A Simple Act of Faith Chapter 13

“Both of you?” the Host said and cringed.  “That would be just lovely.”

“We don’t know what to do,” Angel explained.  “We have to help Doyle, we need to stop Lindsey before he hurts someone.”

“And we have to hurry,” Faith said, panic in her voice.  She was angry at Lindsey for what he’s done, but she still did not want him to be harmed.  “Whatever they are up to, they are going to do it soon, probably tonight.” Faith said.

“Alright,” the host said and forced a smile.  “I’ll set the both of you up.”
 

“You go first,” Angel said and handed her the mike.

“No way,” she said as the music started.  Luckily there was a long introduction so they had time to argue.

“Look, you have to.” He said.  “I—um—can’t.”

Faith sighed.  The song’s beginning was just about to start, so she relunctly began singing.

            Babe, I'm leaving, I must be on my way
            The time is drawing near
            My train is going, I see it in your eyes
            The love, the need, your tears
            But I'll be lonely without you
            And I'll need your love to see me through
            Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
            And I'll be missing you.

Faith was not that bad.  She did not have a professional voice like Lindsey.  She did not make eye contact once with Angel.

Angel cringed when Faith turned to face him and handed him the mike.  She thrust it in his hand when he refused to take it.  Angel reluctantly brought it to his lips.

“You know ummm--- Babe,” he said, looking at the monitor.  Faith resisted all urged to laugh.  “Um-- whenever I get weary and I've had enough feel like um,-- giving up… you Babe… babe… Giving me the courage and the strength I need—um—I’m not saying that.”

He held the mike to Faith who gladly took it when a beer bottle hit the curtain behind them.

            Babe, I'm leaving, I'll say it once again
            Somehow try to smile
            I know the feeling we're trying to forget
            If only for a while
            But I'll be lonely without you
            And I'll need your love to see me through
            Please believe me, my heart is in your hands
            And I'll be missing you
            Babe, I love you.”
 

“Get off the goddamn stage!” someone screamed.  Angel was glad to oblige.  The two of them walked off the stage and towards the host who was making the strangest face.

“Advice?” Faith asked.

“Besides never singing again?  Not gonna give you on the wrong path lecture.  You two are going exactly where you supposed to go.  Except for a part of Faith’s.  Faith, you need to go where you think is home.”

“What about Lindsey and Doyle?” Angel asked. “Please we sang for them.”

“Doyle just needs a spell that I’m afraid you need to get it from the bad boys.  You have to do it soon or he’ll die.  Lindsey—if you don’t break that boy out of his rut soon, you may lose him forever and I ain’t talking his retaining only the asshole part of his personality, I’m talking about him gone.”

“Wolfram and Hart can’t raise Cordelia,” Angel said.  “Darla hinted they were going to do something to him.”

“The powers of darkness cannot steal a soul from the light,” The Host explained.  “They have something planned for him and you need to find out soon.  Right now your futures sometimes have him but lately have not.  Sweetie,” he said to Faith.  “Remember the advice I gave to you last May?”

Faith nodded.

“You got off the dark path,” the host explained.  “He never did.  Not even for a moment.  Not completely his fault.  Guilt has been eating away at him for a long time.  Now, go on, you need to do things soon or you will lose them both.”
 

“It’s going to be dangerous that’s why I don’t want you to come along,” Faith explained.  Alex and Kate were at the hospital.  They were switching off on sentry duty for Doyle and for a lesser extent Gunn.

“I’ve been in dangerous situations before.”

“Alex—“ Faith said.  “Tonight it has to be Angel and me.  I need you here to watch Doyle.  I’m sorry, but there’s no regular humans allowed.”

Alex did not reply for a moment.  Faith was glad Kate was at least compliant.  She did not want to argue this with two people.

“Please,” Faith said and took her hand.  “With all of our problems, we’ve been ignoring you.  We always forget that you lost Wesley too.  I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I need to know that if Angel, Lindsey, and I don’t come back, we need to know there will still be some people to fight against the darkness.”

“Bring Lindsey home,” Alex said, clasping Faith’s hand.  “Bring him out of the darkness.”

Faith nodded.  She would.  But she was not sure she could.
 

They all met outside the Wolfram and Hart building.  Vocah, Darla, Lindsey, Holland, Spike, Drusilla and Gavin Park.

Lindsey was not happy, but at least soon, Cordelia would be back and he would be on his way to New York most likely without her.  He knew Cordelia would never forgive him for selling his soul to get her back.

