Gunn and Gwen hadn’t been gone two minutes when the alarms started sounding.
Angel lunged to his desk and hit the intercom button. “Harmony! What’s going on?”
“There’re these really loud alarms and flashing lights going off!” Harmony answered in a panic.
“I noticed. But why are they going off?”
“I don’t know!” Harmony exclaimed in an offended tone, as if Angel were inferring she were somehow responsible.
Fred burst into Angel’s office. “Gwen knocked out Charles and escaped! Some guards just brought him down to the clinic.”
Wesley jumped to his feet. “Is he okay?”
“We got his heart started,” Fred said. “He’s stable, but unconscious.”
Wesley nodded and Angel charged out of the room. Wes glanced at Spike, then back to Fred.
“It’s okay,” Spike said as he headed for the door. “I can tell when a guy needs some time alone with his crush.”
“I was thinking you should perhaps keep Charles under,” Wes said after Spike left. “At least until we can figure out what hold Wolfram & Hart has over him.”
“I was thinking the same thing. As soon as I’m positive he’s okay physically, we’ll put him under.”
*
Eve backed into her bedroom. She was facing Connor, her hand gripping his shirt collar as she pulled him into the room with her.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said calmly.
“Yes we do. I need to know you still want me.”
“I want you,” Connor said argumentatively.
“I mean sexually. I wanted to know you can still see me as an object of desire, not just a victim.”
Connor stroked her face. “That’s not how I see you.”
Eve slapped Connor’s hand away. “That’s how you’d touch a child, not a lover.” She pulled her hand back and tried to slap him. Connor grabbed her wrist. She tried to hit him with the other, but he grabbed that wrist, too.
“Now you’re getting it,” she grinned as he pushed her back against the wall, still restraining her hands.
“Stop. That’s how you touch an enemy. I want you, Eve. But not like this.”
“How do you want me, then?”
Connor kissed her lips softly but passionately. She allowed her arms to go limp and he released them. His hands went to her hips and hers to his shoulders. She tilted her head to the side and their tongues met and playfully lapped at each other.
Eve slid her hands down to the hem of his shirt and she began to tug it up.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” he asked, even while raising his arms to facilitate her removing his shirt.
“It’s been ten years. I’m ready.”
Now shirtless, Connor kissed her. He wanted to ask more, but knew that’s what Eve feared most. She’d said it as plainly as possible. She wanted to know that Connor could still see her sexually. His fingers began deftly unbuttoning her shirt.
“Just rip it.”
“Eve,” he began to protest.
Eve laughed. “It’s just a shirt, Connor.”
Connor ripped the shirt open. He slid his hand up and her stomach and under the strap that connected the two cups of her bra. With a quick move, he snapped the strap, breaking the bra and exposing her breasts.
“Now, the bra I wanted to keep.”
“Sorry!” Connor said, his eyes going wide with embarrassment.
“I’m kidding!” she laughed.
Laughing himself, Connor planted another kiss on Eve’s mouth and gently slid her onto the bed. Her body felt so natural under his. Her neck seemed so perfect for kissing. Her hair was the ideal scent. Maybe it was simply that he was 18 and hadn’t had sex in over a month or that she was the last women he’d slept with and his first real lover. But Connor felt as if the way her body perfectly fit his was indicative of something more than lust. It was a metaphor for their lives. For their souls. Somehow, he felt that Eve’s tumultuous childhood somehow complimented his own sheltered one. He felt as if her damaged soul fit well with his relatively untarnished one.
Connor lowered his hands to his pants and began unbuttoning them. Part of him wanted to hesitate and let Eve make the first move. Then he remembered why Eve wanted this now. He had to show her that he still lusted for her. And he did.
*
“I’m surprised Angel hasn’t come running down here, yet,” Sahjhan said as he paced in his cage. He was basically speaking to himself. The demon minions trapped with him only understood small phrases. The others had gone to get equipment to break him out.
With a giant splash, Gwen dropped from an escape hatch into the sewers not ten feet from the cage. She prepared to run when Sahjhan called to her.
