![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
( Wesley hadn't been sure what to think when he'd gotten that anonymous email... )
[[nfb. from angel 3x21, "benediction." whee so close to done with s3!]]
[[nfb. from angel 3x21, "benediction." whee so close to done with s3!]]
Weeks had passed for Wesley since Gunn's visit, and in the meantime he found himself on the receiving end of peace and quiet.
Well. 'Peace' probably wasn't the word -- he certainly didn't feel peaceful; on the contrary, he was and continued to be angrier than he'd ever been, albeit a cold kind of anger. But it certainly was quiet.
Then came a day when there was another knock on his door, and he was quicker to answer it than he'd been the last time. Call it loneliness, call it desperation for someone to talk to. Wesley honestly didn't care.
( In which a book changes hands and lying abounds. )
[[from angel 3x20 "a new world." this is one of my favorite scenes in the whole show, omg. possibly number one. nfb, but open for phone calls, sure.]]
Well. 'Peace' probably wasn't the word -- he certainly didn't feel peaceful; on the contrary, he was and continued to be angrier than he'd ever been, albeit a cold kind of anger. But it certainly was quiet.
Then came a day when there was another knock on his door, and he was quicker to answer it than he'd been the last time. Call it loneliness, call it desperation for someone to talk to. Wesley honestly didn't care.
( In which a book changes hands and lying abounds. )
[[from angel 3x20 "a new world." this is one of my favorite scenes in the whole show, omg. possibly number one. nfb, but open for phone calls, sure.]]
Since his visit to Kennedy's last month, Wesley had thought a lot about trying to resume helping the helpless as best he could without being a part of the Angel Investigations team, but he hadn't been able to motivate himself just yet. For the most part, he'd found himself sticking to his time-honored solution for dealing with conflict, which was, of course, alcohol.
Then tonight - not that he could name what day of the week it was, or even confidently identify the time of day - there was a knock on his door.
( There were plenty of people who it could theoretically be, only some of whom wanted to kill him, but Wesley didn't get his hopes up for anyone good. )
[[taken from angel 3x19 "the price." nfb/nfi.]]
Then tonight - not that he could name what day of the week it was, or even confidently identify the time of day - there was a knock on his door.
( There were plenty of people who it could theoretically be, only some of whom wanted to kill him, but Wesley didn't get his hopes up for anyone good. )
[[taken from angel 3x19 "the price." nfb/nfi.]]
( You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't shoot a policeman, then steal his helmet. You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet, then send it to his grieving widow and then steal it again! Then why would you steal a baby? )
[[WHEEEE. nfb, actually open for phone messages and texts because it's his damn birthday but he's not going to be answering just yet on account of what just happened. adapted from angel 3x16 "sleep tight" and heavily anticipated by yours truly for an unhealthily long time. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER, amirite?]]
[[WHEEEE. nfb, actually open for phone messages and texts because it's his damn birthday but he's not going to be answering just yet on account of what just happened. adapted from angel 3x16 "sleep tight" and heavily anticipated by yours truly for an unhealthily long time. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER, amirite?]]
( Wes' birthday was just getting better and better... )
[[nfb/nfi, ooc-good, angel 3x16 "sleep tight."]]
[[nfb/nfi, ooc-good, angel 3x16 "sleep tight."]]
( The morning of Wesley's twenty-first birthday, Connor was fussing in his bassinet while Wesley stared down his translation of the Nyazian scrolls as if any amount of staring would alter what he'd found. )
( With permission for an outing granted, there was just one thing left to do. )
[[nfb/nfi, ooc good, wheeeeeeee. from angel 3x16 "sleep tight."]]
( With permission for an outing granted, there was just one thing left to do. )
[[nfb/nfi, ooc good, wheeeeeeee. from angel 3x16 "sleep tight."]]
The trouble with the rest of the day following Wesley's dream the night before was that they had a case to work on, and it was predictably difficult to find a reason to leave the hotel when he was expected to be working research for... whoever it was that had hired them. Wesley honestly couldn't remember the woman's name. Her trouble was that her son had been turned into a vampire, though. He was fairly certain of that.
Over the course of the day, he delegated what he could to Gunn to avoid botching up the job with his own exhaustion and buy himself some more time to research. Fred naturally decided she wanted to go along with her boyfriend, which didn't surprise Wesley after the way the last few days had gone, but he didn't love it either. Staking vampires was not a two-person job these days.
