CHAPTER 3 - Crossroad Demon
For a moment, it seemed the room stood still.
Frozen almost.
Breaking the awkward silence was Gunn's nervous and disbelieving giggle.
"Right. Dead people. Funny line." He said as if he'd heard the best joke of the week.
Cordelia barely heard his voice. Her attention stayed focused on Emily. For some reason, the look in the young girl's eyes darkened, unwillingly.
It became somber. More distant. More serious. Pained, slightly.
"Glad [b]you[/b] find that funny." Lorne mumbled as he stared at Gunn.
Gunn stayed silent, looked back and forth between Lorne and Emily and his face dropped. The teenager had now lowered her eyes, probably trying to avoid cordelia's intense stare. She didn't remember her cousin could be that serious. Of course, Emily had always known that material-girl Cordy was an act.
A good one. A mastered one. But an act nonetheless.
It's in moments like these that t he true Cordy came through. Emily could see that. So could Angel.
"You can see dead people?" Angel said in a quiet, even voice as he sat close to the two young women.
Emily slowly nodded, finally lifting her eyes. Hidden hurt shone through them.
"Yeah." she calmly spoke. "Actually, it's quite crowded in here. You'd be surprised at just how crowded it is. It's kind of distracting if you ask me." She unsuccessfully tried to lighten the mood, in her own awkward way, with one of those breathless rants. "You know." she said, pausing shortly. "Ghosts, spirits.it's no biggie, really." She added as she rose from the couch and turned her back on all of them. "It's not why I came here.I'm just the messenger." She whispered out loud, but almost only to herself.
"Don't do this, honey." Lorne's highly concerned, yet knowing voice was heard suddenly.
All eyes except Emily's turned to him.
All except her.
"It is a big deal and you should tell them. You can't just tell them half of it because sooner or later you'll have to spill your guts. So out with it." He pushed her. "Unless you want me to do it for you sugar."
Emily didn't even turn around. She kept her head down while everybody waited, not so patiently. Cordelia got up and walked towards her cousin, every step sounding like she was stepping into a dark and sad closed-off space.
"Emily." Cordy spoke, trying to get her attention.
"Tell her. She's seen worse." Lorne told her reassuringly.
"What? Is the green dud psychic or something?" Emily couldn't help but let out as she took a deep and much needed breath, never turning around or lifting her eyes up.
"You're lucky you didn't have to sing." Fred mumbled.
"Hey!" Lorne protested.
"No offense." Emily added, finally turning to look at all of them. "I mean, if I had wanted to insult you, I would have said pink dud. Or, I would have used an actual skin color." She informed him in typical fashion, which reminded Angel of Cordelia.
"Good point." Lorne acknowledged, impressed.
"You two are most definitely related." Gunn raised an eyebrow while pointing at Cordy and Emily.
"Hum, hello?? Back over here, Em. Stay with me on this one." Cordelia said, snapping her fingers in front of Emily's face.
A long silence invaded the room, meticulously making them a bit uncomfortable. Emily paused, closed her eyes, and sighed inwardly before finally speaking.
"I don't just see them." She confessed as she looked into Cordy's attentive eyes.
Tears. Hidden tears threatened to form in Emily's eyes and Cordy could see it.
"I can feel them." She hesitantly continued. "Everything in their souls. The hurt, the joy, the guilt.all of it. I just feel them.so that I can help them."
Her voice sounded scared.
Cordy had never seen Emily afraid before. Strong, brave, sharp-tongue Emily. She seemed peaceful and scared all at once - if that was even possible.
"The Crossroad." Wesley said as he suddenly remembered.
While Cordy looked at him questioningly, Emily lowered her eyes once again.
"Usually the Crossroad demons have that power. They're good demons though." He mused out loud. "They are servants of the Powers. They're born to physically and emotionally bare the pain of spirits in order to help them cross over." He explained as the information slowly crept back into his mind. "But they can only do it when the spirit actually goes through them."
"Goes through them?" Angel inquired, wanting more specific details.
"Like I see into your souls when you sing; she feels their souls when they walk through her." Lorne pitched in.
"From what I've read about these servants, it's like a gate. Once it's opened, the spirits - or Ghosts if you will - can go in and out of her as they please." Wesley said, his tone showing signs of worry. "Like your visions." He added, addressing Cordelia now.
