THREE STRIKES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 11-FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS AND DANGER AHEAD
The drive to the offices of Wolfram and Hart was one done in almost complete silence, with the only sounds being that of the truck and a nervous cough from Wesley. Gunn had thought about asking Wesley all kinds of questions about the various spells that the former watcher had brought with him but decided against it and kept his gaze lock on the road in front of him. For his part Wesley tried his best to remember the layout of the Wolfram and Hart office building. He began to postulate what the quickest and safest escape route out of the building would be while carrying most likely an unconscious Lindsey.
"Hey English….you nervous," Gunn asked with a calm frown on his face as he waited for the traffic light in front of him to change to green.
"A little…whatever happens tonight I just want all of us to make it out of there alive and get back to the Hyperion…," Wesley replied with a nervous smile before he shifted the position of the battle axe on his lap.
"She'll be fine Wes…she's a fighter, and if worst comes to worst then I'll be here to help you put the crib together…," Gunn said with a slight snicker as he reached over and shook Wesley by the shoulder.
"The crib…what," Wesley asked with a perplexed frown on his face as he looked over at Gunn and leaned forward in his seat.
"If worst comes to worst…and Faith is pregnant, then you'll need help putting the crib together later on, those things can be murder," Gunn answered with a confident smirk on his face before he noticed that the light had changed and sped forward.
"How would you know about that…," Wesley inquired with a nervous look on his face as he shifted the location of the magic bags' strap on his shoulder.
"One of the guys that I used to run with got married and had a kid, I helped him put the crib together, it took us forever," Gunn started to reply before the look of shock on Wesley's face caused him to chuckle.
"Well we're not to that point quite yet, but I'll remember that you offered…but just remember, you may very well come to regret it…," Wesley replied with a nervous look on his face before he and Gunn broke out into a short laugh.
* * * * * *
Angel had taken the most direct route that he could remember through the sewers on his way to the offices of Wolfram and Hart. Had Connor not been his son he would have been left far behind and out of luck. Angel had been forced to stop several times because he had been going so fast that he didn't keep a good enough grip on his sword and he had to retrieve it after dropping it. The two were only about to get through a short conversation on the way as neither father nor son really needed any clarification on what they would have to do in the coming rescue attempt. Angel stopped to let Connor catch his breath at the nearest manhole to the Wolfram and Hart tower.
"Now all we have to do is wait for the sun to finish setting and we're in business," Angel said with a bored frown on his face as he leaned up against the wall and Connor matched his stance against the far wall.
"Why are we rescuing this guy again…he doesn't seem to have been a friend of yours…," Connor asked with a slightly bewildered expression on his face leaned forward slightly.
"Because it's what a champion does…rescue those that need rescuing…even if I don't like them very much," Angel replied with an unconvinced look on his face, appearing to be simply reciting the words from memory instead of actually believing in them.
"Fine…then say we do rescue him, what then, the hotel won't be safe for him or us," Connor asked with a concerned look on his face as he took a step forward and stared up through the only hole in the manhole cover.
"You're right, it'll be the first place that they look…," Angel mumbled in reply as he began to pace back and forth slowly, pondering different possible locations as he went. Father and son spent the rest of the time before sunset in silence, both trying to come up with a place to put Lindsey that would be safe from the prying eyes and ears of Wolfram and Hart. Connor was the first to speak after the sun slipped beneath the horizon.
"Okay the suns down, let's go," Connor said with a very serious frown on his face as he nodded his head before climbing the ladder and pushing the manhole cover off. He was relieved to find the street bare.
"Connor wait…we can't go in until we meet up with Wesley and Gunn…oh," Angel said loudly before he popped his head above ground and saw the former watcher and Gunn walking towards them, weapons and bag of spell components in hand.
"Is everything ready," Wesley asked with a concerned look on his face as Gunn helped Angel put the manhole cover back in its place.
"We're as ready as we can be…," Angel answered softly before he stood up and dusted his hands off.
"Then what are we standing around here for…all we have to do is break into a building that's got more security than Fort Knox, rescue a guy that they're keen on keeping locked up, and make it out alive…all in the space of a few hours…," Gunn added with a sarcastic frown on his face as he tested the weight of his axe.
"It'll work out…I think…," Angel started to say with his usual stone serious look on his face before he gripped his sword tightly and started off towards the Wolfram and Hart plaza, with the others close behind.
