Note: I spend less time writing, and more time contemplating the consequences of what I write. Ahh!! Exposition abounds in this chapter. Please read and enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-one – Two Steps Forward, One Giant Step Back
All three men nursed their wounds, muttering to themselves as they wiped blood away. Faith wished she could just stake the two and leave it at that. Angel had provoked the fight between he and Wes, and then Spike sat on his ass while it happened. Luckily she had gotten through at the last minute to Wes. There had been way too much blood spilled even for her taste.
"Here, let me see," Faith inquired as she looked at a gash on Wes's forehead.
Angel had gotten in one good shot while they were on the ground together. She gently dabbed at it while still glowering at Angel. He was sitting on a chair, trying to assess his injuries. Wes really did get in some good shots. Damn vampire deserved all that he got.
"I'm fine, Faith," Wesley told her.
"Just a little blood," Faith mocked Wesley. "Then it's a fight and knives are used and then someone dies."
Faith threw the cloth she was using to treat Wes in his face and fled into the inner office, slamming the door in her wake. She really did not want to speak with any of those guys right at the moment. Only the stupid watcher decided to follow her.
"I'm sorry," Wesley started off, closing the door behind him.
"I am sick and tired of hearing you say you're sorry. Just shove it."
Her anger was now to the boiling point. If the man was half as smart as he said he was, he should be running away from her as fast as he could. But he stood his ground, furrowing his eyebrows at her actions.
"You're angry."
"Oh, you think? Here we are, trying to figure this out. You and Angel decide to rearrange each other's faces. Why is that? You two used to be friends. What happened?"
"It's complicated, Faith. Things have changed."
Faith threw a book at the wall, making the windows rattle. "Damn right things have changed. Who's Connor? Huh? I don't seem to remember any Connor. Or half the events that you say happened in those diaries of yours that you kept well hidden. Is that what's between you and Angel? Because if that's it, I'm gonna sock both of you for being such fuckheads."
Wesley snickered at her last comment. "I'm sorry. It's just, colorful use of words. Being called that is quite humorous."
"Oh, geez. Why do you do that? Lighten the situation when it's too fucking serious?"
Wesley sighed as he came toward her. "Because I don't know the first thing to say to you. Cover up I guess. Connor is . . . ."
"Don't, Wesley," Angel said from the doorway.
"I am not going to perpetuate the lie any longer, Angel. You can trust Faith with it."
Wesley turned, crossing his arms over his chest. Faith could see the shield that Wes just put up against the vampire. Man, those must be really serious issues they have.
"I am already worried enough about him. Afraid that Wolfram and Hart will go after him to punish me."
"Have you contacted him?" Wesley asked.
"I've checked on him once. He's fine."
Faith was missing the whole point of this conversation. She asked a simple question. They wouldn't even give her a simple answer.
"No one has answered my question," Faith told the two.
"Connor is Angel's son," Wesley answered truthfully, finally.
"Thank you, Wes. What?"
That was not possible. No way, no how. She knew the rules, Wes knew the rules, Angel definitely knew the rules.
"Connor is my son. Darla's his mother."
"Darla? Wasn't she your sire? Wait, that's even more against the rules. Damn, when did they change that rule? And why is it making you two into enemies?"
Both Wesley and Angel shut down. Their expressions turned grim. So it was over this boy.
"There was a prophecy," Wesley started to explain.
"Which you translated incorrectly," Angel finished.
"I did not translate it incorrectly. I was led to translate it the way it was. It was false because . . . ."
Wesley's eyes lit up with recognition. Faith thought he was going to exclaim out loud that he had found something important in the room.
"You killed him," Wesley answered very plainly.
"What?" Angel responded, not all that happy.
"They may have manipulated me into believing that you would kill Connor as a baby. But you didn't. They just altered the timeline. You really did kill him, didn't you?"
Angel sank down on the couch, grim line on his face. "Yes, I killed him. To give him a better life."
"And to ruin ours."
Faith's head was spinning. She still didn't understand a bit of what they were saying, except for the part that Angel had a son. Obviously one that was not a child.
"I made a deal with Wolfram and Hart, Faith. If they would give Connor a normal life, I would take over the LA branch of the firm. And they would erase any trace of Connor from my friends' minds. Every memory that they had that involved him."
"So you erased my mind too?" Faith wanted to know.
"Yes, for it all to work. But Wes here decided to go on a fishing expedition and broke the orb that housed memories of Connor. Vail was the one who performed the spell."
Faith was angry with the vampire. Someone messed around with her memories. She hated when people decided things for her, took control of the situation away from her.
"So Vail not only took away your friends' memories, he took away your friend too," Faith said, shaking with anger. "You sent Wes in to die, Angel. He couldn't take on that thing."
