Recombination

Spike tried not to smile; despite the harsh injury to his body he still had to bite his lip to avoid grinning. It hurt like hell but he had to do it. The image in front of him was one of the strangest most hilarious things he’d ever seen.

Two of the Bringers were standing over Annemarie who lay on her back on a rock, her small legs kicking wildly as she sucked hard on her dummy. The pacifier stopped her making any noise, not that she had since the First’s torture sessions had begun, although the Bringers themselves made no noise or real facial expressions, the confusion and agitation was plain to see in their body language. Not to mention the look of sheer confusion and annoyance on the First’s face as It stood beside them watching their incompetence.

Spike had to bite down harder as the Bringers careful studied the child before lifting her up, he could have sworn he saw a smirk hiding behind the pacifier. The Bringers held the child there for a second cautiously waiting and jiggling her slightly; just as they were about to lay her back down she kicked her legs causing the diaper to fall off onto the dirty floor joining the other six diapers.

Spike swallowed hard as Annemarie innocently kicked her legs; the look of sheer incredulity on the Bringers normally expressionless faces was to die for. It was almost worth being beaten up on a regular basis for, almost, but not definitely. Still Spike had to laugh at the comedy of it as the Bringers looked to the First which looked like It was about to have Kittens; Spike had to look despite trying to avoid looking at It in this form; it was too disturbing and raised too many questions. Watching again Spike tried to contain his sniggers as once again the Bringers set the toddler down again trying to apply the elusive fastenings of the diaper to keep the toddler dry. The First, still looking furious, was calmly explaining to the baby how useless minions could be. Spike could see Annemarie was paying little attention and was just focused on kicking her legs even more to hinder the Bringer’s performance.

“This is the time you really need to be able to touch.” The First smirked, standing in front of Spike, almost blocking the view of the hapless Bringers; they were now being watched over by the Turok-han whose growls were encouraging them to work faster.

“I could have had that done and ready in ten seconds.” The First casually remarked still smirking. The smirk didn’t suit the form It had taken, it didn’t sit well considering Spike himself had only ever seen that smirk twice on the real body. Spike looked away from the disturbing image, trying to focus on the diaper changing scene as the First leant closer, Its lips close to Spikes ear.

“Then again I can do a lot of things in ten seconds, can’t I Spike? Change a baby, strip off, spread my legs for you?”

Spike tried to ignore the words as the First’s voice purred into his ear and focused on the baby instead, she’d stopped kicking her legs and started trying to put her feet into her mouth whilst the Turok-han made noises at her and beat the Bringers. Apparently ripping off heads ensured they actually did try to change the baby properly. Spike smirked inwardly, he’d been more then a little surprised by the Turok-han’s behavior. Thought it had behaved as he’d expected like the First’s pet, beating him up, torturing him and doing exactly what it said- it was also the epitome of the First Vampire; evil, rank smelling and extremely tough even to the point of impossible to kill which Spike had found out after attempting to go one on one for the First’s amusement. It had more power, more strength then a master vampire and all the grace and non-aggression of a testosterone overdosed teenage boy.

The one thing Spike had been surprised on was the Turok-hans attitude to Annemarie. When the thing had stepped out of the seal and walked towards the First it had looked, for all intents and purposes, like it wanted ‘mommy’ and was going to rip apart anything standing in its way. Spike felt more then a little rush of fear at its presence and had struggled in his bonds to get free and pull Annemarie out of its path. The toddler had sat calmly on the edge pushing bits of sand down into the open seal. The First had had a huge smile on its face as the huge vampire stopped and stared down at the child who looked up indifferently at him; a Bringer had moved swiftly to take the child but the Turok-han had ripped its head off as it had come close. Spike had struggled to get loose from his ties and cursed the First and its vampire-pet trying to get their attention and distract them but it hadn’t worked.

The Turok-han had bent slowly down picking the toddler up under her arms and dangling her in front of him as he scented her and looked her over. Neither he nor Annemarie had broken eye contact resulting in an extremely long staring contest where some unseen communication moved between them. Spike hadn’t dared to breathe, not that he needed to anyway but had he been human he probably would have passed out or melted into a small pile of goo at the scene.

The defenseless toddler held out at arm length by the original monster; Spike still shuddered at the thought. Surprisingly enough all the monster had done was screech in Annemarie’s face, when the toddler still maintained eye contact he had set her down and walked towards the First.

Spike jolted back to the present as the Turok-han screeched. Apparently annoyed with the Bringers ineptness and feeling the First’s annoyance he pushed them apart sending them flying to opposite ends. Then it mimicked what they had tried to do and lifted the child up, screeching slightly as the diaper remained fixed. It then set the toddler down all but swaggering over to the First who was still smirking.

