Reprise Revised
Plans
Email: marenfic@yahoo.com
Spoiler Warning: Angel Season 5 up to You’re Welcome—I’ve diverged at YW.
the Lindsey/Eve/Doyle connection yet.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, and I won’t be profitting off
of them.
Pairing: B/A so
far
Feedback: This is my first fic, so I’d appreciate feedback.
Notes: I started strong with the NC/17, but since I’m not writing PWP, I have to
develop my plot for a while J
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The Wolfram & Hart gang gathered in Angel’s office early
the next morning, all of them with grim looks on their faces.
in control, the only indication of her emotions the sudden paleness of her
previously golden skin. Both Lorne and
Spike kept their eyes on her, trying to see what was going on inside that icy
exterior.
“Gunn and I checked
Angel’s apartments this morning. It was
obvious that Angel . . . us had been there sometime last night.
removed, but there is no sign of where he went,” Wesley explained to the other
members of the inner circle.
“The guy made a clean getaway, which is pretty amazing
considering the tracking abilities we have in this place.
added Gunn.
“Wh. . what about the Senior Partners?” asked Fred.
can’t they. . .”
“No can do, toots,” interrupted Eve, stepping out of the
elevator. She was met by 5 pairs of
glaring eyes. Unfazed, she
continued. “The big guys downstairs are
leaving this one up to you people to figure out.
is back in the mix—it’s no secret they’ve been jonesing for him for years.
possibilities, and the Senior Partners are going to leave it up to . . .
destiny, you might say, to decide the winner of this little contest.”
“Great place you guys work at here,” snapped Buffy.
“Hey, corporate gigs aren’t all puppy dogs and chocolate
hearts—the benefits don’t come without a price,” answered Eve.
confused about what caused Angelus’s coming-out party.
All eyes turned to Buffy.
She stood silently with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, her
face an aloof mask. Seconds ticked by
and as she opened her mouth to speak, she was interrupted by Spike.
“He fed on her. If
there’s one thing I learned by spending decades with that one, it’s that he bites
when he’s horny. The rest of you can do
the math.” Spike looked at her with
hurt, but also sympathy in his eyes.
Buffy was grateful that she hadn’t had to say it, even if Spike’s choice
of words and level of detail had divulged more than she had planned to
share.
Embarrassed, everyone but Eve looked away for a moment.
think he still bit humans. I guess we
were interrupted before he could fully enjoy my charms,” she said, never taking
her eyes from Buffy.
“Big mistake, you stupid cow,” drawled Spike, just before
Buffy closed the space between them, picked Eve up by the throat, and threw her
out of the office. The door was slammed
sharply behind her and Buffy resumed her impassive stance as Eve sputtered in
the hallway.
The room was masked in embarrassed silence.
he was used to taking charge in Angel’s absence.
place a magical alarm on the building that will inform us the moment Angelus
steps into the building. I’ve no doubt
he’ll try to infiltrate when we least expect it.
immediately and stay in an apartment here, where you will be better
protected. That is, if you plan to stay.
. . you do intend to stay?”
Buffy nodded.
“Angelus is my problem, my responsibility.
promised grimly.
Her statement grabbed Gunn’s attention.
the resources of Wolfram & Hart to help.
The Senior Partners may not be willing to step up, but we still have the
means and the smarts,” he said as he
pointed to his head.
“Has anyone called
yet? She helped us the last time—she
restored Angel’s soul even though Cord. . . I mean her evil highjacker tried
its best to stop her. She could do it
again,” added Fred.
Buffy shook her head in the negative.
she had just sat on the edge of the bed for hours, lost in her horror.
out of the wall, breaking the cord and causing a large chunk of the plaster to
fall to the floor. She knew that Giles
would be worried, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care.
shown up at her hotel with sword in hand and a limo waiting in front of the
lobby.
“We’ll send one of the private jets to
to pick her up,” declared Wesley. “In
the meantime, everyone make arrangements so that you don’t have to leave these
offices alone after dark.” He looked at
all of them, and then his eyes settled on Buffy’s.
Buffy nodded stiffly and strode out of the room toward the
lobby elevators.
Lorne, uncharacteristically silent, sensed that there wasn’t
something quite right with this scenario. However, after his last fiasco trying
to read Angelus’ soul and misidentifying him as Angel, he didn’t feel
comfortable speaking up yet. He wished
he could ask the Slayer to hum a little tune for him, but he suspected he might
get his neck broken if he tried. Her carefully-controlled
façade wasn’t fooling him in the least.
***********************************************************************
Wesley made his way back to office, deep in thought.
in the early morning hours, he had been surprisingly----unsurprised.
Angel’s downward spiral for weeks now.
In fact, he was beating himself up about it now.
should have said something. I should
have tried to talk to him, but something has been holding me back.
detached,
Ever since they had agreed to take over the law offices,
Wesley had felt . . . off. He sometimes
felt like everyone but him was in on some big cosmic secret, or maybe like he
had dreamed something important that he was supposed to remember when he woke
up, but didn’t. It teased at the edge of
his consciousness. He had thrown himself
into the day-to-day work of running a corporate department, and he struggled
daily to forget that he felt sure there was something he was forgetting.
but the other man had looked at him as though he was a little off his
rocker. So, he had dropped it.
Now he was faced with leading a search and resoul
mission. Again.
He knew something was off, felt it deep inside himself, but he hadn’t
yet been successful in finding out what it was.
I’ll just have to keep trying
he thought, and glanced at the books of magic and prophecies that were piled on
his desk. First, though, he needed to
get in touch with
her that a private jet was on its way to pick up both her and the resouling
spell. He picked up the phone and
relayed the necessary information to a very concerned
promising to meet with her as soon as she arrived in
Then he picked up the phone a second time and called in one
more reinforcement.
***********************************************************************
Angel stood in his newly acquired basement apartment and
grimly looked it over. It was quite the
change from his Wolfram & Hart penthouse but he had lived in worse in his
two-plus centuries. He expected it to be
relatively temporary anyway. There was
no way he intended to leave his friends—no, his family—in that soul-sucking environment.
the Senior Partners’ true motives. He
wasn’t sure why they had really
offered him the deal to save Connor, but he was certain they had some sort of
less-than-noble plan.
Unfortunately he’d had to leave behind the car collection
with the handy necrotempered glass, but along with some of his clothes and books
he had smuggled a cloaking charm out of the safe in his office.
neck. Angel told himself it was to keep
the others safe and out of the way while he investigated the situation.
benefits and privileges that came with their new positions, and he didn’t have
the time or the inclination to argue about his plans. If the Senior Partners think that I’m the only defector, the rest will
be safe—at least for a little while, he thought.
He was less willing to admit the cowardice that also
explained his decision to use the cloaking charm.
face Buffy yet.
“Not until I make things right.
forgiveness,” he muttered to himself.
In the meantime, he needed to train.
soft.
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