“Oh my God, Wesley, what happened to your face?” Cordy crooned as he walked through the door.
“The same thing that happened to my hands,” he responded sullenly, holding up his hands to reveal blood trickling down the wrist.
Gunn tried to suppress a chuckle as Cordelia dropped her feather duster and rushed over to grab the first-aid kit from under the desk. “Angel caught you sneaking books, hm?”
“He threw me out, in a literal sense.”
“Looks like it. Hit the sidewalk hard, didn’t you?”
Wesley finally caught the hint of amusement in Gunn’s voice. “Don’t mock this. He promised that if any of the rest of us showed up at the hotel any day except next Monday, he wouldn’t be quite so merciful in throwing us out.”
“Yikes,” Gunn replied, but still not taking it entirely seriously.
“What happens Monday?” Cordelia asked distractedly.
“While I was hiding, Angel checked a message on the machine. Giles had called. Said that Gunn had phoned him. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”
“If you’d have been listening, you would’a known,” Gunn said. “You were too busy cursing at the books for not giving you the right information.”
Wesley scowled. “Yes, well, apparently you didn’t give the correct information to Giles, because you gave him Angel’s number. He assumed we were there.” He shook his head. “Anyway, he found the girl and she’ll be at the Hyperion on Monday.”
“What time?” asked Cordy.
“He didn’t say.”
“Well, that’s convenient,” Gunn said. “We get to hang out outside our former boss’ building all day, waiting for some girl that is in some kind of danger we have no idea about while our boss paces inside the building, cursing us for being sane while he’s in there going nuts about nothing at all.”
“He needs to stay away from blondes. Then we’d all be happy,” Cordelia muttered.
“Well, except him. He and blondes seem to get along well.”
“Yeah, and then he either gets evil or really, really broody. And neither of those work well on him.” She hesitated as she began administering to Wesley’s multitudinous wounds. “Well, maybe the brooding thing does.”
“I just wish he’d let me take at least a couple of books…”
“Wesley. Get. Over. It.”
“I can’t! It’s just so fascinating to me. The history of this establishment… there’s no telling what it may have been, what purpose it may have served… it may have been an extremely well-hidden vampire shelter that dates back centuries!”
“Actually, it was just a shipping ground for illegal garlic,” came an indifferent voice from the doorway.
Hesitation. Wesley took a deep breath before responding. “I sincerely doubt…”
“If you came to this very place twenty years ago you’d see a building full of workers happily distributing Chinese garlic to vendors for little money. Potent stuff, was used in early versions of hallucinogens.” Angel paused, tossing a small blonde girl unassertively into the building before turning and walking away. “The girl got here early.”
Wesley sat back and frowned. “Well, that’s a disappointment.”
Gunn suppressed a smile and stood up slowly as Cordelia stepped toward the girl with her hand extended. “Hi. I’m Cordelia Chase; that’s Charles Gunn and the battered looking guy behind me is…”
“Wesley Wyndham-Pryce,” he said proudly, extending his hand to the girl likewise before remembering that it was very scratched and that blood was dripping onto the floor. “I’ve… had a bit of an interesting night,” he explained and sat back down.
“Paige Hall,” the girl said, wide-eyed and deciding not to ask any questions. “A Mr. Giles contacted me and paid for my travel expenses… would you mind telling me why I’m here?”
Everyone hesitated. Finally Wesley spoke up: “Mr. Giles mentioned that your name was Lia Walkin in his phone message.”
She nodded understandingly. “He was wrong.”
An awkward silence filled the small room. Cordy cleared her throat and motioned to a chair before speaking. “I—we—have reason to believe that you’re in danger.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Oh.” Then she grinned and her eyes widened. “OH. I recognize you guys. I was in him,” she said, pointing at Gunn.
“Say what?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I got the impression that you guys were into the supernatural… was I wrong?”
“No, not at all,” Wesley provided, immediately happy that he had a new mystery to solve.
“Then maybe you’ll understand when I tell you that I can jump into people. It’s great fun. I just disconnect myself from reality and go to random people and live their lives for a while. Not long, but long enough to recognize people and learn about folks all over the world.” She paused and grinned. “Who’s this Angel chick Gunn keeps thinking about? He has a very civil mind; most guys I jump into…”
“Ugh, yuck. Angel’s a guy,” Cordelia said, not willing to hear any more.
“Oh. That explains it.” She frowned. “Actually, that explains a lot. That was him, the vampire, who just dropped me off, right?”
“Yeah, yeah… how’d you know he was a vamp?”
“The car ride over was boring. I jumped into him to pass the time. Didn’t get anything, though… couldn’t read his thoughts. The beast inside him nearly ate me, though… got out pretty fast. He glanced over, I guess I jumped a little…”
“He knew you were there,” Wesley said.
“Oh. Okay.” The girl sat back in her chair and sighed. “So why am I in danger?”
“You’re a danger to yourself,” Cordelia said. “You jump too often or too hard or something. Eventually you’re going to self-destruct,” she said simply, not sparing what little tact she had.
Paige/Lia smiled. “God, everyone’s a critic.” She sat forward on her seat and took a deep breath. “My gift is genetic. My mother had it; her mother had it; the firstborn female on my mom’s side of the family always gets it. It killed my mom; a few years ago she just went after I confronted her about it and never came back. My dad’s always been adamant about me trying to kick the habit, but it’s something he just can’t understand. It’s gotten to the point where I had to move to Sunnydale to get away from him.”
“Where did you used to live?” Wesley asked.
“Here in L. A. My house isn’t far from where Angel lives, actually.” She sighed. “But my father’s insane. He’s actually clinically insane now. It took a few years, but he’s off the deep end, and keeps threatening to institutionalize me unless I behave. Which I should really be doing to him, but…” she shook her head. “My real name is Paige Hall. Sunnydale knows me as Lia Walkin, but that’s not my name. Well, it could be… Lia’s my middle name and Walkin’s my mother’s maiden name.”
There was a pause. Paige grinned and picked up her things as she stood. “I appreciate your concern and all, but there’s really no problem here. It’s under control. It was nice meeting you,” she called as she walked out the door and into the night.
“That didn’t go well.”
“You noticed that, too, huh?”
***
A newspaper two weeks later proclaimed that Lia Walkin, a girl of eighteen, was in a coma at Sunnydale General Hospital for no obvious reason. She died three weeks later after being taken off life support.
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