I'm not totally pleased with this one, but it turned out okay.
Disclaimer: I don't own Angel.
Chapter 3: Somnambulist
"Listen up, buddy." Cordelia said. She sat down on the edge of her desk a leaned forward. "You're not going anywhere until you've given me some answers."
Doyle, sitting in the chair in front of her, replied, "I have no idea what you mean."
"Oh yes you do." Cordelia went on. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. We've gone to a lot of trouble to track you down."
Doyle leaned forward in his chair, playing along. "Now see here, Princess," She raised her eyebrows, and he corrected himself. "I mean, Miss. Now see here, Miss, I had nothing to do with that accident. You've got the wrong guy."
"Oh, accident, was it?" She asked.
"That's right, accident."
"I don't believe for a second it was any accident." Cordelia said. "Confess to what you did, and my boss may take pity on you."
"I'm not confessing to anything." Doyle said.
"Confess!" Cordelia cried.
"What are you two doing?"
They both quickly stood up and turned to see Wesley coming through the front office door. "Wesley, hi!" Cordelia said. "Doyle was just helping me with my interrogation techniques!"
"I must have impersonated every demonic delinquent in L.A. by now." Doyle said.
"I see." Wesley said. He was holding a large folder. "I thought that since we're all going to be hunting demons, it would be beneficial for us to compare notes. And I thought maybe you'd need help fighting some sort of evil!"
"We seem to be fresh out of evil right now." Doyle said. "It's been pretty quiet."
Wesley's face fell slightly. "Really?"
"I'm interrogating Doyle about fictional crimes. How busy could we possibly be?" Cordelia pointed out, sitting down at her desk.
"Right." Wesley conceded. "Oh, I also brought your mail, and your newspaper." He pulled out a stack of papers from behind the folder and handed them to Cordelia.
"Thanks." She said.
"So how goes the rogue demon hunting business?" Doyle asked Wesley.
"Oh, very well, very well." Wesley said hurriedly. "Of course, as you said, things have been quiet lately." Doyle nodded, trying to mask his smirk with a serious expression. "Still," Wesley continued, raising his head high and straightening out his jacket, "The life of a rogue demon hunter is never truly quiet. I must be ready for action at any moment. My job is to be prepared and observant."
"This isn't our mail." Cordelia said suddenly. She had been going through the stack of mail that Wesley had given her.
"It isn't?" Wesley asked, sounding both confused and disappointed.
Doyle picked up the newspaper and looked at it. "Yeah, it's not our paper either." He said.
Cordelia handed the mail back to Wesley. "It's the dentist office next door, see?"
Wesley sighed with exasperation as he snatched the newspaper back from Doyle. "In my defense, your mail system out there is very confusing." He said.
"Sure, yeah." Doyle said with a straight face, nodding. "Taking the stuff from the box with our address. Awful difficult."
"Laugh all you want, but…" Wesley trailed off as he looked at the newspaper he had taken from Doyle. Something seemed to have caught his attention.
Cordelia looked up when she realized that he had stopped speaking. "Wesley?" She asked.
"Something wrong?" Doyle asked, frowning.
"I…have to go." Wesley said slowly, starting to back out of the office. "I just remembered, I have something important to do." He turned and hurried out the door.
Doyle watched him go. "Strange fella, isn't he?"
"He's always been like that." Cordelia dismissed, turning her attention to her computer. "He was even more uptight back in Sunnydale, if you can believe that. I can't believe I used to find him attractive."
That got Doyle's attention, all questions he had about Wesley's behavior slipping his mind. "You used to what?"
"I used to have kind of a thing for Wesley. Oh, I shudder to think of it now, trust me." Cordelia said lightly. She clearly hadn't noticed the effect her words were having on her co-worker.
"Right." Doyle said. Then, as casually as he could, he asked, "But nothing ever actually happened, did it?"
"We kissed once." She replied.
"You kissed that guy?" Doyle cried, jealousy that he knew was probably undeserved rushing through him.
"Oh, relax." Cordelia said, looking up. "It's not like…hi Angel."
