Die Another Day
by Minion

RATING: FRT [V] [AU]

PAIRING: WF

SPOILERS: Takes place right after the end of "Rain of Fire" Season Four.

DISCLAIMER: Joss and ME own everything Buffy and Angel related. I just find it kewl to type up my own stuff sometimes. "Die Another Day" belongs to Madonna, though.

With Gunn unconcious on the couch, Lorne looking for medical supplies, Wesley paced about the lobby of the Hyperion. Angel had yet to return, and Lord knew what that meant. He hadn't seen exactly what had befallen the vampire moments before the square of corpses lit up like a bunch of roasted marshmellows. Of course, it might not matter at all in the grand scheme of things.

They had failed.

The world was going to end.

Taking a last look at the lobby, Wes climbed the stairs with a bit of a groan as his muscles protested the movement. When he arrived at the room he had kept for emergencies like washing off demon goo or napping before continuing to research, Wes closed the door behind him, making his way into the restroom. Staring at his reflection in the mirror, he noticed the dried blood, the brusing. Going about cleaning himself up,he tossed his soiled clothing into the far corner, going back into the room pulling out a t-shirt, jeans and a clean pair of socks resting them on the dresser.

He collapsed back onto the bed, the fire streaking outside illuminating the dark room with a amber glow. Reaching out, he tapped on the alarm on his cd player alarm clock. A few hours of rest was all he needed, then he could go back out into the living hell that was LA and find that beast.

I'm gonna wake up, yes and no.

Lorne brought the smelling salts underneath Gunn's nose, awakening the fallen hunter. "Did my head get caved in with my own axe?" he groaned as Lorne dropped the medical supplies on the floor, wrapping his arms around his friend.

"I thought you were going to end up on a Pylean platter there for awhile."

"Yeah well, toss in a side of bacon and some hashbrowns, and I might look edible." Laughing through the splitting migraine, Lorne helped Gunn up and towards the stairs.

"We're not going with the run back out and attack him with no plan thing again are we?" Lorne asked.

"Naw, first time was enough for me."

I'm gonna kiss some part of.

Angel watched as if paralyzed. The woman he loved, the woman who had needed time to deal with everything that she had learned, she was before him now, making love to his sixteen-year-old son. Closing his eyes, he prayed that when he reopened them to the world, the whole evening would be just another hideous nightmare, like the others he was plagued with every day while he rested in the basement of the Hyperion.

His lids fluttered back open, the blood continued to trickle slowly out of the gaping hole in his neck. Connor and Cordelia continued making love under the fire-lit sky. Angel spun around, heading across the roof of the building he had climbed. There was too much pain, entirely too much. He needed to replinish himself, then he would deal with them and the rest of the world.

Fred Burkle kept the denizens of the eat in diner under control. After the quake had hit, the majority of them didn't even dare to look out of the blinded windows. She knew where she had to be though, knew where she belonged. This wasn't normal; this had to be some supernatural force that the others were busy fighting. Getting up from behind the counter, she headed for the door.

"Wait!" The waitress cried out, snagging her arm. "What do we do? What's going on?"

Fred looked down at her feet and then her hand on the front door. "Go home, spend time with your family because if what I think is happening, well, kiss the world goodbye." The hand falling limply off Fred's wrist, she excited the diner greeted wiht the chaos of the night sky. Of course even the looters were afraid, a few broken store windows, the streets deserted save for the physics guru. "I hope they are all right."

Connor collapsed next to Cordelia, who held him tightly to herself. Never had he thought it would be possible. Cordelia had loved his father, or so he had thought. She had given him this, the only brief shred of hapiness in his short life. Yes, his innocence was lost with that shy kiss, but never would he trade it. In this world or in the next. For a short time he had been Connor, he had been loved.

I'm gonna keep this secret.

Cordy lay staring at the cracked celieng of the warehouse as Connor slipped into the land of Nod easily. What had she done? Was she even thinking straight anymore? Then again she was in love with a vampire that had murdered so many people she had lost count. A vampire who had a soul but at the same time there was this little pesky gypsy curse that made him go fubar if he was too happy. Cordy now had an inkling of what life had been like for Buffy.

