook his head. "Actually, I'm not even sure he does want to. Spike has lost his memory, Cordelia. He doesn't remember who he is, or who I am, and he certainly doesn't remember trying to kill any of us."

The brunette woman gaped at him, then closed her mouth with an audible snap. "Yeah, right."

"Really." Angel's eyes left no room for argument.

"If he doesn't remember you, then why is he here?" Gunn asked.

"Giles and Willow dropped him off last night. They don't want him to be in Sunnydale and since I am his grandsire..."

"You're responsible for him," Wes finished knowingly.

"But he still has that chip doohickey, right?" Cordelia asked, "So it's not like we'd be on the menu."

Angel hesitated for a moment, then knew there was no point in lying to them. The truth would come out sooner or later, and, as painful as it was, sooner was better. "Well actually...the chip appears to have been deactivated. That's probably what caused his amnesia."

"Oh no. No way am I working here with a bleached blond psycho hanging around. How long do you think we'll survive?"

Angel rushed to placate her. "I never would have let him stay here if I believed he was going to hurt any of you." Ignoring Cordelia's snort of disbelief, he continued, "But I do have an obligation to look after him when he's vulnerable like this."

Before she could counter that, Wesley cut in smoothly. "Cordelia, why don't you and Gunn go out for an early lunch so that I may have a word with Angel?" he asked.

"Fine." She tossed her new, blonder hair and added, "If you're dead when we get back I know who to stake." Then they were out the door.

The ex-Watcher gave the brunette vampire a hard stare once they were alone. "This affects all of us, Angel. You should have asked us beforehand."

"There wasn't really time," Angel tried to explain. "They just showed up and left him on my doorstep, so to speak. If I had turned him away they would have staked him."

"Perhaps that would not be such a bad solution," Wesley suggested mildly.

"NO!" Angel practically shouted. After a moment he continued in a softer tone, "Look, I'll take care of Spike. I'll make sure he won't hurt anyone," he added desperately.

"That's little consolation if he gets to us before you get to him," Wesley commented dryly. "I still don't see why -"

Angel took a deep breath as he tried to explain his real reason for taking Spike in. "You don't understand. When Will was first turned he was nothing like what he eventually became. He wasn't bloodthirsty. He wasn't... Spike. He was...well, he was a poet. He was weak. Dru wanted him, but she quickly lost interest when he didn't have the darkness in him that Angelus did. To appease her I took him under my wing to show him the ropes. We - I - made him into a monster. This is my opportunity to correct that, to keep him from ever becoming that creature."

There was a pause as Wesley digested this. "You feel that you can save him."

"Yes," Angel whispered.

"And if he regains his memory and reverts to form?"

The Irishman didn't have an answer to that.

"What have you told him about the past?" Wesley persisted.

"Not much. He hasn't really asked, to be honest. He knows that I sired Dru and that Dru sired him. He knows that he used to live in London. He knows that for some reason we lost touch for a century or so."

"He doesn't know about the curse?"

"No."

"Perhaps you should keep it that way."

The brunette vampire sighed. "I'm not going to lie to him, Wesley. If he asks -"

"Yes, if he asks. He may not."

Angel shook his head. "He's not stupid. Obviously something happened to me. I spend my nights saving lives and drinking pig's blood. He's going to figure out that I have my soul eventually."

"Well, my advice is that we cross that bridge when we come to it. Unless you have any objections? Nevertheless, Angel do be advised that all three of us are strongly opposed to having Spike living here. If he makes even the slightest threat -"

"I know."

"Good. Then there's really nothing left to say, is there?"

Angel headed upstairs feeling more apprehensive than he had since Spike had arrived.

-end-