Title:The Phonecalls
Author: 4ever (that's me the one they named the episode after-- j/k)
Summary: Okay well remember those phonecalls in Spiral and Over the Rainbow? What if they had been preceeded by other phonecalls. When you think about it and read this it wil make sense.
Spoilers: Spiral and Over the Rainbow
Feedback: Yes please, please, please
Distribution: As always just tell me where it's going
Rating: G (yeah you can't more innocuous than phonecalls)

Chapter One:So Do I

"Gunn has ties to this world. People to take care of..." Wesley said.
"So do I," I told him. I had a job to help people and I couldn't neccesarily do that in another dimension. I had friends that I would be leaving behind, Gunn, himself, Kate, Faith... all the people I had met in LA and managed to help. Then there was the Sunnydale crew... Buffy. What was I going to tell her? How was I going to manage to make myself leave if it meant I might never see her again. Willow, Giles, Xander, Oz... they all started coming back on me at once and suddenly I realized that I might even miss Spike. On second thought, nevermind, that'll never happen.
"Right now we have to get Cordy," I said. That's right live in the present, Angel. You'll never be able to look at yourself in the mirror (metaphorically speaking that is) if you don't save her. You'll never be able to face Wesley or Gunn, knowing that she's gone because of you. And that's disregarding the part that *you* miss her anyway. No, you have to go. Because if you start to build hopes and promises, visions of the future, it will all come crashing down, like last time. And that is not happening again. So we'll go get Cordy and we *will* find a way back.
Now take care of business... Do I *have* to call her? *Should* I call her? She just lost her mother, isn't this a little cruel? If I could just look at her eyes once more I'd know what to do... Conveniently, a photograph. Okay a picture, but hey I'm old. Yeah, she would want me to call her and tell her, I thought staring into her hazel eyes. They were alive as if they would talk to me if I could only find a way to release them from the silence that bound them in the picture.
So I dialed the familiar number. The phone rang. I waited... ... ... ... There was no answer, only a machine. So I started to speak, "Hi Buffy. It's Angel. Uh... look this is going to be hard so I'm just gonna... well... Cordelia... she was sucked into another dimension... Yeah so we're going to go in and get her and you see... well the reason I'm calling you is that... that... to tell you the truth... well it's really complicated, but... Buffy, we might not be able to find our way back. It's important that I do this. I'm so sorry that I couldn't talk to you... I hope everything is going well in Sunnydale. I hope everything goes well..." Even if I'm not around to see it, Angel mentally added. "I love you. You're... the world to me," Angel said. "Please remember that... always," he tacked on as a separate thought. Then he hung up and dropped his head in his hands. Sobs threatened to come, but he made himself hold them back as he went to call Gunn.