Things Unseen

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Thirteen

Sitting quietly in the plane, Hopie took stock of the situation. Wes and Willow were sitting quietly to the left side of the plane, her head on his shoulder, and his hand resting on her pregnant stomach. Even though she couldn’t hear the conversation, Hopie knew that the two of them were silent talking. They did that a lot.

I feel bad, Willow though, not meaning to broadcast the though to Wes but unable to stop herself.

Don’t, Wes replied, his heart hardened against Lilah from the moment he’d learned that she’d promised the baby to Wolfram and Hart. For all we know, the child might have been fed to a demon upon his birth, Wesley commented, shuddering.

Still, Willow thought back, her heart warmed by the feeling of connectedness with the life growing inside of her, She is his mother. She had this wonderful thing, this real thing, and he was the only real thing in her entire life, the only pure thing. On some level, she had to have loved him. Having him inside of you, a part of you, it’s impossible not to.

Could you have loved him? Wes questioned. If it had been the other way? If Lilah had given birth to my son, and we’d rescued him from Wolfram and Hart?

He’s part of you, Willow replied, purposefully not thinking about how hard it would have been, how hard it probably still would be.

He’s part of you too, Wes thought back. Inside of you.

For a moment, the two of them sat in silence.

I can’t help but feel like this isn’t right, Willow said. Wes frowned. Having him in me is the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had, but I know that me having him means that Lilah doesn’t, and no matter how much I know she didn’t deserve him…

Willow’s mind voice trailed off as she sat her hand on her stomach, feeling the life beneath her hand.

Hopie climbed out of her seat and went to sit in Willow’s lap. She stroked the Wicca’s belly lovingly. “He missed you,” she said to Willow. “For the longest time he’s missed you. Since before ever. Lilah’s sad, but she won’t always be.”

Hopie looked Willow straight in the eye. “They told me to,” she said, referring to the good luck kiss that had marked Willow’s stomach as the baby’s new home. “They said he was supposed to be yours, that there was a mistake. It’s all in the timing, they told me so. He’s home now.”

After a short pause, Hopie grinned at Wes and Willow. “You look like you want special alone time,” she said, “but I don’t think that can happen on a plane. Maybe we should ask Daddy and Momma. They have lots of special alone time.”

Across the plane, Cordelia, overhearing this part of the conversation, blushed.

“Don’t worry, Aunt Willow,” Hopie said. “He was always yours. Lilah wasn’t supposed to have a baby yet.” At the word yet, Wes peered closely at the Shanshu child. Hopie looked back at him, her eyes serious.

“You know what would be neat, Uncle Wes?” she asked him, not waiting for a response. “If doggie’s could make snow cones. That would be really neat.”

Wes looked at Willow, who shrugged.

“Well, yes, Hopie,” Wes responded, “I do suppose that would be rather neat.”

Hopie shot them one last grin and then got up and walked over, plopping herself down in her mother’s lap.

“Momma,” Hopie said. “When are we getting married?”

Cordy looked at her closely. “What do you mean, baby?” she asked.

Hopie took the ring around Cordy’s neck in her hand and played with it for them moment, spinning it in the light. Then she held it up. “You and me and Daddy and Connor,” Hopie replied seriously. “When are we getting married?”

Angel, not wanting to put Cordelia on the spot, glanced over at Connor, who was currently surrounded by Potentials. “Well,” he said jokingly, “you never know about Connor.”

Dawn had her arm around him protectively, but that didn’t stop Maddy and Chance from beaming at the older boy adoringly, and it didn’t stop Connor from giving Kendall the occasional appraising look.

It had been twenty-four hours since they’d all left the compound and come into the light of the morning.

Jordy, much to his dismay, had come back to his human form completely naked, which partially explained the way Joss was currently eyeing him. The traitorous Potential had a long way to go to earn back the trust of the other girls, but like all of them, with the demise of Quentin Travers, she was heading to America, under the guidance of the new head of the Watcher’s Council, Rupert Giles.

