Thanks to my wonderful beta reader Rylee, who is an absolute champ!
Chapter 2- Wesley
I dodged a potentially fatal blow and kicked out, catching the vampire on his side. I followed the kick with a quick slash of my sword, effectively decapitating it and choking on the ashes as it exploded to dust.
I took a deep breath and glanced over my shoulder. Angel was fighting two vampires while protecting Fred's back as she battled it out against a blonde female vampire. I was impressed, but not surprised, by how much she had improved in the art of combat. She moved deftly, with a grace that reminded me of, but didn't even come close to, a certain blonde girl I had once known.
Gunn fought with his usual style- all fists and no brains- but seemed to be holding his own against his opponent. I saw another vampire approach him from behind and dashed across the abandoned factory to thwart its element of surprise. As soon as I had staked my foe, Gunn noticed my presence and sent me a tight smile. I knew I wasn't yet in his good books, but things had improved over the last few weeks since Jasmine's demise. He had accepted that I was a permanent fixture in their lives again, and was treating me with respect, if not friendship.
Angel finished off his two vampires and I got the distinct feeling that he had only been playing with them during their fight. I supposed he would have a lot of tension and anger to burn up after the last few months.
Fred was distracted by something that I couldn't see, and received a nasty-looking blow to her cheek. She was sent sprawling onto the ground and I felt a stab of panic shoot through me. Angel quickly staked the vampire before kneeling beside her, all before I could move a muscle to help her. He gently lifted her to her feet and I felt a pang of envy at his ability to protect her, while I was helpless to even move. God, how I wanted to protect her.
How that girl managed to tear me apart I'll never know. Everything about her affected me, and I didn't know whether I liked or hated it. Sometimes I wished I had never fallen for her, but other times I didn't known what I would do if I didn't love her.
"Now that was some quality violence," Gunn stated, grinning wildly from the adrenaline rush.
"Yeah, getting hit always makes me want to jump for joy," Fred muttered, inspecting her ruined black top.
"Are you all right, Fred?" I asked concerned, noticing the slight bruising on her cheek and the way she favored her left foot.
"Yeah," she nodded, gingerly touching the slight swelling. "Don't worry about it, Wes. It isn't too bad."
"We should probably head back," Angel said, his eyes sweeping around the factory. "Looks like we swept the place clean."
"And had a good time doin' it, too," Gunn added.
I nodded and picked up my sword, wiping the grime onto my jeans. I straightened, intending to help Fred when I saw Angel support her by slipping his arm around her waist. She lifted her arm onto his shoulder and leaned into him, slowly limping towards the car. I watched them bitterly and saw Gunn scowl.
I knew that Angel and Fred had become closer over the past year, and although I knew it was only a friendship and nothing more, I still felt jealous. How I wished I could slip my arm around her waist, hold her to my chest and whisper sweet nothings in her ear...
She had filled my mind and my body, and ever since that impulsive kiss I had placed on her lips, she had consumed me. After all that had happened with Jasmine, my only thoughts were of her safety and her exclusively. It was exhausting, but I knew I couldn't stop.
Shaking myself from my musings, I followed a disgruntled Gunn towards the car. I slipped into the front seat and pulled the car onto the road. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I saw Fred hold her ankle out for Angel to examine, and with Angel not having a reflection it looked quite odd. She winced in pain when he apparently touched it, and she carefully settled it back onto the floor of the car. I hoped she wasn't in a lot of pain. I couldn't bear it if she were.
I pulled the car onto the road and directed it towards the Hyperion Hotel. Our home.
To some degree, I was glad that Wolfram and Hart had been obliterated by the fire. The Hyperion had always been the center of our organization, and it had always been home. Despite the endless resources, the huge building wasn't home. It felt like a sterile hospital, and I was considerably grateful for the demons that had set it alight a week ago. The only regret was of the endless resources lost in the fire. Records that could never be recovered were lost.
It had only been a week since we had defeated Jasmine, and yet it seemed as though it had been a lifetime ago. Endless days of wandering aimlessly through the halls of Wolfram and Hart, and then the hotel, had made me restless. Whenever I saw Angel I had felt guilty; whenever I saw Gunn I had felt frustrated; whenever I saw Fred I had felt a yearning; whenever I saw Cordelia I had felt desperate. It went in continuous circles, forever moving forward but never getting any different.
Unbidden, Lilah's face sprang to my mind. Despite the casualness of our physical relationship, I had loved her in some manner. She hadn't been what you would call a 'moral' woman, but she didn't deserve that end. No one did.
I pulled my phone from my pocket when its shrill ring pierced the air.
"Wesley speaking," I said, wondering who would be calling me.
"Wes, it's Lorne. Tell Angel-cakes to get back here quick smart."
"Why? What happened?" I asked abruptly, narrowing my eyes and alerting the others with my tone. Lorne replayed his news and I nearly dropped the phone in shock. "We'll be five minutes."
I hung up the phone and stared grimly at the road in front of us.
"What is it?" Angel asked, leaning forward anxiously.
"Wes, man, today would be good," Gunn added.
"We need to get home," I informed them.
"Why, Wes?" Fred asked with exasperation.
I applied more pressure to the accelerator, jerking back as the car sped up and I directed it around the traffic.
"Cordelia woke up."
"Cordelia woke up."
I felt my body go rigid when Wesley spoke those words. I had hoped and prayed that she would wake from her coma and now, to hear those words spoken aloud, I was afraid to allow myself to believe them.
"Cordy's awake," I murmured, turning to Fred.
"I know," she answered, a small smile playing nervously across her lips.
I saw how uncertain she was and tried to reassure her. "She'll be the normal Cordy. The one we knew before all this happened." I found myself trying to convince myself as much as her. "She will be."
I thought back to the Cordelia of two years ago, and remembered the naïve, lively girl she had been. Out of everyone I had known over the years, Cordelia was the one who had changed the most. She had experience more horrors than anyone I had known in my entire lifetime, and considering I had been alive for over two centuries that was certainly some accomplishment.
She had been manipulated and tricked her whole life, and now she had experienced the most horrifying thing of all. Her life had been used. Her very will to choose to live had been taken from her hands, and she had been forced into things that she would regret for the rest of her life.
I still loved Cordelia, although not as I had once believed. She had been my best friend for so long that I had turned those feelings of love and friendship into something that just wasn't there. I did love her, but not as I loved another woman.
Buffy.
She too had been forced into a life that she hadn't chosen, but had been compelled to perform. My beautiful Slayer, the one who had dragged me back from the brink of insanity and given me purpose. She would hold my heart until the day it was pierced with a stake, and there was no one who could change it.
I wondered where she was and if the war with the First had begun. I had been waiting for the call that would relieve me of my worrying, but so far there hadn't been any. I knew the world hadn't ended, but I knew also that I would soon find out if it did. How could I be expected to save the world if she wasn't going to be in it? Why would I want to?
Fred gave my hand a friendly squeeze and I responded with a smile. I had three beautiful women in my life that loved me for who, and what, I was. I had lost all three of them- Buffy to the curse years ago, Cordelia to a coma and Fred to the release of Jasmine's blood. Now I had reunited with Fred and would soon do so with Cordelia. However, Buffy was the most important woman in my life, and if I didn't have her, I wasn't complete.
So why, after four years, couldn't I work up the courage to go back to her?
Please review! Next chapter- Xander
