•••

“How is she?” Wil asked Xander, who was examining Fred.

Xander frowned. “Still nothing but fear and terror. I can’t sense anything else at all.” He tried again, stretching out his abilities as far as they would go. The Raphe was sure he could feel the emotions of the ants crawling on the sidewalk ten miles away. Still he got nothing new from the unconscious girl.

“And the rest?” Wil pressed.

“Physically, she’s improving. The medicines Angel got are working overtime. They just can’t help her mind,” Xander finished wiping off Fred’s face and took a seat next to the bed. “If she doesn’t wake up by tomorrow, we’re going to have to do something—she’s going to need medical attention we can’t give her.” Angel’s medicines were good, but they couldn’t replace food.

“I know,” Wil murmured, moving through the connecting door to the other room. They were holed up in a pair of hotel rooms outside San Diego, licking their wounds as they tried to regroup. It had been three days since the attack, and all of them other than Fred and Cordelia were nearly healed. Angel had been able to quietly contact a friend in the city, who in turn got Angel in contact with a doctor. It hadn’t been easy to convince the man to just hand over medicine, but in the end cash won out and they had what they needed. Now, if only Fred would wake up and Cordelia would shift back into her human form.

The mood in this room wasn’t much better. Angel was brooding while Wesley desperately searched their databases for something that might help his lover. Wil sat down next to Angel and waited for the dark vampire to acknowledge him. “Is she any better?” Angel asked after a moment.

“Not really,” Wil whispered. “We’re going to have to do something.”

“I know,” Angel sighed. “Tomorrow.”

A low growling from the other room caught Wil and Angel’s attentions. They cocked their heads together, listening. “It’s Gunn,” Wil whispered after a moment.

“Alpha-beta?” Angel asked cautiously. He’d been worried ever since Gunn had let Cordelia bite him that this might happen. The seer was more than happy to let Oz assume the role of alpha, and he was fairly sure that Fred, should she recover, would do the same. Gunn, however, wouldn’t submit so easily. While the vampire hunter would recognize that Oz was by rights the alpha, he would also have a difficult time simply handing over authority and responsibility to the young werewolf—Oz was smaller and in Gunn’s newly changed eyes, weaker. It would help greatly if Cordelia would change back and knock some sense into her lover.

“Yeah, the usual,” Wil replied. Soon they heard the slamming of doors as Oz and Gunn left the hotel to work off some steam. “They’ll work it out on their own.” He slid down on the mattress, trying to get comfortable. It was early in the day and he felt the tug of sleep acutely. “You should rest, Angel,” He murmured, curling up on his side of the bed.

Angel nodded silently and lay down to join Wil. He pulled the blonde into his arms and blocked out all the pained noises of their rooms. He was no good to their efforts exhausted, which meant he had to force himself to sleep.

•••

Fred looked around her cave. It wasn’t as nice as she remembered it to be; there wasn’t any firewood stacked by that wall, nor any stash of berries and nuts near the rock pile. The only thing her old home had going for it was safety—nothing could get to her in here. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the cave, but figured it had been at least a day or so. That meant that she’d have to leave soon, to find something to eat and drink… even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.

It was getting harder and harder to pretend she was just back on Pylea. The longer she sat, cowering in the darkness, the more she remembered about how she’d gotten here. Images of demons violating her were superimposed over scenes from Pylea, twisting the characters around until she saw herself raped in the nearby village and foraging for food in a warehouse. It confused her at first, until she learned to separate the two different worlds. Now that she knew why she was here, she was even less eager to leave.

She also knew that she must have survived the attack—after all she was still around, instead of doing whatever it was people did when they died. She wondered where Wesley was, if he knew where she was, how Cordelia was doing. It hadn’t looked good in the warehouse, so Fred wasn’t sure.

A sharp pain in her belly brought Fred back to the present. “Guess now’s as bad a time as any,” She muttered as she pulled herself upright. Hunger pangs weren’t going to just stop because she didn’t want to move. Besides, finding something to eat couldn’t be that hard, could it? She gingerly approached the mouth of the cave, trying to listen for predators.

Xander felt a flicker in his mind and turned back to Fred. Something besides fear was emanating from the girl. He quietly knelt by her bedside and tried to figure out what was going on in her mind. Much to his surprise, her eyes began to flicker open. “Fred?”

Fred opened her eyes and looked over. There was a guy—Xander—next to her. “Xander? What are you doing here?”

Xander frowned. “Taking care of you. How do you feel?”

“Hungry. Just came out for some food. And water,” She murmured. The young woman jumped when Wil and Angel, followed by Wesley, showed up in the doorway. “Who… Angel? Wil?” She looked farther over. “Wesley?”

“Fred?” Wesley murmured. “You… oh, thank gods,” he continued as he walked over to the bed. Fred smiled tremulously as he took her hands. “We were so worried you wouldn’t wake up!”

Fred glanced at the others, taking in concerned expressions and frowns. “I got hungry,” She admitted sheepishly. She could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren’t going to let her go back—she’d just have to stay out in the real world and deal with this the hard way.

“Food we can do,” Xander replied. “Probably something soft… what are your opinions on pudding?”

“Not tapioca,” Fred replied. “Can I have some water?” Several hands brandished cups of water. “Wow. That was fast,” She said, taking a glass from Wesley. The others grinned and put their unused water cups back on the counter. “How’s Cordelia?”

Angel grimaced. “She’s not come out of wolf form yet,” He said, gesturing to the other bed. “Actually, we were hoping that when you woke up, it would help her change back. She’s been very protective of you.”

