Fic: "Five Lovers Fred Burkle Never Had and One She Did" (Fred/Various, Angel, FRAO)
TITLE: Five Lovers Fred Burkle Never Had and One She Did
AUTHOR: Lara (larakailyn)
SUMMARY: Five ways Fred’s life could have gone, and one way it did.
PAIRINGS: Fred/Nick Stokes, Fred/Lilah, Fred/Buffy, Fred/Angelus, Fred/Giles, Fred/Wesley
FANDOMS: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, mention of CSI:
RATING: FRAO
WORD COUNT: ~4350
SPOILERS: Through Angel S5 “A Hole in the World”
DISCLAIMER: I only wish I were as successful as Joss Whedon. He and Mutant Enemy own the Buffyverse/Angelverse while Jerry Bruckheimer and his people own the CSIverse; I just write fanfic for fun.
DISTRIBUTION: If anyone wants to archive this, please let me know!
FEEDBACK: Very much appreciated.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For deviantfantasy. <3
I.
The afternoon following Fred’s graduation from high school, everything changed between her and Nick Stokes.
She’d had a crush on his from the day she met him at her cousin Logan’s own graduation party when she had seen them playing catch in the yard. But she had been fourteen at the time, and he had been eighteen, and Fred had never thought anything could ever happen between them, even though they became friends. He was the one who convinced her to stop smoking pot, and she was the one who told him that he should major in Criminal Justice when he hadn’t been so sure about following in his family’s footsteps.
Toward the end of her graduation party, though, Nick caught her hand and led her around the back of her dad’s barn. Before she could ask what was going on, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Twice. The first kiss was short, sweet and on the lips; the second kiss was slower, longer and deeper.
The rest of that summer, Nick came down from Dallas to visit Fred whenever he had a chance, but with him applying for jobs and needing to be available for interviews, it was sometimes difficult. It was worth it, though, for the times she did get to see him, especially since she would be going west to California for school at the end of the summer.
The last weekend before Fred was to head out to Los Angeles, she drove up Dallas in the old station wagon. She was a bit nervous because it was the first time she’d been there alone, and she was going to be meeting Nick’s friends. She hoped they didn’t think she was too silly or young - she was still more than four years younger than Nick even though she was eighteen now.
She didn’t need to worry because she only met his friends briefly. They were very nice, however. Instead, she and Nick spent most of the weekend by themselves, enjoying the more romantic sights of Dallas. Or at least to Fred they were because she was sharing them with him, no matter how sappy that sounded.
She lost her virginity to Nick that weekend. It was a bit painful and fumbling at first since she was inexperienced save for making out. She even managed to tear one of the condoms while trying to put it on him, but Nick just smiled and kissed her hand before getting another one and rolling it on himself. Soon, he was inside her, making her shudder with each thrust, telling her that he loved her.
She loved him too.
By the end of the weekend, Fred was a bit sore, but it had been the best weekend-no, the best summer of her life, she thought as she drove home to pack for school. She couldn’t forget the way Nick had touched her, the way it felt when she came with him inside her. They had promised each other that even with her so far away for school, they’d see each other whenever possible. Nick was even considering seeing what jobs were available out west so he could be closer. Fred knew that somehow, they’d be able to work it out.
Or they would have, only Nick never made it to her graduation party because he was accepted to the police academy and started that week. He sent Fred a congratulatory card and told her to come visit him in Dallas sometime. She never had time, though, and in the end, she ended up losing her virginity to a boy she met in her Intro to History class at UCLA that fall.
II.
The day Lilah Morgan walked into the Los Angeles Public Library and asked for her, Fred found herself pulled into a world she had only suspected existed.
UCLA was having to cut funding, so several scholarships were being eliminated, including Fred’s, and Professor Siedel hadn’t been helping much even though he had promised to see what he could do. She had been trying to decide how she was going to handle the situation - try to stay and work more hours at the library to cover her expenses, get a different job, go home and go to school in Texas - when Lilah arrived. She said her firm had heard good things about her and asked her to come meet with her bosses about an opportunity she’d never get again. Fred was uncertain but didn’t know what else to do, so she agreed, wondering what in the world a place called Wolfram and Hart could want with or offer her.
It ended up to be quite a bit. The offer was too good to pass up - the rest of her schooling, including her doctorate work, paid for plus a job in the most advanced lab she had ever seen, even while she was still in school. They also promised she’d run it someday.
Lilah, who was a recent law school graduate herself and fairly new to the firm, convinced Fred to take it, even after she ran into that demon when she took a wrong turn coming out of the bathroom. She told her how she been uncertain too, especially after finding out demons and monsters and vampires did exist, but she figured that they were no worse than humans, who could be just as horrific. Wolfram and Hart was the best chance either of them was going to get.
