Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Angel series except my own.

"Did you just say the jerk we all know and love," Angel asked. "Speak for yourself," he said sarcastically, swiveling his chair back around to face Gunn and Wesley. "I have never loved that guy and I don't intend to ever love him in the future, but he his good for something, which is why we keep him around."

Gun snorted which brought a small smile from Angel. "Well at least he's actually smiling now," Gunn remarked. "Wesley you should have seen him just a couple minutes ago. It was brood city man. He's all worked up about that girl that was here earlier." At Gunn's comment Angel's expression immediately returned pensive. Wesley glanced at Angel with curious eyes. He did notice that Angel seemed a little out of it...or troubled you might say. Interesting. He thought he was the only one whose thoughts were stuck on this mysterious girl.

Apparently she had managed to shake up the both of them from their brief encounter with her. Wesley felt his cheeks flame at the way she blatantly stared at him. It had been quite unnerving, but he couldn't say he didn't like her looking at him. After all she was beautiful, even though she obviously tried to hide her looks with baggy clothing. But one thing intrigued him about her especially and that was her powers...her strange abilities. She was not human Wesley gathered. Rarely anyone in this town was completely human anymore.

There was so much evil lurking everywhere; seeping into everyone and everything. Sometimes it seemed as if all the good had been drained out of the earth. Even this huge law firm where they worked was a great source of evil. Wolfram & Hart used to be a place where any kind of demon or evil could come to get help or legal representation. Now Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Spike, and Fred ran most of the day to day operations, along with the help of hundreds of employees. They tried to use the company's resources to combat evil, but sometimes it seemed pointless. There always seemed to be another source of evil lurking around the corner waiting to replace the one they had just eradicated.

Wesley shook his head gently to rid himself of those thoughts and his mind strayed back to the girl he had met earlier. She was so beautiful...tough...and innocent all at the same time, but she was hiding something. That he was sure of. He had secretly already started his own search to find her, not sure of what Angel would think if he had brought it to his attention. He hated keeping secrets from his friends though so he knew he would have to tell Angel what he had discovered so far.

Wesley had already learned a hard lesson about trusting his friends and being honest. He had finally regained everyone's trust and he was not going to risk it for some strange girl he barely knew, even if she was hot as hell. Wesley groaned at where his thoughts had strayed to yet again. To tell the truth, this fixation he had with this girl was maddening and quite frustrating. What was it about her that had him all tied up in knots? Wesley took a deep breath, gripping the file he held tightly before he went on to tell Angel his findings.

"Angel...I know you didn't request this, but I've already began an investigation on this mysterious girl," said Wesley with a cautious tone. Angel surprised him by appearing to be greatly interested.

"Really," Angel replied, as his eyebrows rose in interest. "What have you got so far?" Angel regarded Wesley closely. If he didn't know better he would think Wesley was nervous. Then it suddenly occurred to him that Wesley thought he would have reacted differently.

"It's alright Wesley," Angel said softly. "I've already discussed this with Gunn and Spike. As a matter of fact, Spike intends to do some investigating for me later tonight." Wesley breathed a sigh of relief before he could catch himself.

Gunn slapped Wesley on the back playfully. "Well I'll go down to the file room myself and see if they have anything on her," he said.

As Gunn turned to leave, Wesley stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Wait, I've already gone down there...and...well...I've found something," Wesley said firmly. Gunn's eyebrows rose in surprise, as he exchanged a glance with Angel. He wondered if Angel was thinking the same thing he was, that this girl had obviously affected Wesley on some level as well. Angel stood up and walked around his desk and held his hand out to take the file Wesley was holding.

"She appears to be a loner...lives alone and doesn't have any friends, which doesn't surprise me since she's...umm...a little...strange shall we say," Wesley stated. "Her full name is Kaia Nicole Johnson, she's 25 years of age, and is originally from Miami, Florida. Apparently she has no parents, at least anymore. They died in her senior year of high school and she apparently has been withdrawn ever since. She somehow managed to obtain a B.S. degree in Computer Science and now lives off of her trust fund and the proceeds from the sale of her parents' house. She also works independently as a computer programmer for various corporations." All the while Wesley talked, Angel walked around the room reading off the contents and nodding every so often to let Wesley know he was paying attention.

"Hmm...it says here that she's adopted", Angel commented. "But it doesn't say what agency finalized the adoption. And did her parents know about these abilities of hers...were they...strange as you put it...too?"

Wesley sighed in frustration. He had been wondering this himself. Her entire file just seemed to list basic information, nothing with real sustenance. There was nothing listed about her abilities or if her parents had special abilities themselves, which was strange to say the least. Wolfram & Hart was nothing but thorough. Every demon that you could think of had an extensive file in their file room. It was peculiar that there seemed to be important parts missing from this girl's file. Either Wolfram and Hart did not deem this girl as a threat to them or someone had taken extra measures to delete some facts from her file. Wesley strongly believed it was the latter.

"I was wondering the same things myself Angel," Wesley retorted finally. "There are so many questions still left unanswered, such as why there is barely any mention of her parents and other relatives, no mention of her abilities, or why she even came to L.A. at all. There must be a reason that she ended up here."

Angel closed the file and dropped it on his desk. He could definitely see Wesley's point. Something wasn't adding up here. Why did she come to L.A.? Specifically, why did she come here...to Wolfram & Hart...to help them? And why is it that he and Wesley seemed to be the only ones fixated on her. That thought made Angel growl in frustration.

Wesley knew exactly how Angel felt. There were so many questions left unanswered. But there was a way to find the answers they needed. "Angel, did you read the part that lists her address," Wesley asked slowly. Angel was quiet for several minutes. It wasn't that he hadn't seen the address, because he had. He just wasn't sure if it was a good idea to go there. Spike and Gunn could be right. They could be looking for trouble by investigating this girl. Just the mere fact that her file seemed so ordinary was disturbing. There are no files on ordinary people in that room. If she displayed such awesome power, Wolfram & Hart had to know about it. So why take extra steps to make sure that specific information was absent from her file?

Angel sighed, running a hand through his dark hair, silently making his decision. He just hoped that what they were about to do was the right thing. "So she lives alone you said," Angel questioned softly, meeting Wesley's eyes.

"Yes...she does," Wesley replied, feeling slightly uneasy. "She lives in an apartment building on 5th and Trinidad, but it's a controlled entrance. Someone would have to buzz us in unless you go through the roof." Wesley paused, crossing his arms over his chest, feeling the strange sense of uneasiness get stronger. "Angel...I'm assuming this means we're going over to her flat," he asked, his tone indicating that he was uncomfortable with the idea.

"Yeah...we are," Angel responded firmly. "Gunn do some more digging around in the files and question the employees to see if they know anything. Most of them have worked here a lot longer than we have and may have heard something about this girl."

"I'm on it," Gunn answered.

"Wesley, I need you to go over to her apartment...alone," Angel continued. "Too many of us there may make her get spooked. See if you can find a way to question her neighbors. Maybe someone knows something."

"Angel you do remember I mentioned that the building has a controlled entrance. Do I just sit outside until I see someone leave?" Wesley knew his tone was sarcastic, but he couldn't help being a little on edge about what they were about to do.

Angel regarded Wesley with a long look, clenching his jaw slightly. "Look, I don't care what you have to do. If that's the only way you can get me some answers, then do it. I want the both of you to meet me back here at 7:00 to let me know what you found out." With that Angel plopped down on his chair, turning it around to face the window, dismissing them both.

Gun sighed and strode out of the room, mumbling under his breath. Something told him that maybe this was a bad idea, but Angel was the boss. He would do whatever he could to help him.

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