"What? You think that I wanted him to die? To get revenge for taking my son?"
So that's what it was. Somehow, Vail had erased the fact that Wes at one time had taken Connor away from him.
"Would someone just tell me the real story here, instead of making me guess?"
Wesley spoke up. "I took Connor when I thought that Angel was going to kill him. I stole him, but it ended up that Holtz had someone take him from me." Wesley absently rubbed his scar on his neck.
"You kidnapped Angel's son? Over a prophecy? You had proof, obviously. And this guy, Holtz took him away. How?"
"Someone working for him slashed my throat, leaving me for dead. By the time I had awoken in the hospital, Holtz had taken Connor to a hell dimension."
"What did you do to this guy Holtz to make him come after you, Angel?"
"I killed his whole family, turned his youngest daughter. Two hundred years before."
"And I thought that I was fucked up. You two, this is just, so stupid. Angel, I know that you lost your son. Wes should have done something different. So you were both wrong."
"He tried to smother me with a pillow."
"He slept with Lilah."
"I pulled you out from the bottom of the ocean."
"You attacked Lorne when he read you."
"I let you feed from me."
"You gave Lilah access to the team."
"You erased our memories."
"You killed Knox."
"Not like he didn't deserve it. You killed Drogyn."
"He didn't deserve it. It was for the greater good. He knew that."
"You knew Fred was going to die," Wesley whispered finally, tired of their little game.
Faith just watched them volley back and forth with insults and jabs. The last one though was the biggest shock. Angel knew that Fred would die and didn't do anything?
"Angel, is this true?"
"I didn't know, exactly. The vision Cordy gave me, it was vague. I read it wrong, OK? Damn Powers That Be can be very cryptic at times."
"What did this vision tell you, Angel?" Faith asked very carefully, expecting a particular answer.
"How to take down The Circle of the Black Thorn. They're the cause of most of the badness here, on this world. Take them down, and evil takes a holiday."
"It showed you how?" Faith asked again.
"Yeah. Exactly. Or I thought exactly."
Faith raced out of the office, pulling the door open so hard she almost shattered the glass in it.
"Faith, where are you going?" Spike asked as she ran by.
Wesley followed in her wake, pushing past Spike too. Angel slowly came out of the office, a look of pain on his face.
"Why didn't I just let that dragon fry me?" he said as he made his way up the stairs to his room.
Faith didn't even make it to the outside gate of the hotel before she stopped.
"Don't follow me," she commanded of Wesley, not even turning to see if it was he.
"I can't do that. There are demons that have nothing better to do other than kill us where we stand."
Faith leaned against the gate, feeling the cool steel against her fingers. Her whole world had been turned upside down so quickly, she couldn't quite sort it all out. She just knew that the person she thought she could trust the most let too many people die for a cause. And the person behind her could take a baby from its father just because he thought it could have been in danger. Did all of their efforts to do the right thing cause more strife than it was worth?
"What? Are you gonna kidnap me so I won't be killed by Angel too?"
Wesley visibly winced at her thought. "I didn't want you to learn all of that in one night, Faith."
"When will you people actually talk to each other?"
"Then let us go back inside where it is safer and discuss this."
Wesley took her arm, trying to pull her back inside before something jumped out at them.
"He knew that you were gonna die, and didn't lift a finger to save you," Faith blurted out.
"It was my choice."
"To kill yourself? What? Was it, oh I can either die by Vail's hands or Angel's? So you picked the more evil one."
The look of concern on Wesley's face didn't deter her from continuing her rant. She wanted him to know how much she was hurt by his actions.
"You died, you son of a bitch. You let them win. Buffy once told me that you stay alive, no matter what. You died," she screamed at him.
"Faith, I died a long time ago. It just took longer for me to realize it."
"You bastard. You were always supposed to be here. You died and I didn't get to say how sorry I was," Faith yelled at him.
Her fists hit him all over, but there was no force behind them. It was like she was fighting herself, fighting what she was and what she had become. And he was always supposed to be there to pick up the pieces.
He took a hold of her fists. "Do you think it's always about you, Faith?" Wesley told her with an angry voice. "What you want, what you need? Have you ever thought about someone other than yourself?"
"I thought about you, you bastard. It was always about you. Don't you understand that? Why I went to prison, why I had to atone for what I did. Yeah, Angel and Buffy had some to do with it, but it was you. I wanted you to be proud of me. I didn't want to fail you again, like I did in Sunnydale. You weren't supposed to die," Faith cried out to him.
Faith broke down again, like she did in that alley, like she did in her dream. But now he could comfort her, be there for her, whereas before he could only pat her back.
