| ~~~4~~~ �So far the clues that we have on the where-abouts of one Miss Rosenberg are as follows. A package postmarked out of Portland Maine.� Wesley wrote the words Portland Maine on the dry erase board Fred had snuck up to the room they had dibbed the hole. Along with the board other office supplies had come up missing from the Investigation�s office. A pencil here, a pen there. Some paper, binder, a laptop computer... �Which is the capitol of Maine.� Gunn threw out. �Actually...� Fred made a slight face, not really wanting to tell Gunn he was wrong. �Augusta is the capitol. It was first known as Cushnoc or Koussinoc it wasn�t known as Augusta until 1827. � �Oh.� Gunn nodded. �If were done with our lessons?� Wesley arched an irritated brow at Fred. �Okay so we have the postmark.� He reiterated. �Plus we know that the book came from Walter Strickland�s private collection.� �From what I could find on our man, he was born in 1911 and died just this year. He never married, has no other living relatives. The last place he lived was Camden Maine.� Gunn read off a print out he had made just a few short hours before. �So what we need to find out is who got his stuff after he bit the dust.� �Did you check the obituaries?� Fred questioned her pulse quickening. She knew they were on to something here. �Yeah. Nothing much. Just his name and the years he lived.� Gunn shrugged. �Where would we find out where all his possessions went?� Wesley questioned out loud. �Well maybe since it�s such a small town...� Fred started. �We could call the town office. Maybe they might have some information on what happened to his estate.� �Good thinking.� Wesley nodded. �I have a feeling that we�re very close to finding Willow� ~~~*~~~ �What did he mean I was frivolous and self-absorbed? � Cordelia screeched making a grab for the book that Angel had been reading aloud from. �I�ll have him know that there was a lot more to me back then. Does it say how I risked my life, or how I was the *victim*?� �Cordelia calm down. We know that you�ve changed a lot since your high school days. This was written over three years ago.� Angel placated Cordelia�s hurt feelings. Though he�d never admit to his irreplaceable friend that she *had* been those things years ago, he knew she had blossomed into a charming young woman. �This is just an observation. Walter Strickland never got to meet any of you, so he was only able to write what he observed.� �Well he said that Willow was a charming and beautiful girl. Not only on the outside but on the inside as well. He hit the nail on the head there!� Cordelia pouted a shimmering of moisture in her eyes. �I just don�t want the world to remember me as those things.� Angel smiled softly at his friend slightly understanding what she meant. Didn�t he have volumes of books etching out in precise detail his time as Angelus? Words written on paper for the world to know until the end of time. �Well then we�ll need to start our own journals, each one of us. So that way when we all pass on the world will know about us, the real us. About the things we see, how we feel. I�m sure the Watcher council will pay a fortune to have copies of them.� He could see her softening. �Really?� �Yes really. Here let me cheer you up and tell you what he wrote about Xander.� Angel chuckled at the way Cordelia�s eyes brightened. �Oh I can just imagine. But hold up a sec. I want to check up on Patrick and see where our lazy coworkers took off to.� Cordelia hurried off the couch and to the stairs. Angel flipped a few pages back to the section on Willow, and reread the words. Oddly feeling closer to the redhead as he read the description the Watcher had written down years ago. Of her loyalty, her sweetness, and her ability to calm the tempers that seemed to always be running high in the group. He got to the part that he decided not to read out loud after gazing at the first few lines. It was about Walter�s interpretation on Willow�s feelings for a certain soulful vampire. That it was the deceased Watcher�s belief that the young soon to be witch had a crush on �The Vampire with an angelic face�. Angel�s couldn�t help but smile a bit. How absurd was that? Willow having a thing for him. It was common knowledge that Willow had a mile long crush on Xander. But what if it was true? Angel shook his head of any fanciful thoughts. He chose his path, with Buffy then with moving to LA. But what if? No. Angel scolded himself again. He needed to stop thinking that way. Flipping the pages back again to the beginning of Willow�s part Angel couldn�t resist reading the