DestinyBy PSUBrat
Ramifications
Lorne and Dawn were about two hours into their conversation when Gunn and Angel finally arrived back from their mission. Both were dripping in demon guts and other gooey type substances.
"Ugh," Fred exclaimed, "What's that awful smell?"
"I'm pretty sure it's us," Gunn replied. "Big man over there decided that the two of us could take on a Goethe demon alone."
"Well we killed him didn't we?" Angel asked with a sheepish smile.
"After we took a beating first. We had to hack this thing up into small pieces…"
"And then we had to dispose of it in the waste water facility."
"Hence the smell." Gunn sniffed himself and wrinkled up his nose.
Cordelia came out of Wesley's old office, covering her mouth with her hand. "You two hit the showers! You're getting goop all over the clean floor and you smell nasty! Move it!"
"Like you have to tell me twice," Gunn muttered as he dragged himself into the back rooms for his shower.
Angel walked over to Cordelia and tried to pull her into an embrace. "What? Don't you think this could be…?"
Cordelia backed away from Angel, giving him a warning glance.
He turned around to see Dawn and Lorne sitting on one of the couches, he wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed them before. "Hey Lorne. How was Vegas?"
"Hi sweetcheeks. I'd come over there and give you a hug but I just had this suit dry cleaned. Vegas was great but it's nice to be back home."
Angel then turned to Dawn. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up and then we can have that talk, okay?"
Dawn nodded her head. She had a lot of questions for him now, especially about the little interaction between him and Cordelia that she just witnessed. "That's fine. I think we have a lot to discuss."
"Yeah." Angel agreed as he climbed the stairs and disappeared down the hall.
"So my little green blob of energy," Lorne said trying to get the girl's attention back to their talk.
Dawn looked at him in surprise. "How did you…?"
"You'd be amazed. I know a lot of things. Ready to sing for me yet?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Why don't you try it and find out," Lorne said grinning.
***
The limousine pulled up to the curb in front of the Wolfram and Hart offices in Sunnydale. Gavin watched from his office window as Lilah emerged from the car. He should have known she was on her way her when Ms. Blackwell couldn't reach her at the Los Angeles office. He was willing to wage money that Lilah was here to see Wesley. Determined that he wasn't going to let the two of them play him, he picked up his packet of information on Lilah and started for Wesley's office. Just before he reached the door, the direct line to the senior partners buzzed loudly. Gavin grinned and returned to his desk to take the call.
Wesley sat at his desk, deep in thought. Things were going well for him here at Wolfram and Hart. He had a corner office with plush furniture and everything he needed was at his fingertips. The work was challenging and intriguing, something that he hadn't gotten enough of at Angel Investigations. He sat up in his chair when he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in."
Lilah sauntered into his office with a grin plastered across her face. She closed the door and locked it without saying a word. "Good afternoon, Wesley," she cooed at him.
"Lilah," he stated in a subdued manner. "What brings you to Sunnydale? As if I didn't already know…"
"I told you last night that I was going to thank you properly for delivering the boy. Didn't you think I would make good on my promise?" She ran her finger seductively over the leather of the visitor chair while giving him a small pout.
"I see." He continued to sit in his chair as she moved behind him to massage his shoulders.
She spun his chair around and crawled into his lap, gently kissing his neck and nibbling on his ears.
Wesley made no move to encourage or discourage her advances. He closed his eyes and let her take control.
The two were startled when a knock came at the door.
Wesley cleared his throat. "Who's there?"
"Mr. Pryce? It's me, Connor."
Lilah and Wesley exchanged surprised glances. Wesley practically threw Lilah down to the floor as he quickly stood up. "Make yourself presentable before I open that door," he demanded. "Be right with you Connor."
Lilah smirked at him but did as she was told.
After he made sure that Lilah looked respectable, Wesley opened the door and let the teen come inside.
***
They had managed to keep their sexual tension in check since the earlier kiss and were now working on Buffy's reflexes.
"You know, we should probably tell them," Buffy stated as she kicked another knife to the side.
"You're right," William grunted as he threw a dagger at her head.
After successfully stopping the dagger between both hands, she tossed it to the floor and continued. "I mean, we're going to be spending a lot of time together, specifically night time. If we don't tell them, it's going to look really suspicious."
William studied the new dagger intently, contemplating the ramifications of them being a couple. "I should talk to Cecily first," he sighed. It would be hard, but it needed to be done. He just couldn't continue leading her on, she deserved better.
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"No. Go get cleaned up. I think we've worked hard enough today."
Buffy walked over to him and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Let her down easy."
"Luv, I don't think there's going to be anything easy about this."
"I know. I'll go shower first."
His emotions were all over the place as he watched her walk off towards the bathroom. How could he be so happy and so sad at the same time?
***
"Xander?" Anya asked as she squeezed his arm. "Would you go downstairs and find me a box of key chains?"
"Key chains? Since when do we have…?" He trailed off as she glared at him and then nodded towards Cecily. "Oh. Those key chains. Sure. No problem." Grabbing his comic book, he headed down to the basement.
"Cecily?" Anya asked walking up behind her friend. "Is something wrong?" Cecily turned around and Anya noticed the woman's tears. "Oh Cecily, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," she sniffed. "I just thought William would want to go with me to the country." It was a lie. She had seen them, the two of them, in the back room, doing everything but training.
"Oh sweetie. I'm sure he will later. He's pretty new to this whole watcher thing. I'm sure it's nothing personal." Anya put her arm around her friend and gave her a small squeeze.
