Work Text:
Had To
by Ragna
"Willow, you have to save him!"
Willow looked at the others, the ones that told her she *had* to save that lawyer. She just *had* to. No explanation, no anything, just that Willow had to save him.
She set her shoulders and turned away from them. If she *had* to save him, then she *had* to save him. And she had to do it alone.
"Lindsey?"
He looked up as best he could from the edge of the building where he stood. "Willow, right?"
For a moment, all Willow could think was "How do you know me?" but she didn't ask the question. "Yeah."
"I bet they said you had to save me."
"Emphasis on had," she said, nodding and moving towards the edge. "Why do you want to jump?"
"Because I'm probably the cause of most of the demon-inflicted pain in Los Angeles, directly or indirectly." He flashed a brief grin at her. "Also because Angel managed to make me lose my office, my job, my livelihood...not to mention my hand."
Then Willow realized he did indeed only have one hand. "And so you're going to jump?"
"I'm thinking about it."
Willow finally got to where he was and stood next to him. The view from the building was magnificent; LA at night, from this high up, seemed like a beautiful city with no sign of the darkness that invaded it from all around. "Nice view."
"Yeah." Lindsey looked down at his hand. "Doesn't look so attractive, a one-handed man?"
"I wouldn't say that," Willow said. "I mean, yeah, two hands are great, but you're still attractive with only one."
"Are you just saying that to get me not to jump?"
"Partly. I mean, you're an evil lawyer. Not quite an evil bloodsucker, which are usually worse, but an evil lawyer comes pretty close." Willow took a critical look at him. "Cut your hair a bit and then I won't be saying it just so you won't jump."
Lindsey laughed. "No wonder they asked you to save me. Cordelia would have talked my ear off and pushed me to jump even more, and Wesley, Angel and Kate probably would have just pushed."
The mental image of the three of them shoving Lindsey off the roof was actually quite funny, and Willow started to laugh. "I'm sorry. It's just...them pushing..." she broke into another round of laughter.
One she noticed Lindsey joined in.
When they calmed down, Willow looked back, seeing all of Angel Investigations watching. "Hey, Lindsey? Why do they want you alive so badly?"
"Angel says I have to atone for my sins. I guess I do, but I'd rather just deal with them with my maker. I just about sold my soul to Wolfram & Hart, and I doubt there's any way I can get it back."
"Maybe Angel has a point, though. But...do you have to stay here in LA?"
Lindsey thought about it. "Where else would I go?"
"We could always have a good lawyer on hand in Sunnydale. Buffy's the type who acts first, thinks later. One of these days it might get her into trouble."
"But what until then?"
"Open a law firm. For all the things we have in Sunnydale, we don't have many lawyers."
Lindsey nodded. "Why else should I go there?"
"You won't have to deal with them," Willow said, gesturing behind her. "Except for when one of them goes down there to help us avert the Apocalypse."
"How often is that?"
"You mean how often do they come down, or how often do we avert the Apocalypse?"
"Both of them, I suppose."
"Not often, once a week."
Lindsey looked at Willow for a long minute. "Why do I think I've been working for the wrong side all this time?"
"Well, if you'll get off this ledge, we can find out."
Lindsey hesitated a moment before stepping backward onto the solid roof. Cordelia and the others came running up, saying all these different things at once while Willow quietly slipped away from the group and headed down the stairs to the street. She knew she'd hear from Lindsey soon. She *had* to.
Cordelia's vision couldn't be *that* wrong...