“Hey there foxy lady!”
Gwen turned to see Sahjhan. “Big Blue. What happened to you?”
“Nice rhyme. Someone from Wolfram & hart set me up for this little trap here.”
“That place ain’t what it used to be.”
“You can say that again. Say. Any chance you could get me out of here?”
Gwen looked at the high tech electronic controls to the lock on the cage. “Possibly. What’s in it for me?”
“Good will?”
“I’m going to need a higher offer.”
“How about the ten thousand bucks you lifted from me in the bar?”
“But I already have that,” Gwen said.
“Yeah. But I’m all pissed off that you stole that from me. Let me out, and I call it even.”
Gwen touched the control panel. Sparks flew and the cage detached from the ground. Sahjhan pushed one side up and slipped out along with his minions. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Gwen answered before rushing off down the sewers.
*
“Tea?” Cordelia offered.
“Thank you,” Wesley responded.
Cordy poured the hot water into the cup. They sat in the kitchen of her apartment. Large picture window gave a view of a lovely garden. The sun was shining brightly. The effect of the view was soothing to Wesley.
“So if you see her,” Wesley continued.
“I’ll call you,” Cordy finished Wesley’s sentence and pouring his tea at the same time. She sat across from him. “You could have called on the phone to tell me about Gwen’s amazing escape. Why are you really here, Wes?”
Wesley sat staring at his tea cup. He swirled the spoon, despite the fact he took the tea straight; there was no sugar or milk to mix. “I,” he began before pausing and fidgeting with the spoon some more. “We do this my way.”
Cordelia nodded. She could have played coy and asked Wes what he meant, but there was no need. He was conflicted and tortured enough as it was. Besides, Cordy knew why Wes had come the moment she saw him outside her door. The one thing Cordelia knew for certain was that Wesley Wyndam-Pryce would always do what he thought was right, no matter what the consequences to himself or anyone else.
“What is your way?” Cordelia asked.
“We tell Angel first.”
“He might try to suffocate you again.”
“Yes,” Wesley said. “He very well might.”
“And Fred?”
“We tell her, too.”
“But you haven’t discussed this with her yet?” Cordy asked.
“Not yet, no.”
“Why not?”
Wesley sighed and resumed stirring his tea. “She’d talk me out of it. She’s the only one who could.”
“Then why tell her and Angel?”
“We’ve kept so many secrets,” Wesley said wearily. “So many times we’ve acted on our own without telling others. Angel kept meeting with Holtz secret from Connor. Connor never told us of his situation with your doppelganger. Now Angel with this mind spell. And of course, there was . . . mine. It’s never worked out for us. The consequences are always horrendous. We tell them. Angel, Fred, and Lorne. We tell them what we’re going to do. Then we do it.”
Cordy put her hand on Wesley’s shoulder and squeezed. “This is the right thing, Wesley.”
“I wish that made it easier. It’s such a vicious irony that the right thing to do is always the more difficult. I suppose that’s what makes evil so seductive. It makes life so much easier. At least for a while.”
“I’ll talk to Fred,” Cordy offered. “I can at least make it that much easier.”
“Thank you.”
*
Meanwhile, the morning sun was also shining through the window of Eve’s bedroom. She lay with her head on Connor’s shoulder. He was staring down at her. They’d spent the night making love, then talking, then repeating the process. Neither had slept.
“I still want to try different things,” Eve said. “Keep things spiced up.”
Connor rolled his eyes.
“Not like that,” she laughed, rolling onto her stomach and climbing to lay flat on top of him. “I liked it last night. I liked how you were gentle and loving and . . . you.”
“I like when I’m me, too.”
“Just, I don’t know. I still want to make love in the kitchen and on the couch. Maybe in my office if I can get the video cameras shut off.”
“Why shut off the video cameras?” Connor laughed.
“Are you teasing me? Because you know if you’ll let me tape us, I’ll totally do it.”
Connor laughed. “Just what I need. A video of us on the internet.”
