Chapter Three – Illinois

May 2004 – Somewhere in Michigan

"So?"

"They are on their way, Faith. As I told you before."

Giles stood over the slayer, hands crossed over his chest, a look of anger flashing across his face. Faith sat on a deserted beach next to a lake, blanket pulled tightly around her. It wasn't cold outside, but she was too cold inside.

"Good." She wasn't much on the talking that day.

"Why did you run?"

"Hey, you found me fast enough."

Giles wiped a hand down his face, like he was trying to drive his frustration with her away.

"Faith, I don't need to tell you."

"Then don't," she ground out, pulling the blanket tighter.

"Willow and Kennedy will be calling me shortly. That is all we can ask."

Faith wouldn't let the tears come yet. She had to be strong, at least in front of Giles.

"Your sources are wrong," she concluded, knowing for certain that they weren't.

"I really hope that they are."

"I should have gone, to check it out."

"And we know that's not possible."

Faith sighed because she knew Giles was correct. She was in no condition to fight, much less do some investigating.

"What happens if it's true?" she whispered.

Giles crouched down to her level, touching her forehead with his fingers, brushing away a stray hair. The more he did nice stuff for her, the closer she was to losing it. She really just wished he would leave her in her misery.

"Then we will deal."

"I'm going out of my fucking mind."

"I am sorry, Faith."

"Yeah, sorry."

On Interstate 80 – November 2003

"God, it feels so fucking good to be out of that dress," Faith started, hoping that she would draw his attention away from the fact that they just had kissed, again.

Unfortunately, Watcher boy seemed to be the type that hyperfocused on something like that. She could see his jaw twitch in the dashboard light. His hands gripped the steering wheel way too tightly. Man, did he have some built up tension going on there. And there was only one way to relieve some of that tension.

"Hey, sing-a-long."

Faith started to move the dial to find a station that actually had some decent music. Dance music was out, because hey usually no lyrics. Country music just sucked, at least most of it did, except for that one guy who had rippling muscles and a nice hat. She finally hit a hard rock station and started singing along with some song from the nineties for which she never could remember the band's name. The hands on the steering wheel wrapped even tighter around the leather. So she kept up her search on the dial.

"Faith, why don't you just relax and rest," he told her as he turned on his blinker to pass a slow truck.

"Kind of hard to, you know. Hungry and horny," she mumbled, not stopping until after it came out.

He must have heard her, because he reached over and turned up the music. Evanescence came on the radio, making her turn it up even more. She nodded her head to the beat of the music, singing along to "Going Under". The lyrics were just so her right then. She had always felt like she was drowning, or going under as the song said in its chorus. As the radio station segued into Coldplay, she saw him relax a little, hands returning to normal.

"So what's your favorite band?" she asked out of the blue.

They needed to do something to pass the time, other than stare each other into the ground and almost have an accident. She could see his mouth quirk up just slightly at her effort at conversation.

"See, mine's any that can make me dance, or sing along. I'm not choosy."

"No classical for you, I'm certain."

Ha, what little he knew about her.

"It has its uses. I listened to it some while I was in prison. They didn't let you have anything that was suggestive or new. It was soothing sometimes."

"It can be," he answered, clearly in awe of her confession. She could actually hear it in his voice.

"So, spill."

"I'm quite fond of U2. I even have some Springsteen in my collection."

"Explains the leather."

"What?" he practically squealed at her.

"Hey, it was in your closet. I saw. No biggie."

Hey, she thought it was a biggie at the time when she happened to open his closet door before her one and only shower in his apartment. She was looking for the freaking bathroom. The leather sat at the side, pushed over for all the dark colors he wore. Not a prissy watcher suit in sight.

"You went through my things?"

"Hey, Princess Margaret, don't get your panties all in a bunch. I was lookin' for the bathroom. And I was dripping blood all over your floor at the time, so cut me some slack."

Wesley sighed a little. "You're right. I apologize."

"You just need to be careful with leather and all. The chafing can really suck," Faith quipped, trying to see if he would sputter back at her.

Wesley just chuckled at her comment. "You are right about that."

