(no subject)
Childish Things, Part Eight
Although he knew it was foolish, Angel was counting the minutes until the sun went down. He wanted Wesley back with the other two and it wasn’t just because Gunn kept complaining that he would only take orders from him. He always felt protective of his people and for a good reason. Being close to him put them in danger. He’d felt that so acutely after Doyle had died, and felt it again when he’d looked down at a Wesley who was unconscious, bruised, burnt and cut, hooked up to an IV while a machine bleeped his vitals and no one could promise that he would ever wake up. He could still acutely remember the sensation of helplessness that had swept over him when he gazed at a Cordelia whose mind appeared to have snapped, despair in her eyes as she tugged feebly at the restraints in her hospital bed, exhausted from physical and mental torment and getting closer to death with each moment that went past.
“Giles won’t let any harm come to Wesley,” Buffy said gently.
He turned to find her sitting on the arm of his chair, looking at him with a soft expression in her eyes. “Am I that easy to read?”
“To me.” She reached out and straightened his collar. “You have chocolate on your shirt.”
“Gunn…” Angel rolled his eyes. “He got some on Cordy’s new dress half an hour ago. I still don’t know how we averted bloodshed.”
“Tomorrow I get to take Cordelia shopping,” Buffy said cheerfully. “Well, if I win that game of Risk tonight. Otherwise Willow and Tara get to take everyone to some boring place with a fairground and zoo and things that would be so much less fun than me getting to buy kiddy clothes again.”
“Why don’t we just keep them home tomorrow?” Angel suggested. “Let them have a rest. Wesley could watch some TV. I don’t think there was a TV in his house when he was growing up so it would be a nice change for him. Fairgrounds can be dangerous, and as for zoo animals? Remember when Xander became a hyaena?”
Buffy considered him for a moment. “You’re going to be one of those anxious parents, are you? The kind who has hysterics every time they graze their knee?”
“No, I.... One of them grazed a knee? When?”
She patted him gently on the shoulder. “That will happen, Angel. Little boys fall over. But they usually get up again.”
“Gunn’s so small.” Angel looked despondent. “And Cordy’s so fragile and Wesley’s so...”
“Unbelievably thin,” Xander supplied.
“Anxious to be good,” Angel sighed.
“Why is that?” Buffy asked. “He was like that when he was here. Must do what the Watcher’s Council tell me. Must follow the rules. Must wear my tie at all times and never ever unbend even an inch.”
“He was brought up that way. Told that higher authority was something to be obeyed without question. I got him out of that.”
Xander nodded. “By helping him to make his own decisions?”
“Mostly by being such a prick even Wesley couldn’t kid himself I deserved to stay up there on my pedestal,” Angel shrugged. “I got him as soon as he was in LA. I didn’t get him here but once I spent a little time with him, one on one, I got who he was and it wasn’t the guy you met when he was here. The weird thing about Wes is that he spent all that time and energy pretending to be someone he wasn’t when he actually was that guy all the time, he just didn’t know it - so afraid of humiliating himself that he kept doing it; so afraid of being a coward that he turned into one. That isn’t who he is. When he came to LA he could barely feed himself but he was still trying to do the right thing. He tried telling me he was a rogue demon hunter and worked best alone and knew what he was doing and was still oh so in charge - for about ten minutes, and then he sort of fell apart and I realized how scared he was of screwing up, and what low self esteem he had, and how all the bluster and baggage was just a cover up for a crushing inferiority complex. Once you know that about him, he makes a lot more sense.”
“Is he still trying to make Daddy proud, do you think?” Xander asked.
“I think he knows in his heart that it isn’t going to happen. He may still be trying though.”
“But if you’re Daddy...?” Buffy said gently.
Angel conceded the point. “I'm already proud of him. That’s why it was so much harder for him than for Cordy and Gunn to grow up because if I just stayed his father substitute forever then he could fix the things about his childhood that were wrong by reliving it. But he did it anyway - grew up, I mean. He’s not like this as an adult, any more, not really. It’s just being turned back into a kid that’s made him revert. Which isn’t to say that we don’t have a terrible power over him, but I hope it won’t ever turn around and bite him in the ass.”
“What terrible power?” Xander frowned.
“Gunn, Cordy and I are the first people who ever loved him. I don’t think he’d ever known that before he came to LA. Not from his parents. Not from friends at school. I'm not sure he ever even had any friends at school. We’re it. His experience of being loved unconditionally. If he ever lost that…” Angel shook his head. “He’s never going to lose that.”
Buffy shivered. “You’re so…intense.”
“I'm a vampire. We’re meant to be intense.”
“No, ‘you’ plural. The four of you. So wrapped up in one another and your mission.”
“Oh, and like you, Giles, Willow and Xander aren’t?” Angel countered.
She looked at him for a moment and then said, “Gunn has a point about your hair, you know. It is kind of dumb.”
“Well, that was a crushing comeback.”
“At least we have lives that aren’t just about each other. We date. We… Xander, tell Angel some of the other things we do that aren’t all cliquey and obsessive?”
Xander opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Um… well… There would be… Did Buffy mention that I have a girlfriend now? Someone who isn’t part of the whole incestuous Scooby vibe?”
“Oh.” Angel looked at him. “With your track record I imagine she’s a demon of some kind?”
Xander made a face. “Ex-demon actually.”
“So, not someone you met at Sunnydale High then?”
“Well…yes, but.... Was there some point we were meant to be making here, Buff, because I'm not sure I'm your best candidate for making it?”
“Willow has Tara and she didn’t meet her at Sunnydale High,” Buffy pointed out quickly.
“No,” said Angel patiently. “She met her at UC Sunnydale. Big breakthrough there.” He suddenly became aware of the silence. “Where’s Gunn?”
“Watching TV,” Xander said.
Angel got to his feet. “Not giggling? Not annoying Cordy? Not yelling about anything? Did you leave the potato chips where he could reach them? Do you know how easily a kid can choke on a…?”
A Gunn-sized giggle from the living room made him break off in embarrassment. “Okay. Maybe he hasn’t choked then.”
“You are seriously paranoid,” Xander observed.
“Angel, you need to crank down the stress levels,” Buffy assured him. “You can’t be like this twenty four seven about three kids. You’ll go nuts.”
“I'm new to this,” Angel complained.
“No, you’re not. You’ve been doing this for two years. They were just bigger kids.”
“And one of them died. Doyle died. Right in front of me. And he was adult-sized and had demon strength. Cordy, Wes, and Gunn are so vulnerable.”
“All little kids are vulnerable, Angel,” Xander reminded him. “But a surprising amount of them live to become teenagers. And an even more surprising amount of them survive that too. Even in Sunnydale.”
Angel looked out of the window. “Sun’s going down. Let’s go and get Wes.”
“Wesley!” Gunn ran into the hall and launched himself at Angel who had this vampire reflexes to thank for being able to catch him.
“Do you know how dangerous that is?” Angel demanded. “What if I’d dropped you?”
“I’d’ve cried and you would have felt really bad.”
“Are we getting Wesley now?” Cordelia also ran into the hall. “I want to show him my new dress. Not that he ever notices when I have a new dress...”
“Yes, we’re getting Wesley now.” Angel sat Gunn on his hip and took Cordelia’s hand.
“Why does he get to be carried and I have to walk?” she demanded.
“Because he’s got little short legs and you have beautiful new shoes that I can’t see properly unless you’re walking in them.”
As Cordelia preened and stepped out like a thoroughbred with a lot of dainty toe pointing so everyone could see her shoes, Willow nudged Angel gently. “You’re getting way too good at this managing Little Cordy business.”
“It’s really not so different from managing Big Cordy, to be honest.”
“Let’s all go to get Wesley,” Xander suggested. “We can make Giles come back with us and buy food on the way home.”
“Food would be good,” Buffy nodded.
Angel looked over his shoulder at them. “You can throw food into Wesley until the cows come home, guys, it’s not going to make any difference. He was a skinny kid who grew up to be a skinny adult. That’s the way it is.”
“We don’t accept defeat that easily,” Buffy assured him. “So far we’ve only tried Mexican, Italian and Chinese. There is a world of foodstuffs out there that could do the trick.”
They piled into two cars. Dawn insisting on sitting with Gunn and Cordelia in the back of Angel’s convertible while Buffy took the front seat, and Xander drove Willow and Tara in his father’s car.
“Wesley’s going to love your new dress, Cordy,” Dawn assured the little girl.
