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Across the Threshold

By Rach

SUMMARY: Wesley takes it upon himself to look after Fred.
TIMELINE: seasons two and three, with some dialogue from Heartthrob.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Really, I do. Nothing what-so-ever.
DISTRIBUTION: WNW and anywhere else that has my stuff.
FEEDBACK: Yes, please! To rach@satans-toady.net if you want to!

****

“I need to get out more.” Gunn put the sword back in the cupboard and turned to face Wesley and Cordelia. “Speaking of, anybody talk to Fred lately?”

Cordelia didn’t move from where she’d collapsed on the couch. “Not talk. Glimpsed. She pokes her head out of her room once in a while.”

Wes smiled a little. “Nice girl.”

“Nice. But not making the giant strides towards mental health,” Cordelia snorted as she sat up. “She’s been hibernating up there for three months now.”

***

Three months earlier
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Cordelia sighed.

“Mmm.” Wes sat down beside her.

“I mean, I always knew – we all always knew – how one wrong move and that could be it, but –“

“But Buffy never made the wrong move. I know.” He smiled a little at the memory of her. “Even when things seemed absurd at the time, she somehow knew best.”

This brought a grin to Cordelia’s face. “Just think, if she hadn’t gone against you, you wouldn’t be here with us today, the stud that you are.”

Wesley raised an eyebrow at that. “I was always a stud, thank you very much!”

“Oh, my mistake!” The grin remained on her face for a few seconds before fading. “She’s really gone, Wes,” she whispered.

“I know,” he replied, softly. “I know.”

“Look who’s back and he brought supplies!” Gunn walked into the lobby carrying bags of takeout. “Chicken Egg Foo Yung with fried rice?” Cordelia jumped up, trying to push thoughts of Buffy to the back of her head as her stomach took over.

“Me! Yum!”

“House special sweet & sour … that would be mine,” Gunn grinned as he continued to unpack the bags. “And one Beef Chow Mein,” he finished, handing the final tray to Wes before opening the other bag. “Who wants to take the tacos to cavegirl?”

Wesley held his hand out for the bag. “I’ll go.”

“Good luck!” Cordelia yelled as he headed up the stairs.

***

Angel had made sure Fred was settled in a room before he left for Sunnydale. He’d told her where he was going and checked that she was alright, which she’d assured him she would be.

Wesley knocked quietly on the door, to no response. He knocked a little louder, and physically jumped as the door was flung open.

“Angel?!” Fred looked down at the floor when she realised it wasn’t him. “I … uh … he said he was going away but I thought that perhaps he’d … uh …” she trailed off.

“Changed his mind?” Wes offered.

“Yeah.” She didn’t say anything after that, and as she fidgeted in the doorway he caught a glimpse of the room. She’d only been in there a few hours, but already she’d managed to cover almost half a wall in her handwriting. The rest of the room looked barely lived in; even the bed didn’t seem to have been touched.

“May I …”

“Oh, you wanna come in? Thing is, see, I’m kinda tired, long trip from another dimension and all …” She feigned a yawn to prove the point.

Wes smiled. “I understand.” He held out the bag. “We got you some tacos. Angel mentioned that you like them.”

She grinned excitedly. “Angel mentioned that about me?”

Wesley nodded, still smiling.

“Well, thanks for thinking of me. It’s Wesley, right?”

“Right.”

“Thanks, Wesley.” Taking the bag from him, she closed the door.

***

Wesley knocked on Fred’s door.

“Just a minute!”

He heard a bang, followed by footsteps coming towards the door, and she opened it a crack. “Hi! Those tacos you brought yesterday were awful nice. I’m doing just fine in here. Bye now!” She went to close the door but Wesley stuck his foot in the way, an amused grin on his face.

“Hello to you, too!” He laughed, and she blushed a little. “I’m glad you’re doing fine. We just wondered if you wanted some lunch? Cordelia’s cooking, so I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but the offer is there.”

“That would be great! I’m still real hungry after all those years of eating tree bark.”

“I shouldn’t wonder. Is there anything particular you’d like?”

Fred shook her head violently. “Oh, no. I’ll just eat whatever you’re having. If you want to just leave it by my door right there, I’ll be sure to get it, thank you.”

“You wouldn’t like to come down and join us?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly intrude.” As Wes opened his mouth to protest, she opened her mouth to interrupt. “And also I’m still real tired. I have five years of sleeping in an actual bed to catch up on, y’know?”

Wes nodded. “Of course.” As he removed his foot from the door, he smiled again. “See you later, Fred.”

As Wesley headed down the stairs, Fred stuck her head out of the door, being careful not to step out of the room. “Thanks Wesley!”

***

Wes knocked softly on the door.

“Just leave it out there, thank you Wesley!”

“Don’t let it get cold,” he yelled back through the door.

“I won’t! Thanks! Bye then!”

***

Wesley didn’t bother knocking.

“Fred?”

“Yeah?” Her voice sounded further away than usual. She must have worked right round to the far corner.

“We’re going shopping. Is there anything I can get you?”

“No thanks, I’m good here! Oh!”

“Yes?”

The door rattled as Fred opened it. “I wouldn’t say no to some ice-cream,” she smiled shyly.

“Certainly. Any particular flavour?”

“Surprise me.”

***

Wesley knocked once and tentatively opened the door a little.

“Fred? I brought mint choc chip.”

