Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.
Author's Note:
Tamara: Yep, they're starting to figure out that something isn't quite right, but then the question becomes which one of them will figure it out first
Shermi: Thanks, and don't worry I'll keep writing
Jess: We have a ways to go with this story and I hope that you'll like the ride
CHAPTER 13-OH BALLS…
"It almost doesn't seem real ya know," Faith mumbled softly across the way from her spot sitting cross-legged on her bed while making sure to keep an eye fixed on Wesley.
"What doesn't," Wesley asked softly, as the drugs that he had been pumped full of to ease the pain were making him more than a bit loopy.
"That we're not stuck in that shithole in the ground, I keep expecting to wake up and be right back there," Faith mumbled back softly with a large yawn before she rubbed her eyes and steeled herself to stay awake, at least until Wesley fell asleep.
"Well we're not, happy times are here again eh," Wesley mumbled back with a slightly goofy smile on his face as he tilted his head to the side and grinned softly over at Faith.
"You could say that…speaking of which," Faith started to say with a slight nod of her head before she pulled a bottle of Jack Daniels out from behind her back and held it up for Wesley to see.
"What, where did you…how did you get that past the doctors…and Angel," Wesley asked with a very surprised but not upset frown on his face as the drug induced fog that he was under cleared a little and he painfully sat up. He eyed her for a moment and took in that her hospital gown left very little to the imagination and his mind hurt in trying to come up with where she had hidden the bottle to get it into their room.
"Wouldn't you like to know…as for the where there's a little liquor store around the corner, they never even knew I was gone, now if you're good I just might show you someday," Faith said with her usual snickering smile as she unscrewed the lid and picked up the two small cups with straws in them that had been previously filled with water.
"I look forward to that day," Wesley said back weakly with a tired smirk on his face, earning a similar one from Faith, before she leaned over and handed him his glass.
"Me to," Faith thought to herself with a nervous toast to Wesley before she lifted her glass to her lips and drank it all down in one gulp.
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Willow stood at the foot of the bed watching Kennedy sleep. She had barely gotten out of the shower before she had half-heartedly dried off and flopped onto the bed, snoring before her head hit the pillows. Something just didn't feel right about how she had come home, rushed into the bathroom, turned the shower and the radio up louder than usual, and then fell asleep without even a word. Willow hoped that she was just being paranoid but something kept feeling off. She was about to put Kennedy's clothes into the hamper when her cell phone rang, with one of her contacts on the other end, telling her about an odd looking bunch that had just walked into the hospital a few hours earlier. Willow was going to let it pass without much concern before her contact mentioned that one of the men that had come in had bleached blond hair and the deepest pair of blue eyes, not to mention godly cheekbones. Willow had to almost shout over the phone to stop the woman from describing the man that had come in with the others earlier. It hit her two seconds later who her contact was talking about. She thanked the contact and said that she'd be right over before grabbing her coat and heading out into the hallway.
"Where are you off to at this hour," Giles asked sleepily with a tired yawn as he passed Willow in the hallway.
"Uh…a hunch, probably won't pan out, I'll be fine, when Kennedy wakes up tell her that I want to talk to her, I'll be back before lunch," Willow said softly with a nervous and jittery smile on her face as she started to walk backwards down the hallway, hoping that Giles would let it pass.
"Okay, but be careful…with Angel here in Rome we can't let our guard down," Giles replied with a concerned and uncertain frown on his face as he sleepily nodded his head.
"Right, bye Giles," Willow shot back with a cheesy grin on her face before she slid into the elevator and left the hotel.
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"You know, we're not going to get away with this," Wesley said softly with an unhappy pout on his face as he looked up at Faith, who was sitting lightly beside him on the bed as he had laid back down after feeling a bit woozy.
"How so," Faith asked through her glass, as she didn't show the least bit of fear or apprehension about what might happen to them if they were caught drinking in a hospital.
"I don't know about the doctor's and nurses but both Angel and Spike could smell alcohol on a mummy's breath even after two and a half thousand years, lord knows they've drank enough of it," Wesley remarked back with a slightly impish smirk on his face back up at Faith towards the end as even though she was taking a drink at the moment Wesley could see the edges of her mouth begin to curl up into a grin.