"So you can feel.everything." Cordy said, her voice nearly breaking with that last word.
Emily didn't say anything, but her silence confirmed Cordelia's greatest fear.
She felt everything.
Absolutely everything.
"It's a very powerful power to possess.but it can be an extremely dangerous one for a human." Wesley finally spoke, concern filling his voice. "No human can bare a power like that."
Angel's eyes rested on Emily, who had not moved since Wesley had spoken. There was something about her. Something reassuring yet daring and frightening. Something familiar. Like she had all the answers but was just waiting for the right moment to spill them out. Yes, she felt familiar. Like the Powers.
"How?"
That word. It was all she could manage to ask at that point. It was all Cordy could coherently manage to say.
"Wrong place at the wrong time. Or, right place, right time. Depends on how you want to look at it." Emily said, trying to forge a smile, but unfortunately the smile came about a bit weaker than she had tried for.
Angel was sitting close enough to Cordelia and Emily to hear the rhythmic beating of their hearts. He closed his eyes immediately as he felt Cordelia's heart skip an important beat.
He got up from his seat, for the first time since all of this had begun unfolding before his eyes, and he walked towards Emily. With a very delicate touch, he reached out to touch the cut on her forearm.
"A spirit did that?" he asked in a soft, caring voice.
Emily looked deeply into Angel's eyes.
"Not on purpose." She answered in a bare whisper.
Cordy watched the interaction between the two silently.
"Does it always have this effect on you?" he asked her.
"Not always."
"So, what does happen usually?" Cordy inquired in a soft voice.
Just as those words came out, Emily took a few steps back, looking somewhere behind Angel and Cordelia.
"Oh no." Emily sighed, pleadingly.
Cordy and Angel turned around but saw nothing.
"Can we take a rain check on this? I'm in the middle of a disc."
As soon as the words came out, her body was thrown forward and she gasped in pain. She landed into Angel's arms and Cordelia immediately rushed to her. Emily closed her eyes in pain as both, Angel and Cordy, held onto her shaking body.
"Guess that answers it." Gunn said, looking rather disconcerted.
--
There were books everywhere. One could have assumed they had robbed an entire library considering the amount of books that lied around the hotel lobby. Wesley, Gunn and Fred were busy researching some ancient books on prophecies and such while Angel tried to find something on why the Powers would have chosen someone like Emily to bare this power. Cordelia was looking into some demon database on the computer, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.
"Anything?" Gunn asked, looking back and forth between Angel and Cordelia.
"Nothing so far." Wesley replied in a disappointed tone.
"There has to be something." Cordelia mumbled, never lifting her eyes from her frantic search.
"We'll find something." Angel soothingly spoke as he sat across from her.
"I found a demon of the same family here." She said, thoughtfully. "It's not the same but still. It says that if you kill the demon itself, it automatically neutralize whatever damage it has done." She explains. "So maybe if we track down whatever gave this to her we can stop this madness." she tried to sound hopeful but she couldn't.
"I don't know." Wesley said, uncertain as he kept searching through his book.
"Well, there has to be something!" Cordy exclaimed before taking a deep breath and running her hands through her hair.
"Cordelia," Wesley said putting his book down for a moment, looking rather apologetic. "These encounters with the other world.her body is not made to sustain it for a long period of time." He explained.
"So you're saying that these episodes.this power that the Power passed down to her will kill her." Angel half-asked, half-stated.
"Eventually." Wesley said in a low voice, lowering his eyes. "She is human."
"What are you talking about?!?" Cordelia exclaimed, almost angrily for the first time. "I'm not going to just sit here like a big fat idiot and do nothing while these damn PTBs kill her! Na-huh. No way." She said shaking her head with determination.
"Hum.hi.yes, here." Lorne hesitantly spoke, breaking his restrained silence. "I'm sorry to interrupt this lovely rescue mission here, but I think you're all missing the point." He said as all eyes turned to him once more.
"And what point would that be?" Cordelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe you're not supposed to save her." He finally said in a calm, knowing tone. "I don't think that's why she came here. She didn't come here to be rescued. She knows her fate, she's just completing her mission." He tried to explain as everyone stared at him blankly.
"Don't take this personally," Cordelia nicely said as she walked closer to him, "but shut up." She then finished in a still calmed voice as she walked passed him.
