Seas Between Us (Broad Have Roared) by Enigmaticblue

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Chapters 11 & 12

Chapter 11: Dark Night

"So I just feel my way to you/I try to keep you close/I was never very good at getting/What I need the most/So it seems/Life is just a troubled sea/That we sail for free/Don't let me drown/If the rest of the world's going down/You've got to breathe your breath in me..." ~Over the Rhine, "Fairpoint Diary"

Neither Wesley nor Fred were entirely prepared for what they found in the Wolfram & Hart hospital wing. The young lab tech laying in bed was obviously in a lot of pain, and as soon as the doctor in charge saw them, he came hurrying up.

"Miss Burkle," he said, in a low voice. "We have a problem."

Fred pulled her eyes away from the young man. "What's wrong?"

"Mr. Andrews has been infected with something from the artifact in the science lab. We're not sure if we're going to be able to reverse the effects." Dr. Christoll shook his head. "In fact, what's happening is impossible."

"What is happening?" Wesley asked.

"For lack of a better way to put it, his organs are boiling, liquefying." He shook his head. "If we don't find a way to reverse this, and soon..."

Dr. Christoll left the thought unfinished, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what he meant. "I'll start work on figuring out what the sarcophagus is doing in my lab," Fred finally said. "Maybe once we figure out what's inside it—"

"No." Wesley was shaking his head. "It's too dangerous. If Knox—"

"The damage has been done, Wesley," Fred replied sharply. "I should have said something, put a note on it. If Si dies, it's my fault."

Wesley frowned, and then nodded. "Fine, but I want you in full gear when you examine that thing, Fred."

"Don't tell me how to do my job," she hissed in reply. "I'm—"

"Too important to me to want to lose you."

That shut her up. Fred fell silent, staring at him. "Wesley—"

The kiss he gave her was quick, but filled with promise. "I'll go consult my books," Wesley said. "With any luck we'll figure out what the bloody hell that thing means to us."

"I'll be careful," she promised. Fred was certain that her insides were melting. Wesley could be so sweet when he wanted to be, and that kiss...

