Title: Untold Feelings
Chapter: 4 – Confessions
Author: Minnie-May
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)
Rating: PG-13
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet.

A/N: Sorry this last chapter took so long to get out! I've been really busy lately and I kept forgetting to have it beta'd ^^;; silly me. Hope you enjoy! Please review so I don't cry ;_;

UNTOLD FEELINGS

Chapter Four- CONFESSIONS

"I can't believe this!" Gunn yelled as his axe sunk into another of the demons. The creepy little things seemed to be multiplying before his very eyes. The three were nearly surrounded now and they had only been battling the things for a few minutes.

"We've handled worst" Wesley put in, lopping off the head of one of the creatures and then turning just in time to hit one that had been leaping for his jugular. Wes and Gunn were back to back fighting the demons, trying to drive them back. Well, maybe not exactly back to back since Fred was wedged in between the two of them, using a tree branch to hit anything that came fairly close to her.

"How is it that I'm still not feeling better about all this English?" Gunn muttered. "Where are they all coming from anyway?" Gunn ducked as one of the demons jumped straight for his head and instead sailed over and hit one that had been trying something similar with Wesley. They hit the ground a foot from Fred who whimpered and flung her branch around wildly.

"I'm not sure but I think that a retreat might not be such a bad idea at the moment" Wesley said, turning briefly to catch a glimpse of Fred beating away a demon that was stuck to her ankle.

"Actually, English I'm right behind you there" Gunn said, grabbing Fred by the arm and dragging her toward a gap in the attack.

The three took off running as fast as their legs would carry them. Soon the open plains began to turn into a forest, trees springing up as if from nowhere. They stayed to the path in the center of the forest, snapping twigs and dried leaves as they ran. Behind them they could hear the monsters calling and growling, hoping to catch up to them. The three flew around a bend in the path at full speed and almost smashed right up against a wall.

"There's a wall? Who puts a wall in the forest?" Gunn asked, leaning his hands against his knees and panting.

"Possibly the same creature that wants to suck out our life force?" Wesley suggested, leaning against the wall to catch his breath.

"You really know how to put people at ease Wes, anyone ever tell you that?" Gunn muttered sarcastically, looking towards the bend in the path.

"Where are they?" Fred asked, sounding panicked. She was still holding the branch in front of her to ward off attack and breathing heavily from nerves, never mind the long sprint. Wesley wanted badly to comfort her but there was no time, so instead he merely pulled her back towards the wall where she would be safe. Or safer at least. Wesley stepped up next to Gunn and picked up his axe from where he had rested it against the wall. Both men had their eyes glued to the bend in the forest, waiting for the monsters to show up.

Slowly, a deep growling noise was admitted and the creatures came into view. Apparently, they had also brought friends that were both bigger and more hideous. The small creatures were dwarfed by larger demons with sharp teeth and long claws. These vicious demons were staring hungrily at the three of them as if it would like nothing more than to eat them. And since they were talking about a big, nasty demon here that was probably not so far from its train of thought.

"Anyone else here thinking 'Oh shit?'" Gunn asked, axe at the ready.

"Bloody hell" Wesley muttered, glancing around and seeing that they were surrounded.

"Well ok if you want to be all British about it" Gunn mumbled.

Fred, standing behind them, was glad that she had the wall to support her. She didn't think her legs were very good at the moment with the way they were violently trembling. Chunks of memories from her time in Pylea came flooding back, flooring her with all the horrors that had happened to her there. All the horrors, that might be repeating themselves soon enough. The creatures were hovering at the mouth of the bend, making escape in all directions impossible. Fred realized that Wes and Gunn couldn't possibly fight all of the monsters and the knowledge made her lean more heavily on the wall for support.

"Fred, there's something I need to tell you" Gunn had turned half around so that he had Fred's eye and took a deep breath. "I figure since this could be the last opportunity to tell you there's no use being quiet" Gunn went on. Fred nodded slightly, her head going back and forth between the monsters and Gunn. Wesley turned around so that he was only half watching the creatures before them and gave Gunn a baffled look. Gunn ignored everything that was going on, pulling up every ounce of nerve he had to make the next statement.

