That's the first time I've been able to write that down since it happened. Cordelia Chase is dead. She's dead; Angel's lost to us as a result. And it's my fault. At least partly.
It started when a portal opened up in Caritas, and the host's--Lorne's cousin appeared from his home dimension. We had to figure out how to send him back, and when we did, Cordelia ended up getting caught in the portal as well, so we went after her. Gunn refused to go, though, because of his gang, so it was just me and Angel, and when we arrived, we found a girl named Fred who had been caught in a portal like Cordelia had been - she told us that Cordelia had been taken as a slave to the palace.
Priests of the Wolf, Ram and Hart - yes, the same ones - were holding her because of her visions, and because Angel was the only demon, he was the only one who could challenge for her return. Fred and I were trying to figure out everything about the ritual challenge, but we had problems getting the information because we had trouble getting to the books, and by the time we did...it was too late.
Angel had lost the challenge, and Cordelia was murdered so her visions would pass on to someone the Priests could control. Angel, Fred and I had no choice but to run - we couldn't even bring Cordelia's body home.
We have the books now...but they weren't worth Cordelia's life.
I haven't seen Angel in over a month now. He left the hotel, disappeared into the sewers, leaving me to take care of Fred. Poor dear Fred. She was so lost when she came home.
At least that was something that ended happily, though. She had taken to writing on the walls in her room at the hotel, and one of the things she had written over and over was a man's name. Nick Stokes. I did some tracking - found a Nick Stokes in Las Vegas. Turned out that he had been her boyfriend when she had been at UCLA. After her disappearance, he had spent a year with the police looking for her, went into Forensics as a result. When it seemed that they were never going to find her, he moved to Vegas to work. However, when I contacted him, he was on the first flight to L.A. His being here did more for Fred than I could have ever hoped. Fred's adapting better, and she's moving with him to Vegas after they go home to Texas to see her parents.
Gunn's gone back to his gang permanently. And as for me...I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've been in contact with some people I've heard are some of the best freelance demon hunters in L.A. about working together. This is what I know, and without Angel, A.I. doesn't exist.
Sighing, Wesley put his pen down and looked at his journal. It was the first time he had written in it since returning, and still, it didn't seem to do any of what had happened justice. It was just words. It didn't convey how hard the last month had been, how much Cordelia's death had hurt as had Angel's just giving up.
Wesley had lost the people he considered his family. He was alone. Again.
Getting up, he grabbed his jacket even though it was warm out because his gun and stakes were concealed inside and put it on before heading out to his Jeep. He started to push his glasses up his nose then remembered that he wasn't wearing them - after returning, he had decided to get fit for contacts since the glasses had proved a severe liability in Pylea, especially after he had lost them.
Jacob had told him to meet him and the others at a small bar in a rather seedy part of town. He had just arrived and was heading down a side street when he heard what sounded like someone being attacked nearby. Drawing his gun, he rounded the corner into the alley and stopped at the sight that greeted him.
"Buffy?" he asked in surprise before he could stop himself.
Buffy stood and stared at the vampire, her fists clenched. She'd already knocked the creature down several times and was wondering why it hadn't ran away yet. Didn't matter to her, though. As long as she got to keep hitting it before it was time to stake it.
"Are you going to take care of me, Buffy?"
"I'll always take care of you, Dawnie."
"Why aren't you fighting back?" she yelled at the vampire. She kicked him in the gut and watched him stumble back. "You're a big bad demon, getting your butt kicked by a tiny girl. How pathetic."
"You'll protect me from Glory, right, Buffy?"
"Always."
Buffy pulled her fist back to hit the vamp again but was distracted when someone called her name. Turning, she looked but before she could focus on the person, the vampire attacked her and knocked her to the ground.
Standing, Buffy knew the fun and games were over with so she pulled her stake out and dusted the vamp. And after wiping her hands off, she turned to see who was standing there.
It was Wesley. And he had a gun.
"You'd think they would teach Watchers not to sneak up on people while they were fighting," she muttered as her eyes ticked over him. He didn't look like the Wes she'd known in Sunnydale. "So, what's this? You get fired from a crappy job and become some weirdo, walking around LA with a gun?"
