Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Michelle, Katy, and Morgan.
CHAPTER 47-TO PARTY OR NOT TO PARTY
Faith sat on the edge of their bed, staring out of the window and watching a small bird hop around on a branch. She sat and thought how badly she envied that little brown bird. No worries in life other than finding food, staying out of trouble, and finding the right mate. Though as she continued to watch the small bird Faith felt forced to acknowledge that she had found at least two of those three concerns, with though the third one being an entirely different matter. Two days had passed since Wolfram and Hart and The Initiative had left London and since then Faith just hadn't felt right, something was off. At the desk on the other side of the room Wesley could feel it to, when their lives were constantly in danger everything had a purpose, had meaning. But now that the threat had been seemingly taken away they weren't sure exactly what to do.
"We could always go drop in on your," Faith started to offer up with a nervous shrug of her shoulders, as she continued to stare out of the window, before Wesley cut in.
"I was dead…and my parents didn't even make the effort to acknowledge it, my childhood home is the last place that we're going to go," Wesley interjected with a serious look on his face as he looked up from the journal that he had been writing in all morning.
"So you're assuming that I'm just going to follow you around like a lost puppy," Faith asked with a sarcastic edge to her voice as she couldn't help but smile as she stood up and walked over to stand behind him.
"Not exactly, I was thinking more like as a partner," Wesley replied with a slightly curious expression on his face as he only half turned and looked up at Faith before her hands found his shoulders and she gave them a quick strong squeeze.
"I think I could live with that, though I'd have to get a whole shit-load of benefits," Faith said with a shrug of her own shoulders as she tried her best to sound as if she could care less if she went with him or not.
"Oh really, and just what benefits would those be," Wesley asked with an amused smile on his face as he laid down his pen, grabbed Faith's hand, and then pulled her down sideways onto his lap.
"Well plenty of booze, sex, and rock and roll…with just enough slaying thrown in to keep it interesting," Faith replied with a proud pout on her face as she slowly reached up and pulled Wesley's glasses off of his face.
"You drive a hard bargain my dear," Wesley said back with a fake look of seriousness on his face as he cupped Faith's chin in his left hand and gently rubbed his thumb along her bottom lip.
"I like to play rough," Faith purred back with a proud and arrogant grin on her face before Wesley pulled her into a smoldering kiss that would lead too much more before the day was done.
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They had secluded themselves away in the highest room of David's mansion, locking the door behind them and asking that no one bother them for the next several hours. Bringing to old chairs with them they each took a seat and stared out of the window on either side of the room. Spike faced north and Angel faced south, both bound and determined to not share anything. Not a word was spoken between them for three hours, leaving both to be alone with his thoughts and brood in total peace and quiet. Angel spent the time debating what to do next and if Wolfram and Hart and The Initiative were going to keep their word. The Initiative hadn't been happy when Whistler visited them later on that night, after his talk with Lilah and Lindsey, but in the end their fear of being discovered had outweighed their hatred of anything that wasn't entirely human. The army of vampires had been contained by the combined efforts of the Wolfram and Hart soldiers and The Initiative, a partnership that both sides were quick to dissolve. Spike spent his time trying to decide what to do with his relationship with Buffy, to decide if he had done enough growing to be with her fully.
"So what now," Spike finally asked with a bored look on his face as he stood up and leaned on one of the rafters.
"Now Spike we count our blessings and move on, personally though Nina and I are going to take a long vacation, maybe Nepal or somewhere remote, where we can be together without any interruptions, I could find a place that had somewhere for her to stay during that time of the month when she turns, and we could be happy," Angel replied with a small shrug of his shoulders as he turned around in his chair and looked up at Spike.
"What about Connor, you just going to vamoose out of here with her without telling him," Spike questioned with a calm but serious look on his face as he started to walk forwards towards Angel.
"I'll tell him where we're going and give him some way to get in touch with me if he needs to, who knows maybe I'll learn how to use a computer and we can email each other every day, what about you and Buffy, are you two going back to Rome together," Angel answered with a nervous smile on his face before he turned the question around on Spike.
"Not sure yet, though it's tempting I think that there's still something that I have to do before I can truly be with her, just hope that whatever it is it doesn't take very long, I don't want to lose her again," Spike said with a very sincere and concerned tone to his voice before he stopped walking and leaned up against one of the beams and looked down at his boots.
"Just don't hurt her, I'll know if you do," Angel stated with a deadly serious but slightly reassuring tone to his voice as he looked up at Angel before there was a knock at the door.
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"How do you feel," Maria asked with a concerned look on her face as she handed Xander a glass of water and a few pills.
"Like someone's playing racquetball in my head," Xander replied with a weak but appreciative smile on his face as he took the pills and the water from Maria.
"Ouch, that doesn't sound like to much fun," Maria said back with a sympathetic smile on her face as he unintentionally laid her hand flat on Xander's back and slowly began to rub small circles with it on his back.