Annemarie propped herself up in the stone and watched them, her eyes shadowing a little as the First leant into Spike still murmuring to him, causing disturbing images to cross Spikes mind. “You must be wondering about this,” the First ran its hands down the body it wore. “Wondering if it happened a while ago, or if it happened whilst you were stuck here.” It smirked. “It must be hell for you to think about.”

Spike looked away. It was hell to think about. He didn’t want to think about it at all, he was still holding out of hope of being rescued but if it had happened….he gritted his jaw refusing to consider it. He could see the First’s smirk widen as it moved closer to him ready to impart some more stinging news, then It stilled a frown crossing its face. Spike shivered as the First’s expression grew furious; it shot the Turok-han a look before muttering a string of demonic swear words and disappearing with a flash. Spike had only a second to be glad he wasn’t on the receiving end of the anger when the Turok-han’s fists shot out, smashing him against the wall.

Spike’s vision grew a little blurry as the demons fist buried itself in the side of his face, breaking or at least cracking his cheekbone. He blinked back the blood that ran into his eyes and tensed as the Turok-han’s clawed fingers embedded in his side; the bleached blond bit back a scream as the Turok-han began squeezing, just as he though he was going to pass out from the pain the Turok-han stilled and slowly released him. It took Spike a second to work out why, but as the huge demon turned slowly around he heard the noise; the angry hiss punctuated by a growl. He blinked until the blood cleared from his eyes and looked down. Annemarie stood in front of the Turok-han, one hand gripping his leg tightly as she hissed at him. The Turok-han let out a screech, more of anger then attacks Spike believed and Annemarie growled back louder her little vampire fangs jutting out as she started poking him in the leg.

Spike pulled on the wrist restraints trying to get free; despite the demons lack of wanting to maim towards the child so far it couldn’t see it backing down. He blinked, and then blinked again as the demon gave an almost petulant shriek and stomped off, screeching to itself. Feeling his legs turn to jelly Spike realized the restraints were the only thing holding him up. He stared down at the child as she stared solemnly up at him, her features melding back to human.

“Dada.”

Spike blinked not believing the toddler spoke let alone the word as she calmly popped the pacifier back into her mouth and sat at his feet playing with his feet and apparently keeping watching unless the Turok-han came back. His mouth dropped open and he stared at her. He had been so worried with her not eating food and regressing back to baby-age that she was becoming swayed or changed by the First. But though she had become reliant on diapers again and had some freaky communication going with the Turok-han she seemed to be the same child, albeit one that was a little more like a child. A Freaky vampire toddler that was a given, but definitely more child like, not too forward mentally for her age.

Spike couldn’t help but feel a flush of pride for the child sitting at his feet. He wasn’t sure how long he hung there silently watching the quiet child playing with his toes but it slowly dawned on him that no one was around. He lifted his head. No First, No Turok-han and no Bringers. He felt a shiver of anticipation run up his spine as Annemarie looked up at him lifting her arms up and pulling on his jeans.

“Dada.”

He looked down at her as she cuddled against his legs staring worriedly towards the entrance.

“Nah-ha Dada come.”

Spike jumped slightly as the body of a Bringer sailed silently through the entrance coming to rest before him. Annemarie crawled over to the body and peered at it before scooting back to Spike and holding his legs tight. Staring at the entrance, he tried to make out what was going on but all he could hear was the clashing of metal on metal and see the blue robes of the Bringers collapsing to the floor. As another sailed into the room he wrapped one ankle around the toddler pinning her between his legs and away from the Bringers bodies. He didn’t want her to see that and he didn’t want her to wander off. He felt her small arms wrap around his leg as she buried her face in his Jeans.

Spike jumped as an axe whistled passed him and he visibly flinched as a Bringer’s body dropped to the ground to reveal Xander. A smiling Xander, whose smile disappeared when he saw the look on Spike’s face. Xander moved forward confused as Spike flinched again. His eyes trailed over his lover’s body taking in the injury and torture.

Xander’s heart sank and he swallowed a lump in his throat as Spike stared at him a wary expression on his face. His brain clicked into gear; ignoring the sound of fighting behind him as Connor defended them, he bent down to squat next to Spike’s legs smiling gently as he looked at the half hidden Toddler who stared up at him.

“Stay away from her you wanker.” Spike managed to force out as he stared at the thing in front of him. He wasn’t in the mood for playing games, he just wanted whoever was fighting the Bringers to get inside, to at least be able to rescue Annemarie. He didn’t want to be taunted again.

Xander stared up at Spike, hurt sweeping over his face. He bit his lip wondering if the vampire was delirious and looked down as Spike tried to rearrange his legs in some wacky yoga fashion to hide the toddler. Trying to get a glimpse of her face Xander spoke softly, “Hey gorgeous, how about a hug for the Xand-man?” He wanted to get her attention and get her free so he could unchain Spike safely without harming one or the other.

