 |
TITLE: Mockingbird, Part 5
AUTHOR: Tesla and dessert_first
RATING:
SPOILERS:
CHARACTERS: Angel/Anya, Xander/Cordelia, Fred/Gunn/Wesley, Spike/Buffy, Tara/Willow, Gwen/Lilah, Lindsey/Darla
DISCLAIMERS:
SUMMARY:
NOTES: Set in Anya!World.Very AU. In this universe, Darla wasn't re-vamped, Anya got the visions in our previous episodes.
-----
Angel halfheartedly chased after the kid, but prudently stopped short at the sunlight. "Shit," he said. "Now what? We have a kid and now we don't." He looked across the lobby at Darla, smiling slightly. Darla shook her head.
Standing beside Xander, Anya stiffened.
"It's all right," Wesley said. "We put a tracker bug on his stake-launcher while he was eating." He smiled. "It was Fred's idea."
Fred had already run to her laptop. "Anya bought all this cool stuff and was saying last week, why don't we use it instead of running around like maniacs and getting traffic tickets?" She typed rapidly. "And we'll have audio, too! I'm setting it to record."
"So what do we do about this kid?" Xander asked. "Hey, Darla, how long was Cordy gonna be?"
"Not long," Darla said, pensively. "Angel, a word?"
"Sure," Angel said, and crossed the lobby to her. They walked into the private office, closing the door.
"So," Anya hissed furiously to Xander. "Private conversations?"
"Well, you know Darla. All with the wishing she was still a vampire," Xander said.
"Well, I'm not--" Anya stopped, pressing her lips together as if determined not to speak. Which made Xander long, profoundly, for Cordelia.
::
"Angel, I want to find him," Darla said. "Once he stops running. Find him and get him back."
Angel opened his mouth, and shut it again. "He's not that crazy about me, if you recall. Holtz took him from--other us--and raised him to destroy us."
"Destroy you, " Darla said. "Didn't you hear? I staked myself to give birth." She drew her fingertips across her forehead, as if her head hurt. "Well, they're--tracking--him with their electronics, but you make sure they don't just tie him up and throw him in some portal."
"Darla, he's not ours. It's impossible. He's not our problem."
"We are impossible, Angel. You're a vampire with a soul fighting for the side of good and I was brought back from the dead. In abox. After you dusted me. And then a time mage cured my syphilis; come on! What have we ever done that's possible? Besides, if this is true... that redemption you've been working towards? What if this is it? Are you just going to walk away? What if this child is your redemption?"
He hesitated.
She walked up to him, laying her hands on his chest. "Angel, I know you're not Angelus, but somehow, you and I will always be connected." She closed her eyes. "We did so many terrible things together. So much destruction. So much pain. We can't make up for any of it. You know that, don't you?
"Yes."
"But if you and I, even in some other universe, created that boy, then he is the one good thing we ever did together. The only good thing. Don't let Anya tidy this up like some kind of mess."
"I won't," Angel said, his expression unreadable. "Now, we've got to convince the others." He tilted his head. "Why do you think Anya is the one to convince?"
"Oh, please. She lives to smooth your progress through life."
::
Lindsey was listening to his voice messages, his eyes on the office door; Gunn, Fred, and Wesley were murmuring over, alternately, the computer screen and a take-out Chinese menu; and Anya was sitting at the counter watching them, her legs crossed and one foot wag-wag-wagging in its Jimmy Choo, like the tail of an angry cat.
Xander was pacing the hallway between the lobby and the rear entrance, when Cordelia finally pulled up. "So," she said, tap-tapping into the lobby in her icepick stilettos, "Everything looks normal. Where's the demon child?"
"Took one look at his dad and hit the doors," Xander said, and took hold of her hand. "It's all the world without shrimp thing. Some other Angel and some other Darla had a kid, and he jumped a portal to here." He nodded at the closed office door. "Angel and Darla are having a little chat now."
Cordelia squeezed his hand. "Oh, honey, I thought youliked "Sliders"? Alternate dimensions, portally fun?"
He smiled at her.
Just then, the door opened, and Darla and Angel came out. Darla went straight to Lindsey, and Angel went to the middle of the lobby floor and looked around, blankly.
"I need to go home," Darla said to Lindsey. "Can we do that?"
"Sure," Lindsey said, putting his phone in his pocket and straightening up.
Xander whispered to Cordelia, "I need to go home. Can we do that?" and received an elbow in his ribs.
"Where's Anya?" Angel said. "This is important. Wes, Gunn, how's that bug doing?"
"Pretty good, except he's moving all over the city. We'll hit the street in the morning, put the word out; see what we have."
"And I have the bus lines," Fred said. "So I'll work out a search grid, too."
"Wait a minute," Darla said. "What are you planning on doing, when you find him?"
Gunn, Xander, and Wesley looked at each other, then at her.
"Uh, send him back?" Xander hazarded.
"No!" Darla said. "You are not doing that! He's a child. He's helpless! He was kidnapped as an infant by a man who lived only to torture Angel and me--"
"Well, me, " Angel said, looking around for Anya, who was still sitting at the marble counter, arms crossed. He looked back at Darla. "You left me to three days of torture."
"Oh, dear boy, I came back for you, didn't I?"
Angel smiled, unwillingly. "Yes, you did."
Xander heard a chair scrape, and saw Anya standing up, looking from Darla to Angel. He tugged at Cordelia's hand, but she gave him a silencing look, and he subsided.
Gunn said, "Well, fine, but he's in the wrong dimension. This one's got shrimp, and us, and a Darla who never had him. So, he's not our responsibility. Shouldn't we be sending him back where he actually wanted to go?"
