By bloody_vir

Hi all! No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. We're still working on this, and we have a new episode for you! Thanks for your patience, and I hope this will leave you jonesing for more. Believe it or not, the next part is done; we just need to beta it.

Title: Angels and Demons, Episode 19: Ambuscade Vital
Authors: cafedemonde and kallie_kat. Editor: dragonydreams.
Rating: The series will be NC-17 overall. This episode is NC-17 for violence, and graphic and possibly disturbing mental imagery.
Characters: Ensemble; pairings will continue to evolve. Currently they are Angel/Gwen, Willow/Spike and Annabelle/Gunn, but just like in real life, things can change at a moment's notice.
Feedback: Yes, pretty please.
Disclaimer: These characters all belong to various other entities. We only own the story, and seek no profit from any of this.
Note: We want to thank dragonydreams for the beta. And a special thanks to bloody_vir for the amazing Angels and Demons banner.

Previously on Angels and Demons: Willow has figured out how to get Fred back into Illyria, and after a visit with her parents, the UI gang welcomed her back happily. Drusilla's and Ethan's recent visit has everyone on edge, and Willow has shared with Angel and Spike the reason that Ethan is after her. Tension is building between Angel and Spike, and neither seems to know what to do about it. The announcment about a baby on the way has the gang feeling good, although worried about what Ethan and Dru might be planning.
Want to get caught up? Previous episodes can be found here

WARNING: This episodes contains graphic and possibly disturbing mental imagery. Proceed at your own risk. Seriously.



Cast:

David Boreanaz - Angel
Alexa Davalos - Gwen
J. August Richards - Gunn
Amy Acker - Illyria / Fred
James Marsters - Spike
Alyson Hannigan - Willow


Guest Star:

Danica McKellar - Annabelle Griffin


Special Guest Stars:

Robin Sachs - Ethan Rayne

Juliet Landau - Drusilla



The TV was blaring, and Angel was in the kitchen looking for a beer. Spike drank them when there was nothing else around, and as a result Angel’s 12-pack was dwindling rapidly. Three beers left; he’d have to go to the store again tomorrow, he thought. Spike certainly wouldn’t do it.

He headed back into the living room, beer in hand. And there was Spike, sitting in his seat on the couch, holding the remote. Angel frowned. “I’m watching that.”

Spike looked over his shoulder and smirked. “You *were* watching that, you mean. Now we’re gonna watch something good.”

“No, I mean I’m still watching that. Give me that.” He moved to block Spike’s view, his hand held out for the remote.

“Ghost Hunters?” Spike laughed, eyes twinkling with amusement. “You’re watching that rot?”

“Hey, it’s not rot. Well, sometimes it’s not.” Angel had discovered the show a couple of months ago. He wasn’t an avid fan, but every once-in-a-while he’d watch. He had the silly hope that someday he’d see Dennis on the show. Now that Cordelia was gone, the ghost was probably alone again, and he wondered whether he’d gone back to scaring his tenants or trying to get along with them.

Thinking of Cordelia brought that familiar pang of regret, and he shifted his thoughts elsewhere, his attention back on Spike. “Point is, I’m watching it, and you can either sit here and watch it, too, or go...away. Wherever the hell it is you go when you’re not harassing me.”

Tired of listening to Angel, Spike tossed the remote back at him. “Not moving, though.”

Angel figured winning half the battle with Spike was better than nothing, so he sat down on the recliner and stretched out.

“What time is it?” he asked the blond.

“Little after four. Why?”

Angel frowned. “Gwen went shopping...”

“She’s been known to do that on occasion,” Spike agreed.

“Said she’d be home by four. While it was still light. I wonder where she is.”

Spike shrugged. “Don’t think she’s called, not that I know of. Try her cell phone?”

It was a good idea, so Angel fished his phone out of his pants pocket and pressed her number, waiting impatiently for her to pick up.

It rang several times before going to her voicemail.

“Hey Gwen, it’s me. It’s after four and I’m just wondering where you are. I’ll try again.” He pressed END then hit TALK again, frowning as it rang and rang.

“She’s probably deep in the mall, or in a store where the reception’s bad. Give it a few and call back,” Spike suggested, lifting the beer from Angel’s fingers smoothly while the other man was distracted. He got one sip in, before Angel snatched it back.

“Hey, I don’t know where you lips have been.” Glaring, he wiped the mouth of the bottle with his sleeve.

Spike smirked. “Oh, the problem is you know exactly where my mouth has been.”

The chirping of Angel’s cell phone cut off any answer he had for that. He glanced at the caller id, smiling when he saw his girlfriend’s number.

“Gwen, where are you?”

