Chapter 27- Running
-Angel-
We leave as soon as the sun sets. Giles drives us to my Plymouth. There is no sign of the Special ops team. I have no doubt they are watching this place though.
"Should you need anything, please let me know." Giles says as we get into the car. I keep the top up for more privacy. "And do let me know you're safe from time to time. I shall do everything I can on this front."
Buffy impulsively hugs Giles and pulls back quickly, before he can really hug her back. He appreciates the gesture though and fatherly love for her spreads all over his face. He coughs and removes his glasses, embarrassed by the show of emotion. "Yes, well, you best get on."
The only place I know to take her for now is LA. I hope we can get there, gather our bearings and smooth things over. I call the Hyperion on my cell phone. I don't want to show up with Buffy unexpectedly. I'm not sure how they will handle seeing her again. Wes answers the phone and I'm grateful. He will take it in stride more then Cordy.
"Wes, it's me. I'll explain more when we get there, but Buffy and I should be at the hotel in an hour or so. You haven't heard anything from the Watcher's Council, have you?"
"No, not since we left Sunnydale." He confirms.
"Good. Do me a favor and trade out some patrols with Gunn. They have their special ops team after us. I don't want to be caught off guard."
"Alright. Is everyone okay?" he asks.
"We're both fine. We just need a place to make some plans."
"Very well then. We'll look forward to seeing you both." Wes says.
I park the Plymouth in the alley behind the hotel. We walk in through the back door. Wes, Cordy, Gunn and Fred are waiting for us. I wanted to spare Buffy this but it's not possible.
"Good to see you both made it safely." Wes says.
Fred steps forward. "Hi, I'm Fred. We haven't really met." She holds out her hand for Buffy. Buffy glances at me and hesitantly shakes it. It hurts me to see her so withdrawn. I understand it, but it still hurts. Where is my girl that so cheerfully introduced herself to vamps just before she dusted them, I'm Buffy and you're history? One of these days I'll find a way to bring her back, I swear.
Cordy comes out of my office. I pray to the gods above or even the demons below that she'll be nice. Buffy doesn't need a tongue lashing right now, nor does she need to see me threaten Cordy with her very life.
"Hi, Buffy. Nice to have you back, Angel." Cordy says as she sits down to flip through her fashion magazine. If I ever doubted it before, I know there is a God.
"So, what's up with the extra patrols?" Gunn asks setting down his hubcap axe.
"The Watcher's Council has apparently decided Buffy and I are a danger. They attacked us this morning at the mansion."
"Looks like they didn't send enough guys." Gunn says
"Not nearly enough. But I want this taken care of. I don't want to have to worry that we're going to be attacked in our sleep. Next time they could decide to go straight for stakes while we're sleeping." I say.
"Were they the same men who came after Faith?" Wes asks.
"I didn't recognize them, but truthfully I wasn't thinking about that. I just wanted Buffy safe." I say.
"You know, Angel, she is a slayer turned vampire. I think she can take care of herself." Cordy says without looking up from her magazine.
"She is right here and doesn't like being talking about like she isn't." Buffy said loudly and rolled her eyes.
"Sorry," Cordy says without really meaning it.
The rest of the night is spent in pacing and planning. Buffy falls asleep on the couch sometime during the night. She's still so tired and withdrawn. I tuck a blanket around her and have to endure Cordy's snippy comments about it. She knows I can hear her, which is exactly why she says it.
"Cordy, am I not there to take care of you when you have visions? Don't I catch you? Don't I go play water boy and get you pain pills and water?" I snap. I've had it. The stresses of so many days piling up are really getting to me.
"Uhm, yeah?" She looks at me like I've gone insane.
"Then shut up. Buffy needs me right now. She needs to be taken care of. I don't need your snide remarks regarding it, and neither does she. You hurt her feelings while she's here and I will make sure the vision pain seems like a walk in the park."
"Ok, you don't have to go all fangy on me." She rolls her eyes again, trying to seem unimpressed. I didn't even realize I'd slipped into my game face until she said something.
*
It's dawn when they come this time. I knew they'd pick the hotel as their next point of attack. It only makes sense. Gunn is sitting out in the courtyard with a tranq gun.
