| Have a Little Faith, Part 10 |
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"And that achieved what?" Wesley demanded
when Faith told him about her encounter with Russell
Winters. Even Doyle was a little upset.
"Look, Lindsey was running out of reasons
to keep Angelus after me. I have to keep him from B and
make so he won't get suspicious of shortcake."
"Shortcake?" Doyle questioned.
"Faith, you punched our inside man.
What will he think?"
"I bet he'll think it's funny once the swelling
goes down. Look, I spent the summer looking for
Angelus. Wolfram and Hart hold the
key. I make waves against them. They'll want to sic Angelus
on me, not B."
"It was incredible stupid. You could have gotten arrested."
"First and last time I agree with him, darling,"
Doyle added.
"My god," Holland said, when Lindsey came
into his office. Angelus cracked up. His nose had swollen
to double the size. Lindsey held an ice
bag on it, but no amount of ice was going to keep the swelling down.
"Did she break it?"
"I would appreciate you not laughing," Lindsey
snapped at Angelus. Lindsey's tone did not
matter to Angelus, and he did not stop laughing.
He planned to stop doing it when Lindsey's nose stopped being amusing.
"No, it isn't broken." He could not
believe that Faith hit him so hard. "By the way her name is
Faith and she's a bit brazen."
"Only because she hit you," Angelus said and gave another round of laughs.
"She's going to be a problem," Lindsey said, trying to act mad, though part of it wasn't an act.
Holland nodded. "How did she find out about Russell?"
"Apparently through one Russell's conquests."
"We can't let her ruin things. Russell
Winters is a very important client."
About 7:30, Faith was home watching the Simpsons.
Night was coming and she would go
patrolling. Her cell phone rang.
She let it ring once, then picked it up.
"Hey Shortcake, sorry about the nose-and
about not telling you, but you're real good at
improv."
"It's looks very nice. Luckily I don't
go on dates," and she could hear he was a little annoyed.
"Look there isn't any time to argue about
what you did. Russell's picked another victim. It's Buffy's
friend-classmate Cordelia. She's heading
over to his place in an hour. We've got to stop him. He's just
wants to kill her."
"If I kill Russell, they may get suspicious of you."
"I don't care and besides you threatened
Russell this morning. The only thing you don't have
to know is I'm going to let you into Russell's
house tonight. I want him dead already."
"You have to drive me," Faith told Doyle. "In case we all need to make a hasty exit."
"This is madness," Wesley said. "You're just going up to Russell Winters house and slay him?"
"Lindsey's gonna let me in. But I need you to drive." She said to Doyle.
"I'm non-combative."
"You just have to wait for me."
"But I don't have a car."
"Wesley does."
"I am not lending you my car," Wesley said.
"Too late," Faith said, holding the keys.
"I'm Russell. Thank you so much for coming.
That'll be all Franklin. We'd like to be alone."
Russell said, after his butler had shown
Cordelia into the living room.
"Wow, what a nice place. I love your curtains.
Not afraid to emphasize the curtains," Cordelia said
and laughed.
"Well, I have old fashioned tastes."
"I grew up in a nice home. It wasn't like
this, but we did have a room or two that we didn't
even know what they were for. Until
the IRS got all huffy about my folks not paying taxes for, well, ever.
They took it all."
"Sorry to hear about that. Margo tells
me you're an actress. It's going well?"
"Oh, yeah, it's great! I've had a lot of opportunities. The hands in the liquid-gel commercial were almost mine, by one or two girls. And well-- It's not everything. I-"
"Mr. Winters," Lindsey said, coming in to the room.
"Oh, Lindsey, I didn't realize you were coming.
They never informed me at the gate." Russell
thought that Lindsey wanted to take a look
at the girl.
"I took in the back way-didn't want to deal
with the hassle. I just needed to drop off some
papers and then I'll be on my way.
Hello," he said to Cordelia. She was as beautiful as when he saw
her earlier in the year. "I don't think we've met. I'm Lindsey McDonald,
Mr. Winters' attorney."
"Oh," she said and smiled. She remembered Faith's warning. "Hi. I'm Cordelia."
They were interrupted when the doorbell rang.
"That's odd," Russell said. He did not like what he was feeling from Lindsey and Cordelia. He had an idea the young lawyer might have a crush on her and had come to convince him to leave her alone. Lindsey should have warned him earlier about it. It was too late now. "Security should have buzzed them in. I really need to hire better staff."
"I'll get rid of them, sir and be right back."
Cordelia watched Lindsey disappeared into the front room.
"He's really cute, is he single?"
"Lindsey?" Russell said. "He's married to his job. Now about your acting."
"Oh yeah, acting. I've tried really
hard, you know. Usually when I set out to achieve something I
succeed at it, right away. But I don't
know anybody, and I don't really have any friends here."
"Now you know me. You don't have to worry anymore."
"Oh, god. I'm sorry! I'm getting all weepy
in front of you. I probably look really scary. I finally
get invited to a nice place - with no mirrors,
- and lots of curtains… hey, you're a vaampire!"
"What? No, I'm not."
