Sins of the Father
Chapter Fourteen

Author's Note: I would like to point out that I got the judge idea from the Buffy/Angel crossover graphic novel (which also includes Pike from the original movie!) called Note From The Underground. I have changed the name of the judge and her personality, but I owe the general idea to the graphic novel.

Kate Lockley had only been back in LA a month and she was still unpacking. After her failed suicide attempt, she had left LA, wanting to settle elsewhere. But she found she was never comfortable elsewhere. She had lived her whole life in LA. It took her a while to realise that her whole life had been the force. When she finally got that, she returned and was in the process of setting up her own private investigations company. A company that would only deal in the very un-supernatural. In fact, the plain old ordinary.

Not that she had forgotten what the night hid from most people's eyes, but she did not seek it out, she was not capable of fighting it and she'd rather leave that kind of thing to Angel. She carried a stake, intending to try and help should anything out of the ordinary appear, but she wouldn't listen out for the weird and wonderful.

But it looked like fate had intervened and led the weird and wonderful to her door.

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce entered her apartment in an agitated state and she could barely see any resemblance to this man - tired looking and looking like he hadn't had a shave that morning - to the man she had met in passing almost two years ago.

"Y'know," Kate said, frowning at him. "I'm not Detective Lockley anymore."

"I know," Wes nodded curtly and looked at her. "Ang -" he caught himself and clenched his fists tightly as he changed what he had been about to say. "I heard. But I hope you still have contacts?"

"Yeah, I've been re-building old bridges since I got back to LA," her frown deepened as he started to pace. "Why?"

Wes stopped in his pacing and sighed, fixing her with a stare as he wondered where to begin.

"Detective Lockley -"

"Kate," she interrupted.

"Kate. You understand about the demons and vampires, don't you?"

"Yeah," she nodded, then raised her eyebrows. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Are you aware of Angel's curse, the one regarding his soul?" Wes asked, praying to God that she knew because he didn't have time to explain it to her and he couldn't afford to be rude if he wanted her on his side.

"I read up on it. Why -" her breath hitched and she stepped back to lean against the wall. "Oh God, he's Angelus again, isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so," Wes answered grimly, though it was almost a growl. "We were planning on capturing him and locking him up until an acquaintance of mine - a witch - can come and restore his soul," he took a deep breath and straightened up before adding. "But then my daughter got caught up in this."

"Daughter? I didn't know you had a daughter."

"I'm rather new to the idea myself. I only found out about her a few weeks ago when her mother gave her to me to look after so she could go to Florida."

"What do you mean, your daughter got caught up in all this?" Kate had an idea what he had meant, but she wanted to hear it before she believed it.

"Last night, Angelus took her."

"Oh, my God," she sank against the wall a little more and tried to take it in as Wesley went on, his voice speeding up.

"I've had a protection spell put on her, but Angelus has other ways of torturing people, as I'm sure you've read. None of us are strong enough to take Angelus."

"But you said you were going to capture him," she pointed out.

"We intended to tranquillise him, a lot easier than firing a bolt at him from a crossbow. He'd see that coming."

"You mean you -"

"Want the bastard dead? Yes," he replied fiercely, though there was a sting in the tail of this admission. He's not Angel anymore, he reminded himself. And he's not your friend. Wes stopped pacing again and faced her. "I believe you can help me."

"How? I mean, if none of you guys can take him…?"

"I want you to help get Faith out of jail," he told her bluntly.

"What?" she cried. "You want me to get a murderer released to kill another murderer?"

"Why not?" he asked with a shrug.

"Because Faith is a killer. She's not safe to be put back on the streets!"

"You have no comprehension of what a Slayer is," he stated in a low, firm voice as he took two more steps toward her. "Faith could break out of that jail whenever she wanted, the only thing stopping her is herself. She has repented."

"Didn't she torture you? Why are you Team Faith all of a sudden?"

"It's not sudden. I've called up to enquire after her a couple of times. It's partly my fault that she's the way she is now. And I believe she's trying to find redemption. I have long ago forgiven her for what she did to me and right now, I couldn't give a rat's arse what she's done, I want my daughter back!"

