TITLE: Anchor (Part 4/16)
AUTHOR: Kerry Blackwell
PAIRING: Genfic - B/S and X/A as on the show
RATING: R
SPOILERS: Through "Wrecked" on Buffy and "Dad" on Angel
TIMELINE: Imagine it's about six weeks after those episodes and the ones we saw didn't happen.
DISCLAIMER: All things Buffy and Angel belong to Joss Whedon, the WB, UPN, FOX and Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. I own only my genius (yeah, right!)
DISTRIBUTION: My site - White Hats - http://www.whitehats.co.nz (as soon as I'm well enough to code it and upload it) Any one else please ask first
FEEDBACK: Yes please!
THANKS: To Sarah for her editing assistance, and to Sarah and Ang for being ready to brainstorm with me when I begged appropriately.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I started this after seeing "Wrecked" and "Dad". My take on what could have happened next. It got totally Jossed immediately of course and since it takes me a long time to write anything, it got more and more AU as time went by. I had hoped to post it in the break, before anything _more_ happened, but I didn't manage it. Anyway, here it is. Just forget what happened after those two episodes and read my version. Please...

Half an hour later, Buffy was sitting in the lounge, cuddling the still crying child and trying desperately to comfort him. Her lack of success had her shedding a few tears of her own.

Spike paused just inside the front door, buffeted by sound and emotion. There was a miasma of discord hanging over the house, but that was nothing new. It was the sound that stopped him; the low miserable sobbing of a baby in distress, and under that, the softer sound of Buffy weeping.

He found Buffy in the lounge. She was sitting curled up on the sofa, looking no more than a child herself. She was cradling a baby in her arms, a tiny scrap of humanity that couldn't be more than a month or two old. Her head was bent and she was crying softly into his silky hair. The baby, Spike suspected, was crying more out of sympathy than anything else.

"Slayer?" he called softly. "Buffy?"

She looked up, her face streaked with tears, and for a moment she didn't even recognise him.

"Spike?"

"Who else?" He walked over and sat down beside her. "What've you got there, luv?"

She smiled, and Spike was stunned by the emotion in her expression. For a long time now, Buffy's smiles had been little more than an obligatory twitching of muscles.

"This is Rupert." She almost blushed. "Well, I called him Rupert after Dawn suggested William."

"You named your kid after the Watcher before me?" Spike sounded affronted, but inside he was laughing.

"Yes," Buffy said defensively. "And he's not my kid. I don't really know what his name is, but he needed one in the meantime. And I can't stop him crying," she finished miserably. "I'm a disaster at everything. Willow went out cause he wouldn't be quiet and Dawn's mad at me and he won't stop crying."

"May I?" Before Buffy quite knew what was happening she had been expertly relieved of Rupert and Spike was cradling the baby in arms that clearly knew what they were doing.

"Hush, little baby." Spike spoke in a low tone, not a whisper but a hypnotic, quiet sound. "You gotta be quiet for Mummy Buffy or Uncle Spike'll have to eat you." Rupert was quieting, fascinated by the vampire's voice. "Munch, munch, crunch," Spike promised. "Eat you all up, little baby."

He let his face slip into the vampire's features, and Rupert was quiet. The child waved a pudgy little fist in the air, trying to touch Spike's face, and laughed.

Buffy stared, surprised into suddenly remembering something. "He did that last night. Harmony went into game face and he stopped crying."

Spike looked up at her in surprise, letting Rupert grab one of his fingers and hold on tightly as his features slipped back to normal. "Harm? What's she got to do with the price of fish?"

Buffy shook her head. "And people say _my_ generation talks strange."

"Harmony?" Spike prompted.

Buffy blinked. "Oh, right. She was in Parkrest last night. She had Rupert and she was talking about auctioning him off to the highest bidder. I didn't like that, so I took Rupert and brought him home with me."

"And Harmony?"

"I staked her," Buffy said simply. "I don't like people selling off children." She gave him a dark look. "Playing poker for kittens is about my limit."

Spike laughed. "Good on you. She made for one _annoying_ vampire."

"She was an annoying high school student, too," Buffy admitted. "But at the same time she was kind of pathetic, you know? I was always too busy laughing to get around to staking her. This was different." She smiled down at Rupert, with such a look on her face that Spike wished she'd direct it at _him_ instead of the baby. Her voice went flat and determined. "No-one's selling Rupert to anyone, unless it's over my dead and bleeding body."

"We'll make sure it doesn't come to that," Spike said firmly, trying to push away the image her words had evoked. He pulled a face at the baby, and while Rupert smiled, he didn't get nearly as much response as he had in game face. With a grin, he shook his head, changing back to the vampire. Sure enough, Rupert laughed again. "This kid is weird," he commented around a mouth full of fangs. "Who does he belong to and why's he so special people want to buy him?"

"Not necessarily people," Buffy pointed out. "I heard Harmony talking about vampires and lawyers, neither of which technically qualify as people."

Spike tapped a finger on Rupert's belly, making him chuckle again. "Vampires," he repeated. "That's what I came to tell you. I dusted a fledgling tonight. He was going on about some cult of vampires who'd tossed him out of his crypt. Apparently they were talking about a Chosen Child."

"Rupert?" Buffy asked in a worried voice.

"Probably," Spike agreed. "I think we need to find out who he really is."

She nodded. "We've been so busy today researching the baby-looking-after thing, we haven't had a chance to make is as far as who-is-the-baby question."

"Better get onto it, luv. It could be really important."

"I know." She looked at him, still in game face, still playing with the baby.

