TITLE: Trade
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRT
CLASSIFICATION: Past B/A; current W/O; future B/A, Kate/Lindsey, Kennedy/Tara, C/Doyle, W/X; future Spike/Dawn friendship
SUMMARY: Instead of Angel leaving for Los Angeles, Buffy goes.
SPOILERS: Set in an alternate universe beginning just before season 4 BtVS/season 1 A:tS.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, I don't own it. Joss Whedon, Kazui Sandollar, The WB, UPN, et. al. most likely do.
FEEDBACK: Please send it offlist and let me know it's feedback; I do rapid delete on my account due to a lot of spam.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: An answer to Aaronlisa's B/A Season 4 rewrite challenge. I've decided for the next few parts I'll alternate between who's going to end up in Los Angeles & who will be in Sunnydale. This is setting up the scene for the Los Angeles portion of the group: Buffy, Wesley, Lindsey, Kate, Dawn, Spike and Faith. The Sunnydale group will be Angel, Doyle, Cordelia, Giles, Kennedy, Tara, Willow and Xander. Oz will be going between the two cities throughout the story.

***

"Wow." Cordelia dropped her bags on the floor, right in front of Buffy. "This place is huge!"

Buffy shrugged. "He owns the whole upper part of the building. There used to be a coffee shop downstairs but..." She looked around. "Now we need to figure out what to do."

"What do you mean, what to do? I'm going out on auditions."

"And I'm going to school. And slaying. So who's going to work so we can supplement the money Mom's sending us?"

"Well, you balanced everything so well before..."

Buffy glared at her roommate. "No way in hell. I have a full course load, a bigger city...I have no time to go out and work. Find a job." Buffy dug into her pocket and handed Cordelia two quarters. "Get a newspaper and start looking."

***

"You mean she's Watcherless?" Wesley asked, taking another sip of tea with Giles.

"She's eighteen, a legal adult. And since she'd basically told the Council to screw itself, they couldn't really stop her."

"But...all alone. In Los Angeles?"

"We sometimes forget that that is where she lived before she moved here. She may have settled in Sunnydale, but by no means was she as daft as some Sunnydale citizens are."

Wesley nodded. "Still..."

Giles sighed, pulling a pen and some paper towards him. "If you think you must pay her a visit, here's her address. And her phone number...I would suggest calling first." He looked at the younger Watcher's changed appearance. "She may not recognize you."

***

The day could not have gotten any worse, Buffy mused to herself. She looked at the bars of her cell. All she'd tried to do was save one innocent person, and now she was in jail for aggravated assault.

Sometimes she missed the stupid cops of Sunnydale.

To top it all off, Giles had called and told her that Wesley was on his way to see her. He was concerned. About what, she wondered. So now when he arrived, Cordelia could tell him how she was spending the night in jail since they couldn't afford to bail her out.

The opening of the doors jarred her from her thoughts. The blonde haired cop who brought her in, Lockley something-or-other, nodded towards her. "Your lawyer's here."

"Lawyer?"

Lockley shrugged. "Sure not a public defender." She waited as Buffy stood up and stretched, then led her to the conference room where a young man was sitting at a table, briefcase in front of him.

"Buffy Summers?"

She sat down and stared at him "And you are?"

"Lindsey McDonald. With Wolfram & Hart."

"Oh hell no," she said, standing up and pushing the chair back. "No way am I getting involved with you guys. I'm supposed to be here fighting you."

"I'm here..." he began, and then stopped. He pulled out a business card. "I can't do it," he muttered to himself, writing a number on the back.

"Can't do what?" Buffy asked curiously.

"I was supposed to get you out and convince you that we weren't the bad guys."

"And why can't you do that?"

"I don't know," he muttered, writing something else on the card. "Look, you don't know me from Joe Schmoe down the street, but I want to help you. Not the firm, but me."

"Why?"

"You remind me of a Slayer I knew."

"Who?"

"My cousin."

Buffy looked at him. "You were related to a Slayer?" She sat back down. "What happened?"

"She was killed in the 80's, around the time you were born, I think. She was fighting a pack of vampires and lost. When I got older, I really understood what happened." He leaned back and sighed. "Why I joined this firm, I won't know."

"What exactly does Wolfram & Hart do?"

"If you can think of it, they can do it."

"Damn. Worse than a Hellmouth."

"I read you'd help close one of those."

"Not permanently, but yeah."

Lindsey nodded. "Impressive." He slid the card over to her. "I got my stuff out of the office this morning, everything I wanted, anyway. This is the address of the place I'm going to stay and this is my cell number. It's a brand new phone, so give it a day or two to activate."

"Why are you going to all this trouble?"

Lindsey shrugged. "You're a kid in a big city. It'll eat you alive. And there's things I've done that need to be worked off. Helping a Slayer should count for something, right?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah."

Lindsey stood up, took his briefcase in one hand and shook Buffy's hand with the other. "One more thing: watch out for anyone from the firm, but especially Lilah Morgan. She's dangerous."

"Aren't all lawyers?"

He smiled slightly and headed towards the door, which the blonde cop opened. "Kate," he said to her.

"Lindsey."

"Treat my client well."

"She's out of my hands, now. Her charges got dropped when someone came forward and said she was defending them." Kate shrugged and looked past Lindsey to Buffy. "There's a Wesley Wyndham-Pryce waiting for you." She pointed out the door and down the hall.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Great." She pushed past Kate and Lindsey with a muttered "sorry" and headed towards where Kate had been pointing.

"So. Heard you quit," Kate said.

"Thought there was this thing called lawyer/client privilege," Lindsey said in reply.

"There is. Only I get a little interested when you come in on such a small case."

"You could have just asked."

"You wouldn't have told me."

Lindsey nodded. "You're right."

"Lindsey?"

"Yes?"

"What the hell is a Slayer?"

Lindsey thought for a moment. He may not always like Kate Lockley, but since he was leaving Wolfram & Hart, having a good cop on his side wouldn't be a bad idea. "How open is your mind?"

"Pretty open, why?"

"I have a lot to tell you if you promise me you'll leave Buffy alone."

"You mean what happened tonight may happen again."

"Probably."

"I can't do that."

"Once you hear what I'm going to tell you, if you believe me, you will."