Chapter 3: A Moment in Suspended Time

Exhausted, Wesley dropped heavily to the floor. He sat in silence for a few moments, eyes still locked on the now empty pentagram. Suddenly a laugh escaped his lips and before he could stop himself he was lying on his back on the floor laughing so hard he was crying. He had done it! He had called forth a demon of incredible power, it had gotten loose, and yet he had kept his cool and stopped it. It was exactly as he had imagined it to be. Instead of just standing and watching he had taken action, gotten involved and it had worked!

A frightened sniffle broke him from his euphoria. "Jacquelyn," he whispered, crawling back to her side. Her entire body was shaking and gently he reached out to draw her near. Gently his hands touched her shoulders and she flinched violently.

"No!" she cried, shrinking from his touch, her knees pulled up closer to her chest. He sat back watching her, his excitement and joy completely gone, chased away by the sobering reality of her terror.

"Jacquelyn," he called her name softly, gently, reaching out to her with his voice instead of his hands.

She stopped rocking for a moment, her eyes slowly coming back from whatever dark hell she had been hiding in. Slowly they began to focus on his face. "Wesley," she squeaked.

"It's ok, everything is alright now," he smiled still keeping his distance.

With a choking sob she launched herself forward into his chest, her arms grasping at his shirt. Her weight carried him onto his back, his arms coming up and holding her closely to him. He could feel her tears soaking into the cloth of his shirt, and he smiled down at the top of her head.

"Shh," he soothed, stroking the back of her head, holding her body gently to his own. "We're all ok now."

"I…I was so..," but her voice was lost in a fresh set of tears.

After another ten minutes of crying he felt her body beginning to relax, her shoulders no longer rising and falling in earnest. Slowly she sat up and looked down at him.

"You alright now?" he offered her a reassuring smile.

She nodded, rubbing at her puffy red eyes. Gently she rolled off of him and helped him to his feet. "What do we do now?" she pointed at the pentagram on the floor.

"Don't worry about it," he replied as made his way over to Michael's unconscious form. "Right now I need to get the two of you to the infirmary."

Gently Wesley lifted Michael up in his arms and headed for the door, Jacquelyn tight on his heels, her hand clutching his elbow. Silently they made their way across the disserted campus to the infirmary. A cold wind blew and Jacquelyn moved in closer to Wesley, her body jumping at every shadow that seemed to move across their path.

After five minutes of knocking the night nurse on duty answered the door. She asked no questions just whisked the students inside, closed the door behind them, and raced off to awaken the doctor on call. An hour or so later Wesley sat alone in the waiting area, his fingers absentmindedly twisting a loose piece of the bandage that now wrapped his ankle.

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, right?" the doctor raised and eyebrow as he grew closer.

Wesley nodded.

"Yep, you are definitely Roger's boy," the man smiled, his American accent soft and pleasant. "I used to be an old school mate of your Dad's."

Wesley nodded again. He was waiting for the questions to start.

But instead the doctor ruffled his hair as if he as ten years old. "I'm not a fool son, and neither are any of your parents. Each of your wounds, they're from a Heneshi demon that's for sure; only demon with sickle-like claws. I don't even want to know what the three of you were thinking messing around with a creature like that but I'm not about to cause you anymore trouble than you are already in so my lips are sealed. But I just have to know, how did you manage to conjure up one of those buggers all on your own?"

As Wesley re-told the nights events he found himself growing more and more at ease. The doctor listened with awe to every detail and the more Wesley talked about it the more surprised he was at how unafraid he had been throughout the whole ordeal. Finally satisfied, the doctor instructed Wesley to take Jacquelyn back to her room. Michael was going to have to stay the night for observation but he would take care of Mr. Thomas.

The walk back to Jacquelyn's room was a long and cold one. Neither of them said very much. Jacquelyn's arm hung in a sling though it was only for the night. She had been lucky; nothing was broken and there was no permanent nerve damage. Just a nasty looking cut that would take some time to heel. They had all been very lucky.

Quietly, Wesley helped Jacquelyn into her room then closed the door behind them. "Do you need anything?" he asked, his hand still on the doorknob.

She shook her head.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," he turned to go when he felt her hand on his wrist.

"Stay," she whispered. "Stay here with me, please. I don't think I'll be able to get to sleep alone."

Her eyes were huge in the soft lamp light. She looked so fragile, so scared. What could he do? With a nod he let go of the doorknob. Instantly her arms were wrapped around him tightly, her body snuggling close to his. He stared down at the top of her head in surprise, but quickly his arms came up holding her back.

Again he tried to sooth her fears, sitting her down upon her bed and stroking her hair. Suddenly her face pulled back from his chest and her green eyes stared up into his. Without a thought he leaned down and kissed her softly, awkwardly on the lips, but instead of pulling back she kissed him back, her arms coming up and wrapping tightly around his neck.

The kiss deepened, their lips pressing so hard against one another's Wesley began to fear they might bruise, but at the last moment her lips parted and he tasted her for the first time. Her fingers curled through his hair, as her free hand pulled his glasses from his nose and tossed them across the floor with a clatter, but he didn't care. His fingers ran along the line of her jaw, down her neck to her shoulders, her skin warm against his fingertips. Gently she leaned backwards, pulling him down on top of her onto her bed, arms still wrapped tightly around his neck. He leaned forward, acutely aware of the feel of her body beneath his, and he began to move his lips down the curve of her neck. She whispered his name against his ear, her lips pulling at his earlobe.

His heart pounded in his chest as seconds passed into minutes and suddenly his shirt was gone, and then hers, followed by his pants, her skirt, and before he knew it she was lying beneath him completely naked. Not even in his wildest dreams had Wesley entertained such a moment in his mundane stuffy British life, and yet here he was.

He opened his mouth to say something, but she pressed one of her long index fingers to his lips and shook her head. Reaching up she recapture his lips with her and for the first time in his life Wesley completely let go. Their love making was soft and slow, a need for gentleness after the night's events far outweighing any burning passions. He stumbled along awkwardly, trust her hands, her lips, even her body to guide him. It was the single most amazing moment in his life and afterwards he watched her sleep safe in the crook of his arms.

The light from the alarm clock by her bed soon alerted him to the growing morning hour. The janitors would be arriving shortly to open up the library and he still had to get rid of the pentagram. Quietly he dressed, retrieving his glasses from the floor across the room. For a moment he went to put them on his face, then glanced back at Jacquelyn's sleeping form. With a smile he tucked them safely into the pocket of his dress shirt, before placing a parting kiss on Jacquelyn's forehead. She sighed happily in her sleep.

As he was shutting the door behind him he suddenly had a strange and unsettling feeling. Pausing he watched her sleeping form through the fading shadows. He suddenly had an overwhelming desire to crawl back into bed with her, consequences be damned. But no, he had to take care of things first.

"I love you, Jacquelyn Privett," he whispered to the silence of her room before heading out into the growing morning light.