Disclaimer: Since my name is not Joss Whedon, neither 'Buffy: The Vampire Slayer', 'Angel' or any of the characters associated with either show belong to me. I also don't own the story line, that is taken from gidgetgirl's 'The Little Physicist Challenge' (details below) posted at the Chocolate Covered Strawberries Challenge Archive.
The Little Physicist ChallengeAU of Fred's role in AtS. Instead of disappearing as an adult, Fred disappeared from the library during a children's reading hour, when the little girl wandered off to go read the big kid books because the others were too easy for her. When the Fang Gang rescues her, she's spent 2-3 years in Pylea as a slave child, and Wesley, Gunn, and the others have to take care of her and convince her that everything will be alright again.
Requirements:
Little Fred loving tacos.
Gunn and Wes vying for the little girl's affections
Little Fred having nightmares
Cordelia and Fred shopping
Chapter 11
"Let me get this straight." Lorne regarded the two vampires skeptically. "You want me to trick your little girl into singing and probe her thoughts without her permission, then tell you what I pick up from her. Haven't either of you ever heard of empath-client confidentiality?"
"Please, Lorne." Angel said quietly. "We need you to. . ."
"I need to know if he ever laid a hand on my daughter, so I know whether I'll be ripping out his intestines the second I see him." Darla cut in, her voice deceptively calm.
"There could be a perfectly innocent explanation for this." Lorne reminded them
"We have to know for sure." Angel said.
"Fine." Lorne nodded his agreement. "You can rest easy, cupcake. Sherlock Lorne is on the case."
He had one day. One day to get Connor to safety before Holtz took the task upon himself.
Watching Angel playing with his son, it was difficult to believe that he would ever pose a threat to the baby boy, but he had witnessed the unusual displays of temper, the hunger that had been in his eyes when he had made the half-joking comment about snacking on Connor.
The prophecy was clear but perhaps, with an effort on his part, that prophecy could be averted.
Angel couldn't kill Connor if Connor wasn't there.
"Come on, little guy, it's okay. Do you miss your daddy and your mommy? It's okay, they'll be back soon, they just have some Wraith-ers to take care of. Shh."
Unmoved by Lorne's pleas, baby Connor continued to wail as the green demon rocked him back and forth.
"What's wrong with Connor?" Fred stood on tiptoe to touch his little hand.
"I think he's just in cranky mode today." Lorne smiled down at the little girl, seeing an opportunity and deciding to take it.
Although he had his own theories about why the seven year old would be frightened of the Groosalugg, he was not prepared to dismiss the possibility that there was a more sinister reason for it.
"Poor Connor." She made a face to try to make him smile but, when Connor was in one of his moods, he could rarely be amused by anything less than one of his parents' vamp faces.
"Could you take him for a minute, cutiekins?" Lorne carefully passed the baby into her arms. "Maybe sing to him or something while I get a bottle warmed up for Mr Cranky Pants."
Connor frowned a little, as if he understood that he was being insulted.
"Okay." Little Fred settled down on the couch, cradling her baby brother carefully, gently rocking him back and forth as she sang a song she had learned in school, never noticing that Lorne hung back in the doorway, listening intently.
"You want to see something cool?" Angel asked Connor, his thoughts half on getting Lorne by himself as soon as Fred was finished showing himself and Darla her almost completed school project. "This is your old man's favorite broad sword."
"Starting him young, aren't you?" Wesley asked from behind him.
"You're never too young to start appreciating classic weaponry."
"I'll remind you of that the next time Fred wants to test the firing mechanism of the crossbow."
"Very funny. You know," Angel's voice became pensive. "Connor's going to be crawling any time now. We've got to start baby proofing this place." He passed Connor over to Wesley. "Here take him. It's alright." He tickled his son's chin. It's your Uncle Wes. Yeah, he loves you bunches! He's just - English."
The former Watcher cradled Connor awkwardly as Angel studied the weapon's cabinet to determine the best way of keeping sharp objects out of tiny hands.
"I say we put a chain and a combination lock on the weapons. Better safe than sorry. Isn't that right, buddy?" He kissed the top of Connor's head, watching him gurgle. "He likes you. I can tell."
I like him, too." Wesley jumped at his chance. "As a matter of fact I was thinking, perhaps I'd take him and Fred to the park or the beach, just the three of us. Maybe there'll be some time in the next day or two."
Fred had evidently finished displaying her project. Clutching it and her book to her chest, she left the office and headed upstairs to do her homework. As soon as she had left, Darla signaled for Angel to join them in the office.
