CONSEQUENCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I created.
Author's Note: The couples will be my usual couples, some will take a little longer to develop than others but they'll be there.
CHAPTER 2-DOUBTS AND REGRETS
She stared long and hard at her hands, desperately trying to keep from vomiting up what was left of her lunch. Each arm was thoroughly coated in dark red blood from the tips of her fingers to the points of her elbows. She had noticed this after helping Angel and Spike clean their wounds. As she turned on the water there was a grumbling in the pit of her stomach. The rising wolf in her thirsted for the blood and initially she shuddered at the thought. But as the rumble grew louder she could deny it no longer and with her eyes tightly clenched she nervously licked some of the blood off of her left arm. Almost immediately she gagged on the taste, and revolted at the idea of what she was doing. But the wolf inside of her wouldn't back down just yet and she licked some more of the blood off before gritting her teeth and hurriedly letting the water wash the rest of the blood down the drain and away from her appetite.
"Nina…you okay in there," Angel asked softly with a concerned tone to his voice as he turned the doorknob and entered the bathroom.
"Huh, oh yeah Angel…I'm fine," Nina lied with a weak smile on her face as she slowly turned around and faced Angel, grabbing a towel along the way. Almost immediately she knew that Angel had seen right through her lie as his eyes grew wide at first before his gaze dropped down to the floor.
"No you're not…you're hurt," Angel replied with an unconvinced frown on his face as he walked up and gently ran the pad of his thumb along Nina's chapped lower lip. With a slightly worried and confused look on his face Angel held his thumb up in front of him for Nina to get a better look. Her quick retort died in her throat at the sight of Angel's thumb only a few inches in front of her, half covered in blood.
"I…well I…I…," Nina started to say in response before her lower lip began to quiver and her eyes welled up in tears. With a sniffle she turned away from Angel and hid her face in her hands.
"You couldn't help it, could you…so much blood, right there, it smelled so good…it had to have it," Angel stated calmly with an anxious tone to his voice as he took a step forward and hesitated a little bit before laying a hand on Nina's shoulder.
"I didn't, I didn't want to do it but it…," Nina mumbled through her hands before the tears acted on their own accord and poured out.
"It's not your fault Nina, you were hungry, the werewolf within you was hungry, the blood was there…you're not evil for letting go for a moment…," Angel countered with a sincere and comforting edge to his voice before he reached out and pulled Nina into a reassuring hug, his chest soon slick with her tears.
"So you're Angel's kid, guess that makes us family," Spike stated with an awkward frown on his face as he nearly choked on the word family, still surprised by the sudden turn of events.
"Something like that yeah," Connor replied gruffly with an impatient look on his face as he kept his gaze locked onto the door that first Nina and then Angel had walked through.
"Peaches…a father, doesn't that beat all…guess that means that I'll have to get him something, maybe a book, he always liked books," Spike muttered with a surprised and lost in thought smirk on his face as he wrung his hands momentarily before he exhaled needlessly and ran the palms of his hand down his lap and then over his knees in a display of pent up frustration.
"What…," Connor exclaimed with a very surprised and confused look on his face as he tore his gaze away from the doorway and snapped his head around to stare at Spike.
"You think a little Keats, Dickens, Tolstoy, or maybe I should go a little crazy and get something more for his reading level…do you think that the effulgent Dr. Seuss would be over his head," Spike added with an impish grin on his face as Connor leaned back in surprise.
"What are you talking about," Connor asked with a thoroughly confused and frustrated edge to his actions as he stood up and began to pace back and forth in between the sofa and the counter.
"I thought that it was customary to get a few father a gift of some kind," Spike stated with a deeply concerned pout on his face as he stood up and shrugged his shoulders.
"Forget about it Spike, besides…what I want you couldn't give me," Angel stated from the doorway looking, if possible, more grim than before he entered. Nina appeared next, looking to have cried herself a river of tears. Connor furrowed his brows and flickered his gaze to Angel in a silent bout of questioning but Spike squinted at the pair for a second before his emotionless face broke out into a sly smile and he tried to laugh but was forced to stop by any number of his injuries.
"You sure Angel, because I think that there's a nice little bookstore on the corner a few blocks from here, maybe if I'm lucky I can find one of those Dick and Jane books, junior here might get a kick out of them," Spike joked with a half smirk on his face as he wiped a bit of blood away from one of his injuries and sat back down on the sofa.
"Are you okay…you don't look so good," Connor asked Nina with a concerned expression on his face as he walked up to Nina and gently laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine Connor…really, but thanks for the show of concern, I guess that I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that's happened…," Nina replied with a weak smile and short sniffle before she looped her arm around Angels and laid her head down on his shoulder.
"We have to figure out a way to close that portal for good, but we can't stay here for to long, Wolfram and Hart know that we survived and that we'd retreat back this far and try to set up shop here again, now what we need to do is…," Angel began with a tired and worn out tone to his voice as he tried his best to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
"Go through ole Wes' library of mystical tomes and texts, books that may I remind you that none of us have any clue how to read, and hope that we get lucky," Spike contributed without the smallest amount of sarcasm as he looked up towards Angel and held honesty in his look.
