Gunn slows down and stops at a police roadblock. "I told you to call ahead," Wesley reminds Angel.
"Cops. Maybe it was a bad idea to put the black guy behind the wheel," Gunn quips. He pulls down his window. "Afternoon officer."
"Didn't you see the signs? Road's closed. Been closed for five days."
"We're friends of Mayor Santos," Wesley offers.
"Then how come she's not here to meet you?"
"Good question," Wesley responds. He can't think of anything to add. "Will you give us a moment?" Gunn looks at Wes, not sure what he's up to. "Back up a bit and pull off the road." Gunn shuts the window and does this.
"You gonna call the Mayor?," Gunn asks Wes.
"I don't have her phone number."
"Then why you givin' orders like you're the one in charge?"
"Someone had to say something." Wesley sighs. "Kelly would have her number. But she's currently out at sea."
"Forget the Mayor," Fred suggests. "Kelly's in the service. She'd know whatever general was in charge here."
"Good thinking," Angel replies. "We don't exactly have many friends in law enforcement. But you three have a few in the army."
"Thanks to our man Lindsey," Gunn points out, to Angel's distress.
"That's it!," Fred exclaims.
"You think Lindsey could help us?," Wesley asks.
"No. Graham. He's in LA. But he was here yesterday. He gave me his cell number."
"Who's Graham?," Angel asks, not having seen him walk into the hotel with Fred that morning.
"Just a friend I spent last night with." Angel's eyes bug out. "He slept on the couch," she explains, mildly annoyed at how the guys act regarding her personal life. "You killed two of his friends when you were evil. I've tried to explain to Graham what a good guy you usually are."
"Would he by any chance happen to know some dip named Riley?"
"You mean Riley Finn? They're best friends." Angel groans and looks up at the ceiling. Fred dials Graham's number. "To be fair, I think he hates Spike even more. And he's never even seen Spike kill anyone. So you are his favorite vampire, in a manner of speaking. Hi. Graham. It's Fred. Look, ahm wonderin' if you could do me a little favor? Me and my friends are tryin' to get into Sunnydale to help out Buffy. Right. A roadblock. Which one? I'm heading west on Segundo, at the intersection with Cementerio. Thanks a lot, Graham. You're a real sweetie." Fred hangs up, then looks at Angel. "Cementerio? Isn't that a bad name for a road in a town like this?"
"Or an apt name," Wes replies.
"We can always get out and sneak in," Connor suggests. "Except, of course, for Angel," he adds with a smirk.
"Just wait for a few minutes. Graham's gonna take care of everything."
"Are you sure you didn't sleep with him?," Angel asks. Fred responds with a withering "How'd you like for me to open the back door and give you some sun?" glare. "Come on, Freddie. It's a joke. You know Cordy would've said it. I was just trying to pick up the slack now that she's gone. Someone has to."
Three miles to the northeast, Kate picks up her phone. "Someone's trying to get in. An outsider? I thought everyone had gotten the message. It's been two days since any curiosity seeker's even tried. Oh. They claim to be friends of the Mayor. Doesn't everybody nowadays. No. Don't waste her time. I'll handle these tourists." Kate puts on a helmet, gets on a police motorcycle (it gives her the most flexibility in this setting) and rides off to send the latest nuisance packing.
"Is this gonna work?," Connor asks impatiently. The waiting's made him jumpy.
"Graham knows every officer here. He'll take care of it."
"Good. Don't wanna keep Dawn waiting."
"They're not even expecting us yet," Angel points out.
"Dawn's great. I think you guys'll really like her. She's really smart. And tough. I mean, she's been through so much."
"We know. You've been talking about her for the last hour," Gunn point out, only moderately exaggerating. Wes and Fred were also sick of Connor's ceaseless encomiums. For Angel, one word from Connor about Dawn was too much.
"Did you like it better when I wasn't nice and never talked to you?," Connor asks with a childish pout.
"I'm sorry," Fred says. "No. Wait. I'm not sorry. You're just tryin' to win cheap pity."
