Title: Stumble and fall.
Author: Daisy
E-mail: e.large@talk21.com
Pairing: Cordy/Angel Cordy/Angelus
Rating: R for adult language
Category: Angsty...ish, but not really.
Spoilers: Nothing we haven't seen already. Seriously AU 3
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created
by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is
intended, no profit is made.
Feedback: If ya liked it let me know, if ya didn't....well nerr! Distribution: You want it, you got it. But be a peach and let me know Authors note: Tis the sequel to 'One hundred uncertain steps'.
*--* denotes Cordy's narration.
****
"We've been too happy, life has been too good. We never get happy and good. We get heartache and despair, I'm use to that, I can deal with that. I think I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop." Cordelia 'One hundred uncertain steps'
***
*There is something very graceful about Angel when he moves, when he fights it's like dancing.
Beautiful. Lithe. Silent. Deadly.
So many times I've watched as he slips through the night, his feet barely touching the ground in hungry pursuit of his redemption. He's a vampire, a warrior, a lethal stranger in the shadows holding your heart in his hands with vengeance in his haunted gaze.....and he's taking up the entire bed with his stupid fat undead butt!*
"Angel...can you just...move over a little so I'm not hanging off the side here..."
"Sssh, go back to sleep sweetheart."
*Back to sleep? I never actually got to sleep in the first place.*
"So...how's the horrendously bloody gut wound feeling?"
"Ssshhh."
"I can't sleep."
"I figured that one out when you started pinching me."
*I love that pissed off sleepy mutter of his.*
"Well if you weren't such a solid lump in the middle of the bed and let me have just a little of the blanket I might stop with the...have you gone back to sleep? Angel? I know you're awake, you can't fool me that easily. C'mon broods, entertain me. Tell me one of your oh so interesting back in the day stories about the price of a good pint of ale, they usually bore me to sleep in no time. Angel? Love of my life, father of my child, vampire that rocks my world? Wake up!"
"I'll give you a hundred dollars if you be quiet and let me sleep."
"Pfft, not gonna..."
"One hundred dollars and the pair of shoes you were drooling over in that magazine the other day."
*Oooh the Manolo Blahniks!*
"Deal."
*I guess it's just you and me then huh? And I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you about the little hiccup we had a while back. Of course when I say 'the little hiccup' I actually mean 'the angst filled day of hell and destruction'.
I know last time we spoke I said that Fred would let you in on the whole fiasco but once again the responsibility has fallen to my fine self, I lost the vote twice on that one which I'm not happy about but it kinda makes sense. I mean I was the only one that was there all the way through, it's my story to tell. Fred doesn't like to talk about it, Wesley gets really really angry, Lorne goes on a guilt trip that surpasses anything that my very own man of constant sorrow has ever embarked on, Gunn was somewhat unconscious and Angel...well Angel was absent for reasons that will very quickly become glaringly apparent.
All those months ago I had felt something bad coming, something that would leave us with bloody hands and shattered spirits. I had felt it but pushed it aside, let Angel calm my fears and basked in the warm glow of happiness.
I thought nothing could harm us.
I was so fucking wrong.*
***
Blink and it's gone.
Cordelia switched on the bedside lamp and took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the sudden light. Her alarm clock blinked at her.
6:23 am.
"Too early." Cordelia groaned and swung her legs over the side of the bed. A wave of nausea the likes she hadn't felt since the first few months of being pregnant with Emily swam over her, she instinctively bent over and put her head between her knees. A stabbing pain erupted inside her skull blurring her vision and making the room spin on it's axis.
"Well this is worrying." She hissed and steadied herself with a hand on the bed. "Hey did we get really drunk last night or something?" Cordelia glanced over her shoulder and realised that he wasn't there. A cold empty space where her man should be.
"He picks the day I'm suddenly nausea girl to become an early riser." Cordelia muttered as she shakily slipped on her robe and pushed down the bile that was rising in her throat.
"Need coffee." She grumbled as she walked with unsteady legs to the nursery. "Hey little Em, have you seen you're..."
Cordelia blinked at the empty cot. She felt a deep cold dread crawl its way up her spine, the seer tried to shake the feeling, telling herself that she was being ridiculous, Angel and Emily were probably in the lounge watching Barney.
Everything was fine.
Nothing to worry about.
Trailing her hand along the wall as she walked down the dim corridor Cordelia tried to remember the night before. She was pretty sure there'd been no random drinking binges. It was just an ordinary evening, vision, help the hopeless, bandaging of wounds, baby snuggles then eggs all round. Once the others had gone home Cordelia and Angel had fallen into bed a little after one exhausted. Definitely no tequila and yet the seer felt as though she'd just woken up after the kind of drinking spree that would impress Spike.
The bad feeling that had been creeping over her went into overdrive as she entered the dark lounge.
"Angel?" Cordelia called out into the still room. She switched on the overhead light to be sure. Silent TV, empty couch, open drapes.
Nothing.
There was something very wrong about this.
Cordelia was halfway down the stairs before she even realised she was moving. She stopped abruptly when her fingers slid through something sticky on the banister.
Blood.
Jerking her hand away she ran blindly down the last few steps, her crimson robe flapping madly around her legs. She didn't feel the broken glass on the floor biting into her naked feet. The front door hung heavily on weak hinges, swaying dangerously on the morning breeze. Silence mocked the destruction of their home. Furniture laid broken, filing cabinets plundered of their bounty, pictures of her family smashed under uncaring boots.
An empty yellow blanket lay amongst the devastation.
"Oh god no." Cordelia whispered desperately, she stumbled frantically across the lobby, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind her. She rubbed the soft fabric between her trembling fingers, a thousand dreadful images swimming around her brain.
"Cordelia?" Lorne croaked hoarsely from behind her, she spun at his voice. The prescient demon stumbled forward from the office then dropped heavily to his knees. Broken and bruised, with blood on his silk pajamas he silently begged her for forgiveness.
"What happened...?" Her legs were lead, she couldn't move, barely breathing through the fear.
"I couldn't stop them.....I tried but, they just....." Lorne told the floor desperately, painful tears mixing with the blood on his face.
"Stop who?" Cordelia knelt in front of him, her hand anchored to his shoulder.
"I don't know, I..." He finally looked at her through swollen purple eyes, he choked on a sob that rumbled from his throat. "Oh God Cordy....I'm sorry."
"Where's my baby?" She sat up straight, fists clenched at her sides, fear sharpening her spine.
"I, I don't...." Lorne stuttered.
"Where's Emily? Where's my baby?" Cordelia shook his shoulder not caring what pain he was in. "WHERE'S MY BABY!!!?"
"They took her...I tried to stop them but I couldn't." He cried woefully.
"My baby...she's..... my baby girl?" She stumbled backwards in panic. "Emily... Lorne where's Angel? Dammit Lorne wake up!" She screamed at the half unconscious demon on the floor.
"He's gone."
"They took...?" Cordelia croaked.
"No...he's...he's gone. They did something to him, they stole his...he wasn't...him." Lorne tried to fight the fog that was taking over his brain but it was a battle he was quickly losing.
"Angelus?" Cordelia felt numb tears rolling down her face. Lorne nodded then slipped into the comforting darkness where he hadn't let down his friends, where things were peaceful and safe and Ella sang to him.
She scrambled backwards across the floor in shock, her robe tearing on the jagged pieces of her life that laid broken around her.
Gone. Her sweet baby girl was gone.
Angelus.
"No. That can't....No. NO! NO!!"
Very few of the early morning passers by that milled outside the Hyperion Hotel on their way to the office jobs, sipping coffee and talking on cell phones noticed the beautiful young woman in the red silk robe as she stumbled out of her home and onto the sidewalk, screaming at the sky with bleeding feet, vomiting on the ground until she had nothing left to lose.
***
*It all happened so quickly, too quickly for me to think and make sense of things in my head. But that's the way it goes I suppose, no dusty prophecy biting at our heels, no apocalypse knocking at our door. No warning from the Powers that fucking be.
Just a bright sunny morning with birds in the sky, the scent of honeysuckle in the air and blood washing over the floor of our home.*
***
"We found her outside like this." Fred whispered to Wesley, she wasn't sure why she was speaking so quietly, Cordelia certainly couldn't hear her.
"What the hell happened here?" Wesley asked in astonishment, the Englishman had stumbled into their worse nightmare minutes ago, words were almost beyond him. He stared into Cordelia's unblinking eyes looking for a clue.
"Armageddon by the looks of it. Gunn's taken Lorne upstairs, he's still unconscious, he was...in a bad way. I have no idea where Angel and Emily are Wes, they're just....gone." Fred's tear filled eyes begged him to make everything better. "None of this makes sense! Why would Angel leave with Em and not take Cordy with him?!"
"Maybe they had an argument?" Even as he said it he knew that could be the case, Angel would never do that to the woman he loved no matter what the fight was about. Wesley brushed Cordelia's messy hair away from her face. "Cordy? Cordy you need to snap out of this, you have to tell us what happened here."
"She's in shock, she didn't even flinch when I pulled the glass out of her feet. It's like she's just gone numb." Fred grasped the other woman's hand and pinched the soft flesh on her palm. Nothing.
"Lorne's still out of it." Gunn jogged down the staircase, careful to avoid the drying blood on the banister. "Whoever did this beat him pretty bad, if it were for him being a demon I doubt he'd still be alive right now."
"There's something very wrong here." Wesley stated the glaringly obvious.
"What are we going to do?" Fred asked him, scared out of her mind for her friends. "I don't even know where to....Angel!" She cried suddenly, she leapt out of her seat beside Cordelia and ran to the vampire that had emerged from the basement, enveloping him in a hug that made him stumble backwards.
"You're OK! Where have you been?" She asked him frantically, her small hands gripping on the sleeves of his leather jacket.
"Went for a walk." He extracted himself from the petite woman's grip. "Where's Emily?" Wesley frowned noting his friends apparent disinterest at the destruction of his home and the catatonic state his girlfriend was in.
"She isn't here?" Angel sauntered across the lobby, kicking debris out of his path as he went.
"No." The Englishman felt his blood run cold.
"Angel something dreadful has happened, Lorne's been beaten up, Cordelia's in shock and Emily's missing!" Fred cried, she went to move towards him but was abruptly stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder.
No one had seen the life rush back into Cordelia's eyes at the sound of Angel's voice.
"Get away from him Fred." The Seer said without emotion, she kicked up a sword that laid at her feet and marched towards him.
"Cordy what are you....?" The Texan rushed to her side, Cordelia pushed her backwards making her fall heavily on her butt. "Wes?" Why was Wesley pointing a crossbow at his friends chest?
"Where is she Angelus?" Cordelia asked him calmly, her gaze never leaving his.
"Nice to see you too Cor." Angelus smirked, he ran his lecherous gaze up and down her barely clothed body, Fred had removed her ruined robe as soon as they had brought Cordelia into the Hotel and wrapped her in a blanket that had now slipped forgotten from her shoulders, leaving the Seer in a her underwear, chin raised in defiance with her lovers broadsword held securely in her hands. She was Cordelia Chase and Angelus had never seen anything so delicious. "Don't I get a kiss hello?"
"You move a muscle and I'll rip out your tongue and staple it to the floor." Cordelia threatened him, Angelus chuckled at her moxy.
"I don't understand...he's Angelus?" Fred said in confusion.
"You guys are in real trouble if she's meant to be the clever one." Angelus nodded his head towards the Texan still sitting on the floor, not taking his eyes away from the woman in front of him, a warrior in lilac lace. He ran his tongue across his teeth, itching with desire for blood he had tasted second hand through a soul. "So Cor..." He purred dangerously. "Did ya miss me?" Angelus took a step towards her, uncaring as the sword bit into the flesh of his neck.
"About as much as a girl misses syphilis." Cordelia growled and held on firmly to the weapon in her hands, fear making her braver than she actually was.
"Now is that anyway to talk to your husband to be? I'm hurt, truly." The vampire pouted theatrically.
"Where is my daughter?" Cordelia demanded again steadily, time slipping through her dirty hands.
"Don't you mean OUR daughter Cor?" Angelus wrapped a strand of her dark hair around his finger, something Angel had playfully done time and time again. Cordelia realised he was too near to her, dangerously close and yet it wasn't him she feared, her life would mean nothing if she didn't find her daughter. No terror could compare with that.
"Cordelia get away from him." Wesley warned her, his crossbow trained on the vampire.
