REPRECUSSIONS
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.
CHAPTER 6-DRUG INDUCED VISIONS AND RESURECTIONS
A bright light brought him back. His first recollections of that moment would be staring up at a bright light trained on him. Giles had positioned the light so as to get a better look at the gashes on his arm and side. The first blurry images that registered in his mind were of a pair of young girls staring at him oddly. Both looked to be no older than fifteen and neither one looked as if they'd slept in a good long while.
"Wait…he's up…we'd better get Mr. Giles," Amanda whispered softly with a nervous look of panic on her face before she jumped up out of her chair and took off out of the room.
"Damn…," Wesley growled loudly in pain as he tried to sit up but had to stop when the action sent lighting bolts of pain throughout his body.
"Whoa…easy…Mr. Giles said that you weren't supposed to move very much," Vi said softly with a scared look on her face, before she hunkered down in her chair and looked away.
"I'm…sorry…if I startled you," Wesley weakly stated with a very uncomfortable grimace on his face as he brought his good arm overtop of his eyes to block out the blinding sunlight that streamed in through the hole in between the curtains.
"Are you…okay," Vi asked softly as she seemed to halt, if only briefly, her retreat down into her chair.
"I think I'll live…," Wesley remarked with a meager smile etched on his face before he kept his hand positioned correctly just above his eyes and was about to turn his gaze to Vi when Giles, flanked by Robin and Faith with Xander and Willow bringing up the rear hurried into the room.
"How do you feel," Giles asked softly with a concerned expression on his face as he walked over to the side of the bed.
"Like I've been run over by a herd of elephants…but I think I'll make it," Wesley joked with a quick grin on his face before a quick breath sent shivers of pain throughout his chest.
"Good…because I need to ask you a few questions, do you remember what attacked you," Giles smiled as he nodded his relief at Wesley's words before he launched into his first question.
"No…it all happened to fast, but whatever attacked me was strong…if I hadn't been armed I…," Wesley started to reply with a confused and tired look on his face before he trailed off as he turned to stare out of the window.
"I have a bad feeling that I know what attacked you Wesley…but that can wait until later…," Giles said softly with a concerned frown on his face as he turned back to the group behind him.
"Why are you here," Robin blurted out with an almost accusing tone to his voice, a tone that caught Faith off guard as had the two been alone she would have slapped him upside the head, but with the circumstances as they were she was more worried about Wesley's health.
"I found a passage in one of my books, it pertains to a weapon that is…and I quote…her alone to wield, the passage goes on to say that the weapon is the only hope in defeating the uttermost evil, but at the moment I haven't a clue as to what the weapon looks like or where to find it, only that it's a good bet that it's located somewhere nearby…here on the hellmouth," Wesley replied with a very serious look on his face as he tried to sit up but the pain in his head quickly told him otherwise.
"Which book is it…," Robin asked again quickly, caring more that they obtained the information then that Wesley was available to help them interpret it.
"In a hurry are we…I came to give the information to Buffy, so if you'd…," Wesley joked with a surprised and slightly alarmed look on his face before he again trailed off, letting his silence speak volumes before Willow interrupted him.
"She's not here…a few days ago we put it to a vote and we put Faith in charge…Buffy…left…with Spike, we haven't seen either of them since…," Willow softly stammered out, as if she were confessing to a murder. Wesley remained silent for a few moments before his course of action became clear.
"Then if Faith is in charge I want to speak to her alone…if I could," Wesley stated with a soft edge to his voice, yet an edge that was also full of purpose, as he regarded the group assembled with a perplexed look on his face, though his fully gaze only bore down on Faith, who squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny. For a time it looked as if there would be an argument about whether or not to agree to what Wesley was proposing, but Faith stopped the debate before it began.
"Sure…," Faith quipped, a little too quickly for Robin and Giles' tastes, before she seemingly glared everyone else out of the room.
"Thank you," Wesley breathed with a pained frown on his face after Willow had left and shut the door behind her.
"You're welcome…and before you start in with the what in the hell is going on here it wasn't my idea…at all, so let's move beyond that shall we…did Angel send you," Faith replied with a concerned expression on her face as she tried to calm her and Wesley's nerves down.
