Man of the World
Author: enigmaticblue
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through Ats S5, Origin, then back to Ats S3, Loyalty.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, but if I did, they'd be a lot happier and I wouldn't have to take out student loans.
Archive: If you already have my stuff. If not, just ask, and I'll be happy to share.
Summary: Fred's death and the return of his memories leave Wesley a desperate man. He makes a dangerous bid to make things right, only to find that he's a stranger in a world that's no longer familiar to him.
"I want to be a man of
the world, blood in my veins and a hurt in my heart, hide in the street with
the noise and the dirt, and the one still looking for a brand new start. Oh,
I've been sleeping far too long, hiding out in a palace of gold. Show me one
thing before I'm gone that can't be bought and can't be sold. Show me how to
come alive, show me how to make you mine. 'Cause if
you'd only be my girl, I could be a man of the world." ~Marc Cohn, "Man of the
World"
Chapter 18
"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity." ~Louis Pasteur
Tuff glared at the woman who stood in front of her; she was too angry to be scared right now, and she was hanging onto that fury with every ounce of strength she had. Instinctively she knew that if she let go, if she allowed herself to feel the fear that threatened, she would be paralyzed. Instead, Tuff focused on her outrage, on the fact that these people had barged into her home, had managed to kidnap her in broad daylight, and no one had done anything.
"So, you're the woman who's been on Wesley's mind." The woman was wearing an immaculate gray suit, her hair was perfect, and she oozed chic sensuality.
Tuff hated her already.
"What do you want?" she gritted out.
The woman smiled at her, and Tuff was reminded of one of the girls she'd gone to high school with—the girl who smiled just like that before she verbally gutted you. "I want to know what it is that Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is hiding. He seemed very interested in keeping you safe; I wanted to see what he'd do to keep you alive."
Tuff's eyes narrowed. If they hadn't handcuffed her hands behind her, she would have decked the bitch by now. She'd put up a pretty good fight when the three men had broken into her apartment, even if she had wimped out with the vampires the previous night; of course, that meant that they weren't going to trust her to sit quietly on her own. Just as soon as she got free, though, she'd show them that they'd messed with the wrong woman.
"Wesley isn't going to do anything for you," Tuff said. "Last I heard, the good guys didn't negotiate with evil bitches."
The woman smiled as though she'd just been complemented; as far as Tuff knew, she had been. "I think he will. The good guys never let the innocents suffer. Given the choice of watching you die and giving me what I want, I think he'll give me what I want." She walked over to the door of the small, bare room. "We'll just see how long it takes him to figure out you've gone missing. I've got all the time in the world." She left, the guard who had accompanied her following closely.
Tuff watched the door close and then cursed, taking deep breaths to fight down the fear. She had no doubt that Wesley would find her; she was equally sure that he would find a way to save her. If he could fight off the monsters she'd seen last night, he could beat some crazy woman.
The only problem was that Tuff had tossed him out the night before, and he might not realize that she was missing for quite a while, if he waited for her to call him. Her dad might raise an alarm, but she had the tendency to retreat from the world to lick her wounds when a relationship ended, so he might not try to contact her until Monday, when she was supposed to show up for work.
It was Friday evening; Tuff had no desire to be stuck here for the next two days.
She wondered if there was any way she could get her hands in front of her body, since they were behind her back. Tuff stood up from the chair they'd forced her to sit on and walked over to the single window; it appeared as though they were in an empty apartment of some kind, or maybe a house. Tuff couldn't see anything except a square of sky and more featureless buildings, which told her nothing about their location.
Sitting down on the floor, Tuff tried to get her hands in front of her but gave up after nearly pulling her shoulder out of its socket. It was a lot harder than it looked on TV, that was for sure, and she wasn't nearly as fit as most of those actors and actresses who made it look so easy. Either that, or they knew a trick she didn't.
For one moment, Tuff let the fear take her, and then she took a deep breath. She was going to survive this; she liked life way too much to let some bitch in an expensive suit take it from her.
~~~~~
Lilah hadn't expected the woman to be quite so tough. Tiffany Myers certainly didn't act like some innocent who had no concept of the darker side of life. She didn't act like a Tiffany either; Lilah had expected crying, or possibly demands for release. Maybe threats that her father would be looking for her.
The Vice President of Special Projects didn't have any illusions about what she was going to have to do. After Wesley had confronted her in her office, Lilah had known that she needed to find something to keep him busy, while at the same time getting the information she desired. She had the gut feeling that all of this centered in the ex-Watcher, and if she could just get into his head, Lilah would have all the information she needed to get Connor.
