Episode 2: The Wolves, My Love, Will Come (Part 1)

[forbloodysummer]

First night back in Los Angeles. He had a feeling that when normal people got back from holiday, they found they’d missed their friends, their families, their favourite chairs and TV shows. But after two weeks away, Angel found the thing he had missed most was roaming the streets alone at night, helping the hopeless, knowing he was doing all he could to make the world a slightly better place. And if I work hard enough each night, I might just undo all the damage I cause during the day.

It wasn’t that he regretted taking over Wolfram & Hart in LA. He had done at first, he still had serious doubts about it from time to time, but generally he was sold on the idea, it had been the best move. Whether it had been the right move, well, that was debatable, but he was through with debating for the time being. It was his first day back at the office tomorrow, he probably should have gone in today, but he figured since he’d eventually decided the guys could do without him for a couple of weeks, one more day wouldn’t make too much difference, so he’d spent the day with Nina and then dropped her home himself. Besides, knowing the hours they kept, it was quite possible that the office wouldn’t be deserted when he went up to his suite to retire for the night.

Angel was snapped out of his reverie by screams from nearby. He burst into a run, following the screams, and rounded the nearest corner into the mouth of an alley. In the middle stood a very tall, heavyset man with his arms wrapped tightly around a young blonde girl, dimly illuminated by an ageing floodlight a little further down. She was screaming, her eyes casting frantically all around the alley, and his head, obscured by hers, appeared to be buried in her neck. Without slowing or hesitating, Angel leaped at the pair, bringing them both bodily to the ground, rolling to pull the big guy away from the girl, who was still screaming. Before the man had a chance to react, Angel altered his balance slightly on the ground and swung a fist, catching the guy straight in the jaw. He managed to get in two more before the other rolled far enough away to get to his feet, slowly, but not that slowly.

Angel leaped up and pressed his advantage, closing in, the girl screaming even louder, almost at him directly, it seemed, and he lunged in again to attack with his fists. He grabbed his opponent with both hands by the collar of his t-shirt, pulling him close to look him right in the eye. Unfortunately, at that point the girl grabbed hold of his upper arm, and he turned to look down at her.

It was as his eyes met hers that he knew he’d made a mistake. He scarcely had time to turn back to the assailant when the fist struck the side of his face. He’d been hit by vampires often enough, even by Illyria once or twice, and though this guy didn’t have any of their supernatural strength, he was horribly strong for a human. Angel felt more than heard the click of his jaw dislocating, and was driven back a step from the impact.

Ow! That really hurt! He looked up, and found the big guy was between him and the girl, blocking his access. His face was grim, and he looked ready to punch again if necessary, but he wasn’t coming any closer. Angel was about to ask the girl why she had stopped him, when he realised that the three of them weren’t alone. He turned quickly, hoping the attacker didn’t change his mind about not advancing, and took in the scene.

The light from behind them fell short of the mouth of the alley by which Angel had entered, but beyond its range he saw several large shadows moving at waist height, shadows with eyes reflecting in the dark, of green, of blue, and gold. Though there was blood pounding in his head from the adrenaline of the fight, he could just hear the collective breathing of several large dogs. As they slunk closer, coming towards the light, he could see them more clearly, and realised they were not dogs, but wolves. The lead one growled warningly, and Angel corrected himself again. Werewolves.

There were at least twelve of them, and this wasn’t one of the times he’d thought to bring a sword. He had a couple of stakes, but not the wrist-mounted retractable ones, since he hadn’t swung by the office yet. That left him at a bit of a loss, he could fight them, but he had a nasty feeling that would end with the girl being eaten, and perhaps himself as well.

The lone growl became a chorus, and he glanced around nervously. He spotted a dumpster nearby, and a fire escape above it he could reach with a particularly good jump. That left just two problems; the heavyset man between himself and the girl, and the fact that the werewolves would pounce the second he moved. As it was, with them drawing closer, his time was rapidly running out.

He checked the air very carefully, and then again just to make sure. A vampiric sense of smell was all very well, but vampires retained their eyesight for a reason, their noses weren’t that good, and Angel wished his plan didn’t involve going on his nose alone.

