Title: Hidden Secrets
Author: FerretGirl
Rating: PG to R
Spoilers/Setting: AtS S1 to 4, Buffy S3 and S7 I guess. halve way S4 of AtS Joss and I go our separate ways for a while.
Disclaimer: They boys and girls are not mine, I'm just playing with them.
Summary: Faith, Wesley, five years later.
Notes: A big thanks to miniera and alias_lilacgirl for the beta

Hidden Secrets
Part 3

"So far so good," Faith said to herself as she made her way over to the door on the left. She waited for Wesley to catch up.

"Faith, I know we've never had any trouble getting in and out before," Wesley started, jogging toward her, "but there's no need to be so reckless."

"Yeah, yeah," Faith rolled her eyes. He gave her the same lecture every time. She knew he was right, but still, she needed the thrill of danger. Faith approached the electric box and yanked the cover off, eying the exposed wires. "Same as always?"

Wesley peered over her shoulders. "Yes, the yellow ones," he said thoughtfully. "You'd think by now they would have learned from previous mistakes. Who ever this is, doesn't seem to care at all about anything."

"There's plenty of demons around to use," Faith replied ruefully. She cut the yellow wire and watched in satisfaction as the blinking red light on the camera faded away.

One small tug was enough for Wesley to open the electrically locked door. "Alright, we go in, get him and we leave. That's it, nothing else." He gave Faith a stern look. He knew how much she was itching to beat something or someone. "We can't risk it, it's not only our lives we're toying with now."

Faith nodded and pushed past him into the building. As usual there was no one to see. They'd figured out that the camera's that were all over the place must be watched at a different location. A location they hadn't been able to find yet.

Very quietly, because one never knew, Faith and Wesley made their way over to the room they had spotted their friend in. Faith pushed open the door and peeked inside. There was only one demon in the room, which was odd, but fortunate at the moment.

"I'll stay here and watch your back," Wesley said.

Faith nodded, she understood that he wasn't ready to go in yet and meet his old friend. She slipped through the door and sneaked toward the cell.

The demon inside was looking nothing like his exuberant, flamboyant self. Sure he was still wearing a dazzling suit, but his body language spoke differently. Shoulders hunched; head hung low; his suit rumpled; his hair a mess; the perfect picture of misery.

Quickly looking up when he heard sounds approaching his cell, the demon scooted back toward the wall. He didn't know what to expect here, it could be anything from his experience.

Faith winced as she noticed the bruises on his face. She motioned with her hands for him to stand back and then gave a swift kick against the locked door. Reaching out, Faith was relieved to find the door give way. "You wanna sit here or you wanna hit the road?" she asked.

The demon's mouth hung open. Only now did he recognize her. "Lead the way my little sex-kitten," he said, giving her a shaky smile.

Faith smiled back encouragingly and motioned for him to follow her. Hugging the shadows they made their way toward the door. Pushing the door open, Faith looked at Wesley, noticing how he wrung his hands nervously, but kept his eagle eyes open.

Wesley nodded at Faith and she led her charge out the door. Wasting no time, Faith and Wesley made their way out of the building immediately.

"Crumpet?"

"Later Lorne," Wesley said, keeping a close watch on their surroundings, "we need to get out of here first."

Lorne had no other choice other than to follow his old friends out of the building. He happily left the horror building behind. The things he had seen there made his stomach turn, and the thought he could be next....he didn't even want to think about that.

Not noticing the rain, Lorne ran after the slayer and her watcher, running as if the devil was on his heels, not stopping until they reached the car.

Wesley jumped behind the wheel, while Faith ushered Lorne in the car. Then she jumped in herself and they quickly made their way home. Making sure no one was following them.

~*~*~*~

Nobody spoke during the drive home. Once they were home, and inside the house, Wesley quickly made his way up to the bedroom.

Faith gave Lorne an apologetic smile and shrugged. "You wanna have a shower and some dry clothes? You can borrow some from Wes, even though it's not up to your usual standard," she said. Looking at his bright green, glittery suit she grinned.

