jrf_rpg

Since Angel left us, I haven't been so sure of what to do around here. I'm technically the leader of Angel Investigations now, but things have been kind of quiet over this summer. Good for the world, but, as Cordelia would say, bad for business. We really weren't making any money as of late. I had pulled into the last little bit of my meager savings to help pay the bills, but even that was going to cover things for long. I can only hope that a paying customer would come in, or, god forbid, Cordelia would have a vision of a paying customer.

Now I'm beginning to sound like her.

Not like I could help it if I tried. I've been spending most of my time with her this summer. The girl we found in Pylea, Fred, mostly stays upstairs, only coming out when someone puts tacos beside her door. (I've never seen a woman eat so much of anything, much less tacos.) Gunn comes in to help when we need him, but he actually spends a good deal of time with Fred as well. They seem to be getting along quite well.

That leaves only Cordelia and I on the ground floor most days. The Powers that Bother Us have been leaving us mostly alone this summer, and I can't help but be relieved a little, even though a vision would direct us to a paying customer, maybe. I can see that they are getting worse, even though she won't admit to it to anyone. I just don't know by how much, though.

Today was another slow day, it seemed. Cordelia seemed content to file her nails at the desk while I did a translation that I had picked up for a little extra cash. Just about anything to pay the bills, these days.

((Open to Cordelia))

A person would think that I would know better than to get myself in situations like this.

Of course, I'm the same person who shot up an office at Wolfram & Hart and turned down the job of a lifetime. I'm not exactly known for my intelligence at this point. I'd had it with the firm, though. I'd had it with everything at this point. The firm gave me a hand that wanted to commit suicide. I thought that it wanted to kill other people, but apparently it came from an old friend in the mailroom who wanted to die.

Of course, that wasn't all. Even Lilah was trying to turn against me. She just didn't want to die, though. I can't really hold it against her. I might have done the same thing if I thought that I was going to die. I knew that she was getting dirt on all of the other members of the board. Some crazy stuff, too. She was more cut out for this job than I was. Now I think that it went to the right person, for what that's worth.

So, the night that I quit the firm, I went out. I decided that I was going to get blind stinking drunk. Might help me cope with the decision that I made that will practically have me running for the rest of my life. I figured I had a day before I needed to get out of town, anyway. I had no intention of going back to my place, though. They probably had it bugged in some way or another. I wouldn't exactly be shocked. It was kind of their style.

So, I went out to a bar. Not Caritas, but one of the random dives in the city. I remember striking up a conversation with a pretty red head. I didn't intend for anything to come of it, but talking with her is where things start to get a little hazy. I don't remember if I just drank too much or if she might have slipped something into my drink. I remember her asking if we could go back to my place and, in my drunken idiocy, I said yes. Me, of all people, should know better than to invite someone into my home that I don't know.

But I'm a fucking idiot. We've been over that.

I wake up the next morning stuffed in my own closet. It took me stumbling out and accidentally getting some sunlight on my hand and it burning the piss out of me to realize what happened. The fucking bitch was a vampire and decided to sire me. Why me? Did I say something that attracted her?

Well, this throws a wrench into my plans. Of course, this means that I don't have a soul anymore. Fuck, now I could work for the firm without any problems, to be honest. I didn't want to work for them now anyway, though. I was starting to get bigger plans.

Lorne smiled as he watched the next person stand up to go sing on the stage. He was so glad to be back at this again. He had went off to Las Vegas for a while to try the whole 'singing career' again. It had worked out pretty well. He had made some money and some fans, and this time he had even managed to not be controlled by the supernatural mob in the process. Still, something was missing from all of it. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the conclusion that he wanted to be with his old friends again. He had wanted to give up the life of trying to save people and always failing to do so. He didn't want to hurt anymore.

Of course, fleeing from the few people still around that he cared about had only made him hurt worse. Finally, he let them know that he wanted to return, to go back to the old life. He finally realized that running from life doesn't actually solve anything. Of course, several people he talked to complained that their was nothing to do in Hope Falls. It wasn't exactly known for its night life, at least of the safer variety. So, he had an idea: reopen Caritas, this time in Hope Falls.