“Wesley never notices if I have new clothes unless I hit him,” Cordy returned.
Buffy cast an enquiring look at Angel. “You let the children hit each other?”
“She means when he’s an adult.”
“They were all smoochy together last time I saw them.”
Angel grinned. “That wore off very fast. They’re strictly siblings these days. The squabbling kind.”
“We know nothing about that,” Dawn put in, deadpan, from the back seat. “Right, Buffy?”
“Sibling squabbling? A closed book to us,” Buffy assured him.
“Wes and Cordy fight all the time,” Gunn took his thumb out of his mouth to say. “Drives me buggo.”
Cordelia pinched Gunn on the arm. “We don’t mean it.”
“You do too,” he hit her back.
“You two, stop it,” Angel told them firmly.
“She started it.”
“He was annoying me!”
“Do you want to come with me to get Wesley or do you want me to take you back to Buffy’s house?” He used his sternest voice and was relieved to see it seemed to have an effect as Cordelia subsided sulkily and Gunn put his thumb back in his mouth.
“Jeez, lighten up,” Cordelia muttered.
“Yeah, take a chill pill, granddad,” Gunn murmured around his thumb.
“I am going to be so glad to have Wes back,” Angel murmured. “And to finally be able to have an adult conversation.”
Dawn leant forward. “You think Giles will have been able to come up with a spell to reverse it so soon?”
Angel grimaced at her apologetically. “I meant eight year old Wes. He’s starting to seem adult to me now....” It was a relief to see the familiar outline of Giles’s house and he pulled into the best parking place a few seconds before Xander could bag it.
Willow headed for the door while he was still collecting up the children. Dawn picking up Gunn before anyone else could. “Want to watch cartoons with Wesley!” he said excitedly.
“Maybe one before you go to bed,” Angel locked the car while Buffy took Cordelia’s hand, bending down to straighten out any possible creases in the silky fabric.
“Wesley is going to love your dress, Cordy,” she assured her.
“Giles…?” Willow tapped on the door and then frowned as it opened at her touch. “Giles…?” Angel smelt the faint odour of blood and his heart flipped in his chest; he didn’t care that it didn’t beat; that it was dried up and shrivelled and no longer pumped blood around his body; it was still the centre of who he was and what he felt, and what he was feeling right now was panic, because if he lost another of his people, particularly lost him when he was like this, so vulnerable and fragile, he didn’t think he could survive it.
“Giles…!”
Xander pushed past Willow, murmuring ‘Oh my god....”
And then Angel was across the threshold, eyes adjusting to the dim light even before Xander hastily switched on a lamp, and he could see Giles lying on the floor, head sticky with blood. Willow was turning Giles over carefully, Buffy giving Cordelia to Tara and asking her to wait outside before running to his side. “Giles…?” she gasped. “Giles, you have to wake up. You have to...”
Not be dead.
Angel knew how that felt. He was feeling it right now.
Giles gasped and opened his eyes. Buffy said, “Giles, what happened? Are you okay?”
“They took Wesley,” the man managed hoarsely, a hand clamped to his obviously thumping head. He had a bruise on his jaw and a cut that was trickling blood from his temple. “Council goons. The same ones that tried to kill Buffy that time. They knew who he was. They wanted information about Angel. They…”
“They’re dead,” said Angel flatly. “If they’ve harmed a hair on his head....”
“They wouldn’t,” Buffy said quickly. “He’s just a little boy. They wouldn’t do that.”
“Did you see where they went?” Xander demanded. “Do you have any idea where they would have taken him?”
Giles shook his head and then very obviously wished he hadn’t. “I'm afraid I was busy being unconscious. I should never have let them take him.”
“Not your fault,” Angel managed with difficulty. He took in the bruises on Giles’s face, the cut still oozing blood. “I know you would have done everything you could to protect Wesley. Now we have to find him and the people who took him.”
“Are they the men in the car?” Cordelia asked in a small voice.
They all turned to look at her in confusion. Angel sank down in front of her. “What do you mean, Cordy?”
Willow looked up at Tara. “The ones with the binoculars?”
Tara nodded. “Cordelia said they were spying on us. Cordy did you see where they went? When they drove off?”
“Towards the Palmers,” Cordelia said at once.
Willow and Tara exchanged a look. “Are you sure?” Willow asked. “I lost sight of them when they went around the corner.”
“So did I, but I saw them again a few minutes later going to the Palmers.”
Willow grimaced apologetically at Angel. “I don’t know if that was the same car.”
“Makes sense if it was.” Xander picked up Cordelia, just seeming to need to hold her protectively. “The Palmers were killed six months ago and as far as I know no one’s bought their place. The blood on the walls didn’t tend to be too much of a selling point.”
Angel nodded decisively. “Willow? Tara? Dawn? Will you stay here with the kids and take care of Giles…? Buffy, Xander and I will…”
“I'm coming....”
Giles and Gunn both said it in unison and then looked at one another. Giles held out a hand and Buffy took it, she and Willow helping Giles to his feet, but Buffy’s eyes were raw with anxiety. “Giles, you look concussed. You need to lie down.”
“I need to kick Collins very hard in the head,” the man replied crisply. “That is definitely the only cure for this headache.”
“I'm coming too!” Gunn insisted.
“And me!” Cordelia started to cry. “I might get a vision. I could help!”
“We don’t have time to argue this,” Angel said urgently.
“Then let’s give in.” Dawn kissed Gunn. “Splitting up is never a good idea anyway. For all you know, while you’re off getting Wesley they could be kidnapping Gunn and Cordy. Let’s stick together.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Xander looked at Angel. “But it’s your call. These are your kids.”
Everyone was so shocked by Xander being supportive of Angel that they stared at him open mouthed. He rolled his eyes at them. “What? They’re his kids. Doesn’t mean I suddenly like his hair.”
“We all go.” Angel looped Giles’ arm over one shoulder while Buffy did the same, both of them supporting his weight.
Gunn muttered, “If I was really his kid I’d stake both of us…”
Dawn kissed him again as she carried him out to the car, whispering, “We’re going to get Wesley back.”
“And kill the people who hurt him?” Gunn demanded.
“We don’t kill humans.” Xander looked between Angel and Buffy. “Right?”
Buffy looked at the blood trickling down Giles’s forehead. “Under special circumstances we might.”
“Under special circumstances,” Angel added through gritted teeth. “We might pull their heads off and use them for a football. Like if they’ve hurt Wesley. At all.” If he had a beating heart he knew it would be hammering in his chest right now. He had made a tacit promise to Wesley that being small wasn’t going to bite him in the ass, this time, that he wasn’t going to be pushed around and bullied just because he was a child again. And now Wesley had been grabbed by three Council goons with a grudge.
“This is my fault.” Giles would have stumbled if Angel and Buffy hadn’t both been holding up. “I should have been more careful. I should have…”
“It’s not your fault,” Angel told him. “You did what you...”
“Collins hit him.” Giles looked bleak. “And Weatherby has always been a nasty little shit.”
“We’re going to get him back, Giles,” Buffy told him. “They won’t hurt a little boy. Not like they would have hurt Wesley if he’d been an adult. This could be the only thing keeping Wesley safe right now. And we’re going to find him and we’re going to take him home and he’s going to be fine.” There was a slight tremble in her voice that made Angel wince and he knew she was as scared as he was. She had been a teenage girl when they had been perfectly willing to kill her. They had thought she was Faith at the time, certainly, but Faith was a year younger than Buffy. These were not people who had a problem with murder.
“He won’t be able to fight back,” Angel gritted his teeth. “You may not know it, not having seen Adult Wes in a while, but he could clean their clocks for them these days. He was fighting Skilosh demons from his wheelchair - dusting vampires when he was still walking with a stick. Last time he and Weatherby clashed, Weatherby had a submachine gun and Wes still took him out. And now he’s trapped in the body of an eight year old and any bastard who wants to can push him around for the fun of it…”
“Smith still has some shreds of decency left.” Giles winced as he bent his head to get into the car, any movement obviously sending white lights and jagged shards of colour strobing through his brain. “I think he’d protect a little boy if push came to shove.”
Xander put Cordelia into the back of his car and ushered in Dawn and Tara to sit with her and Gunn, Willow getting into the passenger seat, her beautiful hair a blaze of warming colour under the streetlight. “I know the way,” Xander called to Angel. “Just follow us.”
