Disclaimer: All of these people belong to Joss Whedon or Dick Wolf. I own nothing.
Immediately follows Second Thoughts.

Viola & Sebastian
By Imzadi
As Lindsey followed Wes into the Hyperion, he saw no one. Then a slender young woman, very pretty, with long brown hair, stepped into sight from another room. "Wes! Are you all right? I was worried about you."
Lindsey took a deep breath. Was this his sister? She was so pretty. He could see Mom in her and also Elaine. He couldn't believe he had finally found her alive and well.

"I'm fine, Fred. This is Lindsey. I ran into him and we were talking. I hadn't realized it was so late. Lindsey put me up for the night."

"Hello, Lindsey. I'm Fred. You're the evil lawyer beast, aren't you? The one who screamed and screamed?" She looked down to see that he had both hands. "Maybe not. I'm sorry."

Seeing the blank look on Lindsey's face, Wes explained, "It was a story Angel told in Pylea. I'm sorry."

"I guess I am, Fred, but I got a new hand. Don't be embarrassed. I'm used to being called an evil lawyer, even though I left Wolfram & Hart a long time ago."

"What the hell are you doing here, Lindsey? I thought I told you not to come back."

"Good to see you, too, Angel." Lindsey's posture subtly shifted into the cowboy slouch from the lawyer mode it had been in. "I hadn't planned to come back, but circumstances brought me. It's a long story, but I'm going to tell you so you'll understand." He sat on a sofa, gently taking Fred's hand and pulling her down next to him. "Where is everybody, by the way? It would be a lot easier to tell this just once."

Cordelia came down the steps carrying a baby. "Lindsey? Why are you back?"

He rose. "I just love the friendly greetin's here. This is for you," he said, handing her the rose. She sniffed it suspiciously. "It's just a rose, Cordy, a tribute to your beauty." He held one of the packages out to Angel. "And here's a little somethin' for your son."

"Is Connor the reason you're back? Did you come to try to take Darla's son?" He didn't take the package.

"I didn't know about him until Wes told me last night. I was truly flabbergasted. Don't worry, I have no way to take care of a baby. And Darla wouldn't have wanted me to have him anyway. It's just a little gift, Angel. Don't be afraid."

Angel opened the package. "Dallas Cowboys? Should have been Notre Dame."

"Oh, I love the Cowboys. I'm from Dallas. Connor would look so cute in this." Fred took the shirt and held it up to the baby. "I once thought about being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, but I'm too uncoordinated. So I went to UCLA instead."

Lindsey gently tugged on her arm and she took her seat beside him again. "I guess I won't wait for Gunn to tell the story. When I left here, I went to Oklahoma to find the rest of my family."

"What do you mean?" Fred asked.

"I have to start back when I was ten years old. Mom, Dad, Elaine, the two little ones, and I lived in the shack because we had lost our house. Mom was pregnant again and was too sick and weak to go to the free clinic. Dad's Aunt Maeve, who was a midwife, was looking after her. She delivered the twins, who were such tiny little things. A boy and a girl. Aunt Maeve sent me to the church to get the priest, as she wasn't sure they would live. Father Rob came and baptized them and gave Mom the last rites, but they lived. Mom couldn't feed the twins as she didn't have enough milk. I went to Father and got money from the church for formula and food for us. There wasn't enough for all of us, so Elaine & I gave some of ours to the little ones. Mom was too sick to take care of the twins, and Dad had basically given up, so Elaine and I did it, with Aunt Maeve's help. But as the winter got colder, the twins got sick and died. Mom followed a few days later."

As Lindsey talked, occasional flashes of what appeared to be recognition flickered over Fred's face, but they were gone as quickly as they had come. She listened intently, hanging on every word.

"Somehow the child welfare found out. They took the little ones away. Aunt Maeve was almost as poor as we were, but she took Dad, Elaine, and me in. She didn't have room for all four of us kids, and the others were too young for her to manage. She was almost 80. Joey had become extremely hard to handle during all of this. I was worried, but I couldn't do anything. They wouldn't let me see them or tell me where they were. Aunt Maeve died when I was fifteen, so my friend Tony's parents took us in. He & Elaine fell in love. I spent all my time studying, working, and playing baseball, hoping for a scholarship."

Cordelia wiped something from her eye. A tear? Nonsense. She didn't believe a word he was saying. But somehow he sounded so sad and so sincere. . .

"When I graduated from high school, I left Oklahoma for UCLA. Tony got a tryout with the Dodgers and got a contract. He was sent to their minor league team in Oklahoma. I went back once, for Elaine's high school graduation and their wedding the next day. Then Tony was going to be brought up to the majors and Elaine was expecting their first baby. Everything was wonderful until she died having the baby, who was stillborn. Tony drove his car into a tree a week later."

     Tears filled Cordelia's and Fred's eyes, and even Wes had to polish his glasses. Angel, however, still looked stony-faced at his old nemesis.

"When I finally had enough money to look for the little ones, I was with Wolfram & Hart. I knew I wasn't the kind of brother they deserved, and I didn't want to make them hostages to fortune, so I didn't look for them. But then eventually I left the firm with enough files to have some ‘life insurance' for me and my family. So I headed to Oklahoma. Dad was dead. It wasn't too hard finding Joey. He had been rebellious ever since he was taken away. He went from foster home to foster home and back to the orphanage. Then he joined a gang and spent most of his teen years in juvie. When he was 19, he was arrested for burglary and sent to Oklahoma State Prison. He'll never leave there. Joey was so good looking. Mom used to call him Angel Face. He was also short and slim. He attracted plenty of attention in prison. He had been gang-raped, and at least one of his attackers was HIV-positive. Joey's dying of AIDS." Lindsey had to stop for a minute. Wes went to the kitchen and brought him a bottle of water.

