Swinging the heavy door to Elizabeth's studio open, Jason stood on the threshold and stared into the darkened interior. He'd left Sonny's with one purpose in mind. To prove that Elizabeth hadn't been lying to them.

Why lie? It didn't add up. Most people lied to get some sort of benefit from it. What would've Elizabeth get from lying about who she really was? Pondering for a moment on that question, outside of the studio, Jason shook his head. There would be no way she was lying. Elizabeth Webber was a horrible liar. To pretend to be someone she wasn't, for four years was an impossibility. She despised liars.

Feeling the wall for the light switch, Jason blinked a few times when the harsh overhead flickered on. When his eyes were adjusted, he noticed that the studio really hadn't changed. Closing the door behind him, and turning the lock, he quickly made his way to her closet where Elizabeth kept her personal things.

The small room was jammed with odds and ends. The controlled clutter paused him for a moment. Did he really want to do this? Go through her things for some sort of proof to Sonny that she wasn't lying to them. What if he were to open Pandora's box? Pinching his mouth into a frown, Jason told himself that he wasn't wrong. And if Sonny needed proof, then he'd give him enough proof to choke on.

Moving a few boxes out of his way that were labeled summer clothes he found a plastic filing box. Pulling it from the cramped cubby, he wasted no time in flipping the lid off. Sifting through the bills he stopped when he found her diploma from Port Charles High School. A few seconds later he found her birth certificate. It looked authentic. But how many had he himself had forged over the last few years?

Giving up, he closed the box and put it back where he found it. Moving a few more boxes, Jason found a small pink boxes labeled pictures. Prying off the lid, he stared down into the box. There had to be over a hundred pictures to look through.

Taking the box out to the couch, he lowered him slowly as the picked up the first picture from the stack. Elizabeth was smiling at the camera while hugging her Grandmother. It looked like it'd been recently taken. Pulling out the entire stack, Jason started at the bottom. A teenaged Elizabeth smiled shyly into the camera, Emily was standing beside her.

Shuffling through the images, he couldn't find any of a younger version of Elizabeth. Frowning, he shoved the pictures back into the box and slammed on the lid. Making his way back to the closet he swore he would find something that would make sense of everything.

Lindsey knew they weren't going to find Ric Lansing. At least not until he wanted to be found. Not that he could blame the guy. If he'd been in the assholes shoes, knowing he'd made a huge error in judgement, he'd back down until he could get all his bases covered. If only he knew what Lansing was privy to already.

Did he know that Tess was back? If so, it took away the major advantage they had over his former co-worker. It also meant that he could expect to see a few familiar faces from his past, and at the moment he didn't feel like finding out what was behind door number two.

But being the man he was, always looking out for himself and making sure he walked away on his own accord, he knew it was time to suck it up and stop baiting Angel and his friends every chance he got. Apparently he was in this for the long haul, and if there was going to be any sort of reunion with his biddies from Wolfram and Hart, he'd rather have Angel in his corner. Instead of having the blood-sucking prick willing to throw him to the wolves.

It also meant he had to play nice with all of Angel's groupies. He could do it. Even to that stuck up little princess Cordelia. Who, in his opinion was the second worst, right behind Angel himself. The way she was able to look at him and show her utter contempt made him twitch. Literally. It was unnerving the way she seemed to be able to read him. Seeing all his weaknesses and finding him totally wanting.

Then there was her sharp little tongue. Not only did it have a talent in flinging razor sharp insults, but the honesty in her words were unarming. One day he'd love to give as good as he got from her.

Watching her talk softly to Tess, Lindsey was slightly taken aback at the softness in her face. It was like seeing a completely different person. And by the looks of it, she seemed to be doing a good job of getting through to Tess. After finding Ric's room above Kelley's empty, the slayer had cursed before falling to the floor in a heap.

After the emotional roller coaster she'd been on, Lindsey wouldn't have been surprised if she hadn't cracked long before now. Slayers were physically strong, fast and could take a beating like no other. But they were still human. Had limits that when pushed past could cripple them like anyone else.

"Do you think he found out?" Not realizing Angel had been so close, Lindsey nearly jumped out of his skin.

"How would I know?" Feeling Angel's eyes boring holes into the side of his head, Lindsey had to remind himself to let the past go. It wasn't doing him any good, nor would it help him if his old employers were in town. "I doubt it. I think my little show this morning had him pulling up stakes and finding a nice dark hole somewhere in town to hide out in."

"We need to find him. She's not going to rest until she does." Nodding in Tess's direction, Angel looked tired. "And we need to find a place for all of us to stay."

Lindsey didn't know what to say. Usually when he'd been forced to cooperate with the fanged wonder, he'd been bossed around. Told what to do, when to do it. He couldn't help but wonder what Angel was up to. "I'd say the nicest hotel in town if it's on you."

At least this got him a slight smile. "Not likely. Besides, we'd get too much attention."

"We can't stay at the warehouse. Sooner or later the owner is going to find out we're squatting."

