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 5

"Cordelia?" Wesley whispered stunned.

She still looked the same as Wesley remembered her. Hair slightly longer and curlier, but dressed to the nines. Her hands were folded in front of her, in an effort not to wring them nervously.

"Hi, Wes," Cordelia smiled nervously. "How's it going? I heard you got married. I saw the pictures and boy! That was a crappy wedding. If I'd been there, it would've been much better, with proper food and..." her voice trailed off when she saw the cold way Faith and Wesley looked at her.

"And I guess that's not the point right now," Cordelia said meekly.

"You were behind all this?" Faith asked, not really believing it. "Queen C? Miss do the right thing? Did your demon take over?"

"As if you're fully human." Cordelia spat back.

Wesley's fist slamming against one of the metal cabinets, made both woman jump. Sighing, Wesley took the glasses of his nose and rubbed his eyes. "Ladies, could we focus on the matter at hand please?"

Faith mumbled something; while Cordelia said nothing, she wasn't able to keep her hands from wringing nervously though.

Wesley stared at Cordelia for a long time. She wished he would put his glasses back on, at least they would hide the cold and hurt look he was giving her. A look she had hoped never to see.

"Why?" Wesley finally asked, he was unable to keep the hurt out of his voice, even though he was doing a good job of suppressing the anger he felt.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," Cordelia answered softly.

"How? How can you think wiping out our existence is the right thing?" Wesley wanted to know.

"I...I don't think this is the right place to talk about this," Cordelia said.

"What's the matter C? Don't you trust the place you work for?" Faith sarcastically asked.

"She's right Faith," Wesley said, "this isn't the right place to talk." He looked at Cordelia again. "How did you know we were here in the first place?"

"Lucky guess," Cordelia shrugged. "I saw you and Faith on one of the security cameras. No one else noticed anything of course, but I did. So I figured there would be only one place where I'd find you two."

"You're the only one who remembers us?" Wesley asked.

"No," Cordelia said, "Eve does too, she's the liaison to the senior partners. I don't trust her one bit. And Lorne knows too." She looked sadly at them. "But he disappeared, he only found out a week ago by accident, and then vanished into thin air. I'm so worried, Eve won't tell me anything and I haven't been able to find out anything by myself."

Either Cordelia's acting had gotten decidingly better over the years, or she really was worried. Wesley couldn't tell, and he thought it better, not to mention Lorne's where abouts for now.

"We'll move this conversation to our temporary apartment," Wesley decided.

"What?!" Faith hissed, "Are you crazy?"

"Excuse us for a moment," Wesley said, while he grabbed Faith's arm and pulled her away a bit.

"Are you crazy?" Faith asked again in a low voice.

"Faith, love, calm down," Wesley said, his voice equally low. "We've the place warded by myself and Lorne, there is no way they could find us there. It's the safest place I can think of."

"I don't trust her, what if she's wired or something," Faith wanted to know.

"Then those wards will catch that too. Look, I don't trust her either, but if we want to hear her story this is the only chance we'll have."

Sighing Faith nodded. "Okay, but if this comes back to bite us in the ass, I have the right to say 'I told you so'."

Smiling Wesley kissed her softly on the lips. "If that happens, you may say I told you so."

Turning around, they noticed Cordelia stuffing something in a bag.

"What are you doing?" Wesley wanted to know.

Zipping up the bag, Cordelia looked at them steadily. "This isn't going to be a secret much longer," she began, "and I don't trust those Senior Partners." She pointed at the shelves that held the containers with memories. "I took the memories out and put them in the bag, I want them with us, so the Senior Partners can't use those against us."

Faith reached out to take the bag from her. "I'll take that, we don't trust you."

Cordelia sighed and let Faith have the bag. She was a hurt by the lack of trust, but she understood. After all, they had every reason not to trust her, after what she had done.

"Let's split then," Faith said, joining Wesley who was peeking out the door.

"Alright, the coast is clear," he told the two women.

Together the walked casually out of the building, sighing in relief as the doors closed behind them.

"Our car is that way," Wesley said, pointing toward the car. "The apartment not far from here."

They were almost at the car, when a voice from behind them interrupted.

"Working late Princess?"

