Bring Me To Life – A Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel Crossover Event
Part 49
My Brother's Keeper
Sunnydale, California—Summers Residence, Living Room – 9:14 a.m.
Emergency Room
Days Left Before the End of Days: 14
"Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days
The people I meet always go their separate ways"
Lindsey had been belting out the chords to the Bon Jovi classic "Wanted Dead or Alive" on his acoustic guitar for a little while.
While what was left of the Potentials were training in the backyard, some of the others healing their wounds in the meantime. The Summers home had become more of a recovery center than a command center in a war for all of existence.
"Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're all alone
all you do is think"
That last line held more than true for Lindsey. The last day or so, all he could do was think.
And it was all about him.
Caleb.
Back in his life, demented as he always was.
And more powerful...far more powerful...than ever.
He couldn't stop thinking about all those girls he killed.
The night before.
All the nights before that.
The blood, the deaths, the lives cut short because of that psychotic monster that he shared blood with...that was all on Lindsey's head. And he knew it.
Everything Caleb did the night before...it was all on Lindsey. And he knew that.
He had to own that.
And so he sat in the living room. And he played. Played his heart out.
Strumming the guitar, losing himself in music, it was how he had always managed to calm his mind, soothe his soul. Let the beauty of the words, the melody, the rhythm wash over him, let it make him for a moment create something beautiful...that he may forget that his actions, or inactions, caused such destruction.
Unbeknownst to him, he had an audience.
Kate Lockley, former LAPD Detective, now den mother to a small group of orphaned kids that fought the things that bumped in the night around L.A., had managed to trudge into the kitchen. She had cried herself to sleep that night, broken up over the death of Matthew. She had loved that little boy the most out of all the kids in her little group. He was so sweet, so innocent. So losing him was hard. Brutal.
She had absently tried to get breakfast and painkillers for the headache when she saw Lindsey in there. Playing his guitar.
And she had no real idea why, but..she stood there.
And listened.
"I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted (wanted) dead or alive
Wanted (wanted) dead or alive"
And as much as she hated to admit it...she liked what she heard. She had always been a huge Bon Jovi fan. And Kate was hard pressed to disagree that Lindsey's smooth, soulful rendition of the classic tune didn't do it justice. And as much as loathed herself for admitting it...Lindsey was always pretty handsome. Hot, actually. Hell, if he hadn't worked for those scumbags at Wolfram and Hart, she might have worked up the nerve to ask him out years ago.
After a moment, Lindsey looked up and realized that he was not alone. Surprise briefly coloring his face, he stared at the former cop. "You been there long?"
Kate sighed, managing a small smile at Lindsey. To her recollection, it was probably the first time she had ever smiled at him. Ever. "Long enough. Go ahead. Don't mind me, please. I've...always kinda had a thing for Bon Jovi."
Chuckling, Lindsey shook his head. "Not feeling up for an audience right now. This was just...therapeutic, is all."
Kate's smile faded. "Right...you were there last night. At the vineyard."
Lindsey chuckled, but without humor this time. "Yeah. The vineyard." Caleb's leering, taunting face flashed before his eyes again, and he fought not to flinch. "Fun times."
Kate let a long sigh out, picturing Matthew's sweet, smiling face. A face she would never see again… "Really not," Kate said, quietly. Biting her lip to keep from crying.
Lindsey picked up on that, and gave her a sympathetic glance. He and Lockley had never been close. They had been practically mortal enemies for years, even before Angel came to town. But still...to lose a kid, especially one as young as Matthew was…
"Right...I'm sorry about Matthew," he said sincerely. Softly. "I didn't get a chance to get to know him well, but he seemed like a good kid. Brave. Hell, he's the only reason why Buffy's kid sister isn't among the body count right now."
Kate bit harder on her lip. She would not cry anymore, damn it. She was all cried out from last night.
"Yeah, well...Matthew was always braver than he was supposed to be. Like he was too dumb to know he was too small and should have been more scared," Kate chuckled hollowly, her voice thick with emotion. She smiled wistfully. "It's what I loved about him, too."
As inappropriate as it felt, Lindsey had to admit that Kate was actually looking pretty good from this angle.