“Wesley’s going to be fine, Angel,” Willow added firmly. “And I’m telling you that as a witch.” But her pallor suggested she was not as confident as she sounded. As Xander’s car pulled out, Angel could see Dawn holding tightly onto Gunn, and Tara with a crying Cordelia in her arms, gently trying to soothe her.
Angel pulled out after them, torn between wanting Xander to break all speed records and driving with extreme care, given that two of his kids were in the back. He hoped Dawn and Tara had their seatbelts on. Checking in the rearview mirror he saw that Giles looked not just deathly white but positively greenish. “Giles, if you need to throw up, try to do it outside the car.”
“I’ll endeavour to avoid the upholstery, Angel,” Giles assured him grimly as he got into the back, pressing a handkerchief to his head as he did so.
Buffy looked at him anxiously. “If you have serious head trauma and you’re not telling me…?”
“I’ll soon be able to escape into a coma where even your nagging can’t reach me,” Giles assured her, gripping the side of the car as Angel roared out into the street. “But I don’t think I have serious head trauma, just serious issues with Collins and Weatherby that can probably only be involved by some ugly violence from which I expect you, Buffy, to avert your eyes.”
“I’ll be holding them down for you,” she assured him.
“If they’ve hurt Wesley they’re going to be in pieces before either of you can reach them,” Angel growled softly. “No one hurts my kids and lives.”
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose, placing his head back on the seat. “Well done, Angel, you now sound exactly like every other parent on the planet. Start having a few sleepless nights over their SAT scores and you will definitely be a fully fledged father.”
The car parked outside the otherwise abandoned house made it clear that Cordelia had been right. Tara pressed a kiss into her hair and Xander said quietly, “Cord, you totally rule.”
“Is Wesley going to be okay?” she asked quietly.
“Sure he is.” Xander tried and failed to smile. “We’ll have him back in no time flat.”
Gunn looked up at Dawn for reassurance and she hugged him. “Tara and I are going to wait in the car with you and Cordelia, Charles, while Angel and the others go and get Wesley.” Dawn nodded to Xander, mouthing: ‘We’ll be fine. Just go.’
Outside the car, Willow and Xander looked at Buffy and Angel. “How do you want to do this?” Xander asked.
“Pretty much like this....” Angel strode up to the door, looked through the letterbox to check Wesley wasn’t on the other side of it, and then kicked the door off its hinges into shattered shards of splintered wood. “Anyone home…?” he called grimly.
“So, I guess we’re not going for covert then?” Buffy observed to Willow.
“Well, if we are, I don’t think we’re doing it right,” Willow whispered back.
As Collins came around the corner carrying a submachine gun, Xander pulled Willow out of firing range, a precaution that turned out to be unnecessary as Angel ran straight at the man, yanking the gun out of his hand and grabbing Collins by the throat as he did so. “Where’s Wesley?” he demanded.
“Now let’s not do anything hasty.” Collins managed with difficulty.
“I wasn’t planning to,” Angel assured him, baring his teeth in a vicious smile. “Killing you slowly was more what I had in mind.”
As Weatherby rushed Angel with a stake, Buffy grabbed him by the wrist, twisted it hard enough to make him drop the stake and then yanked his arm behind his back. “You know, both of the last times I’ve met you, you’ve tried to kill me. That isn’t giving me the warm fuzzies right now.” She pushed his arm a little higher up his back. “So, why don’t you answer the extremely pissed vampire and tell us where Wesley is?”
As Smith made to rush Buffy, Xander grabbed him and slammed him into the nearest wall. He took the revolver from the man’s hand and looked him in the eye. “Listen to me very carefully. If you’ve read the file you know what Angel is capable of and if you know anything about Slayer strength you know what Buffy is capable of. They’re not in a very good mood right now and Willow and I are probably the only thing that is going to stop them pulling your heads straight off your shoulders - and even then I’d say you have about ten seconds, tops, if you don’t produce Wesley, unharmed, right now.”
Willow and Giles were searching the place, Willow picking up a video camera from one room, while Giles searched another, calling for the boy as he did so.
“Actually, I’ve changed my mind. I'm trying to give up torturing people to death - part of the whole reformed vampire thing - so now you’ve got two seconds before I break your neck,” Angel snarled softly in Collins’ ear. “Now, where is he?”
“Angel…?”
The vampire heard that faint sound and wheeled around at once. “Wes?”
Xander looked at Smith. “Where is he?”
Smith reluctantly dragged his gaze over to the stairs and then nodded once, briefly, in the direction of the cupboard.
Angel hauled Collins over to the cupboard under the stairs and looked at the bolted door. “If Wes is in there I'm going to kill you.” He looked around for Xander and then tossed him the submachine gun. “Watch these two. Buffy, hang onto that one.”
Giles took Collins from Angel, shoved him against the wall and gave him a chilling smile. “Please, do give me a reason to hit you.”
“The Council will hear about…”
“The Council can go do something very painful to themselves with a pointy stake,” Buffy hissed at him through gritted teeth.
“Wes…?” Angel pulled back the bolts on the door and wrenched it open. “Wes…?”
“Angel…?” A voice said breathlessly.
The light from the hallway fell in a rectangle, illuminating part of the dusty cupboard. Angel saw cobwebs and the squeak and scuttle of something darting away, and then pushed the door open wider so that the light revealed the feet, legs and finally pale face of a small boy.
“Wes…!” He reached in and grabbed him, pulling him into his arms and out of that dismal place. “Are you okay?” he breathed.
“I am now.” Wesley tried to smile at him, but when Angel pulled back to look at him he saw that he had a bruised cut on his forehead, another bruise around his left eye and cheekbone and a cut across his mouth. His face was dirty, and the tears from where he had obviously been crying had left tracks through the grime. There was blood from his mouth on his shirt.
Despite the rage that flared in his breast at the sight of Wesley’s condition, Angel was careful to hug him gently. “You’re okay now,” he told him. “You’re going to be fine.”
“Is he okay?” Buffy grimaced as she saw the belt around Wesley’s wrists and hurried to untie it. “Wesley?”
“Yes,” he said faintly. “Is Giles…?”
“I'm fine, Wesley,” Giles said quietly. “And very glad to see you again.”
Buffy pulled the belt loose and then turned Wesley in Angel’s arms so she could look at him. At the sight of the bruises on his face, she wheeled furiously on Collins. “You hit him?”
Angel was also looking at Collins and the expression in his eyes was murderous. “Willow, take Wesley out to the car and wait for me, will you?”
The elfin redhead came over and picked Wesley up, hugging him tightly and then kissing him on the cheek. “You scared us all, really a lot,” she told him, tears in her eyes. “And I, for one, would really appreciate it if you didn’t do it again.”
“What’s Angel going to do?” he asked her anxiously.
She looked at the expression on Angel and Buffy’s faces. “Something…that maybe we don’t actually want to watch them doing….”
“Xander, go with them,” Angel added, still looking at Collins. “Make sure everyone is okay.” Then he yanked Collins out of Giles’ grasp and hit him so hard they all heard bone crack. At the same time, Buffy kicked Weatherby into the wall.
“Angel, don’t!” Wesley wriggled loose from Willow’s gentle grip and ran to where the vampire was, grabbing his sleeve. “They’re human.” Collins was slithering down the wall, blood running from his nose.
Angel was in full vamp face and his eyes glowed yellow with rage. “I don’t care.”
“Buffy! You have to stop him.”
Buffy grabbed Weatherby and slammed him back against the wall. “I don’t even want to stop myself.”
“You can’t kill humans,” Wesley reminded her. “It’s…wrong.”
“Wesley’s right.” Giving Smith a warning glance to stay put, Xander came forward. “I understand how you two feel, but these guys are technically human, even if they’re from the sewage end of the food chain, and you can’t kill them without…losing part of your humanity too. And they’re not worth that.”
“Already lost mine,” Angel said through a mouthful of fangs.
“No, you didn’t. And you don’t need to do this.” Wesley gazed up at Angel wide-eyed.
Xander looked across at the older Englishmen for backing. “Giles, you could chip in any time now.”
Giles sighed. “I was going to let Buffy and Angel hit them a few more times first.”
Xander put a hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “They’re not worth it. And you’re a Slayer. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”
“How fair a fight was it when they were beating up a little boy?” she retorted.
“No one is saying they’re not pond scum, Buff,” Xander said quietly. “But that doesn’t make it okay for you to kill them.”