“Not Gwen.” It was a man’s voice and Angel’s belly twisted with a weird sense of déjà vu. “But she’s right here.”

“Who is this?” he ground out tightly. “Put her on the phone.” Sweat formed at his hairline and he felt a trickle of it starting under his pits. He was hot, panic hot. Spike was watching him closely, hearing both sides of the conversation, his own sense of dread growing rapidly.

“I would, however she’s tied up at the moment and can’t come to the phone. As soon as she’s free though…”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” He was on his feet, shaking, heart hammering. Spike stood and wrestled the phone from him.

“You have something we want. Tell us what we have to do to get it back,” he spoke calmly, eyes never leaving Angel’s tear-filled ones. He shook his head, daring him to cry, and those brown eyes blinked swiftly, coming to a determined focus.

Better, Spike thought. Angel could not fall apart now.

“Oh, it’s her vampire,” the voice announced, seemingly for someone else’s benefit. There was a shuffling and then Spike’s own heart felt like it was beating.

“Hello, my William. Isn’t the world amazing, pet? I can hear you and yet you’re so far away.”

Spike closed his eyes and shook his head. “Hello, Dru.”

Knees giving out, Angel sank back onto the recliner, trying not to vomit.

“I’m sorry I had to leave before we could finish our game, Spike. But I’m all ready now. Are you, dear?”

He sighed. “Yeah, of course. What are we playing this time, luv?”

Laughter filled his ears before she spoke again, this time in a whisper. “It’s your old favorite from the telly, remember? Let’s Make a Deal.”



~~~*~~~



Willow for Gwen.

That was the deal Drusilla laid out for him and he had to what…decide?

Dropping the phone on the cushion next to Angel, he took a few breaths before starting.

“She has her. And will trade her.”

Angel rubbed angrily at his face before looking up and asking warily, “Trade her for what?”

Spike ran his hand over his hair. “Willow. She must be working with Ethan. We know he’s after Willow for the Cartel.”

“When do we do it?”

Doing a double take, Spike’s voice squeaked out, “Beg pardon?”

“The trade.”

Spike stared at him, then away, jaw clenched, doing his best not to bite this man. “Do you hear yourself, Angel?”

Falling back against the couch, Angel hollered. “FUCK!” He peered up at the blond with red-rimmed eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“I know. Me too. We need a plan.”

“How long do we have?” Angel asked.

Spike hesitated, then decided to give it to him straight. “Until midnight. They’ll call back then, and we give them our decision.”

“And if we don’t give them what they want?” His voice was harsh, the unshed tears making his eyes shimmer again.

The vampire shook his head.

“Spike?” Angel prompted.

Spike heard the desperation in his voice and cringed, wanting to give him any answer but the truth. “Not going to happen,” he said, instead. “We’re going to come up with a plan and get her back. Anyone who stands in our way ends up dead.”

The words were comforting to hear, but Angel needed more. “So, how do we come up with a plan?”



~~~*~~~



Gunn had intended to go out with Annabelle, and bitched about having to cancel the date until he heard the circumstances. Willow and Fred were already home, so it didn’t take long before they were all settled in the kitchen.

“Dru and Ethan have Gwen,” Spike said, as all eyes shifted to him. “Grabbed her sometime today. Called just a little while ago, offering to trade her for Willow.”

“Willow?” Gunn asked. “What do they want with Willow?”

Spike gave them a brief rundown on who wanted her, and why. Angel, who had always been so strong and vital when faced with adversity, seemed to have fallen into a state of shock, and the vampire was calling the shots, for now.

Willow cried without making a sound, twin tear tracks racing down her face until they melted into her shirt. Guilt hung heavy around her, and she couldn’t even muster the strength to look at Angel. “It’s my fault. They want me, they can have me.”

“Not bloody likely,” Spike snapped. His voice softened and his eyes sought hers. “I said I’d protect you, and I meant it. We just need to figure this out.”

“So this is a brainstorming session,” Fred said. “We can do this. What’s the timetable?”

“They call back at midnight for our decision. From there, they’ll give us the time and place for the trade. We’ll tell them it’s a go—not that we’re going to do it, but we need them to think we will.”

“Right,” Angel said. He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, as if trying to come back to them. “I’ll take Willow wherever the drop is. We insist that Gwen is there. Once they have Willow, she pops back here and everything’s fine.”

Willow was determined to stay silent; let them think it was that easy. She knew there would be wards up to keep her from doing any magic, but she was determined to make this easy on them. Gwen was not going to be hurt because someone else wanted Willow.

Spike was eyeing her speculatively. “They’re not idiots. First thing they’ll do is find a way to control her magic. You were with them before, right? How’d they keep you from getting away then?”

