Part Three
The building that housed the evil of Wolfram and Hart had changed very
little over the years. The more modern conveniences and toys were
added of course - a neural net computer system and virtual art
displayed in the reception area - but the same old vampire detector
protected the front entrance and the Picasso still hung on the wall.
Demons never let go of the past while taking over the future. When he
entered the reception area, Lindsey MacDonald felt nothing. Not fear.
Not regret. Nothing - except determination.
"I would like to see Ms. Morgan." Lindsey frowned slightly at the
receptionist's profile. He remembered her. Christie. She looked
exactly the same. "I'm an old friend."
Christie looked up at him. Her eyes were an inky black void - no
whites, no iris, no pupil. She wasn't exactly as he remembered.
"Lindsey MacDonald." Her voice was toneless, dispassionate. Her head
cocked to the side and she paused for a moment while she accessed the
neural net. "Ms. Morgan will see you now. Top floor."
"Of course." Lindsey smiled sadly at Christie. "Rewarded for loyal
service, were you?" He walked away to the elevators without waiting
for a response. There wouldn't be one. When he had left Wolfram and
Hart, Christie had been a person. She had been a pleasant, flirty
twenty-something woman who worked as a receptionist for what she
thought was a normal law firm with normal clients. Now she was merely
a golem - a mindless minion of Wolfram and Hart, her personality
sucked out of her along with her soul. That could have been him.
Sure, he would still have had his soul, but it would have been sold to
the Senior Partners.
With a quiet chime, the elevator indicated it had reached the top
floor. It had barely taken a second. The doors opened right into
Lilah's office. It was beautifully appointed in lavender and cedar.
"Lindsey." Lilah remained seated behind her ridiculously large desk.
"What a wonderful surprise."
"You knew the minute I stepped foot into this city, Lilah." The outer
walls were comprised of large picture windows. One was behind Lilah.
Lindsey walked over to the one adjacent to it and looked down over the
city. "Nice office, by the way."
"I really have you to thank for it. If you hadn't flaked, I might have
actually had some competition. Gavin lasted just over a year." Lilah
smirked. She folded her hands on her desk. "So, what brings you
here? Looking for a job?"
Lindsey snorted. "Hardly." He turned from the window to face his
former rival. She was so much more dangerous to him now. But he
couldn't let her know it. "You know why I'm here."
"Ah, yes, your happy home. Does the little woman know all about your
sordid past? Maybe I should stop by for coffee and girl talk."
"You will go no where near her." Lindsey's fists clenched. "Aria
knows everything anyway."
"You know, I never pictured you as the protective family man." Lilah
sat back and appraised Lindsey. She had never seen him in anything
but a suit and tie. Now he wore jeans and a dark grey t-shirt and
they looked good on him. He could have used a haircut though.
"I've always pictured you as a power hungry bitch." Lindsey crossed
over to the desk and leaned over it. If he remembered correctly - and
he always did - invading her personal space unnerved Lilah. "I'm not
here to take down Wolfram and Hart or join the forces of good or even
take your job - we both know I could have it - I'm just here to live my
life with my family. If you do anything to upset that, Lilah, well....
I still have this evil hand." He placed his hand over her throat. He
didn't apply pressure, just the threat.
Lilah swallowed compulsively once Lindsey lowered his hand. She hated
it that Lindsey could still make her afraid of him. She had made it
to the top floor. He had walked away when it had all been in the palm
of his hand. "You know I can't promise you anything. If the Senior
Partners decide that you are a threat...."
"Then convince them I'm not unless I'm provoked. If anyone connected
to Wolfram and Hart so much as stares at my family I'll go to Angel
and give him the last scroll. You know, the one that tells him exactly
who the Senior Partners are and how to kill them." Lindsey stayed long
enough to watch the blood drain completely from Lilah's face and then
turned and left. He had made his point.
As Lindsey left the building, he passed the reception desk. Christie
was flirting with a delivery man. Her eyes were a sparkling blue and
her smile gleamed brightly as she laughed. Apparently, she had been
left with enough to present a convincing facade for unsuspecting,
naive civilians. She waved at Lindsey as he left. It made him feel
sad. Once the doors swished closed behind him and he was standing in
the brilliant afternoon sunlight, the sadness left. The confrontation
with Lilah had exhausted him. Lindsey could only hope that it worked.