With Cordelia away on some sort of yoga retreat with her high school friends and Lorne still bitter that he'd been left on babysitting duty the night everyone had gone to the ballet, that left Wesley and Angel in the hotel. After a great deal of deliberation, Wesley decided not to tell Angel about his translation right away. He'd mistranslated before and caused panic, almost to the point of it becoming an awful joke around the office. Better to find out information from a reliable source first to be certain of what was going on. Toward evening, after a few phone calls to an area wizard who was said to have reputable intel on the local prophetic deities, he managed to make an excuse -- something about a headache -- and set off to find a statue that was said to be able to give him the answers he needed.
( Well. It was certainly large and inanimate, but 'statue' was pushing it. )
[[nfb, nfi, ooc good, and i swear to god this really happened. angel 3x15 again, "loyalty," and there's one more for the night and that's it.]]
Over the course of the day, he delegated what he could to Gunn to avoid botching up the job with his own exhaustion and buy himself some more time to research. Fred naturally decided she wanted to go along with her boyfriend, which didn't surprise Wesley after the way the last few days had gone, but he didn't love it either. Staking vampires was not a two-person job these days.
With Cordelia away on some sort of yoga retreat with her high school friends and Lorne still bitter that he'd been left on babysitting duty the night everyone had gone to the ballet, that left Wesley and Angel in the hotel. After a great deal of deliberation, Wesley decided not to tell Angel about his translation right away. He'd mistranslated before and caused panic, almost to the point of it becoming an awful joke around the office. Better to find out information from a reliable source first to be certain of what was going on. Toward evening, after a few phone calls to an area wizard who was said to have reputable intel on the local prophetic deities, he managed to make an excuse -- something about a headache -- and set off to find a statue that was said to be able to give him the answers he needed.
( Well. It was certainly large and inanimate, but 'statue' was pushing it. )
[[nfb, nfi, ooc good, and i swear to god this really happened. angel 3x15 again, "loyalty," and there's one more for the night and that's it.]]
Wesley had never been to the ballet before, but by the time he, Angel, Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, Warren and Karla made their way from their seats to the bar at intermission, he had to admit that the performance itself seemed quite nice. At least, in theory. Technically, their seats... well. Suffice it to say that they weren't the best. To say that their view was simply obstructed would be overly generous.
On top of that, the tension that had been present ever since retrieving Warren and Karla from their hotel room was becoming increasingly irritating, and still more upsettingly, despite Cordelia's encouragement that "the iron is hot," Wesley still wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to try to put his arm around Fred's shoulder during Act Two.
( So really, it was going the kind of 'nice' that... wasn't. )
[[follows this and this. premise & some NPC dialogue lifted from angel 3x13, "waiting in the wings," a.k.a. one of my least favorite episodes of the season but WE ARE FIXING THAT. preplayed with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
not_a_parakeet and glacial_witch. the spam will be ongoing, and nfb/nfi/ooc-good.]]
On top of that, the tension that had been present ever since retrieving Warren and Karla from their hotel room was becoming increasingly irritating, and still more upsettingly, despite Cordelia's encouragement that "the iron is hot," Wesley still wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to try to put his arm around Fred's shoulder during Act Two.
( So really, it was going the kind of 'nice' that... wasn't. )
[[follows this and this. premise & some NPC dialogue lifted from angel 3x13, "waiting in the wings," a.k.a. one of my least favorite episodes of the season but WE ARE FIXING THAT. preplayed with
not_a_parakeet and glacial_witch. the spam will be ongoing, and nfb/nfi/ooc-good.]]Tags:
It seemed to be the case fairly often lately, and today was no exception, that Wesley found himself with the unenviable task of changing the baby while the others socialized in a different room. It wasn't that he resented this position -- after all, he supposed he had to admit that of the entire Angel Investigations team, he was the one most equipped to change Connor efficiently and with a minimum of singing (Lorne), whining (Cordelia) or attempting to complicate the matter by using pins (Angel). Still, he didn't exactly love it when he found himself stuck in one room, overhearing the others elsewhere in the hotel but unable to fully join into the conversation.
"Morning, friends and neighbors!" Gunn greeted Angel, Cordelia and -- theoretically -- Wesley as he stepped into the lobby with Fred at his side. "Ooh, are those the tickets? You got 'em?"