Cordelia groaned and looked over her shoulder. "Go away Spike," was all she said.

Faith and Wesley blinked at each other. Spike was the last person they'd expected to see here in Los Angeles. "What's he doing here?" Faith wanted to know.

"Who're you two?" Spike asked. He narrowed his eyes at Faith. "Slayer," he hissed, "How can you be a Slayer? There's only one Chosen One."

"He works with Angel occasionally," Cordelia quickly explained to Wesley and Faith. She turned to Spike. "They're old friends of mine, yes Faith's a Slayer, Wes is her Watcher. We are on our way to have an important meeting away from here," she told the vampire, emphasizing the words away from here.

"Oh, you're finally going to do something about this still evil law firm," Spike smirked.

"Spike doesn't trust Wolfram & Hart," Cordelia explained.

"Spike is a very wise man," Wesley said dryly.

"I like him," Spike grinned, pointing at Wesley. "If you don't want Evil Inc. To know about this meeting, I'd make sure to shake off your stalkers, or did you forget about them?"

"Dammit!" Cordelia hissed. In all this commotion, she had indeed forgotten about the ever present stalkers. The little Wolfram & Hart shadows all the department heads had. Obviously the Senior Partners trusted them as much as they trusted the Senior Partners.

"Where are they?" Wesley wanted to know. He followed Spike's nods and noticed four men standing spread around them. They were hidden very well, he hadn't even noticed them.

"Alright, here's what we do." Wesley continued. "Faith, you take Cordelia to our place, in the meantime I'll serve as a distraction to these stalkers."

"I don't think so," Faith interjected. "I'm the Slayer here..."

"Faith," Wesley interrupted her, "I know you're the Slayer, but I want someone with Cordelia I can trust, and who can protect her if necessary." He noticed Cordelia flinching slightly at those words.

Faith was about to protest again when Spike spoke up. "I can help out with the diversion, if I get to be in on the meeting. I want to know what the deal is with the Slayer."

"I don't know..." Cordelia began.

"He's gonna find out sooner or later C," Faith said and started to pull Cordelia to the car. "Be careful," she told Wesley.

~*~*~*~

A knock on the door broke the tense silence that was hanging in the apartment, from the moment Cordelia and Faith had arrived. Faith jumped up and looked through the spy hole in the door. Sighing in relief, she opened the door.

"What took you so long?" She wanted to know as Spike and Wesley walked into the apartment. Taking a closer look at them, Faith noticed Wesley's eye was bruised, that would turn into a beautiful shiner come morning. "What happened?" she demanded, while she carefully brushed her hand over Wesley's face.

Cordelia walked over and glanced at the hand Wesley was cradling to his chest. She noticed Spike didn't seem to sport any evidence of a fight. "What happened?" she echoed Faith's question.

"Funny story that," Spike grinned. He pulled out a cigarette and sat down on the arm of the sofa. "You two bints drove off and those four guys jumped into their truck. All vampires by the way," Spike began gleefully.

Wesley pulled a face and walked to the kitchen. "I'll get some ice while you mock me," he muttered.

"So Watcher guy here, jumps toward their truck, yanks open the door and pulls out the first vamp he can get his greedy little hands on. Easy dust," Spike continued as if he wasn't interrupted. "Then off course the others came out and attacked him from both sides, one of them clogs him on the eye," Spike made a gesture with his hands, indicating just how Wesley got hit. "So Captain Britain here, whirls around and wants to hit the Vamp, only vampy had opened a door to protect himself, so Watcher guy's hand smashed against the door. Must have hurt."

Walking into the room, holding an icepack against his eye, Wesley made a face at Spike. "As if you were doing anything useful."

"I'm getting to that mate," Spike grinned. He was standing up now, gesturing wildly with his arms while telling the story. "Then he gets mad, this stake appears on his wrist out of nowhere, and he dusts those two vamps like that," Spike finished, snapping his fingers.

"Yes, and I would have been lost if you hadn't dusted the vampire that was on the other side of the truck, cowering and doing absolutely nothing." Wesley added dryly.

"He could have jumped you," Spike said mock seriously. He clapped Wesley on the shoulder. "That was a good fight. You're alright mate."