"We're so busted," Faith mumbled back through a mouthful as she tried her best not to laugh before swallowing and spray Wesley and the bed with the booze in her mouth.
"That's one way of putting it," Willow interjected with what she hoped was a confidant, if not daring, tone of voice as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned up against the doorway.
"Willow…what, what are you, how did you," Wesley stammered out with a look of surprise on his face as he fumbled around in an attempt to set his half full glass back on the nightstand while Faith slid off of Wesley's bed with a guilty look on her face.
"A friend of mine works here, she called me, told me all about this weird group of…what happened to you," Willow started to say with a proud and even a bit dirty grin on her face before she got a good look at Wesley and gasped.
"Take a wild guess," Wesley slipped back with an angry and sickly smirk on his face as he caught Willow's gaze briefly before looking away.
"All these bumps and bruises were courtesy of B's boy, his flunkies to, but you get the picture," Faith grumbled back with the sarcasm in her voice almost venomous.
"What…why, he wouldn't," Willow started to say with a look of sadness and disbelief on her face as she shook her head, reaching Wesley's bedside, before she was interrupted.
"You don't know him, any of you, he's not the celebrity that everyone thinks he is," Angel stated with a cold and grim scowl on his face as he slowly paced into the room, his cold lifeless gaze never leaving Willow, leaving little to no doubt in her mind that what he spoke was the truth and not spin.
"And you do," Willow softly stammered out, not really thinking clearly, as she knew that she had to say something but couldn't quite figure out what at the moment.
"Better than you, of course the last time that I saw him before the party was over a hundred years ago…but I don't forget being tortured for hours down in his dungeon's for hours while he had his way with Darla and Drusilla, Spike and I tried to…but just like now he had his guards distract us long enough for him to slip away," Angel replied with a very serious and impatient frown on his face as he stepped into the room and approached Willow, never taking his hands out of the pockets of his coat.
"What, why didn't you say anything when, why didn't," Willow started to say with a confused and fearful expression on her face as she struggled to keep up with and fully process the load of information that she was receiving.
"I what, tell Buffy…I tried to when we came to Rome months ago, all that we got was the brush off from Andrew and the runaround from the Immortal…again, taking every opportunity to rub his dating Buffy in our faces, knowing full well that we had to be back in LA with the head and," Angel answered softly at first as he stopped walking towards Willow before he finished the rest off under his breath, with Willow believing that she heard him curse some insane woman that gave him a new coat.
"This shell has memories of you," Illyria stated from out of the blue as she walked into the room, dressed in the outfit that she had adopted shortly after killing Fred.
"Sorry Angel, I tried to stop her," Nina added with a nervous and unsure look on her face as she meekly followed Illyria into the room and shrugged her shoulders at Angel, who scowled back at her but kept himself from glaring in an attempt to not scare Nina, or make her think that he was angry with her.
"It's okay Nina, she has a mind of her own, it doesn't do any good to try and control her," Angel glumly replied with an unhappy and slightly irritated tone to his voice as he turned back around to face Willow.
"What is she, look out she," Willow started to exclaim with an almost frantic expression on her face before Angel reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from reaching into her pockets for more than likely something to cast a spell with.
"She's with us, she's not going to hurt you," Angel stated with a clear look in his eyes though he didn't keep his gaze locked on Willow long before looking back at Illyria.
"She killed the slayers that we left behind when we raided the nest, how can you defend her," Willow grumbled out with a look of total disbelief and confusion on her face as she wrenched her arm free of Angel's grasp and glared up at him.
"I'm not defending her, I just know that you can't bring those slayers back every bit as much as I can't bring Fred back," Angel replied softly with a defeated and almost humbled light in his eyes.
"But," Willow started to snap back with an unhappy frown on her face before she was interrupted by a smiling Spike.
"You know I don't get why everybody hates hospital food, it's not half bad, they even have this onion thing here that…oh balls," Spike announced with an almost oddly chipper smirk on his face as he walked casually into the room and stopped at Angel's side, clapping a hand down onto Angel's shoulder just before his grandsire leaned back enough for him to see Willow.
