THREE STRIKES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 22-OLD FRIENDS AND TIME SPENT
After successfully carrying the reporter and her cameraman back out to their truck without anyone in the area seeing them and calling the police Cordelia and everyone else at the Hyperion left for the hospital. Everyone except Kate and Groo as Kate had said that someone should stay back at the Hyperion if the eventuality presented itself that Wolfram and Hart would send a new wave of a demons and vampires. Oz hadn't said anything but he had sensed the elevated level of pheromones emanating from the pair and wondered if there was in truth another reason that the two wanted to stay behind. Lorne had feigned a headache and said that he needed to get some special ingredients to make a tonic. Cordelia had driven one of the cars while Faith had gotten behind the wheel of Wesley's SUV. Everyone else had piled inside of the two vehicles and were generally quiet until the motley crew finally reached the hospital.
"Where do we go," Arthur asked with a worried look on his face as he and the others walked in the front doors of the hospital and tried their best to stay out of the way.
"Follow me, I know this hospital like the back of my hand…unfortunately," Cordelia replied at first with a chipper smile on her face before her countenance fell and she shrugged her shoulders as she headed for the nearest elevator.
"How…," Connor asked with a confused look on his face as he and Jocelyn slipped inside the elevator beside Cordelia.
"Well let's see…there was the time that the visions went crazy and I almost died…Wesley got blown up then to…then Wesley getting shot…the visions starting to slowly kill me…Wesley getting his throat cut, not to mention all of the times that I had to come here for Gunn or one of his friends…then the visits with all of the people that we helped if they got hurt, and…," Cordelia answered with a serious frown on her face as she slowly looked around the elevator. Faith hid her level of discomfort at the mention of Wesley being injured well, although at the end Jocelyn thought that she saw a lone tear slide down the formerly rogue slayers cheek. Oz simply stood in silence, taking all of the news in and trying his best to catalogue it all for later pondering and reference.
"So then Charles and Winifred are already here," Arthur asked with a nervous smile on his face as he sensed the need for someone to change the subject.
"Yeah Wesley said that we could take over watching duties for them until he got here, but he didn't say how long it'd be, he said that he had to take care of something first, go and see and old friend…whatever that means," Faith replied with a confused and somewhat worried look on her face before the elevators stopped rising and the doors opened, allowing Faith and the others to walk out of it.
* * * * * *
After climbing out of the sewers Wesley had tried to call Willow in Sunnydale on his cell phone, but he discovered that his battery had run down after the call to Faith. Rather than return to the Hyperion and possibly spend hours trying to call Sunnydale he decided to simply take the more direct approach and drive to Sunnydale himself. He filled up Angel's car at a little gas station on the outskirts of L.A. before heading towards Sunnydale. On the way he tried to come up with ways to get Willow to accompany him back to Los Angeles without raising any unwanted questions. Although given his less than impressive appearance after the battles of the previous he expected that he'd have to come up with some quick answers. It took him almost half an hour to find Revello Drive and when he did so to his luck the lights were on. He only hoped that Willow was at home and he wouldn't have to traverse all over Sunnydale to find her. He parked Angel's car in the driveway and slowly made his way up to the door. He hesitated for a bit before finally rapping his knuckles against the door, forgetting about simply using the doorbell.
"I already told you, we don't want any…Wesley," Dawn started to say with an annoyed scowl on her face as she pulled the door open before she saw who was standing on the doorstep.
"Hello Dawn…is Willow here," Wesley asked softly with a nervous smile on his face as he stumbled through the pleasantries and got down to the point of his visit.
"Well hi to you to Wesley, won't you please come in…what happened to you, you kinda look like hell," Dawn replied with a sarcastic smirk on her face at first before her expression changed to more one of worry as she eyed the former watcher.
"Sorry…uh late night with Faith…," Wesley lied with a nervous laugh as he laid one hand on his hip and scratched the back of his head with the other.
"Eww….forget I asked," Dawn said with a grossed out expression on her face as she let Wesley in and then closed the door behind him.
"N…no wait, Faith wasn't feeling well, as if the morning sickness wasn't bad enough she's having a hard time sleeping," Wesley was quick to interject with a nervous smile on his face before he jammed both hands into his pockets.