"You're right Spike, Wesley was the only one that could make heads or tails out of any of those books, without him it's hopeless…dam nit, I shouldn't have sent him alone to…," Angel began with a look of deep regret on his face as he balled his left hand up into a fist and tried to squeeze out his anger.
"Don't blame yourself dad, Wesley knew the risks going into it, he chose to follow you and accepted that came with certain risks, one of them being the possibility that he could die…," Connor interjected with a very grim and serious expression on his face before he bent over and squeezed his aching knee.
"Then we have a problem people, because after what we just did I can tell you for a fact that there's not going to be any self respecting vampire, demon, or human…anything, that's going to help us with this, it's all up to us…," Spike said with a somewhat defeated look on his face as he stood up and began to limp off towards Angel's office, hopeful to find something alcoholic to drink.
"So what else is new…," Angel mumbled with a weary and worn out smirk of sarcasm on his face before he let Nina lead him upstairs to his room and into bed.
"Hello Dawn, is Buffy home," Giles asked with a pensive and nervous scowl on his face as he kept ruffling up the brim of his hat.
"Giles, uh no…she's out with the Immortal again…why, is something wrong," Dawn answered with a quickly worried pout on her face as she ran a hand nervously through her hair while holding onto the doorknob with the other.
"I'm afraid so, and what happened in Los Angeles I fear is only the beginning," Giles replied with a very dark and mysterious scowl on his face as he trudged into the small apartment past a very confused Dawn.
"Hey Dawnie who was that at the…Giles, what are you doing here, I hope it's some good news," Willow asked with a huge yawn as she walked out of the bathroom and into the living room, wearing a bathrobe and with her hair wrapped up in a towel. Willow's yawn quickly turned into a startled gasp as Giles laid out the first bit of bad news.
"Unfortunately my news is most dire, my contacts in Los Angeles, those that are still amongst the living…informed me that Angel and the others pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, most importantly the circle of the Black Thorn, an ancient society of the richest and most powerful of the demonic underworld, they control so much that…furthermore I've been told that Angel only pretended to be Angelus again to gain their confidence enough to infiltrate their inner circle and then to destroy them from within, somehow he actually managed to do it, but the details are sketchy about the rest of it, my contacts have gotten so many conflicting reports that I'm not even completely sure that everything that I've just told you is true…but if any of it is then…," Giles answered with a defeated and very worried sigh as he sat down and leaned forward, starting to spread all of his supplies and papers out on the coffee table in front of him as he spoke.
"We…well then we…," Willow tried to stutter out with a flustered and very nervous pout on her face before Dawn broke in.
"We abandoned our friends…and you know what's worse Willow, they knew it," Dawn added sadly with tears quickly forming in her eyes before she hung her head to try and compose herself.
"I don't know if I'd go that far Dawn…not yet, I'm still not sure that what I've heard about Angel and the others is accurate, I'm afraid that I can't trust the judgment of my contacts in Los Angeles any longer, not for something as vitally important as this, I need someone that I can trust to go to LA and find out the truth," Giles explained with a very serious and anxious sense from his body language before he clasped his hands together and looked sadly at his results spread out on the coffee table in front of him.
"I'll go…," Dawn quickly piped up with a more than eager smile on her face as she jumped up out of her seat and raised her hand as if she were still in school.
"Whoa there over eager girl, Buffy wouldn't let you go to LA right now even if it were a matter of life and death, you're to far behind at school and…," Willow jumped in with a very stern and almost motherly scowl on her face as she plopped down on the couch beside Giles and crossed her arms, glaring lightly at the now much less exuberant Dawn.
"You're worse than Buffy…never let me have any fun," Dawn mumbled sharply back with a sad pout on her face as she sat back down and bent her knees up so that she could wrap her arms around her legs and rest her chin on her knees.
"That's beside the point at the moment Dawn, actually I was thinking about sending Faith, she knows Angel and the area well enough…," Giles began with a suppressed look of optimism on his face and in his eyes before Willow cut in.
"Not to mention that she could really use the free time to try to get over her and Robin's breakup, she hasn't come in before five in the morning this whole week, and when she does she looks like hell," Willow stated with a less than warm look of concern on her face as she described the recent plight of the formerly rogue slayer. After leaving Sunnydale far behind Faith had initially thought about returning to prison and serving out the rest of her time there, atoning for the crimes that she had committed. But Robin and Buffy and the others had convinced her otherwise, that she would be needed much more in Rome than anywhere else. Everything had gone along smoothly for weeks, until one night that Robin and Faith had gotten into a fight of biblical proportions. Faith did not show up again for over a week, and when she did finally show back up she only ended up staying because her help was needed at that moment to bring down a particularly strong adversary of the Immortal.
"Is she still drinking heavily," Giles asked with a nervous and worried tone in his voice as he turned his head to look over at the young witch.