[[taken and adapted from angel 3x13, "waiting in the wings." 'stablishy, but open for phone calls!]]
( ''Cordelia, would you please pass the sweet potatoes?'' )
[[eh, idk, i just wanted to write this. nfb/nfi.]]
[[eh, idk, i just wanted to write this. nfb/nfi.]]
Now, a week might have gone by in Fandom time since Angel's son's birth, but for Wesley and the rest of the Angel Investigations team, it had only been two days.
Over the course of those two days, Lorne had moved in (something about his club being firebombed as a result of the eighteenth-century vampire hunter who wanted to kill them all), quite a few groups had continued to seek after the baby in order to kill him or eat him or whatever it was that such groups did, and Angel had proved persistently unwilling to let anyone else so much as hold him.
( Lorne called it a Mama Bear vibe. The rest of them called it irritating. )
That night, Angel was still anxious and refusing to let anyone else watch or touch the baby. Fred pulled an all-nighter in the office with Gunn for company as he came in with batches of weapons every few hours before leaving again, while Wesley and Cordelia did their work upstairs, each of them uncomfortable with the noise of the baby crying but aware that Angel didn't want any help.
Then in the morning, Lorne slipped Angel a piece of paper offhandedly, and their whole approach changed.
( Oooh, a private strategy session. )
[[nfb/nfi. top bit is from angel 3x10 "dad," second part by me. idek.]]
Over the course of those two days, Lorne had moved in (something about his club being firebombed as a result of the eighteenth-century vampire hunter who wanted to kill them all), quite a few groups had continued to seek after the baby in order to kill him or eat him or whatever it was that such groups did, and Angel had proved persistently unwilling to let anyone else so much as hold him.
( Lorne called it a Mama Bear vibe. The rest of them called it irritating. )
That night, Angel was still anxious and refusing to let anyone else watch or touch the baby. Fred pulled an all-nighter in the office with Gunn for company as he came in with batches of weapons every few hours before leaving again, while Wesley and Cordelia did their work upstairs, each of them uncomfortable with the noise of the baby crying but aware that Angel didn't want any help.
Then in the morning, Lorne slipped Angel a piece of paper offhandedly, and their whole approach changed.
( Oooh, a private strategy session. )
[[nfb/nfi. top bit is from angel 3x10 "dad," second part by me. idek.]]
Having escaped the vampires from the hospital (who, for the record, weren't so much an ordinary group of vampires but rather disturbingly cult-like in the way they'd gotten on their knees, groveled to the as-yet-unborn "miracle child" and outlined their plans to protect and nourish the child by feeding it the blood of its mother and all the other humans helping with the delivery, which almost seemed worse than the ordinary vampires who just wanted to kill everyone), the Angel Investigations team and Darla now pulled up to the Hyperion with a screeching halt as Angel ran inside to gather the Nyazian scrolls.
"Five minutes," Angel said as Cordy shifted from the passenger to the driver seat. "If I'm not back by then, leave without me."
( Twelve minutes later... )
( Their 'safe place' to hide out at was, of course, Caritas. Not like they were getting predictable or anything. )
[[adapted from angel 3x09 "lullaby," and that's it for today! nfb/nfi, and warning for npc death and the birth of a truly annoying npc baby, omfg.]]
"Five minutes," Angel said as Cordy shifted from the passenger to the driver seat. "If I'm not back by then, leave without me."
( Twelve minutes later... )
( Their 'safe place' to hide out at was, of course, Caritas. Not like they were getting predictable or anything. )
[[adapted from angel 3x09 "lullaby," and that's it for today! nfb/nfi, and warning for npc death and the birth of a truly annoying npc baby, omfg.]]
There were times -- like, for example, watching a pregnant vampire go into labor -- when Wesley had no choice but to look back upon what his life was like five, six years ago and wonder how in the world he'd gotten to this point.
( He could probably rattle off the list of events if someone was really curious, but at this point he found it best to just sigh and go with it. )
( Wesley was ridiculously out of his league when Gunn and Fred wheeled an ultrasound machine into the room and Angel barked at him to make it work, but no one seemed terribly bothered by that, so he was doing his best. )
[[taken and adapted for length from angel 3x08, "quickening." nfb/nfi.]]