"Morning sickness…wait, Faith's not…," Dawn stammered out with a restrained smile of excitement on her face before Wesley smiled sheepishly and nodded his head. "Wow…that's like…wow, pregnant…," Dawn squealed with glee before she surged forward and hugged Wesley tightly.
"Who's pregnant," A bleary eyed Spike asked softly with an unnecessary yawn as he stepped around the corner and leaned back up against the railing.
"Faith," Wesley answered with a nervous smile on his face as he could almost feel his heart rate pick up. He fully expected Spike to make some off color remark about Faith being pregnant but was completely unprepared for Spike's response.
"Guess congratulations are in order then…so uh, congratulations…supposed Faith and Buffy are in the same boat now…bullocks…," Spike said with a nervous smile on his face before he realized that he'd said to much and quickly made his exit.
"What was that all about…and since when…," Wesley started to ask with a confused and unsure frown on his face before Willow and Buffy appeared at the top of the stairs.
"I'm not sure…he's been acting weird for the past few hours…he and Buffy were locked up in her room all day and…," Dawn started to answer with a worried and confused frown on her face before Buffy and Willow walked down the stairs and Buffy interrupted.
"Wesley what are you…what's wrong…," Buffy asked with a worried and nervous look on her face as she stepped up beside Dawn as Wesley shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"Nothing's wrong, I just came because I need to talk to Willow about something…that's all," Wesley replied softly with a tired yawn as he suddenly realized how long it had been since he'd gotten any measurable amount of sleep.
"And this was something that you couldn't just call and talk to her about over the phone," Buffy asked with an unconvinced frown on her face as she crossed her arms and silently dared Wesley to try again.
"Busted," Dawn exclaimed with an excited smile on her face before an angry glare from Buffy caused her to slink back into the living room in search of Spike.
"Okay yes there is trouble in Los Angeles, but we can handle it, the only reason that I came is that we needed Willow's hacking skills and Angel and I thought that it'd be easier for everyone if Willow accompany me back to Los Angels to do her work there," Wesley said with a slightly embarrassed frown on his face as he told most of the truth, but kept back a few of the more important details.
"That's it…why didn't you say so sooner…wait…no…I don't want to know…but you're sure that you guys can handle it, because Spike and I could…," Buffy said with a shocked look on her face as if she had expected more dire news before she relaxed and then had to work to finish out her reply.
"Thank you Buffy but that won't be necessary, all we need is Willow, it shouldn't take longer than a day at best," Wesley quickly said with a slight hitch in his voice before Buffy cast him a nervous eye and then walked out of the foyer.
"Okay so you lied your way through both Buffy and Dawn…but you can't lie to me…so what's really going on," Willow asked with a nervous smile on her face as she grinned up at Wesley, trying her best to sound tough but failing miserably.
"I didn't like Willow, we need you in Los Angeles to hack into California's power grid and tell us if Wolfram and Hart is consuming massive amounts of electricity, enough needed to power a totem that would be able to control an army of zombies and other demons," Wesley replied with a very nervous and serious frown on his face as he dropped his voice to a whisper and leaned in a bit closer to Willow.
"Oh…cool, just let me get my coat," Willow said with an odd smile on her face before she shrugged her shoulders and raced back up the stairs, leaving Wesley to stand around and try to work out what had just happened.
* * * * * *
Cordelia and the others had found Lindsey's room easily enough as Fred stood outside the door with a panic-stricken look on her face while Gunn stayed inside to keep watch. Early on they learned that Elaine was still in surgery and probably would be for awhile. Anne had gotten her own room as well but as of the time of their arrival had yet to utter a single word. So an hour after arriving at the hospital everyone was sitting in the waiting room while Cordelia was doing her best to make a doctor believe that she and Elaine were related. The former cheerleader was so far into her attempt that she failed to notice when a tired and worn out Angel slowly walked around the corner and sighed.
"Angel," Fred exclaimed with a relieved but yet also worried expression on her face as she almost bolted out of her chair and rushed over to his side.
"Everyone okay," Angel asked with a tired and worried look on his face as he leaned up against the wall.
"Pretty much…Elaine's in surgery, Anne's in her room but hasn't spoken a word in like…hours…and Lindsey's got his own room, Charles is with him now," Fred answered with a nervous and frightened frown on her face as she fought off a large yawn.
