Work Text:
Wesley looked on in slight amusement as Detective Lockley narrowed her eyes at a brooding Angel approaching her. No doubt that it was to ask a series of questions about Faith. And that was when he had decided it was his time to leave. He’d had enough of Faith’s antics for one day, and he couldn’t bring himself to stay in the police station any longer without painful memories overwhelming him.
His face stung slightly as the open air hit it. The bruises around his eyes and his swollen lip throbbed. He approached Angel’s car and put the key in the door, before noticing the small figure standing just to the side of the entrance of the Police Station.
“Buffy?”
She had her cell phone to her ear. Without looking at him, she held up her finger in front of him, the universal sign of ‘wait, I’m busy’. Wesley pursed his lips in slight annoyance and a little roll of his eyes. After a few moments she all but growled in frustration and slammed the phone shut.
“Taxi service says they’re gonna be half an hour,” she’d said it with a huff, as if she expected Wesley to know who she had been talking to on the other side of the line.
“Do you need a lift?” The words left Wesley’s mouth before he realized he was saying them, and he would have contorted his face in regret had it not hurt so much.
She met her former Watcher’s gaze and hesitated, before crossing her arms. “Do you mind giving me a ride to the bus station?”
He nodded. It was on the way to his apartment. Angel had given him reign of his car for the evening, so no harm in putting it to use.
“Thanks,” she said with an awkward nod.
It wasn’t a particularly cool night, but Wesley put the top up on the convertible anyway. More so for their protection, before feeling a little silly after realizing he had his own personal Slayer in the car with him.
They were silent as Wesley started the car and pulled away from the curb. His stomach grumbled a touch. He hadn’t consumed more than the beer he’d drank a few hours earlier and some peanuts. Buffy sat with a frown, her arm resting against the window of the car and her head upon that.
He had overheard her and Angel’s heated argument not so earlier. When it was over, Angel had slammed his fists to the wall as Wesley looked on sadly.
It had been a difficult night for all of them - and an even longer few days for Wesley. He’d hardly gotten any sleep since his confrontation with Faith. Whenever he closed his eyes, it were as if he was back in that foreign apartment, feeling her on top of him and pulling his hair back. The thought made the cuts under his button down shirt tingle. When he had tried to shower, the hot water made him flinch, as if the aerosol can protruding flames were back by his cheeks, Faith behind it grinning wickedly.
“Come on, Wesley. Haven’t you always had the hots for me?”
The car jolted a little as Wesley swerved at the memory.
Buffy raised her head, hands going to the dashboard in front of her. She turned her head and gave him an incredulous look. He only gave her a slight glance before clearing his throat.
“Apologies,” he simply said.
Buffy sighed, putting her hand to her forehead before wiping the hair away from her face. He then noticed in his peripheral vision her looking at him. First, at his fingers grasping the steering wheel. His right index and ring finger were bruised and swollen. Wesley repositioned his hands and doubled down his stare at the road.
She then looked at his face. A surge of self consciousness, as well as minor annoyance overwhelmed him.
“Must you do that?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the road.
“Do what?” she replied, slouching down and turning her head back to the window, as if she hadn’t just been caught.
He chewed on a safe part of his lip in response.
His frustration turned to confusion at the sight of the bus station up ahead, which had a lack of - well - buses. The lights were off and the attendance window closed. Buffy noticed this just as he did, and she rose in her seat, eyebrows furrowing in worry.
“That’s not a good sign,” she deadpanned, turning to look at Wesley. He looked back, nodding in agreement. He stopped the car, and she undid her seatbelt.
“Can you wait a moment?” Buffy asked as she got out of the car, her curled blonde hair falling over her face. Wesley nodded, turning off the engine. He eyed the convenience store across the way and got out, locking the car to find some form of sustenance. He grimaced as he eyed the questionable looking egg sandwich, but took his chances as he paid the clerk. He was leaning against the bonnet of the car, stuffing the sandwich into his mouth when Buffy sauntered back, looking angry.
“A bus strike!” She put her hands to her hips. “Perfect.”
Wesley still had his mouth filled with egg and mayonnaise. He put his forearm over to cover his chewing, slightly wincing as he brushed his sore lip.
“Of all the days!” She walked in a little circle, “Walsh is gonna kill me if I’m not back in class tomorrow.”