“I was in a cage,” she began, her gaze unfocused as she remembered the way it had been. The demons had watched her constantly. There was no privacy for anything; even when she had to pee or defecate, they were eyeing her…or worse. “There was a dampening field that made anything I cast sorta just bounce back at me. After a while, I got the message and stopped trying.”

Spike was frowning, Fred right along with him. “How did you get away?” she asked.

“The field had to be electro-magnetic in nature to mess with the Earth’s own field, which kept me from accessing it for power. A girl—another prisoner, but she was a slave—she used to give me food and talk to me the few moments we were alone. Anyway, she flipped the power switch one day.”

Willow started to cry then, remembering. “She just…handed me two bananas and a Capri Sun, looked in my eyes then walked over and flipped the switch.”

Spike pulled her to him and she allowed it for a few seconds before pushing him away. “They killed her before I could stop them, but I got out before they could stop me.” She was staring into blue eyes. “I killed everything I could find.”

“Humans too? Were there people there?” Gunn asked.

Turning away, Willow shook her head, the red locks hiding her face as she spoke. “I don’t know, maybe. I wasn’t…myself, not completely.”

“Hey,” Fred blurted. “How ironic is it that the one person that could maybe break through any electro-magnetic field is the one they took? I mean any of us would do. Angel, Gunn, even Spike and me. Well maybe not me, but maybe so because I’m beginning to think that whatever Drusilla did to get rid of Illyria was all leading up to this.”

They were silent, considering that. “Didn’t you say someone tried to take Gwen before?” Fred asked Spike.

“Yeah, but we thought it was about some thingy she stole. Maybe the entire job was a set up.”

Angel turned to him. “What job?”

“She’s a thief, Angel. Don’t be a bloody idiot about it. She’s actually a huge step up, morally, from the murderous fiend and psychotic lunatic you chose before.”

“Darla chose me, I didn’t choose her,” Angel said, head hung low. “As for Dru....”

Spike sighed. “Doesn’t matter now. Point is, said lunatic has your current girlfriend, and if you want to see her again we’re going to have to figure out a plan.”

“Is there any way we can disable the dampening field?” Fred asked eagerly. “I know Gwen couldn’t do a thing now, with the baby and all, but is there some spell you could cast that would allow you to maybe punch a hole through it when the time was right?”

Willow thought about that. “Maybe. I’d have to do some research. I’ll also need to make sure I’ve got all the ingredients on me when I go, which isn’t feasible since I doubt they’d let me keep stuff for casting.” She wasn’t even sure they would use the same method to keep her restrained this time. Everything they were doing was based on conjecture. Sadly, it was all they had at the moment.

“What about one of those locator spells?” Spike asked. “We could find Gwen; you could pop in, grab her, and pop back out.” They’d done it like that once before, when they were fighting that demon who was sacrificing humans. Maybe they didn’t even need to put Willow in danger.

But Willow was doubtful. “If Ethan’s involved, he probably has that angle covered. He might not have as much power as I do, but he’s got a lot more knowledge.”

The look in Angel’s eyes as he clung to that small bit of hope had her changing her mind. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to try. Give me five minutes to get the stuff put together and we can do it here.”



~~~*~~~



No dice. When a map of San Francisco yielded nothing in the way of results, they tried a larger scale: California, then a map of the world, and still nothing.

“They could be anywhere,” Willow admitted. “With the head start they have on us, they could even have flown her out of the country.”

“Can Ethan pop her away like you can?” Gunn asked.

Willow shook her head. “I don’t think so. If he could, he would have tried it already.”

“Sounds to me like our best bet is finding a way to defeat that dampening field,” Angel decided. “Why don’t we work on that?”

“I think Angel’s right,” Willow admitted. “I just don’t see any other way around it. I’ve got some books in my room. Let me grab them and we can all take turns looking.”

“I don’t know if this would work,” Fred said, “but I remember in Physics class we did experiments on ways to disrupt the electro-magnetic field, and how effective each was, stuff like that. What if I could make something that recreated one of the ways? It’d be small. You could hold it in your hand, or maybe hang it on a chain. I think as long as it’s touching your skin it would be okay. What do you think?”

Perking up, Willow leaned forward. “How long would it take to do something like that? We only have until midnight. And what sort of stuff would you need?”

Fred smiled. “It’s not really complicated. I have a lot of stuff in the things that Wesley packed. I should be able to pull it off. Which is probably good,” she added, “since they might be watching the building.”

“Whatever you need, just let me know,” Willow said. “If you realize you need something else, I can teleport and get it. If anyone’s watching the place, they won’t even know.”

Spike frowned, his eyes on Willow. “We’ll pop out and get it, pet. Not letting you out of my sight until we know you’re safe.” He hated the idea of teleporting, but he hated the alternative more.

She took comfort from his commitment to her and from his hand as he held hers. But a nagging doubt remained: would she ever be truly safe, as long as she held the power to disable the Slayer army?