* * * * * *
He awoke to find himself alone in the room, the machine that had been taking care of him for weeks had appeared to have stopped working. And to his amazement he seemed to be lying on the floor up against one of the room's walls. Not knowing what exactly was going on but guessing that whatever it was couldn't possible be good he struggled to his feet, thankful that they didn't simply give way the moment that he put any weight on them. Using the wall for support he staggered towards the place that he had weeks earlier guessed that the door would be. With a nervous sigh of relief he could barely make out the shape of the door only a few feet away. His level of trepidation rising as he went Lindsey slowly stumbled to the door and pushed it open. His heart was nearly in his throat as the door slowly swung open and he took in the first images in the past few weeks that hadn't either been the confines of the room or the naked attendants charged with his care.
As he slowly walked down the hallway he began to realize that he knew where he was. He remembered this floor because he had toured it once with Lilah back in the old days when the two still got along. He knew that it was most likely a trap but he didn't care, Lindsey saw possibly his only chance for freedom happening right in front of him and he was going to try to take full advantage of it. In the back of his mind he hoped that he wouldn't be forced to go it alone, that Elaine had convinced Angel enough so that his onetime enemy would be trying to rescue him. His legs started to give out just as he neared the first stairwell that he came to. With what little strength remain him he ducked into the stairwell as a security detail rushed past.
* * * * * *
"Would you please stop fidgeting Faith, it's driving me crazy…," Cordelia moaned with an annoyed frown on her face as she sat beside Faith in an examination room, waiting for the doctor to come back with the test results.
"Sorry if I'm disturbing you Cor…but you're not the one that just got poked and prodded like a piece of meat," Faith sniped back angrily as she glared down at Cordelia from her seat on the bed.
"Hey little miss rogue slayer, I've been through all of this before…," Cordelia shot back with a defiant glint in her eye as she crossed her arms and glared up at Faith. Faith looked serious for a moment before failing to stifle a laugh. "What…what's so funny…," Cordelia demanded angrily.
"You…pregnant, that's a laugh a minute," Faith exclaimed with a joking smile on her face as she shied away from Cordelia's glare.
"If only…no shortly after Doyle died and Wesley joined Angel and I at Angel Investigations I slept with this guy that was working with this demon…spreading his seed, I got bigger than a house…," Cordelia started to say at first with a flippant look on her face before her countenance became more serious as she went on.
"Whoa…so what happened…," Faith asked softly after initially preparing one of her best sarcastic comments.
"What do you think…Angel and Wesley figured it all out and saved the day…," Cordelia replied with a grateful smile on her face as she got a distant look in her eye.
"Yeah leave it to those two to save the day right at the last split second before the world ends…or you give birth to demon-spawn," Faith said with a certain frown on her face before a smile crept up onto her face.
"You're right, now just remember when we get back you're not going to go after Angel and Wesley and the others, they can handle themselves," Cordelia said with an authoritative and commanding look on her face as a doctor came back into the room.
"Well Ms. Wyndam-Pryce I have your test results…so Ms. Chase if you'll please step outside for a moment…," The doctor said with a calm expression on his face as Cordelia politely started to stand up before Faith motioned weakly for her to stay. "Oh…I didn't know that the two of you were…sorry…," The doctor added with a nervous frown on his face before he closed the door behind him. A look of confusion passed across Cordelia's face before her eyes grew wide at the realization of what the doctor was implying.
"Oh no…we're not…she's my boyfriend's little sister…he doesn't even know she's here and…," Cordelia stammered out nervously as she sat back down and Faith loudly cleared her throat.
"So what the news…am I going to die…," Faith asked nervously, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer, as she clenched her hands into fists at her side.
"No…you're not going to die…on the contrary I should say that congratulations are in order…," The doctor answered with a short laugh before he smiled as he finished his response.
"Congratulations…what…," Faith asked softly, her fears growing exponentially by the second, as Cordelia furrowed her brows and swallowed hard.
"You're pregnant…," The doctor replied with a slowly growing look of concern on his face before Faith had to grab the sides of the bed to keep her from fainting in shock.
* * * * * *
Angel and Connor had stuck to the shadows and darkened hallways of the building while Gunn and Wesley took the more direct approach. The unlikely pair used the cover of a full lobby to sneak onto an elevator that sped them halfway up the building. Wesley did his best to try and camouflage his spell filled bag to look like a courier's bag while he followed Gunn's example and kept his weapon hidden behind his back, much like a little child would.
"Are you sure about this Wesley, what if they've already spotted us, we could be walking into a trap," Gunn asked, his fingers nervously flexing and un-flexing around the pommel of his axe.
"Not exactly…but in this business when can anyone ever be sure about anything…," Wesley answered cryptically as he stared nervously at the floor counter above the elevator's doors.