*****
It was hard, dirty, slimy work only made more difficult by the fact
that they didn't have the proper tools. Connor had pried apart the
metal from a desk and had sharpened it against the basement's brick
wall. He and Ron used the makeshift knives to carve up the Cellar
Serpent into more manageable pieces while Pandora searched for the sewer
entrance Connor knew was down there somewhere.
"Do you remember where it was on the blueprint?" Pandora called from
across the room. "East side? West?"
"Nope. I just looked to see if there was one in case of emergencies."
Connor gave one last whack to his piece of the serpent and tossed it
into a crate they had emptied of books and filled with demon parts. He
had started at the head while Ron took the tail and they had finally
met in the middle. Ron tossed his last piece into the crate as well.
The lubricating slime that had covered the demon spattered them as it
hit the other parts. Connor grimaced. "Remind me never to do this
for a living."
"Yeah, it really is just an interesting hobby sort of thing." Ron took
Connor's piece of metal from him and he put their impromptu carving
knives into the crate with the chopped up demon. He wiped his hands
on his jeans. "Find it yet?" he yelled to Pandora.
"No. One would think that if one was planning on using the sewer
entrance in case of emergencies that one would pinpoint exactly where
in the basement said entrance was located." Pandora came around a
crate. Dust caked her hair and clothes, especially in the places
dotted with serpent slime.
"Yes, one would," Ron agreed. "But since he didn't, let me try a
little trick my mother taught me to help me find my shoes - for some
reason it was always the left one." Ron closed his eyes and
concentrated on the sewer entrance. "Aperio locus!" He opened his
eyes to a glimmer of gold light in the far corner of the basement.
"Neat trick." Connor started to push the crate toward the soft glow.
"It's called magic. I'm a male witch, you see, so I used magic." Ron
threw a glance at Pandora as they followed Connor.
"I'm not allowed to use my powers unless it is absolutely necessary."
Pandora compressed her lips into a disproving line. "What if someone
had come down here when you were casting the spell? How would you
have explained it?"
"Probably as well as I would have explained that." Ron waved in the
direction of the crate chock full of demon.
"Guys, I could use a little help here." Connor stopped in front of the
sewer entrance. It was evident what role he would have in this troika
of friendship - referee. "I'll go down first and then you two can
guide it down to me." Connor jumped down through the manhole and they
accomplished their task quickly. Once all three of them were in the
sewer, another problem presented itself.
"So, now what? Do we just leave it here?" Ron scratched his head.
"It's not like this is a heavy traffic area."
"But it's still too noticeable." Connor looked around. His enhanced
vampire eyesight saw easily into the shadows. "There's some kind of
door over there." He hauled the crate the few feet to it.
"It's an overflow pipe. They open it up when there's heavy rains."
Pandora smiled approvingly at Connor. It was perfect. If the pipe
was ever opened it would be to let a flood of water through which
would destroy the crate and carry the remains out into the ocean.
"How does it open?" Ron closely examined the tightly closed door.
There was no handle, no lock.
"Computer," Pandora answered simply. She was starting to feel
comfortable with Connor and Ron. They accepted her for who she really
was. She reached out and stopped Connor from ripping the door open.
"Don't do that. The computer will register a malfunction and they'll
send someone down to fix it. Let me try something."
Connor and Ron stood back. Pandora took a few deep breaths. She could
do this, she had been practicing with her Aunt Paige. "Crate. In
pipe." A blue light swirled around the crate. It wavered a bit, but
finally it overwhelmed the crate and it dispersed into tiny lights.
A flash of blue between the cracks of the door told them that the
crate had reached its destination. "I did it."
"Yeah. Why didn't you do it before so Connor didn't have to haul it
all the way down here?"
Pandora blushed. "I don't have a lot of control over my powers yet.
I can only orb short distances and I need a specific location. If I
had just tried to orb the demon remains out of the basement, it could
have ended up anywhere."