Really good.
Even when they were sniping at each other, Lindsey always silently admitted to himself that Kate Lockley was indeed a very beautiful woman. Very beautiful. Blonde hair, always a weakness for him, to go with great legs, and strong, but soulful blue eyes. Great skin, too. Not quite bronzed, but healthier than just a plain white. He would almost say that Kate's beauty could even give Darla a run for her money, and Darla was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met.
Kate turned a surprising half-smile at him. "I, um...I also heard about what you did back at the vineyard."
Lindsey looked at her in confusion. "What, get my ass kicked and thrown into a vat of old burgundy?"
She chuckled. "No...well, yeah, I heard about that, too, actually. Gotta admit, the image is funny." She looked at him more soberly. "But I also heard that you went the extra mile to protect that Molly kid. And the other girls. This Caleb asshole was taking apart all our biggest guns, and yet you didn't hesitate to try and help a girl who needed it."
Lindsey looked down for a moment, a bit ashamed of the unexpected praise. "It was nothing."
"Betcha Molly would disagree," Kate told him. Warmly.
"I saw someone who needed help. I just did what had to be done," Lindsey shrugged.
"Still...that took guts, McDonald. Real guts," she said sincerely.
Normally, Lindsey wouldn't have any problem taking credit when a beautiful woman was involved. But Lindsey didn't want the credit here. He didn't want anything even remotely to do with Caleb. "Don't make a thing of it, Detective. Well...Lockley."
"'Kate' is fine," she replied, coming over and slowly sitting across from Lindsey in one of the opposite chairs. "Look...I've got a soft spot for kids. Always have. Especially now that I've started to take care of the ones that need help the most. Years ago, I thought you were just a douchebag in a suit, didn't care for anyone or anything but yourself, wouldn't risk anything except to save your own ass. And that those were probably your best qualities."
Off her joking smile, Lindsey chuckled, looking down. "You probably were right, Kate. Hell...you might still be right."
"No. I wasn't." She looked at him in a warm way that he never thought he would ever see from her. "You had nothing to gain from what you did last night. You could've died. But you were still willing to risk your life to save a girl you didn't even know from someone really bad. And I know that it couldn't have been easy to walk away from Wolfram and Hart after all that time you spent there. But you did. I don't know...it got me thinking that maybe I've been too harsh with you. Bad blood from the past, and all that. But if Angel's taught me anything over the time I've known him, it's that people can change. They become better. That sometimes..."
She looked down, sighed. It was still hard for Kate Lockley to admit when she was wrong after all this time. But she'd be willing to admit it under the right circumstances. "...sometimes, people do deserve a second chance. Even you, Lindsey."
Lindsey gave her a ghost of a smile. "I think this is probably the nicest conversation we've ever had."
Kate chuckled and shook her head. "Yeah, well, blame it on the Hellmouth. That's where we are, right?"
Lindsey chuckled back. "It is...but it means a lot. Thank you, Kate."
The two looked at each other, awkwardly. And unless Lindsey was mistaken...was she blushing? He wasn't sure the hardened ex-cop knew how to blush. But she was. And he had to admit...he kinda liked it a little…
Suddenly, the doorway swung wide open. And in stalked Buffy, fire in her greenish-hazel eyes, followed by a scowling Cordelia, who was wielding a sword.
Startled, both Lindsey and Kate looked at them in surprise…
...right before Buffy hauled Lindsey out of his chair with one powerful hand and had him pinned against the wall in a blur of a move.
"TALK!" the blonde Slayer barked at him. Her icy, yet feral tone implied that failure to do so would be a serious hazard to Lindsey's health. "What do you know?"
"The lady just asked you a question, Garth Brooks," Cordelia added, eyes narrowed as she pointed the tip of her sword at Lindsey in threatening fashion.
"Buffy, what the hell are you doing?" Kate asked in shock.
"Ask Lindsey, he's got lots to say," Buffy replied, her tone glacial, her eyes locked in on the former lawyer like a predator.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lindsey rasped out.
Buffy narrowed her eyes at him, her grip becoming harder. "I think we both know that's a lie, counselor."
