Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy, Michelle, and Morgan.
CHAPTER 44-THE NEW GUY AND TIME TO FIGHT
The light hurt her eyes when she tried to open them. The light and the pain in her head made it almost impossible for her to survey her surroundings. She tried to sit up but found herself strapped down to a table, naked and covered up to her neck by a sheet. Almost immediately she began to panic, straining and flailing about with all of her strength in a vain attempt to break the bonds that held her down to the cold metal table. The unsuccessful effort made her weak and her tears came free and unhindered down her cheeks as her mind ran the gambit of what possibly could have been done or would be done to her if she stayed where she was. Learning from her earlier attempt to survey her surroundings she turned her head to the left and opened her left eye, instantly thankful that there were not any lights at that level. Through the glare of the overhead lights she saw Jamie similarly tied down on a table not even an arms length away. She looked to be asleep. Not having a good feeling about her current predicament Katy turned her head over to the other side and opened up her right eye. Instead of seeing Jamie tied down to a table she saw Willow, with a large black and blue bruise on the side of her head.
"Hello…is anyone there," Katy weakly called out with a scared tone to her voice as she half lifted her head and tried to see if there was anyone else in the room, hoping for a miracle.
"You're not supposed to be awake yet," A nervous male voice said from somewhere in the room as Katy struggled in vain to locate the speaker.
"What…where are you, who are you," Katy called out again with a still scared but now a bit hopeful tone to her voice as she strained to look around the room.
"They brought you in here about a hour ago, they said that you were in their protective custody, though I'm not exactly sure how taking your clothes and strapping you down to those tables is supposed to be protective, kind of like how tying me to this chair is supposed to be for my own good," The voice said again with a hint of sarcasm and tenderness in his voice as Katy finally managed to get her head to the right place and make out a dark blob against the wall on the other side of the room.
"Who are you," Katy asked with a still nervous but not as scared look on her face as she did her best to slide her hands around under the bindings and try to see if there was something that she could use to help her escape, or at the very least defend herself.
"Paul…Paul Trayden," Paul replied with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face as he dipped his head down a bit and looked at the counter beside him.
"Okay Paul, I'm Katy, do you know where we are," Katy said with as peacefully and sweetly a tone of voice as she could use before she found a small pin that held one of the bindings together.
"Not really, we're in some kind of hospital I think, some guys that were pretending to be doctors were in here earlier and there's all of this medical equipment around but," Paul answered with a slightly unsure look on his face and tone to his voice as he tried not think about the bruises that would be left around his wrists from how tight the rope was.
"But what, why don't you think that they were doctors," Katy asked with a suddenly very concerned and worried look on her face as she took a second to see if she felt any different that she had before being attacked.
"My mom's a nurse in Phoenix, and these doctors don't look like any of her coworkers, they look more like mad scientists trying to play doctor, and you guys are their patients," Paul answered with a bit of pride in his voice, as Katy could tell that he was very close to his mother, as the pain of the rope seemed to subside a little bit.
"If we're the patients then why are you here," Katy wondered aloud, now more than a little worried that Paul wasn't being completely honest with her.
"Hell if I know, I was just here on vacation relaxing in a pub when someone said that my rental was getting towed, I rushed outside and got whacked in the back of the head by something and blacked out, I woke up here and heard them talking about you guys when they brought you in, they said something about using you as bait for someone named Angel," Paul grumbled back his reply with an unhappy and angry scowl on his face as he lightly struggled against the rope but stopped when he felt the rope rub up against a sore patch of skin that had begun to bleed.
"Angel, oh no, I have to get free, I have to tell him that it's a trap, he'll come to rescue us and then walk right into the trap, Wolfram and Hart will win and everything will be lost, I can't let that happen," Katy moaned with a scared and frustrated look on her face as she once again started to struggle against her binds.
"It's no use, you can't break them…I'm not sure if Superman could even break those," Paul started to say with an exhausted and nervous look on his face before Katy surprised herself when she gave her left arm one last large push and heard the binding on it crack. The room went quiet except for the humming of the lights and the buzzing of the medical equipment for a few moments before Katy tried again. This time the bindings on her left arm completely broke away and it was free.
"Whoa, how did you do that," Paul gasped with a look of awe and surprise on his face as he stared wide eyed across the room at the broken bindings and Katy trying to free her other arm.
"That, ah it was nothing, just one of the perks of being a slayer," Katy joked with an overly arrogant tone to her voice as she hoped that Paul though that she was just kidding around with him.
"A slayer…I overheard the doctor's or whoever they are earlier talking about slayers, they said that they'd almost gotten the whole set, are you part of a team or something," Paul replied with a confused and deep in thought frown on his face as he turned his head and looked up and over at Katy as best he could.
"Something like that, I'd really love to explain it all in detail to you, but the less people know about us the better, know what I mean," Katy said back with a hopefully not hurtful edge to her voice as for some odd reason she was concerned with not hurting Paul's feelings, at least not if she could help it.