"While we welcome your newly amiable attitude," Wesley begins. "It's simply that, well - "
"You don't hear us talkin' your ear off about our girlfriends," Gunn finishes.
"But Dawn's my soul mate. I'm gonna marry her." This was new, and unsettling, information.
"You're going to what!?," Angel exclaims. He begins to hyperventilate. First Connor imprisons him at the bottom of the ocean. Now he talks of a Summers marriage. One nightmare scenario after another.
"When?," Gunn asks incredulously. He's never actually heard anyone say those four words in that exact order. They sounded so simple. And therefore insane.
"After she finishes college. That's what she says. I'd like to do it as soon as possible, like after high school. But she's always insisting on putting it off until way in the future."
"Angel, why are you hyperventilating?," Fred asks. "Ah mean, I know why. But, why?"
"As a vampire, you don't even need to breathe," Wes points out. "Or is it autonomic? Your neurons were conditioned during your human lifetime. They may tell your muscles to respond to stimuli in ways that make sense for a human, but not a vampire. A sort of neurochemical atavism." Wesley's rambling to take him mind off what Connor's talking about.
"She's even worse when I talking about having kids." Well, that took care of any hopes of putting this subject out of their minds. If Angel wasn't sitting, he would have fainted.
"You're lucky she didn't run away screaming," Fred points out.
"She doesn't like to think about those things. Are all women like that? Ya know, not as big into commitment as guys are?" This only provokes silence. Wesley wonders if Connor's trying to be ironic, then remembers that Connor doesn't know the meaning of the word. But Connor's only speaking from experience. Cordy slept with him and ditched him. Anya slept with him twice, then ditched him. He knows how caught up Gunn and Wes are with Fred, and Angel and Spike with Buffy. Xander's the only guy he knows who's shown any phobia about commitment. Connor's confused by the lack of response. "I don't understand. Isn't that what two people do when they love each other? Get married, then start a family?"
"In theory," Wesley responds. "In the real world, it's never quite that simple." Something all the other adults in the car can agree on. But Connor had been raised by Holtz, for whom it really had been that simple. He, of course, would have said "Get married. Start a family. Do everything you can to protect them from evil monsters."
"Connor, how long have you two known each other?," Angel asks rhetorically, hoping to show Connor how silly he sounds.
"Bout a month."
"Yeah, but how long were you two together?," Fred follows up.
"Four nights, and three days. But we didn't make love the first night." Everyone winces when Connor says those two words. The phone rings.
"Hey Graham. That's great. You're the best. Talk to you later." She hangs up. Gunn drives back the roadblock. A soldier's talking to the cop and waving the car forward. Two other soldiers remove the roadblock. Gunn rolls on into town. Kate arrives seconds later and sees the van driving away. Once again, Angel slips through her fingers. The first thing they see is the sixty foot-tall dome. Its yellow brickwork, now complete, gleams in the sunlight. "Looks like something survived."
"I don't remember that being there," Wesley insists. "Angel, have a look at this."
"I wish I could." Sunlight's coming through the left side of the front windshield. "I can see whatever it is if you drive by so it's on our right." Gunn swerves in that direction. A minute later, they pass it by. "It's definitely new."
"They built that in four days?," Gunn asks.
"And they did it right on top of the Hellmouth," Angel adds.
"How can you tell?," Wesley asks.
"See what's left of City Hall? That dome's right where the high school used to be."
"So you can navigate the wreckage," Gunn notes. "Too bad you can't navigate to that bunker."
"It's to the right," Connor tells them. "I said to the right."
"How the hell do you know that?," Gunn asks.
"No," Angel adds. "It can't be."
"You can smell her?," Fred asks, a little grossed out.
"Turn right," Connor orders. "Keep going . . . past this block . . . past this one too . . . okay, turn left. It's in the middle of that field up there." Connor grins. "She's excited." One hundred yards to the south, Amanda, Madari, Fadila and Ariella are training and goofing around in what's left of Vincente Santos's house, using the wreckage as obstacles to hide behind, leap over and fight around. Madari points out the unfamiliar black van.
