[Gunnwesley] Fic: Kungai Part Four 2/11 (Wesley/Gunn, NC17)

[helenraven]

Title: Kungai Part Four 2/11

Author: Helen Raven

Email: helenraven at talk21.com

Pairing: Wesley/Gunn

Summary: The full history of the relationship between
Gunn and Wesley in the Birthdayverse. A novel in six
parts.

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit, not even a blip
on the litigation radar.

The Story's Home Page: http://www.kelper.co.uk/kungai

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Wesley really was fired up by the idea of this survey.
Gunn had never seen him with so much energy and
enthusiasm, or at least not in a way that lasted day
after day. Gunn could see now that Wesley had been
taking their work far too seriously. Of course you
wanted to be proud of what you were doing, interested,
involved. You wanted to give the client a good result,
for a fair price. But you could still relax and let
yourself enjoy the work, it wasn't like the clients
were watching you every second, marking you like it
was some test. Or it wasn't for Gunn. Gunn was
guessing, though, that Wes must never quite believe
he'd done enough. If only he'd worked harder. Or
quicker or longer. Then he could have done something
more.

But with the survey there was nothing to take
seriously, no client except maybe Wesley himself and
so Wesley was finally free to relax. He was even
enjoying making all these new phone calls. Hell! he
was halfway to turning into an extrovert.

Gunn wondered if this was Wesley's normal state, how
you'd've found him if you'd met him back in England.
Before he came to California. Before he met Angel.
Which would mean that he'd been putting half of his
energy into dealing with Angel. More than half. One
thing to see that he was exhausted, but this change,
coming almost overnight after he'd finally accepted
that Angel was gone... What was he like before he met
Angel?

No. No, Gunn was sure Wes hadn't been anything like
this. Not from what he'd said about all the stupid
crushes he'd had, about wondering, any time someone
hit on him, whether it was on a bet. Wesley had never
had any time in his life when he'd gone into
everything thinking, "And that's what I'll do when
this guy says yes..." Being positive, being
optimistic, that was Gunn's own sign that he was back
to normal, not Wesley's.

"Back to normal." OK. So he'd been trying to fit
Wesley in with himself and Alonna, how he'd bounced
back to being "the old Gunn" again, just days after
she'd died. He hadn't come even one step closer to
understanding that, even after nearly a year. If he
could think that Wesley had snapped "back to normal"
in the exact same way, then his own reactions wouldn't
seem so wrong. So unnatural. Like Alonna had been a
burden. Not the person who'd known him best. Loved him
longest.

No comparison. Alonna and Angel. Nothing to learn
there. Nothing. Wesley had given Angel more than he
deserved. And Gunn had given Alonna less - so much
less. Like they'd been nothing to one another.

"You ever... see someone you knew get turned into a
vampire?" Sunday morning. They'd gone out training
very early, showered, then gone out again to have
breakfast. "I mean, so you saw how they were
afterwards?"

Wesley shook his head. "There was someone I knew. But
I didn't see him. What about you?"

"Alonna. My sister."

Wesley looked shocked, took a few seconds to process.
"Was that why you started fighting? Organising the
patrols?"

"We'd been doin' that for years. Long before. It was a
year ago. Couple of months before we met."

Surprise, even more than shock. "You - I didn't know.
Only a few months? Is she still... Is the vampire -"

"I staked it. The same day. They turned her to use
against me. Against the whole crew. But we got them
all."

Wesley nodded slowly. "Did they send it in undercover?
Was it able to pretend?"

Gunn shook his head. "Wasn't like that. It didn't
pretend. It tried to... sell me on being a vampire.
How it was easy. Simple. Could leave my despair and
rage behind."

"Despair and rage?"  Wesley was truly puzzled. "You?"

"You didn't know me then. Been a bad few years. I... I
got lost."

Wesley looked at him, really looked at him. After a
few seconds: "I'm sorry."

"Don't know how I let it get that bad. Stay that bad.
Before I was always the one who could see a way to get
things done. Was a reason it was my crew, really mine.
Hundred reasons. Enough to make them stay, even
when..."

"I know. I saw."