Doyle turned around to see Angel lingering in the doorway of his office, looking tired despite having just gotten up. "Hey man." Doyle said. He frowned. "Rough night?"
"Morning, more like." Cordelia said. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" She looked him over. "Doyle's right, though, you look half dead. Which, for someone who's completely dead, would be kind of neat."
"Did you get anything on that license plate?" Angel asked Cordelia.
Doyle's frown deepened. Angel was never exactly one of the most social people in the world, but this behavior seemed extreme even for him. What was going on? "Sorry." Cordelia said. "I couldn't find anything. Maybe you should run it by Kate. She could probably help you."
"I agree." Doyle said. "Kate's your best bet. Plus getting out a little might be good for you." He added.
Angel sighed. "Okay." He said. He took the note with the license plate number written on it from Cordelia. "I'll be back later." He started walking towards the door.
Doyle quickly said, "Oh, you don't want to-"
Cordelia began, "Angel-"
Angel opened the door, and jumped back as the sunlight burned him. He turned around to look at his two concerned employees. "I'll take the tunnels." He said, and started back into his office.
"Do you want me to come?" Doyle asked.
"No, I'll do it myself." Angel called over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Looks like you've been rejected." Cordelia said, looking at Doyle. "I get the sense that's a feeling that you're used to."
"Oh, hardy-har-har." Doyle said sarcastically. Then he grew more serious and asked, "You worried about him?"
"Angel? I don't know." She replied. "You think we should be?"
Doyle glanced briefly in the direction Angel had disappeared in. "I hope not." He said.
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"Hey, Cordy," Doyle said as he walked into the font from Angel's office, "Do you think we should…?" He trailed off when he realized she wasn't alone. "Wesley? What are you doing here?"
"Is Angel here?" Wesley asked him urgently.
"Uh, no, I don't think he's here yet." Doyle replied. "What's going on?"
"He being weird." Cordelia said dismissively, rolling her eyes.
"Remember when I was here earlier?" Wesley asked. "Something from the paper caught my eye." He held out a newspaper clipping, which Cordelia took. Doyle came to read it over her shoulder. It was an article about another body being found with a cross carved into the cheek, which, the article stated, was one of several that had been recovered over the past few weeks.
"So?" Cordelia asked, looking up at Wesley again. "Not exactly front page news."
"Actually that is the front page." Wesley said. "But that's not the point."
"Look, this is awful and all, but I'm still not sure why you found it so important that you're bringing it to us." Doyle said.
Wesley hesitated, looking at them both. "I perhaps you should sit down." He said finally.
"Why?" Cordelia asked, frowning.
"Please, just sit down." Wesley grabbed each of them by the arm and sat them down on the couch, turning to face them. "When I was in Sunnydale, I took an interest in Angel's past activities, due to his uncomfortable proximity to the Slayer."
"He seemed pretty comfortable to me." Cordelia muttered.
Wesley picked up a thick file from the desk and held it up so that they could see it. The label said "Angel" in big letters. "When I saw that news story this morning it rang chillingly familiar, so I dug into my old notes, and I found this." He opened the file to a certain page and handed it to them. Doyle took it and held it out for both him and Cordelia to read. His heart skipped a beat when he realized what it was. It was a record of murders just like the ones from the newspaper, all committed by Angelus. "I reacquainted myself with certain facts," Wesley continued, "Confirming, I'm sorry to say, my grim suspicions. In the late 1700s, it was Angelus' custom to sign his victims by carving a Christian cross into their left cheek. He liked to let people know he'd been there."
Doyle took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to express how he felt at that moment, but Cordelia got there first, looking just as angry as he felt as she took the file from him and got to her feet, handing it back to Wesley. "Okay." She said. "You get to leave now. You're not going to come in here and accuse Angel like this."
"Cordelia," Wesley began.
Doyle found his voice. "No, she's right." He said angrily, standing up as well. "This is Angel's office you're standing in, and he's our friend. And I daresay he's done more good for people than any of us have, especially you. So don't you dare come in here and throw around accusations about my friend and expect me to listen. He's not that person anymore. That was Angelus. He's Angel, and he would never do anything like this."