He wasn't sure exactly how good business would be, but he had the money to back that up now. Besides, it gave him something to do instead of just hanging around, waiting for something bad to happen. Sure, he hadn't been creative with the name, just using the old one, but the club was the same thing that it was before, a sanctuary, so why change the name? It still fit just fine.

When the person started singing, he winced just a tad, but the smile didn't leave his face. Even someone butchering Britney Spears, who did enough butchering on her own, couldn't ruin his night. He was back in his true element: club owner, surrounded by music while still putting people on their paths in life. Yeah, he could get used to this again.

It had been three days since I had taken Lilah down to the basement in the Hyperion to behead her. At the time, we didn't know if Angelus had turned her, and it was thought to be better to take every precaution. I thought at first that I was going insane down in the basement. I had thought that my guilt was getting the better of me when I saw Lilah sit up and start to talk to me. Then she barred her fangs and tried to kill me.

I managed to subdue her, but I couldn't bring myself to kill her. Once I knocked her unconscious, I instead moved her to the basement of an abandoned meat locker, where I locked her up until I could figure out what to do with her. Instead of doing some or another with her, I only managed to prolong my decision by not telling anyone what had happened, instead just telling them that I had taken care of her.

I was coming down to the basement again to bring her some pilfered pig's blood that I retrieved from Angel's refrigerator. In one hand I had the jar of blood, and in the other I was still carrying the wooden cross that I had brought with me during every trip for the past three days since this whole mess started.

I'm not even sure what I'm doing here again. I always come here, either before or after patrolling for the night. Tonight, it happens to be before. I always come to Giles's old apartment and just sit outside for a little while, remembering the good old days where the worst things that we fought were Hell Goddesses and not each other.

Willow told me earlier this afternoon that her and Tara are going on a date this evening. Good for them. At least someone might have a healthy relationship. I had to cut things off with Spike. It wasn't good for either of us. Even if he's soulless, he's still kind of a person. He took care of Dawn while I was...gone. That has to count for something. I liked telling him that he wasn't a real person because I knew that it hurt him. I liked to hurt him. It made me feel something, anyway.

I wish that Giles hadn't left. He wanted me to stand on my own two feet, but I'm not sure if I'm really capable of doing that. I kind of just want to crawl into a hole and never come out again. I'm starting to have vampires refuse to fight me because they say I smell. I smell because I work in a grease pit all day. Besides, it's not like they smell like roses. Giles could have prevented me from having to work there, though. He'd have thought of something. Instead, he ran away. He left me like everyone will. Dad, Angel, Riley, Mom, Giles...they all leave in the end, one way or another. Now I just sort of wonder who's next on the list.

I'm sitting off to one corner of the courtyard in front of Giles's old apartment when I watch someone walk up to it, and then kind of hang back from actually knocking on the door. Does someone else live there now? No, I would have seen them move in one of the times that I was out here. No, this person obviously thinks that Giles still lives there. I take a step closer to see who it is, who it would be that wouldn't know.

"Wesley?" The word slips out of my mouth before I can stop it. It's just pure shock that probably matches the look on my face right now. Now that's a face I thought I wouldn't see again. I don't hold anything against him now, no real point, but I still never really expected to see him again, except maybe for the very occasional trips to LA that have dwindled to nothing since coming back from heaven.

((Open to Wesley))

I hadn't meant to leave Wes behind. I really hadn't had a choice, though. They were coming and I didn't want them all to jump on us yet. No, I have plans for them. Plans that I know Wes shares. I just want us to be a family again, after all. No real harm in that.

Well, maybe a little harm, but that's part of the fun.

I had caught Wes while he was on his own. Tried to explain myself and what I wanted. What, deep inside, I knew he wanted. He wanted to be a family again, too. Before the others like Lorne and Fred came in. Before that little brat of a son of mine butted his way into our lives. All that struggle to live in a hell dimension won't do any good in the long run, little one. Because you're gonna die by Daddy's hands now.