~~~*~~~



Gwen’s back was aching, and more than usual. She shifted her weight, wanting to work out the pain with the stretching exercises that her obstetrician had shown her on her last visit. Raising her arms, the motion was stalled suddenly and she opened her eyes, coming fully awake as several things became apparent:

1) she wasn’t home in her warm bed
2) her hands were tied and …
3) she was fucked.

The urge to start screaming for help shot through her, a rocket cutting across the vast emptiness of space, but she kept quiet, her ears straining to pick up any sounds. Where she was could be loosely defined as a room. The walls were Plexiglas, giving her a view of the larger room in which she was imprisoned. A box within a box. She rolled her eyes and struggled to a sitting position

“Somebody’s intel is out of date,” she muttered, wincing as her head pounded. She didn’t remember getting hit, but was certain they must have knocked her out somehow. It was all fuzzy and her brain felt spongy and squishy.

The door to the outer room opened and a man stepped inside, tall, somewhat lanky, older but oddly attractive. She hated him instantly.

“I see you’re awake.”

The voice was the same as the guy from the van. She didn’t bother speaking.

“Can I get you anything to eat? Your current condition is rather delicate and I don’t want Angel to think we’ve mistreated you during your stay.”

Well, if she could believe this man, then he didn’t intend to hurt her…maybe. Or perhaps he was just playing some mind game with her. Yet the mention of food seemed to ignite the need and her stomach growled, the baby rolled, and she found herself nodding.

That brought a smile to his thin lips and he seemed pleased. “Of course, I’ll only be a moment.” He turned and stepped out the room, leaving the door partially opened with his leg serving as a doorstop. He came back into view and Gwen favored him with her back.

“Where am I?” She didn’t expect an answer, but it never hurt to ask.

She heard the rattle of metal, and a scraping sound. When she turned around, he was pushing a metal tray through a small hole in the lower wall. The thought occurred to her that she could try to grab him through the small opening, but she discarded it almost immediately. Even if she did manage to grab his arm and pull it back into her cage, what was the point? It wouldn’t gain her anything.

He snapped the small door shut, securing it with a padlock, while Gwen surveyed his offering. An apple, a cheese sandwich, and a juice box. She wondered if they were drugged. Then again, anyone with the bucks to construct this Plexiglas hell probably also had the money to put together an air system that would pump drugs into her air supply at will. Might as well eat, she decided. Her stomach rumbled again, reinforcing her decision.

Her captor remained standing, watching her eat without much interest. “You’re safe. And as long as you do what we tell you, you’ll stay safe.”

Something about the detached nature of his voice told Gwen that the implied threat was not an idle one. She shivered, pulling the blanket tighter, then picked up the apple and took a bite.

‘Pull yourself together,’ she thought. ‘You’re a smart woman; just because the power isn’t flowing doesn’t mean you’re defenseless. You’ve got a brain. Use it.’

“What do you hope to accomplish by kidnapping me?” she asked. “If you want me to do a job for you, there are better ways of hiring me.” It was a shot in the dark, but in her line of work sometimes people came up with unique ways of arranging meetings.

He laughed, and she knew she’d guessed wrong. Raising her eyebrows, she looked at him, feigning casual as she took another bite of the apple.

“You’re simply a means to an end, Ms. Raiden. As soon as Angel hands over the witch, you’ll be free to go.”

“Willow? Why? What’s your beef with her?”

He smiled smugly at her, the hint of cruelty in his eyes making her want to move to the opposite side of the room, but she held her ground.

“Ms. Rosenberg never told you about her past? How interesting.”

“Since I don’t know who you are, I can’t really say whether she’s mentioned you.”

He nodded, as if complimenting her good sense, then began pacing as he lectured. “I represent a Cartel. A large group of demons with a common interest.”

Gwen frowned. In her experience, demons didn’t play well together. “What sort of interest?”

“Survival.” He stopped and looked at her. “It doesn’t get any more basic than that, does it?”

A quick nod of her head signaled her agreement. “I still don’t get the interest in Willow.”

“Demons only have one natural enemy. I’m sure you can tell me what it is.”

She didn’t say anything; instead, she tore off a corner of the sandwich and popped it into her mouth.

“Slayers, Ms. Raiden. Slayers are the natural enemy of demons everywhere. Used to be, there was only one. A demon or a mage could fly below the radar and never fear retribution. But now? Hundreds of Slayers. They’re slaughtering the demons. Imposing their own rules and insisting the supernatural world follow their lead.”

