Faithfully Dangerous

Author: enigmaticblue

Rating: PG-15

Disclaimer: These aren’t my characters, as you all know. If they were, they’d all be living happily ever after by now.

Summary: Set during my story Latter Days. Faith is sent to L.A. to get information out of Angel and recruit Wesley—if she can. What she discovers is a scheme by persons unknown to take advantage of the imbalance, and an unlikely friendship.

A/N: Although this takes place during Latter Days, there isn’t a direct 1-1 relationship between the chapters. So, you could say that time is moving at a slightly different pace, although they will intersect.

Chapter 15

Wesley glanced down at the address on the paper, then up at the small, dilapidated house. He was definitely in the right place, although the chances of finding the girl here were slim given what Giles had told him.

He knocked briskly on the front door, then stepped back. The woman who eventually answered was thin, her face drawn and lined. She was holding a cigarette and taking a drag when she opened the door, and she blew smoke off to the side without saying anything.

“Is Abigail present?”

“Who wants to know?”

Wesley smiled as pleasantly as he could. “My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. I believe that my associate, Rupert Giles, contacted you about a scholarship to a school.”

She took another drag. “Yeah. Abby’s not here.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“She took off.” The woman opened the door just wide enough to flick ash out on the porch. “I don’t know where she is, and good riddance to her. That kid was nothin’ but trouble.”

Wesley swallowed his anger in the face of her obvious disinterest. “Do you know of anyone who would have some idea of her whereabouts?”

“Dunno. You might ask Lindsay, next door. They were close.” She gestured to the right.

“I see. Thank you.” Wesley turned away, unable to bear her presence any longer.

“What do you care about her?”

“She’s a very special girl,” Wesley said firmly. “If you’ll excuse me.”

He headed toward the house next door, wondering if there was any chance he’d actually find answers. This time when the door opened in response to his knock, it was a young woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties. “Can I help you?” she asked cautiously.

“My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you or possibly your daughter about the neighbors.”

“Are you with the police?”

“No. Abigail has won a scholarship to a school in California,” he explained. “Her mother told us that Lindsay might have some idea of where she is.”

“You’d best come in.” She stepped aside for him, opening the door wider. “I’m Liz, Lindsay’s mother.”

Wesley blinked, and the words slipped out before he had a chance to think about how they sounded. “Her mother?” He thought better of his question immediately. “Forgive me. I don’t mean to pry.”

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I was young when I had her, and you’re not the first to say it. Please, won’t you sit down? Would you like something to drink? I have tea.”

“That would be perfect.”

Wesley was a little disconcerted when she brought out a glass of iced tea, but he controlled his reaction this time and thanked her. “Is your daughter at home?”

“You seem awful concerned about Abby,” Liz said dubiously. “Can’t you just give her scholarship to someone else?”

“I don’t believe there are many girls like Abby,” he replied diplomatically. “It’s a special school, you see.”

The woman made a “hmm” sound. “Okay, well, Lindsay won’t be back from cheerleading practice for about an hour. You can stay if you want.”

Wesley thought about it for a minute, then nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate your hospitality.”

“If you can help Abby, I’d feel better,” Liz admitted. “She was over here all the time, an’ I think she was starved for affection, poor girl.”

“Do you know anything about her home situation?” Wesley probed.

Liz hesitated. “I don’t like to spread gossip…”

“Whatever you know may help us locate Abby,” Wesley encouraged.

Liz sighed as she sat down across from him. “I don’t know much. Abby was pretty quiet about what was going on over there, but I saw the bruises, an’ there were times when she wouldn’t go to school. I knew because Lindsay would take her assignments over there. I preferred the girls to stay here if they were goin’ to play together.”

“Makes sense,” he murmured.

She gave him a grateful look. “Don’t think her dad was around much, an’ her step-mom didn’t care for her one way or another. I did what I could, but…”

Wesley was quick to reassure her. “I’m sure you did. Do you happen to know what caused her to run away?”

Liz shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, but you can ask Lindsay. I just…figured that things got to be too much for her. It wasn’t like I could take her in here, or I’d have the cops after me for harboring a runaway, or some such.”