After their confrontation, Wesley had attached himself to the woman's side, and it had been impossible to snatch the bait she wanted to use. Lilah hadn't sent the vampires, but the man she'd hired to watch the woman had seen the whole thing, including Wesley leaving the building immediately after seeing her upstairs; it had taken her a few hours to get everything set up, and then she'd sent the team in to grab the woman.
The plan was really fairly simple. Wesley would come after his girlfriend; even if he wasn't in love with her, he was one of the good guys, and he wouldn't allow her to get hurt because of her involvement with him. Lilah would be waiting, and she would have a Briklin demon with her. The Briklin would suck his mind dry, she would dispose of his body as well as his girlfriend's, and she'd make it look like a murder-suicide.
Armed with the information from Wesley's brain, and with Angel's team in shambles over Wesley's death and the publicity she would make sure it received, Lilah would have no trouble grabbing both Connor and the promotion she was angling for.
Particularly since Wesley was going to find it very difficult to get help from anyone else, given how busy they were going to be.
~~~~~
Wesley cursed a blue streak when the traffic slowed once again. He'd thought he'd left his magic supplies at his apartment, but he'd forgotten that he'd moved most of that to the hotel. Even though he was usually the one spending the night at Tuff's, rather than the other way around, Wesley hadn't wanted to risk her coming across his occult supplies.
Unfortunately, that meant that he'd wasted a trip to his place when he could have gone straight to the Hyperion.
He finally got around the car accident that was slowing traffic so badly and stepped on the gas, keeping his speed just a little over the legal limit. With the way his luck had been lately, he'd end up getting pulled over if he went too fast.
Pulling up into his usual spot in front of the hotel, Wesley hit the ground at a run, rushing inside the front doors.
"Wes?" Cordelia called, surprise in her voice. "I thought you were going to see Tuff. Didn't you—"
"She wasn't there," he replied brusquely. "Someone took her."
Angel came out of the office with Connor in his arms. "What?"
"I think Wolfram and Hart is responsible, probably Lilah Morgan. She wants what I have," Wesley said grimly. "I need to do a locator spell."
Gunn and Fred came in through the back. "A locator spell?" Gunn asked. "I didn't know you could do one of those."
"I can now," Wesley said. "And I don't have time to waste on more mundane methods of locating her."
"We'll help," Angel announced. "I can call Lorne; maybe he'll stay with Connor tonight."
"You're going to have to call Lorne, but I don't think we can do anything about Tuff," Cordelia said. "We've got a swarm of demons in a park, heading for a Girl Scout troop. I think it's going to take all of us to deal with."
Angel looked between his girlfriend and his best friend. "How long do we have?"
"Probably just enough time to get Lorne here," Cordelia replied, meeting Wesley's eyes. "I'm sorry, Wes, but—"
"She's just one person," Wesley filled in. "I can't wait, though. Unless—" He swallowed hard. "Do you need me?" He couldn't spare the time; even if Lilah hadn't harmed Tuff, she would be frightened. Wesley needed to find her with a ferocity that alarmed him.
Cordy shook her head. "No, but you shouldn't go by yourself, Wes."
"It's gotta be a trap, man," Gunn added. "You'll be giving them exactly what they want."
"How can I do less?" Wesley demanded. "I got her into this." If only he hadn't continued to go out with her, knowing where it would lead; if only he'd ignored her order for him to leave last night and stayed, knowing what Lilah had threatened.
Angel put the phone down. "Lorne's on his way now; he should be here in a few minutes. He said something about having a hunch we'd need him tonight." Angel jiggled Connor a little as he started to fuss, sensing the tension. "Are you sure you can't wait, Wes?"
Wesley shook his head. "You'd do the same."
Angel nodded, acknowledging the truth of that statement. "Be careful. We'll wrap this up as soon as we can."
Wesley didn't reply to that; his safety meant nothing if he couldn't save Tuff.
~~~~~
It had only been a few weeks since Lorne had seen Wesley; the last time he'd stopped by to see the others and check in on Connor, the man had been out with his new girl. She'd obviously been good for him, because the cloud of despair that had followed him constantly was gone.
Of course, the worried vibes coming off him were overwhelming.
The ex-Watcher was finishing the set-up for the locator spell, and he sat down on the floor of the lobby with the map in front of him. Connor was asleep in Lorne's arms, and he envied the baby's ability to escape from the world. Lorne thought about his life before meeting Angel a little wistfully; he'd still had problems, but they had been minor in comparison to flying fiery barrels, gangs of gunmen, and babies.