"Seen any interesting family members lately?" Cordelia asked him. Her tone was accusing. Her face hardened.
Lindsey's face fell. His heart nearly skipped a beat. She knows...they both know…
"Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on here?" Kate demanded, confused.
"That's what I'd like to know," came the voice of Giles, who entered the room to hear the commotion, followed by Wesley and Darla.
"What is all this? What's happened?" Wesley asked.
Buffy didn't turn her angry eyes from Lindsey, didn't loosen her hold on him even a bit.
"Tell them," she commanded him. She wasn't giving him a choice.
"Tell us what?" Darla asked, not understanding what was happening.
Cordelia decided to inform them. "At the hospital, Buffy remembered something she saw last night. When Lawyer Boy here and Caleb were tussling around."
"'Hello, little brother.' That's what I heard him call you," Buffy grounded out, anger lacing her voice. "And something tells me Caleb isn't exactly a 'Soul Man' kind of guy. You know him, don't you? How do you know Caleb and why didn't you tell us? And for the record, if you lie to me again, I'll rip out your stomach and force-feed you your own intestines."
"Admit it. He's your brother, isn't he?" Cordelia said, glaring at him.
Kate couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stared at Lindsey in disbelief. "Is it true?"
Off the disbelieving look in her eyes, Lindsey felt ashamed. "Kate…"
"Is it?" Kate asked again. Something in her didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to believe that just as she was starting to come around on Lindsey, that he would be related to the monster who killed little Matthew. Related to a monster.
"ANSWER ME!" Buffy demanded angrily.
Lindsey sighed, looking down. There was no use in hiding it anymore. "Yes. It's true."
The looks of shock on Kate, Giles, Wesley, and Darla told the whole story.
"You're working with The First, aren't you?" Buffy growled.
"No! No, I'm not. I was working with my brother Earl in a candy store, more than happy to be out of all of this crap, until you needed my help," Lindsey replied.
Cordelia scoffed, her sword gripped tightly. "Yeah, right. Because it's not like you haven't worked for evil before. Oh, wait, YEAH you did! Why should we believe you now?"
"Because if I was already working with The First Evil, you'd have all been dead a while ago. I'd have taken this place apart from the inside out already, and you wouldn't have even known what hit you," Lindsey replied. His tone was matter-of-fact. Like he was talking about the weather.
Glaring at the ex-lawyer, Wesley felt the itch to let the collapsible sword from his hidden mounted wrist weapon draw out. "Is that a fact?"
"Yeah, Pryce, that's a fact," Lindsey replied coolly. "But seeing as how that hasn't happened…"
"Enough!" Buffy snapped. Her eyes bore into him. "Caleb. Everything you know. Right now."
"If you'd let me down first, that would be a big help," Lindsey replied, his gaze at Buffy's powerful hand still holding him up in the air.
Hesitantly, Buffy slowly lowered him to the ground. She folded her arms, eyed him expectantly.
Off everyone's looks, Lindsey swallowed hard, rubbing his hand across his face. The Pandora's Box of his family history was now opened. And as much as he hated it, he knew he owed it to them to explain how he was connected to the monster in man's flesh that had turned their world upside down inside of 24 hours.
"You know how every family has their dark family secrets, right?" Lindsey asked, sighing heavily as he plopped down into a nearby chair. "Well...Caleb was mine."
"So he is your brother," Buffy pressed him, eyes hard and cold.
"Half-brother. On my father's side," Lindsey corrected, a bit indignant at the idea of being lumped in with Caleb. "His mother's name was Linda Anderson. Came from some white trash family in South Dallas. She was into drugs and, of all things, religion. My daddy was with her for a couple years before he met my mother. Their relationship was toxic, or so I'm told. Once my dad met my mom, he couldn't put Linda in the rear view mirror fast enough. But ol' Linda didn't take kindly to it. To make matters worse, my daddy and Linda had a son out of wedlock."
"Caleb," Cordelia ventured.
