Title: The Thorny Path (the Righteous shall walk), an Angel story
Author: Brenda Antrim
Email: bren@bantrim.net
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.
Author's Note: This story refers to my previous stories Forfeit, His Place in the World, and Plan, taking place directly after the Plan A ending, but it's written so that it can stand alone.

Kate looked up from her desk to see Wesley making his way toward her. He looked none the worse for his earlier brush with evil. When he'd made it to the side of her desk he did that blushing thing he did that charmed her against her will, and cleared his throat.

"Can you take a moment?" he asked diffidently. She smiled up at him.

"Actually, I was just getting ready to go home." The smile turned mischievous. "Why don't you come with me?"

When he got finished choking, he said yes.

Once in her living room, he took the coffee she offered him and asked, "How much trouble are you in?"

"Not as much as I expected," she admitted frankly, sliding down into a comfortable sprawl on the sofa and gesturing for him to do the same. "Frankly, running cars into buildings in the course of a high speed chase is much more business as usual for the LAPD than the ghost-busting I've been doing. I think the brass are a little relieved I'm acting like a real cop for once."

He laughed a little at that and she grinned, encouraged. "How about you? You look like you came through it okay?"

Carefully placing his still-full coffee cup on the table, he leaned forward and caught her hand in his. "I'm glad this round is over, but I fear the battle is far from won." He tugged gently. She scooted over toward him.

"You think they'll come after you again?" She reached up with her free hand and removed his glasses. His eyes were larger and bluer without them.

"As long as Angel continues to stand in their way, they will."

Enough was enough, she decided. They could talk about strategy and the great war of Good versus Evil some other time. She leaned forward and kissed him, very softly. He sat stock still. Fearing she'd pushed too far, she started to sit back, dislodging his grip on her hand.

He didn't let her withdraw very far. Long fingers curved around her arms and pulled her forward, and she found herself sitting in his lap. It was a nice place to be. His mouth was soft, and his tongue was shy under hers. She made herself at home for awhile, then finally pulled back when little black dots were starting to float around behind her eyelids.

"You in a hurry to go home?" she asked, pausing to pant a little between the words. He looked at her like she was speaking Swahili, except from what she'd learned about him, he probably could speak Swahili. Maybe she'd been too indirect. "Stay with me tonight?" she tried again.

His smile lit up his entire face. "My pleasure," he said gallantly.

"Not yet, but soon," she smiled back.

The short walk to her bedroom was made much longer by all the stops to share kisses and unbutton clothes and kick off shoes and kiss some more. By the time he stopped with his back to the bed and she pushed him down flat on it, her pony tail was history and so was everything but their underwear. She crawled up over him and straddled him. The look on his face when she unhooked her bra and tossed it over her shoulder made her feel like a goddess.

He cupped her breasts and stroked them gently, and she leaned into his touch. Pushing her panties off with her fingertips, wriggling as needed to get them all the way off without interfering with his explorations, she gave a sigh of relief as she settled back over him. The thin cotton of his briefs was no barrier at all. She could feel the hard heat of him rising up against her. He must have enjoyed it too, because his hands left her breasts and traveled around to her hips, pressing her against him.

"Wesley," she whispered. He opened dazed eyes to stare up at her. She leaned down and nibbled along his jaw, distracting him from his death grip on her hips. When he allowed her to move again, she lifted up just far enough to get a grip on his waistband. Then she lowered her head to suck on his Adam's apple at the same time she pushed at his shorts.

He got the message. His own hands left her just long enough to push the elastic past his erection, and he shimmied out of his briefs in a move that would have put seasoned strippers to shame. She slid a little further down his torso and showed her approval, trailing little sucking kisses down the soft fur in the center of his chest, down his stomach, nosing his navel for a second before going on to bigger and better things. His hands in her hair stopped her just as she was getting going on the lollipop between his thighs. She gave him a disappointed look.

"This will be over before we've scarce begun if you keep that up, darling Kate." His voice was more than a little strained, and she took pity on him.

"What do you want?" she asked softly. He smiled, then pulled her up to his eye level.

"Everything," he answered just as quietly, then began to explore her even more thoroughly than she'd mapped him. By the time his hands and mouth had covered her from her face to her knees, she was more than ready.

He nudged her legs apart and gently separated her flesh, licking and tasting her, stoking the fire hotter than ever. Alternating with his hands and his fingers, he brought her to climax, then kept her there, and her mind closed down completely, an unusual occurrence with the lovers she'd had. Usually she found herself running down suspects and puzzling out cases in her head during sex, an irritating side effect of being a workaholic.

