Hey those of you who read this! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. No one seems to be reading the story, but I like writing it. Hence the reason I continue to write it. Oh well.
"What was that?" Jess asked, twirling around to look in the direction she had heard a large explosion come from, forgetting Angel's previous confession.
"I don't know…it came from over there…" Angel replied, pointing over to the direction and as he did, a billow of smoke and rubble drifted slowly upward, and screams were heard. Seconds later another explosion was heard, and more dust was seen rising.
"That's at The Star Gazer!" Jess said, suddenly very worried.
"What…?" Angel asked, frowning pensively.
"Danielle and Wesley are there!" Jess said with wide eyes. She looked around for some way of getting down to the street floor without hopping and injuring herself. She looked to the building next to theirs and adopted a look of determination.
"Jess, no…" Angel said almost warningly.
Jess, ignoring Angel's plea to not jump, ran at full speed to the edge of the building and jumping off of it, landing safely on the other building roof. "I've got to get there, Angel!" Jess yelled back to him. She continued hopping from building to building, Angel hopping behind her. In a matter of minutes the two reached the last building they could hop to, considering that the building that should be in front of then had been reduced to rubble.
"C'mon." Angel said, hopping down to the rubble and pulling out rocks and debris, revealing several people lying unconscious, which he lifted up and moved out of the way. Sirens could be heard coming closer and closer.
"Danielle?" Jess yelled as she dug in her spot for people and her friend.
"Jess, I found her!" Angel howled to Jess. "She's here!"
Jess looked to Angel, and saw him supporting a coughing Danielle. "Oh, god…" Danielle muttered in a groan, quivering softly. She suddenly looked around with wide eyes.
"What? What's wrong?" Jess asked kindly.
"Wheres Wesley?" Danielle asked in a terrified squeak. "He was lying on top of me when the roof caved in…!"
"I'll look for him!" Jess said immediately starting to scramble through the rock and rubble.
"Jess, don't…It's useless…" Angel said quietly but firmly.
"But he's in here!" Jess protested, looking to Angel fearfully.
"Jess, he's gone! I cant smell him…He's not here!" Angel said urgently.
"No! I have to keep-" Jess stopped at the sharp look from Angel. She gently stood up, her head bowed.
"Good. Lets go." Angel said, turning around.
"No!" Danielle screamed, struggling from Angel's grip. She pulled and fell upon the rubble where Wesley should have been. She started digging rapidly.
"Danielle, it's time to go…" Jess said in a sympathetic voice.
"But—"
"Lets GO….Angel," Jess made a gesture towards Angel with her head as she said this bitterly. "doesn't think he's alive. We need to go."
"Alright…" Danielle whispered and stood up, facing her sire.
"Lets go." Angel said in a stony voice, walking into an alley.
"I'm sorry…" Jess whispered to Danielle, pulling her into a hug. She held her close as she sobbed into her chest.
"H-He's alive…! I know it… I can FEEL it!" Dani sobbed.
"I know, too….how 'bout this… When Angel goes to bed, we'll come back and look for him…okay? Would that make you feel better?" Jess asked, looking into her childe's eyes and wiping her tears away.
"R-Really…?" Danielle asked, sniffing slightly.
"Yeah…We'll come back around ten…it's five now..."Jess smiled to her.
"Thank you…" Dani mumbled, letting out a soft, shuttering sob. "Lets get going…Before you're counter part starts getting worried…" Dani said, a little bitterness in her voice.
"If you think about it, he has some reason for trying to kill Wes…Wes did try to kill Conner, didn't he? Angel's still bitter about that….but that doesn't excuse…"She sighed deeply as they walked.
"I wish he could at least pretend to care…" Dani whispered, pulling her coat around her a little more.
"I know… but you're going to have to be patient with him. He's two hundred and something years old, and is trying to redeem himself after what he had done. He finally thought he had done that when Conner was born….he had finally been done redeeming himself…and that he could live happily. But then Wesley took his chance at happiness. So you see? He's still bitter about that…"Jess said, looking at Dani sadly as they walked.
"Okay….I understand….but…" Dani let her sentence drift of, but Jess knew what she was about to say.
"I know…it's not alright…" Jess sighed as they came up to Wolfram&Hart. "I'm going to talk to him okay?" Jess smiled, giving her childe one last look. She then walked to Angel's office, finding him with a client. "Out." She growled to the client, narrowing her eyes threateningly.
The tall, wolfish man left, staring at Jess in a hungry way as he did. Jess slammed the door behind her once he was gone. "How dare you? How DARE you!" She screamed at Angel as he dimmed the windows to the outer office.
"Look, he wasn't there! I didn't smell him!" Angel defended himself.
"JUST BECAUSE HE TRIED TO TAKE CONNER DOESN'T MEAN HE DESERVES TO SUFFOCATE TO DEATH!" Jess raged.
"Jess, he…he tried to take Conner! He would have killed me!"
"TO SAVE CONNER! HE ONLY DID IT BECAUSE HE WAS AFRAID YOU WERE GOING TO KILL YOUR SON!"
"I…" Angel seemed to be at a loss of words; Jess had just spoken the truth, and he knew it- nothing he said or did could change the truth.
"You what? You're sorry? If that's what you were about to say, than you need to think a little. You just condemned Wesley, an innocent man, of death. And there's nothing left for us to do. I hope your pleased now." And with that, Jess swept from the room, slamming it behind her. She walked up to Dani's room to find the young wolf demon.