Gwen remembered hearing about how Willow activated all the Slayers. She thought she knew now where this was headed. “So, all this is about revenge? You’ve gone to all this trouble just to get even?”

“You think we’d do all this just for revenge? Well, yes, I’m sure some of my employers will partake in that—they’re demons, after all. But first and foremost, this is about making things the way they were. Returning life to what it was. ONE Slayer. One girl in all the world. That’s the way it should be, and when we’re done with Ms. Rosenberg, that’s the way it will be again.”

“And when you’re done. What happens to me?”

He came close and leaned his hip against the glass. “You and baby Angel will live happily ever after.” With a nod, he pushed off and slipped out through the door to the rest of the world and Gwen was left with a vague sense of someone walking over her grave.



~~~*~~~



“I don’t want you to do this. You know that.”

Spike stood in her doorway, arms crossed. She waved him inside and he closed the door behind him. “I know. I’m sorry. I have to go. Even if we can’t come up with a plan, I have to. They’ll kill Gwen, do terrible things…” she stopped, her words choked off.

“What happened to you there?”

She shook her head. Talking about it wasn’t going to help her feel better, not when she was most likely about to relive it all again anyway.

“Why don’t you just do it then?” he asked, swooping down to sit next to her on the bed.

“What? I don’t even know if it’s possible, although probably it is. But I can’t, Spike. Those girls would just be normal girls again, and they wouldn’t know it.”

Spike closed his eyes, picturing the carnage, not completely turned off. “What if we warned them first?” he tried again. There had to be another way to save them both. Angel, as much as he cared about Willow, was going to be a mess if something happened to Gwen or that baby. What they needed was a break, a year of peace and quiet. Spike was sick of being caught in the crossfire of the truly fucked.

There was a quick knock on the door then it was opened, Fred bouncing in. “Sorry,” she pouted when she saw them talking then added more cheerfully, “I think it’s ready.”

Willow glanced at her clock. It was only a little after eight. “Maybe we should test it.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but I’m not sure how to do that. Technically, we don’t have a dampened field so I can’t gauge the results accurately.” She handed the device to Willow. “I put it on an earring. You just have to turn the little gem counterclockwise and that will activate it.”

Willow turned the pink stone as instructed and let her eyes fall from focus, seeing differently. The natural electro-magnetic field of the earth was quivering, disrupted to a certain degree by the waves coming from her little earring. She wasn’t certain, but it was better than nothing.

Jumping up, she shouted. “The baby!”

Spike grabbed her before she could run past him. “What’s wrong with the baby?” he growled, shaking her a little too hard.

“Nothing, nothing! Well, I don’t know, but…I tried to find Gwen. What if Ethan isn’t blocking the baby?”

She whipped out the maps.



~~~*~~~



Ethan had a meeting to attend, demons to appease. So far, they were more pleased with him than they had been when he failed to snatch Willow. He was angry about that as well. So close and no cigar.

Illyria rearing her blue head was something he hadn’t expected, although in retrospect the error was obvious. He had tapped into the subconscious of everyone with that talisman and well below Winifred Burkle’s lay the Godking. It had been a good plan, but he should have made sure the skinny little thing had been occupied elsewhere.

He glanced around the table then back to Drusilla, whose smile was more serene than a vampire had a right to be. This little adventure could not end too soon for him. Really.

She leaned over to whisper in his ear. “They don’t have the last word in this, Ethan. I do.”

He didn’t understand what that meant, but she was too close to his thoughts again so he made a real effort to keep her out.

“We give the girl back. If we don’t, the vampire will be relentless. He considers the baby…family,” Ethan sneered. “And you know how they are about their brood.” He didn’t care about the child itself, but was certain the consequences of killing the pair would be more than these demons bargained for.

“The future is already written in the stars above, dear man. There’s no need to worry.” With a long, graceful finger she tapped him on the nose and got up, heading for the door.

“Leave her alone, Drusilla. I’m serious.”

The words were a warning, his tone harsh, but the vampire was in her own world, as she often was. She turned back and gave him a smile and a finger-wave, then continued out the door.

Ethan sighed, his hand reaching up to rub his temple in order to dissipate some of the pain he felt there, like a sharp needle stabbing into his forehead. It had all seemed so simple in the beginning; she had seemed so easy to control. But as time went on she was getting more and more reckless, and he was starting to wonder whether he was going to make it out of this with his well-dressed hide intact.

