Recombination

"Are we there yet?" The sulky looking vampire asked taking one last drag on his cigarette before chucking it over the side of the boat.

"No," Wesley replied curtly, holding the bundled up Annemarie tightly.

"Oh." Spike pursed his lips and Wesley breathed a premature sigh of relief. "How about now?" the question came again and Wesley had to grit his teeth not to scream and strangle the vampire.

"Again, no Spike" He answered calmly.

"Well what…"

"No!" Wesley all but roared the answer, causing Annemarie to jump. Her small face scrunched up and his heart sank as she began to wail. He cast the smirking vampire a murderous gaze and stalked down into the cabin; over to Xander who was playing with the wheel, despite Wesley’s assurances that he didn’t need to touch it, they were on the right trail.

Xander broke off his pirate impression as the ex-watcher stormed into the cabin trying to calm the teary child. "Spike huh?" he asked cheerfully. "He gets testy on water, makes him nervous. Used to make me seasick but for the wonders of modern medicine." He grinned and plucked Annemarie out of the fuming watchers arms.

"Ignore him, he doesn’t mean it." He thought for a minute. "Okay part of him does, but I don’t think it’s so much because he’s still acting the big bad as it is that he dislikes Angel." He rocked Annemarie, whose cries quieted.

Wesley opened his mouth to reply when the voice interjected from behind him. "He’s right you know." Wesley blinked turning around to see Spike leaning casually against the door, a strange, almost thoughtful expression in his eyes. "I don’t like the wanker, and I’m not going into why." Xander made a disapproving noise and Wesley was amazed to watch an almost embarrassed and maybe a tad ashamed expression creep over his face. "Sorry keep forgetting about the kid."

Spike walked past the curious watcher to stand next to his boyfriend, surveying the child. He stared at her for almost a minute, his blues eyes thoughtful, dancing with some strange unfamiliar emotion. An emotion Wesley didn’t believe vampires were capable of, especially evil soulless ones.

To give her credit Annemarie stared just as deeply back at him, neither of them blinking in their strange staring contest; then Spike blinked, and smiled slightly reaching out to ruffle her hair, which made her grin. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about Spike acting out his anger or hatred of Angel on his daughter; he seemed strangely taken with her; although Wesley was unsure why. Maybe there was something in both of them that called out to each other, after all in a scary-almost unthinkable way they were related. Although thinking like that made Annemarie Spike’s aunt.

Wesley grinned slightly; oh that was a great thought. He could just see Spike’s reaction to that, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t had a hissy fit when Wes had tactfully mentioned his relationship to Connor but to be told the same about Annemarie would infuriate the vampire.

"Does she often do this?" Xander’s voice interrupted Wesley’s train of thought and he looked over, his brow furrowing to see Annemarie squirming in Xander’s arms, pointing insistently out to sea, slightly left of their position. Spike was regarding her with thoughtful eyes again.

Wesley moved over to the wheel, his mind running along the same tracks as Spike’s as he remarked about the bond between parent and child and sire and childe. It was possible that she was sensing Angel and Wesley was taking no chances. As he positioned the boat over to where she was pointing, she became stiller and he could see she was gripping Xander’s jacket tightly, her little fists white. A strange array of colours appeared on screen and Wesley blinked. "Solid contact, some kind of metal alloy and big." He remarked stopping the boat. He moved quickly outside, pulling on the mask and breathing apparatus. The two males followed him, Xander still holding Annemarie, whose terrified eyes were fixed on the water.
Wesley patted her back gently "Take care of her, I’ll see if he’s down there. If he is, I’ll hook up the winch and come back up. Then we’ll being him up." He pulled on the apparatus, pushing himself off the side of the boat and into the cold-numbing water. Annemarie whimpered, burying her head in Xander’s shoulder.

Xander shifted uneasily, "I’m not sure about this I mean won’t Angel be…" he broke off, not liking the look in Spike’s eyes; the fierce desperate look, half-hoping yet half desperately not wanting it to be true. Without a sound, Xander put his arm around the blonde’s shoulder, holding him tightly as Spike rested his head on the boy’s other shoulder.

Wesley tried hard to focus his breathing, but the sight before him made him want to retch. Angel lay, almost peacefully, within his metal tomb; cracks were appearing on his bone white face and his eyes although open were vacant. The vampire may have been undead before he went in the water but now it was as if he was completely dead, even his face lacked any kind of emotion. Wesley prayed it wasn’t too late as he hooked the metal winch onto the box.

