Chapter
1.04
Thursday, May 16th, 2002
"Hey there!"
Marie's greeting pulled Wes out of his daydream.
"Somebody looked to be thinking big thoughts."
"Oh, just trying to get my head around the
idea of moving back here."
"And the idea makes you look that
serious?" the tiny woman teased him. "I thought you
wanted to move back here."
"I do... or rather." Wes gave a sigh.
"I thought I was settled in LA. Worthwhile job, good friends,
someone I cared about. Leaving all that behind is a big step,
even if the fact of the matter is that none of it's there any
more."
"Ok-ay. I was going to suggest we
grab a hot dog from the stand at the entrance to the park, but
I think this calls for some spiritual chicken soup, instead. Come
on. My car's parked out back."
Wes heaved a mental sigh of relief. Hot dog stands
sounded far more like a couple of friends meeting up and getting
some food than a date. At least that cleared that up.
Before she started up the car, she tossed her
cell phone to the watcher in the passenger seat. "If you
hold down the six key, it'll put you straight through to Domino's.
Get a family special, you pick the topping as long as there's
no anchovies and have them send it to Lily's. You remember the
address?" Marie asked, as she pulled up to the entrance of
the parking lot.
"Sure." Wesley made the call and then
turned to watch Marie as she drove. "Em, we're going to see
your mother-in-law?"
"Yep. Real food, she's not so hot. Spiritual
sustenance, she's a five star restaurant."
She pulled the car up in front of the apartment block and waited for Wes before heading in. "If anyone can
help you figure out whether this is just a case of cold feet or
whether you really should be staying in LA, it's Lily."
"I don't really see that a quick chat is
going to do the trick."
"Then, I guess that no one's really explained
to you about Lily. From what I've heard she's sort of like the
guy who was kidnapped with Spike, only no need to sing."
She pushed open the door of the ground floor
apartment and called out as she walked along the corridor to the main
room. "Lily, I've brought someone home for lunch. I think
maybe the two of you should have a little talk." Wesley followed
on, unsure what to think of this latest development.
Lily came bustling through from the kitchen to
greet Wes like the proverbial prodigal son.
"Wesley. Is good for you to be here."
"Food's on its way. I'm going to go have
my own personal PTA meeting, while you help our friend here work
out what he wants to do. He's feeling kind of homesick for LA."
With that the young woman headed toward the exit.
Lily's gaze pinned the watcher as she took a
seat in one of the armchairs at the far end of the room, gesturing
him toward the sofa.
"Sit! Sit! Marie she say you homesick for
LA, but LA no home to no one, so I think you missing the people."
"I suppose so," Wes admitted as he
settled into the soft cushions. "That and being part of the
whole Champion thing."
"Pffft! Champion for the Powers is no so
big a deal." The demon dismissed Angel's claim to fame in
an instant.
"I beg to differ," her guest argued.
"What can be more important?"
"You choose what more important when you
choose to walk away. You choose to follow your heart. You humans,
you talk about the Powers as if you talk about God. Powers are
just that. They not good or bad. Mostly, they selfish. If power
corrupt then they more power than most. They arrange things to
suit them. Where is big deal for being their peon?"
"But aren't they a force for good?"
"Some, if they seek adoration, love. Some
seek fear, some no care at all. It is a better man who sets his
own course according to his creed, than who follows blindly on
the orders of one he neither knows nor comprehends."
"You really believe that?"
"I know that. I think you can do good work
here. I think already you help William's little sunrise."
It took Wes a second or two to realise that she meant Dawn. "I
think if you stay you can help many people, many demons who no
have no one to turn to. If you follow your heart. You good man,
Wesley. Here is place where we need good men."
"And what if my heart is in LA?"
"The baby horse?" Lily asked. "She
choose, my friend. Is done." The demon held Wes's gaze as
she continued her sympathy evident in her gaze. "She is little
girl. Is right for now that she should be with little boy. You
no little boy. You need woman, to be your wife, to have
your children, to make life with, no little girl for you to be
knight. Is time to put away childish things.