"I wish I could sweetheart," he said shaking his head sadly. "I wish I could."
"So what are you saying? That there's absolutely nothing I can do? That there's no way to save her? That she'll just eventually die and it's only a matter of time?" Cordy asked in a shaky breath.
"This is nothing new darling. It's like your visions. You can't just get rid of that. It's a part of you." he said as everyone stood silent.
Cordelia's heart skipped a beat as he spoke those words. She lowered her eyes.
Some things only she was aware of. Some things she had never gotten the courage to tell the others.
Some things she never thought she would.
This was one of them.
As she heard Lorne compare Emily's condition to her visions, it suddenly hit her that this frantic search to rescue Emily was a pretense to rescue herself.
In some distant way.
"I'm sorry." Lorne added as he saw the heartbreaking look on Cordelia's tired face. "But I don't think she came here to be saved." He whispered.
"Then why did she come here?" she emotionally asked. "Why then?"
There was a short silence before Lorne answered.
"That's something you will have to ask her. Not me." He said as he picked up his coat and silently headed for the door. He stopped on his way out and faced her again. "Just remember, fear will only hold you down." He said before turning back to leave.
--
The air was thick. A warmth invaded the darkness of the hotel.
There was always such a warmth in that room. It had never ceased to amaze her.
Cordelia stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe as she watched the sleeping form that lied down on Angel's bed. She bowed her head down and crossed her arms against her chest, taking a much-needed breath.
So many things she couldn't understand.
So many things she couldn't do.
There he was. She could feel him. Even in the darkness, she knew he was there, behind her. Waiting. She tilted her head and noticed that he was standing a couple of inches behind her.
"Are you okay?" he whispered in the most concerned voice a vampire could make out.
"I guess."
It was all she could answer.
"Cordelia, about earlier tonight," he began hesitantly. "I know the visions are taking their toll on you. Don't hide it from me." He gently told her.
"I'm not hiding it from you.it's just." she tried but she stopped herself
They didn't need to talk about it now.
"What did she mean by 'I'm just the messenger'?" she inquired, to which Angel had no answer.
They both just stayed there in silence and watched the young girl that slept inside the room. She had been so exhausted. So beat. So everything.
He could hear Cordelia breathing. Her heart pounding against her chest. He could feel the worries, the sadness.and somehow, he could feel the happiness radiating from her. It took Angel by surprise at first. Why did he feel like there was a part of her that couldn't help but be happy?
"Cordy." he softly spoke.
The way he said her name. She knew what would follow. She had become used to that tone of his, whenever something serious was going to follow.
"Maybe Lorne's right." He whispered as she lifted her eyes, turned her head and glanced at him. "Maybe she doesn't even want to be saved. Maybe that's not why she came here." He honestly - and regretfully - spoke.
A sad smile spread across Cordelia's face as she lowered her eyes once again.
"You don't get it do you." she whispered back.
Angel simply looked at her, waiting. He waited for her to continue.
She knew he was.
"I don't care why she's here." Cordelia finally spoke, turning around to fully face him now. "Maybe I should, but I don't." she confessed. "I don't care why she came here, because she did. She just did." Cordy's voice filled with repressed emotion. "She's my cousin. Granted we're not inseparable and I don't know much about her anymore, but she's family. I don't care if she came here to die or to fulfill some stupid PTB mission, because the first thing that pops into my head whenever I look at her is 'God, somebody from my own family travelled all the way over here to see me!' How pathetic is that?! Huh?" she asked him with some sort of sadness and desperation in her voice that Angel had never truly heard before.
"It's not pathetic.you are the furthest thing from pathetic." He said in all sincerity as he stared into her sparkling eyes.
"She's just here. And I don't care why, because she's the first real family member who at least pretends that she cares - and we all know those are few and far between.if at all existent anymore." She confessed.
"Cordy." Angel whispered, taking a step forward.
She shook her head and smiled faintly.
"Why?" she asked in a weak voice as her eyes involuntarily filled with tears. "Why would the Powers do that to her?"
"I don't know." He said, looking down for a moment. "I promise that if there's a way, I'll find it." He said.
They both stared at one another in silence.
They needed no words. They knew what the other was thinking.
The inevitable.
