Reaching in, I grab out a bag of cold liquid, carrying it over to the table where I can pour its contents into a mug, a mug that goes right into the microwave.

Having done that, now waiting for the mug to heat up, I lean back against the table and look out the window. It’s raining again.

He’d have probably said it added atmosphere. Brought out the rolling of the hills or some crap like that.

I guess it is kinda nice. It’s peaceful. Maybe a little too peaceful, but it’s nice to have space to myself. And at the same time, it’s really not that far from a few cities, which means I get to keep up slaying, and can blow off steam when I need to.

And then there’s the pubs. Don’t get me wrong, I am an American girl and all that but the beer here is better. It’s why the landlord of the local pub thinks I spend too much time there.

You know, maybe… *ping* Ah. Angel’s drink is done. I know he’s fine with it cold, but I figure having it warm is probably better while he’s still recovering. Makes it seem fresher, I hope. And I’d like to be on his good side before I tell him my plan.

*******

“Hey, Angel, you there?” I say, knocking on the door to his room. “Got you your breakfast.”

“Come in,” is the reply.

Pushing open the door, and walking in, I find him sitting at the desk, drawing. “Here you go,” I say, setting the mug on the desk beside him, before peering over his shoulder and asking, “What’re you drawing?”

Well that’s some weird and kinda scary shit. “Um, Angel…?”

“Nightmares.” He replies. “I was thinking maybe if I drew them, it might help.”

I nod, encouraging him, and grab a chair to sit next to him.

“I… It all blurs together,” he continues. “I can’t remember if the things I see are things I did as Angelus, if they’re things I did as Twilight, or if they’re just bad dreams.”

“I know what you mean. At first, in prison, I kept having these nightmares about the shit I did. I must have dreamt about torturing Wes in a million ways that I never actually did.” I’m not going to mention that I still have the nightmares sometimes.

“Wesley…” Angel says quietly, his eyes dropping to the floor. Shit, I shouldn’t have said that.

“Hey,” I say, trying to reassure him, but he interrupts before I can say anything else.

“I wonder if he’s still out there somewhere.”

“I thought he, um, died.”

“Wolfram & Hart liked to make their employees keep working after death. It was in a lot of the contracts.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know that. “Well, maybe we can try doing some digging and see if we can find out if they forced him to stay around or something.”

He nods, the thought seeming to cheer him up a little. It’ll be good for him to start getting out and doing stuff again. Start saving people again. After we sit in silence for a couple of seconds, I take a breath, and figure this is as good a time as any to tell him.

“Um, hey, Angel. I had an idea.”

‘Yeah?” He says, turning to look at me.

“Um, well, I’ve been thinking. About things.” I know, I’m really good with words. “About how we might be able to make things better.”

“I’m listening.”

“Well, after the Seed was smashed, everyone just kinda scattered. Nobody’s keeping in touch with each other. Nobody really has any resources any more. And the big bads are still out there. From what I’ve heard, there’s a lot of slayers who are becoming the big bads themselves.”

“So?”

“So, I was thinking about when I was working with G, going round helping out slayers.” After pausing for a moment to catch my nerve, I continue. “I was thinking that it would be a good idea to have some type of organisation that could, you know, help out slayers who needed it.”

I think he’s starting to see where I’m going with this. I can tell by the way his eyes are starting to narrow.  

“Faith, are you...”

“G was all that was left of the Watcher’s Council. He left pretty much everything, so I guess that makes me what’s left of the Council.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am. Look at it Angel, there are girls out there who need our help. People who need our help. Hell, even demons who need our help. We have a big-ass library, we have tons of money, we even a list of G’s old friends around here somewhere.”

“It’s not we,” he answers, his eyes looking away from me for a second.

“Huh?”

“It’s you. Giles left you all that. I just killed him.”

“Don’t give me that crap. You’re here with me. And I want you to be a part of this. Need someone I trust. And you need to get back in action. Start helping the helpless again.”

I didn’t mean to shout at him. But, fuck, I can’t do this alone. I’m trying to do the right thing, and I someone needs to make sure I don’t become a big fuck-up again.

After a few seconds where he doesn’t say anything, I try again. “It’s what B would have done. It’s what she did. I dunno where she is now, enjoying her retirement or some shit like that, but she’s not here anymore. So, someone’s got to step up for her.”

He stares right at me for a couple of moments, and I bet he knows exactly what’s going through my head. He then sighs. “Have you thought about how you’re want to do this?”

“A bit, yeah. We’ve got the library out here, so I figured this could be our HQ. We’re going to need someone to lead the damn thing, and we’re going to need to get a team together. So, I figured I’d start by going out and convincing some people to get on board.”

“Okay.”

“And I think I know where to start.”