“How’r long ‘till - “ he swallowed, clearing his throat. “Excuse me. How long until the next service?”
“To Sunnydale? A day and a half.” Wesley thought he saw her eye twitch. She raised her hand to her phone again and closed her eyes as if she were making a life changing decision, taking a few deep breaths.
“I need to call Xander.” Her tone indicated that was the complete opposite of what she actually wanted to do, and Wesley wondered if anybody even knew she had come to LA. He decided against asking the question. Buffy was already on edge, reeling from her argument with Angel, angry at Faith, and now seemingly with no way home.
He saw her walk away a little as she dialed her phone. He looked at his watch. It was nearly 8pm. He supposed he could - he could offer her his couch? He doubted she had anywhere to go. His mood improved as he remembered Cordelia, before realizing she’d escaped with her last minute journey out of the city, avoiding the drama entirely. Damn.
Buffy’s voice was slightly raised on the phone, and Wesley tried not to eavesdrop. He watched as she paced.
When she hung up and strode back over to him, she looked a little guilty.
“Look, I know it’s getting late, but I need to be back in Sunnydale for class tomorrow. My psych professor is totally gonna have my head if I don’t show.”
So Buffy had ended up attending College. Albeit in Sunnydale, but he supposed it was an acceptable compromise.
“I - I know this is a lot to ask, but there’s a diner about an hour away between here and Sunnydale. Xander said that if you can take me, he can meet us halfway.”
She looked helpless and tired. All Wesley wanted to do was go home and sit down with a glass of scotch until he passed out.
“I cant…I can’t pay you for gas -”
“Buffy, you don’t have to pay me.”
She looked up at him, an actual look of tender appreciation.
“Yes, okay.”
“Really?”
He nodded. He bundled up the cardboard box that had contained his sandwich. “We’d best leave now, though.”
“Thank you, again.”
He put his hand up as if to reject the advances, but he was secretly grateful for the sentiment.
-----
He’d taken the same route to LA from Sunnydale only months earlier. Albeit, on his motorcycle, but he remembered the diner in question. Once out of the city, the road became a little darker. The Californian desert was now hardly discernible, lit only by the high beam of the car’s headlights.
And even in the dark, he could sense her looking at him again. He couldn’t pin her exact feelings, but it annoyed him.
“Can you please stop doing that?” he asked.
“What?” She repeated, as if he hadn’t already asked. It irritated him a second time.
“Stare.”
A moment of silence before she spoke again.
“Did she do that to you?” She gestured to his face.
He pursed his lips and tightened his grip around the steering wheel again.
“She did, didn’t she?”
“Buffy, please just leave it.”
She huffed, shaking her head in disappointment, and perhaps even slight anger. “Typical.”
“Typical?” responded Wesley, turning to her and raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, apart from all the murder, it’s what she does. She hurts people. You, Xander,” she fiddled with her fingernail, looking down, “I hope she rots in prison.”
Welsey nearly scrunched his eyes. He’d had intense feelings about what Faith had done to him. He was glad she was getting help, so to speak. But in the end, when the Council was hunting her, he had helped, and protected her. He was conflicted as to whether he shared the deep, violent ending Buffy was envisioning for her.
“Angel did mention that she did something to you.” He couldn’t help himself by mentioning it.
Her head shot up, half in shock that he knew.
“Goddammit, Giles.”
“I’m sure he only told him because he cares for you,” conceded Wesley. Buffy didn't do too much to respond. Wesley added, “although I am disappointed. Giles should have contacted me immediately when she woke from her coma.”
Buffy scoffed, and Wesley promptly turned his head to look at her in confusion, glaring at her.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” his voice ended in a high tone. “I was her Watcher.”
“Not to bring up bad blood, Wes, but you didn’t exactly inspire confidence in Faith.” She gave him a matter of fact look. “What else could you have done?”
“Oh, and I suppose you did so much better without me?”
She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes at him. Wesley felt slightly smug at her response.
It was true, his time as their Watcher left little to be desired. But it seemed that the rogue Slayer had caused just as much ruckus the second time around in Sunnydale than she had in LA.
“I didn’t lie to you,” he softly added, averting her look.
“Lie to me?” Her voice only quivered slightly.
“I did have Faith’s best intentions in mind when I contacted the council.”
She huffed.
“Wesley, you’re probably the reason Faith turned evil.”
