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Chapter twenty-eight

Aria opened her eyes and thought her head was going to explode, her back was
on fire and Spike was sleeping next to her. She almost panicked until she saw
who it was sleeping next to her. Spike. She could vaguely remember him at her
bedroom window asking to come in, he must have helped her.

"If you stay quiet they'll think that you're still asleep. That way they
won't all be in here playing at Mother Hens." Spike said from next to her
without opening his eyes.

"How did I get here?"

"We lowered you through your window with your bed sheets. Consider yourself
lucky because I dropped Willow from your window." Aria's eyes widened.
"Don't worry, Angel caught her."

Nodding she lowered her head again. "Why are you here? Next to me I mean."

"You had a little spell last night and I calmed you down."

"My head hurts like hell." Aria mumbled and put her head back on the pillow.

"That would be the smelly stuff Willow gave you to help with the pain."

"Which now explains the horrible taste in my mouth."

"You're awake." Willow stood in the doorway relief evident on her face.

"See told you to keep quiet, she's the worst of the lot of them." Spike
sighed and hefted himself from the bed.

"Shut up Spike." Willow went over to the bed as Angel entered the room
rubbing his tired eyes. "How's your back feeling Aria?"

Aria looked up at the other girl and felt warmth and genuine concern
radiating from her. "It hurts but it's been worse."

"Worse?" Willow choked, she would never say her parents would have earned
any awards at parents of the year but they had never raised their hand in
anger at her. "She can't go back." Willow looked over to Angel to support her.

"Willow, it's Aria's decision." Angel saw the witch's face fall and he knew
given the chance Willow would adopt every hurt and broken person they ran
across.

Putting on her resolve face, Willow started to peel back the bandages from
Aria's back. "Well of course she wants to stay." Aria knew if she asked to
leave at that moment that they would let her, the other redhead was letting
her know that she was welcome to stay. She had never had anyone on her side
in her entire life, no one watching over her much less save her from one of
her father's rampages. If these people didn't watch it she'd stay and never
leave.

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

Lindsey watched as Douglass cuddled herself closer to his side, she sighed in
her sleep and a small smile formed on her lips, tucking a strand of hair
behind her ear he looked at the clock and groaned. He needed to get ready for
his meeting soon, he tried to memorize how she looked in his bed because he
knew what had to be done when she woke up.

Douglass opened her eyes and silently watched as Lindsey dressed for work,
back was his trade mark suit and tie, hair neatly styled.

"You're awake...Finally. I'm running late so you'll need to call yourself a
cab." His voice was bitter and Douglass eyed him with confusion, she knew
that things would go back to normal but seeing the drastic change was
unsettling.

Reaching for a wad of money, Lindsey tossed it in her direction. "After what
happened last night I think it's best to cut our losses, it's not like you
and your friends have been able to get me any useful information on Lilah."
Lindsey couldn't look at her, he had been rehearsing this since he had
slipped out of bed an hour ago.

Douglass looked at the money then back up to Lindsey, he was kidding right?
Not even he could be this big of an ass. "I don't get it. I thought we owed
you for helping us out."

Lindsey steeled himself from the self hatred that was going through him,
turning around he leered at her. "Let's just say you more than paid off the
debt."

Douglass felt as though he had dumped ice water on her, shooting out of bed
she slapped him across the face. "I hope you rot in hell." Stalking out of
the bedroom to where she had shed her clothes the night before, Douglass was
dressed and out the door.

Lindsey looked at the money still on the bed where he had tossed it at her,
he didn't need to go to hell to feel any worse than he did at that moment.

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

Douglass sat in the back of the taxi and angrily wiped the tears that were
falling from her eyes, she had asked the driver to take the long way back to
her home needing the extra time to get control of her emotions.

How dare he through money at her as though she were some hooker he had hired
for the night. Stupid jerk!

When the taxi pulled up to her stop Douglass paid the driver and slowly made
her way to the building. It was time to confront the others and she just
hoped that she was able to get them to understand that she'd had no control
over herself.