Fixing in his mind exactly where his nose told him the dark-haired man was, Angel dived towards him, only turning his head in mid air so as not to give away his intentions beforehand. For the second time in as many minutes, the two bodies collided firmly and crashed to the ground. Angel was ready, though, using his momentum to continue into a roll, springing to his feet entirely in one motion.

He heard the rabid barking of the werewolves as they pounced, covering the distance faster than even he’d expected. With both hands, he picked up the girl by the waist, and lifted her quickly on top of the dumpster. He leaped up himself, and took a wild jump at the bottom rung of the fire escape ladder suspended above him. Must be my lucky night, he thought as his hand closed around the metal bar, and he pulled himself up, bounding up several rungs.

He hooked his legs through the bottom bars and let go with his hands, dropping backwards to hang upside down from his legs, extending both arms out downwards to try to reach the girl. Their fingertips met, but he couldn’t get low enough to get a grip strong enough to pull her up.

Several of the wolves were snapping their jaws, barking up at them, surrounding the dumpster, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl’s would-be mugger trying to hold two of them off with an iron bar. The girl kept jumping up, trying to reach, but Angel couldn’t quite get the grip he needed.

And then suddenly the large, dark-haired man was there again, clambering quickly onto the dumpster beside the girl and lifting her up by the waist. With that boost, Angel easily pulled her up, guiding her hands onto the lower rungs, with which she soon dragged herself further up the ladder, halting above him and looking down. He saw the terrified-with-concern look in her eye, and more importantly saw that it wasn’t aimed at him.

Realising he might have misjudged the situation a bit when he entered the alley, and having a sneaking suspicion of what the correct assessment should have been, he extended his hands downwards again to grasp those of the man below, whose grip was just as firm as Angel had been expecting, and who rapidly clambered over him, following the girl further up.

Both helpless victims now reasonably safe, unless werewolves had learned to climb ladders, Angel pulled himself back the right way up and followed the other two upwards. The wolves continued to fill the alley with angry barking, snapping their jaws and desperately trying to leap onto the dumpster, but to no avail.

When he reached the top of the ladder and the various metal fire escape stairways that followed, he stepped out onto the roof, and was greeted by the his two rescuees in each others’ arms, much as he had first found them, only without the screaming, and he now recognised it firmly as an embrace of love, rather than attempted violence.

“He’s your boyfriend?” he asked sceptically, and though facing both of them, effectively addressing the girl. It was the man who responded though, lifting his head and fixing dark eyes on Angel with a scowl.

“I’m cuddly on the inside,” he spat, and though slightly taken aback, Angel found that rather difficult to believe.

“They have your scent,” Angel told them, “they’ll surround the building, and won’t let you leave intact.”

The man looked as if to reply, but instead went back to concentrating on his girlfriend, making sure she was alright. While Angel pulled out his cell phone and dialled a number, he noticed that she was checking her man over as well, fussing over various gashes on his legs and chest.

The strange noises these modern cellular phones made trying to imitate real telephones told him that it was ringing, and a brisk voice soon answered. Angel had never really done this by phone before, he didn’t know quite what reaction he’d get. But, he was the CEO, after all, so in theory he was the boss of whoever answered.

“Er, yeah,” he began, “Angel here. I’m gonna need a helicopter extraction from a rooftop downtown…”

Click to view

Special guest starring Peter Steele as Ed Turner
Guest starring Adam Baldwin as Marcus Hamilton
and Kirsten Storms as Rose McEwan

“What’s with Beauty and the Beast out there in the lobby?”

Spike sauntered in as usual, this time only twelve minutes late, and dropped into his chair near the other end of the conference table.

“Never mind them, would you mind telling me what’s with you hiring new staff?”

Angel, sitting in his normal spot at the head of the table, gestured to the blonde lady, sitting half way down on the left. He gave her a slight smile to let her know that it was Spike he was irate with, not the lady herself. Coral, Illyria had called her, and had sat by her side the whole time, curiously protective. Wes and Gunn sat opposite them, clearly just as puzzled as he.

“Noticed we had a vacancy,” he drawled, “shortfall in the science department, remember?”

“It’s true,” Gunn pointed out after a moment, glancing across at Illyria, “Big Blue here might look like Fred, but she was sleeping when they invented science, and she can’t work an iPod.”

“And I did shoot her assistant,” Wes added, looking to him as Gunn also had.