Faith almost giggled in reaction. So he had worn the things at least once. She could bet more since she had heard about the motorcycle from Angel. Over the next hour, both were quiet except when Faith wanted to sing along with a song she knew. If she didn't know it, she kept her mouth shut.

"Hey, why don't you sing? It'll keep you awake to drive."

"I don't sing."

There, she had the reason. He couldn't be as bad as that damn vampire in LA had been. Mandy had run through her brain for weeks after he told her that was a favorite. But Wes was not a power ballad type of guy. She didn't think Angel was at first, until she walked through his fucked up dream state after injecting herself with Orpheus and getting bit. Now it all made sense. Too bad she couldn't do that Orpheus thing with Wes. There'd be layers that even she couldn't crack open.

"Don't tell me that you didn't get up on that stage of Lorne's?"

"Once. It was horrible. Of course we were quite drunk at the time."

"Who?"

"Cordelia, Gunn and myself. It was during what Cordy called Angel's beige phase."

"Beige phase?"

"Where he fired all of us and went after Darla and Druscilla."

"I understand the drunk part."

If she kept him talking, he might tell her a lot more about what happened in his life over the past couple of years. When she had last seen him, it had been kill the Beast and bring Angelus in. Not much room for small talk.

"What happened with you guys? You used to be tight or something?"

Wesley flew off the off-ramp, almost putting her nose to the dashboard as he pulled into a convenience store. There were lots of travelers around, so hopefully, no demons. He was being totally Mr. Avoidance on her question.

"I'm hungry. I'll be back," he told her as he exited the car.

"What am I, fucking chopped liver?" she said under her breath as she followed him into the well-lit, lots of humans around, store.

She grabbed some sugary junk food as Wes went to use the little boy's room. As he came out, she thrust her stash in his arms and did the same. When she came out, she noticed he added a few items of his own and was in line to pay for them.

"Thank goodness. The place is clean as a whistle," she murmured as she stood off to the side.

Faith threw him five bucks as the cashier rang up the purchase. The cashier gave him a Styrofoam coffee cup, which he promptly filled and placed a top over. Faith took the bag away from him to dig in as they strolled across the parking lot.

As she looked up, she noticed someone being dragged behind a big truck.

"Damn it. Why is it when we stop, we find problems," she said

She deposited her bag on the ground behind their car, taking Wes's coffee from his hands. She definitely wasn't losing her snacks.

"What did you see?" Wesley wondered.

"A man being dragged behind that truck."

And she so wanted her little snack cakes for the sugar rush. She had to settle for a fight instead. The man beside her tensed up and pulled his sidearm from the back of his pants. Since he had on his jacket again against the chill, she hadn't noticed it. She pulled out her trusty pointy object and slowly peeked around the corner of the truck.

Off in the distance, a man struggled with two other guys, one in obvious vamp face. Faith stepped out so the two could see her.

"Faith," Wesley growled at her for the second time that night.

"Hey, big boys. Come and get it."

She quickly ducked behind the truck with Wesley. He had already put the weapon away and drew his own stake. The two stupid vampires barreled around the corner and ran almost right into the slayer and her watcher.

"Faith, we have company," Wesley said calmly, arms crossed in front of him.

"Yeah. But they're the kind you don't want stayin' around for very long."

Faith shoved the stake she had hidden in her jacket home into the first one. Wesley took care of the other one without too much fuss. Looking around the corner again, Faith noticed that the guy was gone.

"Well, he either ran for it, or we have more problems to take care of," Faith announced as she walked toward where the guy had been.

Wesley followed behind her, looking around for any sign of the guy. Faith looked down and noticed blood on the asphalt. She pointed for him to follow her, holding up her now red finger. He shook his head in agreement and strode after her.

She knew he'd have her back. He probably did it better than most people would, since he usually could anticipate her actions almost right when she did them. Not that she couldn't surprise him at any time. As they walked by a camper, it rocked slightly, meaning there were people inside. Faith drew up short, making Wesley bump into her just slightly. His touch sent a shiver down her spine. But it wasn't their guy. Faith could hear exactly what they were doing in that camper and it wasn't sleeping.

