CONSEQUENCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy and Morgan.
Author's Note: This chapter gets a bit darker than my previous ones, but when you see who the big talk in the chapter is between and the circumstances of that talk it will be explained.
CHAPTER 20-DARK REMEMBERANCES
"So he just told you…just like that," Nina asked with a confused look on her face as she handed Angel a towel.
"Pretty much, when Spike wants to tell you something…something really important, he doesn't hold back, he just hits you over the head with it and leaves it up to you to deal with the consequences," Angel replied with a nervous pout on his face as he stepped out of the shower and began to dry off.
"So what was the big secret that he told you," Nina asked with a long yawn as she pulled back the covers and pulled off her jeans.
"Nothing to important, old business from years ago," Angel replied with a nervous look on his face after spending several moments silent.
"Right Angel…if it was old business then why did you walk in here twenty minutes ago looking like you'd just called Godzilla a pansy," Nina countered with an unconvinced look on her face as she started to pull her shirt off but stopped and walked over to Angel, making him face her.
"It's a long story Nina, one that I don't think you want to hear about," Angel softly whispered back with an anxious shifting of his body weight as he looked away from her and out of the window.
"Why, because it's about you back when you were Angelus and killing people left and right," Nina shot back with a very stern and unwavering expression on her face as she leaned forward up against Angel and made it nearly impossible for him to not look down at her.
"No, it's nothing that I did, it's something that Spike did…or almost did, to a very good friend of mine, something that he never meant to do, we talked about it and we both agreed to put it behind us," Angel finally replied with a weary sigh before he pushed past Nina and walked around to his side of the bed.
"Have they said anything about those demons that we released," Gwen asked with a tired look on her face as she pushed her way into the kitchen.
"Nope," Morgan replied with a sad look on her face as she gingerly moved her injured arm away as Michelle sat down at the table beside her.
"But then again I highly doubt that the local authorities would actually ever openly admit to the public that there were giant demons on the loose, it'd cause a panic," Michelle added with a deep in thought look on her face as she sat down beside Morgan and turned back to Gwen.
"And we certainly wouldn't want that now would we," Katy joked with a sly grin on her face as she pulled back momentarily from rummaging around in the refrigerator, seemingly not noticing the angry glare that Michelle cast her way.
"Of course not," Connor grumbled with a very sour look on his face as he sulked into the room from another of the doors and headed towards the refrigerator. He lightly brushed Katy out of his way before he picked up a couple of pieces of cold pizza out of a pizza box and headed out into the backyard.
"Well good morning to you to Connor," Michelle said with an unhappy look on her face as she shook her head while Morgan watched him walk out of the kitchen with a very worried look on her face.
"No Morgan, you stay and eat, I'll make sure that he doesn't go to far," Katy said with a concerned look on her face as she motioned for Morgan to stay in her seat before she turned and walked out of the house and after Connor.
"What's up with her," Gwen asked with a confused look on her face as she opened up the nearest cupboard while she looked over at a quiet Morgan.
"I'm beginning to wonder," Morgan calmly replied back with a subtly jealous expression on her face as she slowly forced herself to stand up.
"Easy pet, she's just making sure that he doesn't go off and do something stupid, she's not your competition," Spike said with a tired look on his face as he edged into the kitchen and made sure to stay away from any and all sources of direct sunlight that filtered into the room. As soon as he finished speaking every female eye in the room turned his way, with a nervous shiver running through Morgan's body before the owner of the mansion finally broke the silence.
"Morning all," David announced with a very proud and happy grin on his face as he triumphantly strode into the kitchen and headed straight for a large cupboard near the refrigerator.
"Fuck off," Gwen grumbled with an annoyed scowl on her face as she slammed the door to one of the cupboards and flung another open.
"Did I say something wrong," David asked with a hurt and scared look on his face as he took a step back and away from Gwen.
"It's okay Mr. Nabbit, she's…not a morning person," Michelle interjected with a timid smile on her face as she laid a hand on David's arm and tried to calm him down after Gwen's outburst.
"Like you'd know," Gwen mumbled angrily under her breath before she found some graham crackers and left the kitchen.
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"Doing some sightseeing," Faith wondered with an oddly cheerful smile on her face as she slid around the side of a tree and kept her gaze locked on Wesley as he sat on one of the many benches that adorned the backyard of David's estate, staring off in the direction of the lake far off in the distance.
"Something like that," Wesley started to reply with a calm look on his face before his thoughts turned to weightier matters and he frowned and turned away.
"See anything interesting," Faith asked with a nervous half smile on her face as she slowly walked over to the bench and sat down beside Wesley, focusing her attention on a leaf blowing in the gentle breeze instead of looking at him.
"A young woman that has been hiding behind her fears and insecurities for far to long," Wesley answered with an eerily calm look on his face as Faith shivered a bit from the truthfulness of his words as they hit closer to home than she expected they would.