Or maybe I'll let Wes rip him apart. I'm sure he'd get a thrill out of that.

Wes hadn't been able to understand my vision at first, though. Said something about how he would die to stop me. Well, that was a part of the plan. I pointed that out to him. I remember the color draining from his already pale face. Being a family again means that we'll all need to be dead like me. My old family's gone, anyway. Darla's dead, Spike's off being the bitch of the Slayer, and Dru...well, Dru's off being crazy. She was a beautiful project, but kind of dull when I'm not using her to torment Spike.

I had heard the others coming just after I fed him my blood. I knew that they wouldn't stake him, though. No, they'd probably look for a way to put his soul back into him as well. Another dirty, filthy soul that takes away all of the fun that we might have together. I wish I could make them understand. They will soon enough, though. I'll make sure of that.

There was more than one entrance into the basement. I knew every sewer access in the city. You had to when you were kind of allergic to the sun, after all. I know exactly what they did with him. They put him in that cage. Kind of funny to me, since he's the one who build it, for me, even.

"Wesley..." I whispered in a voice that only his ears would be able to pick up on. I stayed out of the view of the camera that I knew was there for right now, though. "It's getting to be time to make our family again. You up for the task?"

Faith had been sitting on the cold floor, chained to the wall. Angel had put her here after her little...encounter with Xander. She didn't understand why he had to interrupt. It wasn't like she was going to kill the little twerp. She was just having some fun with him. It wasn't a big deal.

She still couldn't understand why she was here, either. Well, supposedly she was here because she had accidentally killed the Deputy Mayor. What was the guy doing in an alley known to be frequented by vampires anyway? That didn't exactly sound good for him. Made him sound evil. And what are Slayers supposed to do about evil? That's right, slay it. That's what she did. It wasn't like she thought she was supposed to feel bad about it.

She gave the chain on her wrist another tug, but still no go. She wanted to know why Angel had chains in his place. Him and Buffy must have been into some kinky stuff before he lost his soul or something. Angel had left, and she wasn't even sure that he would be coming back. Maybe he would just leave her here to starve to death. Maybe all of the 'Scoobies' thought that it was a fitting punishment or something like that.

She sighed, leaning back against the wall after pulling on the chains with all of her might. She wasn't going anywhere. How could this possibly get any worse?

((Open to Wes))

Dawn couldn't believe everything that was going on in the world, and how fast things were moving. Things had moved so quickly from everything that she used to understand. Once upon a time, all vampires but Angel and Spike were evil, and they lived in the shadows. Now they had their own TV shows and it was her sister that was considered to be the bad guy. Why didn't people understand that all she was doing was trying to protect people from the evils that go bump in the night? Of course, maybe if she had listened to her sister, she wouldn't be in the mess that she was in today.

Dawn looked down at her hand. Her hand was big enough to pick someone up. She didn't quite have the comparison strength to go along with it, though. She got big without the benefit of getting much stronger. So, she had outgrown all of her clothing and couldn't even live inside of a house anymore! She had to live out in the wilderness like an animal or something! Of course, it had been a real pain in the ass to move down to Louisiana, too. She was pretty sure that she could have just walked across the ocean, but Buffy wouldn't even let her try. Probably for the best. With her luck, lately, she probably would have drowned or something stupid.

She hated Louisiana. Well, if she was normal sized, maybe she could actually enjoy things like Bourbon Street or something fun like that, but, being a giantess, she was stuck out near the swamp. Sure, Buffy didn't leave her out in the swamp, but she might as well have done so. She was pretty sure that mosquitoes were trying to bite her or something. Luckily, she was catching most of them before they were really getting to her. She just hoped that someone would stop by and see her soon. She was starting to get hungry, and she was pretty sure that she wasn't supposed to pick up the trees and eat them or anything dumb like that.