"You think they went in that camper?" Faith asked, seeing if she could embarrass the watcher.

He just glared down at her, knowing exactly what she was trying to do.

"Rather loud, wouldn't you say," he answered back, challenging her.

"Hey, if it's good, then it's good. No sense in holding it all in."

Faith turned to look at him. Grinning like a cat, she licked her bottom lip, and then brushed past him to look down another aisle of cars and trucks. He immediately followed directly behind her. She could feel his eyes bore a hole in her back. Pointing, Wesley finally spotted their target. So there were more vamps running around. Two more had the guy between them. He must be unconscious by the way he was holding his head.

Wesley waved her over to another aisle. She knew exactly what kind of plan he was going to initiate. She worked their way parallel to the pair of vampires, until she was ahead of them. Popping out from behind a large truck, Faith stopped their forward progress, grinding them to a halt. The two dropped the human very hard to the ground.

"Man, you guys are not very nice, now are you?"

"Another tasty morsel," one of them crooned at Faith.

"Wes, do I look tasty?" she asked her watcher as he strode behind the demons to make sure they didn't escape.

"Well, my dear. You certainly have that devour me look tonight, now don't you."

Faith flashed him her middle finger. The two vamps just stood and watched like it was a tennis match.

"Hey, baby. Anytime, anywhere. Hell, we could even do it on the hood of that car you have. Have I told you how hot it looks?"

"The chick likes your car," the first vamp drawled.

Chick, she mouthed over to Wes as the vamps looked at him next. This was just too much fun playing with these guys.

"Yes, having you spread against that car right now is what I'd rather be doing."

She could see the spark in his eyes. Yes, he was playing with her. But was he serious?

"I'm hot just thinking about it," she told him as she flipped her hair back over her shoulder.

"Hey, you two want some privacy, because we can scram?" the second vamp announced. The other nodded in agreement.

"You wanna watch?" she asked the two vamps as she slunk closer to them.

Pulling her top over her head, she flung it to the side. The two vampires focused on her and her only. And they didn't see Wes draw his stake and dust the first, then the second one after the other.

"Stroke of genius, Faith," Wesley told her as he put the stake back in his pocket.

She could see the amusement in his eyes as she picked up her shirt off the ground. Shivering slightly because of the cool air on her heated skin, she moved towards him like she was stalking him. He noticed her intentions and diverted his attention to the man on the ground.

Wesley couldn't believe that Faith went that far to bag a couple of vampires. The two of them could have taken the demons on very easily, but Faith wanted to play. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Faith pulled her long-sleeve tee-shirt back over her head. Even when Faith was clothed, she could seem naked just by the way she walked. Now was no exception.

After the victim groggily came around, they helped him up and led him back to his car, where his wife was waiting. Wesley told her that they had found him on the ground unconscious and urged her to take him to the hospital. He didn't tell her about the vampire attack, since the man wasn't bitten in any way.

Going back to the car, his coffee and Faith's snacks were still where they left them. She picked up both, but took a drink of his coffee first.

"Oh, geez. This is bad," she winced.

"I'll have you know that's my coffee."

"I'll share my snack cakes with you."

Putting all of that sugar and artificial ingredients in his body made him a little squeamish. Of course he did live on whiskey and take-out not more than a year ago.

Faith pulled one out and held it for him to take. She really was going to share with him. Taking it, he bit into it, grimacing at the amount of sugar that hit his empty stomach. Sugar always did make his stomach uneasy.

"We should set up a driving schedule or something? I can drive, you know."

Wesley threw her the keys for the second time, just realizing how tired he really was. On top of that, his head had started pounding because of the lack of decent food.

"Let's just make it to the next state."

Faith grinned and bounced over to the car door. Great, just what he needed – a hyper slayer. He just hoped she let him get some sleep. She zoomed out of the parking lot, obviously in a good mood.

"Do you mind if I rest for a bit?" he finally asked her as she merged onto the interstate.

"Don't mind a bit. But you never answered my question. What happened between you and the rest of the gang? There didn't look to be too much love when I was in LA."

