Disclaimer: Still not mine. I keep hoping.

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Angel looked down at the kids, then at the gathering vamps again. Nope, nothing had changed.

"Damn, damn, damn!"

"You're not s'posed to say that word. It's naughty," Willow told him solemnly.

"Angel," Buffy wailed. He had to give her credit; she was being pretty quiet about it. He took Willow by the hand, holding his free hand out to Buffy, and motioned with his head for Xander to follow. As he did he spoke through his teeth to Willow.

"You. Cry."

Willow looked startled.

"What? Why? Why cry?"

"Start crying, dammit!" he hissed fiercely. "All of you. Cry!"

Willow and Buffy both started sobbing, whiles Xander glared at Angel for another moment before badly faking tears. Angel shepherded the children towards the exit, and as expected found his way blocked by one of his fellow orderlies, a massive vamp that had a good six inches and fifty pounds on him. Angel gave this behemoth his coldest Angelus smile, and was glad to see a spark of fear in the beefy vamp's eyes.

"Doc said we should keep them here till their 'beds' are ready. They already got out once."

"And somebody jumped the gun and already made a move, and scared them to death. Look at them!" Angel snarled in a fierce whisper. As if on cue, the kids started crying harder, and as Angel had hoped he started hearing sniffles from a number of the kids nearby, From the expression on the other vamp's face, he could see he'd heard it too. "You want a room full of crying kids, keep them here."

The beefy vamp hesitated for another second, then let Angel pass, falling in behind him.

"Fine. Let's get them someplace quiet, and then we might as well finish the job, right?"

"Sure," Angel said. "Just one question. Why just these kids? And why now?"

"You know we can't eat the others until after tomorrow night. As far as why these three are on the menu..." the burly vampire paused, then shrugged, grinning hungrily. "Who cares? Doctor's orders."

*******

The British man in his early thirties looked out the airplane window as the air hostess droned on about the landing instructions and sighed. It had been a long, trying flight, and yet his journey had merely begun. His older companion shifted wearily in his seat and frowned.

"You have a question as to your assignment?"

The younger man shook his head, then nodded.

"It's just that...to be sent to America. California. It's a punishment?"

"Hardly. It's a great honor," the other man said, sniffing disdainfully to assure his companion that he felt it something of which he was not worthy. This had little effect on the younger man. On the point of his undeserving nature, they had agreement.

"Indeed," the younger man commented succinctly. Before his companion could warm to his reproachful lecture, he added, "So what is it like?"

The older man looked momentarily wistful.

"It's a blessing and a curse. A burden and a reward. You'll wish you could be doing anything else, and yet you can never even conceive of walking away." The older man smiled, a rarer expression than Haley's comet, as the arched eyebrow of his companion attested. "In short, it's much like being a parent. You do your best to prepare, but in the end she must succeed or fail on her own."

The younger man swallowed, shifting slightly as if the mantle he was about to take on had just literally put additional weight on his shoulders.

"I shan't fail you, Father."

The older man huffed faintly. They both heard the word that ended the sentence, the one that had not been spoken aloud. Again.

"I trust not, Rupert," Andrew Giles said finally. "But it is the girl you mustn't fail. Never forget that."

"I still don't think..."

"It's for her own good, son. The Council has done it this way for ages. This way you'll be able to train her properly, enhance her abilities. She must be ready to take her place when the time comes."

"Ready. Yes. Quite," the younger man said without enthusiasm, watching the plane taxi into the gate. "Still, one does feel like a bit of a..."

"A bit of a what?" the senior Giles demanded, but any reply Rupert might have had to make was lost in the bustle of the unloading aircraft. It wasn't until he had said his goodbyes to his Father and been seen safely on to the Sunnydale shuttle - and don't think he didn't know what this personal escort was all about - that Rupert perhaps finished that thought. Or perhaps not.

"Bastard," he muttered towards the rapidly shrinking figure of his minder, never taking his eyes off of him until he was completely out of sight.

*******

"Hey, look...ummm..." Angel fumbled; he didn't know the bulky vampire's name.

"Bitsy," the vampire said gruffly. Angel ignored the snickering he heard coming from the kids, hoping the vamp would take it for more crying.

"Right...Bitsy. You don't have to come with us. I got this under control."

"Hey, I'm just as hungry as you are. This job bites. All this blood of innocents, and we can scare them all we want but no snacking. Not that I'm questioning that."

