Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Michelle, Katy, and Morgan.
CHAPTER 35-GETTING TO KNOW YOU
"You were really a stripper," Vi asked with a stunned look on her face and a quiet tone of voice later on as she hesitantly approached Katy, who had slid an icepack down in-between her panties and her skin until it reached the spot where the guards spear had struck her.
"Huh, oh yeah, dancing around a stage in nothing but my birthday suit," Katy mumbled back, a tad sleepily, as she glanced up from her chair as she was engrossed in reading one of the few books in David's library that was completely in Russian. She had slouched down into a comfortable chair by an old lamp an hour earlier and at first hadn't heard the meeker slayer approaching.
"Weren't you scared," Vi asked back with a nervous and scared look on her face as Katy could see the wheels turning in the other slayers head at how she would feel if she were the one up on stage. By the look in her eyes Katy could tell that the thought terrified Vi.
"Actually I don't think that I've ever felt more free then when I dance, it doesn't matter that I am naked or that drunk and horny men wanted to do things to me that aren't in the Karma Sutra, I am on a plane unto myself, a plane where nothing can touch me, I am at peace," Katy said back with a happily nostalgic smile on her face as she remembered back onto happier times as Vi looked on in wonder.
"Did anyone ever try anything," Maria asked softly as she closed the old book that she had been passively flipping through.
"Nothing that the bouncers couldn't handle, at least until Illyria came and the vampires attacked me, right in the middle of my routine to," Katy replied with a light shrug of her shoulders before she laid the book down on the floor in front of the chair and sat up straight.
"Ever think about going to college, my desk at home was covered with college brochures before Mr. Giles called and talked to my parents," Maria said back with a calm look on her face as she reached over and picked up her mug of tea.
"I did, but they were all to expensive, I barely made enough at my old job to keep a roof over my head, with stripping I was able to get a better place, a car, and actually start to save some money, dreams of college quickly went away after that," Katy replied calmly with a slightly pained look on her face before she laid back in her chair and stared at the old lamp that set on the table beside her.
"What if someone paid for your classes, would you go then," Vi asked with an interested look on her face as she seemed to perk up a bit. Katy looked ready to answer immediately but stopped and then put more thought into it before saying anything.
"I might, I just don't have a clue what my major would be, my grades weren't exactly perfect in high school," Katy finally said with an unsure and pensive expression on her face as she struck a thoughtful pose.
"Well then maybe you should think about," Maria began to say with a subtle smile on her face as she set her cup of tea back down onto the table.
"Stop right there, don't even think about it, I may not have seen as much as the two of you but I've seen enough to know that I don't belong with Mr. Giles and Buffy and the others, I'm my own person, an individual, and not like the rest of you…," Katy said back with a kind but yet very stern and unwavering tone to her voice as she sat up in her chair and then pulled the icepack out of her pants.
"Like the rest of us what," Maria asked, becoming a bit perturbed at how Katy had finished off her answer.
"I don't know exactly, it's just that all of you slayers that came with Buffy and Mr. Giles seem to be not much more than a bunch of trained attack dogs, you have to clear everything with them, I wouldn't…couldn't live like that" Katy said back with a certain and unwavering tone to her voice before she set her jaw and rose from her chair, heading for the kitchen as the ice had melted in the icepack.
"That's not how it is, Mr. Giles is a wise man, he wouldn't have us do anything unless it was in our best interest," Maria declared with a slowly growing pit of anger in her as she stood up and seemed ready to confront Katy when Dawn interjected.
"I'm sorry Maria but he would and he has, he knew that Angel and the others were in trouble in LA and that they asked…practically begged for his help but he let his own fears get the better of him and he turned a deaf ear, if he hadn't then perhaps we could have stopped Wolfram and Hart then and there instead of what we're doing now," Dawn interjected with a very serious expression on her face as she slowly walked into the room, carrying one mug of warm blood and another of what looked like hot chocolate. Behind her Spike slowly and stiffly walked in with a thick blanket wrapped around him as his bruises were just beginning to heal.
"Bit's right, we could have stopped it all back then, now we have to fight yet again, even though the spell worked at the portals will stay closed Wolfram and Hart aren't just going to let us walk away, then there's the Initiative that'll probably want us dead, add in that we have to stop the army of vampires that came in as part of Angel's plan, and we're looking at hard days ahead," Spike added softly with a ruefully sarcastic expression on his face as he walked over and sat down at one end of the couch before Dawn handed him the mug of blood and then sat down beside him.
"So you believe them," Maria asked with a surprised and confused look on her face as she turned in her chair and looked over at Dawn and Spike.