Cutting his losses and slipping out was a tempting idea. If it wasn’t for the Cartel—and their very focused threats of death should he fail them—he probably would walk away. Since that wasn’t an option, he would just have to deal with Drusilla and hope for the best.



~~~*~~~



“Bingo!” Willow yelled as she watched the sparkling dust settle over the city of Hayward on the eastern side of the bay.

Angel ran over, lingering by her shoulder, and the others joined in, forming a semi-circle around the map.

Willow sounded excited, but right now all Angel could think about was Gwen, alone and scared.

He’d always been a man for action. Find the problem, diagnose it, deal with it and then move on to the next one. It was a system that had worked well in the past, but now...this was different. Now he didn’t have the power to simply rush in and fix the problem, steamrolling over everyone and everything in his path.

Now he was helpless. His humanity—his oh-so-important humanity—had left him vulnerable and useless. And he didn’t know how to fix it. He was dependent on Spike, of all people, to save the woman he loved.

He was angry, but the anger was buried down so deep inside, covered by layers of fear and insecurity, that it was unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon.

“...do you think, Angel?”

He shook his head, clearing away the unproductive thoughts. “Sorry, Willow. What did you say?”

She eyed him uncertainly, but repeated her question. “I said, do you think I should pop over to see if she’s there, or should we drive, or wait for their phone call, or...”

“You’re not popping over there,” Spike yelled from down the hall. “Could be a trap.”

“What if it isn’t?” Angel countered. “They can’t think of everything. Maybe they just forgot to screen the baby. What if Willow could teleport in, grab Gwen, and teleport back out?”

“Not gonna happen,” Spike said again. “We stick to the plan. They call at midnight, we meet, they release Gwen, and Willow goes with them. Once we’re safely away, she leaves them and we track down this cartel and wipe it off the face of the earth.”

Angel was fuming silently, the gaze he laid upon Spike filled with animosity. Their eyes met for a moment, clashing, before Angel spoke. “I don’t recall anyone putting you in charge. I say we do it my way.”

“And I say we don’t.”

Angel stood, looming over Spike in a way that used to actually make the blond want to obey. He usually didn’t obey, though, without the threat being backed by a severe beating. Now he just found it annoying. It would be vaguely amusing if the situation wasn’t perilous. “We should at least try, Spike. You go with her.” He glanced at Willow. “You can do that right?”

The pleading in Angel’s voice squeezed like a vise around Spike’s heart. The sound was foreign and unsettling. Angel was always in control, always confident. It hurt him to see him like this, weaker than he knew Angel would ever truly want to be, humanity aside.

Willow was in mothering mode, coddling Angel who allowed it stiffly, vision blurred as he looked to Spike. The vampire nodded.

“I’ll go. We’ll get her back if we can, Angel. You know I want that as much as you do.”

Holding on tight to the small witch, Angel doubted that very much.



~~~*~~~



Sitting on the floor with her back against a Plexiglas wall, Gwen planned.

Several times in her young life, she had gotten herself into and out of some sticky situations. Thinking on her feet was something she did well, and it helped keep her alive and out of jail on many occasions. A natural strategist, she always saw all the angles and played them to her advantage. For the first time, she couldn’t find the advantage.

The door to the outer room opened slowly, squeaking on its hinges. A young woman with long dark hair slipped in, blue eyes gleaming brightly in the dimmed light. She moved slowly, ethereally, soft cotton flowing gently behind her as she approached the transparent room that housed the captive.

Drusilla.

Wondering how things got so fucked so fast, Gwen peered skyward, whispering a prayer.

A thin-boned hand slamming against the glass made her jump, bumping her head against the surface behind her.

“We don’t speak to him.”

“Who?” Gwen responded, frowning.

Drusilla strolled to the left, her hand still on the wall, trailing lazily behind her. “Our Father who art in Heaven...”

“God?” she asked.

Stopping, the vampire fixed her eyes on the small thing in the cage. “No, silly. Daddy.” Her eyes dropped to Gwen’s belly as her smile spread. “You have a treat for Princess?”

That was easy enough for Gwen to decipher. Her hands fell protectively over her rounded belly. “I’m in here because one touch and I can fry your ass.”

Dru rounded the cage, coming to the spot where Gwen leaned, madness just a glint in her all-too-aware eyes. “You’ll fizzle and pop,” she whispered. “But don’t worry, pet…it’ll be our little secret.”

Gwen flinched. The one ace in the hole she’d had—her ability to defend herself—was gone. How Drusilla had figured it out she couldn’t begin to guess. But the knowledge that she had left her cold.

At a loss for what else to do, Gwen decided upon another tactic. When in doubt, appeal to a person’s sense of self-interest. Drusilla wasn’t a person, but there had to be *something* she wanted.