"They know right where Buffy is," Amanda points out after Gunn parks. No one's gotten out yet. They're taking out their cells to call Buffy.
"We can't make it back," Madari concludes.
"Let's hide and see what their next move is," Amanda proposes. They crouch behind what's left of the walls, keeping out of sight. "They can't get underground," she whispers. "When they find that out, maybe they'll leave."
"Or just sit and wait for someone to come out so they can kill them," Madari fears. "What if they stay?"
"We wait," Amanda responds. "And we radio Buffy." She pulls out the two-way radios Kelly and Riley gave them because the cell towers are all down. Angel and his friends soon realize this.
"Perfect," Gunn announces. "Now we gotta get out of this town before we can tell them we're here."
"And in the meantime, we try to take 'em out," Ariella brashly proposes.
"What are you talking about?," Madari wonders. "They don't know we're out here. We attack, they will."
"That means we got surprise on our side," Fadila argues. "They're not expecting any trouble. They get hit, they could freak out and leave." Gunn gets out on the driver's side, which faces the girls. Wes and Fred get out on the other side. Amanda's having trouble working the radio, which she's never used before. She can't figure out if she's on the wrong frequency, or if the batteries or dead, or if the other radios inside the bunker are just turned off. They see Wesley behind the van. He opens up the back doors.
"They look human," Amanda points out. "Maybe they're friendly."
"That's not an army vehicle," Fadila adds, arguing the opposite. "All the other friendlies came in jeeps and humvees."
"They're not Bringers," Madari notes.
"The First has guys who look like people working for them," Ariella counters.
"Did Buffy or Giles say anything about visitors today?," Fadila asks.
"I don't think so," Amanda responds. They were outside when Angel called. "But we coulda missed something."
"You can't miss anything down there," Madari says. Wesley looks over the weapons. He pulls out a shotgun, then puts it back. The girls gasp. Then he takes out a giant ax. "Oh boy."
"I think you two were right," Amanda concedes.
"I wish you had that gun with you," Madari says to Ariella.
"I wish we still had bullets," she responds. This, of course, could have led to the tragic irony of Wesley – the one demon fighter who believes in using firearms – getting killed by the one Potential Slayer who agreed with him.
"We have something else," Fadila points out. During one of the breaks during training, she had made a reference to David and Goliath because of their underdog situation, and joked Ariella should get a sling because she's Jewish. Ariella joked Fadila should get one because she's Palestinian, and her people had used the weapon a lot more recently than Ariella's. The night before, when inventorying the weapons, Giles found a couple musty old leather slings that another Watcher had long ago used to hone a Slayer's aim and muscle control. After Buffy and Faith headed inside, they got hold of the slings, to them outside and tried the weapons out for fun. By now, they've had some practice. Ariella stood up, grabbed a stone, whipped her sling several times around, and released. The stone flew three feet above and five feet to the left of Wesley's head.
"Fred, did you see something fly by me just now?"
"No. Why?"
"I think we may be under attack."
"I thought these bad guys liked to do their work up close?," Gunn asks. He stands four feet to Wesley's right, along the side of the van. Fadila flings her stone. It slams into the side of the van one foot to the right of Gunn's head. He flinches, completely taken by surprise, and his adrenaline surges. Connor and Angel can't help but hear the impact from inside.
"I knew Buffy didn't want us to come, but this is a little extreme," Angel nervously jokes.
"That's a girl," Wesley says, pointing at Fadila as she ducks back behind the debris.
"Does that mean they're on our side?," Fred asks.
"It should."
"We're the good guys!," Gunn yells out. Naturally, the Potentials are not too trusting of strangers. Wesley puts his hands up and takes a few steps towards them. Fred and Gunn also put their hands up.
"We come in peace!," Wesley announces.
"We come in peace?," Fred whispers. "What are we, aliens?" The girls are deeply puzzled by this behavior.
"Are they trying to surrender?," Madari asks. Ariella and Fadila look at each other and smile.
"We're good," Fadila says to her.