"Angel was here…," Wesley asked with a surprised look on his face as he slowly made his way to sitting up and looked over at Faith, who approached him very slowly, as if he were going to explode any second.
"Long story short he came…made us all feel like shit and then left," Faith replied with a slightly scared look on her face as she carefully sat down on the side of the bed beside Wesley.
"Are you okay," Wesley asked softly, the honest concern clearly evident in his voice, as he slowly lifted up his good arm and placed his thumb beneath Faith's chin and brought her gaze up until it was on level with his.
"You know me Wes…five by five…," Faith replied meekly with a look of fake bravado on her face as she tried to sound confidant.
"Fuck five by five Faith, don't lie to me, I could see it in your eyes after you fought the Beast in LA, you might not want to admit it but you're scared, scared out of your mind and you're to damn proud to ask for help," Wesley spat out with a very impatient and fed up scowl on his face as he made sure that Faith didn't look away and that their gazes stayed locked onto one another's.
"Okay…you want the truth Wesley…fine…you deserve it…I don't have a clue what I'm doing here, I'm no leader, somehow they all got the idea that just because I'm a slayer I'm a leader…Buffy's the one to put in charge, I've thought about just running away like I used to but I get as far as the backyard before I change my mind and come back inside," Faith added with an impatient and scared look on her face before she pulled away from Wesley's grasp and walked over to the window.
"You don't give yourself enough credit Faith, not everyone's cut out to be a leader, I myself have been a leader…and completely and royally fucked it up, at least until I broke you out of prison, ever since then things have been going better, as odd a notion as that seems, if I didn't know better I'd think that you were my good luck charm," Wesley said with an almost consoling tone to his voice as he turned his head and looked over at Faith, who only half glanced back at him.
"Heh…right, a good luck charm that ties you to a chair and tortures you for a few hours until Angel stepped in…fuck this I'm out of here," Faith replied softly with a worried edge to her voice before she growled the last bit and stormed out of the room.
* * * * * *
"So you see, I run the science department, Charles runs the legal department, Wesley runs the deciphering, decoding, and artifacts division, Lorne runs the entertainment division and Angel…well he basically runs the entire show, understand," Fred said with a very proud look on her face as she led the other lithe brunette around the offices of Wolfram and Hart.
"I think so…but what am I supposed to do," The young girl asked with a timid tenor in her voice as she stare wide eyed out over the lobby.
"You…why you're our good luck charm sugarplum," Lorne exclaimed with an energetic smile on his face and wave of his hand as he walked towards the railing. Molly instinctively flinched as Lorne neared but stayed in her place beside Fred, her gaze locked onto the green empath demon nearby.
"S…sorry," Molly mumbled with an embarrassed expression on her face as she turned away and swept her gaze over the lobby again.
"For what honey…," Lorne asked, a bit perplexed, as he furrowed his brows and shared a confused look with Fred, who only shrugged her shoulders in reply.
"I shouldn't have stared at you, me mum told me that it's not polite to stare…," Molly replied with an uneasy look on her face as she tore her gaze away from the goings on in the lobby to look back up at Lorne.
"Stare all you want my little chickadee, I'm used to it, it kind of goes with the territory when one has horns and a complexion like mine," Lorne added with a sincere smile on his face before a startled gasp from behind caught them all off guard as the trio spun around.
"Molly," Buffy gasped out softly with a startled expression on her face as she paled a bit and desperately searched for the right words to say.
"Buffy…I'm so glad that you're okay," Molly nearly shrieked out with relief before she rushed forward and enveloped the slayer in a bear hug, tears coming to her eyes.
"M…me to…but how…," Buffy stammered out with a thoroughly confused, but clearly relieved look on her face as she tried to hold back tears of her own before Spike stepped out of a nearby elevator and did a double take as he thought that he recognized Molly.
"Bloody…," Spike started to say with an unsure frown on his face before Molly broke away enough from Buffy to see Spike and instantly rushed to him and threw her arms around him in a tight bear hug. "Uh…nice to see you to pet…," Spike added with an overwhelmed look of confusion on his face as he looked to first Buffy and then Fred and Lorne for answers.