"For both of you." Angel whispered after a short pause.
Cordelia lowered her eyes and leaned against the doorframe once more.
Angel didn't know.
He just didn't.
In the darkness of the room, she felt Angel's hand softly rest on her shoulder. Soothingly. Reassuringly. Caringly.
They just stayed there in the dark, barely touching, yet comforting one another as they watched Emily sleep.
For a moment, it seemed the room stood still.
Frozen almost.
Breaking the awkward silence was Gunn's nervous and disbelieving giggle.
"Right. Dead people. Funny line." He said as if he'd heard the best joke of the week.
Cordelia barely heard his voice. Her attention stayed focused on Emily. For some reason, the look in the young girl's eyes darkened, unwillingly.
It became somber. More distant. More serious. Pained, slightly.
"Glad [b]you[/b] find that funny." Lorne mumbled as he stared at Gunn.
Gunn stayed silent, looked back and forth between Lorne and Emily and his face dropped. The teenager had now lowered her eyes, probably trying to avoid cordelia's intense stare. She didn't remember her cousin could be that serious. Of course, Emily had always known that material-girl Cordy was an act.
A good one. A mastered one. But an act nonetheless.
It's in moments like these that t he true Cordy came through. Emily could see that. So could Angel.
"You can see dead people?" Angel said in a quiet, even voice as he sat close to the two young women.
Emily slowly nodded, finally lifting her eyes. Hidden hurt shone through them.
"Yeah." she calmly spoke. "Actually, it's quite crowded in here. You'd be surprised at just how crowded it is. It's kind of distracting if you ask me." She unsuccessfully tried to lighten the mood, in her own awkward way, with one of those breathless rants. "You know." she said, pausing shortly. "Ghosts, spirits.it's no biggie, really." She added as she rose from the couch and turned her back on all of them. "It's not why I came here.I'm just the messenger." She whispered out loud, but almost only to herself.
"Don't do this, honey." Lorne's highly concerned, yet knowing voice was heard suddenly.
All eyes except Emily's turned to him.
All except her.
"It is a big deal and you should tell them. You can't just tell them half of it because sooner or later you'll have to spill your guts. So out with it." He pushed her. "Unless you want me to do it for you sugar."
Emily didn't even turn around. She kept her head down while everybody waited, not so patiently. Cordelia got up and walked towards her cousin, every step sounding like she was stepping into a dark and sad closed-off space.
"Emily." Cordy spoke, trying to get her attention.
"Tell her. She's seen worse." Lorne told her reassuringly.
"What? Is the green dud psychic or something?" Emily couldn't help but let out as she took a deep and much needed breath, never turning around or lifting her eyes up.
"You're lucky you didn't have to sing." Fred mumbled.
"Hey!" Lorne protested.
"No offense." Emily added, finally turning to look at all of them. "I mean, if I had wanted to insult you, I would have said pink dud. Or, I would have used an actual skin color." She informed him in typical fashion, which reminded Angel of Cordelia.
"Good point." Lorne acknowledged, impressed.
"You two are most definitely related." Gunn raised an eyebrow while pointing at Cordy and Emily.
"Hum, hello?? Back over here, Em. Stay with me on this one." Cordelia said, snapping her fingers in front of Emily's face.
A long silence invaded the room, meticulously making them a bit uncomfortable. Emily paused, closed her eyes, and sighed inwardly before finally speaking.
"I don't just see them." She confessed as she looked into Cordy's attentive eyes.
Tears. Hidden tears threatened to form in Emily's eyes and Cordy could see it.
"I can feel them." She hesitantly continued. "Everything in their souls. The hurt, the joy, the guilt.all of it. I just feel them.so that I can help them."
Her voice sounded scared.
Cordy had never seen Emily afraid before. Strong, brave, sharp-tongue Emily. She seemed peaceful and scared all at once - if that was even possible.
"The Crossroad." Wesley said as he suddenly remembered.
While Cordy looked at him questioningly, Emily lowered her eyes once again.
"Usually the Crossroad demons have that power. They're good demons though." He mused out loud. "They are servants of the Powers. They're born to physically and emotionally bare the pain of spirits in order to help them cross over." He explained as the information slowly crept back into his mind. "But they can only do it when the spirit actually goes through them."