Joss sent Jordy a small smile, and Oz shook his head disbelievingly. While he was all Wolfie the night before, Jordy had come dangerously close to tearing the girl to bits, and now she was looking at him like he was the most wonderful boy ever. Go figure.

That girl, Oz thought, looking at Joss, had some serious issues.

Anni silently was thinking very much the same thing. She was also thinking that if Joss didn’t stop looking at Jordy like she was mentally undressing him, she was going to have to, as Maddy so eloquently put it, flounce her.

Maddy and Chance listened wide eyed as Connor answered their questions about Quor-Toth.

“Bloody hell,” Maddy exclaimed. “Did that really happen, Connor?”

Kendall rolled her eyes, but grinned. No matter what happened, Maddy could always be counted on to be Maddy.

“Madeline, watch your language,” a deep British voice said with a smile from a few rows up.

Maddy rolled her eyes good naturedly. Her parents had agreed to let her go to America, after some convincing on the part of Mr. Giles, but they’d insisted on sending a chaperone. She snickered to herself as she imagined what Clay would say if he knew she was mentally calling him her chaperone. In her mind, she changed it to nanny. As much as it offended her sensibilities to have a built in nanny, she knew that her youngest older brother would die if he thought anyone thought of him in that way.

Clay was seven years Maddy’s senior, nearly twenty years old, and he had jumped at the chance to come to America and live on the infamous Hellmouth. Besides, Maddy had a penchant for trouble, and no one in their family hated Americans enough to release Lady Madeline on them without someone who knew who tricks to come along.

Clay shot a quick glance at Nicolaa, sensing that she and Kendall had protected Maddy best they could. Something about the quiet girl, her modestly regal air and the delicate features of her face, made Clay think that maybe coming to America was going to be the best decision he ever made.

Lorne, watching fully amused as the younguns shot fluffy eyes at each other in every permutation possible, thought that they all might benefit from a little distraction before the natives got too restless and disaster struck the small plane.

“So,” he said, “how about a little group singalong?” He grinned at Maddy and tweaked her hair. “You know you want to.”

“Damn straight,” Maddy said, echoing a phrase she’d heard Gunn use earlier that day.

“Maddy…” Clay said from a few rows forward, biting his cheek to keep from laughing.

Chance looked up at Lorne, remembering what they’d all learned about this particular type of demon. “If we sing,” she said, “you can read us, right?”

“Give the lady a prize,” Lorne said chuckling. “It’s not hard,” he said. “Don’t be shy. You know one of you wants to.” Lorne turned very craftily to the one person he knew needed to sing for him the most.

“Anni, sweetie pie, show them how it’s done,” he said, smiling at the girl. Anni removed her arm from around Jordy’s neck and sat up a little as she began to sing the first song that popped into her head.

“Billy Ray was a preacher’s son

and when his daddy’d come visiting, he’d come along

when they gathered round and started talking

that’s when Billy would take me walking

out in the back yard we’d go walking”

Anni’s strong and clear voice made it through the first stanza, as she played in her mind with the possibility of adjusting the lyrics to make the song about “a teenage werewolf boy” as opposed to “the son of a preacher man.” She knew that these thoughts were her attempt to mask what was really on her mind from Lorne, not that she expected it to work. She continued with the song, her voice filling the plane.

“The only one who could ever reach me

was the son of a preacher man

The only boy who could ever teach me

Was the son of a preacher man

Yes he was. He was. Oh yes he was.”

Lorne’s eyes crinkled a bit as he was bombarded with the emotions Anni was feeling, her sense of inadequacy, her anger at Wes.

Hopie closed her eyes and, borrowing a little magic from Willow, tried something she’d never tried before. She thought real hard about Lorne for a minute, and then real hard about Wes, and for an instant, Wes saw what Lorne was seeing: Anni’s doubts and fears, her hurt, and he knew that the two of them had to talk.

