Sins of the Father
Chapter Twenty-One

"She's ok then?" Willow asked as Wes came down the stairs.

"Yes. She's sleeping," his eyes swept the lobby and found so sign of Angel, but everyone else was present and correct. "Thank you, Willow. If there's anything I can ever do for you…"

"We won't hesitate to ask," Willow finished with a grin. "Right, Tara?"

"Yes," Tara nodded. "It was nice meeting you, Mr Wyndham-Pryce."

"Wesley, please."

She blushed a little and ducked behind her hair.

"Tara, Cordelia's taking us out shopping, coming?"

The phone rang from the depths of one of the offices and Wes put his hand out to stop Fred.

"Go on, all of you," he said. "I'll get it. Go and have some fun."

They all cast him a look and he saw Cordy and Fred's eyes tick to the highest level, where Angel's room was. But he kept his accommodating smile in place until they nodded and left in a flurry of chatter.

He jogged into the office and snatched up the phone.

"Angel Investigations, how can I help you?" he said automatically.

"Pryce, that you?"

"Leonard Manning," Wes said, sinking into a seat. Oh, bloody hell, this is all I need. "What do you want?"

"I…" there was a sniff and Wes finally registered the lack of bravado, the slight quaver in the voice.

"Leonard, what's wrong? What happened?"

"It's Melissa…"

"What?" Wes demanded. "Talk to me!"

"She's been in an accident…"

"Lenny," Wes said slowly. "Is she all right?"

"She's…. No. She's dead."

Wes felt his stomach lurch, his mind come to a juddering halt. Not this. Not now. Not after everything that had happened. How could whatever Higher Power there was allow something like this to happen on top of everything that had already happened?

"That's not funny, Lenny," Wes snapped. "You expect me to tell Lottie her mother's dead now? Do you even know what's been going on the last few days? Lottie was kidnapped by a vampire!"

"Is she ok?" Lenny asked.

"As if you'd care."

"I looked after her for seven years, Pryce! Is she all right?"

"She's as well as can be expected, Lenny."

"I'm sorry. I just… "

"How did it happen?" Wes whispered.

"Car crash," Lenny sounded choked. "She was trying to get back to LA for Charlotte. She died this morning."

"Oh, God," Wes rubbed his forehead, feeling his eyes sting. "Thank you for letting me know. Are you… Are you all right?"

"I guess. I just thought you should know. Tell Charlotte… Tell her I'm sorry?"

"Yes. Of course. I'm sorry, Lenny."

"Yeah. Me too. Bye, Pryce."

Wes dropped the phone back into the cradle and sat in silence. He felt sick. He may not have found Melissa attractive last time he saw her, but at one time, he had thought himself in love with her. And she was the mother of his child. And she was… gone.

There was no chance she was going to sweep back into his life and take Lottie back. There wouldn't even be visits, birthday cards or Christmas presents.

And he didn't know how he was going to tell Lottie.

He stood up slowly, feeling heavy and old and went back out into the now empty lobby and through to the kitchen.

Wes entered the kitchen cautiously, casting his eyes around for any sign of Angel. There was no one in the kitchen except someone bent over searching the fridge and that was definitely not Angel. Wes was grateful. His feelings toward the vampire had become even more conflicted and he really didn't want to have to face up to them just yet.

He entered the kitchen and sat down, leaning against the wall, waiting for the figure to emerge from the fridge.

The figure straightened up and turned to face him, ice cream tub clutched in one hand. Faith shut the door of the fridge and sat down opposite him.

"I didn't hear you come in," she commented, collecting two spoons and opening the tub. She offered him a spoon and he took it silently, scooping out a large spoonful and sucking the ice cream from it thoughtfully. Faith glanced at him briefly. "She still asleep?"

"Yes," he nodded.

"What's up?"

"Melissa's dead," he answered dully.

"Who?"

"Lottie's mother."

"Shit," Faith breathed. "I'm sorry, Wes."

"It isn't your fault. I'm just dreading telling Lottie," he scooped up some more ice cream and propped his head in his hands. "Oh, God, this is the last thing I need."

Faith smiled sympathetically. She reached out to pat his hand, but snapped it back, suddenly reminded of his confession with a jolt.

"I love her!"

"Wes," she ventured. "Probably not the right time or anything, but can I ask you something?"

He looked up at her. She wasn't avoiding him anymore. And suddenly he very much wanted to avoid her.

"Faith, I…" he glanced down at the melting ice cream. "Yes, all right."

"You're, uh, falling for me?" she asked, doubt evident in her voice.

He glanced at her before realising that - oh God, I said I was falling in love with her. It hadn't been some God-awful dream. It had been real and here it was, about to slap him around the face.

He wanted to know where that had come from. He was willing to admit her liked her, was attracted to her, but love? But as he looked at her, he realised he did. He was in love with her.

And he didn't know when or why. He had thought about it, thought he was wrong. He had hoped it was merely a stupid side effect of sleeping with her, or because she had tried to save his little girl.

