Acceptance

By Merzibelle

Wesley watched the team from the shadows of the casino, watched the way that they interacted, the companionship that he wasn't a part of anymore. He sighed for a moment, looking over his shoulder at the woman who'd come to his apartment, pounding on the door until he'd opened it and calmly invited herself in. He gestured to the lower level, waiting for her to join him at the mezzanine. She leaned on the half wall beside him, watching the destruction of the lower level before cursing softly.

"Are you ready to go? I certainly am."

Wes nodded once, offering her his arm. Together, they turned their backs on the destruction that Angel Investigations had caused to Jenoff's place. Wesley accompanied her back to the limousine that she'd arrived at his place in, listening absently to what she was saying and periodically shaking his head or nodding in response. Reaching the car, he handed her into it. Pausing in the open car door to look up and scan the parking lot, his eyes met Cordelia's across the expanse of asphalt. Wesley could clearly see the disgust for him in her eyes as she coldly turned her back without any word, not even a how are you. Shaking his head, knowing that she and the others were likely watching from their vehicles, he gave into his long hidden vicious streak, tugging his companion back out of the limo.

He gave her a long look, saw her smile and wink in response. He traced his knuckles over her cheek, the way he had longed to do with someone else, and felt her lean into the touch for a moment. Wes cast a fast look to one side, seeing that Cordy was watching, her jaw dropping in surprise, Gunn and Fred joining her, apparently asking what she was looking at. Assured that his audience was paying attention, he wrapped his hand around the back of his companion's neck, jerking her toward him and kissing her as deeply as his still healing neck wound would allow.

She moaned, arching into his body in a way no one had since Virginia had left him a year previous. She threaded her arms around his neck, fingers tangling into his hair, her touch amazingly light, as if she knew how easy it would be to injure him at that moment. Slowly he trailed his free hand down her body to her hip, pulling her closer if that was even possible. He pulled back slowly, raising his head and looking over to where he could hear Fred's carrying on over him and who he was with, smirking he handed his companion back into the limo, climbing in after her and nodding to the driver to close the door.

Safely within the limo, listening to his companion coolly give orders to the driver, he leaned back and closed his eyes. She turned toward him, smiling; her voice was soft, husky as she spoke. "I told them to drive by the AI team. I thought you might want to finish what you started." She paused when he shook his head, looking at him questioningly. "You don't…." She trailed off… reaching for the panel to give the driver new instructions, stilling when he rested a hand on hers.

Reaching for the pad of paper she'd left on the seat opposite, he flipped a few pages to a blank one, taking the pen she offered him and scrawling on it in a pale imitation of his usually elegant handwriting, "They started it."

"They did." She looked out the window beside them, nodding. "Still want to play with them? Because here they come."

Painfully, Wes turned his head enough to look, glaring at the sight of them now rushing to his rescue or more accurately to rescue their secrets that he knew. He looked back at her, smirking again and nodding.

"This will be fun," she murmured, climbing into Wesley's lap, straddling him and stripping off her jacket. Wes' smirk deepened, especially as he felt the gun she wore strapped to her thigh. He raised an eyebrow in question as he traced the edge of the holster with a single finger. "Now you know all my secrets."

He would have laughed if he could, instead settling on reaching for her with his other hand, the first freeing the gun. He started undoing the buttons on her silk shirt, pulling the gun out and wrapping his arm around her, kissing her again as he switched the gun from hand to hand. As the door beside them was roughly pulled open, Cordelia all but screaming at him in rage, Wesley raised and aimed the pistol he'd taken in one smooth motion.

Cordelia's scream cut off abruptly as her eyes almost crossed at the sight of the 9mm pointed at her. She stared at the man before her, hearing Fred's cry of negation from behind her and ignoring it. "You better get out of there, Wes, before Angel finds you." She stared at him in shock as he raised an eyebrow at the woman on his lap, that woman turning to answer her.

"Why should he care what Angel thinks? Your vampire boss already tried to kill him once. When he wasn't exactly in a position to defend himself. No, Wesley has agreed to consider our more than generous offer of a position." With a soft laugh, she leaned forward, playing with strands of Wes' hair.

"Interesting recruiting method there, Lilah." Angel stepped between Fred and Gunn to lean an arm against the roof of the car, looking in with disgust. "Are you the fringe benefit of the position?"