"Like Amanda Vespy's desk?" Connor smirked. He didn't know it, but he
looked an awful lot like his father's soulless counterpart, Angelus,
at that moment.
Ron laughed. He glanced at his watch. "It looks like we're not going
to be dealing with her again today. School is almost over."
"What? We missed the whole afternoon!" Pandora let out a weird
squeaking noise and raced to the sewer entrance, disappearing up into
the basement.
"Hey, running now won't make you on time," Ron called. He and Connor
ran after her and finally caught up to her on the stairs.
"I skipped school. I can't believe I skipped school. It's only the
second day. What are they going to do? Kick us out?"
"Nothing that drastic." Ron caught Pandora's arm before she opened the
basement door and stepped out into the hall. "They will probably just
give us detention, but we'll need to get our stories straight. There's
no way we can tell the truth."
"Are they going to call our parents?"
"Oh, yeah, if they haven't already. And about our parents, are we
going to share everything with them about today? Because, personally,
Mom will freak and we'll be moving again."
"My parents won't like it either. Vampire with a soul who fights evil
or not, they'll think it's a trap set by the Source." Pandora looked
apologetically at Connor.
Connor nodded in understanding. He knew all about overprotective
parents. "I think we should keep this to ourselves. So, what were we
doing this afternoon?"
Each of them pondered that question for a few minutes, but before they
could come up with an answer the door opened. "There you are! I've
been looking all over the school for you three." Ms. Foster stood in
the doorway. She frowned severely as she ushered them out into the
hall. "There's only five minutes left of school. What were you doing
in the basement?"
"I'm sorry, Ms. Foster." Pandora bit her lip. "I felt sick and I, uh,
had a seizure when I was outside. I got disoriented and ended up
wandering around the basement. Connor and Ron found me and they were
helping me."
Ms. Foster's face was immediately etched with worry. "Are you alright,
dear? Do you need to go to the hospital? Why didn't one of you boys
come and get a teacher?" She guided the children into their classroom.
"She got upset when one of us started to leave. We thought it would
be better if we stayed and kept her calm," Connor offered.
"I don't need a hospital, Ms. Foster. My Uncle Cole is supposed to
pick me up and I'll tell my Mom about the seizure when I get home.
She'll make an appointment with my specialist." Pandora collected her
things. "Can we go now? I am really sorry about missing classes this
afternoon and for making Connor and Ron miss them too."
"You can go. And we won't worry about missing class this time." Ms.
Foster smiled at Connor and Ron. "Thank you, boys, for helping
Pandora, but next time I want you to get a teacher."
"Yes, Ma'am." Connor and Ron nodded. They gathered their things and
all three of them got out of there as fast as they could.
"I can't believe you got us out of detention and she didn't even say
anything about calling our parents." Ron looked at Pandora with awe.
Being friends with a girl might not be so bad.
"I can't either. I guess we can thank my parents for telling the
school that I had a history of seizures just in case I did have a
vision during class." Pandora smiled wearily. As they spotted their
rides, they waved good-bye to each other and split up.
*****
The house was spotless, even though they had moved in only a week ago.
Lindsey knew it was because his wife was worried. Worried about
Wolfram and Hart and worried about their son. The worry gave her a lot
of restless energy to work off. "Honey, we're home," Lindsey called
out the cliched greeting. He winked at Ron, who grinned back at him.
"Yeah, Mom, we both made it home alive."
"That is not funny, Ron Weasley." Aria MacDonald walked from the
kitchen to the front room. She was a pretty woman with dirty blond
hair and light green eyes. At least that was what the world saw.
Lindsey and her son, Ron, saw her real self. A beautiful woman with
red hair and darker emerald green eyes who was once known as Willow
Rosenberg. With the appearance glamor in place, her own parents
wouldn't have been able to recognize her and that was the way Willow
wanted it. "There's a snack for you in the kitchen."
"Okay. Can I play a game on your laptop?"
"Go for it." Willow smiled indulgently as her son dropped his school
bag on the floor and rushed into the kitchen. She turned back to her
husband and gave him a welcome home kiss. "How did it go today?"
