THREE STRIKES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 15-WHO'S THE NEW GIRL-DANGER LOOMING AHEAD
At first Angel couldn't, or better yet maybe didn't want to, believe his ears. Not that he never wanted Wesley and Faith to have a family but not a single bone in his body expected them to start that family so soon. But as he continued to stay silent, not noticing that almost every pair of eyes in the room were aimed his way, he tried to push through his conflicted feelings and at least try to appear happy for two of his best friends. He finally let Cordelia shake him back to reality when Faith looked like she were about to let a tear slip and Wesley about ready to start shouting.
"Angel…come on, don't you go all zombie on me too…," Faith shouted with an angry look on her face and tone to her voice as she reached out and snapped her fingers beside Angel's ear.
"What…oh sorry Faith," Angel started to mumble out as he shook his head to clear out of the stupor that he had fallen into.
"Congratulations…," Fred shouted with an excited smile on her face as she hugged Wesley tightly and then started to go to hug Faith but stopped when she remembered what the former rogue slayer had said at the hospital.
"Likewise," Lorne said with a thoroughly delighted smile on his face as he patted Wesley on the back while Connor and the young crimson haired woman beside him just looked on with almost bored looks on their faces.
"Uh not to be a killjoy or anything but…are you all prepared for what Wolfram and Hart are going to do to you," Arthur asked with a worried look on his face as he sat down on the top step just inside of the front doors.
"You mean what they'll try to do to us don't you…," Gunn said with a confident look on his face as he put an arm around Fred and pulled her close.
"No…they know what we did tonight, they were ready for us, I agree with him…they're going to come after us," Connor added with a very serious look on his face before he winced in pain as the young woman lightly touched his knee.
"Sorry…," She mumbled with a nervous and scared look on her face as she cringed and started to back away from Connor.
"You're right Connor, they will…now the only question is how," Angel stated with a very serious and deep in thought look on his face as he turned to look at Cordelia.
"Better yet…when," Wesley interjected with a serious and slightly worried frown on his face as he pulled Faith close.
"If I remember the employee handbook timetables then I'd say soon, real soon," Arthur piped up with a nervous and scared look on his face as he looked up and locked gazes with an equally nervous Fred.
"How would you know that…and just who the bloody hell are you anyway…," Wesley said with an accusing scowl on his face as he snapped his head around and glared at Arthur.
"Leave him alone Wesley," Fred started to say with a very defensive frown on her face as she slipped out of Gunn's grasp and walked towards Arthur before sitting down beside him and throwing an arm around his shoulders. "He's my uncle Arthur, and he works for Wolfram and Hart," She added with a nervous look on her face as she kept her gaze locked onto the floor.
* * * * * *
Upstairs in the room Elaine had been left alone with Lindsey, not by design but merely by chance. She hadn't been trained at Wolfram and Hart to treat anything more serious than a splinter, but here she was sitting on a bed beside the man she loved and she couldn't do a thing for him. What made matters worse in her mind was that the only people that could help him were currently downstairs discussing other matters. The best that she could do was wet a washcloth in the bathroom sink and lay it on his forehead. She repeated that process many times before she couldn't take it any longer and went to the door to make someone come back upstairs and help Lindsey. She made it as far as a step outside of the room before she heard a soft whimper from the vicinity of the bed.
"Lindsey," Elaine nearly shouted with an elated smile on her face as she shut the door loudly behind her and rushed back to the bed.
"Nnh…wha…where, where am I…," Lindsey mumbled softly with a concerned look on his face as he tried to open his eyes long enough to look around the room. He stopped looking around when his gaze fell on a tearful Elaine.
"Safe…I mean you're safe Lindsey, Angel did it, he and his friends broke you out of Wolfram and Hart and brought you here," Elaine replied with a relieved smile on her face as the tears began to gush unheeded down her cheeks. Lindsey let out a deep sigh of relief and seemed to inwardly collapse onto the bed as he closed his eyes and smiled. When he opened them again he concentrated his gaze on Elaine's face.
