Acceptable Losses: Chapter 3 of ?
Title: Acceptable Losses
Author: fenderlove
Pairing: Spike/Angel
Rating: PG for this chapter.
Summary: Spike and Angel are making a go of it after returning from Hell in Angel: After the Fall. Unfortunately, being a single vampire dad living with your pain-in-the-ass boyfriend and Journalism major son makes Hell seem almost preferable.



Acceptable Losses.
Chapter Three :: Tea & Sno Balls.

Spike stared dumbfounded at the four young girls standing in the entrance to Angel Investigations. Had they just asked him about Slayers?

The tallest girl, a well-built blonde, stared up at him and asked with a Southern drawl, "You're Spike, right? I remember Mr. Andrew told us about you when you were being put in that ambulance."

Ambulance? Andrew? With the realization of what they were referring to, Spike clamped a hand down on one of his wrists, feeling the ghost of a sharp twinge of pain. Were these girls part of the band of Slayers that Andrew brought with him during the "Dana Incident?"

The four girls looked like they hadn't seen a decent night's rest in a long time. Their clothes were dirty, their hair unkempt. Spike showed them into the office, motioning for them to sit on the third-hand couch he had found.

While Angel and Connor sat in chairs across from the couch, Spike scrounged up something for the girls to eat and poured tea into a set of mismatched mugs. Angel found Spike doing domestic activities to be extremely appealing and had to force himself to focus on the task of finding out what had dropped four teenaged Slayers on his doorstep.

"We didn't want to go back with them," the tallest girl said, tucking a lock of her blonde hair away from her face. She went on to explain that they had indeed taken off from the group that accompanied Andrew when he had come to take Dana the Psycho Slayer. "We just wanted to go home..."

"But we thought that Monsieur Andrew and Monsieur Giles would come find us again," one of the twins added.

"You won't send us back, right?" the youngest said, her green eyes pleading.

Angel was completely taken aback, "Why don't you all start at the beginning?"

Daisy, the eldest at fifteen, was a former beauty queen from Tennessee. She was tall and slightly muscular, like an amateur tennis player. She had a polite and sunny disposition not diminished by months of being on the street. She told the tale of gaining her Slayer powers. Going on her instincts alone, Daisy had started patrolling, using her boyfriend as backup. Unfortunately, her boyfriend was turned and recruited into a gang of young ruffian vampires, and she did not have the heart to stake him. When Giles had come to speak to her and her family, Daisy had whole-heartedly agreed to go with him just to get away from her situation.

Reglisse and Pistache Millefleuilles were fourteen year old French twins. Their parents owned a patisserie and thought it proper to name their daughters after ingredients. The girls were short and Rubanesque, identical in every physical way with their matching bobbed, finger-waved flapper hairstyles. After receiving a visit from Giles and Faith, their parents agreed to send them to a special "school" so that the twins would learn to control their new super-strength. The girls were excited to go on what they viewed as an adventure, but it was not what they expected.

"It was so hard!" Reglisse said with a sniffle. "And the food was awful!"

Pistache tearfully pulled out a photo of two poodles, both chocolate brown, from her tattered purse, "They wouldn't let us bring Praline and BonBon with us!"

The twins clutched hands, sobbing softly, obviously overwhelmed by their ordeal. Their raven curls bounced as they hiccuped, trying to hold back their tears. Connor quickly handled them a box of Kleenex, which they accepted gratefully with little "merci"s.

Florence Blot was the youngest at eleven. She was rather lanky with big green eyes and straight, mousy brown hair. She was sporting a well-worn yellow shirt with "Cougars" emblazoned across the front. She had suffered a grave misfortune upon receiving her Slayer powers. During a friendly softball game, she had hit the ball so hard that, when it struck the pitcher from the opposing team, it caused the young girl to go into cardiac arrest. The EMTs had been unable to resuscitate her.

"My parents didn't know what to do... They wouldn't look at me," she said quietly. Her eyes were beyond her years, very tired and lost. She looked as though she were desperately trying to be strong, but the facade was on the verge of crumbling. "They seemed sort of... relieved to let Mr. Giles take me to Scotland."

Spike set the tea tray down in front of the girls along with some prepackaged snack cakes. Daisy and Florence practically inhaled the Hostess Cupcakes and Sno Balls. The twins lamented unhappily that the snacks would not taste as good as their parent's pastries, but they ate them none-the-less.

Daisy was on a third cup of tea when she finally continued, "It sucked being in Scotland, which where we got sent first. It was cold, and we didn't have any privacy. Like a hundred girls in a drafty castle!"

"We were all in the same training group, and we were sent to England to Mr. Giles' squad," Florence said, munching on another cupcake, chocolate frosting around her mouth.

"But none of us did very well there. We couldn't keep up with the other girls," Reglisse looked very embarrassed at that, "so they sent us to Monsieur Andrew in Rome."

"But then we got to come to L.A. when Monsieur Andrew had to retrieve that unfortunate girl," Pistache added after taking a huge gulp of tea.

"So you ran away in a strange city?" Angel asked, as Spike sat on the arm of his chair.

Daisy shook her head, "We just intended to go home, but we didn't have any money, and then we thought..."

"They'd come back and take us away," Reglisse and Pistache said in unison.

"We found your flyer last night, and remembered what Andrew told us about you and Spike," Daisy spoke, her hands wringing the end of her pink knit poncho. "And we figured that there's only one paranormal detective in L.A. named Angel."