"Hello Wes! Didn't notice you there, guess you get that a lot though dont'cha? I've gotta say I didn't expect you to stick around this long, correction, to be ALIVE this long. But I'm sure we can rectify that soon enough when I rip your heart out through your chest." Angelus smirked, eyes flashing yellow at the thought. It felt so good to be back. "Hollow threats Angelus? How very you." The ex-watcher rolled his eyes and kicked an ax over to where Gunn stood, already loaded up with a crossbow.
"Quite a little family you've got here." Angelus gestured around the tense lobby, he saw Cordelia tense at the movement. "The soul must be all sorts of Brady bunch happy." His eyes drifted over to Gunn who stood still and determined. "Charles Gunn, haven't you figured out that you don't belong here yet? You don't fit and you know it. Twiggy on the floor there doesn't really want you, it's Angel she's wanted ever since she met him. She settled for a poor excuse for second best with you didn't she? How very sad." The vampire tutted with false sympathy.
"How do we shut this idiot up?" Charles Gunn snapped at no one particular.
"My sweet sweet Cordelia Chase." Angelus purred ignoring him and zeroed in on the Sunnydale head cheerleader that was trying her best to stay standing with weak knees. "When did you suddenly turn into a saint? Little girl playing dress up, that's what you are. You know this isn't going to last, you've got what, a year before those visions of yours blow the back of your head out? You know it, I know it, even the idiot soul knows it. And for what Cor? A mission that couldn't give a fuck about you and yours? Is that what you really want?" He tried to silent the buzzing in the back of his mind that made him want to take back the words he said but it was starting to get too loud, too insistent.
"WHERE...IS...MY...DAUGHTER?" Cordelia grunted through gritted teeth, shaken by the almost tender way Angelus was talking to her.
"Is anyone else getting bored with the broken record here or is it just me?" Angelus rolled his eyes and shut off his brain.
"Why don't you just answer the damn question?" Gunn approached him slowly, he didn't like how close Cordelia was to the demon they had all thought they would never see again.
"I think I'd much rather do this." Angelus moved so fast that the others barely saw it.
Cordelia's sword clattered uselessly to the floor as the vampire tugged her into his unyielding arms. His lips bruised hers, shattering the thousand tender kisses Angel and Cordelia had shared. She struggled against his sheer brutality, tears of loss running down her cheeks as she raked her nails down the side of his face. He jerked his head away, a dangerous look in his eyes.
"Kitten has claws." Angelus smirked but didn't let her go. "Usually it's Angel's back you're scratching at, but I guess we should get to know each other a little better before we get to that."
"Angelus, you really are the stupidest fucker I've ever met." Cordelia gasped for air and pushed him away. His response was cut wonderfully short by the steel chair that hit him across the back of the head until he fell to the floor unconscious. Fred threw the chair down somewhat in shock at what she'd done to the man that had saved her from hell.
"I'm getting rather good at sneaking up and whacking the bad guys aren't I?" Fred muttered quietly without humor, she was pretty certain she was going to either throw up or faint. It was a toss up between the two. "Do you think Angel will be mad that I knocked him out?" She asked Wesley nervously, he like Gunn had watched the entire scene play out before him, impotent with shock to do anything.
"That's not Angel, Fred. Angel's gone." Cordelia said coldly, the words felt bitter in her mouth, a taste she feared would never leave her. The young woman straightened her shoulders. There was work to be done.
***
Nine am and counting.
"Nothing? How can there be nothing? Look again!" Cordelia shouted at Wesley as she paced the lobby floor.
"Cordelia the security cameras were all turned off at four am, there's no footage of whoever took Em, no matter how many times I look at the bloody tapes I'm not going to find anything!" Wesley barked back at her. Tempers were running short.
"Cordy you should sit down, the cuts on your feet won't heal...." Fred spoke up timidly from the furthest corner away from everyone, she felt the strong desire to hide underneath a table and never come out.
"I can't fucking well sit down! I have to find my baby girl!!" The Seer snapped angrily. It was nine am, still early but with every passing minute Cordelia felt as though her daughter was getting further and further away from her. She dragged her hands through her messy hair, she had to do something, had to move, find the people responsible and slowly shred their skin from their bones.
"As entertaining as this is...." Angelus said from where he was chained to a chair. ".....I'm starting to get bored."
"Shut up." Cordelia muttered barely glancing at him.
"Not really feeling the love right now Cor." He said casually tugging on the chains that bound him but it was no use, the held fast.
"Do you want to be unconscious again?" Gunn raised the baseball bat threateningly.
"Try it and I'll break every bone in your body when I'm free." Angelus glared at the young black man.
"Now you see that's where you're wrong, cos there's no way in hell you're getting out of those chains." Gunn swung the bat around a few times making sure the vampire got the idea.
"Oh for heavens sake, I'm going to see if Lorne's awake yet, maybe he knows something." Wesley muttered and stalked upstairs, he couldn't think with so much yammering and he feared time was running out.
Cordelia slowly advanced on the demon they all had nightmares about at one time or another, still the young woman wasn't afraid of him like she use to be, she was too busy being terrified of what might be happening to her child to give a damn about the psychopath that had taken over Angel's body.
"Why are you here?" Cordelia frowned at Angelus, she poked the sword she was holding against his chest. They weren't taking any chances.
"Who could resist such delicious company?" Angelus purred, Cordelia ignored the suggestive way he licked his lips and ran his eyes up and down her body, at least she was dressed this time. "Why don't you come sit on my lap Cor and let me have a taste."
"Pfft, like I'm that stupid, I'm not Buffy Angelus, I will kill you in a heartbeat if I find out you have anything to do with my daughter being taken away. You harm any of my people and I'll kill you. You even look at Fred like she's food one more time and I'll cut off your head."
"You really think you can kill the father of you're child, the man you're going to marry? You haven't got the balls woman."
"You wanna find out?" Cordelia raised the sword to Angelus' throat, her heart numb and her eyes vacant. "I suggest you start talking right the hell now."
"And what do I get in return?" Angelus purred suggestively at her, gritting his teeth when the persistent buzzing went up a notch.
"How about full use of all you appendages." She scowled and dragged the sword down to his groin. "You say you have know idea what happened with Emily but I know your lying. There's a reason you're here, a reason you didn't slaughter me in my sleep this morning. You're acting very un-Angelusy so STOP FUCKING AROUND AND TELL ME!"
Even the scourge of Europe grimaced at the sound of Cordelia's booming voice. The insistent buzz, that was starting to sound more like a whine, turned up a notch in his head making his teeth buzz and his eye twitch. Angelus shook his head trying to silent it, the urge to bang his head against the nearest wall was overpowering.
"OK, what's he doing now?" Gunn picked up his discarded crossbow and aimed it at the vampire that was muttering nonsensically under his breath.
"Hey." Cordelia clapped her hands in front of Angelus' face to gain his attention. "What's with the crazy?"
"He's still here, won't be quiet." Angelus groaned, it surprised them all that he actually sounded like he was in pain.
"What?" Cordelia's patience was walking a very shaky tightrope and she didn't have time to play the vampires games.
"The fucking soul!"
"Angel, he's still....you mean he hasn't...." Fred rushed over to them, a small bubble of hope bobbing in her chest.
"Would it kill you to actually finish a sentence?" The vampire snapped at the little Texan, he took pleasure in the wave of hurt that washed over her face.
"Who's behind all this." Cordelia forced herself to ignore the revelation that Angel *might* still be close by and focused on the matter in hand. Emily.
"Why should I tell you white hats? I might have soul boy whispering my ear but I sure as hell don't have to listen to him."
"Because...." Cordelia fingered the small white scar marring the smooth plane of her skin, a reminder of a night long ago. "....this is family business."
Angelus' eyes narrowed at her admission, he wondered if she realised what she was saying.
"Who's been making your pathetic lives even more of a misery ever since you stumbled into LA?" Angelus said with a sigh, he couldn't believe he was doing this. "Who has the money, man power and brains to drug you, rip out Angel's soul and kidnap his baby without leaving a trace of evidence? Do you need me to spell it out for you? Tall, leggy lawyer type?" Angelus rolled his eyes, was he actually helping these humans? He should have been feasting on their insides, bathing in their blood, dancing a merry jig on their graves. Yet he wasn't, he was helping them. "Fucking soul residue." Angelus muttered bitterly.
"Wolfram and fucking Hart." Cordelia ground out bitterly. "Lilah has just signed her death warrant."
"Are we believing the homicidal psychopath now, cos last time I checked they're not usually the most reliable members of society." Gunn said in disbelief.
"Right now it's all we've got. I'm going to get my daughter back." Cordelia shrugged on her leather jacket.
"What are you going to do? Charge in there and just glare at them until they give you Em back." The young black man tried to reason with his friend. "We need a plan."
"I have a plan. I find Lilah, kill Lilah and bring our girl home." She stuck a small knife into her belt.
"That would be from the Angel school of planning." Gunn grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Let me go. This is my fight Gunn. My daughter, my vampire. I won't have you stopping me from doing what needs to be done." She jerked out of his grasp.
"Maybe the powers..." Fred started weakly.
"Damn the PTB! Where were they when Angels daughter, their fucking champions daughter was stolen by the enemy! Sitting keeping the balance? Fuck that. Is this what we have to give up for the mission? If it is then that's it, I quit. I'm through with the fucking powers that be and their damn mission if they can't even look after their own."
"You don't mean that." Fred frowned. "We help the hopeless, people need us..."
"We are the hopeless Fred, who the hell is helping us?" Cordelia said with bleak resignation.
"There is no way you're going on your own." Gunn brought that back to the issue at hand.
"I'm not. He's coming with me." Cordelia nodded towards Angelus who was watching the scene with boredom.
"Have you lost your mind?" Gunn bellowed at her.
"Maybe." She shrugged. "But he's the only one with enough brute force to help me do what I need to do."
"You undo those chains and we're as good as dead." Gunn was desperate to get the little rugrat back as much as anyone but he knew a suicidal plan when he saw it.
"If he was going to kill us we would have been dead a long time ago." Cordelia fingered the small padlock key, wondering herself if she had completely lost all common sense.
"What exactly makes you think I'm going to help you cheerleader?" Angelus asked her intrigued.
"Because...it's not only Angel that I love." She said quietly, almost afraid to say it out loud. "I know you won't hurt me Angelus because it's not just Angel that talks to me, laughs with me, makes love to me. You were always there no matter how much Angel tried to pretend you weren't. I know that." Cordelia took a deep breath and stared the vampire in the eye. "You'll help me because Emily is your daughter too and I know for a fact that Angelus looks after his own."
"Pfft, I don't....." The high pitched whine turned up another level, it felt like his brain was going to dribble out of his ears. "Fine! I'll help, I'll save the day and win the hearts of the towns folk, anything to shut it up." At his acquiescence the buzz shifted to a low hum, Angelus let out a unneeded sigh of relief.
"I can't let you do this Cordelia." Gunn frowned and stepped in between her and the vampire.
"I know Charles." Cordelia said with a sad smile. "That's why I have to do this." She raised the tranquilizer gun they had kept on the desk in case Angelus got out of control and with a surprisingly steady hand fired a dart into her friends thigh.
"What the fuck..." He groaned before he tumbled to the floor and fell into a very deep sleep. Cordelia turned to Fred and her heart broke at the way her friend was backing away from her in fear, her eyes full of tearful questions.
"He'll have a headache when he wakes up, look after him and tell him .....tell him I'm sorry."
"Don't do this Cordelia...." Fred whispered as she watched her bend down and unlock the chains that held tight the most feared vampire in the world.
***
*OK, so I wasn't thinking straight.
I trusted Angelus. Willingly went off alone with him. I had no idea if I were walking to my death or worse but I honestly didn't care.
I had to find Emily and god help anyone foolish enough to get in my way.*
***
Hell hath no fury.
The offices of Wolfram and Hart didn't reek of evil and hellfire, they smelt like lavender. It was this that Cordelia mulled over as she strode down the expensively decorated hallways with Angelus, not the fact that the vampire could snap her neck in a second, not that he had already killed thirteen people on the way to Lilah's office, and not the fact that her sweet child had been stolen from her by a woman that was an even bigger bitch than herself. All she could think was that it smelt pretty here. Cordelia flinched when she heard the haunting crack of another guards neck being broken.
"Enjoying yourself?" She hissed at him.
"Hey, you invited me along on this little mission, what did you expect? If you've changed your mind I can think of a couple million other things we can do instead." Angelus winked at her.
"Let me guess, in most of them I end up dead right?"