So Fred agreed and started working part-time at the firm while still going to school. She got used to the strange creatures and the strange projects. And she definitely got used to the things she was given and the things she could buy with the money she made. By the time she found out what Wolfram and Hart really did, she didn’t care. She was in too deep. Her loyalty was to the firm that had given her a good life and a fantastic lover.
She hadn’t ever expected that anything might happen between her and Lilah. She thought the other woman was absolutely beautiful and found herself often fantasizing about her, but she didn’t think she possibly be interested in her, even though Lilah always seemed to find some excuse to come to the lab to see her. Until the night of the firm’s Halloween party. After spending some time standing the reception lobby, getting jostled, they decided to go upstairs to the next floor to get out of the way. When they got up there, though, Lilah asked her to come into her office while she got something.
As soon as they walked in, Lilah closed the door and pushed Fred against the wall, kissing her hard as she flipped the latch to lock them in. Fred was stunned for a moment before wrapping her arms around the other woman, tangling her fingers in her hair, returning the kiss with equal fervor. Lilah’s hand was soon snaking under her skirt, up between her thighs and into her panties. Fred gasped as Lilah’s fingers pushed inside her, thrusting with short strokes as her thumb found her clit. Wanting more, she bucked her hips forward while unbuttoning the other woman’s shirt, pulling up her bra and toying with Lilah’s nipples before leaning forward to take one in her mouth.
They spent the rest of the party fucking each other in Lilah’s office before going back to Fred’s apartment for the night. A few months later, they moved in together. The words “I love you” were never said - those were for nice girls, and neither of them were that. However, they didn’t want anyone else either.
Or so they would have thought, only Fred didn’t meet Lilah that day in the library. No one knew where she was when Lilah arrived and asked for her, in fact. She had disappeared several days before while she was supposed to be shelving books.
III.
The evening Fred met Buffy Summers, she thought at first she had to be dreaming...or dead.
After several hellish years on Pylea, Fred finally managed to open a portal back to his own dimension. She landed in the middle of a cemetery in Sunnydale just after sundown and was immediately attacked by vampires. Buffy had been patrolling, however, and saved her, dusting them all in almost less time than it took Fred to count how many there were. Three.
Scared and sure she must have fallen asleep in the woods or been killed, she tried to run, but Buffy was faster, catching up with her. After introducing herself and assuring Fred that everything would be all right, she managed to get her to go with her to the home of a friend named Giles, where she was taken care of and given food and shown where she could bathe safely for the first time in years. She spent at least an hour in the bathroom with Buffy helping her get her hair clean and detangled. Buffy promised to take her to a salon and shopping. Fred wasn’t sure if that was a good idea - what if too many things had changed, what if there were no more tacos.
Buffy assured her that tacos were still very available.
While Fred stayed with Giles, Buffy came over every day to check on her, bringing her clothes or books or tacos and offering to take her out somewhere. When she finally decided that Fred had hidden away long enough, she practically pulled her out of the apartment. They went for ice cream and talked, and Fred felt a bit more human that night.
She also found herself starting to fall in love with Buffy.
She didn’t say anything, though, because Buffy had a boyfriend named Riley. And even after they broke up, Fred wasn’t sure she should ever say anything. She didn’t know if Buffy even liked girls that way, the way her friend Willow did, and besides that, she was crazy. Or had been. Who wanted a crazy moocher who couldn’t talk to her own parents about what had happened?
The morning following after Dracula tried to seduce Buffy, she came over to Giles’ place to ask Fred if she wanted to go for a walk. After heading down to the park, they sat together on one of the benches in a private grove, and Buffy talked about how she never seemed to attract anyone normal. Vampires, a super soldier, an asshole. As she spoke, Fred wrung her hands together, wondering if Buffy knew about her feelings and was trying to let her down gently with this talk.
But then Buffy turned towards her, and suddenly they were kissing - there in the park. Fred didn’t understand. She wasn’t normal. Far from it. Buffy told her she was; she had just had bad things happen. What was extraordinary was that she survived.
Over the following months, they grew closer as Fred helped Buffy through the fallout of her mother’s illness and the realization that her sister Dawn had been created, hadn’t been there all along like they all thought. It wasn’t an easy time, but Fred wanted to help Buffy the way she had helped her.
They slept together for the first time following the visit from Quentin Travers and some other Council members. Fred had been worried she might have said something wrong during her “interview”, but Buffy had stopped her rambling about that with a kiss before pulling her upstairs, telling her that her mother and sister - she still called her that, Fred noticed - were out for the night. Soon, they were tangled up in each other on Buffy’s bed, exploring and touching and tasting. Both of them were a bit uncertain, having only been with men before, but they figured it out with fingers and tongues. Buffy was like nothing Fred had tasted before, and when she shook in orgasm, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Afterwards, they held each other, promising they’d stick together no matter what was to come. Until Fred felt her heart shatter when Buffy jumped off the tower to close the tear to Glory’s hell dimension, suddenly understanding the apology and searing kiss she had given her before going up there. Fred had never wanted more than to kill someone at that moment for forcing Buffy to make that choice as she sobbed over her girlfriend’s broken body. She later swore at Buffy’s grave she’d do what she could to continue her fight.
