Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Chp.23

How to Tell a Vamp that His Girl is in a Coma

Info: Chp.1

Looking out of the window of the office on the twenty-third floor of the law firm, Charles Gunn notices something truly unusual. “Hey, Angel.” He calls over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off of the strange sight twenty-three floors below.

The vampire looks up from the paperwork laying in front of him, to the big, black man standing by the sun proofed window of his office. “What’s up Gunn?” He answers as he rolls his leather chair back, gets up, and walks over to see what is so interesting to the young man.

Still looking down on the parking lot, and not turning from his position, “why would a school bus from Sunnydale be here?” He asks, pointing to the big, yellow transport vehicle, now parking in one of the bus spaces.

Angel turns from the window, and hastily makes his way over to the door. “Buffy.” He whispers, as he turns the knob, pulls open the door, and lets himself out.

Gunn stands there in awed silence as he watches the dark vampire dissappear out of the door. Shaking his head he looks back down at the menagerie of little girls and four men, one of them being held up on his feet by Faith, pile out of the school bus. "Buffy, huh." His interest peaked, he turns from the window and heads for the door himself.
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Rushing to the elevator, and climbing in, he waits for it to stop, and makes his way out into the main lobby of the building. He comes to an abrupt halt, when he sees the menagerie of people filing into the building.

He hears Faith, loudly yelled. “Yo, Angel.” He looks around her noticing Giles and Xander, but there isn’t anyone else he knows in the crowd of people.

He looks the group over again, and still doesn’t see the blonde hair of his girl. “Buffy? Where’s Buffy?” He says panicked. “She didn’t make it out did she?” His panic shows on his face and in the posture of his body, at the thought that his Buffy might not have made it out of the battle.

Faith had passed Robin over to a couple of the new little slayers, as she'd watched Angel go from semi-calm to out right hysterical in two seconds flat. Stepping up to the vampire, she places a hand on his shoulder. “Whoa, big, boy. Calm down for a sec. B, made it out, a little worse for wear, but she’s outta there. She’s just not doin’ so good at the moment.” The dark slayer says, trying to calm the dark, and soulful vamp down.

“She’s not doing well? Is she dying?” The panic is still lingering on the edge of his voice, but it isn’t as prominent as it was when he’d started asking questions. His eyes grow big, and watery at the thought of the girl not doing too well. That was never a good thing for anyone, especially her.

Glancing back over her shoulder at Xander and Giles, Faith sees that there isn’t any help there. The wusses are just hanging their heads, one furiously polishing his glasses with the dirty tail of his shirt, and the other watching the toe of his show move back and forth across the floor in front of him.

She turns back to the anxious, brown eyes of the vamp in front of her, and lets out a deep sigh. Straightening her back she looks him directly in the eye. “Look. You know I’m not great with the whole emotional thing.” Angel nods his head in agreement, as she tosses a lock of loose, and dirty hair behind her shoulder. “B, she’s. . . Well she was looking at the crater, turned around, looked at all of us, and she collapsed right there in front of us all. Face in the dirt, flat out spread eagle. No warning, man. I don’t know what exactly happened.” She had started waving her hands, not knowing what else to do with them, while explaining and now slaps them hard against her thighs, as if she were making a point, instead of delivering some bad news to a good friend.

“She, we think she may be in a coma. We don't really understand why it happened or even how." Her brow wrinkles in confusion, trying to make Angel see that none of them had any inkling of what had happened. She takes a deep breath, as she thinks of the plan that they'd come up with. "Willow is gonna attempt to do this mind walk spell thing. She’s done it before, so we’re hoping it’ll work again.” She finishes her explanation as quickly as possible, giving him the highlights and not much more to go on. She hesitates and looks down at the toe of her boot, not able to keep the eye contact between them going.

Walking over to the two dark, and supernaturally inclined people, Giles lays a hand on Faith’s shoulder, finally showing her a little support in her mission.

Angel looks over to the older looking, Englishman, imploringly. “Coma?” He asks, it being the only word that he can form, with everything Faith had just told him swirling around in his undead brain at the moment.

Giles takes his glasses from the bridge of his nose, again. He nods his head in the affirmative. “Yes, it seems that Buffy has slipped into a comatose state, with no explanation as to why.” His glasses find the tail of his dirty shirt again, and he wipes them calmly against it. “Willow has a spell. She just needs the ingredients, and the place in which to perform it.” He says, placing the even more soiled glasses back on his face, and grimacing as he realizes that rubbing them on the dirty fabric had just made them worse for trying to see through.

Looking from the watcher to the slayer, and over to the group of girls, Xander and the black guy he didn't know. Angel shakes his head slowly. “Faith told you guys that I had a hotel, right?” He asks, reaching into his pocket and pulling a key ring out of it.

Giles looks at the vampire, astonishment written on his face, as he sees the keys dangling in front of him. “Well, yes that’s quite right.” He states, as he takes the keys, and implants them in his own pocket.

Faith chuckles grabbing the attention of the two men, Angel looks at her, not getting the obviously funny joke.

She smiles, sheepishly at the questioning look on the dark vampires face. “Uh, Soul boy. We so totally won’t be needing those keys.” He looks at her strangely, still not understanding what the girl is getting at. “I think the hotel might need a new door though.” She explains, and watches the understanding spread across Angels face.

“You broke the door down, didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t entirely on purpose, and not the whole door. I just sorta tore the lock out of it. The thing is just kinda hanging there, so we'd probably want to get back real soon like." Her eyes grow big as saucers, as she looks back up at him. "Sorry."

Angel shakes his head again, and turns from the slayer, trying not to laugh at the irony of Faith breaking and entering. "Yeah, go on back to the hotel, I'll meet you guys there in a while," he says walking away from them, with a huge smile on his face.

A/N: Okay, before anyone asks it will eventually get back to Buffy and Spike, but these next few chapters are all designed and written for a big reason, just give me a few, and it will come together I promise.