"Yeah, that...that sucks," Angel commiserated awkwardly, just as Buffy tugged his pants leg hard. He looked down and her eyes were wide and pleading. He frowned up at Bitsy. "Hey, look, this kid needs to use the toilet."

"Me too," Willow piped up in a quavering voice.

"Me three," echoed Xander. Angel laughed uneasily.

"Please, I need to go now," Buffy whimpered.

"Stupid humans and their bodily functions," he said weakly, seeing the scowl return to their unwanted escort's face.

"Since when do we care what they want?"

"We don't," Angel quickly concurred, "But I don't much like the smell when they...you know. Turns my stomach. I'd rather just, you know, take care of it."

"Really?" Bitsy shrugged. "I always kinda liked it...to me it just enhances the whole scared sh-" Angel slapped his hand over the other vampire's mouth, testing his reflexes. The larger vamp quickly twisted away.

"Bitsy! Watch your language!" Angel admonished, and to his surprise Bitsy actually looked contrite.

"Oh, right, sorry," he stammered. "Sorry, kids."

"Bathroom!" Buffy screamed suddenly. "Now!"

"We're going," Angel practically sprinted down the corridor with the kids in tow. He screeched to a halt in front of the door marked 'LADIES' and threw it open. "In you go," he said to the children, and Buffy ran. Willow went to follow, but Xander stood in horror, frozen to the spot. Willow grabbed his hand.

"C'mon!"

"Will...that's the girl's room. I can't go in there!"

"You can't leave me an' Buffy alone," Willow answered practically. "We have to stick together...but in separate stalls, because this isn't share time."

"But...but...what if someone sees me?"

"No one's gonna see you 'cept the monsters, and they're gonna eat us after we go anyway," Willow stated, quick nervous questioning glances darting Angel's way. He had to hand it to her, as scared as she was she was playing along. "So. Come. On."

"But...I can't...not with you in here!" Xander protested, his face purple with embarrassment. Willow stopped, put one hand on her hip and then, oddly, pointed at her own face.

"Xander." Her tone was firm and quiet, but the boy caved immediately.

"Alright!" he squeaked, then closed his eyes as he took her hand. A moment after they entered and the door swung closed behind them, Angel smiled disarmingly at his unwanted cohort.

"Relax. They'll be back in a sec," he assured him, "which should give us just about enough time to do-thuuuugh!" The last word was supposed to be 'this'. On the word 'this' Angel had fully intended to punch Bitsy in the face; the words 'beaten to the punch' were never quite so apt. Angel found himself sprawled on the linoleum, Bitsy smiling unpleasantly down at him.

"Nothing personal, buddy. But there're only three of them, and they're awfully small. And I'm a growing boy."

"Hate to break it to you, buddy," Angel said nastily, "but it's not gonna be that simple."

"It's not?" Bitsy asked with a frown.

"Nope," Angel replied, leaping back to his feet, hands in fists. The bigger vamp grinned with way to much enthusiasm for Angel's liking.

"Awesome."

They circled each other warily for a moment. Angel heard a loud bang from inside the ladies' room and moved in front of the door.

"Stay there, kids! Don't come out!"

"Yeah, be in to eat you in a second!" Bitsy cheerfully added. Angel swept forward and grabbed his shirt in one hand,

"I don't think so," he snarled, bring his free hand forward. Angel thrust upwards against the bridge of the husky vamp's nose, hearing the satisfyingly wet crunch and squeal of pain as he spun behind him. He aimed a kick at the vampire's bending knee, staggering him but failing to bring him down completely as he had intended. Bitsy grabbed Angel's neck with an infuriated roar, lifting his feet from the ground. Angel moaned. "Uh-oh."

"That's right, little guy. Nobody messes with Bitsy!"

It was every bit as fearful a declaration as one might think, especially when punctuated by Bitsy's dissolution to ash. Angel stumbled as he returned to earth, almost dropping the stake he had pulled from his sleeve. He hid it again, looking around to make certain no one had seen the altercation, then knocked gently on the ladies' room door.

"Kids? It's okay. Come on." When he heard no answer, he continued a bit louder, "Hey, I took care of the...of Bitsy. All gone. Come on out." Only silence. Angel went to push the door and found it stuck, something heavy pushed against it. "Buffy? Hey...other kids? Come on, we've got to..." Angel pushed the door open fairly easily as he spoke, but wasn't expecting what he found inside.

Or rather, what he didn't find. The room was deserted. The three children were gone.

***********