“Oh. I guess that might work,” Fred said, not sure why it would help the girl. “But she’s asleep right now.”

“Yeah, she is,” Xander said, returning with some prepackaged pudding. “But don’t worry, while she’s resting we can fill you in.”

Fred nodded. “Ok, that sounds good. Can we start with why I can smell Angel and Wil’s dinner from in here?”

•••

“That was painful,” Wil muttered as he adjusted the water temperature in the shower. Angel murmured his agreement. The two vampires had just gotten finished filling in Fred with all that had happened during the past few days—the parts of the attack she’d missed, their impromptu flight out of Los Angeles, and anything else they could think of. She’d remained very quiet throughout, which worried them. Of course, as Xander had pointed out before she’d woken up, the young woman had been beaten and raped—not something that just went away.

That didn’t even get into the lovely moment wherein they explained that she was a werewolf now, thanks to Cordelia’s bite. Fred actually took that well, once Wesley assured her that she wouldn’t be getting strange urges to gnaw his legs off. Still, Angel and Wil had made a hasty exit at the earliest opportunity. Now they were holed up in the bathroom, ostensibly taking a shower. And, in fact, they were going to take a shower—a long, long shower. During this shower they would relax, talk, and do whatever it was they wanted to do without others present, to use Xander’s description.

“Do you ever get the feeling that someone hates us—a lot?” Angel asked as they stepped into the tub. Steam rose around them as scalding water rained on their heads.

“Of course not,” Wil replied. “It’s just that someone’s mistaken us for masochists.”

“I can believe it,” Angel murmured. He reached for the shampoo. “But why us?”

“Hate to say it, love, but we brought this one on ourselves,” Wil said. “We did ruin one of their largest satellite operations, you know.”

“But they didn’t have to do this! I mean…”

Wil snorted and took the shampoo. “What, you were expecting them to send a scathing letter, maybe stare you down next time they ran into you? They’re evil,” He continued. “And not in the ‘let’s go torture some villagers’ way, either.”

“I know, I know, they’re big time organized crime evil,” Angel replied tiredly. “But such wanton cruelty…”

“Which you relate to all too well,” Wil interjected. “And what’s bugging you is that a part of you—not a big part, but a little corner—looks back on the carnage and cheers. Yeah, you hate it that it’s your people, but look at the job they did.”

“Actually, they were sloppy. We all got away,” Angel returned. “Angelus wouldn’t have failed.”

“Fine,” Wil said, shrugging. “Maybe he wouldn’t have. He certainly wouldn’t have forgotten about Oz.”

“They were probably expecting him to be back at the hotel in time for the other attack. His van broke down again,” Angel said from under the spray.

“Hmm. Yeah, probably,” Wil murmured. He pushed Angel out of the way so he could rinse his hair. “Still, that doesn’t get us anywhere on the ‘what do we do now’ question.”

Angel grinned. He had a fairly good idea of what, or rather who, to do now. The dark vampire reached for Wil, wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist as he slid them both to the floor of the shower. Wil growled as he landed on Angel’s chest, but he didn’t try to move. Angel pulled Wil up a bit, until the shower spray was beating directly on the blonde’s back. After a minute, Wil relaxed and tucked his face into Angel’s neck, letting the water soothe him.

•••

Fred glanced over into the other hotel room. She heard…noises, ones she wasn’t fully sure she understood. “Is someone hurt?” She whispered to Xander, who was still watching over her.

Xander blushed, knowing what Fred was hearing. “Um…no. That’s Angel and Wil. In the shower.”

“Oh,” Fred replied. Wesley smiled indulgently at her. “I guess this enhanced-hearing thing takes some getting used to.”

“Just be glad you only hear and smell them,” Xander remarked. Actually, right now he was damned grateful the two vampires were fooling around—they were giving off wonderfully positive emotions, which did a lot to counteract the angst still running high amongst the rest of the group. Oddly enough, Fred’s revival had only partially lightened Wesley’s mood. Now that the girl was awake, he could talk to her—but that also meant dealing with the aftermath of her attack.

They probably shouldn’t have dumped the whole ‘get Cordelia back to normal’ thing into her lap either, but it was necessary. The longer the cheerleader stayed that way, the more uncontrollable Gunn would be. Right now, Oz had the new werewolf out somewhere, trying to either teach him a lesson or burn off some energy—maybe both.

“How can we get Cordelia to change back?” Fred asked. “I want her to be normal again, but I don’t see how.”

Xander looked over at Wesley. “Well, she did change you, and she wants to protect you. Maybe if you played on that—we do know she understands us, to some extent.”

Fred nodded and pushed herself off the bed. Xander helped her over to Cordelia, who was slowly waking up. The young girl sat down next to the werewolf, stroking her head gently. “Cordy? Thanks for saving my life. Do you think you could change back now? Everybody’s really worried about you.”

Wesley grimaced. He wasn’t sure that that was the approach to take—but it was pure Fred. Much to his surprise, Cordelia started to twitch and shudder. “Xander?” Wesley murmured. “Is she—“

“Changing,” Xander replied quickly. The Raphe stood up and reached for a blanket, draping it over the werewolf. In less than a minute, the creature’s bestial face was replaced with Cordelia’s classic features. Fred kept her hand on Cordelia’s head, whispering encouragement.

Cordelia squinted and looked around the room. “Fred?” She said shakily. “You ok?”

“Yeah,” Fred replied with a smile. “You?”

“Um…alright, I guess, but why am I naked?”