“The containment units are located on several different floors,” Wesley explained as they walked. “The don’t refer to them as such, of course, but that’s essentially what they are. They’re facilities, something akin to apartments, for luxury treatment of guests whose services are required on site.”
“Like the high-roller suites in Vegas,” Dawn murmured.
Wesley glanced at her sideways, amused. “Something like that, yes. If they’re keeping Spike here it will be in those rooms…unfortunately they’re on several floors – some on the fourth, some on the eighth, and some on the tenth.”
Buffy nodded. “We’ll search them all together, or as far as we can get before the troops come out. Quickly, quietly. Wes, lead the way. You know this place better than…” Looking around she sighed. “…Angel.”
Dawn frowned. “Where’d he go?”
“Probably rushing off to save the day on his own,” Cordy grumbled.
“There he is,” Anya pointed as they rounded a corner and saw Angel at the other end of the hall, headed around a corner of his own.
Anya turned to Buffy. “He’s not waiting with the group like we outlined in the plan. What’s the point in having a plan if he doesn’t follow it?”
Buffy sighed. “I’ll see if I can get him, you guys keep going,” she told them and jogged a few steps to catch up with him. “Angel…Angel! Would you hold on a minute?” she grumbled as she neared him at the end of one of the third floor hallways. “Were you planning to wait for us, or just go barging around this place by yourself?”
“Something like that,” he muttered without stopping.
She quickened her pace to keep up with him. “Well…great…but that’s not what we agreed on.”
He shrugged. “Things change.”
“Things change?” she repeated. “Care to throw in another syllable here, or are you going for some kind of award?”
“What?”
Buffy gave him a look. “You. You’re making Oz look positively gabby. Something’s up.”
Angel inspected a wooden door with care, honing his senses before moving on, distracted. “I’m just here doing the job you asked us to do, Buffy…saving Spike, stopping an apocalypse. You know the drill.”
“Well, yeah…I do,” she allowed. “It’s our job, remember? Not always the most personally rewarding, but hey, I like my Earth livable and rotating on its axis, not sucked into a demon dimension or overrun with nightmares. We find Spike, we stop that from happening. All is as it should be.”
“It’s never as it should be.”
She groaned. “Okay, stop. Just stop,” she ordered, grabbing his arm and forcing him to look at her. “Something is seriously bothering you. Why are you acting like this?”
He looked around, almost sniffing the air. “Vampire sensors haven’t gone off yet,” he told her. “Something’s wrong.”
“When isn’t something? That’s not what I meant.” Grabbing his arm she stopped him and half-turned his body to face her. “Something’s wrong with you. You’re acting…”
“Like I want to get this job done.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not it. It’s something else. You’re…” she gave him a sheepish smile. “Well, sorry to be a bit childish, but you’re grumpy.”
He turned on her, exasperated. “Gee, sorry if hunting through a lawyer-infested building with people who want to kill us while we search for Spike doesn’t just put a smile on my face.”
Buffy took a step back. “You don’t have to be here, you know,” she told him. “I appreciate your help, but you can just turn around and go home if that’s what you really want.”
“I’m going to finish this,” he snapped.
They continued walking down the hall, Buffy stalking after Angel angrily and brushing past him. “Now I understand why you didn’t want your memory back.”
As she moved past him he grabbed her arm and stopped her, swinging her around to face him. “What’s that mean?”
Snatching her arm back she glared up into his brown eyes. “It means if I’d known that giving it back to you would make you turn into whoever this is, this sanctimonious jackass, I might have tried talking you out of it like you wanted.”
“Nothing’s changed. I’m still the same.”
Buffy snorted. “Not even by half. So far you’re moody, you’re cranky, you go marching in here without consulting the rest of us, you order us around and then take off on your own…and what the hell is going on with you and Cordy? You’ve been weird and snappy with each other since we did the spell. Sorry if you two had a tiff but you need to get over it until we get this done!”
“I don’t want to talk about Cordelia,” he snapped.
“Then talk to me about something! Angel…you had a total personality reversal occur in about the span of about fifteen seconds. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” he all but roared, whirling around. “And everything! All we’ve done since you got here is fight, sorry if I’m a little tired of it. We’ve got a job, let’s do it and get it over with. The sooner we get out of here, the better.” He turned from her then and began stalking down the hall.