Wesley sighed and settled in to wait. He would just have to hope that her daughter knew more than she did.

~~~~~

Faith looked at Dana dubiously. “Are you sure she’s ready?” she asked Ellen.

“No, I’m not,” Ellen replied frankly. “But the fact is that if this does not help her, there will be little else I can do.”

Faith easily read between the lines. The witch was saying that if slaying vampires and demons didn’t help her to channel her aggression, nothing else would, and the only alternative would be continued sedation and confinement.

She shuddered imagining it.

“You’re going, too, right?” Faith asked.

Ellen nodded. “I’ll have to. If something happens…”

There was no need to complete that thought; Faith knew exactly what damage an out-of-control Slayer might do. “Right.” She raised her voice to address the other Slayers who were dispersed across the lobby. “Okay, you guys know that we’re going after vampires tonight, but there’s a good chance we’ll run into one or more demons. We’re doing this on the buddy system, so make sure you’re with another Slayer at all times.”

Faith missed Wesley all the time, but especially at moments such as these. The words coming out of her mouth were a Watcher’s words. She was good at understanding what they needed, what being a young woman with that sort of power in your hands—literally—and not always knowing what to do with it.

Wesley, on the other hand, was good at making plans, at finding strategies. He knew just which girls should pair off, and how to attack a demon to kill it efficiently. There were times when that drove her crazy, but right now she could appreciate it.

Once they had all decided on their backup, Faith led the way out of the hotel, and they loaded up in Wesley’s SUV. He’d left it behind for just this purpose, and Faith had a fairly good idea of where to find a few demons.

A good fight was just what they all needed to take the edge off.

~~~~~

Angel didn’t have any food in his apartment, and it wasn’t too long before Cordelia was complaining about being hungry. Although he could have ordered in, he had a strong desire to go to a restaurant, to have a sit-down meal—or watch Cordy eat one—to walk down memory lane for a while.

It had been a long time since they’d done something so simple as share a meal, and it used to be a habit.

Plus, going out like this, it felt almost like a date.

“You know I can’t stay forever,” Cordelia said gently after the host had seated them at a secluded table.

Angel swallowed. “I know. I just want to enjoy whatever time we have together.” When she didn’t respond right away, he asked, “How long?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. He heard her take a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Cordelia said with forced cheer, “but you’re right. We should just enjoy it, in between saving the world.”

“You know what’s coming, don’t you?” Angel asked.

“Well, they don’t call me vision-girl for nothing.” Cordelia smiled sympathetically. “You were right to tell them about Vail.”

Angel looked away. “I should have done it sooner.”

“Yes, you should have.” Cordelia reached out to put her hand over his. “You aren’t going to be able to protect Connor forever, Angel. Vail isn’t the sort of guy who does things for free.”

He shook his head. “I paid. That was the deal if I came to Wolfram and Hart—Connor gets a new life.”

“And you really think that wasn’t what they wanted all along?” she inquired with a raised eyebrow. “Come on. You didn’t give him anything by coming to the law firm. You just played right into their hands.”

Angel didn’t want to believe it. He’d made a deal, and he’d given up a lot. When he’d joined the law firm, he’d signed away any future that he might have so that his son would have one. Now, Cordy was telling him that he’d gained nothing.

“I can’t leave,” he said hoarsely. “If I can’t protect Connor, what can I do?”

“You can make sure that the people who are in a position to do something have what they need,” Cordelia reminded him.

“And how am I going to do that without giving away the game?” Angel asked. “I have Lilah showing up every time I turn around, telling me that I’ve stepped over the line, reminding me that anything that was done could be undone.”

The expression on Cordelia’s face was clearly exasperated. “What did you expect? They have you on a tight leash. That just means that you’ll have to be sneaky about it. You used to be good at that.”

Angel stared down at his hands. He’d been coming to the slow realization that he wasn’t going to get out of this one alive. Sooner or later, somehow, he would be dead, and the idea frightened him more than he’d ever thought possible.

Either the Senior Partners would kill him, or he’d lose his soul under his contract, and someone else would kill him. He didn’t think that he had a friend left who would hesitate to stake him should Angelus return.

He had burned every bridge, he had risked everything by coming to Wolfram & Hart, and all to save Connor. Now, it appeared as though he hadn’t been able to save his son, merely put him out of harm’s reach for a short time.

The entire world wasn’t made up solely of his son, even though it felt that way sometimes.

“They’ll need to know how to find Vail,” Angel said quietly. “And they’ll need a way to get at the Senior Partners. I don’t know if it’s possible, but if it can be done, Wesley will be able to spearhead the effort.”

Cordelia squeezed his hand. “I’ll be with you. You’re not alone in this.”

He met her eyes with some difficulty and nodded. “But I will be alone at the end. Isn’t that the way it works?”