"Fine. I confronted Lilah, told her to leave us alone. Threatened her
life if she didn't." Lindsey sat down on the couch. He ran his hand
through his hair.
"I'm sorry." Willow sat down beside him. She reached over and rubbed
the back of his neck soothingly. She knew how much it was costing him
to drudge up the person he used to be. "Maybe we shouldn't have moved
here."
"No, it was the right decision despite the complications. We have to
face up to our pasts, Willow, so Ron can have a future." Lindsey took
Willow's hand from his neck and held it. "You have to contact Angel.
If I can't protect you and Ron then he can."
Willow was already shaking her head. "No, I can't. I can't put my
friends in danger again because of my stupid mistakes." She pulled her
hand from Lindsey's grasp and stood up. "They probably hate me
anyway after what I did to Dawn and Buffy. Dawn could have died and
Buffy was pulled out of Heaven because of me."
"I can't see how these people who call themselves your friends could
hate you. Explain to them what's going on. You haven't done anything
evil, Willow. Trust me, I know evil." Lindsey stood up and caught
Willow's shoulders. He tilted her chin up and smiled at her. "At the
very least, Angel will help you because it's his job."
"Yeah. I'll explain to Angel how I've been living with the man whose
hand he cut off for the last ten years. That will go a long way
toward convincing him of my non-evil ways." Willow quirked a smile
back at Lindsey. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick peck
to his lips. "Let's not fight about this today, we'll pick it up
tomorrow when you're less stressed."
"Okay." Lindsey let Willow lead him to the kitchen. "How's the new
computer game coming?"
"Great, I had a breakthrough today and it's almost finished." Willow
chattered easily about her work, but she was still worried. Her son
was in danger from his biological father on a daily basis - that was
nothing new - but now the man she called her husband was in danger
from his old life. She wished she could go to Angel, but she couldn't
stand to see the closed off expression on his face as she told her
story. The disappointment. She didn't want Angel to help her because
it was his job. She wanted him to help her because she was his friend,
but that wouldn't happen. Rack had made sure that she had no friends.
At least she had Lindsey and Ron.
To be continued....
The building that housed the evil of Wolfram and Hart had changed very
little over the years. The more modern conveniences and toys were
added of course - a neural net computer system and virtual art
displayed in the reception area - but the same old vampire detector
protected the front entrance and the Picasso still hung on the wall.
Demons never let go of the past while taking over the future. When he
entered the reception area, Lindsey MacDonald felt nothing. Not fear.
Not regret. Nothing - except determination.
"I would like to see Ms. Morgan." Lindsey frowned slightly at the
receptionist's profile. He remembered her. Christie. She looked
exactly the same. "I'm an old friend."
Christie looked up at him. Her eyes were an inky black void - no
whites, no iris, no pupil. She wasn't exactly as he remembered.
"Lindsey MacDonald." Her voice was toneless, dispassionate. Her head
cocked to the side and she paused for a moment while she accessed the
neural net. "Ms. Morgan will see you now. Top floor."
"Of course." Lindsey smiled sadly at Christie. "Rewarded for loyal
service, were you?" He walked away to the elevators without waiting
for a response. There wouldn't be one. When he had left Wolfram and
Hart, Christie had been a person. She had been a pleasant, flirty
twenty-something woman who worked as a receptionist for what she
thought was a normal law firm with normal clients. Now she was merely
a golem - a mindless minion of Wolfram and Hart, her personality
sucked out of her along with her soul. That could have been him.
Sure, he would still have had his soul, but it would have been sold to
the Senior Partners.
With a quiet chime, the elevator indicated it had reached the top
floor. It had barely taken a second. The doors opened right into
Lilah's office. It was beautifully appointed in lavender and cedar.
"Lindsey." Lilah remained seated behind her ridiculously large desk.
"What a wonderful surprise."
"You knew the minute I stepped foot into this city, Lilah." The outer
walls were comprised of large picture windows. One was behind Lilah.
Lindsey walked over to the one adjacent to it and looked down over the
city. "Nice office, by the way."
"I really have you to thank for it. If you hadn't flaked, I might have
actually had some competition. Gavin lasted just over a year." Lilah
smirked. She folded her hands on her desk. "So, what brings you
here? Looking for a job?"