He smiled and then left Fred to hurry to her lab to start her own tests.

~~~~~

Gunn found it strange to be back at the hotel. So many things had happened there, both good and bad. He wasn't the same person who had first walked through these doors.

"Gunn!"

Cordelia stood there, a bright smile blooming on her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Came to see you," he replied, easily falling back into the same speech rhythm he'd used. "Had to see the miracle woman."

She laughed and hugged him. "I'm glad you came. How did you find me? Did you see Wesley or Fred?"

Gunn shook his head. "No, not today. Angel said you were back, but when I called Wes, he wasn't home. I thought this was the next logical place to look."

Cordy smiled. "So now you're logic-boy, huh?"

"When I need to be," Gunn said.

"Was it logic that told you to sign the customs papers for that big stone coffin?"

Gunn froze. It had been a while since he'd been on the streets, but he could still sense danger. Spike's voice held the promise of violence. "I don't know what you're talking about," he replied, trying to decide how he wanted to handle this.

Spike grabbed his shoulder, spun him around, and slammed him against the desk. "I don't believe you."

"Spike, you're going to open up that knife wound," Buffy warned him from the sidelines. She had no intention of stepping between the two men. He had told her that Gunn was somehow behind the presence of that sarcophagus in Fred's lab, and that his getting stabbed had something to do with it.

Besides, Buffy trusted her vampire. If he was pissed off, he probably had reason.

Cordelia didn't have the same kind of faith. "Spike! What are you doing?"

"Let me fill you in," Spike replied through gritted teeth, still keeping a tight grip on the lawyer. "When I was with Fred earlier, there was a new addition to the lab that spit out some kind of stream of air. I don't know what it was s'posed to do to her, but Knox was so brassed off about me getting in the way that he stuck a knife through my ribs."

Gunn was beginning to get a sinking feeling in his gut. "That doesn't have anything to do with me."

"Doesn't it?" Spike asked. "Imagine our surprise when it turned out you signed the order to get that thing through customs. Now, you have exactly one minute to convince me you don't know what that bastard had planned for Fred. After that, I rip your throat out."

"I didn't know!" Gunn protested. "I signed the paper, but I didn't know what it was for."

Both Cordelia and Buffy were staring at him with expressions of disappointment and uncertainty. Cordelia was shaking her head. "I'm sure it was an innocent mistake," she said. "Gunn just signed a big stack of papers and that one got slipped in there with the rest."

The look on Gunn's face told them that Cordelia was rather far off the mark. "Cordy—"

"What did you do?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Gunn shook his head. "Cordy, you don't understand. It was slipping. I was losing it, and that was the only way I could make sure I kept what they gave me."

"What they gave you?" Cordy demanded. "A job?"

"No! This knowledge!" he said. "For the first time in my life, I wasn't just the muscle. I was—"

"Special," Spike finished for him. "You were a bloody hero, and you could do things no one else could do." Gunn was silent, not bothering to contradict the vampire. "You should get back to the office," he suggested, his voice cold. "While Fred wasn't harmed, one of the lab techs got caught up in this. Apparently, he got sick. Wes an' Fred are handling it."

Gunn wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. "I should get back then."

Cordelia watched him go, silent. "What happened?" she asked, her tone flat.

"They filled his brain up with all kinds of information he wouldn't have had otherwise," Spike explained quietly. "They gave him what he wanted."

"Gunn didn't want that!" Cordelia protested. "He never would have joined Wolfram and Hart! This is—"

"Crazy," Buffy said softly, having watched the tableau with no little sympathy for the participants. "You take a break from things, and suddenly everything is different."

Cordelia was still shaking her head. "I still don't understand."

"What's not to understand?" Spike asked. "The law firm figured out what everybody wanted, and then they gave it to them." He looked down at his hand. "Even me," he murmured.

"You don't think they turned you solid just so they could control you," Buffy objected. "Because if that's what they did, they don't know you at all."

Spike chuckled. "You've got the right of it, luv. There's no way I'd work for Peaches for any length of time. No, I figure they meant to get rid of me. Or maybe they just wanted me gone. I was a mistake they couldn't wait to cover up."

"Well, I would call that a good mistake," Buffy said firmly. "I don't care why you're here, I'm just glad you are. It looks like we're going to have to figure out what they're up to, though."

"I think we need to know what kind of a hold they have on Gunn," Cordelia said. "Wes and Fred said they didn't sign anything. We need to know the details of Gunn and Angel's contracts, and we need to find out how we're going to get them out of there."

"You're overlooking one small detail," Spike said gently.

Cordy frowned. "What's that?"

"You're assumin' they'll want to leave in the first place."

~~~~~

Fred's research didn't uncover anything, but Wesley found what he was looking for in his books. The news wasn't good, and Angel was suddenly involved, since it meant the possible emergence of a god of some type.

"Can we stop it?" Angel asked. His differences with Wesley had been put on hold for the time being, but the tension between them thickened the air.

Wesley hesitated before replying. "I'm not sure. The sarcophagus was to be held in what is called the 'Deeper Well,' but our information is sketchy. I can get you a location, but—"

"What good is a location going to do us?" Angel asked impatiently. "It was supposed to stay there, and it didn't. Do we know how it got here?"

"Yes, we do," Wesley said quietly. "Apparently, it was held up in customs until Gunn signed the papers to have it released. We aren't sure why yet, though. I tried to speak with him earlier today, but he's been out of the office."

"He went to see Cordy," Angel replied, looking up as Fred walked in. "Fred, what have you got for me?"

"Not much," she admitted, guilt written all over her expressive features. "None of our scans are penetrating the stone, which is really strange. What I can tell you is that Si's skin is hardening, and it's getting worse fast."

Angel frowned. "How long does he have?"

"A few hours, maybe a day at the most," Fred replied. "We're trying everything we can to isolate the parasite that's working on him, but we keep running up against dead ends."

Angel stood and began to pace. "What happens if we can't stop it?"

Wesley took a deep breath. "It's hard to say. Most likely, the man will disappear and the old one— Illyria was his name—will take his place."