The lobby was empty since the lights still hadn't been turned on, Douglass
knew that none of them were early risers but someone was usually down here
already just in case a potential client showed up. Climbing the stairs to her
apartment she could hear voices on the other side of the door, taking a deep
breath she gathered her courage and opened the door.
Everyone inside the apartment stopped what they were doing and stared in
Douglass's direction. They all stayed that way for a few seconds until Willow
smiled and hurried over to Douglass's side.

"Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?" Willow hugged her friend noticing
the stiffness in Douglass's body as she returned the hug.

"No, he didn't hurt me Willow. See" Douglass stepped back and raised her arms
so her friend could see that she wasn't harmed.

Everyone seemed to be able to relax after Willow made the first move. "Spike
and Angel explained that you were given an aphrodisiac so we know that what
happened last night, you know the whole um...Lindsey thing...wasn't something
you could stop." Douglass felt the walls she had built up to control her hurt
and anger toward Lindsey start to decay.

"We're just sorry we couldn't do something for you last night." Cordelia
walked over and hugged her friend.

Douglass felt the tears welling up in her eyes as her friends� tried to let
her know they understood. Guilt washed over the blonde witch and she wished
that she could crawl into her bed and hide under the covers.

"Brat, is that you?" Spike called out from Willow's bedroom, a couple of
seconds later he walked from the room and Douglass cringed at the ugly red
marks that marked his cheek from the night before. "About time."

When he was a few feet away Douglass reached up and lightly touched his face.
"Spike I am so sorry. I know you were just trying to help me." The usual
smirk on Spike's face softened and he took her hand in his and kissed it.

"No worries pet."

The room went quiet again as each of them tried to think of some sort of
small talk so Douglass took a deep breath and decided to get this over with.

"Last night was just sex, it happened and it's done with. If we could not
talk about this again I'd be grateful. Lindsey let me know this morning that
we are no longer needed so our obligation has been fulfilled, no more Lindsey
McDonald in our lives." Douglass forced a smile, she wasn't about to tell any
of them about how he threw the money at her. Not that she cared at that
moment that any of her friends thought any less of him but the embarrassment
of the gesture was too much to talk about yet. "I want a shower and then
sleep."

"There's one more thing we need to talk about that can't wait." Angel said
softly. "You remember Aria, right?" Douglass nodded. "Well, Spike found her
father beating on her. He called us and we took her from her room last night,
her back is pretty bad but she seems fine other than that."

Douglass's eyed widened. "Where is she?"

"Willow's room." Wesley answered. Douglass went over to the room and saw Aria
sleeping in Willow's bed, her back was covered with white gauze and the skin
peaking out between the white wrap looked bruised. "Oh my Goddess! The poor
thing." Douglass whispered taking another step closer to the bed when
suddenly a dizzy sensation swam through her head, she gripped onto the nearby
dresser for support. Then, it seemed as though someone was trying to whisper
in her ear, she could almost distinguish the words but the more she
concentrated the less sense the ramblings made.

"Doug? Girl, are you okay?" Gunn put his arm around her waist and had her
lean on him for support. "Guys, we need some help in here."

Helping her back to the living room, he sat her on the couch, the whispers
vanished the moment she left the redhead's bedroom leaving Douglass stunned.

"Douglass, what happened?" Wesley crouched in front of her and he started to
worry at how unfocused her eyes were. "Douglass?" Her eyes focused again and
she blinked her eyes a couple of times.

"Huh?"

"You went all space cadet like." Cordelia sat down on the couch next to
Douglass, a worried expression on her face.

"I'm fine, just got a little dizzy...And heard voices."

"Voices? Not voices like slaughter your friends and then go on a killing
spree kind of voices right?" Douglass rolled her eyes at the brunette.

"It's probably an effect of the drug." Angel answered thoughtfully. "Why
don't you go take your shower and get some sleep."