"Eat you all up, yummy baby," he was whispering again, making Rupert smile happily. "Munch, munch, munch on little Rupert. You'll taste much better than big Rupert, anyway." He flicked a wicked glance at Buffy. "But Mummy Slayer might not like it if I eat you. Shall we be friends instead?"

Rupert gurgled at him and he laughed, his face sliding back to its human form.

"I think I'll take that as a yes," he said to Buffy.

"When did you get to be so good with kids?" she asked.

Spike looked vaguely embarrassed. "I had a little sister," he admitted. "Mother was sick a lot after she was born, so I helped look after her."

"Teach me?"

Now, he looked startled. "I don't know, Buffy. It was a long time ago. I've forgotten most of it, and they do things differently these days anyway."

"Help me, then?"

He smiled at her, nothing hidden in the expression; no personal agenda, no teasing, no trying to push her buttons. "With pleasure, luv."

"Anything yet?"

It was only five minutes since Angel had last asked the question, but Cordelia managed to reign in a snappy comeback and just shake her head instead. "No."

Angel growled and resumed pacing. If he kept it up for much longer, he was going to wear a track into the lobby floor. Cordelia sighed, wishing she could fix things for him, and went back to her web searching.

Five minutes later.

"Anything yet?"

Cordy was about to really let it rip, when she realised it hadn't been Angel's voice. She looked up from the computer screen, blinking a little, to see Gunn standing there. Angel was hovering behind him, trying not to look too hopeful.

She shook her head. "I'm working on it, but I might get more done if some people didn't keep interrupting me."

Angel had the grace to look a little embarrassed, but he didn't back off. She couldn't blame him really. It was his son who was missing, and she had already forced herself to stop imagining what might be happening to Connor right now, because it always provoked a need to run for the bathroom and throw up. She wondered vaguely if vampires could vomit. An anxiety induced bout of serious throwing up might actually make Angel feel like he was doing something useful.

But the visual was disgusting.

She forced her attention back to Gunn. "You?"

"Not good," he said seriously. "Frank Lombardi's out of town. Nobody seems to know where he's gone. My contacts have no clue. As far as I can tell, his two top men have gone with him and no-one else in the organisation knows where they went."

Fred looked up from whatever obscure calculations she was working on now. She'd found a way to turn virtually the entire Nyazian Prophecy into numbers and was hoping to find some clue to Connor's whereabouts in the mathematics. "He's the mobster? But he's only on the 'possible enemies' list."

"Looks like he just upgraded," Angel said tightly. "Can you find out where he's gone?"

Gunn shrugged. "Still trying, bro. But it doesn't look good."

Angel growled again, and Cordelia was torn by a conflicting desire to beat some sense into him and hug him until she crushed his ribs. She was saved from such an impossible choice by Wesley returning.

He was shaking the water off his coat, his hair just damp enough to be annoying without being seriously wet. Seeing him, Gunn grinned, despite the serious mood in the hotel lobby.

"Did it start raining, Wes?" he asked.

"About thirty seconds after you got inside," Wesley replied with a touch of tartness in his voice. "I'd say you got through the door about a millisecond before the heavens opened."

"Wesley?" Angel almost sounded polite, rather than like a vampire considering ripping someone's throat out. Cordelia silently awarded him several hundred points for self-restraint and, for once, had the sense not to say anything.

Wesley gave Angel a regretful look. "Nothing. People have seen Holtz, but none since Connor vanished." He shrugged. "For what it's worth, there's no indication he's _got_ Connor, he just left town at the same time."

"Not worth much," Angel growled. He took a deep breath, really looking like he needed it for once, and managed to give the ex-Watcher a much calmer look. "Thanks, Wes. I know you tried."

Wesley's fist slammed into the top of the wooden counter, the unexpected violence making everyone jump. "It's not enough, dammit!" His hand clenched, nails digging into his palms. "We have to find him."

"You will," Fred offered soothingly, but the expression on her face showed she wasn't convinced.

Cordelia decided a little positive energy was required. She didn't really have anything to offer, but she was an actress. She could fake it.

"Of course, we – " She broke off when the laptop pinged at her, indicating the arrival of new email. She crossed her fingers under the desk where no-one could see and pulled the mailbox window to the front.

It was a form answer, emailed back automatically to the anonymous account she'd set up a few months back, just in case a time came when it would be useful. She did a quick recheck, and sure enough, the second email arrived in her inbox, the subject exactly the same, the sender different.

"Lilah Morgan and Gavin Park are both out of the office," she announced. "I think there's a little gathering going on somewhere out of LA." She looked up, catching Angel's gaze. "What do you say we go and crash it?"

"If we knew where to go," he agreed sourly.

Cordelia smirked. "We will. Just as soon as Fred helps me hack into the Wolfram and Hart expense accounts. That'll tell us where our favourite lawyers have gone."

Slowly, Wesley grinned at her. "Excellent plan, Cordy. We'll collect weapons while you ladies do, whatever it is you're going to do."

He pulled Angel away, distracting him with a query about which hurling axes might be most effective. Angel's expression showed he knew he was being distracted, but was prepared to go along with it for a while.

That 'while' turned out to be almost forty-five minutes; long enough for Angel to start pacing again, short enough for Fred and Cordelia to feel particularly proud of themselves.

And somehow, the answer, when it came, didn't surprise Cordy at all.

She looked up from the computer to see Angel watching her anxiously. She swallowed back a sigh and shrugged.

"They're in Sunnydale."

NEXT