"Will he be powerful?"

"Yes," Wesley replied. "He will have certain powers. Before you ask, yes, I do believe he would be dangerous, although I'm not sure how much so."

Angel was deep in thought, his chin resting on his chest. "And if he dies before the transformation is complete?"

Wes and Fred exchanged concerned looks. "Angel, the transformation is what's going to kill him," Fred said quietly.

"But what if he doesn't make it through the transformation?"

Wesley stood. "You can't be thinking—"

"I'm considering all our options, Wes," Angel cut him off, his tone even. "I'm not saying it's going to come to that."

"Angel, he's an innocent," Fred protested. "You're suggesting that we kill an innocent person."

Angel shook his head. "I'm not suggesting anything. I just want to make sure I have all the facts." He sat back down behind his desk. "You two should probably see what you can do about finding a different solution. The last thing we need is to have some kind of god running around."

Wesley followed Fred out the door, stopping her with a hand on her arm. "Call Spike," he urged. "Someone is going to need to make sure nothing happens to that young man."

Fred stared at him. "Wesley, this is Angel. Surely you don't believe that he would..." She trailed off. Angel had been strange lately, and she was no longer certain that she knew what their boss would do. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to see if I can reach Gunn," Wesley replied. "I want to know why he signed those papers."

"Don't hurt him." Fred's eyes were pleading. "I'm sure there's a good explanation."

"We'll see," Wesley replied grimly, and then he kissed her forehead, pulling her towards him, the tender gesture at odds with his tone. "He might have cost me your life, Fred. Right when—"

"He didn't." Her arms came around him. "Wes, it's going to be okay, I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