Lindsey snorted. "Hardly." He turned from the window to face his
former rival. She was so much more dangerous to him now. But he
couldn't let her know it. "You know why I'm here."
"Ah, yes, your happy home. Does the little woman know all about your
sordid past? Maybe I should stop by for coffee and girl talk."
"You will go no where near her." Lindsey's fists clenched. "Aria
knows everything anyway."
"You know, I never pictured you as the protective family man." Lilah
sat back and appraised Lindsey. She had never seen him in anything
but a suit and tie. Now he wore jeans and a dark grey t-shirt and
they looked good on him. He could have used a haircut though.
"I've always pictured you as a power hungry bitch." Lindsey crossed
over to the desk and leaned over it. If he remembered correctly - and
he always did - invading her personal space unnerved Lilah. "I'm not
here to take down Wolfram and Hart or join the forces of good or even
take your job - we both know I could have it - I'm just here to live my
life with my family. If you do anything to upset that, Lilah, well....
I still have this evil hand." He placed his hand over her throat. He
didn't apply pressure, just the threat.
Lilah swallowed compulsively once Lindsey lowered his hand. She hated
it that Lindsey could still make her afraid of him. She had made it
to the top floor. He had walked away when it had all been in the palm
of his hand. "You know I can't promise you anything. If the Senior
Partners decide that you are a threat...."
"Then convince them I'm not unless I'm provoked. If anyone connected
to Wolfram and Hart so much as stares at my family I'll go to Angel
and give him the last scroll. You know, the one that tells him exactly
who the Senior Partners are and how to kill them." Lindsey stayed long
enough to watch the blood drain completely from Lilah's face and then
turned and left. He had made his point.
As Lindsey left the building, he passed the reception desk. Christie
was flirting with a delivery man. Her eyes were a sparkling blue and
her smile gleamed brightly as she laughed. Apparently, she had been
left with enough to present a convincing facade for unsuspecting,
naive civilians. She waved at Lindsey as he left. It made him feel
sad. Once the doors swished closed behind him and he was standing in
the brilliant afternoon sunlight, the sadness left. The confrontation
with Lilah had exhausted him. Lindsey could only hope that it worked.
*****
It was hard, dirty, slimy work only made more difficult by the fact
that they didn't have the proper tools. Connor had pried apart the
metal from a desk and had sharpened it against the basement's brick
wall. He and Ron used the makeshift knives to carve up the Cellar
Serpent into more manageable pieces while Pandora searched for the sewer
entrance Connor knew was down there somewhere.
"Do you remember where it was on the blueprint?" Pandora called from
across the room. "East side? West?"
"Nope. I just looked to see if there was one in case of emergencies."
Connor gave one last whack to his piece of the serpent and tossed it
into a crate they had emptied of books and filled with demon parts. He
had started at the head while Ron took the tail and they had finally
met in the middle. Ron tossed his last piece into the crate as well.
The lubricating slime that had covered the demon spattered them as it
hit the other parts. Connor grimaced. "Remind me never to do this
for a living."
"Yeah, it really is just an interesting hobby sort of thing." Ron took
Connor's piece of metal from him and he put their impromptu carving
knives into the crate with the chopped up demon. He wiped his hands
on his jeans. "Find it yet?" he yelled to Pandora.
"No. One would think that if one was planning on using the sewer
entrance in case of emergencies that one would pinpoint exactly where
in the basement said entrance was located." Pandora came around a
crate. Dust caked her hair and clothes, especially in the places
dotted with serpent slime.
"Yes, one would," Ron agreed. "But since he didn't, let me try a
little trick my mother taught me to help me find my shoes - for some
reason it was always the left one." Ron closed his eyes and
concentrated on the sewer entrance. "Aperio locus!" He opened his
eyes to a glimmer of gold light in the far corner of the basement.
"Neat trick." Connor started to push the crate toward the soft glow.
"It's called magic. I'm a male witch, you see, so I used magic." Ron
threw a glance at Pandora as they followed Connor.
"I'm not allowed to use my powers unless it is absolutely necessary."
