Summary: Angel’s
dirty little
secret is exposed!
**********
“I can’t believe this is happening!” Xander angrily paced around the
room. “I
can’t believe you let this happen!”
Spike bristled. “Don’t yell at me! It’s not my fault the bleedin’ Poof
ditched
me!”
Xander stopped in his pacing to stare at the blonde vampire. “Ditched
you!?
Spike, I know you’re not the sharpest crayon in the box, but how hard
is it to
keep tabs on a six foot dead guy?”
Spike opened his mouth to offer a scathing retort but Oz intervened.
“Guys, why don’t you two just calm down and tell us what happened.” The
guitarist said indicating the other two occupants in the hotel’s small
conference room. Doyle and Wesley glanced at each other, unsure of what
this
emergency meeting was exactly about and why it was being done so
clandestinely.
The peroxide vampire turned back to Xander. “You know this is all your
fault
for putting me into a position of responsibility in the first place.”
“What else could I do? I couldn’t look after him!” Xander said
defensively.
Spike snorted in derision.
“Oh what, you think I wanted this job?” The teenager looked at him
incredulously.
“Do you have any idea how much stuff the Best Man has to do?” Xander
let out a
weary sigh. “You know, if Cornfed wasn’t so damn honest and upstanding,
I would
think he was trying to punish me.”
Spike folded his arms obstinately. “Well, this is still your fault. You
knew
this would be hard for Angel. I don’t know why did you even let him
come?”
Xander rolled his eyes. “And, how exactly was I supposed to stop him?”
“You could have chained him to the bed.” The vampire stated frankly.
“I would never do something like that!” Xander frowned. “’Sides, I
couldn’t
find them.”
The vampire looked at him quizzically. “The chains?”
“Nope.”
“Restraints?”
“Nada.”
Spike looked dumbfounded. “What about the manacles I got the two of you
for
Christmas?”
“Gone. He hid all of them.”
Oz’s eyebrows had steadily risen at the conversation. “What exactly is
going
on?”
“Spike lost Angel.” Xander said, giving the blonde vampire an evil
look.
“I didn’t loose him.” Spike said caustically.
Doyle held up his hands to try and stave off another argument. “What do
you
mean Spike lost Angel?”
The answer to the half demon was lost as Graham and Forrest walked into
the
room.
“Anything to report?” Xander asked.
Forrest nodded his head slightly. “There’s no sign of the corpse, but
we found
three empty whiskey bottles near the south entrance to the pool.”
“Doesn’t mean anything. It might not have been him.” Wesley stated.
“Just
because we’re at. . .”
Doyle, Xander, and Spike looked at each other. “It’s him.” They
announced in
unison.
Forrest began to pace. “All right. Let’s look at this logically. You’re
at your
ex’s wedding. You’ve consumed large quantities of alcohol.
What would you do?”
“Take the first pretty young thing I found and shag it senseless?”
Xander sighed. “Not you personally, Spike.”
Forrest rolled his eyes. “Let me rephrase the question. What would
Angel do?”
“Um.” Graham nervously glanced around the room. “He wouldn’t try to do
anything
stupid, would he?”
Doyle looked alarmed. “Like stake himself!?”
“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of disemboweling Riley.”
Xander thought for a moment. “Probably not.” He finally answered. “But,
maybe
someone should stay close to the groom, just in case.”
The other men in the room quickly agreed and was about to draw straws
to see
who got stuck with the Riley sitting duty, when the door violently
swung open
to reveal a very agitated ex-May queen.
Cordelia glanced around the room, slightly surprised to see such an odd
mix of
faces willingly sitting in the same small enclosed space. Annoyance
once again
regained it’s rightful place on her face and she announced with an
sigh. “I
don’t know what all of you are doing in here, but it’s the only open
empty room
on this floor and I need it more then any of you rented-tux boys, so
get out.
Now.”
Wesley rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong now?”
“What’s wrong!? What’s wrong?!” The brunette’s voice rose shrilly. “My
life has
become a nightmarish hell, all coordinated by little Miss
Really-Shouldn’t-Wear-White Buffy, and, to top it all off, when I want
to be
alone with my indignities, I find a room full of you people!”