"You'd be wrong there," Spike smiled softly, "Angel Gutierrez has been trying to get the trademark on Angel Investigations for three months now."

Florence leaned forward, "Are you both really vampires?"

"What do your senses tell you, pet?" Spike asked with a tilt of his head.

"Yes," she said, and then she turned to Connor, "but he's not."

Spike nodded, and Angel gave him a strange look. It was true that Spike had a fascination with Slayers though his reason for having such an interest had changed over the years. Angel had to admit to himself that Spike might actually be the best person to relate to these girls.

"So, if none of you want to go home, then how do you want us to help you?" Connor asked.

The girls looked at one another, none of them had an answer. They were each a long way from their families, thrown into a world with very real monsters, fearful of a shadowy entity that would come and abscond with them in the night and unsure of their own powers.

Spike placed a hand on Angel's shoulder, "Perhaps, they might stay with us at least until they figure out where they'd like to go? I could train them a bit. I helped Buffy before with the girls that were brought to Sunnydale."

Angel sighed, "I'm not sure if that'd be such a good idea..."

"Oh, you could train us?" Daisy looked quite hopeful. "I'm afraid that we didn't do very well with Xander's training... or with Mr. Giles'... or with Mr. Andrew's for that matter..."

"They send Mr. Andrew most of the hopeless girls to keep them out of the way," Florence added with an embarrassed expression.

Daisy continued, "He's nice, but he always had his video camera on us like we were just play-actin', and then there was that awful-"

"Faux-Buffy," the twins said with disgust.

Both Angel and Spike started at that.

"Faux-Buffy?" Spike repeated.

"Mon Deux, yes!" Reglisse practically bounced at the chance to gossip, "She partied all night long and drank and never had to do anything!"

Angel took a breath, "Why do you call her a "Faux-Buffy" exactly?"

"Because the real Buffy is in Scotland," Daisy answered, "The one in Rome was just a decoy... Though Mr. Andrew never explained why the real Buffy needed a decoy..."

Spike nearly choked on his tea, "What?"

"She liked to kiss this weird man she was always with," Florence wrinkled up her nose and stuck out her tongue.

"I don't think the real Buffy appreciated her doing that that much," Pistache mumbled.

"I can't believe that bastard Andrew let us galavant all over Rome looking for Buffy when she wasn't really Buffy at all!" Spike slammed his mug down on the coffee table hard enough to break the handle. "He could have at least had the decency to tell us the truth!"

Off the somewhat startled expressions of the girls, Spike carefully laid the chipped mug-handle on the table and with an overly cheerful voice said, "And that, ladies, is why you don't buy pottery from art students selling their wares outside the laundromat."

Angel discretely squeezed Spike's thigh, easing him down a bit from his anger. Andrew's deception did not surprise Angel, but he knew that Spike, though he might not admit it out loud, considered Andrew to be a friend. After all, though he had learned of it afterwards, Spike had not been present for the cold and callous way in which Dana had been taken out of their care.

"Will you train us then?" Daisy asked at last. "We wouldn't be any trouble..."

"I don't see what harm it would do," Spike replied, but got a sharp pinch from Angel.

"Where would they stay?" Angel interjected quietly.

"No offense," Connor said with a nod to the girls, "but they can't have my room."

"Of course not," Spike then suggested, "What about the office at the apartment? A few cots and some sleeping bags and they'll be fine."

Angel relented, knowing it was no use talking Spike out of something he already had his mind set on, "I suppose if they didn't mind being cramped together in an apartment with only two bathrooms."

"We wouldn't take up that much space, we promise," Reglisse said. "We just want to be real Slayers-"

Pistache quickly interrupted, "But please don't be mad if we're not that good at running or staking or... anything really."

"Everyone has to start somewhere," Spike smiled, "Even Buffy didn't get her first vamp on the first try."

Florence appeared surprised, "Really?"

"Really, she told me herself," Spike's voice changed when he spoke to the youngest girl. It became softer, and it reminded Angel of how Spike would speak to Drusilla.

All the girls seemed to brighten when they learned they had decent company in not immediately taking to their Slayer natures.

"There's only one condition for you staying here- you have to call your parents and tell them where you are," Angel spoke. When the girls had all agreed, he handed his car keys and wallet to Spike, "Take them to get a real meal and let them get settled at the apartment."

Watching them walk out the office door, Angel wondered what he was getting himself into. Connor began to clear the coffee table of the tea tray and empty snack wrappers.

"What do you think of all this?" Angel asked.

Connor laughed, "I'm thinkin' it's time I look into moving into a dorm."

"Don't say that," Angel sighed, "Though I'm not sure how we'll manage."

"We'll get by," Connor replied, "Do you think Spike can handle four teenage girls with superpowers without losing his mind?"

Angel raked his hand over his hair, sinking a bit deeper in his chair, "Maybe it's his way of making up for killing two Slayers in his past."

"Are you going to tell the girls about that?" Connor asked as he turned off the hot plate.

"I'll leave it up to him to explain it to them," Angel looked up at the ceiling, which appeared to need a second coat of fresh paint.

Just as he was contemplating what it would be like to have a household with two gay vampires, their son, and four vampire slayers living under one roof, the phone rang. The duties of a paranormal detective were never done.

To be continued...

A/N: The character of Daisy was originally created by sistercuervo.