Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy, Michelle, and Morgan.
CHAPTER 45-GETTING FREE AND SHOWING UP
Paul kept his word and kept his head turned as Katy helped slip the still unconscious Willow into her scrubs before she laid her back down on the table and went to free Jamie. By the time that Katy had fully ripped off all of Jamie's restraints Willow was beginning to come around while Paul tried not to peek.
"I'm next…right," Paul asked with a nervous and slightly scared tone of voice as he shuffled his feet a bit and continued to look down at the floor.
"Uh yeah, once I convince myself that you are not some Wolfram and Hart spy or something like that," Katy replied with a slight stammer to her voice as she was yet to fully extend her trust to Paul though didn't want to ruin things between them if he was telling the truth and was really on her side.
"Good, I don't know why they kidnapped me but I don't think that it was because of my good looks," Paul said with a worried tone to his voice before he added a bit of self deprecating humor in at the end. Across the room Katy started to slip the last shirt onto Jamie but couldn't help but smile at his statement.
"So then what do you do," Katy asked with an interested tone to her voice as she turned away briefly from Jamie to get the pants part of the scrubs.
"I…well I play computer games mostly, I test new games out for various companies to see if I can find any bugs, it's not the most glamorous job in the universe but it pays our bills," Paul answered with a slight shrug of his shoulders and a slightly sloppy grin on his face before he shifted his gaze from the floor to the legs of the chair that he was sitting in before Katy spoke again.
"Our bills, you married or something," Katy asked softly with a content look on her face as she laid Jamie's head back down on the table and started to hurry over to Willow's side as the red headed witch was beginning to blink her eyes against the light.
"I wish, I have three dogs, I rescued them all from shelters when they were young," Paul replied with a somewhat embarrassed smile on his face as he looked up finally from the legs of the chair that he was sitting in and watched as Willow finally got the bright light obstacle out of the way.
"K…Katy, where are we, and why does my head feel like a maraca," Willow stammered out almost in a whisper with a pained look on her face as she struggled to sit up, finally doing so with a lot of Katy's help.
"I don't really know, but wherever we are we can't stay here, we need to find the others and get out of here," Katy replied with a nervous smile on her face as she did her best to hide the fear in her voice.
"Hmpf, I'm getting to old for this," Willow mumbled with a pained smile on her face as with Katy's help she slid off of the table and stayed upright while she tried to get her stomach and the cannons going off in her head to quiet down. It took what felt like an hour but she was finally able to open her eyes and get a good look around the room without getting a migraine as a result.
"Good she can walk, now could you please help me out a little, my hands are starting to go numb," Paul interjected with a nervous and anxious tone to his voice as he looked across the room at Katy, who was still at Willow's side helping her stay standing.
"Hold your horses, she just woke up, and Jamie's still out, we're not leaving and you're not getting free until everyone's ready to go," Katy snapped back with more a frustrated and worried tone to her voice than angry but she mentally kicked herself for the harshness of her tone when she glanced briefly out of the corner of her eye and saw the hurt and scared look on Paul's face.
"But…we don't even know if the rest of your friends are even being held here, London's a big city, they could be anywhere, my hands will fall off if we wait that long," Paul stammered out with at first a look of fear and disbelief on his face before he regained his composure and put a point to Katy that she had been trying to not think about.
"Busted," Willow mumbled with a half smile on her face as she leaned heavily on the table as she took a few cautionary steps.
"Okay…so he has a point, what just because he's kind of cute we should, what are you looking at me like that for," Katy started to whisper back to Willow as she leaned in closer to help her stand before she noticed the odd look on Willow's face.
"Nothing…come on just untie him and lets go, we need to find the others and get out of here before they notice that we're not unconscious anymore," Willow replied with a slightly cheesy grin on her face before she looked over at Paul briefly, allowing her eyes to briefly cloud over, before clearing them and returning her gaze to Katy.
"If you say so, but if he turns out to be evil I am so gonna kick your ass," Katy grumbled back with an impatient pout on her face before she turned and went to untie Paul.
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"It always seems to come down to the two of us, doesn't it Angelus, kind of funny in a way…almost poetic," Lindsey said with a confidant sneer on his face as he took a couple of steps towards Angel.
"Only in a twisted sense of irony, Lorne apparently didn't kill you dead enough," Angel said with a very serious and determined look on his face before a crack appeared as he stopped to ponder if what he had just said made sense. Confidant that he didn't look like an idiot he pulled his hands out of his pockets and looked over Lindsey's shoulder at Dru, who was clutching the doll tightly to her chest, seemingly unaware of what was transpiring around her.
"Here one minute and gone the next, kind of like your chances of making it out of this in one piece don't ya think handsome," Lilah added with a fair amount of scorn and mockery in her voice as she smiled back at Angel and shook her head and Dru's continued isolation.
"What can I say, I like being the underdog," Angel said back with a carefree and easygoing shrug of his shoulders and smile on his face as he rubbed the end of the hilt of a dagger that he had in his belt with the pad of this thumb, ready for anything.
