The Quickening

Previously:

"Okay," Faith said, taking the napkin. "Why are you doing this?" She asked suddenly, looking over at him.

"I don't know," Wesley replied honestly. "It just seems like the right thing to do."

Chapter Sixty-Two:

"Hi, I just received a phone call, something about coming down here to identify a body," Faith said as she walked up to the help desk at the morgue in Sunnydale General. Per Wesley instructions, she had waited fifteen minutes before entering the building. Just behind the double doors to her left, Angel was waiting, pretending to be just another dead body. The plan was to break into the morgue and steal Alan Finch's body before the police could identify anything on him that would lead them to Buffy and then to Faith. However, the plan was not as simple as a snatch and grab. Police were crawling all over the morgue and there was no way to get Alan out without suspicion. Wesley, however, had come up with a plan that just might work, given a lot of luck and some good timing.

"Of course, right this way," the morgue attendant replied. Leading Faith down the hallway, he pushed open the double doors. "We found your cell number on the body. I don't know if you even know the man or not. He could have been someone you just met. But any information you could give us would be helpful."

"I'll do my best," Faith answered. The morgue looked just as Faith imagined that it would. She had never actually been in a morgue. Everything was steel, from the tables around the room, to the lamps hanging from the ceiling. It was cold inside to keep the bodies from decaying too quickly and Faith suppressed a shiver as the morgue attendant led her to one of the long, steel tables in the center of the room. A white sheet was covering the body and Faith knew that Angel was lying beneath it.

"This can be rather disturbing," the morgue attendant said, looking over at her. The man was in his late forties with thinning brown hair. He seemed nice enough, but Faith found herself doubting everything about him. She could not help but be distrustful of people, particularly men.

"I'm sure I can handle it," Faith said. She was not going to play the damsel in distress for this guy. She would not give vampires the satisfaction; she was not going to give some horny morgue attendant the same. Faith sighed, knowing that she was probably misjudging the man, but she was unable to stop her own train of thought.

"Whatever you say," the man replied. Lifting the sheet gently, he pulled it down so that Angel's head, neck, and shoulders were exposed. "Do you know him?"

Faith looked down at the ground, feigning shock. "Yeah," Faith replied softly. "He's my brother."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," the man said, replacing the sheet.

"Would you mind just giving me a minute? I'd like to be alone with him," Faith said, wiping away a forced tear.

"Of course," the man said, moving out of the room with Faith watching him out of the corner of her eye. Once the doors had closed behind him, Faith turned back to Angel.

"It's clear," she said. Angel groaned and lifted the sheet off of his head. "This was a terrible idea."

"Why's that?" Faith asked, finding the humor in the situation a bit too easily for Angel's liking.

"They stripped me naked," Angel complained. "It was humiliating."

"Well, don't worry big guy, it's all over now," Faith said consolingly, though the twinkle in her eye and the laugh behind her words belied her intention.

"How are we getting the body out of here?" Angel asked, preparing to get up off the table.

"Not yet," Faith said, pushing him back down. "Plan changed a little."

"What do you mean?" Angel asked apprehensively.

"I met Wesley outside of the hospital and, for reasons that I cannot explain, he wants to help us," Faith said.

"He knows?" Angel asked, his eyes widening in shock.

"I didn't tell him. He overheard the others talking in the library…where I should be right now," Faith said, sighing. "Anyway, we can't just take you and the body out of here without attracting attention. I'm going to call Wesley to have him come and pick you up for a funeral home. Then we're just gonna double bag you and Alan together."

"You have got to be kidding me," Angel replied. "You're gonna stick me in a body bag with him?"

"It's the only thing that'll work," Faith said defensively. "Look, I know it sucks, but it's the plan now. So deal with it. Now, I have to go back out there and pretend to be your grieving sister." Faith turned quickly on her heels and stalked out of the morgue. Angel sighed and lay back down on the table, pulling the sheet over his head.