Buffy stood against the wall, motionless. “So, it’s me,” she concluded softly.
He stilled, his back to her. “Not everything’s about you, Buffy.”
“You’re making that quite obvious.” Walking in the opposite direction she called over her shoulder with distaste. “Go ahead on your own, if you want. I’m going to wait for the others. They shouldn’t be left alone.”
He sighed heavily and stood his ground for a moment, glowering, before turning to go after her. “I’ve had a rough couple of days and I’m taking it out on you.”
She glared at him, eyes hot. “I’ll be out of your hair, soon. We all will.”
“I’ve got a lot going on in my head, okay? And I haven’t had a ton of time to work it all out.”
They stopped now, facing each other. “You’re grouchy,” she said, somewhat pitifully.
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll work on it.” Then, “Okay?” a bit more gently. Green eyes studied his face until he looked away, uncomfortably. “What?”
“Is it that different?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Having my memory back?”
Buffy nodded.
“Yeah…it is. A lot of stuff has happened. Stuff you don’t know about.”
“Like the fact that you had a son and didn’t tell me?”
There it was…the million dollar question.
“Not once…” she continued, ashamed that even she could hear the hurt in her voice, “…in the past year…you never called, you never took a minute to tell me?”
“I…I don’t know. I wasn’t sure how,” he stammered softly. “We haven’t been…close…in so long. How do I just call you and…”
They stood in silence, the florescent lights buzzing around them, and their hearts screamed questions.
How could we let ourselves get so far apart like this?
How is it that we aren’t friends anymore?
You have a child, something I could never have given you…God, do you know how much that hurts?
You started something back there…how do you feel about me now? Do you still love me like that?
I know I felt something in those kisses…but was it just my memory or was it real?
What’s going to happen now?
He cleared his throat and the voices from his head. “I didn’t know how to tell you, Buffy. And honestly, I wasn’t sure you’d want to know. Things with Connor have been…confusing, to say the least. He was just a baby when Holtz took him. I thought I’d never see him again…and suddenly he was back. Only now he hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you…he can’t. You’re his father.”
He raised an eyebrow.
She frowned. “Point taken. But my dad’s different. He’s never around, he doesn’t care. You do.”
Angel cocked his head. “I’ve changed a lot, Buffy…more than I’d realized.”
Buffy’s face softened and she reached up to his face, his hair, swiping at some stray cobweb he’d picked up in the basement. Her touch sparked against his skin, as it always had. “Not so much that you would turn your back on your son. You’ll never convince me of that, Angel, so don’t even try. You love him more than anything.”
I love you. The thought came completely involuntarily and stunned him to his core. Taking a quick breath he stepped back from her as if violently pushed.
“Angel?” she asked, as she always had…as if his name were the single most important question in the world.
“This is insane,” he whispered, staring at her like he was seeing her for the first time.
“What?”
“Insane.”
“I’m…insane?” she asked.
“No…yes. I mean…” he floundered, looking from her to the floor and back again.
“Angel…you’re not making sense. And…we really should get back to--”
He moved toward her and the proximity cut off anything more she was going to say. The air around them was charged, electric and tense as they stared into each other’s eyes. He stopped, mere inches from her, and the space around them sizzled.
A million thoughts raced through his mind. She’s right here. It would be so easy to find out how you each feel…just lean in, press her against that wall and find out if it’s real.
Neither of them moved.
Oh my God…what’s he doing? What am I doing? she chastised herself. Is he going to kiss me? Do I want him to? Oh yeah… she realized. I do. God do I want him to kiss me. Should I? Can I? Just one step more and we could be…
Buffy broke contact first, sure he could read every thought in her head, her gaze shifting to the floor, embarrassed. “We have work to do, Angel,” she said gently. God…kiss me. “We…ah…”
“We have…things…to be doing,” he finished.
“Yes. Things. Important things.”
They moved at the same time, he bending toward her to pick up the axe he’d dropped, she to pick up the stake she hadn’t realized had slipped from her fingers.
“Oh…sorry.”
“I…excuse me…”
“Here, I’ll just…get my…”
When their heads bumped clumsily they laughed and looked up at each other, so close he could feel her breath on his face. It was irresistible for both and they came together, lips brushing.
“I know she came down this way,” came Dawn’s voice from nearby.