"Oh, a shower would be heaven. Are you sure Wes wouldn't mind if I borrowed his stuff?" Lorne wasn't sure what to think of his old friend. He couldn't read him, Wesley had closed himself off deliberately.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Faith said. She chewed her bottom lip. "He'll come around, he's a bit shocked you know?" She gestured for him to follow her.

"I'm sure he is," Lorne said, following her up the stairs. "So am I my firecracker. It's good to see you both, but woaza! Have I got a story to tell you."

Faith smiled at the nickname and led him into the guest-room. "I'm sure you do Kermit, but first things first. There's a shower over there, it's a private shower. I'll go get you some clothes and then we can all sit down and have a talk."

Lorne nodded at her thankfully. He turned and winced while he walked toward the bathroom.

"We'll take a look at those wounds later too," Faith said worriedly, "but I'll go have a talk with that husband of mine first."

"I'll take care of them in the shower, they're not so bad. But thanks," Lorne said over his shoulder. He watched her nod and walk out the room. Then he registered something she had said. "Husband?"

*~*~*~

Walking into the master bedroom quietly, Faith watched for a moment. Wesley sat on their bed, still in his wet clothes, looking down at his hands.

Faith pulled out an old pair of sweat pants and a large button down shirt for Lorne. She walked out of the bedroom and put the items in Lorne's room, together with a small first-aid kit. She had to smile when she heard the demon singing in the bathroom. Some things never change.

Wesley still sat in the same position as she left him, looking very much out of this world. Faith began to change into dry cloths herself and kept an eye on him, still not moving.

"You weren't very nice to him," she tried.

"I didn't know how to react," Wesley said very softly.

"It's not his fault, he doesn't look like he's here for fun," she answered. She pulled out some dry clothes for Wesley and laid them on the bed next to him. "Put on some dry clothes Wes, you'll catch a cold."

Now Wesley looked up and blinked at her. He looked at the clothes next to him puzzled, as if he was wondering where they had come from. He blinked again and slowly began to change into the dry outfit. "Right, mustn't catch a cold."

"Wes," Faith quietly spoke his name, "don't do this please."

Buttoning up his shirt Wesley looked at her. "Don't do what?"

"Don't close up on me, please Wes," she caught his eyes, her own eyes pleading at him and full of love.

Wesley sighed, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her on the top of her head. "I'll try not to love." He smiled as he felt her arms wrap around him as well. "And I'll play nice with Lorne."

Grinning Faith whacked him on his arm. "Let's wait downstairs for him, I'll make some coffee."

"Uhm, I'd rather have some tea," Wesley said quickly, following her out of the room.

"Why? Is there something wrong with my coffee?"

"Of course not, personally I think it makes excellent glue."

"You'll pay for that remark britboy."
"Is that a promise?"

Through the crack of his door, Lorne listened to the banter, he smiled, they were perfect for each other. They seemed to have their lives on the rail here. And here he was, with a story that would turn their world upside down. He waited a few moments before following them down. There was no way he could postpone the inevitable any longer.

~*~*~*~

Lorne walked into the kitchen, seeing Wesley bustle around making a fresh pot of tea. The sight of the Englishman making his tea was so familiar, Lorne felt a pang of pain in his heart. He had no idea how much he had missed that. Of course, until a week ago, he'd no idea at all.

"Hey Lorne," Faith greeted him, "You want some coffee or tea?"

"Tea please." Lorne was certain about Wesley's tea making abilities, he wasn't so sure about Faith's coffee making.

Trying to catch Wesley's eye, Lorne looked at him. "How's it going muffin?"

Taking a deep breath, Wesley looked up and gave the demon a tiny smile. "Lorne..." He had to clear his throat before continuing. "Uhm, Lorne, I'd like to apologize for how I reacted. It was a bit of a shock seeing you."

"That's okay crumpet, I'm still a bit shocked myself."

