FUTURE IMPERFECT
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 18-A LULL IN THE MAELSTROM
A muffled snort and whimper were heard from the box as Wesley and Faith finished pulling off the lid. Hope was first to react with at first an odd and confused look on her face before one of the presents tried its best to scramble out of the box. This action brought an elated giggle from Hope, but a shocked and Faith was taken aback as she spun her head to the side to question Wesley with her gaze.
"Dogs…Giles, you bought us dogs…," Faith asked with an unsure frown on her face as she cocked an eyebrow and stared up at Giles. The old watcher shifted uncomfortably in his place for a few seconds and looked around the room briefly before responding.
"Dogs…yes I bought you dogs, two purebred Great Danes actually," Giles answered with an overly optimistic smile on his face as even he knew that he was reaching.
"May I ask why," Faith asked with now an even more confused look on her face as her attention was quickly averted back to the box and keeping an overly eager Hope from grabbing one of the puppies' ears.
"Every family should have a puppy," Xander chimed in softly with his possible answer as he sat up in his seat and grinned a look around the room.
"I never had a puppy," Buffy mumbled sadly with a somber pout on her face as she began to idly twirl a lock of hair around her finger.
"I'll get you one if you want pet, any kind, I know some people, demons really…," Spike started to softly say back with a reassuring smile on his face before Angel loudly cleared his throat and added his two cents into the pot.
"I think Giles gave you the puppies to keep you busy," Angel said with a nervous look on his face, realizing how stupid what he said had sounded as soon as the words left his mouth. Blushing as well as a two and a half century old vampire could Angel hung his head and looked away.
"Trust me Angel, I don't think that was the reason, Hope and work keep us busy enough," Wesley slowly said with an equally nervous look on his face as he aided Faith in trying to keep the two puppies in the box while trying to keep Hope away from them.
"Well you haven't been very busy these last couple of days…," Gwen started to say with a carefree and bored look on her face as she laid her head on Angel's shoulder and received a death glare from Cordelia, an act that only made the former thief lean closer to Angel.
"In truth I'm really not sure why I bought them, all that I can say is that as I was helping an old friend with a problem that I won't go into here I came across these two puppies, and for some reason I thought of the two…three of you," Giles interjected with a nervous and slightly embarrassed smile on his face before he removed his glasses and began to vigorously clean them with a white handkerchief that he produced from his pocket.
"Wesley, what are we going to do, we don't have room for…," Faith started to whisper softly under her breath to Wesley as she leaned against his shoulder.
"We'll find room Faith, we've talked about fencing in the yard…and there's some room over in the corner that we couldn't figure out what to turn it into," Wesley whispered back with a thoughtful look on his face before he noticed that Giles was waiting for a response.
"Thank you Giles…," Faith added with an overly chipper smile on her face as she rose to her feet and walked up to the old watcher before placing an appreciative kiss on his cheek.
"You're welcome…," Giles stuttered out quickly with a shocked and overwhelmed look on his face before Wesley let out a shout as the two Great Danes suddenly jumped in unison and knocked the box out of Wesley's hands. The two puppies were already out of the box before it hit the ground, aiming for Christopher and Liam, both of whom were now both holding small paper plates with big slices of cake on them as they stood together apart from their parents.
"Liam," Cordelia shrieked with a panicked look on her face as she rushed forward and picked her son up as fast as she could. His piece of cake plummeted to the ground before the first puppy began to hungrily devour it.
"Cool…," Anya started to say before the second puppy reared back and pounced on Christopher, knocking the child down and sending the piece of cake soaring up into the air. Almost working in automatic Xander hurried forward and pulled his son out from under the overeager puppy before Anya snapped out of her stupor of momentary enjoyment to look to Wesley and Faith for an explanation.
"Cordelia…Anya I'm so sorry I…," Wesley exclaimed loudly as he pushed the box aside and tried his best to corral the puppies. "Faith…a little help…here…," Wesley sputtered out with an embarrassed look on his face as he caught one puppy but the other ran into the back of his legs and knocked him off of his feet.