"Trust me it's not, not as bad as the time that I got syphilis though, probably shouldn't have said that," Xander replied at first with a slightly dopey smile on his face before Maria instantly pulled her hand way when he mentioned syphilis.
"Okay I think that I'm just going to go now," Maria said with a nervous and slightly scared look on her face as she quickly got up and walked away, leaving Xander to pop the pills into his mouth and then wash them down with the glass of water.
"Missing the mojo," Willow asked with an amused smirk on her face as she walked by Xander and then sat down beside him on the couch.
"No…just me and my big mouth screwing things up again," Xander mumbled back with an unhappy pout on his face as he set the glass down on the coffee table in front of him.
"So what else is new," Willow replied quickly with an overly happy grin on her face as she jokingly gave him a hug.
"Real funny there Will, you should take your act on the road, you'd slay em with it," Xander glumly replied as he shook his head and then leaned back in his seat.
"Not until after we all get back to Rome and make sure that we update our records," Giles interjected with a serious look on his face as he walked up behind them with many large files in his hands and his glasses perched on the end of his nose. Ever since being freed from Wolfram and Hart he had been compiling data about everything that had happened, wanting to leave nothing to chance and make sure that he didn't forget anything, opening files on all of the new slayers that he had met since coming to London.
"Well you can have fun doing that without me, ain't no way in hell that I'm going to Rome," Katy stated with a very sure of herself tone of voice as she sat up in her chair and peeked over the top of the newspaper that she was reading.
"Why are you still here," Xander asked with a very unhappy frown on his face as he glared across the room at Katy before Willow elbowed him in the ribs to shut up.
"Because frankly I really don't have anywhere else to go, my apartment back in California's probably been cleared out by now and I can't exactly go back and act like nothing's happened," Katy said back with a defensive and somber look on her face as she kept her gaze locked back on Xander.
"You could always come back to Rome with us…not to stay, just until you get your feet back under you and figure out what you want to do," Willow offered with a nervous and hesitant smile on her face as she tried to play peacemaker.
"Sorry but I made my bed in California and that's where I'm headed, at least at first, I do have some money left in the bank, I just hope that I haven't been declared legally dead or something," Katy replied with a gracious smile on her face as she turned down Willow's offer before returning to glaring at first Giles and then at Xander.
"Well if they have frozen all of your assets you could always come back to Florida with me and stay at my house, after I explain it all to them I'm sure that my parents would understand and let you stay with us as long as you needed to," Maria interjected with a calm and optimistic expression on her face as she walked back into the room, eying Xander with a combination of nervousness and a slightly sly smile.
"I'm not sure if that would be the wisest course of action, we should stay together in large groups whenever possible, at least until we're sure that we can trust The Initiative and Wolfram and Hart," Giles stated with a concerned and serious look on his face as he walked around the end of the couch to stand beside Xander and Willow.
"Then you'll wait forever, we have to live our lives now because we probably won't get to later, if Katy and Maria want to go to Florida then they should go," Angel interjected with a very serious frown on his face as he walked slowly into the room with Spike, Buffy, and Nina trailing along behind him.
"Damn right…oh and if it's at all possible could you take the dweeb with you, he's really starting to get on my nerves," Spike added with a very confidant tone to his voice and look on his face as he carefully sits down on the arm of the couch, before pulling Buffy down onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I heard that," Andrew exclaimed from the other room as everyone in the room couldn't help but smile at how he said it.
"Since when did you start making the decisions for everybody, I don't remember that vote," Xander exclaimed with an unhappy scowl on his face as he glared at Angel with his one good eye.
"Don't you ever shut up," Katy snapped with an impatient sneer on her face before she stood up and let Michelle sit down as the blonde slayer looked more than a little tired.
"I'm not making decisions for anyone Xander, all I know is that we all got into this mess because we thought that we knew everything, that we had all of our bases covered, well guess what people we didn't, right now we're in a grace period, and I for one am going to take full advantage of it and I strongly suggest that you all do the same, because it won't last forever," Angel stated with a very calm but firm tone of voice as he walked around the room, looking each and every person in the eye.
"Angel's right, we lost to much because we couldn't trust each other, I won't make that same mistake again, and save the lecture Giles because I don't want to hear it, we're not turning our backs on our friends this time, you were dead wrong before and any thoughts of not helping each other out right now should just be kept to yourself," Buffy added with a very firm tone of voice, as she slid her hand into Spike's and gave his hand a quick squeeze, as she glared straight across the room at Giles, who was left to sputter in stunned silence at the forcefulness of her words.
"Well said pet," Spike whispered softly to Buffy before he leaned in close and lightly placed a soft kiss on her neck, something that sent a pleasant shiver down her spine and brought a smile to her face, if only briefly.