Lindsey sighed, nodding. "Yeah. Caleb Anderson. Well, technically, Caleb Anderson McDonald. My daddy's first-born son. That kid ended up being raised in hate for years. Linda kept spewing out this religious crap at him, blaming my mom for everything. Called her a whore for taking her man away, said it was her fault why Caleb didn't have a dad, why it was her fault they were poor, why it was her fault the sky wasn't raining gumdrops and ice cream. He grew up in that for 10 years." A hint of a pitying look came on Lindsey's face. "Being raised in that kind of hell...I guess it's no wonder why he became a monster."
"What happened to his mother?" Wesley asked.
"Dead. Overdosed on booze and pills on a binge gone wrong one night," Lindsey replied. "Daddy and Linda were splittin' custody on Caleb at the time. When Linda died, my daddy just took him home to live with us. We didn't have much more than Linda had, but it was way better for him either way. We tried to make him feel at home every way we knew how. Invited him to play. Threw him parties. Took him out to movies, ice cream shops, playgrounds, everything. But...something was already broken in that kid. I could see it in his eyes."
Lindsey remembered that foul, dark gaze in his older half-brother's eyes.
"Then what happened?" Darla asked.
"I tried to warm up to the kid. Be his friend. He didn't want anything to do with my sister Lisa or my brother Earl, even though Earl and Caleb were about the same age. But he took some kind of weird fascination with me. Maybe because I was the youngest. Easy to pick on. The runt of the litter. I just thought it was normal kid stuff." He frowned, remembering those earlier years growing up with his half-brother. "Then one day, when I was 8 and he was 13, I came into the backyard and saw him drowning our pet turtle in motor oil. He had this sick smile on his face, too. Scariest damn thing I'd ever seen at that point. As he grew, he started to get more and more into that kind of crap. He'd steal bird's eggs from nests and stomp on them for no reason. Cut the heads off birds for fun. I don't even want to get into what he would do to squirrels and rabbits. Eventually, my daddy found out and slapped the crap out of Caleb. Tried to take him to a shrink. But nothing helped. Hell, he'd pick fights with older kids at school and they'd kick the shit out of him. But he'd get back up, covered in blood and bruises and he'd be laughing. Laughing, can you believe it? It was like he enjoyed the pain. There was something not right about that kid. And it was scary."
"A regular Jeffrey Dahmer in the making. Real nice," Cordelia replied, coldly.
"Pretty much. Except Caleb's weird kink was with women," Lindsey continued. "He hated them. Couldn't stand them. Part of me thinks it's because he always blamed my mother for why he was growing up in hell. For why his mother died. Or maybe his own mother made him hate women. Can't say for sure. The tipping point came when he was 17. He took some girl out for a moonlight walk at a nearby park...and the girl never came home. But Caleb did. Son of a bitch was smiling, too. Cops pressed him for answers, arrested him and everything, but Caleb swore he never touched the girl. That he sent her home. They eventually had no other choice but to let him go after my daddy got a lawyer involved. But I knew he killed her. I just knew it. Probably killed her and buried her somewhere in the woods. He always had this...this look on his face. Like he was hiding a secret that made him so damn special."
"So why didn't you say anything?" Buffy asked, laying the accusation at his feet. "Were you covering up for him?"
Frustrated, Lindsey ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. I was a kid, alright? Maybe I was scared of him, maybe I thought I could find a way to help him. Or both. Earl and Lisa were always too creeped out by him, and my mom started to think there was something off about him after awhile. Daddy was always at work trying to make a living. I hated thinking about him being alone like that,so I...I dunno...I tried to be there for him. Be his friend. Maybe help him find his way out of whatever made him this way. But it never took. He never gave a damn. He liked being who he was. And I was left holding the bag."
He snorted in self-derision, cursing himself for being such a fool. "Being my brother's keeper."
"Eventually, it took its toll on our family. People were always looking at us like we were monsters. Like we had killed the girl, even though we were just good honest people. We had to move around a lot just to get away from the whispers. My daddy threw Caleb out of the house on the day he turned 18. Told him to get the hell out of here, and never come back. Frankly, part of me was just glad to see him go. I thought our nightmare was behind us."
"And then what happened?" Wesley asked, his tone neutral.
"And then Wolfram and Hart happened. Just after I joined the firm, they assigned me to defend a special case, some guy on trial for killing a choir girl down in Memphis. Imagine my surprise when I find out who the client turns out to be," Lindsey chuckled bitterly.
