A/N This is a full rewrite of season one Angel, it has a short prologue and first chapter and then the story, proper, starts part way through episode 9 'Hero'. 'Hero' is in two parts, but every episode after that will be in four parts, following the four act structure of the show. This is ostensibly a 'Doyle lives' fic, however I have tried to prevent it from being to Doylerrific as I think he makes a far better sidekick than he does a leading man. So this fiction is an ensemble piece that follows the actions and motivations of all the characters, including guest characters. So even if Doyle isn't your favourite character in the world (in which case, i value your opinion but you are, in fact, quite quite wrong ;) ) there should be something in the episode to peak your interest.

Some episodes stay very close to cannon, just with added Doyley goodness, some have major cannon divergence that affects the episode massively, and some have little divergences (is that a word?) which have huge butterfly effects throughout the rest of the season. There isn't really any rhyme nor reason to which is which (well, there is - but there isn't a discernible pattern for the reader to establish) so it is important to read each episode, even the more *ahem* painful ones ('she' -I'm looking at you!). Obviously season one was very 'monster of the week' in it's layout and this fic follows that, but I have tried to thread some serialised elements throughout the stories, so it does feel like it's working towards something. There are important developments even in the fallow episodes, so please do give them a go. As with cannon, sometimes the serialised bits are important, and sometimes they take a back seat, and barely get a mention for a couple of episodes, but all story threads get resolved, and lead somewhere big in the end.
I think that's everything important for now - I will add author notes to the end of episodes, if I think there's anything else that need adding...enjoy!

What you do afterwards

Prologue

There's moments in life that make you, that set the course for who you're gonna be. Sometimes they're little, subtle moments. Sometimes they're not. I'll show you what I mean.

So here she was: A higher power. This was her life now. Or afterlife. Whatever. It didn't come as much of a surprise to her that she had ascended to the higher planes of existence to oversee the world of mortals. I mean, she was Cordelia Chase, duh! What else was she ever going to be? It was the most natural progression in the world: Queen of the winter ball, messenger, champion, higher power. But God damn, was she bored.

Just like when she had been The May Queen and the head cheerleader and the most popular girl in Sunnydale History she had always felt something missing, she had always been lonely; so too did higher powerdom feel like the wrong fit. Oh it sounded right, of course: Cordelia Chase, Demigoddess. But it wasn't her and she knew it. She didn't like sitting around watching, she was a woman of action and being forced to observe the lives of her friends, and how terribly they were doing without her (naturally) was close to torment. At least the torment was better than the boredom.

But this wasn't like the last time when she had been duped into moving onto the higher planes by that perfidious Skip. This was a forever deal, she could not be rescued by her own dear boy because this time her physical body was dead, there was no more 'her' to rescue. She was just a spirit, but a very bored one.

As she sat in her perfect shining pool of pure light and joy (so so tired of it) she scanned the world below. It was sweet that Angel had named his dragon after her, and that the Groosalug had named his horse likewise. She had been honoured, in her short life, to walk with heroes, she had been one herself and she wanted to be one again. She didn't want to be dead for evermore at twenty two. She wanted to be herself again, welcome back to your life, like, it couldn't be so awful if she found a way to circumvent her fate and become herself once more.

Along with the interminable watching of the lower beings, there were precisely two things that Cordelia could do. She could view the entire past of people she cared about; the way she had viewed Angel's life, before his soul, last time she had been here. That had scared her more than she could have believed, she had met Angelus after all, he had stalked Buffy and killed Miss Calendar, she thought she knew what to expect; but she had been wrong. So she had been frightened off looking into the lives of everyone else she loved now that she had returned to the higher plane.

Her other power was the ability to make very slight, infinitesimal changes to the world beneath her, if it would help the powers of good. Once, she had managed to save Angel's destiny by nudging a slot machine into giving him the jackpot. One tiny little prod from her and Angel was returned to The Powers as a champion and countless other destinies had been saved besides. It couldn't hurt if she helped herself a little bit, also.

Because no one was going to try and save her this time, and no evil former power that was was going to send her back. If Cordelia was going to get home she would have to rescue herself. Most of her life she had relied on exactly one person: the most determined, resourceful, resilient person she had ever met. That person just happened to be her. She was Cordelia Frickin Chase and she was going to get herself home.

So she stopped watching the world burn below her and turned her eyes onto the past, her past: looking for one, tiny, insignificant event that she could manipulate from here. A little, subtle moment that could change the course of everything and let her be Cordelia once more...