When Buffy looked at him and got knocked down by the vamp, Wesley cringed, realizing that he had made a huge mistake, albeit an unintended one. He was reaching into his jacket for a stake to try to make up for it when Buffy quickly got up and pulled out her own stake, dusting the vamp in one smooth move.
He was about to apologize when she muttered something about sneaking up on people and called him a weirdo, causing his brow to furrow. "Weirdo? Charming," he huffed slightly. "I was down here for a meeting and heard a scuffle - didn't realize that the Slayer had things under control until I saw you. I didn't mean to distract you; I was just surprised to see you."
Making sure the safety was on his gun before putting it back in his jacket, he looked her over. It had been almost two years since he had last seen Buffy, and she seemed...different. There was something in her eyes, something he recognized from looking into the mirror every day for the last month. Something had happened. Some sort of loss.
"What are you doing here of all places?" he asked. "If you're here to see Angel, that...might not be possible. He...hasn't been around in over a month."
Buffy looked down at the small cuts on her hands as Wes called her charming. She looked over at him and furrowed her own brow. When had Wes become so bitterly sarcastic? The Wesley she knew would be wringing his hands by then, while naming off all the Council rules she'd broken. But this Wes was...different. Gone was his glasses, stiff suits, and his grooming had gone downhill.
Not that she was complaining. He actually looked better now than he did before.
When he mentioned Angel's name, she rolled her eyes. "I can come to LA without seeing Angel. I do have a father here, you know. The man who didn't come to our mom's funeral or Dawn's funeral." She shrugged a little and saw a vampire sneaking up behind Wes.
"And I could care less if Angel's in another dimension. I'm done with him," Buffy said as the vampire moved closer to Wesley. "Gonna stake him or pass out like you did in Sunnydale?"
The bitterness in Buffy's voice at his mention of Angel surprised Wesley. Considering how close he knew they two of them had been, hearing her speak that way about him was jolting. Not that Angel was his favorite person at the moment anyway. Being thrown over twice so Angel could nurse his own wounds when others needed him had left a rather bitter taste in his own mouth.
As Buffy spoke, Wes heard footsteps behind him and slowly reached into his jacket for one of his stakes, fairly certain that it was another vampire. They tended to travel in twos or threes more often than alone, so this would either be the Sire or the Childe. He had to wait for it to move closer before he tried anything.
His hand closing around the stake, he paused, however, when Buffy mentioned her sister's death. He had heard about her mother's death but hadn't known Dawn had died too. He remembered the young girl who had hung around even though Wesley hadn't thought it safe. No wonder she had that look in her eyes. Two losses in one year.
Before he could say anything, though, the vampire came closer and Buffy asked him if he was going to do something, making mention of his not-so-stellar performance in Sunnydale. Quickly, he withdrew the stake and turned just as the vampire reached him. With his free hand, he hit the vampire, catching it off guard and shoving it against the nearby wall. He then brought the stake up and plunged it into its heart, causing it to explode in a cloud of dust.
Childe. Had to be.
Putting the stake back in his pocket, he turned and looked at Buffy, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't passed out in years, thank you," he told her. "I'm sorry to hear about your mother and sister, though. I...I know how hard it is to lose family."
Even though they hadn't been related, Cordelia was the closest thing he truly had to family. Cordelia, Gunn and Angel, and he had lost all of them in some way.
"Bloody hell," he breathed, looking at his watch, remembering that Jacob and the others were waiting for him. "They're going to think I've set them up and ditched them."
Buffy crossed her arms and waited to see what Wesley was going to do. Her hand was around her stake incase he did scream like a girl and pass out. When he turned around and got the upper hand on the vampire, she raised her eyebrow. Wes had changed a lot since the last time she'd seen in, being put in an ambulance after graduation.
"You're like one of those clones, aren't you? 'Cause the Wes I know, would've been running the other way..." She trailed off when he said he was sorry about Dawn. People kept saying that to her and Buffy was getting tired of it. How could people feel sorry for her if they weren't there? They didn't see how she allowed her sister to die. "Thanks."