A phone call later, Faith sat filling out some paper work in one of the plastic, morgue chairs when Wesley came into the morgue pushing a stretcher. "Hello," he said to the morgue attendant. "I'm with the McManus Funeral Home. I'm here to pick up a body."

"Oh yes," the attendant said, rising to his feet. "I'll show you the way. Would you like some help?"

"No, that's quite alright. I can handle it on my own," Wesley replied. The man nodded and led Wesley into the morgue, then returned.

"Is that the guy that'll be taking my brother?" Faith asked, once the attendant had returned.

"Yes, it is," he replied. Faith noticed that whenever the man talked to her, he did so in soothing and comforting tones. He must have been trained to talk that way in front of grieving relatives and loved ones, in order to keep them from freaking out about being there.

Wesley took a deep breath and wheeled the stretcher up to the table to which the morgue attendant had directed him. "Angel, it's me," Wesley said, clearing his throat. He felt odd being in the morgue. It was almost as if he were desecrating sacred ground by being there with the intention of stealing someone's body. He quickly shook off the feeling and focused. Angel sat up on the table.

"Can you get me some clothes?" He asked sheepishly, looking over at Wesley.

"Oh, of course," Wes replied. Scanning the room, he found Angel's clothes neatly folded in the corner. After retrieving them, he waited until Angel had dressed before turning back to help the souled vampire search for Alan Finch's body. They found it in one of the compartments. Together, they lifted the body and placed it in the body bag on the stretcher. Then Angel climbed in on top of it. "I'm sorry about all of this," Wesley said as he zipped up the bag. "But it really is the only way to get the body out of here without attracting any unwanted attention."

"I know," Angel said in muffled tones through the bag. "Just get me out of here."

Wesley nodded, though he knew that Angel could not see him, and wheeled the stretcher back out of the morgue. When he returned to the lobby, Faith was finishing up the paperwork with the morgue attendant. Wesley walked by them as Faith was asking some questions and pushed open the doors leading to the outside. Once he was out of the hospital, he wheeled the stretcher around to his car. Faith appeared several minutes later. "We all set?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Wesley replied, unzipping the bag so that Angel could climb out.

"That was totally gross," Angel said, wiping at his clothes to get the smell of the dead body off them.

"This coming from a vampire," Faith said humorously.

"Help me get him into the trunk," Wesley said, lifting open the trunk lid. Faith and Angel picked up Alan's body and carefully laid him into the back. Then Wesley closed the trunk lid.

"Where to now?" Faith asked.

"I really have no idea," Wes said, looking over to Angel for an answer.

"Well, we need to tell Giles about all of this sometime. Why not now? Maybe he can help us stash the body somewhere," Angel said.

"Good idea," Wes replied. "Hop in. I'll drive."

……………………………

"Maybe we should go look for her?" Xander suggested. It had been nearly an hour and a half since Giles had called Faith and she still had not arrived. Though Xander completely trusted his girlfriend, he was starting to have some doubts. His first thoughts were for her safety. But once he reassured himself that she was all right, he began to fear that something more was going on.

"And look where?" Buffy asked. "For all we know, she could have gone to the Mayor. I mean, didn't she suggest that to you in the first place?"

"Yes, but I believe she understood why that was not a good idea," Giles replied carefully.

"Still, she might have decided to do it to spare Cordelia and Xander from being investigated by the police. I mean, they have the body; it's only a matter of time before they link everything together. By going to the Mayor, Faith could stop this whole thing right now," Willow said, suddenly panicking. "We could have a rogue slayer on our hands."

"Nice to see that everyone's really on my side here," Faith said as she and Angel pushed open the library doors. Wesley trailed behind them.

"Faith," Giles said, rising to his feet. "I'm glad you're here. We've been worried."

"Obviously," Faith replied, glancing at Willow a bit longer than anyone else.

"Where have you been?" Xander asked. "I thought something happened to you."