"More like naked. Why would I want to kill you, you're the first decent lay Angel and I have had in a long while. Anyway, if I snapped your neck that fucking Slayer would be straight here all stake happy. Why couldn't she just stay dead like most of them do? Stupid fucking bitch."
"Have you quite finished? That 'stupid fucking bitch' is a friend...." Cordelia thought for a moment. "OK maybe friend is too strong a word, but Buffy kicked your fat ass into hell and I think that deserves a little respect. Plus, from what I hear she's getting cozy with your boy Spike, she might be family soon." Cordelia snarked at him. Being a bitch was just about all she could handle right now. She'd been waiting for the right time to break it to Angel that his ex was now sleeping with Spike but had never found the right opportunity. She took the easy way out.
"Spike and Buffy? Has he lost his fucking mind? That's just....actually that's rather funny." Angelus chuckled as he reached out and grabbed yet another guard by the neck. The Seer watched him cautiously out of the corner of her eye as they strode down the corridor, his light laughter reminded her so much of Angel it made it difficult to believe that this wasn't the man she'd fell in love with.
Angel was gone no matter what his homicidally unreliable alter ego claimed.
Cordelia pushed her heartbreak down, she would cry for him once their daughter was safe. A nagging thought whispered in the far recesses of her brain.
"This has been too easy, there should have been more security than this and what happened to the vampire alarms? There's something very not right going on....." Cordelia frowned as they reached Lilah Morgan's office. "....we shouldn't have got this far."
"It's too late for second thoughts now Cor, don't tell me you've turned chicken on me." Angelus purred at her, his stare daring her to turn tail and run. With a tenderness that surprised them both the vampire brushed his thumb across the plump flesh of her bottom lip.
Another distinctly Angel gesture. Maybe he really was still in there somewhere. Angelus jerked his hand away as though he'd been burnt, his lip curling in disgust at the affectionate thoughts that where bubbling up inside his brain.
"Lets just do this." The seer straightened her shoulders and raised her sword stepping away from the demon that has wearing her loves face.
Calling up the last reserves of courage she could find inside herself Cordelia pushed the door open. C'mon Chase, do what needs to be done, she told herself.
"Yes, they've just arrived." Lilah Morgan ended the call abruptly and threw her cell phone carelessly onto her desk, she crossed one slender leg over the other and leant back in her chair, a dangerous smile on her lips. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"You have something that belongs to us and we want it back." Cordelia told the lawyer, it took all of her control not to slap the smirk from the other woman's face.
"Is that so?" Lilah arched one perfect eyebrow at her and tapped her nails on the desk, an air of complete boredom emanating from the woman.
"I'm really not in the mood for snappy parley Lilah, just give me back my daughter or I'll happily separate your head from your body." Cordelia said through a menacing smile.
"Yeah right, you're all bark and no bite Cordelia." Lilah rolled her eyes theatrically.
"Well then it's just as well I brought fang here isn't it?" The Seer nodded her head towards the unusually quiet vampire.
"Ah yes, Angelus. I must commend you on getting Cordelia here so quickly. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to do it."
"Forever underestimated, it's my curse." Angelus sighed dramatically.
"You....." Cordelia blinked in realization at the vampire she had blindly trusted. She'd been set up, she was never going to get out of here alive let alone get her child back. She knew she should run but she couldn't get her legs to work. It had been foolish and naive to believe him but it was the only glimpse of hope she had had at finding her daughter and she'd grasped it with both hands, and now she'd die for another dumb decision she'd made.
"How you people thwart our plans time after time is completely beyond me." Lilah cackled and sprang lithely out of her chair. "You're not really surprised that he double crossed you are you? Hello! He's a vampire!" She laughed loudly and stalked over to Angelus, she ran her expensively manicured hand over the soft material of his gray sweater. "And mercifully not the boring souled kind any more." Her eyes danced over Angelus hungrily. "I have a feeling things are going to get a whole lot more interesting around here from now on."
Angelus growled and grasped Lilah's shoulders roughly, dragging her eager body to his, he heard her heart beat speed up ten fold, her breathing deepened and the unmistakable aroma of desire assaulted his senses.
"You have no idea just how interesting." The vampire whispered into her ear and breathed in the her deep scent, he ran his tongue across the regal curve of her neck and felt the lawyer shiver with want. With a grin that had brought Europe to it's knees Angelus shoved Lilah away from him, relishing the heated gaze she kept trained on him as she leant breathlessly against her desk.
Sick to her stomach Cordelia seized the small dagger she had hidden in her belt and nervously stepped away from the conspirators, her insides clenching with nausea.
"J-just give me back my child, she's of no use to you. Emily's human, not some supernatural savior/destroyer of the world. She's a baby girl, what can you possibly need her for?" Cordelia asked a smirking Lilah.
"Pretty much just to make your life miserable. She's such a pretty little thing, it's almost a shame that she won't get to see her next birthday." She breezed innocently studying her nails. "You didn't honestly think we'd let you have a happy ending did you Chase? Two point four children and a white picket fence? Did you really think that you had any kind of future with the vampire? Are you THAT stupid?" Hatred dripped from lawyers words.
"Shut up." Cordelia shook with anger making Lilah smile.
"Oh have I struck a nerve? Tell me something Cor, cos this has been bugging me for the longest time. If you hadn't trapped Angel with a kid do you think that he would have even looked twice at you?"
"If you've even touched one hair on my girls head I'll skin you alive." The Seer ignored her jealous question and advanced towards her, sword raised ominously.
"You take one step closer to me and Angelus will snap you in two." Lilah scowled at her, Cordelia ignored her threats and took a confident step forward, she had nothing left to lose. She pressed the cold metal of the blade against the other woman's neck, using all her strength to push Lilah against her desk. Cordelia waited for the blackness that would come when Angelus did Lilah's bidding. She hoped she'd get at least one good blow in before everything faded to nothing.
"Angelus." The lawyer hissed, beginning to get nervous, Cordelia had a blank stare in her eyes that she had never seen before, as though she were running on automatic pilot and wouldn't stop until one of their blood was split on the floor.
"Lilah, Lilah, Lilah." Angelus tutted as he strolled around the spacious office. "What ever made you think you could trust a vampire?"
His mocking tone gained the full attention of both women. One felt a bubble of hope in her chest and the other felt a dreadful sense of foreboding creeping up her spine. Like she had made one deal too many. Confused, Cordelia stepped away from Lilah
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Lilah snapped at him.
"I guess I changed my mind. I'm very fickle like that." Angelus shrugged.
"We had a deal, you bring me the seer and I give you full reign of the city!" Lilah's voice rose an octave in panic as she scrambled away from the desk.
"I never was very good at keeping promises, ask anyone. The Seer and the child are mine, and I really don't like it when people mess around with my stuff, makes me unbelievably cranky. You wanna see me cranky Lilah? Trust me, I don't think you'd enjoy it very much."
"You bastard!" Lilah spat at him.
"Sticks and stones Lilah, sticks and stones." Angelus tutted in his deadly sing song voice.
"Are you quite sure who's side you're on now?" Cordelia cocked her eyebrow at him, Angelus felt a rush of something unfamiliar in his chest at the sight of the disheveled young woman with passion in her eyes.
"For now." He winked at her.
"Good." She pinned the lawyer with a steely gaze. "I think now would be a good time to bring me my daughter don't you?"
"She's not here." Lilah straightened her jacket, brushing away invisible lint with nervous hands.
"Liar liar pants on fire." Angelus sung quietly making Lilah's blood run cold. "I can smell her, infact...." He stopped his lazy stroll and sniffed the air, he swiveled around on his heels until he faced the door that led into the lawyers bathroom. "....she's pretty damn near. Lets see what's behind door number two shall we?" The vampire took two easy strides and swung open the door. Cordelia held her breath as the demon wearing her mans face stepped out of view and into the other room, when he stepped out seconds later carefully holding her wriggling daughter in his arms Cordelia's heart began to beat again.
Sweet Emily.
Cordelia strode across the room with deceptively assured steps to Angelus and her daughter, she quickly checked her girl for any signs that she was hurt but there wasn't a bruise on her. Emily slapped her chubby little hand against the side of Cordelia's face, a joyful smile on her round face that made the Seer let out a soul shaking relieved breath. After a moment Cordelia realized that the vampire was trying to put the small girl in her arms, his face twisted into a disgruntled look that she would have laughed at a different time.
"I need you to hold her for a little while longer, do you think you can manage that?" Cordelia raised her eyebrows at him in question.
"You actually trust me with her?" Angelus asked her in disbelief.
"No, not at all. But there's something I need to do. If you even think about laying a finger on this girl I'll..."
"Yeah, yeah, cut off my manhood, staple my tongue to the floor, rip out my rib cage and wear it as a hat. I get the message Cordy." Angelus muttered, he was starting to sound extremely like Angel and Cordelia noticed it.
He called her Cordy.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cordelia called over her shoulder when she heard Lilah edging towards the door. She turned around to face the lawyer, her face set in a scowl, eyes daring the taller woman to move one more step.
"I had the overwhelming urge to vomit after watching your sugary reunion, thought I'd excuse myself." Lilah flicked her perfectly styled hair over her shoulder, her posture not betraying the foreboding that was flooding through her as the Sunnydale cheerleader walked casually over to her. Lilah took a step back when Cordelia invaded her personal space, her back hitting the closed door.
"So what was the big plan then Lilah? Or were you just playing with us again? Kidnap my baby and take away my man just to see what I'd do?" Cordelia folded her arms across her chest.
"What can I say, I was bored, thought I'd see what you were made of." Lilah shrugged and tapped her foot.
"So you decided to sneak into my home with a few goons, beat one of my best friends into unconsciousness, drug me in my sleep, suck out Angel's soul and steal my daughter. All because you had nothing better to do?" Cordelia put everything together in her head.
"It kept me amused for a while." Lilah smirked. "Although I didn't figure Angelus to be such a pussy." She said as an after thought.
"Yeah, we're all a little confused by that." Cordelia nodded her head in thoughtful agreement. "But it's not him you need to be worrying about right now."
"I'm shaking in my Jimmy Choos." The lawyer spat sarcastically.
"You should be. You fuck with us and you fuck with us and yet for some reason you're still alive. Angel could never bring himself to kill you because you're human. But I have absoluelty no problem with it, you're not human Lilah, you're nothing, a gnat that should have been flicked aside years ago. The first mistake you made was touching Emily, the second was underestimating what a mother will do to keep her child safe." Cordelia voice was low, her glare steady, her resolve set in iron.
"You don't have it in you." Lilah sneered at her.
"Don't I?"
The beautiful lawyer gasped with wide eyes when she felt the cold blade of Cordelia Chase's short sword stab deeply into her gut, white hot pain lancing across her body as the Powers that Be's Seer thrust it further through her flesh. Lilah's gaze traveled over the other woman's cold unblinking stare and down to where a sticky red stain was spreading across the bottom of her shirt.
"You bitch!" Lilah hissed through her teeth, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Don't ever fuck with my family again." Cordelia whispered into her ear then yanked the dagger out, uncaring as the lawyers blood ran down the handle and stained her hands. She took a step back and watched Lilah slip to the floor, no longer imposing when slumped and bleeding. Cordelia nudged aside a stocking clad leg that sprawled in her way and wrenched open the office door, not giving the fallen woman a second glance.
***
*Don't even start with me OK?
I did what I did and there's nothing I can do to change it.*
***
His Lady MacBeth in blue jeans.
When Cordelia and Angelus emerged from the basement with Emily only an hour after they had left everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After the relief the shouting began.
"You stupid girl what the bloody hell do you think you're playing at!" Wesley boomed slamming a heavy book shut.
"You fucking shot me in the leg!" Gunn growled from the couch he was sprawled heavily on.
"You could have been killed! Or worse!" Fred squeaked, her face flushed from tears and anger, she rushed to her friend and snatched Emily from Cordelia's arms. For the last hour she had every possible outcome swimming around her too imaginative brain and the thought that Cordelia wasn't exactly Cordelia any more forced her to take the child from it's mothers arms.
"Are you a vampire?!" Fred blurted out furiously making Angelus laugh loudly.
"No!" Cordelia snapped indignantly reaching for Emily but Fred was stepping backwards away from her. Wesley marched towards the Seer and tilted her head from side to side looking for a bite mark on her skin, when he felt her pulse beating he closed his eyes with a sigh. The Englishman heard the vampire growl at his actions but paid little attention to him, simply raising the crossbow he hadn't let out of his grasp in Angelus' direction.
