Chapter Twenty-One – Did I Screw Up Again?
The doctor finished up with Faith. Leaving the hospital, Lorne led them over to another building. This one looked permanent, like it had been a fishing shack when used. Lorne waved the sole occupant out.
"Hon, I don't know if I want you to tell me because your aura was screaming at me from fifty yards away."
"I'm sorry," Wesley started.
"You're sorry? I haven't heard one word in three months. And now this."
"Hey, back off Lorne. You don't know," Faith screamed at him.
Wesley sank down in a chair. "They're gone, Lorne."
"You were supposed to get to the rendezvous point."
"We. I know. Angel, he . . . . Cordelia. I know." It was all mixed up in his head in addition to the phantom pain in his arm.
"You know, I don't accept it."
"It happened. I was there."
"Why didn't you do something?"
"What?" Wesley couldn't believe that Lorne would blame him for their deaths.
"I said back off, demon. If you know what's good for you." Faith had taken up position in front of Wesley to shield him. But he wouldn't let Faith fight his battles.
"Do you really think I could have prevented it? That they died because of me? Let's go, Faith." Wesley walked out of the building in a hurry.
"Slow down, Wes," Faith called from behind him.
He had to get out, to leave before his control slipped. Lorne raced after him too, obviously not done with his finger pointing.
Lorne called to him to wait too. "Tell me what happened."
Wesley stopped, turned and calmly pointed his gun at Lorne's head. "I'm done talking. Now let us leave."
Faith knew this time would come for Wesley. She just didn't know when or in what fashion. Why'd he have to be so calm? Stiff upper British lip probably.
People were starting to point and get out of the way. Dawn and Connor saw the commotion and started to run towards them.
"What the . . . ." Lorne didn't understand the duress the man had been under the past three months, hell, the past couple of years.
"Wesley, give me the gun," she calmly as possible asked him.
"He wants to know why I screwed up. Why they're all dead." Wesley then laughed. "Did it again, didn't I? Failed. Screwed up."
"Oh, babe. Give me the gun," Faith begged. A couple of guards with weapons had appeared around the corner.
"I watched them stab Cordelia to get to Angel. I saw Fred and Gunn turned into burnt corpses. What could I have done differently?"
"Oh God, Wesley. I didn't know."
"No, you didn't care to know."
"Wesley, give me the fucking gun right now." Wesley finally looked at her, acknowledging her presence.
"Lorne, get the slayer and the teenagers to these coordinates." Wesley handed him a piece of paper and walked away, putting the gun back where it belonged, in his waistband. He headed back to the car, passing Dawn and Connor, but not acknowledging them.
"What's going on, Wes?" Connor asked as he passed.
This is bad, this is really bad, Faith thought. So she ran. She ignored the pain in her shoulder, ignored the noise in her head, cuz it wasn't good. She took him low and brought him down in the dirt. A grunt of pain was all she heard, until he was able to turn on the ground to face her.
"Get off of me."
"No. No way in hell."
They had gathered a crowd now.
Wesley raised his fist to hit, stopping mere inches from her face. She could see that some sense was coming back to him as he stopped that fist.
"I, I'm sorry."
Faith pinned him to the ground for a moment longer, to see if he had gotten whatever it was out of his system.
"Ready to go now?" she asked him.
"Yes. That would be lovely." She offered her good arm up, and then led him to the car.
"Dawn, Connor, now." The two listened to her. They hurried and jumped in the front. Faith then waved to Lorne.
"Later," she yelled back to him as she climbed in the back with Wesley.
He sat in the back, as still as a statue, looking straight ahead. Dawn started the vehicle without a word and headed out of the makeshift town. No one spoke. After driving for a while, Connor shifted in his seat to look back to Faith.
"We need to find a place for the night."
"Yeah. Start looking."
TBC