"Sorry," Faith said sincerely. "But I got a little sidetracked. Angel has something he wants to tell you," Faith said, diverting the attention to the vampire standing next to her. Angel glared over at her, but continued where she left off.

"You don't have to worry about the police anymore," he said.

"Why not?" Buffy asked in confusion. The rest of the group looked equally as confused as well.

"We took care of it," Angel replied. "We have the body. They won't be able to get any evidence now."

"Wait," Giles said, nearly choking on air, "you have the body?"

"Yeah," Angel said. "In Wesley's trunk, actually."

"The body's in your trunk?" Giles asked, turning to the new Watcher.

"Yes, it is. We need to find a place to put it where the police won't find it again," Wes said.

"We were kinda hoping you could help us with that," Faith hinted.

"Oh, this isn't good," Giles said, sitting back down. "You stole a body from the police and now want my help in hiding it?"

"Pretty much," Angel said. "Got any suggestions?"

"Bury it," Buffy said suddenly. "Drive outside of town and bury it. No one will find it."

"That's not a bad idea actually," Wes agreed. "We just need to bury it deep enough so that nothing will disturb it."

"Okay, so field trip it is," Faith said.

"I'll go with you," Xander said, standing up, and walking over to her.

"Are you sure?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Xander said. "I'm good with shovels."

"Okay," Faith responded. "Let's go then. We need to get this done before sunrise."

"Faith," Giles said as they were filing out of the library. Faith turned back to look at him. "We need to talk once this is finished."

"I know," Faith said. "I get that you don't agree with my decision. We'll talk when I get back." Giles nodded and watched Faith walk out of the library. He was not happy with the chain of events that evening. Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, Faith seemed to be running from them. She was hiding instead of fighting. Giles knew that if she continued down that road, only pain would greet her. Sighing, he removed his glasses and began cleaning them on the front of his shirt. He could feel Faith pulling away from him and the others, trying to be strong enough on her own to survive the darkness within her. Though Giles was confident in her, he knew that she was not strong enough. She needed the others. He just hoped she realized that before it was too late.

………………………….

Cordelia sighed. She wanted to bang her head on the copy machine. Ever since the Mayor had left to make his statement about the finding of Alan Finch's body, she had been copying files. Though she was glad to be helping the Scooby Gang, she had hoped to be doing something more productive that hitting a button on a copy machine and waiting around for it to spew paper from the depths of its mechanical bowels. "Ah, there you are," the Mayor's secretary said, poking her head around the corner. "I think we're done here for the evening, you can head home now."

"Okay," Cordelia said, stacking the copied files. "Where do you want me to put these?"

"Oh, I'll take them," the secretary said, taking the stack of papers from Cordelia. "Thanks for this. It's a big help."

"My pleasure," Cordelia replied with false sincerity. She was glad that her first day was over. She had been nervous about working in the office, but she knew that she could handle it. As she neared the Mayor's office, she slowed her steps, noticing that his office door was slightly ajar. She could hear him moving about inside of the room. Walking up to the door, she stopped just outside of it and peered in through the crack. The Mayor was standing behind his desk. He was looking down at some papers as he reached across the desk for a pen. However, he accidentally grabbed the sharp end of a pair of scissors instead. Instinctively pulling his hand back, he watched as blood bubbled out of the wound.

Cordelia wanted to look away, but found herself transfixed as she saw something that she could not quite believe. She watched as the wound on the Mayor's hand suddenly began to knit itself back together. The cut slowly faded until his hand looked as if it had never been injured at all. "Oh my God," Cordelia muttered to herself, pushing away from the door, and continuing down the hallway as quickly as she could. "He can't be injured." Every time there had been a big bad or an apocalypse, Buffy had simply obliterated the source. This time, however, Buffy could not just kill the Mayor. If what Cordelia had seen was true, than nothing could kill the Mayor because nothing could hurt him. "We're so screwed."