Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy, Morgan, and Michelle.
CHAPTER 36-PLANS ARE MADE
"Do you think that Wolfram and Hart and The Initiative know where we are," Faith asked with a slightly nervous expression on her face as she stood at the window looking out, hairbrush in one hand and wearing one of Wesley's shirts after having taken a warm shower.
"If they don't now they will very soon," Wesley replied with a concerned edge to his voice as he stepped out of the shower and picked up a towel.
"What do you mean," Faith asked with a distant look on her face as she kept staring out of the window while beginning to comb through her still wet hair.
"Well if there's one thing that neither Wolfram and Hart or The Initiative likes is losing, and when they lose they do everything in their power to rectify that, and David has made not effort to conceal that he owns this building and as soon as they find out that Angel Investigations did a job for David Nabbit several years ago they'll come for us," Wesley replied softly as he left his first towel around his shoulders and wrapped the second towel around his waist before leaving the bathroom.
"So in other words what you're saying is that we're screwed, or soon will be," Faith joked with a sadly sly smirk on her face as she turned away from the window and watched Wesley walk over in front of the fan and start to dry his hair.
"Unless we can figure out a way to get them off of our backs…yes," Wesley replied with a somber frown on his face as he stopped drying his hair long enough to look back at Faith as she took a step towards him.
"Do you think that we can trust B and Giles," Faith asked more pointedly with an unconvinced expression on her face as she walked a little closer to Wesley until she was able to grab the towel around Wesley's waist and pull it off, a sly smirk widening at the momentary glare that crossed his face.
"Not yet, though we all want a peaceful outcome to all of this I believe that Giles does not want Angel or any of us to be the one that comes up with the plan," Wesley replied with a daring look in his eyes before he turned around and leaned over to kiss Faith fully on the lips.
"How did I know that you were going to say that," Faith whispered back softly after they broke the kiss.
"Because you know Buffy and Giles well enough to know that Buffy will want to come up with the plan herself and like I said Giles will have a hard time following any plan of Angel's," Wesley whispered back to Faith as his left hand slid up the outside of her thigh and underneath her shirt.
"Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky this time and Buffy will learn to follow orders and Giles will stop being such a prick," Faith whispered back with a sly grin on her face as she stopped brushing her hair and let the brush fall to the floor.
"And maybe Andrew will actually grow a backbone," Wesley snickered back with an almost goofy grin on his face as his hand continued to move underneath her shirt, with his thumb tickling her ribs on the way up.
"Good point," Faith shot back with an amused pout on her face before she stepped back from Wesley just enough to pull the shirt off and toss it to the side. The rest of the night the two were lost in each other.
"Have you figured out how we're going to do this without getting everyone killed," Spike asked with a very serious, though not mocking, tone to his voice as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
"Would it surprise you if I said that I don't have a clue what to do," Angel replied softly with a question with a serious smirk on his face as he turned away from the window only slightly. Katy and Jamie were down taking a walk in the courtyard with a very tense Willow trying to do a locator spell to find Kennedy while sitting on one of the park benches.
"Surprise me…no, not really, though you might want to keep this little tidbit of info to yourself, if Rupert found out he'd try to use that to get himself put into place to be the one to plan the attack," Spike replied calmly with purpose to his casual step as he made his way across the room to stand beside Angel at the window.
"Good idea…though I still haven't figured out what happened to Illyria…and how this host is still alive, at least Katy spirits seem to have lifted since Willow came back," Angel replied with a slight nod of his head as he turned back to the window and half smiled as he watched Katy and Jamie walk past Willow.
"With a certain green empath demon in tow remember," Spike reminded him with a subtle smirk on his face as he slipped his hands into his pockets.
"Lorne said that he didn't want any of us from our group out looking for him, I said that we wouldn't and I kept my word, Willow found him," Angel said back with a slightly defensive tone to his voice as he kept his gaze on the courtyard below.
"So that let's you off the hook then," Spike chimed in with a sly grin on his face as he turned to Angel.
"That's the idea," Angel huffed out in a slight shrug of his shoulders as he turned away from the window and took a few steps back into the room.
"Are you going to let Buffy and Rupert help or are we going to come up with the plan ourselves," Spike asked with a useless deep breath as he fished around in his pocket for a cigarette.
"I'll tell them the plan once we think of it Spike, but I'm betting that Giles has already begun to formulate his own plan, we just need to get one of our own done first, before he has a chance to convince anyone," Angel replied with a very serious and concerned look on his face as he pulled a table out into the center of the room and then pulled up a chair and sat down.
"Should we be out looking for Kennedy or worry about her later," Spike asked softly with a casual tone to his voice as he pulled up a chair and sat down, propping his feet up on the top of the table.
"No, from what you told be about what Katy said I think that the next time that we see Kennedy we'll need to stake her, unless the vampires that took her are complete idiots they will have more than turned her by now," Angel said back with a very unhappy and somber frown on his face as he shook his head at his misfortune.
"We should probably have Buffy tell Willow about that then, as to the plan we should probably try and find the London branch of Wolfram and Hart and make the fight be held there instead of on David's doorstep," Spike added with a thoughtful look on his face as he finally fished out a cigarette and then groaned as he couldn't find a lighter.