"I guess, do you think that you can," Paul started to ask with a confused look on his face before Katy succeeded in breaking the restraints on her right arm and then her body, finally starting to sit up before she remembered that she wasn't wearing anything underneath the blanket and so she clamped it tightly up against her chest with her left hand as she went up.
"Well that was easy enough," Katy grumbled softly with a sarcastic frown on her face as she started to look around the room, finally seeing Paul for the first time.
"Hi," Paul said with a slightly cheesy and nervous smile on his face as he looked back across the room at Katy as she fully took in what he looked like. He looked to be a little bit taller than Katy and though not gifted with a stunning physique was better looking in Katy's eyes than any of the men that she knew, except for Angel and Spike. His dark brown hair was cropped up close and his goatee needed a bit of a trimming but other than that it appeared as if part of his story had been true and he had not been a prisoner of Wolfram and Hart very long. Despite that he did have a few bruises that looked more like what one would receive in a fight where one of the participants was tied up and unable to defend themselves.
"Hi, uh do you know where I can score some clothes around here, I'm not to fond of walking around here in my birthday suit," Katy said back, doing her best to not put to much into her voice as she didn't want to give Paul the wrong idea, even though she wasn't sure exactly what that wrong idea was.
"I…there might be some in that room over there, though they won't be anything special, just hospital scrubs," Paul replied with a serious and almost sad tone to his voice as he pointed with his head over towards a small room just off of the one that they were in.
"Thanks…could you uh…look away while I," Katy started to say with an embarrassed and slightly guilty smile on her face before she couldn't continue and bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing at her actions. Paul seemed to get what she was saying and nodded his head before closing his eyes and looking away. "Thanks," Katy said with a relieved smile on her face as she let the blanket drop and snapped apart the last few bindings before she slid off of the table, thankful that her legs supported her before she wrapped the blanket around her body and made her way over to the small room. Paul had been right and there were a large amount of doctor and nurse's uniforms in the small room. Deciding against seeing what she'd look like in a nurse's outfit Katy quickly pulled on some scrubs and grabbed two more full sets of them before leaving the small room, hoping that they would fit Willow and Jamie.
"Can I look now," Paul asked with a nervous look on his face as true to his word his eyes had remained closed the entire time.
"Yeah, but when I get Willow and Jamie free you'll have to look away again when they get changed," Katy said with a nervous look on her own face as she set the pile of clothes down at the foot of the table that Willow was on and then pulled her hair fully up and out from underneath the collar, trying to act that she hadn't noticed that Paul was staring at her.
"Deal, who are you guys anyway, you don't look like you're sick and you don't look like criminals," Paul agreed at first with a warm smile on his face before he asked a question that he had been wondering about for some time.
"We're not sick, and we're not criminals, like I said before I'm Katy, that's Jamie over there and this is Willow, they're my friends and those Wolfram and Hart bastards jumped us and brought us here for God knows what," Katy answered with a very serious and concerned look on her face as she started to break the bindings that held Willow's arms and legs down to the table.
"I hope they're okay, your friend Willow didn't look to good when they brought her in, they must have really done a number on her," Paul said with a worried look on his face as he shook his head and watched as Katy finished freeing Willow.
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"This is getting us nowhere," Buffy said with an unhappy scowl on her face as she and Spike hastily climbed over a fence, the army of vampires hot on their heels but at the moment having momentarily lost their prey.
"Depends on which side you're on pet, you and I aren't getting anywhere but they are," Spike said with a grim grin on his face as he looked back over his shoulder at the army of vampires that caught sight of them and soon were in hot pursuit.
"What are we going to do now, we're nowhere near the rendezvous point, Angel will go crazy if we're not there on time," Buffy wondered with a nervous look on her face as she and Spike raced across one street and into another alley.
"So let ole Peaches go out of his gourd for a little while, won't hurt him none," Spike said back with a sly grin on his face as they came out of the alley and spotted a sitting motorcycle outside of a pub.
"Get on," Buffy shouted back to Spike as she hopped onto the seat of the motorcycle and was overly relieved when she saw that the keys were still in it.
"Do you know how to drive one of these things luv," Spike asked with a nervous and slightly unsure look on his face before at least part of his question was answered as Buffy turned the key and started the engine.
"Hey…that's my bike," A biker growled with an angry scowl on his face before Buffy guessed right and the two roared off down the street, with Spike's arms wrapped firmly around Buffy's waist, the two heading straight for Angel's rendezvous point.
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"Okay…who's next," Nina exclaimed with a very eager and determined look on her face as she proudly watched the body of one of The Initiative soldiers drop to the ground. She had finally caught up to Angel at the assigned meeting place and soon the two had become almost over run with Initiative soldiers.
"Don't get cocky," Angel exclaimed with a very serious look on his face as he blocked the kick of one of the soldiers before knocking that soldier out with a hard right to the temple.
"I'm not cocky, I'm confidant," Nina shouted back with a slightly hurt and angry scowl on her face before she smashed one of the soldiers in the head with the hilt of her weapon.
