thethingsthatremain2

TITLE: The Things That Remain...

AUTHOR: Feli

EMAIL: ophelia_rd@yahoo.com

DISCLAIMER: Joss, not I.

DISTRIBUTION: Let me know where it's going

CATEGORY: A/L (maybe some Co)

RATING: M

PART: 2/? - (8-11/? posten on the lists)

FEEDBACK: Yes please!!!

VISIT ME: http://au.oocities.com/dra_gon_fly_er/

The Things That Remain...

"So you saw Angelus?"

"Yes, and he was torturing a boy."

So, his soulless counterpart was having a bit of fun with some kid, he sighed. Angel tried to think back, however, since Angelus had tortured and eaten several hundred boys in his time, there wasn't really much of a clue as to who they were talking about.

"It felt weird - almost like some kind of test."

"Please explain."

"What I mean is that he wasn't afraid that he knew about the nest and willingly went inside of the hotel."

He chuckled knowing how much a willing participant must have excited Angelus - after all his childe William had been just that.

"And the weirdest - that kid walked right up to Angelus and told him that he'd take him up on his offer and that as long as he was in this ice in this world he'd like to learn whatever he was willing to teach him."

Angel gave a mental shrug. Their little tale had started out so very promising, yet with a climax like this... No wonder his unsouled self had opted to forego the aperitif.

"As long as he was in an ice world?"

"Ice - eyes - for all I know he could have spelled out I and S."

"..."

Angel decided that for today he'd had more than enough of the living and quickly retreated to the roof of the Hyperion - the one place furthest away from them, the one place they tended to avoid at all cost since haunting him there meant to climb a sheer endless number of steps for he'd gone and taken the elevator offline!

***

~ Wolfram & Hart - Lilah Morgan's office ~

"He's getting far too attached to the boy!" Lilah muttered to herself her eyes never leaving the four 19" monitors allowing her to spy on her former rival 24 hours a day. She still couldn't congratulate herself enough for having the Firm install the surveillance system into Lindsey McDonald's flat turning keeping-taps-on-the-man into a pleasure, just as the wee tracking device right behind the number plate of his rusty old truck did or the half dozen quarter-sized mics planted in all the strategic places throughout the man's home did!

Funny, how after close to five years after the rising and fall of the Firm's once pride and joy and their lives taking totally different turns Lilah still happened to catch herself succumbing to the old feeling of jealousy every now and again. Which was especially weird even to herself since it was so very obviously who of them was the one living in a two bedroom flat with a car the age of Mt. Rushmore or the salary her kind of people would spend on a manicure or facing.

Yet for some reason Lilah still felt as though Lindsey had gotten the better part of the deal and if there was one thing in the world she most definitely hated it was losing out on something she felt she deserved!

"Linwood!!!" She barked unable to hide the anger she'd managed to work herself into. "Tell your men there was a change of plan and that they are to collect the boy for his next IS by nightfall."

With a soundless sigh she buried her tired eyes in the heels of her hands.

"The sooner we get this kid away from him the better for all!"

"Ma'am?"

She cut the connection embarrassed she'd let her mask slip in front of Linwood and that he's been able to catch the last bit of her rant. She wasn't to keen on the new man - not that she had been keen on anyone for a long long time or for the fact that it had been a long long time since he man had been new - yet it never cased to amaze her how he'd managed to latch onto and cling to the position he'd been ordered to fill in.

~Don't ask don't tell!~

She told herself sternly and hurried to push the much unwanted thought as far back into the depths of her subconscious as her conscience would consciously allow and concentrated on the cases marked "paying clients" instead.

***

Lindsey

He was furious - that was furious on the inside. On the outside he was perfectly calm, perfectly aware of the fact that being on the payroll of W&H meant the Firm watching out for him in a way as close and personal as possibly could.

