Failing
Angel closed the book he'd been reading, added it to the growing stack of "not helpful" and reached behind him for another.
His hand encountered nothingness. Angel turned and looked at the shelf. It and all the others were empty. Angel looked back at the room, really looking at it for the first time in weeks.
There wasn't just one pile of books he'd already examined. There were dozens. In fact all the books the agency owned were in those piles.
Angel considered other options. He'd already spoken with every link to the PTB that he knew of and none of them would help. He'd even tried a few of their opposites on the other side.
The powers of good all said they couldn't and those of evil wouldn't guarantee that Buffy would be Buffy if they did it.
He'd summoned Denver's ghost and they'd examined the old man's collection of occult books together, an endeavor that would have taken Angel years by himself. They'd found nothing.
Now Angel's own library was exhausted as well. Unless…
Angel called Wesley.
"Hullo… I'm awake," the ex-watcher answered groggily.
"Wesley, could you have left any of the books at the other office?" Angel asked.
"Angel, are you aware that it's… four AM?" Wesley asked. "Couldn't this have waited a few hours?"
"I'm sorry," Angel said. "I didn't think about the time… but since you're up?"
"We took all the books when we moved back to the Hyperion," Wesley said.
"You're sure?" Angel asked. "Every one?"
"Yes, I'm sure!" Wesley exclaimed. "Good night Angel."
Wesley hung up the phone and returned to bed. Five minutes later he was jolted up right by the realization of why Angel would urgently want more books.
He quickly returned the call.
"Hello?" Fred answered just before the answering machine would have.
"Is Angel there?" Wesley asked.
"Slamming door. Bang! Woke me up, won't talk to me. Won't come out of his room" Fred stammered.
"Could you keep an eye on him?" Wesley asked. "I'll be there shortly."
"Sure, no problem," Fred replied.
Three minutes later Wesley was out the door and on his way to the hotel.
The lobby was empty but reassuringly normal. Wesley continued upstairs and found Fred sitting outside Angel's door, a perplexed frown on her face.
"He locked it," she told Wesley. "He never locks his door."