Tilting her head slowly, she looked over Connor. No one had to know about this. If for some miraculous reason everyone managed to defeat the big bad and survive it would be a well kept secret. One between Connor and herself, a gift nothing more. In the end, would it really matter?

I'm gonna close my body now.

"I guess I'll die another day," Cordelia whispered to herself as she turned finding Connors eyes looking tiredly at her.

"I guess I'll die another day," he repeated with a slight smile as Cordy checked the gash at the side of his head that was all ready healing.

"Yeah," they said together, turning to look back out of the window.

"I guess I'll die another day," Gavin Park muttered as Lilah removed the gag from his mouth.

"Day ain't over yet, Gavin, and you do know how much I like trying out new furniture." Lilah sat on the corner of her desk, leaving the lawyer still tied up looking badly bruised from his encounter with Angel.

"Are you going to untie me?" Gavin asked, squirming himself into a seated position.

"Now why would I want to do that?" Getting up, Lilah walked behind her desk, picking up her phone, finding nothing but dead air.

"Calling the white hat? Even now?" Gavin shook his head.

"At least I have someone I could call other than the..." Lilah was about to say something out of reflex, but instead she grabbed her coat without another word, heading for the door to her office.

"Lilah, you can't leave me here, not if the apocolypse has begun." Gavin was pleading like the pathetic flotsom that he was.

"Where would you go? World's going to end, you know; they couldn't stop it. You're right, though." Lilah grabbed her keys out of the plate near the door to her office. Gavin now on his feet with his hands tied behind his back. "I guess, I'll die another day. You won't." Clicking the button on her keychain, there was a sound of a brief puff of air, Gavin's corpse hitting the floor next to her desk. "Clean that mess up, would you?" she asked of the freightned assistant sitting just outside the door. "Don't worry; he's not all that heavy, lacking a spine."

Angel raided a local blood bank, sitting atop the Hyperion he drank from the pouches casting the empty ones off to the side as he was lost in deep thought. Of course the beast had stared him in the eye, right before tossing him off the roof. Physical fights wouldn't win this by a long shot. The creature was from Hell. He had been there; Buffy had sent him. Death always alluding him even there. No one ever truly died; they moved on, to another place.

His disbelief having turned to hurt, his rejection fueling his anger. Angel had been pushed off by all about him; this time would be different. He had a date with a hell beast. This time Angelus would accept the invite. This he would do alone, living to die another day had given him a clearer path. If he could only figure out how to track his royal ugliness.

"What have we here?" Angel said, leaning over a bit almost falling off the edge. Fred was dodging incoming fireballs, heading to the front door with her coat draped above her head. "Sigmund Freud.....analyze this." Angel got to his feet, draining the last packet of blood, feeling the wound closing in on itself. "Where was our little bookworm the entire time the world became infested with rats and suicidal birds? Why is she returning now? After it was all done hours ago?" Scratching the top of his head, he bounced in place.

Analyze this
Analyze this

The words ran themselves over in Fred's mind. "Ghosts that are rats, sparrow-cide. Quakes and fire in the sky." Pushing the door open, she closed it swiftly behind her. Papers were all over the floor, the counter, a map with some symbol drawn on it, the same symbol on the floor near the coffee table. First aid supplies near the far end of the couch, blood on the arm. Blood all over the floor in small amounts.

The weapons cabinets flung open and mostly empty. The door to the study swinging back and forth with the light breeze from the air conditioner. "Guys?" she called out. Nervously, she reached for the modified ball bat, making her way slowly up the stair case.

I'm gonna break the cycle.

Earth...wind...water...fire...

"Elements...from the Earth created from fire and lifted up by the winds, brought back down again as rain," Cordelia mumbled as she pulled on her clothing. Connor still sleeping across the way. "It's the damn system. We are born from the Earth; the Earth was born from fire. We all turn to ash picked up by the wind, scattered about and brought back to the Earth once again."