She collapsed against him, saying she was sorry over and over again, just like in her dream. Only this wasn't her dream. She was real, telling him, meaning it for real. It wasn't something she was just doing to get it out of the way. Her heart ached so much over the past couple of years, it felt good to finally say it to him.
"I didn't want you to die," Faith said, voice muffled against his chest.
"I know."
"I should have come back after the First was defeated, like I said I would."
"You couldn't."
"I should have. Maybe things would have turned out different."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Faith pulled away from Wesley slightly, face feeling swollen from the tirade she just went through. "I need to go kill a vampire now."
"Be my guest."
"You'd let me, wouldn't you?"
"Some days, yes I would," Wesley chuckled.
Faith stopped to really look at him in the dim light. So much about him had changed over the past couple of years. He wasn't that fussy, prissy watcher that she had hated in Sunnydale; he was a complex, frustrating, way too intelligent for his own good, man. Surprising him, she reached up and pulled his head down to her level, taking his mouth with her own, to show him how much she was sorry. At first, he didn't respond to her, just let her do all the work. He gave in when she moaned into his mouth, letting all of his barriers down finally.
Breaking away from his mouth, Faith kissed his neck, his scar. Until he put his hand in her hair and pulled her head back, diving in to kiss her passionately again. Traveling over to her ear, he whispered something to her, but she couldn't quite make it out.
"What?" she moaned.
"Run," he whispered.
Why should she run? Was there some danger that was present that she didn't see? Of course, it was kind of hard to see with her head back, neck exposed.
"Go," he growled at her, trying to push her away.
She held on to him, thinking that she could help him. By the look in his black eyes, he wasn't exactly seeing her anymore.
"Didn't I tell you to run?" he panted out.
"Let me get Angel. We'll figure this out."
"I can't fight him much longer. Get. Away. From. Me."
Now Faith was frightened of Wesley. He growled at her like a wild animal. Just as she started to do what he had wanted her to do in the first place, his arm came out, stopping her forward progress.
"Not so fast, little girl."
Before she could claw her way from him, he yanked her hard against him, taking the breath out of her. Then her world went black as he cut off her air supply quickly.
"You'll do nicely."
TBC
Next: Who in hell is that? I'll let you guess. I gave you guys enough clues. I hope it worked. I'm still not sure. Need some more Illyria/Spike time. I swear, next chapter, because we're closing fast on the conclusion. And we still have to see what Cordelia has planned for the bad guys if they try to take on her realm. So much to do, so little time.
Author notes: OK, go ahead. Flame me. I know it's gonna happen. And I did not forget Fred! I swear. I really hate leaving Faith so powerless in this fic. At some point, she has to come out of this and kick some butt. I just don't know when. Did Wes figure out that the prophecy was actually true on the show? I seriously can't remember. And sorry about all the exposition in this chapter. I'm the exposition queen in this one. I wanted Faith to know the whole story, and have Angel and Wes battle with words too. Baggage central with the two of them. And no, it wasn't right that Wes killed Knox. But it felt good. Bad Wes.
Thanks go out to: FaithandWesley4ever (wow, great name, new reviewer), Mandie, Imzadi (thanks for sticking with it), pari106, clcountry, Illiyra, futurelyfamous, and lots of others who I know are reading. Don't be shy. Drop a line if you want.
Answers to questions: FaithandWesley4ever—I liked Wesley and Fred too. They were way too cute together. Very hot kiss in that one episode (I hope that I just didn't spoil someone on that)
Mandie—We'll see; am I a cruel fic writer? Hmm. I don't like being cruel.
Imzadi—yeah about Lindsey, you know Cordy and her use of words. And yeah about Faith, but is it one-sided?
Pari106—just my theory about that alley
Futurelyfamous—And I thought I was the only one to write long reviews. I like long reviews. Lots of thoughts about Illyria. Hmm. I'm not telling yet. I tried something different with the fight. Usually we see the view from one of the fighters. So I went a little humorous, a little Spike, because he may not be right about things, but he is certainly enjoyable. Fight scenes are the hardest to write, I think. You have to think in your mind how you want it to look and then translate that on paper. Not easy. And no, Joss did not write the final episode. He hadn't planned on it. But he changes things all the time about other people's scripts. Or he gives them the beat sheets and tells them what to write. He just can't keep his hands out of it. Or at least, that's what I heard. He wrote the phone sex scene in the Las Vegas episode (season four) even though David Fury actually wrote it. Makes you wonder though. And yeah, something didn't go right, so Wes has to fix it. But how? Hmm. Very good question. And now I'll stop. Long answers to your questions. Or did I just confuse you more?