"Caleb," Giles guessed, frowning.
"Got it in one," Lindsey nodded, looking down at his hands. Hands that were soaked in so much blood. And not just his. Caleb's, too. "I had to get him off the murder racket. I begged off the assignment, asked to handle literally anything else. But they were insistent. They saw that Caleb had a liking for killing, and that he had a high tolerance for pain in jail from all those beatings he took in there. They thought he had potential to be part of their...problem-solving unit for Special Projects."
"Problem-solving. That fancy legal talk for trained assassins?" Cordelia asked snidely.
Lindsey snorted. "You catch on quick, Central Casting," he replied, Cordelia narrowing her eyes at his reference to her acting career. He continued, "They figured someone like him could be molded to fit a unit that was tasked to solve any...well, let's just call them 'problems'...that came up for our clients. So I got him off and we recruited him. And they tasked me to be his handler. They figured I could best handle him since we had a...connection. The jobs were supposed to be clean, quick. In and out. But Caleb was too wild. Too violent. He got off on the killing too much, and the hell with the cover-up. He got sloppy. Careless. And I had to bail him out every time."
Buffy scowled. "Guess you really were your brother's keeper, weren't you?"
Lindsey looked away, guilt rushing through him. "Guess I was. Eventually, the last straw was a case where he was supposed to take out a whistle-blower in an environmental matter with one of our clients. But the guy had a 16-year-old daughter. Pretty girl, perfect student, cheerleader, blonde, volunteered at soup kitchens on weekends...she was a regular All-American Girl."
Darla got it. "And Caleb couldn't resist," she grimly realized.
Oh, yes, Darla knew exactly what someone like Caleb would think...because she had done the same thing herself lifetimes ago. A girl, a target like that, so pure, so pretty and innocent...to a killer, a monster like Caleb, it was akin to fruit ripe for the picking. That was exactly why she brought the existence of Drusilla to Angelus's attention around the mid-19th century in the East End of London. In her human life, Drusilla was pure, sweet, chaste, beautiful and kind. And she possessed an uncanny ability to foresee the future; all traits Darla knew Angelus couldn't resist in a hunt. It was my gift to him, a challenge. Like it was some kind of sick gesture of love. Darla looked down briefly, guilt flashing in her own eyes for a moment. God, I was such a fool. And a monster. Just like Caleb...
Lindsey looked down again, closed his eyes in regret. "No. No he couldn't. Red flag to a bull. What he did to that girl was...they don't have words." He opened his eyes again. "Wolfram and Hart wanted to terminate him in prison, but...I have no idea why...I just...there was a part of me that couldn't let him die. So I convinced them to let me get him off the hook, and then get him out of our hair for good. Through paperwork. I had them draw up a contract for him to sign. It would terminate his services with the company, and in exchange for his silence, and promising that he'd never come back to my hometown or near my family or the company...we'd wipe him from the records. All records. Prison, birth certificates, fingerprints, dental records, DNA samples, medical history, credit history, you name it. We'd scrub him clean from anything that had his name on it. Like he'd never existed. And he'd get to walk free."
So THAT'S why we haven't been able to find any records on Caleb. Wolfram and Hart erased his history, Wesley quietly realized, his sharp blue eyes meeting Giles, the older man clearly having the same thought as his own eyes lit up with the same conclusion.
Silent until now, Kate, who was stewing quietly, now eyed him with fury in her aqua blue eyes. "You gave a clean slate to a serial killer? What the hell were you thinking?"
"It was..complicated," Lindsey sighed. "Yeah, I knew he was a scumbag. I knew he was dangerous. But...but he was still my brother. Part of me just couldn't let it go. No matter how much I wanted to."
That wasn't good enough for Kate. "How many people have died because of that son of a bitch since then? How many women? Girls? Children!" she demanded, furious, Matthew's face flashing in her memory. "Does that even bother you? Do you ever think about them at all? How they're dead because of you helping that animal?"
Lindsey's eyes grew haunted, looking away. "Every day," he whispered.