"Hey, Angel. I think your boys just pulled up. Trio of black vans looks like three dozen guys." He shouts into the lobby.
I crouch down next to the couch where Buffy is still sleeping. I shake her gently awake.
"Buffy, love, wake up. We're going to need your help."
We meet them at the front door, Gunn, Buffy and me at the front line. Wes, Fred and Cordy are on the balcony above the lobby with crossbows. The Council's Special Ops team is cocky. I guess they should be. They out number us 6 to 1. They don't have a clue they are going to lose.
The first few fall to the crossbows. Wes' aim is deadly accurate. I charge into the middle of the team with a roar. Gunn follows me with his own special battle cry. Buffy sits back and waits for them to come to her, as if this were all moving much too slowly for her.
I snap the neck of one and catch another in the face with my elbow. Gunn swings a staff by one end, like an ax, and knocks two in the head, sending them to the ground. I notice that at least three, maybe four have gone past me to Buffy. When she was a slayer, I would have been in a panic. Now I'm merely concerned. She executes a spinning double roundhouse kick, taking out two at once. She head butts the one that decided to try and take her from behind. He stumbles back dazed. She wraps her hands around a pillar and swings her legs around, knocking another to the ground.
I deflect a blow that would have landed a stake to my heart. I grab the man's wrist and turn his own stake back on him, penetrating his abdomen. I watch as Gunn shoves his stuff up into one man's gut, knocking the wind completely out of him. Wes, Cordy and Fred are fighting with the remainder of the special ops team on the balcony. The lobby floor is littered with bodies, some of them in pain, some of them unconscious and a few dead.
We take inventory of our injuries. Gunn and Buffy seem to have come out of it relatively unscathed. I have a small knife wound to the gut that will heal in a matter hours. Cordy is righteously peeved over a bruise that looks like it will turn into a black eye. Fred has a bump on the back of her head from being shoved into a wall. Wes has a shallow cut on his forearm.
Wes and Gunn load and threaten at sword point what's left of the special ops team. They grab their dead and wounded and load up in their vans. I place a call to the watcher's council. They ask for my password when I dial the super secret number provided by Wesley.
"I don't have a password. I do have a message for Geoff Smythe. He backs off the slayer and I or I'll be sending more body bags back to England."
"Excuse me, Sir. I don't know what your talking about." The English woman on the other end of the line says.
"You might not, Smythe will. If I see another council member near Buffy, I will take it personally." I hang up the phone. I've got to get her out of LA. I've got to get her somewhere they won't think of looking for her.
Buffy walks into the office and closes the door behind her. "Angel, I need to talk to you about something and I need you to really listen."
I cross my arms over my chest, perfect listening posture, at least for the way I think this conversation is going to go. She paces in front of my desk. "We can't do this. I'm putting your friend's lives in danger; I'm putting your life in danger. Give me up. Help me make this right. We both know this is not what was supposed to happen. I sacrificed you to save the world. I'm asking you to sacrifice me." She finally stops in front of my desk, tears fill her eyes.
"No, this isn't the world we're saving, Buffy. This is a council full of stuffy British men who don't like it because they can't control you anymore. It's a little different the some world sucking hell demon. My friends can handle themselves; they get put in danger every day by me, by the Powers. So get the idea out of your head, I'm not turning you over to them and I'm not going to stake you."
"I was actually thinking, cut my head off." She says with a wry smile.
"Buffy, they are tired little old men. This is an inconvenience, nothing more. Wes has been shot, stabbed and more. Cordy faces migraines with every vision that are worse then that black eye. Fred lived in a Pylea, a human hell dimension for 5 years. Gunn has been fighting vamps since he was a teenager. This not a big deal to them." I beckon at her and pull her into my lap. She tucks her head in the crook of my neck. It's almost as if that space was created for her head. She places a kiss there, where my pulse would be if I had one. She takes a deep breath. It's rewarding to know that she does that not because she has to breathe but because she wants to breathe me in. Within a few moments I feel her face shift and her fangs sink into my skin. I close my eyes and enjoy the intimacy of it.
We both jump when Cordelia flings open the office door.
"Oh, God, was she sucking your blood? That is just to gross for words! God, morbid much?" she shrieks.