That wasn't a problem this time.

Still working her with his hand, he moved over her and covered her, kissing her deeply. She sucked on his tongue, then moaned into his mouth as he entered her.

She broke the kiss to gasp for air, and found herself nose to nose with him. He had a look of absolute concentration on his face, and she came again, lifting her thighs up around him. He gasped, then pushed deeper, and she felt it roll over her, wave after wave of orgasm. He kissed her then, mouth working over hers as his thrusts speeded up, his own climax hitting him. He clamped his arms around her and sucked desperately at her tongue, and she rode the final contractions as she came down.

When it was over, he lay against her, shaking slightly. She ran her hands up and down his sides, dusting butterfly kisses over his face. He smiled sleepily at her.

"Please tell me this isn't just the aftermath of battle," he mumbled. She slapped the top of his head lightly.

"You went into battle. I just trashed the lobby, remember?" She hugged him tighter and dropped a kiss on the soft hair she'd just slapped. "It's not just anything, Wes." She thought about it for a moment. "Well, maybe it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

He snuffled against her shoulder. "...love Casablanca ..." His voice trailed off as he fell asleep.

She smiled up at the ceiling. "Yeah," she whispered into the dark. "I kinda figured you would."

Willow heard the key turn in the door lock and jumped up from the sofa. Tara looked up from her book, and Buffy came around the kitchen counter. Xander continued to snore lightly.

It was almost ten o'clock, and they'd been waiting for Angel to bring Giles back all evening. Willow gave a happy sigh when the door swung open to reveal their Watcher, supported between Angel and a man she didn't know. Buffy rushed around her and Tara stepped out of the way as they led Giles into the room and lowered him to the couch.

Willow couldn't have moved to save her soul.

Something very weird was going on. The stranger, a guy a head shorter than Angel, about thirty years old and cute in an older guy kind of way, had green eyes. Old green eyes. Very old green eyes that only showed half a soul.

"Willow?" Angel's voice. She turned slowly. Tara was beside her now, holding on to her hand. Tara felt it too. That was good. That grounded her a little.

Until she looked into Angel's dark eyes, and saw the other half of the green-eyed man's soul.

"You okay, Will?" Buffy sounded confused and protective.

"Yeah, kinda," she managed to answer. There was a strange humming in the air. "You hear that?"

"Hear what?" Buffy asked. Willow shook her head.

"It's magick, Buffy," Giles answered her question. Buffy started to pepper him with more questions, about his health, about the bad guys, about a dozen other things, but Willow wasn't listening.

"Blessed be," she greeted him. He gave her an odd look.

"Bright Blessings," he answered tentatively.

"There's ... darkness in ... you." Tara stuttered a little bit, but she stayed bravely beside Willow. Angel came to stand beside Lindsey.

"Leavened by the Light," Willow said softly, reaching out to touch a shining strand of the magickal web binding the two men. Her other hand clenched tightly on Tara's.

The web hummed.

"You share a soul," she said even more quietly. The stranger glanced between her and Angel.

"Are you okay, Willow?" Angel echoed Buffy's question.

"Oh, yeah," she breathed. "This is amazing. Be happy." It sounded like an order. Angel nodded. The stranger just stared at her. "You can, you know," she reassured him. He blinked, and the web faded away.

Too cool. She couldn't wait to get Tara alone so they could figure out just what they'd witnessed. Her gaze met Giles' over the back of the couch. Well, maybe she and Tara and Giles could talk about it. That would be ... neat.

Buffy wasn't too sure just what was going on between her ex-boyfriend and the new guy, or between Angel and Willow, at this point. Giles was white around the mouth and all bandaged up, so she didn't press him too hard. He'd just fall asleep on her and that wouldn't help. She glanced over at Xander. Hmph. Guys.

Willow pulled Tara over into the corner and started talking Wicca with her. For a moment, Buffy felt very much alone. Then she told herself sternly to get over it. Will was happy. That was the important thing.

She looked back at the two men who'd brought Giles home. Oddly enough, Angel looked kind of happy, too. It wasn't an expression she was used to seeing on him. Broodingness was more his style. But this expression looked good. Sort of. In a strange, unsettling way.

Stepping over to the two of them, she shoved her hands in her back pockets and looked up at Angel. "Hey," she offered.