“I wouldn’t put it on the internet.”
“Any time anyone famous tapes themselves having sex, it winds up on the internet.”
“I’ll let you keep the tape,” Eve said.
“Great. Then I can erase it.”
“No,” Eve said, tickling him. “I’ll make you watch it with me every now and then. Like how the coach makes you watch films of your games.” Eve stopped tickling and began pantomiming watching the film. “See that there, where you pulled it out too far and it flopped out, we have to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future. Oooh, but that there where you took my whole breast in your mouth, that was great. Good job there.”
“Thanks,” Connor laughed hysterically. “I’m never going to be able to watch those game films again. I’ll have a hard on in a room full of hockey players.”
“I know. It must be such a pain in the ass dating me.”
“Only when I’m away from you,” he said in a serious tone. “I think about you and wish I were with you. Sometimes, I think when this contract is over, I should just retire. We’ll go live in Hawaii and have lots of sex and babies.”
“You think I’m going to ruin this figure by having babies?”
“Of course not. We’ll adopt.”
Eve laughed.
Someone knocked on the door of her apartment.
“Nooo,” Connor wined. “Ignore it.”
“I can’t.” Eve slipped from the bed. She hastily pulled on some clothes and headed for the front door.
“Hey,” Gunn said when Eve answered the door. He pushed past her and entered the apartment without being invited. “You got some place we can talk?”
*
“You were supposed to keep him sedated!” Fred said to Knox as they sat in her office. She was more annoyed than angry. She did her best to be the scary boss, but she could tell it wasn’t working.
“He’s completely healthy,” Knox said. “There was no reason to sedate him.”
“Except that your boss told you to.”
“Even so, it would be unethical to do it.” Knox shuddered as if the thought of doing anything unethical scandalized him. The effect, however, was undermined by the grin on the scientist’s face.
Fred could tell Knox was enjoying this. He loved being able to disobey her while simultaneously claiming the moral high ground. She wanted to complain, but knew it would come off more as wining than a reprimand. Besides, they’d had the argument at least two dozen times since she got there. She’d say they did this sort of thing all the time. He’d reply that they used to do those things, but had now turned over a new leaf. Then Knox would commend Fred as being the reason for the turn around and finish the conversation with a condescending pat on the shoulder.
“Follow my orders or you’re fired,” Fred said.
“Fred,” Knox said, again trying to sound scandalizing while wearing an obnoxious grin. “I would never disobey you if I had a choice in the matter. But you yourself set the standard that we always follow ethical science and medical practices. So, in this case, I couldn’t follow your orders without disobeying you.”
“You sound more like a lawyer than a scientist,” Cordelia said as she entered the office. “You sure you’re in the right department, or does Wolfram & Hart give all their employees training in quibbling and mumbo jumbo?”
Knox stood to greet the new guest.
“Don’t bother,” Cordy waved dismissively. “I still think you’re all evil.”
“You can go, Knox,” Fred said. When he left, Fred looked down at her papers. She felt like she couldn’t look her former comrade in the eye. “I didn’t expect you to come back.”
“Wesley came to see me.”
Fred nodded slowly. “I thought Lorne would be the first to break. He’s always so particular about people’s destinies. But I knew Wes would eventually cave, too.”
“And you?”
Fred shrugged. “I . . . I know in my mind it’s right, Cordy. There was never any doubt of that. But in my heart, I know making him what he was is just too cruel. He’s so happy now. And he was so hateful before. He was so horrible to us, the people who loved him.”
“And the way you guys treated him? That was okay?”
Fred nodded, agreeing with Cordy’s sentiment as opposed to her actual words. “We made our share of mistakes. Some of the things we did. Some of the things we said. Mostly, it was what we left unsaid that destroyed him, wasn’t it?”
“You could make it up to him. Changing him back would give you the opportunity to make things right.”
“Easing my guilt is no reason to destroy him.”
“You said yourself it’s the right thing to do,” Cordy responded.