“Drusilla, why are you helping Ethan? What’s he giving you for this? Is it money? Because I could make you a very rich woman if you just let me go. Nobody would ever even have to know.”

The vampire’s eyes squinted as she watched her captive. “He gave me everything I asked for. I’ll get my family back. That’s all I really want, of course.” She slapped her hands together once, loudly and Gwen flinched again. “I don’t need your little pieces of paper with dead men on them. I just need my boys back.”

Gwen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She shook her head, ignoring Drusilla’s low-pitched growl. “Do you honestly think Angel is going to take up where you two left off if you hurt me or his child? He’ll probably do his best to stake you himself.”

Instead of the show of anger that Gwen expected, Drusilla stood up and spun around in a circle, head bent back as she looked upwards to the ceiling and beyond. “Princess has seen it all. The tears, the rage, but in the end it won’t matter. Do-overs. Back to the beginning.”

She stopped spinning and tilted her head in a way that reminded Gwen of Illyria. A hint of cunning darkened the edges of her eyes. “I’ve always wanted a sister. Someone to play with when Miss Edith is being bad. But you’d have to promise to always be a good girl. Bad girls get punished. Although,” she added with a sly grin, “Daddy does give the most delicious punishments.”

Gwen shivered, pulling her blanket closer around her shoulders. She’d heard hints from Spike about the kind of punishments Angelus used to mete out, and somehow she didn’t think she’d enjoy an experience like that. If she managed to live through it, of course.

She was desperate; what else could she offer this insane vampire? “What if I promised to disappear? You let me go, and you’ll never see me again. You could have your precious Daddy all to yourself. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Drusilla’s eyes narrowed as she considered the offer, then shook her head. “You’d never leave Angel. How could you? He’s left a little piece of himself inside you, and you’d never be happy without him.”

“I’d do it. For myself and the baby.” As much as she hated to admit it, that was the truth. Her sense of self-preservation had always been strong, and if that was what she had to do to make things safe for herself and her child, she’d do it, even though losing Angel would hurt so much.

“You want what you want. What he wants. What I want. What my Spike wants. None are the same. Everyone’s confused.” She shook her head at Gwen, rounding the glass to the side with the door. Easily she broke the lock and stepped inside while Gwen struggled to her feet. “I can make it all very clear.” Dark eyes stared, menacing and empty.

With nothing on her mind but escaping, Gwen rushed toward the opening, hoping her momentum was enough to get her past the slender body blocking the exit. Laughing, Drusilla grabbed her mid-stride, her hand clamping around Gwen’s neck too tightly and Gwen made a squawking sound as her feet left the ground. The next instant, the vampire shoved her and she was sailing backward, hitting the clear wall with a dull thud. She slid down, dizzy and in pain, and brought a shaky hand to her throat. A bloody trail stained the glass from where the impact of her head had broken skin.

Two booted feet appeared in her field of vision and she lifted her eyes to see Drusilla’s golden ones gleaming back.

“Now,” the vampire spoke sweetly, matter-of-factly, through jagged, sharp fangs. “Let’s see what my Angel finds so pleasing.”



~~~*~~~



Willow woke to something cold pressed against her head. The pain inside her skull was like a gong banging constantly and loudly. She wanted to scream but that would hurt too, so she settled on a long moan.

A cool hand cupped her cheek. “How do you feel?” Spike. His presence was reassuring and strange. She was used to him coddling Buffy when the slayer had allowed it. To have his attention was odd but undeniably nice. Still, her head hurt like it hadn’t in a long time.

“Feels like somebody got happy with the tap dancing on my brain,” she groaned, finally feeling brave enough to open her eyes. “How long was I out?”

Spike glanced at the phone by her bed. “Just twenty minutes. What happened, pet?” When they tried to teleport to the where the baby was, he felt like he hit a wall, but was fine. Willow, conversely, had been out cold, her nose bleeding.

“Ethan happened. Stupid ward,” she complained as she sat up. Spike leaned in and kissed her softly before pressing his forehead to hers.

“You had me worried.”

Willow smiled. “I’m okay….really.” The corners of her lips turned down as what she had been attempting and failed sunk in. “How’s Angel?”

Spike shrugged. “Worried, too. About Gwen and the baby…and you.”

“I’m fine. No need to worry about me.” But the world wobbled uncertainly before her, and she had to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder to steady herself.

“Yeah, right,” he said, obviously not buying it.

There was a gentle knock at her door. “Come in,” she called, trying to smile reassuringly at Angel, Gunn and Fred as they entered the room.

“Everything all right?” Angel asked.

Willow nodded. “I’m fine. Just hit a ward, that’s all. Apparently Ethan decided not to take any chances.”

“So, what now?” Fred asked. “Back to plan A?”

Nobody wanted to admit it, but it was their only real option at this point.

“How long before they call?” Willow asked, closing her eyes and gathering her strength. The unsuccessful mission had taken a lot out of her physically and magically, but she didn’t want the others to realize that. If Spike figured it out, he’d do his best to keep her from the exchange, and there was no way she was going to let Gwen suffer further for something that had nothing to do with her.

“Two hours,” Gunn said, looking at his watch to confirm.

It seemed like it had been days since they’d received the call about Gwen; Willow was surprised to hear that only six hours had gone by. At least it would give her a chance to get more rest.

“I could use a nap,” she said. “Just so I’m at my best when midnight comes around. Could you guys wake me up at 11:30?”

The others left her room, but Spike stayed behind. When she nestled down beneath the covers, he got into bed with her, his arms holding her as she snuggled against his chest.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said, as much to reassure himself as her. His hand absently stroked her hair, the gesture relaxing them both.

“I know you won’t,” she whispered sleepily.

It didn’t take long for her heartbeat to slow as she slipped into sleep.