"Are too!" she replied.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hey, I'm from Sunnydale. We had our own
Hellmouth. I think I know a vampire when I'm - alone
with him-- in his fortress-like home. And
you know, I think I'm just feeling a little light headed from
hunger. I'm just wacky. And kidding!"
She said and laughed. She looked around if there were any means of
escape. Then she was not that worried. She knew Lindsey was
nearby.
"Truth is, I'm glad you know. It means we
can skip the formalities." He wanted to kill her soon,
before Lindsey got back.
"But your lawyer is here?"
Russell laughed. "Lindsey? Oh please, he knows all about me, who I am and what I like to do."
"Lindsey!" she screamed. She turned to the door, hoping that he would soon appear.
A moment later he did with Faith right behind him. Cordelia runs over to him and grabs on to him.
"He tried to kill me."
Lindsey smiled. "Only one person will be killed today."
"Winters!" Faith screamed out.
"Lindsey?" Russell said, looking at Lindsey with confusion.
"Sorry, Russell," Lindsey said. "I
hope you understand. This isn't personal. I'm afraid that I
found my morals. You were right about
Angelus. You're no longer the favorite son."
"That's where I come in, Lindsey you better get Cordelia out before anyone sees you. Doyle's waiting"
"You're a dead man McDonald!" Russell cried out. "If I don't get you, someone else will."
"You're the dead one," Faith said, charging at him.
Lindsey took one last look at Faith before
he and Cordelia headed out the door.
"Look!" Wesley said, pointing at Lindsey
on the side of the house with Cordelia. Wesley could see him
waving, probably flagging them down so no
one will see them. Wesley decided that if they plan to use his car,
he would come along. Doyle drove the car to where they were. Cordelia
and Lindsey jumped into the back of the car and Doyle drove it around the
corner.
"You must be the famous Lindsey McDonald," Doyle said, after he put the car into park.
"Isn't he brave?" Cordelia cried out.
She gave Lindsey a big kiss on the lips. Lindsey was surprised
and a little embarrassed. However
he could not help it and kissed back.
"Where's Faith?" Doyle said. Lindsey
and Cordelia unlocked lips, but still looked at each other
for a long time.
"Remember Faith, hello?" Wesley said, unsure of what he felt from seeing Lindsey and Cordelia kiss.
"Oh," Lindsey said, snapping out of his kiss.
"Taking care of Russell." Lindsey explained to the
man who he assumed was Wesley. The
nicer one was probably Doyle.
"I'm Doyle by the way," he said to both of them, but mostly to Cordelia. "This is Wesley."
"Oh hi," she said. "Isn't Lindsey so
brave to be doing this? Going undercover with all these horrible
people."
Lindsey smiled. "Thanks, but listen,
you guys get Cordelia out of here. I need to get back to
Faith. Russell has surveillance I
need to get to the tapes before they get to Wolfram and Hart."
"Can I see you again?" she asked.
"See me again?"
"Yeah. I thought we could go for coffee or something."
Lindsey looked over Cordelia. He remembered that moment they had when he first saw her. Now she was legal-but he couldn't bring her into his world.
"I would love to, but it would be too dangerous."
He hated seeing her disappointed, but it
was better than seeing her dead.
"Coffee would be to dangerous?"
"My world would be. Go with Faith and the others. They'll look after you."
"Oh," she said and looked down. "I understand."
"Please don't take it the wrong way."
She shook her head, then grabbed him and kissed him again.
Lindsey got back into his car and drove through the front gate. The guard was still unconscious.
"Wake up man," Lindsey said, shaking the guard. The guard stirred a little. "Who did this?"
"Chick, short, strong-" he mumbled.
"The slayer," he said, loud enough for the guard to hear and ran towards Russell's house.
When he got inside, Faith was heading out.
She was walking indicating that she had nothing to run
from.
"Russell's dusted, guards are unconscious."
Lindsey smiled. "I have to erase the surveillance tapes. Doyle is waiting for you."
Faith smiled, then wrapped her arms tightly around him. Lindsey felt that human feeling again.
"You going to be all right?" she said, when
they stopped hugging. She touched his swollen nose. "I'm
really sorry about that again. But
it was in front of witnesses."
"Yeah," he said, annoyed about it, but not
wanting to dwell. "Listen. I can't leave Wolfram and
Hart. I have to make up for all that
I've done. I'm not leaving until Angelus' soul is restored or he
finds me out."
"But he'll kill you if he does."
"I have to accept that risk. My soul
isn't clean, Faith. If I can tip the balance back in my
favor by giving our side Angel back, I have
to do it." Faith nodded. She felt close to tears, but held it
back. Lindsey did not need to see
her tears. She hugged him again.
When she stopped, he looked at her and smiled. "I want you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"Keep my morals safe."
"What?"
"When I went to Sunnydale-- When you came here, for the first time I had someone generally care about me. It felt great. You are the light in my darkness, Faith. Without you, I might have gone back to working for Wolfram and Hart and eventually none of their harm would have meant anything for me. You are the only one giving me hope right now."
Faith did not reply. For the first time someone considered her important in their life.
"Listen I have to go erase the tapes."
"Okay-Shortcake?"
"Don't call me Shortcake."
Faith laughed. "I promise-- your morals are safe with me."