"I don't know…you and Faith look like a pretty sure thing…," Gunn added with the edges of his mouth curling up into the beginnings of a sly smile.
"We do at that…," Wesley mumbled softly back with an equally sly smile on his face before the two went stone silent as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slowly slid open.
Wesley stepped out first, nervously slipping his axe down from behind his back to a better defensive position at his side. Gunn followed closely behind, his own axe in plain sight. Luckily the two had selected a floor that turned out to be vacant, at least at first. Wesley nodded his head down the long hallway that lay in front of them and Gunn nodded his silent agreement before the two began to slowly creep down the hallway, weapons at ready. They had gotten about halfway down the hallway before an eerily familiar sound wafted into Wesley's ears, causing him to stop very abruptly.
"What…what is it…," Gunn whispered harshly as he raised his axe in front of him and quickly glanced both ways down the long hallway.
"Zombies…a lot of them…and they're close…," Wesley loudly whispered back before the sound grew louder and at the far end of the hall Wesley and Gunn's level of nervousness only grew as they saw the staggering shadows on the wall.
Angel and Connor meanwhile had traveled much further up the building before they ran into the zombies. But unlike Wesley and Gunn Angel and Connor were generally able to avoid the zombies. For some unknown reason the zombies seemed to be confined to only a few floors in the middle of the building. As they maneuvered through those floors Angel would take point and make sure that the path ahead was safe before he'd turn back and wave Connor forward. With his previous fight with the zombies crying out firmly from the back of his mind Angel didn't want to get into that kind of fight again. It was a fight that truly had been over before it had even begun, whether Angel liked to admit it or not.
"Do you think Wesley and Gunn have met the zombies yet…," Connor whispered softly as he quickly rushed from one shadow to another to stand beside Angel, who was busy looking around the next corner.
"I don't know…but we can't worry about that now…we have troubles of our own," Angel started to whisper back softly before he elevated his speech to its normal level as his and Connor's enhanced hearing picked up the sound of approaching zombies.
"Yes we do…but should we fight them…or continue on towards Lindsey…," Connor asked nervously as he drew his sword and held it up in front of him in a defensive posture.
"Looks like we don't have a choice…," Angel replied with a nervous and frustrated scowl on his face as from around ever corner that Angel and Connor could see came one zombie after another, out for blood.
* * * * * *
At the same time that Angel and Connor climbed out of the sewer near the Wolfram and Hart tower Oz, Kate, and Groo had climbed into Arthur's car and the quartet took off towards Los Angeles. They had packed what meager belongings they could before Oz called shotgun and slid into the front seat, smirking slyly at Kate as she sat down in the backseat beside Groo. Arthur had kept true to his word and chose to use the side streets, hoping that if anyone was following them then they'd be able to lose them. On the way Groo mostly kept quiet, trying to stay as low in his seat as he could. Kate meanwhile only asked Groo a few questions, mostly asking as delicately and reserved as she could about his past. Although her pride would almost never allow her to admit it, unless she was forced to, she found herself starting to care what happened to the muscle-bound hunk sitting beside her. Oz went back and forth between trying to find out as much as he could from Arthur and listening as best he could without drawing attention to himself to Kate and Groo's whispered conversation.
"Are we there yet…," Groo asked with a frustrated frown on his face as Arthur pulled the car onto an off ramp and began to apply the brakes.
"Not yet…we've got about another hour or so before we get to Los Angeles, once there though the three of you are going to have to give me the directions on how to find your friends," Arthur replied with a nervous frown on his face as he kept his eyes on the road and away from Kate's concerned stare.
"That might be a little tricky…ya see the last time that I saw Angel and the others they were still in their old offices…I'm not sure exactly where…," Oz started to say sheepishly before Groo interrupted him.
"I know exactly where to go…even though I was only with Angel and my prin…Cordelia and the others for a short time I made it a point to memorize the location of their headquarters…," Groo started to say eagerly before as he got to Cordelia's name he glanced over at the slightly worried look on Kate's face and stopped himself from calling his former lover princess, for a part of him was beginning to believe that he had possibly found a new princess.
* * * * * *
At a seat overlooking a large bank of video screens that showed the footage from every single security camera within the building sat a silent but grinning golem. Around it were situated some of the various mercenaries that had been hired for this occasion, human and otherwise, along with the one responsible for the zombies. Most of the human mercenaries seemed a little put off by their demon counterparts. But the grinning golem could care less everything was going according to how it had expected it to.
"The hunt begins…now…and don't come back without their heads…," The golem Lindsey said with an arrogant sneer on its face as the mercenaries filed out of the room and headed off in search of Angel and the others.
END OF CHAPTER 11