Spike stared down at the drama at his feet ignoring the fighting noises from the other room, he wanted to hide the child but at its words she popped her head out again staring in fascination. He was prepared for trembles, he was prepared for her to shrink back against him but he wasn’t prepared for her squeal of delight as she wriggled out from his legs and raised her arms up, waving them wildly.

Xander grinned and reached between Spike’s legs to help disentangle the toddler and scoop her out. He held her protectively against him, alarmed by the weight she appeared to have lost and the diaper on her butt. Quickly he stood up staring into the face of his lover, tentatively reaching out to stroke down one side of Spike’s battered face.

“Spike?”

Spike blinked back the sudden moisture in his eyes, seeing Xander actually pick up Annemarie and cradle him to her he realized how wrong he’d been. He inhaled deeply and past the scent of his own blood and the Bringers’ was Xander’s scent. He leant into the touch, shuddering slightly. “Xan.”

Xander nodded. “The one and only,” he murmured. He turned to look behind him, shouting, “Stephen!”

Another Bringer sailed into the wall with a crunch and Connor raced in after. “That’s the last of them, for now.”

Xander saw Connor's eyes narrow as he stared at Spike taking in the vampire’s battered body covered in knife marks and bruises, his collar bones and ribs sticking prominently out. “Stephen, help me.” It was an order not a request and it snapped the boy out of it. He heard Spike snarl as the boy reached for him. “Spike this is Stephen, don’t ask questions he’s helping.” He looked his lover directly in the eye reassuring him it would all be all right as Connor worked on the chains.

Spike didn’t know what was going on with the whole Connor/Stephen thing but considering the brat was releasing him and not staking him on sight, he decided to go along with it. He glared at the boy for good measure and then looked towards Xander; his lover’s body screamed anxiousness. Spike watched whilst Xander pulled off his jacket wrapping the toddler up in it to keep her warm, protected and unable to see anything as they left. Spike growled slightly enjoying Connor’s flinch as he tugged on the chains as they gave way. Almost sinking to the ground, his leg muscles too weak to hold up his body Spike was glad that in an instant Xander was there holding Annemarie sandwiched between their bodies as he supported him.

Connor looped Spike’s arm over his other shoulder having no problem supporting the vampire as he held out his hand. “Here, I’ll hold her, I can support him better from this side.”

Spike stared at the boy and then looked at Xander a thousand thoughts running through his head at the idea of Connor holding his baby sister; only a few of them were good. He was more then a little surprised when Xander handed the bundle over. “I need to be able to hold you better Spike and he’s right he can support both of you better then I could.” Xander’s tone brooked no argument. He knew and Spike knew deep down that Connor was right, besides they had to get out of there before Willow’s distraction stopped working.

Xander saw Connor glance down at the small solemn face in the bundle before pressing her against his chest, one arm wrapped around her in protection. “Lets go.” Xander urged encouraging them forward. Spike gave up walking halfway, his trembling steps were jut slowing them down; it was quicker to be carried.

Xander stared around him at the chaos they left behind, the dozen of so dead Bringers lying around on the floor and he winced wrapping an arm tighter around Spike, almost unable to believe he finally had his boyfriend back. He had to physically restrain himself for kissing Spike as the vampire rested his head against his. He desperately wanted to show Spike how much he loved him, how much he’d worried over him and he desperately wanted to erase the First’s atrocities to him but Xander forced himself to keep walking, merely murmuring to Spike to reassure him.

Spike smiled slightly as he leant against Xander. He ignored the blood and chaos around him and focused on listening to his lover. Even though they were literally walking through a mine field to get away he disregarded the dangers; he ignored it as they stepped over the corpses and Connor pushed Annemarie into his arms to fight off a straggling Bringer. He concentrated on his lover and child; he held the bundled toddler tightly against them as Xander slowly struggled with them out of the school and towards his car, Connor bringing up the rear. As Xander fumbled to unlock the car, Spike took the opportunity to lean against his lover. His eyes closed, he ignored the click as the car door opened and instead focused on the slightly fast but reassuring pulse of Xander’s heartbeat. Tiredness swept through him, he couldn’t even muster up a good growl as the door opened and Xander bundled them into the car. He gripped his lover tightly, purring as Xander reached over him yanking the car door shut. Spike knew he was too tired to be rational or sane when he felt the car start up, pulling away from the school with a screech. Under any other normal circumstance there was no way he’d let any child of Angel’s drive.

He hugged the tiny heartbeat between then as he listened to Xander’s, murmuring tiredly, “Missed you pet but it’s about bloody time.”

Xander’s laugh was almost the last thing he heard before he slipped into unconsciousness. He just managed to catch the, “Missed you too, Spike.”