"Pryce don't you have someone else to be annoying? Where's that yappy little girlfriend of yours, isn't Thursday pottery painting for the pair of you?" Angelus snarled at him, he really didn't like the way the ex-watcher was touching his woman. "Am I the only one here that feels the compulsion to sew kitty Katherine's mouth shut whenever she's in the room?"
Wesley ignored his verbal taunts and fingered the hem his dearest friends blood splattered T-shirt. Red marring the virginal white. He swallowed heavily and searched Cordelia's guarded face for answers.
"What did you do?" Wesley asked her, his voice a whisper that cut through the lobby.
"What had to be done." Cordelia's voice was flat, without emotion. She could feel Lilah's blood beneath her fingernails, streaks of red slashed across her jean clad thighs from where she had wiped her soiled hands. Cordelia watched Fred as she checked Emily over, the little girl clapping her hands and happily shouting 'Wes', satisfied that the child was unharmed Fred held her close and kissed her wild black hair.
"I'm afraid that's not going to cut it Cordelia." Wesley Wyndam Pryce pushed his luck.
"Back off Wes, I mean it, not now." She shrugged away from him and stalked into the office, pulling a clean top out of the second drawer of her desk. Not caring who was watching she quickly changed her shirt as she walked back into the lobby, throwing the ruined top on to a pile of pushed aside rubbish. She took a moment to look around, someone had picked up the filing cabinets and the spilt files, it was still an unholy mess but better than before.
"What are we going to do with the psycho vamp?" Gunn broke the tense silence, he was starting to regain feeling in his left side but it didn't abate his anger.
"We need to find a way to get Angel back." Fred murmured quietly.
"Am I not thrilling enough company for you Winifred?" Angelus pouted and fluttered his eyelashes at her, making the young woman blush.
"I didn't...I meant...I..I.." Fred stuttered nervously than gave up trying to be coherent and just shut up.
"Leave her alone and sit down, you're making everyone tense just standing there glaring." Cordelia barked at Angelus, to her friends surprise the vampire did as instructed.
"Jesus even when he's evil the woman's got him whipped." Gunn smirked and shifted in his seat. His left butt cheek was beginning to wake up and it wasn't a completely unpleasant feeling.
"I'll show you whipped boy!" Angelus snarled but didn't move from where he was seated. Even though he had done the white hat crap the buzzing in his head was getting steadily louder and the urge to bathe in the blood of the idiot humans surrounding him was lessening. There was a strange emotion building in his chest, he had a horrible feeling it was love.
Which meant only one thing.
"Fucking soul." He said under his breath. "Didn't even get the chance to throw the cheerleader down and show her what the do-gooder really wants to do to her."
"What was that?" Wesley shot an untrusting look at him.
"Angel's soul is leaking back, the drug or spell that Wolfram and Hart attempted is wearing off." What should have been a sentence full of joy and relief fell from her lips without emotion. Cordelia rubbed her hands together distractedly.
"It doesn't matter how many times you wash your hands Cor it will still be there. It's the price you pay when you.."
"Shut up." Cordelia snapped at Angelus cutting off the rest of his sentence. She knew what he was going to say and she really didn't need to hear it right now.
"Price you pay for what? Dammit woman what the hell happened?!" Wesley couldn't take not knowing any more.
"Leave it Wesley."
"No. Tell me Cordelia!" The ex-watcher grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him, his breath caught in his throat at the haunted visage that clouded her beautiful face.
"Oh for crapsake she killed the lawyer bitch, knife went through her like butter. It was quite a scene, sure as hell surprised me, especially as we already had the kid back. Vengeance thy name is Cordelia. No wonder the soul gets wood whenever she walks in the room." Angelus said, his vision was starting to go dark at the edges a sure sign that his fun was soon to be over, he rested his head against the wall and waited for the inevitable.
"You killed her?" Fred blinked at her in disbelief. "Why.....?" The Texan pleaded with her to explain herself, Cordelia couldn't bring herself to meet her gaze.
"Fuck Barbie, what were you thinking?"
"What I did is no ones business but my own."
"You knocked Gunn out, unchained a homicidal maniac, went off alone with him to straight into the lions den AND THEN you kill Lilah in cold blood? Of course this is our pissing business! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Wesley roared, his hands gesturing wildly at her.
"THEY HAD MY DAUGHTER!" Cordelia screamed, her voice echoing through the Hyperions corridors.
"We would have gotten Em back!"
"I don't want to talk about this." She went to turn her back on him but was abruptly stopped.
"Tough." The Englishman surprisingly strong hand bit into the soft flesh of her upper arm, Cordelia knew there would be a bruise there in the morning. Fred felt the comforting presence of her boyfriends arm slipping around her shoulders, she pressed her hands gently to Emily's ears. She shouldn't be hearing this.
"Let go of me Wesley." Her voice threateningly low.
"What are you going to do, stab me too? Got a taste for it?" Wesley hissed at her, memories of the beautiful young charge he had lost to the darkness clouding his mind.
"Don't you dare talk to me like I'm Faith." Cordelia shook with indignation at her old friends words.
"Why not, you're both guilty of the same crime. You both have blood on your hands."
"It's completely different and you know it!"
"Why because you're a seer, because you work for the powers? You've taken a life and that makes you no better than Faith." Disappointment dripped from Wesley's words, he caught Cordelia's wrist before she could slap him.
"Enough!" The forgotten vampire boomed and leapt out of his seat. The sudden movement startled them all into lifting the crossbows they were holding.
"Stay where you are Angelus." Charles Gunn shuffled clumsily over to him.
"It's me Gunn. The drug's worn off." Angel batted the loaded crossbow away.
"How can we tell you're telling the truth?" Gunn squinted suspiciously at him.
"Because if I were still Angelus I would have ripped Wesley's arm out of its socket as soon as he grabbed Cordelia's arm, and quite frankly I'm finding it a little difficult to suppress the desire to do so right now." Angel shot a glare at the Englishman who hastily let go of Cordelia's wrist. The Texan held on tightly to Emily as Angel walked towards her, unsure of what to believe.
Then she saw it in his eyes, deep dark pools filled with his beautiful soul. Fred let the vampire take Emily out of her arms and into the protective circle of his embrace.
"Hello pumpkin, been causing trouble again?" Angel kissed his daughters nose. "Cordy, why don't you go up stairs and get cleaned up. Me and the little mouse will be up second." He said without taking his eyes off of his smiling daughter. Cordelia stayed still for only a moment, blinking at the sudden change of events. When the shock passed her body finally registered everything that had happened in the last few hours, the Seer nodded silently and hurried up the staircase.
"If Lilah is dead then our problems have only just begun." Wesley threw his crossbow down on to the floor, metal scrapping against tile, scorching the already unsteady nerves of everyone in the room.
"I know." Angel sighed heavily. "I suggest you guys get off home, get some rest." The vampire told them over his shoulder as he lumbered up the stairs, the drugs that still lingered in his system making his limbs ache and feel heavy.
"This isn't just going to go away Angel. If Cordelia's...."
"I know Wes!" Angel cut him off before he could finish the sentence. "We will deal with whatever happens when it happens...just...now isn't the time."
"Fine." Wesley raked his hand through his hair and turned to leave.
"Wesley?" The vampire stopped him.
"Yes?"
"You ever speak to Cordelia like that again and you'll have me to deal with." He didn't wait for the Englishman's reply, leaving the silent lobby behind him.
***
The bathroom floor was cold against Cordelia's bare legs as she sat huddled in front of the toilet, her stomach still clenching although there was nothing left to throw up, she wiped the back of a shaking hand across her mouth. The Seer had stripped her clothes off as soon as she had stepped into the bedroom, the dried blood staining so much more than just her jeans. Cordelia took a deep unsteady breath, trying to control the termors that were shuddering through her body. She felt a cool hand settle on the small of her back, strong and reassuring, her port in a storm.
"W-where's Em?" Cordelia stammered, her voice hoarse.
"Happily playing with her 'wes' bear in her crib." Angel brushed the few loose strands of hair away from her forehead. "She's OK now sweetheart, you got her back." He ran his thumb across her jaw tenderly.
"I was so scared....I thought...." Cordelia finally let go, sobbing she buried herself into the broad expanse of Angels chest, her fingers grasping desperately at his sweater. "I woke up and everything I loved was gone....I thought she was dead...I thought..."
"Ssh baby, it's OK." Angel rocked her gently.
For a long time all that could be heard in the bathroom was the guttural cries and smoothing murmurs of the seer and her vampire as they clutched each other tightly, trying to keep each other safe from the outside world and the troubles they both knew would be...
***
*OK time out, if I have to think about that shit anymore my brain is going to implode and dribble out of my ears.*
"Talking to yourself my little sex bomb?"
"Lorne, what are you doing up?"
"I could hear you retelling the fable of Cordelia the Vengeful and you know how much I love to listen to that one."
*Ah, Lorne's trusty friend sarcasm.*
"It's hardly my favorite either Lorne."
"Did you tell them that I was overpowered by several enormous thugs thus leaving me unable to save the little nipper?"
"OK, you really need to let go of the guilt."
"I'm trying hun. Have you got to the bit where Lilah escapes the steely fingers of death and lives to annoy another day?"
"Thank you Lorne, you've just ruined the end."
"Oops."
"Just be quiet and let me finish the story OK?"
"Yes mom."
*So it turns out that I didn't kill Lilah, only brutally wounded her. Better luck next time huh? Oh quit grousing, you know I don't really mean it. Well not entirely. If she comes anywhere near our girl again though I won't think twice about finishing what I started.
All this happened a couple weeks before Buffy, Willow and Xander showed up for tea and cake so maybe it explains why I wasn't very welcoming to the Slayer. It was a difficult for quite a while, even after we found out that the Lawyer wasn't dead Wesley spent most of his time staring at me with disappointed eyes, we still have the odd row about it now but things are a hell of a lot better than that first argument we had.
Angel said his usual post-Angelus apologies, most of them to Wes. He even tried to spend more time with Katherine but that didn't last long, it always ended with someone having a headache.
Gunn still flinches whenever I pick up a weapon. I'm hoping that will pass.
Fred...well Fred's Fred, ya'know? Sometimes I think she's stronger than all of us put together.
Angel wasn't happy about me trusting Angelus and let me know about it, loudly, but that's a conversation that really is no ones business but ours. He thinks that if I tell you how he spent two hours shouting at me about trusting his evil half he'll come off in a bad light. I said that you guys were more than used too him acting like a dick but he was quite adamant.
Anyway, that's it really. Contrary to Wesley's belief I haven't suddenly developed a taste for maiming and murder, but if he doesn't start to get over it soon I may have to hurt him. I still have some issues with the Powers but who doesn't?
We might stumble and fall but we always find away to get up again.*
"And we all lived happily ever after huh sugarplum?"
"Fingers crossed Lorne, fingers crossed."
"So where's the groom to be then?"
"Sleeping the sleep of the immortally wounded, I think I was starting to annoy him, Angel can be so cranky when he's woken up in the middle of the night for no reason. Vampires, can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. So I have sought solace in stuffed olives and popcorn. You want?"
"Bleugh, I really don't. Would this late night confessional junk food fest have anything to do with certain wedding that's happening tomorrow night?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"Cordelia your aura is screaming nerves among other things, it's giving me quite a migraine. Please tell me you're not having second thoughts, I don't think we could take it."
"Of course I'm not Lorne, I'm all yay about becoming Mrs Angel No-Last-Name, it's just....what are the chances of Angel and I getting married and some minion of hell not crashing it?"
"Pretty much slim to none but we both know Angel will move heaven and earth to get that ring on your finger Cordy, he's a man on a marriage mission and no nasty will get in his way. The only beasties foolish enough to interfere are those pesky lawyer types but I doubt...they wouldn't ....they're not THAT stupid are they?"
"I know we've got the Hotel under more protection spells than Britney Spears dressing room and the PTB are finally looking after their own but I can't help but think something is going to go down here tomorrow night, probably just before I say 'I do'. How 'Days of our Lives' would that be?"
"Very Hope."
"Hence the nerves.....well it's that or I'm pregnant again."
*Which I'm not because that would be impossible, we've been no where near any alternative dimensions of late so...not of the possible. Emily, (who has graduated from saying just 'wes' and 'taco' to nonsensical sentences, we even get that occasional 'ma' and 'da' which is nice) was a wonderful Pylean fluke, there's no chance that I could be pregnant again.
Right?
Why is Lorne smiling at me like that?
Oh...my...god.