She wheeled around. “So, that’s it? They’re allowed to get away with nearly killing Giles, kidnapping, and child battering just because they happen to be human?”
“Those are kind of the rules,” Xander said. “But I didn’t say they were going to get away with it, I just said that it wouldn’t be fair for you and Deadboy to beat them to death.”
“But beating them to death is so what I want to do right now.” Buffy gazed into Weatherby’s eyes with loathing.
“Smith didn’t do anything,” Wesley added quickly. “He protected me from the other two.”
“Looks like it.” Angel gazed at Wesley’s bruised face.
“Angel...”
Angel knew if he turned and looked into those earnest blue eyes he was going to be lost. Sighing he turned and looked and there was that expression he knew so well. Intense Wes being his Jiminy Cricket, willing him to be as good and noble as Wesley thought he was.
Right now, the three of us are the only thing standing between you and real darkness...
Yes, that was the look and he couldn’t withstand it twice. The real miracle was that he’d managed to withstand it once. “Couldn’t I just kill them and then feel really bad about it afterwards?” Angel pleaded. “Well, probably not very bad, come to think of it. But a slight twinge of remorse?”
“No.” Wesley took his hand, the cuff of his shirt slipping down to reveal red marks where the belt had bitten and bruised his thin wrists. “Let’s just go.”
“Buffy…” Xander looked at her. “You can’t do this. Willow, back me up.”
Willow said: “Killing people, bad; Slayer, good. But, Xander, hurting little kids that can’t defend themselves - very bad too. So, I'm not really sure Buffy can’t do this, and I do know that if she wants to there isn’t really anything we can do to stop her.”
Xander and Wesley both looked at her in shock. “Willow!”
She shrugged. “I'm just saying how I feel.”
Buffy slammed Weatherby back into the wall again and took a step back. “If I see you again, I will kill you and pretend I thought you were a vampire. Don’t think even for a second that I won’t do it.”
“All I’d expect from you, Slayer,” he sneered but he still looked scared.
Angel looked down at Collins, who was vainly trying to stop the flow of blood from his broken nose. “If I ever see you again, you’re dead. In LA, in Sunnydale, if I should happen to take a trip to London and you’re shopping in the same street as me - anywhere I see you, I’ll kill you; and I’ll rip out your intestines and then strangle you with them slowly if you come within a hundred miles of any of my people again. Do I make myself clear?”
Collins nodded. “Crystal clear, but you’re now on the Council’s hit list.”
“I already was.”
Wesley tightened his grip on Angel’s hand and looked up at him approvingly. “Can we go now?”
Angel swept him up into his arms, breathing in his scent and getting how scared the little boy had been and how relieved he was now. “Yes.”
As Collins made to get up, Giles held out a hand, helped him to his feet and then slammed him back into the wall. “Vampires and Slayers hitting you - not fair,” he said with another wolfish grin. “But I'm human and I also have a grudge.”
Xander was waiting for Weatherby to get to his feet and the expression on his face was as ugly as a handsome man could manage. “Yeah. I didn’t want Buffy killing you because you’re not worth giving her a sleepless night, but beating the crap out of you myself? I have no problem with that at all.”
Willow looked across at Smith who was still pressed against the wall. “Wesley, did that other one really try to protect you?”
“Yes, he did,” Wesley looked across at Smith. “He’s just…in the wrong company.”
She jerked a thumb at the outside world. “Then you can go, if you run quickly, before I change my mind and start doing some of those very bad witchy things that I could do if I wanted to.”
Smith looked at Xander then at Giles, took one last look at Wesley and then darted for freedom. Behind him they heard the sound of Xander punching Weatherby with what sounded like a lot of pent up rage.
“Can’t I even trip him?” Buffy asked Wesley as Smith went by.
“No.” He looked down at her from his vantage point in Angel’s arms. “You’re the good slayer, remember?”
“I always suspected bad slayers got to have more fun,” she muttered darkly.
As they rounded the corner, they found Smith on the ground and Dawn standing with one foot on his chest and a crossbow pointing at his head. “This one was trying to escape,” she said. “I tripped him.”
“Now even Dawn gets to have more fun than me!" Buffy protested.
“We let him go.” Angel shrugged. “Wesley made us do it.”
“Oh.” Dawn took her foot off his chest and lifted the crossbow. Seeing Smith still lying there, she jerked a thumb at him. “Go!” He did, swiftly, and with only a brief apologetic look at Wesley who gave him a rueful wave goodbye. “Where are Xander and Giles?” Dawn looked around for them.
“Hitting people,” Buffy said sulkily. “Apparently they’re allowed to.”
“Wesley!” Cordelia shrieked and jumped out of the car, Gunn only a scramble behind her.
“Wes!” Gunn shouted.
“He’s okay.” Angel reassured them. “He just needs some TLC and a bath and some food and never ever to be allowed out of my sight again.” He put Wesley down on the ground carefully and Cordelia immediately hugged him tightly, Gunn charging into him in what was also evidently meant to be a hug.
“I thought you were dead!” Cordelia burst into tears then shook him crossly. “Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, don’t you ever frighten me like that again!”
“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Wesley protested, keeping his feet with difficulty as Gunn clung onto him more tightly.
“You scared me!” Gunn thumped him. “Don’t do that again!”
“Ow!” Wesley looked to Angel for rescue while Dawn picked up Gunn. “I'm sorry.”
“You’d better be sorry,” Cordelia told him and then hugged him again. “Oh, Wesley, I thought you were dead!”
“I'm not,” he said gently. “No one’s dead.”
“Except for Angel,” Gunn put in. “And he’s always dead.”
Giles and Xander came out of the house, Giles shaking his hand and Xander thoughtfully licking his knuckles.
“That was disturbingly enjoyable,” Giles admitted.
“For me too.” Xander shrugged.
“Did you hit them?” Dawn asked.
“Repeatedly,” Giles observed.
Dawn grinned at him. “You are so cool.”
“We could have been cool,” Buffy observed. “We could have been really cool and extremely violent.”
“Your poor face,” Tara said gently to Wesley. “We’ll get you some ice for that eye as soon as we get home.”
“They locked him in a cupboard.” Xander looked over his shoulder in disgust.
Cordy looked up at Wesley in sympathy. “An under-the-stairs kind of cupboard?”
He nodded, trying and failing not to shudder. “Yes.”
Cordelia turned to Angel. “Go back in and kill them.”
Angel looked hopefully at Wesley. “See, Cordy wants me to as well.”
“Angel…”
Angel glanced across at Buffy. “This is what my life is like now. I'm never allowed to have any fun.”
“I want you to kill them too.” Gunn looked up at Wesley’s bruised face. “And then I think you should make them vampires so you can kill them again.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Buffy hit Angel on the shoulder lightly. “If they were vampires we could kill them.”
“No, Angel,” Wesley said at once. “You can’t. Buffy, don’t encourage him.”
Buffy crouched down in front of Wesley and straightened his blood stained shirt. “No more research for you. From now on you have to stay indoors and veg out in front of the TV like a normal child. Now, let’s go home and all eat more ice cream than the human body was meant to hold.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Xander held open the back door. “Who wants to ride with Wesley?”
“Me!”
“Me!”
Gunn and Cordelia both shouted at the same time. Buffy also held up her hand. “I want to ride with Wesley too.”
“I want to ride with Giles.” Wesley looked up at the man. “I'm glad you’re not dead.”
“I'm rather glad about that myself.” Giles held open the back door for the children who immediately scrambled in. “And equally relieved that you’re not, Wesley.”
“How come you get all the children?” Willow demanded of Angel.
He smiled smugly. “My kids. Giles, don’t be a hero, take the passenger seat. Buffy, you’re on babysitting duty. Wesley, watch Buffy and make sure she’s doing it right. Gunn and Cordy, Wes and Giles have headaches so try to be very very quiet on the journey home. Okay?”
Cordelia and Gunn nodded and tip-toed into the car with exaggerated care. Buffy found herself squashed into the corner as they insisted on Wesley being in between them, both of them clinging to him possessively. Wesley put one arm around each of his adopted siblings and took a deep breath.
“You okay?” Buffy asked him quietly.
He nodded. “Yes, I really think I am.”
“Was it terrible?” Cordelia asked him softly as Angel started up the car. “Being locked under the stairs again?”
“Not so bad,” he said. “It was different from before. Different from when I was a child before, I mean.”
“Why?” Angel looked over his shoulder to ask.
Wesley smiled at him. “This time I knew someone was coming to get me out.”