Is not to be easy, but you stay, we help. My
Marie help with work. We help you find office, new home. Is new
start, new beginning but many people to help, us, William, Buffy,
Dawn. Is better not see pony. Is better to forget. Clean slate.
I think in time have better life here than you
think. I make tea. You think about what I say. Is true, but men
they need time to think through what woman knows." With that
she bustled back to the kitchen, leaving a somewhat shell-shocked
Wesley in her wake.
"Hello!" Clem's voice sounded from
the doorway. "Rosa said there was a pizza delivery on its
way."
"Is coming," Lily shouted back from
the kitchen.
Clem came in and claimed the other armchair
but Wesley hardly noticed, as Marie came through the door after
him. She carried Rosa on one hip, her love for the child evident
in every glance her way. As she looked up to see Wes watching
them her smile seemed to include him in their family unit.
"I don't think you two have been formally
introduced. Rosa, this is Wes. Or do you prefer Wesley?"
"Wes is just fine."
"Okay. Wes, this is my daughter Rosa."
Wes heard the introduction, but his brain was
too busy providing another soundtrack for the admittedly beautiful
mother and child portrait in front of him, Lily's words of a few
moments earlier. 'You need woman, to be your wife, to
have your children, to make life with.'
He began to have a feeling that, true or not,
Lily's advice wasn't entirely impartial. His gaze flicked briefly
to the older demon, catching the merriment on her features before
he held out his hand to the little girl, who was obviously amused
to be asked to shake hands.
"Pleasure to meet you."
A smile broke across the little girl's face.
"You talk like Unker Will reads," she told him, unwittingly
giving away one of Spike's fluffiest secrets.
"Do I indeed?" Wes asked.
It was some time later before all the pizza was
eaten and Rosa was due to be returned to the care of her tutor.
Lily diplomatically offered to escort the child
back upstairs, to allow Marie to chat to Wes about the business
of setting up and some of the legal necessities involved. She
had one last trick up her sleeve before she took the little girl
away, though.
"Wesley, is good that you stay. Is so good,
I think maybe we have party here for dinner Saturday night. We
ask William and the girls, too. You come."
The sight of the little girl dancing on the spot
in excitement made it impossible for Wes to refuse, as he was
sure the old demon had known it would. "Of course,"
he answered. "What time?"
"Hi, come on in. Can I take your coat? Maybe
you'd like a drink? Some coffee? Or maybe a soda? We've got some
ice tea in the fridge."
"Yes, you can take my coat. As to drinks,
whatever you're having will be fine. How's your sister, by the
way?" the young cleric passed over his jacket to Buffy, who
hung it up on one of the pegs in the hall.
"Oh... you know. Physically, a couple of weeks
and you'd never know anything happened. Mentally, we could be
catching the fallout years from now."
"I'm sure you'll give her all the support
you can."
The minister waited in the hall for Buffy to
return from the kitchen with a selection of sodas, before heading
up to the teenager's room.
"Is your sister going to be up to this?"
"Oh, she might have been told to stay home
from school and rest up, but I assure you a bit of reading won't
be beyond her." Buffy pushed open the room door to reveal
Dawn sitting in bed, headphones on, tray full of magazines on
her lap, painting her fingernails silver. A vase of white spray
carnations with red edging on the petals stood by the
side of her bed. Thanks to Spike's intervention she was dressed
in her most concealing pair of pyjamas underneath the bedclothes,
and he'd even made her put on a bra, which in her mind sort of
spoiled the whole idea of lazing round in pyjamas, but the vampire
had been adamant.
She looked up, startled, as the door pushed open,
tipping the bottle of polish over the topmost magazine. Buffy
snatched at it, picking it up before it could pool onto the tray
itself. The teenager pulled the headphones from her ears, and
Buffy grimaced at the music that came from them.
"Has Spike been making tapes for you again?"
Buffy asked, holding her hand out to take the bottle cap from
her sister.
"Brandon, actually." Buffy rolled her
eyes. Sometimes she wondered if Dawn realised that she was basically
dating a young human Spike. "Didn't realise it was that time.
