No One Can Walk Alone

Chapter 3 - Finding Her

Angel hung up before I could talk to Joyce again, but I guess I couldn't blame him for not thinking of me. He knew I'd been speaking with Joy since the first time she called, six months after the two of 'em up and buggered off, but that didn't mean he'd been happy about it. In fact, except for sex, he hadn't really talked to me for a good week after I told him. Bastard. I hate it when he gets all moody-like, though I should probably be used to it by now.

It was better before, when he was happy. Not that everything has ever been all sunshine and daisies, yeah? But when Buffy was with us, it made him feel complete. Kinda sucked knowing I wasn't enough for him, but I came to terms with it right quick. Besides, it'd been fifteen years since she left us, since she'd done what I'd been fearing she would for seven years and sacrificed herself again. Bloody martyr complex that one. Death was her gift! Bloody pain in the ass, loving a slayer. And in those fifteen years, Angel had learned to accept that I was all he got.

I knew he loved me, and I knew he didn't ask for anything more, but Buffy was the bloody love of his whole existence, and it was difficult following an act like that. Sometimes I'd catch him staring off into space, this hurt so deep in his heart that when I could feel what he was feeling, when we'd fed from each other often enough, it was bloody torture.

I kept telling myself, maybe in a few more years. Maybe then he'd get over her and we could learn how to be happy again. Maybe Joy and Connor would come back. Maybe we'd find Danny. And maybe he'd finally forgive himself for what happened to Katherine. Fucking brute broods with the best of 'em, though. And I swear, if he wasn't still the best bloody lay I'd ever had, I'd think about … Okay, that was a lie. I'd never leave him. No matter how much it hurt.

Besides, a little part of me kinda liked it when it hurt.

Fred let Illyria do her mojo and though it didn't feel like anything was different, our whole plane slipped through time so fast that we made it from Scotland to Cleveland in about forty-five minutes. Relatively. It wore the lass out right fierce, but she knew it was for Connor, so Fred didn't mind.

We landed outside the hell-perimeter that our allies here in Ohio set up, and the pilot, a slayer, pulled right into the hangar. Angel knocked on the door to the cockpit, saying when it opened, "Thanks, Yeung."

"It is no problem," she replied in a thick Asian accent, smiling as Xander helped Fred past us. "Patti and I will guard the plane?"

"If you don't mind," Angel nodded, waving to the co-pilot. "I'll call you when we know what's going on."

"Aye, aye," she agreed, throwing a punch at me as soon as Angel's back was turned.

"Oi," I smirked, grabbing her fist. "Not this time, slayer."

Yeung laughed, reclaiming her hand and pointing one finger at me teasing, "One of these days, vampire. One of these days."

I chuckled at her once more and waved, following my partner and the rest of our crew to one of the vehicles stashed there in the hangar, complete with sunlight-proof glass and everything.

Faith hopped into the driver's seat, smiling brightly when Angel glared at her and took the passenger side, while Rita unplugged the car from the wall and the rest of us climbed in the back.

"Alright people," Faith called, starting the engine as Rita hopped in, crawling to sit beside me in the far back seat, "let's have us a good day."

Fred slumped against Xander, her husband and snored, tired out from holding the time-slip all the way here. Bethany pulled a tablet out of her bag and started paging though a text, looking for something. Up front Angel huffed and beside me Rita smacked my arm with a big grin.

"Happy to be seein' your kids, Spike?" she asked me, pulling a serious face that must have mimicked the one I wore. I would have checked in the window, but you know. Vampire.

"Hoping we'll find them alive, actually. And Connor's not mine."

"Oh," she buckled her seatbelt and smacked my arm again, "he's just about. And little Joy, all grown up! I can't wait to see them."

"Reets," I replied, settling back in my seat and crossing my arms over my chest, "If you hit on either of my kids, I'll have to kill you."

"Ah, ha!" she cried victoriously. "Got you to admit it!"

Shaking my head at her wide grin and raising one eyebrow, I asked, "What's put you in such a good mood?" Subtly I inhaled, "Ah. You got laid last night."

"Fuck, Spike!" she cried, hitting me again, but still grinning. "I hate that creepy vamp shit."

I leaned toward her and sniffed again, keeping my eyes with hers, "You tramp! Kevin Byrnes again! I thought you hated him, just two weeks ago?"

"I never hated him," she replied, tightening the bun of dark black hair at the base of her skull. "I was simply angry at him for flirting with my partner. It's so much better this time."

"If you say so," I shrugged, trying to listen in as Faith and Angel argued about how best to follow Joy's instructions. "None of my never mind if you're still acting like a teenager."

