Sunday:

"Yes! One more roll and we win!"

"Not necessarily!"

"Oh - we're going to win this time."

"That'll be a first."

"Can we quit bickering and get on with the game?" Gunn cut in.

"Fine," Cordelia and Wes replied in unison.

"Now what are the stakes?"

Cordelia and Wes whispered in each other's ears. "Ready," they said, sitting back. Cordelia rolled the dice and moved the piece.

"Oh - all play." She drew a card and found what they were supposed to draw and then showed it to Wes. He nodded and she put the card back. Angel turned the timer over and they began drawing as Angel and Gunn began guessing.

Gunn: "Ball! Hey, Arnold! Football!"

Angel: "Footie! Soccer!"

"Got it!" Cordelia said. "We win!" She did a little dance.

"For once," Wes commented.

"At least we're not going to have to do 'Romeo and Juliet' again," Gunn said. He paused. "We weren't going to have to do that again, were we?"

"Nope," Cordelia said, "and besides, we don't have to worry about it because we won."

"What do we have to do?" Angel asked.

Wes told him as they cleaned up.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Angel said. "That's what they want us to do? Isn't there a way we could get out of it?"

"Not at this point. Now it's a matter of honor."

"Honor has nothing to do with it at this point. Are you sure there's no way out of it?"

"Positive. Besides," Wes dropped his voice to a whisper. "I think I just thought of a way to shock the hell out of them."

"Moreso than Cordy and Gunn deciding to dress in period costumes for the balcony scene?"

"That was actually one of my provisions."

"Oh. Okay, so, how are we going to do this?"

"Well, I have to make a couple of phone calls in the morning and then we'll see."

"Why do I not like the sound of this?"

"Trust me."

"Now I'm really starting to worry."

Wes yawned and patted Angel's shoulder. "It seems as though no matter what I say, you won't believe me. I'll just have to prove it to you tomorrow."

"You better or you won't be co-boss of Angel Investigations."

"Like you could demote me," Wes said sarcastically as he picked up his bag and started to walk towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow," he called as he walked out.

******

Monday:

When Angel came downstairs, he heard Wes speaking to someone.

"Madame Phyllis? Good morning, it's Wesley Wyndam-Pryce." (Pause) "I was wondering if I could maybe ask a favor of you." (Pause) "Good, good. I'll see you then. Good day." He hung up the phone.

"So, what's going on?" Angel asked entering the office.

"We're going to go get some things for our dare when the others get here." Wes gathered up some papers into a pile and put them off to the side of his desk.

"And who is this 'Madame Phyllis'?" Angel sat down across from him.

"Remember the seamstress we saved last month?"

"The arnck demon that looks ethnically Jewish?"

"Yes. She promised us anything if we ever needed. I figured now might be as good a time as any to cash it in." He began fiddling with the pen in his hand.

"Good morning, good morning, good morning," Cordelia said, breezing into the hotel. She came behind the counter, deposited her purse onto her desk, and came into the office carrying a Starbucks coffee cup and sat in the other chair. "So, how's it coming?" she asked before taking a sip.

"Quite well," Wes replied. "We need to go get some things for it. Do you think you'll be able to hold down the fort?"

"Where are the others?"

"Fred and Gunn are at breakfast, as usual, and they should," he looked at his watch, "be here in fifteen or twenty minutes. And Lorne's upstairs with Connor."

"What else is new?"

"But we'll be taking Connor with us," Angel cut in.

"I think Lorne and I can manage until they get here," Cordelia said, "and you two get back."

Wes absently put the pen down, scooted his chair back and stood. "Good, good." He looked at Angel. "Ready?"

After collecting Connor, they headed over to Madame Phyllis'. She looked up at the sound of a bell tinkle as they entered. Her mouth formed an O as she came from behind the counter.

"Is this the little one?" she asked, leaning over the baby carrier.

Angel shifted a bit nervously. "Yes, it is. His name's Connor."

She looked up eagerly at Angel. "May I?" Angel nodded. She gently unstrapped Connor and picked him up. She held him close and softly cooed, to which Connor smiled and gurgled. After a minute, she placed him back in the carrier. "Shall we get down to business?"

"Please," Wes replied.

She moved back behind the counter. "Have you decided what you want?"

"Yes. I wrote it down, just in case." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it before handing it to her. She looked it over and nodded.

