Chapter Eight—Don't Leave Me
2003
In the end, Giles requested that all the girls travel to Sunnydale. They needed all the help they could get. He did tell Wesley that Faith could not come with them, under any circumstance. If the girls reverted back to their former selves, Faith would still be the slayer. She needed to stay as far away from the action as possible. After that communication, Wesley did not receive any further updates.
The news told the whole story. A sinkhole swallowed up the small town, which they knew to be Sunnydale. Most people had been evacuated, but a few had died in the chaos. Still, no word from Giles or the girls they had sent ahead. Wesley couldn't think about what had happened because he and Faith had to deal with their own issues, mainly that the Cleveland Hellmouth was much more active.
They seemed to work non-stop for weeks on end without much backup. Sure, they had friends who had joined the fight. Their own little ragtag crew to help out.
Weeks turned into months. Things calmed somewhat, but Faith was having slayer dreams again, dreams where weird creatures would come out of the walls and attack at all hours. The other dreams, the ones that bothered her the most, she wouldn't even tell him about those.
Their work lives took a turn for the better when Faith graduated not only early, but with honors from college. He was so proud of her. She immediately found a job as a graphic arts designer. Wesley was amazed at her ability to create such beautiful art on the computer screen. Her employer gave her a raise after just a few months on the job.
Their lives slowly got back to normal. As normal as a slayer and watcher could be. Faith moved into his room after going back and forth about the merits of living on her own. She had her own income, her own right to live as she wanted for the first time in her life.
"You can always move back into your room," he added as she paced in front of him.
"What? Why would I want to do that?"
"If we broke up."
The look of oh crossed her face. Faith crossed her arms over her chest and nodded no. She'd never been in a real relationship before. There had been guys, dates, even guys coming to dinner. None of them had asked that she either marry or live with them. Faith had never let them get that close.
"Not gonna happen."
So determined to make everything perfect and right was his Faith. Sure, she still left her towels on the ground in the bathroom, didn't wash her dishes when needed or left her shoes around so he could trip over them. Each weapon they used was cleaned, sharpened, and placed in the locked cabinet as they should have been. She never questioned (almost never) when he told her that she needed to do something out in the field. She trusted him implicitly out there.
Just as he trusted her, with everything. Could he trust her with his heart? He'd had it hurt a few times, nothing major. Guys got over those things quicker, Jake had explained to him one evening when they were both drunker than he'd ever been. He'd paid for that the next morning, along with a boot to his backside from Faith.
"You'd be dead." She grinned right after she said that.
"Ha ha, very funny."
Faith plopped down beside him and took his hand in hers. He really did like her gestures of affection. Before, they gave each other space, lots of space. Personal space to Faith had become very important to her. He couldn't touch her unless she was hurting. Now, things were different. She touched all the time, sometimes when she shouldn't. Not that he minded her affection.
Gradually her hand worked its way over to his thigh. They needed to check out an issue someone had with a demon living in a basement. He almost mentioned how unprofessional it would be to cancel on the meeting. Only she removed her hand first, like she had read his mind.
"Distracting me. Let's motor before I throw you down and have my way with you."
Wesley sputtered out a yes and followed her blindly into the night. Her mind always went back to sex. He certainly didn't mind that. It hardly ever interfered with the slaying, except that time a vampire caught them unawares while Faith had her hand down his pants. Now she was all business.
2005
"Where the fuck did he go? He's hurt, dammit. He could be anywhere," Faith raged as Angel stood back.
Angel couldn't track him at all. Blood was not his thing anymore. Did Wesley realize that and was right under their noses? Or did he run all the way to England and Daddy Pryce? Angel could still track shoe prints, but those had disappeared around the corner of the warehouse. Faith's skin itched like she was on fire. She was cold and hot at the same time. Stripping off her jacket, she threw it across the room.
"We have to find him."
Angel shook his head yes. "What do you want me to do? I've done my best."
"Sometimes I wish you were still a vampire," she growled back, not wanting him around.
Sure, they'd bonded over her dreams. Sure, she believed him now when he said that Wes was in grave danger. She now believed that her slayer dreams were coming true. Would this Vail guy kill him or not? Could she stop it from happening? Angel had finally explained it all in plain English. She needed to take Wes to Los Angeles and meet with these Oracles. They'd know of a way to save Wes from the bad guy. They'd help her change the timeline for the better. She wasn't going to lose her watcher.
"So do I, Faith."