Pandora compressed her lips into a disproving line. "What if someone
had come down here when you were casting the spell? How would you
have explained it?"
"Probably as well as I would have explained that." Ron waved in the
direction of the crate chock full of demon.
"Guys, I could use a little help here." Connor stopped in front of the
sewer entrance. It was evident what role he would have in this troika
of friendship - referee. "I'll go down first and then you two can
guide it down to me." Connor jumped down through the manhole and they
accomplished their task quickly. Once all three of them were in the
sewer, another problem presented itself.
"So, now what? Do we just leave it here?" Ron scratched his head.
"It's not like this is a heavy traffic area."
"But it's still too noticeable." Connor looked around. His enhanced
vampire eyesight saw easily into the shadows. "There's some kind of
door over there." He hauled the crate the few feet to it.
"It's an overflow pipe. They open it up when there's heavy rains."
Pandora smiled approvingly at Connor. It was perfect. If the pipe
was ever opened it would be to let a flood of water through which
would destroy the crate and carry the remains out into the ocean.
"How does it open?" Ron closely examined the tightly closed door.
There was no handle, no lock.
"Computer," Pandora answered simply. She was starting to feel
comfortable with Connor and Ron. They accepted her for who she really
was. She reached out and stopped Connor from ripping the door open.
"Don't do that. The computer will register a malfunction and they'll
send someone down to fix it. Let me try something."
Connor and Ron stood back. Pandora took a few deep breaths. She could
do this, she had been practicing with her Aunt Paige. "Crate. In
pipe." A blue light swirled around the crate. It wavered a bit, but
finally it overwhelmed the crate and it dispersed into tiny lights.
A flash of blue between the cracks of the door told them that the
crate had reached its destination. "I did it."
"Yeah. Why didn't you do it before so Connor didn't have to haul it
all the way down here?"
Pandora blushed. "I don't have a lot of control over my powers yet.
I can only orb short distances and I need a specific location. If I
had just tried to orb the demon remains out of the basement, it could
have ended up anywhere."
"Like Amanda Vespy's desk?" Connor smirked. He didn't know it, but he
looked an awful lot like his father's soulless counterpart, Angelus,
at that moment.
Ron laughed. He glanced at his watch. "It looks like we're not going
to be dealing with her again today. School is almost over."
"What? We missed the whole afternoon!" Pandora let out a weird
squeaking noise and raced to the sewer entrance, disappearing up into
the basement.
"Hey, running now won't make you on time," Ron called. He and Connor
ran after her and finally caught up to her on the stairs.
"I skipped school. I can't believe I skipped school. It's only the
second day. What are they going to do? Kick us out?"
"Nothing that drastic." Ron caught Pandora's arm before she opened the
basement door and stepped out into the hall. "They will probably just
give us detention, but we'll need to get our stories straight. There's
no way we can tell the truth."
"Are they going to call our parents?"
"Oh, yeah, if they haven't already. And about our parents, are we
going to share everything with them about today? Because, personally,
Mom will freak and we'll be moving again."
"My parents won't like it either. Vampire with a soul who fights evil
or not, they'll think it's a trap set by the Source." Pandora looked
apologetically at Connor.
Connor nodded in understanding. He knew all about overprotective
parents. "I think we should keep this to ourselves. So, what were we
doing this afternoon?"
Each of them pondered that question for a few minutes, but before they
could come up with an answer the door opened. "There you are! I've
been looking all over the school for you three." Ms. Foster stood in
the doorway. She frowned severely as she ushered them out into the
hall. "There's only five minutes left of school. What were you doing
in the basement?"
"I'm sorry, Ms. Foster." Pandora bit her lip. "I felt sick and I, uh,
had a seizure when I was outside. I got disoriented and ended up
wandering around the basement. Connor and Ron found me and they were
helping me."
Ms. Foster's face was immediately etched with worry. "Are you alright,
dear? Do you need to go to the hospital? Why didn't one of you boys
come and get a teacher?" She guided the children into their classroom.
"She got upset when one of us started to leave. We thought it would
be better if we stayed and kept her calm," Connor offered.