They spent the next half an hour working out colors, cloth types, measurements, and various other odd and ends for the outfits.

"They should be done day after tomorrow," Madame Phyllis said.

"Thank you so much," Wes replied. "And how much will we owe you?"

She waved a hand. "Nothing. This is my way of repaying you for saving my shop from those hooligans."

"There must be something -"

"I'll think on it and let you know when you come back. Will that do?"

"Fine. We'll see you day after tomorrow."

After they had left the shop, Angel asked, "How does she know about Connor?"

"News travels fast in the demon world," Wes replied. "Especially about a human child conceived by two vampires. If you were in the loop, you'd know that."

"And how am I going to get back in the loop with what we're about to do?"

"I have no idea."

Two hours later, Angel wandered into the training room looking for Wes. Wes had opened up some mats and was in a pose that Angel didn't think most humans could get into, much less Wes.

"What are you doing?" Angel asked when Wes uncoiled out of the position.

"A cross between yoga and gymnastics."

"I didn't know you knew gymnastics."

"Yeah, well, it was either that or the tuba."

Angel tried to suppress a smile. "Are you planning on using any of the gymnastics?"

"For me? More than likely. For you? No way in Hell."

Angel looked indignant. "Why not?"

"Well, you're too bulky for one. And besides, it would take way too long to teach you the things you needed to know to do anything for this."

"But I still am going to have a role in this, right?"

"Don't start getting insecure. Yes, you are going to have a role in this. What did you think - that I was going to do this all by myself?"

"I don't know, maybe."

Wes came out of the position and went over to Angel. "Don't worry, you're going to be losing your dignity right along side of me." He gently patted Angel's cheek.

"Don't patronize me."

"I'm not."

"Okay. Prove you really can do something gymnastic-like and I'll do whatever you want."

"Like what?"

Angel searched his brain from the time Cordelia had made him watch "Bring It On" with her. "Um - round-off, double backhandspring, and something else that'd look cool."

Wes laughed and backed up some. He took a couple of running steps before launching into it. When he was done, he went back over to Angel, who was watching him with wide eyes.

"Okay, now I'm a believer."

"Good. Does that mean we can get started?"

"Sure. Is it okay that we do this during office hours?"

"Yeah. I told Cordy to knock on the door if they needed help, but to not come in under pain of death."

Angel laughed. "Like she'd actually listen to that."

"I also told her that unless it was a dire emergency, if she came in, we wouldn't do it."

"How about we don't do it anyway?"

"And disappoint Madame Phyllis? She takes great pride in her work."

"Okay, fine. Where do we start?"

"You are familiar with the song, correct?"

"I wish I wasn't, but unfortunately yes."

"Okay. Well, I'll show you what I was thinking for your part and we can go from there."

Wes went over to the stereo and hit the play button. When the song came on, he started doing some choreographed dance moves to the music.

"You are being serious, right?" Angel asked when Wes was done.

"Of course."

"Good, because with what you were just doing, I thought you had taken a leap into the deep end of insanity."

"If anyone's taken the leap, it's Cordelia. I'm just merely trying to salvage as much of our dignity as possible from this."

"True. And what were you thinking of for your part?"

"Um.... I'm not not totally sure yet. Maybe something like -" He pushed the play button again and began doing some more complex gymnastic moves.

About half-way through, he stopped. "That's about all I have so far."

"This is going to need *so* much work. When do we have to perform it again?"

"Saturday."

Angel counted off mentally. "And today's Monday. That gives us six days including today. Do you think we'll be ready by then?"

"We'll have to be. Come on so I can teach you your part."

Angel stood on the spot where Wes pointed for him as he went to start the music again. Once the music started, Wes started to take Angel through his part of the routine slowly. After a couple of hours, Angel was starting to get down the basics and Wes was beginning to get very frustrated.

"I think I'm finally getting it," Angel said.

"Are you sure?" Wes asked as he wearily went to sit on the mats and start the song over again.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then prove it." Wes hit the play button. Angel did reasonably well for having just learned the steps but towards the end he started missing the steps. Wes sighed and paused the song. He got up and went over to Angel. "That part's supposed to go like this." He showed Angel the steps again. "Really, Angel. It's not terribly difficult."

"I beg to differ."

"Then think of it as, oh -" he let out a sigh and threw up a hand, "sword fighting or something."