"No. You saw me after. Way I was then, I'd've torn
your card up 'fore we even left the store."

Wesley was frowning like he was remembering, thinking
hard. "I find that difficult to imagine. But then I...
I can't imagine half of what you've been through."
Pained: "Your sister. I didn't know."

Gunn nodded. "Hadn't said anything before because..."
He sighed. " 's almost like I don't believe it yet. I
miss her. But just like I missed you this weekend. I
haven't even felt it yet. Not the way I should. That
she's gone, that we'll never... That I didn't look
after her like I said I would."

Wesley swallowed, and reached out to put his hand over
Gunn's. "Maybe it's because of what you had to do at
the end to protect yourself."

A small shrug. "Y'd think that'd make it worse. Dunno.
I do miss her. How we could speak in code. From all
we'd seen together. I'd say, 'Hey, it's like...' and
she'd be nodding, and she was always right, she knew
exactly what I was gonna say. 'n' that's gone. Those
things we'd seen together don't seem half as real now
that there's just me."

Again: "I'm sorry." And Gunn could tell that he really
was. Alonna would have liked Wesley. She'd have
laughed at him, at the idea of her brother teamed up
with all that English reserve, those shirts and ties.
But she'd've liked him.

* * * * *

"Lilah Morgan asked if we'd like someone to sit with
Angel. When we're out training. Or working on the
survey. Or just working." Wesley said it almost as a
question, like he didn't quite believe what he was
saying.

"Someone like who?"

"An intern from her company. She said there are three
or four. We'd just need to give them a day's notice,
not always that."

"She knows what he's like now?"

Wesley nodded. "She always asks now. Since we got the
eviction notice. She knows how long we've had to lock
him in. How we've been using the tape-recorder. The
intern would call us if he had a vision."

"And then they'd - what? - bill us at the end of the
month? I know Lilah's helped us out, but that firm's
gotta be all about money."

"Money and predictions. And apparently limitless
curiosity about the vampire seer. I told her that he
looks like any other mad vampire when he's sleeping or
cowering or gloating. And that they'd soon decide that
there were better ways of using their interns' time.
But she said they'd all volunteered for a minimum of
three months. It would be worth that much to their
careers just to say they'd seen him, even sleeping.
She wants me to meet them."

"We could go out on a lot of dates in three months."

"Yes. I thought that too. Not that we'd use their
cover for that, but it's an enjoyable idea, just to
toy with."

"We wouldn't? We'd rather stay in? Enjoy some frisky
ideas?"

Wesley smiled, but then shook his head. "We mustn't
forget it's a gift. The interns volunteering. We have
to use it responsibly. I can justify covering the
training sessions. Maybe some of the work on the
survey, if that does go ahead. But we can't get into
the habit of just leaving him. He's our
responsibility."

Gunn nodded, not surprised. Wes and responsibility.
Never apart for long. "Be good to have them for
Tuesdays and Fridays. She know about the duals?"

"No. She knows we have training sessions with other
people, but she's never asked anything more. She's not
interested in that aspect, in what we have to go out
and do. Just in Angel and the power he's in touch with
because of his visions." A sudden half-smile. "She's
about as subtle as Cordelia would have been. Do you
want to come along to this meeting with the interns?"

"Nah. Go better without me. s'obvious you're the
expert on Angel and the visions."

Wesley met the four interns on the Friday, and early
in the evening on the following Tuesday, Lilah Morgan
brought the first intern around to the apartment. Gunn
knew from Wesley's descriptions that this tanned,
blond, straight-from-the-gym one must be Philip Moyes;
a year ago it would have been work to remember the
four names, but human names got so easy once you'd had
to start dealing with demon names. Lilah wasn't
staying, but she wanted to hear the briefing, and of
course the privilege of seeing the seer couldn't be
limited to a group of interns. Angel was awake and in
hell, and visibly terrified of the new voices. Not
just as new voices, but as new voices that were
talking about him; Gunn knew that Angel was listening,
from the angle of his turned head, the shudders of
reaction.