"It could be a trick," Ariella points out.
"I saw one of the Bringers try to surrender to Connor," Amanda recalls. Just then, Connor leaps out the side door on the passenger's side of the van and runs around back. "Connor!," Amanda exclaims. He looks around, sure that someone said his name. "Connor!!," Amanda yells again. She stands up so he can see her. "It's me! Amanda!" He recognizes her and smiles.
"It's okay. They're with me." Madari, Ariella and Fadila stand up. "Hi Ella!," Connor yells out and waves. She waves back. Wes, Gunn and Fred try to recover from shock of the ambush. Especially Gunn, who came quite close to have his skull bashed open. The four girls run over to meet them.
"They've really trained those girls well," Fred concedes with a mixture of admiration and terror.
"Rupert said they were resourceful," Wesley adds.
"Reminds me of my old crew," Gunn says with a smile. They also knew how to greet suspicious-looking strangers who came to their neighborhood. Connor opens one of the two back doors.
"It's okay dad. That was just the Potentials. They didn't know which side we were on."
"They know now, right?"
"I took care of everything." Angel looks at the back side of the three inch-deep dent made in the metal by Fadila's rock.
"I guess the dealer's gonna charge us extra for that when we bring this back in at the end of the month. Is Buffy with them?"
"No. But they can let us inside."
"Tell me when."
"You thought I was gonna leave you here until sundown?," Connor jokes before closing the door. Angel hopes his son really was only joking. Connor, happy to play leader, introduces the gang to the girls.
"This is Gunn. This is Wes. This is Fred. They work for me." He can feel the heat of their angry stares on the back of his neck. "With me."
"Connor and Rupert have told us wonderful things about all of you," Wesley gushes, trying to make a good impression.
"Faith's said some cool things about you guys," Amanda replies.
"Sorry about your van," Fadila offers.
"Oh that. It's nothing," Wesley responds before getting a good look at the dent. "Actually, it's quite sizeable. She nearly killed you," he says to Gunn, making Fadila feel nervous and Gunn feel a little emasculated.
"Don't worry 'bout it," Gunn replies. "Someone nearly kills me just about every day of the week."
"Same with us," Ariella jokes.
"That's why we attacked you," Madari adds.
"Perfectly understandable," Wes assures them.
"Back when demons were hunting me day and night, I wasn't very trusting either," Fred confesses, causing the girls to think she's making fun of them.
"Can you take us inside?," Connor asks.
"Sure can," Amanda responds. Buffy gave her one of the two remotes that make the entrance rise. She presses it, and the entrance pops six feet up, wowing her guests.
"Damn," Gunn comments. "Buffy went all out."
"Actually, the Mayor did," Amanda explains. "With millions from Washington and Sacramento. Your tax dollars at work."
"Demon fighters can get grant money!," Fred enthuses. "Just like Physics professors. Except without tenure." The demons took care of that. Amanda takes out her card and runs it through the sensor.
"Hold on," Wesley says. He runs over and gets Angel out. Angel runs over with his coat over his head.
"Is that a vampire?," Madari asks.
"He's a good vampire," Fred assures her.
"Oh. That's Angel!," Amanda realizes.
"Who's Angel?," Fadila asks.
"The other vampire with a soul." Gunn and Fred find this characterization quite unbelievable. Angel, who can hear it from thirty feet away, is none-too-pleased.
"You mean Buffy's other ex-boyfriend," Ariella adds. Wes and Angel arrive.
"Hello," Angel says, knowing that it's always awkward meeting people when you have a coat over your head. "I'm Angel. You must be the Potentials." Amanda opens the door. Angel rushes in. His friends fall in single file behind him, followed by the Potentials. This creates a problem, since the people with the keys are farthest from the door. Angel knocks. Xander opens the door, expecting the Potentials.
"What are you doing here? Isn't the sun still out?" Spike, who's sitting on the couch watching television, turns around and sees Angel.
"In polite society, people call ahead," Spike tells him.
"Since when were you ever part of polite society?," Angel asks. The Potentials stand on the stairs, wondering what's going on.