"Could say the same about you, except for the whole young woman part," Faith shot back, confidant at first before she scrunched up her face a bit and corrected herself.
"Point taken…did your mother really kick you out of the house when she…had a visitor," Wesley smirked out the first bit before his countenance grew serious and sympathetic. A flash of anger crossed Faith's face before her resolve broke and she answered.
"Yeah, she said that I'd just get in the way, she waited until I was," Faith started to answer with an unhappy look of nostalgia on her face as she remembered the many nights that her mother would scoot her out of the front door and tell her to not come back until her visitor left. This went on in all kinds of weather and times of day. If it were raining her mother would throw her a thick newspaper and tell her to improvise. If it were snowing then she'd be told to run as fast as she could to someone that would take her in. In those instances it usually turned out to be a neighbor three houses down, the very same neighbor that had on many occasions wanted to adopt Faith as her own rather than let her go back to her mother.
"Thirteen to tell you about the birds and the bees, although you had already found out everything that you needed to know several years earlier when your mother had been to drunk to remember that you weren't sleeping over at Josie's…the link went both ways Faith, you saw my worst memories and I saw yours," Wesley said as he stepped into her answer as he laid out the shortened version of how Faith learned about sex before he answered the next question that he saw was on the tip of her tongue.
"S…so then, you know…about," Faith stammered out softly, looking suddenly extremely like a scared three year old with eyes bigger than basketball's as tears didn't seem to be that far off.
"Damian, the man that raped you when you were twelve, of course your mother wasn't any help to you then, she was to drunk that night to realize…or care, that the man that she had brought home had stumbled into the wrong room," Wesley said with a slow nodding of his head as try as she might tears began to slide down Faith's cheeks, prompting Wesley to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and squeeze lightly.
"Your father wasn't much better, taking you to that whore house when you were nine, in some fucking misguided attempt to show you the depths to which some people would stoop to, while at the same time show you another example of how to treat people that were deemed…beneath you," Faith said as she spat out the last part with a look of disgust and revulsion on her face as she angrily shook her head, hoping that she could shake the last image out of her mind.
"It's amazing that we've lasted as long as we have," Wesley observed with a thickly sarcastic tone to his voice as he shook his head and bent over and picked up a leaf that had just been blown close enough.
"Yeah…does it ever hurt," Faith joked back at first with a short chuckle before she straightened up and lightly traced the edge of the cut on Wesley's neck gently with her left index finger. He stiffened a bit at her touch at first before he settled down and shook his head.
"Not anymore really, every great once in a while I'll get a psychic pain from it but thankfully those are few and far between," Wesley replied with an uncomfortable look on his face as Faith scooted a bit closer to make sure that she could look him in the eye.
"That's good, I'd hate to think that you were constantly in pain," Faith said back softly with a truly honest look on her face and in her eyes as Wesley turned back towards her. Neither noticed that they were now oddly close to one another.
"That's good to know," Wesley started to say out loud before it descended into a whisper as his face and Faith's face began to slow move towards each other. But just as they were about to venture past the point of no return Michelle shouted from the kitchen and the two snapped out of their odd stupor and shot apart, each hiding guilty looks from the other as they made their way back inside.
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"I don't care who you are, I'm not going to let you anywhere near Buffy," One of the newest slayers announced with a defiant expression on her face as she refused to step aside and let the man in front of her pass.
"I'm not going to hurt her, in fact she'll be happy to see me, I'm her boyfriend," The Immortal said with a kind but yet very serious edge to his voice as he took a step back and hoped that the young woman in front of him would step aside. When she didn't immediately do so he shook his head and turned towards Giles. "Rupert, would you be so kind as to explain to this beautiful young woman who I am and why she should let me by," He added with a pleading and innocent look on his face as he besieged Giles for help.
"Yes…of course, it's alright Maria, let him pass," Giles said with a sheepish look of embarrassment on his face as he walked up to them and laid a hand on Maria's shoulder. She paused for a moment, studying the look in his eyes, before reluctantly stepping aside and allowing him passage up the stairs and then walking towards the front doors of the hotel to get some air. What she didn't know was that there was a set of eyes glued to her figure as she made her way across the lobby. The Immortal smiled and made a mental note to remember her before he continued on his way to find Buffy.
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"So you were like Patrick Swayze in Ghost," Dawn asked with a very bewildered and interested look on her face as she slid into a spot on the couch beside Spike.
"Or like Bill Cosby in Ghost Dad," Willow added with an excited smirk on her face as she hopped onto the couch on the other side of Spike.
"What is this…the bloody Spanish Inquisition," Spike growled with a frustrated grimace on his face as his head whipped back and forth between the two women sitting beside him, nearly giving him whiplash as each seemingly changed the look on their face every time that he turned back to them.
"The what," Dawn asked with a completely confused and scrunched up look on her face as Spike did his best to hold back a snicker while Willow just smiled and shook her head.