Snapping her fingers, she spun about trying to put it all together again. "Everything on the Earth has connections, where there's fire there's water." Jumping up with glee, she snatched her crossbow. "I'm gonna shake up the system." With a last look at Connor, she ran out of the warehouse. If only she could find the others. They would help her or think her mad.

Fred found her way up to the room she shared with Gunn, her boyfriend sprawled out on the bed looking every bit as if his head had been caved in. Part of her wanting to dash in and the other part keeping her rooted out in the hall. She could hear Lorne from somewhere in the room, probably looking through the drawers or rather the creative crayon formulas on the far wall.

"You knew all along?" Gunn asked, shaking his head.

"I knew in Caritas that night the bunch of you tone deaf crumb cakes attempted to sing. Granted not as bad as Cordy's last performance, but my poor ears can't keep taking that kind of torture." Gunn laughed painfully as Lorne came over tossing some clothes on the bed before sitting down at the foot. "I'm gonna destroy my ego, eventually. Vegas could have done me in, but I had my friends to rescue me."

"Yeah some job we did of it too. I think I'm gonna close my body now. Put up the gone to lunch sign. I can barely move, man." Gunn rose up on his elbows. "If you knew, then why didn't you say anything?"

Lorne futzed with the ends of his suit coat. "It's not my place. I may be able to read people, but things change, people change. Besides, you knew yourself, Mr. Axe Happy."

Gunn fell back on the bed with a thump. "I think I'll find another way."

"For what?" Lorne asked, getting to his feet.

"I don't know anymore. I just will."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Lorne shook his head, exasperated. "Knock yourself out; just beware the backlash won't be pretty."

Cordelia ran up the stairs, casting a confused look at Fred before dashing in to stand in the doorway. "You can't stop now! There's so much more to know. It's not my time to go. It's not yours either. I mean, come on, we took on this giant slug thing at my high school graduation; this beast guy is going to be nothing doing."

"How do you know?" Gunn asked, sitting up.

"Did you remember, cupcake?" Lorne sat back down on the side of the bed.

"Not at first no. Connor and I ran into it, beat the snot out of him, gave me a nice parting gift." She raised her chin so the guys could see her neck. "Well, then I got to thinking, and it hit me. I know how to get this guy, or at least I think I do."

"That's great!" Both Lorne and Gunn cheered as Cordy flopped down at the head of the bed as she began to explain her elemental theory.

Down the hall, an alarm was going off. Not the horrible blaring noise but rather music from the tiny minstrels trapped in the cd that spun to life a mere hour after the ex-watcher's head had hit the pillow. Groaning, he rolled over slightly, batting at the snooze button with his left hand. When the music had stopped, Wes rolled back over onto his stomach. In his dreams, he had not been able to get past what he had seen on the roof. There was something there; he just had to think.

Fred stood in the doorway, her eyes darting from the chatter in Gunn's room back to Wesley. The trio down the hall not even calling her into the pow wow, Cordelia the only one that had even noticed she was there for the briefest of moments. Her heart still heavy from what had happend with the Professor, what she had done, what Gunn had done for her, she stepped into the room softly, the door left cracked open.

"For every sin, I'll have to pay," Angel continued to recite to himself as he looked about the city from his vanatage point. His past coming back to haunt him at odd moments. What happend in Europe, what happend in Sunnydale, Hell, LA. It all seemed like some vicious cycle. He was destined to cause destruction.

He could hear the others as he made his way down through the floors of the hotel, out onto the street he cast a glance back up at them as they continued to try and gather the grains of salt Cordy was dishing out. With his body healed, his soul still in place, he awakened the demon within him.

"I've come to work," he told the night sky. "I've come to play," he added, shifting into his game face. Plan A had failed. Cordy's plan might have merit, but Angel had different plans. He had found another way.