"Molly…what are you doing here…why aren't you…," Buffy asked with a slightly worried look on her face as she fidgeted with her hands a bit before shoving them into the pockets of her jeans.
"In a bloody hospital bed back in Sunnydale…well I would still be there if they hadn't moved all of the patients out of Sunnydale when they did," Molly started to reply with a relieved smile on her face as she let go of Spike and turned back to Buffy.
"And when one of our contacts that worked at the hospital that Molly was brought to looked at her blood work and figured out that she was a potential slayer she had a cleric rush over and heal young Molly here," Lorne finished Molly's answer with a content smile on his face as he looked back and forth between Buffy and Spike, hoping that the two understood everything that he was saying.
"So why aren't you back in Sunnydale with the others…I'd think that…," Buffy started to ask with a scared look on her face before her shoulders shook every so slightly, an even that didn't go entirely unnoticed, as Spike walked over and slipped a supportive arm around her shoulders.
"What the slayer means is that why aren't you back at the fort with the other mutineers," Spike asked with a concerned edge to his voice as he fleshed out Buffy's question.
"Winifred told me about that…I can't believe that they did that…when Mr. Giles came to get me all that he could talk about was how safe I'd be once we got to your house and how you'd know what to do…," Molly replied with a nervous frown on her face as she crossed her arms and stared over at Buffy and Spike.
"Y…you mean you don't…hate me…for what happened at the vineyard," Buffy asked softly, her voice trembling ever so slightly, as she leaned into Spike.
"Of course not…it's not your fault what happened to me…I should have been quicker…you couldn't have known that it was a trap…I just wish that we would have gotten another shot at it…," Molly answered with a somber pout on her face that was only reinforced further as she stuck her bottom lip out.
"Don't we all Nibblet…don't we all…," Spike mumbled softly in agreement as he slowly nodded his head.
* * * * * *
After storming out of the room Faith had secluded herself up in the tree in Buffy's backyard. While it was true that she had never been one to climb trees Faith thought that it'd be the best place to have some time to herself to think, and to avoid the stares of the potentials. When she had first taken over their gazes had been filled with hope and promise, but after her disasterous trek into the tunnels they had begun looking at her with fear and terror in their eyes. The worst were the looks that Willow and Xander and Anya would give her. Try as they might she could see the doubt in their eyes, the doubt that they had made the right choice and how if ever they could go about rectifying things after the battle with the First was over. She couldn't recall exactly how long she had been reclining back in the tree but frowned sadly as she watched the sun begin its trek beneath the horizon for the night. She debated on whether or not to climb down and go back inside but the thought of everyone asking her what their next move was caused her to stay up in the tree, even when the light rain began to fall. Instead she relished in the sensation of the bitterly cold water droplets contacting her skin, sending refreshing chills throughout her body, telling her that this wasn't all just some weird and twisted dream. She had almost fallen asleep in the rain when Robin stepped out of the house with Joyce's old umbrella and walked slowly towards the tree.
"Are you a squirrel now," Robin asked softly with a slightly joking hint to his voice as he smiled and tilted his gaze up the tree.
"I just needed some time by myself to think…," Faith replied more to the wind than anyone in particular as she stared up into the early evening sky and let the soft rain soak her through and through.
"Well come inside before you catch a cold…Giles wants to talk to you…," Robin reported with a concerned frown on his face as he started to turn around back towards the house.
"Okay…I'll be there in a minute…but tell him that I'm going to have to change first," Faith said with a sad frown on her face as she reluctantly leapt out of the tree and walked across the soft mud towards the house, smiling inwardly at the feeling of the mud squishing in between her toes.
"I'll do that…but make it quick, Rupert did seem pretty worried about something," Robin called after Faith as she cleaned her feet off on the mat in front of the door and headed inside.
