Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Audrey.
Author's Notes:
Jess-Thanks for reviewing, I loved writing the Wes/Faith bits
J-Sorry about the length but there was a lot for Wes and Faith to talk about and I just didn't feel right splitting it up into two chapters. As to Willow remember though she's held her anger and feelings in a couple of times until she's exploded later on.
Tamara-Yeah The Immortal already has his hooks into Kennedy. As for her two friends well one of them is truly bad and helping The Immortal corrupt Kennedy while the other actually has genuine feelings for the slayer, though as to which is which…well I won't tell you just yet.
CHAPTER 11-THE LADY COMES A CALLIN
"Come here often," Nina said softly with a winning smile on her face as she sat down on the stool next to Andrew, who jumped at her words at first before he saw her and blushed deeply.
"Huh what, oh uh no, first time," Andrew replied with at first a scared look on his face before he turned his head and saw Nina smiling innocently back at him.
"Hey me to," Nina said back with a warm smile on her face as she used her right index finger to pull over a small bowl of pretzels and then pick one up.
"Look this isn't a good time," Andrew started to say with a down in the dumps frown on his face before Nina surprised him and leaned on his left shoulder by laying her bent right arm into the crook of his neck.
"Sorry, but you know I've heard that it helps if you talk about it," Nina replied with a genuine smile on her face as she offered Andrew a pretzel.
"I don't know," Andrew mumbled with a nervous blush on his face as he tried not to think about how beautiful Nina was and how close she was at the moment.
"Come on it can't be that bad, how about this, you tell me your story and then I'll tell you mine, and if in the end your story is worse then I'll do whatever you want to do," Nina said back with a slightly daring grin on her face and look in her eyes, that Andrew caught, before he couldn't help but grin and then laugh.
"You'll probably think that I'm crazy," Andrew said softly with an embarrassed look on his face as he laughed a bit and then began to nibble on the edge of the pretzel that Nina had handed to him.
"Somehow, I doubt that," Nina replied with an amused smirk on her face before she picked up another pretzel and listened to Andrew's story.
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
She sat there, silently staring at the screen, desperately trying to uncover some small clue in the mountain of emails on the screen in front of her. After hearing about Illyria and Fred's death Willow had excused herself and returned to her room. She had opened up her laptop and began to slowly and painstakingly go through every email that she had saved, hoping that somewhere among them she would find her answers. She couldn't help but be sympathetic as Fred described her ongoing struggles to get Knox to admit that they were over and to stop giving her gifts. Willow had been in a celebratory mood the night that she had gotten the email telling her about what had happened the night that she had finally scraped up enough courage to actually kiss Wesley. Fred's joy had been almost pouring out of the screen through her email that night. After that the emails had mostly been about the newest threats that had been thwarted, rivaled only by the bits about Wesley. But then suddenly they had abruptly stopped coming. Willow had sent almost a dozen emails to Fred, hoping that her friend had just been too busy to reply. But the appearance of Illyria and how she had killed the new slayers showing little to no emotion had confirmed her worst fears. She could only sit there and wonder how she had missed it.
"Hey Willow you in here," Kennedy called out with a concerned look on her face and tone to her voice as she turned the knob and opened the door. Willow didn't move or react to Kennedy's voice, merely reading the beginning of the next email. "You okay, Buffy said that you seemed pretty broken up about your friend Fred and…Willow," Kennedy started to continue without missing a beat as she let out a sigh of relief while making her way across the darkened room to kneel down beside Willow's chair and lay a hand on her lovers knee.
"I should have seen it, I should have done something," Willow said softly with an almost doped up expression on her face and tone to her voice as she slowly turned her head away from the screen and looked through Kennedy more than at her.
"This wasn't your fault baby, she knew what she was getting into when she took the job, you did the best that you could," Kennedy started to say with a comforting and soothing tone of voice as she started to pull Willow into a reassuring hug.
