REPRECUSSIONS

Disclaimer:  I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Kelli and Ms. Hancock.

CHAPTER 21-SHORTCUTS AND A FIRST MEAL

Faith jerked awake at what she thought was surely the first sign of an attack.  But as she waited for the attack to come, and her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was able to make out, through the blinds the forms of the guards that Angel had posted outside of the room simply making their rounds out in the hallway.  Relaxing only slightly Faith slowly and reluctantly pulled away from Wesley so as to not disturb or wake him up.  As she sat up Faith let the blanket drop down to her waist and began to gently and cautiously poke her right shoulder with her left index finger, hoping that it was all healed.  Her question was quickly answered as with the first poke she winced badly in pain and gritted her teeth tightly together to keep from making any noise that would attract unwanted attention.  While allowing a couple of pained tears to slip out through her guard Faith threw her legs out over the edge of the bed and tested if her legs could hold her weight.  With a relieved smile spread across her face Faith took a few steps towards her shirt strewn over the back of one of the chairs across the room.  With a grunt of pain Faith pulled her shirt on over her head and went in an earnest search for her pants.

"She was nice, don't you think," Fred asked with a sly grin on her face as she and Gunn slowly walked down the hallway towards the room where Dawn and Willow were being kept.

"Yeah…nice, sure, except was it just me or…," Gunn replied absentmindedly with a slightly confused frown on his face as he reached up and scratched the back of his head in frustration.

"Was Angel all over her after the meeting, no Charles it wasn't just you…but you know Angel, he probably just wanted to know more about something that she touched upon in the briefing, don't worry we'll…," Fred started to reply with a muffled giggle before she was rather abruptly interrupted by an armed detail of security guards leading four people down the hallway towards them.

"Ms. Burkle, Mr. Gunn…ma'am, sir…we found these four wandering around through the hospital, what do you want us to do with them," The soldier in charge stated with a firm and somewhat nervous tone of breath as he ushered the four forward.

"Molly…," Fred mumbled out more as a statement of shock rather than as a question before she dumped the files and other items in her arms into Gunn's arm and surged forward, pulling the stunned potential slayer into a warm hug.

"Nice t' see you to…Fred, uh Fred…I kinda need to breathe," Molly stammered out first in shock and then in relief as she returned the hug as warmly as he could before her air supply began to run out.

"Oh…sorry," Fred stammered out with an embarrassed smile on her face as she let go of Molly and glanced back at the rest of the quartet, with her eyes finally coming to a rest on Connor.  "Do I know you…," she asked with a confused look on her face as she squinted her eyes in an effort to help her brain figure the answer out.

"Yes you…uh no, nope…you don't know me," Connor started to answer with a relieved smile on his face before he caught himself and turned his smile into a scowl and stared down at his feet.

"Really…are you sure, because there's just something about you that screams that we've met before…something about the powers that screw…," Fred added with an unconvinced pout on her face before Oz stepped forward, ignoring the glares of the guards, and spoke up.

"It's complicated alright…we really need to see Angel okay, he knows me…," Oz explained with a nervous and impatient frown on his face before he put his hands up defensively as one of the guards took a warning step in his direction.

"Right, listen if we brought everyone that said that they knew Angel to him then we wouldn't get any work done, so unless you can do…," Gunn declared with a sarcastic frown on his face as he shuffled around all of the files that loaded him down and turned to Fred.

"Listen…Groderson, take them to a holding cell until we can verify their story," Fred continued with a stressed expression on her face before the guard nodded his head and started to turn back towards Connor and the others, only to be interrupted by a very tired looking Willow as she poked her head out of her and Dawn's room.

"Hey guys what's all of the…Oz," Willow started to exclaim with an almost annoyed scowl on her face before she caught sight of Oz and froze.

"Willow…what are you doing here," Oz stammered out with a confused and surprised look on his face before he wanted to move forward and pull his former lover into a warm embrace, but like her he found himself frozen to the spot.

"I…well I uh…I mean Dawn and I…," Willow stammered out with an overwhelmed, nervous, and overjoyed look on her face as conscious thought quickly left her far behind.

"Are being held under guard at the moment while we wait for Ms. Summers to get better," A scared doctor finished as he peeked out from behind Fred and Gunn to stare down the hallway at those assembled.

"Why are they under guard, they didn't do anything wrong" Kelli asked with an angry but yet scared frown on her face as she glared up the hallway at Gunn and Fred.