"Oh no honey…you're doing just fine by yourself…I wouldn't want to," Faith started to shout with an amused smile on her face before Wesley interrupted.
"Faith," Wesley shouted with an angry tone to his voice as he did his best to glare up at his wife while trying to keep the two puppies near him.
"Coming….here," Faith shouted back with a nervous laugh before she handed a giggling Hope to Buffy and went to help Wesley.
* * * * * *
The heat vision goggles attached to the front of his mask kept him abreast of the status of all of those that traveled across his section of the campus. He had been ordered to follow one Nicholas Burton and Callie Freeman wherever they traveled after leaving the library. He had followed them across town and back to Callie's dorm room where soon the bright oranges that made up the two young people in love turned to a dark red. At that point he had turned off the heat vision goggles and radioed headquarters, requesting further orders. He had been told to remain at his position and keep watch over the couple, but not to interfere in any way except if an attempt was made on their lives or they tried to meet any of a list of known demons, vampires, or related persons. Chief on that list were two names, Buffy Summers and Spike. Wesley and Faith had, as of yet, avoided being included on the list as possible threats only because his superiors in the Initiative hadn't put a very high risk on them because of their daughter.
"This is agent Jackson…all clear here," Jackson said with a frustrated sigh as he activated his com link to headquarters and leaned back against the trunk of the tree that he was hiding in.
"Good…the last thing that we need is for the slayer or the vampire to interrupt our progress," A scratchy voice answered from the other end of the com link as Jackson scratched his temple.
"Well I don't see them anywhere, all I see is our two subjects having a whole hell of a lot more fun than I am," Jackson said with a tired yawn and sarcastic tone to his voice before a glimmer of light from a ways away caught his attention. "What the hell…," He started to say with a confused look on his face before the light flashed again and he and the tree were almost instantly engulfed in a massive fireball.
* * * * * *
He crawled into bed and lay down next to her, staring lovingly at the sight of her bare back. Many a night since Hope's birth he had lain awake almost all night just staring at her soft skin illuminated by the soft light of the crescent moon, fighting off the urge to stretch out his calloused hand and reassure himself that this all wasn't some elaborate fantasy but in fact was real. With soft fingers that he guessed were icy cold from helping Angel and Xander to fix up a temporary pen for their two new dogs Wesley softly walked his fingers down Faith's spine, eliciting a body wide shiver before his slayer unconsciously pulled the covers up tighter around her. With an amused smirk on his face he lay back onto his back and slipped his shirt of, throwing it across the room. Without a second thought he reached under the covers and slid out of his jeans, dropping them down right beside the bed. When they had initially left Sunnydale neither Wesley nor Faith slept in the nude, mostly because they were still trying to sort out exactly what was happening between them and they often had to room together. But once they had settle here in their house more often than not the two slept sans clothing, craving the feel of skin against skin. Through a deep yawn he rolled over and slipped his left arm around Faith's waist, drawing her close. Her only reaction was to shiver a bit at the temperature of his hand. Over the course of the rest of the night Wesley managed to slip his right arm underneath Faith's shoulders, turning her so that when morning broke it found a small amount of drooling slipping from Faith's mouth straight onto Wesley's chest.
She awoke from one of the best dreams that she had ever had. During her earlier days she had experienced many slayer dreams, dreams that usually foretold doom and destruction. But ever since Hope's birth many of those slayer dreams had instead seemingly been transformed, showing her glimpses of not only the possible dark futures but the possibly very bright futures as well. Her eyes opened slowly and she took a few moments to focus her gaze on something other than the sun that was hitting her squarely in the face. Quickly wiping up her small line of drool she tried to slip out of Wesley's grasp and get out of bed. That was the plan however when she tried to move her body refused to act, relishing the warmth of the bed and of her husband too much to want to leave. Making up her mind Faith awkwardly and carefully undid herself from Wesley's grasp and slip out of the bed, shivering from head to toe as the cold air hit her warm skin. She had made it almost out of their bedroom before she had remembered that she hadn't a stitch of clothing on. Silently cursing her mistake she slipped back into the bedroom and pulled on her bathrobe, yawning deeply as she did so. When she walked into the kitchen she was met by a serious looking Angel drinking a cup of steaming hot coffee, spiked with blood no doubt, and pouring over the morning paper.