"Do I have to invite you in?," Xander asks.
"Yes you do," Spike responds. "I say you make him wait outside. Your friends are welcome to come on in, thought." Willow and Giles walk over to the door.
"Angel!," Willow announces. "Come on in."
"Aren't you a little early?," Giles asks. Everybody streams in. "By the way, Angel, did you happen to spot four teenage girls outside?"
"Spot them?," Wesley comments. "They nearly took our heads off." The girls walk in.
"Is this true?," Giles asks Amanda.
"We were being vigilant. And Ella and Fadila are getting good with those slings. If Connor's friends were bad guys, those two coulda taken 'em out before they even got close enough to hurt us." Giles looks to Wesley for confirmation.
"I'm afraid she's telling the truth." Except of course if Wesley resorted to firearms. But he knew better than to mention that, preferring not to implant in Rupert's mind the image of Wesley gunning down his girls. By now, everyone's streamed into the living room to get a look at the visitors. Dawn and Connor catch sight of each other.
"Hello lover," Connor says with a grin. Dawn rushes up to him. She's wearing tight black jeans and a loose-fitting long-sleeve gray sweatshirt. A chill goes up Angel's spine. The phrasing, the tone, the attitude, they were identical to Darla's when she used that phrase. Yet more nightmares for him.
Told you he wus like his mum," Spike gleefully says into Angel's right ear. He's too stunned to notice Buffy until she walks up to him and says his name.
"Angel? Angel?"
"Oh. Hi Buffy. You look . . . very nice."
"You look very nice, too." Spike contemptuously mutters a few things to mock their banter as he walks away. Meanwhile, Dawn puts her right hand to Connor's bangs.
"You got a haircut."
"It was getting in my eyes."
"Yeah. Your eyes." They stand there, breathless, staring at each other and smiling. Connor runs his right hand through her hair and down her back. She takes a step away, worrying him. But she's just getting a better look at his clothes.
"Are these new?"
"Yeah. You like?"
Dawn smiles and raises her eyebrows. Connor grins, knowing the answer. She caresses his left cheek with her right palm. "I missed you."
"Hey. That's what I was gonna say," he jokes.
"Guess I took the words right out of you mouth," Dawn replies as she runs her right thumb over his lips. Connor sucks on it for a second before Dawn pulls her thumb back, then moves her hand down his neck, shoulder and arm before taking hold of his left hand. She turns around so she's standing to his left and looks at the room, which contains eighteen other people, reminding her that they are anything but alone.
"There's some people I want you to meet," Connor tells her.
"I don't remember Wesley being so grizzled and sexy," Anya says, to Xander's consternation. "Do you, Willow? Oh, why am I asking you? You're a lesbian. I might as well as Giles," she jokes.
"Please don't," Giles pleads.
"Andrew certainly seems wowed," Anya notes.
"He's very easily wowed," Xander responds.
"So you are the rogue agent with a license to kill," Andrew tells Wesley, who doesn't quite know what to make of this wide-eyed young man.
"Not exactly. I only have a license to send people to their deaths. Are you interested?" He's trying to get Andrew to leave him alone.
"I've currently pledged my life to Buffy. But if and when we defeat the First, I'd be free to work for you. I think you would find me very useful. I happen to know several demon languages." Obviously Andrew can't take a hint.
"You're Andrew."
"You know my name! You've heard of me." He gets very excited.
"Connor said you were a servant. And that you're here because you murdered your best friend and no one else would take you in." Connor heard that interpretation from Dawn.
"It's true. Without Buffy I'd be lost and adrift. But would you not have shared the same fate had Angel not taken YOU in?" He'd done his homework. "Yes Wesley, we are not so different after all." Naturally, this galls Wesley severely.
"I never murdered anyone. I never chose to make my living as a criminal. And, with Angel, I've always earned my keep."
"Yeah, well, okay, but, well, you're missing the forest for the trees. Or is it the trees for the forest? Either way, you're missing the big picture." Wesley turns around and walks over to the Potentials.