Andrew was bored. Even with the college work that he was doing, he still had way too much time on his hands. The role playing club didn't work out, so, instead, he had spent more time with his spell books that he had acquired from the Magic Shop. When he summoned the demon monkeys at the school play last year, he hadn't been able to control them, so things had quickly gotten out of hand, which ended with him getting a pummeling from Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer. He hadn't even known that a vampire slayer existed, much less that she attacked things that weren't vampires. He was only trying to have some fun. Besides, the leads in "Romeo and Juliet" were butchering Shakespeare, and he could only take that for so long.

With his reading, he was pretty sure that he could control them now. He had left out a few ingredients in the spell and had botched a few words in the incantation, and, originally, he had gotten children demon monkeys, which, as everyone knew, were much harder to control. Now he was pretty sure that he could get adult demon monkeys, which should be a little more controllable, or at least as controllable as demon monkeys really can be. All in all, what he really wanted to do was to stop being so bored.

He picked the day of the job fair on campus. Plenty of people would be around, so the monkeys would find lots of people to torment. It wasn't like they were going to kill anyone, although, depending on who it was, it wouldn't be that big of a loss. If a demon monkey bit one of the jocks who tortured him in high school, too bad for the jock. Besides, maybe the bite wouldn't kill him. Maybe it would only turn him into a monkey. Andrew really wasn't sure on that part.

Andrew was sitting just on the outskirts of the job fair, burning his ingredients under a tree and saying the incantation. Soon enough, his new winged friends would come flying from the sky and dropping on people. He couldn't wait.

I wanted to die again when I saw what happened to Wes. Of all the people that he ran with, he deserved to be laying on a cold floor bleeding out the least. And that stupid blue bitch just left him there, not even realizing that he still had a little life left. I suppose that being a god doesn't exactly teach you to check for vital signs.

Even in my little spot in hell, I could see that he was still alive. I just remember having an honest to go...whatever freak out that he was dying. Not sure what I said to convince the higher ups to let me out of there. They hadn't done so since I got all of them to start working with the firm. Somehow, I got back up there, though. I ran into Vail's place and got him the hell out of there, just repeating to him that everything was going to be OK. I just wanted him to live. I think he might have even woke up at one point and looked at me.

I left him at the hospital. How would he react if he learned that Lilah Morgan was the one that saved him instead of one of his own friends? I didn't go back, though. I couldn't. When I was alive, I swore up and down that I knew exactly what I was signing up for. If anyone else asked me now, I'd say that I was fine with my lot. I'm not, though. Being in hell isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I wasn't expecting it to be a bed of roses, but this just flat out sucked.

I tried to stay under the radar, but I knew they were looking for me. It would probably only be a matter of time before they found me and devised some creative punishment for running off like I did. There was someone I knew of that seemed to have evaded them, though.

The same man I dropped off at the hospital, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. He had settled in New Jersey under an assumed name. He was a pain in the ass to find, too. Luckily, I still had a few contacts that either weren't attached to the firm or could be paid off enough to not turn me in. Living the life of Arthur Channing, complete with a book store and a cat. I never would have pegged him to be a cat person. I prefer them to slobbering dogs, myself.

Right now I'd get down on my knees and beg Wes to tell me how he did it. For them to have not found him, he had to of done something. Maybe he could get rid of my contract. He tried to do it once, and I still remember how much it affected me that he went in to do it. Burning it won't do the trick, but maybe, now that he has time to research, he can find a way.

I made my way to his bookstore, stepping inside during a time when I saw that no one was in. I hope to whatever god that might listen to me that he can help me, or, even more, that he'll be willing to.

Giles hadn't expected anyone in the library today. Well, at least not until after school. Yes, the children did stop by from time to time during the day, as did Jenny, but usually only for a few minutes between classes or during a lunch break. So, he had planned on doing some research. While they didn't have anything in particular to research about right now, it was during down times like this that he needed to brush up on other things: different types of demon breeds, rights of different religious cults that were still active. Things like that.