Buffy hides her face in my chest. I can feel her tiny body start to tremble. "Cordelia, do you not have the sense of decency to knock on a door before opening it?" I struggle to maintain my human visage.
"Well, yeah, but you two can't have groiny moments, so I didn't consider you'd be doing something else gross." Cordy says, as if it actually makes sense.
"Was there a point to your intrusion?" I ask coldly.
"We finally got a check from Mr. Richardson." She says lamely.
"Out, shut the door." I am seething and trying to shut out visions of strangling her.
*
I finally get Buffy to sleep a little. She huddled up in my room, refusing to come down with the others after Cordy's comment in the office. I've tried to explain to her that Cordy just doesn't get it. She doesn't realize how intimate the act of sharing blood is. Most humans don't. I curl up around Buffy. She says she feels safe when we're like this. I've got a ghost of plan. I spend the next several hours hammering it out. It all hinges on one guy; I hope that guy is willing to help.
I wake before Buffy and dress quietly. I slip downstairs. Wes is deep in his research books. Gunn is playing on that little electronic thing of his. Cordy is no where to be found. That's probably for the best.
"Wes, Gunn, I've got to go out for just a little bit. I'll be back before nightfall. Watch Buffy for me. Let her know I'm coming back." I say shrugging into my duster.
"Guess your not telling us where you're going." Gunn says, his eyes never move from the little handheld screen.
"No, it's for your own good. I don't really think the council will launch another attack so soon." I open the basement door and head for the sewers.
The payphone I use is on 6th and spring, tucked into the heavy shadow of a dilapidated building. I talk to several secretaries before I get a hold of David Nabbit, software millionaire, client and I'd like to think friend of sorts.
"David, its Angel. I need a big favor."
"Angel, anything you need. Are we going on a mission? Is it vampires or demons this time? Or do you just need some help with buying realty?" The man Cordy would term a nerd asks.
"It's a top secret mission. You can't tell anyone, not even Cordy if she asks." I warn him.
"So this doesn't include Cordelia?" he sounds disappointed.
"Here's the plan, David. If you don't think you can help, tell me. There could be some risk."
"Risk is my middle name, well if its software risk. I can help whatever it is."
-Angel-
We leave as soon as the sun sets. Giles drives us to my Plymouth. There is no sign of the Special ops team. I have no doubt they are watching this place though.
"Should you need anything, please let me know." Giles says as we get into the car. I keep the top up for more privacy. "And do let me know you're safe from time to time. I shall do everything I can on this front."
Buffy impulsively hugs Giles and pulls back quickly, before he can really hug her back. He appreciates the gesture though and fatherly love for her spreads all over his face. He coughs and removes his glasses, embarrassed by the show of emotion. "Yes, well, you best get on."
The only place I know to take her for now is LA. I hope we can get there, gather our bearings and smooth things over. I call the Hyperion on my cell phone. I don't want to show up with Buffy unexpectedly. I'm not sure how they will handle seeing her again. Wes answers the phone and I'm grateful. He will take it in stride more then Cordy.
"Wes, it's me. I'll explain more when we get there, but Buffy and I should be at the hotel in an hour or so. You haven't heard anything from the Watcher's Council, have you?"
"No, not since we left Sunnydale." He confirms.
"Good. Do me a favor and trade out some patrols with Gunn. They have their special ops team after us. I don't want to be caught off guard."
"Alright. Is everyone okay?" he asks.
"We're both fine. We just need a place to make some plans."
"Very well then. We'll look forward to seeing you both." Wes says.
I park the Plymouth in the alley behind the hotel. We walk in through the back door. Wes, Cordy, Gunn and Fred are waiting for us. I wanted to spare Buffy this but it's not possible.
"Good to see you both made it safely." Wes says.
Fred steps forward. "Hi, I'm Fred. We haven't really met." She holds out her hand for Buffy. Buffy glances at me and hesitantly shakes it. It hurts me to see her so withdrawn. I understand it, but it still hurts. Where is my girl that so cheerfully introduced herself to vamps just before she dusted them, I'm Buffy and you're history? One of these days I'll find a way to bring her back, I swear.
Cordy comes out of my office. I pray to the gods above or even the demons below that she'll be nice. Buffy doesn't need a tongue lashing right now, nor does she need to see me threaten Cordy with her very life.