Willow, being privy to Wes’s private thoughts, also caught Lorne’s vision temporarily.

She cast an indulgent look at Hopie and reminded her, “Ask first next time, Hopie-girl.”

Hopie nodded wide eyed. “It’s nice to share, Aunt Willow,” she said. “They told me so in kindergarten.”

Angel looked at Hopie, well aware of the fact that Cordelia hadn’t moved or said a word since Hopie had asked her question. “Did you do something naughty, Hopie?” he asked her.

Hopie batted her eyelashes at Angel. “Of course not, Daddy,” she replied. “I wouldn’t ever do anything like that.” She smiled sweetly at him, and Angel was reminded that it was just such a smile that had made him agree to be the Little Mermaid when Hopie had wanted to pretend to be the evil sea witch. Angel grimaced at the memory of the little sea shell bra she’d made him wear. Cordy had fashioned it just for him, giving him impish looks the whole time.

He figured it could have been worse. Hopie had insisted that Connor and Gunn play Sleeping Beauty with her, and the brawl those two had had over who had to be Aurora and who had to be the Prince was definitely memorable.

Anni finished up her song, her voice now clouded with an emotion that didn’t fit the lyrics. Trying to ignore the feeling in her gut, she concentrated on Jordy, sending him a steady glance as she sang the last words.

“He was a sweet, sweet man.”

Connor wrinkled his forehead. Anni was altogether too young to be looking at someone like that, he thought. He made a mental note to take Jordy aside the first chance he got and explain a few things about how a girl like Anni was supposed to be treated.

Chance sighed, thinking that Connor looked very noble in that instant.

Maddy thought he looked bloody hot.

Kendall had decided that she was more of a Spike girl herself, though she didn’t deny that Oz had a sort of quiet charm about him.

“Anni,” Wes said from the front of the plane. “Will you come up here for a minute, please, baby girl?”

Anni rose from her seat and approached her brother’s seat, not sure whether to expect an inquisition or a sentencing hearing. At least he hadn’t said ‘Annabella.’ That, at least, was promising.

Coming to the front of the plane, she eased into an extra seat next to her brother, refusing to look at Willow. She’d spent the better half of the last twenty-four hours ignoring them both. Of course, the whole Willow-has-Lilah’s-baby-Lilah-leaves-dragging-Travers-with-her thing had been a valuable distraction.

“Anni,” Wes said, taking her chin in his hand and forcing her eyes to meet his, “you suit me. You will always suit me. You are my sister, I love you, and I am only human. As such, I am bloody stupid sometimes. I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t angry with you so much as I was angry with Lilah. I took it out on you, and that was wrong. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

A tear slowly ran down Anni’s cheek. Part of her didn’t want to believe him, because if she accepted his apology, if she allowed him back into her trust, her heart, and her life, she was destined to get hurt again.

“Perhaps, dear,” she heard the voice echo in her head, “you just don’t suit.”

She jerked her chin out of Wesley’s grasp, but he forced her again to look at him. “They were wrong,” he told her. “In so many ways, they were wrong.”

Anni let herself be pulled into a hug. An instant later, she found her brother’s face a mere inch from hers, his voice low and dangerous, his eyes blazing with pent up fury.

“I was stupid, Anni, and I’m sorry for it, but you could have gotten yourself killed. I don’t care what your excuse was, how good it was, or what you were feeling, you don’t ever do a thing like that. Ever.” His voice sent chills down her spine. This was the Wesley she hadn’t known before she’d run away from England, the new rough and rugged Wes who really was just a little bit dangerous.

“So help me, Annabella,” he said, making her grimace a bit at the use of her full name, never a good sign. “I don’t know what I have to do to get it through your head that putting your life on the line like that is never okay. I want you to trust me, but I understand after this if you can’t, but dammit, Anni, you will obey my rules if I have to thrash you to get that through your head.”

Anni ignored his threats for the moment. “I trust you,” she said softly. “I don’t want to, but I do, and I’d vast prefer it if we could discuss this after you’ve gotten out of this snit you’re in.”

