Chapter 14

Buffy followed Angel down an alley and towards a warehouse. Fred had said Wesley had gone there on a sting with a band of demons. The two Wolfram and Hart CEOs had nothing better to do at the moment, so they headed on over to see if Wesley could use some help. Angel looked back at Buffy and saw her trying to stifle a yawn.

"You know, you've logged more hours than I have." He said, stopping.

"I've noticed." Buffy shot back.

"You need rest. You're only human."

"I wish."

"Sweetheart, you've barely slept since Willow went back to Europe. You've been working around the clock with short naps during meetings. The other day, Spike said he walked in on you in your weapons room and you were asleep standing up."

"Ok, I've been keeping busy. I get that. But it's nothing to worry about. I'm just trying to get caught up from the two weeks I was forced out of commission due to being ran through with a sword." Buffy started walking again. "I don't have much left to do. I'll rest when I'm finished."

"You know, you could've slept instead of coming with me to help Wesley out."

"Between work and being a Slayer, I've barely had any time with you. I want to spend time with my husband, is that so wrong?"

"No. But I'd just feel better if you would take a day off at the very least and rest."

"I told you I will, just not today. Get off my back about it, ok? I'm not a little girl. I can take care of myself. I'm an orphan, remember? Orphans know how to take care of themselves."

"You're not an orphan."

"Well, let's see Angel, my mom's dead and my dad disowned me because he couldn't handle what I really was. I think that qualifies as being an orphan." She sighed. "Oh, and we can't forget the little sister I have to finish raising."

"We."

"Whatever."

Angel grabbed Buffy's upper arms and hauled her to a stop. "Are you ok?"

"Been better."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm cranky today."

"About what?"

"I don't know really. I guess it's mainly the stress of running a multi- dimensional company, being married, raising a teenager, being a Slayer, and playing babysitter to the ghost since I'm the only one nice enough to do it."

"Is Spike finally starting to get on your nerves? I coulda told you that he would. I lived with him for more than a lifetime."

"It's not Spike."

"Then what is it, really?"

"I just told you!"

"Honestly, I don't think any of that's what's bothering you."

"Then tell me, oh mighty seer of all things, what do you think is wrong with me?"

Suddenly, gun fire caught their attention. They both looked over to discover that they were at the warehouse where Wesley's sting was going down. In a flash, they dove through a window and rolled to their feet. Angel came face to face with a ninja. They traded quick blows and then Buffy snuck up behind him and snapped his neck. Electricity surged around the break. Angel pulled the black knit full-face mask off of the man to discover he didn't have a face at all, only a ridged metal plate where his face should've been. Angel stared at him, confused. Wesley joined them. From behind them, Dawn moaned softly.

"Dawn!" Wesley said.

"Dawn!?" Buffy asked. Wesley went to Dawn's side to discover that she'd been hit through the shoulder. Wesley pressed a handkerchief to her wound and stared past her into space. "Move!" Buffy grabbed Wesley's collar and threw him away. "God, Dawnie. Please be ok." Angel picked her up in his arms and they ran out.

Wesley was standing in front of Buffy and Angel's desk, staring solemnly into the distance. "She could have been killed." Buffy said, trying to contain her anger.

"Medical's optimistic. She should be up and about soon enough." Eve said.

"That's not the point." Angel said.

"What the hell was my teenage sister doing there in the first place?" Buffy asked.

"I needed someone who could explain the weapon convincingly. She's rather brilliant.." Wesley tried.

"Nobody else here knows how to explain a gun?"

"I needed someone who wouldn't arouse Emil's suspicion. Someone I could trust. Fred was busy."

"And so conveniently, the only person who could go with you was Dawn. Did I mention that she's my YOUNGER teenage sister?"

"She shouldn't have been there. It was a reckless decision." Angel said.

"Dawn has more than proven herself in the field. There was no reason to think.." Wesley said.

