webhosting   Cheap Reseller Hosting   links    free hosting by fateback   hosting reseller   100WebSpace offers 100MB Web Space

Spinning
By Annabelle

SPECIAL NOTE: This story does not have Evil Fred in it at all, this is more along the lines of what I normally write and is kind of sad.

TITLE: Spinning
AUTHOR: Annabelle
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them. I just like to write. Don't sue, please!
SUMMARY: Wesley's life always seem to be coming undone
DISTRIBUTION: FanFiction.Net, Wishing Hearts, Hello World: Fan Fiction Is Fun, anyone else please ask first
RATING: PG
WARNING: Very sad, but not evil Fred or evil Wesley at all.
THANK YOUS: Many times over to MeriBeth for being the best beta!
FEEDBACK: Lots of it please! Send to Annabelle_felicity@hotmail.com

Spinning – Chapter 3: Soft Screaming
by Annabelle

“Annette, huh?” Luke said. “So that’s your name.”

Wesley kept staring at her. “Well, I’m not sure. I mean they said she was dead, they never found the body, and it’s been so long, and…”

“Show him the mark, Luke,” the first man spoke. “She’s got a little mark on her neck.”

Luke moved to pull back her hair, but Wesley stopped him. “May I?” he asked. Luke nodded and Wesley moved closer to the young woman and pushed her hair back gently over her left shoulder. “Now,” he said in a soft tone, “just let me tilt your head to the right.” He applied a little pressure to her head and she let her head be moved so that her ear was almost touching her right shoulder. “Not that much,” he pulled her head back a little to the left. “You don’t want to get a cramp in your neck.”

Once he had her neck in the right position he lightly ran his finger over a small scar. “She got this when we playing by the shore of the river.” He could her the strain in his own voice and could feel the tears start to build. “She slipped on a rock and nearly scared everyone half to death cause they thought she silt her throat, but the doctor said that she was fine, just a deep cut and the mark would always be there.”

“Always thought that she was a trouble maker,” Luke chuckled.

“How?” Wesley stammered. “How did you find her?”

The first orderly sighed. “It’s a long story but it goes something like she was shipped around from hospital to hospital in England with doctors trying to find someone in their area that might know her. Didn’t work and someone got the brilliant idea ten years ago that she might be an American, although they couldn’t tell for sure cause she couldn’t speak.”

“So they sent her to New York,” Luke continued. “Her official name is Jane Doe 5, or at least that is what all her papers say. Not sure how but some how the managed to get her past passport stuff and costumes, probably cause she was a Jane Doe. Anyway when she got here she was shipped around again. She has been to a total of 10 state mental wards since she got here, they each kept her about a year before sending her off to the next one.” Luke to a breath, “In two months Doc Carlson was going to have to send her to another hospital but Jimmy and I got it into our heads that we could try to trace her through that ring that she was wearing around her neck.”

“Yeah,” Jimmy agreed. “Guess those people in England thought that she stole it or something cause they never bothered to try to do a search using it. But Doc Carlson knows people at the FBI so we had him call in a few favors and then started looking around the Santa Monica area for anyone by the name Wyndham-Pryce.”

“We all thought she was gone,” Wesley mumbled. He wanted to reach out and hug her. “Annette, please say something. Anything.”

She just whimpered a little and went back to cling to Luke’s arm. The whole time she never made eye contact with any one just stared through them all. “It’s alright Jane, er Annette,” Luke told her. “You know him, he’s your cousin?”

“That’s right Annette, you remember me,” Wesley held his hand out to her. “She is catatonic?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy said. “She’s better than a few years ago, one might mistake it for autism on one of her good days. Other days she’ll just sit in the middle of the room for hours rocking herself back and forth.”

Ever so cautiously she moved closer to Wesley, but Annette still refused to make eye contact, she kept her head to the ground with her hair covering her face. She took his hand and Wesley let out a breath that he hadn’t realized that he was holding. He wrapped his arms around her so carefully almost as if he was afraid that she would break. For the first time in his life he felt a strange sense of peace come over him. Maybe Annette was not the same as when he last saw her, but how could he expect her to be, all that mattered was that she was here with him and he could be the friend and family that she needed and deserved.

“Um,” Jimmy spoke softly. “Mr. Wyndham-Pryce there a few things that we need to talk to you about.” He looked at Fred and Cordelia who were standing there in shock. “In private.”

“Of course,” Wesley let go of Annette and took her hand. “We can to in the office.” He started to lead Annette towards the direction of room watching her the whole time, completely forgetting that Cordelia and Fred were there. “Come on, Annette,” he smiled at her. “I have a nice big comfy chair that you can sit in.”

