Disclaimer: None of the character herein are my own. Their all belong to their respective characters and other various owners.

Author's note. Story is future fic for Veronica Mars, but as far as spoilers go, anything from the series is fair game. As for Angel, it's mid-season 3 (well, as far as Angel can remember anyway) but I'll be playing around with what canon events happen as far as later seasons go.

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Angel woke up to the soft sounds of a slow heartbeat and gentle breathing. There were comforting sounds, in their own way. But they were made a great deal less comforting by the fact that they were coming from right next to him in his bed.

When he looked over beside him and saw a mess of blonde hair spilling over one of his black satin pillow cases, his first thoughts were of Buffy. But that couldn't be right. There's no way Buffy would be here.

Besides the color wasn't quite right. And the smell was all wrong.

Angel found himself unsure of his next move. He had gone to bed last night alone. Just as he did every night. He knew that.

He wasn't the type to pick up a stranger for a one-night stand. And if he were, he'd like to think that he'd at least remember doing so.

There was a quiet murmuring, and the blonde turned over in bed, slowly opening her eyes. He definitely didn't know her. As far as he knew, he'd never even seen the young woman before. And she was young, she couldn't have been any older than 23 or 24.

The woman smiled when she saw him staring at her so intently.

"You know, some people might be a little put off to wake up to someone staring at them with such an odd expression on their face. You're luckily I'm used to it."

Angel was at a loss, "What?"

"No offense, but you do kinda exhibit stalkerish behavior at times. But I've grown immune to it. Two years of marriage will do that, I guess."

"What?"

She shot him a quizzical look. "You. Me. Marriage. Two years. Tell me you didn't forgot that today's our anniversary."

Angel quickly got to his feet. "Okay, this has to be some sort of dream."

Anger clouded the blonde's face. "No. That's not what you say next. What you say next is: "No, Veronica, of course I haven't forgotten. I've got a day planned out for us." Not that I'm really into the whole sappy romance thing, but two years of marriage deserves some sort of recognition."

He ignored her completely for the moment and started pacing. "Okay, maybe not a dream. Maybe something else. A spell!" He turned to Veronica. "Somebody much have cast a spell on us!"

"A spell?"

"That explains it."

"Explains what exactly? I don't think you get to blame forgetting your anniversary on a spell. Nice try though."

"No. It explains this. It explains why you think we're married."

Veronica wrinkled her nose. "No. I think the whole being married to you makes me think we're married." Her tone was clipped as she climbed out of bed, grabbing a dressing gown off the back of a nearby chair and pulling it on.

"No, because we're not. I'd remember being married to someone for two years. And..." he trailed off as a photograph on the nightstand caught his eye. "What's that?"

"It's the picture from last Christmas. The one Cordy gave us. It's been there for months." Anger was quickly being replaced by concern in Veronica's tone of voice.

Angel picked up the framed photograph and stared at it. It was a picture of him and a now blonde claiming to be his wife, Veronica. They were both smiling for the camera, their arms around each other, a Christmas tree visible in the background of what was clearly the lobby of the Hyperion.

Angel shook his head. Anger was over taking him. Obviously some one was messing with his head. Great lengths had been taken for it too. Finding a way to get a girl into his bed without him noticing; the faked photograph that looked completely real; objects around the room that weren't his. There was even a wedding band on his finger. He could only think of one group that would go so far to screw with him. Even though he couldn't figure out why they had chosen this way to do it.

"Wolfram and Hart."

"What about them?" Veronica asked in confusion.

Angel whirled around, glaring at her. "Drop the act. I know what's going on. Maybe you guys cast a spell that didn't work. Maybe I was supposed to have memories to fit this whole marriage scam. That's it, right? You were supposed to make me think that I was someone else, anyone other than the man trying to take down your firm. Are you one of their attack lawyers who just happened to draw the short straw, and get stuck with this assignment? Or maybe you volunteered? Give Lilah and Lindsey a run for their money in the 'fuck with Angel' competition.

Veronica shook her head, backing away from him. "What are you talking about? Angel, what happened to you?" Tears filled her eyes.

Angel wasn't having any of it. "I told you, drop the act." He advanced on her, moving forward until she was backed up against the wall. "Just tell me what's going on."

He towered over her, putting his hands on the wall on either side of her, trapping her.

"You're scaring me, Angel. I don't know what's going on, but something happened to you. I'm Veronica. I'm your wife. We've been married for two years. I don't work for Wolfram and Hart, I've never worked for them. You're really scaring me," she repeated.

"Good," Angel's voice was a growl as he brought a hand around her throat.