Fred sat back in her chair. “Wesley’s on board?”
“He is.”
“And he initiated it? He came to see you?”
“He did.”
“Then I guess there’s no stopping you.”
“But will you help us, Fred?”
Fred looked at the wall near the door. Cordy turned and saw Fred was looking at a felt Los Angeles King’s banner.
“He gave it to me on our first date,” Fred explained. “Ever since we broke the Orlon Window, I’ve wanted to take it down. I could just never bring myself to do it.” She looked at Cordy. “After the Stanley Cup. The way Connor’s playing, the Kings are going to be in it.”
“Is a game really that important?”
“No,” Fred answered. “But unless you want to tamper with the memories of a million hockey fans, people will notice if Connor Reilly stops playing. After the championship, we change him back. Then we have the whole off-season to either make up a cover-story or teach him how to skate.”
Cordelia laughed. “I could care less about the hockey fans. But if waiting is the price to get your help. I’d pay it any day.”
Fred nodded again, then looked back at her desk. Cordy stood and walked to the door.
“I wish I could be like you,” Fred said in a strangely casual voice. She instantly regretted saying it. She’d envied Cordelia’s personality for years; her confidence and charisma. Fred had no idea why the urge to say so overwhelmed her just then.
Cordy stopped and turned back. “What? What do you mean?”
“I wish I could be a leader,” Fred said. “Strong.”
“You think I’m strong?” Cordy laughed. “Fred, I wouldn’t have lasted a tenth as long as you did in Pylea. The first week without a hot shower and I’d have hung myself.”
Fred shook her head. “You never would have lost it like I did. I broke so easily.”
“I swear to god if you keep up the self flogging, I’m going to slap you. You actually think you broke? I mean, you covered walls with physics equations just so you could remember who you really were.”
Fred looked at Cordelia oddly. “Is that why I did it?” Fred had always attributed it to some obsessive compulsive disorder. Yet now, Cordelia’s belief that she wrote the equations to maintain her identity seemed so true. Fred almost felt stupid for not thinking of it before.
“You were there for years, Fred. And you never let that place take an ounce of who you are. And you envy me? Please.”
*
“How long have you and the kid been back together?” Gunn asked.
“How do you even know that?” Eve asked.
“I’m head of security. It’s my job to know.”
“Why is my personal life security’s business?”
“The conduit is concerned,” Gunn said. “It says your attachment to its alter ego is influencing you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just repeating what it said,” Gunn said as he threw his hands up. “You think I’m dumb enough to ask that thing questions? That chick Lacey asked it the wrong question once and he turned into some kind of Quor’toth monster and ate her. Swallowed her whole.”
“Pretty quick and painless,” Eve said, surprised.
“It took thirty-two hours to digest her.”
Eve looked toward the bed room. “My being with Connor contributes to our ultimate goals.”
“Fine. But you’re going to be the one to explain that to the conduit.”
“I can do that.”
“We got another situation brewing.”
“Yeah?”
“Cordelia,” Gunn said. “She was talking to Fred in the science lab today. She’s won Fred over to her way of thinking. Says she has Wesley, too.”
“Do you think she does, or was she just saying it to get Fred on board?”
“I don’t know. If she cut a deal with Wes, it wasn’t at Wolfram & Hart. If it had been, my crew would know about it.”
“What do we do about it?”
“We tell Angel,” Gunn said. “If he knows someone’s going to mess with his son . . . well, maybe the Senior Partners will be able to keep their conduit and get the darker version of Angel they’ve always wanted.”
“Sounds like you have this all figured out.”
“I guess that’s part of my job, too.
Eve glanced at the bedroom. She wondered how much Connor had heard with his damn vampire senses.
Gunn, as if reading Eve’s mind, merely shrugged. “Not my problem,” he said as he headed for the door and left. Connor stepped out of the bedroom and looked at Eve.
“Go back to bed,” she said.
“I’m going to get dressed. I have practice in an hour.”
Eve nodded. And both of them silently agreed not to talk about it until later.