Cordelia watched the men and the catatonic woman walk into the office with her mouth hanging open. “Okay,” she finally said. “What just happened?”

“I’m,” Fred started after the people who closed the office door behind them. “I’m not really sure.”

“Since when did Wesley have a cousin?” Cordelia started to get anger. “A catatonic cousin for that matter?”

Fred shook her head. “I didn’t know he had a cousin at all,” then she paused. “Well, I mean I knew that he probably had cousins but he never talks about his family so I wasn’t sure. And I-”

“What I wanna know is,” Cordelia interrupted her. “Why does his catatonic cousin have his signet ring? Why does he have a signet ring? What is it for? And how come he is acting like he hasn’t seen her forever? And what made her catatonic?”

“I don’t know,” Fred said watching Wesley in the office. He had sat Annette down in his chair and he was kneeling next to her. Periodically he would look away from her to nodded or say something to the men from the hospital. Then they handed him some papers. “What’s he doing? Is he signing her release forms?”

“Like I know,” Cordy started to inch closer to the office. “I am going to find out though.”

“Cordy,” Fred hissed at her. “Don’t do that! First of all, it is wrong. Second of all, you are always saying that you don’t want anything to do with Wes!”

“This is different,” Cordelia hissed back and waved her to be quite.

Fred went and grabbed her arm. “Cordelia, it’s not different,” she pulled the other woman back from the door. “You have no right to spy on him just because you have suddenly decided to take in interest in his life. You and Angel have been acting like he doesn’t exists for a month how, and I can understand that from Angel but you, you weren’t even here. So back off.”

“What the hell is your problem?” Cordelia jerked away from her.

“You are my problem. You, Angel, Lorne, and Gunn, all of you are my problem,” she nearly screamed. “All you do is ignore him and make him feel worse than he already does. Should he feel bad that he lost Angel’s son, yes he should. But we aren’t getting anything done by pointing fingers at him or by not helping him find a way to bring Connor back.”

“Are you completely blind,” Cordelia felt like slapping Fred. “He is the reason that we have lost everything that matter. If he had just told us-”

“If he just told us what? That Angel was going to kill his son,” Fred yelled this time. “What would you have done if he had told you? Probably the same thing that he had done or worse. You might have decided to lock Angel up, or maybe you would have just let Angel take Connor.”

“Fred, you don’t know what would happen,” Cordelia glared at her. “None of us do.”

“No, I don’t,” she huffed. “But chances are that Angel would have eaten Connor. They were spiking his blood with Connor’s for crying out loud. Angel even said that he was starting to look like food. If Wesley hadn’t taken him, god only knows. That or Holtz would have killed him or even Wolfram and Hart. Ya all can tell me that that there is no way to really know but the truth is that Connor would have died that night unless Wesley took him. You know it and so do I.”

Cordelia turned away from her. “I don’t feel like talking about this with you anymore.”

Fred snorted. “No, of course not,” she forced a laugh. “Because god forbid that you ever admit that you were wrong or that you should be held to blame for what happened. You weren’t here so how could it possibly be your fault. You were to busy thinking about yourself to notice that the was something wrong.”

“If I was to busy, then so were you,” Cordelia snarled.

Fred nodded, “Yeah, I was. But at least I can admit it.”

“Excuse me,” Jimmy ducked his head out. “Umm would you ladies mind terrible going to another room. You’re making Annette nervous with all the yelling.”

After giving Cordelia a look to silence her Fred turned to him. “We’re sorry,” she smiled. “We’ll stop.”

“Thanks,” Jimmy closed the door and went back to sit down. “Hopefully that will help.”

“I am really sorry,” Wesley said. “They have just been going through a lot lately.”

“It’s alright,” Jimmy nodded.

“Yeah, just try to keep her away from them,” Luke laughed. “Sorry bad joke. Still she doesn’t like yelling, so soft even tones.”

“Got it,” Wesley nodded. “So even tones, medicine always at the same time, be patient, anything else?”

“I think that’s it,” Jimmy handed him a few slips of paper. “These will keep her into the next month for her meds and when she starts to run out just call us. Doc Carlson will probably want to see her every now and then, but he’ll call you about that.” He picked up the papers that Wesley had signed. “If you have any problems or anything,” he pulled out a list of phone numbers, “you can call these people at the hospital. It has a list of times that they are there so you know who to ask for.”

“Thanks,” Wesley took the list and looked over it. Then he put into another folder, which he had just grabbed to file all of Annette’s papers. “So I can take her home?”

“Yep,” Luke smiled. “To tell you the truth I am glad. Hopefully this will help her and it will mean she can stay in one place from now on. But you don’t umm live here do you?”

