~*~*~*~

~December 4, 2011~

Willow sat back with a sigh. "I don't know, Angel. I don't know how to figure out who it was."

"I can't. . ." Angel picked at the keyboard of Cordelia's computer absentmindedly. "I just can't believe one of my childer is gone. I just. . .I wish I could figure out who it is."

Willow ran her hand along her best friend's massive back. "Do. . .do you think it was Spike?" she asked quietly.

"No," Angel said softly. "If it were, Dru would come here. She would have told me. She. . .can't live without him."

Willow looked away, knowing that Dru and Angel had finally gotten onto good terms and stayed in touch. The brunette vampire would call Angel about once a month and tell her Sire about the adventures she and Spike would have.

There was a soft chuckle from the doorway. "After all these years - after being married to the most handsome man you know - you still carry a place in your heart for Fangless."

Willow's saddened face lit up in a way that never ceased to amaze Angel. She'd known Xander Harris for 26 years, having been Willow Harris for almost seven of those years, and she still managed to capture the look of a love struck schoolgirl being asked out to prom by her crush. "Oh, Xander," she purred, walking to her husband. "You know full well if he came in and proclaimed he wanted me, we'd have to invite him to our bed."

Xander wrapped his arms around his wife, kissing her softly. "And we'd enjoy every minute of it," he purred in Willow's ear.

Angel smiled slightly. The image of his childe and his two best friends pleasing each other wasn't a bad thought - one he tried desperately not to imagine, knowing that the inevitable hard on would follow.

Xander knew of Willow's feelings for Spike - had known since the fateful night a decade before when she showed up on his doorstep crying. He always told her he loved her, and if Spike came back, he wouldn't care what happened between the two of them, but only under one condition. He was an active participant.

Willow was thrilled with the idea, imagining that it would be incredible to watch her husband be fucked by the blonde vampire. . .or better yet, to be stuck between them as they both fucked her.

Willow grinned. "Xander," she purred, her voice dropping a couple of notches. She ran her hand teasingly along his chest. "I have this really heavy box in the storeroom that I need your help. . .lifting."

Xander's mouth grew into a broad grin. "Sure, Wills. Hey, Deadboy, we will be in the storeroom if you need us." His eyes twinkled, remembering all the times the vampire, or Cordelia, or Wesley, or Gunn had found the two of them making love in the storeroom.

Angel rolled his eyes. "You two are worse than you were when you were newlyweds."

"And yet you put up with us anyway," Willow giggled. "We'll be out in a little while. Don't worry about us. . .we have a lot of things to move."

Angel nodded. "I'll yell if I need you," he grinned.

~*~*~*~

Angel studied the computer, searching everywhere he could to try to figure out which childe was gone. The door opened, the closed. Angel froze, but didn't look up yet. The person who had stepped into his office was a vampire. The vampire felt familiar to Angel, but the brunette couldn't figure out who the person was yet.

Angel looked up, reaching under Cordelia's desk to grab a stake. He frowned slightly, seeing the vampire looking out the window. It was a man, dressed in tight fitting blue jeans and a dark navy blue tee shirt. His hair was long, brown, and curling at the edges. It looked to be soft. "Can. . .I help you?"

The vampire turned around, and Angel sucked in an unneeded breath. The vampire's eyes were strikingly blue. . .a familiar blue. The brown wavy hair surrounded a pale face and angular cheekbones.

Angel felt as if he were back in the 1800's, watching a young human by the name of William Bradley. "William?" he asked softly.

The left side of Spike's mouth came up in a slight smirk. "Who else, Peaches?"

Angel jumped up, running around the desk. He slammed into Spike, making the now brown haired vampire slam into the door. Spike raised his hands, ready to fight, when he realized his Sire was hugging him. "Peaches?" he asked softly.

Angel pulled away, wiping a tear from his cheek. "Sorry. I'm. . .glad it wasn't you."

Sadness flickered across Spike's face. "I wish it had been, mate."

Angel's non-beating heart dropped. It was that instant he knew who it was. . .who had been staked.

"Drusilla," he whispered.

Spike nodded silently, watching the wall intently. "She was my Dark Princess, Angelus. It was like the good days, before you got the soul. She loved me - all of me. . .even with the soddin' chip. I. . .went to Sunnydale, to tell Red and Slutty. . .I thought maybe. . .maybe they could use my help. . ." He ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair. "They weren't there! Did you know the Hellmouth has been closed?"

"For almost ten years, Spike," Angel said softly. "Buffy and Riley went to Colorado. One opened there. . .they are happily married, couple of kids."

"Is Red. . .?"

"In the storeroom," Angel smiled softly.

"She's bloody here? My Red Goddess is here?" Spike's blue eyes lit up.

"Shagging her husband. . ." Angel finished.