His arms tightened. "No, not if I have anything to say about it."

~~~~~

Gunn didn't know what hit him. One minute he was walking into his office, and the next he found himself face down on top of his desk. "What—"

"Why'd you do it, Charles?" Wesley's cold voice hit him hard. "You put all of us in danger, and for what?"

"You wouldn't understand," Gunn replied. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone."

"Do you know there's a young man dying in the medical wing right now?" Wesley said, shutting the door and drawing the blinds. "His organs are boiling, and his skin is hardening, preparing for some sort of god to take residence in his body. All because you signed a bloody sheet of paper. Why?"

"Because I was losing it!" Gunn shouted. "The knowledge, everything, was slipping. The guy told me he wouldn't make the upgrade permanent unless I signed a piece of paper. I didn't know what it was! I sign a hundred things every day!"

Wesley held up the piece of paper in question. "Do you know that the only reason Fred isn't in that bed right now is because Spike was there? He shielded her, otherwise she would be the one dying right now."

Gunn sank down onto his desk, staring at Wesley in horror. "Wes, man, I didn't—"

"You didn't ask!" Wesley burst out. "You didn't ask, Charles, and your refusal to question is most likely going to cost a young man his life."

Gunn looked away, refusing to meet Wesley's eyes. "I never wanted that."

"It doesn't matter what you wanted," Wesley shot back. "It's what's going to happen." He lowered his voice. "We should never have come here."

Gunn shook his head stubbornly. He wasn't ready to believe that, wasn't ready to believe that having all this knowledge could possibly be a bad thing. "Wesley, just because you're not happy here..."

"I'm not happy?" Wesley challenged. "Look me in the eye and tell me you're content here."

"We're doing some good," Gunn insisted. "I know we are. It's going to take some time to turn this place around, but—"

"It's not going to happen." Wesley shook his head. "Look, Gunn, you don't know what Cordelia told me, why Angel came here. It might change your mind."

"Maybe," Gunn allowed. "And then again, maybe not. I'll help you with this, Wes, it's the least I can do, but—"

Wesley shook his head. "There's nothing you can do," he said harshly. "You've done enough already."

Wesley turned and stalked out of the office. He was shaking with anger, and it had been everything he could do not to hurt Gunn any more than he had. Wesley couldn't help but feel that it was all ending. Everything they had been, everything they had worked for, was going up in flames.

He had to wonder if that hadn't been what Wolfram & Hart had been after the entire time.

Chapter 12: Torn Apart

"Walking out in the freezing rain/I feel nothing 'cause I've numbed the pain/Looking forward to looking back/On this day/Prayed last night/Dear God please no/But I was never good at letting go...Good news can be so unkind/When it's everything you have to/leave behind..." ~Over the Rhine, "Lookin' Back"

Buffy decided that she really, really hated Wolfram & Hart. She'd refused to let Spike go back to the office building on his own, especially not with Fred worried about what Angel's intentions were. If he figured out that she was sleeping with Spike—well, Angel had been known to be a little irrational where other guys were concerned.

It made no sense, though. He had left her , for her own good, no less. Buffy was fully prepared to pop him one if he made so much as a snide remark.

The building gave her the creeps, though, and she slipped her hand into Spike's for reassurance, gratified when he smiled at her. "Do you think Cordy will be okay on her own?" he asked quietly.

"Please, Spike, Cordelia can take care of herself," Buffy replied. "Trust me. You didn't see her with the sword today."

Spike nodded, approaching the hospital wing where Fred had said the sick lab tech was. He frowned, slowing down suddenly. "Somethin' isn't right."

Releasing her hand, Spike strode down the hallway, stopping just inside the doorway of the room. "Bloody hell."

Buffy came up beside him, seeing the dead body of the man they were supposed to have been protecting. "Shit."

They looked at each other, and then Spike entered the room, looking more closely at the body. The skin was mottled, and Spike touched the man's arm tentatively. "Skin's hard."

Buffy had no desire to get any closer. She watched as Spike tipped the man's head, looking for any sign of violence. "Was it that parasite-thingy that killed him?"

Spike shook his head. "Don't think so. Fred was pretty clear that this illness wasn't goin' to kill him so much as transform him."

"Then what did it?" Buffy asked , creeping just a little bit closer. "I mean—"

"Angel," Spike said quietly and with conviction.

Buffy's eyes widened. "Spike, I know you don't like him, but—"

"It was Angel, pet." Spike shook his head. "I can smell the bastard. I think he used a pillow."

Buffy shuddered. "But, Spike, why? I get having to make hard decisions, but this was uncalled for."

"This was premature," Spike murmured. "Wanker didn't want to take the time to solve the problem." He laughed bitterly. "What happened to patience, Angelus?"

His question was so quiet Buffy nearly missed it, but she flinched at the name. "Spike, Angelus isn't back."

"No, but you should have heard some of the stories Wesley told me about Peaches when he did have his soul." Spike gave her a sardonic look. "I tried to tell you for years that the soul doesn't always make that much of a difference."

Buffy flushed. "Yes, you did." Turning to leave, she pulled out her cell phone. "I'll call Fred and tell her what happened."

"Buffy—" Spike reached for her, realizing that this might not have been the best time for I-told-you-so's.

She shook her head. "No, you're right, Spike. You tried to tell us. Hell, you tried to show us, and we were too blind to see." Buffy gave him a weak smile. "I'm sorry."

"There were a lot of things on your mind," Spike said, trying to excuse her, hating to see that look of guilt on her face. Of course, it also felt pretty damn good to be believed for once.

Buffy's eyes warmed slightly. "And now you're on my mind."

Spike stared at her retreating form as she ducked out the door, and a rather stupid grin broke out over his face. That's the kind of thing he liked to hear, even if it did appear that they were walking right into trouble.

~~~~~

When the call came in from Buffy, the first thing Fred did was to call Wesley. He didn't answer, so she left a voicemail, and then she marched off in search of Angel.

"What the hell were you thinking, Angel?" she demanded without preamble. "We were working on it."

Angel glanced up, the expression on his face not one Fred had seen in the past. Wesley would have recognized it; the cold, forbidding look would have been quite familiar to him. "We can't afford to have some kind of god running around, out of control," Angel said calmly. "I took care of it."

"He was an innocent person!" Fred exclaimed. "What if we could have found a way to save him?"

Angel's eyes grew even colder. "Fred, he works at Wolfram and Hart. No one here is innocent."

"What if it was me?" Fred asked in a small, hurt voice. "What if I had been the one infected?"