Or she would have, only just when Fred was opening the portal on Pylea, several cow hunters spotted her, forcing her to flee. She spent another year not understanding what she was doing wrong because it had almost worked. Buffy, meanwhile, simply killed three vamps that night she just found hanging around the cemetery.
IV.
The night of Fred’s awakening after Angelus turned her, she found herself craving all sorts of wonderfully dark things, and her Sire was there to give it all to her.
When he had surprised her in the Hyperion office, he had decided that taking her would be far more entertaining than just making off with the books he had come after. So she had found herself dragged down to the sewers, backhanded every time she tried to struggle or escape and taken to an abandoned house. There, he had tied her up to a dusty bed and used a knife on her, cutting little patterns here and there as he stripped off her clothes. But Fred hadn’t screamed - she had learned not to on Pylea because it just made them madder. She had the scars to prove it, scars that Angelus found. Smiling, he had raked the knife across them, but still she had refused to scream. This had seemed to impress him, and he had idly wondered out loud what Gunn and Wesley would do when they found the girl they had been fighting over belonged to him now as he pulled her naked and bleeding body against him, letting her feel his erection. He had promised her she would have everything she could ever want...if she was a good girl.
Pain had then exploded through her, and the smell of old blood and death was soon overwhelming. She barely recalled struggling, trying not to drink, but in the end, she knew what she’d be when she awoke.
And how wonderful it felt when she did.
Angelus didn’t have food waiting for her, instead forcing her to prove herself and hunt down her own. She did, using the skills she had picked up on Pylea to hunt small animals for food, seducing a college-age girl who tasted divine. Angelus told her the first meal always did before kissing her blood-stained lips.
Once she had eaten, he took her back to the house where he fucked her in every room. The house would be theirs now if they decided to stay in Los Angeles, and she was his now, no matter what, he told her as he thrust into her, hard and fast. He wasn’t gentle, but Fred didn’t want him to be - she enjoyed the pain and the pleasure it brought her now, enjoyed the thought of all the depraved things he promised to do to her and with her. She talked dirty to him, knowing how much he liked that, and when she came, this time she screamed for him. Every time.
He got her pretty things to wear, including a pearl choker only he was allowed to touch once he put it on her. It was his way of marking her as his. Fred had been someone’s property before and had hated it, but with her Sire, it was different. She knew to behave, and everything would be hers.
A few days following her turning, Angelus decided it was time to introduce his new Childe to what was left of the White Hats. Wesley’s face was absolutely priceless as was Gunn’s clumsy fury when he tried to attack them both. Fred was disappointed that they didn’t do much more than break his arm before they gave them the slip, but Angelus had got what he wanted - he had shown them that Fred was lost to them.
After that, they decided to leave Los Angeles to its own devices and find a new place to hunt. There was a whole world out there. However, Angelus had something he wanted to do first - a bit of revenge. They found Connor and a very pregnant Cordelia and killed them both after Fred charmed the room with a sleeping talisman she learned how to make from one of the books Angelus had taken along with her. They discovered the vessel with his soul by Cordy’s bedside. She had taken it, but why she had and why or how she had become so pregnant in a short amount of time, they never knew.
Taking the vessel, intending to find a dark sorcerer to destroy it for them, they left the bodies to be discovered whenever and headed for the east coast, deciding that maybe Europe would be their destination. Fred had never been there, and Angelus decided it was time to go back. They were going to have such fun.
Or so they might have, only Angelus just took the books when he ambushed Fred in the office. She felt so guilty, especially when she learned she had been duped by the so-called talisman he had used, but at least there was another chance to get Angel’s soul back.
V.
The week Rupert Giles came to Wolfram and Hart to help find a lost young Slayer, Fred knew they had made the wrong choice, taking over the firm.
Giles knew what he was talking about when it came to Slayers, Fred could see that, and didn’t understand why Angel wanted Dana kept in Los Angeles even though the Council could assist more. Especially when he wouldn’t - or couldn’t - explain his reasons. She did her job, however, in helping track her. During the search, Giles seemed to realize she was sympathetic and stopped by her lab to talk to her several times. He was nice and interesting to talk to though she could see how uncomfortable he was to be there, at the firm.
When they did find Dana, the teenager managed to get her hands on Spike - and cut off his. Fred spent the evening in surgery with him, watching the reattachment process, unable to forget the look Giles had given her before he had taken Dana away. Angel, Wes and Gunn had tried to stop him, but they were no match for a dozen armed, healthy Slayers, so they had been forced to let Dana go. In Fred’s opinion, it had been for the best.