"Fred, I like you… a lot. I mean not just friendship like; I've been wanting to ask you out for a long time now but there just hasn't been a good time" Gunn said. Fred's wide set brown eyes grew even wider and she blinked several times as if trying to figure something out.

"Well this is a great time right now" Wesley said sarcastically. The monsters had begun marching forward slowly, obviously enjoying the fear they were instilling in the humans.

"Hey I said it was because we might not have any other time" Gunn said defensively. Behind the two men Fred was trying to get her thoughts in order because everything was getting all jumbled in her head. Gunn liked her and they were about to be attacked by life sucking monsters. She decided that if they made it back she was going to curl up in her closet and take a nap.

"Actually, while it seems to be confession time I have something to say myself" Wesley began, turning around slightly.

"It's ok, I love you too man" Gunn put in, slapping Wesley lightly on the back. Wes gave him an odd look and turned around more.

"I'm not talking to you Charles, I'm talking to Fred" Wesley put in, turning around so that he was facing her.

"Oh well…." Gunn trailed off looking rather puzzled. Than the light had obviously turned itself on and he turned to look disbelieving at Wes. "OH".

"Fred, I'm sure you're a bit, well, overloaded at the moment and I'm really remiss to add to your confusion but-" Wesley began, taking a deep breath and continuing. 'I can do this' Wes thought to himself. "Since you've first appeared in our lives I knew you were a special girl" Wes pressed onward.

"Crazy you mean" Fred said faintly, already sure where this conversation was going.

"Well, there was that too" Wes said with a slight smile. He turned around to see that the monsters were only a few feet away now. If he wanted to get it all out he was going to have to hurry this up, a lot. "For a long time I've cared about you as more than a friend. I'm in love with you, Winifred" Wesley ended, blushing as he realized the word 'love' had just slipped in there.

Gunn was staring at Wesley as if he had grown another head as the other man turned to face the monsters. Fred's eyes were wider than she thought was even possible as she looked back and forth between her two friends and then back to the demons. Both men were preparing to fight the demons, to the death if necessary.

"Wow" Fred said faintly. "That's a lot to take in on the brink of death" she murmured.

Wes turned around to smile at her and then turned back in time as the demons lunged themselves at the group. The men got themselves in fighting positions and were ready to take the demons on when suddenly the ground beneath them began to pitch wildly from side to side. The sounds of the demons screaming became fainter and fainter as the world around them faded to black. The next moment light snapped violently back as the three were thrown to the ground.

"OUCH!" Gunn said, getting up painfully from where he had landed on top of a chair. Wesley groaned from a similar place on the floor and grumbled something slightly incoherent. Fred had landed, and rather gracefully, in the center of the table and was sitting cross-legged looking at her friends.

"Wesley, are you ok?" Fred asked, sliding her body towards the end of the table and leaning over. Wesley was rubbing his head and slightly favoring his right arm, but otherwise seemed unhurt.

"Surprisingly, yes" Wesley stated turning his head to take in the lobby of the Hyperion. "We seem to be back now" he stated, as if this were not an immediately obvious thing.

"Yea" Fred trailed off, "we're back."

****

"Yahhh!" Cordelia screamed as she slammed down into the alleyway. She noticed that the fall hadn't hurt as much as she guessed and opened one eye slightly to see that she had fell directly on top of Angel. "Opps!"

It was all very confusing; one moment they had been fighting demons and the next they were back in the alley where they had gotten pulled into that strange dimension. It was a good thing though because they had been losing something awful, one of the demons had gotten a hold of Cordelia while Angel tried to beat him off. She thought they were both dead for sure.

"We're back!" she said happily, throwing herself flesh against Angel in a huge hug. Angel groaned slightly, he had hit the alley hard and he was pretty sure that one of his ribs was cracked. Having Cordelia throwing herself on him wasn't exactly the best situation, health wise.

"Your heavy" he groaned, pushing her up slightly. Cordelia grinned at him and then swatted his arm playfully.

"You better watch it mister, I might not decided to get up" Cordelia said, leaning forward slightly to smile evilly at Angel.

"I take it back, you're light as a feather Cor" Angel groaned, trying to shift his weight underneath her and not seem too noticeable.

Suddenly a bright light glared in both of their eyes and they turned around to see someone pointing the beam of a flashlight in their direction. Angel squinted in the light and could make out a male form in dark attire.