Several streets over, Connor stirred, finding himself alone, his eyes finding the opened door. Pulling on his shirt, he shook his head vehemently. "It's not my time to go." Gathering weapons, he slowly lost his mind. "I didn't start it. I didn't start it," he insisted to no one but himself."

"I'm gonna avoid the cliche, but you're so asking for it." Cordelia laughed as Lorne brought up a valid point.

"Well I don't want to," Lorne insisted, pacing the small room.

"Come on, counting our chickens before they hatch?" Gunn snorted as he pulled on his clean shirt.

"Ok fine, no chicken counting, but I for one am chicken, so there you have it." Lorne sunk down in the chair across from the bed.

"Don't worry, there's plenty of other likely candidates for the job." Cordy got to her feet, turning to the hall to see why Fred hadn't said anything to find her gone. Must be seeing things again. Shaking it off, she needed to get a few things from her room. "Remember, we will all have to work together to get this to work. All of us," she insisted on her way out.

"She doesn't ask for much does she?" Gunn asked reaching for his spare axe he kept hidden under the bed.

"Last time I checked, No Angel, No Fred, Wes looks about as bad as you. We're not up to snuff." Lorne took off his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his brightly colored shirt. "Point me to the danger."

With the axe in hand, Gunn limped a little into the hallway. "I think it will find us."

As Fred looked down upon Wesley's scarred back, she covered her mouth to keep the shocked gasp from waking him. Kneeling down slowly, her hand hovered above his back, wanting to trace the jagged lines, the remenants of who knew what demon, which vampire. She knew that they all got hurt, but somehow, seeing this, it was different. Giving into the need to touch him, her fingers lightly traced some of the longer scars.

Wesley's breathing was still slow and even; she continued to take in the damage inflicted on the man she considered her knight. As she traced what looked to be a circular scar, she wondered. Others that looked to be knife wounds. Had he taken not only damage from demons and vamps but people as well? The thought sickened her. That someone would ever want to cause Wesley harm.

He rolled over that moment, her exploring hand now trapped underneath him, his head resting on the pillow facing her as he slept. She wanted to retrieve her hand, run out of the hotel as fast as her legs could carry her; instead her free hand hovered above the still angry scar on his neck. Justine. Fred sneered. She had been angry with him that was true, but he had almost died. If only he had come to her, told her what he had found.

Why? Why would he come to you when you were busy having pancakes and attending fairs? Confused even more now than when she had darted out of the hotel to the diner, her hand hovered near him in indecision.

You've been keeping track of me? she had asked in disbelief.

Yes.

Fred shivered when she heard his voice in her mind. His eyes had been so open to her then, like she could cast herself into them and have no fear of falling. Of course a portal in his living room almost tested that theory for her.

With a slight smirk, she rested her palm to his neck, his eyes snapping wide with fear, his hand clamping around her wrist. As his senses came alive, he recognized who it was. His fingers loosened their grip; slowly, his hand returned to rest on his chest where it had been moments before. His senses suspended as Fred rubbed gently at his neck.

His eyes were closed as she continued to rub gently over the scar that reminded him of the biggest mistake of his life, the night that his entire world had changed. The night his body had almost shut down on him, leaving him to the mercy of a drunken homeless man and the elements. Slowly, he turned into her caress, relishing this brief contact that he knew he had no right to accept, he wasn't deserving of her love.

"Winifred," his lethargic gruff voice rumbled from deep within his chest.

"No," she told him. He had paid enough, his life always on the downspin of a yo-yo. "I didn't know you were here. I had hoped, I knew." As she pulled her hand out from underneath him, it found the gash on the side of his head that contiuned to bleed despite the steri strips.

"You shouldn't be here." he insisted reaching up for her hand, finding that Fred laced her fingers with his.

"I'm right where I want to be."

Cordelia stood with her back against the wall with a smile dazzling Lorne who had come in search for her to see if she had awakened Wes and told him the plan. Slipping away from the wall, she wrapped her arm around the anagogic's waist.

"What?" he asked.

"Things are beginning to look up. Now if we could only find Angel and go get this thing."

