The administrator continued. "Mr Angel, if I could just ask you to remain here for a minute. I'll tell Mr Kinsey you're coming, and then I'll come back for you."
She left, and Angel rounded on Wesley. "Don't. Just don't, all right? I don't want any more interference."
Wesley refused to back away, and Cordelia and Gunn each took one of Angel's arms and held him back.
"Come on, you guys." Kate sprang from her seat to stand in the middle of them all. "You don't really want to fight. Wesley?"
"Certainly not."
"Angel?"
Angel shook his head. "No. I wasn't going to ... Wes, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper."
"It's OK." Wesley held out his hand and when Angel took it, threw his other arm around Angel's neck to give him an awkward hug. "I just think we should discuss it. Like rational people."
Angel laughed. "This isn't something the team needs to work out together, Wes. I can't do it, and no-one wants me to - it's just not going to happen. There's no point in discussing it any further."
Kate held up her hands again. "Can I ask for a recap? Because, I didn't really ever get a good handle on the shanshu thing."
"In a nutshell," Wesley explained, "the prophecy describes how Angel can become human again. It involves driving his demon out, which could be done by any of the methods normally used to kill a vampire, and drinking blood from Paul at the same time."
"How much?" Kate asked.
Angel shot her a look.
"Well?" Kate said defensively, "I just think if we are going to discuss it we should know what it is we're talking about. Are we just talking ... a mouthful or two like you took from me? Because ... that doesn't seem like a big thing to ask."
Wesley shook his head. "According to the theory, when the demon leaves, it's going to take all Angel's blood away. He has to drink enough to replace that blood, and he has to do it faster than he ... a vampire, disintegrates. I would imagine there won't be time to measure or think about stopping. It'll be ... final."
Kate was curious. "Can you drink that quick?"
Angel refused to answer.
"Angel," Wesley sighed, "you have to at least consider it. I don't believe we can all be here right now by accident. Events are being influenced. Paul wasn't lured here by Wolfram & Hart. He lived here already. Then you came along, you met Kate without whom you would never have noticed the murders. I recalled my father's research. Paul has a handy disease that kept him out of Lilah Morgan's way and will eventually kill him but doesn't affect his blood. It's too much coincidence. Maybe this is fate."
"Fate?"
"I don't like it any more than you do, but ... it seems this man will die a painful and wretched death. If they've never seen this disease before, he isn't going to be curable." Wesley shrugged. "What if this shanshu as the Powers intended, and what we're seeing is not coincidence but them doing everything they can to bring it about?"
"The Powers wouldn't ..."
"No?" Cordelia interrupted. "Are you sure? They happily watched Doyle die and wouldn't lift a finger to bring him back. They seem content enough for me to suffer intense pain, in the interests of you making amends. Seems to me they aren't interested in what's just, only in what's possible under the rules." She sighed. "It pains me to say it but, Wesley might be right. Maybe they do mean it to happen this way. Perhaps this is the only way it can happen without their direct intervention."
"Cordy, you can't possibly want me to ... do this."
"I don't know. He's in pain. He's going to die. And," Cordy glanced and Kate, and gulped. "if this shuts the door forever on the possibility of Angelus coming back ... maybe it's the lesser of two evils."
"Angelus is coming back?" Kate looked confused.
Cordy took Angel's hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm sorry, Angel. I'm just so scared. I lived through it once. Even if there's the smallest chance it could happen again ... I don't know if I can deal."
"Gunn?"
Gunn's eyes opened wide as Angel stared at him. "I don't know, man. You know ... I'd do anything to have Alonna back as she was. If it was my blood that could do it, and she was here to ask me, I'd like to think it wouldn't be hard."
Angel shuffled to the door. "I'm going to wait outside."
Wesley met him there and placed a hand on his shoulder. The men's eyes met briefly, and Wesley slipped a small glass phial, filled with a clear liquid, into the vampire's pocket. He patted Angel's arm and said softly, "I got it from the hospital chapel. It's your choice. You have enough friends here to know ... we'll try to understand whatever you do."
