Family Part 9

Title: Family Part 9

Author: Velvet Crypt

Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.

Spoilers: Um…total non canon.

Summary: A strange moment for Angel.

Angel woke to the most bizarre feeling. For the first time since his return from hell, he couldn’t remember where he was. For the first time in over 200 years, his first thoughts weren’t of a vampiric nature. He felt the soft bed beneath him, warmth seeping into him from somewhere. He smelled eggs and bacon. He heard laughter, male and female. He heard singing…Gaelic singing? For the briefest moment, he felt a surge of happiness. It was all a dream. He was home, in his bed. The cook was preparing breakfast. His mother, sister and brothers were in the family room singing.

There was no Darla, no death. No pain or guilt or hopelessness. Then he felt his demon howl in pleasure and he came completely awake, fighting an inner battle to keep it submerged. By the time he had wrested it into submission, a faint sheen of sweat covered his brow and he was panting though he needed no air.

He kept his eyes closed as he acclimated himself back to reality. He could still hear the singing, but it was not quite right. Some of the phrases made no sense. It was also being sung with an American accent, while one with a British accent laughingly interrupted with corrections.

The smells remained the same, but he finally placed the reason for the warmth against his side. He cracked an eye open and saw the littlest Harris watching him from her perch on the side of his bed. He opened both eyes and blinked owlishly at her. She giggled. Then she bounced forward and snuggled up against him, resting her head in the crook of his neck.

“Um…Ellie?” He struggled to remember her name.

“What?” she mumbled against his throat.

“Um, what are you doing in here?” And in the arms of the Scourge of Europe he added silently as he realized his arm had stolen over her tiny waist.

“Uncle Wil told me to stop sneaking bacon. He said to go check on you.”

Angel shifted so he could look at her face. “Spike is awake?”

Ellie gave him a look of irritation. “Uncle Wil” she emphasized, “ is cooking breakfast with Lys. They’re singing some weird song about she’s.” Angel looked befuddled for a moment and then snickered. Ellie looked offended. It was such a strange look to see on a five-year-old’s face that Angel snickered again.

“They are singing about sidhe’s.” He explained. “They’re like…I guess fairies or elves. They live in Ireland.” Ellie sat up.

“How do you know that?” She piped.

He sat up as well and leaned against the headboard. Ellie scrambled back up the bed and sat in his lap.

“Well, I’m from Ireland.” He began. “We have a lot of stories and songs about the sidhe in Ireland.”

“Like we have stories about vampires here?” Ellie asked innocuously. Angel froze momentarily.

“You know about vampires?” He asked carefully.

Ellie looked at him with a smug grin. “Uncle Wil is a vampire. But he doesn’t hurt people. He had a potato chip in his head. And he loves us.” Angel pinched his lips together to keep from laughing in the little girl’s face.

“Um, Ellie, sweetie…I think it’s a computer chip, not a potato chip.” He managed in a strangled voice. Ellie cocked her head, then shrugged.

“Whatever. So you know about vampires too?”

Angel nodded solemnly. “Actually, I am a vampire, too.”

Ellie’s eyes grew big. “Really?” she breathed.

“Really. I’m like Sp-Uncle Wil’s Daddy. I turned him into a vampire.” Ellie practically bounced.

“You’re Uncle Wil’s Daddy? That makes you my Grampa!” she squealed.

Angel got the feeling he’d just done something really, really bad for his reputation.

“I don’t like my other grampa and gramma.” She made a face. “They’re mean. And they don’t like us. So, you can be my new grampa!” Angel tried to get a word in edgewise. He realized it was hopeless as Ellie began bouncing on the bed shouting ‘Grampa Angel’ at the top of her lungs.

What the hell have you got me into now, Spike? He sighed, and lay back against the pillow.

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Cordelia raised an eyebrow as Spike pulled Ellie onto his lap and got comfortable. “So, princess, what do you need to know?” He asked, blowing a brown curl out of his face.

Cordy drew her attention back to the reason for their visit. “So, Ellie saw these bad things happening to her and her brother and sister?” Spike nodded. “And it wasn’t like a dream?” This time Ellie shook her head.

“I know what a dream feels like,” she said ultra seriously. Cordy met Spike’s gaze over her head and saw the blonde vamp hiding a smile. “This was more different. It was scary. Lys and Nate didn’t even see me. I didn’t see me either.”

Cordy frowned. “Could you hear anything? Smell anything?” Ellie got wide eyes and sat up straight in Spike’s lap.

“Uh huh! I could smell garbage around me and Lys.” She wrinkled her nose in remembrance. “I couldn’t smell anything near Nate, but I heard other boys yelling through the walls.” Cordy tapped her finger against her chin in thought.

“Well, it sounds like a vision. Visions tend to use more of the senses than just sight. They incorporate smells and sounds that a regular dream doesn’t have. Now about coming out of it…” She turned her dark gaze on Spike. “From everything I’ve researched and experienced, you can’t just stop a vision. You have to ride it out.”