He wondered for a moment as he looked over the six other people he gathered with.  He hated and despised all of them.  They all wanted to destroy everything Cordelia stood for.  He wondered for a moment what he was doing here.

Promise me that you won’t blame yourself--  I don’t regret any of it— Cordelia’s voice suddenly rang into his head.

Her last ounce of strength was used to spare him pain.

“Lindsey,” Holland said, interrupting something that might have made Lindsey start to change his mind.  Holland was good about reading people and he wanted this night to go off without a hitch.  He had hoped that Darla had lured Angel to bed, but she had come back alone.  It would be okay, but Holland knew that Angel was trying to help Faith and Lindsey and when they would both horribly die, Angel would have a stronger desire to go to Darla.

“The limos are here, it’s time to go.  I want you to ride with me.”

Lindsey nodded.  He decided of all the people here, he hated Holland more than any of them.  Spike, Darla and Drusilla were just vampires, Vocah a demon, Gavin a young hot shot, but none of them were as cold and calculating as Holland.  He had a choice.

Like Lindsey had a long time ago.  He looked down.  He saw Angelus murder a child and he had betrayed Wolfram and Hart.  He might have gone back if it wasn’t for the love of Cordelia and Faith.

Lindsey got into the limo, Holland got into the other side, then the doors slammed shut sealing him in.
 

When the limos were out of sight, Faith and Angel got out of the bushes.
 

Lindsey rested against the warm leather seats.  He looked at the window and kept his back to Holland.

“You’ll love working in New York, you can view the Twin Towers everyday from the office,” Holland said, ignoring Lindsey’s distracting.  “You’ll be back on track. We’ll forget about the last year.  It will be a fresh start for you.  You and the missus will be a new apartment, no more living in a tiny one bedroom above an office.”

Lindsey did not respond.  He had long since tuned Holland out.  He would never work for Wolfram and Hart again.  He was not going to start his life over, Cordelia would.

Instead his life would end. Lindsey would make sure of that tonight.  He could not live with the guilt anymore.
 

Lindsey nearly laughed when they pulled into the place where they would be doing the raising.  It was the same place where they had raised Angelus.

“I don’t want a crate,” he said, sternly.  They had kept Angelus naked in the crate for seven days before he was sane enough to negotiate with.

“No crate, we don’t expect your wife to be any threat.”

Promise me that you won’t blame yourself--  I don’t regret any of it—

Lindsey wanted to tell his wife to shut up, but then he realized she wasn’t there.  He could still hear her sweet voice, despite that she was dead..
 

It was a different ritual from the scroll.  Holland explained there were two rituals listed on the scroll.  One that pulled spirits from hell, the other came from heaven.

Lindsey nodded.  He watched Vocah and his servants do the ritual in complete silent.  A thought came to him that maybe they weren’t doing the ritual.

Lindsey, Lindsey promise me!

Cordelia sounded more desperate this time.

“Five are without souls,” Vocah said.

"Yet they feel."

"Five are without love."

"Yet they live."

Lindsey lived and he loved.  At least he thought he did.  He loved Cordelia greatly and Faith, his best friend.  He had forgotten in all his anguish how much she was in danger.  Without him, without Angel, could Faith stand alone against the darkness?

Vocah paused for a moment.  He looked around the room.

"What is it?"  Gavin asked Holland.

"I don't know."

“Angel,” Darla suddenly said.

“It’s daddy!” Drusilla suddenly cried out.

“Bloody hell,” Spike added.

Vocah pulled out a scythe.

A moment later Angel burst through a door at the top of the stairs.  Faith jumped along with him.

"Lindsey,"  Holland said.  “Finish the ritual.”

Lindsey looked at Faith and Angel fighting Dru, Spike, Vocah and Darla.

“They don’t understand.  They understand how important she is.  They don’t want her to have another chance.”  Holland’s tone was desperate.  So desperate Lindsey could tell he was planning something.
Lindsey looked over the scroll.  He looked it over.  He would have recited it without seeing what he was saying.  If her sweet voice hadn’t made him wake up. They were reading a different rising on the page.
It was the same as pulling a human soul from hell.  But this one would have brought a demon.

Promise me that you won’t blame yourself--  I don’t regret any of it—

Darkness could never get a hold on her.

“Lindsey,” he heard Holland’s voice warn.

Darkness could never pull her away from love.

He picked up the scroll, scanned it and then began reading.

"Et illi quinque sacrificum est et illi que est mortuus vivet."