Faith sighed and grasped Wesley's wounded hand, to take a good look at it. She pulled a finger, pressed on some spots and looked closely at Wesley's reactions. "That's gonna be sore for a while, nothing seems to be broken," she scolded.

Smiling apolitically at her, Wesley wrapped one arm around her. "Where is..." he started to ask.

The door to the guest room opened and Lorne strode out, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Cordelia? Spike? I thought I heard familiar voices."

"Lorne?!" Cordelia all but squealed. She ran over to the green demon and hugged him close. "Oh, I was so worried about you when you disappeared, after you got your memories back," she rambled. She stopped when she felt the demon tense in her embrace. Mentally kicking herself she pulled back.

"You knew?" Lorne asked softly. "You knew about the missing memories?" his voice was laced with hurt and disbelief.

Cordelia hugged herself and looked down at her shoes. "Yes," she whispered.

Pulling out a chair and straddling it, Faith sat down. "This would be your cue to spill the beans," she said.

Looking up Cordelia took in the room's occupants. Faith on the chair, looking at her angrily. Spike on the arm of the sofa, looking at her expectantly. Lorne on the sofa, looking at her hurt. Wesley was still standing, his face showing no emotions what so ever. That scared her the most.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," Cordelia said softly.

"We all do, don't we?" Wesley said calmly.

"I thought you of all people would understand," Cordelia said, giving him a piercing look.

Wesley flinched and a quick flash of pain went over his face. "Maybe, but unlike myself, you're given the opportunity to tell your side of the story."

This time Cordelia flinched. "Right," she whispered.

"I wanna know how much memory was taken," Faith said.

Taking a deep breath Cordelia began. "Connor's existence was completely wiped out and rewritten. Connor himself was included in the wipe out. He doesn't remember who he was, he doesn't remember he's Angel and Darla's son, he only knows who he is now."

"And who is he now?" Lorne asked, his voice uncharacteristically hard.

Cordelia swallowed. "He's a happy boy now, who goes to college and has a normal family life. No growing up in hell dimensions, no having to deal with supernatural shit, no going berserk and trying to kill innocent people," Cordelia explained. She was still sure, that she had done the right thing by wiping out Connor's memory and giving him a new chance.

"Killing innocents?" Wesley asked, frowning at her.

"Yeah, after the fight he ran off. Angel tried to catch up with him, but couldn't find him. When we got back to L.A., Connor was already here; I found this out through Eve. He had kidnapped a store full of people and was about to blow them up. That's when I struck the deal with Wolfram & Hart." Cordelia explained.

The room was silent for a moment, everyone lost in their own thoughts.

"I wanted...to give him a chance," Cordelia's soft voice broke the silence. "I wanted him to have a live without pain, fear and this anger he carried inside himself."

Lorne's face softened a bit. He remembered Connor all too well now, the boy had been very messed up. He recognized that Cordelia may have done the right thing, by wiping out Connor's memory.

"Alright," Wesley said, "But what about us? Why did you get rid of Faith and myself?"

Cordelia's head jerked up. "I didn't get rid of you," she said, eye's blazing fire.

"You wiped out our existence Cordelia," Wesley hissed, "What would you call it?"

Cordelia took a deep breath to control her emotions before she spoke again. "I wanted to give you a second chance as well. The wipe out of your existence, didn't happen, until a year after Connor's."

"What gave you the right to do that Cordelia," Wesley demanded to know, his voice so laced with suppressed anger, that the others looked at him worried.

Sighing Cordelia sat down. "Wolfram & Hart always knew where you two were. They didn't tell Angel, but I found out by accident that they were keeping track of you two, which they still do FYI. I saw the movies, and the pictures, the reports. I struck another deal with the law firm. They wiped out your and Faith's existence from the moment you two came to Sunnydale. Anything before that was rewritten, which was fairly easy in Faith's case. It turned out to be easy in your case as well because..." her voice trailed off. She gave Wesley an apologetic look.

"Because why?" Spike asked, speaking for the first time since Cordelia began her story. So far he had been too stunned to speak.

"Because anyone important who knew me, died in the explosion that took out the council," Wesley said, his eyes never leaving Cordelia's face. "Including my parents."

