Chapter Eight

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Buffy stepped out into the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel clad in her nightclothes. It was about ten in the morning, and she planned on getting some errands taken care of before Angel woke. Stepping into the small office, she was startled to find Wesley slumped over the desk, grumbling softly into the phone. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before, minus his wire-framed glasses, which currently sat on the desk atop several crumbled sheets of yellowed parchment. As Buffy stepped closer to get a better look at the fading calligraphy on the parchment Wesley slammed the phone down growl, causing her to jump back into the doorway. The noise startled Wesley who immediately jumped up, tripped over the chair that was spun sideways by his sudden movement, and landed in a heap on the floor.

She winced, and took a few steps foreword to stretch a hand out to help he back to his feet. Glaring at her, he climbed to his feet without her aid and picked an invisible piece of lint off his shirt. His gaze narrowed as he took in her appearance.

"What do you want, Buffy?"

"What're you doing down here?"

"Working. Did you have any reason for bothering me down here?"

"Oh, yeah, right. I was looking for Giles, has he been up?"

"Haven't seen him. If anyone asks, I'll be back in an hour," Wesley stated as he walked towards the door. As he opened it, he turned back to her confused expression. "Goodbye. I think Giles was in 357."

She nodded to herself as the door shut softly behind him. "Right." Turning back to the stairs, she began to trudge up them but stopped when she saw Spike marching down the stairs. Rolling her eyes, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Good morning cutie!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms open with false enthusiasm. When he stopped at the bottom of the stairs she still stood with her weight on one leg and her arms crossed. His shoulders drooped a little and he asked, genuinely hurt, "What, no good morning kiss?"

"Again, I ask, what are you doing Spike?"

"Greeting the day! It's such a wonderful day," he chucked as he skipped towards the office. With one last glance he stepped inside and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him.

Buffy looked after Spike for a moment before shaking her head. This was turning into quite the morning. Lacking her original enthusiasm, she stepped towards the stairs, intent on finding Giles, only to be stalled once again by Xander bounding down the stairs, directly followed by Lorne's less animated form. Forgetting about her objective to find Giles for the moment, Buffy dropped her arms to her sides and strode over to them.

Glancing at Lorne and looking Xander in the eye, she gently probed, "Willow?" Xander grinned and opened his mouth to answer, but Buffy cut him off. "Cause I know I went to sleep early last night, but I have quite the story for you because of it-"

"We got something on her Buff," Xander started, cutting her off. "Apparently she's being kept under lock and key - the magical kind, that is. They want her to finish healing or something before they do their thing. I think their exact phrase was something like 'don't want to mess up the product'."

She nodded, thoughtfully. While it was great that the law firm hadn't tried to use Willow for their own evil purposes yet, they still had her. The three were startled when they heard an angry roar from upstairs, and only paused to glance at each other before dashing towards Angel's room. When they reached the doorway, Buffy saw a sight that would be forever etched in her nightmares. Angel was thrashing around his bed, barely held down by Gunn and Giles. Conner stood slightly out of the way rummaging though a chest, looking for some sort of restraints. Her hand covered the cry that came out of her mouth when she began to comprehend his cries.

"CORDY!" she heard him yell. "No, no, no, no, NO!" he screamed again, throwing Gunn and Giles off as he vamped out and rushed the doorway. Pushing Buffy to the ground as he ran out of the room, he ran towards the stairs at the end of the hall mumbling, "Cordy, no, cordy, come back!" all the while.

Buffy glanced over to Conner, searching for restraints, and took off down the hall after him. As she ran she saw him speeding towards the staircase and did the only thing she could think of - leapt at him.

When she collided with him in midair she hadn't realized how close to the edge they were. She grabbed onto his shirt as they tumbled head over heals all the way down the flight of stairs, to land at a crumpled heap at the bottom. Angel clung to her, his form folded around her like a second skin, as he sobbed all over her pajamas. Buffy just rubbed her head with her free hand and looked up to the crowd gathered at the top of the stairs who looked back down at her.

The door to the office was yanked open when the occupants heard the crash. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw Spike exit the room with Fred in tow.

Gunn stepped foreword, anger marring his features. "Fred? What're you doin, gal!"

"Calm down Charles. We were just doing some research."

"But when did you go down there?"

"When you all were checking on Angel. I popped in, but ya'll looked like ya had it in control."

"But - "

"Not now," Buffy said, cutting into the argument before it started. "First we have to get Angel back upstairs."

"Buffy?" came a sleepy voice from the top of the staircase the others had just decended. The girl took in the sight before her and her eyes widened. "What's going on?"

"Uh, Dawn."

"Hey! Lil'bit!"

The girl grinned. "Hey, Spike."

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Cordelia paced across the bright room in frustration. "How can I get them to listen to me!" she murmured, ignoring the door's opening and shutting softly behind her. "Every time I get close to explaining to them, or helping to understand they go off and WAKE UP!" she continued, her voice getting progressively louder as she finished her statement in an explosive outburst of violence, throwing a wooden stool against the white wall to see it shatter in pieces. It did nothing to dim her anger. She continued pacing and mumbling to herself, oblivious to the two new members in the room. Hearing a voice clear she turned and yelled, "What!" in her patented Queen C voice.

"They want to see you," was all that was said by the two bodies before they bowed and filed themselves out of the room.

Looking up into the sky she asked, "Why me?" before pausing to mentally question her actions. She looked back down and shook her head, realizing that she was already up where she was rhetorically looking. Sighing, she opened the door. There was a meeting to attend, if what these beings did could be called meeting. It was more, someone talks to you without you seeing their forms. Stepping out into the hall, she remembered to look both ways before turning left and disappearing around a corridor, towards the Voice Room.

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Willow sat in the corner of the room, staring at her damp knees. Her shirt was torn the stained with her own blood while her cheeks were streaked with tear tracks. Hearing a noise at the only entrance to the room she looked up, then curled herself back into a ball when she recognized the face in the doorway.

"Willow," he said, "Glad to see you awake finally."

She curled her body into a tighter circle and turned to press herself into the wall. Gavin smiled evilly. This girl was defiantly worth the trouble that had been gone through to get her here. The wizards Wolfram and Hart had called upon had told him of her power - what she'd already held and what she had the potential to hold. His smile widened when he saw the anger in her eyes. This one had promise.