Authors Notes: Set after the final battle in the final, only difference is that Cordelia didn't die, she's just moved away from the city and is trying to live a normal life.
Angel sighed and sat back in his chair, another busy day at Angel Investigations. Angel was glad that they had changed the name back, Wolfram and Hart was no more. At Angel Investigations they were now a private investigation and a law firm. Angel closed his eyes for a moment before looking at the pictures that covered his desk and reflecting over the past events, there where three different pictures there. The first one held a picture of Fred, Wesley, Gunn, Loren, Cordelia and himself. The next one was of just him, Cordelia, and Wesley. He smiled, Cordelia had been there with him through so much, now she was living her life as normally as she could away from there. Finally he looked at the last picture, it showed him, Cordelia and Doyle. He missed Doyle and wished he could of saved him. He knew that no matter how much Cordelia loved him, she would always love Doyle more, even though she hadn't been able to realize that when he was alive. She knew, too, that no matter how much he loved her, he'd always love another.
"What you just sitting around here in the dark for? Brooding? I thought I had you out of that a long time ago." A man had appeared in the doorway and was now studying Angel.
Angel sat up in his chair, for a moment he thought it was…but no it couldn't be. Doyle had died years ago. Instead he was looking at Whistler, another half-demon who helped him realize he could help people instead of living off rats in the sewer. Whistler and Doyle looked alike but they weren't the same person. "Whistler," Angel said standing up, "What are you doing here?"
"Just thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing…and The Powers That Be got a message for ya." Whistler said, he sat down on Angel meeting table.
"Really?" Angel said, leaning on the back of a chair in front of his desk. "And what would that be?"
"They feel that you've lost touch with them since that Cordelia girl left, so they sent me. With the vision and all." Whistler said.
"Visions?" Angel thought for a moment, "They're trying to get me to move on, to get over the death of my friends, over the fact that Cordelia left. Tell me I need to get used to it, so they sent someone to replace them. Not that I'm not glad to see you Whistler."
"Ah, no offense taken, cause you pretty much got it down. Not that they actually told me that, but I think you're right. So…will I do?"
"Wow, you've moved up in the world my friend." Whistler said looking around the fancy office building. "Pretty far up I'd say, it seems just like yesterday I was telling you to stop eating rats and do something with your life."
Angel was about to reply when Spike came running up to him, he had a small cut on his head. "Angel, she's crazy! She says she's got to talk to you now!"
"Whoa, Spike, slow down. Who's crazy?"
"Illyria! She's wants to know why you won't let her stay here and…well she'll tell you!" Spike said as Illryia came around to corner.
"Angel! We must speak!" she said coming up to them.
"We've been over this already Illyria, the battle's over. You can go and live your life now." Angel said walking past Illyria toward his office.
"What life is that? I cannot go back to what I was before."
"Not that I'd let you." Angel put in.
"Where do you think I can go! You let me stay before."
"Yes, because Wesley thought you could become good…"
"And haven't I proved that I am good. I could help you."
"Illyria just go, please."
Illyria stopped and looked at Angel, they had reached his office and Spike and Whistler had already gone in. "I remind you too much of them, all of them you lost."
"You don't understand Illyria, I'm supposed to move on and I don't like you to much."
"So that's it, that's the only reason you'll give me as to why you banish me?"
Angel sighed, "You know it's good that Wesley died when he did, because I saw what he didn't."
Illyria lifted her chin, "And what is that?"
"That you were slowly driving him insane, ever since Fred died and you came here he was slowly losing his sanity. From grief, from seeing you in Fred's body, and from you yourself. At least he didn't have to go though that!" Angel slammed the door in Illyria's face and turned around.
In Angel's office Spike was looking over Whistler, "Who's the new guy?"
Angel walked over to his desk, "He's an old friend."
"Yeah," said Whistler, "We go way back, me and Angel."
"O yeah?" Spike said, "From the 17th century?"
Whistler was about to respond when the vision hit him. He fell back over the chair and Spike and Angel hurried over to see if he was all right. Whistler sat up slowly, "Wow those really hurt."
"You ok?" Angle asked, and Whistler nodded. "What did you see?"
"A demon, big ugly, orange spikes. Attacking a girl in a alley by the old warehouses."
"You gonna need any help?" Spike asked Angel.
"No, you stay with Whistler." Spike nodded and helped Whistler into a chair.