“Snit?!” Wes asked, and then he noticed the grin on Anni’s face.

He pulled her into another hug, grateful that she was okay and trying to devise a suitable punishment for her trans-atlantic escapade.

“Wes, if you’ll excuse us, Anni and I have something to settle as well,” Willow said.

Wes shot a confused look at his love. They were on a plane. Where was there to go to? An instant later, Willow and Anni had disappeared off the plane.

Wes groaned. “I hate it when they do that,” he muttered.

In the back of the plane, Lorne had talked Maddy into doing a rendition of a song of her choice.

Maddy approached the chorus with relish.

“I’m a bitch, I’m a tease, I’m a goddess on my knees…”

She trailed off as everyone in the entire plane yelled, “Maddy!”

She shrugged, smiling and knowing that she’d already sung the only part of the song she wanted to sing anyway.

“What?” she said, batting her eyelashes, Hopie style.

Anni stared at Willow, stunned when the two of them appeared in her room at the Summers’ house in Sunnydale.

“You’re not the only one who can relocate,” Willow commented, feeling stronger than she ever had before with the life growing inside of her.

Anni dug her foot into the floor. “I guess I’m not,” she said. She noticed that the woman she was beginning to consider her sister had worked herself into a fine fury. She decided to pre-empt any lecture with an apology. “Listen, Willow, I’m really sorry,” she said. “I know I’m not supposed to do the relocation thing anymore, but I…”

Her voice broke off as she was thrown across the room into a chair. Her eyes widened.

“You could have died,” Willow said, her voice shaking a little. “Even more than Wes knows. You almost did, you know. If Jordy hadn’t been with you to call you out of it, you probably would have.”

Anni stuttered a bit, but Willow cut her off. An invisible force pushed Anni roughly back into the chair as she went to stand up.

“I know you were upset,” Willow said, her voice staying strong though its volume was lowered a bit, “but you could have died, and I don’t care how upset you were, using magic like that, letting your emotions fuel it, it isn’t safe, and it isn’t right. Magic isn’t here for that purpose, for us to use it to suit our grief.” Willow’s voice caught a bit, and Anni’s eyes widened.

“I had to learn that the hard way,” Willow said softly. “I don’t want that for you.” Willow gave the girl a hard look. “You know, Wes keeps talking and threatening with the thrashing and whatnot, but we both know he’d die before he took a hand to you.”

Anni looked down. Sometimes, with Wes, she wasn’t so sure about that.

Anni felt her head forced up by magic. She stared at the pregnant woman in front of her. “Well, I will. I truly will make with the beating or thrashing or, or whatever you want to call it if you ever do anything like that again.” Anni stared at the woman in disbelief. That was so very un-Willow. Willow put on her resolve face.

“You might not know this, yet,” Willow told the younger girl, the anger going out of her voice, “but this is my resolve face. It’s impervious to whining and tears and cute little looks, so, you know, maybe you should just not do something like this again, okay?” That sounded more like the Willow Anni knew.

Anni nodded. “Okay,” she replied, wondering what kind of hormones were shooting through Willow’s body. That reminded her…

“Hey, Willow,” she said, her voice wheedling, “when my nephew gets here, do you think you and Wes might let me pick out a name?”

Willow didn’t respond. Picking out a name for Lilah’s baby. It still seemed wrong to her somehow, even if Hopie insisted that the child belonged with her. She rested her hand on her stomach. At the same time, nothing had ever felt so right.

A disheveled and furious Lilah Morgan walked into Wolfram and Hart after a long plane ride back. She walked straight into a senior partners meeting. They looked at her, the evil in their hearts masked by a charming exterior.

“Lilah,” one of them said to her. “We were sorry to hear you were ill. I trust you are recovered?” Lilah looked at him, daggers in her eye.

