Kiara walked through the nursery. She had started working there for money. The demoness hated spending all of Angel’s money, she wanted her own. And I always loved kids…It had been a pretty uneventful day. I just jinxed myself…And in no less than a second, a cry erupted from the room. A small boy had climbed up his hand-made ladder and fallen. She knelt down to the boy, scooping him up into her arms. “Shh…it’s okay hun,” she cooed to the little boy. His skin crackled and turned green as he cried. He opened his sad eyes to see Kia and they glowed red. “I know,” she worked in a demonic nursery, even demons needed somewhere for their kids to go and demons weren’t accepted in regular nurseries. The kind of demon the little boy was told their emotions through their skin. Mostly keeping to their human guise, they only changed in times of stress or pain.

She gently rubbed his back while making her way to the nurse’s office. Doris, the resident nurse, was given all the workers a course. They had learned how to perform CPR or the heimlic maneuver on a child. Kia had been bouncing after that class. She loved children and always was quite maternal. It was ironic that she never had her parents. She was in a orphanage for most of her life. Her foster parents had been human and she had thought that she was human too. She frowned as she remembered when it started. She was about thirteen, just hitting the “terrible teens” as her foster mother had called them. She loved her “parents”, but she just never felt the connection she dreamed of. She was always fighting with them and it wasn’t they’re fault at all. She would just snap. The demoness remembered school for her. Surrounded by so many people, she was waiting to be pushed, waiting to fight.

No one knew what happened, why she just changed so suddenly. She had become a “threat to society” as her principal had told her parents. But inside, Kia was scared, afraid to move or think or be around people. She couldn’t trust herself, she didn’t know what she was capable of. Even now, as she held the precious baby boy in her arms, she knew that in a second he could crush him. Could, but won’t…Every time she demoned out, she felt vulnerable. It meant she lost control and usually that she had tried to kill someone. And what’s the trigger?...

She wouldn’t have taken the job if she didn’t have confidence in herself, but still sometimes she wondered. Angel and the gang had watched her like a hawk, never ceasing, until finally they found she had, for whatever reason, stopped morphing. They had test runs, where Kia would walk with Angel, Spike, or Gunn out in the open….with people. They went to malls, parks, or just walked. Nothing, no growls or screaming or people getting hurt. She was proud of herself for that, though she didn’t know what had changed. In her mind, she had a small hope that maybe she would never morph again, but she knew better.

Finally the demoness and the little boy made it to the nurse’s office. “Dori?” Kia looked around, finding no sign of the nurse. She sat the little demon on the counter. Well, I’m no nurse, but he seems fine… “Ouch, that’s a nasty bump you got there,” she winced as she lightly touched the boy’s head. With a smile she continued, “I know just what you need.” She left the boy on the counter and returned in two seconds with a band-aid.

The child cried and whimpered on the desk. “Shh…,” Kiara cooed. She placed a band-aid on the bump on his forehead. Spike watched from the doorway. He had followed her to the nurse’s office. Fred said someone needed to get Kia back to the hotel, some break-through or something. Spike had jumped on the chance to be alone with her, even if it was for the five minutes it took to get to the hotel from there. He had to know if his feelings were real, if her feelings were real. Or if they even exist… He looked up at her. She hadn’t noticed him yet. “It’s ok, little guy,” and with that she kissed over the band-aid. She smiled at the little boy before he jumped off and ran back to his friends, glowing a happy yellow. As she watched the boy leave she saw him.

Spike walked into the room. “I’m hurt to ya know?” SPIKE! How long has he been here? Why was he watching?... “Oh, are you now?” She took a few steps toward him, a coy smile on her lips. He jumped into the desk. “Yea..” This is bloody stupid…But it could work. “And where are you “hurt”? She asked, smiling. “Right here,” and he held out his left hand. He had cut it when he threw the barstool through the window, just a scratch really, but it was all he needed. The demoness looked at the cut. It’s just a scratch…Is he going where I think he’s going?... “Oh, well I’ll bandage that right up,” she said with fake concern and returned with another band-aid.

Lightly, she placed the band-aid over the cut. “There you go, Spike. All better,” she said with a smile. She looked up into his eyes and her breath caught. They were so close, his hand in hers. “Aren’t you going to kiss it and make it better?” whispered the blonde. He was surprised he could say anything at all. Cor…I’m being such a nancy boy…Kia stood on her tiptoes and their lips barely met. He leaned down, his hand wrapping around her waist. She grabbed the back of his head. This was what she wanted, this felt right. She shut her eyes tight and leaned into the kiss, letting Spike take the kiss where ever he wanted it to go.

But surprisingly, he kept a slow, teasing, and almost innocent pace. He nibbled on her bottom lip before returning to kissing her. She broke the kiss and looked at him. She looked into his eyes and saw his love for her. She couldn’t give him the runaround. She couldn’t kiss him and not mean it. She couldn’t leave him. Kiara found her fingers interlacing with his as he still sat there. Rather than being his cocky self, he was quiet and shy. The blonde almost forgot why he had even come to the nursery. “Um…,” Spike looked down at their hands, running circles over Kia’s hand nervously. “I came to get you….to go back to the hotel.” His gaze found her eyes, his lips fell into a lazy smile. “Fred found out…something,” his brow creased into thought. “Something ‘bout you I think.” Kiara walked down the hall, saying goodbye to Terri, her boss. As she and Spike walked out the doors, she held his hand a little tighter. Lorne…