"Oh," Spike said softly, looking away.

"HEY! DEADBOY! ANY LUCK YET?" Xander called out through the office, walking out from the back. He was looking down, buckling his belt. He glanced up and stopped, his mouth dropping open. "Oh. . .I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had a customer." He laughed nervously. "That Deadboy comment was just a personal joke. . ." He faltered when intense blue eyes met his. "Spike?" he asked, stepping back.

"Harris? Did you just come from the storeroom?" Spike asked, a bolt of jealousy going through his body. She couldn't have. . .his witch *couldn't* have married the moron.

"Yea," Xander frowned. "Why?"

"Bloody HELL! You are married to Red?"

Xander grinned. "Yea. Great, isn't it?" He chuckled slightly.

Willow chose that moment to run around Xander and slam into Spike, throwing her arms around him. "Oh goddess, Spike, I never thought I'd see you again! I was so scared you were dust! Oh, goddess. . .you are still alive!"

Spike looked down at the frail redhead in his arms, up to Xander's beaming face, and then to the smirk on his Sire's lips. He was definitely confused.

~*~*~*~

"Oh, god, Spike, that must have been horrible," Willow whispered softly, shifting in Xander's lap. "You had to watch them. . .and poor Dru. . ." Tears filled her eyes. "Are you ok?"

He shrugged. "As bloody ok as I can be, Red." He looked down, picking at his jeans. "She's been gone a month now. A whole bloody month. I feel. . ." He looked up at Angel, who was watching him through wide eyes. Spike had just relayed the entire story of Dru's death, each agonizing detail after another. Even Xander was wiping away tears over Spike's loss.

Angel pulled Spike into another hug. The two held each other for a moment, before pulling away. "You can stay here," Angel said quietly. "I could always use the extra help. Xander's kinda a wuss when it comes to fighting."

"HEY!" Xander exclaimed. "I've helped you take out many a demon, Deadboy!"

Willow giggled and Angel smirked. "If you say so, Harris," Angel said.

"I *do*," Willow said. She beamed happily. "After all, I'm a Harris too, and my husband kicks ass. So there." She stuck her tongue out at the older vampire.

"Thanks, Wills," Xander said, kissing his wife's cheek softly.

"It's ok, Xander," Willow whispered loudly. "I won't let them know you are just a scared kid trying to impress Angel."

Spike's mouth dropped open when Angel started laughing. It was an easy laugh, but very much not like he remembered his Sire being. "Angelus?" he asked softly, his mind swirling. "Are you ok?"

Angel grinned, his eyes dancing in merriment. "Yea, why?"

"Well, you are. . ." Spike waved his hand, momentarily speechless. "Laughing. You aren't brooding."

"Life is too good to brood, my boy. I have my Cordelia, and Willow and Harris are here. . .Gunn and Wesley. . .life isn't that bad."

"You and the cheerleader?" Spike questioned.

Angel held up his hand, waving his fingers. A gold band glittered in the light of the living room. "Three years. I begged for what. . .two?"

"Pathetic. It was so pathetic. He'd buy her flowers, chocolate, whatever she wanted. He'd ask her every day, at exactly five o'clock when she was gathering her things to go home," Xander chuckled. "Cordelia, marry me, please?" He grinned, running his fingers through Willow's hair. "Every day, at exactly 5:02, Cordelia would answer no. Until that day she said yes. Willow was beaming, knowing that she was going to say yes. I think I fell over in shock, and Angel here. . ." Xander and Willow both started laughing.

"It was so funny!" Willow exclaimed. "He just stood there, blinking rapidly, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Then he was all, 'You *will*?' and she was like, 'Yep.' They were married about three months later."

"Been happy ever since," Angel chuckled.

"Dru mentioned that you were with someone, but I had no idea. . .and you had a bloody wedding and everything?" Spike asked, looking at his smiling Sire with amazement.

Angel leaned over his childe and grabbed a picture the younger vampire hadn't noticed sitting on the end table. He held it in front of his Childe. Spike gingerly took it out of his hands, a low whistle coming from him. "Peaches, you do the tux look well. But how. . .?"

"It was a gift from Willow - I could show up in photographs," Angel said, tracing Cordelia's face with his fingers. She was wearing a beautiful white beaded wedding dress, her face beaming at the tall handsome man beside her. Angel was looking at the camera, his arm around Cordelia's waist, holding her tightly. He wore a finely cut black tuxedo, fitting his form perfectly. "I asked Dru if you and her would come, but she said you were deep in the jungles of somewhere I'd never heard of at that point, and she didn't think you'd make it back in time." His voice carried a twinge of sadness to it.

Spike looked at his Sire with sadness on his face. Before he realized what was happening, the two vampires were holding each other, crying over a woman that had meant so much to them; had been a part of their family.

*~*~*~*

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