"You two AGAIN?" the voice said, dropping the flashlight so it became visible it was the officer from earlier.

Cordelia became suddenly and humiliatingly aware of what she was wearing. Not to mention the position she was in with Angel, she knew immediately what the officer was thinking.

"I think you two had better come with me down to the station" the officer said, making a motion with his flashlight.

"This is so humiliating" Cordelia muttered.

****

The silence in the Hyperion lobby was thick with embarrassment as the three silently arranged chairs and books. The three of them crashing down had pushed over several piles of books that were now scattered all over the floor, not to mention the chairs that Wes and Gunn had landed on. Fred was going about the cleaning with a mechanical sort of calm, not meeting either man's eyes. When she and Gunn went to pick up the same book she jumped back and grabbed another one instead. No one had said anything since they had gotten back and Fred was not going to be the one to break the silence.

The silence was finally broken by the loud sound of a door banging shut. Angel and Cordelia walked into the room, both of them limping slightly. Angel had obviously received some kind of blow to the leg but Cordelia was limping because of the tall, hooker like boots that she was wearing. In fact, Fred noted looking Cordy up and down, the whole outfit pretty much screamed 'I'm an enormous slut'. Which wasn't really Cordy's style.

Beside her she heard Gunn choke and Wesley sputter, obviously both had noticed the outfit too.

"You say anything and I'll kill you" Cordelia said dangerously, sitting on the steps to pull the boots off her aching feet.

"Right" Wesley said, trying with little success to pull his eyes off of Cordelia. "Where have you two been?" he addressed to Angel.

"Besides the street corner" Gunn put in. The boot Cordelia threw at him barely missed his head and he refrained from making any other comments after that.

"The police station actually…twice" Angel said, clearing his throat before saying the second part. The Englishman raised his eyebrows but didn't press the issue. To be honest, Wes wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

"We got the police files on those missing kids…and then we got sucked into a portal into another dimension where we were attacked by demons. Then we got thrown back" Angel explained, giving them the very simple version of what happened.

"You two got pulled into a portal too?" Fred asked, sounding confused.

"Too?" Angel asked, a puzzled expression on his face as he looked at Wes and Gunn for explanations.

"Yes well we were pulled into another dimension as well" Wesley put in, looking over at the way that Fred was slowly sliding toward the staircase.

"With a bunch of creepy looking demon-y things" Gunn put in, nodding towards the two axes they had put back in the case. Wesley watched as Fred disappeared quietly up the steps before anyone noticed. He wondered if she was going back up to her room to hide, like she had done when they had gotten back from Pylea. He tried to cram down his worry to listen to the conversation the others were still having.

"-don't get why we came back" Angel was saying, looking pointedly at Wesley. Wes took a deep breath and began to explain the theory that he had been formulating as they cleaned.

"Well, since the demon feeds off the energy of unrequited love I'm almost positive that Gunn and I both declaring our feelings for Fred made it impossible for the demon to hold us in it's dimension anymore. From what I heard from you it looks like the declarations weakened it so much that it let go of everyone it had pulled in" Wesley explained, setting a chair upright and sitting down in it. Cordelia and Angel's eyes went wide when they realized the feelings of both men. Cordy had no idea that Gunn cared about Fred also, this could make things awkward. Then another thought struck Cordy that she had to give voice too.

"Then why were Angel and I pulled into the portal?" Cordy asked, looking at Wesley curiously. Wes took one look at the expression of horror on Angel's face and decided that maybe the truth wasn't always the best thing to go with in every situation.

"Well I suppose it could have been a mistake, we weren't dealing with an overly bright demon" Wesley said, catching the 'I owe you one' look in Angels eyes.

Cordy nodded, accepting this explanation as making more sense, even though she had this gut feeling that it wasn't the truth. But there was no way that she was going there tonight. Searching and finding both boots she walked up to Gunn and asked him to take her home, pulling him towards the door as she talked. With a quick wave at her two friends she disappeared out of sight behind the closing door. For a long moment the lobby was once again covered in silence. Angel cleared his throat and turned to Wesley.

"So….Fred-" he began, in a conversational tone.