When Wes started talking about how he was late, Buffy just shrugged. Wesley could go off and have his meeting, while she slayed in private. She was about to walk away when a group of men walked up.
"Hey, Pryce, is some chick more important than us?" one of them asked.
Buffy raised her eyebrows to that, and started to turn so she could leave Wes alone with his friends. It was then that she noticed one of them was reaching for what looked like a knife. Great. Now she had to decide if she was going to stay here and defend Wes, the man who'd made her life a living hell for weeks, or leave.
Stay or go. Go or stay.
With a sigh, Buffy pulled out the knife she'd gotten from Giles. They'd been practicing knife throwing before everything went to hell on them. She watch the man move closer to Wes and then threw her knife at him. It hit him in the shoulder and it was distraction enough for her to lung forward and knock him to the cement.
"I really hate people who try and stab others in the back," Buffy hissed as she put her knee on his back and grabbed his knife.
When Wesley heard Jacob's voice, he turned around to face him and the other men, knowing that he was going to have to do a bit of explaining about this. He had told them that he would be coming to the meeting alone, and he had done a lot to even convince them to trust him enough to meet with him.
"I'm sorry, Jacob," he said, raising his hands up slightly to show him that he didn't have any weapons in them. Jacob had warned him that the other guys could be a bit twitchy, especially with people they didn't know. "I heard the young lady here in a scuffle, found that there were a couple of vampires in the area. We were just..."
Before he could finish his explanation, he heard a wooshing noise and looked over in time to see a knife hit one of the men in the shoulder. A moment later, Buffy had him down on the ground and was disarming him. Jacob reached into his pocket, but Wesley was faster, pulling out his gun and pushing him against the wall where he had staked the vampire moments before.
"Stay back!" he warned the other two men before they could make a move. "I will shoot, and believe me, you don't want to mess with her."
"She's just a girl," the younger of the two men still standing said.
"She's anything but just a girl if you'd care to notice the knife in your friend's shoulder," Wesley told him. "But by all means, prove me wrong. I'm sure your last friend standing there will be glad to cart you to hospital once she's dealt with you."
That shut the boy up and Wesley turned to Jacob, pushing him against the wall again and holding the gun up. "What the bloody hell was that about? I'm late, so your man there decides to try to gut me?"
"Some guy came to us...said that you were setting us up for some vampire you know named Angel. Offered us money to take you and the vampire out," Jacob said. "When we saw her..."
Wesley snorted. "You thought she was Angel? You gits, you don't know anything about what's really going on in this city, do you? If you did, you'd know who Angel was, or at the very least you would have checked out this guy. He give you a name?"
"Gavin. Didn't give a last name."
Gavin Park. Didn't surprise Wesley, considering how eager he seemed to be to get his hands on the hotel, no doubt to try to tear apart Angel Investigations. "You fell right in the trap of a Wolfram and Hart employee. Congratulations." Pulling Jacob away from the wall, he shoved him over toward the two who had been watching the entire exchange. "I don't believe I have any business with you lot anymore."
With her knee digging into the guy's back, Buffy looked up at Wes, ready to help if needed. She couldn't believe how willing she was to help the man, who'd tried to be her Watcher at one time. Buffy had hated him back then, but now they were in an alley, fighting a group of over-grown, and really ugly, bullies. "Stop squirming," Buffy said as she pushed the man's face against the pavement. "Keep that up then you're gonna have a pretty concrete rash to show all the girls."
She turned her attention back to Wesley and was about to react but stopped when he pulled out a gun. No, this defintely wasn't the same Wes she'd encountered in Sunnydale. He was smarter, quicker, and better looking. A lot better looking. How knew his eyes were that blue? And he knew how to fight, which made him even better.
A smile crept over her face when Wes pointed out that she wasn't just a girl. Okay, she was a girl and had all the girly parts and the guy she'd picked up at the bar the week before liked her girly parts, but she wasn't an ordinary girl. She smirked at that, wondering if she could get that on a t-shirt.