"Yeah!" Cordelia said. "Tell him, Doyle!" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Wesley. Doyle felt a rush of gratitude for the woman standing next to him. For a moment, they were united, the Angel Investigations team defending their boss, together, showing solidarity.
Then Angel's voice came from the doorway of his office, making everyone jump; no one had noticed him come in. "Wesley's right." He said.
Cordelia turned to Wesley. "You stake him and I'll cut his head off."
So much for solidarity. Doyle grabbed her arm to keep her from doing anything, and then turned to Angel. "What do you mean, he's right? You didn't do this!" He picked up the newspaper clipping and waved it in the air, looking at his friend earnestly. "Angel, tell me you didn't do this."
Angel took the clipping from him and looked at it for a moment. "I have no memory of doing any of these things." He said finally.
"Not exactly the confidence-inspiring denial I was hoping for." Cordelia said.
"I've been having dreams." Angel said.
"Dreams?" Wesley repeated.
"Killing dreams." Angel clarified. "Always the same."
"You mean of the old days." Doyle said. "The Angelus days."
"Like that, but not memories. New kills."
Doyle swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay. So you've been having nightmares. Who doesn't from time to time?"
"They're not nightmares." Angel said. "I've enjoyed them."
"…oh." Doyle said. He sat down on the couch again. This wasn't good. If he was slipping back into Angelus…that wasn't something that Doyle was prepared for. Was that why the PTB had brought him back? To deal with the return of his friend's vicious alter-ego?
"And you fear that these might be more than just dreams?" Wesley asked Angel. "That you're acting them out in some sort of hypnagogic state?" Angel nodded.
Cordelia frowned, confused. "Hypnawugic?"
"Sleepwalking." Wesley explained.
Doyle looked up. "Can that happen?" He asked. "I mean, I sleepwalked straight into my bedroom wall once, but could it actually go so far as acting out the murders in his dreams?"
"It's possible." Wesley said.
"There's only one way to find out." Angel said.
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Doyle finished tying down Angel's right arm to the bed with a chain and stepped back. They were chaining him to his bed, and they would spend the night watching him. "How's that?" He asked.
Angel tested it trying to move his arm. "Good." He said.
Doyle nodded. "This is a good plan." He said. He looked at Angel. "For the record, I don't believe it was you." He said.
The look on Angel's face made it clear that he did not share Doyle's confidence. "We'll know soon enough." He said.
Cordelia was finishing chaining Cordelia's legs, with some help from Wesley. "You've got to make it tight." Wesley was saying.
Cordelia made a noise. "Like I need instructions from you." She said, pushing him away. "My glamorous LA life. I get to make the coffee and chain the boss to the bed!" She straightened up and shook her head. "I need to join a union."
"Think they have demon hunter unions?" Doyle asked as he walked over to join her.
"Sadly, I doubt it." She replied.
Doyle nodded in agreement. Then he asked, "Think we could start one?" He swore that he almost got her to smile.
Wesley looked the bed over. "I think that should be satisfactory." He said.
"So now what?" Cordelia asked.
Doyle sighed. "Now we wait." He said.
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"Do you have any 3s?" Cordelia asked.
Doyle looked at his cards and shook his head. "Go fish." He told her.
It was almost two o'clock in the morning. Angel was fast asleep, still chained to the bed. He had not moved all night so far. They had been taking watch in shifts, with two of them on guard duty and one of them sleeping on Angel's couch. Cordelia and Doyle were on their fifth game of Go Fish when Wesley walked in, yawning. "I'm awake." He said sleepily. "Any problems?"
"Not a peep from tall, dark, and broody over there." Cordelia said. "But I think I'm about to go insane."
Doyle looked up at her. "How do you think I feel?" He asked. "I'm the one that hasn't slept at all yet."
"Speaking of which," Wesley said, "It's your turn. Cordelia and I will keep watch until morning."
"Okay." Doyle sighed. He handed Cordelia his playing cards and stood up, giving his chair to Wesley. "Hey, are there any of those donuts left in the kitchen?"
"A few, I believe." Wesley replied.