"Why are you crying…," Lindsey managed to mumble out with as best a worried and confused look on his face as he could muster as he lifted a hand up and lightly brushed away a few tears.
"Because it's over…we're done with Wolfram and Hart…we're safe," Elaine replied with a happy smile on her face as she tried her best to hold back the tears. Elaine started to add something but Lindsey coughed loudly with a very worried look on his face.
"No, we're not safe, not yet, you can't escape Wolfram and Hart…," Lindsey choked out with a painful scowl on his face as he tried to sit up, but stopped when Elaine pushed him back down.
"Guess I can't argue with that…," Elaine replied sadly after having her perfect dream of escape shattered only moments before.
* * * * * *
Fred's declaration of who her uncle worked for almost tore the small group assembled in the lobby apart at the seams. Gunn's gaze flickered nervously around the room, trying to gauge each friend's reaction, notwithstanding his own. Oz sat idly by retying one of his shoes while Kate walked back over to the circular couch and sat down beside Groo, leaning her head onto his shoulder with a bored look on her face. Wesley and Faith could only stand and stare at first each other and then to Arthur. Cordelia looked about ready to go ten rounds with Arthur while Angel and Connor went almost immediately into quiet full attack mode. Gunn could see father and son tense up, almost as if they expected an attack to come at any moment. The young crimson haired woman sitting beside Connor seemingly tried to burrow her way into Connor's side, as the mere mention of the firm scared her to death. Gunn couldn't quite make out what it was with the young woman that he had first seen helping Connor drag an unconscious Lindsey out of the Wolfram and Hart towers. After they had begun their exodus from the towers she had barely left Connor's side for a second, and Connor didn't seem to mind in the least the attention. Gunn was about to ask a question when Lorne broke in.
"Uh Winifred…you do remember that Wolfram and Hart are the psychotic lawyers from hell…right," Lorne asked with a shocked and worried smirk on his face as he shrugged his shoulders a bit before he looked around the room.
"Of course I do Lorne, but Arthur isn't a lawyer, he…," Fred began to reply with a defensive frown on her face as she gave Arthur a hug.
"It's alright Winifred you don't have to defend me, yes I work…or should say worked for Wolfram and Hart, but I was a nobody there, so much so that they probably don't even know that I'm gone yet," Arthur interjected with a nervous but calm look on his face as he patted Fred lovingly on the head before turning to face everyone. Angel studied the look in Arthur's eyes for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders.
"Whatever…we have more important matters to deal with right now…," Angel muttered softly before wincing in pain as Cordelia accidentally bumped into one of his bruises.
"Like the identity of Little Red Riding Hood over there is," Gunn finished with a serious and slightly worried look on his face as he turned his gaze towards Connor and the young woman at his side.
"Me…," The young woman asked meekly with a scared look on her face as she frantically looked to Connor for help.
"No the other redhead in the room," Cordelia exclaimed with an angry and sarcastic frown on her face as she crossed her arms and glared.
"Uh Cordelia…you already know who I am," Oz replied with a slightly nervous and cheesy smile on his face as he turned towards Cordelia.
"Oz…not you, of course I know…I mean…ah forget it," Cordelia exclaimed with a frustrated scowl on her face at first before she threw her hands up and sank back into her seat and leaned up against Angel, who lightly patted her on the shoulder.
"It's okay…," Connor mumbled softly to the young woman, who looked to be smack dab in the middle of making the fight or flight decision.
"J…Jocelyn, Jocelyn Rosen," Jocelyn stuttered out with a very nervous look on her face as she looked like she expected to be yelled at shortly after saying her name.
"Well hello Joc…," Fred started to say with a good-natured smile on her face as she went to shake Jocelyn's hand before Wesley cut in.