"Hey," he responded. They stared at one another some more. The new guy didn't say anything, just watched them both. Angel looked over at him, then nodded from him to her. "Buffy, this is Lindsey. Lindsey, this is Buffy."

The new guy -- Lindsey -- held his hand out. Buffy shook it. Nice handshake. Nice hand. Pretty guy. Kind of over-polished, but cute, for an older guy. She looked back and forth between them. Having her first love be two and a half centuries old, she considered herself fit to judge the relative cuteness of older guys.

"Nice to meet you," he offered.

"Yeah, you too," she said, distracted by the vibe between them. "Uhm, you okay, Angel?"

He smiled at her, a real smile, not the little half smile he usually gave everybody. "Yeah. Getting on with my life, you know?"

That set her back on her heels. That particular code phrase had a specific meaning. She looked at Lindsey again, looking more closely this time.

Oh, my God. She could feel her eyes bugging out. Angel shrugged one shoulder.

"It kinda happened when I wasn't looking."

"What?" Lindsey asked. Was the guy clueless? Angel looked happy. Not the normal Angel-look.

"Me falling in love with you," Angel said matter-of-factly.

Buffy took a deep breath. That shouldn't have hurt. She took another deep breath and waited.

It hadn't hurt.

She blinked. Maybe they were ready to get on with their lives, after all. It was just so weird. A guy? And Angel? Lindsey looked over at her.

"Is this when Angelus comes roaring out and we have to stake him?"

Hurt or no hurt, this was not a teasing zone. She gave him a dirty look.

"No," she said quellingly. "That's when you go to bed with him." Her mouth clamped shut. Lindsey carefully didn't look at Angel. Angel carefully didn't look at Lindsey. Both men carefully didn't look at Buffy. Soon into the not-looking-at-one-another stage, Buffy got the clue. "Too much information!"

At that, Angel grinned at her, and she found herself grinning back. Reaching up, she touched his cheek very gently. "Be happy. Since you can."

He gave her a very gentle look. "You too, Buffy."

She nodded, then turned away and walked back to Giles. "You want to stay the night?" she asked, not looking at them.

"I don't think so," Angel answered. It was final, but not cruel. "We've got time to make it before sunrise if we head off now."

Giles looked at her, and she looked down at her hands before looking back over at Angel.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Angel looked down at his feet. Lindsey looked at Angel. "Drive carefully."

He nodded, and she forced herself to look at Lindsey. He had turned and was watching her, an unreadable look in his eyes.

"Nice meeting you. Take care of him." Or I'll come after you and rip you into little bloody pieces, she left unspoken, but he got the message. Satisfied, she nodded at him, and he nodded back.

Willow and Giles called out their good-byes. The door closing behind them woke up Xander.

"Giles! You're home! Did I miss anything?" He looked around the room, still half asleep. Buffy shook her head.

"Just Angel." And his new boyfriend. She took the thought out, looked at it from a few different angles, then put it back away. She'd take it out and look at it again when she was alone.

This was going to take a lot of processing. On the other hand, he was happy and he wasn't Angelus. So all the weirdness had an up-side. She couldn't argue with that.

The car was quiet for the first half hour of the drive. Finally, Lindsey stopped staring out the window and offered a comment.

"She's pretty."

"Yeah," Angel agreed.

Ten minutes later, he tried again. "Was it just me, or did Willow seem kind of freaked out by us?"

"She's a powerful Wiccan. She saw something there. Backed up what Giles told us earlier."

Lindsey nodded. "Yeah." The conversation lagged.

"The Slayer's protective of you."

Angel shrugged, staring out at the freeway in front of them.

"Possessive, too," Lindsey prodded him.

"She's getting on with her life," Angel told the night.

"You too?"

With no prior warning, Angel swung the wheel to the right and took them onto the shoulder. Lindsey grabbed hold of the dash to keep from taking a header into the windshield. Before he could catch his balance, Angel yanked off his seat belt, punched the button to release Lindsey, and pulled the startled man into his arms. Lindsey opened his mouth to ask him what the hell he was doing and Angel stole his air.

By the time the kiss was over, Lindsey was oxygen-starved, light-headed, thoroughly aroused, and had forgotten his question. Angel answered him anyway.

"Yes, I mean it. Yes, I love you. Yes, I believe in us. Yes, she gave us her blessing and yes, I'll take it. I'll take you."

"Promise?" Lindsey gasped out.

"As soon as we get home," Angel vowed. Then he fastened them both back in their seat belts and burned rubber getting back on the road.

Lindsey grinned all the way back to L.A.

FIN