She passed through the kitchen without even glancing over at Willow and Giles seated at the kitchen table as she grabbed some of her clothes and a towel from the bathroom and headed towards what had been Buffy's room. When she walked in she found Vi asleep in the chair beside the bed and Wesley snoring softly with a couple of heavy blankets pulled up almost to his neck. Faith quickly roused Vi and ushered the potential out of the room before she smiled back at Wesley as she shut the door. She slowly walked back towards the bed while using the towel to wipe her face and arms off before she peeled off her soaking wet shirt and laid it on the chair that Vi had just vacated. She thought about taking a shower but stopped when she heard one of the potentials rush inside and slam the door shut and other potentials growls of frustration.
"Guess I'll just have to change in here Wes…now don't peek, you wouldn't want to ruin that nice guy image that you've got going for you…," Faith mused with an impish smile on her face as she regarded Wesley before she noticed the pill bottles on the nightstand and knelt down in front of them. "What the fuck…these things are way to powerful for…what the hell is Giles thinking…guess I'll just have to bring this up when I talk to him," Faith wondered aloud with a pessimistic scowl on her face before she stood up and slipped out of the rest of her clothes, throwing them into an ever growing pile on the chair beside the bed. She had put on a new bra and thong and had just pulled her jeans up, but hadn't buttoned them yet when an odd noise startled her. Instantly she crouched down into a defensive position and swept her gaze quickly around the room, looking for the source of the noise. As she continued to listen she followed the noise back towards first the bed and then Wesley. Taking great care not to wake Wesley Faith crept up on the bed and slowly pulled back the covers. Having done this Faith caught sight of something shaking in Wesley's pocket. Pulling it out Faith let out a sigh of relief as it was only Wesley's pager that had gone off, vibrating loudly. Sighing lightly Faith turned it around and read the message on the small screen, groaning at the sight of Angel's name and that it was urgent. She was just about to shut it off and slip the pager into one of her pockets when one of Wesley's eyes opened into a slit.
"F…Faith…what are you," Wesley mumbled softly as he tried to focus his blurry vision on Faith while lifting his head up.
"Just making sure that you haven't bleed through the bandages again…," Faith lied back in her reply as she smiled her best honest smile and hope that would suffice.
"Willow changed them a few minutes ago…so tell me another one…," Wesley joked softly with a cheesy smirk on his face as he started to sit up, getting up high enough to rest on his right elbow before Faith acted.
"Whoa now Wes…Giles said that you're supposed to stay on your back," Faith said with a serious look on her face as she swung one leg over Wesley and lightly tried to push him back down, straddling him in the process.
"I thought that was you…," Wesley quipped with a daring look in his eye that Faith initially regarded with a restrained look of frustration.
"Ooh…good one Wes…making fun of me is really going to get you very far…now lie down…or else," Faith chided Wesley with a hint of anger in her voice as she increased the pressure on pushing Wesley back down as she also leaned forward and got into his face, making sure that he got the point, until their foreheads almost touched.
"Are you threatening me Faith…you should know better than anyone that I don't respond well to threats…," Wesley replied with a sly grin on his face as he pushed himself back up to his former position of resting on his right elbow and stared Faith directly in the eye.
"And you should know Wes…that I don't either…so don't push me…," Faith whispered back softly in a thinly veiled threat as she glared back at Wesley.
"And what if I do…," Wesley whispered back softly as he inched closer to Faith, with neither one noticing that Faith had leaned down farther and Wesley's right hand had slipped up high enough so that his thumb softly washed across her cheek and that she was now in fact keeping him sitting up instead of him relying on leaning on his elbows.
"Then I'm just going to have to…," Faith started to growl back with an angry frown on her face before Wesley took a chance and pulled Faith closer to him until their lips met somewhere in the middle. The kiss lasted a few mere seconds before Faith pulled away. "Wes what the fuck do you think…," Faith started to whisper back before she found her lips back up against Wesley's, but this time it was her lips that were pressed to his. As the kiss slowly began to deepen neither Wesley nor Faith noticed that the doorknob slowly began to turn before the door soundlessly opened and someone stepped inside.
"Faith…what…," Robin exclaimed with a very taken by surprise and overwhelmed expression on his face as he stumbled back a step before Faith and Wesley jolted apart, Faith with a startled look of fear on her face and Wesley with a hard groan as Faith released her hold on him and the collision of his body and the bed jolted his injured shoulder and side.