*
“Did it ever occur to you that this seedy deli is not the best place for our clandestine meetings?” Lorne asked. “Everyone at Wolfram & Hart who wants to make a secret deal comes here. So that’s a lot of Wolfram & Hart people.”
Wesley smiled. “You just don’t like being out where people can see you.”
“Oh, please. I’m in show business, baby. I live for the limelight.”
“I thought they used electric lights now?” Wesley joked.
Lorne gave Wesley as impatient a look as he could manage. “What are we doing here anyway?”
Instinctively, Lorne looked up when the dorm chimed announced the entrance of new customers. He was worried it would be Eve or Gunn. Instead, he saw Cordy and Fred. Lorne looked back to Wes questioningly. Wesley nodded.
Lorne shrugged. “Guess it was just a matter of time until you do-gooders would get together and . . . . do good.”
“Will you help us?” Wes asked.
Lorne shrugged. “What the heck else do I have to do with my Wednesday nights?”
Fred slid into the booth next to Lorne and squeezed his hand.
“It’s a shame Gunn is here,” Cordy chirped happily, as if this were a reunion. “It’d be like the last time Angel fired us.”
“Quite alright,” Wes said. “We have Fred and Lorne to make up the difference.”
“Wait a minute?” Fred said in an offended voice. “It takes two of us to make up for Charles?”
Wes began stammering. “Well, I, no, no, I just -“
Cordy put a hand on Wes’s shoulder. “For the purposes of group unity, you probably shouldn’t speak.”
The four sat silently for a moment. Each knew what they were there to discuss, but no one wanted to say it. Each of them, even Cordelia, hoped that some loophole would allow them to just walk away.
“Fred thinks we should wait until after the Stanley Cup,” Cordy started.
“Oh thank the gods!” Lorne gushed. “That way we don’t have to give back as much of his signing bonus. Any chance you could give me a week or two after the finals to finish up some endorsement deals?”
Lorne felt three condescending glares burning a (metaphorical) hole in his head. “Okay!” he shouted. “Fine. After the Stanley Cup.”
Wesley nodded. “The delay will be good. It gives us time to handle Sahjhan and Vail.”
“Vail, maybe,” Fred said. “But if I’m remembering my prophecies correctly, and after having my brain fried by a memory spell, who knows if I am. I mean, I could just be-”
“Fred,” Cordelia interjected.
“Sorry. Anyway, according to Sahjhan, we wouldn’t be the ones who’d be handling him.”
“What?” Wesley asked. Cordelia and Wesley looked at a loss, too.
“Sahjan told us he wanted to get rid of Connor because a prophecy predicted Connor would kill him.”
“All the more reason to set things right,” Cordelia said. “That’s why . . . do you smell something burning?”
“Maybe our lunch?” Fred offered.
“We haven’t ordered, sweetie” Lorne answered.
Wesley’s face fell. “Oh dear god.”
Spike approached the booth from behind Lorne and Fred, then slid in next to them, making it a tight fit. He tossed a smoking blanket on the table. “I gather we’re plotting to screw over Angel. How can I help?”
“We work for Angel, Spike” Wesley said. “We’d never-”
“Which is why you’re coming to this crap hole when there’s a perfectly good TGI Friday’s right across the street. Have you ever had their Jack Daniel’s barbeque tower?”
“Spike,” Fred started meekly. “Can you kind of take your hand off my leg, please?”
“Sorry, luv. It’s kind of cramped.”
“Which brings me to our next request,” Wesley said. “Can you kind of leave?”
“Listen, mate. I know Angel. I know how he does stupid things because he thinks it’s all good and noble. Plus, I went and got myself a soul. So, if you’re planning some kind of righteous crusade to show up old big ‘n broody, you’re going to want the longest running thorn in his side on your side. As it stands, than thorn is me.”
“Is I,” Wesley corrected. “Sorry. I can’t stand when a fellow Brit abuses the English language. I’d expect it from Americans, but you should know better.”