Faith reached out to grab hold of Wesley's good hand. Sensing the inner turmoil he was going through. She felt him squeeze her hand, but he didn't turn to look at her.

His eyes still locked on Cordelia's, Wesley stood up and strode over to her. "Why?" he asked, his voice hard. "Why did you do it Cordelia? I think we have a right to know."

She looked up at Wesley, tears rolling down her face. "You both were so happy, don't you understand!" she cried. "Angel and Fred wanted to go look for you. They would have ruined the happiness you two shared!" she looked at them, tears freely flowing down her face now. I wanted so much for at least one of us to be happy," she whispered.

"But why didn't you tamper with our memories then?" Faith wanted to know.

"I couldn't wipe out your memories of each other for obvious reasons," Cordelia said.

"I understand that, but why let us remember Connor?" Wesley asked.

Cordelia fell silent and looked at the floor. "Because," she said quietly, "because I didn't feel so alone knowing that someone else remembered."

Wesley and Faith looked stunned at each other. Neither of them knew what to do. They understood Cordelia did what she had done, because she wanted them and Connor to have a second chance, a chance to be happy, a chance for a new life.

"I understand why you did this Cordelia," Wesley said, "but it will take some time for me, and I think I speak for Faith as well, to deal with this situation."

Cordelia nodded, giving him a shaky smile through her tears.

"Hang on, hang on," Spike stood up, "You're telling me, that Angel has a son? And I should know these two? I want to know what in the bloody hell is going on!"

"You will," Cordelia said calmly. Before anyone could react, she pulled out a gun, aimed it at Spike and pulled the trigger. The vampire fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Faith jumped up and grabbed the gun away from Cordelia. "What the hell did you do?"

"It's alright cupcake," Lorne quickly came between the two women, "she just shot his memories back into him. He'll come around soon."

Wesley took the gun from Faith and looked it over. "You could have warned us," he muttered.

"What? And spoil the element of surprise?" Cordelia quipped, a bit of the old Cordy shining through.

Looking at her, Wesley's eyes held a sparkle of amusement before they grew serious again. "Angel doesn't know," he said.

Cordelia's smile froze on her face and she looked down again. "No," she said quickly.

"You're going to have to tell him," Wesley said.

"I know," she answered, her voice filled with fear, she quickly turned around and ran out onto the balcony.

A few minutes later Wesley joined her. For a moment they were both silent, looking out over the city, without actually looking.

"I'm sorry," Cordelia whispered.

"What exactly are you sorry for?" Wesley asked.

"For not being there for you after the Connor kidnapping thing," she said, turning around to face him. "I understand now how difficult it must have been for you to make that decision on your own."

"Ah," Wesley smiled ruefully, "better late then never I guess." He looked up confused when he heard a sob.

Cordelia angrily wiped away some tears and pressed her hand against her mouth. "Oh Wes, I'm so scared, what am I going to do?"

Without thinking, Wesley pulled her in his arms. "You do what you have to do Cordy," he told her in his calm voice. "You'll have to tell Angel and the others. They'll be angry with you, no doubt, but if they are anything like I remember them, they'll understand eventually."

"Even Angel?" Cordelia asked softly.

Wesley was silent for a moment. He wasn't sure about Angel. He would never have thought that his old friend would want to kill him after the Connor kidnapping either. What would he do to Cordelia?

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," he told her, avoiding the question.

Cordelia lifted her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes, "We?"

"Faith and I are in agreement, we're going with you when you tell them," Wesley said. "Cordy, we may not agree on how you handled this, but we do understand. And in a strange way, both Faith and I feel grateful that you did this, because you wanted us to be happy."

Cordelia gave him a grateful smile. "You and Faith certainly seem very happy with each other."

"We are," Wesley grinned. His eyes shining with love when he thought about his wife, his Slayer, his girl, his Faith. "Let's get back inside and try to get some sleep. We have a difficult day tomorrow."

Cordelia nodded and made her way back inside, her face still stained with tears. She didn't try to hide them.

After a moment Wesley followed her. He had an uneasy feeling about tomorrow; it was as if a stone had dropped inside his stomach. And he learned early on, never to ignore this feeling. They were going to have to be prepared for every possibility when they were going to face Angel tomorrow.

Part 6