23: Recovery

Erica spent a few days in the hospital, but thanks to her, Cordelia didn't have to. Erica had the burns, which would scar, but not too badly because Eve hadn't done it properly. Her leg had been fractured, but it would heal, and the doctor had recommended her six to eight weeks until she could get the cast off. They were worried about internal damage after the beating she'd taken, but her X-rays came out clear. She was going to be all right.

She didn't let the hurt leg stop her from learning, though. She did a lot of demon research over the next few weeks, practiced making portals that went where they were supposed to, and kept learning basic moves with the smaller weapons. Her dexterity and speed improved a lot, and she got the crossbow reloading and firing down pat.

She started learning a new trick with the portals and a mirror at the bottom of a bucket of water. She was supposed to be able to see a reflection but she'd mostly just seen the bottom of the bucket, so the mirror had been suggested.

It hadn't worked yet, but she was supposed to be able to monitor the Midrealm from wherever she was, as well as the bridges between realms so that she could tell when they were being used or if they needed to be repaired, which would ultimately be her job. Cordelia told her that it probably hadn't worked because she hadn't seen any of the other realms yet, so it was harder for her to visualise any of them.

888

The three vampires had at least managed to track Nina down, though they hadn't caught her that night. The good thing about being impervious to sunlight was that they picked her up during the day when she was in human form and didn't expect them to come for her.

Angel wouldn't kill her while she was a woman, but the local police stations had been wising up and had organised a demon investigations unit. They still weren't acknowledging the existence of demons publicly, but it was the beginning of the end of human ignorance.

Angel relinquished custody of Nina to one of the officers and they locked her up, pending proof of her existence as a werewolf. The next night they would be sure. She was going to be released on the days that weren't full moon, and given the choice to find her own control methods for her affliction, or else she would be picked up and kept locked up for the three nights a month that she was a danger to society. They already had a wolf who'd turned himself in, and they treated him fairly.

Daniel 'Oz' Osborne later heard about the unit and volunteered to be a counsellor to known werewolves. He'd been out of the country for a while, but he'd come back about the same time as the last Hellmouth Apocalypse. He'd been working with some monks and scientists about designing a sort of puffer administration device for a convenient supplement of the herbs he took daily to keep from wolfing out. It still required meditation to keep the attacks at bay, but an extra touch of the herbs made it easier for him to stay human, and he'd thought it might be helpful for others who were trying to control their wolf side.

Angel knew that Nina would disappear as soon as the third night was up, but he didn't have any proof that she was wilfully trying to kill and infect people. If the police had proof that she was knowingly endangering people without remorse, then they could lock her up. For now, she was just a disabled citizen.

Eve had run away again, leaving the men she hired to be beaten and questioned by the vampires. They were just mercenaries doing their job, and they didn't really know anything about Eve except that she'd paid them to follow orders. They were human, so Angel Spike and Lawson let most of them go, but Gregory disappeared. The girls were never told what happened to him, but were assured that 'he won't be back'.

At the time the three vampires were so angry about what had happened to Erica and Cordelia that almost none of the men made it out alive, but Cordelia's returned good health had helped to soften their ire. The ones they found had got a beating, but were still breathing when the cops arrived to pick them up following an anonymous tip about their being armed vigilantes. Most of them were found to have criminal records anyway, which helped to get them locked up. The girls had been through enough, so the vampires didn't mention them when they made the call.

888

/Five weeks after the kidnapping./

"Hi," Cordelia said with a great big smile, after opening the door to the apartment. She leaned forward to give the man in front of her a hug. "Oh, my god, Oz, it's been like, forever!" She was wearing a black halter top dotted with silver sparkles and black pants. She'd left her hair down with some of it pulled back in a black clip, and was wearing gold hoop earrings.

"Yeah," Oz replied, returning the hug. He was dressed up too, or at least, for Oz he was. He wore his old brown jacket over a very dark brown button-up shirt and black pants. He'd let his hair grow out so that it hung just past his ears. "Well I'm glad you called and invited me along. It'll be my first time out since I moved here. "

"Come in," Cordelia said, stepping aside for him. "I'll introduce you to Erica and Sam. Spike's on his way here."

Oz gave a strange smile. "How long did it take you to get used to working with Spike?"

"Well, I normally do the desk-work, and he does the violent stuff, so we don't interact too much, but he's actually been pretty nice, at least to us girls, since he got his soul back. I mean," she gave a shrug, "he's still Spike, so he's annoying sometimes, especially to Angel, but he does help out when it comes to the fighting."

Lawson was sitting on the couch, and he stood up to say hi to Oz. "Oz, this is Sam Lawson." Cordelia said, and the two guys shook hands. Cordelia walked past them toward Erica's door and knocked. "Hey Rika, are you ready?"

"Almost," Erica called back, "I'll be out in a sec."

