Author's Note: Thankyou so much to everyone who reviewed. I'm so glad that so many people like this story. Well, I'll keep writing if you keep reviewing.

Chapter Seven: Recovery

For hours Angel lay there on the floor in front of the door, bleeding. He managed to roll onto his side so he had some back support, but every inch of his body ached. After a while, the troops arrived. Faintly, Gunn and the others could be heard outside, and Angel feebly choked out a few words to alert them of his presence.

'Hello? Guys?' He heard footsteps approaching the door, and struggled to see out the glass into the dark of the night. The door slowly began to open, and Angel got a clearer view of Gunn, Fred, Cordelia and Kathy. He smiled up at Kathy as Cordelia led her inside, and then she sheltered the young girl away from the image of her bleeding brother on the floor.

'Angel…' Gunn knelt down next to Angel, trying to figure out what he could do to help. 'What… Where's Wes?' Angel tried to hide his emotion of distraught for as long as possible before replying.

'Nero took him.' He said simply. Gunn's heart sank. The enemy had his friend, and only god knows what he was going to do.

'Dear God…' he moaned.

'Yeah, you might wanna start praying now.' Cordelia replied, trying to be humorous in the dark situation. Nobody answered her, or even gave her a look. She gently brushed back Kathy's hair and combed it with her fingers.

Gunn helped Angel up by one arm and Fred took his other arm. The two led Angel slowly into his office, and sat him down in the armchair after pushing a few papers and a leather-covered book off it. Groaning with excruciating pain, Angel made himself comfortable.

'Angel, what happened?' Gunn asked finally.

'Nero… he's got Wesley.' Angel winced, clutching the wound on his stomach.

'Got him? Do you mean he kidnapped Wesley?'

'Yeah, Nero took him.'

'Took him? Took him where?' Gunn pressed.

'I don't know.' Angel answered. 'I don't know.' He sank into the chair, completely unsure of what to do. He didn't tell Gunn yet of the offer Nero proposed, or of his choice. He hadn't made a choice, and couldn't think straight anyway.

'Okay, well we gotta get you cleaned up before that thing gets infected.' Gunn said as he stepped away and left the room. He was referring to Angel's wound. Fred, Cordelia and Kathy stood on the other side of the room, looking over at an injured Angel who lay flopped in the chair.

'Liam?' Kathy spoke up. Angel lifted his head at the sound of her voice.

'Yeah?' Angel replied, with difficulty.

'Is he going to come back for me?' Her innocent eyes made it almost impossible for Angel to lie.

'I think so.'

'Angel.' Cordelia snapped, giving him a look. She didn't want Kathy to get hurt.

'It's alright, really.' Kathy answered. 'I know what he can do. I've come up against him before, and I know that he is tough. I tried to fight him once when he caught me, but all I managed to do was cut off his hand. It grew straight back again within seconds.'

'Honey, you don't have to worry about Nero. He won't be coming back for you, not for a while. You don't have to fear staying here at the hotel. We'll organise a protection spell.' Cordelia assured young Kathy.

'Thankyou.' Kathy smiled up at Cordelia before looking back at her brother.

'Cordy, can I have a word with you? Alone?' Angel asked. Cordelia sent Kathy with Fred to go help Gunn organise some bandages and first aid supplies, leaving her and Angel alone in the room.

'What is it?' Cordelia asked.

'It's about Nero.'

'What? What about him?'

'When he took Wes, he… he made an offer.' Angel fought to speak, feeling his energy totally drained.

'What do you mean an offer?' Cordelia asked suspiciously.

'He wants Kathy.' Was Angel's simple reply. Cordelia understood exactly what he meant, unfortunately.

'He wants to make a trade.' She concluded. Angel nodded in response, and the two were silent. Before Cordelia could ask what was Angel's decision, Gunn returned with Kathy.

'I didn't know how many bandages you'd need, so I just grabbed a bunch.' Angel tried to smile at his friend, knowing he was only trying to help. Gunn helped him move up onto his desk and began cleaning his wound, but it was Cordelia who began applying the bandages while Fred kept Kathy occupied in the lobby.

'I think I'd better take it from here Gunn. A woman's touch would be a lot gentler for Angel, rather than you who might hurt him more.' Cordelia said to Gunn, bending down to Angel. He groaned and winced in pain and Cordelia patted some large white sterilized patches over the holes in his stomach and back.

'Ow.' Angel complained.

'Come on Angel, I'm nearly done.' Cordelia coaxed. Gunn had begun to clean up the towels that were covered in Angel's blood, when he heard Cordelia whisper something to Angel. 'What did you decide?'

'I don't know.' Angel answered, louder than he expected. Gunn looked up.

'Decide about what?' he asked suspiciously.

'Angel, you have to tell him. We have to tell him. And Fred, and even Kathy. They need to know.' Cordelia told Angel.

'I know.' Angel got to his feet, allowing Cordelia to help him back over to the chair. At least he wasn't hurting as much now. A few hours gave his wound a little time to start to heal. 'You can tell him.' Angel lowered himself to the chair and looked up at Cordelia. She smiled down warmly at him, feeling bad and a little guilty.

'Gunn, when Nero took Wesley he made an offer.' Cordelia began.

'What kind of offer?' Gunn responded.

'The kind of one where we trade Kathy for Wesley.'

'Oh, that kind of trade.'

'Yeah.' There was silence for a few minutes.

'What are we gonna do about it?' Gunn finally asked, mostly directing the question to Angel.

'Well, I don't really know. There is no way we're going to give him Kathy, so somehow we have to come up with a way to get them both. We have to stop Nero.'

'I can show you the books we found with everything there is to know about Nero slash The Collector.' Gunn offered.

'That's a start.' Angel replied. 'Thanks.'

'So where do we go from there?' Cordelia questioned the developing plan.

'Then we stop Nero.' Angel said. 'We do whatever it takes to stop him from getting Kathy, then we get Wes back. And we kick his demon ass back to Hell.'

'I like that plan.' Fred stuck her head inside the door, a grin on her face as she became interested. Kathy appeared beside her.

'Gunn show me those books.'

Author's Note: Another chapter up. Did you notice the little drop-in I made from Angel season 1 when Angel cut of Lindsey's hand? Genius, I reckon. Lol. Well, things are starting to happen. Nero's arrived, fought Angel and has now taken Wesley. Ooh, the storyline's heating up. Tell me what you think. Also, should there be a rating on this? An idea I had for the next chapter seems a little violent, so maybe I should put a warning on there… if I go ahead with it. We'll see.

Next chapter: Nero has Wesley. What do they do to pass the time before Nero decides to return to Angel to find out the answer for his proposition? What does Nero tell Wesley while he's in captivity? And how do Angel and the others work out how to get back Wesley but still keep Kathy? It has something to do with a swimming pool…