Connor found himself back in the alley where apparently he was born, the hole in the ground still simmering from where the beast had risen. Peering down, he wondered if he could catch a glimpse of the center of the world. Suddenly, he was grasped and thrown forceably against a wall. "Daddy's home."

Lorne and Cordelia came down the stairs together to find Gunn going over the papers on the floor. Of course they knew how everything had started, they knew where the beast had come from but how would they lure it here? How would they get the thing to come towards them so that they could test out the ex-higher beings jumbled up ideas.

Wesley sat up in the bed, not wanting to believe what he was hearing. He had to have died on that roof or lost his mind. His Fred, she wouldn't want him. She was with the better man. Looking away from her, he felt her fingers runnng through the hair at the back of his neck.

"Want to go save the world so we can have some tea and coffee togther? There's so much I want to tell you. There's so much you have to know."

He didn't dare look at her now, his heart had always been on his sleeve when it came to the intelligent and beautiful woman kneeling next to his bed. Hell, Lilah constantly goaded him about it. How he had not talked to her when he had the chance and now this? When it looked like the world was about to end she would come to him.

When she brought her hand to his jaw he could not help but lean into her palm, he was weak he knew that. Lifting his head he sought out her eyes finding the same pain, uncertainty and longing in her eyes as he knew he held in his, had for sometime now. She rose up to be closer to him, her forehead contacting his.

"Save the world, long talk, the future," she told him.

"But..."

"No buts, no more ifs and maybes. No more silence. When I was sent a spinnin' back to my delusional teenage years, I gravitated toward you like you were a supermagnet. Got my years back and guess what, minus the occasional stray thought and the rambling of a confused woman who used to believe aliens would come take her away, I know that I still feel the same. I want my friend back, the one that convinced me that I couldn't spend the rest of my life hiding under a desk, afraid of chineese take-out and being in public. The man who held me when Caritas started to look like swiss cheese. The same guy who made me nearly black out when he put the stole on my shoulders."

Fred brought her other hand up to cradle his face. "The man that kept track of me even when he didn't have to. Came to see my hideous speech and knew every word of what I was saying. The same guy who knew revenge was a bad thing but instead of handing me a gun I got some options and a nifty portal spell. OH yeah not to mention the cute guy who was a gittery mess that still tried to save me from the big bad vampire even though he had no idea what he was doing."

Wesley looked away a bit embarassed. "I'm lookin for all the above, know where I can find him cause I really miss him. I've missed him ever since the hospital and I've never stopped."

"Could you really forgive me?" he asked uncertainly.

"I already have."

"Can we delay the soppy fest until after LA is back to normal?" Cordy asked from the doorway. "I mean, I gave you both all the time I could spare; now chop chop! There's a sale at Nordstroms this weekend, and by God, I'm not going to miss it for some horned freak nor an emminent sappy moment."

"Cordelia." Wes gritted his teeth.

"Don't give me that tone, Mister. Remember, I have blackmail." Cordy beamed a grin at him before a little wave was given and her feet stomped their way back down the stairs.

"Blackmail?" Fred asked curiously.

"I do a rather bad Sean Connery impersonation."

As Cordy came back down the stairs, she found that Angel had arrived, and he wasn't alone; a very mortified Connor was sitting on the circular couch that covered the permanent pagan symbol on the floor. "Connor?" Cordy asked.

"Not my time, don't want to go," he kept mumbling.

"What did you do to him?" she asked Angel.

"What did I do? I all ready know what you did," he growled back. Cordy took a step in retreat.

"Had great seats. You know, nearly dead, world gonna end. What a show." Angel sat down, wrapping his arm around Connor's shoulders. "See I figure, beastie showed up where Connor was born, beastie didn't kill him nor me, got to work with that you know."

Fred and Wes came walking down the stairs slowly. "Ah look, the whole gang's here. Guess we can get the party started huh. All this pent up emotional baggage we've all got." Angel got up and shoved the couch with Connor still seated on it away from the symbol. "Thing comes in handy you know. Liked the idea by the way." He glanced at Cordy before stepping into the center of the circle. "Don't forget, the one missing piece."