Well that explains the vomit-a-thon this week.*
"Angel! Wake up and get your miracle sperm filled testicles down here right now!"
*Wesley's gonna have a field day with his books on this one isn't he?*
the end.
Feedback: If ya liked it let me know, if ya didn't....well nerr! Distribution: You want it, you got it. But be a peach and let me know Authors note: Tis the sequel to 'One hundred uncertain steps'.
*--* denotes Cordy's narration.
****
"We've been too happy, life has been too good. We never get happy and good. We get heartache and despair, I'm use to that, I can deal with that. I think I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop." Cordelia 'One hundred uncertain steps'
***
*There is something very graceful about Angel when he moves, when he fights it's like dancing.
Beautiful. Lithe. Silent. Deadly.
So many times I've watched as he slips through the night, his feet barely touching the ground in hungry pursuit of his redemption. He's a vampire, a warrior, a lethal stranger in the shadows holding your heart in his hands with vengeance in his haunted gaze.....and he's taking up the entire bed with his stupid fat undead butt!*
"Angel...can you just...move over a little so I'm not hanging off the side here..."
"Sssh, go back to sleep sweetheart."
*Back to sleep? I never actually got to sleep in the first place.*
"So...how's the horrendously bloody gut wound feeling?"
"Ssshhh."
"I can't sleep."
"I figured that one out when you started pinching me."
*I love that pissed off sleepy mutter of his.*
"Well if you weren't such a solid lump in the middle of the bed and let me have just a little of the blanket I might stop with the...have you gone back to sleep? Angel? I know you're awake, you can't fool me that easily. C'mon broods, entertain me. Tell me one of your oh so interesting back in the day stories about the price of a good pint of ale, they usually bore me to sleep in no time. Angel? Love of my life, father of my child, vampire that rocks my world? Wake up!"
"I'll give you a hundred dollars if you be quiet and let me sleep."
"Pfft, not gonna..."
"One hundred dollars and the pair of shoes you were drooling over in that magazine the other day."
*Oooh the Manolo Blahniks!*
"Deal."
*I guess it's just you and me then huh? And I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you about the little hiccup we had a while back. Of course when I say 'the little hiccup' I actually mean 'the angst filled day of hell and destruction'.
I know last time we spoke I said that Fred would let you in on the whole fiasco but once again the responsibility has fallen to my fine self, I lost the vote twice on that one which I'm not happy about but it kinda makes sense. I mean I was the only one that was there all the way through, it's my story to tell. Fred doesn't like to talk about it, Wesley gets really really angry, Lorne goes on a guilt trip that surpasses anything that my very own man of constant sorrow has ever embarked on, Gunn was somewhat unconscious and Angel...well Angel was absent for reasons that will very quickly become glaringly apparent.
All those months ago I had felt something bad coming, something that would leave us with bloody hands and shattered spirits. I had felt it but pushed it aside, let Angel calm my fears and basked in the warm glow of happiness.
I thought nothing could harm us.
I was so fucking wrong.*
***
Blink and it's gone.
Cordelia switched on the bedside lamp and took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the sudden light. Her alarm clock blinked at her.
6:23 am.
"Too early." Cordelia groaned and swung her legs over the side of the bed. A wave of nausea the likes she hadn't felt since the first few months of being pregnant with Emily swam over her, she instinctively bent over and put her head between her knees. A stabbing pain erupted inside her skull blurring her vision and making the room spin on it's axis.
"Well this is worrying." She hissed and steadied herself with a hand on the bed. "Hey did we get really drunk last night or something?" Cordelia glanced over her shoulder and realised that he wasn't there. A cold empty space where her man should be.
"He picks the day I'm suddenly nausea girl to become an early riser." Cordelia muttered as she shakily slipped on her robe and pushed down the bile that was rising in her throat.
"Need coffee." She grumbled as she walked with unsteady legs to the nursery. "Hey little Em, have you seen you're..."
Cordelia blinked at the empty cot. She felt a deep cold dread crawl its way up her spine, the seer tried to shake the feeling, telling herself that she was being ridiculous, Angel and Emily were probably in the lounge watching Barney.
Everything was fine.
Nothing to worry about.
Trailing her hand along the wall as she walked down the dim corridor Cordelia tried to remember the night before. She was pretty sure there'd been no random drinking binges. It was just an ordinary evening, vision, help the hopeless, bandaging of wounds, baby snuggles then eggs all round. Once the others had gone home Cordelia and Angel had fallen into bed a little after one exhausted. Definitely no tequila and yet the seer felt as though she'd just woken up after the kind of drinking spree that would impress Spike.
The bad feeling that had been creeping over her went into overdrive as she entered the dark lounge.
"Angel?" Cordelia called out into the still room. She switched on the overhead light to be sure. Silent TV, empty couch, open drapes.
Nothing.
There was something very wrong about this.
Cordelia was halfway down the stairs before she even realised she was moving. She stopped abruptly when her fingers slid through something sticky on the banister.
Blood.
Jerking her hand away she ran blindly down the last few steps, her crimson robe flapping madly around her legs. She didn't feel the broken glass on the floor biting into her naked feet. The front door hung heavily on weak hinges, swaying dangerously on the morning breeze. Silence mocked the destruction of their home. Furniture laid broken, filing cabinets plundered of their bounty, pictures of her family smashed under uncaring boots.
An empty yellow blanket lay amongst the devastation.
"Oh god no." Cordelia whispered desperately, she stumbled frantically across the lobby, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind her. She rubbed the soft fabric between her trembling fingers, a thousand dreadful images swimming around her brain.
"Cordelia?" Lorne croaked hoarsely from behind her, she spun at his voice. The prescient demon stumbled forward from the office then dropped heavily to his knees. Broken and bruised, with blood on his silk pajamas he silently begged her for forgiveness.
"What happened...?" Her legs were lead, she couldn't move, barely breathing through the fear.
"I couldn't stop them.....I tried but, they just....." Lorne told the floor desperately, painful tears mixing with the blood on his face.
"Stop who?" Cordelia knelt in front of him, her hand anchored to his shoulder.
"I don't know, I..." He finally looked at her through swollen purple eyes, he choked on a sob that rumbled from his throat. "Oh God Cordy....I'm sorry."
"Where's my baby?" She sat up straight, fists clenched at her sides, fear sharpening her spine.
"I, I don't...." Lorne stuttered.
"Where's Emily? Where's my baby?" Cordelia shook his shoulder not caring what pain he was in. "WHERE'S MY BABY!!!?"
"They took her...I tried to stop them but I couldn't." He cried woefully.
"My baby...she's..... my baby girl?" She stumbled backwards in panic. "Emily... Lorne where's Angel? Dammit Lorne wake up!" She screamed at the half unconscious demon on the floor.
"He's gone."
"They took...?" Cordelia croaked.
"No...he's...he's gone. They did something to him, they stole his...he wasn't...him." Lorne tried to fight the fog that was taking over his brain but it was a battle he was quickly losing.
"Angelus?" Cordelia felt numb tears rolling down her face. Lorne nodded then slipped into the comforting darkness where he hadn't let down his friends, where things were peaceful and safe and Ella sang to him.
She scrambled backwards across the floor in shock, her robe tearing on the jagged pieces of her life that laid broken around her.
Gone. Her sweet baby girl was gone.
Angelus.
"No. That can't....No. NO! NO!!"
Very few of the early morning passers by that milled outside the Hyperion Hotel on their way to the office jobs, sipping coffee and talking on cell phones noticed the beautiful young woman in the red silk robe as she stumbled out of her home and onto the sidewalk, screaming at the sky with bleeding feet, vomiting on the ground until she had nothing left to lose.
***
*It all happened so quickly, too quickly for me to think and make sense of things in my head. But that's the way it goes I suppose, no dusty prophecy biting at our heels, no apocalypse knocking at our door. No warning from the Powers that fucking be.
Just a bright sunny morning with birds in the sky, the scent of honeysuckle in the air and blood washing over the floor of our home.*
***
"We found her outside like this." Fred whispered to Wesley, she wasn't sure why she was speaking so quietly, Cordelia certainly couldn't hear her.
"What the hell happened here?" Wesley asked in astonishment, the Englishman had stumbled into their worse nightmare minutes ago, words were almost beyond him. He stared into Cordelia's unblinking eyes looking for a clue.
"Armageddon by the looks of it. Gunn's taken Lorne upstairs, he's still unconscious, he was...in a bad way. I have no idea where Angel and Emily are Wes, they're just....gone." Fred's tear filled eyes begged him to make everything better. "None of this makes sense! Why would Angel leave with Em and not take Cordy with him?!"
"Maybe they had an argument?" Even as he said it he knew that could be the case, Angel would never do that to the woman he loved no matter what the fight was about. Wesley brushed Cordelia's messy hair away from her face. "Cordy? Cordy you need to snap out of this, you have to tell us what happened here."
"She's in shock, she didn't even flinch when I pulled the glass out of her feet. It's like she's just gone numb." Fred grasped the other woman's hand and pinched the soft flesh on her palm. Nothing.
"Lorne's still out of it." Gunn jogged down the staircase, careful to avoid the drying blood on the banister. "Whoever did this beat him pretty bad, if it were for him being a demon I doubt he'd still be alive right now."
"There's something very wrong here." Wesley stated the glaringly obvious.
"What are we going to do?" Fred asked him, scared out of her mind for her friends. "I don't even know where to....Angel!" She cried suddenly, she leapt out of her seat beside Cordelia and ran to the vampire that had emerged from the basement, enveloping him in a hug that made him stumble backwards.
"You're OK! Where have you been?" She asked him frantically, her small hands gripping on the sleeves of his leather jacket.
"Went for a walk." He extracted himself from the petite woman's grip. "Where's Emily?" Wesley frowned noting his friends apparent disinterest at the destruction of his home and the catatonic state his girlfriend was in.
"She isn't here?" Angel sauntered across the lobby, kicking debris out of his path as he went.
"No." The Englishman felt his blood run cold.
"Angel something dreadful has happened, Lorne's been beaten up, Cordelia's in shock and Emily's missing!" Fred cried, she went to move towards him but was abruptly stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder.
No one had seen the life rush back into Cordelia's eyes at the sound of Angel's voice.
"Get away from him Fred." The Seer said without emotion, she kicked up a sword that laid at her feet and marched towards him.
"Cordy what are you....?" The Texan rushed to her side, Cordelia pushed her backwards making her fall heavily on her butt. "Wes?" Why was Wesley pointing a crossbow at his friends chest?
"Where is she Angelus?" Cordelia asked him calmly, her gaze never leaving his.
"Nice to see you too Cor." Angelus smirked, he ran his lecherous gaze up and down her barely clothed body, Fred had removed her ruined robe as soon as they had brought Cordelia into the Hotel and wrapped her in a blanket that had now slipped forgotten from her shoulders, leaving the Seer in a her underwear, chin raised in defiance with her lovers broadsword held securely in her hands. She was Cordelia Chase and Angelus had never seen anything so delicious. "Don't I get a kiss hello?"
"You move a muscle and I'll rip out your tongue and staple it to the floor." Cordelia threatened him, Angelus chuckled at her moxy.
"I don't understand...he's Angelus?" Fred said in confusion.
"You guys are in real trouble if she's meant to be the clever one." Angelus nodded his head towards the Texan still sitting on the floor, not taking his eyes away from the woman in front of him, a warrior in lilac lace. He ran his tongue across his teeth, itching with desire for blood he had tasted second hand through a soul. "So Cor..." He purred dangerously. "Did ya miss me?" Angelus took a step towards her, uncaring as the sword bit into the flesh of his neck.
"About as much as a girl misses syphilis." Cordelia growled and held on firmly to the weapon in her hands, fear making her braver than she actually was.
"Now is that anyway to talk to your husband to be? I'm hurt, truly." The vampire pouted theatrically.
"Where is my daughter?" Cordelia demanded again steadily, time slipping through her dirty hands.
"Don't you mean OUR daughter Cor?" Angelus wrapped a strand of her dark hair around his finger, something Angel had playfully done time and time again. Cordelia realised he was too near to her, dangerously close and yet it wasn't him she feared, her life would mean nothing if she didn't find her daughter. No terror could compare with that.
"Cordelia get away from him." Wesley warned her, his crossbow trained on the vampire.
"Hello Wes! Didn't notice you there, guess you get that a lot though dont'cha? I've gotta say I didn't expect you to stick around this long, correction, to be ALIVE this long. But I'm sure we can rectify that soon enough when I rip your heart out through your chest." Angelus smirked, eyes flashing yellow at the thought. It felt so good to be back. "Hollow threats Angelus? How very you." The ex-watcher rolled his eyes and kicked an ax over to where Gunn stood, already loaded up with a crossbow.