"So, Cordelia-" Wes shot back.

The two men stood in the lobby in silence.

****

It was three hours later before Fred finally crept down the winding stairs of the Hyperion towards the lobby. She had heard the voices as Gunn and Cordelia left, and then a short time later as Angel took a shower and went into his room. Fred had been counting on the fact that Wesley would want to stick around to do some research or work on translating some old prophecy. She really needed to talk to him about what had happened and she hadn't wanted the others around when she did.

She knocked on the door to Wesley's office and peered around the door, seeing him look up from the book he was studying. Fred was suddenly hit with memories from when Wesley was infected with Billy's blood. She looked down at her outfit; a pair of jeans splattered with white paint from when they had painted over her room and a loose T-shirt. It was nothing like the sundress she had been wearing that day. Pushing the thoughts of Billy aside, she walked quietly into the room and shut the door behind her. Although there was really no one around to come intruding on their conversation anyway.

Fred seated herself in one of the chairs across from Wesley's desk as he pushed the book aside and leaned towards her on his elbows. Fred took a deep breath and began counting pie, silently of course, to calm herself down. She really, really wasn't good at this.

"Something you wanted Fred?" Wesley asked quietly, trying not to prod her the wrong way. She looked like a frightened puppy and he feared the wrong word would send her back up the stairs into her room.

"It's about what you said when we were….well where we were. 'Cuse I'm not exactly sure that dimension we were in had a name, or maybe it did but we just didn't know it so I'm not really sure what to call it" Fred babbled, her cheeks turning bright red. She really, really wasn't good at this.

"Oh….that" Wesley said, leaning back in his chair and eyeing Fred cautiously again. The way he was staring at her was making her even more nervous so that she squirmed in her chair. "I understand if you don't feel the same way. I'm very sorry if my declaration made you uncomfortable and-" Wes said awkwardly, far too accustomed to being turned down.

"Ohh no!" Fred interrupted him, forcing Wesley to look up from the point on his desk that he was staring at to gaze at the young Texan girl. "I just meant, well it didn't make me uncomfortable. Well ok a little bit if you want to be honest, and I think it's good to start relationships out with honesty" Fred rambled, wishing desperately that she could just get out what she wanted to say.

"Relationship?" Wesley asked in shock. Fred blushed bright crimson and continued on with her speech, meandering as it was.

"I know we're good friends and all that and I wouldn't want to ruin that but for awhile now I've been kinda thinking of you differently. Kinda like how I thought about Angel only, a little more sanely and I've been having them too. Feelings, that is because just saying 'I've been having them' makes it sounds like I've been having cramps or something. Which I haven't….." Fred was mortified, but she was finding it really hard to stop talking once she had begun. 'Oh God, I'm making a fool of myself' Fred thought as she stared at Wesley across the desk.

For a few moments Wes stared at her, his expression unreadable and then he broke down and began laughing. Fred turned bright red, sure that he was laughing at her. He looked so happy though and soon Fred felt her lips curling into a smile. A few moments later Fred was laughing as well, holding onto her side when it became painful. Finally the laughter died down and left the two of them stared at each other from across the expanse of wood separating them. Wesley smiled and leaned forward again.

"I'll be honest I really didn't think things would go this way" he said, staring into Fred's eyes.

"Gunn's a good friend, that's it. You're…" Fred blushed brightly as she trailed off. Wesley smiled at her but didn't push her to finish the sentence. Fred stared down at her legs for a few moments, trying to compose herself. 'We sound like a bad romance movie' Fred thought to herself, looking up and catching Wesley's eyes. She felt something faintly flutter in the pit of her stomach and realized it wasn't nerves but happiness.

"I'm hungry" Fred announced, rising from the chair and walking over towards Wesley. "Want some ice cream?" she asked, nodding towards the door. Wesley got up from his chair and closed the book in front of him.

"Ice cream would be great," Wesley said softly, leading the way out the door of the office and towards the main door. He didn't think he needed to tell Angel that they were going, he was probably busy with his customary brooding.

Wesley opened the door for her and then followed her out, closing the door behind them. As they were walking toward the street and the small ice cream place Wesley knew was nearby he felt Fred slip her hand in his.

Maybe it hadn't been such a bad night after all.

THE END