After Spike was out of surgery and resting comfortably, she went home to find Giles outside her door, much to her surprise as she thought he had already left to return to England. He asked her why she was there at that place, and when she tried to say they were doing good, changing things, nothing came out. She just shrugged as she thought about how Charles had let them turn him into Gunn, Wolfram and Hart Attorney-At-Law, and how Lorne had allowed the removal of his sleep and how Angel was being isolated by Eve more and more every day. They weren’t changing things; the firm was changing them.
Giles seemed to see the uncertainty in her eyes and asked her to come work for the Council, to get away before she got sucked in, changed or hurt too. The next thing Fred knew, she was arriving with him in England.
The Council lab was almost as advanced as the one at Wolfram and Hart though it was easy to see that the Council didn’t have the same resources. However, as Fred started her work, helping figure out ways to deal with demons and cure poisons that were used to help victims, she found that she had made the right decision in leaving. She felt more comfortable, like she didn’t have to look over her shoulder or wonder what was going to happen next.
Giles - a self-professed technophobe and science dolt - spent quite a bit of time with her, helping her get settled in a flat, finding excuses to stop by the lab. Fred found herself looking forward to seeing him and was actually quite sad when Rupert didn’t make it down in the course of a day. Finally, she decided to ask him to lunch. Lunch led to dinners after work, which soon led to breakfasts after spending the night together.
Their first night came after they had picked up Chinese takeaway following a rather harried week of tracking a violent clan of vampires in Wales. Rupert had suffered some minor injuries in the fight with them, but luckily it hadn’t been anything too terribly bad, much to Fred’s relief. She invited him over to her place to eat, but before they finished, Rupert started kissing her, saying that he didn’t want to waste anymore time, not after what had happened. Soon, they were on Fred’s bed, their clothes in a heap on the floor. Fred gasped when she saw his scars; Rupert gently touched hers.
It seemed they spent a good portion of the night mapping each other’s bodies before he finally pressed into her from behind as they lay spooned together, his arms encircling her and holding her close against him. Fred’s head fell back against his shoulder as he nuzzled her neck. His hand slowly slid down the plane of her belly and between her thighs to find her clit, which he rubbed while his thrusts became harder and faster until they both came.
They tried to keep their relationship quiet, not wanting to become Council gossip, especially since Rupert was Chair. But when Andrew found them kissing in his office one evening after they thought everyone had gone home, it wasn’t long before everyone else knew as well. Some of the holdovers from the previous regime wanted Fred removed, claiming that with her previous Wolfram and Hart affiliation, she was obviously there to distract and cause trouble. Rupert and the others supported her, however, and she kept her job.
Although she did end up having to take maternity leave a year later when she gave birth to their daughter Anne, two months after they got married. With her husband’s arms around her as she sat on their bed, nursing Anne the night they brought her home, Fred felt her heart skip when Rupert told her he couldn't remember having been so happy.
Or he would have been, only he didn’t go to Los Angeles to retrieve Dana, instead sending Andrew, who didn’t impress Fred as a representative of the Council. Instead, she just did her part in helping, and the night after Spike’s surgery, she ran into Wesley at the Chinese place when she stopped for some food. They ended up going to the park and talking about the Council and the firm, neither sure how they felt about either.
VI.
The morning Fred finally got Wesley to understand the signals she had been sending him for weeks, they ended up making out on the couch in his office for an hour.
They then decided to get out of the building, and after checking on Angel, who, yep, was still a puppet, they headed out together in Wesley’s Jeep. They went to Wesley’s place since it was closer, stopping off to pick up some bagels and coffee first since they hadn’t eaten since early afternoon the day before.
When they got to his apartment, however, the coffee was soon going cold as Wesley pulled her in for a kiss once she set the carrier down. Fred rose up onto the balls of her feet, her hand sliding up his collarbone, while his arms encircled her to pull her against him. Moments later, he was carrying her into his bedroom.
They took their time undressing each other, Fred giggling softly at each of the weapons she found secreted on his person, including his gun, his wrist holder and several stakes. Wesley laughed when she spent several minutes trying to get the holder off him before showing her the trick. Once they were completely naked at the foot of the bed, Fred began trembling a bit when Wesley caressed his hand over her. When he asked if she was all right, she nodded then pulled his down to the bed with her. Wesley reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to the bed to pull out a condom, which Fred took and tore open. Shifting down, she unrolled it onto his erection while placing kisses on his stomach.
As soon as she had it on him, she kissed her way back up his body to straddle him, lowering herself down onto him. Both of them let out gasps of pleasure before Fred began moving against him, Wesley’s hands at her waist to help guide her. It wasn’t long before she felt herself tightening until she suddenly came with a soft cry. A moment later, Wesley grunted in his own release, his fingers digging a bit into her hips as he held onto her tightly, almost as if he were afraid she’d disappear.
For the rest of the day, they held and made love to each other until hunger drove them out of the bedroom to find something to eat.
And over the next week, Fred couldn’t remember having been happier. Several times over the previous years, she had often wondered what might have happened in her life if things had gone differently, like her not going to Pylea, not staying at the firm. But now it seemed things were going right.