"Dani?" She called softly into the darkness of the room.
She flipped on the light and saw her childe on her bed, crying softly. "G-Go away…" She moaned into her arms.
"Dani…" Jess murmured, walking over to Dani's side. She stroked her back as she sat down, and then gently pulled her into a quiet hug, where the only thing that was heard was the stifled sniffs of Dani. "Shh…" Jess said after a few minutes of silence. She looked down at her. "Dani, it's okay…"
"Jess, will we really be able to find him…?" Dani asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Yeah. I think so. We found Angel, didn't we?"
"But we have school now…tomorrow's Monday."
"I know. We'll go before school. We can go now, if you want." Jess said condolencingly.
"We can?" Dani looked up hopefully.
"Yeah. Lets go…"
An hour later
"We've been looking for an hour, Dani…" Jess said sympathetically.
"It's around here somewhere! I swear that the building was right here!"
"It's all been cleaned up…we're just going to have to go to the Hospitals around here and look for him..." Jess sighed, looking to Danielle.
"No…..I'll go alone…" Danielle whispered turning towards one of the alley's nearby.
"You sure?" Jess asked worriedly.
"Yeah. I'll be fine…" With that, she disappeared into the darkness of the building next door.
"Dani!" Jess yelled after, ready to stop her.
"Yeah?" She looked back. "I' not coming back!"
"I know…But please-be careful!" Jess hollered back.
"I will!" Dani assured her, and then ran out of sight.
At Wolfram and Hart
"Jess, where's Dani?" Spike asked as Jess walked into the building, walking towards Angel's office.
"She's off looking for Wes." She said simply, walking swiftly toward Angel's office and bursting in. "Out." She growled at the small woman sitting in front of Angel's office.
"Wh-what? No! I was here first!" She defied.
"Out." She said again.
"o." The girl defied still. Angel put his face in his hands, knowing what came next.
"OUT!" Jess yelled, vamping out.
"Jess. Is this appropriate?" Angel asked in a slight growl.
"It's alright. This is apparently very important…" The woman said in a resigned tone. "I'll just come back in when this lovely young lady storms out again." She slipped out the door.
"I hope your happy; that's two clients you've kicked out of my office today." He sighed, dimming the windows again. "What is it now?"
"Angel, darling…" Jess said in a fake sing-song voice, using her normal, non-vamped face again. "What hospital was Wes brought to?"
"No idea." Angel said bluntly.
"YOU HAVE TO KNOW!" Jess growled in rage. "IF YOU DON'T KNOW THAN WHO DOES?"
"I dunno." He sipped his mug'o'blood, courtesy of Harmony.
"You can find out?" It was more a statement than a question.
"No."
"Hey, Angel?" Fred poked her head into the room. "It's ready." She smiled.
"Really? Bring it in!" Angel said, completely baffled and excited.
"Alright…" She muttered, sighing slightly. She brought in a machine with a lever on it on a wagon. "here it is! It's bigger than I planned, but….here it is…"
"Awesome…" Jess murmured under her breath, not knowing what it was, but in awe all the while. "What is it?"
"It's…a brain transmitter. It trades people's brains and such." She giggled at this.
"Hey, Angel! I was out on a hunt and look what I foun—What the?" He walked in, Dani following him, the both of them staring.
"Alright…..Um….be careful not to pull the lever…it'll automatically start-up the machine."
"So it's the on/off button?" Dani asked, still staring.
"Something like that. All right…see ya' guys later…I guess…" Fred walked out of the room.
"Angel…" Spike murmured, looking to said person. "Lemme pull the lever…"
"No. Now, what is it, Spike?"
"DANI!" Jess said in utter shock; she hadn't heard them come in. She hugged her younger friend. "Did you find anything?"
"No…" Dani sighed.
"I found her on her way back here. Was on me way back meself, so I decided to accompany her." Spike smiled importantly.
"Look, Dani, Jess, I'm sorry-there's nothing I can do for Wesley…" Angel sighed.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Jess screamed, her anger coming back to her. She flung her hand up in an angry gesture and accidentally hit the lever as her hand went down. "ONLY YOU—" She stopped mid sentence and stared at the machine.
"Uh…oh…" Dani muddered.
"there's some sort of sentence here…" Spike said, looking closely at a television-like screen right above the lever. The entire room crowded around and read allowed:
"Counter Parts switch and drain from Brain, shall neither Part go back from fixing their mistake, both shall die. Switch Counter Parts now and let the time begin to fix what is wrong. You have one year and must live as the other."
"What?" Spike asked, frowning.
All of a sudden, a bright light flashed through the room and everything went black.
"What the..?" I muddered as I woke up. 'Let it have been a dream…I wont be switched with Spike when I wake up…that was a dream…right now I'm laying in MY bedroom, not Spike's…' I thought to myself desperately.
See, Spike is my worst enemy, and the only one who understands me…all in one. My name's Angel, by the way-as if you didn't know that already… I'm the CEO of a Law Firm called Wolfram&Hart, and the last thing I remember was Spike, my childe Jess, her childe, Dani, and I were in my office and read a strange passage on a brain-swapping device that swaps you and your Counter Part. That would mean I was swapped with Spike-oh no…
I slowly opened my eyes and saw immediately that I wasn't in Spike's room, so I relaxed and closed my eyes and let out the breath I was holding, then suddenly realized- I wasn't in my room either! I was in Jess' room!
TBC