Part 2

Two weeks after the visit from Travers, Wesley stood by the counter with Cordelia and Fred. The three of them were entertaining Connor, who was currently silently staring up at them, pouting. This made the two girls laugh.

"Isn't that just the cutest thing you have ever seen? He's brooding!" Cordy exclaimed "Just like your daddy! Yes you are!" Cordy continued in her 'baby talk' voice.

Wesley laughed at that. "No, he's just a little attention seeker." He responded. "Aren't you! You're a little ladies man! Aren't you! Yes you are!" He said in his 'baby talk' voice.

Fred erupted into hysterics at the thought of a baby trying to 'score with the ladies'. As soon as Connor saw her laughing, he burst into his own fit of giggles, with Cordy and Wesley soon joining them.

All of a sudden, Cordy stopped laughing and started screaming, as a painful vision ripped through her. Her knees buckled and she began to fall, only to be caught by Wesley and Fred. They gently set her down on the ground as she continued to thrash and yell under the power of the forceful vision.

"Go get Angel and Gunn." Wesley said to Fred.

Fred nodded and ran off. Wesley hurriedly grabbed a pad and paper and began speaking to Cordy. "Talk to me Cordelia, what do you see?"

"Demons… three demons… they're attacking… a  woman." She managed to say.

Angel and Gunn came thundering into the lobby with Fred close behind. Angel rushed to Cordy's side just as the vision stopped. She continued to speak, this time with more ease. "They're large and green with a big skewer coming out of their hands."

"Sounds like a Polgara demon." Wesley commented.

"Did you see where they were?" Angel asked.

"Yeah." Cordy replied. "An alley off Cohen Street."

"Cohen Street? That's huge! It goes through half of the East side." Gunn cried.

"I'll come with you. I'll know the exact place when I see it." Cordy suggested.

"No way! You need to rest Cordelia!" Angel exclaimed.

"But it's the only way. Otherwise you won't get there in time to save that woman." Cordy reasoned.

"She's right." Wesley backed her up. He then began to give out the orders. "The four of us will go. Fred you stay here and look after Connor."

Everyone nodded, knowing what they had to do.

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After having killed the Polgara demons, Wesley, Angel and Gunn trudged back to the car, where Cordy was waiting for them, after directing them to the location of the demons. They all sported cuts and bruises from the fight, not to mention a generous amount of demon blood splattered across the front of them.

Suddenly, a shriek pierced the through the night. Knowing that it was Cordelia, the three men sprinted back to the car, where Cordy was now writhing about in the throes of another vision.

"AAAHHHH!!" She screamed brutally.

"CORDELIA!!" Angel cried, desperately trying to reach her.

"NO!" She sobbed.

"Cordy, talk to me!!" Angel tried again.

Cordy ceased her screaming as the vision finished. Breathing deeply, she addressed the others. "It's Fred. We have to get back to the hotel." She attempted to stand up, not really succeeding.

Angel stopped her. "Woah, woah. Take it easy Cordy, just catch your breath for a second and-"

"WE HAVE TO GO NOW!!!" She interrupted violently, her voice cracking under the stress. As the tears welled up in her eyes, she choked out "Before it's too late."

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Fred stood in the upstairs hallway of the Hyperion, walking back and forth, and cooing at Connor, in an attempt to make the extremely awake baby, somewhat sleepy. Unfortunately for Fred, it wasn't working.

"Connor, it's getting far too late for you to be awake. Now it's time for good little boys to get their rest." She spoke softly to him.

Connor's response was to give Fred an enormous smile, as if to say 'there is nooo way you're going to get me to sleep.' Fred stopped walking and thought for a moment. Suddenly she smiled and started to walk again.

"Hey Connor." Fred began. "Did you know that theoretically, time travel is possible? Yeah that's right. If a person was to travel into space at a fast enough speed and then come back, continuing this fast speed, then they would have travelled into the future and have barely aged. Of course, this is theoretical because you would have to be travelling at a speed faster than light, and men just can't do that yet. But it's still fascinating none the less, don't you think?"

Fred smiled almost smugly when she saw little Connor's eyelids droop. "I think you're a little young for theoretical physics." She whispered, grinning.

Suddenly she heard the sound of breaking glass downstairs. She listened further, sub-consciously cradling Connor a little tighter. The sound of footsteps hurrying about downstairs floated up to Fred, scaring her. Connor whimpered softly, this noised snapped Fred back into reality. Now wasn't the time to freeze from fear.

She hurried into Connor's room and locked the door behind her. Gently, but quickly, placed him in his enchanted crib. Fred attempted to comfort an increasingly agitated Connor, all the while trying to keep herself calm. Then as she heard the men start to come up the stairs, she tried to push some furniture in front of the door.

