| Have a Little Faith, Chapter 15 |
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“Next time you could take an ad out on television,” Faith said, a little frustrated. They were walking back to Doyle’s apartment, then Faith was going to head home.
“She backed me in a corner,” Doyle complained. “I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I didn’t tell her about Lindsey.”
“You better not tell anyone about him,” she said. “Cause I’d kill you myself.”
“I won’t, but you see it worked out. Now we can deal with Angelus with a lot more resources and we don’t have to walk around pretending we’re from the church.”
“Wesley ain’t gonna go for it.”
“Who cares what Wesley says.”
Faith looked down. “He said I was special.”
“Angelus?” Doyle joked.
She shook her head. “No, Wesley. I told you that the oracles saw darkness in me, cause of my jealous, cause I wasn’t number one like Buffy, I wasn’t special.”
“I think you’re special too, darling” Doyle admitted. “You are, despite Buffy, you were chosen as the vampire slayer and to help the hopeless. You’re doing it right?”
Faith nodded.
“So now we can help you even more. Alex ain’t going to blab. Angelus tried to kill her.”
“I know. I guess it’s annoying because I couldn’t cut it doing Angel’s work. I bet he would have no problem establishing himself as a hero. Thanks to TV, no one will ever think of a 17 year old girl as a hero.”
“But you are, darling and Alex will just
make it so that you have less bureaucratic problems.”
When Faith came into the apartment, she expected Wesley not to wait up, but there he was sleeping on the couch.
Faith turned on the light. “I thought you said you were gonna start trusting me,” she said, nearly shouting. She was still pissed over Doyle telling Alex everything, even though he was right about her having to do things now with less bureaucracy.
Wesley opened his brown eyes and blinked. “What?” he said, a little confused. He put on his glasses which were on the table next to him. “What’s the matter?”
“You’re waiting up for me?” she said, defensively.
“I was sleeping.”
“On the couch—“ Faith stopped. “Oh, I’m sorry. Cordelia.”
“I wasn’t about to let her sleep on the couch,” he replied and smiled. He looked down. “Actually, I’m lying. I waited up because I was worried about you. Not because I don’t trust you. We understand each other, right? I was worried since tonight you were probably going to meet up with Angelus. That’s all. No distrust. I don’t want anything to happen to you, Faith.”
“I’m still here and so is Alexandria Taylor—She offered me a job.”
“A job? Absolutely not. You cannot work for some private investigator,” he said, sternly, but with a lot less anger than he usually had when he disagreed with her.
“But she’s gonna pay you and me forty grand together.”
“Faith, I thought things had changed—“
“They have. I’m not doing this to annoy
you. Angelus kicked my ass. I had to run away from him.”
Wesley did not say anything for a
moment.
“But if we’re working in the same place. We can train there. Alex’s got a lot of space. You don't have to worry about the library job. She makes tons of money.”
“Tons?”
Faith nodded. “Enough that she can pay the four of us $20 grand a year, more if we bring in business.”
“Four of us?”
“Doyle—and—Cordelia.”
Wesley did not say anything for a moment.
“Alex knows all about me—Doyle spilled the beans.” Wesley stared at her. “Don’t look at me. I was keeping it a secret from her. But she saw Angelus’ face. She figured out he was a vampire. I mean she is a PI. She said we can train anytime we want.”
“The council won’t like it.”
Faith smiled. “The council doesn’t have to know.”
“You are putting Ms. Taylor and Cordelia in grave danger. Do they realize this?”
“Alex knows. She’s faced the mob. Cordelia-- I don’t know. She’s Lindsey obsessed. She may not know the danger she is getting into.”
“You should talk to her.”
“I don’t really like talking.”
Wesley sighed. “If she wants to help, she has to know.”
“Anyway, Doyle likes her. Maybe he
can keep her mind off Lindsey. Maybe he should be the one to talk
to her.”
“She doesn’t know about you, shortcake.”
“That’s okay.”