"Never mind Dawn, okay Spike let's start from the beginning, how did you get to Wolfram and Hart from Sunnydale," Willow finally said with a nervous smile on her face as she perked up and looked eager for knowledge.
"The amulet that Angel brought to Sunnydale, when it released its energy it sucked me in, and out I popped a few weeks later in Peaches' office, with everyone staring at me, didn't think anything was wrong till I ran right through him…and his desk," Spike replied with an unhappy scowl on his face as he leaned back in the seat and looked back and forth between Willow and Dawn.
"But how, Buffy said that the amulet was buried deep within the Hellmouth, you were wearing it when you…when it happened," Dawn wondered with a confused look on her face as she tried her best to backtrack the events in her mind.
"That I was Bit, except an old enemy of Angel's somehow got the amulet and mailed it to Wolfram and Hart, and then awhile later he sent me a message in the mail, a flashy one, and suddenly I was corporeal again, just like that," Spike replied with a happier grin on his face as he looped an arm around Dawn's shoulders and pulled her into a hug, one that she did not try to get out of.
"Did you ever fight Dana, she said that…," Willow started to ask with a deep in thought look on her face before the smile fell instantly from Spike's face at the mention of the slayer that had cut off his hands.
"That crazy bitch cut my hands off, if I ever see her again…she's going to be the one that needs the hospital," Spike snapped back with an angry scowl on his face as he turned away from smiling Dawn's way to glare down at the witch sitting next to him.
"Oh my God…she cut off your…but that can't be right, Andrew said that the plan worked perfectly," Dawn said with a great amount of fear and hurt for Spike in her voice as she pulled away from the hug just enough to get her point across.
"His plan did…mine didn't, and next time you see Andrew I want you to give him a message from me, fool me once shame on me…fool me twice…shame on him, what happened in LA will never happen again, and I don't give a damn how many slayers there are," Angel interjected with a very stern and serious scowl on his face as he walked into the room with Nina in tow.
"Easy," Spike heard Nina whisper softly to Angel with a less than gentle squeezing of the back of his right arm before the two sat down on the couch that sat directly parallel to the one that Spike, Willow, and Dawn were on.
"I can only say I'm sorry so many times Angel, if we had known what was really going on," Willow began to say in her and the others' defense before Angel interrupted.
"But that's just it, you didn't care enough to find out, as long as you were safe and building your spiffy new council the rest of us be damned," Angel interjected sharply with an angry grimace on his face before he forcefully stood back up and left the room, leaving Nina at a momentary loss for words and Dawn and Willow shaking slightly in fear.
"Two hundred and fifty odd years and he still hasn't lost his touch…if you ladies will excuse me I think I need to have a talk with Captain Forehead," Spike said with a useless sigh before he stood up and followed off after Angel.
"He's…usually not like this…really, he just has a lot on his mind," Nina said with a nervous smile on her face as she seemed to be caught in between standing up and sitting down coupled with not knowing either Dawn or Willow.
"Of course he does," Dawn said softly, almost in a whisper, as she continued to stare off in the direction of where Angel and Spike had left the room.
"So then you're…what, Angel's werewolf girlfriend," Willow asked with a nervous and slightly guilty look on her face as she slid her legs off of the couch and turned to Nina.
"Correct…I uh…didn't try to kill you this week, did I," Nina admitted at first before realizing what she was saying and posing a question that she suddenly need the answer to.
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"I don't want to hear it Spike, I wasn't to hard on them, I'm through playing games with Buffy and it's about time that they know it," Angel exclaimed with a barely kept calm tone to his voice as he stalked back and forth in the barn.
"Well sorry Peaches, but you're going to hear it anyway…you're right, when next we and the Scooby gang meet the ending is going to swing in our behavior," Spike finally said with a somewhat impish and calm smirk on his face as he leaned back up against one of the walls and watched specks of dust float silently through the air.
"Spike, could you just agree with me for…what," Angel started to snap back with a been there done that tone of anger in his voice before he realized what Spike had said and stopped speaking abruptly.
"We're in total agreement here Angel, when next we and the Scooby gang cross paths we need to be ready for them, and any little tricks that they might pull, course I'm not quite sure that you started things off well in there by scaring the piss out of Red and Dawn," Spike said with a very calm expression on his face as he pulled a piece of straw out of a bale and began to slowly pull it apart.
"I didn't mean to yell at them, it was just that Nina and I had been watching news reports from LA, we were lucky Spike…really lucky, and there's a part of me that is starting to believe that…,"Angel said with a depressed and anxious tone to his voice as he slowly began to walk back and forth in the barn, deftly avoiding the beams of light.
"That if Buffy and the others had actually trusted us and Rupert hadn't kept putting you on hold that maybe a good portion of the city of angels wouldn't look like shit," Spike replied with a curious frown on his face as he tossed the strips of straw away.
"Yeah," Angel mumbled back softly with a very brooding scowl on his face as he reached one end of the barn and turned around.
END OF CHAPTER 20