Sins of the Father
Chapter Nine

Author's Note: In this fic, Tara didn't die in Buffy s.6. In fact, this fic ties in slightly with my Spike/Anya fics, purely because I love Tara and I didn't want her to die!

There was something coldly calm about him. He packed his clothing with snappish precision and speed. It was the only thing that stopped him going mad and smashing something. So he kept a tight grip on his calm. He had learnt this icy calm in the time since his banishment from Angel Investigations and he had been finding it a hard habit to shake. At this moment, he was grateful for it.

But inside, it was a different matter. Inside, he was seething.

I knew it! God, how could I have thought he - and Cordelia too! - would let nothing happen between them?

Because he left Buffy, he answered himself. I thought if he could leave the woman he loved, he would sacrifice a physical relationship with Cordelia for something less… disastrous.

"Well, you should have known it would progress to something more when he didn't end it," he muttered to himself, grabbing his books and putting them into his case. "That's why he left Buffy, to prevent anything happening. He didn't stop his relationship with Cordy. Of course it would progress. Moron!"

"Morning."

Wesley twisted - with some effort - his dark frown into a tight smile and turned slowly.

"Lottie, do me a favour?" he asked.

"Yep," she nodded. "What?"

"Gather together any thing you want to take with you."

She frowned, raising her eyebrows a little.

"Take where?"

"We're staying at the hotel for a few days," he replied.

"Oh. Like a holiday?"

"Busman's," he muttered to himself as he nodded at her and watched her grin before running to her room to get her things.

Angelus was many things, but he was definitely not stupid. The bastard was back and there was no way he was letting Angel's little friends re-en-soul him. Where would be the fun in that? Unfortunately, preventing himself being re-en-souled also meant focusing on finding out how to destroy the soul forever, instead of focusing on the murder of Angel's friends.

But Angelus knew a thing or two about torture. He knew that knowing something bad was coming and having to wait for it was a torture in itself. Which was the only reason he was willing to wait for just the right time to exact fun and frolics - for him, if not them - on the Angel Investigations team.

He strolled to the bar and leaned his back against it, eyeing the clientele with folded arms and a smirk. It was mostly full of vampires waiting for sunset. A couple of decent looking girl vamps, but they were all young, too inexperienced. If only Darla hadn't staked herself, he thought. Could've had her right here. She did like public places.

There was no sadness in his thoughts. There was only a slight pang when he thought of Darla, but it was the loss of nights spent gorging and making wild love in pools of blood that disappointed Angelus the most.

He turned to the barkeep and the demon recoiled slightly. Yeah, he knew about Angel, but he also knew that the vampire before him was not the famous vampire with a soul, this was the legendary Scourge of Europe: Angelus.

"W-what can I do for you?" he stuttered.

"You could tell me where you think I could find someone to help me out with a little problem I've got," Angelus said, leaning forward and allowing his eyes to rest on the demon's neck as his fingers clawed slowly at the bar top.

"What problem could you have?" the demon squeaked, stumbling back into the wall.

"Pesky soul," Angelus shrugged. "I want to make sure I don't get it back. Tastes kinda bitter."

"Well, I don't kn-know what I could do about that…" the demon stuttered.

"You hear stuff," Angelus said, his tone conversational. "And I think you'd tell me anything you know, seeing as I'll kill you if you don't."

The demon seemed to pale and pressed harder against the wall, straining to get away. He knew it was futile, Angelus would kill him before he took a step. Best to help where he could.

"Wolfram and Hart," he squeaked. "I hear they have an interest in you. I-I bet you could get a prevention spell or s-something off them."

"Really?" Angelus mused, then grinned. "Thanks."

His arm lashed forward and grabbed the demon by the throat. Gripping the demon's lower neck in one hand and it's upper neck in the other, Angelus smiled in a mock-friendly way and said, gave a sharp twist and yank before letting the head drop to the floor. He pushed the headless body back and turned towards the tunnels.

"You were a big help."

Wesley wasn't looking forward to entering the hotel. He had a sneaking suspicion that - because he was the book guy - everyone would expect him to know how to save Angel. The truth was, he didn't. He knew the last time Angel lost his soul, Willow had returned it. But Willow was a witch; Wesley didn't have that kind of power. Nor would he know where to start if he did. But he had a general idea about what they should do.