And it would have…except for the mysterious sarcophagus sitting in her lab.
AUTHOR: Lara (larakailyn)
SUMMARY: Five ways Fred’s life could have gone, and one way it did.
PAIRINGS: Fred/Nick Stokes, Fred/Lilah, Fred/Buffy, Fred/Angelus, Fred/Giles, Fred/Wesley
FANDOMS: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, mention of CSI:
RATING: FRAO
WORD COUNT: ~4350
SPOILERS: Through Angel S5 “A Hole in the World”
DISCLAIMER: I only wish I were as successful as Joss Whedon. He and Mutant Enemy own the Buffyverse/Angelverse while Jerry Bruckheimer and his people own the CSIverse; I just write fanfic for fun.
DISTRIBUTION: If anyone wants to archive this, please let me know!
FEEDBACK: Very much appreciated.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For deviantfantasy. <3
I.
The afternoon following Fred’s graduation from high school, everything changed between her and Nick Stokes.
She’d had a crush on his from the day she met him at her cousin Logan’s own graduation party when she had seen them playing catch in the yard. But she had been fourteen at the time, and he had been eighteen, and Fred had never thought anything could ever happen between them, even though they became friends. He was the one who convinced her to stop smoking pot, and she was the one who told him that he should major in Criminal Justice when he hadn’t been so sure about following in his family’s footsteps.
Toward the end of her graduation party, though, Nick caught her hand and led her around the back of her dad’s barn. Before she could ask what was going on, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Twice. The first kiss was short, sweet and on the lips; the second kiss was slower, longer and deeper.
The rest of that summer, Nick came down from Dallas to visit Fred whenever he had a chance, but with him applying for jobs and needing to be available for interviews, it was sometimes difficult. It was worth it, though, for the times she did get to see him, especially since she would be going west to California for school at the end of the summer.
The last weekend before Fred was to head out to Los Angeles, she drove up Dallas in the old station wagon. She was a bit nervous because it was the first time she’d been there alone, and she was going to be meeting Nick’s friends. She hoped they didn’t think she was too silly or young - she was still more than four years younger than Nick even though she was eighteen now.
She didn’t need to worry because she only met his friends briefly. They were very nice, however. Instead, she and Nick spent most of the weekend by themselves, enjoying the more romantic sights of Dallas. Or at least to Fred they were because she was sharing them with him, no matter how sappy that sounded.
She lost her virginity to Nick that weekend. It was a bit painful and fumbling at first since she was inexperienced save for making out. She even managed to tear one of the condoms while trying to put it on him, but Nick just smiled and kissed her hand before getting another one and rolling it on himself. Soon, he was inside her, making her shudder with each thrust, telling her that he loved her.
She loved him too.
By the end of the weekend, Fred was a bit sore, but it had been the best weekend-no, the best summer of her life, she thought as she drove home to pack for school. She couldn’t forget the way Nick had touched her, the way it felt when she came with him inside her. They had promised each other that even with her so far away for school, they’d see each other whenever possible. Nick was even considering seeing what jobs were available out west so he could be closer. Fred knew that somehow, they’d be able to work it out.
Or they would have, only Nick never made it to her graduation party because he was accepted to the police academy and started that week. He sent Fred a congratulatory card and told her to come visit him in Dallas sometime. She never had time, though, and in the end, she ended up losing her virginity to a boy she met in her Intro to History class at UCLA that fall.
II.
The day Lilah Morgan walked into the Los Angeles Public Library and asked for her, Fred found herself pulled into a world she had only suspected existed.
UCLA was having to cut funding, so several scholarships were being eliminated, including Fred’s, and Professor Siedel hadn’t been helping much even though he had promised to see what he could do. She had been trying to decide how she was going to handle the situation - try to stay and work more hours at the library to cover her expenses, get a different job, go home and go to school in Texas - when Lilah arrived. She said her firm had heard good things about her and asked her to come meet with her bosses about an opportunity she’d never get again. Fred was uncertain but didn’t know what else to do, so she agreed, wondering what in the world a place called Wolfram and Hart could want with or offer her.
It ended up to be quite a bit. The offer was too good to pass up - the rest of her schooling, including her doctorate work, paid for plus a job in the most advanced lab she had ever seen, even while she was still in school. They also promised she’d run it someday.
Lilah, who was a recent law school graduate herself and fairly new to the firm, convinced Fred to take it, even after she ran into that demon when she took a wrong turn coming out of the bathroom. She told her how she been uncertain too, especially after finding out demons and monsters and vampires did exist, but she figured that they were no worse than humans, who could be just as horrific. Wolfram and Hart was the best chance either of them was going to get.
So Fred agreed and started working part-time at the firm while still going to school. She got used to the strange creatures and the strange projects. And she definitely got used to the things she was given and the things she could buy with the money she made. By the time she found out what Wolfram and Hart really did, she didn’t care. She was in too deep. Her loyalty was to the firm that had given her a good life and a fantastic lover.