Part Nine
***
Although he knew it was foolish, Angel was counting the minutes until the sun went down. He wanted Wesley back with the other two and it wasn’t just because Gunn kept complaining that he would only take orders from him. He always felt protective of his people and for a good reason. Being close to him put them in danger. He’d felt that so acutely after Doyle had died, and felt it again when he’d looked down at a Wesley who was unconscious, bruised, burnt and cut, hooked up to an IV while a machine bleeped his vitals and no one could promise that he would ever wake up. He could still acutely remember the sensation of helplessness that had swept over him when he gazed at a Cordelia whose mind appeared to have snapped, despair in her eyes as she tugged feebly at the restraints in her hospital bed, exhausted from physical and mental torment and getting closer to death with each moment that went past.
“Giles won’t let any harm come to Wesley,” Buffy said gently.
He turned to find her sitting on the arm of his chair, looking at him with a soft expression in her eyes. “Am I that easy to read?”
“To me.” She reached out and straightened his collar. “You have chocolate on your shirt.”
“Gunn…” Angel rolled his eyes. “He got some on Cordy’s new dress half an hour ago. I still don’t know how we averted bloodshed.”
“Tomorrow I get to take Cordelia shopping,” Buffy said cheerfully. “Well, if I win that game of Risk tonight. Otherwise Willow and Tara get to take everyone to some boring place with a fairground and zoo and things that would be so much less fun than me getting to buy kiddy clothes again.”
“Why don’t we just keep them home tomorrow?” Angel suggested. “Let them have a rest. Wesley could watch some TV. I don’t think there was a TV in his house when he was growing up so it would be a nice change for him. Fairgrounds can be dangerous, and as for zoo animals? Remember when Xander became a hyaena?”
Buffy considered him for a moment. “You’re going to be one of those anxious parents, are you? The kind who has hysterics every time they graze their knee?”
“No, I.... One of them grazed a knee? When?”
She patted him gently on the shoulder. “That will happen, Angel. Little boys fall over. But they usually get up again.”
“Gunn’s so small.” Angel looked despondent. “And Cordy’s so fragile and Wesley’s so...”
“Unbelievably thin,” Xander supplied.
“Anxious to be good,” Angel sighed.
“Why is that?” Buffy asked. “He was like that when he was here. Must do what the Watcher’s Council tell me. Must follow the rules. Must wear my tie at all times and never ever unbend even an inch.”
“He was brought up that way. Told that higher authority was something to be obeyed without question. I got him out of that.”
Xander nodded. “By helping him to make his own decisions?”
“Mostly by being such a prick even Wesley couldn’t kid himself I deserved to stay up there on my pedestal,” Angel shrugged. “I got him as soon as he was in LA. I didn’t get him here but once I spent a little time with him, one on one, I got who he was and it wasn’t the guy you met when he was here. The weird thing about Wes is that he spent all that time and energy pretending to be someone he wasn’t when he actually was that guy all the time, he just didn’t know it - so afraid of humiliating himself that he kept doing it; so afraid of being a coward that he turned into one. That isn’t who he is. When he came to LA he could barely feed himself but he was still trying to do the right thing. He tried telling me he was a rogue demon hunter and worked best alone and knew what he was doing and was still oh so in charge - for about ten minutes, and then he sort of fell apart and I realized how scared he was of screwing up, and what low self esteem he had, and how all the bluster and baggage was just a cover up for a crushing inferiority complex. Once you know that about him, he makes a lot more sense.”
“Is he still trying to make Daddy proud, do you think?” Xander asked.
“I think he knows in his heart that it isn’t going to happen. He may still be trying though.”
“But if you’re Daddy...?” Buffy said gently.
Angel conceded the point. “I'm already proud of him. That’s why it was so much harder for him than for Cordy and Gunn to grow up because if I just stayed his father substitute forever then he could fix the things about his childhood that were wrong by reliving it. But he did it anyway - grew up, I mean. He’s not like this as an adult, any more, not really. It’s just being turned back into a kid that’s made him revert. Which isn’t to say that we don’t have a terrible power over him, but I hope it won’t ever turn around and bite him in the ass.”
“What terrible power?” Xander frowned.
“Gunn, Cordy and I are the first people who ever loved him. I don’t think he’d ever known that before he came to LA. Not from his parents. Not from friends at school. I'm not sure he ever even had any friends at school. We’re it. His experience of being loved unconditionally. If he ever lost that…” Angel shook his head. “He’s never going to lose that.”
Buffy shivered. “You’re so…intense.”
“I'm a vampire. We’re meant to be intense.”
“No, ‘you’ plural. The four of you. So wrapped up in one another and your mission.”
“Oh, and like you, Giles, Willow and Xander aren’t?” Angel countered.
She looked at him for a moment and then said, “Gunn has a point about your hair, you know. It is kind of dumb.”
“Well, that was a crushing comeback.”
“At least we have lives that aren’t just about each other. We date. We… Xander, tell Angel some of the other things we do that aren’t all cliquey and obsessive?”
Xander opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Um… well… There would be… Did Buffy mention that I have a girlfriend now? Someone who isn’t part of the whole incestuous Scooby vibe?”
“Oh.” Angel looked at him. “With your track record I imagine she’s a demon of some kind?”
Xander made a face. “Ex-demon actually.”
“So, not someone you met at Sunnydale High then?”
“Well…yes, but.... Was there some point we were meant to be making here, Buff, because I'm not sure I'm your best candidate for making it?”
“Willow has Tara and she didn’t meet her at Sunnydale High,” Buffy pointed out quickly.
“No,” said Angel patiently. “She met her at UC Sunnydale. Big breakthrough there.” He suddenly became aware of the silence. “Where’s Gunn?”
“Watching TV,” Xander said.
Angel got to his feet. “Not giggling? Not annoying Cordy? Not yelling about anything? Did you leave the potato chips where he could reach them? Do you know how easily a kid can choke on a…?”
A Gunn-sized giggle from the living room made him break off in embarrassment. “Okay. Maybe he hasn’t choked then.”
“You are seriously paranoid,” Xander observed.
“Angel, you need to crank down the stress levels,” Buffy assured him. “You can’t be like this twenty four seven about three kids. You’ll go nuts.”
“I'm new to this,” Angel complained.
“No, you’re not. You’ve been doing this for two years. They were just bigger kids.”
“And one of them died. Doyle died. Right in front of me. And he was adult-sized and had demon strength. Cordy, Wes, and Gunn are so vulnerable.”
“All little kids are vulnerable, Angel,” Xander reminded him. “But a surprising amount of them live to become teenagers. And an even more surprising amount of them survive that too. Even in Sunnydale.”
Angel looked out of the window. “Sun’s going down. Let’s go and get Wes.”
“Wesley!” Gunn ran into the hall and launched himself at Angel who had this vampire reflexes to thank for being able to catch him.
“Do you know how dangerous that is?” Angel demanded. “What if I’d dropped you?”
“I’d’ve cried and you would have felt really bad.”
“Are we getting Wesley now?” Cordelia also ran into the hall. “I want to show him my new dress. Not that he ever notices when I have a new dress...”
“Yes, we’re getting Wesley now.” Angel sat Gunn on his hip and took Cordelia’s hand.
“Why does he get to be carried and I have to walk?” she demanded.
“Because he’s got little short legs and you have beautiful new shoes that I can’t see properly unless you’re walking in them.”
As Cordelia preened and stepped out like a thoroughbred with a lot of dainty toe pointing so everyone could see her shoes, Willow nudged Angel gently. “You’re getting way too good at this managing Little Cordy business.”
“It’s really not so different from managing Big Cordy, to be honest.”
“Let’s all go to get Wesley,” Xander suggested. “We can make Giles come back with us and buy food on the way home.”
“Food would be good,” Buffy nodded.
Angel looked over his shoulder at them. “You can throw food into Wesley until the cows come home, guys, it’s not going to make any difference. He was a skinny kid who grew up to be a skinny adult. That’s the way it is.”
“We don’t accept defeat that easily,” Buffy assured him. “So far we’ve only tried Mexican, Italian and Chinese. There is a world of foodstuffs out there that could do the trick.”
They piled into two cars. Dawn insisting on sitting with Gunn and Cordelia in the back of Angel’s convertible while Buffy took the front seat, and Xander drove Willow and Tara in his father’s car.
“Wesley’s going to love your new dress, Cordy,” Dawn assured the little girl.