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"You're pretty late," Dawn said softly with an almost motherly look of unhappiness on her face as she glanced over at the clock on the wall and then back to the deck of cards that she held in her hands.
"I'm a big girl Dawn, I can take care of myself, the Immortal and I just lost track of time, besides what are you doing up this early," Buffy replied with an exasperated sigh as she took her coat off and sat down on the couch beside Dawn.
"Couldn't sleep," Dawn replied sadly as she began to shuffle the deck of cards before setting them facedown on the coffee table in front of her.
"What are you doing," Buffy asked with a concerned and confused look on her face, as she looked first at the deck of cards on the table before looking back up at her sister.
"Playing a card game, what's it look like," Dawn replied softly with a hint of anger in her voice, as she began to dole out the cards in two small piles as if someone else was going to play with her.
"Pretty hard to play alone isn't it," Buffy asked with a slightly worried look on her face as she slowly reached out and hung some of Dawn's hair back behind her ear so that she could see her face more clearly.
"Spike and I used to play it all the time while you were gone, it helps me relax sometimes," Dawn replied coldly as she picked up one of the small piles of cards and turned them over, being fortunate that Buffy couldn't see the tear forming in her left eye as she was sitting on Dawn's right side.
"Oh…sorry, I didn't know," Buffy stuttered back softly with a sad expression on her face as she hugged her coat tightly to her body and shivered a bit, as if the room had suddenly grown cold.
"Do…do you ever wish that he hadn't died that day, that he was still here with us now," Dawn asked softly as she absentmindedly began to arrange her cards before she couldn't help but sniffle sadly, an act that Buffy caught.
"Sure, every day Dawnie, every day," Buffy replied with a slightly cheesy smile at first while giving Dawn a one arm hug before she had to stop speaking to keep from letting her voice break with emotion.
"What would you do, if he just showed up here one day, like usual completely out of the blue when we least expected it," Dawn asked with a fearful and worried look in her eyes as she turned her head towards Buffy, and for the first time Buffy fully saw that Dawn was on the verge of crying.
"Do what I apparently failed to do before, prove to him that I truly loved him…then kick his but for leaving us," Buffy almost whispered back with a look of honesty on her face as she let go of her coat with her free hand and reached up and brushed away one of Dawn's tears before pulling her into a comforting hug as the tears started to come freely.
"Yeah, and then what, what about the Immortal," Dawn asked softly back through the hug as she let her hand of cards drop to the floor.
"Well I'd…I'd um, have to," Buffy started to stammer back with an unsure frown on her face as Dawn pulled away to look her in the eyes with an unhappy scowl on her face before Dawn's cell phone rang.
"I'd better get that," Dawn said with a very serious and almost angry look on her face as she pulled away from Buffy, picked up her cards, and then answered her phone, leaving Buffy to stare in wonder and surprise.
"Dawnie," Buffy mumbled softly with a pleading tone to her voice as she laid a hand on Dawn's shoulder.
"No, it's not to early Kristine…I couldn't sleep, yeah Kennedy got back okay, she didn't say anything just took a shower and went to bed, do you want me to tell her to call you when she wakes up…huh, she hung up," Dawn said softly into her phone as she carried on a conversation with one of the Immortal's lawyers before Kristine suddenly hung up.
"That was weird, why would she be calling about Kennedy this early in the morning," Buffy said with a confused look on her face as Dawn shut her phone and laid it back on the coffee table beside the deck of cards.
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"This is all to freaky, what's her story again," Faith asked softly with an on edge tone to her voice as she kept herself ready for anything while helping Wesley sit up before she sat down on his bed beside him.
"Remember when I told you about how Angel tried to call Giles for help but he kept putting him on hold, well Illyria was the being that was killing…that killed Fred, after it was over and she was de-powered she hung around, followed me around like a lost kitten, expecting me to explain everything to her, all the while looking like Fred," Wesley replied softly, at first with a calm look on his face as he watched Nina try to get Illyria to sit down in one of the chairs on the other side of the room, before his tone changed to one of bitterness and regret towards the end. Faith stayed eerily silent during his answer but when he hung his head and squeezed his eyes shut at the end, almost in an attempt to block out the memories, she slowly and cautiously slid her left hand over the top of Wesley's left hand and gave it a supportive squeeze, her heart beating like mad.