It took her a whole week of detective work in addition to Angel asking around the neighborhood, but they managed to track down her wayward watcher. Only when they arrived in the room he had been staying for the week, he was missing. Faith found dried blood in the bathroom, but no Wes. The sink was still wet though. He couldn't have been gone for long. An hour tops, possibly only a few minutes. But they had missed him.
That afternoon, with no other ideas coming to her, she decided that if he had left the area, he might need money. So she called the bank and asked for a balance of their account. That was correct. Then she called the credit card company, to ask if there were any transactions. There was. One transaction made that morning in Wesley's name by an airline. Not only had Wesley disappeared, he had done so without so much as a goodbye. The frightening thing was he wasn't headed home to England; he was headed to Los Angeles. He was headed straight for the guy that was going to kill him.
Wesley's side still pulled a bit when he stretched the wrong way. It started to heal nicely though. No slayer healing for him but at least he did heal fast for a human. Using the credit card was the only way he would be able to travel to Los Angeles. Unraveling the mystery had to take priority. Faith's dreams, Angel's pleas, they all added up to something. Angel knew more than he was telling them. Faith knew more too, possibly not wanting to scare him. He'd do the research, then head back to Cleveland with the answers.
Where to start? He had no friends in Los Angeles. Jake had given him the number of an old friend of his. Luckily this Kate person could help him. Not having Faith or Angel guide him could be a problem. He could possibly track where Cordelia had been, where she had been employed and find the answers that way.
As luck would have it, Kate was on duty when he inquired about meeting her. Tall, blonde, quiet striking, she looked as if she'd been through the ringer more than once in her life.
"Jake said you were coming. Follow me," she told him brusquely.
She led him into a darkened room. Files were stacked high on a table, almost teetering off into a big mess. Wesley caught them before they could.
"These are all the files on Angel that I have."
He'd be there for a week going through them.
"Do you know Angel?"
Kate laughed. "Did. He had a habit of making messes that I had to clean up. Always a pain in my ass. Then he turned to the dark side."
In all the dealings with Angel, he'd never thought that Angel had turned to the dark side or even work with them. Sure, he had been one of the most notorious vampires of all time, taking glee in killing his victims. Angel worked for good now, or so he thought.
By the look on Kate's face, he figured that she wasn't playing with him. Something had happened between Angel and Kate, something so serious that she was willing to let Wesley look at police files that weren't usually available to the public.
"He's human."
The look of shock on Kate's face said it all. She knew of Angel's former status as a vampire, but obviously didn't know about what had happened to him, what had turned him human. Angel had never shared how he had become human with him or with Faith. Was it possible Angel had told Faith? Was this another betrayal? Faith had never kept anything from him, her face and mind like an open book. He possibly had underestimated his slayer this time.
"I see. I don't know if that's a punishment or the best thing that's ever happened to him."
Wesley stared at the piles of files directly before him. Unfortunately now was not the time to figure out Angel, if there ever was a time. His life could very well be on the line, if Wesley calculated everything correctly.
"I do appreciate your help on this. Jake told me that you're a good police officer."
Kate nodded to him and turned to leave. Just before she pulled the door open, she turned to him once more.
"Whatever happened to Angel, whatever you're here for, something big is going down. The police can't keep up, people are getting scared. It just isn't right."
Not being right was the operative phrase.
2003
Domestic bliss. Just a bunch of crap, Faith thought. If Wesley didn't stop cleaning, she'd scream. Dust motes flew through the air where the sun shown down on the both of them. Faith tried to work on her newest project, but Wesley's dusting had made her sneeze one too many times. He was getting on her last nerve.
"Honey, if you don't put down that duster, I'm gonna cram it where the sun don't shine," she told him with a sweet voice.
He immediately shot up from his crouched position over the coffee table, eyeballing her to make sure she wasn't going to collect on that promise right away.
"I'll just go in the kitchen then. Possibly bake a cake."
Bake a cake? What, was her lover turning into the Iron Chef or something? What in hell had crawled up his ass and died? Who did he think he was? She almost called him Princess Margaret right then and there, but knew that wouldn't help matters one bit. Restraint had been learned by Faith. She exercised it most of the time.
"What the fuck is your problem?"
There, she'd said it out loud. There was a problem between them. He had doted too much in the last few weeks. It was pissing her off something fierce.
"Problem? Why on earth would you think there was a problem? I am just trying to keep some semblance of order around here. If you would help around here every once in a while, you'd see that."