"That's different."

"How?" Fred's voice was shaking. She didn't recall ever standing up to Angel before. This was the man who had saved her life, who had rescued her from a horrible death in Pylea. He was supposed to be her hero. "Are we putting a price on life now, Angel?"

"It was a difficult decision, but it had to be done," Angel said firmly. "Ask Wes about hard decisions if you're not sure."

"That would be rather difficult seeing as how I don't remember what you're most likely referring to," Wesley said from the doorway.

Fred felt infinitely better for having backup. "Angel, we don't get to make decisions about who lives and who dies. That's not our job."

"Sometimes it is," Angel shot back. "We're working at Wolfram and Hart, Fred. You knew this could get tough. If you can't handle it, you don't have to stay."

Her head jerked back as though he'd slapped her, and she felt Wesley's hand coming to rest on her back. "We're leaving, Angel. It seems you don't need us here any longer."

There was an unseen war going on inside of Angel. He didn't want to see them walk out, and he couldn't imagine trying to run the firm without them there. He needed his whole team.

Angel also wanted them out, beyond danger, beyond the law firm's reach. He'd crossed a line when he'd smothered that man, and even though he was firmly convinced that he'd made the right decision, it was the lesser of two evils.

Knowing that it might have been Fred in that hospital bed, Angel had wanted as many of his friends beyond danger as possible. "You should go."

"What about Gunn and Lorne?" Fred asked.

"What about them?" Angel replied. "They'll have to make their own decisions."

Wesley was tugging on her arm. "Angel, you don't have to stay—"

"Actually, I do," Angel replied softly. He met Wesley's eyes, and he could see that the ex-Watcher caught his meaning.

Fred knew exactly what the vampire meant as well. "Angel—"

"Goodbye, Fred."