"David has done more than enough for us, we've asked to much of him already, we have to make sure that when this is all over that no one can connect him to us," Angel said with a very serious and almost regretful look on his face as he shook his head and pulled out a pad of paper and began to sketch a rough outline of the city of London.
"Either that or make sure that he's on the first plane out of here afterwards," Spike chimed in with an amused smirk on his face before his countenance soured at the sight of Angel's scowl. "But putting aside the theatrics I think that we should try to keep the fight away from the more populated areas, the last thing that we need is to give either side something to use as a shield against us," Spike added with a serious and slightly nervous tone to his voice as he watched Angel continue to sketch out the city.
"That's going to be hard Spike, because that's exactly what they're going to want, they'll throw everything that they have at us, with the firm intent on pushing us towards the people, they're not going to fight us in abandoned buildings and out in the open, they're going to try to make this as painful and bloody as possible," Angel declared with a very grim and serious expression on his face as he started to write in the various sections of the city and add little icons as to where he expected the various enemy camps to be located.
"Even though The Initiative boys don't want anyone to know that they exist," Spike countered with an unsure look on his face as he impatiently jammed the cigarette back into one of his pockets, saving it for later.
"We should try and use that to our advantage, we have to see just how far they'll go to keep their identity a secret from the outside world, if we're lucky they could even help us," Angel said with a very grim and serious look on his face as he and Spike stared down at the map on the table.
"Sorry mate but I don't really see that happening anytime this century," Spike quipped with a sarcastic frown on his face as he started to go over a few scenarios in his head.
"If we can get something concrete on them then maybe we can blackmail them with it," Angel wondered aloud with a deep in thought expression on his face as he leaned back in his chair and stared back out of the window.
"So basically play the old help us or we'll expose you ploy…it could work, except that we don't actually have anything on The Initiative," Spike shot back with a depressed tone to his voice as he rued that he did not have a lighter.
"Actually Spike…we do, I nicked this from Riley just before he died, it's a miniature code book, it has all of their frequencies and passwords, hopefully with this Willow will be able to crack their systems and get us enough dirt on them that they'll have to help us," Angel answered with a sly grin on his face as he pulled a small book out of his pocket and showed Spike a few of the pages.
"Either that or they'll just kill us all and take it all back," Spike grumbled with an unsure frown on his face as he shook his head before he and Angel really got down to planning their strategy.
"Do you trust them Giles," Xander asked with a nervous frown on his face as David and Dawn left the room, leaving for one of the other living rooms to watch a movie with several of the new slayers that Buffy had brought with her.
"I want to say yes Xander, but I can't, I'm still not sure that they are not being controlled, monitored, or in collusion with some entity within Wolfram and Hart," Giles replied with a nervous and upset frown on his face as he shook his head.
"Paranoid much," Rhona muttered under her breath with a poorly veiled look of surprise on her face as she glanced up from the newspaper that she was browsing.
"In this business Rhona, one has to be," Giles replied with an unhappy frown on his face as he shook his head and then turned to Buffy.
"I don't think that either one of them is evil Giles, Angel seems to be more angry at us than anything else, and Spike…well we really haven't had a chance to really talk yet so," Buffy replied with a nervous and sad look on her face as she sank back into her chair and looked at the table in front of her.
"But Buff, both of them have lied to us…to you before, what makes you think that this time will be any different," Xander questioned with a serious and unconvinced scowl on his face as he ran his finger along the rim of his glass.
"I know Xander, and they may be lying to me now to…but this time Angel doesn't seem to be out for himself, he seems to be trying to get out of the fight," Buffy replied with a slightly unsure look on her face as she shifted her position in her chair and silently wondered if she was sitting in an overly large chair or if she was truly that small.
"That's possible, however Buffy I think that we should not discount the possibility that Angel is merely lulling us into a false sense of security," Giles started to say with a skeptical tone to his voice as he straightened his glasses on his face before Buffy broke in.
"Not discount…false sense…Giles do you hear yourself, this is exactly the line of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place, if we had trusted Angel back then Fred would still be alive, Wesley wouldn't have died, and we probably wouldn't even be here," Buffy interjected with a sour expression on her face as she dropped her head into her hands and ran her hands through her hair in frustration.
"That's possible Buffy, however until we know for sure that they are being truthful it would not be wise to put all of our faith in Angel and Spike's hands," Giles replied with an uncomfortable look on his face as he glanced over the many pages of data that lay in front of him on the coffee table.
"Would it help any if I said that you can trust them," A bored voice said from across the room before Buffy, Giles, and Xander turned quickly around to see Whistler standing casually in the doorway.
"Whistler," Xander exclaimed with a surprised look on his face as he snapped his gaze first to Buffy and then to Giles, silently asking if it was good that he could see the demon.
"That's me kid, look guys this infighting and squabbling isn't going to help anyone, all of you have to trust that Angel knows what he's doing and that he and Spike are not in league with Wolfram and Hart, because if they were then I would know, and right now those two are numbers one and two on the hit list, The Initiative boys would like to get their hands on them as well," Whistler said with a very serious but casually serious tone to his voice as he walked into the room and sat on the couch beside Giles before reclining and placing his feet up onto the coffee table, right on top of some of Giles' papers.