Yep, there it was. Sure, she sometimes fell down on her responsibilities. Sure, she definitely wasn't a housekeeper at all. She had fixed his car only last week. She paid the freaking bills. She even occasionally shopped for groceries, except sometimes he got mad at her for buying too much junk food. She helped with the laundry. She slayed until the sun came up. What else did he want? Her in a maid's costume, running around with that damn duster, at his beck and call?
Faith hastily got up, straightened her papers, picked up all the dishes and stomped into the kitchen. Domestic bliss was just a bunch of crap, of now she was sure. How'd people stay married for decades was beyond her realm of thinking. Instead of breaking all the dishes, Faith obediently placed them all in the dishwasher, pressed start and started wiping the counters. She felt Wesley's presence even though she hadn't actually heard him enter the room.
"I think I owe you an apology. I know I haven't been pleasant to be around lately."
That was the understatement of the year. Downright shitty to live with him at the moment, that was for sure. His moodiness didn't compliment her moodiness at all. Luckily they weren't moody at the same time. She'd hate to accidentally break something on him if it happened.
Faith just grunted back at him, figuring if he kept talking to her, she'd find out what in hell was wrong. Sure, they fought. What couple didn't? Only she could hurt him physically if she wasn't careful and he sure could use those fancy words against her when necessary. No one had the advantage in this relationship. She never hurt him and he tried to not hurt her with his words. Only she practiced restraint and he sometimes did not.
"My father called last week."
Why hadn't she seen that one coming? Only a few watchers left in the world, no word from Giles at all and Wes's father probably being a dick.
"He wants me to come to England, help train new watchers."
And there it was. She needed a watcher, dammit. She couldn't do this alone.
"What about me?"
Not that she wanted to make this all about her.
"He explained that he would send another watcher out, one with less experience, mind you."
Faith turned to see him in the dim light of the sun setting behind him. His face creased in worry as his arms defensively crossed in front of him.
"Just what I need. Another Wesley I've Got a Stick Up My Ass Watcher."
He frowned at her underhanded comment, but didn't take the bait. Damn, this has to be serious, she figured.
"I'm not saying I was the best watcher you could have had."
Rehashing the past did not sit well in her stomach. They had gotten past all that shit a long time ago. The bond that had formed between the two of them was strong, hopefully stronger than any crap that could happen. Like what was happening right now before her eyes.
"Well, you sucked while we were in Sunnydale. Now, not so much."
Wes gave her a little lopsided grin, relaxing his shoulders just a little. Her little joke eased a bit of tension. She was still waiting for the big reveal.
"He has ordered me back to England."
Now there it was. Daddy Pryce was ordering Wes around again. Where in hell was Giles in all of this? Probably too busy fawning over Buffy.
"Since when do you take orders from him?"
Wes rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. "Since he became head of the Council."
Faith laughed. She'd have to convince him that the two of them didn't take orders from anyone, especially cowards like his father. Could Wes honestly think that he'd be better off away from her, in England where his father had sway over his life?
"Dude, this is just fucked up. You're not leaving."
End of story, she had wanted to add. The look of defiance though made her heart sink a little. She was doing the same thing his father did to him. Ordering Wes around probably wasn't such a great idea. Only her temper flared at the possibility of him leaving her for good.
"I didn't say I was leaving. Why on earth would you think that?"
She didn't want to shout the phrase because everyone leaves her. He'd think she was a nutcase. He had stuck by her longer than anyone else had in her life. Faith turned so he couldn't see the hurt on her face. Instead, he turned it back towards him. His hands were cool to the touch, much calmer than she was. She finally detected a slight tremor in them as she concentrated on his eyes. Dammit, why'd he have to go and take his glasses off? Those blue eyes of his always did seem to mesmerize her.
"I don't want you to leave," she whispered, breaking the silence.
"I will never leave you," he declared as his head lowered to hers.
The kiss he gave her was possessive, full of anger. Instead of her fighting back, taking that anger, she softened the kiss, hoping with that he would get that she was sorry she ever thought he'd leave her. He slumped against her, pulling her tight against him in a bear hug. Her project forgotten, Faith led Wes to the bedroom, stripped him slowly and proceeded to make sure he wouldn't leave.
Author notes: Wow, sorry for not updating recently. I really have to get back to posting more often. I think, I hope that this will wrap up in a few more chapters. We'll see. I do have it all mapped out. Sometimes the characters take over though. Thanks for all the reviews. Keep reading. Have fun.
On another note, I messed up in the last chapter when I stated that Angel could follow Wesley's scent. Not if he isn't a vampire anymore, he can't. I screwed up. I can't figure out how to replace a chapter without screwing up the whole fic. So there you have it. Continuity error!