“Wesley never notices if I have new clothes unless I hit him,” Cordy returned.
Buffy cast an enquiring look at Angel. “You let the children hit each other?”
“She means when he’s an adult.”
“They were all smoochy together last time I saw them.”
Angel grinned. “That wore off very fast. They’re strictly siblings these days. The squabbling kind.”
“We know nothing about that,” Dawn put in, deadpan, from the back seat. “Right, Buffy?”
“Sibling squabbling? A closed book to us,” Buffy assured him.
“Wes and Cordy fight all the time,” Gunn took his thumb out of his mouth to say. “Drives me buggo.”
Cordelia pinched Gunn on the arm. “We don’t mean it.”
“You do too,” he hit her back.
“You two, stop it,” Angel told them firmly.
“She started it.”
“He was annoying me!”
“Do you want to come with me to get Wesley or do you want me to take you back to Buffy’s house?” He used his sternest voice and was relieved to see it seemed to have an effect as Cordelia subsided sulkily and Gunn put his thumb back in his mouth.
“Jeez, lighten up,” Cordelia muttered.
“Yeah, take a chill pill, granddad,” Gunn murmured around his thumb.
“I am going to be so glad to have Wes back,” Angel murmured. “And to finally be able to have an adult conversation.”
Dawn leant forward. “You think Giles will have been able to come up with a spell to reverse it so soon?”
Angel grimaced at her apologetically. “I meant eight year old Wes. He’s starting to seem adult to me now....” It was a relief to see the familiar outline of Giles’s house and he pulled into the best parking place a few seconds before Xander could bag it.
Willow headed for the door while he was still collecting up the children. Dawn picking up Gunn before anyone else could. “Want to watch cartoons with Wesley!” he said excitedly.
“Maybe one before you go to bed,” Angel locked the car while Buffy took Cordelia’s hand, bending down to straighten out any possible creases in the silky fabric.
“Wesley is going to love your dress, Cordy,” she assured her.
“Giles…?” Willow tapped on the door and then frowned as it opened at her touch. “Giles…?” Angel smelt the faint odour of blood and his heart flipped in his chest; he didn’t care that it didn’t beat; that it was dried up and shrivelled and no longer pumped blood around his body; it was still the centre of who he was and what he felt, and what he was feeling right now was panic, because if he lost another of his people, particularly lost him when he was like this, so vulnerable and fragile, he didn’t think he could survive it.
“Giles…!”
Xander pushed past Willow, murmuring ‘Oh my god....”
And then Angel was across the threshold, eyes adjusting to the dim light even before Xander hastily switched on a lamp, and he could see Giles lying on the floor, head sticky with blood. Willow was turning Giles over carefully, Buffy giving Cordelia to Tara and asking her to wait outside before running to his side. “Giles…?” she gasped. “Giles, you have to wake up. You have to...”
Not be dead.
Angel knew how that felt. He was feeling it right now.
Giles gasped and opened his eyes. Buffy said, “Giles, what happened? Are you okay?”
“They took Wesley,” the man managed hoarsely, a hand clamped to his obviously thumping head. He had a bruise on his jaw and a cut that was trickling blood from his temple. “Council goons. The same ones that tried to kill Buffy that time. They knew who he was. They wanted information about Angel. They…”
“They’re dead,” said Angel flatly. “If they’ve harmed a hair on his head....”
“They wouldn’t,” Buffy said quickly. “He’s just a little boy. They wouldn’t do that.”
“Did you see where they went?” Xander demanded. “Do you have any idea where they would have taken him?”
Giles shook his head and then very obviously wished he hadn’t. “I'm afraid I was busy being unconscious. I should never have let them take him.”
“Not your fault,” Angel managed with difficulty. He took in the bruises on Giles’s face, the cut still oozing blood. “I know you would have done everything you could to protect Wesley. Now we have to find him and the people who took him.”
“Are they the men in the car?” Cordelia asked in a small voice.
They all turned to look at her in confusion. Angel sank down in front of her. “What do you mean, Cordy?”
Willow looked up at Tara. “The ones with the binoculars?”
Tara nodded. “Cordelia said they were spying on us. Cordy did you see where they went? When they drove off?”
“Towards the Palmers,” Cordelia said at once.
Willow and Tara exchanged a look. “Are you sure?” Willow asked. “I lost sight of them when they went around the corner.”
“So did I, but I saw them again a few minutes later going to the Palmers.”
Willow grimaced apologetically at Angel. “I don’t know if that was the same car.”
“Makes sense if it was.” Xander picked up Cordelia, just seeming to need to hold her protectively. “The Palmers were killed six months ago and as far as I know no one’s bought their place. The blood on the walls didn’t tend to be too much of a selling point.”
Angel nodded decisively. “Willow? Tara? Dawn? Will you stay here with the kids and take care of Giles…? Buffy, Xander and I will…”
“I'm coming....”
Giles and Gunn both said it in unison and then looked at one another. Giles held out a hand and Buffy took it, she and Willow helping Giles to his feet, but Buffy’s eyes were raw with anxiety. “Giles, you look concussed. You need to lie down.”
“I need to kick Collins very hard in the head,” the man replied crisply. “That is definitely the only cure for this headache.”
“I'm coming too!” Gunn insisted.
“And me!” Cordelia started to cry. “I might get a vision. I could help!”
“We don’t have time to argue this,” Angel said urgently.
“Then let’s give in.” Dawn kissed Gunn. “Splitting up is never a good idea anyway. For all you know, while you’re off getting Wesley they could be kidnapping Gunn and Cordy. Let’s stick together.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Xander looked at Angel. “But it’s your call. These are your kids.”
Everyone was so shocked by Xander being supportive of Angel that they stared at him open mouthed. He rolled his eyes at them. “What? They’re his kids. Doesn’t mean I suddenly like his hair.”
“We all go.” Angel looped Giles’ arm over one shoulder while Buffy did the same, both of them supporting his weight.
Gunn muttered, “If I was really his kid I’d stake both of us…”
Dawn kissed him again as she carried him out to the car, whispering, “We’re going to get Wesley back.”
“And kill the people who hurt him?” Gunn demanded.
“We don’t kill humans.” Xander looked between Angel and Buffy. “Right?”
Buffy looked at the blood trickling down Giles’s forehead. “Under special circumstances we might.”
“Under special circumstances,” Angel added through gritted teeth. “We might pull their heads off and use them for a football. Like if they’ve hurt Wesley. At all.” If he had a beating heart he knew it would be hammering in his chest right now. He had made a tacit promise to Wesley that being small wasn’t going to bite him in the ass, this time, that he wasn’t going to be pushed around and bullied just because he was a child again. And now Wesley had been grabbed by three Council goons with a grudge.
“This is my fault.” Giles would have stumbled if Angel and Buffy hadn’t both been holding up. “I should have been more careful. I should have…”
“It’s not your fault,” Angel told him. “You did what you...”
“Collins hit him.” Giles looked bleak. “And Weatherby has always been a nasty little shit.”
“We’re going to get him back, Giles,” Buffy told him. “They won’t hurt a little boy. Not like they would have hurt Wesley if he’d been an adult. This could be the only thing keeping Wesley safe right now. And we’re going to find him and we’re going to take him home and he’s going to be fine.” There was a slight tremble in her voice that made Angel wince and he knew she was as scared as he was. She had been a teenage girl when they had been perfectly willing to kill her. They had thought she was Faith at the time, certainly, but Faith was a year younger than Buffy. These were not people who had a problem with murder.
“He won’t be able to fight back,” Angel gritted his teeth. “You may not know it, not having seen Adult Wes in a while, but he could clean their clocks for them these days. He was fighting Skilosh demons from his wheelchair - dusting vampires when he was still walking with a stick. Last time he and Weatherby clashed, Weatherby had a submachine gun and Wes still took him out. And now he’s trapped in the body of an eight year old and any bastard who wants to can push him around for the fun of it…”
“Smith still has some shreds of decency left.” Giles winced as he bent his head to get into the car, any movement obviously sending white lights and jagged shards of colour strobing through his brain. “I think he’d protect a little boy if push came to shove.”
Xander put Cordelia into the back of his car and ushered in Dawn and Tara to sit with her and Gunn, Willow getting into the passenger seat, her beautiful hair a blaze of warming colour under the streetlight. “I know the way,” Xander called to Angel. “Just follow us.”