section again. ~~~*~~~ Cordelia stuck her head into Patrick�s room and smiled at the sleeping one-year-old. He looked like a little cherub when he slept. Taking a silent step forward, she stood next to the crib to look down on the miracle that was sucking his thumb at the moment. A heartbreaking emotion passed through her as she watched the small boy that she helped raise sleep. Now that Angel had an anchoring spell, and his soul was going to stick to him like gum on the bottom of a shoe he was going to find someone and she�d no longer be needed. At least that person wont be Buffy, Cordelia grimaced at the thought. It wasn�t like Angel was going to go out and just find someone, especially with his little aversions to sunlight, garlic, and holy crosses. But sooner or later there was going to be a person that would accept Angel for everything he was, and then Patrick would be taken from her. Wiping a the tear that formed in her eye, Cordelia told herself for a thousandth time that she would not cry. That this was going to be the one thing that she would not be selfish about. Patrick dissevered to have a Mother, not just an Aunt. �Patrick my love your Daddy thinks he fooled Auntie Delia, but he didn�t. I saw the way his eyes widened when he was reading what the stick in the mud wrote about Willow. He left something out. And you can bet your college fund that I�ll find out.� Tucking the blankets around the slumbering body, Cordelia tiptoed out the door and headed towards Fred�s room. Knocking softly on the closed door she waited a moment. She knew she saw Wesley, Gunn and Fred sneaking up the stairs when they didn�t think anyone was looking. If they weren�t in Fred�s room, which brought sick and distorted images by itself, then where were they? Suddenly a banging sound from up above made Cordelia gasp in surprise. The sound came again and again. It almost sounded as though someone was jumping up and down on a pogo stick up above. Deciding to investigate the noise, Cordelia headed towards the stairs. ~~~*~~~ �We did it we did it.� Fred kept chanting as the three of them jumped up and down in joy. Well they may have not found out exactly where Willow was, they did find out that Mr. Strickland�s library collection had been given to a local Rare Bookstore owner by the name of Madeline Strum. �We�re so close!� Wesley smiled and felt like jumping some more. �So close to what? And hey that�s my pen holder buster!� Cordelia�s voice came from the doorway, catching the three jumping and embracing people by surprise. Gunn jumped back first, embarrassed to have been found in such a way. Straightening his clothes and trying to act all nonchalant he went to the nearest chair. Fred and Wesley weren�t as quick, and stood there a few seconds, their arms still around one another, until they noticed the picture they must portray. �Umm this isn�t what it looks like.� Wesley�s statement came out more like a question. �Really? It looks like you�re all one short of the Teletubbies in here. And what�s with all this stuff?� Walking around to take stock of the missing office supplies Cordelia stopped when she reached the Dry-Erase board. �You�ve been looking for Willow?� �Merry Christmas.� Three voices mumbled. �We wanted it to be a surprise.� Wesley whispered. Cordelia�s back was to them, so they didn�t see the tears that came from her eyes. The room stayed in an awkward silence until Cordelia spun around and hugged the nearest person. �It's the best-ruined surprise I�ve ever had.� Gunn hugged Cordelia cry on his shoulder until she was all cried out. �I take it by your bouncing that you found her?� �Not really. But we have a strong lead.� Wesley handed Cordelia a handkerchief, and winced when she loudly blew her nose into it. �Well what are we waiting for? There�s a vampire still to surprise.� Fred grinned and clapped her hands. �Welcome to �Operation: Willow for Christmas�.� Cordelia grinned blowing her nose on last time and handing the hankie back to Wesley. ~~~*~~~ �There�s just something about the first snow of the season.� Maddy sighed as she watched the large white flakes drift gracefully to the earth. �Yeah all the slush it makes, ice coated roads.� Willow muttered from the back of the store. �Are you telling me Kaddy that you�re not a winter person?� Maddy looked from the window in mock dismay. �Last year was really my first *real* winter, well if you don�t count that one time that it snowed...but that was different. I just see snow as on huge chore. It needs to be shoveled, and plowed. When it�s done snowing it just turns brown and icky from the dirt.