The briefing was very short. Wesley pointed out the
coffee, the tea, the sodas, the bread, cheese, salad.
The bathroom. The cellphone numbers on the desk by the
phone. The monitor and tape-recorder, which mustn't be
turned off. No need to warn Moyes not to go into
Angel's room, because Wesley had taken the key away.
He'd locked the door to their bedroom, too, and locked
his desk and the filing cabinets. Moyes had brought
some work along, and was setting out the papers on the
coffee table when they left.

Friday's intern was called Julia Kepler and she
arrived alone, while Angel was asleep. The next
Tuesday's was Thomas Li, and he got to see (and hear)
Angelus. Seemed like Lilah Morgan had only needed the
one look, but she definitely got the interns to report
straight back to her, because she mentioned Angelus to
Wesley when they met in the library on Wednesday
morning. She offered more of the interns' time, said
they'd all be happy to do twice as much, but Wesley
had said he didn't want to take their time for
granted, would rather save it for an emergency.

The fourth intern was Newton Robbins, very young,
slightly awkward, and enough like Wesley that Gunn had
to work hard not to imagine what he'd find if he slid
his fingers between the buttons of that white shirt.
Skinny white guys with glasses - the last kink he
would have chosen for himself, if he'd been given a
choice.

The duals must have been comparing notes, just the
same as Lilah Morgan and the interns. Now they were
all starting to ditch the humans, sometimes straight
after the training session, not wanting a meal, just a
ride to the night's bar. Yeah, you had to take it
personally, but Gunn could see why they'd want to be
free to do their demon thing. They weren't getting
bored with Gunn and Wesley, but they saw all they
needed in the two hours of training. That Friday Gunn
and Wesley got ditched just after nine, and they
decided that young Newton wouldn't begrudge them a
quick Vietnamese meal.

They had just finished the soup when Wesley's
cellphone rang. Angel was having a vision, and Newton
was excited and impressed and flustered. Wesley got
him to hold the phone by the monitor, and within
seconds Wesley was asking Gunn to deal with the bill.

"Lafayette Park. By the fountain. 'Out of the car.' "
Not a fake vision. Gunn knew the list of old visions
almost by heart, and Lafayette Park wasn't in that
list. " 'Two to turn. The rest for food.' " Wesley was
frowning in concentration. " 'Moving up. Out of the
green.' " A shrug, then, muttered: "I think that's
what he said." More listening, then Wesley got Newton
back, thanked him, and cut the connection. "Lafayette
Park, definitely. Probably vampires. I don't know how
many."

There was only one vampire, and Wesley got him with
the crossbow. " 'Out of the green.' " Wesley was
holding up a green robe, shaking the dust out of it.
"This is probably not what he had in mind."

"That's one cheesy-lookin' robe. Someone tell him it
was the new black cape?"

The rescued couple had decided they'd been caught in
some fraternity prank, and the frat-boy must have run
off. They were angry now, not scared. They wanted to
know who was going to pay for the damage to the car,
and they drove off without one word of thanks - if
anything, they blamed Gunn and Wesley for letting the
frat-boy go and not getting his name.

So back to the apartment, taking the robe as a
souvenir for Newton. Angel was lost in the vision. He
was striding round the room, standing tall, gesturing,
repeating, "Two to turn. The rest for food," like he
expected to reach even the deaf couple upstairs. And
then he was suddenly calling desperately about
Lafayette Park, stumbling towards the wall, nearly
slipping on sheets of drawing paper, and banging on
the wall, dragging his hands over it.

"I think he's trying to draw on the wall." Sounded
like this was the best night of Newton's life. Was
that gleam pure ambition? Raw curiosity? Or was he
enough like Wesley to be thinking that this was the
most important thing he'd ever done? "He used up all
of the pad. And the board." There had been at least
ten sheets left. "The crayon broke when he started on
the wall. So he's been doing this. Has he always drawn
or only since he got this bad?"

Wesley gave the basics about Angel and the drawing and
the visions. They all had a beer and Newton gradually
wound down. He asked what had happened in the park,
which should have got him all impressed again. And
yeah he was angry with the couple for being so
ungrateful, but the more Newton said, the more it
sounded to Gunn like he thought the fights were easy,
like the vision was some kind of guarantee. No real
danger 'cos they had the Powers standing guard over
them from start to finish.