But, somehow, it wasn't anything to do with that. He was attracted to her and out of nowhere he had fallen in love with her. Her smile, the way she laughed and swung her hips as she walked. He thought he began to warm to her when they spoke in his office, when she said, "Pain. Courage. Less uptight. You're all grown up. I noticed that too." He thought he realised she had really changed then. And then she had actually tried to make him feel better.

"Things'll get better, Wesley… Because this looks familiar… Looks pretty much like rock bottom. No where else to go but up."

He had been surprised by such a conscious attempt to cheer him up and after that, he started to think of her as a friend. Started to worry about her along with Gunn and Connor when they went out to search. Maybe if he hadn't started to care about her, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if he hadn't come across her that night in the alley, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if she had pushed him away when he gently stemmed the blood flow from her nose, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if she hadn't seemed to understand every single thing he felt, this wouldn't have happened.

Maybe if she hadn't kissed him back, this wouldn't have bloody happened.

And he wished he hadn't fallen for her. He hadn't known it was possible to fall in love so quickly, but he had and he wished to God he hadn't. Because he knew it could never work.

He looked at her again and read her expression as mocking. And he remembered the sting of rejection. Scrap that, the almighty kick in the gut kinda pain of rejection. And on top of finding out his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child was dead; he didn't want to add to the misery weighing on his shoulders. So he amended his earlier words with a rueful smile.

"No," he shook his head. "Not that I - I don't like you. I do. But I don't love you. I was just trying to appeal to Angelus's better nature. I forgot he doesn't have one."

"Oh," was all she said.

"Faith, I -"

"Yo, it's cool, ok? In fact, I'm glad, I wouldn't have wanted to break you're heart, that's all," she grinned and it made her cheeks ache.

"Well, I have thought about it and it wasn't like it was going to work, Faith… You and I."

"Why not?" she blurted, shrugging as though it were merely a question when he shot her a quizzical look.

"Because… I have Lottie. And now that Melissa's gone, I'm all she has in the world. And despite what I just said about not loving you, I am attracted to you and I have thought about a relationship with you. But, as much as I'd like this - us - to work out, I can't see you being content to play happy families. Can you?"

"No. No, you're right, Wes. But hey, it was fun while it lasted, right?"

"Yes - "

"And it really lasted. And, hey, at least I didn't torture you this time."

"No. At least you didn't do that."

She nodded, her eyes burning and her smile aching.

"And we're still friends?"

"Of course we are, Faith. I value your friendship."

"Well, that's good then. You, uh, you go and sit with Lottie."

"Where are you going?"

"See Gunn, must be some cases, right?"

"Right."

He watched her go for a moment before dumping his spoon into the ice cream tub and resting his head in his hands. In a matter of days he had lost his daughter, lost a friend, got his daughter back, slept with his one time torturer, fell in love with his one time torturer and now Melissa was dead.

And he still hadn't spoken to Angel and he knew he would have to at some point.

It had all been too much, too soon and for five glorious minutes; Wes allowed himself the luxury of tears.

Wes had had a lot of time to think after his discussion with Faith. Now that Lottie was fine and he didn't have to think about what he would say to Faith, there was only one thing to think about.

Angel.

Wes was seated back in his usual position with his back against the wall, watching Lottie munch her way steadily through a pizza.

"When you've finished that, we'll go home," he told her.

He wanted out. He wanted away from this place because he was all too aware of Angel's presence upstairs. He knew he would have to talk to him, but he didn't know what he'd say because he no longer had any kind of idea how he felt towards him

"But Fred promised she'd read me a story!" Lottie protested. "And she said she'd buy me something while she was out! Can't we stay for a little while longer?"

He was surprised. But Cordelia had reassured him that children were resilient, she promised him Lottie would bounce back, all she needed was some sleep. But Wes put this bright attitude down to the fact that Lottie had no idea that Angel was in a room two floors above and had not ventured out since he had returned.

He frowned at her request, but unable to resist, nodded. She smiled around her pizza and he sank back into his thoughts.

He was finding this new situation hard to comprehend. He knew he would have to face Angel eventually and he was dreading it because he didn't know what he was going to say. He didn't even know if he hated him.

What scared him most was the fact that he was able to find too many similarities in his feelings toward Angelus for taking Lottie and the feelings he had seen in Angel's eyes when he tried to kill him after he took Connor.

"Hey," Fred entered the room with a wide smile. "Oh, pizza! Can I have some?"

"Sure," Lottie handed her a slice and returned to sucking tomato off her fingers.

"Thanks," Fred took a bite and studied Wes with tomato smudged around her mouth. "You ok, Wes?"

"Fine. I'm just thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself," Gunn told him, coming into the room behind Fred. "We're here for Lottie sitting duty. Fred's gonna tell us a story, right, Lottie?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Oh," Wes stood up from his place and hesitated by the door. "I've got something I need to do. I'll be back soon."

He kissed Lottie's forehead and left the room. Fred and Gunn exchanged glances.

"Where's he going?" Fred asked in a low voice.

Gunn cast his eyes up to the ceiling, his eyes following the sound of footsteps thudding above them.

"He's going to see Angel."