"Didn't do anything wrong…ha, they voted to kick Buffy out of her own bloody house, of all the dimwitted and downright shirty things to do after everything that she'd done for them…," Molly answered angrily with a furious scowl on her face as she spun around on Kelli and looked about ready to snap when a sleepy eyed Faith interrupted.

"Hey guys, keep it down will ya, Wes is trying to get some much needed sleep," Faith interjected through a tired yawn as she leaned heavily against the wall and slid more than walked down the hallway with her hair a mess, her feet bare, and her shirt on backwards.

"Faith…you're here, what happened to you," Willow exclaimed outright almost instantly upon laying eyes on Faith, with a slightly screwed up look on her face as she took in the image of the once feared slayer now looking a bit feeble.

"Oh you know Will…a little of this, a little of that…course getting shot wasn't part of the plan but…it all turned out well in the end so…," Faith replied with at first a nervous frown on her face before her countenance changed, ever so slowly, into a sly and then almost beaming smile that nearly made her face shine.  At the mention of being shot Willow's face went white and her mouth dropped open.

"You…you were shot," Willow softly stammered out with a very surprised and scared look on her face as he eyes grew wide before Faith chuckled and patted her lightly on the shoulder, stepping in between Groderson and the others guards as if they weren't even there.

"Don't sweat it Will, it's not like I haven't been shot before…," Faith joked with a slightly over eager smirk on her face before she moved her shoulder a bit to far and was forced to turn away to wince badly in pain.

"Faith…are you sure that you should be out of bed so soon," Gunn asked with a concerned frown on his face as he unceremoniously handed Fred her folders back.

"How's Wesley…," Fred countered with a worried look of exasperation on her face, for the moment ignoring all others in the hallway and focusing her gaze solely on the former rogue slayer.  For a moment Faith's face started to ever so slightly slip into a grin, hinting that she was just about to unleash one of her famed quips.  But just as her mouth cracked open her expression changed drastically to one that it had only worn as of late, a look of one worrying for a loved one.

"You know Wes, still the same old watcher, prancing about like he's got a giant stake shoved up his…English Channel," Faith was finally able to say with a forced look of uncaring as she only briefly glanced back at Fred before she returned her gaze to the blank wall, just in time as her eyes began to tear up.  Suddenly for Faith her unpainted toenails became extremely fascinating and she stared at them intently as she brushed by Willow and headed off down the hall, with the guards making no effort to stop her.

"I'm going to kill that bloody git…," Spike nearly screamed out in a rage before he continued in his storming around their cell in a fit.

"For once Spike, you and I are in complete agreement on something…I can't believe that he'd, no…wait, scratch that, I can believe that he'd pull something like this...I should have expected…," Buffy agreed with an unhappy pout on her face as she shifted her weight just a bit to try to get as comfortable as she could on the cot in their cell while not hurting her injured shoulder any further than the guards already had.

"Don't torture yourself pet, you couldn't have known what he was going to do, gotta give the bloke credit though…," Spike said with at first a reassuring look in his eyes before he squinted slightly and turned his gaze back up towards the door of their cell.

"Oh…why pray tell," Buffy asked with a confused and somewhat concerned frown on her face as she gave up on lying down at the moment and slowly and cautiously sat up.

"Least this time he had the balls to do more than just doing something stupid like storming into my crypt and staking me with a fake wood grained stake," Spike replied calmly with a passive expression on his face as he kept his gaze locked forward and his hands in his pockets.  Buffy furrowed her brows powerfully before she gritted her teeth and pushed off of the wall as she stood up and turned to face Spike.

"What, when did that happen," Buffy asked weakly with a tired and worried look on her face as she made her way across the cell to stand beside Spike, bolstering his confidence simply with her presence at his side.

"Well uh…a short bit before he starting getting suck jobs from two bit vampire trollops I'd say," Spike replied with an angrily nostalgic frown on his face before he turned away from the door and gazed down into Buffy's emerald gaze.

"Really, why didn't you tell me," Buffy demanded with an insistent stare straight back up at Spike, who flirted briefly with looking brave before his bravado shattered and he shrugged his shoulders before hanging his head in an admission of defeat.

"You had a lot on your mind pet, Adam and all…didn't think that you much wanted…or cared to hear from a lovesick vamp about what your boyfriend did in a jealous fit," Spike softly answered with a sad and even slightly embarrassed expression on his face before Buffy picked his head up by softly slipping the palm of her hand underneath his chin and lifting up until their gazes met.

"Don't ever think that way Spike, even when I hated you what you thought mattered to me, not that I acted the part though…you always seemed to be able to see the truth through all of the lies and half truths," Buffy whispered softly to Spike with a very serious and supportive shine in her eyes before the space between the two diminished significantly and their lips met.