Watching Tess wipe the tears from her eyes, Lindsey watched as she took Cordelia's hand and let the other girl help her up to a standing position. "What about Elizabeth's place. No one would find it odd to see Tess there."

"We don't know where Elizabeth's place would be." Angel thought about it for a moment, not sure he wanted to invade on the place Tess had lived for the last four years as someone else. Not to say how she would feel.

"I know where she lived." Lindsey answered. "The building is mostly abandoned."

"I wont ask how you know where she was living." Angel nearly growled.

"That pain in the ass friend of yours told me."

"What?"

"Doyle." Seeing Angel's look of disbelief, Lindsey waived his hand. "Long story, and I don't like you enough to tell it."

"Feelings the same." Angel grunted. "But there's something more important at stake here than our unquenchable disgust of one another."

"Tess." Lindsey answered softly. Another, unwanted kick in his gut made him fidget.

"Yeah." His eyes traveled the length of her slim body as she and Cordelia whispered back and forth to one another. He'd almost forgotten how close they once had been. Or how their friendship had come out of the blue the summer Buffy skipped town after shoving a very pointy sword through his gut. "This town is going to be torn apart, and as much as I want to take her back to LA, we can't leave the people here to their own defenses."

"What defenses?" Lindsey sneered. "Their helpless sheep."

Nodding in agreement, Angel checked the watch on his wrist. "Let's get everyone out of here. We'll regroup at the warehouse, figure things out from there."

"They've been gone for while." Looking over his shoulder to where Giles was sitting on the steps, Wesley was sick and tired of the silence that had engulfed them the moment the others had left. Fred had also stayed behind, and had wandered over to a table in the center of the room to read one of the books Giles had brought with him. Leaving him and Giles alone.

"It's only been a hour." Making small talk with little interest, Giles turned the page of the book he'd been pretending to read. It didn't matter to him how much Wesley had changed. The image of the pompous, snotty twit he'd been was a hard memory to erase. Just because he was older than the rest, didn't mean he had to be mature all the time.

"Something doesn't feel right." Rubbing his hands together, Wesley started to look a little irritated over Giles's lack of interest. "You can't tell me that you're not just a little worried. One of your Slayers is out there. Totally out of shape, and suffering from immense emotional stress."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Snapping the book shut, knowing that Wesley wasn't going to stop yapping like an overactive Chiwawa. "Buffy's in perfect shape."

Looking taken aback for a moment, Wesley flushed. "You know perfectly well I'm talking about Tess."

"Of course you are." Sighing, Giles was tempted to clean his glasses yet again. Only to stop. "She's with Angel and Buffy. They won't let anything happen."

"Even with their best intentions, things do happen."

"Is there a point you're trying to make?"

"I'm just saying that maybe it wasn't wise to let her go after Ric Lansing tonight." Choosing his words carefully, Wesley stepped away from the window and moved closer to where Giles was still sitting.

"I didn't see you trying to stop her." His hackles raised, Giles narrowed his eyes at his ex-coworker.

"As her Watcher you have a responsibility . . ." Wesley's words faltered. "You still are her Watcher?"

Letting out a long breath, Giles suddenly looked tired. Wesley had finally poked his nose into the one area he'd been pondering through out the day. Was he still Tess's Watcher? More important, did he still want the responsibility of being a Slayers guard dog? He'd left Buffy and the other's to their own devices and they'd proven up to the task.

But when they left this town. Brought Tess back to her old life. Where would she end up? In Sunnydale, or Los Angeles? There was going to be huge decisions to be made, and scars were going to be ripped open.

"I don't know what's going to happen." Giles answered honestly. "If she returns with Angel to LA, she will be your responsibility to train."

The flush staining Wesley's neck deepened to spread up to his cheeks. "I don't know about that." Shaking his head, he looked uncomfortable. "You saw what happened to the last Slayer under my care. She's turned out unstable and highly psychotic."

"Faith was a special case." Giles argued. "It didn't matter what either of us did. She was insecure, and unstable from a childhood of abuse. We're lucky that things turned out like they did."

"What, her torturing me for hours before turning herself in?"

"It could've been worse." Giles said. "She could've killed you."

"Well thank my lucky stars she had a moment of kindness." Folding his arms over his chest, Wesley was interrupted by the sound of the metal door at the other end of the warehouse opening. "It's about time . . ."

Two men stood just inside the door. Their eyes swept across the empty space before resting on Giles and Wesley.

"Who the hell are you?" The smaller one barked.

Setting his book on one of the steps, Giles looked to Wesley. Silently telling him to remain quiet. "I apologize if we're trespassing -."

"My friend asked you a question." The other man snapped. His attention swung over to where Fred was inching her way to the stairs.

"I'm Rupert Giles." The two men looked at one another before the smaller man reached inside his suite jacket and pulled out a phone. The other one stalked closer, pulling a gun from his shoulder holster.

"Good to hear it." Pointing the gun at them, the man jerked his hand to have them scoot away from the stairs. "My boss has been looking for you."