He wasn't angry because they were prying in on his privacy this was something Lindsey understood all too well, something he would have done himself had it been his job to ensure a certain amount of control about a liability as himself. After all: "Privacy is luxory!" - wasn't this the first lesson his mentor had taught him back when he'd come to join Wolfram & Hard? Just as he'd taught him the macabre words: "The Firm is your God. You shall not have other Gods but them for they are a jealous lot!" He had laughed it off at that time telling himself how lucky he was to have a mentor with a sense of humor like this.

He shuddered by the thought and tried to push aside the unwanted memories. If not for them, his unwanted and much disturbing memories and the knowledge that indeed he'd lived and survived them, Lindsey hardly resembled the man he'd been back then any longer. He hated what he'd allowed the Firm to do to him and that he didn't walk away when he was given the chance.

With a million of mixed emotions scurrying across his face he looked at his stomp - the place where not too long ago his right hand had been attached. Even now he could still feel the blinding pain he's felt when the scythe had cut through his flesh crippling him for all eternity. His anger and hatred directed at the man who'd mutilated him so nonchalantly and without second thought had been beyond telling.

Yet, in retrospect...

If not for Angel and Lindsey's very own inability to literally cut his losses and move on with life he wouldn't be now where he was at the moment - in a ratty old flat with no money whatsoever in his account and a child in his care for who he'd sacrifice his remaining good hand with a smile.

He knew that there was no fooling around with the likings of W&H and that if he really was to take a chance and take his boy and run he had have to do it in cold blood rather than in hot. What he also knew was that this thing most definitely was too big for him to pull off by himself and that he'd have to think really really careful as of who to call in any favors or ask for support. Not that his list was all that long - quite the contrary - when it came down to the number of people matching the criteria trustworthy as well as indebted to him there was actually only one name he could think of.

~ Angel! ~

With a heavy sigh which he quickly hid behind a fake yawn Lindsey laid down on the sofa and tried to think of a way to inconspicuously put his plans into action.

********

~Connor~

He woke up because of the sound of heavy rain drops hitting his bedroom window. He liked the noise of water against glass to him it felt comforting.

He thought about his dad and the things they had talked about and how he had smelled angry after he had told him about his angel and what he'd told him in the IS world. He couldn't say what had made him angry; he didn't like it when his dad was angry it made him sad, sad and afraid.

Earlier he had been too surprised and too tired to ask his dad what he'd done wrong. He also wanted to ask him why he had never told him about vampires and demons and angels. Up until tonight he'd thought that his dad didn't talk about them because he'd never been to an IS world and didn't know about them.

He had thought about for a long long time and wondered why the dark men knew about all those things if his dad didn't. That's why he had been so very surprised when his dad did know what he was talking about. Usually his dad told him about everything; he told him how to talk and how to use the bathroom and what a plug or light switch was for - so why didn't he ever tell him about demons?

Maybe it was because he had almost forgotten about this happy world and his dad the one time when the dark men had returned him from his 4th IS. He had been very young when they had taken him away from the happy world and he remembered that he had cried for his dad for days but hadn't been able to make them understand what was wrong. After many many nights his tears had stopped and he had started to forget all about his dad and the happy world.

He had learned how to fight and how to kill and most important how to survive. The dark men never talked to him they'd show him a weapon and show him how to use it and then show him to the thing they wanted him to kill. He shivered and curled up a little more deeper under his blanket. He didn't like to think about his ISes and especially not this one because it had gone on and on and on.

He still remembered how his dad had looked at him in shock and how his eyes had watered when the dark men had returned him to him and how he had tried to embrace him even though he had been dirty and smelly and his hair had been all filthy and his finger and toenails had been more like the claws of a wild beast instead of the hands and feet of a human being. He also remembered how he had tried to get away from the stranger's embrace; how he had been afraid that the dark men might asked him to destroy the person in front of him who smelled so very sweet and familiar to him.

They had moved into a different place shortly after his return their old place being to small for an adult and a pre teen who yet had to be cultivated and tamed. He hadn't liked their new place in the beginning. It had been so much bigger there he had his own bedroom in which his dad wanted him to sleep in and because of which he'd cried for nights on no ends.

That was when his dad had started to tell him how to talk. He knew that he still wasn't very good at talking but with a way to tell what was on his mind the tears stopped and everything started to change.