In a nearby cell Robin was angrily pacing back and forth in front of the door while Andrew was trying his best to busy himself with an in depth observation of a fly as it crawled up and down one of the legs of the cot.  When they had been taken into custody by the Initiative Robin had begun to resist but Andrew had squealed in fear and instantly assumed the fetal position.

"Would you stop that…it's annoying," Robin snapped with a frustrated scowl on his face as he had to dig his fingernails into the heels of his palms to keep himself from smacking Andrew around.

"I can't help it…cowering is in my nature, I'm a born loser," Andrew moaned with a terrified look of panic on his face as he scrambled underneath the cot and tried his best to drag the blanket down with him.

"You're not a born loser Andrew, you've just let yourself believe what everyone was telling you for far to long," Robin stated with a hopefully sympathetic and not angry tone to his voice before he took a deep breath and walked over and knelt down beside the cot.

"I don't like this," Anya stated with an impatient frown on her face as she gazed sadly out of one of the windows of the large house.

"So what else is new," Xander muttered softly under his breath before he dropped his head into his hands and missed the sympathetic look sent his way by Kennedy from across the room.

"Where'd Sam go anyway," Anya continued impatiently as she turned away from the window and stomped across the room towards Xander.

"How should I know An," Xander replied with a bored and saddened expression on his face as he only barely lifted his head.

"Aw'm hungry," Kennedy announced loudly, more to break up the monotony of the sullen conversation of the two others in the room than because she actually wanted to eat, as she uncrossed her arms and walked towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going, Sam told us to wait here until she came back, she wouldn't be very happy if you went snooping around here without her," Anya exclaimed with a rather scolding frown on her face as she gave Xander one last glare and stormed over to Kennedy, placing her hand flat against the door to further prove her point.

"Get out of my way Anya," Kennedy stated clearly with an angry glint in her eye before Anya defiantly shook her head and stayed exactly in place.

"Just let her go Anya, it's not like she can get very far, this whole house is crawling with Initiative soldiers, she'd be lucky to get out of the doorway before one of them would tell her to stay in the room," Xander said with a bored sigh as he stood up and walked over to the window that Anya had been looking out of earlier.

"But…," Anya protested with a hurt pout on her face before she finally pulled her hand from the door and stepped away, allowing Kennedy to slip out of the room.

"Rise and shine Wes," Faith whispered softly into Wesley's right ear as she leaned over the edge of his hospital bed and turned on one of the lights with her free hand.  Her other hand was occupied by a medium sized brown paper bag.

"Hmm…Faith," Wesley whispered softly as his eyes flittered open before he moved a bit and winced badly in pain as he had moved his shoulder a bit to much.

"Hey now, take it easy will ya, I don't want you to break something that we might need later," Faith joked with sly smile on her face as she turned away from Wesley and turned the light so that it shone its beam directly down in between them.

"I'll be sure to remember that," Wesley retorted with a subdued chuckle as he opened both eyes and focused them on a point on the ceiling as Faith pulled up a small table on wheels in between them, placing it dead center in the middle of the beam of light.

"Sleep well," Faith asked with a nervous look on her face as she placed the bag down on top of the table and pulled another of the beds up close so that she could hop up onto it and cross her legs.

"For awhile…but then I got a little lonely," Wesley answered with a tired yawn as he carefully sat up, watched closely by an observant Faith as she kept her gaze locked onto him like a cheetah chasing after its prey.

"Sorry about that, but I was beginning to smell pretty damn rank and…," Faith began to explain with a slight shrug of her shoulders before Wesley's overly smug grin stopped her.

"Forget it Faith, I understand, and once I'm well enough I'm going to hit the showers myself," Wesley added with another yawn as he let his eyes roam up and down, taking it every square inch of Faith.  She had obviously ducked into the showers in her time away and now that Wesley's eyes had fully adjusted to the sole light in the room being in between them he felt that she looked more beautiful now than perhaps she had ever looked.  Her hair was wet but still retained its fluff and bounce, leaving Wesley to want nothing more than to run his hands through it and feel its softness.  Her clothes were next to catch his attention.  Gone were her bloody and grungy jeans and shirt from before, replaced with an old pair of sweatpants that he thought that belonged to Fred while on top she wore a shirt that he guessed to be Fred's as well, although in Faith's case the shirt seemed to be just a bit to tight in all of the right places.  Her lack of makeup and shoes and socks only seemed to further add to her allure as Wesley guessed that she had become comfortable enough around him to let down her guard somewhat.