"He's a victim," Lindsey said. "You might even say that he's the victim of Darla and Angel's pasts, in a way. So, if Darla feels responsible, I don't think she can walk away."
"I do feel responsible. He's a child," Darla said.
"She's right," Angel said. He put his hand on Darla's shoulder. "We have to find him. We have to help him." He squeezed her shoulder, and she smiled up at him.
Lindsey put his arm around her. "Let's go home, they'll call us when they find something. He's tough; he's the Destroyer, right? He'll destroy anything that tries to hurt him."
"Well, there's no sense in us all standing here. Best do as we said, and reconvene later," Wesley said. "We'll stay over here, in our, uh, suite, Angel?"
"Sure, that'll be fine, won't it, Anya?" Angel looked around the lobby. "Anya?"
She wasn't in the lobby.
Xander put his hand around Cordelia's wrist and towed her out the front doors.
::
Gunn led the charge, but that didn't mean anything. Wes could be damn fast when he wanted to be, and Fred was small enough and quick enough to slip past unexpectedly. Neither of them were above a little dirty pool, either, so Gunn habitually kept one eye on the goal and one in the vicinity of his feet, should either of them decide to trip him.
Again.
"Me! Me!" Fred barreled towards the doorway.
"No, me!" Wes elbowed her out of the way.
Gunn had lost momentum, but he caught up again while the other two faced off, and they all made it into the doorway at the same time, colliding into each other in a larger smush than the narrow doorway was equipped to handle.
After a momentary struggle, Fred wiggled loose and they all popped into the bedroom together, bursting forth like soda from a shaken can.
"Yes!" Gunn dove onto the bed first, grinning unrepentantly as Wesley rubbed his shin, a slightly pained look on his face. "Sweet victory!"
Fred jumped on top of Gun with a war whoop, whooshing the air out of his lungs.
"Damn, girl!" he choked. "Man gets a collapsed lung, he's not so much in the mood anymore, you know?"
"Yes, Fred," Wesley snarked as he unbuttoned his shirt. "By all means, let's be gracious losers. To the victor go the spoils."
Gunn pinned Fred with an arm around her waist and kissed her, letting her delve deep into his mouth. "Oh, *nice* spoils, girl!"
Fred giggled and kissed him again, tugging on Gunn's hoodie to get him to sit up. She crawled into his lap and set about unzipping, unbuttoning and tugging until they were both shirtless, then she pressed herself up against him until he gasped. He pulled her closer, enjoying the feel of her breasts pushed up against his skin. She wriggled distractingly, grinding herself against him, and he lost his breath all over again when he felt another pair of arms encircle him from behind, the warm skin of Wesley's chest pressing up against Gunn's bare back.
Wesley nuzzled into Gunn's neck, exploring the juncture between neck and shoulder with soft lips and sharp teeth, rough stubble rubbing up against Gunn's skin. Wesley peppered him with bites, soothing over each one with little cat-licks, and Gunn groaned, dropping his head to the side to give him further access.
Fred wriggled again, setting off another groan, and Gunn moved his hands down to her ass, copping a squeeze before he settled them on her hips to guide her movements. "How do you want it?" Fred asked, her hot little mouth right up against his ear, her sweet breath tickling him. "To the victor go the spoils..."
::
"A son," Darla said, looking out at the city lights outside her apartment's window. "I have a son."
"Baby, the other you has a son." Lindsey pressed up behind her, looping his arms loosely around her waist. "But yeah. I guess you do."
"He's out there somewhere." She settled her hands over his and leaned back against him. "We have to find him. He's lost, alone. It's not good to be alone, Lindsey. I've never liked it. I was alone enough when I was first human."
"We'll find him," he promised. "Don't I always come through for you?"
"Yes." She turned suddenly within the circle of his arms and looked up at him, reaching a hand up to cup his face. "You always do."
::
"So why did you drag me out of the meeting?" Cordelia asked, water sloshing as she settled into the tub with a sigh. She too a long sip of wine. "Not that I mind a little manly cave-man action once in a while, but you acted like someone was going to make us do something."
Xander gently swiped one soapy hand along her shoulder and upper arm. "I just got a major wiggins. Anya looked, I don't know, like someone devalued the dollar."
Cordelia leaned forward and turned off the hot water. "I love that bath mitt, don't you?" She drank the rest of her wine and set the glass down on the floor before turning around.
Water splashed out in a sheet, the wine glass floated out of the room, and the door closed.
"Now, I wash you," Cordelia said. "This is the nummiest soap. It smells so good you want to suck it, like a lollypop." She ran the tip of her tongue along her lower lip. "And it's actually edible!"
"Sucking soap, not good," Xander said, leaning back and draping his arms along the edges of the tub. "Take it from someone who found out the hard way what words not to say in class." He smiled at her, his eyes half-closed against the gently steaming water.
"Oh, I think I know what I want to suck," Cordelia said. She bent her head and licked one of his nipples.
::
Angel walked through the hotel, two floors away from the threesome. He could only smell faint traces of Anya, and couldn't hear her heart beat, at all. He opened the door to their shared suite, and still couldn't feel her, couldn't smell her.
He went into the bedroom, and saw that the closet door was ajar, and the bureau drawers not quite closed. He sat down, suddenly, on the bed, knowing that if he looked, her cosmetics would be gone from the bathroom countertop, and her bathrobe from the hook.
"Anya," he said softly, running his hand along the coverlet.
Part 6
back to top |
 |
