There were times that her new life wasn't that different from her old.  Kate stood in front of a whiteboard and she didn't have to pretend that was back at the station house.  This was the reason she had become a cop, this sense of being in pursuit of justice.  She thought she'd inherited that sense from her father --

Kate snarled at herself and outlined on the whiteboard where everyone was to go.  She and Gunn had done a drive-by of the location Cordelia had seen in her vision, and had started making plans for breaking in and rescuing Fred.  Gunn had been all for breaking in then-and-now, but Kate had managed to hold him back with the argument that if they went in alone, without backup, without a plan, then the vampires that had kidnapped Fred could grab her and escape through the sewers -- or kill her and escape through the sewers.

Pike wandered over to look over her shoulder.  "How's it going?"

Kate wrinkled her nose at the chemical smell of the dry erase marker she held, and capped it. "Fine," she said, her tone absent and short.  Pike took the hint and left her alone.  It wasn't that she didn't like him, Kate thought as she picked up her cup of coffee and gagged on the cold sludge that was left.  It's just that she had put away enough slackers of his type that her hackles automatically rose.  They weren't evil -- usually -- just stupid.  The sort that would blow up an apartment building because they were using a propane tank to cook their crack.  Unthinking.  Careless.

To be fair, Pike wasn't stupid, unthinking, or careless.  But he was so relentlessly to type that she couldn't think of him any other way.  Kate shrugged and went to the coffee pot, pouring the half inch that was left in the bottom into her cup.  She wasn't going to beat herself up for misjudging Pike, particularly when she had already acknowledged that she had misjudged Pike.  She had better things to expend her energy on.  "Angel Investigations runs on coffee and idealism," she said out loud.

"Usually coffee more than idealism," Cordelia agreed.  Cordelia had done the digging online that had lead to their battle plan:  sewers, sewers and more sewers.  Attack during the day, so no escape out into the sunlight was possible, and block their retreat into the LA DWP's access tunnels.  Kate took the latest printout from her with a brisk nod.  She and Cordelia both functioned best in an emergency.  They were an excellent team when they weren't bored enough to be sniping at each other constantly.

Angel and Gunn were -- predictably -- sharpening weapons.  Wesley sat in the office, visible through the open door, books stacked all around him as he searched for some clue as to why these vampires might be focusing on Amanda.  Nobody bothered to tell him that it wasn't necessary to know why, really, just like no one told Angel that he was about to wear through the blade of the axe with the whetstone.  People dealt with stress in their own ways.  In this case, Kate dealt by ordering people around.

"Okay, plan:  Gunn and Cordelia will wait outside in Angel's car, just in case they have some sort of sun-proof escape vehicle.  Me, Angel, and Wesley will wait outside the lower entrance."  Pike raised his eyebrows and his hand.  "What?"

"Okay, and where am I in all of this?"

Kate shrugged.  "I figured you'd be with Amanda, back here.  You can't leave her alone."

"Yes he can," Amanda protested.  "I don't need him to sit on me."

"She can't protect herself.  She can't fight a bunch of vampires," Kate argued.

"I don't have to fight them," Amanda said scornfully.  "I can hide.  I'm pretty good at that."

Cordelia glanced from Kate to Amanda and rose to step between them.  "Which is a wonderful skill that is smarter than, say, most of the Y-chromosome-bearing people in this room, but I've got a better idea."

Angel looked up from his axe.  "What?"

Cordelia grinned, delighted with her own insight and general brilliance.  "Caritas."

"What's that?" Pike asked suspiciously.

"It's a bar.  A demon bar."

"Oh, wow, what a great idea," Pike interrupted.  "Sorry, but I'm kind of trying to save Amanda, not throw her to the wolves.  Pass."

"God, will you listen for one second?  It's enchanted so that no violence can happen there.  She'll be perfectly safe."

"Do you think Lorne will take her?" Angel asked.

"Are you kidding?"  Cordelia reached out to grab her purse, all set to go.  "I think our little Mandy is going to knock his neon socks off.  Come on, Pike.  You can come with, prove to yourself that it's safe."

Pike grabbed Cordelia's arm.  "Hello?  Listen to me.  Not.  Taking.  Amanda.  There.  Not leaving her with a bunch of demons.  No.  N.  O."

"Fine.  You ask for help, and then you ignore us.  Whatever."

"I think it's a good idea," Angel said.  His quiet words just seemed to fan the flames and everyone began talking at once.  Pike and Cordelia were yelling in each other's faces, Amanda was insisting she could take care of herself (and that nobody ever, ever, ever called her Mandy), Wesley came out of his office to scold them for interrupting his research, and Angel kept trying to patch everyone's argument with his faintly hangdog expression of brooding guilt, since the screaming hadn't started until he said something.  Kate caught Gunn's eye and they grinned at each other, vastly amused.