"We found her bleeding to death on the ground." Buffy yelled. "From now on, you clear it with me AND Angel before using any of our people."

"Your people?"

"Got it?"

Wesley turned and left. "Kinda hard on him, weren't you?" Eve asked.

"She could have.."

"Been killed. So you said."

"Did you also notice the part where that's my younger sister?"

"I think you guys are making too big a deal about this. And from what I understand, her wound wasn't all that severe."

"You weren't there. You didn't see her." Angel said.

"But she's ok. And you're both still beating him up."

"He can be careless."

"Focuses too much on the big picture? Overlooks the people involved?"

"Something like that."

"Willing to risk anything.. or anyone.. for the greater good." Buffy and Angel looked sharply at Eve. "Look, hey.. I'm just asking. Could it be there's another reason you're getting so mad at him about this? Mmm.. stealing your son, for instance?"

"We don't talk about our son."

"You guys don't trust Wesley, do you? I mean, I can see that. He did turn Connor over to your sworn enemy."

"He didn't mean for that to happen. He thought he was doing the right thing." Buffy said.

"And I guess it all worked out. Connor's ok, you're happy.. Maybe Wesley knew what he was doing after all. Even if he doesn't remember any of it."

"That's got nothing to do with.." Buffy sighed. "We just want to be kept informed. That's all."

"Is it? Or are you guys worried about the next time Wesley betrays you trying to do 'the right thing'?"

"This discussion is over. Time for you to leave." Eve nodded and walked out. Buffy stood in front of the large window, staring out at the city.

Angel walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey."

"She could've died."

"I know."

"I'm not just pissed at Wesley, but I'm pissed at Dawn too. Is that normal?"

"She lied to us. She told us that she was going to stay at a friend's house. I'm pissed at her too."

"She's grounded, that's for sure."

"I'm with you." Angel wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his chin on top of her head. "But you know what?"

"Hmm?"

"She's growing up. We can't control her forever."

"And that's what scares me the most. She's going to go off to college soon and start a whole new life. I mean, it's her senior year. We don't have much longer to take care of her."

The next day, Buffy and Angel were standing over the opened corpse of the cyborg while Fred explained what she and Dawn had found. "We found cybernetics throughout the body, in most cases replacing entire organic systems."

"Was it human?" Buffy asked.

"We think so." Dawn said.

"The nervous system seems human at least, but the rest of the technology is so foreign to us." Fred picked up. "We can't be sure of anything right now. This thing really blurs the line between human and robot."

"Aha!" Spike said, playing with a glass beaker. "So you're not ruling out that a human being could've boffed a robot." They all stared at him. "Sex with robots is more common than most people think."

"Spike, can we please not bring that up?" Buffy asked.

"What?" He shot back innocently.

"It's gross and really disturbing. I still can't believe you made a sexbot that looked like.." Buffy noticed the faces of everyone. "No one I know." Dawn giggled. "Shut up Dawn."

"Um, the cybernetics require central processing to function, which means if we can crack its memory, we may find a record of everything it's done till this point." Fred said.

"And maybe figure out who or what it wanted." Angel said.

Spike knocked the beaker off the shelf. "Hey! Did you.." He held up his hands. "Sorry."

"Um, so far, we haven't had much luck decoding the encryption." Dawn said.

"It seems to be a binary-based system, so we'll get there eventually. We just have to find the right transform variable." Knox said.

"Ok, we need you on this till we get some answers." Angel said.

"You got it." Dawn said.

"Let us know if you need more resources." Eve said.

Wesley and an older man walked into the lab. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet my father, Roger Wyndam-Price."

"Hello." Roger said.

"Daddy, eh? I always thought Wesley was grown in some sort of greenhouse for dandies." Spike said.

"Spike."

"You've heard of me?"

"No. We've met. 1963. My colleagues and I fell upon you slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna. Killed 2 of my men before you escaped."

"Oh.. how've you been?"