Sorry." Dawn ripped the cover off the soiled magazine using
a delicate precision to avoid smudging those nails she'd finished
painting. She scrunched it into a ball, sending it sailing to
bounce off the rim of her waste paper basket and onto the floor.
As Buffy hastened to rescue it before the polish stained the carpet,
Dawn treated the minister to an apologetic smile.
"So, are you ready to start now?" the
preacher asked as Buffy passed around the sodas and he passed
a gospel in booklet form to each of the girls.
"Well, I've kinda got a couple of questions
before we start the lesson proper." Buffy bit at her lip.
The young man gave her an understanding smile
as if this were par for the course. "Fire away."
"Not that I'm not grateful, but I just wondered
why you're prepared to do this. I mean the wedding, not the Bible
study. When Spike said he would only get married in church if
the minister was prepared to do it, knowing what he was, I was
sort of ready to head for the Vegas wedding chapel. I didn't really
expect that the first guy, em, reverend that I asked would say
yes."
"Buffy, I could tell you it's because it's
patently obvious to anyone who sees the two of you together that
you love each other. I could tell you that it's obvious that Spike
understands fully the commitment he is making before God and I
believe he takes it very seriously, which is more than can be
said for some couples who come to me. I could also tell you that
I believe his motives are just. I could tell you that since he
basically intimated to me that you were sleeping together and
that the situation wasn't going to change, that I felt it was my
duty to sanctify the union—"
Buffy looked shocked. "But, but I heard
every word he said. He didn't mention anything about that."
"Not unless you knew the context of the
passage which he quoted, and he knew that I would. Buffy, I could
give you all these reasons and any one of them would be almost
enough to justify my decision, but the fact of the matter is that
in the end it came down to one thing.
There are several constants throughout the bible.
One is the tenet of 'Judge not, lest you shall be judged.'
It's not my place to decide whether Spike or even you are worthy
or unworthy in the eyes of God. He is the only one who can do
that. This is illustrated time and again throughout the bible,
and more often than not those who think they are guaranteed a
place at God's right hand are condemned for their greed, their
vanity or some other sin and those who deem themselves unfit for
whatever reason are generally wrong, too. No one can know whether
they will see heaven, all anyone can do is try to be worthy."
"But, isn't it all a soul thing? And Spike
doesn't have one of those."
"How do you know? Do you know exactly what
a soul is? Because I don't. The same word that's often translated
from Greek to mean 'soul' in the bible could just as easily have
been translated to say 'life'. The Hebrew word for 'spirit' can
also be translated as 'breath'. When you start to look at things
in that light, you realise that some things which are commonly
misconceived to have their origins in the bible are nothing more
than dogma."
"So you say that Spike isn't by his nature
inherently damned?"
"Jesus says, 'Whosoever believes
in me shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.'
Not those who believe and have a soul, whatever you take that
to mean, and I defy you to prove who has one and who doesn't by
the way, or who happen to be the same species as the guys who
wrote the book. Just whosoever."
"Em, well, this kind of leads me to the
next question. I'm guessing from that, that you wouldn't have
any objections if a couple of the attendants and a guest or two
weren't entirely human as such?"
"No, Buffy, I don't have a problem with
that. I was more or less expecting it, though you will need two
witnesses whose identity is... legally established, I guess is the
best way to put it, to sign the register."
Dawn gave her sister a questioning look. "A
couple of the attendants?"
"Oops. Guess I didn't mention asking Marie
about having Rosa as a flower girl, huh?"
"Guess not," the teenager mock huffed,
but then couldn't contain a grin. "She is going to be so
cute."
The minister cleared his throat. "Well,
if that concludes the question and answer for just now, maybe
you'd like to open the gospels I gave you at the beginning?"
A calm settled over the group as the minister
read from the tracts that he had given the girls, pausing every
so often to discuss the passages with them. Everything seemed
to be going rather better than Buffy had expected. That was before
the sound of two male voices bickering and then shouting carried
through the house to Dawn's room. |