She hadn’t ever expected that anything might happen between her and Lilah. She thought the other woman was absolutely beautiful and found herself often fantasizing about her, but she didn’t think she possibly be interested in her, even though Lilah always seemed to find some excuse to come to the lab to see her. Until the night of the firm’s Halloween party. After spending some time standing the reception lobby, getting jostled, they decided to go upstairs to the next floor to get out of the way. When they got up there, though, Lilah asked her to come into her office while she got something.
As soon as they walked in, Lilah closed the door and pushed Fred against the wall, kissing her hard as she flipped the latch to lock them in. Fred was stunned for a moment before wrapping her arms around the other woman, tangling her fingers in her hair, returning the kiss with equal fervor. Lilah’s hand was soon snaking under her skirt, up between her thighs and into her panties. Fred gasped as Lilah’s fingers pushed inside her, thrusting with short strokes as her thumb found her clit. Wanting more, she bucked her hips forward while unbuttoning the other woman’s shirt, pulling up her bra and toying with Lilah’s nipples before leaning forward to take one in her mouth.
They spent the rest of the party fucking each other in Lilah’s office before going back to Fred’s apartment for the night. A few months later, they moved in together. The words “I love you” were never said - those were for nice girls, and neither of them were that. However, they didn’t want anyone else either.
Or so they would have thought, only Fred didn’t meet Lilah that day in the library. No one knew where she was when Lilah arrived and asked for her, in fact. She had disappeared several days before while she was supposed to be shelving books.
III.
The evening Fred met Buffy Summers, she thought at first she had to be dreaming...or dead.
After several hellish years on Pylea, Fred finally managed to open a portal back to his own dimension. She landed in the middle of a cemetery in Sunnydale just after sundown and was immediately attacked by vampires. Buffy had been patrolling, however, and saved her, dusting them all in almost less time than it took Fred to count how many there were. Three.
Scared and sure she must have fallen asleep in the woods or been killed, she tried to run, but Buffy was faster, catching up with her. After introducing herself and assuring Fred that everything would be all right, she managed to get her to go with her to the home of a friend named Giles, where she was taken care of and given food and shown where she could bathe safely for the first time in years. She spent at least an hour in the bathroom with Buffy helping her get her hair clean and detangled. Buffy promised to take her to a salon and shopping. Fred wasn’t sure if that was a good idea - what if too many things had changed, what if there were no more tacos.
Buffy assured her that tacos were still very available.
While Fred stayed with Giles, Buffy came over every day to check on her, bringing her clothes or books or tacos and offering to take her out somewhere. When she finally decided that Fred had hidden away long enough, she practically pulled her out of the apartment. They went for ice cream and talked, and Fred felt a bit more human that night.
She also found herself starting to fall in love with Buffy.
She didn’t say anything, though, because Buffy had a boyfriend named Riley. And even after they broke up, Fred wasn’t sure she should ever say anything. She didn’t know if Buffy even liked girls that way, the way her friend Willow did, and besides that, she was crazy. Or had been. Who wanted a crazy moocher who couldn’t talk to her own parents about what had happened?
The morning following after Dracula tried to seduce Buffy, she came over to Giles’ place to ask Fred if she wanted to go for a walk. After heading down to the park, they sat together on one of the benches in a private grove, and Buffy talked about how she never seemed to attract anyone normal. Vampires, a super soldier, an asshole. As she spoke, Fred wrung her hands together, wondering if Buffy knew about her feelings and was trying to let her down gently with this talk.
But then Buffy turned towards her, and suddenly they were kissing - there in the park. Fred didn’t understand. She wasn’t normal. Far from it. Buffy told her she was; she had just had bad things happen. What was extraordinary was that she survived.
Over the following months, they grew closer as Fred helped Buffy through the fallout of her mother’s illness and the realization that her sister Dawn had been created, hadn’t been there all along like they all thought. It wasn’t an easy time, but Fred wanted to help Buffy the way she had helped her.
They slept together for the first time following the visit from Quentin Travers and some other Council members. Fred had been worried she might have said something wrong during her “interview”, but Buffy had stopped her rambling about that with a kiss before pulling her upstairs, telling her that her mother and sister - she still called her that, Fred noticed - were out for the night. Soon, they were tangled up in each other on Buffy’s bed, exploring and touching and tasting. Both of them were a bit uncertain, having only been with men before, but they figured it out with fingers and tongues. Buffy was like nothing Fred had tasted before, and when she shook in orgasm, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Afterwards, they held each other, promising they’d stick together no matter what was to come. Until Fred felt her heart shatter when Buffy jumped off the tower to close the tear to Glory’s hell dimension, suddenly understanding the apology and searing kiss she had given her before going up there. Fred had never wanted more than to kill someone at that moment for forcing Buffy to make that choice as she sobbed over her girlfriend’s broken body. She later swore at Buffy’s grave she’d do what she could to continue her fight.