"Hi, Buffy. Nice to have you back, Angel." Cordy says as she sits down to flip through her fashion magazine. If I ever doubted it before, I know there is a God.
"So, what's up with the extra patrols?" Gunn asks setting down his hubcap axe.
"The Watcher's Council has apparently decided Buffy and I are a danger. They attacked us this morning at the mansion."
"Looks like they didn't send enough guys." Gunn says
"Not nearly enough. But I want this taken care of. I don't want to have to worry that we're going to be attacked in our sleep. Next time they could decide to go straight for stakes while we're sleeping." I say.
"Were they the same men who came after Faith?" Wes asks.
"I didn't recognize them, but truthfully I wasn't thinking about that. I just wanted Buffy safe." I say.
"You know, Angel, she is a slayer turned vampire. I think she can take care of herself." Cordy says without looking up from her magazine.
"She is right here and doesn't like being talking about like she isn't." Buffy said loudly and rolled her eyes.
"Sorry," Cordy says without really meaning it.
The rest of the night is spent in pacing and planning. Buffy falls asleep on the couch sometime during the night. She's still so tired and withdrawn. I tuck a blanket around her and have to endure Cordy's snippy comments about it. She knows I can hear her, which is exactly why she says it.
"Cordy, am I not there to take care of you when you have visions? Don't I catch you? Don't I go play water boy and get you pain pills and water?" I snap. I've had it. The stresses of so many days piling up are really getting to me.
"Uhm, yeah?" She looks at me like I've gone insane.
"Then shut up. Buffy needs me right now. She needs to be taken care of. I don't need your snide remarks regarding it, and neither does she. You hurt her feelings while she's here and I will make sure the vision pain seems like a walk in the park."
"Ok, you don't have to go all fangy on me." She rolls her eyes again, trying to seem unimpressed. I didn't even realize I'd slipped into my game face until she said something.
*
It's dawn when they come this time. I knew they'd pick the hotel as their next point of attack. It only makes sense. Gunn is sitting out in the courtyard with a tranq gun.
"Hey, Angel. I think your boys just pulled up. Trio of black vans looks like three dozen guys." He shouts into the lobby.
I crouch down next to the couch where Buffy is still sleeping. I shake her gently awake.
"Buffy, love, wake up. We're going to need your help."
We meet them at the front door, Gunn, Buffy and me at the front line. Wes, Fred and Cordy are on the balcony above the lobby with crossbows. The Council's Special Ops team is cocky. I guess they should be. They out number us 6 to 1. They don't have a clue they are going to lose.
The first few fall to the crossbows. Wes' aim is deadly accurate. I charge into the middle of the team with a roar. Gunn follows me with his own special battle cry. Buffy sits back and waits for them to come to her, as if this were all moving much too slowly for her.
I snap the neck of one and catch another in the face with my elbow. Gunn swings a staff by one end, like an ax, and knocks two in the head, sending them to the ground. I notice that at least three, maybe four have gone past me to Buffy. When she was a slayer, I would have been in a panic. Now I'm merely concerned. She executes a spinning double roundhouse kick, taking out two at once. She head butts the one that decided to try and take her from behind. He stumbles back dazed. She wraps her hands around a pillar and swings her legs around, knocking another to the ground.
I deflect a blow that would have landed a stake to my heart. I grab the man's wrist and turn his own stake back on him, penetrating his abdomen. I watch as Gunn shoves his stuff up into one man's gut, knocking the wind completely out of him. Wes, Cordy and Fred are fighting with the remainder of the special ops team on the balcony. The lobby floor is littered with bodies, some of them in pain, some of them unconscious and a few dead.
We take inventory of our injuries. Gunn and Buffy seem to have come out of it relatively unscathed. I have a small knife wound to the gut that will heal in a matter hours. Cordy is righteously peeved over a bruise that looks like it will turn into a black eye. Fred has a bump on the back of her head from being shoved into a wall. Wes has a shallow cut on his forearm.
Wes and Gunn load and threaten at sword point what's left of the special ops team. They grab their dead and wounded and load up in their vans. I place a call to the watcher's council. They ask for my password when I dial the super secret number provided by Wesley.