� Willow counted off the reasons as she polished the bookshelves. �But what about being the first one to take a walk in the pristine white snow. Walking with someone you care about under the iced branches. It can be truly romantic.� Willow made a rude sound at the mention of romance. �Romance is for fools.� Maddy�s eyebrows shot up at Willow�s cynicism. �Bitter much Kaddy?� Willow stopped and put her polishing rag down. �I�m sorry. It�s the time of year.� �Come here child.� Maddy waved Willow over to the window. Willow thought of declining, but the determined glint in the older woman�s eyes let Willow know that this was no arguing matter. Walking over to stand besides Maddy, Willow found herself positioned in front of the woman looking out through the window. �Tell me what you see.� Willow sighed. �I see Mr. Shaw across the street picking his nose .� �No he isn�t... Well he is, now isn�t that disturbing. Okay besides Mr. Shaw�s troubling vision of poor hygiene what do you see?� �People rushing around, spending way too much money on a commercial holiday.� �Kaddy...� Maddy nearly growled. �Let me tell you what I see. I see a young woman who has locked herself away from the world. A young woman with special powers that is scared that she�ll hurt the ones she loves. Someone who is so alone day after day that she�s becoming bitter and will eventually be known as that weird old woman with all the cats.� �Hey I have one cat thank you very much.� Willow halfheartedly tried to lighten the tense moment. �Someone who has forced herself to look at the world from the outside. You can�t stay here forever Kaddy. It�s not healthy. You�ve made no attempt to be a part of this town. Hiding away in that tiny apartment.� �Is this your way of firing me?� �Goddess no. But I wont stand by any longer *Willow* and let you turn your back on the world.� Maddy felt the young woman in front of her tense at her real name. �I might be an old lady, but I�m no fool. I also read Mr. Strickland�s diary. It didn�t take a brain surgeon to figure out which one you were.� �You aren�t mad are you?� Willow�s voice sounded so alone and dejected. �No. I understand why you did what you did. But you�ve become a stronger person since then, and it�s high time you started acting like it.� Maddy moved away from Willow and the window. �I don�t think I�m ready to talk to anyone from the group yet.� �No I don�t think you are either. Their behavior was inexcusable.� Maddy stopped and turned back toward Willow. �Look out the window and tell me what you see now.� Willow shifted her body to look out the window again. She knew that Maddy had slipped off into the office and really wasn�t waiting for a response. She just wanted her to take a closer look at the things that she had missed. ~~~*~~~ �It�s ringing.� Wesley covered the mouthpiece and whispered to his anxious audiences. After the third ring a woman�s voice answered. �Maddy�s corner.� �Er..yes...um� Wesley cleared his throat. �I�m looking for a Willow Rosenberg?� There was a long pause on the other end and Wesley thought for a moment the line had been disconnected. �Who�s asking?� The voice almost sounded threatening, and made Wesley even more nervous than he already was. �Wesley Windham-Price. I-I�m a friend of Willow�s from LA.� �Why didn�t you say so?� The woman�s tone turned friendly. �It�s about damn time you all started looking for her.� Wesley felt his cheeks redden at the scolding. �Yes, errr... we just recently found out that she...left.� Wesley stilled a recognizable voice drifted over the line. �Maddy I think I�m going to go and take a walk.� Quickly placing a hand over the receiver to block out his voice he whispered excitably. �I heard her. Willow�s there!� Cordelia made a mad dash for the phone trying to pry it from Wesley�s grasp. �Will you get off!� �What was that?� It took Gunn and Fred to pull Cordelia away, so Wesley could continue on. �We were able to locate her through the book she sent Angel.� �Well then I�m impressed. So now what are your plans?� �Well we thought... We wanted to bring Willow home.� Wesley answered honestly. �What if she�s not ready? She was put through a lot. Some wounds just don�t heal you know.� The voice turned bitter for a moment. �It�s her choice. If anything we�d just like the chance to spend Christmas with her.� The other end was silent for a moment. �Fine. Do you have a pen?� �A pen?� �You know a writing utensil? I was going to give you directions.� Wesley smiled in victory as he grabbed a pen and paper. |
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