"Wait Fred…before we welcome her we should have her sing and let Lorne read her," Wesley interjected with a serious and slightly concerned frown on his face as he pulled an equally nervous Faith closer.
"Wesley…," Fred said more as a statement than his name as she turned towards the former watcher and balled up her hands into fists.
"Wesley's right, we've been fooled before, Lorne…," Angel said with a tired frown on his face as he slowly got back to his feet, despite the worried look on Cordelia's face.
"I'm game Angelcakes," Lorne replied with a nervous grin on his face as he straightened his tie.
"Sing…what do you mean," Jocelyn asked with a scared and confused look on her face as she crossed her arms protectively around herself.
"I'm an empathy demon honey, all you do is sing a song…any song, or if you're not the karaoke type then you can hum a few bars of something and I'll get a reading from you," Lorne replied with his best kind and non threatening smile on his face as he knelt down in front of Jocelyn.
"It…doesn't hurt, does it," Jocelyn asked with a nervous look on her face as she uncrossed her arms and seemed to be less afraid of Lorne.
"Nope, but it will if we find that you're a spy from Wolfram and Hart," Faith replied with a sarcastic but yet serious frown on her face as she lightly glared at Jocelyn.
"N…no, I'm not a spy, they wanted to use me…," Jocelyn stammered out with a nervous look on her face before she cringed away from Faith, who seemed proud of herself to have Jocelyn instantly be afraid of her.
"So sing already, this is getting boring," Kate exclaimed with a frustrated scowl on her face before she brushed a speck of dirt off of Groo's pant leg.
"Okay…," Jocelyn said with a very nervous look on her face before she slowly began to hum an old tune that she remembered her mother singing to her. All eyes were glued to Lorne for his reaction. At first the empathy demon looked like he'd seen a ghost, but slowly his expression changed to one of utter joy, complete with a swell of tears.
"Bravo…that was beautiful…just beautiful," Lorne choked out with tears slipping down his cheeks and a joyful smile on his face. Before Jocelyn could say anything Lorne hurried forward and caught her in a rare hug.
"So I'm guessing that she's not a spy…," Oz piped up with his usual calm look on his face as he sheepishly looked around the room.
"My beautiful nightingale…a spy, no Ms. Rosen is not a spy, she's…she's…," Lorne replied with an aghast look on his face before he couldn't finish his sentence because of what he saw in his reading.
"A seer…like Cordelia," Connor said with almost a look of awe on his face as he managed a half smile before noticing that everyone was looking at him and returning his expression to the usual sullen frown.
"Not exactly…," Lorne started to say with a nervous look on his face as he gave a meager smile and shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm not a seer like you are Cordelia…I don't get visions…I only get really short flashes and super strong feelings, kind of an empathy seer…if those exist," Jocelyn added with a nervous and frustrated frown on her face as she tried to explain her abilities.
"They're not supposed to…at least not anymore," Wesley said, nearly in awe, as his brows furrowed and a flash of excitement screamed into his eyes.
"What do you mean, not supposed to anymore," Faith demanded with a slightly angry frown on her face as she gave Wesley's hand a strong squeeze.
"Because sometime in the latter half of the last century, no one's exactly sure as to the date, but all of the known empathy seer's were hunted down and killed," Wesley replied with a very serious and concerned scowl on his face, one that soon transferred to everyone else in the room save Jocelyn. Her heart nearly froze in her chest as she tried to come to grips with what Wesley had just said and what it would most likely mean to her.
"That's horrible…," Fred said, nearly in a whisper, with a sad look on her face as she crossed her arms around herself and stared at no one in particular.
"Yes Fred, it was horrible, the watcher's council did what they could to try to stem the tide of killings but…," Wesley started to say with a slightly embarrassed and ashamed look on his face as he kept from looking Faith in the eye.
"But…what Wesley, what'd the council do to try to stop the killings," Faith asked with now a very worried look on her face as deep in her heart she guessed the reason.