~~~*~~~



“I don’t think you should damage her too much, Drusilla.” Ethan shifted uncomfortably, wondering how to stop her without risking his own neck.

Drusilla turned from her work to find him standing near the door to the Plexiglas cage, doing his best to appear casual. She smiled through the blood on her lips.

“Don’t worry. Angel’s going to hurt you no matter what I do. He never blames me,” she pouted, then faced Gwen, who was coming around and wiggling in her bonds.

The vampire was resourceful enough to use strips of her own jeans to tie her up, and even though she said some off the wall stuff, Gwen didn’t think she was at all crazy. She knew exactly what she was doing and how to get it done. She had her boys fooled. Gwen just prayed she got the chance to tell them.

A slap to her face brought her back.

“Shhh…no drifting away,” Drusilla warned, the threat to hit her again, harder, understood. Pushing Gwen’s knees apart wide, she glanced back at Ethan. “Do you want to play?”

He shook his head. “That’s very kind of you dear, but no.” Trussed up brunette was not something he was adverse to, but he liked them a bit more willing than the girl crying on the Plexiglas flooring.

Shrugging, Drusilla pushed her hand against the rounded belly, her lips curling up when Gwen screamed.

“Help me!” she yelled at Ethan, the agonizing pain and the gag in her mouth distorting the words.

“Ooooo!” Dru slammed her free hand on the floor, the sound reverberating sharply in the room. “I’m about to have a sister!”



~~~*~~~



A gentle hand shook her shoulder as Spike whispered in her ear. “Time to get up, luv.”

Willow stirred, lethargically, and for a moment her mind was a blank, absent of everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. She looked up at Spike, felt his arms around her, and a sense of peace filled her heart. “Hi,” she whispered, smiling sweetly.

Then everything that had happened filtered in, and sadness filled her eyes. “So soon?” she asked, frowning when Spike nodded.

Silently, she stood up and got ready. Spike watched for a moment before leaving her to finish. He needed to speak to Angel.

He found him in Gwen’s room, curled up with her pillow.

“Did you sleep?” he asked quietly, knowing the man was awake.

Angel twisted around and glanced at Spike, before shifting around and sitting up. “No, I just came in here a little while ago. I wanted to…I don’t know. Be near her, I guess.” He stood, shaking the blues off quickly, shedding it like a coat right before Spike’s eyes.

“Is she ready?”

Spike nodded. “Yeah. I feel like we’re sending her to her execution, Angel. I don’t like it at all.”

“I know. Me either.”

The door to Willow’s room opened and she appeared, wearing the earrings Fred gave her. Her stomach growled loudly enough for both males to hear it and she smiled, embarrassed.

“You should eat something. Get your strength up.” Spike hovered, all motherly and cute. She declined.

“My tummy’s all in knots. I’d probably throw up.” Off the terrified look Spike gave her, she backtracked. “I’m not gonna, I just…I can’t eat, okay?”

Angel stepped up then. “Just a little. You might need every bit of power you have to get out of there past Ethan’s wards. I don’t want this to be the reason we don’t you get back, Willow.”

She sighed, hating his logic, but knowing he was right…as usual. “Don’t you get tired of being the reasonable one?” she asked him, sullenly following the men into the kitchen.

Angel turned on his heel. “Make you a deal,” he countered, staring into her eyes. “I’ll stop being reasonable when you stop being so brave.” They shared a sad smile then Angel continued on his mission to get Willow fed.

Gunn and Fred were seated at the table. Gunn glanced at his watch. “Shit.”

“I’ll second that.” Pulling up the rear, Spike slumped into a chair next to Fred.


Part 2