Angel processed that for a moment before saying, "Okay. Let me try it again."

Wes sighed and went back to the stereo. He reset the song and sat down to watch Angel. This time, Angel actually nailed the steps perfectly. When the song was done, Wes clapped a few times. "I think this calls for a break."

"Good. I'm exhausted." Angel sank down on the mats and laid on his back.

"If only we had thought about the sword-fighting earlier, this would have gone *a lot* faster."

A knock came at the door. "Come in," Wes called, shutting off the stereo.

Cordelia poked her head in. "We're ordering Chinese. What do you want?"

"What time is it?"

"About 4:30."

"Really?"

"So what do you want?"

"White rice and sweet and sour chicken will be fine. Oh! And some egg drop soup."

"Gotcha. I'll let you know when it's here. How's it coming?"

"It's coming."

"Good. Can't wait to see it."

******

Wednesday:

Since it was overcast that afternoon, Wes and Angel ventured back to Madame Phyllis' shop.

"My two favorite people!" she said when they came in. Angel was about to protest the "people" part, but she continued, "And my favorite baby!" when she saw that they had brought Connor with them.

"How are the outfits coming?" Wes asked when she had finished saying hello to Connor.

"They're ready and I think they came out quite nicely."

"Have you figured out a method of payment?"

"Yes, I have. I would like to come see whatever it is you two will be using these for. I think it's only fair, since it *is* such an unusual request."

"Fine. It'll be on Saturday at the new Caritas Lorne's opened."

"That was so sad what happened to the original one."

"Yes, well.... The new one's going to be down by the Pier. Can't miss it. It'll be at 8 pm."

"How is Lorne doing?"

"Aside from being a bit bitter at the destruction of the original Caritas, quite well."

"That's wonderful. Let me go get your outfits."

"Here they are," Madame Phyllis said, coming out carrying two garment bags. She handed each of them a bag. As they were leaving, she tugged on Wes' sleeve and motioned for him to lean down. "There is one more thing," she whispered. "I made a little outfit for Connor from the scraps. Could you maybe see to it that he wears it on Saturday? It doesn't seem like Angel would."

"Sure," Wes said, giving her a warm smile.

When they got back, Wes said, "Up to trying a dress rehersal?"

"Sure, but how are we going to do it so the others don't see our outfits?"

"Change in the training room. You don't have that much of a problem changing in front of me, do you?"

"No."

When they had finished changing, Angel said, "How did you get it so it doesn't bunch up?"

"Lots of practice sneaking out to go swimming without my father finding out." Wes went over to him. "Here, let me help you."

Once they had gotten Angel's outfit sorted out, Angel went over to where they had marked out on the floor with duct tape the measurements of Caritas' new stage that Lorne had given them. Wes started the song walked over to where he was supposed to start from as Angel started his part of the routine. They made it most of the way through rather well, but at the part where they were supposed to make a quick change, Angel had some trouble.

When they finished, Wes sighed. "What was the problem with the outfit?"

"I have no idea," Angel replied, looking his outfit over. "I thought I had fixed it right so I could do it quickly, but it just wouldn't work."

Wes came over to him. "Here, let me help you." He began fiddling withthe clothing. "There's your problem. You're not supposed to fasten these all the way. Madame Phyllis made the pants so you wouldn't have to, and they'd still hold. You're only supposed to go to there," he indicated a small line as he began readjusting Angel's pants, "and the rest of the Velcro blends in with the fabric."

"Oh. Okay."

"Please try to remember next time," he said, slightly exasperated.

"I will."

"Okay, let's do this again. You should be able to get it right now."

Wes reset the song as Angel went back to his spot. They went through the song again and everything went perfectly this time.

"I think we have it," Wes said when they finished. "But we should practice a few more times to make sure we have everything down."

******

Saturday:

"So, are you two ready for your big night?" Cordelia asked when she came into the office that morning.

"As ready as we can be," Wes replied.

"This is going to be so much fun watching the two of you make big goofs of yourselves."

"Well, I think we'll still managed to pull it off with a bit of dignity."

She laughed. "*Right*! The two klutziest dancers in the western hemisphere are going to be able to pull this off 'with a bit of dignity'. I'd like to see that happen."

"And I'm sure you will."

Angel walked in to the office. "Oh, hey, Cordy," he said. "Do you know how many there's going to be there tonight?"