"You don't need to be jealous," Anya says to Xander.
"Jealous? Of who?"
"Wesley."
"Oh that's a big bouncy ball of ridiculousness."
"It's only natural and predictable that you would deny it."
"I am not jealous. Certainly not of Wesley."
"Yet my noticing him made you upset."
"Because it wasn't dignified. You shouldn't fawn over people like that." Xander drops his jaw and stares at Fred, who's walking straight towards him.
"You must be Xander."
"Uh-huh," he replies, after a few seconds.
"Willow's told me a lot about you."
"I hope most of it was good."
"Don't be modest."
"If you insist," he quips.
"Saving the world with words. Standing up to a friend who's Hell-bent on vengeance and destruction. Sometimes I wish I had a friend like you." The friend remark sends Xander back to Earth. But he takes the tainted compliment in stride.
"Well, I hope you've never been on the path to world destruction."
"Not yet," she jokes back. "Course, I'm somewhat new to all this stuff." She takes Xander's left hand in both her hands.
"This is the one you lost. That's so sad."
"At least it was for a good cause." She looks up at his face and smiles.
"You are so brave. Willow told me you were brave, but I guess bravery's one of those things ya gotta see up close to appreciate."
"Buffy said you were kicked out of the Council," Rona tells Wesley. Not exactly the way he would have wanted to start this conversation.
"Yes. I was let go."
"Why?," Amanda asks.
"Circumstances. Complex circumstances. But I'd rather not dwell on the past. Much has changed in the last four years."
"I know," Kennedy responds. "Willow's says you're no longer a quivering coward. Faith too."
"Well then. I suppose that could qualify as a compliment."
"So, are you, like, Mister Giles's protege?," Fadila asks.
Wesley gulps. "Is that what Rupert told you?"
"No. I just figured cause you're, you know, younger, and you have his intense stare and his I've slept in these clothes and didn't shave this morning but I'm not a slob, I've just been busy with some really important stuff' look." Wesley takes a moment to respond. Giles said Amanda was the talkative one.
"I didn't know that was a look," he tells Fadila.
"So what do you guys do in LA?," Ariella asks. "Do you just go around saving people from monsters, or is there also bigger, more important stuff?" He finds the question mildly insulting. Though he assumes Ella's merely reflecting the bias of the Sunnydale people around her.
"This past year alone, we've battled a demon made of stone, dealt with complete darkness, and fended off the nefarious meddlings of various Higher Beings."
"So you have or your haven't stopped an apocalypse?," Kennedy asks.
"More than one, I suspect."
"Suspect?"
"You can never that certain that you've saved the world unless you fail and the world is ended. That's the paradox of trying to avert an apocalypse. You can never be sure what you are averting. The counterintuitive hypothesis cannot apply." He wonders if that last sentence was over their heads.
"It's not your fault if you haven't," Madari assures him, not intending to sound patronizing. "There's only one Hellmouth."
"Actually, there's a second active one in Cleveland. And at least three other possible dormant Hellmouths."
"Giles said something like that once," Kennedy reports. "He said Hellmouths were like volcanoes, and only one of them can erupt at any one time."
"Still, there's none in LA," Madari notes, finishing her previous thought.
"But there are plenty of dimensional portals. Demons from other worlds enter the city on a regular basis."
"So it's like a Men in Black thing," Rona hypothesizes. "You guys gotta keep tabs on all the new demons, figure out which ones are friendly, and kill the ones that aren't."
"I suppose," Wesley responds, not quite enamored with the analogy. "Except we have far fewer resources and much more primitive weaponry."
"Saving the world on the cheap. Just like us," Kennedy concludes. "Except you get paid."
"Connor says Angel's place is like twenty times bigger than Buffy's was," Amanda reports.
"We only use a small portion of that space for our offices. Still, it is reasonably spacious. As a vampire, Angel is forced to spend much of his time indoors."
"I thought vampires lived underground," Ariella says. "Like Spike."
"Some vampires are more cultured and sophisticated than others." Wesley relishes the chance to extoll Angel and demean Spike.