"Great backstory. But how is he connected to The First?" Buffy demanded.
"I don't know," Lindsey sighed.
Buffy narrowed her eyes. "Wrong answer."
"I'm serious!" Lindsey insisted. "I tried to keep tabs on Caleb after we fired him. But right around the time that Angel showed up, he dropped off the radar. I didn't know where he was. Even my connections at Wolfram and Hart couldn't track him. It was like he fell off the face of the planet."
"Or he found a way to hide himself from the Senior Partners," Wesley ventured. To Giles. "There are certain spells and such that could be used to cloak oneself from higher beings, correct?"
Giles frowned, but his eyes lit up then in realization. "Well, they're difficult to obtain, but yes, it's definitely possible."
"Possible enough for something with vast resources to give to him. Like The First," Darla replied, putting it together. She eyed Lindsey with a sense of disappointment. Part of her was starting to hope that he had changed. But it appeared her instincts about him were right, after all. He hadn't changed at all.
"You knew all of this and you hid it from us," Buffy said, her fists trembling and her eyes angry slits as they regarded Lindsey. It was not a question. It was an accusation.
"Up until last night, I didn't really know it was him," Lindsey hastily explained. "I had...vague suspicions, but nothing solid—"
"Oh, please! I don't wanna hear that crap! At best, you were denying it and lying to yourself! You were just covering for your psychotic brother. Again," Cordelia angrily snapped. "We risked our lives last night. People died. Some people…" Her eyes grew misty again, picturing Xander screaming in pain again. "...some may never be the same again. And you held out of us with something that we could've used to get ready for this creep. Nice job, Lindsey, way to prove you're still a scumbag."
"Look," Lindsey began, angrily. "What could I have told you about him that would've helped? I didn't know Caleb was involved with The First. I had no idea how strong he had become, or where he learned how to fight like that. And I had no idea what he was planning to do, and I still don't. Nothing I would've been able to tell you was going to change the fact that this was a trap. That wasn't on me." He looked at Buffy accusingly. "That's on you, Summers. We all told you that heading to the vineyard was a bad idea. But you went in there, guns blazing, barreling ahead anyway. Should I have told you about Caleb when I had a feeling? Maybe, probably. But don't try to pin what happened last night on me. That was your call. Not mine."
Anger and guilt flooded Buffy at those words. She tried to block it out. Block out the stares of everyone in the room. But she couldn't. And the damned part of it was that she knew Lindsey was right. Ultimately, this was still Buffy's call that caused all this. Her mistake. Her sin to carry. Xander...her heart ached at the thought of her old friend lying in a hospital bed right now, scarred forever because of her bad decisions.
"Records," Buffy said suddenly. "You said there were records on Caleb, right?"
Lindsey flushed, feeling more than a little guilty. And dumb. "Yeah...yeah, the firm always keeps backups in case they need to hold something over an asset's head or keep them in line. Their little insurance policy, I guess. I can access them through a backdoor program I installed in Wolfram & Hart's database."
"Well, gee, I'm thinking that would've been helpful before last night!" Cordelia sniped.
Buffy eyed him sternly. "Everything you have on Caleb, share it with Giles and Wesley. And I mean everything. If he had even a cavity in the last 10 years, I want to know about it. And if you leave out so much as a single letter, Lindsey, you're gonna need a lot more than just a good lawyer when I'm done with you."
Lindsey nodded. "I got more than just a cavity. A lot more. I'll give you everything I got. Trust me, I want Caleb wiped out just as bad as you do."
Nodding, Buffy turned to Giles. "Everything he knows, get it from him and let me know what you get. If there's anything in those files that can help us figure out Sinister Minister, maybe we can find a way to stop him."
"Yes, of course," Giles said, just as Buffy began to head for the basement. "Wait, Buffy, where are you going?"
Buffy paused, then turned back to her Watcher. "To see Spike," she swallowed. "I think I owe him an explanation." She looked at Darla. "Is he…?"
"He was a wreck, unfortunately," Darla said, solemnly. "I'm not so sure seeing him after what...what happened with Faith...is a good idea, Buffy."