"Sounds great." Angel said quickly as he moved into the office. "Yeah. Count on it."
Wesley breathed a sigh of relief as his friend moved away.
At least now he had a chance to get the two children to safety.
"You're sure? You're absolutely positive? You don't need to do another reading or anything to make sure?"
"As sure as I'm ever going to be, Angelcakes." Lorne said patiently. "He never did anything to Freddikins, they never even met until they day she left Pylea."
"But she was so afraid of him." Though relieved, Darla was still concerned.
"One thing you have to understand about Pylea is that the Groosalugg is practically the boogeyman over there, worse even. I remember my mother telling me that if I didn't practice my hunting, he'd come after me, that if left my room after dark he'd chew my arm off and turn my intestines into a belt - what do you think they'd tell a human kid, a slave? I wouldn't even like to think about it."
"And by Pylean standards, I'm guessing a slave running away is about the worst thing they can do." Darla suggested.
"Pretty much." Lorne responded. "They wanted to behead her for no reason I can see."
"But doesn't she see that Groo's not going to do anything to her? Or that we'd kill him in a second if he tried?" Angel pressed.
"She's been conditioned to fear him since age four." Lorne reminded him gently. "She heard horror stories about things he would do to her if she stepped out of line for more than two years. That's not something she can just forget."
"Do you think she'll ever be able to get past what happened to her there?" Darla asked quietly.
"I don't know." Lorne responded sadly. "I really don't."
Striding purposefully into the lobby, Wesley paused by the cradle and packed some things into a diaper bag.
"What are you doing?" Lorne asked, walking in to see him packing.
"Hi." Wesley said, trying to sound casual. "I'm taking Connor."
"Where?"
"To my place for the night. I'm taking him and Fred to the park in the morning. I talked to Angel before. He knows all about it." he looked around. "Where is Fred?"
"I think Darla took her out for tacos and a movie. Girl's night out." He saw the troubled expression on Wesley's face. "They might have forgotten, or maybe they'll drop her over later on."
Wesley was silent for a moment. He didn't have long before Holtz would show up to take Connor and Fred and he wanted to have both children as far away from the hotel as possible when he arrived. If he waited for Darla and Fred to return, Holtz might very well show up before they did, and even if the vampire hunter failed to remove the baby, Angel and Darla would be highly unlikely to allow either child out of their sight after that.
If he took Connor now, he could avert the prophecy and, once the baby boy was safe, he could contact Gunn or Lorne, explain what was happening and they could bring Fred to him.
"Hey, Angel didn't say anything about..." Lorne shrugged. "Well, he probably forgot. He went off in kind of a hurry."
"What happened?"
"Well, he was acting kind of weird this morning. I'm sure you noticed. Then when he came back from killing the Wraith-ers..."
Connor's wails cut him off.
"Hey, it's okay." Wesley scooped up the crying baby. "It's your Uncle Wes. You like your Uncle Wes. We're gonna have a great time." Bouncing the baby in his arms, he hummed a lullaby for a few seconds before remembering the other member of his audience.
As he frequently reminded his friends, Lorne was a lover, not a fighter. The scuffle that followed was brief before Wesley took a statue from the cabinet behind his desk and knocked the demon out and hurried back to the bassinet to take Connor.
"Here. All right. That's a boy. That's a boy." Baby in arms, the former Watcher turned to find himself face to face with the person he wanted to protect Connor from. "Angel."
"Where is everybody?"
"I don't know about Gunn, Darla and Fred are out, Lorne's seeing a client. I'm watching the baby. In fact, I packed up some overnight things. We talked about me taking Connor and Fred to the park and the one across from my place is... It's always full of kids. I thought he could spend the night with me. Maybe Gunn could bring Fred over in the morning." He suggested, thinking that he could leave a message in his apartment.
"That's probably a really good idea." Angel said slowly, not happy with the idea of his son spending a night away from home.
Wes exhaled in relief, pausing before leaving. "You wanna say good-bye?" He offered, not knowing if he would ever be able to bring Connor back.
"Okay. Hey. He-he. Sleep tight, big guy." Angel kissed the baby in his arms. "Daddy will see you real soon." His expression was a little anxious as he returned the baby to his friend. "Just keep and eye... I check on him a lot during the night. You got his pediatrician's number, his baby formula?"
"I've got all that."
"You ever hear of a time-traveling demon by the name of Sahjhan?"
"No."