Wesley's smile widened. He'd forgotten Lorne's obsession with pastry nicknames. It was something familiar and he was surprised that it warmed his heart. "Still, I apologize," he said putting down three mugs of tea on the table.

Everyone sat down at the table and there was a moment of silence. No one really sure where to begin.

"So, Lorne, how are things in LA?" Faith finally asked. She couldn't stand the silence, and she was dying of curiosity to hear about their friends in LA.

"Long story sweetie," Lorne sighed. "And a very strange one. Let me start at the beginning."

Wesley and Faith sat back in their chairs, hands wrapped around their mugs, expectantly waiting for Lorne to tell his tale.

~*~*~*~

"Promise me that you won't interrupt, before I finish okay?" Lorne asked.

Both Faith and Wesley looked puzzled. "Alright, go ahead," Wesley answered, while Faith nodded her agreement.

Sitting back Lorne sighed. "This is going to be very strange and probably shocking."

"Will you get on with it?" Faith was running out of patience.

"After the big fight, when you two completely vanished," he began, giving them both a pointed look, "we all returned to LA, only to find Lilah in the Hyperion waiting for us. You remember Lilah?"

Wesley quickly looked down at the table. How could he forget Lilah? His biggest mistake, even though it had only been once. He smiled at Faith when she held onto his hand. He turned his hand and laced his fingers through hers, enjoying the comfortable feeling, needing it.

Lorne looked at their interaction and had to smile. "Okay, so obviously you do. Anyway. She had an offer for us from the Senior Partners. They offered us the LA branch of Wolfram & Hart."

Both Wesley and Faith looked shocked and had to struggle to keep their promise not to interrupt.

Satisfied at not being interrupted, Lorne continued. "Strangely enough, none of us had to think long about it. We took the offer. Angel is the CEO, Fred is the head of the Physics department, Gunn is a top lawyer now, Cordelia is managing the firm as Angel's right hand and I'm the head of the entertainment department."

"What about Connor?" Wesley asked before he could stop himself.

"I'll get to that later," Lorne assured him. "Everything was going hunky dory, fighting evil from the inside. But the stress was getting too much. So, I had my sleep removed."

Lorne held up his hand to forestall any interruptions, he could read the hundreds of questions on their faces. "Of course this didn't end well. To make a long story short, Fred found a way to get my sleep back. Except that it wasn't the only thing she put back, but no one knew that. I didn't even know that, until a few hours later."

Lorne took a deep breath, now he was coming to the hard part of the story. "I suddenly found myself bombarded with images," he continued, "as it turned out they were memories. My memories. Some one had taken them from me. Someone had erased any and all existence of Connor from my memory."

"What?!" Faith blurted out, "but why?"

Lorne continued his tale. "After the fight, Connor lost it. He want berserk, going on about how everything on this planet was evil. He ran off to the furies know where. Angel went after him and that's the last I remember hearing of Connor. I don't know what happened to him, only that his entire existence was wiped from my brain."

"How odd," Wesley looked thoughtfully, "Faith and I remember Connor very clearly." Rubbing the scar on this throat absentmindedly he continued, "this is very strange, why would anyone do such a thing? It has to be a Wolfram & Hart trick."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Lorne agreed. "Because the moment some hotshot from Wolfram & Hart found out that I knew, that I remembered, they jumped me and I woke up here."
Wesley and Faith looked at each other shocked. This certainly wasn't the story they had expected to hear, not even close.

"That's not all, my sweeties," Lorne looked at them thoughtfully.

"There's more?" Faith asked looking pale.

"Oh yes my little sex-kitten." Lorne took a deep breath, know that what he was about to tell them would shock them like nothing ever would, but he had to tell them. He was going to need their help if he wanted to help the others.

"Until a week ago? Before I got my memory back?" he began, looking at them to make sure he had their full attention.

Wesley and Faith nodded and gestured for him to get on with it.

"I had no idea the two of you existed."

Part 4