"I'm sure you'll feel better when you wake up." Willow added, Douglass
wasn't so sure but she got up and got ready for her shower. Sleep came easier
than she thought it would.

***********************

Spike watched Aria as she slept, she had been sleeping most of the day
occasionally waking up when her bandages were changed or if nature called.
Closing his eyes he tried to force himself to nap a little, just as he
started to drift to sleep he heard someone enter the room, as he watched�
Douglass made her way in the dark to the side of the bed Aria was on.

"Douglass, what are you doing awake luv?" Spike whispered. The girl made no
response that she heard anything as she peeled the sheet back from Aria's
body. "Brat, what are you doing?" Spike asked a little louder.

The blonde witch started to whisper foreign words and moved her hands inches
above the sleeping girl's body. Blue light glowed from Douglass's palms and
washed over Aria's injured back as Spike sat speechless. The light started to
fade and Douglass passed out.

"Brat?" Spike jumped off the bed and ran around to the other side where
Douglass was crumpled on the floor. "Come on luv, open your eyes." Spike
gently shook her shoulder. "Willow!" Spike shouted.

The redhead followed by Angel rushed into the room, Willow ran over to
Spike's side and gasped when she saw Douglass lying there. "What happened?"

"Don't know. I was sleeping and she came in like she was sleepwalking. I
tried to talk to her but she started doing all this weird stuff with light
coming out of her hands and talking in tongues." Spike sputtered.

Angel walked to Aria who was awake and looking wildly around the room. As he
looked down at her back he carefully undid the tape holding down the gaze and
blinked a few times. Aria's once bleeding and bruised back was now smooth and
mark free.

"How can that be?" Willow asked in wonder, Angel shrugged his shoulders as he
looked down at Douglass on the floor.

"Did she cast a spell?" Angel's voice was low.

"I'm telling you mate it was *not* normal. She didn't even look in my
direction." Spike started to pace.

Willow touched Aria's back and the other girl braced herself for the pain she
knew would come but all she felt was the soft touch of Willow's finger.

"Does it hurt?" Willow asked.

"No...the pain is gone."

Willow looked back at Douglass and wondered how she had done it. "Angel, can
you get her back to bed?" Angel picked up the blonde witch and took her back
to bed, the way the last twenty-four hours had gone they could all wait to
hear the explanation.

************

"Morning all." Douglass announced as she entered the living room where
everyone was seated, they all looked at her... then at one another.

"What?" Looking around. She noticed that Aria was out of bed and she wrinkled
her brow. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Douglass, don't you remember anything about last night?" Wesley questioned.

"Umm....apparently not."

"Brat, you walked in to Willow's room speaking mumbo jumbo and hands all
aglow. You did something to Aria's back."

"Did I hurt you?" Douglass questioned worried that she had hurt the other
girl.

"You healed her Douglass." Wesley walked over to the blonde witch. "When you
had your powers, was healing one of them?" Douglass shook her head. "What
about any family members."

"It was only me and my Mom."

"What about your father? Did your Mother ever say that he had any healing
powers?"

"My Mom never really talked about my Father. She hated magic and I mean she
passionately hated anything to do with magic." Douglass rubbed a hand over
her eyes, she had tried waking up with a new attitude, push all thoughts of
Lindsey out of her mind and act like it was just another day.

Wesley thought for a moment. "I guess this is the new power source you felt,
do you know what this means?"

"That I've lost control of my body twice in two days?" Douglass answered
flatly as everyone in the room winced.

"Well unfortunately yes..." Wesley muttered. "But you have the gift to heal."

"That's a good thing." Willow sat forward. "I mean Cordelia and were just
talking about us all needing to have a doctor in the group."

"Yeah and now we don't need insurance." Cordelia added. Douglass nodded and
breathed out.

"I just hope none of you purposely hurt yourselves cause I have no idea how
this whole healing thing works." She tried to make it sound like a joke but
it fell far from its mark.