Faith spotted Lindsey doing the ritual.  She pushed Drusilla away and ran over to him.

“Lindsey!” she screamed.  “Don’t do it!”

“I have to,” he screamed back.  “Get away from me Faith.”

Faith ran over and punched him hard in the face.  Lindsey fell back, but kept a grip on the scroll.

“Lindsey!  You are not raising Cordelia!”

“Shut up!” Lindsey screamed out.  “Just go!” he screamed.  He got up.  “Just go and die somewhere.”  He was near tears.  He looked over Faith.  He saw a vampire.  He saw one break her neck some time in the future.  And then he would feel just as terrible as he felt now.

“I love you.  If you love me, you won’t do this.”

Lindsey did not respond to her.  He did love her.  He loved her enough to realize that she would be hurt if he did this.  "Dum vita et mors non duas res sed unas sunt. In tenebris lux est, in luge tenebrae sunt. Serge! Serge! Serge! Serge! Serge! Serge!”

“Lindsey!”

The five demons begin to cry out.  They start distingrating at a rapid pace.  Their dust turned to a whirlwind, then a ring of light exploded.  Faith felt herself thrown against a wall.  She looked up to see the same thing happen to Lindsey.  Only he hit the wall and fell to the floor unconscious.
Faith got up to see what had appeared.

Lying on the floor was not Cordelia Chase, not a demon to kill Lindsey, but Lilah Morgan.

When Holland and Gavin saw that it was not what they expected, they quickly slipped out of the room.

Faith was about to go help Lindsey, though she did not want to even speak to him right now, but she was interrupted.

“Faith!” Angel screamed who was fighting everyone at once.

Faith rushed over and knocked the three vampires to the ground.  This allowed Angel to finish off Vocah.

After Vocah, Angel rushed over to help Faith.
 

When he opened his eyes, he thought he was dead and she was standing over him.

“Cordy?” he said, reaching out his hand.

“You have to listen to me,” Cordelia said in her stern voice.  “Remember what I said Lindsey McDonald.  Don’t dishonor my memory.”  A moment later she was gone.

Lindsey realized he was not dead.  He was lying down next to the scroll.  He picked it up.  He saw Lilah lying down unconscious and naked.  He took his jacket off and covered her.

“No!” Darla screamed.  She ran over to Lindsey and knocked him over.

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” she said.  “You were supposed to die so I could get my Angelus back.”

Lindsey did not care.

“Why aren’t you afraid?” she said.  Lindsey looked up.  Despite he just in general was not afraid of Darla, what was behind her made him less afraid.

Darla opened her mouth and revealed her fangs.  Then suddenly she cried out.  “No!” she screamed and saw the stake in her heart.  “No, Angelus—No.”  A moment later she turned to dust and was gone.

“Oh shit,” Spike suddenly said.  The two of them had been fighting Faith.  When he saw what happened to Darla, he grabbed Drusilla and they ran out of the crypt.  Angel decided to not give chase.  It was more important to take care of Doyle.  He would take care of Spike and Dru another time.

“Give me the scroll Lindsey,” Angel said, holding out his hand.  “Unless you would like Doyle to die.”

Lindsey shook his head.  He handed Angel the scroll.

“Angel,” he said, his voice shaky.  “Please—Please take Lilah with you.  I had to save her because she never had a chance.”

Angel nodded.  This was no time to argue.  He walked over to where Lilah was still unconscious.  Angel took off his own coat and wrapped Lilah in it. Then he quickly ran out the door.

Lindsey got up and dusted himself off.  He looked at Faith.  She looked mad.

“Faith—“

“Don’t you talk to me,” she said, but did not move away.  Obviously she had some words for him.

“Faith, I’m—“

“Fuck you, Lindsey,” she screamed out.  “Fuck you.  I don’t want to see your fucking face or hear your fucking voice.”

“Faith—“

“Lindsey—“ she said.  “I will be out of the office on Saturday.  I want you and your stuff away from us.  You’re poison Lindsey, poison and I won’t let you hurt us anymore.”

“Faith, I—“

“Shut up!” she screamed.  “Shut the fuck up.  I didn’t ask you to love me.  I asked you to be my friends and friends confide when they’re hurting.  You preferred darkness over me.”

“Faith!”

“I said shut up! I don’t want to ever fucking see you again, Lindsey McDonald.  Never.”  She ran out of the crypt.

When she got to the cemetery, she ran over to a mausoleum where no one could see her.  She slid down the wall and began crying.
 

Chapter 14

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