( He could probably rattle off the list of events if someone was really curious, but at this point he found it best to just sigh and go with it. )
( Wesley was ridiculously out of his league when Gunn and Fred wheeled an ultrasound machine into the room and Angel barked at him to make it work, but no one seemed terribly bothered by that, so he was doing his best. )
[[taken and adapted for length from angel 3x08, "quickening." nfb/nfi.]]
Taking Darla to Caritas was a process that involved multiple escape attempts, a minor attack on Gunn, and, worst of all, the creeping suspicion that Angel would have to sing when they got there. Fortunately, that was not the case, and all that happened once they arrived was that Darla was laid down in Lorne's room to rest while Cordelia stood guard.
This ended in Cordelia getting herself bitten while Darla escaped, leaving only the convenient vision Cordelia got at the moment of the bite as a clue to where she went.
And so it was that two hours later, Angel returned to the hotel, bruised and with a distraught-looking Darla in tow.
( Beat up by a pregnant lady. Good job, Angel. )
[[tweaked from 3x07 "offspring." nfb/open for phone calls! last post of the day yaaaay.]]
( A pregnant vampire walks into a hotel... )
[[from 3x07 "offspring" yet again! nfb, but phone calls are cool.]]
[[from 3x07 "offspring" yet again! nfb, but phone calls are cool.]]
A day after Wesley and Gunn had -- successfully, thank you very much -- retrieved the Nyazian scroll from that man's home, the two of them were working on translating the text at the hotel's front desk when loud voices could be heard from downstairs. As far as Wesley knew, Cordelia and Angel were just sparring as usual, though he thought Fred might have gone down to watch this time, but it certainly shouldn't be an activity that required shouting.
He glanced at Gunn. "Nah, this is on you, man," Gunn said at once.
( Wesley sighed, and went downstairs to investigate. )
--( In which there is translation, exposition, and a visitor. )
[[also from 3x07 "offspring." nfb, nfi!]]
Wesley's hands were braced at his sides as if poised to... punch someone? Hide his face? as he and Gunn navigated their way around the outside of a mansion in search of the first-floor window that would lead to the room where the Nyazian prophecy was being kept. This was the same Nyazian prophecy, in fact, that had been mentioned by multiple sources in the demon community, as well in a variety of critical referenec texts, as predicting the arrival of some great and terrible doom in the Los Angeles area sometime before the end of the year.
So it was an important text, and if Wesley was somewhat enthusiastic about having the opportunity to break and enter, and to take advantage of the outrageously expensive gloves he'd purchased several months ago for just such a purpose, well, that was his business.
"Step one," he hissed to Gunn as he stepped around a bush and crouched in search of a window latch. "The Dobermans are happily gnawing on the steak. Alarm and vid lines are disabled--" he paused to check the scanner he had with him and wait for it to update-- "no infrared. Caught a break there. Step two: we cut a hole in the glass, snake in the mini-cam and scan the interior."
( So he'd bought a few other things from the store that had sold him the gloves. Hush. )
[[from angel 3x07 "offspring." nfb/nfi.]]
So it was an important text, and if Wesley was somewhat enthusiastic about having the opportunity to break and enter, and to take advantage of the outrageously expensive gloves he'd purchased several months ago for just such a purpose, well, that was his business.
"Step one," he hissed to Gunn as he stepped around a bush and crouched in search of a window latch. "The Dobermans are happily gnawing on the steak. Alarm and vid lines are disabled--" he paused to check the scanner he had with him and wait for it to update-- "no infrared. Caught a break there. Step two: we cut a hole in the glass, snake in the mini-cam and scan the interior."
( So he'd bought a few other things from the store that had sold him the gloves. Hush. )
[[from angel 3x07 "offspring." nfb/nfi.]]
Technically speaking, Wesley had left Fandom as soon as he could on Saturday afternoon. Practically, however, it wasn't until Tuesday morning that, exhausted, he stepped back into the hotel with exactly half of his original luggage in hand.
And he was promptly nearly tackled by a wall of energy in the form of Fred. Despite everything, he had to smile -- it was endearing, even as tired as he was.
"Wesley!" Fred squealed, hugging him with surprising force before bouncing backward to look up at him. "You'll never guess what happened this weekend. Go on, guess, I'll wait."
She actually did seem to be waiting. Wesley paused. "Er," he said. "Killer... lobster demons?"