"At first the council used every resource at its disposal to try to save the seers…but in the end it was revealed that the head of the council had been in league with the ones that hunted the empathy seers, that betrayal is a blight that the more honest and moral members of the council have worked tirelessly to rub out ever since," Wesley answered, his face downcast and weary, as he looked each person in the room in the eye, all except for Jocelyn.
"Oh…," Jocelyn managed to get out through a clenched jaw as she looked over at Connor with a scared to death look on her face, almost begging for help.
"But don't worry, I have no intention on telling anyone about you…least of all the council," Wesley interjected with a slightly nervous but serious frown on his face as he gave Faith's hand a tight squeeze back.
"But if she was at Wolfram and Hart what were they doing with her, why isn't she dead," Oz asked with a confused frown on his face as he stood up and turned back towards Angel.
"Who knows, they probably thought that they could use her powers to their advantage," Angel replied with a tired sigh and shrug of his shoulders as he rubbed his tired eyes.
"Or more precisely it was because if memory serves empathy seers were almost never wrong about their predictions, to the point that there were those that viewed the empathy seer's as new age prophets sent by God himself," Wesley said with a very serious and somewhat concerned look on his face as Faith leaned in and laid her head on his shoulder and tried to keep the sickly feeling in her stomach at bay.
"So what happened to those…followers, when all of the empathy seers were killed, they had to go somewhere right…maybe some of them went to work for Wolfram and Hart," Kate asked at first with a worried and almost bitter scowl on her face before she finished with a half smile.
"It's entirely possible, the council didn't have very good records of their names or numbers…," Wesley said with a growing look of concern and worry on his face as he scratched his chin with his right hand while slowly and carefully weaving his left through Faith's hair in an attempt to smooth it out.
"Okay…Wesley, I want you, Fred, and Faith to hit the books, try to find out everything you can about empathy seers while the rest of us see to Lindsey, Elaine's probably getting pretty worried right about now," Angel said with an authoritative tone to his voice as he slowly stood up and looked around the room.
"Right…," Everyone seemed to say in unison before dispersing to accomplish their unique tasks.
* * * * * *
Losing the real Lindsey had not been part of the plan. The plan had been such that the real Lindsey was to be freed and used as bait for Angel's ill fated rescue attempt. And just when it would look as if Angel would succeed the plan was to have called for an array of sunlight spells, pinning Angel in the hallway while letting the Kungai demons, vampires, and zombies separate him from the others. But like most plans that hinged on a careful calculation of Angel's objective they had overlooked a small detail, that the disgraced watcher would have had the foresight to pack a transportation spell. That small oversight had led to the rolling of many heads down the long hallways of Wolfram and Hart. The blood and life essences of those deceased former employees was collected and amassed into a massive flu shot of sorts to tide the golem over until it could feed on the real Lindsey's life-force once more.
"Are they all assembled…," The golem Lindsey growled with an angry grimace on its face as it struggled to push itself up and out of the wheelchair that it had been forced to use before the transfusion of the deceased's blood.
"Of course sir…we've pack them in as tight as we could get them, and there's a hundred or so more coming every three hours, don't worry all will be ready in time for the ceremony," Penn replied with a cocky grin on his face that hid beneath it a great amount of fear.
"It'd better…because if not your head won't be the only thing that you'll lose," The golem Lindsey snarled with an angry look on its face as it walked to the edge of the railing and looked down onto the many levels of the multilevel parking garage. Stacked from floor to ceiling like in the old slave ships were corpses from every city and country in the world, thousands strong, all waiting to be unleashed upon the world.
"Understood, but sir…is it time…," Penn said with a brave grin on his face as he stood at attention and tried to keep from aggravating the golem anymore than it already was.
"Yes…tomorrow night this world ends…," The golem Lindsey cackled with sinister delight before walking back of into the shadows, leaving a grinning and plotting Penn behind.
END OF CHAPTER 15