"Quite a little family you've got here." Angelus gestured around the tense lobby, he saw Cordelia tense at the movement. "The soul must be all sorts of Brady bunch happy." His eyes drifted over to Gunn who stood still and determined. "Charles Gunn, haven't you figured out that you don't belong here yet? You don't fit and you know it. Twiggy on the floor there doesn't really want you, it's Angel she's wanted ever since she met him. She settled for a poor excuse for second best with you didn't she? How very sad." The vampire tutted with false sympathy.
"How do we shut this idiot up?" Charles Gunn snapped at no one particular.
"My sweet sweet Cordelia Chase." Angelus purred ignoring him and zeroed in on the Sunnydale head cheerleader that was trying her best to stay standing with weak knees. "When did you suddenly turn into a saint? Little girl playing dress up, that's what you are. You know this isn't going to last, you've got what, a year before those visions of yours blow the back of your head out? You know it, I know it, even the idiot soul knows it. And for what Cor? A mission that couldn't give a fuck about you and yours? Is that what you really want?" He tried to silent the buzzing in the back of his mind that made him want to take back the words he said but it was starting to get too loud, too insistent.
"WHERE...IS...MY...DAUGHTER?" Cordelia grunted through gritted teeth, shaken by the almost tender way Angelus was talking to her.
"Is anyone else getting bored with the broken record here or is it just me?" Angelus rolled his eyes and shut off his brain.
"Why don't you just answer the damn question?" Gunn approached him slowly, he didn't like how close Cordelia was to the demon they had all thought they would never see again.
"I think I'd much rather do this." Angelus moved so fast that the others barely saw it.
Cordelia's sword clattered uselessly to the floor as the vampire tugged her into his unyielding arms. His lips bruised hers, shattering the thousand tender kisses Angel and Cordelia had shared. She struggled against his sheer brutality, tears of loss running down her cheeks as she raked her nails down the side of his face. He jerked his head away, a dangerous look in his eyes.
"Kitten has claws." Angelus smirked but didn't let her go. "Usually it's Angel's back you're scratching at, but I guess we should get to know each other a little better before we get to that."
"Angelus, you really are the stupidest fucker I've ever met." Cordelia gasped for air and pushed him away. His response was cut wonderfully short by the steel chair that hit him across the back of the head until he fell to the floor unconscious. Fred threw the chair down somewhat in shock at what she'd done to the man that had saved her from hell.
"I'm getting rather good at sneaking up and whacking the bad guys aren't I?" Fred muttered quietly without humor, she was pretty certain she was going to either throw up or faint. It was a toss up between the two. "Do you think Angel will be mad that I knocked him out?" She asked Wesley nervously, he like Gunn had watched the entire scene play out before him, impotent with shock to do anything.
"That's not Angel, Fred. Angel's gone." Cordelia said coldly, the words felt bitter in her mouth, a taste she feared would never leave her. The young woman straightened her shoulders. There was work to be done.
***
Nine am and counting.
"Nothing? How can there be nothing? Look again!" Cordelia shouted at Wesley as she paced the lobby floor.
"Cordelia the security cameras were all turned off at four am, there's no footage of whoever took Em, no matter how many times I look at the bloody tapes I'm not going to find anything!" Wesley barked back at her. Tempers were running short.
"Cordy you should sit down, the cuts on your feet won't heal...." Fred spoke up timidly from the furthest corner away from everyone, she felt the strong desire to hide underneath a table and never come out.
"I can't fucking well sit down! I have to find my baby girl!!" The Seer snapped angrily. It was nine am, still early but with every passing minute Cordelia felt as though her daughter was getting further and further away from her. She dragged her hands through her messy hair, she had to do something, had to move, find the people responsible and slowly shred their skin from their bones.
"As entertaining as this is...." Angelus said from where he was chained to a chair. ".....I'm starting to get bored."
"Shut up." Cordelia muttered barely glancing at him.
"Not really feeling the love right now Cor." He said casually tugging on the chains that bound him but it was no use, the held fast.
"Do you want to be unconscious again?" Gunn raised the baseball bat threateningly.
"Try it and I'll break every bone in your body when I'm free." Angelus glared at the young black man.
"Now you see that's where you're wrong, cos there's no way in hell you're getting out of those chains." Gunn swung the bat around a few times making sure the vampire got the idea.
"Oh for heavens sake, I'm going to see if Lorne's awake yet, maybe he knows something." Wesley muttered and stalked upstairs, he couldn't think with so much yammering and he feared time was running out.
Cordelia slowly advanced on the demon they all had nightmares about at one time or another, still the young woman wasn't afraid of him like she use to be, she was too busy being terrified of what might be happening to her child to give a damn about the psychopath that had taken over Angel's body.
"Why are you here?" Cordelia frowned at Angelus, she poked the sword she was holding against his chest. They weren't taking any chances.
"Who could resist such delicious company?" Angelus purred, Cordelia ignored the suggestive way he licked his lips and ran his eyes up and down her body, at least she was dressed this time. "Why don't you come sit on my lap Cor and let me have a taste."
"Pfft, like I'm that stupid, I'm not Buffy Angelus, I will kill you in a heartbeat if I find out you have anything to do with my daughter being taken away. You harm any of my people and I'll kill you. You even look at Fred like she's food one more time and I'll cut off your head."
"You really think you can kill the father of you're child, the man you're going to marry? You haven't got the balls woman."
"You wanna find out?" Cordelia raised the sword to Angelus' throat, her heart numb and her eyes vacant. "I suggest you start talking right the hell now."
"And what do I get in return?" Angelus purred suggestively at her, gritting his teeth when the persistent buzzing went up a notch.
"How about full use of all you appendages." She scowled and dragged the sword down to his groin. "You say you have know idea what happened with Emily but I know your lying. There's a reason you're here, a reason you didn't slaughter me in my sleep this morning. You're acting very un-Angelusy so STOP FUCKING AROUND AND TELL ME!"
Even the scourge of Europe grimaced at the sound of Cordelia's booming voice. The insistent buzz, that was starting to sound more like a whine, turned up a notch in his head making his teeth buzz and his eye twitch. Angelus shook his head trying to silent it, the urge to bang his head against the nearest wall was overpowering.
"OK, what's he doing now?" Gunn picked up his discarded crossbow and aimed it at the vampire that was muttering nonsensically under his breath.
"Hey." Cordelia clapped her hands in front of Angelus' face to gain his attention. "What's with the crazy?"
"He's still here, won't be quiet." Angelus groaned, it surprised them all that he actually sounded like he was in pain.
"What?" Cordelia's patience was walking a very shaky tightrope and she didn't have time to play the vampires games.
"The fucking soul!"
"Angel, he's still....you mean he hasn't...." Fred rushed over to them, a small bubble of hope bobbing in her chest.
"Would it kill you to actually finish a sentence?" The vampire snapped at the little Texan, he took pleasure in the wave of hurt that washed over her face.
"Who's behind all this." Cordelia forced herself to ignore the revelation that Angel *might* still be close by and focused on the matter in hand. Emily.
"Why should I tell you white hats? I might have soul boy whispering my ear but I sure as hell don't have to listen to him."
"Because...." Cordelia fingered the small white scar marring the smooth plane of her skin, a reminder of a night long ago. "....this is family business."
Angelus' eyes narrowed at her admission, he wondered if she realised what she was saying.
"Who's been making your pathetic lives even more of a misery ever since you stumbled into LA?" Angelus said with a sigh, he couldn't believe he was doing this. "Who has the money, man power and brains to drug you, rip out Angel's soul and kidnap his baby without leaving a trace of evidence? Do you need me to spell it out for you? Tall, leggy lawyer type?" Angelus rolled his eyes, was he actually helping these humans? He should have been feasting on their insides, bathing in their blood, dancing a merry jig on their graves. Yet he wasn't, he was helping them. "Fucking soul residue." Angelus muttered bitterly.
"Wolfram and fucking Hart." Cordelia ground out bitterly. "Lilah has just signed her death warrant."
"Are we believing the homicidal psychopath now, cos last time I checked they're not usually the most reliable members of society." Gunn said in disbelief.
"Right now it's all we've got. I'm going to get my daughter back." Cordelia shrugged on her leather jacket.
"What are you going to do? Charge in there and just glare at them until they give you Em back." The young black man tried to reason with his friend. "We need a plan."
"I have a plan. I find Lilah, kill Lilah and bring our girl home." She stuck a small knife into her belt.
"That would be from the Angel school of planning." Gunn grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Let me go. This is my fight Gunn. My daughter, my vampire. I won't have you stopping me from doing what needs to be done." She jerked out of his grasp.
"Maybe the powers..." Fred started weakly.
"Damn the PTB! Where were they when Angels daughter, their fucking champions daughter was stolen by the enemy! Sitting keeping the balance? Fuck that. Is this what we have to give up for the mission? If it is then that's it, I quit. I'm through with the fucking powers that be and their damn mission if they can't even look after their own."
"You don't mean that." Fred frowned. "We help the hopeless, people need us..."
"We are the hopeless Fred, who the hell is helping us?" Cordelia said with bleak resignation.
"There is no way you're going on your own." Gunn brought that back to the issue at hand.
"I'm not. He's coming with me." Cordelia nodded towards Angelus who was watching the scene with boredom.
"Have you lost your mind?" Gunn bellowed at her.
"Maybe." She shrugged. "But he's the only one with enough brute force to help me do what I need to do."
"You undo those chains and we're as good as dead." Gunn was desperate to get the little rugrat back as much as anyone but he knew a suicidal plan when he saw it.
"If he was going to kill us we would have been dead a long time ago." Cordelia fingered the small padlock key, wondering herself if she had completely lost all common sense.
"What exactly makes you think I'm going to help you cheerleader?" Angelus asked her intrigued.
"Because...it's not only Angel that I love." She said quietly, almost afraid to say it out loud. "I know you won't hurt me Angelus because it's not just Angel that talks to me, laughs with me, makes love to me. You were always there no matter how much Angel tried to pretend you weren't. I know that." Cordelia took a deep breath and stared the vampire in the eye. "You'll help me because Emily is your daughter too and I know for a fact that Angelus looks after his own."
"Pfft, I don't....." The high pitched whine turned up another level, it felt like his brain was going to dribble out of his ears. "Fine! I'll help, I'll save the day and win the hearts of the towns folk, anything to shut it up." At his acquiescence the buzz shifted to a low hum, Angelus let out a unneeded sigh of relief.
"I can't let you do this Cordelia." Gunn frowned and stepped in between her and the vampire.
"I know Charles." Cordelia said with a sad smile. "That's why I have to do this." She raised the tranquilizer gun they had kept on the desk in case Angelus got out of control and with a surprisingly steady hand fired a dart into her friends thigh.
"What the fuck..." He groaned before he tumbled to the floor and fell into a very deep sleep. Cordelia turned to Fred and her heart broke at the way her friend was backing away from her in fear, her eyes full of tearful questions.
"He'll have a headache when he wakes up, look after him and tell him .....tell him I'm sorry."
"Don't do this Cordelia...." Fred whispered as she watched her bend down and unlock the chains that held tight the most feared vampire in the world.
***
*OK, so I wasn't thinking straight.
I trusted Angelus. Willingly went off alone with him. I had no idea if I were walking to my death or worse but I honestly didn't care.
I had to find Emily and god help anyone foolish enough to get in my way.*
***
Hell hath no fury.
The offices of Wolfram and Hart didn't reek of evil and hellfire, they smelt like lavender. It was this that Cordelia mulled over as she strode down the expensively decorated hallways with Angelus, not the fact that the vampire could snap her neck in a second, not that he had already killed thirteen people on the way to Lilah's office, and not the fact that her sweet child had been stolen from her by a woman that was an even bigger bitch than herself. All she could think was that it smelt pretty here. Cordelia flinched when she heard the haunting crack of another guards neck being broken.
"Enjoying yourself?" She hissed at him.
"Hey, you invited me along on this little mission, what did you expect? If you've changed your mind I can think of a couple million other things we can do instead." Angelus winked at her.
"Let me guess, in most of them I end up dead right?"
"More like naked. Why would I want to kill you, you're the first decent lay Angel and I have had in a long while. Anyway, if I snapped your neck that fucking Slayer would be straight here all stake happy. Why couldn't she just stay dead like most of them do? Stupid fucking bitch."
