Title: Splinter

Author: Mera

Feedback: Do I even need to say anything? Do I look like a nut? I'm not one to pass on FB... though I might be one to take it at gun point... lusciousspike@yahoo.com

Rating: NC17 (sooner or later)

Pairing: Spike/ Angel (eventually)

Summary: Spike decided to stay in L.A. and work with Angel and Co. in Wolfram and Hart now known as A.I and Co. However, Angel still has a bit of a grudge towards Spike, for obvious reasons. Spike gets hurt... Angel is responsible in a way. How will that work out I wonder?

Notes: this is all happening in S5 AtS, Cordy woke up from her coma and Fred is Fred. W&H is now the Fang Gang's playground so... no Eve yay! You'll figure out the details when you read.

Disclaimer: the chars belong to Joss though I borrowed some... am going to keep them for sometime... give them tea and crumpets... maybe make them show me their sexy dance and if I ever get bored *snort* I'll return them. Oh *rolls eyes* and concerning the new gossips about the rating I must sadly inform that it is MPAA's. lol I just HAD too!!

Thanks: A big smooch goes out to falcons319 for giving me the name to the story! Not to mention the encouragement to finish it since she was the very first person to read it (even before me!*g* don't ask... lets just say she endured something I wrote off the top of my head without rereading it... she's SO brave! And told me she loved it, go figure!). Love you lots hon!

A somewhat response to Angela's Challenge later on: (the challenge will be given in a later chapter) Well the challenge helped me out when I got writers block. I used part of its plot not all coz I played with an element or two *blush* you'll see (hope that's ok Ang!)... but hey what's the fun in following roles anyways? ::hopes Angela doesn't throw sharp objects at her::


*Smoochies* for Janet for always being there making what I write presentable... whatever would I do without you sweetie? Wait, I don't wanna know!

Italics & *& capitals = emphasize
~ = thoughts




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"Look out!" Angel yelled as one of the large demon's multiple arms almost took off Wesley and Fred's head in one swoop. He growled angrily and struck his sword in the demon's chest before taking off its head, arms and legs in swift motions.

On the farther side of the dock, Gunn and Spike dallied on with their demons. However, since their share was twice as much as Angel's group had they encountered some difficulties.

Quickly, with the help of Wesley and Fred they dismembered the last two on their side and ran towards their colleagues. Upon reaching them they found three, according to the limb parts scattered, dead demons while Spike and Gunn fought with the other three, barely missing the axes that the monsters swung at them.  

In synchronization the five regrouped and quickly disposed of the remaining three. Fred breathed a sight of relief.

"That was a close one!"

Wesley nodded while checking her over, making sure all was intact causing Fred to giggle and slap at his hands.

Gunn smirked. "Yo English! Can't wait until you two find a room?" he asked with a joking glint in his eyes. The tall man now lived to make his friend blush as much as possible.

During this playful banter Angel was glaring at Spike. He suddenly broke his silence. "What the hell were you thinking, Spike? You weren't supposed to let them separate us! You put my people in danger!"

"Oh bugger off Angel! They over powered me, is all. There were six of them if you haven't noticed," Spike snarled at his grandsire.

"Yo' man, chill." Gunn stood in front of Angel in case the vampire decided to take things into his own hand. "Blondie's right. And besides he took out two of 'em nasties on his lonesome." The lawyer thought that would placate Angel but it only resulted in the opposite.

"Don't fuckin' give me excuses Spike... you know the drill..." he said sidestepping Gunn and standing in front of Spike looking directly into his eyes. "You endangered my people. You acted selfishly thinking that you were still the big bad and that you could take them on all alone..." Angel continued his accusation pronouncing each word with a finger at Spike's chest.

"...what do you have to say for yourself?" Angel angrily asked, shaking his head and looking up at the heavens not knowing how to treat this insolent childe.

"Angel..."

Angel turned to look at Fred when he heard her scared voice. "What is it Fred?"

Fred just pointed at Spike while Gunn ran up in time to catch Spike before he smashed his head on the hard ground. The black man held the vampire close raising his eyes up at the three gaping people looking for answers to why the vampire fell in a dead faint but finding that they were as clueless as he was.

Angel shook his head to straighten out his thoughts and quickly pulled out his cell phone calling for an emergency assistance from the W&H medical team. After finishing the call and replacing his cell in his coat pocket, he looked down at the body at his feet.

By that time, Fred had crouched down running her hand lightly over her friend's dead white face. Slowly she raised her head to look at Angel and ask,

"What did you do?!"

******

Angel groaned as each time he finished looking through a file Harmony marched right in and slammed another on his desk. And each time she did that she sent an angry glare at his direction.

Another pile was done and counted down from five... and there entered his bubbly blonde secretary with another load.

"Harmony!" Angel growled, slamming down his hands one the desk. "What the hell are these files doing piling on my desk?! Half of them aren't even supposed to be sent to me!"

The blonde vampire crossed her hands. "Well, they are addressed to you," she said in a matter of fact kind of tone.

Angel pointed towards the top folder. "Look at this one, Harmony. The name clearly states automobile construction, what in the name of all that isn't trying to drive me up the wall is it doing in my office?!"

The angered brunet was faced with a blank face. Wide eyes with long blond lashes blinked at him before a cherry pink mouth parted. "Everyone is mad at you."

Angel opened his mouth to reply but he frowned instead. "Huh?" He shook his head to try and clear it. "What?"

Harmony sighed and wondered how someone so dumb could've gotten to be the CEO. "You know EVERYONE... people you know and the ones who you don't know that didn't even like you before are mad at you."

Angel massaged his head. He couldn't believe that Cordelia had talked him into letting Harmony be his secretary, he was sure the actress was making him pay for something he did and at that moment he guessed whatever he did was really bad. "Humor me, Harmony. But why are they mad at me?" 