Wesley shifted his aim by half an inch, ensuring that the bullet, if its primary target didn't slow it, didn't hit her. He smiled again, a smile that had Fred gasping and backing into Gunn while Wes' sad eyes watched. Hardening his heart against pleas from the one woman who could bring him back, he pulled the trigger, the impact of the bullet knocking Angel out of the limo and onto the asphalt. Lilah leaned across him, grabbing for the door handle and pulling the door closed, shifting off his lap as the car began to move again.

"I know you would never actually consider an offer from our company," Lilah stated as she started buttoning her blouse. "It was the first thing I could think of to say about why we are here together."

Wes laid the gun on the seat beside her, unsurprised when she covered it with her own hand. Again he reached for the paid of paper, this time writing more slowly as he organized his thoughts. Finally, after several minutes, he handed it across the car to her, leaning back in his seat to watch as she read it.

"It doesn't bother me, Lilah," the note read, "They already hate me for taking Connor. It's better for us all if I sever the ties now. It will hurt less than returning to them and watching her with him. I'm too sane yet for what Angel wants from me; still have too many ties to this world. Soon, it won't be long, he'll come to finish what he started. That attack will go over better with her if she thinks I'm actively betraying them."

Lilah looked up from the papers in her hand, staring at Wesley with wide, dark eyes. "You really mean this?" she asked quietly. "You truly expect Angel to come murder you?" Instead of taking the pad like she thought he would, he leaned forward to tap on it. Lilah dropped her gaze to the paper, reading still more of Wesley's neat handwriting.

"It tears me apart to see her with him, to see what I have lost. So if I break the ties now, during this betrayal, my death will be easier for her. If Angel doesn't succeed in driving me to suicide, he'll kill me himself." She looked up, meeting Wes' eyes briefly before returning to her reading. "I know why Wolfram and Hart would like to recruit me, as I'm the area's foremost expert on Angelus and on his current associates. Lilah, when my death comes, for it's only a matter of time, I want you to come to my apartment. Take this key. All the information Wolfram and Hart would like to get from me is in my safe. You need that key and the spell that I've written on the next page to get into the safe without destroying anything."

Lilah Morgan kept her eyes on the paper. She lived everyday with the threat of death from her employers, yet she had never accepted it with the calm fatalism that Wesley Wyndham-Pryce had apparently accepted his. There were more lines on the paper and she turned her attention to reading them. "I have only one favor to ask of you. Provided that Angel does not destroy it, give my tea set a good home. I would have given it to her, but this ended that. You would know someone who would appreciate it for what it is."

Lilah looked up from her reading, meeting Wes' eyes with her own, not knowing that she was crying until he reached a hand over, rubbing his thumb over her cheek. Dropping his hand, he caught hers, placing a small gold key in it and curling her fingers of the key. Raising her hand, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles, whispering very softly, for that was all he could do, "Thank you, Lilah. For everything."

She looked away, unable to watch as he climbed out of the car, heading back into his apartment building, the short drive having passed while she'd been reading. She watched him, barely hearing her driver's softly voiced question, confirming that she wished to return to the offices before heading home. She nodded once in response to the question, hearing the door close, but refusing to turn away, waiting for the lights in his living room to come on. They never did. She rapped sharply on the partition, causing the driver to stop, climbing out of the car and almost running up the walk to the apartment. She was surprised to hear running footsteps following her.

Reaching the door, Lilah was unsurprised to find it still standing open. She reached a hand out, pushing it all the way open and stumbled back in surprise. She felt strong hands steady her, even as a rough male voice told someone to not look. She turned, looking to see whom she had stumbled back into and was shocked to see it was Charles Gunn, who was holding the more innocent woman of AI, Fred, ensuring that she couldn't see what was in the room.

She raised her eyes slightly, looking up into Gunn's. "He knew this was going to happen. Why didn't you?" She turned back to the apartment, pulling out her cell phone and issuing brisk orders into it. Stepping carefully, she crossed the room to kneel by the safe, running a hand over it, and tucked the key in her pocket. That could wait. Instead she knelt on the floor by the man who was dying on his living room floor. She got as close to him as she dared, uncaring of the blood that stained her skirt. "She's here, along with Gunn. Do you….?" Lilah saw the answer and nodded, reaching a hand over to press her fingers to his wrist, watching, waiting and vowing revenge for this man whose only true crime was caring too much.

~Fin~