"Have you quite finished? That 'stupid fucking bitch' is a friend...." Cordelia thought for a moment. "OK maybe friend is too strong a word, but Buffy kicked your fat ass into hell and I think that deserves a little respect. Plus, from what I hear she's getting cozy with your boy Spike, she might be family soon." Cordelia snarked at him. Being a bitch was just about all she could handle right now. She'd been waiting for the right time to break it to Angel that his ex was now sleeping with Spike but had never found the right opportunity. She took the easy way out.
"Spike and Buffy? Has he lost his fucking mind? That's just....actually that's rather funny." Angelus chuckled as he reached out and grabbed yet another guard by the neck. The Seer watched him cautiously out of the corner of her eye as they strode down the corridor, his light laughter reminded her so much of Angel it made it difficult to believe that this wasn't the man she'd fell in love with.
Angel was gone no matter what his homicidally unreliable alter ego claimed.
Cordelia pushed her heartbreak down, she would cry for him once their daughter was safe. A nagging thought whispered in the far recesses of her brain.
"This has been too easy, there should have been more security than this and what happened to the vampire alarms? There's something very not right going on....." Cordelia frowned as they reached Lilah Morgan's office. "....we shouldn't have got this far."
"It's too late for second thoughts now Cor, don't tell me you've turned chicken on me." Angelus purred at her, his stare daring her to turn tail and run. With a tenderness that surprised them both the vampire brushed his thumb across the plump flesh of her bottom lip.
Another distinctly Angel gesture. Maybe he really was still in there somewhere. Angelus jerked his hand away as though he'd been burnt, his lip curling in disgust at the affectionate thoughts that where bubbling up inside his brain.
"Lets just do this." The seer straightened her shoulders and raised her sword stepping away from the demon that has wearing her loves face.
Calling up the last reserves of courage she could find inside herself Cordelia pushed the door open. C'mon Chase, do what needs to be done, she told herself.
"Yes, they've just arrived." Lilah Morgan ended the call abruptly and threw her cell phone carelessly onto her desk, she crossed one slender leg over the other and leant back in her chair, a dangerous smile on her lips. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"You have something that belongs to us and we want it back." Cordelia told the lawyer, it took all of her control not to slap the smirk from the other woman's face.
"Is that so?" Lilah arched one perfect eyebrow at her and tapped her nails on the desk, an air of complete boredom emanating from the woman.
"I'm really not in the mood for snappy parley Lilah, just give me back my daughter or I'll happily separate your head from your body." Cordelia said through a menacing smile.
"Yeah right, you're all bark and no bite Cordelia." Lilah rolled her eyes theatrically.
"Well then it's just as well I brought fang here isn't it?" The Seer nodded her head towards the unusually quiet vampire.
"Ah yes, Angelus. I must commend you on getting Cordelia here so quickly. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to do it."
"Forever underestimated, it's my curse." Angelus sighed dramatically.
"You....." Cordelia blinked in realization at the vampire she had blindly trusted. She'd been set up, she was never going to get out of here alive let alone get her child back. She knew she should run but she couldn't get her legs to work. It had been foolish and naive to believe him but it was the only glimpse of hope she had had at finding her daughter and she'd grasped it with both hands, and now she'd die for another dumb decision she'd made.
"How you people thwart our plans time after time is completely beyond me." Lilah cackled and sprang lithely out of her chair. "You're not really surprised that he double crossed you are you? Hello! He's a vampire!" She laughed loudly and stalked over to Angelus, she ran her expensively manicured hand over the soft material of his gray sweater. "And mercifully not the boring souled kind any more." Her eyes danced over Angelus hungrily. "I have a feeling things are going to get a whole lot more interesting around here from now on."
Angelus growled and grasped Lilah's shoulders roughly, dragging her eager body to his, he heard her heart beat speed up ten fold, her breathing deepened and the unmistakable aroma of desire assaulted his senses.
"You have no idea just how interesting." The vampire whispered into her ear and breathed in the her deep scent, he ran his tongue across the regal curve of her neck and felt the lawyer shiver with want. With a grin that had brought Europe to it's knees Angelus shoved Lilah away from him, relishing the heated gaze she kept trained on him as she leant breathlessly against her desk.
Sick to her stomach Cordelia seized the small dagger she had hidden in her belt and nervously stepped away from the conspirators, her insides clenching with nausea.
"J-just give me back my child, she's of no use to you. Emily's human, not some supernatural savior/destroyer of the world. She's a baby girl, what can you possibly need her for?" Cordelia asked a smirking Lilah.
"Pretty much just to make your life miserable. She's such a pretty little thing, it's almost a shame that she won't get to see her next birthday." She breezed innocently studying her nails. "You didn't honestly think we'd let you have a happy ending did you Chase? Two point four children and a white picket fence? Did you really think that you had any kind of future with the vampire? Are you THAT stupid?" Hatred dripped from lawyers words.
"Shut up." Cordelia shook with anger making Lilah smile.
"Oh have I struck a nerve? Tell me something Cor, cos this has been bugging me for the longest time. If you hadn't trapped Angel with a kid do you think that he would have even looked twice at you?"
"If you've even touched one hair on my girls head I'll skin you alive." The Seer ignored her jealous question and advanced towards her, sword raised ominously.
"You take one step closer to me and Angelus will snap you in two." Lilah scowled at her, Cordelia ignored her threats and took a confident step forward, she had nothing left to lose. She pressed the cold metal of the blade against the other woman's neck, using all her strength to push Lilah against her desk. Cordelia waited for the blackness that would come when Angelus did Lilah's bidding. She hoped she'd get at least one good blow in before everything faded to nothing.
"Angelus." The lawyer hissed, beginning to get nervous, Cordelia had a blank stare in her eyes that she had never seen before, as though she were running on automatic pilot and wouldn't stop until one of their blood was split on the floor.
"Lilah, Lilah, Lilah." Angelus tutted as he strolled around the spacious office. "What ever made you think you could trust a vampire?"
His mocking tone gained the full attention of both women. One felt a bubble of hope in her chest and the other felt a dreadful sense of foreboding creeping up her spine. Like she had made one deal too many. Confused, Cordelia stepped away from Lilah
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Lilah snapped at him.
"I guess I changed my mind. I'm very fickle like that." Angelus shrugged.
"We had a deal, you bring me the seer and I give you full reign of the city!" Lilah's voice rose an octave in panic as she scrambled away from the desk.
"I never was very good at keeping promises, ask anyone. The Seer and the child are mine, and I really don't like it when people mess around with my stuff, makes me unbelievably cranky. You wanna see me cranky Lilah? Trust me, I don't think you'd enjoy it very much."
"You bastard!" Lilah spat at him.
"Sticks and stones Lilah, sticks and stones." Angelus tutted in his deadly sing song voice.
"Are you quite sure who's side you're on now?" Cordelia cocked her eyebrow at him, Angelus felt a rush of something unfamiliar in his chest at the sight of the disheveled young woman with passion in her eyes.
"For now." He winked at her.
"Good." She pinned the lawyer with a steely gaze. "I think now would be a good time to bring me my daughter don't you?"
"She's not here." Lilah straightened her jacket, brushing away invisible lint with nervous hands.
"Liar liar pants on fire." Angelus sung quietly making Lilah's blood run cold. "I can smell her, infact...." He stopped his lazy stroll and sniffed the air, he swiveled around on his heels until he faced the door that led into the lawyers bathroom. "....she's pretty damn near. Lets see what's behind door number two shall we?" The vampire took two easy strides and swung open the door. Cordelia held her breath as the demon wearing her mans face stepped out of view and into the other room, when he stepped out seconds later carefully holding her wriggling daughter in his arms Cordelia's heart began to beat again.
Sweet Emily.
Cordelia strode across the room with deceptively assured steps to Angelus and her daughter, she quickly checked her girl for any signs that she was hurt but there wasn't a bruise on her. Emily slapped her chubby little hand against the side of Cordelia's face, a joyful smile on her round face that made the Seer let out a soul shaking relieved breath. After a moment Cordelia realized that the vampire was trying to put the small girl in her arms, his face twisted into a disgruntled look that she would have laughed at a different time.
"I need you to hold her for a little while longer, do you think you can manage that?" Cordelia raised her eyebrows at him in question.
"You actually trust me with her?" Angelus asked her in disbelief.
"No, not at all. But there's something I need to do. If you even think about laying a finger on this girl I'll..."
"Yeah, yeah, cut off my manhood, staple my tongue to the floor, rip out my rib cage and wear it as a hat. I get the message Cordy." Angelus muttered, he was starting to sound extremely like Angel and Cordelia noticed it.
He called her Cordy.
"Where do you think you're going?" Cordelia called over her shoulder when she heard Lilah edging towards the door. She turned around to face the lawyer, her face set in a scowl, eyes daring the taller woman to move one more step.
"I had the overwhelming urge to vomit after watching your sugary reunion, thought I'd excuse myself." Lilah flicked her perfectly styled hair over her shoulder, her posture not betraying the foreboding that was flooding through her as the Sunnydale cheerleader walked casually over to her. Lilah took a step back when Cordelia invaded her personal space, her back hitting the closed door.
"So what was the big plan then Lilah? Or were you just playing with us again? Kidnap my baby and take away my man just to see what I'd do?" Cordelia folded her arms across her chest.
"What can I say, I was bored, thought I'd see what you were made of." Lilah shrugged and tapped her foot.
"So you decided to sneak into my home with a few goons, beat one of my best friends into unconsciousness, drug me in my sleep, suck out Angel's soul and steal my daughter. All because you had nothing better to do?" Cordelia put everything together in her head.
"It kept me amused for a while." Lilah smirked. "Although I didn't figure Angelus to be such a pussy." She said as an after thought.
"Yeah, we're all a little confused by that." Cordelia nodded her head in thoughtful agreement. "But it's not him you need to be worrying about right now."
"I'm shaking in my Jimmy Choos." The lawyer spat sarcastically.
"You should be. You fuck with us and you fuck with us and yet for some reason you're still alive. Angel could never bring himself to kill you because you're human. But I have absoluelty no problem with it, you're not human Lilah, you're nothing, a gnat that should have been flicked aside years ago. The first mistake you made was touching Emily, the second was underestimating what a mother will do to keep her child safe." Cordelia voice was low, her glare steady, her resolve set in iron.
"You don't have it in you." Lilah sneered at her.
"Don't I?"
The beautiful lawyer gasped with wide eyes when she felt the cold blade of Cordelia Chase's short sword stab deeply into her gut, white hot pain lancing across her body as the Powers that Be's Seer thrust it further through her flesh. Lilah's gaze traveled over the other woman's cold unblinking stare and down to where a sticky red stain was spreading across the bottom of her shirt.
"You bitch!" Lilah hissed through her teeth, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Don't ever fuck with my family again." Cordelia whispered into her ear then yanked the dagger out, uncaring as the lawyers blood ran down the handle and stained her hands. She took a step back and watched Lilah slip to the floor, no longer imposing when slumped and bleeding. Cordelia nudged aside a stocking clad leg that sprawled in her way and wrenched open the office door, not giving the fallen woman a second glance.
***
*Don't even start with me OK?
I did what I did and there's nothing I can do to change it.*
***
His Lady MacBeth in blue jeans.
When Cordelia and Angelus emerged from the basement with Emily only an hour after they had left everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After the relief the shouting began.
"You stupid girl what the bloody hell do you think you're playing at!" Wesley boomed slamming a heavy book shut.
"You fucking shot me in the leg!" Gunn growled from the couch he was sprawled heavily on.
"You could have been killed! Or worse!" Fred squeaked, her face flushed from tears and anger, she rushed to her friend and snatched Emily from Cordelia's arms. For the last hour she had every possible outcome swimming around her too imaginative brain and the thought that Cordelia wasn't exactly Cordelia any more forced her to take the child from it's mothers arms.
"Are you a vampire?!" Fred blurted out furiously making Angelus laugh loudly.
"No!" Cordelia snapped indignantly reaching for Emily but Fred was stepping backwards away from her. Wesley marched towards the Seer and tilted her head from side to side looking for a bite mark on her skin, when he felt her pulse beating he closed his eyes with a sigh. The Englishman heard the vampire growl at his actions but paid little attention to him, simply raising the crossbow he hadn't let out of his grasp in Angelus' direction.
"Pryce don't you have someone else to be annoying? Where's that yappy little girlfriend of yours, isn't Thursday pottery painting for the pair of you?" Angelus snarled at him, he really didn't like the way the ex-watcher was touching his woman. "Am I the only one here that feels the compulsion to sew kitty Katherine's mouth shut whenever she's in the room?"