“I could tell her, you saved her life.”
“The least people know about me, the less likely Angelus will find out. She was able to testify that was the most important thing. Wolfram and Hart have disowned Tony Papazin because we could not get him off. We’ve—They—“
“You’re not part of them.”
“I still do things for them.”
“Remember, you were worried you weren’t doing anything? Well, you did, you saved Alex.”
“I know, but I’m telling you that I helped Lee implicate Tony Papazin in the attempted murder of Alexandria Taylor and many other things. He’s going to jail for a long time.”
“Big deal, he’s scum, he should be in jail for a long time. Enough of this lawyer BS. How you holding up?”
“I guess I feel better now that I am actually achieving something.”
“Angelus going after Buffy yet?”
“No, he wants you dead first. He also wants Drusilla. Lilah found your false lead. She should discover Drusilla’s death soon.”
“One hopes that the real Drusilla doesn’t show up.”
“I heard she’s avoiding Spike as much as possible. I don’t think she’ll be showing up anytime soon. There’s a possibility Angelus may still head out towards Buffy’s way once he finds out about Drusilla. I’ll do what I can to keep him here.”
“Listen, shortcake. My woman’s intuition says that Angelus is playing Wolfram and Hart. I think you amuse him now, but he wants something. When he gets it, he’s gonna kill you all.”
“Holland won’t let that happen and besides Faith, I told you. I’m here until the end.”
“But I don’t want you to die.”
“Faith, the discussion is useless. I brought this monster back into the world, I’m am going to do what I can to keep him at bay, no matter what happens to me. End of discussion,” he said, with a little anger in his voice.
“Okay,” was all she could say. “Just keep yourself safe, okay?”
“I will.”
“And Shortcake?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s about Cordelia.”
“What?” he said, his voice got anxious. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. It’s just that she wants to help us. I think she just wants to do it because of you. I don’t want her to be in any danger.”
“She knows, Faith. I know you don’t have a high opinion of her--”
“My opinion went up when she noticed how wonderful you are.”
“She’s not dumb Faith. She just acts that way. It’s a visage she started doing in high school and is slowly giving it up. It may seem like she’s doing this to me, but she may actually want to help you.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I just do.”
Faith suddenly realized what he seemed like he knew Cordelia that well, despite only meeting her twice. “For god sakes, you can’t do that. You’ll get caught and the both of you will get killed.”
“It happened once and it will never happen
again. I swear to you. It has giving me the strength to go
on, like the time I saw you at Russell Winters. The two of you, you
are very important to me. I would never want to endanger you.
Look, I love her, but I promised that I will never see her again.
I must rather have her alive and alone.”
Faith did not realize how much space Alex actually had until she gave Faith the grand tour. Wesley, Doyle and Cordelia had come along for the tour.
“Wow, you must be loaded.”
“Not quite,” Alex replied. “I have a million years left to pay on my mortgage. This is the front office.” The front office had a tiny room on the side with a computer in it. “I like to sit here and watch for new clients,” she said, motioning to the small room. In the center of the room were two desks. “This is the secretary’s desk. I was putting it off as long as possible. Doyle and Cordelia can sit here or you can share. We can make decisions about who goes where when you’re all settled in. I have two private offices in the back. One is where I keep all the filing, the other is storage. There is a large loft downstairs which I was eventually going to turn into a regular agency. I never made enough money for that. I figured I’d start after the mortgage was paid off. You can train down there if you want. There’s an apartment upstairs. I don’t use it.”
“You don’t use it?” Cordelia said and smiled. Faith immediately knew what she meant.
“Hey, Alex,” Faith said, “Since your not using the apartment, why don’t you let Cordelia use it?”
“Umm—“ Alex said, looking over Cordelia. “I guess so, but I would like some kind of rent or something.”
“I can work extra,” Cordelia said, “in between acting gigs.”
“And she’ll be performing a service,” Faith said. “Angelus can’t enter the apartment now. We can escape if he ever decides to pay a visit.”