"Hey," Rita growled, poking me in the arm this time, "I'm recently widowed. Now that I'm done grieving, I'm allowed to act like a teenager for awhile."

"Sure you are, luv," I replied, wondering how Joy was doing. "Should we check on the daughter?" I asked Rita, mostly trying to get her to settle down.

"Oh, right," she nodded, slightly cowed at the mention of our mission. "Let's do that."

I opened up the little machine and made the call, relieved when Joy answered groggily, giving me that patented Angelus half-smirk when she realized it was me. "Hi, Daddy. You almost here?"

"Fall asleep, luv?" I asked with a smile, chuckling a bit as Rita tried to get into frame, waving cheerily.

"Well, yeah," she nodded, yawning. "Hey, Rita. How's it going?"

"Better," the slayer replied, her smile dampening a little.

"Oh, that's right," Joy replied, her Buffy-like eyebrows furrowing and her lip pouting out. "Daddy told me about what happened to Madison. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Rita shrugged. "We all gotta go sometime, right?"

"Uh-huh," Joy replied, looking down. "Let's just hope Connor doesn't go today, yeah?"

Rita nodded, tilting the camera back towards me. "I think we'll be there soon," I told her. Looking up toward the front, I called, "Hey, Ange? What's our ETA?"

"Bout twenty minutes," Faith called back at me, "depending on how long it takes us to cross the border."

"You hear that, luv?" I asked Joy, looking back down at her image.

"Yeah," she said, looking behind her. "Shit. I've gotta clean up."

"Got some things around the house you wouldn't rather your Da saw?"

"No," she drawled slowly, shaking her head and winking at me quickly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Daddy."

I laughed, returning the wink. "We'll see you soon, pet."

"Thanks, Daddy," Joy nodded and hung up, going off to hide whatever she thought Angel wouldn't want to see.

While Spike called our daughter in the back seat, laughing with her about something, I radioed Cleveland dispatch, telling the operator, "This is Angel. Have your people found Connor yet?"

"Yeah, target has been located," she replied, using that military jargon that Xander was so keen on teaching all the girls.

"And?"

"No word yet. Operatives have engaged the threat, but have not yet reported back."

"Fuck," I whispered.

"What was that, sir?"

"Nothing," I replied. "Contact me the moment you hear something, okay?"

"Affirmative, sir," the girl replied.

"Oh, and if you can, send me the coordinates for the battle."

"Gotcha."

Sighing, I hung up the radio mouthpiece on the dash, peering out the windows at the rapidly approaching dawn.

"Don't worry, Deadboy," Faith muttered beside me, "we'll find 'em."

"But will we find them in time?" I asked, giving her a small smile of gratitude. She didn't have to come with. She could have stayed in Scotland to keep an eye on everything. I mean, technically, she was the Senior Slayer, even if she hated being in charge most of the time.

"That's where the prayin' comes in," she smirked, keeping her eyes on the road except for a quick glance in my direction.

"And the praying," I replied, "that Connor won't try to kill me when we do find him."

"We'll keep you safe, tiger," Faith insisted, pulling up to the tollbooth that marked the border between safe Cleveland and the hell-on-earth Cleveland beyond. The official story was that a toxic accident had occurred and would take many years to clean up, only professionals allowed inside. It's amazing what you can accomplish when one of your slayers is the daughter of the Secretary of Defense. Greases the wheels, so to speak.

"Hey, Giovani!" Faith greeted the guard, reaching out her window to slap the guy's hand. "How's the weather inside today?"

"Dark," the man replied, flipping up his sunglasses. "Should be nice for you, eh, boss?" he asked, peering over towards me.

"Yeah," I replied sarcastically. "Nice."

Gio shrugged and grabbed a sticker from his pile, peeling off the backing and affixing it to the driver's side door so we could get through the barriers. "Alright, ladies and gents," he called into the car, leaning quite close to Faith. "You know the drill. All windows and doors closed until you reach the other side of No-Man's-Land. From there, have your guard up at all times. Demon activity has been on the rise for the past three months, so fair warning."

"Thanks, Gio," Faith smiled, rolling up her window when he stepped back. "Everybody ready? Disneyland here we come!"

And then she stepped on the gas, breaking through the first barrier, which was invisible, but incredibly disturbing, like pushing your way through electric gelatin, if that makes any sense. The fifty yards between that barrier and the next were completely dead. Nothing alive grew there, and nothing dead could get there, so it became empty soon after the barriers were erected.

The second was just as disturbing as the first, especially when Spike called up to me, "Hey, Angel! We gotta get us one of these for at home. Makes me all tingly."