"Don't tell me that you subscribe to that inaccurate dogma of it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog, please…everyone has always known that might makes right, and when you don't have that on your side…cheat," Lindsey snarled back with a very mocking tone of voice as he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear and scratch the back of his ear.
"That the Wolfram and Hart playbook," Angel quipped back with a daring smirk on his face as he kept his hand at his waist, ready to draw the knife if the need arose.
"Pretty much, but come on Angel, you use it to, using a super powerful witch friend to free your soul instead of finding it for yourself or having one of your pitiful band of rejects do it for you," Lindsey said back with still a mocking look in his eyes and tone to his voice before Nina swallowed her fear and stepped out, holding onto a twisted metal bar.
"Yeah well buster, that pitiful little band of his has the goods on you, you and all of Wolfram and Hart, The Initiative to, you make one wrong move and we put it all up on e-bay, I wonder how long your competitors will take before they pay us whatever we ask them to, not to mention the news media, then there's the army, and all of those fanboys that'll think you're cool and probably ask you if you've done any demons chicks," Nina interjected with a very serious and slightly mocking tone to her own voice as she carefully made her way across the empty street towards Angel, never taking her eyes off of Lindsey for a second.
"Ah the werewolf, I was wondering when that monstrosity would show its face," Lilah said with a clearly mocking tone of voice and sneer on her face as she stepped in front of Drusilla and crossed her arms.
"Why you," Nina started to growl, aided by a bit of growling from her inner werewolf, as she took an angry step forwards before being stopped by Angel as he laid a hand on her arm.
"Easy, don't let her get to you, she's trying to throw you off your game, don't listen to her," Angel grumbled with an unhappy look on his face as he held Nina back while trying to keep himself from ripping Lilah limb from limb.
"That's easier said than done, Lilah can be very persuasive when she wants to be, though I could just make this easy on all of us," Wesley added with a sarcastically mocking tone to his voice as he walked calmly out of the building, keeping his gun aimed directly in between Lilah's eyes the entire time.
"What…and rob me of the pleasure of snapping her neck, I don't think so," Faith interjected with an impatient and falsely offended pout on her face as she followed close at Wesley's side, sliding her knife out as she went.
"Ah the posturing of fools, I'd forgotten how funny that could be," Lindsey snapped back with a hearty chuckle as he briefly turned back to a smiling Lilah and a spaced out looking Drusilla.
"Looks like Lorne didn't kill you well enough," Angel glowered with an unhappy scowl on his face as he slid the knife out of its sheath but kept it hidden up the sleeve of his duster.
"Oh no, your Pylean friend did his job, though I must say that he could have chosen a better way to kill me, guns are so messy," Lindsey said back with a clearly mocking tone of voice as he pulled his shirt open to reveal a scarred over gunshot wound.
"I would have preferred that he decapitate you but…you know, that would have been even messier, but come to think of it you don't see to be to devastated about Eve, poor thing was in love with you till the end, she wouldn't even leave the building after I killed Hamilton, that's love for ya," Angel said with a sinister smirk on his face as he took another step towards Lindsey, who by this time could tell that Angel was through joyfully playing his part in their little verbal war.
"Eve made her decision and I stand beside that decision," Lindsey said with an oddly uncomfortable look on his face as his wall of confidence cracked a bit.
"A bit odd though don't you think, Eve not being here and all, maybe she's not dead," Faith interjected with her usual amount of sarcasm and honesty as she pressed herself up against Wesley, so that the moment that he made his move she could make one of her own without giving Lindsey or Lilah any time to react.
"Don't be silly Faith, of course she's dead, she couldn't have survived the collapse, Lindsey supposedly loved her and he goes and lets her die like that…pitiful," Angel chimed in with a sing song grin on his face as he took a half step closer to Lindsey but kept an eye on Nina, who still looked ready to fight in a heartbeat.
"This is stupid, why haven't we killed them already," Lilah growled with an angry and frustrated scowl on her face as she stormed up to Lindsey and elbowed him on the arm.
"Because Lilah, unlike you the Senior Partners have something called patience, they have something special planned for Angel and the others, we only need to keep them from escaping," Lindsey replied softly in a forced calm tone of voice as he gently rubbed his arm where Lilah had elbowed him and took a step back.
"We're not the rebel fleet and you're not the empire…uh, okay maybe a little to much information," Nina stated at first with a very confidant and mocking tone to her voice before she fully realized what it was that she was saying and blushed deeply before quickly finishing. For a few fleeting seconds no one could think of anything to say. The tension was broken by the sound of an approaching motorcycle.
"What now…look out," Angel started to say with a frustrated and unhappy scowl on his face before he noticed that the motorcycle wasn't going to stop or even slow down and grabbed Nina and hurled them both out of the way. The motorcycle flashed past them and then crashed into one of the stands of lights, sending sparks and pieces of broken glass flying everywhere. Faith grabbed the front of Wesley's coat and pulled hard, sending them both tumbling back into the empty warehouse, safe from any falling debris.
"Well pet you certainly know how to make an entrance," Spike joked with a humorous smile on his face as Angel and the others lifted their heads to see Spike and Buffy sitting up in a pile of trash after having leapt off of the motorcycle at the last possible moment.