"Great." Doyle said. He headed to the kitchen. Wesley paused for a moment, and then followed him.
"Doyle," He said hesitantly as Doyle got a glazed donut out of the box, "I realize that everything seems to be going well, but even so, I think we ought to discuss what happens if it turns out Angel is responsible for these murders."
Doyle paused, and then turned around to face him. "I'd really prefer not to have this discussion." He said.
"I know." Wesley said. "None of us want to have this discussion. But I think it's necessary. Just in case. We don't want to be caught off guard if-"
"If Angel turns out to be slipping back into his soulless-vampire-serial-killer ways?" Doyle finished for him. "I know what you'll want to do." Wesley looked away, not meeting his eyes. "Hell, I know what he's going to want to do if he finds out he's killing people in his sleep. As for me, I don't think it's him. So I guess I don't have much of an opinion."
He tried to walk away, but Wesley caught his arm. "You're blinded by your friendship for him." He said. "I sympathize, I do. I like Angel. I don't want him to be responsible. But I can't ignore the possibility that he might be."
Doyle took a deep breath, trying to keep himself from losing his temper. "I think we have to give him the benefit of the doubt." He said. "I think he's earned that. People can change. Haven't all of us changed?" He gestured around to Wesley, Cordelia in the next room (who was clearly listening), and himself. "Can any of us honestly say that we're the person we were a few years ago?" Wesley said nothing. "I know I can't." Doyle said. "The days of Angelus were long ago. And I have enough faith in Angel to believe that they're not coming back any time soon. Even if he doesn't have that kind of faith in himself." He left the kitchen without another word and lay down on the couch. Neither of the other two disturbed him as he fell asleep.
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"The good fight, yeah? You never know until you've been tested. I get that now."
"Too bad we'll never know…"
"Doyle!"
The excruciating, white-hot burning that shot through him, seeping into his brain…
"Doyle?"
Doyle jumped awake at the feeling of someone's hand on his shoulder. He was still lying on Angel's couch, and Wesley was standing over him, looking at him with mild concern. Doyle sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I'm awake." He said.
"Are you alright?" Wesley asked. "You're awfully pale."
"Yeah, I'm fine." Doyle replied.
Wesley frowned. "Doyle," He said, speaking gently now, "Cordelia told me about what happened when you were facing the Scourge. That's quite an ordeal for a person to go through. If you ever need-"
"I'm fine, Wesley." Doyle interrupted. He got to his feet. "It's passed dawn now, yeah? How did we do?"
"Fine." Wesley said, apparently deciding it was best to just move on. "Angel was here all night. Cordelia is waking him up now. And, um," He handed Doyle a newspaper, "I just picked this up a few minutes ago."
Doyle looked at the paper. The front page story was all about the murders. Specifically, the newest murder. Doyle grinned at Wesley before hurrying past him and into Angel's bedroom. "There was another murder!" He cried, holding it up for Angel and Cordelia to see. "They found another body early this morning! This is great!" He received looks from both Cordelia and Wesley (who had followed him), and quickly amended, "I mean, it's terrible. Just awful. But it's great for you!"
"He's right." Cordelia said, turning to Angel, who was sitting up on his bed now, the chains having been removed. "You were here all night."
"There's no way you could be responsible." Doyle said.
"I am responsible." Angel said quietly.
Doyle's face fell. "Oh, come on!" He cried in disbelief. "How could you possibly still be responsible?"
"I didn't kill these people." Angel said. "But I made the guy who did."
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"So you think this Penn guy is the one who's killing all these people?" Doyle asked.
Angel nodded. "I know he is." He said quietly. The four of them had gathered in Angel's living room, where Angel had told them the story of the vampire he had sired during his Angelus days, Penn, who he had taught to kill just the way he did, with the cross carved into the cheek and all.
"It would make sense." Wesley said. "If he is in LA that would explain the dreams. A vampire always has a special bond with their sire."
"Okay," Cordelia said, "But this is good, right? I mean, we know who the killer is now. All we have to do is dust him."
"We have to find him first." Doyle pointed out.
"I'm worried about Kate." Angel said. "She has no idea what she's dealing with."