Cordelia smiled sadly. “Everyone is alone at the end of it, Angel.”

~~~~~

Gunn fought the rising panic. He’d been in court and hadn’t been able to remember one of the most basic principles of contract law. Things were slipping, he was losing the knowledge that he’d gained, and he would soon be of no use to anyone.

Closing the door of his office, he thought quickly about his options, although he really only had one. Not only was he staying at the law firm for Angel, but for Wes and the others. Gunn knew that he was the only inside source they were likely to have, other than Lorne, and he had access to information that the anagogic demon did not.

The only real question was whether or not he should make an appointment.

In the end, Gunn opted for the element of surprise, just in case the doctor didn’t want to cooperate.

The doctor glanced up when he entered, but didn’t appear at all disconcerted by his sudden arrival. “I thought you’d be back.”

“What do you mean?” Gunn demanded.

The doctor turned slowly. “It wasn’t a permanent upgrade,” he replied. “The Senior Partners weren’t going to pay for that.”

“You didn’t tell me that at the time,” he accused.

The doctor shrugged. “You didn’t ask, and it was in the fine print of the waiver you signed.”

“Fix it!”

“You don’t have that kind of money.” The other man turned around with a contemptuous snort, beginning to straighten things up on a small table. “I’m sorry, Mr. Gunn.”

Gunn had long been aware that everyone and everything had its price, and being at the law firm had only reinforced that. “What do you want?”

The doctor didn’t even turn around. “I don’t think you understand. The price is too high.”

“There has to be something.” He heard the desperation in his own voice and hated himself for it.

The doctor paused in his clean-up. “There’s a shipment being held up in customs,” he said slowly, as though the thought had just occurred to him. “You could get it through with a signature.”

“What is it?” Gunn asked, smelling a rat.

“What does it matter?” The man faced him again. “Do you want the upgrade to be permanent or not?”

Every instinct he had was telling him that this was bad news. If he removed whatever obstacles standing in the way of the mysterious shipment entering the country, there would be another price—and he might not be the one paying it.

If he didn’t, he’d lose everything that made him special.

~~~~~

Wesley hadn’t received much information from Lindsay. The girl had told him that Abby had family in Atlanta, but she didn’t know where, and she wasn’t sure if the young Slayer had gone to her aunt’s house or not. “Abby said she was real nice,” Lindsay had told him. “But that she might send her back home, an’ she didn’t want to go.”

“Do you know what happened?” he’d asked gently.

Lindsay shook her head. “Abby just said that she was tired of getting hit, an’ she wasn’t gonna put up with it.” She’d thrown a cautious look at her mother before adding, “She said she could take care of herself. She showed me.”

Wesley knew immediately that Abby had shown her friend exactly what could be done with Slayer strength, and he nodded to show that he understood. “I see.”

At one point, when Liz had left the room to refill his glass, he’d leaned in and asked, “Do you have anything of Abby’s? I could find her if I had something like that, something she owned.”

Liz had returned before she’d been able to answer, and he’d left soon after, sure that he was going to have to find one young teen in Atlanta the old fashioned way.

Lindsay, however, had come running out after him. “Mr. Wesley!”

He’d stopped. “What is it?”

“I remembered something.” She held out a hand, and when he reciprocated, she dropped something into his palm. “Abby gave it to me to hold onto. She said her step-mom might throw her stuff away, and she didn’t want to risk losin’ it.” Lindsay looked wistful. “She said she’d come back for it if she could.”

Wesley looked down at the small figurine of a dog in his palm. It was tiny, but exquisitely made, and he could see why a young girl would have treasured such an item. “Thank you. You’re a good friend, Lindsay.”

“Will she be okay?”

“That’s what I’m trying to make sure of,” he promised.

Now he found himself in Atlanta, in a seedy motel room, with the ingredients for a locator spell laid out in front of him. The street map he’d purchased was detailed enough to give him a good reading, assuming that the spell worked, that there were no interferences, and that the girl was still alive.

Even a Slayer wouldn’t survive for long out on the streets of a major metropolis like Atlanta, not at thirteen.

While not every Slayer had a story like Abby’s, Wesley had noticed that there were more than a few who had a rough background, Faith being a prime example. He wondered if there was something about growing up tough, about the struggle, that made a girl a better Slayer—at least in the long run.

Perhaps someday when he had the time he would do a bit of research and find out. Wesley had a feeling that he’d need to save that project for his retirement—assuming that he lived that long, of course.

As he completed the ritual, Wesley watched a glowing point of light form over the map, but it took him a moment to recognize that the girl was located not three blocks from where he was, although she appeared to be rapidly moving south.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered as he released the spell, standing and knocking over the elements. Wesley paused only long enough to ensure that his twin pistols were loaded, and to make sure the stakes in his wrist sheathes were ready.

As an after-thought, Wesley grabbed the dog figurine he’d used for the spell, thinking that perhaps Abby would be more inclined to trust him if he brought it along.

Then, hoping that he was prepared for whatever was to come, Wesley closed and locked the motel room door with a thud.