Lorne glanced down at Connor. Well, the baby wasn't so bad.
Wesley didn't even look up as he began the chant, his voice steady and sure. The demon happened to know that locator spells didn't require a lot of power, unless you were doing some long-distance work; they did require a great deal of focus, however, and Lorne had to wonder how Wesley was managing that with the waves of anxiety he was emitting.
The glowing point of light formed over the map and then began traveling east, soon stopping to hover over a particular point that Wesley noted before he spoke the words ending the spell. He stood, heading over to the computer and beginning to type quickly. "What are you doing?" Lorne asked.
"I'm doing a search on the properties Wolfram and Hart owns
in the
"Then what?" Lorne asked bluntly. "Walk in with guns blazing?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Wesley didn't look up from the screen. "I'm not leaving Tuff in their hands any longer than I have to."
Lorne sighed. "At least give me the address. Angel said he'd call when they were done, and they can join you there. Remember what happened the last time you rushed in?"
"I remember," Wesley said. "I also recall what it feels like to lose someone I care about. I won't let it happen again." He found the list he was looking for in the files. Ever since they'd tried to find Drusilla using this method, Wesley had been keeping a list of Wolfram & Hart's properties, updating it whenever he could manage to do so. He'd asked Cordelia to work on it just last week; although he hadn't known that the law firm would try something like this, Wesley had wanted to be prepared for every contingency.
There were three properties owned by the firm in that general area, and Wesley didn't know what to do other than go to each location and watch for suspicious activity. All of the residences were grouped closely together, so at least he wouldn't have much travel time once he hit the first one.
Wesley scribbled down the three addressed and tucked the piece of paper in his pocket, then made a copy for Lorne. "I'll call when I identify the exact location," he said. "Tell Angel that I'm visiting them in that order, so if he doesn't hear from me, he'll know where to start looking."
Lorne took the piece of paper reluctantly. "Try not to do anything stupid."
Wesley didn't reply to that, and Lorne wondered if his refusal to promise meant anything.
~~~~~
Tuff was actually pretty proud of herself; not only had she (mostly) kept her cool, she'd also successfully negotiated a trip to the bathroom and managed to get her hands in front of her. She didn't have any misconceptions about their intentions towards her, however; in the movies, the bad guys always planned on killing the hostages.
She was pretty sure that the only reason they'd grabbed her was as bait for Wesley; she had no idea why they'd sent a man in to stare at her for a few minutes then report that she didn't know anything, but it had seemed to piss the woman off for some reason. "Ms. Morgan" was what they called her, with a great deal of deference.
With so much time to think about things, Tuff had been weighing her options for when she got out of this mess; she wouldn't allow herself to doubt that she would. If this was going to be how it was, maybe it would be better for her not to see Wesley; as much as she liked him—loved him—this wasn't what she'd signed up for. Vampires, evil lawyers, kidnapping: it was a lot to deal with.
On the other hand, Tuff could honestly say that she'd never felt for anyone what she felt for him. He was smart and sweet and really, really hot. All in all, his secret life was a lot more compatible with her lifestyle than her first boyfriend's. Of course, he'd broken up with her because he was gay, so that wasn't saying much.
Up until now, Tuff never would have guessed the true nature of Wesley's work; other than the vampires the other night, and the kidnapping, his fighting the monsters hadn't truly affected her.
And Tuff's rather vivid imagination could come up with all manner of scenarios where she'd be put in danger even if Wesley's foes had been human, or un-supernatural, at least.
Just then, the door burst open and Wesley appeared. "Are you okay?" he demanded immediately.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "There were at least two guards and a woman. Did you—"
"The guards are taken care of," he said. "I didn't see a woman." Wesley caught sight of the handcuffs and grimaced. "I'll be right back." He left the room and came back shortly with a key.
Tuff breathed a sigh of relief once he'd unlocked the cuffs. "How did you find me?"
"I'll explain later," he promised. "We should get out of here."
She frowned, realizing that it was only Wesley, and that none of his friends were with him. "You came alone?"
"The others had an emergency to take care of," he explained. "I didn't want to wait."