He wasn't really sure why that of all things had popped into his head.
"No, silly!" Of course. How could he have been so foolish. "My mom and dad showed up!"
Well. That was certainly significant. "Really?"
"Yuh-huh!" Fred agreed. "And at first I was scared 'cause I didn't want 'em to see me an' know all about what happened to me, so I tried to run away and there was this icky bug demon tryin' to attack everyone so we got sidetracked, and my mom killed it, or at least we thought she killed it. And then we went back home, I mean here to the hotel, and everythin' was good for a while until I kept thinkin' about how it didn't make sense for me to be here, not when there's already you and Gunn and Cordy, so I started to leave with my parents until I realized there had to be more of the bug things, and that goes all the way back to when Angel took me for ice cream the other night, but anyway I came back and I catapulted it with a thing I made and I decided to stay after that and here I am."
Wesley blinked. "Here you are," he echoed, fixing her with a sincere smile. "I'm glad you decided to stay."
"I'm glad too," Fred said, looking up at him with that oddly intense gaze of hers.
There was a moment's pause. Wesley wondered -- would now perhaps be a good time to--
"Well," he said. "Since I seem to have missed all the action, how would you like to go out for some pizza, Fred?"
Her eyes lit up. "Sure!"
"Excellent," Wesley said, and it actually really was.
"Let me just go get Cordy and Gunn," Fred said, before sticking two fingers in her mouth and whistling sharply. Then she set off toward the stairs to the basement, where they were probably fighting over setting the rat traps again. "Cordy! Gunn! There's gonna be pizza!"
Wesley exhaled slowly, suddenly re-feeling that exhaustion that had gone away once Fred had started talking. Then he set down his bags and started rummaging for his wallet.
[[NFB/NFI/OOC-okay! i totally made this up because i didn't want to do a catchup for this episode andbrat_inslayage agreed it was unnecessary, but holy crap fred is hard to write from scratch. events taken from angel 3x05 "fredless," la la la.]]
And he was promptly nearly tackled by a wall of energy in the form of Fred. Despite everything, he had to smile -- it was endearing, even as tired as he was.
"Wesley!" Fred squealed, hugging him with surprising force before bouncing backward to look up at him. "You'll never guess what happened this weekend. Go on, guess, I'll wait."
She actually did seem to be waiting. Wesley paused. "Er," he said. "Killer... lobster demons?"
He wasn't really sure why that of all things had popped into his head.
"No, silly!" Of course. How could he have been so foolish. "My mom and dad showed up!"
Well. That was certainly significant. "Really?"
"Yuh-huh!" Fred agreed. "And at first I was scared 'cause I didn't want 'em to see me an' know all about what happened to me, so I tried to run away and there was this icky bug demon tryin' to attack everyone so we got sidetracked, and my mom killed it, or at least we thought she killed it. And then we went back home, I mean here to the hotel, and everythin' was good for a while until I kept thinkin' about how it didn't make sense for me to be here, not when there's already you and Gunn and Cordy, so I started to leave with my parents until I realized there had to be more of the bug things, and that goes all the way back to when Angel took me for ice cream the other night, but anyway I came back and I catapulted it with a thing I made and I decided to stay after that and here I am."
Wesley blinked. "Here you are," he echoed, fixing her with a sincere smile. "I'm glad you decided to stay."
"I'm glad too," Fred said, looking up at him with that oddly intense gaze of hers.
There was a moment's pause. Wesley wondered -- would now perhaps be a good time to--
"Well," he said. "Since I seem to have missed all the action, how would you like to go out for some pizza, Fred?"
Her eyes lit up. "Sure!"
"Excellent," Wesley said, and it actually really was.
"Let me just go get Cordy and Gunn," Fred said, before sticking two fingers in her mouth and whistling sharply. Then she set off toward the stairs to the basement, where they were probably fighting over setting the rat traps again. "Cordy! Gunn! There's gonna be pizza!"
Wesley exhaled slowly, suddenly re-feeling that exhaustion that had gone away once Fred had started talking. Then he set down his bags and started rummaging for his wallet.
[[NFB/NFI/OOC-okay! i totally made this up because i didn't want to do a catchup for this episode and
brat_inslayage agreed it was unnecessary, but holy crap fred is hard to write from scratch. events taken from angel 3x05 "fredless," la la la.]]