"I don't need a hospital, Ms. Foster. My Uncle Cole is supposed to
pick me up and I'll tell my Mom about the seizure when I get home.
She'll make an appointment with my specialist." Pandora collected her
things. "Can we go now? I am really sorry about missing classes this
afternoon and for making Connor and Ron miss them too."
"You can go. And we won't worry about missing class this time." Ms.
Foster smiled at Connor and Ron. "Thank you, boys, for helping
Pandora, but next time I want you to get a teacher."
"Yes, Ma'am." Connor and Ron nodded. They gathered their things and
all three of them got out of there as fast as they could.
"I can't believe you got us out of detention and she didn't even say
anything about calling our parents." Ron looked at Pandora with awe.
Being friends with a girl might not be so bad.
"I can't either. I guess we can thank my parents for telling the
school that I had a history of seizures just in case I did have a
vision during class." Pandora smiled wearily. As they spotted their
rides, they waved good-bye to each other and split up.
*****
The house was spotless, even though they had moved in only a week ago.
Lindsey knew it was because his wife was worried. Worried about
Wolfram and Hart and worried about their son. The worry gave her a lot
of restless energy to work off. "Honey, we're home," Lindsey called
out the cliched greeting. He winked at Ron, who grinned back at him.
"Yeah, Mom, we both made it home alive."
"That is not funny, Ron Weasley." Aria MacDonald walked from the
kitchen to the front room. She was a pretty woman with dirty blond
hair and light green eyes. At least that was what the world saw.
Lindsey and her son, Ron, saw her real self. A beautiful woman with
red hair and darker emerald green eyes who was once known as Willow
Rosenberg. With the appearance glamor in place, her own parents
wouldn't have been able to recognize her and that was the way Willow
wanted it. "There's a snack for you in the kitchen."
"Okay. Can I play a game on your laptop?"
"Go for it." Willow smiled indulgently as her son dropped his school
bag on the floor and rushed into the kitchen. She turned back to her
husband and gave him a welcome home kiss. "How did it go today?"
"Fine. I confronted Lilah, told her to leave us alone. Threatened her
life if she didn't." Lindsey sat down on the couch. He ran his hand
through his hair.
"I'm sorry." Willow sat down beside him. She reached over and rubbed
the back of his neck soothingly. She knew how much it was costing him
to drudge up the person he used to be. "Maybe we shouldn't have moved
here."
"No, it was the right decision despite the complications. We have to
face up to our pasts, Willow, so Ron can have a future." Lindsey took
Willow's hand from his neck and held it. "You have to contact Angel.
If I can't protect you and Ron then he can."
Willow was already shaking her head. "No, I can't. I can't put my
friends in danger again because of my stupid mistakes." She pulled her
hand from Lindsey's grasp and stood up. "They probably hate me
anyway after what I did to Dawn and Buffy. Dawn could have died and
Buffy was pulled out of Heaven because of me."
"I can't see how these people who call themselves your friends could
hate you. Explain to them what's going on. You haven't done anything
evil, Willow. Trust me, I know evil." Lindsey stood up and caught
Willow's shoulders. He tilted her chin up and smiled at her. "At the
very least, Angel will help you because it's his job."
"Yeah. I'll explain to Angel how I've been living with the man whose
hand he cut off for the last ten years. That will go a long way
toward convincing him of my non-evil ways." Willow quirked a smile
back at Lindsey. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick peck
to his lips. "Let's not fight about this today, we'll pick it up
tomorrow when you're less stressed."
"Okay." Lindsey let Willow lead him to the kitchen. "How's the new
computer game coming?"
"Great, I had a breakthrough today and it's almost finished." Willow
chattered easily about her work, but she was still worried. Her son
was in danger from his biological father on a daily basis - that was
nothing new - but now the man she called her husband was in danger
from his old life. She wished she could go to Angel, but she couldn't
stand to see the closed off expression on his face as she told her
story. The disappointment. She didn't want Angel to help her because
it was his job. She wanted him to help her because she was his friend,
but that wouldn't happen. Rack had made sure that she had no friends.
At least she had Lindsey and Ron.
To be continued....