He had actually went to a local proprietor to pick up a few new texts. He was always adding to his ever expanding occult library. When you lived on a Hellmouth and were a Watcher to a Slayer, this was explicitly a must, not just something of a hobby like when he wasn't on active duty like he was now.

That was why he had went out to go ahead and pick up the books. He hadn't figured that anyone would stop by and see him right now. Besides, it's not like other students in this school read all that much, or, if they did, they certainly didn't do it in his library. This was why he was surprised when, as he awkwardly pushed the door to the library open with his foot, he caught the smell of tea. Who would be in here right now brewing tea?

He lowered the books in his hands a little bit so that he could look over at Willow and Jenny. Just as he had done that, the weight of all eight of them was too much for his hands, and they slipped from them. One landed squarely on his toe, causing a good bit of pain, while the others just simply went sprawling out onto the floor.

Well, it's not like I was expecting anyone to roll out the red carpet for me right now. Darla and Drusilla left only Lilah and myself alive after the massacre in the wine cellar, and now everyone was staring at the two of us like we were lepers to be avoided. No shock. They probably think we were in on it to cut out some of the competition. I wonder if a part of Lilah is kicking herself for not thinking of doing just that. It's almost something admirable in our line of work.

Still scares the living hell out of our coworkers, and causes our higher ups to think of ways of getting rid of us quickly and as quietly as possible. I think that it was the night that Lilah tried to get me to say something on tape that finally broke me. I don't want to work here anymore. I kept all of the old files that I had taken from the vaults in hopes of protecting myself. I even kept updating them. Maybe subconsciously, I knew that I was going to leave. They can't tempt me with a corner office this time. Right now all I want to do is get the hell out of here and not look back.

There is one thing I want to do first, though. It's something that I probably should have done the first time around, actually, instead of taking the bait. I can't give it to Angel now, because he's gone a little darker than any of us anticipated without actually loosing his soul. He lit Darla and Drusilla up like a Christmas tree. No one was expecting that, or they would have set the girls up with fire proof underwear. Or, you know, supplied Angel with the gasoline. Whichever they would have liked at that moment.

No, I'm heading where the other three set themselves up in a tiny little office that, last I heard, didn't have a working phone. I'm not exactly expecting them to roll out the red carpet and serve me fine wine and cheeses in welcome, but maybe they'll at least appreciate what I'm willing to hand over for them. At the very least, I can give them an in to kill Darla, since she's still set up at my apartment. Maybe even a little info to fight their good fight, if they're willing to take it. It's not like they have any reason to trust what I say.

I'll be lucky if they don't shoot me on sight with a crossbow. I don't know, the ex-watcher is pretty good with a gun, he might just use good old fashioned lead to take me out. Still, I'm pretty sure that this idea is pretty stupid, but what else am I going to do with all of the intel I have on the firm? Use it myself?

Buffy wasn't really sure why she was doing this. Se didn't even like Wesley, or at least she hadn't really tried so far. He had been sent by the Council, trying to replace Giles. Like they could ever replace Giles. He was a father to her. Especially not with a guy who might be ten years older than her, if that. Even she could tell that he was green around the ears or whatever the phrase was. He was definitely new at this, and, with all the crap that Faith put all of them, though, he wasn't prepared at all.

Of course, after she had refused to work with the Council, she had expected him to leave. Wouldn't have really shocked her. He could have gone back home to England and been a Watcher for a more obedient potential Slayer type. Probably would have been a good life for him. Instead, he had came to her, asking if he could help. The idea of him wanting to help them, even after she had rejected him, kind of touched her in a good way.

Of course, she hadn't realized that he would get hurt with one punch. He wasn't that good at fighting, at least with his fists. She had seen him fence a few times with Giles, and that wasn't too bad. When she found out after they blew up the high school that he was in the hospital, she resolved to go and visit him. She wanted to thank him for trying to help them. He probably still slowed down a few vampires who had to try and run around him, so that counted toward something, right? Plus, he had helped move everything out of the library, which helped to save all of Giles's important books and stuff. He had been much more help in the past day than any other time since he had come here, honestly.