"Darla, I have to," Buffy replied, somewhat insistent. She sighed, fresh guilt coursing through her. "This was all on me. I'll have to try and fix it." To the group. "Let me know what the files on Caleb say. It might help us figure out our next move."
Off their nods, Buffy sighed again, eyed the stairs leading to where Spike was. Well...here goes nothing…
She headed down the stairs and closed the door behind her.
Cordelia turned around, looking to Giles, Wesley and the others. "I have to go back to the hospital. Xander's…" She swallowed hard. She could still barely talk about it. "He could wake up any moment now."
Giles's eyes softened. Granted, he and Xander had always had an unusual, bickering relationship at times, but he had grown to care for the boy...no, the young man...like a son. The idea of him being permanently injured was devastating for him. "H-how is he?"
Cordelia looked down. "Sleeping. I want to…" She paused. "I need to be there for him. When he wakes up."
The old Watcher nodded in understanding. "When he does, Cordelia...please send him our love, yes?"
Her smile grew watery. And she suddenly pulled him in for a hug. "Of course. Thanks, Giles."
Surprised, Giles took only a moment before he returned the hug to the Seer. Despite everything that was happening, and how much tension there had been between them when she was a part of their strange little family back when the original Sunnydale High School was still standing, he silently admitted it was good to see Cordelia again, alive and well after all this time. "R-right, then. Drive safely," he told her, like a concerned parent letting his daughter get behind the wheel of a new car.
She smiled, nodded, then headed out the front door, closing it shut.
Giles turned his eyes to Lindsey, his seasoned blue orbs growing hard. His tone was not fatherly at all. It was cold steel. Pure Ripper. "Meet us back in the research nook in the next five minutes. I want everything you have on Caleb. And, Mister McDonald, I assure that any failure to comply…"
"...will have consequences. Grave ones," Wesley coldly added.
Lindsey didn't even have the energy to muster up a sarcastic comment. "Sure...everything I've got."
Satisfied, they headed back into the dining room to fire up new research.
Darla gave him a look of disappointment, something that he found still had the ability to hurt him, and then walked back into the living room to join the two former Watchers Council members.
Kate was the last one left.
She didn't look at him.
Couldn't look at him.
And for reasons that he had trouble placing...Lindsey found that hurt him worst of all.
As the beautiful ex-cop began to walk back into the living room, Lindsey stood up. "Kate...I didn't—"
"Don't."
Kate held up her hand. Her back was turned to him. As if he wasn't worthy of her casting her eyes upon him.
"Don't even start," Kate said, her voice as cold as the Arctic. "Matthew was just a kid. But he was brave, he was kind, he was good. And not only did your own brother kill him...but you kept the truth from us. You lied. And you lied for the guy who ended up killing Matthew and all those kids. I thought you might have changed, I had hoped it, but you haven't. You're still the same old Lindsey McDonald."
Her hands balled into fists at her sides, and he felt his heart clench at the sight. "Still protecting the same kind of scum I swore to protect innocent people from. Doesn't matter if you rock a flannel shirt and a guitar or a five thousand dollar Armani suit and a briefcase...you're still Wolfram and Hart to the core. That's who you are." She paused. "That's who you'll always be."
Lindsey looked down, her words cutting him deep. Verbalizing his greatest fears. That no matter how much he tried, or what he did, his sins would never be washed away. That he would always be Lindsey McDonald. Attorney at Law for the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart. Servant of Evil.
"Just do me a favor, McDonald. Stay away from me. And you stay the hell away from my kids," the lovely former detective said, quietly, her voice teeming with emotion. "I've lost enough of them because of you."
And with that, without a glance at him, Kate walked away.
Leaving Lindsey alone to feel as worthless as salted earth. His brother's keeper.
TO BE CONTINUED...
NEXT:
On the heels of a devastating defeat, Buffy must find a way to press forward. But has she lost the support of her allies?
Angel's quest for the Dagger continues. Can he survive the Trial of Courage?
And as Faith struggles to survive her captivity under Caleb and The First's minions, Spike finds he and Faith are more connected than he realized. How long will Faith hold on? Or will she break?
More to come soon! Please read, comment and follow!
Best,
Jean-The Guardian