For the life of him, he couldn't remember what had caused all of them to be so distant from each other. He couldn't come up with anything in his memory. It was all so vague, perhaps something to do with the Beast. But they were all now on steady ground, except for himself.

"Stress can put people in awkward positions. I would say it had something to do with that. We had dealt with plenty before I broke you out of jail. Having Angelus around was difficult."

That seemed to satisfy Faith for the moment, because she became quiet. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to relax his muscles. He had been tense for so long, that it was always difficult to actually relax. He hadn't done it too many times since arriving in Los Angeles.

A few hours later, Faith shook him awake with her hand.

"Wakey, wakey, watcherman. There's an accident up ahead. Looks like the road is gonna be closed for a long time. They're talking days."

"Days?" he said, sleep still fogging his brain.

"Some bridge collapse or something. Maps, maps," she snapped her fingers at him.

Wesley jumped at her actions. Taking out the map from where he had shoved it, he opened it to see if there was an alternate route.

"Everyone else will be doing the same thing."

"Well, just pick something that everyone else isn't doing."

Now she was impatient Faith. And when she was impatient, she usually lost her temper. Wesley had patience to spare. He was always willing to wait for whatever reward or answer down the road, while Faith always ran towards it like a truck barreling off course at top speed. That was why he was chosen to be a watcher, and she was definitely the type to be a slayer. So why hadn't he been patient with her back in Sunnydale?

"Hey, space cadet, are you listenin'?" she asked.

"Oh, sorry. What did you say?"

"I'm turning around," she told him as she flipped the car around in the middle of the interstate.

And it wasn't like she was the only one doing it.

"Americans are such an impatient lot," he murmured.

"Right about that. Instant gratification," Faith smirked.

He would have to remember that she had quite good hearing and that his mutterings would possibly be heard. He traced a route on the map with his finger until he figured out which exit she needed to take. This route would take them out of the way for a bit, but they would be around the disaster up ahead and be able to get back on the interstate eventually.

"Go back two miles, then exit. We'll be going north."

"Hey, LA is south, you know."

"Very much south and west, Faith. Trust me."

"I do watcherman. That I do."

She trusted him? After sending her after Angelus and almost getting her killed? He really couldn't say that he trusted her completely. But he was getting used to the fact that she had reformed herself and that she would fight beside him. He just wished they could rewind their lives until that moment they had met in Sunnydale and he could start all over again, but with the knowledge that he had right then.

TBC

Next: Wes's route does take them out of the way. Hey, another fight. Should I have one each chapter? And a look into the future, again.

Author notes: Wow, I think I changed the premise of this thing. At first, I thought this was going to be a fun, slay-filled ride. Not anymore. Still some fun, some fighting, but more angst, because that's just what came to mind. I really do know exactly how this is going to end (that's a first, the reviewers are saying in their minds). And remember people, this is somewhat of a romance, so don't flame me about that. I am not changing canon one bit. Wes does go back to LA and does start to date Fred, just like in the show. Remember at this point, Fred is with Knox and Wes feels rejected. So everything here is to canon. So if I mess up, tell me, please. I did have some inconsistencies in my last fic with canon. I really don't mind if you tell me. So I'll be jumping back and forth between the road trip and what happens after the battle in the alley.

Thanks go to: All the usual suspects here. Ok, I know, I know. I've lost my mind. I really need to write about someone else in the Angel/Buffyverse. I just can't seem to stop myself. Thanks to Wav, pari106, Illyria639, Mandie, shahid, tariq and all the others. Drop me a line or two or just to say hi. Don't be shy.

Answers to questions:

Wav—you are always so right about stuff. And website? I'm thinkin' I have to start one up.

Pari106—I can't stop writing the pairing.

Illyria639—no ugly dress for now; and I love Faith snark, but not too much snark because it can get old. So tell me if I go overboard anywhere.

Mandie—yay!

Shahid—You are so right; no overdoing the fluff stuff because this I don't think will work the direction I want to take it. Faith's going to be the main character it looks like. And I have to be careful not to get the PTBs mad with the rating, so I have to make sure that the R stuff stays R. I just have to figure out where else to post.

Tariq—thanks for joining the ride.