He revealed a knife and Connor came over to stand next to him as Gunn reached behind him blindly for the crossbow that was sitting on the reception counter. Lorne looked on not knowing what to make of this. Fred standing behind Wesley with her hand on the small of his back.

"Blood." Angel smirked as he slit his wrist and then Connors. The drops falling to the floor, the symbol beginning to take life. "You needed a way to bring him here; you just got your wish."

Everyone scrambled for weapons; Cordy reminded them of her idea. The others who had been on the roof realizing that none of their weapons had worked before. Sure the gun fire had slowed it down but not by much. Cordy raced and loaded up on holy water, begging the others to do the same as Angel and Connor stayed within the pentagram.

The building quaked, the roof above the lobby started to crumble. Gunn and Lorne took shelter under the counter as Cordy dashed and took cover under a nearby desk. Wesley pulled Fred into a corner, trying to shield her with his body as the pieces tumbled down dusting the floor with white. Two enormous hooves crunched down moments later, the demon looking quite pissed to be facing off against these two again.

Fred couldn't believe her eyes. The others had gone up against that and returned. A standoff seemed to be forming, the beast craning its neck back and forth waiting for a reason to strike. Angel dropped the knifed to the ground, lifting up his wrist and that of his son's. Speaking in an ancient language, Angel talked. About where he had seen him before, that he knew what the beast wanted.

"Not this time," Angel ended in a language everyone could understand.

The beast, of course, laughed at such a pathetic idea. He would have what he wanted. Angelus would be returned to a eternal life of torment and, as an added bonus, his little bastard halfling son. With its prospects so high, it ignored the others as Gunn made an attempt with his axe, cast aside yet again. Lorne jumped up, firing with the crossbow to have it deflected back towards him, skewering him in the arm.

The demon cried out in pain as he tore the bolt from his flesh. Dropping the crossbow, he went to assist Gunn who appeared to be knocked out again. Two concussions in one day were never good. Connor took a painful breath, his ribs still bothering him he remembered what he had to do. As Angel leapt forward, battling hand to hand with the creature, Connor made his way over to Cordelia.

"Holy water will slow it down. There needs to be a spell done," he told her.

"I'm not the one with the brains in that department." She nodded in the direction of Fred and Wes.

"I thought I had to die," Connor told Cordelia. "I do." He pushed off the ground and ran over to where Wesley and Fred were. "Do you know the spell to cast a fortress of ice?"

"Ice?" Fred asked. "I thought we were going with Holy water," she continued. "No, it makes sense," Wes added, ducking as Angel bounced off the wall next to him. "I can remember it, I need time," he told Connor.

"Time...yea..." Connor got back to his feet and went after the beast from behind. The dagger bending against the rock hard flesh. The beast dropping Angel to the ground, turning on Connor. "Come on," Connor insisted. "Show me what you've got." The beast reached forward ramming his fist into Connor's chest. The sickening crack giving everyone pause.

Connor smirked dropping to his knees inside the pentagram. "Guess this is where I die," he said, watching his father raise up to his knees spitting blood.

"Guess so," Angel replied.

"Kewl," he said, spitting out blood and slumping down to the floor. Gunn and Lorne frozen, Cordelia looking back and forth from Connor to Angel. Fred launched her holy water at the beasts back. Cordelia soon followed as the others started throwing every bit of Holy water they had at the beast who roared in pain.

Its skin somehow changing, vulnerability emerging. Angel got to his feet mindful of the others as they continued to toss holy water. Taking a step back, the beast stumbled on its enormous hooves, reeling from its burning skin. Fred launched her last vial towards its face, cheering as the creatures hands flew up trying to keep its eyes from burning away.

"You can take the beast out of the fire, but never the fire out of the beast. Didn't you know that?" Angel said, coming over to the reeling mammoth.