“Wesley’s going to be fine, Angel,” Willow added firmly. “And I’m telling you that as a witch.” But her pallor suggested she was not as confident as she sounded. As Xander’s car pulled out, Angel could see Dawn holding tightly onto Gunn, and Tara with a crying Cordelia in her arms, gently trying to soothe her.
Angel pulled out after them, torn between wanting Xander to break all speed records and driving with extreme care, given that two of his kids were in the back. He hoped Dawn and Tara had their seatbelts on. Checking in the rearview mirror he saw that Giles looked not just deathly white but positively greenish. “Giles, if you need to throw up, try to do it outside the car.”
“I’ll endeavour to avoid the upholstery, Angel,” Giles assured him grimly as he got into the back, pressing a handkerchief to his head as he did so.
Buffy looked at him anxiously. “If you have serious head trauma and you’re not telling me…?”
“I’ll soon be able to escape into a coma where even your nagging can’t reach me,” Giles assured her, gripping the side of the car as Angel roared out into the street. “But I don’t think I have serious head trauma, just serious issues with Collins and Weatherby that can probably only be involved by some ugly violence from which I expect you, Buffy, to avert your eyes.”
“I’ll be holding them down for you,” she assured him.
“If they’ve hurt Wesley they’re going to be in pieces before either of you can reach them,” Angel growled softly. “No one hurts my kids and lives.”
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose, placing his head back on the seat. “Well done, Angel, you now sound exactly like every other parent on the planet. Start having a few sleepless nights over their SAT scores and you will definitely be a fully fledged father.”
The car parked outside the otherwise abandoned house made it clear that Cordelia had been right. Tara pressed a kiss into her hair and Xander said quietly, “Cord, you totally rule.”
“Is Wesley going to be okay?” she asked quietly.
“Sure he is.” Xander tried and failed to smile. “We’ll have him back in no time flat.”
Gunn looked up at Dawn for reassurance and she hugged him. “Tara and I are going to wait in the car with you and Cordelia, Charles, while Angel and the others go and get Wesley.” Dawn nodded to Xander, mouthing: ‘We’ll be fine. Just go.’
Outside the car, Willow and Xander looked at Buffy and Angel. “How do you want to do this?” Xander asked.
“Pretty much like this....” Angel strode up to the door, looked through the letterbox to check Wesley wasn’t on the other side of it, and then kicked the door off its hinges into shattered shards of splintered wood. “Anyone home…?” he called grimly.
“So, I guess we’re not going for covert then?” Buffy observed to Willow.
“Well, if we are, I don’t think we’re doing it right,” Willow whispered back.
As Collins came around the corner carrying a submachine gun, Xander pulled Willow out of firing range, a precaution that turned out to be unnecessary as Angel ran straight at the man, yanking the gun out of his hand and grabbing Collins by the throat as he did so. “Where’s Wesley?” he demanded.
“Now let’s not do anything hasty.” Collins managed with difficulty.
“I wasn’t planning to,” Angel assured him, baring his teeth in a vicious smile. “Killing you slowly was more what I had in mind.”
As Weatherby rushed Angel with a stake, Buffy grabbed him by the wrist, twisted it hard enough to make him drop the stake and then yanked his arm behind his back. “You know, both of the last times I’ve met you, you’ve tried to kill me. That isn’t giving me the warm fuzzies right now.” She pushed his arm a little higher up his back. “So, why don’t you answer the extremely pissed vampire and tell us where Wesley is?”
As Smith made to rush Buffy, Xander grabbed him and slammed him into the nearest wall. He took the revolver from the man’s hand and looked him in the eye. “Listen to me very carefully. If you’ve read the file you know what Angel is capable of and if you know anything about Slayer strength you know what Buffy is capable of. They’re not in a very good mood right now and Willow and I are probably the only thing that is going to stop them pulling your heads straight off your shoulders - and even then I’d say you have about ten seconds, tops, if you don’t produce Wesley, unharmed, right now.”
Willow and Giles were searching the place, Willow picking up a video camera from one room, while Giles searched another, calling for the boy as he did so.
“Actually, I’ve changed my mind. I'm trying to give up torturing people to death - part of the whole reformed vampire thing - so now you’ve got two seconds before I break your neck,” Angel snarled softly in Collins’ ear. “Now, where is he?”
“Angel…?”
The vampire heard that faint sound and wheeled around at once. “Wes?”
Xander looked at Smith. “Where is he?”
Smith reluctantly dragged his gaze over to the stairs and then nodded once, briefly, in the direction of the cupboard.
Angel hauled Collins over to the cupboard under the stairs and looked at the bolted door. “If Wes is in there I'm going to kill you.” He looked around for Xander and then tossed him the submachine gun. “Watch these two. Buffy, hang onto that one.”
Giles took Collins from Angel, shoved him against the wall and gave him a chilling smile. “Please, do give me a reason to hit you.”
“The Council will hear about…”
“The Council can go do something very painful to themselves with a pointy stake,” Buffy hissed at him through gritted teeth.
“Wes…?” Angel pulled back the bolts on the door and wrenched it open. “Wes…?”
“Angel…?” A voice said breathlessly.
The light from the hallway fell in a rectangle, illuminating part of the dusty cupboard. Angel saw cobwebs and the squeak and scuttle of something darting away, and then pushed the door open wider so that the light revealed the feet, legs and finally pale face of a small boy.
“Wes…!” He reached in and grabbed him, pulling him into his arms and out of that dismal place. “Are you okay?” he breathed.
“I am now.” Wesley tried to smile at him, but when Angel pulled back to look at him he saw that he had a bruised cut on his forehead, another bruise around his left eye and cheekbone and a cut across his mouth. His face was dirty, and the tears from where he had obviously been crying had left tracks through the grime. There was blood from his mouth on his shirt.
Despite the rage that flared in his breast at the sight of Wesley’s condition, Angel was careful to hug him gently. “You’re okay now,” he told him. “You’re going to be fine.”
“Is he okay?” Buffy grimaced as she saw the belt around Wesley’s wrists and hurried to untie it. “Wesley?”
“Yes,” he said faintly. “Is Giles…?”
“I'm fine, Wesley,” Giles said quietly. “And very glad to see you again.”
Buffy pulled the belt loose and then turned Wesley in Angel’s arms so she could look at him. At the sight of the bruises on his face, she wheeled furiously on Collins. “You hit him?”
Angel was also looking at Collins and the expression in his eyes was murderous. “Willow, take Wesley out to the car and wait for me, will you?”
The elfin redhead came over and picked Wesley up, hugging him tightly and then kissing him on the cheek. “You scared us all, really a lot,” she told him, tears in her eyes. “And I, for one, would really appreciate it if you didn’t do it again.”
“What’s Angel going to do?” he asked her anxiously.
She looked at the expression on Angel and Buffy’s faces. “Something…that maybe we don’t actually want to watch them doing….”
“Xander, go with them,” Angel added, still looking at Collins. “Make sure everyone is okay.” Then he yanked Collins out of Giles’ grasp and hit him so hard they all heard bone crack. At the same time, Buffy kicked Weatherby into the wall.
“Angel, don’t!” Wesley wriggled loose from Willow’s gentle grip and ran to where the vampire was, grabbing his sleeve. “They’re human.” Collins was slithering down the wall, blood running from his nose.
Angel was in full vamp face and his eyes glowed yellow with rage. “I don’t care.”
“Buffy! You have to stop him.”
Buffy grabbed Weatherby and slammed him back against the wall. “I don’t even want to stop myself.”
“You can’t kill humans,” Wesley reminded her. “It’s…wrong.”
“Wesley’s right.” Giving Smith a warning glance to stay put, Xander came forward. “I understand how you two feel, but these guys are technically human, even if they’re from the sewage end of the food chain, and you can’t kill them without…losing part of your humanity too. And they’re not worth that.”
“Already lost mine,” Angel said through a mouthful of fangs.
“No, you didn’t. And you don’t need to do this.” Wesley gazed up at Angel wide-eyed.
Xander looked across at the older Englishmen for backing. “Giles, you could chip in any time now.”
Giles sighed. “I was going to let Buffy and Angel hit them a few more times first.”
Xander put a hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “They’re not worth it. And you’re a Slayer. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”
“How fair a fight was it when they were beating up a little boy?” she retorted.
“No one is saying they’re not pond scum, Buff,” Xander said quietly. “But that doesn’t make it okay for you to kill them.”
She wheeled around. “So, that’s it? They’re allowed to get away with nearly killing Giles, kidnapping, and child battering just because they happen to be human?”