“Funny thing,” she announced to the room as a whole. “I wasn’t sick. Some bastards at the Watcher’s Council stole my unborn child, I went with my sworn enemy to get it back, only to find out that The Powers that Be decided that some red haired tart from Sunnydale should have it instead.”

The partners looked around at each other, awkwardly. It would be such a shame to kill such a beautiful lady, they thought, but she had interrupted a senior partner’s meeting, and that type of thing wasn’t easily forgiven without blood shed.

“I take it our agreement with the Watcher’s Council stands?” one of the partners asked.

“Another funny thing,” Lilah commented, “Quentin Travers has been displaced by Rupert Giles. I doubt he’ll honor any deal with you.”

The partners frowned jointly. “That’s unacceptable, Lilah. We’ll see to it that Mr. Travers is reinstated.”

Lilah laughed, bordering on hysteria. “That might be difficult,” she said, “considering that I left Mr. Travers lying bloody in a ditch somewhere in England. I’m not really sure where, must be one of those sex differences in spatial cognition things.” Lilah smiled at them all, and one by one, the partners felt fear creep up their spines.

They were justified in feeling so. Within a minute, fueled by a supernatural rage and an arsenal of weapons, Lilah Morgan had done away with them all.

Looking around at the dead bodies, she called for their secretaries. “Get rid of these,” she said, gesturing to the corpses around her. “I’m the senior partner now.”

One of the secretaries started to say something. She was on the floor in less than a second.

“Anyone else have any arguments?” Lilah asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

Lilah Morgan was now the sole force behind Wolfram and Hart.

After they left the room, Lilah sat down in a chair and smiled. “That was so much easier than waiting for a promotion,” she said. “I never much cared for that old boy’s club anyway.” After enjoying her power for a moment, Lilah Morgan did the only thing left to do.

She laid her head down on the desk, and then she broke down and sobbed for what she had lost.

Back on the plane, Lorne was cajoling Nicolaa, Kendall, and Colette into singing, still wondering about Maddy’s little diddy.

Had he read her right? If so, things were certainly going to be interesting. He smiled. Perhaps her song choice had been appropriate after all.

Nicolaa, sensing she was trapped, came up with the first solution that came to mind. “We’ll sing,” she said. “After Connor, Lindsey, and Gunn do.”

Lorne grinned. “Fair enough,” he said, prying Lindsey away from Faith’s side. Colette beamed at Lindsey. She was in awe of Faith, and in love with her fiancé. Life took odd turns sometimes. He was just so beautiful in a manly kind of way, Colette thought silently… those eyes. She sighed.

Connor, Gunn, and Lindsey huddled and talked for a minute, ignoring the fact that they were on a private plane and should be in their seats. Then they turned back, with straight looks on their face. Lindsey and Gunn pushed Connor forward first.

“You first,” Gunn said. Lindsey smiled. He was last. With any luck, he might not have to go at all.

“Uh, guys, can’t I sing another song?” Connor asked, casting a look at his fan club while he spoke to the guys. Gunn grinned wickedly.

“Nope,” he said. “You haven’t bothered to learn any other songs.”

Connor shrugged. Gunn was right. In his time in this dimension, Connor had failed to learn the lyrics to any song but this one.

He took a deep breath and began, muttering while he sang.

“I’m not a girl

Not yet a wo-man…”

In the front of the plane, Angel grimaced a bit. This was more than a bit disturbing.

“Soon,” Cordelia said softly, finally answering Hopie’s question. Angel’s eyes widened. Cordelia unclasped the necklace and slipped the ring around her left ring finger. Her wedding ring finger.

She looked into Angel’s eyes. “Soon,” she said, her voice loud and strong.

Hopie clapped her hands. “We’re getting married,” she said to herself, thrilled with the idea.

Angel wrapped Cordy up in a passionate and long kiss. Hopie, still on her mother’s lap, watched, fascinated.

“Hey, Uncle Wes,” she yelled after a minute. “I was wrong. You can have special grown up time on a plane!”

 

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