William walked out of the backroom and looked at Cecily. Suddenly he went cold. "Is everything okay pet?" He asked walking over to her.
"Everything is fine William," she replied without looking at him.
He frowned. "Anya luv, would you give us a few minutes please?"
Sensing that the two needed to talk, she moved towards the basement door. "Sure. I'll just help Xander with the key chains in the basement."
After Anya was gone, William took Cecily by the hand and sat her down in one of the overstuffed chairs in the corner. "I think we need to talk," he began as he kneeled in front of her.
She glared at him with ice-cold eyes. "I saw you," she hissed. "The two of you... I saw everything."
He didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry. That's not the way I wanted you to know…" He looked at her pleadingly, trying to make her understand that he hadn't meant to hurt her.
"I love you William and this is how you repay that love? By sneaking around with that…that…ungrateful bitch? I should have known…"
His eyes narrowed and his cheeks flushed with anger. "Now see here! You're talking about the woman that I love! Look at me," he demanded as he cupped her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes. "I'm in love with Buffy. I always have been. I tried to convince myself otherwise but I just couldn't fight it. I'm sorry that I hurt you…"
"You're sorry?" She asked incredulously. "Well, it's too late for sorry. The damage is done!"
He fell backwards as she abruptly stood up and pushed him over. "Cecily, please listen to me," he begged. "I'm sorry…"
"Stop," she yelled spinning around to face him. "I became a vengeance demon because of you," she cried.
"And I became a vampire because of you!"
She stared daggers at him. How dare he make her the reason he became a vampire! Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Buffy standing quietly watching. "I may not be a vengeance demon any longer, but make no mistake about it William I will have my vengeance!" With that she stormed out the front door leaving a very contrite William sitting on the floor.
***
"Hello Connor. What brings you by this afternoon? How was school?" Wesley asked showing Steven to one of the visitor chairs.
"It was too confining," he stated with a grimace. "Must I continue to attend?"
"I'm afraid so," Wesley replied. "All teenagers your age are required and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves, now do we?"
Connor shook his head. He hadn't thought of it that way. "I just wanted to let you know Dawn wasn't in school today."
Wesley and Lilah exchanged puzzled glances. "Are you quite certain?" Wesley inquired.
"Yeah. I looked for her everywhere and I asked her friend Janice if she had seen her. She hadn't."
"Well that's odd," Lilah said with a frown. "You would think Buffy would ensure Dawn's attendance, especially since social services keeps breathing down her neck."
"And I couldn't imagine why they would be doing that," Wesley stated dryly.
Lilah grinned at him.
"Connor, do you have any idea where Dawn might be?" He asked the teen.
"No. But I can try to find out from her sister if you want."
"No," Wesley snapped. "That won't be necessary. We'll find Dawn soon enough." He stood for a moment in deep thought and then nodded at Lilah.
"Connor, forgive Mr. Pryce for not introducing me. I'm Lilah Morgan," she said extending her hand to the boy. He made no move to shake it. Lilah smiled and continued. "I'm so glad that you agreed to work with us. As soon as Buffy is out of the way we will make sure that you and Dawn are well taken care of."
Steven studied the woman before him. He didn't like her, something felt off about her. "How do I know you're telling the truth, that Dawn won't be hurt?"
"Because she is more important to us alive. I promise you."
He nodded, still not trusting her. "Fine. When do you want me to go after Buffy?"
"Tonight," Lilah stated.
The boy looked at Wesley for confirmation. Wesley nodded his head. "Consider it done," he said as he stood up to leave.
***
Angel answered the door as he towel dried his hair. The green demon before him looked upset. "Hey Lorne. What's up?"
"Angel, you've got to tell her what's going on," Lorne said, concern coating his voice. "That's one powerful little girl sitting downstairs. I wouldn't want to piss her off too much."
Angel snorted at Lorne's comment. "I think you're overreacting just a bit, don't you? She's only a teenager…"
"That's where you're wrong. She's older than anything you've ever faced. Hell, I think she's even older than existence itself. You better tell her about Connor, the sooner the better."
"Or what?" Angel questioned still not understanding the urgency in Lorne's voice.
"Or you're going to have one very pissed off ball of energy coming at you."
Angel stared at Lorne. "I guess I'll go talk to her now…"
"You do that. Make sure you tell her everything. You have no idea what you're dealing with…she only sang a little ditty for me and my head felt like it was going to explode."
"I'll go now. Any suggestions about how I explain Connor's existence?"
"I think she knows all about the birds and the bees sweetcheeks."
Angel pulled his shirt on and ran his fingers through his hair. He knew this was going to be the toughest, no, make that the second toughest thing he was going to have to do that day. The first toughest was telling Buffy.
***
Buffy walked over to William and sat down beside him on the floor. As soon as she saw the tears well up in his eyes, she pulled him close to her and rocked him gently. She knew this was going to be hard on him, especially since she knew there was a part of William that was always going to love Cecily, until the day he died. Just like there was a part of Spike that would always love Drusilla. She supposed the same was true for her and Angel as well. No matter what happened in life, and how much time had passed, there would always be that little part of them that had feelings for their first loves.
William let Buffy comfort him. This was so different from what had transpired between the two lovers less than a year ago. He had always been the one comforting her, her touchstone. Now she was there for him. After looking into her green eyes, seeking reassurance that he had done the right thing, he realized that he had and kissed her passionately.
"Excuse me? Hello? You two want to share what's going on here?" Xander demanded, standing in front of them with a horrified look on his face.
William and Buffy both looked at Xander with wide eyes and then looked at each other.