"It wasn't good enough, when Giles and Roger told us about Angel taking over Wolfram and Hart I went along with their ideas, I let myself believe that they were right, I had my doubts, but I didn't say anything…and now it's to late, everything's to messed up," Willow snapped angrily at first before she squeezed her hands up into fists and tried to slow the torrent of tears that were beginning to make their way down her cheeks.
"Are you sure they were wrong, Angel attacked us remember, he nearly killed Mr. Giles," Kennedy said back with a confused look on her face as she pulled Willow into a tight hug and laid her head on her shoulder.
"He was upset, angry, he tried to get help for Fred before she became that…thing, but Giles ignored him, he didn't even tell me, I could had saved her," Willow replied with a very sad and emotional tone to her voice as she struggled to get the words out before the tears began to flow.
"Who knows maybe you still can, if we could just," Kennedy started to suggest with a concerned look on her face before Willow sniffed and pulled away.
"Did you change your perfume, I don't remember you wearing," Willow started to say with a curious and surprised look on her face as Kennedy's heart raced.
"Uh…yeah, you know change is good and all of that," Kennedy started to shakily reply with a nervous and what she feared was a guilty smile on her face before the door opened and Buffy stepped into the room, looking like she could use more than a few hours of sleep.
"Hey Will, you okay, Giles needs us to…oh, sorry," Buffy started to say with a tired yawn as she entered the room before her eyes adjusted to the lack of light and she saw Kennedy and Willow together.
"Forget about it, we were just…damn what's he want," Kennedy started to stutter out in an awkward reply before her pager went off and she checked it, seeing that The Immortal was in need of her services.
"What does who want," Buffy asked with a confused and slightly suspicious look on her face as she pushed up her shirtsleeves while walking towards Willow.
"Your boyfriend, he just paged me, probably wants to know what we've found out about Angel's whereabouts, sorry baby but I gotta go," Kennedy replied with a bored sigh as she looked up at Buffy before she gave Willow one last tight squeeze and a kiss, and then stood up and left the room. Buffy stayed silent watching Willow, who was glancing back at the doorway, for several seconds before Willow finally spoke up.
"Do you think she's seeing someone else," Willow asked with a worried look on her face but terrified look in her eyes as she turned her gaze from the doorway to Buffy's face, leaving her old friend little time to try and think up an answer.
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"Your father's a dick," Faith grumbled with an unhappy frown on her face as she slid off of her cot and turned to Wesley.
"You don't know the half of it, the stories I could tell," Wesley mumbled back with a frustrated smile on his face as he tried to get comfortable in his cot.
"So why don't you, we've got the time," Faith started to ask with a tired smile on her face before the door opened and three guards entered the small cell, two grabbed Faith and forced her out while the third aimed the point of a spear right at Wesley's throat. Wesley sat in stone silence for the entire time that Faith was gone, his only movement being the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out. Several hours later they brought Faith back to the cell, seemingly very unhappy that she had told them nothing. Wesley instantly got up from his cot, despite the pain that shot through his body at the sudden movement, and picked Faith up and carried her over to her coat and laid her down. As he looked down at her he saw that both of her eyes were swollen shut and she looked worse than the last couple of days that they had tortured her.
"Faith…Faith," Wesley softly whispered with a worried look on his face as he peered down at her with his one good eye as the other was still mostly swollen shut.
"Nnh…fuck off, you're not getting," Faith started to grumble back with a pained look on her face before she instinctively reached up with her hands and touched Wesley's face. Almost immediately the look of pain and anger on her face slackened and she fought back tears of relief.
"It's over Faith, you're done, you didn't tell them anything," Wesley said softly with a hopefully reassuring tone to his voice as he reached up and laid his left hand flat over Faith's right hand while wiping away a few of her tears with the other.
"Can't, I can't last much longer, they're to powerful," Faith gasped back with a pain filled scowl on her face as she tried to sit up, then almost fell back, but finally succeeded with Wesley's help.