"Thanks," Buffy returned with a proud smile on her face before her look changed to grossed out as she picked something way past its expiration date out of her hair.
"Damn fools, what do you think you're doing, get them," Lindsey howled with a furious sneer on his face as he shoved a dead guard off of him and stood back up, not looking back to see how Lilah and Drusilla had fared.
"Spike," Angel growled with an outraged scowl on his face as he pushed himself up off of the ground and momentarily slipped his game face on.
"Easy there Peaches, it was her idea, I was just along for the ride," Spike said quickly with a deadly serious expression on his face as he pulled his hands back from Buffy before Nina sat up and grabbed onto Angel, making sure that he would worry about her rather than go after Spike.
"He's right Angel, but blaming me can wait until after the fight," Buffy said with a nervous and anxious look on her face before she let Spike pull her up to her feet and ready herself for the first wave of Wolfram and Hart security forces that were now racing towards them, nightsticks at ready.
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"Oh this is bad, this is bad," Morgan mumbled with a scared look on her face as she hid behind Connor as he stood at the window watching the Wolfram and Hart soldiers fan out.
"Well, we were supposed to provide a distraction for Angel, looks like he's going to get exactly what he wanted," Gwen said with an almost excited half smile on her face as she glanced out of the window briefly before finishing off her mug.
"There are so many, it may not be wise to take them all on at once, we should use subterfuge," Groo added with a sincere and thoughtful smile on his face as he stood up from his seat and patted Connor on the back.
"That won't work, even if we do manage to sneak around and take a few of them out before they realize what's going on there'd still be to many at the end, I wonder how trigger-happy they are," Connor replied with a concerned and contemplative look on his face as he watched the soldiers fan out and secure area after area.
"Almost makes one wish that those Initiative boys would show up, then we'd see a real fight," Gwen chimed in with a sly smirk on her face as she leaned back in her chair and glanced up at Groo.
"We could only be so lucky," Connor said sarcastically with a very serious and grim look on his face as he continued to watch the Wolfram and Hart soldiers.
"Okay so we can't just run out there and take them all on, so then what's the plan," Morgan asked with a confused and worried look on her face as she stepped out from behind Connor and sat down at the table beside Gwen.
"Maybe if we could cause some sort of disturbance out there those soldiers would do all of the work for us, they seem pretty on edge as is, I doubt that they'd need much enticing to do something that'd bring everyone with a badge in this city down here, the only thing is I don't know what that would be," Connor said with a nervous and anxious look on his face as he shook his head and leaned forward a bit to look out the side of the window.
"What if we got a grenade or something like that away from one of them, then we'd set it off in the middle of a group of them somehow and then they'd start shooting each other, that'd bring the cops here, wouldn't it," Morgan offered with a worried but hopeful look on her face as she started off looking straight across the table at Gwen before turning her gaze to first Groo and then finally to Connor.
"It could work, though whoever got the grenade and then set it off would have to be quick about it and know what they were doing, plus they'd have to be pretty crazy," Connor said with a stern and slightly unsupportive tone to his voice as he crossed his arms and scowled while keeping his gazing locked on the window.
"Okay you convinced me, I'll do it, just get ready to run if this doesn't work," Gwen said with a sarcastic sigh and shrug of her shoulders before she finished off her mug, set it down on the table and walked calmly out of the pub, all that before Connor, Groo, or Morgan could say something.
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"Do you know where you're going," Paul asked with a worried look on his face as he pushed Jamie in a wheelchair down the hallway as Katy walked out front acting as a scout and guard.
"Not really…but I know that we have to keep moving," Katy replied with a nervous look on her face as she turned back towards Paul and Jamie.
"Maybe we should find a nurse and ask her where to go, or at least try to find one of those maps that shows the different levels of the hospital, at least then we'd have an idea where to go," Willow offered with a tired and weary tone to her voice as she stopped walking and leaned up against the wall to catch her breath.
"We don't have time for that, besides for all we know they could be working for Wolfram and Hart, we have to find your friends and get out of here," Paul replied with a scared look on his face as he briefly stepped away from pushing Jamie to see if Willow could continue on.
"But," Katy began to mumble with a nervous and scared look on her face before Willow turned towards her and interrupted.
"Paul's right Katy, we're probably going to need all of the help that we can get to leave this place, and I'll feel better when I know that Xander, Giles, and Dawn are alright," Willow interjected with a tired look on her face before she turned back, smiled at Paul, and then started off down the hallway past a sputtering Katy.
"So now you're on his side, we still don't know if he's on their side," Katy grumbled with a defeated and almost whiney tone of voice as Paul pushed Jamie by her, before she hurried back towards the front of the group and drew even with Willow.
"He's on our side Katy, trust me, I checked his aura while you were getting Jamie into the wheelchair, you might want to be nicer to him in the future to, if you two wanna," Willow whispered softly to Katy with an ever growing smile on her face as the two continued to walk down the hallway before she let her voice trail off.
END OF CHAPTER 45