"Uh…," Willow stammered out softly, not wanting in the least to look Giles in the eye and lie to his face.
"I'll take that as a yes then…I wonder if it wouldn't be prudent to send someone…responsible, with her to keep her on the wagon, so to speak," Giles countered with a pessimistic frown on his face as he took a quick look at his watch.
"What about Kennedy, she's been feeling pretty useless around her lately, what with everyone in town adoring the Immortal so much, there's beginning to be nothing for a slayer to do here anymore," Willow wondered with an upbeat expression on her face as she leaned up against Giles' shoulder.
"I'm not sure if that would be wise Willow, given Kennedy's inexperience and…tenuous grasp on her temper…things could get out of hand very quickly if Angel isn't in an agreeing mood, and I can only shudder to think what would happen to her if she ran across Angelus," Giles said with a less than pleased about his options smile on his face before everyone stopped talking as a tired and weary Buffy arrived home.
"Hey guys…what's up," Buffy asked, doing her very best to sound cheerful while stifling a yawn, as she stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind her.
"Would you believe…another apocalypse," Willow joked with a very cheesy and weak grin on her face before Buffy shook her head and plopped down on the other side of Giles, weakly shaking her head in dismay as she went.
It was just after sunset that Angel awoke from his fitful slumber. Almost instantly upon having fallen asleep he had been bombarded by one horrifying image after another. First Fred's image had come to him, politely asking at first and then pointedly demanding to know why she was no more. The phantom image of her in his nightmare was unceasing in its ranting and raving at him about how he had failed her. Gunn's phantom followed quickly behind that of Fred's. However his phantom let loose with a tirade of very factual faults that Angel had perpetrated against them as Angelus, and even a few without the presence of the demon. Wesley's phantom had materialized out of the darkness, calling him on the many failures of his unlife. But nothing could have prepared him for what came next. The phantom of Cordelia had slithered around him as a cloud of smoke at first, before changing into the image of his beautiful friend, the one that in his mind he had let die. Her condemnation of him had only barely begun when his hunger had snapped him away from his slumber.
He pried his eyes open to see Nina cuddled up beside him, half naked. He guessed that after helping him to undress that she had become so worn out that halfway through pulling her sweaty and grimy clothes off she had simply given up and gone to sleep. He gently reached out and played with the ends of her bangs with the tip of his index finger for a few moments, reveling in the fact that he could even be in this position with a woman let alone someone that he knew loved him dearly. He had been around long enough to know that look in a woman's eye. He had first seen it in Buffy's eyes, and then Cordelia's, and he had seen it in Nina's eyes while eating lunch with her while he was still a puppet. With great care and precision Angel slowly and reluctantly pulled away from Nina and slipped out of bed, half staggering his way across his apartment towards the bathroom. He hadn't noticed it before but as he reached for the light switch he realized just how badly he had been injured as he felt so stiff that it hurt to even tilt his head to either side. He grimaced through the pain and got into the shower, hoping that the warm water would wash away the horrors of the past day. He finished the shower and dressed before slipping out of the room, figuring that it was best to let Nina sleep for awhile as she looked as if she hadn't gotten any in days.
"Any luck," Angel asked softly as he trudged down the stairs past Spike applying some more ointment to one of his burns while Connor shook his head.
"Not really, fath…Holtz taught me a little bit of the ancient languages while we were in Quartoth, I'm nowhere close to being an expert in any of them…it's pretty much only like I can pick up a few words or phrases here and there…," Connor replied sadly as he stood up and showed Angel the passage of the book that he had been reading.
"We're in the hole now Angel, and unless junior here becomes a bloody genius in the next few minutes…," Spike began with a depressed pout on his face as he closed the book in front of him that he had only been half reading.
"I know Spike…this is all just to crazy to be real…only it is and we're clueless as to what to do…I really wish…," Angel mumbled with a somewhat defeated expression on his face as he ruffled up his hair on the way to the refrigerator.
"No time for wishing Angel, we have to get Wesley back however we can…even if it means that we have to play dirty…," Spike added with a very serious and grim scowl on his face as he limped into the small office after Angel and stared oddly at the pitcher of blood that Angel had pulled out.
"We're not going to kill anyone Spike, at least…not anyone that's human," Angel countered with a thinly veiled threat in the tone of his voice as he poured some of the blood into an old glass and handed it to Spike.
"You know Angel, this is truly pathetic…," A light and sarcastic voice called out from the adjoining off before Spike spun around and tried to get ready to fight but acted to fast and doubled over in pain.
"What are you doing here…," Angel demanded with an unimpressed and nervous expression on his face as he stayed calm and poured himself a glass of blood.
"Thought I'd drop by and see what all the fuss was about…," Gwen joked with a confidant smirk on her face as Angel glared back at her sitting cross legged on the top of his desk.
END OF CHAPTER 2
P.S.-Nina licking up some of the blood stems back from right after she was turned into a werewolf and she heard the blood running through her niece's veins and wanted to attack her along with the raw and bloody meat in the skillet.