Tuff didn't like the sound of that. If it was just Wesley and her—and a fat lot of help she'd be—it had been too easy. She was pretty sure that she'd seen at least five different men, which led her to wonder where the others were—not to mention where Ms. Morgan was hiding. "Okay," she said, swallowing her fears. It was Wesley's job to get her out of there; she just had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
He led her through the small condo towards the door, and Tuff began to think that they might actually make it. Wesley pulled a gun out of the holster under his jacket, taking her hand in his free one as they approached the exit. The door was ajar, and he poked his head out cautiously.
The sound of a pistol being cocked echoed loudly in the silence.
Wesley kept her behind him as he retreated into the condo, his hands raised, a well-built man holding the gun firmly to his forehead.
"How nice of you to join us," Ms. Morgan said as she followed the guard into the apartment, a second man and a shrouded creature entering behind her. "It's about time. I was expecting you hours ago."
"My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail," Wesley said as the first guard disarmed him.
Tuff was amazed that Wesley's voice was so steady and cold; how he maintained his cool while he had a gun to his head was beyond her, and the woman seemed similarly impressed. "You know, I was wrong about you," she commented. "I expected you to be a little easier to intimidate."
"You don't know me very well," Wesley replied. "Let her go. You have what you want now, Lilah."
"I don't think I do," Lilah responded. "Grab her."
Given the fact that the second man who had followed the lawyer in had a gun—a really big one, in her opinion—she didn't put up a struggle. Besides, she wasn't going to do anything to get Wesley killed. She could see the fear and anger in his eyes, and she knew that Wesley's concern was for her, rather than for himself.
"You have something I want," Lilah said. "I asked you nicely, but you were the one who wanted to do this the hard way. Just think how much easier this would have been if you had told me what I wanted to know."
Wesley glared at her. "I already gave you my answer; I have no intention of changing my mind now."
Lilah gave him a pleased smile. "That's what I thought you'd say."
Tuff had no idea what they were talking about, but she was certain that the thing that pushed its hood back wasn't human; the grayish skin and strange bone-structure gave that much away. She swallowed her scream as it turned hungry eyes on Wesley. Maybe she wouldn't have been quite so scared, but she could see the sheer terror in Wesley's eyes; since he hadn't exhibited that level of fear until now, Tuff knew that this was going to be bad.
"I see you know what my friend is," Lilah said.
Wesley's jaw tightened. "I do. Let her go, Lilah. You'll get what you want from me; she doesn't need to be a part of this."
"She's already a part of this," Lilah replied. "You know I can't let her go now."
"Tuff won't go to the police," Wesley stated. "She's smarter than that."
Lilah raised an eyebrow. "I can't take the chance. Besides, you're not going to be in any shape to care very soon." She turned to the creature. "Do it."
Tuff began to struggle against the man's hold. "No!" she called out, not knowing what the thing was going to do, but certain that she didn't want it to happen. Wesley's eyes met hers for a brief moment, and she could see the apology there.
Then the creature touched him, and he screamed in pain. Fear and anguish twisted Tuff's stomach as she watched Wesley's body spasm; whatever the thing was doing, it looked like it was killing him. "No!" she screamed.
Suddenly, a bright light filled the room, and the man holding Tuff released her. She threw an arm up over her face, dropping it only when the light had faded. The creature was gone; there was only a black mark on the floor where it had been. Lilah, the two guards, and Wesley were all slumped on the floor, apparently unconscious.
Tuff didn't hesitate, moving to kneel beside Wesley's still body. "Wesley?" she murmured, checking for a pulse with trembling fingers. His pulse was fast, but steady, and Tuff breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced around the room, knowing that they needed to get out of there, but she didn't have a prayer of moving him by herself.
She searched his pockets, finding his cell phone and quickly searching the phone book for the entry marked, "Angel." Saying a quick prayer, hoping that her luck had changed, she hit the call button. Tuff recognized the gruff voice immediately. "Angel, it's Tuff."
"Where's Wesley?" he demanded.
"He's with me, but he got knocked out," Tuff said, feeling the tears threatening. Sniffing impatiently, she tried to force the tears back.
"Are you okay?" Angel asked, a little more gently.
Tuff let out a teary laugh. "Yes, I think so, but Wesley—I don't know what they did to him."
"Just stay there," he said. "We'll come find you. We're already on our way."
"Okay," she promised, putting the phone in her own pocket when Angel ended the call. Tuff rose shakily, then proceeded to gather up all the weapons in the room, hanging on to one gun awkwardly and putting the other two next to her on the floor where she sat next to Wesley's still body. Putting her hand on his chest so she could feel him breathe and know that he was still alive, she waited for the cavalry to come.