"I don't think that we're going to be here much longer, they can't keep us hidden away forever," Wesley replied with a sarcastically optimistic tone to his voice as he sat down on Faith's cot behind her and wrapped one arm loosely around her waist in an effort to steady her.
"No, not this time, no five by five for us, we're going to die here," Faith grumbled back weakly as she shook her head before Wesley started to pull her shirt off over her head, doing his best not to get the fabric to stick to any of her fresh wounds.
"Only if we lose our heads," Wesley said back with a serious look on his face as he finished pulling Faith's shirt off and then he pulled her a bit closer so that he could support her weight with his right shoulder. With his left hand now free he reached out and was about to unbutton Faith's jeans when she surprised him by laying her hand on top of his.
"Who says we won't…heh, you sure you can do that by yourself, don't get any bright ideas," Faith said with a weak version of her usually proud and confidant tone of voice as she felt oddly content through the pain and the heat before she felt a bead of sweat slide off of Wesley's body and onto hers.
"Perish the thought," Wesley replied unintentionally huskily under his breath into Faith's ear, so much so that a shiver went down her spine and she couldn't help but crack a smile before pushing his hand away and painfully slipping her jeans off. Wesley pulled them the rest of the way off after Faith had gotten them down to her knees.
"Tell me a story," Faith said softly with a very tired and sleepy expression on her face as she leaned back further into Wesley and let her left hand flop down onto his knee.
"A story, that's a little odd don't you," Wesley started to say with a confused and surprised look on his face before Faith tilted her head back a bit and then turned it towards where she guessed Wesley's face was.
"Just a little one, till I fall asleep," Faith added with a very sleepy tone to her voice before she yawned a bit and dropped her chin to her chest. Wesley barely started a story that he made up on the spot when he heard Faith softly snoring. With a slightly cheesy grin on his face he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"Gotta say that's a pretty wild story," Nina stated with an amazed look on her face before she took a drink of her beer that Andrew hand gentlemanly ordered for her earlier.
"Told ya you wouldn't believe me," Andrew sulked back with an unhappy frown on his face as he turned away from her smile and stared down at the bar.
"Oh I believe you Andrew, in fact I know that you're telling the truth because we've actually met before," Nina replied with a pensive smirk on her face as she watched Andrew slowly started to raise his head up.
"We have," Andrew exclaimed with a surprised and confused look on his face as he picked his head up to look at Nina.
"Yep, though I think that you were hiding under a table at the time, Angel's entrance scared you good," Nina snapped back with a cocky grin on her face before she drained the rest of the beer from her bottle and grinned back at Andrew.
"You're with him, with Angel, I," Andrew stammered out with a look of total disbelief and fear on his face as he dropped his mostly full bottle of beer on the bar and didn't seem to notice when it fell over and spilled out all over the bar.
"Am going to tell me exactly where Giles and Buffy are hiding Wesley and Faith, and if you lie to me I'll rip your throat out," Nina shot back with her best Dirty Harry scowl and squint as she slammed her bottle of beer back down onto the bar.
"You…you can't," Andrew gasped with a very fearful look on his face as he slid back off of his stool and stepped back away from Nina with one hand protectively on this throat.
"Says who, I am a werewolf you know, I can only fight off my animal nature for so long before I have to let it out, and right now," Nina started to say with a very serious and threatening tone to her voice and glare on her face, while inwardly she was trying her best not to crack up laughing at the absurdity of what she was saying, as Andrew continued to back away from her before he bumped into someone.
"Huh, sorry I…ah," Andrew started to say with a very scared look on his face before he turned around and came face to face with a deadly blue gaze.
"You are weak, but you make a pleasing sound, it has been long since I heard the mournful wail of the damned," Illyria said softly as she cocked her head to one side and first stared at Andrew for a moment before turning her gaze to Nina.
"Illyria, it can't be, you're dead," Nina gasped out in total shock at the sight of her as she slowly slid off of her stool and tried to figure out what to do.
"I am a god, I cannot die," Illyria stated back without a single movement other than blinking her eyes.