Finally it seemed the guys had gotten that they weren't welcomed. Buffy let her victim up and the men ran off. The alley became quiet, something Buffy hated. When it was silent, she often found herself thinking about her sister. She needed chaos and commotion. Looking over at Wes, she sighed, wondering if he knew how it felt to be alone. She also started to wonder if he'd take her to bed since the numbness was setting in.
Faith had sex after hunting, while Buffy had sex to make herself fell more alive.
If he didn't, then she'd find someone else.
"Do you think you could give me a ride to my motel room?" she asked as she looked up at him.
Once Jacob and the others ran off in the darkness, Wesley stood, watching after them, cursing softly. Those four had been his best chance for continuing his work, and Gavin Park had ruined it.
Well, perhaps not. If those four could be so easily convinced and turned against him, he had no use for them. He supposed he would have to thank Gavin for saving him the time and trouble. Although what did one get someone in that situation?
Shaking his head, he turned and looked over at Buffy, suddenly realizing how stifling the silence in the alley had become. He wanted to say something to her, but he wasn't sure what. He couldn't ask how things were going because he had a pretty good idea, given what she had said had happened to her sister. And he couldn't say anything really; he didn't want to put anything more on her.
When she finally asked if he'd drive her to her motel room, he nodded. He knew Buffy could more than take care of herself, but he didn't like the idea of going off and just leaving her alone. The last time he had left someone, she had ended up dead. "I'd be glad to," he told here, raising his hand to indicate that they should head down the alley.
As they walked together, he found himself almost hyperly aware of how close Buffy was. This was probably the first time he had ever been this close to her as she had held him at arm's length the entire time he had been in Sunnydale. Now, though, they were walking side by side, and it was hard not to ignore that fact...especially since he hadn't really been this close to anyone since Fred had left with Nick. Being alone did strange things to a person, he realized.
His jeep wasn't too far once they had rounded the corner, and he unlocked it, opening the door for her. Once she was inside, he circled around and got into the driver's seat, starting the car.
"Where's your motel?" he asked, glancing over at her, wondering if there was anyway he could spend more time with her. He didn't want to just drop her off and leave because if he did, he'd be alone again. She probably wouldn't want him to stick around, though. So he'd just drop her off.
"Thanks," Buffy muttered when Wes said he'd give her a ride to the motel.
She walked with him down the alleyway, musing on how tall he was. Buffy knew he was tall but didn't really notice it until she was standing beside him. Back in Sunnydale, she never stood this close to him because she didn't like him. But now, he was different and she actually found herself moving closer to him.
When they got to his Jeep, and he opened the door for her, Buffy smiled a little and got in. "My motel is a few blocks up. It's not much but you don't make a lot of money, slaying vamps," she said with a small shrug. "Even though Anya said I should. Glad Giles let her keep the books at the Magic Box. I was getting sick of her constant money advice."
Soon the sign of the small motel appeared and Buffy motioned for Wesley to pull up in front of one of the doors. Taking a deep breath, she looked over at him, wondering if he was just going to drop her off and leave. "Um." She continued to look at him, wondering how she was going to approach this. "Do you want to come in? I-I haven't had any company and..."
Buffy trailed off and looked down at her hands. She wanted him, and wanted him to touch her to make the numbness go away. "I haven't done this a lot but..."
Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth against his and started to kiss him.
The motel was a bit rundown, not the sort of place he would ever have imagined Buffy staying. Part of him wanted to ask her if she wanted to come stay at his place - it was cleaner, and God knew he would be glad for the company. But this was Buffy, and he wasn't sure how she would react to his offer. The fact that they had made it this far actually surprised him.
He put the car into park and looked over at her, his eyebrow raising in surprise when she started speaking. Was she actually trying to ask him to come in? Buffy Summers, whose first words about him after meeting him had been "Is he evil"?
Before he could react, though, she was shifting, and a moment later, her lips were pressed against his in a hungry kiss. At first, Wesley was frozen in shock - Buffy Summers was actually kissing him. Then his mind kicked into gear, and he raised his hands up, fully intending to stop this before it went any farther. He didn't want either of them to get into something they'd regret later.