He chuckled a bit when he thought about his dad's way to talk. He liked to used words with words that didn't really belong together which he thought was funny. However, his unusual light mood didn't last very long when he all of a sudden remembered why he'd woken in the middle of the night and why it would be saver his dad and for him if he didn't go back to sleep.

He couldn't explain it, not even to himself, how he knew the dark men would be coming for him; he just knew, and instinct, something he'd been forced to rely on ever since the first time he'd been taken to an IS world. He felt sad because he knew that he'd been separated from his dad soon. He liked to be with his dad because he knew that his dad liked to be with him.

The dark men didn't like to be around him they never talked to him nobody ever talked to him when he was on an IS world. The dark men didn't because they were afraid of him and the others... Well the only others he'd come across so far had been vampires and demons and it was just no good talking to them if the sole reason for him to be on an IS world was to learn and improve his skills of how to fight and to kill them.

He sighed. Why couldn't the dark men just leave them alone? He so much wanted to talk to his dad. He wanted to tell him about them and the places they'd take him and the things they'd make him do, but he was afraid. He was afraid that if he told his dad about what the dark men expected him to do he might be afraid of him too. Something inside of him told him that his dad would be shocked if he told him about the many vampires and demons and little people the dark men brought to him in order to show him how to cripple and break them. Yes, he just knew that his dad would be shocked not afraid of him never afraid of him but definitely shocked.

He couldn't say why he felt the way he felt about the things the dark men referred to as training objects. Nobody had ever told him about good or bad or right or wrong but somehow practicing and breaking a defenseless most of the time bound training object was making him feel a little uneasy.

With a little yawn he rolled from his back to his side. He remembered his angel and how he had tried to talk to him in every IS world they had met and how he had killed him several times because back then he hadn't been able to communicate with him. He knew that his angel was a demon and because of that he'd killed him just as he'd been expected to do, but he'd memorized the words he'd said to him and he'd wondered if they might have been true.

Maybe he should search him out and try to learn more of him on his next IS after all he had been friendly and offered to teach him so why not make use of anything the enemy was willing to give?

Yes, he decided, on his next IS he'd most definitely search out his angel and try to learn whatever it was that he had to teach.

*******

~Lindsey~

He was wide awake; had been wide awake all night long well let's say ever since the first timid raindrops slashing against his bedroom window and the first rumble of approaching thunder.

Ha had forced himself to stay in his room - in his bed - and not to check on his boy as every fiber inside of him demanded him to do. As a kid he had been so very afraid of thunderstorms, of course this was before W&H had taken him to his third IS and returned him all grown up and though.

His eyes tightly shut and unmoving from his usual sleeping position Lindsey let out an almost inaudible sigh. He felt as though he ought to do something - anything - felt as though he needed to do it like now. The former lawyer knew that there wasn't much time left before W&H was to come for his boy again and that if he waited much longer there was a good chance he might was to loose his miracle child to the Firm.

He drew in another deep breath. If only he knew what to do? From the very bottom of his heart Lindsey wished for someone in his life he could talk to, someone he didn't have to explain about W&H, someone who didn't care about the background he had with those vultures, someone...

His fist closed around a small business card given to him almost five years and what to him felt like several lifetimes ago. He couldn't say why he'd kept it for all these years - maybe as some kind of macabre token of the man who'd given it to him and who'd hurt him so badly. Of course he'd tried to hurt him first and maybe that's why he'd kept the silly card - as a lifeline his sub-conscience subconsciously telling him the name and number might come in handy one day...

~Well, why not?~

He shot a quick glance at the digital alarm clock which neon green number were turning his room into a gloomy shade of green.

04.16 A.M.

~Yes, why not!~

Lindsey decided and noisily rolled from his back to his side pretending to rouse from dead sleep. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered with the scharade and that maybe he was all paranoid and wrong about Wolfram and Hart monitoring him, but then again at some other times he felt as though he could almost physically feel the Firm's little observation tools spying on him.