After maybe two minutes, Kate got bored.  "Shut.  Up," she ordered in a good detective-to-rookie-street-cops bellow.  The noise abated slightly.  With the faint remnant of his grin still lingering as a smirk, Gunn tossed her the axe he had been sharpening, and she used it as a striker on a large shield propped up against the wall.  The resulting gong noise was very impressive.

"Okay.  Plan.  Cordelia will take Amanda and Pike to Caritas."  Great, now she sounded like a drill sergeant.  Or a kindergarten teacher. She'd never seen the place either.  One more thing that Angel Investigations hadn't seen fit to share with its newest member.  "Then, and only then, will Pike and Amanda decide if that is an acceptable solution.  Got it?"

"Sounds good to me," Pike said.  He seemed to be trying to pretend that he had never been yelling at Cordelia, and was seated on the red velvet bench in the lobby, ankles outstretched and crossed casually, arms stretched across the back.

Amanda was still bouncing on the toes of her sneakers, exhilarated by the argument.  "You can't make me stay there if I don't want to."

"Fair enough," Kate said.

"Cool."  Amanda grinned.  "I want to see a bar.  And this'll be a demon bar."

Pike groaned and covered his eyes.  "God, I really didn't mean it when I threw those beer bottles at the cheerleaders' heads, don't make me pay now..."

********

Kate pressed the heels of her hands to her temples after Pike, Cordelia and Amanda had left.  The three of them didn't seem to know how to communicate in anything quieter than a shout -- no, Cordelia knew how, it was just in the company of their latest clients, she didn't bother.  Satisfied that it was likely to stay reasonably quiet for awhile, Kate went back to her whiteboard and started working Pike into the equation.

Through the open door to the office, she could see Wesley sitting still, not researching, just staring straight ahead.  After a moment, she put down the marker and crossed the lobby to the office.  "Hey.  Found something?"

"Yes.  I... no.  Rather, I..."  Sighing, Wesley shook his head.  "It's a bit disconcerting."

"More than a bit, I'd guess," Kate said, coming fully into the office and sinking down into a chair in front of the desk Wesley had piled high with books.

"Yes.  Yes it is."

Kate waited silently for Wesley to continue.  "Okay, I like the echoes of doom that ring through the office when you say that.  Nice voice projection too, all dark and meaningful.  But what do you mean?"

He didn't even crack a smile at her smart-ass comment.  "Cordelia postulated that the vampires chasing after Amanda might be after an easy thrill.  Killing a Slayer is the Holy Grail of some.  Few succeed, however, and most who try end up dead."

"So killing a girl who is going to be a Slayer someday is... what?  All the thrill and none of the danger?"

"Perhaps."  Wesley wouldn't meet her eyes, not because his abstraction or discomfort were with her, particularly, but when he was uncertain or unhappy, he tended to shift his focus often, to a wall, a book, a fascinating light fixture.  In guys she'd hauled in for questioning, it usually signaled guilt.  In Wesley, it tended to mean he was feeling lost.

"You don't sound too sure of that."

Wesley sighed.  "Whether they are a group of ignorant demons or actually have a plan, I don't know.  And it doesn't matter.  If they kill Amanda, it doesn't... change things.  Another will take her place.  But if they make her a vampire, as according to Cordelia's vision --"

"Wouldn't she be dead in that case, anyway?"

"It's... not quite that simple."  Now Wesley met her eyes, forcing himself to deal with what he'd discovered as he told her.  "It is believed -- strongly believed -- that if a young girl destined to be a Slayer were made a vampire before she was Called, she would still eventually become Slayer."

"No.  Wait.  Slayers are the good guys, right?  So how...?"

"Slayers fight for good by killing.  There is a darker aspect to their natures.  And that is, what I think, why they would still receive their Calling."

"Okay.  Let me get this straight.  If they make Amanda a vampire, then in five or six years, she could become the Slayer.  And then...?"

"And then she would be a vampire with all the strength and skill that has been passed down through the Slayer line for millennia," Wesley said bleakly.  "In short, a nearly unkillable creature, and embodying within herself the one person who might be able to kill her."

Kate neither knew or cared about Slayers as much as Wesley, or Angel, or Cordelia did.  The one she had known was a screwed up girl who was amazingly successful at destroying everything around her.  But she could almost taste Wesley's desperation.  The idea of, in one stroke, taking away someone who fought for good and replacing it with an equally strong creature fighting for evil...

"Well, shit," she said out loud without thinking.

Startled, Wesley looked at her.  When he began to laugh, she scowled at him.  Still laughing, he shook his head.  "No, I'm not laughing at you.  But... I must say, no one puts things quite the way you do."

Kate narrowed her eyes at him.  "Is that a compliment?"

Intelligently, Wesley swallowed his laughter and gave the only answer he dared.  "Ah, yes, yes it is."

"Good.  Then if you don't mind, I think it's about time to start getting everyone into place for our little rescue operation, so we'll be ready to go when Cordelia and Pike return."