“And then there’s the problem of us not trusting you,” Cordy said.
“What’s not to trust? I have a soul. Plus you lot saved my life.”
“So did Angel,” Wesley said.
“Yeah, but he had centuries of annoying me to make up for.”
Lorne sighed aggravated. “You’re just hoping you can expose some great wrong-doing by Angel so you’ll look more appealing to the blonde slayer.”
Everyone looked at Lorne in amazement.
“He was humming in the hallway the other day,” Lorne explained.
Spike lit a cigarette. “Okay. Maybe my motives aren’t as pure as the fresh snow.”
“No smoking in here!” a man behind the counter shouted at Spike.
“Sodding California,” Spike groaned.
“Give me a drag off that before you put it out,” Lorne said, quickly taking a puff and extinguishing the cigarette.
“If we’re going to be going against Angel and Wolfram & Hart, we could probably use a little muscle,” Fred suggested.
“Bloody well right you will!” Spike said excitedly.
“Fine,” Wesley said. “But first things first. We have to find and capture Sahjhan while also preparing a plan to neutralize Vail and counteract the memory spell.”
“Memory spell?” Spike said cautiously. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Buffy, does it?”
“You knew about Dawn, too!” Cordy gasped. “I can’t believe I’m further out of the Sunnydale loop than Spike.”
*
“Keep me updated,” Angel said into his cell phone as he entered his office. He wasn’t sure whether he should be tracking Gwen or Sahjhan. Whoever hired Gwen was probably working for Sahjhan, but Gwen wouldn’t necessarily know who her client was. Besides, finding a giant blue demon wasn’t usually too difficult.
Angel froze, sensing another presence in his office. “Connor?”
“Okay,” Connor said from his seat in the corner of the office. “How did you know it was me?”
Angel turned to face his son. “I saw you out of the corner of my eye when I came in. It just didn’t register ‘til now. What’re you doing here? I thought you had practice.”
“You’re awfully familiar with my schedule. I called in sick. Said I think I had a flu.”
“Cutting practice? Lorne’s not going to like that.”
“Cut the crap,” Connor said.
Angel stared at Connor in a state of panic. The tone in his voice was too familiar. Too angry. Angel knew that there was only one thing he’d ever done that would make Connor angry. He desperately struggled to convince himself that there was no way Connor could know. But the anger in Connor’s voice told Angel everything. Only family could make someone that angry.
Angel frantically searched his mind for something to say; some excuse, some lie. All he could come up with was the way Connor had found out. “Eve told you.”
Connor stared at Angel. He was on the verge of tears. Not until that moment had he been sure. Connor buried his head in his hands and sobbed without tears.
“Connor . . .” But Angel didn’t know what to say.
“Who, why, how, why, why . . . why didn’t you want me?”
Angel’s heart sunk. He moved forward and sat in a chair opposite the boy. “I . . . it’s complicated. I wouldn’t have been a good father. You needed. . . I’m not a good. Your mother and I were . . . we were bad people. She said . . . she said you were the one good thing she and I ever did. Those were her last words. She died giving birth to you.”
“And you couldn’t raise me on your won,” Connor said.
“I wanted you to be raised by good people. People better than me.”
“Why didn’t they tell me?”
Angel gulped. “They . . . they don’t know.”
“What? How can they not know?!”
Angel sat back and groaned. The conversation was making him uncomfortable. And angry. God damn Eve. “When . . . the day you were born, your parents had a child who died during labor. I was, I don’t know. I was paranoid. I wanted people who would raise you as their own, so I . . . I had you switched with their child. That way you’d get the life you deserved and they . . .” Angel felt a pang of sadness. “They’d get the child they deserved.”
Connor sat quietly. He had so many questions, that they were a jumble inside them. He struggled to begin three at once, each one seeming the most natural follow up to what Angel had just said. Connor let out a squeak, then flopped back into the chair.
Angel sat across from Connor quietly anticipating further questions, each more painful and difficult. The two had so much to say that they could say nothing. And so, they sat in silence.
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