"Did you see this…," Angel asked with a very serious frown on his face as he lifted up a section of the newspaper and slightly tilted it towards Angel.
"Kinda hard to see anything right now Angel…you're gonna have to wait until after I get some coffee in me and give Hope her breakfast," Faith replied with a deep and stretched out yawn as she brushed some hair back behind her left ear and stumbled towards a cupboard.
"There was a murder last night," Angel chided with an unhappy frown on his face as Faith did her best to hide the beginnings of a smile as she played with Angel.
"Ya don't say…this is New York Angel, there's something wrong if there's not a murder every night," Faith joked softly with a gentle laugh before she pulled her and Wesley's cup out of the cupboard as because of her slayer hearing she heard Hope start to fuss.
"You know what I meant Faith, this was no ordinary death, an entire one hundred year old tree went up in seconds like a roman candle, complete with a dead body in it," Angel reiterated his earlier statement with a serious frown on his face as he half turned in his chair to see a sleepy eyed Wesley slowly saunter into the kitchen with an unhappy Hope in his arms.
"Sure I do…now come to momma," Faith smile back at Angel for a moment before she traded Wesley the two coffee cups for their daughter. Almost instantly upon being passed from one parent to the other Hope began to calm down.
"She always does that…she's always better for you," Wesley exclaimed softly with an amazed and slightly hurt look on his face before Faith lightly shrugged her shoulders and wrapped her arms more tightly around Hope.
"She just loves me better," Faith intoned with a playful smile on her face before Angel couldn't take anymore and spoke up.
"We should look into this, I have a bad feeling that this was no accident, something killed that man," Angel said with a very serious and slightly angry look on his face as he folded the paper up just right so that the article on the death was front and center.
"Angel, are you sure that you're not just reading to much into this…seeing something where there is nothing," Wesley asked with a soft frown on his face as he slowly began to sort through the different kinds of tea on the tea rack while Faith searched for a bottle for Hope in the fridge.
"Not when the victim was wearing some pretty high tech surveillance gear including heat vision goggles and an automatic weapon that's illegal in the United States," Angel countered with a frustrated look on his face as he shoved the newspaper at Wesley.
"Spontaneous human combustion or murder on campus…good lord that's a horrible article title, the author should be ashamed of him…herself," Wesley exclaimed with an editorial frown on his face as he closely studied the headline and the story underneath it while Faith placed Hope's bottle into the microwave.
"Angel we can't do anything about this death until tonight at the earliest, Wesley and I have a class today and then we have to check up on something with Nick and Callie," Faith said with a bored look on her face as she kept her gaze locked onto the bottle in the microwave.
"This is a serious matter Faith, call it a hunch but I think that this tree and this man are only the beginning…," Angel replied with a nervous frown on his face before he stood up from the table and walked into the living room, being careful to avoid the few stray rays of sunlight that streamed in through the open window.
"Well…what crawled up his ass…," Faith grumbled with an annoyed scowl on her face before recognition flashed across her face and she added with a sheepish and embarrassed look on her face, "Sorry."
"You're forgiven, but I do wonder why this case in particular has vexed him so," Wesley wondered aloud with a nervous look on his face before he found the two packets of honey that he was looking for and took the two coffee cups over to the sink and filled them.
"Ooh…bringing out the big words are we now, be still my beating heart," Faith said with a good natured smile on her face, one that made her eyes glitter, as she pulled out Hope's hi-chair and set her in it.