She came out wearing a long-sleeved, black button-up shirt and black jeans. She had a thigh-length dark brown wool coat hanging over her arm and she was wearing low heeled dark brown, closed-in shoes. Her naturally straight hair was down, and some of it was brushed to hang over her left cheek, covering most of her scar. She was wearing silver earrings and a silver chain with her cross tucked under her shirt. She'd outlined her eyes in black, put shiny gloss on her lips and had some brown eye shadow on. She looked gorgeous, especially for a torture victim.

"Hi," she said to Oz, "I'm Erica." She caught it when his gaze skipped from her eyes to her cheek and back, but she didn't flinch. "Wanna see?" she asked calmly. She pushed her hair back to show him the scar. It was paler than the rest of her skin, and didn't look red anymore. It had been getting better every day and from a distance it was invisible.

"Ouch." Oz said sympathetically.

Erica just nodded and let the hair fall back. "I got the cast off my leg this morning," she explained. "So we're all going out for drinks to celebrate, as soon as Spike gets back from that Mohra demon mission."

"Angel's not coming with us?" Oz asked.

"He's not much for the bar room scene, or at least not in this century he isn't," Cordelia explained, "and besides, Buffy's in town for the weekend, so he took her out to dinner."

Oz smiled. "You think they'll make it this time?" he asked.

Cordelia shrugged. "There's no curse, so maybe."

Spike had a key to the apartment and he came in with a bloody sword over his shoulder. "Sorry I'm late," he said. He had a cut down his face that continued on his chest, and the blood was drying, smudged on his skin.

Oz gave him a careful look but didn't say anything. The last time they'd met, Spike had been harmless, but not good, although they'd never tested the theory of whether Spike was able to do damage to a werewolf while they were in human form. It didn't matter anyway now because Spike didn't have a chip in his head and wasn't likely to attack him.

Erica shook her head when she saw the wound. "You okay?" she asked.

"I'll live," Spike said with a grin. "Don't worry, I'll clean it up a bit before we go."

"Don't bother," Erica said, walking toward him. "I've been getting much better at this." She kissed him on his clean cheek. Spike half-closed his eyes and the wound disappeared. Erica gripped the collar of his black coat for a moment and then stepped back with a little smile, the nausea having passed quicker than normal. Oz raised his eyebrows.

"I ought to get cut up more often," Spike said with a smile. Erica wasn't sure how to answer that so she just shrugged, wiped the gloss off of his cheek with her finger and took the sword from him. There was a dark towel on the bench and she used it to wipe off the blood. By now she knew how to hold and take care of a sword without hurting herself. There was a large weapon's chest in the front corner of the living room and she left the sword inside.

"If everyone's in one piece now then I'd say we're ready," she said, "only let's not go to Benny's Bar." Spike gave a little chuckle and the others wondered what the joke was. Erica explained about her first vampire kill on the way out when Cordy asked her.

888

Erica, Cordelia and Oz sat on stools at the table they'd gotten. Just for something different, Spike had taken them to a demon bar he knew about. No one at their table was normal anyway. Vampires, Seers, Guardians and Werewolves, Oh my!

"So what, did you survive a werewolf attack?" Erica asked Oz, "It must've been intense."

Oz smiled. "Actually, I was tickling my cousin Jordy and he bit me. After my second night of wolfing out I realised that he was the werewolf that got me."

Erica looked surprised. "You can … I don't want to use the word infect, but, uh, you can pass it on while you're human?"

Oz nodded. "But only if you break the skin and draw blood."

"Erica's had a hairy encounter of her own," Cordelia said, "she's even captured a werewolf by herself."

"Really? How did you manage that?" Oz asked.

"Uh," Erica began with an embarrassed smile, "I led it into a very sophisticated trap made out of a slippery floor, a dark room and a volleyball net. Really high-tech." She rolled her eyes.

Lawson and Spike brought back drinks for everyone. Erica sipped her Scotch and Coke and watched with only a little interest when Lawson sat next to Cordelia and took her hand in his. She'd known there was something between the two already; they'd been out on a couple of dinner and movie dates. She was glad; Lawson was a very nice guy and a good friend to her by now.

She'd already noticed the stiffness between Oz and Spike, so Oz had been sat between she and Cordelia, and Spike was on Erica's other side, next to Lawson around the circular table. Erica cleared her throat. "So, you said you were in a band during high school?" she asked Oz.

"Yeah, Dingoes Ate my Baby. I was lead guitar player, but they got someone else to fill in for me when I, uh, had to sort out some personal stuff."

"You still play?" Erica asked.

Oz nodded. "Just in private now. I don't know, I'm thinking about maybe auditioning for one of the local bands, if there are any good ones."

"You should," Cordelia said, and then added to the others: "He's really good." Oz smiled.

888