He shot to the surface, almost giving himself the bends as he forgot to pause. He continued racing up, quicker than was good for him. Reaching the surface of the water, he yanked off the mask and mouthpiece gasping out a choked cry for Spike to start the pulley up. He managed to yank his trembling body up, out of the water and onto the deck pulling his wet suit off as he did.

As Spike burned open the sides of Angel’s coffin, Xander raced back into the cabin to lay Annemarie down in a corner and collect the blood he and Wesley had pooled to give Angel. It wasn’t much, 1 jar of pigs and 1 jar a combination of Xander’s, Willow’s and Buffy’s blood; something they had quickly pooled the night before and all had matching scars to prove. He shakily set the jars down, clearing the table for them to bring in Angel; he may have once hated the vampire, but that time was long passed and the desperation from Wesley and Spike was fast catching.

Spike and Wesley all but ripped the lid of the coffin off; Spike started swearing violently when he saw the zombie-type corpse that he had once looked up to. He grabbed the tools from Wesley; furiously cutting away the bonds that held Angel in. His hand, by reflex, swatted Angel’s from his neck as the vampire acted unconsciously in response to the removal of his bindings.

Wesley winced at the fear on Spike’s face at the easy way he had stopped Angel. "Inside now," Wesley spoke curtly grabbing Angel’s legs as Spike supported his head. Quickly the two pulled the vampire down into the cabin and onto the table. Spike pulled back from the table as if torn, looking from Xander to Angel. Wesley tilted back Angel’s head putting the pigs’ blood to his lips. He breathed a sigh of relief as, after almost choking several times, Angel began to drink.

Spike was caught between wanting to help his grandsire and wanting to get the hell away from him. The demon in him deeply desired being near Angel and was vowing bloody vengeance on Connor, the soul part of him was nervous and unsure and wanted Xander. As if sensing Spike’s inner turmoil, Xander pulled him into his arms, not so far away that his demon was panicked but far enough away to feel reassured by the feel of his arms.

Spike’s eyes were fixed on Angel as Wesley began to feed him the second jar of blood, the Xander/Willow/Buffy combination; Spike was unable to move one way and unwilling to move the other, he was surprised to feel small hands pulling urgently on his trouser leg. Tearing his gaze away from Angel he leant down to pick up the white-faced little girl, who snuggled onto him, burrowing as far down as she could. He kept her head turned away from Angel so that she wouldn’t have to see and have nightmares.

Angel’s eyes were still unfocused; his body twitching slightly, Wesley had no idea if the blood was doing its work. Angel was coming to the end of the second jar and showing no sign of recovering; the last few drops were taken Wesley grabbed his knife slicing across his arm. He felt Angel shift urgently, obviously needing more blood and as he leant over to place his arm over his mouth.

Wesley started as Angel yanked the man almost on top of him and began furiously kissing him. Wesley almost moaned; the inside of Angel’s mouth was freezing and not the most pleasantly tasting, what with the blood and not being able to clean his teeth for months, but it felt like heaven to Wesley and he eagerly explored his mouth, matching Angel’s passion.

At a shocked gasp behind him Wesley pulled back, jamming his arm into Angel’s mouth in replacement. His face was stained bright red in embarrassment, his lips crimson with blood as he jumped off the vampire shakily managing to keep his arm in Angel’s mouth as the vampire drank his blood. Wesley licked his lips blushing deeper to see the shocked and confused expression on Xander’s face and the blatantly aroused look on Spikes.

Looking down, still blushing, Wesley removed his arm from Angel’s mouth feeling slightly dizzy from the blood loss. "We have to get him back to the Hyperion, he’s freezing and they have more blood there." He reminded them grimly as he wrapped a bandage around his arm, whilst trying to steer the boat.

Wordlessly Xander moved over to him and took over binding Wesley’s arm as best he could, though the bandage went scarlet instantly. As Xander opened his mouth Wesley shook his head "I don’t know why…" he began.
"I do" Spike moved closer, still holding Annemarie’s face away. He stood back from Angel knowing the vampire would soon start sensing him. "Slayers blood, good healing and a great aphrodisiac."

Wesley groaned inwardly; so it wasn’t as if Angel had even wanted him, he’d tasted Buffy, wanted Buffy and become horny as hell and Wesley had taken advantage. He forced a smile and tossed Spike his cell phone, watching as the vampire moved further from Angel and began murmuring into it.

Xander dropped the bandages, watching Angel, confused and muttering to himself "should have killed you, should have killed you." Wesley felt the bottom drop out of his stomach "That’s almost what he said in the hospital when he tried," he said calmly ignoring the appalled look on Xander face "Fitting isn’t it?"