Angel arrived at the alley by rooftops; he looked down and saw a girl walking fast down it. He saw the demon sneaking up on her, and before Angel could get down there the demon attacked the girl. She didn't scream like normal people would, instead she dropped her bag and fought the demon. She was fighting pretty well, and when Angel got down there he seriously thought she didn't need any help, but then the demon threw her into some crates and she struggled to get up. As the demon advanced on her Angel tapped it on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but I don't think it's very nice to hit a lady." Angel hit the demon then cut off its head with the sword he'd brought along. He went over to the girl, "Are you ok?" He asked offering his hand to help her up.
The girl didn't take it, she stood up just looking at Angel. He could barely make her out in the darkness, but he could tell she was tall with long wavy hair. She ran over to her bag and started to leave. "Wait," Angel said and the girl turned around. "Are you sure you're not hurt or anything?" She just walked away.
Angel went back to his office to find Whistler sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk and Spike in the other. Both were fast asleep. Angel checked his watch, it's was getting close to dawn. He'd been gone longer than he thought, and didn't bother waking up Whistler or Spike but went straight to his room. He got a few hours of sleep before the office opened and went back down stairs. Then he woke the sleeping men. "Have a nice nap?" he asked them sitting behind his desk.
Whistler let out a big yawn, "That was just what I needed after that vision, man those kill."
Angel looked up at Whistler, "You don't know how true those words are." He said remembering what they did to Cordelia before she became part demon.
"So how went the fight? The girl got away ok?" Spike asked.
"Fine," Angel briefly told them what happened before his new secretary interrupted to tell him he had a call on line one. "Excuse me would you guys?" Angel said to Whistler and Spike. They got up and left. "Hello, Angel speaking." Angel said into the phone.
"Mr. Angel? This is George Smith. I understand that you are the head of Angel Investigations?" Came the other voice.
"That's right, what can I do for you Mr. Smith?"
"Well one of your employees, Allen Doyle, yeah after his disappearance nobody came to pick up his stuff. It's all in his apartment still, we weren't sure if he'd ever come back, but after five years we need to rent the space."
"Y… yeah." Angel said, he'd never thought about Doyle's things.
"Well we were wondering if you could come and get it? Give it to the family; he didn't leave any addresses of family or friends lying around. We just found your card a couple of days ago. You moved so it took us a while to get a hold of you. Would that be alright?"
"Yes that would be fine, I'll be down as soon as I can." Angel hung up the phone and told his secretary to call Spike and Whistler back in.
"So what's up?" Spike asked as they entered the office, "Anything important?"
"That was the owner of the apartment building that…um…Doyle lived in. He…uh…uh… wanted me to come by and get Doyle's things and give them to the family. I'm gonna go down now, there's a sewer access…"
"We'll go to, help you clean up the place." Whistler offered. Angel nodded, he wouldn't mind having help. He wished it could have been Cordelia, but she was gone, hopefully living a nice normal life. Angel got up and walked out to his secretary's desk.
"I need information on Allen Francis Doyle, all his living family, his relationship with them and where they live." His secretary nodded and Angel and Spike headed for the sewers while Whistler got into Angel's car and drove there.
"Well here it is." George Smith opened the door to Doyle's apartment and handed Angel the keys. "Just lock it up when your done packing everything up and give the key back to me." Mr. Smith turned to go, but Angel stopped him.
"We have to pack all this up? This could take some time…" Angel said.
Mr. Smith shrugged, "I don't mind if you have to come back again tomorrow…keep the key until you're done though." The he went back down to his office.
Spike, Angel and Whistler stepped inside the messy apartment. Everything had been left exactly the way it had been when Doyle had left for work the morning he died. As Spike and Whistler looked around, a wave of emotion came over Angel. He sat down on the couch and looked around.
"Best get started then." Spike said walking over to Angel; his voice was sympathetic. Angel nodded, by dusk they had packed up almost all of Doyle's belongings and cleaned up the place.
Whistler yawned, "Think we should come back tomorrow and get all this stuff out of here. I'm tired from all that work."
"Yeah…I think that's a good idea." Angel said and they waited for the sun to completely go down before they all got into Angel's car. Angel dropped Spike and Whistler off at their houses before going back to his own home. He sat in the dark thinking about Doyle and everything that had happened. Suddenly he reached over, picked up the phone, and dialed a number. It rang three times before an answering machine picked up.
"Hello, I am unable to come to the phone right now. Please leave your name, number and a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Unless it's an emergency, then go ahead and page me." A woman's voice said. Angel thought for a moment about paging her, but the decided it wasn't an emergency. He heard the beep and left a message.