She was stopped mid sentence, grabbing hold of the dashboard again as the car moved abruptly. Wesley swerved the car over to the side of the road. It jolted as he put on the breaks. Buffy’s eyes opened a little in shock at his violent reaction. He got his footing as the car grew silent and the engine fizzled down.
“Buffy,” he winced slightly as he raised his right arm in frustration and felt the stiff pain that shot through it. He took another deep breath to try and compose himself. “You wouldn’t cooperate. You were insubordinate, and you kept Faith’s unfortunate incident from me. If you had only come to me, perhaps we could have worked as a team to find another solution.”
“You really believe that?” replied Buffy, her voice shaking just as it had done the first hundred times (or so it felt) she had argued with him in the Sunnydale High School library. “You really think that if Giles and I had told you, you would have done anything different?”
She had a point, Wesley thought. Though he had an answer, either way.
“Truthfully?” he sighed, “I don’t know. But I have admitted, and come to terms with my shortcomings as Watcher to both Faith, and yourself. I acted rashly. But I am trying to do some good in LA to make up for it, and I’ve proven useful to Angel.”
Buffy exhaled from her nose harshly.
“So when it comes to matters involving Faith, please refrain from sitting in a car for which I am driving you home, and pretending that you and Mr Giles had no part to play in it.”
And with that, he started the engine again. It rumbled as he pulled back onto the road. The dark scenery outside the window didn’t change, and the car’s headlights continued to light the road and the various signs that they passed.
Buffy had still not said a word. She seemed to have slouched back into her seat. Wesley felt uneasy, but better. They were silent for quite a while before Buffy broke it again.
“She switched our bodies,” Buffy said.
He raised his eyebrows.
Off his look, “she threatened my mother, and then she switched our bodies. It was, uh, something the Mayor left her.” She put her hand to her head as if she were trying to remember the name. “Something called a Dragon Kane.”
“A Draconian Katra,” Wesley corrected. He quickly realized what that meant, and turned to look at her, mouth open. “Oh dear.”
She nodded.
“Yeah,” Buffy agreed.
“And your mother?”
“Safe. Everyone is safe. I mean, Riley is a little shaken up.”
Welsey didn’t recall the name, so he let her continue.
“Riley, my boyfriend.”
Ah. She had hinted to Angel of having formed another relationship of some kind. He’d suspected that was what had made the vampire so upset.
“She was me - in my body. And then, she went to…see him,” she trailed off uncomfortably, running a hand through her hair and putting strands behind her ear. It took Wesley a moment longer to understand the implication, and when he did, he gripped the steering wheel a touch tighter.
”Oh, Buffy. She didn’t…?”
“She did,” she confirmed with a nod. She nearly chuckled at the absurdity of it all, but still ended up giving him an all too calm look in response.
“Good lord!” He shook his head. “Are you alright?”
She shrugged.
“Only Riley, Giles, apparently Angel, and now you know. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anybody else.”
“Of course,” said Wesley, slightly pale in the face.
He felt a sudden protective urge rivet through him for the young woman beside him. In reality, it didn’t mean much, but he couldn’t help feeling it. He was finding it hard to believe that she had revealed such an intimate trauma to him. He wondered which part of what he’d said earlier about her involvement in Faith’s downfall had resonated with her.
“Seeing her with Angel tonight, after everything, the way he was coddling her - it was hard.”
He agreed, wholeheartedly.
“I know the feeling,” he said. “If it makes you feel any better, I managed to get one hit in myself before she bowled me over.”
Buffy turned her entire body to him all too slowly, as if she had misheard him.
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” he replied, now a little less serious, as if he agreed with her at how ridiculous the idea was. “She even complimented me on my form.”
Buffy put a hand over her mouth to hide her obvious, amused smile and Wesley slightly laughed back. She shook her head, almost in disbelief, sitting back more casually.
“You really are different, Wes,” she said. “Well,” she tilted her head as she looked at him, “your wardrobe hasn’t improved much. Though to be honest? Digging the pastels.”
“At least it’s not tweed,” he retorted, holding up a bruised finger.
“Don’t let Giles hear you say that,” she added, “also, you still use way too many words to say things,” she paused. “But, I’m glad you’re helping Angel.”
He closed his mouth into a slim, appreciative line. His eyes moved sideways from her to the road, and he moved his posture in a not so silent, but self confident stance.