Buffy and Angel sprang apart guiltily, each breathing heavily as they stared at each other.
“There they are,” Anya grumbled. “You know, there’s no “I” in team, you two. Not in the English language, anyway.”
“What’s wrong?” Dawn asked, looking at her sister curiously. “You look all..freaked out.”
“I—I’m fine,” Buffy assured her sister, smoothing her hair and picking up the stake.
“You sure?”
“Angel?” Wesley asked.
“Fine…we were…ah…going to check out these rooms,” he improvised.
Cordelia stared back and forth from Buffy to Angel, her expression unreadable.
And then the lights went out.
*~*~*
“Um…guys?” Willow asked, stopping in the middle of the hall. She turned and bumped into what she sincerely hoped was Giles. One minute they’d been heading down the south corridor of the fourth floor, then…pitch blackness. Scary, creepy, sudden pitch blackness. The kind that was typically associated with scary, creepy things coming out of the dark and killing you…suddenly.
“Will?” Xander called, then, “Oof! …I’m okay,” came his weakened response as he walked into something.
“This is probably not a good sign,” Giles offered, fumbling in the darkened hallway.
“Incendie,” Willow muttered and a small ball of yellow light appeared before her, casting an eerie glow to the rest of the hall.
“I’m guessing they know we’re here,” Xander offered, walking up to them and rubbing his arm.
Willow frowned. “And we were so quiet…”
“Willow, contact the others,” Giles requested. “We need to know they’re okay, and find out where they are. Safety in numbers might be in order.”
She nodded and seemed to space out for a moment. When she blinked a second later she told them, “They’re okay. They’re somewhere on the fifteenth floor.”
Digging into his bag Giles produced a flashlight and clicked it on to be sure it worked. “Tell them we’ll be down in a moment, not to move.”
She did as requested and a minute later they were off, carefully making their way down the hall. “I can’t get a hold of Buffy,” she whispered.
“And people only accuse me of turning my brain off,” Xander joked, spinning around, dagger up, to be sure no one was behind them.
“She’s not answering her phone,” Willow replied, holding up the small cell phone for him to see. The LED screen glowed green in the dark.
“Oh,” he shrugged. “You can’t get through to her with the telepathy?”
“It’s too far…there are too many barriers between us.”
“According to Wesley there are electronics throughout the Wolfram and Hart building. It might be too much interference in the air.”
Xander snorted. “I knew those commercials with that guy walking all over the earth with his cell phone were full of crap. Sure, you can call Seattle from a mountain top in Peru but go through a tunnel, or get around too much stereo equipment…”
“Shh…” Giles warned, stopping dead in his tracks.
The trio cocked their heads and listened. “I don’t hear anything,” Willow whispered.
Xander nodded. “That’s why I’m nervous. Anyone else notice that we’re in an apartment building that just got its power cut and no one’s even opened a door to see if it’s just them?”
“Shh!” Giles hissed again. “Be quiet!”
He squatted in the hallway, keeping low, and squinted into the darkness on the other end. “This way…quickly. We need to get to the stairs, get down to the fourth floor and warn the others.”
“Warn them about what?” Willow asked, her voice trembling.
“Something is hunting us.”
*~*~*
“Uh…guys?” Faith called.
“Still right behind you,” Gunn murmured, causing her to jump. “Anyone else just get really weirded out?”
“You don’t think it’s just a random power outage?” Fred asked nervously.
“Nothing’s ever random when we’re demon hunting in an evil apartment complex,” he whispered back.
“Owned by an evil law firm,” Faith added, then practically jumped out of her skin for the second time in as many minutes. “Jeez, Willow…”
Are you guys okay? the witch asked softly, invading Faith’s head.
Yeah…it’s a little dark down here, though.
Us, too. Where are you?
Fourth floor…west corridor, about a third of the way down.
We’re on the fifteenth floor… There was a pause, then, Giles says to tell you to stay put. We’re coming to you.
Got it. Be careful.
She turned back to Fred and Gunn. Something itched inside her…a sense. Danger. Close by. “Get back, get down. Stay low and quiet.”
“Why?” Gunn asked, following orders.
Faith closed her eyes. “I’m listening.”
“Don’t tell me what for, don’t tell me what for,” Fred mantra-ed quietly.