"And some are so boring and shallow that they have to impress others with their possessions," Spike says. Wesley glances back to see Spike behind him. "You must be the defrocked Watcher. They so that those who can't do, watch. What about those who can't even watch?" Wes turns around and stares Spike down. They stand there, toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose. The girls conclude that it's some English thing and move on.
"You know all about failure, don't you William?," Wesley taunts back.
"You mean how I failed to earn my soul back? Nope, I did that. But big bloody deal. That sort of thing happens all the time. Your boss has done it on several occasions. No, actually, he never has."
"That would explain why your followers are far more numerous and loyal than Angel's," Wesley shoots back.
"Do you always hide behind him?"
"Do you see me hiding right now, William?"
"Since you were twelve!," Rona says to Gunn in astonishment.
"I didn't get real good at it 'till I was fifteen."
"When did you start running your own gang?," Fadila asks before realizing she might have used the wrong word. "Sorry. Posse."
"Crew."
"Yeah. Crew."
"Sixteen."
"Younger than me," Kennedy realizes.
"And you don't even have super powers," Amanda notes. "You don't, do you?"
"There've been times when I wish I did."
"So you've been fighting vamps even longer than Buffy," Rona realizes. "You're the most experienced person here." Gunn's never looked at it that way. He likes how this girl thinks.
"I don't like to throw labels like most experienced' around," he replies modestly. "All that matters is what you can do for someone right now. The demon you're fighting doesn't give a damn how many demons you've killed in the past."
"How come you're working for Angel?," Rona asks.
"You ran your own crew when you were a lot less experienced," Ariella adds.
"Angel should work for you, the way Spike works for Buffy," Rona theorizes. "And Wesley's like Giles. Fred's like Willow. They're supporting players. You should be the leader."
"Plus, you're human," Fadila adds. "Leader's gotta be human." Gunn's blown away by their interpretation of his situation. He thought Rona was saying these things because, as a sister, she knows how demeaning it can be to get type-cast as a sidekick. But it's not only her. In part, the Potentials are struck by the idea of a demon fighter without super powers whose primary job is fighting, not research or magic. To them, he's one of a kind, more special than Buffy or Faith.
"It's a partnership. We share the danger, the responsibility, the wealth. Not that there's a lotta wealth. I had my own crew, Wesley had his own agency. But we can do more together."
"You're like an all-star team, then," Amanda suggests.
"I like that," Gunn responds with smile. "Have you girls talked to Angel?" He'd love to see what Angel made of their wacky theories. But right now Angel's with Buffy.
"It's a nice place you have here," he tells her. It's awkward to be reunited amongst so many other people.
"Compliments to the Mayor."
"Mayor Santos. Does she have a brother named Vince?"
"Yeah. He's head of schools. How do you know him?"
"He was my landlord. Owns the basement apartment I used to live in. It's not like I knew him. I just mailed him a check every month. But he seemed pretty well-connected." Whistler came to Vince, hoping Vince could do him a favor and get him a place that would be appropriate for someone with Angel's needs. Whistler referred to Vince as if he had connections to the Powers. This was around the same time Vince got Giles his librarian job, something Angel doesn't know about.
"When you're the only powerful family on a Hellmouth who works for the good guys, you're going to be in demand. You want to see the rest of this place?"
"Actually, I would like to go somewhere a little less crowded."
"Over there's the dining room and the kitchen. We have some blood, if you want. Kelly brought it over. It's not hers, of course." Angel doesn't appreciate the joke, considering how hard Angelus worked (in vain) to taste her blood.
"I'm okay."
"Through that door is the other half of the bunker, where all the bedrooms are. Except for Faith's, and mine, which is right there. You want to see?"
"Your bedroom?" Angel gets nervous. "That's okay." Buffy also get nervous.
"Yeah. Good call. What do we need a bed for? While these two try to keep the sparks from starting a fire, Fred discusses String Theory with Giles, Anya talks relationships with Wesley, and Gunn chats with Xander about weapon design.