"I…I, I don't know where Wesley and Faith are demon, be gone," Andrew started to stammer out softly at first before he grew more confident and took an errant swing at Illyria. Illyria kept staring straight ahead at Nina but easily caught Andrews fist and brought him to his knees as the sounds of bones breaking filled the suddenly silent club.
"What does he mean, where is Wesley," Illyria asked with a very pointed half frown on her face as she flung Andrew to the side and walked up towards Nina, who hesitantly took a step back as she approached.
"I, we don't know, they went missing about a week ago, but if Buffy and Giles don't have them then," Nina stuttered out softly with a nervous and slightly scared look on her face as she was finding it hard to believe and accept that the being standing in front of her had once been Fred.
"I will find out who does," Illyria stated with an almost angry scowl on her face before she tilted her head back up straight and then calmly walked out of the bar.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Kennedy grumbled to herself the entire way over to The Immortal's office. She parked her motorcycle and slid her helmet off before making her way inside. She nodded her head in greeting to The Immortal's secretary before she opened the door and walked into his office, expecting to see him sitting behind his desk. However upon stepping foot into his office she received a shock.
"What are you doing," Kennedy asked with a sarcastic frown on her face as she glared at the person behind the desk and then turned back to hurriedly shut the door.
"What's it look like I'm doing," The person behind the desk casually remarked and smiled as Kennedy did her best to remain calm.
"What is it this time Mercedes, what's the game," Kennedy grumbled with a nervous and impatient frown on her face as she stared across the desk and the red haired vampiress calmly sitting in The Immortal's chair.
"No game baby, the big guy gave me a job to do and said that I could have whoever I needed to help me, I thought of you," Mercedes replied with a relaxed grin on her face as she sat forward in the chair and lightly shrugged her shoulders.
"You tore me away from Willow for this," Kennedy snapped with an unhappy sneer on her face as she glared across the desk at Mercedes and then started to turn away. Before she knew it Mercedes was standing directly in front of her.
"Okay ya got me, bad call, but come on, we work pretty damn well together, at least we did last night," Mercedes started to say in her usual tone of voice before as she went on her voice became softer and softer as she approached Kennedy, finally pinning her up against The Immortal's desk.
"That can't happen again," Kennedy said with an unsure look of defiance on her face before Mercedes cut in after laying a finger on her lips.
"Your eyes say otherwise babe," Mercedes cooed back softly with a randy glint in her eyes before she leaned in close and slipped her game face on momentarily, enough to nip at Kennedy's neck, before reverting to her human visage and smiling up at the slightly taller slayer.
"No…they don't, I love Willow and she," Kennedy started to continue with a nervously determined expression on her face before she was silenced by a forceful kiss from Mercedes.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"Nnh…Wes," Faith mumbled softly as she slowly regained consciousness and picked her head up to look around before she remembered the beating that she had taken that day. If she hadn't been a slayer both of her eyes would still be swollen tightly shut. But with things as they were her eyes had healed enough over the course of the afternoon for her to be able to open them, but only barely and with a fair amount of pain. She finally found Wesley apparently sound asleep against the opposite wall of their small cell. He looked worse than she remembered him being and her heart sank as she guessed that the guards had come and taken him to be interrogated while she had been asleep. "Damn," Faith grumbled with a scared and angry scowl on her face as she pushed up off of her cot and then staggered around until she could stand up and cross the cell. "Wes," Faith asked again with a scared look on her face as she knelt down beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Nnh…I," Wesley very weakly mumbled out through bloody lips as Faith hesitantly rolled him over before she heard the sounds of a violent scuffle occurring outside in the corridor.
"What the fuck," Faith spat out with a defeated look on her face as she turned away from Wesley just as the door was flung open to reveal an eerily calm looking Illyria.
END OF CHAPTER 11
P.S.-Kennedy is still straying and should know better, Willow's having trouble with Fred's death, and Andrew's hand is now broken thanks to Illyria. The fun is just beginning. Thanks to everyone for reviewing.