But then, the thought of whether this was right or wrong flew out the window as Buffy shifted closer against him, and all he suddenly cared about was the fact that she was there, and he didn't have to be alone. His fingers tangled into her ponytail as he deepened the kiss. God, it had been months since he had kissed anyone like this.
Finally, he was forced to break the kiss, gasping for breath. He looked into Buffy's eyes, knowing that he should let her go and drive away. But he didn't want to. He couldn't. He couldn't go back to his silent apartment, where all he could do was drink and remember what had happened and what he should have been able to do to prevent it.
"We should go inside," he told her hoarsely, letting her go and reaching for the car door.
Buffy was afraid Wesley was going to pull away and stop her. Everyone else would've but not him. Instead, he responded and she felt herself moving closer to press against him. She remembered what Cordy had said about Wes being a bad kisser, but Buffy didn't see it. He was actually really, really good, especially when he wrapped his fingers in her hair.
When the kiss ended, Buffy stared at him for a moment. The sweet girl inside of her wanted to run off, but she needed this. "Sounds good," she said before she slipped out of the Jeep. She led him to her door and slipped the key the lock. It clicked open and she pushed the door open.
"It's not much," Buffy said as she flicked on a small lamp that barely lit the room. She tossed the keys on the table and slipped her small jacket off. Turning, she looked at Wesley and fear came over again. She didn't want him to leave so she went over to him and pulled his head down for another kiss.
As her tongue slipped into his mouth, Buffy jumped up into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. Breaking the kiss, she looked down at him for a brief moment before her mouth found his neck.
That's the first time I've been able to write that down since it happened. Cordelia Chase is dead. She's dead; Angel's lost to us as a result. And it's my fault. At least partly.
It started when a portal opened up in Caritas, and the host's--Lorne's cousin appeared from his home dimension. We had to figure out how to send him back, and when we did, Cordelia ended up getting caught in the portal as well, so we went after her. Gunn refused to go, though, because of his gang, so it was just me and Angel, and when we arrived, we found a girl named Fred who had been caught in a portal like Cordelia had been - she told us that Cordelia had been taken as a slave to the palace.
Priests of the Wolf, Ram and Hart - yes, the same ones - were holding her because of her visions, and because Angel was the only demon, he was the only one who could challenge for her return. Fred and I were trying to figure out everything about the ritual challenge, but we had problems getting the information because we had trouble getting to the books, and by the time we did...it was too late.
Angel had lost the challenge, and Cordelia was murdered so her visions would pass on to someone the Priests could control. Angel, Fred and I had no choice but to run - we couldn't even bring Cordelia's body home.
We have the books now...but they weren't worth Cordelia's life.
I haven't seen Angel in over a month now. He left the hotel, disappeared into the sewers, leaving me to take care of Fred. Poor dear Fred. She was so lost when she came home.
At least that was something that ended happily, though. She had taken to writing on the walls in her room at the hotel, and one of the things she had written over and over was a man's name. Nick Stokes. I did some tracking - found a Nick Stokes in Las Vegas. Turned out that he had been her boyfriend when she had been at UCLA. After her disappearance, he had spent a year with the police looking for her, went into Forensics as a result. When it seemed that they were never going to find her, he moved to Vegas to work. However, when I contacted him, he was on the first flight to L.A. His being here did more for Fred than I could have ever hoped. Fred's adapting better, and she's moving with him to Vegas after they go home to Texas to see her parents.
Gunn's gone back to his gang permanently. And as for me...I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've been in contact with some people I've heard are some of the best freelance demon hunters in L.A. about working together. This is what I know, and without Angel, A.I. doesn't exist.
Sighing, Wesley put his pen down and looked at his journal. It was the first time he had written in it since returning, and still, it didn't seem to do any of what had happened justice. It was just words. It didn't convey how hard the last month had been, how much Cordelia's death had hurt as had Angel's just giving up.
Wesley had lost the people he considered his family. He was alone. Again.
Getting up, he grabbed his jacket even though it was warm out because his gun and stakes were concealed inside and put it on before heading out to his Jeep. He started to push his glasses up his nose then remembered that he wasn't wearing them - after returning, he had decided to get fit for contacts since the glasses had proved a severe liability in Pylea, especially after he had lost them.