"Wesley!" Cordy cried, as he entered the hotel. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank God you're here."

He didn't reply, merely dropped his bag and pulled her gently away.

"Why have you brought a bag, Wes?" an extremely pale Fred asked quietly, indicating the bag by his feet.

"Safety in numbers," he replied. "And I thought I might need to do a lot of research and it was best that Lottie and I stayed here, if that's all right?"

"Sure," Gunn shrugged. "It's not like the guy who owns this place can say no, as he's too busy going around killing people."

"Charles," Fred said and Wes was sure she meant her tone to be mildly scolding, instead it was frightened and Gunn sat down beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"What are we going to do?" Lorne asked.

Wes glanced down at his daughter who was nibbling her lip nervously, seeming to sense the general terror.

"First things first," Wes said, giving himself a mental I told you so when he realised they expected him to have all the answers. "It's daylight. Angelus won't be able to do much now, this is our time. I suggested to Cordelia that we put a sanctuary spell on the hotel, like there was at Caritas."

"Yeah," Cordy nodded. "I forgot to tell you, Lorne."

Wes sighed and came down the stairs into the lobby, closely followed by Lottie.

"Cordelia, now is not the time to be forgetting anything," he almost snapped.

"I'm sorry, Wesley," she answered, an edge to her voice. "I was too preoccupied with the fact that Angel was gone, Angelus was back and it's all my fault!"

"Who's Angelus?" asked a small voice.

All eyes turned to Lottie and Wes gulped slightly.

"Fred, could you look after Lottie for me?" he asked, she nodded numbly and came over to the girl, leaning down to take her hand. Wes caught Fred's upper arm in a gentle grip as she made to pass. "If she asks again, don't tell her. I think she grew fond of Angel. If she asks, tell her I'll talk to her later and not to worry."

Fred nodded again and led Lottie upstairs to one of the empty rooms.

"I'm sorry, Cordy," Wes said after a pause, his voice softening. "I didn't mean to snap, but right now we have to stop Angelus and if possible get Angel back, we let our emotions interfere as little as possible."

"If possible?" questioned Connor, sitting up from his usual slouch. "What does that mean? We kill him?"

"No!" Cordy cried, her hand covering her mouth. "Don't say that, Connor! We're not going to kill him!" her gaze turned to Wesley. "And if you even suggest it I'll kick your ass!"

"If possible?" Connor pressed, ignoring Cordelia's outburst.

"We should try to get Angelus, as crazy as that sounds," Wes explained slowly, working it through in his head even as he spoke. "That way we can prevent him killing anyone else. Then, we can contact Willow and hopefully -"

"Willow?" Connor asked.

"A witch from Sunnydale, she returned Angel's soul last time he lost it."

"Last time," Connor muttered in disgust with a snort.

Ignoring him, Wesley continued, "In the mean time, we place a sanctuary spell on this place and I think a cage would be in order."

"Cage?" Gunn asked. "I don't think now's the time to be living out your kinky fantasies, English."

Wes allowed himself a slight smile.

"As kinky as my fantasies may be, Gunn," he answered good-naturedly. "None involve cages. The cage would be for holding Angelus until we can get hold of Willow. The 'if possible' only applies if someone is in danger or re-en-souling him doesn't work. That's when we'll have no other choice. Until then, Lorne, if you could see about the sanctuary spell while the rest of us start work on the cage. Cordy, if you could call Sunnydale…"

"Sure," Cordy answered and left for the office.

"I'll get right on it," Lorne said, sweeping toward the doors. "The homestead will be safe and sound anytime now."

"Until Angel kills us all," Connor said in a low voice.

Cordy froze on her way to office, but didn't turn, unlike Lorne and Gunn who stared at the boy.

"This isn't Angel," Wes told him firmly. "This is Angelus, Angel's demon, yes, but Angelus is not your father. However, if there is something you'd like to say, please, feel free."

"We shouldn't be wasting our time with cages and spells and witches," Connor yelled, leaping up and approaching Wesley. "I thought you were supposed to be smart! We should kill him now so he can't kill anymore people! So he can't kill us!"