Wes stepped forward, the Latin coming to him easily as shards of ice pelted the tender flesh of the now staggering beast. When down to its knees it fell, its body looked like the skin was falling off its bones, the blood flowing freely onto the painted symbol. Entirely vulnerable, Gunn reached for his axe, Lorne taking it and tossing it to Angel.

"You couldn't exist down there, and up here, you're not fairing much better." Swinging the axe, the head was severed clean.

A moment later, the body was picked up on a gust of wind. It was as if a tornado had formed in the lobby. Cordy held onto the table she was still under. Lorne tryed to block the harsh wind from blinding himself and Gunn. Wes wrapped his arms around Fred as Angel moved quickly dragging his fallen son away from the spiral. The wind disapeared, the skies outside clearing.

As things began to die down, everyone watched on as Angel held Connor in his lap, Cordelia not knowing what to say about this, about what Angel had seen. Lorne was going to suggest something when Connor gasped a deep breath of air, Angel helping Connor to sit.

"Hurts does it?" Angel asked.

"And you do that all the time?" Connor asked with a smile.

"Not an everyday event, but when I'm launched off buildings, yes."

"How but...?" everyone asked.

"More vampire than I thought." Connor got to his feet. "Really glad it wasn't my time to go though. Had a feeling I was suppose to though."

"You were suppose to," Cordelia mentioned.

"Yeah, and the Powers that Scew you can just go to hell, again," Gunn grumbled.

Fred looked up at Wesley, who was watching her. Slowly, he lowered his lips to hers; they shared their first kiss amongst friends.

"Somehow that doesn't really bother me as much as this splitting headache." Gunn chuckled, leaning back against the counter.

Lorne, sitting next to him, laughed, taking a look around the destruction that befell the lobby. "Looks like we all lived to die another day."

Angel looked from Cordy to Connor. "After I talk to the two of you, your time might be short."

"Angel..." Cordelia began.

"Dad...." Connor replied.

"No, I talk; you two are going to listen. Not here though, the whole daylight upon us thing." Angel motioned towards the hall leading downstairs.

"Think we should hide the weapons?" Gunn asked.

"Um, wouldn't do any good. Vamp weapons and all. What the hell went down, do you know?" Lorne asked, helping Gunn get to his feet. "Must be pretty bad, I mean, other than the stuff we've just been through."

Lorne and Gunn watched as Wesley lifted Fred up off the ground to even out their slight height difference. "I really don't want to see this." Gunn headed for the stairs.

"You going to be ok?" Lorne followed.

"Ask me tomorrow."

When Fred pulled back, she giggled. "Wes, we're alone."

Taking a look around, he sat her back down on her feet. "I hope I was not over zealous. Clearing the room and all." Noticing the clear skies outside and the clock on the far wall about to fall off, Wes took hold of Fred's hands. "I believe you owe me a cup of tea."

Fred twined her fingers with his. "Why don't we just skip the tea and the coffee and go to the serious talking and then other stuff."

"Ah..." he replied, opening the door for her as she stepped over the dead birds. Once they were to his car, he realized he didn't know where to go. "I would suggest my place, but..."

"Lilah," Fred finished, buckling her belt.

"Yes, Lilah." He turned the car over.

"Wes?"

"Yes?" He turned his head towards her.

"Serious conversation. I love you. Do you love me?"

"I have, and I do." He replied.

"Then the or stuff would be you driving anywhere we can be alone. No apocolypse, no Lilah, Just us."

"I'd like that." Wes pulled his car out onto the empty street heading for the main highway. San Diego was a pretty city and not too far away. They could go down to the marina together, catch up on serious snogging.

"What are you going to do about Lilah?" Fred asked as Wes pulled the car out onto the highway, getting into the far lane so they could speed their way to their location.

"I'll deal with her another day. For now, you and I have quite a bit of time to make up." Fred scooted across the seat mindful of the automatic transmission as she leaned up against him. "Until the next apocolypse."

© December 2002

Return to Fanfic