She could hear the men on the other side of the door now. All the tension was too much for Connor, and he began to wail loudly. Fred froze, closing her eyes, not knowing what to do.

BAM!! The men began to attack the barricaded door. This made Connor cry harder, and all the commotion snapped Fred into action. She started to search frantically for weapons.

BAM!!

Come on! What can I use?

BAM!!

Weapons, weapons… Where are they?!

BAM!!

…Oh that's right! They're downstairs – a place I can't get to…

BAM!!

This is just perfect!

BAM!!

It doesn't matter, Connor's safe… That's all that is important…

CRASH!!!!

The door burst open, sending furniture shrapnel everywhere. Fred simply stood there, totally defenceless. She knew there was nothing she could do at this point, but face them head on. She had nowhere to run or hide, so even though she was terrified on the inside, she would not show it to the men covered in black from head to toe, who were currently flooding the room.

As some of them moved past her to Connor, Fred saw a gap open up in the entrance. But as she began to frantically move towards it, she saw a huge arm, holding a crossbow, swing toward her head. After the butt of the crossbow connected with her head, Fred's vision wavered. Her last coherent thought was I hope the spell holds. The woozy feeling Fred had would not pass and she became disoriented. She dropped to her knees and then collapsed, totally unconscious.

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Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia pulled into the Hyperion quickly and got out of the car. They could see from the outside, that someone had broken into the hotel, and the apprehension they had all been feeling on their speedy way back was now realised. They burst into the Hyperion, with Wesley in the lead.

"FRED!! FRED!!" Wesley called out desperately. The only reply was Connor wailing pitifully.

Angel pushed past the others and went upstairs to tend to his traumatised son. Cordy collapsed to her knees, the two visions and all the running around had drained all her strength. "No… No!… Too late… too… I was… no… was too late…" She sobbed. Gunn knelt down next to her, hugging her reassuringly.

Wesley searched all of the lobby, office and downstairs area for Fred. Maybe she's just passed out… she's not dead… she's not dead… she's not dead… He kept mentally repeating to himself. He couldn't seem to find her anywhere. As he kept searching his breathing became heavier and more laboured, until he had to stop and catch his breath. "She's not dead." He said aloud "She can't be dead."

Just as Wesley came up from the basement, Angel came down from upstairs, holding Connor. "She's not upstairs. The only thing I found was some of her blood on the floor near Connor's crib." Angel stated, referring to Fred.

"She's nowhere down here either." Wesley commented pensively.

"They've taken her." Cordy said wearily. Her words hung in the air heavily. Nobody knew what to say to that. Cordy wasn't asking a question, she was making a statement, they all knew that.

Finally Gunn broke the silence, "Is the little guy ok?" He asked motioning to Connor.

"Yeah." Angel answered. "He's a little shaken up, but he's not hurt."

"Good… good." Gunn whispered.

As they were talking, Wesley surveyed the wreckage in the lobby idly. He didn't care about the damage, he cared about Fred. They still weren't sure what had happened, what her condition was, or who had taken her. He looked over at the counter, it was more or less the same as before, except now there was a piece of paper sitting on it. Wesley walked over to the counter and saw that it was a note… addressed to him. It read:

To Wesley Wyndham-Pryce,

We have taken your girlfriend. We do not intend on hurting her, simply meet us at pier 32, next Saturday at 3:00 PM. Come alone and bring the baby. It is there that we shall give you Miss Burkle, unharmed, in exchange for the child. Keep in mind that whilst we have no desire to hurt Miss Burkle now, the circumstances may change if you fail to comply with our wishes.

Her fate is now in your hands.

Quentin Travers.

Tears started to seep out of Wesley's eyes after reading the note. He closed his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears, but it didn't matter. Now he was really angry.

Now he was really scared.

He opened his eyes and moved, wordlessly, back over to the others. Angel noticed his odd behaviour and questioned him. "What? What is it?"

Wesley handed Angel the note. Angel took it and read it aloud to the others.

"Oh my God!" Cordy whispered, shocked.

"Why do they think she's you girlfriend?" Gunn wondered.

"I… I don't know." Wesley replied, finding his voice.

"It's not important." Angel cut in. "What's important is that we figure out what we're going to do. We can't give them Connor, but we can't abandon Fred."

At that point, everyone looked at Wesley. "This isn't some idiotic demon, or Vampire gang. We are up against the Watcher's Council. We are definitely in over our head."

"So what do we do?" Cordy asked

"We get help." Wesley responded. "From someone who knows what we're dealing with."

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