She huffed and placed her hands on her hips. "For what you did to Blondie Bear what else!"

Angel searched his head. "Spike? What does he have to do with this?" The vampire debated finding his insolent grandchilde and teaching him a lesson for... whatever he had done now.

Harmony's eyes widened as if she couldn't believe he was asking that. "I can't believe you are asking that!" As always she was predictable. "Spikey is in the medical wing because of what you did!"

"I didn't... wait." Angel frowned. "He's still there? It's been over twelve hours since the med team took him. Why is he still there?" The vampire sensed worry start to rise but squished it down before it made itself known.

Harmony shrugged. Angel's frown deepened and pressed his intercom. "Wes..."

"He's with Spike," Harmony interrupted him. He started to push another button but she continued, "and so are Cordy, Fred, Gunn and Lorne. I would've stayed too but people have been dropping me files for you for hours." With that she snapped on her heel and exited the office door closing it with a click.

Before Angel could get his bearings her blonde head popped in. "I would go down there as soon as possible if I were you... Cordy isn't pretty when she's angry," she said warningly then popped out.

Angel pushed himself away from his desk and headed for his door. "What's the worse that could happen?"

******

"Your grandchilde is dying."

Angel closed his eyes and opened them slowly. "He's what?" a soft growl escaped with his words.

The doctor knowing a bad situation retreated a little. "Well, not if he doesn't move," he said trying to appease the vampire.

"You've been saying that for like forever!" Cordelia advanced on the white coated man with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. The poor man paled even more at her than he had at the two-century old vampire. "Tell us what's wrong with him and how to fix it."

Lorne gently placed his hand on Cordelia's arm and slowly pulled her back away from the terrified doctor. This only served to remind Angel of the exact same scene he had walked into to ten minutes earlier. Ten minutes because most of them were filled by Cordelia and surprisingly Fred yelling at him before they calmed down choosing to focus on the matter at hand before getting back to the business of scolding their boss.

Wesley sighed. "Cordelia perhaps the good doctor needed space to be able to speak." He turned to the man inquisition. "Now, since all of us are here," they all threw a significant glance at shameful Angel, ". . . you could possibly explain to us what has caused Spike to pass out and why he shouldn't move."

The doctor coughed. "Yes, well, somehow a small but lethal wooden splinter found itself in his bloodstream and it would slowly kill him as it pushes its way to his heart. Since vampires are dead and their heart doesn't beat, the only way for the blood to move around is if they remain in motion. If he doesn't move then his blood stream remains still and thus the splinter wouldn't be carried to the heart."

"I don't get it. Vamps always get into fights and lots of times they get staked but instead of being hit in the heart they get a gaping hole in their chests... there gotta be splinters in that... you telling me they all die of splinters that way?" Gunn asked remembering his encounters with vampires during his street days.

The man shook his head. "Vampires after enduring a hard fight usually rejuvenate, rest. The vampire body is equipped and if the injured vampire rests for enough time, he or she will be returned to full health. If they get infected by either poison or wood the body usually pushes it out from the wound if given enough time. Now how I see this is that Spike had a hard fight the night before and that's when the splinter found its way into his body. His body didn't have enough time to push it out because instead of resting he fought again, causing his blood to move faster and the splinter with it"  

"He's right." Angel gulped, knowing now the seriousness of the situation then. "What can be done?"

The doctor faced him and replied. "For now, he will be kept sedated for those reasons. We did a scan on his body and the med team is working on the splinter's exact location as we speak and hopefully we will be able to perform surgery to extract it."

"There's something else, isn't there?" Angel asked suspicious.

"You must know Mr. Angel is that wood is very poisonous if entered into the blood stream of a vampire... if not extracted in time, I'm afraid he will die even if the fragment hasn't found its way to his heart." The doctor looked uncomfortable. "I'm only asking this for the patient's sake, sir. But you are of his blood and family blood as you know is really powerful..."

"He'll give you as much as you need," Cordelia broke her silence. Angel opened his mouth to say something but wisely shut it as his friends all gave him stern looks. He rolled his eyes and nodded.

The doctor sighed. "Very well, I'll send the nurse for some in a little while. Excuse me." He quickly exited the tense room.

Angel opened his mouth to say something but was shocked into silence when he was slapped on the face.

Fred pulled her hand and placed it on her mouth. Her eyes were streaming with tears as she looked angrily at him. "He needed help, Angel. He asked me to help him get the splinters out and you told me not to. He was helping us, helping YOU, and all you could do is criticize him, fight with him and push him farther away. He is lying in there because you refused to let me help him... he could die because he chose to stay here with *you* instead of going to see Buffy! He never let us forget you were the boss and that you needed help, that you couldn't do everything on your own, that you were our friend. He always told us that you were family and you never desert family, that you were the only family he had..." by that time Fred's voice was hitching with sobs and she hid her face in Wesley's chest.

"Angel, man, Spike might brass on about how much he hates you only coz he knows you're not that fond of him but he's always there fighting the fight," Gunn said looking into Angel's shocked eyes. "Haven't you ever thought why? Why in L.A.? Evil is an international cooperation and I should know, so way stay?" the tall man left the question in the air and left with the others through the wing doors.

The only one left was Wesley who joined Angel in looking through the glass at a peacefully looking slumbering Spike. "We talk sometimes, a lot actually. But every time we talk about his past, the time he lived in Old London, Italy or another place he would get this smile, I never seen him do it apart from those moments. And only when he talks about you." The English man gripped the vampire's shoulder for a second before leaving the way the others did.

During all that, Angel never took his eyes off Spike's face. Even when the jittery nurse came to take his blood, he gave her his arm but his intense gaze never wavered from its scrutiny.

******

TBC