A Fighter's Love by Cheri

Chapter Four

 


Lilah:
Don’t jerk me around Gavin. I know you’ve been tracking Angel and his son. What have you found?

Gavin:
Well, I see someone has forgotten her place. Wolfram and Hart doesn’t work that way Lilah. You’re told what you need to know, not what you wish you knew.

Lilah:
If you want me to succeed in bringing Wesley in, I need to be in the loop.

Gavin:
The loop huh? Funny thing about being in the loop Lilah. (walks to stand uncomfortably close) Loops are just nooses waiting to happen. I’d hate to see one wrapped around such a pretty neck.

Lilah:
(stepping back) You let me worry about my own neck. Tell me what you found Gavin.

Gavin:
(shrugging and stepping further away) It’s actually quite disheartening. Here we were, under the impression that Connor was raised to be our closest ally against Angel, only to find that the father-son bond transcends dimension and demons.

Lilah:
And we’ve double checked these facts? How do we know it wasn’t a set up?

Gavin:
Setup? Setup for who?

Lilah:
(shakes her head) Never mind. When did you last see them?

Gavin:
We backed off after the drive in incident.

Lilah:
Let me get this straight. You put every resource this firm has into tracking both Angel and his son only to drop it after the first sign of our original plan being thwarted?

Gavin:
Does this sudden urgency have anything to do with your visit from a certain Mr. Price?

Lilah:
You tell me. I’m sure you were listening as well as watching.

Gavin:
That hurts Lilah. I wouldn’t dream of eavesdropping on your private conversations. I’m not interested in post-coitus discussion.

Lilah:
(seething) You are a pig.

Gavin:
Oink.

Lilah grabs her coat and pushes past him in a rage. Gavin smiles and nods to one of his guards signaling him to follow her.



Cut to Ocean
Camera pans from bright sunny sky down slowly until the waves are visible. Keeps moving until finally it stops looking at someone from behind. The camera rotates around until Buffy’s face is visible staring out into the water. She’s frowning and holding her stomach.

Camera moves lower past her shoulders, stomach and feet. Going towards the water and under it. Light turns to dark as it moves lower and lower until the box is visible. Sand is moving as the box sways slightly. Pans around until Angel’s face is seen through opening. He strains against his bonds and throws his weight from side to side inching the box over. He stops struggling suddenly and gets a strange look in his eyes.

Angel (V.O.):
She’s here.



Cut to Sunnydale
The phone rings and Xander runs to pick it up.

Xander:
Hello!

Wesley:
Yes, I was looking for Buffy, or perhaps Willow?

Xander:
Who is this?

Wesley:
Wesley Wyndham Price. And this is?

Xander:
Wesley? Wesley! It’s Xander. Xander Harris! Man, this is like Return of the Jedi week!

Wesley:
Excuse me?

Dawn:
Who is it Xander?

Xander:
(waves Dawn away) Wait…why are you calling here? Why are you looking for Buffy? Don’t tell me it’s Angel.

Wesley:
Angel? Why would you assume…where’s Buffy Xander?

Xander:
She ran out of here a while ago convinced that Angel needed her.

Wesley:
Needed her? Why?

Xander:
That’s the funny part. It was a feeling. You remember Buffy and her feelings don’t you?

Wesley:
And this feeling was strong enough to bring her to LA?

Xander:
Looks that way. So she should be beating down your door any second I would imagine.

Wesley startles and almost drops the phone when the door crashes open.

Wesley:
Bloody hell!

Gunn:
What are you doing here?

Fred:
Wesley! You came!


Gunn:
What did you do Fred?

Xander:
Wesley? What’s wrong? Don’t say bloody hell and then nothing! Bloody hell always means something! Is it Buffy?

Wesley:
No. No it’s not Buffy.

Fred:
Buffy?

Wesley:
It’s Fred and Gunn. I have to go Xander. Thank you for your help. It’s most appreciated.

Xander:
As much as I love to be appreciated Wesley, I’m gonna need more than that. What’s going on over there?

Wesley:
I’ll have to get back to you I’m afraid.