"Yes Maria, I do, I've seen what Giles' pride has cost them, and no matter what it takes I'm going to make sure that his mistake doesn't doom us all," Dawn replied calmly with an emotionless look on her face, though because of his enhanced senses Spike could sense that she was a jumble of emotions, before she raised her mug of hot chocolate to her lips and took a small sip.
"What mistake would that be," Vi asked with a scared and timid look on her face as she tensed up, as if it were a reflex.
"When a very good human friend of mine was dying a while back Angel called Giles and asked him for help, damn near begged him for help, but instead of helping Giles kept putting him on hold, hoping that he'd get the message and hang up, and because of that my friend died shortly afterwards," Spike said with a great amount of scorn in his voice as he forced himself to stay calm while calmly sipping from his mug.
"But she was evil…right, I mean she had to be evil if Mr. Giles wouldn't help her," Maria asked with a bit of timidity in her voice as she seemed to have backed down a bit from not thinking to highly of Angel and Spike and their friends.
"Fred was the furthest from evil that a person could get, there wasn't an evil bone in her body, she didn't deserve to die like that…no one does, she suffered before she died, and for that I will never forgive Rupert no matter what excuse he comes up with," Spike answered with such an amount of honesty in his voice that Maria couldn't help but come to the conclusion that he was telling her the truth and that her preconceived notions about him and the others were wrong. As per her usual when she was nervous and felt like a complete idiot instead of apologizing straight out Maria looked away and began to awkwardly pick at her cuticles. Spike glanced up at her from the brim of his mug and for the first time noticed that aside from the obvious differences between the two they could almost be sisters.
"I don't understand, how could he do that…turn his back on you…when he knew what it would mean," Maria asked softly, almost begging for an answer that would right her world again, as she shook her head and tried her best not to tear up and further embarrass herself.
"He probably thought that Angel was lying, trying to trick him into something," Spike said back softly with a slight shrug of his shoulders as he tried to lean further back in his seat.
"Why would he think that," Maria asked with a completely overwhelmed and confused look of panic on her face as Spike could tell that she was trying to make everything right again in her head but was having a terrible time at it.
"Because Angel killed the woman that he loved several years ago, Rupert's never forgiven him for it," Dawn sadly answered as she cast her gaze down to the floor before she pulled her mug close and took a long slow sip.
"Of course it should probably be said that when he killed Rupert's love he didn't have his soul, and before you ask he lost it when he experienced a moment of true happiness with Buffy, though it'd probably be best if you didn't mention it," Spike said with a seemingly bored silly look on his face as he leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling.
"A moment of true…," Vi started to wonder softly aloud with a deep in thought look on her face before Maria clamped a hand over her mouth and whispered what it meant into her ear. Spike couldn't help but snicker when he looked down and saw the look on Vi's face as Maria's words clicked in her mind.
"There you are," Buffy said with a tired and nervous expression on her face as she leaned into the room and noticed Angel sitting quietly in an old chair beside a window, pulled over just far enough to stay out of the light that beamed in through the large window nearby.
"Go away," Angel said sternly without moving any more muscles that absolutely necessary to speak as he kept staring out of the window.
"Sorry, but you can't tell me what to do," Buffy snapped back with a slightly arrogant smirk on her face as she walked into the room and shut the door behind her.
"Since when," Angel grumbled back with an annoyed scowl on his face as he shifted his weight a bit in his chair and picked a pad of drawing paper up off of the nearby table.
"Since you took charge of Wolfram and Hart," Buffy stated back, as if completely unaffected by his question as she made her way across the room before finally pulling a small chair up into the light and sitting in it.
"I had a good reason for that, I wouldn't expect you to understand," Angel calmly stated back as he flipped over the cover of the pad of drawing paper and picked up a pencil.
"Try me," Buffy stated back quickly with an interested smile on her face as she turned in the seat until she was facing Angel.
"I did it to save my son…you've met him, I agree to take control of Wolfram and Hart and they give him a good life, one where he doesn't remember me or anything except for the life that they constructed for him, I had to do it," Angel replied with a saddened expression on his face as he shook his head as he remembered somber events of days past.
"Let me guess, they betrayed you and turned him into a killing machine," Buffy joked with a half smile on her face as she sat back up in her chair.
"He was that before…no they kept their word, everything worked out fine until Saijhan came back into the picture," Angel started to reply softly at first before he scowled at the name of the now dead demon and he then angrily balled up the first page of the drawing pad and threw it onto the floor.
"Who's he," Buffy asked with an interested look on her face as she scooted the chair a bit closer to Angel.
"He was a very powerful demon, a demon with a grudge, and the ability to slip into any dimension that he wanted to with ease," Angel replied with a distant look on his face as he began to scribble out the outline of another face.