"In your dreams, cor," I called back to him, knowing he was joking. Or, hoping he was joking in any case. Ugh…

And then, we were in Hell. Most of the buildings were crumbled or defaced in some way as Faith weaved down the main road from the tollbooth. Usually the Cleveland team kept it pretty clear, but debris and dead demon bodies littered the pavement, evident of the 'increased demon activity' that Gio had mentioned.

"Nasty," Faith whispered, sneering and brushing her rapidly graying hair out of her face. "See, this is why I like vamps. You guys dust all neat-like."

"Thanks," I replied, giving her a short look before setting my eyes back out, searching for danger.

"Joy's place isn't too far off the main road," Faith told us, pointing to the electronic map in the dash between us. "But we will have to walk the last hundred yards or so."

"Sometimes I forget," Fred spoke up, rubbing her eyes, "that you helped set all this up, Faith."

"Yeah, well," the slayer replied, brushing away the observation. "A gig's a gig."

We rolled through the streets, dodging more and more debris as we went, getting closer and closer to the last Hellmouth. I could tell that the sun was coming up on the other side of the barrier, but you could barely tell the difference in here, probably due to the black clouds of brimstone ash blocking all the sunlight. It was depressing, and also nice, because it meant Spike and I could walk around during the day without getting fried. I don't think, since the barriers went up, that anyone had ever seen sunlight hit the ground in here. It made me sad for how Joy and Connor had been living lately.

"End of the line, kiddies," Faith said, putting the van in park and jumping out. "Let's hope Big Bad doesn't see us here today."

As the rest of us piled out, Faith opened the back doors and rooted around the space behind Spike and Rita's seats. In a moment, she lifted the lid of a weapons case, selecting a sharp battle axe and stepping aside so the rest of us could arm ourselves.

As we gathered around, still vigilant for danger, Spike laced my free hand in his, squeezing to comfort me and whispering, "It'll be over soon, luv. Everything'll be as right as rain."

"Thanks for lying to me," I replied, letting my forehead fall against his for a brief moment and then kissing him, for comfort's sake.

"Let's go, yeah?"

Once Bethany set a protection spell around our vehicle, we all set out towards Joy and Connor's safe house, Spike and I in the lead, Faith bringing up the rear. Of course, everyone there could take care of themselves, the weakest link being Xander, with his limited depth perception, though over the past twenty years, he's gotten pretty good at fighting despite the disability. Fred had her Illyria-like powers, Bethany was a top-notch witch, Rita and Faith were seasoned slayers. And Spike and I were vampires. All in all a good team, and one we'd been working with on and off for many years.

Of course, in the beginning, Buffy had Faith's place and Willow Bethany's. But they're gone now, and someone had to take their place.

So, this was my team. We went out into the field whenever things got really bad, often with squads of slayers working with us in tandem. But the others were never part of the core group and more often than not, the seven of us worked on our own. Otherwise, it was just too many people to handle, and too many people to keep quiet for those occasional stealth missions. Hell, sometimes even Spike and I just did these things by ourselves, more so when he was still getting visions.

We hadn't been directly working for the Powers that Were for almost fifteen years, and I found I kind of liked it better that way. We found our own cases, solved our own problems, and didn't have to deal with them remotely controlling our lives. Or setting up the circumstances that got the mother of my child dead. Again.

A few dozen yards in, Spike sniffed audibly and stopped me with a hand on my chest. God, I didn't know what I would do without him. As much as I had loved Buffy, I loved Spike more. He was my anchor, my soul mate, my best friend. And I got way too distracted when he put his hands on me, even after all these years.

Ignoring his touch, I inhaled too, whispering, "Vamps."

"Whole heard of 'em by the sound," Spike agreed softly, his voice in that low tone that sends shivers up my spine.

I turned, making sure Faith caught on before we moved forward carefully. "Fuck," I muttered to Spike. "They're surrounding us."

Suddenly, a figure at the edge of my peripheral vision burst into flames, dusting practically before he knew what had happened. "Remind me," Spike said, bracing for the incoming attack, "never to piss off that woman."

I dodged a punch from a burly-looking vampire, ducking and hitting him as I came up. "She likes gifts," I told my husband. "Chocolate especially."

"Thanks, luv," he replied, changing into his game face and cackling as he dusted one of the attackers, driving a stake into its heart with practiced ease. "I'll keep that in mind."

Since all of the vampires were pretty new, we had them down fairly quickly, with just a few running off to warn their friends.

"Nice work, team!" Faith smirked, clapping her hands together to rid them of vampire-dust. "What say we continue on?"