Never had that word sounded so final.

~~~~~

When Spike and Buffy entered the Hyperion, their grim visages had Cordelia standing up in alarm. "What happened? You guys weren't gone for very long."

"He was already dead," Buffy said shortly.

Cordelia frowned. "But I thought Fred said they had more time."

Spike ran a hand over his face. "He should have. Angel killed him."

Cordy wished she could say that she was surprised. "What about his soul?"

Buffy shook her head. "He's still got his soul, Cordy. I don't know. Maybe there's another explanation for this. Fred and Wes are supposed to meet us back here when they can get away. I think they were going to talk with Angel."

"Is that safe?"

Spike was the one to answer her question. "He won't hurt them. Angel still has a sense of who his friends are, but—" The vampire broke off, and then began again. "This was easier. He's takin' the easy way out. Again."

Cordelia took a deep breath. She knew what Spike was saying. Angel had, in some ways, taken the easy way out when he'd had all their memories of Connor erased. Now he was doing the same thing, probably excusing his actions by saying they were for the common good.

"What do we do now?"

"Dunno," Spike replied. "I'm open to suggestions."

"Why do we have to do anything right now?" Buffy asked. "Let's wait and see what the others have to say. We can figure out what to do then, as long as it includes sleeping."

Spike nodded slowly. "Yeah, I gotta admit I'm knackered."

It wasn't good enough, but they didn't have a lot of choice in the matter, Cordelia knew. She wanted to get out there and solve their problem. She wanted to kick Angel's ass into the next century.

At the same time, she'd been through this before. There was no getting through to Angel when he was being this way. He had to figure it out on his own. Which just sucked.

"Okay," she agreed. "We'll wait."

They didn't have to wait long. Wes and Fred both came in about a half an hour after Spike and Buffy got back. "How bad is it?" Cordelia asked immediately.

"Remember when Angel let Darla and Drusilla eat all those lawyers?" Wesley asked with grim humor. "It's that bad."

Cordelia scowled. "I'm going to kill him," she muttered. "Didn't he learn his lesson last time?"

"It would appear not," Wesley said, sitting wearily. "Although, to be fair, I think there's more to it than that. From what you've said, these last couple years have not been easy for him."

"Who cares?" Fred asked, uncharacteristically snappish. "He killed a man, Wesley! Because he didn't want to wait."

"I know, but he did have reason," Wesley said gently. He was still wrestling with what Angel's actions meant. "It may be that he did the right thing."

Buffy shook her head. "I have to say I'm with Spike." She'd been fairly quiet throughout the discussion, mostly because she had the sense that Angel wasn't her territory any longer. This was now her problem only because it might end up being Spike's problem. "Angel took the easy way out. He didn't even wait to see if there was another way."

A thick silence fell. "What about Lorne and Gunn?" Cordelia asked.

Wesley shook his head. "Gunn didn't seem inclined to listen to reason, and Lorne has been out the last few days."

"I left a message on his voicemail to come here when he got back," Fred explained. "If nothing else, he'll want to see you, Cordy."

"That would be good," she said softly. "Isn't there something we can do for Angel, though?"

Spike sighed. "If we can get our hands on a copy of his contract, that might help."

"Cordelia or Fred should probably ask him," Wesley said ruefully. "We aren't on the best of terms at the moment."

"I'll call him tomorrow," Fred offered.

Wesley stood. "Very well. I should probably head back to my place. It's late. Fred, do you want a ride?"

"That would be nice."

There was a chorus of good-nights as they left, and then Cordelia stood as well. "I think I'm going to head up," she said, her eyes still troubled. "Like Wesley said, it's late."

Spike and Buffy watched her go, and then the vampire looked over at her. "What are you thinking, luv?"

"This feels really wrong," Buffy admitted.

Spike raised an eyebrow. "What? Angel goin' over to the dark side?"

"Yeah." Buffy stopped there, unsure of how to continue. She was afraid of making Spike angry by talking about the other vampire, knowing that he could easily get jealous.

He frowned. "Spit it out, Slayer."

"I never thought Angel would be the one to give up," Buffy admitted. "I thought he was more, I don't know, solid than that."

Spike was quiet, unsure of how to say what he wanted to say without pissing her off. "Maybe your idea of Angel wasn't based on what he was really like."

"Maybe," Buffy agreed. "I guess it's been a long time since we had any kind of talk. The last time I saw him, before he gave me the amulet, we didn't have anything to say to each other. I couldn't even tell him I'd been in heaven."

Spike cocked his head to the side. "I was the only one you told? I thought—"

"You were the only one I could tell," Buffy confessed. "Partly because I knew you wouldn't tell anybody, and partly it was because I thought you were the only one who could handle it."

"You're sayin' you trusted me with that information."

"I've trusted you for a long time now, Spike."

"Even after—"

Buffy shook her head. "Well, no, but when you came back with your soul..." She trailed off. "I never really told you how much that meant to me."

"I think I knew." Spike ran a finger down her cheek in a tender gesture. "I can't believe you're here," he said. "I keep thinkin' I'm in a dream and I'm goin' to wake up."

Buffy smiled. "If this was a dream, I don't think Angel would be in it at all," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but—"

"If this is a dream, let's not wake up," she suggested. "I really kind of like it here, possible catastrophes aside."

"We'll stay here forever, then," he murmured. "Or maybe we'll find somethin' better."

"Mmm," Buffy agreed, her words muffled by his kiss. "As long as we're both there."

~~~~~

Cordelia stood by the window of her darkened room and wondered why the hell she'd been brought back, because she was tired of this. Tired of apocalypses, tired of things always going wrong. She was especially tired of her friends possibly turning evil. How on earth was she going to get Angel out of the law firm?

She didn't have a clue as to where to start.

There were no simple answers this time, although she wasn't sure there were ever any simple answers. They couldn't curse him with a soul, since his soul was already there. They couldn't ask him to leave, because he seemed determined to stay.

Cordelia frowned. It seemed the only way to get Angel out of the law firm was to make him feel like he didn't need to be there. Perhaps that would mean finding a way to get him out of his contract, or to find a way to break the memory spell in a way that wouldn't damage Connor.

Or maybe both.

How any of that was to be accomplished, Cordelia didn't know, but she'd never let that stop her in the past. She wanted her Angel back, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her. After all, Cordelia had always been very good at getting exactly what she wanted.

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