"Are you now," Angel quipped back with a sly grin on his face as he put one soldier in a headlock and then kneed another in the groin.
"Don't make fun of me," Nina grumbled with an angry and frustrated glare on her face before she was hit in the ribs from behind, a hit that sent her to her knees.
"Nina," Angel shouted in alarm as he flung the soldiers that he had been fighting away and rushed to Nina's side, blocking a swing that was meant for her head before he delivered a straight kick to that soldiers chest, sending him back through an old wooden door.
"She's hurt move in for the…hcckk," One of the soldiers shouted with a confidant and excited tone to his voice before a bullet ripped through his throat and he dropped to his knees, clutching his neck as it gushed blood.
"What," Nina gasped out with a very pained look on her face before her question was answered in the form of a swift kick to the chest of another of the soldiers.
"We leave you two alone for five seconds and you've already got half The Initiative on your asses," Faith said with a very disapproving look on her face before she broke into a grin as she then elbowed another of the soldiers.
"What are you doing here, I thought I told you to," Angel started to say with an angry and confused look on his face before Wesley stepped out of the shadows and blew away another of the soldiers.
"We tried that, but you know Faith…impatient to a fault," Wesley replied with a sly grin on his face as he looked back to Angel and then over his shoulder as Faith snapped her head around and scowled heavily at him.
"Where are Lindsey and Lilah," Angel shouted back with an unhappy scowl on his face as he hoped that this night already wasn't a total loss and that it might be possible to salvage at least a little bit of his plan.
"Don't know, after how we bugged out I'm guessing that they won't be long," Faith answered with a slightly guilty look on her face before she rolled out of the way of another attack and snapped the ankle of another of the soldiers with a swift kick to his shin.
"We stalled them as long as we could, but after I shot at them…well things went downhill pretty quickly after that," Wesley added with an awkward expression on his face as he hurried to Angel's side and helped him get Nina over to where she could sit down and catch her breath.
"I wonder why," Angel snapped back with an annoyed scowl on his face before Nina interrupted and kept him from saying anything further by laying a hand on his arm and letting out a pained moan.
"You two going to start arguing or are we going to fight, I kind of like my head where it is an unless the two of you," Faith started to say with an angry scowl on her face before she was interrupted suddenly as many blindingly bright lights were switched on, lights that brought the fighting to an immediate halt as all involved became instantly far more concerned with shielding their eyes. "Ahh…damn it, I can't see anything, Wesley," Faith grunted in a stunned panic as she did her best to shield her eyes with one hand and arm while using the other to try and find Wesley through the glare.
"Faith I'm," Wesley exclaimed with a nervous and very concerned tone to his voice before he and Faith bumped into each other as he put the gun that he had been using back into its holster. Almost immediately he grabbed Faith around the waist and then spun the two into one of the abandoned warehouses through an old decaying door and the two dropped to the floor.
"What's wrong Angel, can't stand the heat," Lindsey snarled with an overly confident grin on his face as he stayed well behind the bank of supremely powerful lights, wearing protective glasses to protect himself.
"Daddy's been a bad boy, he played nicely with the half breed girl, gonna have to be taught a lesson isn't he Ms. Edith," Drusilla added in her usual sing song tone of voice as she closed her eyes and then began to hum softly to herself.
"Can't we sedate her or something," Lilah grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked away.
"Angel in here quick," Faith whispered harshly back to Angel through the open doorway before he used the sound of her voice and the smell of Wesley's guns to direct him as he grabbed Nina's arm and led her out of the light. The second that all were inside Nina hazarded a peek and blinked her eyes several times to make sure that she could still see.
"Another fine mess you've gotten us into," Wesley said with an oddly sarcastic tone of voice that to the casual observer would sound as if he was truly angry with his old friend. But to someone that knew the two better they would be able to tell that instead Wesley was being bitterly sarcastic and wouldn't dream of being anywhere else in the world, except of course in bed with Faith and plenty of alcohol.
"Well I know how you like parties," Angel joked back with a sly but yet serious at the same time grin on his face as he slowly made his way back to the edge of the doorway.
"Give up Angelus, we already have your friends back at the mansion, it was stupid of you to split up like this, you left them completely unprotected, but don't worry they're not dead yet, the former old one will make a prized subject for our medical personnel to look at, once they've cut her open of course," Lindsey added with a mocking tone to his voice as he motioned to one of the Wolfram and Hart guards and the lights were dimmed to an acceptable level for everyone as Lindsey stepped out from behind them.
"Like we're ever going to let that happen," Nina grumbled with a very determined look on her face as she stayed crouched down against the wall but started to quickly look around the abandoned building for anything that she could use as a weapon. She had settled on an old tire iron when Angel spoke up.
"You can play your games all you want Lindsey, but one way or another…this all ends tonight," Angel declared with a very serious tone to his voice as he carefully stepped out of the building and soon stood staring Lindsey down, with only a short distance between them.
END OF CHAPTER 44