"Aye, pet," Spike agreed, leading the way more by smell now than by Joy's directions. I put myself step-by-step with him, double checking his twists and turns as we lead the group onward.

Suddenly, Bethany spoke up behind us. The witch was normally pretty soft-spoken and shy, except when she was brimming with power on the battlefield. So now, she bellowed, "There it is!" stopping us vampires in our tracks.

I turned back to the dark-haired girl, power writhing around her, turning her brown eyes black and whipping her long dress around her ankles and asked, "Where, Beth?"

"There's a whole mess of wards," she replied, stumbling forward, unseeing, toward the building on our right. Tilting her head almost like Illyria does when she's curious, Beth stopped walking and stared at the building. I just barely kept myself from jumping when a large cracking boom suddenly tore through the air. "They're gone now."

"Thanks," I told her, carefully touching her shoulder. It's a good idea to make clear to a witch so deep down in the magic that you're an ally. Otherwise, you could get fried like our friend on the battlefield back there.

Spike ran past us, his phone to his ear, saying, "We're here, pumpkin. Just another minute."

I ran to keep up with him, chest clenching in anticipation. I knew Joy had asked me to come, that after three long years, she wanted to see me, but it felt too good to be true. Like, as soon as she saw me, all those old fights would come back and she'd ask me to leave, breaking my heart again. Even though praying's not my style, I prayed that she truly wanted to see me, that she wanted to come home.

When Spike and I reached the steel-plate enforced door, he pulled on the handle, but it was locked. Speaking into his phone again, Spike asked, "You don't have a key under the mat, do ya, luv? No, then? Alright." Turning to me, he said, "We're gonna have to break it down unless we want to wait for Connor to come back."

I shot a questioning glance to Faith, who tapped one ear, where she had a wireless earpiece hidden and said, "No word yet, Ange."

Nodding, I grabbed Spike's phone and said, "Joyce, sweetheart? I need you to keep clear of the door."

"Got it, Dad," she replied, panting a little as she moved. "I'm good. C'mon in."

"Is Daddy invited too?" I asked her, meeting Spike's eyes and disliking the smirk I saw there.

"Yeah, of course. Both of you are invited."

"Thanks," I said, giving the phone back to Spike so he could deal with turning it off. I know mobile phones have been around for thirty years, but I just couldn't get the hang of them when they changed every year, it seemed like. Or, I didn't waste my time figuring them out like my husband did.

"Push or pull?" Faith asked me, eyeing up the door.

"Um," I replied, looking at it, "push."

"Can we use Spike as a battering ram?" Xander asked, and some of the girls laughed.

"Oi," Spike replied, "your head is harder than mine, old man." He'd been very fond lately of pointing out the fact that Xander is aging. Though one has to admit, he's not doing too bad for being in his mid-forties. Watching all the people around us age makes me kind of glad I don't have a reflection and can't be startled every day that I'm not aging along with them.

It's strange befriending humans.

"On three?" Faith asked, ignoring Spike and Xander's spat.

"Always on three," Spike replied for me, setting his stronger shoulder against the door. I adopted the same position behind him while Faith and Rita took positions behind me, hissing when Spike closed the couple inches between us and rubbed his backside against my front.

"Not now, you prick," I whispered in his ear, fighting the urge to bite the back of his neck in punishment.

He grinned at me over his shoulder, replying, "Can't help it, Ange. Love it when you call me 'Daddy'."

Shaking my head, I whispered back, "You're sick, Will. You know that?"

"Mmm," he murmured. "I know."

"Are you two done flirting?" Faith asked, her voice amused and exasperated.

"Yeah," I growled. "Let's do this. One … Two …" We all took a step away from the door, ready to either knock into it with our shoulders, or in the girls' cases, kick it with our feet.

"Three!"

We crashed through the door, me just managing to keep Spike on his feet by grabbing him close at the last second. And then I rushed through the opening, looking for … God, there she was! I ran up to Joyce, stopping just short because I realized she might not want the hug I was going to give her. And then, seeing the hurt hesitation in her eyes, I decided, 'fuck that,' and grabbed her. "I missed you," I told her, feeling Spike rub a hand up and down my back in support. Joy's scent was comfortingly familiar, and even though she felt different, taller, in my arms, I felt it deep in my soul. This was my girl. My daughter.

"Missed you too, Dad," she whispered, the scent of tears suddenly very present. "And I'm sorry."

And there's the first three chapters. What do you think? Anything really unclear? Any questions, comments or complaints?

Not sure when the next update will come, so go ahead and set the story alert if you want to see how this plays out.

Thanks for reading!

~Ptera