Xander cast a glance over to Angel and back to Wesley. "Man since leaving Sunnydale you guys have got messed up." Wesley raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to object. "Oh come on, it’s not as if we didn’t know that you had the hots for him, hell we knew you did in Sunnydale," Xander continued. "You stayed the night over Giles’s and I got there early to talk to him and you were, well vividly dreaming is the best way to put it."

He smiled at the horrified look on the Watchers face. "You didn’t have to have vampire smell sense to know you were horny and you were murmuring his name." The smile drifted a little. "I’m sorry Wes okay. Sorry we didn’t give you the chance to become as good as you have done here, sorry we treated you like a stuck up shit- which most of the time you were." He put up his finger to silence the watcher as they pulled into the shore; not noticing Spike had finished on the phone. "But god Wes, leave this place, come back to Sunnydale when it’s safe. Come and stay with us, we’ve changed, you’ve changed and we don’t blame you for what happened even though your other friends do."

Wesley found himself blinking back tears, something he hadn’t had to do in a while. Spike moved up behind him, handing him the small bundle of child. "We’ll take the kid, look after her until you can. If the twat there can’t understand and forgive and your friends want to play judge and Jury, come to us. We might be living on a death-trap but at least you’ll be appreciated," Spike murmured, he could see Angel moving around more, regaining his focus and he plucked Annemarie from Wesley’s arms.

"He’s better. Let’s get him to the hotel, but remember the drill right. I wait outside with the kid; Xander help Wesley take Angel inside then send out Red. I’ll grab the car and she can protect the kid in case Connor comes out. All in all should take about 5 minutes and the poof will never know we were here." Spike rattled off the instructions as the boat stopped.

Xander and Wesley grabbed a side each and supported Angel, carrying him to Wesley’s car and wrapping him in blankets. Spike sat silently in the back, hoping Angel couldn’t sense him or the child; he knew at least Angel couldn’t see them in the mirror. Annemarie was too low down and Spike had no reflection. He cast a look out at the ocean as they drove off, Wesley not even pretending to stick to the speed limit as he raced towards the hotel.

*************************************

"So you enjoyed hurting your father did you?" the voice whispered sweetly in his ear. Buffy stood up in satisfaction as Connor began to wake up. The young girl, Fred, had been surprisingly angry and vengeful in her tapering-Connor-into-unconsciousness. Buffy had been impressed. She’d been even more impressed when she’d knocked him unconscious again as he came too and began talking to them.

"They should be here in a minute." Willow quickly moved into the room, handing Gunn a couple of jars of blood and what looked like a vial of cat’s pee. She watched amused as he took them, wrinkling his nose in disgust as Buffy almost cheerfully listened to Fred rant on at her about, ‘not letting them know about Connor’. "It’s a healing potion, designed for vampires. I whipped it up while we were waiting." Willow answered his unspoken question "Just make him drink it and he’ll feel stronger. Just don’t ask what’s in it." She pulled a face.

Buffy stood in front of Connor, a slight smirk to her lips. "Did you think you could play us Connor? Did you really not think we could tell?" she asked calmly. "We knew before we even got here, seems you weren’t as clever as you thought. Maybe if you," her gaze swung to Fred and Gunn, "had let bygones be bygones and not acted so sanctimonious maybe you would have done too."

Willow nodded firmly in agreement. "You guys have gone soft, you need to live on a Hellmouth for a while and learn about friendship." She blushed, "Now I sound all sanctimonious." She looked towards Gunn and Fred. "But I learnt that I’ll never take my friends for granted again, and I’ll never forget that." Her eyes locked on Buffy’s, unhappy but sincere.

Buffy took a step towards her, to comfort her, but was interrupted by the slamming open of the hotel door. All four, non-tied people ran into the lobby watching as Wesley and Xander dragged Angel in, dropping him onto one of the lobby chairs. "He needs more blood," Wesley informed them curtly as Xander nodded to Willow, sending her racing out of the hotel.

She found Spike leaning against the fence in the hotel garden; she was slightly startled when he thrust the child into her arms and strode off into the darkness. The child didn’t object and Willow eyed her curiously wondering if she was used to it or if she trusted Spike to come back. Willow knew why he had gone off, he wanted to get away from LA as fast as possible and had even told the three of them that he was willing to travel during the day in the boot of the car, if it meant leaving quicker.

Buffy supported Angel as Wesley and Xander continued to feed him; Xander handed Wesley the potion and the man forced it down Angel’s throat, before the jars from Xander one at a time. As the last jar was finished they all heard a commotion in the office.

