Chapter 9

Will took a seat, but his posture was that of forced calm. His eyes had a dark look Angel hadn't seen in a long time.

"I need your help. There's a situation. I tried to resolve it all weekend, but I can't do it alone. The man should be helping me…isn't much help. Can you take the rest of the day off?"

Angel looked at the clock, it was nearly six. He should have left already to go help Buffy. He sighed; she would call if she needed him. She wasn't helpless, he reminded himself. The paperwork on his desk was lessened, but there was still about four hours of work to do.

He considered his options for a minute and then stood and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. He wouldn't turn Will down for anything. He would just have to come in early tomorrow and have a driver take Buffy in when she was ready.

Angel followed Will in silence to parking garage and got into a car he had never seen before. That's when he knew Will was up to something. They drove nearly an hour before Angel felt the need for a full explanation.

"Wes got into some trouble. We need to kill some people so he gets out of it."

"Well, that's not vague, or anything. You know I have a pregnant woman at home. A hormonal pregnant woman. I don't doubt she can still kick my ass, and I hate to test that theory. I can't stumble in tomorrow morning."

"Call her, then, and tell her you won't be home tonight."

Will had purposely phrased his question about Angel talking the rest of the day off the way he did. He had wanted to get too far from the city for Angel to tell him to turn around. He watched as Angel regarded him angrily then pulled out his phone. He told Buffy it was business, that he could explain everything tomorrow, pointedly making eye contact with Will as he said that part. She was not happy, but she told him she loved him and to be careful.

When Angel hung up, he knew from Buffy's tone that she believed none of his 'it's business' line. She was a lot smarter than that. She also knew he was already into what mess he was dealing with and would have to finish it out.

"Start talking." He stared holes into Will's head until the other man finally answered.

"Wes hired a trio of witches a while back to do some dirty work for him. They did the job, but sold his name to guy name Kittridge. Kittridge took the information to a group of people that hate you. They tried to blackmail Wes. I killed Kittridge a few other middle management types. Now I have to go the source of this shit storm. I thought I could do it alone, but their security is very good. I need your help."

He took that all in. what was Wes up to now? Images of a baby Connor flashed through his mind and his heart seized. He suddenly wanted to beat the living hell of the former watcher. Wes always bit off more than he chew and then never asked for help fixing the problem.

"What the hell did he do this time?" Angel's fists were clenched and his jaw was set in a not pleasant way.

"This time? That means there was a last time." Will was quiet. He wanted to know if Angel would admit it. He wanted to see if Angel would come clean. He didn't.

"It's Nothing. There was no last time. Tell me what's going on."

Will nodded. He wondered if he should continue to play his cards close to his chest or finally lay out his hand. He decided this was not the time. "I'm not sure exactly. I know it was bad and I know Wes freaked. He went to Ventura County and put a bullet in a demon. Not that I mind, he didn't do it smart. He panicked and it messed everything up. Now, I've had to backtrack. That demon he killed could have told me what I needed to know, but instead, I go through a bunch of other people to get where I needed to go. There's a whole chain of shit I had climb up. We're at the top now."

"This is what you spent your weekend doing? Killing people to find out who's blackmailing Wes? And you don't know what the blackmail is. Right." He didn't believe Will didn't know what was over Wes's head for a second, but he couldn't do much to get the man to talk. Will would talk when he was ready to.

A thought occurred to Angel. Willow had told him that Giles had found 'questionable activity' at Wolfram and Hart. It was one of the reasons Giles had mistrusted Angel and his company. Was this what Giles had referred to? Angel had racked his mind and conducted a thorough investigation to figure what Giles had been talking about, but nothing horrendous had popped out at him. There had been the normal unsavory events that came hand in hand with being a defense firm, but other than that Angel found nothing of great interest. Even Xander had yet to uncover anything that would have tipped Giles off to the erroneous fact they were evil.

"This was what Giles found that made him suspicious of me. This is what he didn't like."

"Giles was suspicious of you from the word 'go.' But, yes, I think this tipped the scales a little for him."

"That pisses me off."

"Let's not wade into that pool, shall we? Giles is thoroughly behind and Buffy and has expressed great satisfaction at being as close to a grandfather as he'll ever get. He's on our side now. Let's not poke that bear in the ass again."

Angel tried not to focus on the fact that Wesley could have played a part in Giles' forced separation of him and Buffy. Images of Wes in a hospital bed, his throat slit, wires coming from everywhere came to his mind. He remembered the feeling of suffocating him before Gunn had ripped him away from the injured man. The memory of almost killing him was giving Angel pause. He shouldn't be feeling satisfaction with that memory.

At the moment, though, he was starting to pile things together in his mind, and none of it was adding up in Wesley's favor. He thought of Fred, of her miscarriages, of how devastated they both had been, though Wesley had never expressed it. He turned very mum and British when they tried to talk to him about it.

He remembered a Wesley few others did. He remembered the geeky bookworm that could barely lift a sword properly who had tried to be a 'rogue demon hunter.' He watched in his minds' eye Wes's transformation into a real part of the team, a badass, actually. He had turned into a great fighter, a hard nosed man who would do anything he had to do. The problem was, Wes sometimes he thought people needed saving when they really didn't. It made his life hard.

Angel remembered how odd Wesley had acted during the time right before he tried to take Connor away. Slowly, he started to draw parallels in his behavior not yet a year ago. His mind was reluctant to make such connections, but they were staring him in the face. He had become quieter, more withdrawn. His visage had been constantly serious, as if her were carrying the weight of the universe around. And he had been secretive.

Wes never meant to act secretive, he just did when he was hiding something. Even his posture changed. Angel didn't need to be a mind reader to see that the man was hiding something when he was. He almost punched the dashboard. Restraining himself, he cursed mentally. He had been so caught up in his own problems he had failed to notice that Wes had been up to something. He admitted to himself that he imposed blinders over his eyes for months. And now it might be too late to fix things.

It took approximately another second for his mind to determine exactly what Wesley had done. The timeline was right, and Wesley would have been motivated by little else. Angels' eyes widened. This wasn't good, he thought, this wasn't good at all.

Will glanced in Angels' direction. He had figured it out. Let no one say that man wasn't quick. It had taken Will a little longer to piece it all together; he had been following Wesley's movements for a few months now. The letter was the last tip off he needed.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, each knowing that it was going to be a long night.