The young man yawned and stretched and used his good hand to rub his by now no longer sleepy eyes having disposed of the business card it'd formerly held somewhere in the depths of the pockets of his track pants. He frowned a little wondering how to leave the flat without to alarm his secret watchers or his boy. Not quite sure how to put his good intentions into action Lindsey tried to move himself into a sitting position and put his feet on the floor at the same time.

"What the...? Shit!" He cursed when his bare feet came in contact with the contents of the now no longer half full bottle of juice he'd forgotten to recap after he'd had a sip before he'd gone to sleep. Muttering to himself about his misfortune he quickly made his way towards the kitchen in order to wipe his sticky feet and check the fridge for another drink.

"Bloody marvelous!" Lindsey grumbled little later having dumped the soiled tea towel in the sink and staring now into their packed yet rather juiceless fridge.

"Oh what the heck!" He shrugged and slipped into his runners and shirt. "May just as well kill two birds with one stone!"

Making sure that he had his money and keys on him he quietly left the flat for the small 24 hours petrol station and the public phone he knew would be on his way.

********

-Angel-

#We wish you a merry Christmas#

#And a happy New Year#

Angel almost jumped a mile high and all the 150 food down from the flat roof of the Hyperion when his cell phone - the only thing that had survived the bombing of theirs very first office and which he nowadays used instead of a watch - started to play the merry little tune Cordelia had added to his ring tones ages ago and which he'd never managed to delete permanently.

He had no idea who would call this number - hell, he no idea anybody still knew about this number. After all "Angel Investigation" hadn't been using it anymore for more than five years. He couldn't remember the last time someone had tried to get in touch with him through this particular mobile and to be perfectly honest he couldn't recall a single living soul who knew how to reach him this way.

Buffy used to call this number every now and again, but Buffy was dead - had been dead for more than four years by now. And Darla... He had given this number to her so she would be able to reach him if his assistance should be needed, but Darla was dead - had been dead...

"Hello?"

His thumb had hit the reply button before his mind had a chance to do anything about it.

~Not to care - the road to redemption was simply not to care!~

There was a brief intake of breath an the other end of the line, but appart from that - silence!

"Hello?" He tried again, not too sure why he was even bothering. He could hear somebody clearing his throat which didn't help much yet added a gender to the strange caller's identity.

"Sorry, mate," a hoarse voice eventually said. "Wrong number."

There was something odd about the voice. Or maybe something oddly familiar...?

"Lindsey?" Before he had a chance to think things through his traitorous lips had already blurted out the first thing - in this case the first name - to come to his mind. "Lindsey McDonalds?"

The person on the other end of the line was obviously just as speechless as Angel himself, but the steady heart beat as well as the steady intake of breath told the vampire that his late-night caller was still there.

Minutes went by, minutes in which Angel didn't do anything but listen and wait for the other man to breath. By now he was pretty much sure that the man on the other end of the line was Lindsey McDonald indeed. He never forgot a person's heartbeat so after a good five minutes of listening to the quiet thump thump there wasn't the ghost of a doubt about his silent caller's identity.

"Talk to me, Lindsey," he coaxed the other man in a gentle voice mentally shaking his head at himself - so much for the road to redemption was to not care!

"Angel?"

A wave of relief washed over him something Angel hadn't felt for what to him seemed like several eternities. He couldn't say why talking to Lindsey McDonald of all people reached him on a level he hadn't thought possible for anybody to reach - especially not a living breathing being!

"I'm here, Lindsey, you okay?"

He knew that something had to be seriously wrong for Lindsey to call him at this time of the day and after so many years - hell, to call him at all. Funny how he'd always had a soft spot for the sandy haired man and how even now hefelt the unexplainable urge to protect him.

He waited for another couple of heartbeats.

"Lindsey?"

Angel heard the other man breath out a deep the-weight-of-the-world-is-on-my-shoulders sigh before he once again cleared his throat.

"I..., I need to talk to you, Angel."

He then was told in the most raspy voice he'd ever heard on the young lawyer.

"I..., I..., I need you help!"

***

part 3