"But I thought that you said that she bought it in the fight with the Senior Partners, what is she doing here," Faith asked softly with a confused look on her face as she dared her game a bit further and laid her chin on Wesley's shoulder and leaned up against him.
"I don't think we'll ever fully know," Wesley replied solemnly before going quiet and breathing in and out, watching Nina fail to get Illyria to sit down, while taking solace in Faith's touch.
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"You're not supposed to be here Red, this isn't how it's supposed to go," Spike grumbled with an impatient pout on his face as he paced back and forth in the waiting room, appearing very much like a small child that had something special planned for their parent when the latter got home but didn't get it fully finished in time.
"Oh really, and how was this supposed to go, how long have you been back, why didn't you say something, Buffy's," Willow started to exclaim with an unhappy and upset frown on her face as she started to storm towards Spike before he spoke up.
"To busy with her new beau to care about either one of us, and I hadn't really come up with how it was supposed to happen, I just know that this wasn't it," Spike shot back with a frustrated and anxious look on his face as he tried to remain calm.
"A couple of weeks after Sunnydale was destroyed I got the amulet that I gave to Buffy in the mail, the amulet fell out of the package, hit the ground, and released Spike," Angel interjected with a serious and somber frown on his face as he stepped in between the two.
"Only something wasn't right, I couldn't touch anything, much akin to a bloody ghost, tied to the Wolfram and Hart building, could only go so far as the city limits before I'd pop back to the lobby, that of course was after the whole where'd Spike go fun," Spike added with a grimly sarcastic expression on his face as he chuckled a little at his own misfortune.
"Then one day poof, another package, big flash of light, he's a real boy again, right before that psycho slayer cut his hands off," Angel continued with a slightly less serious look on his face and tone to his voice as he stepped out from in between the two and took a couple of steps back towards Wesley and Faith's room as he saw Illyria step out of it.
"Luckily for yours truly Wolfram and Hart has a decent undead health care plan, otherwise I'd be having to hold my cigs with my toes," Spike said with a darkly sarcastic grin on his face as he held his hands up high enough that his sleeves slid down a bit and Willow thought that she could almost make out a line where they had been reattached.
"But Andrew, he said that there was only you, he didn't say anything about Spike, oh he is so gonna get it," Willow started to say with a confused look on her face before the thoughts behind her words sank in and she understood, vowing to make the former evil nerd pay.
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"There you are, where have you been," Kristine exclaimed with a worried sigh of relief as she hurried out of her office and grabbed a tired looking Kennedy's arm before pulling her back into her office.
"I got in late, needed a little sleep," Kennedy mumbled back with a guilty expression on her face as she slumped down in a chair and refused to meet Kristine's gaze while she went around the room, closing the shades and finally locking the door.
"You shouldn't stay out all night with Mercedes, you can't trust her," Kristine said with an impatient and anxious look on her face as she stepped away from the door and hesitated momentarily before walking around the chair that Kennedy was in.
"I know that, she's a vampire," Kennedy replied with an unconvinced frown on her face as she wearily stood back up and started to turn back towards the door.
"That's not it, they don't really want you, the Immortal or Mercedes, when she's done with you Mercedes will turn you into one of her children, and the boss…he's using you to hurt your friends," Kristine replied with a scared look on her face as she stepped in front of Kennedy, laid one hand on the back of her wrist while bringing the other hand up to cup Kennedy's cheek as she drew close.
"Aren't you doing the same thing though, hitting on me because," Kennedy started to say back softly with a slightly nervous look of fake anger on her face as she told her body to pull away from Kristine, but her body stayed where it was. She was surprised, and a bit relieved, when Kristine leaned in and kissed her softly and sweetly.
"I'm hitting on you because I like you Kennedy, not because anyone told me to," Kristine whispered back under her breath into Kennedy's ear before she pulled back and kissed Kennedy again while the two edged closer to the desk.
"Prove it," Kennedy started to say back with a daring and almost arrogant look in her eyes before Kristine's office was turned into a mess and any vampire in the building had to put in earplugs to get any work done.
END OF CHAPTER 13