"I understand that. But there's no way I can let a murderer -"

He had been holding in his feelings since he came to back at the hotel. But when he saw how determined Kate Lockley was about not helping get Faith out of jail, his only hope began to fade and his emotions stumbled out into the open in a torrent of babbling words.

"You don't have children," he told her, his previously chill manner collapsing into desperation. "Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was certain I didn't have any either. Do you know how much my life has changed in those couple of weeks? And all because of one tiny little girl. I went through a dark time this summer, I was screwing Lilah Morgan and I had a girl chained in my closet. I'd forgotten what it was like to feel. But then this little girl came into my life and I loved her immediately. I can tell you she has three dimples and a missing front tooth. And you know the worst thing? I didn't once tell her I loved her. I barely ever hugged her! I always swore I would never be like my father, I promised myself that if I had children, I would show them affection whenever I could. Yet, I've hardly ever hugged her or kissed her or tickled her! I was just getting to know her, Kate, and now I could lose her. So, yes, I know what Faith has done; I know the worst things she did because she did most of them to me. But right now, I don't care because she is my only hope of saving my little girl. And I promise you, Detective Lockley, if you don't help me, I will break her out of jail myself!"

Kate gulped and reached out her hand to touch the shoulder of the man shaking before her. He pressed his fists against his forehead and she squeezed his shoulder reassuringly before saying in a low voice:

"I hear Faith's been a good girl, not started any fights, only fighting to defend herself. She's rarely been officially reprimanded; she's responded well to counselling… She's probably a good candidate for parole, so long as she's got somewhere to go."

Wes removed his fists from his head and stared at her.

"She, er, she can stay at the hotel," he told her.

Kate nodded.

"Dad had a friend, a judge. She's a pretty tough woman, been in this business a long time. She knows stuff about every influential person on the force, not to mention a couple of minor politicians. She's a good person, but not exactly above blackmail. She owed my dad a favour that he never cashed in. I guess she owes me now. I'll call her, see what she can do."

"How long will it take?" he asked urgently as he followed her to the phone.

"Usually? A while. This time? Tomorrow, but you never know," Kate glanced at her watch before dialling the number. "It's early, you could be seeing Faith sometime this evening. Which, so I hear, is prime vampire time - Oh, hello, could I speak to Judge Margaret Holmes? It's Kate Lockley, Trevor Lockley's daughter. It's urgent… Thank you…"

"Thank you," Wes told her sincerely before she started talking to Judge Margaret Holmes.

Wes had returned to the hotel after seeing Kate and he was making sure there was always at least one telephone free for when the Judge Margaret Holmes called. She had promised Faith would be out tomorrow, Kate had told him when she called two hours after his visit, but she would try to rush it through so Faith would be released tonight.

He hadn't told anyone about Faith. He most certainly didn't tell Cordelia. The others had heard of Faith, Cordelia had known her, in fact, she had been rather intimately acquainted with Faith's elbow. Which was part of the reason Cordelia harboured a grudge against the Slayer. Another reason was that thanks to Faith's surrogate father - or "Sugar Daddy" as Cordelia would most likely put it - Cordelia had lost friends at Graduation. He guessed she still bore a grudge against Faith for being even remotely connected to yet another Sunnydale High fiasco masquerading as a perfect high school moment.

Gunn and Connor had found nothing, despite being out for several hours and beating up a fair few demons and the occasional human for information. It would seem that every demon - and human, for that matter - who had any idea about the truth behind LA, were more scared of Angelus than they were of the Angel Investigations team.

The phone rang and he jumped, his hand darting out to answer it.

"Mr Wyndham-Pryce?" asked an imperious woman's voice.

"Yes. Judge Margaret Holmes, I presume?"

"Indeed. I'm calling to tell you that the girl will be released within an hour. I had to pull a few strings, but there you have it."

"Thank you, I don't know how I can ever repay you -"

"Luckily for you, you don't have to. I have fulfilled a debt to the Lockleys'. Good luck, Mr Wyndham-Pryce."

"Thank you."

He put the phone down and sat for a moment, basking in the relief that he had a Slayer on his side now.

He stood up, grabbed his car keys and left the hotel without so much as a word to the curious faces that watched him go.