Jacob had told him to meet him and the others at a small bar in a rather seedy part of town. He had just arrived and was heading down a side street when he heard what sounded like someone being attacked nearby. Drawing his gun, he rounded the corner into the alley and stopped at the sight that greeted him.
"Buffy?" he asked in surprise before he could stop himself.
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"Are you going to take care of me, Buffy?"
"I'll always take care of you, Dawnie."
"Why aren't you fighting back?" she yelled at the vampire. She kicked him in the gut and watched him stumble back. "You're a big bad demon, getting your butt kicked by a tiny girl. How pathetic."
"You'll protect me from Glory, right, Buffy?"
"Always."
Buffy pulled her fist back to hit the vamp again but was distracted when someone called her name. Turning, she looked but before she could focus on the person, the vampire attacked her and knocked her to the ground.
Standing, Buffy knew the fun and games were over with so she pulled her stake out and dusted the vamp. And after wiping her hands off, she turned to see who was standing there.
It was Wesley. And he had a gun.
"You'd think they would teach Watchers not to sneak up on people while they were fighting," she muttered as her eyes ticked over him. He didn't look like the Wes she'd known in Sunnydale. "So, what's this? You get fired from a crappy job and become some weirdo, walking around LA with a gun?"
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He was about to apologize when she muttered something about sneaking up on people and called him a weirdo, causing his brow to furrow. "Weirdo? Charming," he huffed slightly. "I was down here for a meeting and heard a scuffle - didn't realize that the Slayer had things under control until I saw you. I didn't mean to distract you; I was just surprised to see you."
Making sure the safety was on his gun before putting it back in his jacket, he looked her over. It had been almost two years since he had last seen Buffy, and she seemed...different. There was something in her eyes, something he recognized from looking into the mirror every day for the last month. Something had happened. Some sort of loss.
"What are you doing here of all places?" he asked. "If you're here to see Angel, that...might not be possible. He...hasn't been around in over a month."
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Not that she was complaining. He actually looked better now than he did before.
When he mentioned Angel's name, she rolled her eyes. "I can come to LA without seeing Angel. I do have a father here, you know. The man who didn't come to our mom's funeral or Dawn's funeral." She shrugged a little and saw a vampire sneaking up behind Wes.
"And I could care less if Angel's in another dimension. I'm done with him," Buffy said as the vampire moved closer to Wesley. "Gonna stake him or pass out like you did in Sunnydale?"
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As Buffy spoke, Wes heard footsteps behind him and slowly reached into his jacket for one of his stakes, fairly certain that it was another vampire. They tended to travel in twos or threes more often than alone, so this would either be the Sire or the Childe. He had to wait for it to move closer before he tried anything.
His hand closing around the stake, he paused, however, when Buffy mentioned her sister's death. He had heard about her mother's death but hadn't known Dawn had died too. He remembered the young girl who had hung around even though Wesley hadn't thought it safe. No wonder she had that look in her eyes. Two losses in one year.
Before he could say anything, though, the vampire came closer and Buffy asked him if he was going to do something, making mention of his not-so-stellar performance in Sunnydale. Quickly, he withdrew the stake and turned just as the vampire reached him. With his free hand, he hit the vampire, catching it off guard and shoving it against the nearby wall. He then brought the stake up and plunged it into its heart, causing it to explode in a cloud of dust.
Childe. Had to be.
Putting the stake back in his pocket, he turned and looked at Buffy, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't passed out in years, thank you," he told her. "I'm sorry to hear about your mother and sister, though. I...I know how hard it is to lose family."
Even though they hadn't been related, Cordelia was the closest thing he truly had to family. Cordelia, Gunn and Angel, and he had lost all of them in some way.
"Bloody hell," he breathed, looking at his watch, remembering that Jacob and the others were waiting for him. "They're going to think I've set them up and ditched them."
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"You're like one of those clones, aren't you? 'Cause the Wes I know, would've been running the other way..." She trailed off when he said he was sorry about Dawn. People kept saying that to her and Buffy was getting tired of it. How could people feel sorry for her if they weren't there? They didn't see how she allowed her sister to die. "Thanks."