Wesley looked at him with slight alarm. "You're not thinking of telling her?" He asked.
"What else can I do?" Angel replied.
That wasn't good. Doyle knew that is could never be as simple as just warning her about Penn. If she opened that door, it was only a matter of time before she learned the rest of it. He had nothing against Kate, but just the thought of telling her the truth made him nervous. The stomach turning, jittery kind of nervous. He glanced at Wesley before saying, "I don't know, man. I'm not sure that's such a great idea. There's sort of a reason we don't exactly advertise these things."
"I agree." Wesley said. "Telling Detective Lockley might not be the best idea."
"What am I supposed to do?" Angel demanded. "Just let her die?"
"We can protect her." Doyle said. "That's what we do, isn't it?"
Angel shook his head. "She needs to know what she's up against." He said firmly.
Doyle took a deep breath. "There's nothing I can do to talk you out of this, is there?" He asked. Angel shook his head, and he sighed. "Just promise me you'll think this through before you do anything."
"Relax." Cordelia told him. "It's not like he's going to tell her you're half-demon."
Doyle looked at her, surprised. "That's not what this is about." He said indignantly.
"Isn't it?" She asked.
"No!" He insisted. "Of course not!"
"Enough." Angel interrupted. "This is my decision. And I'm going to help Kate. The only way to protect her is to warn her."
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Angel had given Penn's picture to Kate, which had led to an unsuccessful confrontation between him and Angel and Kate. Doyle had not been present himself, but from what he understood, Angel had set Kate on the path of discovering vampires, but was understandably resistant to the idea. They had bigger problems than Kate's lack of belief in the supernatural, however. Penn was still out there, and now he knew about Angel. Which meant that they had to find him, and they had to do it fast.
Doyle had spent the day meeting with his contacts across the city, trying to find any word of Penn's whereabouts. This endeavor had proved frustratingly unhelpful. By the time he made it back to the office that afternoon, he was tired, hungry, and deeply annoyed. He was just walking up to the front door of their building when he heard someone call his name, and turned around to see Wesley coming up behind him.
"Did you have any luck?" Wesley asked as he reached him.
Doyle shook his head. "Nothing. No one seems to know anything about our Angelus protégé vampire. If they do, they're not talking. What about you?"
"Only dead ends, I'm afraid." Wesley sighed. "Perhaps Angel and Cordelia have had more luck."
"I wouldn't get your hopes up." Doyle muttered.
Together they made their way to the office. Wesley walked in first, with Doyle at his heels. "No sign of Penn." Wesley said. He was suddenly grabbed by a man standing in the middle of the room, just outside of a pool of sunlight that was shining through from the window, as the blinds had been raised. Angel and Cordelia were standing on the other side of the patch of sunlight. Doyle stumbled back as Wesley was grabbed, hitting the door, and saw that it was Penn. "Probably because he's here and has me by the throat." Wesley grunted.
"What are you going to do now, Angelus?" Penn asked.
"Let him go, Penn." Angel said seriously, but he couldn't pass through the sunlight to go save Wesley. So Doyle acted, and jumped at Penn from behind, knocking Wesley out of his grip and him into the sunlight. Doyle himself hit the floor as well, next to the vampire, who growled and jumped back as smoke started rising from him.
"This isn't over." He warned Angel. Then he ran out of the office.
Doyle groaned, rolling onto his back. His arm was throbbing. Cordelia closed the blinds, and she and Angel ran over to him and Wesley. "Are you guys okay?" Angel asked.
"I'm fine." Wesley said breathlessly, sitting up. He looked at Doyle. "I believe I owe you my life. Thank you."
"Don't mention it." Doyle sighed, sitting up as well with the help of Cordelia. Angel examined his arm, and Doyle looked and saw that something had slashed through his sleeve, and there was blood.
"Looks like he got you." Angel said. "It's just a scratch. We'll patch you up, you'll be fine."
"What about Penn?" Doyle asked. "Seems like he's awful keen to make this personal."
Angel nodded. "I have to figure out his next move."