"Faith…," Angel asked with a slightly worried expression on his face as he turned towards the rogue slayer, who was sitting in one of the chairs with her feet pulled up onto the chair and her arms wrapped around her knees.
"You know me Angel…five by five, now where's Wesley," Faith replied at first with a generous and tired smile on her face before she glared ominously at Angel, as if she thought that Angel had eaten the former watcher. Angel shifted uncomfortably in place before answering.
"He's fine Faith, I sent him to Sunnydale to pick up Willow, we think that it's possible that Wolfram and Hart are using their entire building as the totem to control the zombies, so we need Willow to hack into the system and find out if they're using a lot of electricity, if they are then we'll have found the totem," Angel said with a nervous shrug of his shoulders as he slumped down into a chair beside Faith and laid his head back.
"And if it turns out that the Wolfram and Hart building isn't the totem…what then Angel," Oz asked with a concerned look on his face as he turned around in his chair and looked over at Angel.
"Then at least we'll have one hell of a powerful witch on our side, that should help right…," Angel replied with a nervous smile and short laugh before he noticed that no one thought what he had said was very funny and stopped.
"Only if we're going to put on a performance of The Wizard Of Oz…but I doubt that Willow would want to play the witch…she'd say that it was to…," Oz started to say with a tired smirk on his face before Cordelia hurried over and interrupted the werewolf.
"Well that was a giant waste of time…," Cordelia exclaimed with a defeated and worried look on her face before she almost collapsed onto Angel's lap and threw her arm around his neck, laying her head on his shoulder.
"So I'm going to guess that you couldn't convince the doctor that you and Elaine were related," Angel asked with a slightly shell-shocked look on his face before he did his best to hide a sly grin.
"What does it take…I mean I tried everything that I know but…nothing worked," Cordelia moaned back softly with a defeated look on her face before Angel looped an arm around her waist and pulled her a bit closer.
"Right now it doesn't matter that we can't see Elaine, she should be in surgery for some time and I'm willing to be that whatever Wolfram and Hart plans on doing to her they'll want it to be as slow and painful as possible, and that can't happen as long as she's in the hospital," Arthur interjected with a serious but also somewhat relieved look on his face as he slowly began to pace around the waiting room.
"Unless they wait until she's in recovery and then snuff her out there…when she can't defend herself," Connor said with a nervous and frustrated look on his face as he slowly looked around at everyone in the waiting room, as if he was saying what everyone else was thinking but that no one wanted to actually say.
"The kids right Angel, as soon as Elaine's out of surgery Wolfram and Hart will try to get to her, probably slip something into her iv or Angel they'll just use your tried and true method of smothering someone with their pillow," Faith added softly at first with a slightly unsure look on her face before she looked up at the ceiling and concealed the beginnings of an angry grin at the end.
"Hey…," Angel grumbled softly with a hurt frown on his face as he turned his head and looked past Cordelia's shocked face towards Faith. Faith's only response was to shrug her shoulders and turn away.
* * * * * *
"So how far along is she," Willow asked softly, with her hands folded on her lap, as she looked around at the interior of Angel's car while Wesley pulled out of Buffy's driveway and headed towards the outskirts of town.
"I'm sorry, how far along is who…," Wesley asked with an embarrassed smile on his face as he turned the air conditioner up a bit higher.
"You know who I'm talking about…Faith, how far along in her pregnancy…," Willow added with a smile of pure happiness on her face pretended to stare intently at the winding road in front of them.
"Not to far, it'll be another month or so before she starts to show, so until then she's been quite adamant about being in every fight that we come across, no matter the danger," Wesley replied with a nervous smile on his face before he caught Willow watching him and quickly looked away.
"Running headlong into terrible danger while pregnant…yeah that's Faith in a nutshell alright…so how are Angel and Cordelia doing, the last time we spoke she and Connor seemed to be…," Willow said with a well concealed smirk on her face as she stared out of the window and watched an old abandoned house fly by.