When Wes started talking about how he was late, Buffy just shrugged. Wesley could go off and have his meeting, while she slayed in private. She was about to walk away when a group of men walked up.
"Hey, Pryce, is some chick more important than us?" one of them asked.
Buffy raised her eyebrows to that, and started to turn so she could leave Wes alone with his friends. It was then that she noticed one of them was reaching for what looked like a knife. Great. Now she had to decide if she was going to stay here and defend Wes, the man who'd made her life a living hell for weeks, or leave.
Stay or go. Go or stay.
With a sigh, Buffy pulled out the knife she'd gotten from Giles. They'd been practicing knife throwing before everything went to hell on them. She watch the man move closer to Wes and then threw her knife at him. It hit him in the shoulder and it was distraction enough for her to lung forward and knock him to the cement.
"I really hate people who try and stab others in the back," Buffy hissed as she put her knee on his back and grabbed his knife.
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"I'm sorry, Jacob," he said, raising his hands up slightly to show him that he didn't have any weapons in them. Jacob had warned him that the other guys could be a bit twitchy, especially with people they didn't know. "I heard the young lady here in a scuffle, found that there were a couple of vampires in the area. We were just..."
Before he could finish his explanation, he heard a wooshing noise and looked over in time to see a knife hit one of the men in the shoulder. A moment later, Buffy had him down on the ground and was disarming him. Jacob reached into his pocket, but Wesley was faster, pulling out his gun and pushing him against the wall where he had staked the vampire moments before.
"Stay back!" he warned the other two men before they could make a move. "I will shoot, and believe me, you don't want to mess with her."
"She's just a girl," the younger of the two men still standing said.
"She's anything but just a girl if you'd care to notice the knife in your friend's shoulder," Wesley told him. "But by all means, prove me wrong. I'm sure your last friend standing there will be glad to cart you to hospital once she's dealt with you."
That shut the boy up and Wesley turned to Jacob, pushing him against the wall again and holding the gun up. "What the bloody hell was that about? I'm late, so your man there decides to try to gut me?"
"Some guy came to us...said that you were setting us up for some vampire you know named Angel. Offered us money to take you and the vampire out," Jacob said. "When we saw her..."
Wesley snorted. "You thought she was Angel? You gits, you don't know anything about what's really going on in this city, do you? If you did, you'd know who Angel was, or at the very least you would have checked out this guy. He give you a name?"
"Gavin. Didn't give a last name."
Gavin Park. Didn't surprise Wesley, considering how eager he seemed to be to get his hands on the hotel, no doubt to try to tear apart Angel Investigations. "You fell right in the trap of a Wolfram and Hart employee. Congratulations." Pulling Jacob away from the wall, he shoved him over toward the two who had been watching the entire exchange. "I don't believe I have any business with you lot anymore."
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She turned her attention back to Wesley and was about to react but stopped when he pulled out a gun. No, this defintely wasn't the same Wes she'd encountered in Sunnydale. He was smarter, quicker, and better looking. A lot better looking. How knew his eyes were that blue? And he knew how to fight, which made him even better.
A smile crept over her face when Wes pointed out that she wasn't just a girl. Okay, she was a girl and had all the girly parts and the guy she'd picked up at the bar the week before liked her girly parts, but she wasn't an ordinary girl. She smirked at that, wondering if she could get that on a t-shirt.
Finally it seemed the guys had gotten that they weren't welcomed. Buffy let her victim up and the men ran off. The alley became quiet, something Buffy hated. When it was silent, she often found herself thinking about her sister. She needed chaos and commotion. Looking over at Wes, she sighed, wondering if he knew how it felt to be alone. She also started to wonder if he'd take her to bed since the numbness was setting in.
Faith had sex after hunting, while Buffy had sex to make herself fell more alive.
If he didn't, then she'd find someone else.
"Do you think you could give me a ride to my motel room?" she asked as she looked up at him.
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Well, perhaps not. If those four could be so easily convinced and turned against him, he had no use for them. He supposed he would have to thank Gavin for saving him the time and trouble. Although what did one get someone in that situation?