There was no noise for a minute, then another, until finally Faith heard it. Rustling. Clothing of some sort…moving slowly, steadily toward them.
“Someone’s coming,” she murmured, just loud enough for her companions to hear her. “We’re going to have a fight on our hands in a minute. You guys ready?”
“Maybe it’s just someone walking their dog,” Fred whispered frantically.
“Then they’re in for a surprise,” Faith told her and took out the stake she’d tucked into her boot. In the faint light of the moon coming from a window at the end of the hall, they waited. They didn’t wait long.
Honing her senses Faith rose to her feet and struck out, just as the first wave of ambushers reached them. In the black it was hard to tell exactly how many were attacking them, could be three, could be ten. She didn’t care. Her fists connected with the jaw of one of the beings, it was so dark she couldn’t even tell if they were human or demon, though instinct told her they were probably a team combined of both.
She brushed up against Gunn, holding off two on his own. “Not someone walking their dog!” he shouted and she actually grinned. Nice to joke with someone again when she was fighting.
“Ya think?” she called back, flipping one of the attackers over and onto his back. To her right she could hear Fred struggling and groped to find the girl in the dark. Two more assassins blocked her way and she tossed them aside, carelessly, moving to the girl and grabbing her assailant by the collar. With a mighty pull she ripped him from Fred and threw him across the hallway, satisfied when she heard him hit the far wall with a crunch.
God…if only there was a little more light…
“What’s that?!” Gunn called, double-clocking one of the mystery men.
“What’s what? Kinda pitch-black here in case you hadn’t noticed!” Faith shouted as another enemy found her. Freeing herself from his grip she flipped him around and snapped his neck in one fluid motion.
“That!” Gunn cried.
Faith looked around wildly, trying to pinpoint what he was looking at. “Let there be light,” she breathed out heavily, squinting at the bright object that seemed to be floating down the hallway. Not floating…rushing at them, actually.
“Come on!” Xander shouted to her as he hauled her to her feet, appearing from no where.
Faith all but stumbled over a body as she struggled to follow him. “What the… Where did you guys…?”
“Stair-well, opposite end,” he told her as they ran down the hall, Willow, Giles, Fred and Gunn behind them. “There are more, coming.”
“Then we fight,” she told him.
“Yeah, but until then, we run.”
“Get to the stairs!” Giles shouted and a ball of light zoomed around Faith and Xander to take the lead, lighting the way.
“Follow Tinkerbell!” Xander told her.
They burst around the corner, now heading north along the apartment building. “More ahead,” Faith pointed out.
“More behind us, too,” Gunn panted.
Willow held out a finger, pointing. “Stairs…right over there.”
“We need to get outside, before they regroup.”
“Consider them grouped,” Fred told them, eyes wide.
Faith glanced around, eyes huge. Time to make a decision. “Go,” she ordered the others. “Get to the stairs, get out. I can handle this.”
“We’re not leaving you,” Xander told her.
“You have to! Go!”
Gunn looked around as the enemy moved closer. “Not gonna happen!”
“Don’t be stupid, you have to get out. I can take care of them,” Faith insisted, pulling a knife from her waistband.
“Then consider me here for the show,” Gunn snapped back.
As they stood their ground, all but encircled by the practically unseen enemy, Willow stepped back and began to mutter under her breath. “Bring the light and bid my word, bring the light and bid my word, bring the light and bid my word…” she mumbled, eyes closed. When she opened them suddenly her head snapped up.
And the lights came on.
Or so it seemed. The ball that had been guiding them suddenly burst into millions of pieces that grew before the eyes, shining brighter and more brightly as the seconds passed.
The shouts of blinded men filled the hallway.
“What the…?” Faith muttered.
Gunn began to laugh. “They’re not demons…they’re just goons. Human goons.”
“Goons with...light-sensitive night-vision goggles,” Xander pointed out. "Good call, Will."
Fred grinned. “Blinded goons.” Her smile faded suddenly. “Which means we should get the hell out of here before they recover.”
Giles nodded. “Ah…right.” Taking Willow by the arm they headed into the mass of pseudo-soldiers, all clutching at their faces as they tore the goggles from their eyes.
Faith, Gunn and Xander made easy work of the few standing in their way as the others pushed through and burst into the stairwell, heading down the stairs and out into the Los Angeles night.