Xander:
Wesley don’t. Wesley! (shakes phone) Wesley!

Dawn:
Xander, what is it?

Xander:

(Slams the phone down) That Dawn, is the story of my life. Riding the cusp of knowledge.

He walks past her and out of the room in anger.



Cut to LA

Gunn:
Why is he here?

Fred:
I called him Gunn.

Gunn:
I thought we had an understanding.


Wesley:
Obviously not.

Gunn:
Was I talking to you?

Fred:
Gunn, Wesley! Stop! Wesley, what was that about Buffy?

Wesley:
I don’t know. I don’t wish to stay where I’m not wanted.

Fred:
We want you Wesley. We need you. Right Gunn?

Gunn doesn’t speak.

Fred:
Gunn!

Gunn:
(sighs) Yeah. I guess it couldn’t hurt.

Wesley:
You didn’t seem to mind when you needed my help before.

Gunn:
That was different.

Wesley:
Right. That was Fred. I guess she’s more important than Angel or Cordelia.

Gunn:
(steps forward) I know you didn’t just say that!

Fred:
Both of you stop it! There’s too much at stake here! Wesley, we went to the place Angel was supposed to meet Cordelia. His car was gone and it looked like he fought something and went over the cliff. We looked down on the beach and found this.

She pulls out the mangled phone and Wes takes it from her.

Wesley:
I checked out Wolfram and Hart. I don’t think this is their doing. And Cordy hasn’t been home since that night. We’re missing something.

Fred:
Connor.

Wesley:
Connor’s missing as well?

Gunn:
He’s been gone since that night too. But we’re thinking he might be missing on purpose.

Wesley:
On purpose?

Fred:
We’re afraid he might have been at the beach with Angel. Maybe fighting.

Wes:
Fighting against Angel? I was under the impression they were bonding. I saw them in action myself.

Gunn:
Yeah, the kid’s good. But maybe not in the un-evil way. I think his father ditching him might have screwed with his head.

Wes:
Holtz left him? He gave him up?

Fred:
He said he wanted Connor to be with his father.

Wes:
And you all believed him?

Gunn:
He wrote a letter.

Wes:
(sarcastic)
Well, right then! Holtz wrote a letter voicing his honorable intentions, why wouldn’t you take him at his word?

Fred:
Angel said…

Wes:
The man traveled through dimensions and hundreds of years to find Angel and exact his revenge. He recruited Justine and her wannabe slayer friends, set me up, had my throat slit, kidnapped Connor, taking him into a hell dimension and then after what appears to be sixteen years in their time, came back to drop Connor off with the man who murdered his family and wish all of us well?

Fred and Gunn look at each other in embarrassment.

Wes:
Oh yeah, everything’s been going like clockwork in my absence.

Gunn:
So you think Holtz is behind this?

Fred:
Of course! How could we have been so stupid? We were so happy to have him back, so thrilled for Angel that we were all blinded.

Wesley:
No time for that now. We have to find out exactly what happened to Holtz. That is the key to all of this.

Gunn:
So what does Buffy have to do with anything?

Wes:
(pensive) That is a very good question.


Cut to Ocean
Buffy finally resolves to ignore the pull she was feeling from the water and head to the hotel. Nervousness wasn’t an issue, it was something deeper. And now there was something else.

Across the sand, behind a group of boulders, Connor watches Buffy with interest. He senses something about the way she was looking across the water. He had come to talk to his father and saw her standing almost exactly in the spot where he had taken him
down. She wasn’t there for the view. He didn’t like her being there. He was about to confront her when she had finally moved away and out of his sight. He didn’t recognize it as paranoia. The sun would go down soon, he had much to do. He would talk to him tomorrow. He smirks as he stands.

Connor:
He’ll keep.

He spins to go and runs right into her.


Buffy:
Who are you? Why are you watching me?



Cut to Africa

A group of men carries the unconscious man into an open field.

Man 1:
He’ll die in the sun.

Man 2:
No. Finally, he will not.

Spike moans as the men walk away.