"Cordelia…hey it's Angel. I just wanted to call and say…um…well you see I have a bunch of Doyle's things here, or I will tomorrow. They're still at his apartment at the moment, but um…. the owner of the building wants to sell his apartment so he asked me to get the stuff out. I'm trying to find Doyle's family so they could get it if they want. I just thought that you might want to see some of it…I'm sure his family couldn't want all of it, so maybe you could take something, to remember by. Just come on over to L.A. there's no need to call. Bye…." Angel put down the phone and sighed. He then went to bed.
When Angel woke up the next morning he was in a surprisingly good mood. He went to work and sat down in his office. He was bent over papers from the latest case when Spike came into the room.
"There you are, been looking for ya." He said sitting down in one of the chairs in front of Angel's desk.
"Been here all morning," Angel looked up. "What do you need?"
"Your in a good mood." Spike commented.
"Yea…I am." Angel put the paper in his hand down. "I don't know why, but that whole moving on thing, became easier."
"Wouldn't it be harder, what with all this Doyle stuff?"
"That's what I thought, but…"Angel thought for a moment, "Packing up everything, it just kinda helped me pack up my memories to say…and I can move on now."
"Right…" Spike said, "Speaking of packing we have to go and get everything. Where are we taking 'em?"
"Wesley's old office for now." Angel said, "Lets go." They found Whistler and he again drove the car to Doyle's apartment while Angel and Spike took the sewer access. Whistler parked in the shade beside a moving van that Angel had rented for the day.
Angel walked around the apartment one last time, taking it all in…and letting go. The bed was now gone and Angel stood where it had once been. He took a deep breath and took a step toward the door, the floorboard he had stepped on broke through.
"Damn." Angel said and kneeled down to see the damage. To his surprise he found a wooden box and a picture in a wooden frame under the board. He took the objects out and carefully replaced the floorboard. First trying to open the box he found it locked a decided to have a locksmith look at it later. Turning over the frame so he could see the picture he found another one tucked into the frame outside the class. It was the picture of him, Doyle and Cordelia, the same one that was now sitting on Angel's desk. Angel sat down on the windowsill and sighed. Moving the picture he looked at the one inside the frame and found himself looking what looked like a family portrait. He recognized Doyle in the back, with what appeared to be his father and mother right in front of him, and two sisters on either side of him. Angel stared at what looked like a happy family that Doyle had never mentioned. Angel never even knew he had two sisters.
"Angel?" Whistlers voice came from the living room. Angel stood up and walked in there still staring at the picture. "Whatcha got there?"
"Found it, under a floorboard." Angel said, he handed the pictures to Whistler.
"What's in the box?" Spike asked, walking over to have a look.
"It's locked, I'm going to have a locksmith look at it." Angel leaned against a wall.
"Seems like a happy family," Whistler said handing the pictures back to Angel, who glanced down at the picture as he heard a knock on the door.
"Yea…they do." He gave the things to Spike to hold as he answered the door. He opened it to reveal a young girl standing there. "Can I help…" Angel trailed off, even though he hadn't been able to see her face last night Angel could tell it was the same girl from the alley.
The girl stared at Angel before pushing past him, looking around.
"Who's this?" Spike asked looking the girl up and down; Angel shrugged.
"Where's Allen?" The girl said staring at the boxes.
"Ex…excuse me?" Angel asked quietly.
The girl turned on him. "Where's Allen? Allen Doyle?"
"What a minute." Whistler said, he grabbed the picture from Spike and looked it over. He looked at the girl and back down at the picture. "You're his sister?" Whistler asked shocked.
The three men stared at her. She grabbed the picture from Whistler and looked at it, eyes wide. "Where'd you get this? Where's Allen?"
"Uh…miss…" Angel said awkwardly, not knowing her name.
"Emma." The girl said shortly.
"Ok…well Emma…." Angel struggled to find the words to say. "Doyle…Allen," He took a deep breath, the memories of the day flashing in his mind. "He…died…about 5 years ago."
Emma took a step back, "What?" She said weakly.
"I'm sorry, we would have told you, but…we didn't know…"
Emma shook her head. "No, no it can't be true. Allen…." The picture fell from her hand. She was breathing heavily.
"We're sorry…" Angel began but Emma wasn't listening. She backed into the bedroom and shut the door. Leaning against it she slid to the floor, tears falling freely from her eyes.