No, Newton wasn't as bad as that, but he wasn't making
nearly enough of the right noises, not to suit Gunn.
And he didn't seem to have any reaction to Angel
except fascination - like they were lucky to be locked
in with this creature and its shattered mind. Gunn
wasn't looking for hero-worship, that would be creepy,
but a normal person would have to...well, know that it
would be normal to notice. Newton Robbins was an
over-ambitious jerk, and Gunn wasn't going to be
troubled by any more thoughts about the buttons on his
shirt.

Or maybe Newton was just young. He was thrilled by the
robe, assumed it was the mark of some ancient vampire
line, and that Wesley must know all about it,
including the exact meaning and history of the symbol
on the triangular patch. Wesley said he'd look in his
books and get back to Newton ( it was a puzzle, so of
course he would) and while Wesley was drawing the
symbol for reference, Gunn asked Newton about the
internship. What else did they have him doing, did he
work mostly for Lilah, what were his other plans?

"I'm sorry. I can't talk about that."

"What? It's a trade secret who you fetch lunch for?
Bring down the whole firm?"

Newton shrugged and smiled, looking suddenly years
older, much more in control. "It's just the rule. We
can't say anything."

"Man. And you wanna work for this firm?"

"Oh, yes. You wouldn't believe the opportunities." The
gleam again. Gunn shrugged, and glanced at his Wesley,
and wanted the intern gone.

An hour or so later, in bed, Wesley said, "Do you
think we'd have gone for the meal tonight? If we'd
left Angel alone?"

"Probably. We'd planned on being gone till past
midnight. We still need to eat. Duals or no duals."

Wesley nodded, slowly. "We would have come back to
what he said on the tape. And when we got to the park
it would have been too late. And we would have known,
because the car would be there with the windows broken
and the doors hanging open."

"And we'd never eat Vietnamese again. Not even to go."

Wesley sighed, frowning. "I don't know. Allowing
ourselves a quick meal after training. I think we've
earned that. I'd feel bad that we'd missed the vision.
I'd feel terrible knowing we could have saved the
couple if we'd gone straight home. But I don't think
I'd feel that I'd done something wrong personally,
that I needed to punish myself. I think I'd be able to
accept that some parts of life are just luck, and that
couple had hit bad luck, as hundreds of other people
do every day. I wouldn't have said that a year ago.
Back then I'd be fully occupied with finding some way
to exorcise the guilt. I have changed."

"A year ago it was just you and Angel. Him gettin'
worse. Guess you would be be thinkin' 'bout
punishment. 'bout the visions as punishment for him, I
mean. But it's you 'n' me now. 'n' yeah we got room
for luck."

By morning, Angel was out of the vision and in hell,
and Wesley took the blood in as soon as he was
dressed. He started collecting drawing pages while
Angel was drinking, and immediately called Gunn in.

"Look, this isn't the park. It's a theatre. Boarded
up? That does say 'Palace', doesn't it?"

"And this looks like people in a cage. Could be
anywhere. But I guess not the park."

Gunn collected the rest of the pages and then they
stood over Angel, who held the half-empty beaker out
to Wesley. "Finish it." Angel did, in a single messy
mouthful; they were going to have to shower him again,
and it had only been three days.

Gunn booted up the computer and searched for the
Palace Theatre. He found it quickly, in Westwood, but
kept on looking through the search results for any
hint about the connection to Lafayette Park. The
connection was on the third page of results, in a
Department of Justice report on Doug Sanders, a
motivational speaker who was wanted for his
involvement in pyramid schemes and who'd been missing
for months. The report said he'd done a lot of his
speaking out of the Palace Theatre and it also showed
the logo for one of his schemes, which was the exact
same symbol that Wesley had copied from the patch on
the green robe. So... a vampire wearing that logo and
talking about "moving up". And Angel striding round,
making those big gestures, hammering that slogan, over
and over: "Two to turn, the rest for food." They could
assume Doug Sanders was a vampire now, but running the
same scam in much the same way.

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