Coral looked up at him sharply, clearly alarmed, but Spike leaned forward quickly and placed a reassuring hand on her arm.

“Trust me, he had it coming,” he told her, then looked across to Angel, clearly awaiting his decision on the matter of bringing her onto the team. Angel found himself looking frantically to any of the others for help, not knowing what to say, but they all deferred to him.

“Uh, are you, erm, qualified for the position?”

Though she didn’t look nervous, he got the impression she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, but spoke up after only brief hesitation.

“I have a postdoctoral qualification in medicinal chemistry, and nine years of experience as a military research scientist, including a fair bit of hands-on practice. But no one’s really told me what the position is, or what the job entails…”

Both he and Gunn took that as a cue to glare at Spike, who at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

“Dropped you in it a bit here, sorry ‘bout that,” he said to Coral as he turned to her, ‘fraid I’m about to do it again though.”

His face lost the smile and took on a resolved look as he got to his feet, with that battered jacket he insisted on always wearing hanging almost to the floor.

“Blue?”

At that, Illyria too got up, then she turned around and left the room without a word. Spike moved to follow her, drawing startled looks from the others and a demand from Angel to know what was going on. Angel couldn’t help wondering if Spike would have otherwise left with no explanation at all, just as Illyria had done.

“Well, Illyria decided that she didn’t want to work for Wolfram & Hart, because she remembers them as being far beneath her.”

Angel snorted and rolled his eyes. Was there anyone she didn’t see that way?

“And it got me thinking;” the blond continued, “actually, I’m not too happy about working for you, so we came up with a better way of doing it.”

Angel raised his eyebrows and looked sceptical, waiting for Spike to finish his pronouncement.

“Thought we’d form our own company, one for dealing with just the fighting, and leave all this pansy legal stuff to you lot.”

“A rogue demon hunter,” Wes mused appreciatively, “I can see the appeal.”

“Power trip went to your head,” Gunn chipped in, “knew you were enjoying playing top dog a bit much while the boss was away.”

Spike grinned at him, and then smirked at Angel, who knew he still looked unconvinced, before elaborating.

“You’d still get our considerable expertise, at a slightly discounted rate, but we get to be our own bosses, and can decline jobs if we choose.”

Over the last couple of years Angel had gradually come to terms with Spike having a soul. The part that grated, as ever, was his ego.

“We’re a huge company,” he sternly told the flippant vampire, “we have access to plenty of our own wet teams. Why would I send you to fight my battles?”

He appeared to consider it for a moment, then offered his mock-enthusiastic reply.

“Personal touch?”

With that he strode out of the room, and the door swung shut behind him. A shocked silence lasted for a couple of seconds, ended when Gunn cleared his throat and turned to Coral.

“So, you work the demon mojo, huh?”

Before Coral could respond, they were interrupted by the door bursting open and Spike walking back in, stopping just past the door and drawing all eyes once again.

“Oh, and Wesley, could you sort me out a secretary?”

The former watcher managed to look surprised and indignant at the same time, spluttering a protest that earned him an oh-for-goodness-sake-just-do-me-a-favour-and-get-it-done look from Spike. Wes shook his head in long-suffering despair, giving in with a sigh.

“I know just the person.”

The blond vampire gave a smile that looked quite genuine, and a nod of thanks.

“Make sure she’s got, you know, a nice personality and that,” he said, mouthing ‘good tits’ and illustrating with his hands before walking out of the door.

“He makes me want to hurt people,” Angel commented to no one in particular, and though the rest of the room remained speechless following Spike’s exit, several heads turned to stare at him, shocked and horrified.

“Ok, not a good thing to say,” he muttered just loud enough for them to hear, hoping that would do as an apology. Way to start off on the wrong foot with the new girl… Realising that he’d just thought of Coral as the latest addition to their team, he thought maybe he should double check before jumping to conclusions.

“So, Coral, you’re a demon scientist?”

Brought back to the matter at hand, she glanced quickly across the others at the table and nodded.

“Not in the sense of a scientist who is a demon,” she quickly clarified, and her eyes flicked sideways to Illyria’s empty seat and back, “but I’ve studied them, yes.”

He nodded reassuringly, not quite sure what else he should do, but trying not to patronise her. Thankfully Gunn spoke up, as Angel hadn’t had a clue what to ask next.