"The Initiative, why would they want Angel and Spike," Xander asked with a confused look on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and turned to Whistler.
"Oh I don't know, maybe because they used the Finn's to complete Willow's spell and close the portals," Whistler answered with a calm expression on his face as he seemed to ignore the daggers that Giles was glaring at him for putting his feet on his papers.
"Riley…Sam, but they…Angel," Buffy started to say with a very worried and confused edge to her voice as she sat up straight in her chair before she remembered what Willow had told her about the spell. The shout that came next startled everyone that was still awake in the house and no one got in Buffy's way as she stormed up the steps towards the room where Angel and Spike were almost done formulating a plan.
"Can I ask you something," Maria asked softly with a very nervous look on her face as she followed Katy slowly down the hallway.
"Sure," Katy replied with a tired yawn as she shrugged her shoulders and stopped at the doorway to the study.
"Do you…do you miss your family," Maria asked with a serious and sad look on her face as the two slowly walked into the study and turned on a couple of lights.
"Not really…I got passed around a lot when I was a kid, I never lived with any of my relatives for to long, my parents were very poor and coming to the States was supposed to be my big break, honestly I never expected to support myself by stripping but I have no regrets," Katy replied with a tired but serious look on her face as she slipped into the first comfortable chair that she could find.
"That doesn't sound like much fun," Maria stated aloud with a sympathetic look on her face as she found a place to sit and sat down, staring sadly off into space.
"It wasn't, but I didn't know anything else so it was normal for me, if all of this going somewhere or did you just want to get me alone," Katy replied softly at first with a carefree shrug of her shoulders before she arched an eyebrow and winked sexily at Maria, who at first didn't notice the gesture before when she did she looked like she was about ready to say something curt in reply but managed to stop herself.
"I haven't seen my parents in almost a year, at first I thought that it'd be a blast, getting far away from them and my brothers and sisters, but a phone call here and a lone email there isn't as good as I thought that it would be," Maria replied with a lonely and sad look in her eyes as she slumped back in her seat and stared at the scrollwork of the armrests of the chair that she was sitting in.
"Oh I see…you're homesick," Katy said with a subtle smirk on her face as she tried to keep her voice from being any more ribbing that it was.
"A little, it's just that my family was close before I got that letter from Mr. Giles, I missed one of my brother's wedding and my mother spent the night in the hospital…I don't know, I guess it just kind of puts my whole wanting to go to college in a new light, at first I was going to attend the school the furthest away from home, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should rethink that strategy and go somewhere closer to home," Maria countered with a nervous and sad tone to her voice as she reached out and trailed her fingers over the edge of the armrest.
"What do your parents do for a living," Katy asked softly with an interested smile on her face as she felt that she needed to shift the subject of their discussion just a bit.
"My father is an English Professor at the University of Miami and my mother is a lawyer," Maria replied with only a small amount of pride in her voice though Katy could see plenty of it in her eyes.
"Whoa…you must have had every college in the country after you," Katy exclaimed with an amazed look on her face as she straightened up in her chair a bit.
"Almost," Maria replied with an embarrassed smile on her face as she shrugged her shoulders and stared up at one of the pictures on the wall.
"Guess it was probably hard for you to turn all of them down to study with Buffy and Giles," Katy added with a bored look on her face as she turned back to look across the room at Maria.
"Very…well some more than others, my parents were really pushing me to go to Miami but I didn't want to always be in my fathers shadow and constantly be around people that only see me as his little girl, I got enough of that whenever he had friends over, they'd always ask me where I was going to go to school and if I wanted to be in my father's classes…God that got annoying," Maria groaned loudly as she rolled her eyes and flopped back in her seat before a sly grin spread across her face. It grew until she couldn't control her mirth and soon she began to laugh openly. At first Katy thought that perhaps she had gone off the deep end but then she found herself joining in the laughter and the two continued until there was tears in their eyes.
She snapped his neck and let his body slide to the floor. She had taken her first childe out onto the town to acclimate her to the ways of being a vampire. She had initially wanted to use the woman that she had picked up in the bar but had decided against it and instead allowed her to burn up when the first few rays of sunlight had streamed into the bedroom. She had found her first childe, a few hours later, sitting alone in a pub having a drink before rushing off to her first class. She was a college student that had paid for her tuition by letting a photographer friend of hers take a few pictures of her in the buff. To keep her identity, and to stay away from the ire of her parents, she had made sure that her face was always obstructed in the photos. Kennedy had at first tried to strike up a conversation with the young woman, after staring at her for several minutes from across the pub, but had been ignored. Feeling slighted Kennedy waited until the young woman got up and went to the bathroom. She followed her into the restroom and waited outside of her stall until the woman was done. When she opened the stall door Kennedy struck, twisting her arm back around until she could draw the woman's neck close enough to bite. The young woman let out a soft shriek as Kennedy dove her fangs into her neck. She decided to name her childe Scarlet.
END OF CHAPTER 36