She was carrying a vase of flowers when she went to his hospital room. Her mother had insisted that you didn't visit someone in the hospital without bringing flowers. If Wesley knew how much she hated hospitals, he would know just how much she was going out of her way to thank him. She just hoped that she didn't come off like a goof when she did this, or screw it up in some way. She knocked on his hospital door. "Wesley? Are you decent in there?"

It was strange at first, having an agency all to ourselves. Sure, we were only short one person, but when that one person is your resident vampire with a soul who's the world's champion, you kind of feel the big empty hole, even when you and everyone around you refuses to mention his name. Cordy, Wes, and I had a hard time getting started, but, once we did, we felt like we were doing OK. Of course, it took us singing in front of Lorne, battling some scary ass demon that was huge and breathed fire, and finally getting a case or two after we got the phone working, but we finally felt like we were on track.

And then Wes had to go all crazy and get shot in the gut. For me. He took a bullet for me. I can repeat that to myself time and time again and that still doesn't sink in. Trying to work with my old gang just reinforced the fact that they really weren't my gang anymore. It made me sad to realize that part of my life was slipping away, and it sucks like hell that it took so much for me to realize it, but I think I'm OK with it. Anyways, I have a new gang now. Sure, it's a little smaller, but I care tons about the two of them. Might even say that I l...well, I don't know. Hard to say that word. Still, I care lots.

Which is why I hung by Wes's bed until he woke up. Seeing him so giggly on morphine made me both want to sneak a ton of it out of there to make him act like that again, and figure out ways to make him smile like that without the effects of drugs. I need to figure out a way to make Cordy smile like that, too. It looks so good on Wes, so I know Cordy would just light up if she smiled that way.

Just as I was coming out to look for Virginia for Wes (she was supposed to be here, wasn't she?), I saw Cordy glaring in a way that might make me want to hide (not that I'd every say that out loud) and a certain person who shall not be named swishing away in his long black coat. "Please tell me that was not who I think it was," I muttered to Cordy as I walked up to her.

Quickly switching to a (slightly) more pleasant subject, I asked, "Has Virginia showed up yet?" Did either of us even remember to call her? I didn't, but maybe Cordy thought to do so. She was smarter than me in matters like that.

(Note:  In this game, after high school, Cordelia moved to Chicago and took a job as a secretary for a friend of her father's. It turns out that she's next in line to be the Slayer. Meanwhile, Wesley is 'gifted' with the visions after he becomes friends with Angel. After receiving a vision about Cordelia, they go to Chicago to find her.)


Life just doesn't work out like you expect sometimes. When I graduated high school, I had planned on going to Los Angeles, city of Angels, in order to become a famous actress. I was so sure that it was going to happen in no time flat. I'm Cordelia freaking Chase. I can do anything I put my mind to.

Unfortunately, I apparently have a lot more will than actual acting ability. I think that it was after a director told me that he loved me until I opened my mouth at an audition that I finally said screw it. This place was obviously way too stupid to realize my potential. Well, that's what I told anyone who asked when I said to the few people I knew that I was moving again. The truth was that being gorgeous was not enough to get a job in Hollywood. There were tons of girls who were gorgeous. Not as much as I am, but they also had the acting skills to back it up.

I called a few contacts that knew Daddy back in the day when he was a rich guy and not a convict. One of the ones who was willing to talk to me said that he could get me a job in Chicago. It was a job as a secretary, but it paid actual money, which I really hadn't seen much of lately. Honestly, I was a month or so away from being evicted from lack of paying rent. I wasn't eating anything and I still couldn't pay the rent. Daddy's old friend was offering me a job and a few months leeway on rent of an apartment building that he owned. Thank God that Daddy didn't alienate everyone that he knew by never paying his taxes.

Chicago treated me much better than LA ever did. I had a job that actually paid the bills and I had an apartment that was bug and rodent free, and I didn't have either in LA. It wasn't as glamorous as the life I had originally planned for myself, but, if I save my money, I might even be able to pay for college one of these days. Life wasn't perfect, but I was actually reaching the point of maybe calling myself happy again.