"The guy that brought Holtz here. He thinks I'm his sworn enemy. I don't know him from Adam. Can you hit the books before you go?"
Wesley was able, with great difficulty, to restrain himself from checking his watch, wanting to be gone as soon as possible, to give himself as big a head start as he could.
Gunn's return doubled the chance that they would find Lorne's prone form and start asking questions he was far from willing to answer.
"You know, I've got better reference materials for your demon at home," Wesley said hastily. "And Connor is getting sleepy. Why don't I look into it there?"
"Ah, okay." Angel backed away from his son reluctantly. "Just call me if you find something."
"I guess, ah - I'll see everyone tomorrow."
"Hey, Wes?" The Englishman turned, half-afraid Angel would announce that he had changed his mind. "What's the closest emergency room to your place?"
"Drew Medical. One minute away." He hurried towards the exit, Connor held close. "Top infant care center. Don't worry."
Angel sighed as he tidied away Connor's toys. "Well, my first whole night without the kid."
It didn't seem possible.
Wesley was his friend, why would he take Connor from him? What would make him do it?
At the moment, seeing Connor in the arms of his enemy, while Lilah and her team of lackeys surrounded them, it seemed like a nightmare from which he could never awaken.
"You are gonna give us the kid, Captain Holtz." Lilah's voice was commanding.
"Don't!" Angel called anxiously.
"That's cute. You'd rather see the fanatic with the baby than us?" Lilah returned her attention to Holtz. "Those are automatic weapons pointed at you. They didn't have them in your time. They fire sixteen bullets per second."
"And if they were going to use them they would have already. They want the baby alive." Although Holtz was his enemy, Angel knew that he was a good person, something he was equally sure that Lilah wasn't.
"Something we all have in common." Holtz said.
The air shimmered for a moment as Sahjahn appeared before them.
Not all of us." He looked across at Lilah. "You do not want the child alive." He reminded her. "You want the child dead. That was our arrangement."
She laughed shortly. "Yeah. I'm a lawyer. Have you met me? We have a new arrangement. I'm keeping the baby."
"You can't do that!"
"Ignore the loud mouth with the bad skin." Lilah said dismissively. "He's impotent in this dimension."
"We're leaving." Holtz announced, holding Connor firmly. He had hoped to have both children, to recreate his family, but even without the girl he had no intention of giving up the boy.
"No one's going anywhere." Lilah tried to sound in control of the situation.
One of the commandos in her squad moved forward, only to be knocked to the ground by Angel, who took his weapon and turned it on the lawyer.
"Don't shoot!" She called immediately.
"Yeah. You really don't want to. Your bullets won't kill me. But mine will kill you - and her first."
Holtz met his eyes. "He'll be dead before I hit the ground." He warned unnecessarily.
"I know."
"So. I'm going to leave now, right? With me, he gets to live, anyone tries to take him, he dies."
"Take him." Angel's heart was breaking as he spoke the words.
"I will take good care of him, as though he were my own son. He'll never even know you existed. Don't come after me. You will though, won't you? Maybe I should just..." His hand tightened around Connor's little neck.
"No. Please." Angel said desperately, knowing that he would much rather have his son alive in Holtz's care than dead at his feet. "Take him."
"Lekko najine forkahdio!" As soon as Sahjahn had intoned the words, a portal, like a hole burned into the horizon, appeared before them. "What you are looking into is the Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds. So, I can widen the portal and you can all be swallowed up by a world you can not begin to imagine - or you can keep your word and kill that child. Now!" When none of them made a move to comply, he spread his arms wide. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Kill it." Seeing the portal grow wider, Lilah barked the order.
Shoving Justine out of the way, Holtz darted forward, leaping through the portal, leaving those in his wake frozen in place.
"Wow. I didn't count on that. Kinda takes care of my problem." Sahjahn smirked, raising his arms a second time. "Forkahdio najine lekko." The portal disappeared. "All right then. have a good summer." He disapparated.
"Hmph!" Lilah looked down at the horrified, unmoving Angel. "Well, I'm looking at a mountain of paperwork."
One of the commandos spoke up. "Should we do something about..." He gestured towards Angel.
"Yes, we should." She watched him in satisfaction. "We should let him suffer."
Left alone in front of the spot where the portal that had spirited his child from him had been, Angel could barely croak out his son's name.
"Connor."
TBC.
Author's Note: To those who thought Groo was evil, he definitely wasn't. I figured that, without some kind of distraction, Angel or Darla would have seen that something was wrong with Wesley.