"I didn't know your father was coming to visit, Wesley." Angel said. He held out his hand. "I'm Angel. This is my wife Buffy. Pleasure to meet you."

"Do you really expect me to shake that?" Roger stared at Angel's hand.

"I'm not real comfortable with hugging. No. I realize this may be somewhat of a horror show to you. But I hope you can keep an open mind. We really are doing good work here."

"So I'm told. Incessantly, in fact." Roger looked at Buffy. "Miss Summers."

"It's missus." Buffy shot back.

"Yes, of course. You married this vampire and went against everything that a Slayer is."

"What of it?"

Wesley noticed the tension between Slayer and Watcher. "I heard we could be of some use."

"Of course. Um, we were just going over the autopsy." Fred said.

"Fred, keep us posted." Buffy said. She walked out. Angel looked around and then followed her out.

A little while later, Buffy was headed back to her and Angel's office when Lorne and Wesley's father rounded a corner with Fred. She tried not to acknowledge Roger, but it was hard when he called, "Miss Summers."

She stopped and turned. "I told you, it's.."

"Missus. Yes, but it's hard to concede the fact that you married an abomination."

"Excuse me?"

"Hey, hey, hey.." Lorne said. "I have another joke to tell."

"I do believe you heard me. You are an affront to everything a Slayer is. You were not only a disgrace to the Council and the Slayer name, but you are also an influence to the disgrace that became Mr. Giles and my son."

"How dare you? Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I have every right to give the facts to you straight. When the Council is reformed, you will play no part in it."

"The Council's reforming?"

"And neither you nor Mr. Giles are being considered for readmittance."

"And what makes you think either of us would consider it?" Angel walked around a corner. "You know, you have a lot of nerve to come onto MY turf and insult not only me, my husband, and your own son, but then you insult Giles. This is unbelievable. I am the single best Slayer that damn Council has ever had and you know it. You can't just come in here and assume that you're better than everybody here. Newsflash: You're not. I didn't see you fighting the wars that I did. And furthermore, your son was right there in the thick of it alongside Angel and myself. You wanna call us abominations, go right on ahead, but just remember that while you sat on your ass in England drinking tea with the Queen Mum, WE were the ones out there keeping the world safe from the real abominations." Buffy turned sharply on her heel and stormed off.

Ten minutes later, Fred, Wesley, and Dawn were sitting in front of Buffy and Angel's desk. Spike stood off to the side watching. "What happened?" Angel asked, sitting behind the desk with a seething Buffy at his side.

Spike stepped forward. "I can explain. Apparently, when Percy here was younger, he used to be known as head boy."

"Yeah. We already knew that."

"Right. I have nothing else to report." He walked away.

"I accidentally tripped the cyborg's self-destruct mechanism." Wesley said.

"Anyone could have made the mistake. Wesley was just trying to interpret some symbols for us." Fred said.

"Luckily, my father was there to correct my error."

"Right. Your father." Buffy said scronfully. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Well, Lorne's keeping him entertained." Dawn said. She thought a second. "Come to think of it, that's probably not the best idea. Fred and I'll go rescue him." With that, the two left.

"I'm finished here, too." Spike said. "If you want, I can have someone type up the report about head boy."

"Get out." Angel said.

"Suit yourself." Spike left.

"It was a stupid mistake." Wesley said.

"Yeah, well, your father's visit just rattled you." Angel said.

"I find it hard to think straight when he's around."

"Fathers and sons. That can be torture sometimes."

"Also, fathers and daughters." Buffy said with a sigh. "Look, you should see this. Came from your department. Reports of assassins that sound a lot like our cyborg." She handed Wesley a file.

He read through it. "Hmm. Group of them took out a demon cabal in Jakarta. Another group destroyed the Tanmar Death Chamber. Sounds like they're doing our work for us."

"These are good guys?"

"I don't know. I should reference this with the markings we found, find some clues as to their origin."

"Get on it. If these guys are on our side, then somebody should tell them before they start trying to kill us again."