Shaking his head, he turned and looked over at Buffy, suddenly realizing how stifling the silence in the alley had become. He wanted to say something to her, but he wasn't sure what. He couldn't ask how things were going because he had a pretty good idea, given what she had said had happened to her sister. And he couldn't say anything really; he didn't want to put anything more on her.
When she finally asked if he'd drive her to her motel room, he nodded. He knew Buffy could more than take care of herself, but he didn't like the idea of going off and just leaving her alone. The last time he had left someone, she had ended up dead. "I'd be glad to," he told here, raising his hand to indicate that they should head down the alley.
As they walked together, he found himself almost hyperly aware of how close Buffy was. This was probably the first time he had ever been this close to her as she had held him at arm's length the entire time he had been in Sunnydale. Now, though, they were walking side by side, and it was hard not to ignore that fact...especially since he hadn't really been this close to anyone since Fred had left with Nick. Being alone did strange things to a person, he realized.
His jeep wasn't too far once they had rounded the corner, and he unlocked it, opening the door for her. Once she was inside, he circled around and got into the driver's seat, starting the car.
"Where's your motel?" he asked, glancing over at her, wondering if there was anyway he could spend more time with her. He didn't want to just drop her off and leave because if he did, he'd be alone again. She probably wouldn't want him to stick around, though. So he'd just drop her off.
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She walked with him down the alleyway, musing on how tall he was. Buffy knew he was tall but didn't really notice it until she was standing beside him. Back in Sunnydale, she never stood this close to him because she didn't like him. But now, he was different and she actually found herself moving closer to him.
When they got to his Jeep, and he opened the door for her, Buffy smiled a little and got in. "My motel is a few blocks up. It's not much but you don't make a lot of money, slaying vamps," she said with a small shrug. "Even though Anya said I should. Glad Giles let her keep the books at the Magic Box. I was getting sick of her constant money advice."
Soon the sign of the small motel appeared and Buffy motioned for Wesley to pull up in front of one of the doors. Taking a deep breath, she looked over at him, wondering if he was just going to drop her off and leave. "Um." She continued to look at him, wondering how she was going to approach this. "Do you want to come in? I-I haven't had any company and..."
Buffy trailed off and looked down at her hands. She wanted him, and wanted him to touch her to make the numbness go away. "I haven't done this a lot but..."
Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth against his and started to kiss him.
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He put the car into park and looked over at her, his eyebrow raising in surprise when she started speaking. Was she actually trying to ask him to come in? Buffy Summers, whose first words about him after meeting him had been "Is he evil"?
Before he could react, though, she was shifting, and a moment later, her lips were pressed against his in a hungry kiss. At first, Wesley was frozen in shock - Buffy Summers was actually kissing him. Then his mind kicked into gear, and he raised his hands up, fully intending to stop this before it went any farther. He didn't want either of them to get into something they'd regret later.
But then, the thought of whether this was right or wrong flew out the window as Buffy shifted closer against him, and all he suddenly cared about was the fact that she was there, and he didn't have to be alone. His fingers tangled into her ponytail as he deepened the kiss. God, it had been months since he had kissed anyone like this.
Finally, he was forced to break the kiss, gasping for breath. He looked into Buffy's eyes, knowing that he should let her go and drive away. But he didn't want to. He couldn't. He couldn't go back to his silent apartment, where all he could do was drink and remember what had happened and what he should have been able to do to prevent it.
"We should go inside," he told her hoarsely, letting her go and reaching for the car door.
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When the kiss ended, Buffy stared at him for a moment. The sweet girl inside of her wanted to run off, but she needed this. "Sounds good," she said before she slipped out of the Jeep. She led him to her door and slipped the key the lock. It clicked open and she pushed the door open.
"It's not much," Buffy said as she flicked on a small lamp that barely lit the room. She tossed the keys on the table and slipped her small jacket off. Turning, she looked at Wesley and fear came over again. She didn't want him to leave so she went over to him and pulled his head down for another kiss.
As her tongue slipped into his mouth, Buffy jumped up into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. Breaking the kiss, she looked down at him for a brief moment before her mouth found his neck.
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