"Well said Buffy, though Michelle and I were talking and if its alright with everyone we were thinking of having a little party tomorrow night, you know to celebrate us all making it through this, since this might be the last time that we're all together for awhile and all," Willow added with a nervous and slightly scared smile on her face as she looked first to Buffy, then to Angel, and then back over to Giles.
"Ah…I'm not really in the whole party mood," Angel started to say with a hesitant expression on his face before Nina cut in.
"Come on Angel it sounds like fun, besides when was the last time that you were at a party," Nina interrupted with an excited and enthusiastic grin on her face as she stepped into the room and then whirled back around to face Angel.
"Does the Wolfram and Hart Halloween party count, it was a blast, at least until Lorne's sleep or whatever the bloody hell it was showed up and started killing people," Spike interjected with an amused smirk on his face as Buffy studied him with a confused look on her face.
"I don't know, I'm just not really a party kind of guy," Angel stuttered and stammered out with an embarrassed and nervous expression on his face before he was interrupted by Wesley and Faith's arrival into the room.
"Could it possibly be because you can't dance worth shit," Faith chimed in with a highly amused and sarcastic grin on her face as she stepped forward and then lightly punched Angel on the arm.
"That's not it, not it at all, it's just that," Angel tried to say with a nervous and unsure look on his face as he lowered his gaze to the sleeves of his shirt.
"He can't dance," Wesley informed the others with a sly grin on his face as he slid an arm across Faith's back before he hooked one of the loops of Faith's jeans with his thumb.
"Neither can you," Angel shot back with an almost childlike look of fear on his face as he crossed his arms and glared over at Wesley.
"True however I don't think that we should use our inability to dance as a reason to not have a party, I think that it's a great idea, just as long as we don't go crazy with the planning, something quiet and subdued," Wesley replied with a slightly guilty smile on his face and nod of his head before Faith leaned back up against him and snickered.
"See Angel, it's a great idea, we can have it tomorrow night, it'll be fun, besides we might not have a chance to party like this for awhile, so we should take advantage of it while we can," Nina exclaimed with an excited smile on her face as she took one of Angel's hands into her own and gave it a squeeze.
"Oh alright, you can have a party, just as long as I don't have to dance," Angel replied with a defeated look on his face as he shook his head and tried not to sound to sad about it.
"Great, we can use that big storage room for the party, we'll just need to clean it out and spruce it up a bit, wanna give me a hand with that Xander," Maria said with an interested smile on her face before she turned and looked up at Xander with a warm smile on her face.
"Well I don't know, maybe I should," Xander began to stammer with a nervous and slightly embarrassed look on his face before Willow shoved him out of his seat.
"Of course he'll help you, right Xander," Willow said with a confidant and sly smile on her face as she told Xander with her eyes to go with Maria.
"Y…Yeah, of course I'll help you, just remember I have a depth perception problem," Xander stammered out with a nervous and awkward expression on his face as he did his best to smile at Maria before he followed her out of the room.
"If we're going to do this then we're going to do it right, that means somebody has to get the music and the decorations and the food, I think that Giles should handle the food," Dawn said with an excited and energized smile on her face as she almost literally bounded into the room and threw an arm around Spikes shoulders.
"Uh no, now way, we can't let him get the food, he'll get food like little sandwiches and punch, I grew out of that kind of a party years ago," Katy interrupted with a very certain and serious tone to her voice as she walked out from behind Michelle's chair and shook her head.
"Oh no, and what would you have, I don't believe that I know what kind of food that they serve in a brothel, perhaps you could enlighten us a bit about that," Giles replied with a bit to arrogant of a tone to his voice as he did his best to keep a smile from his face but the edges of his mouth curled up into a haughty smirk at the end.
"Giles," Dawn said with a stunned and shocked look on her face and tone to her voice as her jaw dropped and her eyes grew wide at Giles' comment.
"What did you say," Katy snapped with an outraged scowl on her face as she took a step towards Giles before Paul jumped up from his place by the desk and stepped in between them.
"Easy Katy," Paul said with a very nervous and scared look on his face as he half wrapped an arm around her slender waist and pulled her back and away from Giles.
"I will not take it easy, how dare you even hint that," Katy started to growl with a furious scowl on her face as she let Paul continue to pull her away from Giles.
"Oh come off it, do you really expect us to believe that," Giles started to say with a roll of his eyes and a haughty expression on his face before Katy interrupted.
"That what, that I've never had sex…well guess what I haven't, I'm a virgin okay, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it," Katy growled back sharply with an unhappy scowl on her face before she turned and stormed out of the room, leaving Paul to hurry after her and Giles to try to not look to much like a prick.
END OF CHAPTER 47
END OF CHAPTER 47, with one more coming before Nyet being the interim sequel and then the full one named Effects coming after Nyet is done, that is if people still want there to be one.
Author's Note: Just wondering about pairings, should I pair Willow and Jamie up, Xander and one of the new slayers, Buffy/Spike, Angel/Nina, and Wesley/Faith aren't going to change but most of the others are or can.