"If you don't mind," Wesley hissed, pointing at Connor and glowering. "My daughter is upstairs and I don't like the idea that she might think we could die. You're right, Connor, as friends of Angel's, Angelus will probably try to kill us. But he won't get the chance, because the sanctuary spell prevents violence, teams of us will be scouring the city for him and there will always be someone on watch here in case he returns. In other words, we'll be ready for him. Now, Lorne, please arrange the sanctuary spell and Cordy, if you could call Willow."

Connor almost growled as he spun on his heel and marched up the stairs to his room. Cordy watched him go with a furrowed brow before entering the office. Lorne disappeared out onto the streets and Gunn gave Wesley an appraising look.

"Gotta hand it to ya, Wes," he said. "You sure put that boy down."

"Funny," Wes replied. "I was under the impression I rather pissed him off."

Gunn chortled and raised his hand. Instinctively, Wes found himself going along with their old handshake.

"I'll go see what I can do about steel bars for a cage," Gunn said. "You coming?"

"No, if you don't mind, I'd better check Lottie's all right."

Gunn nodded and pulled his keys out of his pocket.

"Tell Fred I'll be back soon."

Wes nodded and mounted the stairs as Gunn left. He heard Fred's babbling chatter as he approached Fred's room and paused outside the door to listen to the interaction.

"… You could share with me," Fred was saying. "Cordy too, if you like, like a slumber party. We can have popcorn and movies and chocolate, it'll be fun. And then we can -"

"Fred," Lottie interrupted. "Are we gonna die?"

"W-what?"

"I heard what Connor said… And Dad looks scared… Is it bad?"

Fred stared at her, her mouth working but no words coming out. Her gaze ticked to the door where she saw Wesley and was visibly relieved.

"Fred," Wes said calmly, entering the room. "Gunn has gone for the steel bars. Maybe you could help Cordy…?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. Of course," she said and scuttled from the room.

Wes approached his daughter, who was sitting on the edge of Fred's bed. He dropped to his haunches before her and smiled a little.

"You're not going to die, Lottie," he told her.

"Are you?" she asked.

"Nope," he shook his head. "No one's going to die, it's all going to be fine. I promise."

"But I heard Connor say -"

"Connor is wrong," Wes said firmly. "He's just agitated, that's all. It's because Angel -" he caught himself and looked down at his hands. "The problem - what we're all worked up over - is that Angel has changed. That's all I'm going to say. We're worried about him, that's all. That's all you need to know. You and I are staying here until Angel returns and you're going to school tomorrow. See? Everything's fine. Ok?"

"You promise?"

"I promise," he gave her knee a reassuring squeeze. "And if you hear Connor saying anything more about dying, just remember he's a teenager. That's just how they are, all right?"

She smiled a little and nodded.

"Everything will be ok," she said.

"Exactly. Now, why don't you -"

"Wesley!" Cordelia burst into the room, looking desperate. "We got a problem."

Fred hovered behind Cordy as Wes stood swiftly.

"I'll stay with her," Fred said, moving toward Lottie as Wes pushed Cordy out of the room and into the corridor.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a low voice, feeling panic rise within him. Something had to be wrong with Willow, that's why Cordy was so upset. But what on earth -

"Willow's in England," Cordy burst out.

Ok, he figured something was wrong, but not that Willow was holidaying in England.

"What on earth is she doing there?" he asked.

"Well, according to Dawn, she went a bit nuts with the magick before the summer. She tried to go cold turkey, but then Giles and her girlfriend -"

"Girlfriend?" Wes interrupted. "What happened to Oz?"

"Wes, not the issue here. Anyway, Giles and Tara - that's Willow's girlfriend - thought that Willow's addiction-"

"Addiction?" Wes repeated in disbelief.

"Wesley! Listen! Willow's addiction involved all this freaky dark magick so she couldn't close off from it forever. Giles and Tara figured cold turkey wasn't a good idea. That's why she's in England, to learn to control the magicks. Her girlfriend is training with her and apparently it's really intense."

"Good God," Wes murmured. "And Dawn told you all this in only five minutes?"

"She talked really fast, she was about to go out with Buffy or something. But that's not the issue, there's bigger things to think about other than the fact Dawn and Buffy are bonding."

"I know," Wes sighed and leaned against the wall beside her. "Now we don't have anyone to restore Angel's soul."