"Connor," Fred murmured racing into the office, Gunn hot on her heels. Buffy cursed, pushing Angel onto the sofa and chasing after them, she just made out Fred’s choked cry and the crackle of electricity before feeling something heading for her head. Swinging her arm around, she blocked it. Her arm reverberated and Connor was thrown back against the wall.

With a growl Connor got up and lunged for her again, Buffy held herself waiting to hit back but the blow never came. A deeper growl in her ear alerted her to Angel’s presence and she watched him grab Connor throwing him hard against the same wall. She turned seeing his white, cold face. "Angel," she murmured stepping back in acceptance, much as she wanted to punish Connor herself it wasn’t her place but if the little shit ever ended up in Sunnydale it would be a different story she promised herself.

She nodded to Xander and walked out of the office, noticing Fred and Gunn staring at Wesley in confusion as he did the same. She felt a ‘duh’ moment coming on. What did they expect? She might not have lived what had happened but she’d heard all sides of the story courtesy of Cordelia through Willow and Wesley through Giles; she believed Wesley had done what was best for the child. It was just a shame they couldn’t have saved Connor when he was an infant.

All three of them breathed an audible sound of relief as they exited the hotel, smiling slightly at each other though Wesley’s smile faded slightly when he saw Willow standing slightly nervously against the wall next to Xander’s car. Spike was half hung out of the drivers’ side peering at her and pulling faces at Annemarie to get her to laugh. Xander stretched out his hand. "Well I better get Blondie out of the drivers side before he tries to drive." He held out a hand to Wesley. "Come visit us as soon as you can, we could do with a demon hunter."

They shook hands, Wesley nodding half in answer to Xander, half in amazement at the honesty and respect he saw in the boy’s eyes. Wesley turned to Buffy who cleared her throat as Xander dragged a protesting Spike from the car, she smiled slightly taking his hand and shaking it too. "Xander’s right Wesley, don’t be a stranger okay." She moved off before he could reply shoving Spike into the back and jumping quickly in the front.

"Good luck mate, you’re alright by me," Spike called a slight smile on his lips before he turned to the side to finish adjusting the child seat in the middle of the back. Willow handed Wesley Annemarie and told him gently, "We’ll be looking forward to it and we’ll take good care of her until you do." she got into the car helping Spike to finish strapping the seat in.

Wesley leaned against the wall looking into the fearful brown eyes, Annemarie sniffed and he bit his lip to stop his own tears; she knew. "It won’t be for long," he told her gently as she began to whimper slightly, gripping him tightly and trying to nuzzle into him. He swallowed a lump in his throat. "Remember the stories I told you? You know that that was your daddy Angel right?" he asked softly, relieved to see the tiniest nod of her head. The lump in his throat increased as unshed tears pooled in her eyes, the pain and fear evident in them. "Well he’s going to need looking after and I need to sort all our things out before I can come down, but I will come down in a week or two as soon as I can." Her nose was twitching now and her face scrunching up as the tears threatened to spill over.

Wesley felt the lump grow, joined by a sharp pain in his chest. "I love you, Annemarie and I won’t leave you. You’re just going to stay with your Uncle’s Spike and Xander and their friends, Buffy and Willow." He pointed them out, trying not to look at the tears sliding down her cheeks." He kissed her forehead, feeling the pain in his chest increase tenfold, a single solitary tear ran slowly down his cheek but he didn’t bother to wipe it away. "Be good," he told her, gently handing her to Spike, who strapped her in after a brief hesitation.

The girls looked like they had tears in their eyes, hell Spike and Xander looked like they did too. Wesley didn’t even bother to force a smile; "I’ll see you later." He told them stepping back and clenching his fists. He tried to shut out the noise but as soon as he stepped back Annemarie began to cry in earnest, trying to pull herself out of her kiddie seat to get to him.

Willow was trying to comfort her but the noise was getting louder, Wesley couldn’t take it anymore. He met Xander’s eyes in the rear-view mirror and nodded. The cries got louder for a fraction of a minute before the car slowly pulled away. The choking pain remained and Wesley stepped back, leaning against the wall and blinking back tears. He felt hollow and numb, like the one good thing he had left had been ripped away. Until the car vanished around the corner his eyes remained fixed on it; he cast an unhappy glance at the hotel and was almost bowled over by a white faced Connor who raced down the street.

Wesley sighed, not caring what happened to the boy anymore, not caring about his old-friends, not even caring about Angel; all he could hear as he walked back to his lonely apartment and let himself in, was the pitiful cries of his child.