Wesley ignored his verbal taunts and fingered the hem his dearest friends blood splattered T-shirt. Red marring the virginal white. He swallowed heavily and searched Cordelia's guarded face for answers.
"What did you do?" Wesley asked her, his voice a whisper that cut through the lobby.
"What had to be done." Cordelia's voice was flat, without emotion. She could feel Lilah's blood beneath her fingernails, streaks of red slashed across her jean clad thighs from where she had wiped her soiled hands. Cordelia watched Fred as she checked Emily over, the little girl clapping her hands and happily shouting 'Wes', satisfied that the child was unharmed Fred held her close and kissed her wild black hair.
"I'm afraid that's not going to cut it Cordelia." Wesley Wyndam Pryce pushed his luck.
"Back off Wes, I mean it, not now." She shrugged away from him and stalked into the office, pulling a clean top out of the second drawer of her desk. Not caring who was watching she quickly changed her shirt as she walked back into the lobby, throwing the ruined top on to a pile of pushed aside rubbish. She took a moment to look around, someone had picked up the filing cabinets and the spilt files, it was still an unholy mess but better than before.
"What are we going to do with the psycho vamp?" Gunn broke the tense silence, he was starting to regain feeling in his left side but it didn't abate his anger.
"We need to find a way to get Angel back." Fred murmured quietly.
"Am I not thrilling enough company for you Winifred?" Angelus pouted and fluttered his eyelashes at her, making the young woman blush.
"I didn't...I meant...I..I.." Fred stuttered nervously than gave up trying to be coherent and just shut up.
"Leave her alone and sit down, you're making everyone tense just standing there glaring." Cordelia barked at Angelus, to her friends surprise the vampire did as instructed.
"Jesus even when he's evil the woman's got him whipped." Gunn smirked and shifted in his seat. His left butt cheek was beginning to wake up and it wasn't a completely unpleasant feeling.
"I'll show you whipped boy!" Angelus snarled but didn't move from where he was seated. Even though he had done the white hat crap the buzzing in his head was getting steadily louder and the urge to bathe in the blood of the idiot humans surrounding him was lessening. There was a strange emotion building in his chest, he had a horrible feeling it was love.
Which meant only one thing.
"Fucking soul." He said under his breath. "Didn't even get the chance to throw the cheerleader down and show her what the do-gooder really wants to do to her."
"What was that?" Wesley shot an untrusting look at him.
"Angel's soul is leaking back, the drug or spell that Wolfram and Hart attempted is wearing off." What should have been a sentence full of joy and relief fell from her lips without emotion. Cordelia rubbed her hands together distractedly.
"It doesn't matter how many times you wash your hands Cor it will still be there. It's the price you pay when you.."
"Shut up." Cordelia snapped at Angelus cutting off the rest of his sentence. She knew what he was going to say and she really didn't need to hear it right now.
"Price you pay for what? Dammit woman what the hell happened?!" Wesley couldn't take not knowing any more.
"Leave it Wesley."
"No. Tell me Cordelia!" The ex-watcher grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him, his breath caught in his throat at the haunted visage that clouded her beautiful face.
"Oh for crapsake she killed the lawyer bitch, knife went through her like butter. It was quite a scene, sure as hell surprised me, especially as we already had the kid back. Vengeance thy name is Cordelia. No wonder the soul gets wood whenever she walks in the room." Angelus said, his vision was starting to go dark at the edges a sure sign that his fun was soon to be over, he rested his head against the wall and waited for the inevitable.
"You killed her?" Fred blinked at her in disbelief. "Why.....?" The Texan pleaded with her to explain herself, Cordelia couldn't bring herself to meet her gaze.
"Fuck Barbie, what were you thinking?"
"What I did is no ones business but my own."
"You knocked Gunn out, unchained a homicidal maniac, went off alone with him to straight into the lions den AND THEN you kill Lilah in cold blood? Of course this is our pissing business! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Wesley roared, his hands gesturing wildly at her.
"THEY HAD MY DAUGHTER!" Cordelia screamed, her voice echoing through the Hyperions corridors.
"We would have gotten Em back!"
"I don't want to talk about this." She went to turn her back on him but was abruptly stopped.
"Tough." The Englishman surprisingly strong hand bit into the soft flesh of her upper arm, Cordelia knew there would be a bruise there in the morning. Fred felt the comforting presence of her boyfriends arm slipping around her shoulders, she pressed her hands gently to Emily's ears. She shouldn't be hearing this.
"Let go of me Wesley." Her voice threateningly low.
"What are you going to do, stab me too? Got a taste for it?" Wesley hissed at her, memories of the beautiful young charge he had lost to the darkness clouding his mind.
"Don't you dare talk to me like I'm Faith." Cordelia shook with indignation at her old friends words.
"Why not, you're both guilty of the same crime. You both have blood on your hands."
"It's completely different and you know it!"
"Why because you're a seer, because you work for the powers? You've taken a life and that makes you no better than Faith." Disappointment dripped from Wesley's words, he caught Cordelia's wrist before she could slap him.
"Enough!" The forgotten vampire boomed and leapt out of his seat. The sudden movement startled them all into lifting the crossbows they were holding.
"Stay where you are Angelus." Charles Gunn shuffled clumsily over to him.
"It's me Gunn. The drug's worn off." Angel batted the loaded crossbow away.
"How can we tell you're telling the truth?" Gunn squinted suspiciously at him.
"Because if I were still Angelus I would have ripped Wesley's arm out of its socket as soon as he grabbed Cordelia's arm, and quite frankly I'm finding it a little difficult to suppress the desire to do so right now." Angel shot a glare at the Englishman who hastily let go of Cordelia's wrist. The Texan held on tightly to Emily as Angel walked towards her, unsure of what to believe.
Then she saw it in his eyes, deep dark pools filled with his beautiful soul. Fred let the vampire take Emily out of her arms and into the protective circle of his embrace.
"Hello pumpkin, been causing trouble again?" Angel kissed his daughters nose. "Cordy, why don't you go up stairs and get cleaned up. Me and the little mouse will be up second." He said without taking his eyes off of his smiling daughter. Cordelia stayed still for only a moment, blinking at the sudden change of events. When the shock passed her body finally registered everything that had happened in the last few hours, the Seer nodded silently and hurried up the staircase.
"If Lilah is dead then our problems have only just begun." Wesley threw his crossbow down on to the floor, metal scrapping against tile, scorching the already unsteady nerves of everyone in the room.
"I know." Angel sighed heavily. "I suggest you guys get off home, get some rest." The vampire told them over his shoulder as he lumbered up the stairs, the drugs that still lingered in his system making his limbs ache and feel heavy.
"This isn't just going to go away Angel. If Cordelia's...."
"I know Wes!" Angel cut him off before he could finish the sentence. "We will deal with whatever happens when it happens...just...now isn't the time."
"Fine." Wesley raked his hand through his hair and turned to leave.
"Wesley?" The vampire stopped him.
"Yes?"
"You ever speak to Cordelia like that again and you'll have me to deal with." He didn't wait for the Englishman's reply, leaving the silent lobby behind him.
***
The bathroom floor was cold against Cordelia's bare legs as she sat huddled in front of the toilet, her stomach still clenching although there was nothing left to throw up, she wiped the back of a shaking hand across her mouth. The Seer had stripped her clothes off as soon as she had stepped into the bedroom, the dried blood staining so much more than just her jeans. Cordelia took a deep unsteady breath, trying to control the termors that were shuddering through her body. She felt a cool hand settle on the small of her back, strong and reassuring, her port in a storm.
"W-where's Em?" Cordelia stammered, her voice hoarse.
"Happily playing with her 'wes' bear in her crib." Angel brushed the few loose strands of hair away from her forehead. "She's OK now sweetheart, you got her back." He ran his thumb across her jaw tenderly.
"I was so scared....I thought...." Cordelia finally let go, sobbing she buried herself into the broad expanse of Angels chest, her fingers grasping desperately at his sweater. "I woke up and everything I loved was gone....I thought she was dead...I thought..."
"Ssh baby, it's OK." Angel rocked her gently.
For a long time all that could be heard in the bathroom was the guttural cries and smoothing murmurs of the seer and her vampire as they clutched each other tightly, trying to keep each other safe from the outside world and the troubles they both knew would be...
***
*OK time out, if I have to think about that shit anymore my brain is going to implode and dribble out of my ears.*
"Talking to yourself my little sex bomb?"
"Lorne, what are you doing up?"
"I could hear you retelling the fable of Cordelia the Vengeful and you know how much I love to listen to that one."
*Ah, Lorne's trusty friend sarcasm.*
"It's hardly my favorite either Lorne."
"Did you tell them that I was overpowered by several enormous thugs thus leaving me unable to save the little nipper?"
"OK, you really need to let go of the guilt."
"I'm trying hun. Have you got to the bit where Lilah escapes the steely fingers of death and lives to annoy another day?"
"Thank you Lorne, you've just ruined the end."
"Oops."
"Just be quiet and let me finish the story OK?"
"Yes mom."
*So it turns out that I didn't kill Lilah, only brutally wounded her. Better luck next time huh? Oh quit grousing, you know I don't really mean it. Well not entirely. If she comes anywhere near our girl again though I won't think twice about finishing what I started.
All this happened a couple weeks before Buffy, Willow and Xander showed up for tea and cake so maybe it explains why I wasn't very welcoming to the Slayer. It was a difficult for quite a while, even after we found out that the Lawyer wasn't dead Wesley spent most of his time staring at me with disappointed eyes, we still have the odd row about it now but things are a hell of a lot better than that first argument we had.
Angel said his usual post-Angelus apologies, most of them to Wes. He even tried to spend more time with Katherine but that didn't last long, it always ended with someone having a headache.
Gunn still flinches whenever I pick up a weapon. I'm hoping that will pass.
Fred...well Fred's Fred, ya'know? Sometimes I think she's stronger than all of us put together.
Angel wasn't happy about me trusting Angelus and let me know about it, loudly, but that's a conversation that really is no ones business but ours. He thinks that if I tell you how he spent two hours shouting at me about trusting his evil half he'll come off in a bad light. I said that you guys were more than used too him acting like a dick but he was quite adamant.
Anyway, that's it really. Contrary to Wesley's belief I haven't suddenly developed a taste for maiming and murder, but if he doesn't start to get over it soon I may have to hurt him. I still have some issues with the Powers but who doesn't?
We might stumble and fall but we always find away to get up again.*
"And we all lived happily ever after huh sugarplum?"
"Fingers crossed Lorne, fingers crossed."
"So where's the groom to be then?"
"Sleeping the sleep of the immortally wounded, I think I was starting to annoy him, Angel can be so cranky when he's woken up in the middle of the night for no reason. Vampires, can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. So I have sought solace in stuffed olives and popcorn. You want?"
"Bleugh, I really don't. Would this late night confessional junk food fest have anything to do with certain wedding that's happening tomorrow night?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"Cordelia your aura is screaming nerves among other things, it's giving me quite a migraine. Please tell me you're not having second thoughts, I don't think we could take it."
"Of course I'm not Lorne, I'm all yay about becoming Mrs Angel No-Last-Name, it's just....what are the chances of Angel and I getting married and some minion of hell not crashing it?"
"Pretty much slim to none but we both know Angel will move heaven and earth to get that ring on your finger Cordy, he's a man on a marriage mission and no nasty will get in his way. The only beasties foolish enough to interfere are those pesky lawyer types but I doubt...they wouldn't ....they're not THAT stupid are they?"
"I know we've got the Hotel under more protection spells than Britney Spears dressing room and the PTB are finally looking after their own but I can't help but think something is going to go down here tomorrow night, probably just before I say 'I do'. How 'Days of our Lives' would that be?"
"Very Hope."
"Hence the nerves.....well it's that or I'm pregnant again."
*Which I'm not because that would be impossible, we've been no where near any alternative dimensions of late so...not of the possible. Emily, (who has graduated from saying just 'wes' and 'taco' to nonsensical sentences, we even get that occasional 'ma' and 'da' which is nice) was a wonderful Pylean fluke, there's no chance that I could be pregnant again.
Right?
Why is Lorne smiling at me like that?
Oh...my...god.
Well that explains the vomit-a-thon this week.*
"Angel! Wake up and get your miracle sperm filled testicles down here right now!"
*Wesley's gonna have a field day with his books on this one isn't he?*
the end.