"So he tried to kill Connor, he tried to kill your son, and you stopped him," Buffy stated with a proud smile on her face before Angel stepped in.
"No, Connor killed him, I tried to keep Connor as far away from Wolfram and Hart as I could, but somehow my past indiscretions have a way of coming back to bite me in the ass," Angel snapped back with a slowly growing feeling of anger before he forced himself to calm down.
"I would have come Angel, had I known what was really going on," Buffy said in a soft voice as she decided to change the subject to try and keep Angel as calm and talkative as was possible at the moment.
"No you wouldn't have…that's probably what hurts the most," Angel said softly with a very serious look on his face and hurt to his voice before he closed the pad of drawing paper, stood up, and then left the room, leaving a stunned Buffy with tears forming in her eyes.
"How about this one," Lorne said with a concerned look on his face as he tossed a shirt onto the small bed while Jamie looked on, still clutching the blanket tightly around herself.
"No…it's to small," Jamie said with a slightly frustrated look on her face as she shook her head and gazed down at the small collection of clothes that Lorne had hastily bought with what little money he had left.
"What to some is a blessing to others is a curse eh," Lorne said with a whimsical smile on his face as Jamie started to ask him what he meant but a second before she opened her mouth she realized what he meant and couldn't help but grin back.
"These look like they'll fit," Jamie said a little bit later as she pulled a top and a bottom from the pile and then slipped off around the corner to change. She slowly walked back around the corner a few moments later, finally fully clothed though the clothes just barely fit given Jamie's proportions.
"Well they're not perfect but they'll do," Lorne said with a satisfied expression on his face as he looked Jamie over and then nodded his head.
"We need to find your friends, maybe they can tell me why I don't remember the last few days," Jamie said with a hopeful but fearful smile on her face as she laid the blanket down onto the ground and looked back up at Lorne.
"I don't know if you'll like their answers Jamie, but one thing that I can tell you, we need to get out of here now and find them before anyone finds us, but don't worry, Angel will know what to do," Lorne answered with an optimistic frown on his face as he clapped her on the shoulder and directed her towards the door.
"He's a vampire with a soul right, a good vampire," Jamie asked with a worried and still slightly confused look on her face as she pushed open the door and the two stepped out into the sunlight.
"Right, but don't forget about Spike, he has a soul to…," Lorne started to answer with a tired look on his face before a cab pulled up beside them. Lorne started to wave the driver off before he recognized the person sitting beside the driver.
"Lorne," Willow announced with a very surprised look on her face before she shout out of the car and stopped just short of hugging him as she caught sight of Jamie.
"Oh happy days are here again, we're saved," Lorne exclaimed with an excited and relieved look on his face as he clapped his hands together before Jamie spoke up.
"Why are you looking at me like that," Jamie asked with a nervous and slightly scared look on her face as Willow unintentionally continued to glare angrily at her.
"Don't play dumb with me Illyria, you can play whatever game you want but I'm not buying it, you killed Fred and…," Willow started to reply with a frustrated and impatient scowl on her face before Lorne stepped in.
"This isn't Illyria…at least not anymore, somehow the person that Illyria took over after the battle with Wolfram and Hart is back…don't ask me how, I found her in the rubble next to the club where you all were, found Buffy's boyfriend there to…except he wasn't as fortunate," Lorne interjected with a cautious look on his face as he stepped in between the two women and hoped that both would stay calm.
"Are you sure, Illyria has lied to us before," Willow stated confidently, still keeping her glare aimed at Jamie, who was busy desperately trying to think if she had met Willow before and what wrong she could have committed during that meeting.
"And who knows, maybe we'll be lucky enough that she'll lie to us again, but this ain't her, this is Jamie, Katy's friend…you know her right," Lorne said with a hopeful smile on his face as he sensed that Willow was beginning to calm down and eased out from in between the two.
"Katy's here…is she…okay," Jamie pleaded with an almost frantic expression on her face as she stepped forward and looked back and forth between Willow and Lorne.
"She's back at David's mansion with the others, she got hurt during the fight at the club but with her slaying healing she should be fine in no time," Willow replied with a slightly flustered tone to her voice as her eyes told her that she was talking to Illyria, however her magical senses were telling her an entirely different story. A wave of relief, excitement, and fear ran through Jamie's body at finding out that her best friend, after Holly, was still alive.
"Can I see her," Jamie asked timidly with a worried look on her face, as she seemed to calm down a bit as Willow stopped glaring at her.
"Of course you can, right Willow," Lorne said with a warm and happy smile on his face as he put an arm around Jamie and turned back to Willow.
"Sure…the more the merrier right," Willow said with an odd smile on her face before she turned and walked back to the cab, with Lorne and Jamie just behind her.
END OF CHAPTER 35