“You’ll keep an eye on him for me?”
“Of course I will,” he responded. She nodded back at him.
“The irony,” she said with a raise of her shoulders. “The Watcher keeps on watchin’.”
“Actually, in case you hadn’t noticed this evening, I am no longer a Watcher.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Sacked. From my hospital bed in Sunnydale.”
Buffy frowned. “Why?”
“Conspiring with a vampire to start with. And I suppose by association, you.”
“I’m flattered,” she responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the mention of the Council. She looked down and fiddled with loose skin on her fingernails.
“Why did you come back?” asked Buffy. “In Sunnydale. You had no reason to stay, and yet you did?"
Wesley took a few moments to replay the question in his mind. He remembered being in his hotel room after his fight with Buffy, eyes red rimmed, and unsure of his future. He’d tried to remember what he’d been born to do - to help fight evil.
He’d thought about the group he had slotted into the past few months. Faith, unconscious in her hospital room, and the Mayor, threatening Buffy’s life. The faceless children he’d passed in the halls of Sunnydale High, he realized, it can’t have been all for nothing. He couldn’t abandon it all. And, he really did care.
“I suppose I believed it was the right thing to do,” Wesley finally said, tone laced with bruised reminiscence. He risked a look at his former Slayer, and was met with a surprisingly soft one.
“I don’t think I was much of a help though,” he added, feeling himself reddened at the memory of waking up on the cold hard ground as the battle was won around him.
“You were research guy,” consoled Buffy, although he noticed she didn’t disagree with him.
They were quiet again as Wesley looked back at the road. The lights up ahead indicated they were close to the diner, and he saw Buffy raise herself up a little in search of Xander’s car in the parking lot.
As they pulled into it, Wesley turned off the car, unbuckled his seat belt and looked at her awkwardly. She had now averted his eyes as well, turning to look out the window to see Xander exiting the diner, a coffee in one hand, a wad of crinkled cash in the other, and a large chocolate muffin being solely secured with his mouth. He waved at them both as he saw them, and both Wesley and Buffy waved back.
“I believe this is where I leave you,” said Wesley, hands still on the steering wheel for some reason.
“Seem's so,” she replied. She looked at him as Xander tapped on the window by his face. Wesley jumped slightly, as if he were a fish in a tank, before rolling down the window.
“Wesley,” said Xander, placing the coffee cup on the roof of the car and sticking the dollar bills into his pocket. He put out his hand and Wesley feigned a smile as he took it. Xander’s grip was harsh and enthusiastic, and he hissed slightly as his swollen fingers were squeezed. Xander realized his mistake and let go, clearing his throat.
“Hey Buffy,” said Xander. “How was your trip to Tinsel Town?”
“Not now, Xander.” she deadpanned, but still gave her friend a smile. “Gimme a sec?”
Xander nodded, walking back to his own car. Buffy and Wesley both got out, Wesley resting his weight against the car as she walked to his side.
“Well, thank you. For the ride, I mean.”
He nodded back. He swallowed as he chanced what he would say next.
“Considering what has happened, both in Sunnydale and here tonight, a phone call every once and a while wouldn’t go amiss.”
She pursed her lips, and Wesley was ready to get an earful of angry Buffy. It never came.
“I’ll talk to Giles,” she nodded, putting her hand out.
It was better than nothing. Wesley nodded back, taking her hand and shaking it. He felt as if he may have redeemed himself - at least slightly - in her eyes to get that response.
“Ready to hit the road?” asked Xander, keys in hand and walking towards them. He nodded to Wesley. “Don’t get yourself in too much trouble, ‘kay Wes?”
“Speak for yourself,” he responded with a smirk and a wave to the younger man. Xander laughed, nodding his head as he opened his car door.
Buffy looked back at him, and he could sense her worry.
“I’ll make sure Angel is okay,” he assured. She gave him a grateful look.
He waved them off, before he got back into the car. He took off his glasses and put his fingers to the crescents of his eyes, huffing. He bent down to clean his glasses with the edge of his shirt, before he stopped and tilted his head to the cup compartment at something that wasn’t there before.
It was a bundle of bills. He picked them up and counted them. It was only 9 dollars, but Wesley smiled at her generous thought. He chuckled to himself, before he looked up at the diner. He supposed he could treat himself to a take away coffee before the trip home, at least now that he had the spare change.