“So how did Spike run into you? I don’t think he knows how to place an ad, and you don’t look the type for a strip joint.”

“Err, thanks,” she said with a slight frown, then paused to consider how to respond.

“Well,” she began, “I only met him a couple of days ago, he turned loose some captive demons and let them slaughter my former employers.”

After another pause, she asked, “Does he do that a lot?”

They all thought back for a second, before Angel answered, “No, I… I think that’s the first time.”

Sparing him again, Wes stepped in, speaking up in a kind tone, addressing all three of them.

“Perhaps I should show miss Bowman around, give her the grand tour and answer questions on the way.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” he announced, then looked to Coral, who nodded in acceptance.

They both stood, then he led her out of the room with the line, “My name is Wesley Wyndham-Price, I’ll be your tour guide for the day…”

Angel and Gunn watched them go, suddenly alone in the big room.

“Could you see those two…?” Angel asked, to which Gunn raised his eyebrows and shook his head wistfully.

“Bit early to tell, wouldn’t you say? At the moment, Wes is still falling apart over Fred.”

Angel shrugged and continued to gaze out of the door, wondering what to do about Wesley. Time was the best healer for these things, but after the deaths of Wes’ past two girlfriends, time just might drive him crazy. Crazier, in fact. His obsession with Illyria seemed to be fading, he had taken the opportunity of her bonding more closely with Spike to distance himself a little. Angel was snapped out of his thoughts by Gunn turning to him and resuming their conversation from before Spike had arrived.

“We’ve still got a serious problem on our hands with those two you picked up last night, you know.”

Angel’s brow furrowed, yet again he had done what he had believed was obviously the right thing, only to find that the company he was supposed to be in charge of thought differently.

“I was trying to help them. They were in trouble. We still do that, don’t we?”

Gunn gave him a patient look, and Angel wondered how the man was feeling about their position at Wolfram & Hart. When they first arrived, he’d been enthusiastic, and his newfound intellect had thrived on the legal battles, applying the same principles to their struggles outside the courtroom and encouraging compromises Angel wasn’t too happy about.

But after Fred’s death, and his brief stay in a Hell dimension, he had completely changed his attitude, preferring to remain as only the muscle in their operation, and avoid his pinstripe suit and encyclopaedic legal knowledge like the plague. From the sound of it, that reserve was fading again.

“Look, it’s complicated, you’re involving us protecting them as a company, we have to make sure we have sufficient grounds to do that.”

The man had a point, but Angel didn’t like it.

“Fine,” he snapped, “they don’t like it, they can sue me.”

“They have!” Gunn immediately shot back at him, taking a breath and letting some of the tension drain before adding, “the summons arrived this morning.”

*

Again, Angel was in his usual seat in the conference room, and again he found himself longing for a simple answer, preferably involving killing all the bad guys. Only this time, he had to explain it to two people he had saved the night before, of how the situation wasn’t quite as clear cut as it seemed. As expected, he felt very uncomfortable, and hated every minute of it. They were such nice people, well, one of them was, anyway, and he felt guilty just telling them that their safety might not be quite as easily achievable as he had thought.

“They’re suing you?”

Her voice was worried, but also compassionate. The boyfriend, meanwhile, mostly kept quiet and scowled, though he did hold her hand in her lap reassuringly, Angel noticed.

“So it would seem,” he admitted, though his eyes flicked sideways to Gunn, who smiled ruefully and nodded. The girl, Rose, nodded, looking away and thinking it over, but the guy, Ed, unexpectedly spoke up, filling the room with a deep, gravely voice.

“And what happens now?”

Angel, for the umpteenth time today finding himself unsure of how to respond, looked to Gunn again. It was perhaps more acceptable this time, though, as legal issues tended to be the other man’s field.

“Well, the debate revolves around whether we, Wolfram & Hart, have legal grounds to offer you protection,” Gunn told them.

“They were trying to kill us,” Rose protested, “I thought that was pretty clear to everyone involved. Isn’t that enough?”

He and Gunn smiled at her, both wishing that were the case. He wasn’t too clear on the specifics, but his colleague obviously had a fair idea, so Angel left the explaining to him.

“The crime of murder, technically, is one human being intentionally killing another. And since the guys after you aren’t really human, that gives them a loophole.”

