Descent - 16/16 Descent - 16/16

Time dragged by in the stuffy room. Initially, those remaining found it hard to speak about what might be happening elsewhere in the building.

Kate spoke first, asking Wesley, "What was that?" and when he answered quietly "Holy water" - she was silenced. Cordelia couldn't look Kate in the eye, and Gunn seemed lost in recollections of his own.

After an hour, Cordy took a tissue out of her bag and started to dab her eyes. Wesley put an arm around her shoulder and she broke into bitter tears.

"I can't believe I said that to him."

"It can't be helped."

"I shouldn't have said anything."

"You only told him how you felt. If you're frightened, he should know. I'm just afraid he'll blame me."

"For what?" Gunn asked.

"For poisoning his relationship with his family. If he doesn't ... Paul can't have long left. Shawna and Eddie are gone, and we don't know anything about the rest of their families."

"Shawna was adopted. Her parents died when she was a baby." Kate said quietly. The others turned towards her. "It was in the police records. She was brought up by adoptive parents."

"You see?" Wesley said, sadly. "Paul has no living relatives. We don't know what Eddie's situation was, but Angel's opportunities for finding a family seem be to closing down. This could be the only chance he gets. I hope I haven't ruined it for him."

Gunn sighed, "I don't think any of us were every helpful. Kate - I didn't mean you. But us three - we're supposed to be Angel's family. I think we were all ... a bit tied up with our own perspective on this. Just because I feel guilty about losing Alonna, doesn't mean it's relevant to what Angel feels about his family or the way they might feel about him. Everyone doesn't have to feel the same way about stuff. I shouldn't have said what I said."

Wesley nodded, and took his glasses off to polish them. "If I could have kept my mouth shut about the research. Because not everything is about what's possible. I should have respected the way he saw the matter."

"Not everything is about being safe from the monsters." Cordy added. "I mean, in the end, knowing what Angel constantly fights against is what makes me admire him."

"What are we going to do?" Wesley replaced his glasses. "What are we going to say? When he comes back?"

The door opened, and swung back against the floor-mounted stop with a gentle thud. Angel stood in the doorway, staring at the ground. All eyes in the room were upon him.

As the Angel Investigations team remained rooted to their seats, Kate walked up to him and slipped her arms around his waist, trying not to notice if he was warm or cold.

Epilogue

Kate heaped noodles into two blue and white bowls laid out on a lacquered tray. She didn't hear the door to the kitchen open or steps across the room, and the first she knew of Angel's arrival there was his arms slipping round her waist from behind.

"I'm so glad I moved back here," she murmured, as his lips traced a line up her neck to her ear.

He paused. "Why?"

"Couldn't have done this in the kitchen of the other place. Not without the whole of LA seeing."

Angel chuckled and took the serving spoons out of her hands, dumped them in the saucepan and turned her round so that he could kiss her properly. He pressed her into the door of one of the kitchen cupboards with his body, and cradled her head in his hands as his tongue sought out hers.

"Katie ... how have we waited a whole month?"

"You said you wanted to go slow. You said ..."

"Yes, I know I said that." He heaved a shaky sigh. "But then I never saw you in this dress before. This dress isn't fair."

He pulled away and looked ravenously at her body, clad in a silk wrap-over that dived into a sharp V on top and also exposed a decent length of pale thigh skin when she walked. The silk was just a shade darker than her eyes at their darkest hue, and it rustled very slightly as she moved. Angel stroked the skin in the centre of the V and brushed his fingers against the side of her breast.

"The dress isn't fair," he repeated.

Kate smiled at him and said quietly, "Do you want to stay over?"

He looked into her eyes, nervously.

She continued. "We don't have to ... you know. We could just spend the night together. If nothing happens, then that's fine. We can watch movies."

"What would you like me to do?"

Kate picked up the tray and left the kitchen, saying, over her shoulder. "I'd like you to join me at the dining table."

"Well, doesn't that look good!"

The man already sitting at the table looked absurdly like Angel. He was thinner, slightly haggard from his illness, and that made him look a year or so older, but in every other respect they were remarkably similar.

Or so Kate thought, every time she met Paul. But then when Angel walked into the room and her heart gave the usual pleasant lurch, she would decide again that there really was no comparison.

"You did say you liked Chinese?"

"I certainly do. Is this your father's famous recipe?"

Kate nodded, and set the bowls on the table. Then Angel wandered in with a glass of blood.

"My God! Is he still on that stupid liquid diet?"

Kate nodded. "He says he needs to lose weight."

Paul shook his head. "All the more for us, then." He picked up his champagne flute and clinked with both his companions. "Anyway, here's to you, Angel - not only for having a great cook for a girlfriend, but also for having a girlfriend who sublets me an apartment with the most fabulous view of LA, and last but not least, for my miraculous recovery. I tell you, if you hadn't come along and volunteered, I don't think they would have found a match."

"The doctors have given you the all clear?"

"Yes. And they say there must be something magical in your bone marrow. You remember, they weren't happy about you having the extraction done outside the hospital?"

Angel and Kate both looked nervously in the direction of the kitchen.

"Well, you should have seen the disclaimer they made me sign. Now they've completely changed their minds and say they've never seen anyone heal so quick."

"No side effects? Rejection pains? Sickness? Unusually strong thirst?"

Paul shook his head. "None at all. I still can't quite believe you turning up when you did. We should drink to ... fate."

Angel smiled and shook his head. "I don't really believe in fate. Let's just drink to family."