"That's not that big of a word Faith, but we need to get in early today because the Dean will probably want to talk to us and try to explain why the classes are behind and not ready for the chapter test," Wesley said with a slightly worried look on his face as Wesley took the bottle out of the microwave and replaced them with the two coffee mugs.
"Well to bad, they should have used this extra time to study instead of going out and partying all night like they all probably did…wait a minute, did I actually just say that," Faith started to say with an almost scolding and disapproving frown on her face before she tested the temperature of the bottle and looked shocked as she noticed how she had sounded.
"I think so dear, face it you're growing up," Wesley agreed with a content smile on his face as he half looked back at Faith over his shoulder as she handed the bottle over to an eager Hope.
"Okay then…so what are we going to do about Angel's little…obsession," Faith asked with a nervous frown on her face before Angel stepped in.
"It's not an obsession," Angel called out from the living room with a correcting tone to his voice before he flopped down into one of the chairs and picked up the remote.
"I'm not sure exactly, but whatever it is we'll take a look this afternoon after class, if something supernatural did indeed take place there then we'll find it, until then we'll just play out this day like every other Friday," Wesley said with a nervous and unsure look on his face as he watched the water in the coffee mugs heat up.
"Okay…but B wanted to come over tonight and talk about baby's…and stuff," Faith added with a hesitant and almost scared look on her face as she turned slightly away from Hope and blanched.
"She probably just wants to talk to you about becoming a mother Faith, I'm sure that she's not going to grill you on what we've been doing the last three years, they all did enough of that at the party…speaking of which we're going to have to put up a fence somewhere…and name the two newest additions to the family…how about Romulus and Remus," Wesley said softly as he tried his best to calm Faith's nerves before his expression changed to one of deep thought.
"Whoa there Wes…there's no way in you know where that we're going to name those two dogs after the mythical founders of Rome, we should name them something else," Faith declared with a very certain and strong look on her face as the microwave dinged to make it clear that it was done.
"Fair enough, but we can't wait to long to name them, and do you want to talk to Buffy alone tonight or should I sit in with you two to serve as referee, because I can if…," Wesley said with a concerned look on his face as he set the two cups down onto the counter on hot pads and laid the tea bags in them.
"I think that this time Buffy and I can sit and talk for a few hours without resorting to an all out catfight, besides women in our condition shouldn't be fighting," Faith retorted with a serious but yet a little bit more lighthearted smile on her face before Wesley handed her one of the mugs of tea.
"I couldn't agree more," Wesley interjected softly with a hopeful smile on his face before he slid an arm around Faith's waist and pulled her close, breathing in deep the many scents that made up the woman of his dreams.
* * * * * *
"Something the matter luv," Spike asked softly before he yawned deeply and pulled the sheets back up to his chin.
"Yes…no…I'm not sure, ever since we talked to Faith I've had this sinking feeling that we're about to get swallowed up by something that we were sent here to stop, I'm not sure if we can defeat it," Buffy replied with a scared look on her face as she turned over onto her side and stared straight over at Spike.
"Don't worry pet, it doesn't matter what big bad has crawled out of hell we'll send it straight back," Spike said with a confident smile on his face as he also rolled over onto his side so that he and Buffy were staring straight at each other.
"Somehow Spike I don't think that it'll be that easy…I don't think that we'll all make it through this time…there's going to be casualties," Buffy continued with a very serious and scared look on her face as she tried her best to hold back the tears before Spike stayed silent and pulled her into his arms and comforted her as best he could while the rest of the city began its day.
Author's Note: Sorry for not adding a chapter in a while but I decided to finish Second Chances first to help cut down on the total number of stories that I was writing, but I'm back now to Future Imperfect so please read and review, reviews are greatly appreciated. And I could use help in naming the dogs, I chose Great Danes because my family has almost always had a Great Dane and I love that type of dog.
END OF CHAPTER 18