"I don't have a password. I do have a message for Geoff Smythe. He backs off the slayer and I or I'll be sending more body bags back to England."
"Excuse me, Sir. I don't know what your talking about." The English woman on the other end of the line says.
"You might not, Smythe will. If I see another council member near Buffy, I will take it personally." I hang up the phone. I've got to get her out of LA. I've got to get her somewhere they won't think of looking for her.
Buffy walks into the office and closes the door behind her. "Angel, I need to talk to you about something and I need you to really listen."
I cross my arms over my chest, perfect listening posture, at least for the way I think this conversation is going to go. She paces in front of my desk. "We can't do this. I'm putting your friend's lives in danger; I'm putting your life in danger. Give me up. Help me make this right. We both know this is not what was supposed to happen. I sacrificed you to save the world. I'm asking you to sacrifice me." She finally stops in front of my desk, tears fill her eyes.
"No, this isn't the world we're saving, Buffy. This is a council full of stuffy British men who don't like it because they can't control you anymore. It's a little different the some world sucking hell demon. My friends can handle themselves; they get put in danger every day by me, by the Powers. So get the idea out of your head, I'm not turning you over to them and I'm not going to stake you."
"I was actually thinking, cut my head off." She says with a wry smile.
"Buffy, they are tired little old men. This is an inconvenience, nothing more. Wes has been shot, stabbed and more. Cordy faces migraines with every vision that are worse then that black eye. Fred lived in a Pylea, a human hell dimension for 5 years. Gunn has been fighting vamps since he was a teenager. This not a big deal to them." I beckon at her and pull her into my lap. She tucks her head in the crook of my neck. It's almost as if that space was created for her head. She places a kiss there, where my pulse would be if I had one. She takes a deep breath. It's rewarding to know that she does that not because she has to breathe but because she wants to breathe me in. Within a few moments I feel her face shift and her fangs sink into my skin. I close my eyes and enjoy the intimacy of it.
We both jump when Cordelia flings open the office door.
"Oh, God, was she sucking your blood? That is just to gross for words! God, morbid much?" she shrieks.
Buffy hides her face in my chest. I can feel her tiny body start to tremble. "Cordelia, do you not have the sense of decency to knock on a door before opening it?" I struggle to maintain my human visage.
"Well, yeah, but you two can't have groiny moments, so I didn't consider you'd be doing something else gross." Cordy says, as if it actually makes sense.
"Was there a point to your intrusion?" I ask coldly.
"We finally got a check from Mr. Richardson." She says lamely.
"Out, shut the door." I am seething and trying to shut out visions of strangling her.
*
I finally get Buffy to sleep a little. She huddled up in my room, refusing to come down with the others after Cordy's comment in the office. I've tried to explain to her that Cordy just doesn't get it. She doesn't realize how intimate the act of sharing blood is. Most humans don't. I curl up around Buffy. She says she feels safe when we're like this. I've got a ghost of plan. I spend the next several hours hammering it out. It all hinges on one guy; I hope that guy is willing to help.
I wake before Buffy and dress quietly. I slip downstairs. Wes is deep in his research books. Gunn is playing on that little electronic thing of his. Cordy is no where to be found. That's probably for the best.
"Wes, Gunn, I've got to go out for just a little bit. I'll be back before nightfall. Watch Buffy for me. Let her know I'm coming back." I say shrugging into my duster.
"Guess your not telling us where you're going." Gunn says, his eyes never move from the little handheld screen.
"No, it's for your own good. I don't really think the council will launch another attack so soon." I open the basement door and head for the sewers.
The payphone I use is on 6th and spring, tucked into the heavy shadow of a dilapidated building. I talk to several secretaries before I get a hold of David Nabbit, software millionaire, client and I'd like to think friend of sorts.
"David, its Angel. I need a big favor."
"Angel, anything you need. Are we going on a mission? Is it vampires or demons this time? Or do you just need some help with buying realty?" The man Cordy would term a nerd asks.
"It's a top secret mission. You can't tell anyone, not even Cordy if she asks." I warn him.
"So this doesn't include Cordelia?" he sounds disappointed.
"Here's the plan, David. If you don't think you can help, tell me. There could be some risk."
"Risk is my middle name, well if its software risk. I can help whatever it is."