"Robin…wait…don't…fuck…," Faith shouted as she tried to get out a plausible explanation of why she'd be straddling Wesley on the bed, shirtless with bare feet, her hair all wet and draped suggestively over her face, bare feet, and jeans with her underwear showing and the top button undone. She scrambled off of the bed in an attempt to catch Robin as he backed quickly out of the room and took of down the hallway but ended up only falling off of the bed, not initially hearing Wesley's groan of pain as she had used his injured shoulder to push off of to get out of the bed quicker.
* * * * * *
"So that's what Caleb was protecting at the vineyard," Molly asked with a cocked eyebrow and her face scrunched up in scrutiny as she leaned across the table and stared at the scythe.
"Yep…he was really intent on keeping me from getting it…that is until the First told him to let me go…if it hadn't I wouldn't have gotten there in time to save Faith and Kennedy and the others from those three ubervamps," Buffy answered softly as she slowly paced around the table, sipping on her glass of water in odd intervals.
"Gunn…do we have anything on this Caleb guy…full name, birthday, credit history…anything," Angel asked with a concerned frown on his face as he leaned back in his chair at the head of the conference table and stared up at the ceiling.
"I've got my best people on it…we'll have everything on him in less than an hour…we'd probably have it to you sooner if Wesley were here…any luck," Gunn replied with a nervous frown on his face as he shuffled through a few folders on the table in front of him and glanced over at Fred.
"Nothing yet…I left a message on his pager but for some reason he hasn't called back yet, I hope nothing bad's happened to him…," Fred added with a worried and helpless look on her face as she shook her head in dismay and stared at her phone.
"We don't have the time to worry…Fred, send a retrieval team to Sunnydale…with full extraction clearances, I don't care what they have to do to find Wesley but I want him back here…sooner rather than later," Angel demanded with a very authoritative tint to his voice as he clenched his hands into fists and bore a hole straight through a slightly shocked Fred with his gaze.
"Full extraction clearances…but what if…," Fred began to ask with a timid look of fear on her face before Angel rolled his eyes and sighed deeply.
"Just tell them not to kill any humans okay, tell them to kill everything else, I don't care what it is, if it gets in their way they have permission to terminate it, with what's happened the time to be patient and tread lightly has ended, we have the power and capabilities so we're going to use them to their fullest," Angel answered with a very serious look on his face as he stood up and turned around to face the old painting on the wall.
"What about us…," Spike asked, after having stayed silent up to that point, as he pushed off of the wall and caught up with Buffy's pacing.
"What do you mean…," Gunn asked with a slightly confused look on his face and tone to his voice as he turned and looked back over his shoulder at the pair.
"I'm not going home…I can't…at least not yet, we need…," Buffy trailed off with a nervous and sad pout on her face before she stopped walking and leaned back into Spike.
"Whatever you need Buffy…you need a house…fine…we have hundreds to choose from…Wolfram and Hart's big in the real estate market, we could probably even get you into a mansion that some famous star used to live in…that is after we replace all of the windows with windows that have been treated with the necro-tinting agent so that Spike doesn't erupt in flames…," Angel answered with a deep shrug of his shoulders before he slowly turned around and tried his best to stay calm while Spike smiled brightly and Buffy nodded her appreciation in silence.
"So what do I do…," Molly asked again, this time with a scared look on her face as she sat back down in her chair and stared meekly at Angel.
"Simple Nibblet…you come with Buffy and me, you're behind on your training…except no note taking this time okay ," Spike answered quickly with a slightly joking tone to his words before Buffy turned to him and furrowed her brows in an unspoken question. "When the time comes everything's going to hit the fan pet, and Molly would stand a much better chance of surviving the hell to come if she's trained properly," Spike added with a sincere look on his face before he wrapped his arms around Buffy and pulled her close.
"Can't argue with that…," Angel mumbled softly with an awkward look on his face before he pulled his coat back on and walked out of the room.
"Cool…," Molly whispered softly under her breath with an excited smile on her face as she watched Angel go.
END OF CHAPTER 6