"Yeah well don't take to long Wes because…not to sound hurt your fragile feelings or anything but…damn man you stink," Faith joked as she scrunched up her nose and tried to look disgusted but Wesley could see a smile outlined on the edges of her lips.

"Thanks…now are you going to show me what's in the bag or are we going to sit here and play twenty questions, decide quickly because it's not nice to play jokes on those in my condition," Wesley chided back with a smile on his face that he hid well as he dropped his head a bit and bent one leg up under the thigh of the other on the bed so that he could sit a bit closer to the table than before.  Wesley nearly had to bite his bottom lip to keep from laughing outright as Faith snorted loudly at his words.  The scent of roses, that he guessed to have come from the shampoo that she had used, and the unmistakable scent of one of Cordelia's fancy body lotions that she had nicked during a shopping trip to several of the fancy clothing stores in LA.

"Your condition, right…sorry Wes but your condition is your own damn fault, regardless of what you said earlier," Faith said with an unhappy frown on her face as she unrolled the top of the bag and stuck her hand in.

"Any news on who it was that shot us," Wesley asked, quickly changing the subject, as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat while Faith withdrew her hand from the sack.

"Not yet, but I didn't have time to ask Angel about it, he was to busy chatting up that new associate of his," Faith began to answer, noticing how Wesley's left eyebrow arched up at the news about the associate, before she continued, "but we can talk about that later, right now we have more pressing matters to attend to, like the fact that I'm betting that neither one of us has eaten anything for awhile."  With that Faith pulled her hand fully out of the bag and Wesley saw that it was a Styrofoam container that was fully laden with something that smelled delightful, causing his stomach to growl in accordance.  Wesley watched as Faith set the first container down on the table before reaching back into the bag and pulling out another similarly shaped container.  With a quick glance up towards Wesley Faith went back to the bag and pulled out two sets of knives, forks, and spoons before finally retrieving two tall cans of beer and some napkins before intentionally bumping the bag off of the table.

"Not since just before Angel and I rushed to Sunnydale to find you actually, so you're correct in saying that I could use a good meal," Wesley said back with a hungry look on his face as he picked up one of the Styrofoam containers and set it down beside the other.  With a quick bumping of the tongue of the container with his thumb it opened and Wesley was greeted by the pleasant aroma of a foil wrapped baked potato, packets of butter, large roll, baked beans, and a midsized steak.

"It's probably not what you're used to but…it was the only best that the mess tent had to offer at this point, I swiped the beer when no one was looking as I highly doubt that the docs would want either one of us having any yet," Faith said back quickly with such a nervous look on her face that he soon found himself feeling that Faith was trying to apologize for not getting something better and feeling like she had let him down in some way.

"You're right it's not, but this smells much better than any of that ever did and probably tastes better to, thank you Faith," Wesley hurried to say to relieve her knees before he proved his words by picking up one of the spoons and helping himself to some of the baked beans.

"You're welcome…just don't ask me to cut your steak, you're a big enough boy to do that on your own, bum shoulder or not," Faith cut in with a relieved smile on her face as she began to unwrap her baked potato.

"Point taken, so tell me something Faith, what's really been going on in Sunnydale, and don't leave anything out, no matter how stupid or unimportant you think it might be," Wesley asked with a concerned expression on his face in between spoonfuls of the baked beans as Faith peeled back the potato's skin and grabbed her spoon and packet of butter.

"You sure…cause this could take awhile," Faith replied with an unsure pout on her face as she dug into her potato while Wesley set about trying to cut up his steak.

"I've got the time," Wesley said back with a half smirk on his face as he cast a quick glance down at his injured shoulder and then locked his gaze back at Faith, who seemed bolstered a bit by his words.

"Okay then…but don't say that I didn't warn you…," Faith muttered softly before taking a deep breath and launching fully into her story, including everything that had happened to her since walking out of the Hyperion with Willow, including everything that she could remember them talking about to being initially confused about whether or not Spike needed to be staked or not, continuing with how Buffy had been voted out, and finishing with how she had been injured before Wesley had suddenly shown up on the doorstep. Neither one noticed, at any time during the duration of the story that they had an onlooker.

"Everything okay sir," A young guard asked timidly as she approached Angel, who stood leaning up against the doorway to the recovery room, watching Wesley and Faith eat and talk through the small window in the doorway.

"Not yet, but things are definitely starting to look up," Angel replied softly with a sincere smile on his face before he stood back up and walked back towards the mobile conference room for another appointment.

END OF CHAPTER 21