"When the time is right?" Spike leant against the wall and bashed his head against it. He had no idea how to get out of this bind and deep down knew that this was it for him. "When the bloody hell is the time right for you to hand over your balls to the chit for her whimsy?"

"Ewww."

Spike leapt a foot in the air, spinning fast to see a brunette and a blonde staring at him with expressions of disgust on their pretty, albeit over made up faces. So much for the Big Bad – more like the big pansy.

"Rude much?" The busty, dark haired teen crossed her arms over her chest and stared assesingly at him, her nose wrinkled in disgust. So not that cute with the potty mouth.

"Yeah, what she said." The blonde licked her lips at the yummy looking blondie bear standing in the shadows.

"Come on, Harm. I wanna show off my new purse." Cordelia flicked her long hair over her shoulder and gestured for her fashion minion to follow her. She was also hoping to torture Buffy for not falling into step and hanging out with her. As if Willow, or that total loser, Xander, were in any way cooler than her. Harmony followed her, waving a quick goodbye to the horrified vampire. "We are so out of here!"

Spike stared numbly at the backs of the two girls and nearly sank to his knees and sobbed at the utter nightmare that was his life. One minute he'd been planning a trip to Prague for his Princess, and the next she'd kicked him out of the moving train, screaming blue murder about dancing with the light and how he was not her Spike anymore. He really hated it when she had one of her turns, they usually resulted in him suffering and this was probably the worst it had ever been.

"Well that was humiliating, one quarter of the Scourge leaping in the air like a frightened cat."

"Look, sod off, Anyanka, I've had it up to here with you," Spike growled, gesturing sharply to his throat as he glared over at the unruffled demoness. "Wot are you ? My own personal Jimmy Cricket? Just piss off and let me work this out on my own terms." He refrained from adding that his own terms were in the form of a bottle of Tequila and a stake unless he could find a way to escape her clutches.

"Well no, I have to make sure you behave, otherwise Whis...I mean, otherwise Drusilla will be disappointed." She fluffed her hair over her shoulders and prayed that the intuitive vampire was too concerned with his abject humiliation to spot her nearly spilling the beans. She was dreading Hoffy finding out about her being trapped into doing this spell, but there was no way out. A debt was a debt and she was never one to welsch. She still couldn't believe that this was happening to her. One minute her life was chugging along nicely, and now she was scrambling to cover a debt with a representative for the PTBs?

Spike snorted. "I doubt Dru even remembers the wish now...not if she was in one of her moods." He dug around in his pockets and pulled out a battered packet of Marlboros and lit one with a slightly unsteady hand.

"Oh, it's quite a good one really, shall I tell you again? Are you sober enough to remember as I really do get tired of repeating myself."

Spike grunted and puffed out a smoke ring. He didn't want to hear it again but knew if he tried to scarper the bint would teleport after him. He still was stunned that Dru felt she needed vengeance on him; after a century at her side, loving her and fighting for her, he'd never betrayed her in body or mind. Or so he'd thought until she'd had that vision and gone ballistic and tossed him out on his ear.

"She wished that you would go to the one that covered you with her light."

"And from that you get me here and wishing me to fight for the soddin Slayer of my kind?"

She stared at him with a Sphinx-like smile on her lips. "I am nothing if not ingenious in my wish granting, William."

"Light? Light? What the hell was she on? I live in the dark with her. Light? Sod it." He flung his half-smoked cigarette onto the concrete and crushed it out with a heavy boot, stamping on the dying embers over and over, mentally wishing it were the pert features of the demoness intent on destroying his unlife.

"Spike?"

Spike's leather clad shoulders slumped even more. "And now my night is complete," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh, here he is! I was waiting for him." Anya peeped around the moping figure of her victim and blinked. "His forehead is huge and he just screams 'look at me' with that mopey aura. Bet he's hoping to attract women with his broody visage, though personally I think you have much more orgasm potential." She patted Spike on the shoulder and pushed past him.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"Now, Mr Angel, you know exactly what he's doing here." Anya propped her hands on her hips and stared up, completely unphased by Angel's glum face and his looming presence. "You are really tall and glowery looking aren't you?"

"I was contacted by Whistler and told that I would be mentoring a demon who was on the track to redemption. Like me...and it's him?" Angel stared at Spike with a mixture of disgust and longing. He'd hoped for a friend, a companion at arms, not the blond idiot who had been the bane of his existence and was so far from being redeemed it was not funny. He loathed the fledgling William that Dru had dragged home, but at the same time missed his family--even Spike. He was so lonely and tired of being in the shadows alone with his torment. The only light in his existence was when he managed to see the pretty Slayer and pass on some information. When Whistler had appeared in his basement apartment and announced that he was to help another on his path to redemption, Angel had experienced a brief moment of hope, a tiny glow that he'd carried with him for the half an hour it had taken to get his hair just right and then get to the meeting point.

Now – now it was Spike? If it wouldn't have made him look silly, Angel would've stomped off in a snit. But he was very conscious that the Powers wanted him to be a Champion and it was better to have a cause to fight for than go back to living in alleys draining rats. But Spike? On the path to redemption? He sincerely doubted it. It had to be a trick.

"It's not a trick or a joke," Anya commented perceptively. She didn't like the look of this one at all and couldn't help but wonder if Whistler actually knew what he was doing She'd reached over and slapped Spike up the back of the head when he'd snorted at Angel's comment about redemption, chuntering under his breath about slavery and the corruption of an innocent demon who wanted nothing more than a nice drink from a neck or two a night and to be left alone.

Angel's jaw dropped. He was stuck with Spike. His shoulders slumped in resignation as it finally started to sink in. He was stuck with the worst of his family; he was really in hell now. He might be lonely and sad, but having Spike around was going to be a nightmare-- family or not.

"Right perceptive bint, this one." Spike sighed and turned to face the great nit that was his grandsire. A smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth and he decided that, if he was damned, he may as well torture the poof on the way there. Spike flung his arms out. "Gramps, did you miss me? Come on, give us a cuddle."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sod this. I am not ruddy well squatting in a damp piddly basement!" Spike paused in the doorway and glared around Angel's flat, a look of horror on his face.

"Ohhh, is it horrid? Let me see!" Anya poked her fingers into the small of Spike's back as she tried to get him to move. He stood solid in annoyance and she had to give up the subtle torture and jump up and down behind him, trying to peer over his shoulder. Spike glanced back over his shoulder at the sight of the petite demoness bouncing up and down like a rabbit and suppressed a smile. He was pissed off with her and not about to grin at the bint.

"Spike, just get in here," Angel growled. He was not too keen on sharing space with the menace either, but he had a soul and he had to sacrifice himself for the greater good to atone for all the things he'd done. A brief moment of clarity surfaced in his head when he looked at Spike and realised that he had been witness to some of the less savoury moments of his unlife and if Angel could've, he would have blushed.

"Nope, am going to find digs of me own. Ta ta gramps, don't wait up." Spike gently lifted Anya and put her out of his way before disappearing into the night.