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Cordelia had brought Doyle downstairs to Angel's apartment in order to bandage his arm. They had been sitting in silence for a while when Doyle looked at her and finally spoke. "You're getting pretty good at this." He said, referring to her bandaging work.
"Yeah, well, between this place and Sunnydale, I've had plenty of practice." She replied. After a moment she said, "That was brave, what you did for Wesley."
He grinned at her. "Yeah? You think so?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't let it go to your head." She told him.
"Oh, no. Never." He replied. He saw her smile slightly. "Thanks for fixing up my arm, though."
"No problem." She said. Then she said, "Look, yesterday, I wasn't trying to call you out for not wanting Kate to know that you're half-demon. I was just trying to say that I know keeping that a secret is a big deal to you, and Angel knows that too, and he wasn't going to just spill your secret."
"What makes you think it's so important to me?" Doyle asked.
She gave him a look. "Please." She said. "You didn't tell me for months that you were half-demon. In fact, you never technically told me. I found out from someone else. And, just an FYI, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm still talking to you, even after that revelation."
"Not everyone is like you." Doyle said quietly.
"Oh, there's no one like me." Cordelia said, and he smiled. She smiled back. "But I think you'll find half-demon acceptance is not one of my totally unique traits."
"I wish I had that confidence." Doyle admitted. "But I think you'll find it will still put a lot of people off. Besides, you can't act as though finding out I'm half-demon hasn't affected our relationship at all."
This may have been the wrong thing to say. She pulled back, frowning at him. "I'm not upset with you because you're half-demon, Doyle." She said. "I'm mad at you because you lied to me about it. You didn't trust me enough to tell me-"
"Trust had nothing to do with it!" Doyle cried.
"Then what did?" Cordelia demanded. "You lied to me for months."
"I didn't lie, I just left some stuff out." Doyle reasoned. "I mean, I never told you I wasn't half-demon."
"Oh, how old are you? Ten?" Cordelia scoffed. "Welcome to the real world, Doyle. Lying by omission is still lying. And then you go and you pull that stunt-"
"You think that me dying was a stunt?" Doyle cried, starting to get angry himself now.
"No, but I think the theatrics leading up to the dying was a stunt!"
Doyle hesitated, realizing he didn't exactly have an argument for that. There was some truth to it; he'd been about to die, and wanted to make the most of his last few moments. "It's not like you didn't know how I felt about you." He said finally. "Besides, you can't act like you didn't feel anything. You asked me to dinner only a couple of minutes before it happened."
"Only because I felt sorry for you!" She shot back at him. "I thought to myself, 'wow, he couldn't tell me the truth about his demon side for months, he must be so insecure, I should go out with him once just to boost his self-confidence'. Clearly I was wrong. My mistake."
Doyle had to admit, that one hurt a little bit. "I don't want your pity." He said.
"Well you don't have it." Cordelia retorted.
"Good!"
"Good!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
Cordelia got up and stomped out of the room. Doyle sighed and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. "Yep." He said. "I handled that real well."
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Angel broke down the door of the apartment belonging to Penn, and Doyle and Wesley hurried inside, weapons drawn. "I invite you in!" Wesley said, gesturing to Angel to enter.
Angel walked in. "Thanks, but you don't have to." He said.
"The home of another vampire is fair game." Doyle explained. "Plus, it's not your home. Use your head. I thought you used to be a Watcher." Wesley cast him a dismayed glance.
They walked further into the apartment, and found themselves in front of a table covered with notes and plans. "Good lord." Wesley said, looking at the papers spread across the table.
Doyle picked up one of the papers and looked it over. "A bus schedule." He said, turning to Angel. In response, Angel picked up a photo and showed it to him. It was a picture of a school bus. A nauseous feeling suddenly washed over Doyle as he realized what it meant, and he swallowed back bile. "A school bus full of kids." He said.
"Oh god." Wesley said softly.
Doyle dropped the papers and turned around. "Come on." He said. "We have to stop him. You need to warn Kate." He added to Angel, who was following him. "Do you think she'll listen to you?"