“Oh, Wesley, thank you!” She skipped over to the door and took the tub and spoon from his hands. “This is just perfect.”

He nodded, and left Fred to eat it alone.

***

“Fred, Cordelia’s renting some movies. Would you like to come and watch with us?” Wesley leaned his back against the door, knowing she wouldn’t come out. He’d been up to her room every day for four weeks and still she hadn’t set foot outside of the room while he was there. He’d seen the wet footprints on the floor in front of her door, so he knew she’d been going for showers, but always when nobody else was in the hotel. “Fred?”

He stood away from the door as he heard a hand on the handle. “No, that’s alright, thank you.” She paused. “But you can come in here for a while, if you’d like?”

“I’d love to,” he smiled, and she grinned back as he stepped inside the room.

“It’s kinda messy, I know, but its home now, and you’ve been so nice to me, bringing all the food you’ve brought me, and talking to me through my door and all, I thought the least I could do is invite you in. Oh, please, sit down.” She hurriedly ran from the door and cleared a space on the bed for Wesley to sit.

He stared around him at the walls of the room. She was rapidly running out of places to write.

“I’ve been writing since I got back here,” she offered by way of explanation. “It’s like … nothing makes sense if I can’t write it down. If I write it on something, then it’s there and it makes sense and it won’t disappear.”

“I can get you some paper if you’d like, you know. You don’t have to resort to writing on the walls.”

“Oh, no, I like it. It’s familiar, y’know? And paper’s so easily lost, or torn, or burned. The walls are nice and steady.” She caught the amused glance on his face. “I mean, as long as you’re not mad or anything. I can paint over it all some time if it’s a problem, me having defaced hotel property and all. I’m so sorry! I should have thought first. I never think any more. It might be to do with the whole not having to ask anyone’s permission to write on my cave walls, and –“

“Fred!” Wesley laughed. “It’s not a problem. If you want to write on the walls, you can write on the walls.”

The two of them sat in silence while Fred fidgeted, jumping up every couple of minutes to write a new equation or sentence on the walls. Wesley was touched by the gesture of her inviting him in, but he could tell that she couldn’t wait for him to leave.

He stood up. “Well, I’d better head back downstairs. If I’m not careful, Cordelia will have been to the store and rented a dozen copies of Notting Hill!” He looked at her. “Which obviously you’ve never seen.” He blushed and opened the door before turning back to her. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to join us?”

She glanced out into the hallway. “I’d like to, but … maybe soon.” She smiled enthusiastically. “You enjoy your movies. I hope you get something you like.”

****

Fred turned from the wall as she heard a knock on the door. She smiled. “Come in, Wesley,” she yelled.

He poked his head into the room. “I brought pizza.”

“Oh, I love you!” she squealed, running over to him and reaching out for it.

He pulled it away from her. “The condition is that you have to come downstairs to eat it.”

Her hands dropped. “Downstairs? But …”

“I know what I said, but Fred…it’s been two months since you got back, and I think you’ve seen Cordelia and Gunn once each. Granted, they haven’t made the effort to come up here either, but … are you sure you won’t come down. Just for pizza. Small steps.”

She flopped down onto the bed. “It’s not that I don’t want to come down. It’s just … I don’t think I should. If I stay here, in my room, I’m safe. I’m unlikely to open any portals. Downstairs, anything could happen.”

“Downstairs, I’ll protect you.”

****

Wesley led Fred by the hand and down the steps. “It’s awful quiet down here,” she commented.

“Cordelia and Gunn are out. Small steps, remember? We’ll keep it simple.”

Fred smiled gratefully. “I don’t know what I’d have done without you this summer, Wesley.”

“Starve, I should imagine.”

Half an hour later, Fred stood in the kitchen with Wesley, eating pizza, and laughing until milk came out of her nose. Suddenly she stopped talking as she heard a noise, and jumped closer to Wesley. “What was that?”

Wes paused too, listening closely. “Cordelia or Gunn, at a guess. I’ll go and check.”

As Wesley headed out of the kitchen, Fred froze for a second, before running out behind him. As he headed through the lobby and into the office, she ran past him and up the steps, a fact that escaped Wesley’s attention until he heard the distant slam of her door.

Cordelia turned around after hanging up her coat. “What was that?”

Wesley sighed. “Nothing. Just some progress I thought I was making.”

“Oh.” Cordy frowned, but decided not to pursue the point.

****

“Fred, I just don’t understand what went wrong!”

“I heard someone else and I had to get out of there! It could have been anyone! And I know it sounds stupid but I just kept thinking, someone’s come to take me back to Pylea, they know I escaped and now they’re going to punish me for it. And I ran.”

“It was just Cordelia.”

“I know.”

“Come back downstairs.”

“I can’t.”

****

Angel looked around the room. “How’s Fred?”

“Good. She’s doing well.” Cordelia looked at Wesley and Gunn, trying to encourage them to tell Angel similar lies.

He saw straight through her. “Hasn’t come out of her room?”

“Not what you’d call frequently,” Cordelia sighed, giving up the pretence. “We send up a lot of tacos.”

Wesley avoided Angel’s gaze throughout this conversation, knowing he’d been the only one who’d really talked to Fred, and neither of the others knew he’d managed to get her downstairs for that one afternoon. She’d barely even opened the door since then, although she still yelled to him through it when he knocked.



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