Of course, I can't have that. No happy life for Cordy. It had been a year since I graduated, and over six months since I moved to Chicago when I first started having dreams. Well, nightmares is closer to the truth. Me, chasing vampires and killing them like I was a common...well, Buffy! I just chalked it up to flash backs or something. I'd see a shrink if they wouldn't lock me up for telling them anything about my former life. I just brushed them aside and started taking sleeping medication to try and make myself sleep hard enough to not dream.

Didn't cut it. I was also noticing that my workouts were getting a lot easier all of a sudden. The little weights that I used to run with were nothing, but neither were the twenty pound weights, either. I could run for days on the treadmill and not get winded or sweaty at all. Nice for keeping my makeup fresh for picking up hot gym guys, but kind of freaky none the less.

What really kind of pounded the idea in my head that I was avoiding at all costs was the vampire that accosted me one day when I was coming out of work. I guess he thought that I looked like a tasty snack. Oh no, I didn't survive Sunnydale to get picked off by some random dork in Chicago. I still packed a stake and a bottle of holy water in my purse after all this time. I had planned on tossing the water in his face and bolting, but I dropped the damn bottle on the ground!

He laughed at me! Asked me what I was going to do with the stake that he could still see sitting in my purse. No one laughs at Cordelia Chase and lives to tell the tale! Before I even realized what I was doing, I was punching and kicking the creep like it was nothing. I even picked him up and tossed him into an alley like he was a rag doll!

After I slammed the stake through his chest, I paused for a moment to think. Did this mean what I thought it did? I mean, Faith died, so the Slayer line or whatever passed. Could it have really passed to me? I don't even have an old tweedy guy to tell me what to do! Or a young tweedy guy like Wes even! No freaking way. I am not like Buffy the Superfreak.

Of course, vampires started seeking me out. I guess they really do have some kind of beacon that calls to the Slayer. I think it was the third one that finally made me break down and admit that I had to be the Slayer. Just watching Buffy do all of this stuff over the years was not enough to let me know this much about it. I'm the Slayer.

Damnit, why do these things always happen to me? I thought I left this crap behind by leaving Sunnydale.

He once had it all: friends who cared about him, a job that he loved, a life that fulfilled him. And then it all came crashing down on his head. First, a baby came into his life: Connor, Angel's son. A baby that was literally impossible, born of two vampires. A baby that everyone wanted, that they all were willing to protect with their lives. Then came a prophecy: the father will kill the son. He was so certain that it had to do with Angel killing his own son. Wesley went to everyone and did everything he could to try and prevent it. Finally, he came to the conclusion that he had to take Connor away. If he did this, he could spare Angel the hell that he would go through for killing his one child, the person he valued most. Of course, he had botched that plan as well. Justine came behind him and slit his throat, stealing Connor right out of his arms.

His hand went up absent mindedly to the still red scare on his throat. It didn't ache like it did when he first came home, well, not physically, anyway. Still, it burned in his mind like a Scarlet Letter, the physical presence of his betrayal of all of his friends and, most of all, Angel. He didn't blame the man for trying to kill him; if only he had been allowed to finish the job. Wesley wished that he was dead most of the time, but just didn't have the will in him to go and do it himself. Although right now he was getting a good start on drinking himself slowly to death.

He was on his third whiskey right now, in some random bar in LA. He wasn't sure which one it was tonight. It was a different one every night. All he wanted to do was drink the pain away, but he hadn't quite pulled that off so far. He was going to keep trying, though. He was going to try until he succeeded, even if that turned his liver to stone in the process. Not like he had anything or anyone to live for anymore.

"Do you want a refill on that?" the bartender asked him. He hadn't even realized that he had finished off the drink. He simply nodded, and the bartender topped him off. So, another night taking a ride home in a taxi then? He might want to die, but he wasn't going to kill someone else by hitting their car head on. Besides, the drunk driver usually lives, and that was the last thing that he wanted.

((Open to Buffy))