"Well Connor and Cordelia aren't as close as you remember anymore, things have cooled off between the two and now it's Angel that hears most of the fair Cordelia's opinions, while Connor is busy making sure that Jocelyn doesn't panic at the sight of a spider and bolt," Wesley replied with a slightly calmer smile on his face before he scratched his chin and made a mental note to shave before to long. "Jocelyn is a young girl…about Connor's age in fact, he met her when we were rescuing Lindsey McDonald from Wolfram and Hart, it turns out that she's what's known as an empathy seer," Wesley added with a slightly frustrated look on his face after he noticed the question on Willow's lips that was just waiting to be asked.
"Wow…another empathy seer," Willow exclaimed with an awed gasp as she turned her full attention to the former watcher and almost looked like a young child opening their presents on Christmas morning and getting exactly what they had asked for all year long.
"Wha…how do you know about the…," Wesley started to ask with a flabbergasted and surprised expression on his face before Willow sensed what he was going to ask and answered for him.
"I know all about what an empathy seer is because when I spent time with the coven in England…after my little…Dark Phoenix Saga…one of the witches in the coven was an empathy seer, she taught me a lot about myself and what's really going on in the world…except she was also totally creepy at the same time…you couldn't lie to her…a word of advice from one friend to another, never play this Jocelyn girl in a game of poker, you'll lose every time, you can't bluff even a little bit," Willow replied with an almost bored look on her face before she finished with an excited smile on her face.
"That's very…interesting…Willow, but before we get to Los Angeles there is something…rather someone there that I feel that I should warn…no not warn, more like give you a head's up that he's there," Wesley concluded with an overwhelmed look of awe on his face before he shrugged his shoulders and looked back in his seat, laying his left arm on the door, feeling warmed by the hot sun on his arm.
"Okay Wesley…whoever it is you'd better just tell me now because you're starting to scare me," Willow stated with a slightly nervous and worried look on her face as she leaned a little closer to Wesley, hoping that he had good news to tell her instead of bad news.
"It's just Oz Willow, I don't know the whole story but Wolfram and Hart kidnapped him, Kate Lockley, and Groo before doing God only knows what to them, a few days ago they arrived at the Hyperion with Fred's uncle Arthur," Wesley answered with a nervous frown on his face before he took the first off ramp that got the pair a bit closer to Los Angeles, never commenting on the myriad of emotions that screamed across Willow's face at the mention of her former lovers name.
* * * * * *
"Don't let Faith get to you Angel, she's just worried about Wesley that's all," Cordelia said with a worried and sympathetic look on her face as she handed Angel a steaming hot cup of coffee as he did his best to stay away from the ever nearing rays of light.
"No Cordelia she's right, I do tend to overdue things, I let my emotions control me…," Angel mumbled with a very serious look on his face before he took a sip of coffee.
"So what else is new, seriously though Angel you should get some sleep, if you weren't a vampire and supposed to look like death warmed over then I'd," Cordelia started to say with an impatient frown on her face as she leaned in closer to Angel and began to lazily draw circles of the back of Angel's neck with her index finger.
"I can't sleep yet Cordy, at least not until Wesley and Willow get here and we figure out where that totem is that Wolfram and Hart is using to control all of the zombies," Angel muttered with a concerned look on his face before he closed his eyes and took another sip of coffee.
"We can do that without you being awake Angel, we already know what you want Willow to do and when we find something we'll wake you up," Cordelia said back through a tired yawn as she laid her head on Angel's shoulder and closed her eyes.
"Seems like I'm not the only one that could use some sleep, when's the last time that you got a little rest," Angel whispered softly with a small hint of a smile on his face as he looped a supportive arm around Cordelia's waist and held the seer up as she seemed to be quickly headed towards falling asleep on his shoulder.
"Yesterday sometime…I think," Cordelia replied, still with her eyes closed, as it seemed that she was becoming more and more dead on her feet.
"Then it's been to long…c'mon let's get you to bed," Angel whispered back softly with a somewhat concerned look on his face as he set his coffee cup down on a table beside him and turned back to Cordy.
"Okay…but only if you come to," Cordelia whispered back softly with an almost childlike smile on her face as Angel held back a soft laugh.
"Your wish is granted," Angel added with a tender smile on his face before he almost literally carried the former cheerleader over to the empty couch in the waiting room and sat down at one end, holding the now softly snoring seer in his arms, it wasn't to long after that before Angel also slipped into a peaceful slumber. As he started to carry her over towards the couch Faith had cast them only a sidelong glance before shutting all of the curtains.
END OF CHAPTER 22