Angel had finally begun to soften a little. "You still haven't told me why you're back."

    "I'm getting to that. I traced my little sister. She was beautiful, very smart, and very docile. She was adopted almost immediately. Not long afterwards her new family moved away. I went to her new hometown and spent some time in the newspaper morgue. There were a lot of stories about her in the paper. She had won the Westinghouse Science Search and a ton of awards. She was the valedictorian of her high school class, just like her brother." The smug smile briefly crossed his face and then disappeared. "And she also won a full scholarship to UCLA. And then one front page story about how she had disappeared without a trace from her part-time job in Los Angeles. So that's why I came here, hoping you could help me find my sister Winnie."

"Winnie?" Fred asked so softly he could barely hear her.

"We called her Winnie the Pooh. When she was sad or scared, I'd take her on my lap and sing the Winnie the Pooh song. ‘Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.' It's been so long I don't remember the rest of the words but she loved it."

"Joey was Tigger because he was always bouncing, and Ellie was Kanga because she was our little mother. My big brother was Eeyore because he was always so sad. His name was Lin. I remember now. You're Lin, aren't you?"

"And you're Winnie, short for Winifred. My pretty little sister." Fred threw herself into Lindsey's arms and they held each other tight. Cordelia wiped away some more tears and Wes continued to polish his glasses, which were still on his face.

Just then Gunn walked in. "What's going on, Fred?"

"Gunn, you won't believe it. I found my brother. Or, rather, he found me. Lindsey is my big brother Eeyore!"

Suddenly Angel burst out laughing. "You, Lindsey, the big bad lawyer from Wolfram & Hart! You're Eeyore! I can't believe I was ever the least bit worried about you. Eeyore!" Angel was practically rolling on the ground.

Lindsey stood, holding out his hand to Fred. "Come on, I'll buy you some lunch and we'll get acquainted. We have a lot of years to catch up on." He led her out of the Hyperion. As he passed Wes, he winked and mouthed the words, "Trust me."

Later they sat at a table at El Tortilla, a restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet that featured a taco bar. Lindsey was amazed at Fred's appetite until she began to tell him what her life was like in Pylea. "I felt like Viola in Twelfth Night, cast up on the shores of Illyria, thinking my brother Sebastian was dead. When they brought me back, I was so happy. I hated being a cow, stealing food, and hiding in a cave."

"Are they taking good care of you, Winnie?" They'd better, he thought.

"Oh, yes, everyone is so good to me. And I can get all the tacos and ice cream I want. I love being back home."

"Last night all Wes could do was talk about how wonderful you are and how much he loves you. You two make a sweet couple."

Fred blushed. "Actually it's Gunn that I'm seeing."

"Oh, I see." Lindsey let just the slightest hint of disapproval cross his face and then replaced it with a fake smile. "Gunn is a great guy. He's brave, strong, and loyal."

"You don't approve?"

"It's not my place, Fred. I just thought that since you and Wes had so much in common that you'd be together. I guess he just waited too long to let you know how he felt. What do you and Gunn talk about, anyway?"

"Well, the monsters we've slain, his dead sister who was a vampire, that sort of thing."

"Oh. I bet you and Wes have a lot more to talk about. I could be wrong, of course."

"Well, we do work together a lot. He's very intelligent. I admire him, and I forgave him for trying to kill me."

"What?"

"It wasn't his fault. There was a boy named Billy. Wolfram & Hart made Angel take him out of hell, and then he infected Wes with some kind of spell that made him hate women. Wes was chasing me just like Jack Nicholson chased Shelley Duvall in The Shining. Gunn managed to fight the spell and helped me."

"Oh, I can see why you'd feel gratitude for him." He paused a minute. "Tell me about Cordy, Angel, and this Groo-whatever."

"Groosalug. Angel wasn't at all happy to see him when he appeared all of a sudden from Pylea. He had been deposed, so he came to see Cordelia." She looked at her empty plate. "Can I have more tacos?"

"It's all you can eat, Winnie. Help yourself."

After they were done eating, Lindsey took Fred to the cemetery where Elaine, Tony, and their baby girl were buried. Fred knelt and touched Elaine's name. "I never got to see her after they took me away. I loved her so much. And I never saw Mom again."

"We'll go to Oklahoma. I'll take you to see Joey if you want, and we can visit the graves."

"Yes, please. Next time we'll bring flowers." Fred stood and wiped away her tears. "At least they were happy for a while, weren't they?"

"Very happy, hon. Happier than I've ever been."

When they arrived back at the Hyperion, the Groosalug was with Cordelia. Angel was glowering in the corner. Wes looked at Lindsey hopefully. As Lindsey passed Wes, he whispered, "I think I've sown some seeds, Wes. Now it's up to you." Then he held out his hand to the Groosalug. "I'm Lindsey McDonald, Fred's brother. Pleased to meet you. Welcome to Los Angeles."

"You are the evil lawyer beast? You cannot be. You have both hands, and you have the manners befitting a noble warrior. I am at your service." He dipped his head slightly.

"The honor is mine, Groosalug." Butter wouldn't have melted in Lindsey's mouth as he smiled his most ingratiating smile. This was going to be a piece of cake. Wes would end up with Winnie. No, I have to remember to call her Fred. And I think I can win the lovely Cordelia as well. I just have to take it slow and easy.



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