"Lorne said a lot," she replied. "Word's gotten around about this."

"Yeah, after you and Gunn doing the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet - I'm not surprised."

Later that night:

Lorne let Wes and Angel in the backstage door. "What's with all the secrecy?" he asked.

"Element of surprise," Wes said, shifting the strap of the duffle bag with his outfit in it on his shoulder. "Now, the stage is on the other side of the curtain?"

"You got it. I use back here for storage space and such. There's quite a crowd out there and Cordy, Gunn, and Fred have seats front and center."

"Great," Angel said, changing Connor's carrier from one hand to the other.

"And how's the little pumpkin doing?" Lorne leaned down to play with Connor for a moment. "And he even has a little outfit of his own. Whose idea was that?"

"Madame Phyllis'," Wes replied, remember the argument he and Angel had had about whether or not Connor should be wearing the outfit.

"Ah. Wouldn't want to put her out. It looks cute on him. I hope it does the same for you two. Shall I take him out to the others?"

"Please," Angel said, handing over the carrier.

"Oh, and here's the cd," Wes said, handing over the homemade cd. "You just have to put it in and press play."

"Shall we be starting promptly at 8?" Lorne asked.

"If possible. We want to get this over with."

"Okay." Lorne looked at his watch. "You have 15 minutes, kiddos. How do you want me to do this? Just put the cd in and start playing?"

Wes and Angel looked at each other and shrugged. "Might as well," Wes said. "We'll be ready."

"Okay. We'll be waiting."

After he left, Angel dropped his duffle bag onto the floor and said, "I don't think I can do this, Wes. I'm not exactly good at this kind of thing."

"You've sung in front of this type of crowd before."

"But they weren't expecting anything from me. This time they are."

"If it helps any, I'm not exactly the showman myself." Wes set his bag down and opened it. "But there's no way out of it now. The best advice I can offer is to just go out there and pretend like it's practice. You know the routine well enough that that shouldn't be a problem."

"But I'll still *know*."

"Which would you rather have? Going out there and doing it and blowing the socks off everyone or not doing it and having an upset audience - some of which can get pretty violent. And I'm not going out there alone."

"Fine." Angel opened his bag as well and they both started changing. A bit later, Angel stood by the curtain for his entrance. "How much longer?" he asked Wes.

"About a minute or so."

Angel sighed and jumped up and down on the balls of his feet and shook his hands out. "Well, I guess this is it. It was nice knowing you, Wes."

"Oh, come on. It won't be that bad."

Before Angel could reply, the music came on and his instincts took over.

Angel stepped out from behind the side of the curtain wearing a blue, white, and gold male cheerleading uniform and carrying a pair of blue and gold pompoms.

He began to do some basic cheer steps to the words and the audience began clapping and laughing.

On the last time that the phrases repeated, Wes came out from the other side, wearing the same thing and did a round-off, double-back-handspring diagonally across the stage. Then the two of them did choreographed dance steps to the song, acting it out.

Angel was playing the part of the singer and Wes of Mickey and had started by Angel pretending to be exasperated with Wes.

Then pretending to be pouty.

Then a bit upset.

On the word "show", both Wes and Angel pulled off their pants, the Velcro making it possible, to reveal the skirt of a female cheerleader. The crowd gasped and cheered at that.

Then a bit desperate.

Then they just did some general cheer moves such as waving their pompoms and getting the audience to clap along. Wes also did a couple of no-handed cartwheels.

During the final part, Angel moved to the back of the stage and hopped on the balls of his feet while waving his pompoms as Wes did some more gymnastics.

When the song ended, the audience clapped and cheered enthusiastically and Lorne came up onto the stage with a microphone and ushered them off. "Weren't they fabulous?" he asked. The audience got louder. "That was Angel and Wesley doing a rather interesting dance number to 'Hey Mickey'. So, who's next for a reading?"

Wes and Angel put their pants back on before joining Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, and Connor. All of the adults' eyes were huge.

"I'm shocked!" Gunn finally said.

"That was kind of the point," Wes replied.

"Good job," Fred said enthusiastically.

"Thank you." Wes gave her a warm smile. "Well?" he asked Cordelia.

"I enjoyed it immensely," she replied, grinning. "And I think you two can keep a shred of your dignity."

"Thank you. That's quite gracious of you."

"So," Angel said. "Another game night tomorrow night?"