“What indignities, Princess?” Doyle politely asked.
“Are you blind?!? I’m wearing pink taffeta, for God’s sake! And bows,
why the
hell does this dress have so many damn bows!?” With a deep breath the
errant
bridesmaid composed herself. “So, I am going to stay in here for the
remainder
of the reception.” Cordy unceremoniously flopped into a chair. “Hey
Xan, you
might want to direct Angel to this room the next time you see him. We
can nurse
the tattered shreds of our dignity together.”
Xander looked up sharply “Wait, you’ve seen Angel?”
She snorted. “Yeah, kinda hard to miss *that* on the dance floor.”
A look of pure horror passed between Xander and Spike as they uttered
the one
word that made both their blood, borrowed or otherwise, run cold.
“Dance?!?”
*****
The seven men quickly made their way down the main hallway, with Spike
and
Xander in the lead. The rest of the group quietly wondered what the
rush was,
after all they had a reliable lead on the truant vampire’s whereabouts
and even
an intoxicated Angel would not let himself get into trouble on a
crowded dance
floor.
Wesley was the one who finally voiced these opinions. “I’m not quite
sure what
the two of you are so worried about.” The men firmly pushed past the
double
doors that led to the ballroom. “I’m sure everything will be f. . .
Mary mother
of God!!!” Wes quickly removed his glasses. For the first time in his
life he
was thankful for the astigmatism that blurred the vision of anything
beyond his
nose.
Xander moaned as a shudder ran through his young body. He had only been
witness
to that kind of display from his lover once before. The boy still
carried the
emotional scars from the unfortunate incident.
Luckily for Spike, he had had over a century to get accustomed to his
Sire’s
unusual displays of. . . movements. He shook his head and was glad
Angel would
be waking up with *Xander* the next morning.
The other males of the extended Scooby Gang watched the elder vampire
with an
almost morbid curiosity. It was like a car wreck right there on the
dance
floor.
“Huh.” Oz carefully arched an eyebrow. “You’d think that in almost
three
hundred years he would have developed *some* sense of rhythm.”
“Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you.” Doyle swallowed convulsively.
A wild look came to Graham’s usually bashful eyes. “We’ve gotta stop
him! How
are we gonna stop him?!”
“I don’t know.” Forrest pursed his lips. “But we better think of a way
fast.
Buffy’s on an intercept course, and she looks *pissed*.”
That snapped Xander out of his thoughts. “Oz, Forrest - run
interference with
Buffy. Doyle, Wesley, Spike - try to corral him to a less populated
area.
Graham - get the tranq gun. We’re taking him down.
*****
Angel opened his eyes very slowly, millimeter by millimeter, until he
was
blearily peering around the bedroom of his apartment. With an audible
groan he
sank back into the covers.
“How are ya doing?” Xander asked, suddenly appearing at the vampire’s
side
holding a mug of warm blood.
Angel’s stomach flip flopped at the thought of absorbing anything, but
he
accepted the nourishment anyway. He took a sip and grimaced, then fixed
his
puppy dog eyes firmly on his young lover. “Xan, what happened?”
The teenager shifted uncomfortably. “Well, what’s the last thing you
remember?”
Angel frowned in concentration. “Um. . . the beautiful ceremony?”
“Okay, anything after that?”
The vampire pitifully shook his throbbing head.
“Right, well. . . you kinda. . . sorta. . . got extremely drunk.”
“That would explain my current condition.” Angel said morosely. He
stared
closely at Xander’s face. “Did I do something bad?”
“Well. . .”
“Dammit! I killed the Hayseed, didn’t I?” He buried his head in his
hands.
“That’s not gonna sit well with anybody.”
“No, no.” Xander said quickly. “You didn’t kill Riley. You. . .”
“What?”
“What’s important is that we all still love you.” The boy gave his
lover what
he hoped was a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
“What happened?” Angel’s voice was a mere whisper.
“You danced.”
The vampire’s scream of tortured anguish was heard throughout the
building.
**********
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