The couple nodded, one showing surprise, the other a cynical ‘I might have known’ expression. After a pause of a few seconds, Rose spoke up, her tone shrewd.

“They’re gonna stand up in court, and claim not to be human? They’ll get laughed off.”

“Not in court,” Angel told her, remembering the details Gunn had given him before meeting with the pair of them, “in the Pantheon.”

Though Ed and Rose seemed polar opposites, the eyebrows they raised at him in response were identical, and he began to understand their bond. The name of the place, unfortunately, was about all Gunn had had time to tell him, before they’d been scheduled for the meeting, so again Angel turned to him for further explanation.

“Demon court,” he said simply. “Established a dozen millennia ago in the hope of giving demons a better name. They figured if the demons could mete out their own justice, maybe the Slayer line would back off a bit.”

A knock came at the door, and Harmony stepped inside, her scarlet skirt, jacket and heels bringing a burst of colour to the room.

“These are the files Wes asked me to bring you, boss,” she said as she laid two of the Wolfram & Hart reference templates out on the table in front of them, finishing by asking, “Who’s the new girl he’s showing ‘round?”

“Coral,” Gunn supplied, “hopefully the new science-head.”

“Oh,” Harmony said with a look of understanding, hovering for reasons Angel couldn’t work out, before adding, “she seemed nice. Though she really should sort out her split ends.”

“Harmony…” Angel began, but she’d been getting better at taking hints, and was already heading out of the room.

“So this is them, huh?” Gunn said as he skimmed over the templates, “the Crimson Hunt. Ah, no, the Hunt is what they’re here for, the wolves themselves aren’t identified by name.”

“Says this hunt is a worldwide thing, and any werewolf can take part, which makes it very difficult to escape from,” Angel observed. “I guess you two must be the jackpot.”

“Lucky us,” Rose said with a grimace. “Can we hope for a rollover?”

If I have anything to do with it, Angel thought. Gunn looked at them sympathetically, but also with an air of helplessness. Ed and Rose themselves looked apprehensive, yet resilient, unwilling to give up without a fight.

“We’ll get our top man on it,” Angel said, his eyes flicking to Gunn again. The dark man’s eyes widened, and for a brief moment, fear showed on his face.

“Angel, could I have a word with you please?”

Angel met his eyes, still full of worry, but also stubbornness.

“Of course,” he said, turning to their clients, “would you excuse us for a minute?”

Gunn had risen from his seat and now walked towards the other end of the room, so Angel got up to follow.

“Do you want to tell me what this is about?” he asked, trying to keep the irritation over the interruption out of his voice.

“I’ve never represented in the Pantheon before,” Gunn said quietly, “I’ve read about it, but never set foot inside it. You’d be much better off with one of our other lawyers, someone with more experience in that field.”

Giving him a calculating look, Angel judged his response very carefully. He couldn’t be too gentle or too harsh, Gunn needed just the right level of encouragement.

“The first time you represented in a human court, you did it without hesitation, and you were superb.”

Gunn rolled his eyes and gave him a grateful but impatient look.

“It’s not quite the same here, and I really don’t think I’m the man for the job.”

Angel folded his arms in front of him, and let out a long breath.

“Look, we both know your reluctance has nothing to do with the nature of the court environment.”

“Fine,” Gunn snapped, throwing up his hands in frustration, but still keeping his voice low. “I remember what happened the last time I got involved with this stuff, and I won’t let it happen again.”

Adding a little more compassion into the look Angel gave him, he then forced it away and made his voice hard.

“Fred’s dead, Charles, and whatever bit of your wardrobe you exercise,” he said, running his eyes over Gunn’s grey hoodie, “it won’t bring her back.”

“I won’t let them hurt anyone else because of me,” came the swift response, not bothering with keeping his voice lowered.

“You paid a heavy price for this gift,” Angel growled, “so did Fred. The least you can do is use it.”

Gunn chose not to respond with words, but the tension was treacle-thick between them, standing not more than a foot apart, neither of them willing to break eye contact. Ed’s low voice sharply cut the silence after a few moments.

“You never answered my question. What happens now?”

Slowly, they both turned to him, but Angel remained silent, awaiting Gunn’s decision and hoping he’d make the right one.

“Now,” he said, keeping his eyes on the floor before looking up at them, “I see them in court.”

*

Continued in Part 2.