“But you say you broke into the vision and pulled Ellie out?” Spike shrugged.

“Dunno. I made her look at me. I felt dizzy. She was just staring through me one second, and the next…she was back.”

Cordy shook her head thoughtfully. “No, you pulled her out. When you have a vision, you can’t see anything in the here and now. Just what the vision shows you. It sounds like something you did shoved the vision away and then she could see you. Have you ever done anything like that before?”

Spike shook his head and absently twirled one of Ellie’s curls around his finger. “Dru was always the one who did the mind games. She could hypnotize you into her eyes and do pretty much anything she wanted to you. Could make you see things, too. I never knew how she did it. Never really cared. I was always more of the…physical component of the relationship.” He edited his speech glancing down at the little girl.

“Do all vampires have the ability to do it and you just never learned?”

Another shrug. “I never met another one. I always thought it was cause Dru was touched in the head.

Cordy rolled her eyes. “Dru was nutty as a fruitcake.”

Spike shook a finger at her. “Watch it, princess. That was the love of my life for nearly 100 years.”

Cordy grinned.

“So, what can you tell us about this then?” He asked.

Cordelia’s smile slipped from her face to be replaced by a look of concern. “I really can’t tell you. It doesn’t feel like she’s touched by the Powers That Be, but I could be wrong. I always have visions about demons hurting humans, or great evil. So far, she’s only had the one; and it was about her and her family. I’ve never had one about myself.”

“Could be that her visions are tied in to this pentacle bond you all have together. I can’t be certain until she has another one.”

Spike looked decidedly upset at the idea of Ellie having another episode like the last one, and Cordy reached over and patted his leg. “We’ll stay until we get this fixed, Spike. I promise.”

He gave her a worried smile and began tickling Ellie, breaking the seriousness of the moment.

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“Spike, I’m going patrolling tonite. Wanna come with?” Buffy asked as she vaulted over the back of the couch to land at his side. Spike quickly lost Ellie’s attention as Buffy handed the little girl a cookie and stuffed another into her own mouth. Ellie scampered off before her uncle could chastise her for eating before lunch.

Spike rolled his eyes at the grin Buffy gave him. “I dunno, Slayer. I kinda think I should be here in case Ellie has another vision.” Cordelia’s brain took a moment to realize that Buffy actually looked disappointed.

“Um, I can watch her.” She heard herself offering. “And Wes and Giles will be here, right?”

Buffy perked up. “Right! They’re discussing some Hellmouthy slash LA thingy and just started on the dusty tomes. And Lys, Nate and Dawn are going to the movies with Will and Tara. Hey! Xander can keep Cordy company. I’m sure they have tons of stuff to talk about”

She gave Spike a pleading look. “Pleeeeaaaase?” She wheedled.

Spike heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. But I know I’m going to regret this.”

Buffy squealed and hopped back over the couch. Cordy looked suspiciously at Spike.

“Excuse me for mentioning this, but doesn’t Buffy hate you?” Spike grinned.

“Mostly.”

“Then why is she so eager to go patrolling with you…alone?”

A snicker came from the blonde vamp. “She’s being stalked by a vampire.”

Cordy gasped. “Oh my God, like Angelus?”

Spike shook his head. “Naw. Not even close. Not really scary at all, actually.”

The girl looked confused. “So why doesn’t she just slay him and get it over with?”

Spike leaned in conspiritally and eyed the empty room before whispering, “He’s in love with her.”

Cordy snorted and covered her mouth quickly.

“He was modern artist before he was turned. He follows her around giving her flowers, candy, and horrible unrecognizable paintings and sculptures of her.” He leaned back. “He’s apparently ‘too sweet’ to stake. SO, she hauls me along for the ride and pretends we’re an item so he won’t pester her for ‘just one kiss’.”

“What is it with Buffy and vampires falling in love with her?” Cordy laughed. “Speaking of vamps who’ve been in love with her, have you seen Angel lately?”

Spike stood and held out a hand. With only a second of hesitation, she took it and let him lead her into his and Xander’s room. Angel sat cross-legged on Spike’s bed, toys scattered all over the floor and over Xander’s bed. He had Ellie in his lap and was reading to her from a fairy tale book.

The little girl alternately looked down at the pictures and up at Angel’s face with a tiny smile on her face. Cordy gave a small sigh at the picture they made. Angel looked up, startled. He got a sheepish grin on his face and he shrugged, going back to the story.

Moments later, he closed the book and kissed Ellie on the top of the head. “Come on, breagha, lunch time.”

“But I’m not hungry, Grampa Angel.” She whined. Angel tut-tutted her.

“You should have thought about that before eating the cookie Buffy gave you.”

“But she was eating one too!”

“And if Buffy ran out to play in traffic would you follow her?”

Ellie just crossed her arms and stuck her lower lip out.

Angel just hoisted Ellie into his arms and pushed past his secretary and his childe, deliberately ignoring their snickers.

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