"I have to try." Angel said. Things with Kate had not gone so great. She had done her research, and accepted the reality of what Penn was. Unfortunately, she had also discovered who Angel was, and had basically completely rejected him. She had made it pretty clear that she had no interest in allying with a vampire.
Doyle looked at Angel as they left the apartment, heading back towards Angel's car, Wesley trailing behind them. "You're taking this all very well." He observed.
"Something's not right." Angel said.
"He's going to kill a bus full of children." Doyle said. "Yeah, I'd say something's not right."
"Not, it's not that." Angel said. "This isn't his style."
"You said he threatened to try something new." Doyle said. "This is something new."
"Penn's not this original." Angel insisted. "I have a hard time believing his would change this radically."
Doyle paused and looked at him as they got outside. "Do you think it's a setup?" He asked.
"I think you were right about telling Kate." Angel replied. "Let's go to the police station."
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Doyle and Wesley were left sitting in the car, waiting to Angel to return from inside the police station. Doyle was in the driver's seat, while Wesley was sitting in the back. Wesley leaned forward to speak to Doyle up front. "Doyle," He said, "I know it's not my place, and I don't mean to pry-"
"And yet, I have a feeling that's what's about to happen." Doyle muttered under her breath.
Wesley continued as though he hadn't spoken. "But I want you to know that there's nothing between Cordelia and me."
Doyle twisted him is seat to look back at him, surprised. "What?"
"It came to my attention that she mentioned something to you about our time together in Sunnydale." Wesley said. "And I assure you that it was a brief attraction that led to nothing more than one kiss shared between the two of us, at which time we both agreed there was nothing there. I am still quite fond of her, but only as a friend, I promise you."
"Why are you telling me this?" Doyle asked.
"I wanted to assure you that you don't have to worry about me interfering." Wesley told him. "I know how you feel about her."
"Who said I have feelings for Cordy?" Doyle asked, knowing even as he spoke how flimsy a lie that was.
Wesley gave him a look. "Please, it's obvious. I've seen the way you look at her."
Their conversation was interrupted as Angel got back into the car. "He's not going about a school bus." He said. "That was a diversion. We need to follow the police." He pulled a blanket off of a bundle that he set down between his knees. It was a police scanner.
"Where did you get that?" Doyle asked as he started the car.
"A police car." Angel replied.
"Oh." Doyle said, and they drove off.
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Angel had gone in alone to fight Penn, leaving Doyle and Wesley in the car. He had returned with a stab wound through his abdomen and covered with dust. From what they had managed to get from him during the drive back to the office, he had confronted Penn while he was fighting Kate. Ultimately, it was Kate who killed Penn. She'd had the opportunity to kill Angel too, but she hadn't taken it, which Doyle took as a good sign.
Doyle climbed up the stairs, rubbing his head, and pushed open the door that led onto the roof. Angel was sitting on the ledge, looking out at the dark night sky. "Hey." Doyle said, walking over to join him. He glanced at him, but didn't otherwise react. "I just had one of those head-splitting visions, in case you're interested." Doyle continued. "Cordy's downstairs researching the demon I saw."
"How are things with you and Cordy?" Angel asked, quietly but sincerely.
Doyle sighed. "We may have taken another step backward." He said. "I don't want to talk about it. How are you doing?"
It was Angel's turn to sigh. "I can't shake the feeling that I'm responsible for all those people's deaths." He said.
"You're not responsible." Doyle said firmly. "Penn killed them. Not you."
"I made Penn." Angel said.
"Angelus made Penn. You're not him."
It was a moment before Angel spoke again. "Those dreams, Doyle…I enjoyed them. I really did."
"You're a vampire." Doyle said. "It's instinct. So you have a dark side. We all do. What's important is what you act on. It's your actions that define you. Angelus killed people. But you save people. That's what matters. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe in you, Angel. People change."
"You're right." Angel said. "They do. And sometimes, they change back. If that ever happens-"
"I'll let Cordelia kill you." Doyle said. "Immediately, and without hesitation."
Angel looked at him in surprise. "Thanks." He said.
Doyle smiled at him. "Eh, that's what friends are for." He said. He turned around and started back downstairs, and he heard Angel follow him.
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