“Those are kind of the rules,” Xander said. “But I didn’t say they were going to get away with it, I just said that it wouldn’t be fair for you and Deadboy to beat them to death.”
“But beating them to death is so what I want to do right now.” Buffy gazed into Weatherby’s eyes with loathing.
“Smith didn’t do anything,” Wesley added quickly. “He protected me from the other two.”
“Looks like it.” Angel gazed at Wesley’s bruised face.
“Angel...”
Angel knew if he turned and looked into those earnest blue eyes he was going to be lost. Sighing he turned and looked and there was that expression he knew so well. Intense Wes being his Jiminy Cricket, willing him to be as good and noble as Wesley thought he was.
Right now, the three of us are the only thing standing between you and real darkness...
Yes, that was the look and he couldn’t withstand it twice. The real miracle was that he’d managed to withstand it once. “Couldn’t I just kill them and then feel really bad about it afterwards?” Angel pleaded. “Well, probably not very bad, come to think of it. But a slight twinge of remorse?”
“No.” Wesley took his hand, the cuff of his shirt slipping down to reveal red marks where the belt had bitten and bruised his thin wrists. “Let’s just go.”
“Buffy…” Xander looked at her. “You can’t do this. Willow, back me up.”
Willow said: “Killing people, bad; Slayer, good. But, Xander, hurting little kids that can’t defend themselves - very bad too. So, I'm not really sure Buffy can’t do this, and I do know that if she wants to there isn’t really anything we can do to stop her.”
Xander and Wesley both looked at her in shock. “Willow!”
She shrugged. “I'm just saying how I feel.”
Buffy slammed Weatherby back into the wall again and took a step back. “If I see you again, I will kill you and pretend I thought you were a vampire. Don’t think even for a second that I won’t do it.”
“All I’d expect from you, Slayer,” he sneered but he still looked scared.
Angel looked down at Collins, who was vainly trying to stop the flow of blood from his broken nose. “If I ever see you again, you’re dead. In LA, in Sunnydale, if I should happen to take a trip to London and you’re shopping in the same street as me - anywhere I see you, I’ll kill you; and I’ll rip out your intestines and then strangle you with them slowly if you come within a hundred miles of any of my people again. Do I make myself clear?”
Collins nodded. “Crystal clear, but you’re now on the Council’s hit list.”
“I already was.”
Wesley tightened his grip on Angel’s hand and looked up at him approvingly. “Can we go now?”
Angel swept him up into his arms, breathing in his scent and getting how scared the little boy had been and how relieved he was now. “Yes.”
As Collins made to get up, Giles held out a hand, helped him to his feet and then slammed him back into the wall. “Vampires and Slayers hitting you - not fair,” he said with another wolfish grin. “But I'm human and I also have a grudge.”
Xander was waiting for Weatherby to get to his feet and the expression on his face was as ugly as a handsome man could manage. “Yeah. I didn’t want Buffy killing you because you’re not worth giving her a sleepless night, but beating the crap out of you myself? I have no problem with that at all.”
Willow looked across at Smith who was still pressed against the wall. “Wesley, did that other one really try to protect you?”
“Yes, he did,” Wesley looked across at Smith. “He’s just…in the wrong company.”
She jerked a thumb at the outside world. “Then you can go, if you run quickly, before I change my mind and start doing some of those very bad witchy things that I could do if I wanted to.”
Smith looked at Xander then at Giles, took one last look at Wesley and then darted for freedom. Behind him they heard the sound of Xander punching Weatherby with what sounded like a lot of pent up rage.
“Can’t I even trip him?” Buffy asked Wesley as Smith went by.
“No.” He looked down at her from his vantage point in Angel’s arms. “You’re the good slayer, remember?”
“I always suspected bad slayers got to have more fun,” she muttered darkly.
As they rounded the corner, they found Smith on the ground and Dawn standing with one foot on his chest and a crossbow pointing at his head. “This one was trying to escape,” she said. “I tripped him.”
“Now even Dawn gets to have more fun than me!" Buffy protested.
“We let him go.” Angel shrugged. “Wesley made us do it.”
“Oh.” Dawn took her foot off his chest and lifted the crossbow. Seeing Smith still lying there, she jerked a thumb at him. “Go!” He did, swiftly, and with only a brief apologetic look at Wesley who gave him a rueful wave goodbye. “Where are Xander and Giles?” Dawn looked around for them.
“Hitting people,” Buffy said sulkily. “Apparently they’re allowed to.”
“Wesley!” Cordelia shrieked and jumped out of the car, Gunn only a scramble behind her.
“Wes!” Gunn shouted.
“He’s okay.” Angel reassured them. “He just needs some TLC and a bath and some food and never ever to be allowed out of my sight again.” He put Wesley down on the ground carefully and Cordelia immediately hugged him tightly, Gunn charging into him in what was also evidently meant to be a hug.
“I thought you were dead!” Cordelia burst into tears then shook him crossly. “Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, don’t you ever frighten me like that again!”
“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Wesley protested, keeping his feet with difficulty as Gunn clung onto him more tightly.
“You scared me!” Gunn thumped him. “Don’t do that again!”
“Ow!” Wesley looked to Angel for rescue while Dawn picked up Gunn. “I'm sorry.”
“You’d better be sorry,” Cordelia told him and then hugged him again. “Oh, Wesley, I thought you were dead!”
“I'm not,” he said gently. “No one’s dead.”
“Except for Angel,” Gunn put in. “And he’s always dead.”
Giles and Xander came out of the house, Giles shaking his hand and Xander thoughtfully licking his knuckles.
“That was disturbingly enjoyable,” Giles admitted.
“For me too.” Xander shrugged.
“Did you hit them?” Dawn asked.
“Repeatedly,” Giles observed.
Dawn grinned at him. “You are so cool.”
“We could have been cool,” Buffy observed. “We could have been really cool and extremely violent.”
“Your poor face,” Tara said gently to Wesley. “We’ll get you some ice for that eye as soon as we get home.”
“They locked him in a cupboard.” Xander looked over his shoulder in disgust.
Cordy looked up at Wesley in sympathy. “An under-the-stairs kind of cupboard?”
He nodded, trying and failing not to shudder. “Yes.”
Cordelia turned to Angel. “Go back in and kill them.”
Angel looked hopefully at Wesley. “See, Cordy wants me to as well.”
“Angel…”
Angel glanced across at Buffy. “This is what my life is like now. I'm never allowed to have any fun.”
“I want you to kill them too.” Gunn looked up at Wesley’s bruised face. “And then I think you should make them vampires so you can kill them again.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Buffy hit Angel on the shoulder lightly. “If they were vampires we could kill them.”
“No, Angel,” Wesley said at once. “You can’t. Buffy, don’t encourage him.”
Buffy crouched down in front of Wesley and straightened his blood stained shirt. “No more research for you. From now on you have to stay indoors and veg out in front of the TV like a normal child. Now, let’s go home and all eat more ice cream than the human body was meant to hold.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Xander held open the back door. “Who wants to ride with Wesley?”
“Me!”
“Me!”
Gunn and Cordelia both shouted at the same time. Buffy also held up her hand. “I want to ride with Wesley too.”
“I want to ride with Giles.” Wesley looked up at the man. “I'm glad you’re not dead.”
“I'm rather glad about that myself.” Giles held open the back door for the children who immediately scrambled in. “And equally relieved that you’re not, Wesley.”
“How come you get all the children?” Willow demanded of Angel.
He smiled smugly. “My kids. Giles, don’t be a hero, take the passenger seat. Buffy, you’re on babysitting duty. Wesley, watch Buffy and make sure she’s doing it right. Gunn and Cordy, Wes and Giles have headaches so try to be very very quiet on the journey home. Okay?”
Cordelia and Gunn nodded and tip-toed into the car with exaggerated care. Buffy found herself squashed into the corner as they insisted on Wesley being in between them, both of them clinging to him possessively. Wesley put one arm around each of his adopted siblings and took a deep breath.
“You okay?” Buffy asked him quietly.
He nodded. “Yes, I really think I am.”
“Was it terrible?” Cordelia asked him softly as Angel started up the car. “Being locked under the stairs again?”
“Not so bad,” he said. “It was different from before. Different from when I was a child before, I mean.”
“Why?” Angel looked over his shoulder to ask.
Wesley smiled at him. “This time I knew someone was coming to get me out.”
Part Nine
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