“No,” Wesley shook his head. “Why?”

“I saw that cabinet of weapons as we came in here,” Luke said. “Not a good idea to have sharp objects around her. She doesn’t really comprehend them, like everything else. If she sees something she likes, she’ll go after it without thinking if it is sharp, dangerous, or the like.”

“We’ll only be spending a limited amount of time here,” Wesley said. “Besides the cabinet is baby proofed. But that is a long story.”

“I can tell,” Jimmy laughed. “We do have to get going though.”

“Of course,” Wesley stood up and helped Annette out of the chair. “Come on Annette, you’ll want to see your friends off.”

Annette again let her eyes turn to the floor and let herself be guided around. Go this way, go that way, follow this person, don’t follow that one. It was all very simple, very uncomplicated and she liked things that way. Although lately things were starting to get a little bit more difficult, feelings were starting to be processed and that she did not like. She watched as two familiar sets of feet started to walk to her and felt a hand on her chin.

“Alright then, Annette,” Jimmy said. “It’s time to say good bye.”

She whimpered a little and pulled away. He was touching her and putting feelings onto her, she didn’t like that.

“Don’t worry,” Luke chuckled. “You’ll still see us every now and then.” He picked up her hand and made her wave good bye. “That’s it. Bye Annette.” He put down her hand and nodded to Jimmy. “Remember call if you need anything,” he said following Jimmy to the door.

“Thanks,” Wesley smiled at them and made Annette wave again as they walked out. Then he took her hand and started to turn around intent on going back to the office to pick a few of his things and take her home until saw Cordelia and Fred standing there staring at him. “Um,” he looked at them. “I have to be going now. You won’t be able to reach me tonight.”

“Oh no!” Cordelia stood in front of him so he couldn’t go to the office. “You aren’t getting off that easy. How come you never told us you had a catatonic cousin?”

Wesley sighed. He took Annette and sat her down on the round couch. “Stay here,” he told her softly. Then he stood up and looked at the other women. “She is not my cousin,” he said simply. “Her family and mine were very close. Twenty-five years ago when she was eight she fell into a river and we never found her body. After about seven years Scotland Yard closed her case, Interpol too.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Cordelia waved her arms around to stop him. “I know that in the movies all we hear about is Scotland Yard but I thought they just international British criminals, same with Interpol.”

“That’s not quite true,” Wesley stammered.

“They’ll work on cases of a missing person if that person is from a high enough profile family,” Fred finished for him. “Isn’t that right?”

“Yes it is,” he nodded. “Anyway we were all sure she was dead. I don’t know how she managed to hang onto that ring. And I don’t really understand how they got her to the United States, but she is here now and I am going to care for her.”

Both Fred and Cordelia were silent but then Fred spoke up. “Who was she really Wesley,” Fred didn’t look at him. “Who was she to you?”

“She was my best friend,” Wesley said. “I never forgave myself for letting her fall into that river and now I am going to make it up to her.”

“What,” Cordelia sputtered. “You let her fall into the river,” she started to yell. “You didn’t even try to stop her.”

“I tried,” Wesley yelled back. “I had her in my hands. It was raining and she slipped. I tried. God knows I tried.”

“Obviously not hard enough,” Cordelia hissed. “She’s catatonic for crying out loud!”

“Stop!” Fred screamed but not at them. She raced over to where Annette was kneeling on the ground. The young woman was reaching out her hand to touch something that Fred had been working on, a new weapon of sorts that had very sharp edges. Fred tried to grab for her but Annette started to howl and cry at her sudden movements.

She scuttled across the floor to hug Wesley’s legs. She kept whimpering and started to shake. “It’s alright Annette,” Wesley helped her up. “Shh, it’s okay now.” Then he turned to glare at Fred. “You shouldn’t have yelled at her,” he said. “She could have hurt herself.”

“That’s what I was trying to prevent,” Fred retorted in a slightly nasty tone.

Annette was not claiming though and Wesley knew that the long day that she had was starting to take its toll on her. “We are going now,” Wesley told them in an icy tone. “If there is an emergency you can call my cell phone.”

Wesley took Annette to the office and quickly gathered the papers he would need. Then he took his coat from the hanger and wrapped it around her. He took her hand again and directed her back to the lobby. “Good night,” he told Fred and Cordelia and headed to the doors of the hotel.

“Wesley,” Cordelia started.

“No,” Wesley told her without looking back. “I don’t owe either of any more information than I have given you, now good night.” Before they could respond he ducked out of the hotel and headed to his car with Annette.

“It will all be alright now,” he told her strapping her into her seat. “I promise, it will all be alright.”

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter