Destiny

By PSUBrat

Hidden Agendas

Behind the tinted windows of the office building across the street from the Magic Box, Gavin Park observed the slayer and her watcher enter the shop. He noticed that the attitude between the two had changed drastically from what he had observed yesterday. He checked the time on his watch and entered it on a notepad along with a few words. Wolfram and Hart was still unclear as to the identity of the new watcher, but they had a few ideas of who it could be. The options were amazing if any were true. He walked over to his desk and sat down. As he was about to have his secretary place a call for him, her voice came over the intercom.

"Mr. Park, you asked me to let you know when Mr. Wyndham-Pryce arrived. He just went into his office, sir."

"Thank you, Ms. Blackwell," Gavin stated with a scowl. He stood up, grabbed the packet of pictures, and headed towards Wesley's office. There was no way he was going to allow Wesley to get away with this, not on his watch.

Wesley was sitting quietly at his desk sifting through several prophecies when Gavin barged into his office. He glanced up at the man who had just intruded and then back at his paperwork, barely even registering the man's presence.

"Care to explain these?" Gavin growled as he threw the pictures on Wesley's desk.

"Oh look, pretty pictures, and they're of me, at my house. How charming. Is there something I can help you with Gavin?"

Gavin's face colored and his jaw clenched. "When were you going to tell me you had the boy?" He demanded as he pounded Wesley's desk with his fist.

Without flinching, Wesley gave Gavin a cold glare. "I suppose you wanted me to call you at three in the morning to tell you I had a house guest?"

"Yes. That's proper procedure Mr. Wyndham-Pryce!"

"Yes, well. I've never really been one for procedures. I was back in the day, but I found it to be all very…droll."

"Where is he now?" Gavin challenged.

"I sent him off to school."

"You what!" Gavin exclaimed. "You sent him off to school? Are you an idiot?"

"I assure you I'm no idiot, Mr. Park. I thought it prudent that the child attend school to keep up appearances. If this is a problem, I can go over there now and escort the boy here. Would that be better?"

Gavin clenched his fists and breathed deeply. He glowered at Wesley, but said nothing.

"I thought not. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do. Good day, Gavin." He looked back down at the prophecy he was translating and waited for the man to leave his office.

Spinning on his heels, Gavin left Wesley's office in a huff. "Get Ms. Morgan on the phone. Now!" He seethed as he passed his secretary's desk. He walked into his office and slammed the door. It had to be her doing, but that was fine; he knew how to deal with her kind.

***

Dawn was looking out the window, admiring the view, when a knock came at the door. "Come in," Dawn said unenthusiastically.

"Hi Dawn," Fred smiled. "I've brought a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt that you might be able to wear. Or if they don't fit you, I'm sure we can go through my closet and find something else."

"They'll be fine. Thanks." Dawn smiled slightly at the girl but didn't offer any other words.

"I'll just leave them on the bed then. You know, you can come downstairs and hang out with us if you want. You don't have to stay up here all by your lonesome. We don't bite. I guess that's not really true though, because Angel, he does bite, technically. I just mean…"

"Thanks. Maybe I will." At this point, Dawn just wanted the girl to leave her alone. "Cordelia said that Angel would be up to talk to me soon. Is he coming or not?"

Fred finally sensed the tension in Dawn's voice. "Angel got called away on business…"

"He's out on business in the daylight?" Dawn demanded. Something felt strange about that.

"Well, yeah. He goes through the sewers and tunnels. Gunn went ahead of him in the truck. Happens just about everyday."

"I see. Who's Gunn?"

"Gunn is part of the team. He used to fight vampires with a gang and joined Angel after his sister was killed by one."

"Is Connor part of the team?"

Fred was stunned by the teen's question. "Uhm. Not really. He was just…he's just someone Angel cares for, that's all." She hoped that Dawn couldn't sense her hesitation in answering the question.

"Why is it that it seems that everyone wants to know if I know this Connor, yet they won't even tell me who he is? What's the big secret?"

"I…" Fred stuttered.

"Hey Dawn," Cordelia said as she came in the room to rescue an MIA Fred. "Feel like a shopping trip?"

***

Buffy stood in front of William, shocked to say the least, at the display of affection that Cecily was showering on the man. With everything that had occurred the night before, she hadn't even thought about the impact that their relationship might have on the ex-vengeance demon. Lucky for them that Cecily was an ex-demon because Buffy knew things weren't going to go over well. She could tell that William was very uncomfortable since he was blushing deeply and trying his best to push the woman away, but it was to no avail. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she cleared her throat.

"Oh Buffy," Cecily said blushing, "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there!"

Buffy smiled. "I bet you didn't."

Cecily just smiled and put her arms around William.

"Darling, where have you been? Your phone is busy and I wanted to tell you about Dawn!"

"What about Dawn?" Buffy asked with concern.

"Don't you know?" Xander asked. "I've been trying to reach you all morning at home but the machine never picked up."

"Oh. Well I…" She looked at William with wide eyes.

"Buffy stayed the night at my place…" He could feel Cecily's body stiffen next to him. This was not going to be pretty.

"It was just that it was closer and I was really tired from looking for Dawn…"

"Buffy, there's a message on the machine for you," Anya stated.

"From who?" Buffy questioned.

"From Angel," Anya replied.

"Oh! It's probably about Dawn being there…"

Xander studied his friend closely. It seemed like she was keeping something from them. "How did you know Dawn was there? I mean, obviously she couldn't reach you at home…"

"I…uh…"

"Bit called my place last night to let me know," Spike said covering for Buffy.

"Yeah. That's how it went down. I should probably give her a call and make sure she's doing better this morning." Buffy walked quickly to the office to call Dawn at the Hyperion. How in the world were they going to explain this to everyone?

Cecily grabbed William's hand and tugged him towards the table. "Darling, I was thinking, maybe we could go away for the weekend. Just the two of us…nice little place in the country. What do you think?"

"Uhm. Pet, I'm not sure that's going to be possible. I have my watcher duties…"

"I'm sure you can take one weekend off," Anya said patting him on the back. "Giles used to do it all the time."

"Thanks Anya," William sighed. "We'll talk about it later, alright? Right now I need to study part of the prophecy that Giles left with me, okay?"

Cecily felt deflated. She had been sure that he would have jumped at the chance to go to the country with her. "Okay," she whispered. She watched him go into the office. Something seemed different about him today.

***

A giddy Cordelia and Dawn returned to the hotel sometime after noon with bags in hand. Dawn had enjoyed her shopping trip, even though it had been with 'Queen C'. She was really starting to like Cordelia, it seemed like she had really grown up a lot since moving to L.A. While at the mall, they talked about Sunnydale but Dawn made sure that she didn't discuss Steven. She had been vague when Cordelia had asked if she had a boyfriend now.

"Dawn, your sister called," Fred stated as the teen sat down on one of the couches.

Dawn cringed. "Did she sound angry?"

"No, not at all. She sounded relieved that you were okay. I told her that you were out shopping with Cordelia and that you would call her back when you got in."

"Thanks. Is Angel back yet?"

Cordelia and Fred exchanged glances, which didn't go unnoticed by Dawn.

"Okay. I'm tired of you guys treating me like some kid. All I want to know is why Angel wigged out on me last night and who this Connor guy is. I don't see what the big deal is!" She was angry now. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at the two women. "I want to talk to Angel. Now."

"Good afternoon one and all," a voice from the front doors called suddenly.

"Lorne," Fred exclaimed as she ran over to the demon to give him a hug.

"How was Las Vegas, Lorne?" Cordelia asked with a smile.

"It was fantabulous! But it just wasn't what I expected. There's really not a large selection of clientele there. You'd think a place called 'Sin City' would be teeming with demons and such."

Standing off to the side, Dawn's anger continued to swell since her presence had been completely forgotten with the arrival of the demon. Quietly seething, she studied the green creature with red horns and eyes. Finally, trying to regain attention to herself, she coughed loudly.

"And just who is this precious little pouter?" Lorne asked walking towards Dawn.

Cordelia walked over to Dawn and put her arm around the teen. "Lorne, this is Dawn. Dawn this is Lorne."

Before Lorne could shake Dawn's hand, Fred added, "She's Buffy's sister."

"The Buffy?" He asked in amazement after looking at Cordelia for confirmation.

"Why does everyone say that when they hear Buffy's name?" Dawn demanded.

"Your sister is a bit of a legend around here," Lorne stated cheerily.

"Among other things," Cordelia added under her breath.

Lorne shot her a look that said 'not now'. "So tell me Dawn, what brings you to the City of Angels?"

Dawn looked at Cordelia. "It's okay Dawn. Lorne's one of us. Your secret is safe here."

Lorne put his arm around Dawn and led her to one of the couches. "Tell Uncle Lorne everything about yourself. Wanna sing a little song for me?"

"Huh?" Dawn questioned with a puzzled look.

"Lorne," Cordelia warned, shaking her head.

"Okay. No songs yet. Just spill girlfriend." He gave Dawn a warm smile that put the teen totally at ease.

"Well," Dawn started, "It's a pretty long story…"

"I have a lot of time," Lorne replied.

***

Cecily had been hovering around William constantly all morning and even managed to whisk him off to lunch with her. Understandably, Buffy was upset that William had agreed to go, but realized that now was probably not the best of times to be sharing the fact that they had reunited. Finally, after hours of stolen glances and light touches, the two finally found some time alone together later that afternoon in training.

"Anya, Buffy and I are going to train in the back. Please make sure we're not disturbed." His request was not out of the ordinary. Often times Giles would ask the same thing.

Anya had been busy with a customer and had only nodded her answer in return.

"Need any help with that?" Xander had asked the watcher.

"Nope. I think the Slayer and I can manage." The last thing he wanted was for Xander to accompany him to the back room.

The tension in the training room was thick enough to cut through. They had both changed into workout clothing and were half an hour into their training session when William suggested that Buffy stop working out with the bag and start working out on him.

"I don't want to hurt you William," Buffy hesitated.

"Don't worry about that, pet. I can hold my own. Just show me what you've got."

She eyed him warily but as soon as he gave her the patented cocky smile, she flew at him.

William was ready for her tackle and held his ground easily. He blocked several of her kicks and then landed one of his own to her chest. Buffy went down hard.

"Wanna tell me how you did that?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, luv." He then signaled for her to come at him again.

This time Buffy landed a punch that sent William sprawling to the floor. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" She ran to his side to make sure that she hadn't broken anything.

As soon as she leaned over him, he reached up and pulled her down to the floor. "What do you think?" He asked suggestively with a raised eyebrow.

"I think you have a lot of explaining to do, like where you got this kind of strength." She allowed him to pull her closer so that they were face to face.

"I'll tell you after…"

"After what?"

"After this…" He said pulling her into a passionate kiss.

Neither had noticed that the training room door had opened, nor had they noticed Cecily standing in the doorway watching.

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