Or she would have, only just when Fred was opening the portal on Pylea, several cow hunters spotted her, forcing her to flee. She spent another year not understanding what she was doing wrong because it had almost worked. Buffy, meanwhile, simply killed three vamps that night she just found hanging around the cemetery.
IV.
The night of Fred’s awakening after Angelus turned her, she found herself craving all sorts of wonderfully dark things, and her Sire was there to give it all to her.
When he had surprised her in the Hyperion office, he had decided that taking her would be far more entertaining than just making off with the books he had come after. So she had found herself dragged down to the sewers, backhanded every time she tried to struggle or escape and taken to an abandoned house. There, he had tied her up to a dusty bed and used a knife on her, cutting little patterns here and there as he stripped off her clothes. But Fred hadn’t screamed - she had learned not to on Pylea because it just made them madder. She had the scars to prove it, scars that Angelus found. Smiling, he had raked the knife across them, but still she had refused to scream. This had seemed to impress him, and he had idly wondered out loud what Gunn and Wesley would do when they found the girl they had been fighting over belonged to him now as he pulled her naked and bleeding body against him, letting her feel his erection. He had promised her she would have everything she could ever want...if she was a good girl.
Pain had then exploded through her, and the smell of old blood and death was soon overwhelming. She barely recalled struggling, trying not to drink, but in the end, she knew what she’d be when she awoke.
And how wonderful it felt when she did.
Angelus didn’t have food waiting for her, instead forcing her to prove herself and hunt down her own. She did, using the skills she had picked up on Pylea to hunt small animals for food, seducing a college-age girl who tasted divine. Angelus told her the first meal always did before kissing her blood-stained lips.
Once she had eaten, he took her back to the house where he fucked her in every room. The house would be theirs now if they decided to stay in Los Angeles, and she was his now, no matter what, he told her as he thrust into her, hard and fast. He wasn’t gentle, but Fred didn’t want him to be - she enjoyed the pain and the pleasure it brought her now, enjoyed the thought of all the depraved things he promised to do to her and with her. She talked dirty to him, knowing how much he liked that, and when she came, this time she screamed for him. Every time.
He got her pretty things to wear, including a pearl choker only he was allowed to touch once he put it on her. It was his way of marking her as his. Fred had been someone’s property before and had hated it, but with her Sire, it was different. She knew to behave, and everything would be hers.
A few days following her turning, Angelus decided it was time to introduce his new Childe to what was left of the White Hats. Wesley’s face was absolutely priceless as was Gunn’s clumsy fury when he tried to attack them both. Fred was disappointed that they didn’t do much more than break his arm before they gave them the slip, but Angelus had got what he wanted - he had shown them that Fred was lost to them.
After that, they decided to leave Los Angeles to its own devices and find a new place to hunt. There was a whole world out there. However, Angelus had something he wanted to do first - a bit of revenge. They found Connor and a very pregnant Cordelia and killed them both after Fred charmed the room with a sleeping talisman she learned how to make from one of the books Angelus had taken along with her. They discovered the vessel with his soul by Cordy’s bedside. She had taken it, but why she had and why or how she had become so pregnant in a short amount of time, they never knew.
Taking the vessel, intending to find a dark sorcerer to destroy it for them, they left the bodies to be discovered whenever and headed for the east coast, deciding that maybe Europe would be their destination. Fred had never been there, and Angelus decided it was time to go back. They were going to have such fun.
Or so they might have, only Angelus just took the books when he ambushed Fred in the office. She felt so guilty, especially when she learned she had been duped by the so-called talisman he had used, but at least there was another chance to get Angel’s soul back.
V.
The week Rupert Giles came to Wolfram and Hart to help find a lost young Slayer, Fred knew they had made the wrong choice, taking over the firm.
Giles knew what he was talking about when it came to Slayers, Fred could see that, and didn’t understand why Angel wanted Dana kept in Los Angeles even though the Council could assist more. Especially when he wouldn’t - or couldn’t - explain his reasons. She did her job, however, in helping track her. During the search, Giles seemed to realize she was sympathetic and stopped by her lab to talk to her several times. He was nice and interesting to talk to though she could see how uncomfortable he was to be there, at the firm.
When they did find Dana, the teenager managed to get her hands on Spike - and cut off his. Fred spent the evening in surgery with him, watching the reattachment process, unable to forget the look Giles had given her before he had taken Dana away. Angel, Wes and Gunn had tried to stop him, but they were no match for a dozen armed, healthy Slayers, so they had been forced to let Dana go. In Fred’s opinion, it had been for the best.
After Spike was out of surgery and resting comfortably, she went home to find Giles outside her door, much to her surprise as she thought he had already left to return to England. He asked her why she was there at that place, and when she tried to say they were doing good, changing things, nothing came out. She just shrugged as she thought about how Charles had let them turn him into Gunn, Wolfram and Hart Attorney-At-Law, and how Lorne had allowed the removal of his sleep and how Angel was being isolated by Eve more and more every day. They weren’t changing things; the firm was changing them.
Giles seemed to see the uncertainty in her eyes and asked her to come work for the Council, to get away before she got sucked in, changed or hurt too. The next thing Fred knew, she was arriving with him in England.
The Council lab was almost as advanced as the one at Wolfram and Hart though it was easy to see that the Council didn’t have the same resources. However, as Fred started her work, helping figure out ways to deal with demons and cure poisons that were used to help victims, she found that she had made the right decision in leaving. She felt more comfortable, like she didn’t have to look over her shoulder or wonder what was going to happen next.
Giles - a self-professed technophobe and science dolt - spent quite a bit of time with her, helping her get settled in a flat, finding excuses to stop by the lab. Fred found herself looking forward to seeing him and was actually quite sad when Rupert didn’t make it down in the course of a day. Finally, she decided to ask him to lunch. Lunch led to dinners after work, which soon led to breakfasts after spending the night together.
Their first night came after they had picked up Chinese takeaway following a rather harried week of tracking a violent clan of vampires in Wales. Rupert had suffered some minor injuries in the fight with them, but luckily it hadn’t been anything too terribly bad, much to Fred’s relief. She invited him over to her place to eat, but before they finished, Rupert started kissing her, saying that he didn’t want to waste anymore time, not after what had happened. Soon, they were on Fred’s bed, their clothes in a heap on the floor. Fred gasped when she saw his scars; Rupert gently touched hers.
It seemed they spent a good portion of the night mapping each other’s bodies before he finally pressed into her from behind as they lay spooned together, his arms encircling her and holding her close against him. Fred’s head fell back against his shoulder as he nuzzled her neck. His hand slowly slid down the plane of her belly and between her thighs to find her clit, which he rubbed while his thrusts became harder and faster until they both came.
They tried to keep their relationship quiet, not wanting to become Council gossip, especially since Rupert was Chair. But when Andrew found them kissing in his office one evening after they thought everyone had gone home, it wasn’t long before everyone else knew as well. Some of the holdovers from the previous regime wanted Fred removed, claiming that with her previous Wolfram and Hart affiliation, she was obviously there to distract and cause trouble. Rupert and the others supported her, however, and she kept her job.
Although she did end up having to take maternity leave a year later when she gave birth to their daughter Anne, two months after they got married. With her husband’s arms around her as she sat on their bed, nursing Anne the night they brought her home, Fred felt her heart skip when Rupert told her he couldn't remember having been so happy.
Or he would have been, only he didn’t go to Los Angeles to retrieve Dana, instead sending Andrew, who didn’t impress Fred as a representative of the Council. Instead, she just did her part in helping, and the night after Spike’s surgery, she ran into Wesley at the Chinese place when she stopped for some food. They ended up going to the park and talking about the Council and the firm, neither sure how they felt about either.
VI.
The morning Fred finally got Wesley to understand the signals she had been sending him for weeks, they ended up making out on the couch in his office for an hour.
They then decided to get out of the building, and after checking on Angel, who, yep, was still a puppet, they headed out together in Wesley’s Jeep. They went to Wesley’s place since it was closer, stopping off to pick up some bagels and coffee first since they hadn’t eaten since early afternoon the day before.
When they got to his apartment, however, the coffee was soon going cold as Wesley pulled her in for a kiss once she set the carrier down. Fred rose up onto the balls of her feet, her hand sliding up his collarbone, while his arms encircled her to pull her against him. Moments later, he was carrying her into his bedroom.
They took their time undressing each other, Fred giggling softly at each of the weapons she found secreted on his person, including his gun, his wrist holder and several stakes. Wesley laughed when she spent several minutes trying to get the holder off him before showing her the trick. Once they were completely naked at the foot of the bed, Fred began trembling a bit when Wesley caressed his hand over her. When he asked if she was all right, she nodded then pulled his down to the bed with her. Wesley reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to the bed to pull out a condom, which Fred took and tore open. Shifting down, she unrolled it onto his erection while placing kisses on his stomach.
As soon as she had it on him, she kissed her way back up his body to straddle him, lowering herself down onto him. Both of them let out gasps of pleasure before Fred began moving against him, Wesley’s hands at her waist to help guide her. It wasn’t long before she felt herself tightening until she suddenly came with a soft cry. A moment later, Wesley grunted in his own release, his fingers digging a bit into her hips as he held onto her tightly, almost as if he were afraid she’d disappear.
For the rest of the day, they held and made love to each other until hunger drove them out of the bedroom to find something to eat.
And over the next week, Fred couldn’t remember having been happier. Several times over the previous years, she had often wondered what might have happened in her life if things had gone differently, like her not going to Pylea, not staying at the firm. But now it seemed things were going right.
And it would have…except for the mysterious sarcophagus sitting in her lab.