"Goes through them?" Angel inquired, wanting more specific details.
"Like I see into your souls when you sing; she feels their souls when they walk through her." Lorne pitched in.
"From what I've read about these servants, it's like a gate. Once it's opened, the spirits - or Ghosts if you will - can go in and out of her as they please." Wesley said, his tone showing signs of worry. "Like your visions." He added, addressing Cordelia now.
"So you can feel.everything." Cordy said, her voice nearly breaking with that last word.
Emily didn't say anything, but her silence confirmed Cordelia's greatest fear.
She felt everything.
Absolutely everything.
"It's a very powerful power to possess.but it can be an extremely dangerous one for a human." Wesley finally spoke, concern filling his voice. "No human can bare a power like that."
Angel's eyes rested on Emily, who had not moved since Wesley had spoken. There was something about her. Something reassuring yet daring and frightening. Something familiar. Like she had all the answers but was just waiting for the right moment to spill them out. Yes, she felt familiar. Like the Powers.
"How?"
That word. It was all she could manage to ask at that point. It was all Cordy could coherently manage to say.
"Wrong place at the wrong time. Or, right place, right time. Depends on how you want to look at it." Emily said, trying to forge a smile, but unfortunately the smile came about a bit weaker than she had tried for.
Angel was sitting close enough to Cordelia and Emily to hear the rhythmic beating of their hearts. He closed his eyes immediately as he felt Cordelia's heart skip an important beat.
He got up from his seat, for the first time since all of this had begun unfolding before his eyes, and he walked towards Emily. With a very delicate touch, he reached out to touch the cut on her forearm.
"A spirit did that?" he asked in a soft, caring voice.
Emily looked deeply into Angel's eyes.
"Not on purpose." She answered in a bare whisper.
Cordy watched the interaction between the two silently.
"Does it always have this effect on you?" he asked her.
"Not always."
"So, what does happen usually?" Cordy inquired in a soft voice.
Just as those words came out, Emily took a few steps back, looking somewhere behind Angel and Cordelia.
"Oh no." Emily sighed, pleadingly.
Cordy and Angel turned around but saw nothing.
"Can we take a rain check on this? I'm in the middle of a disc."
As soon as the words came out, her body was thrown forward and she gasped in pain. She landed into Angel's arms and Cordelia immediately rushed to her. Emily closed her eyes in pain as both, Angel and Cordy, held onto her shaking body.
"Guess that answers it." Gunn said, looking rather disconcerted.
--
There were books everywhere. One could have assumed they had robbed an entire library considering the amount of books that lied around the hotel lobby. Wesley, Gunn and Fred were busy researching some ancient books on prophecies and such while Angel tried to find something on why the Powers would have chosen someone like Emily to bare this power. Cordelia was looking into some demon database on the computer, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.
"Anything?" Gunn asked, looking back and forth between Angel and Cordelia.
"Nothing so far." Wesley replied in a disappointed tone.
"There has to be something." Cordelia mumbled, never lifting her eyes from her frantic search.
"We'll find something." Angel soothingly spoke as he sat across from her.
"I found a demon of the same family here." She said, thoughtfully. "It's not the same but still. It says that if you kill the demon itself, it automatically neutralize whatever damage it has done." She explains. "So maybe if we track down whatever gave this to her we can stop this madness." she tried to sound hopeful but she couldn't.
"I don't know." Wesley said, uncertain as he kept searching through his book.
"Well, there has to be something!" Cordy exclaimed before taking a deep breath and running her hands through her hair.
"Cordelia," Wesley said putting his book down for a moment, looking rather apologetic. "These encounters with the other world.her body is not made to sustain it for a long period of time." He explained.
"So you're saying that these episodes.this power that the Power passed down to her will kill her." Angel half-asked, half-stated.
"Eventually." Wesley said in a low voice, lowering his eyes. "She is human."
"What are you talking about?!?" Cordelia exclaimed, almost angrily for the first time. "I'm not going to just sit here like a big fat idiot and do nothing while these damn PTBs kill her! Na-huh. No way." She said shaking her head with determination.
"Hum.hi.yes, here." Lorne hesitantly spoke, breaking his restrained silence. "I'm sorry to interrupt this lovely rescue mission here, but I think you're all missing the point." He said as all eyes turned to him once more.
"And what point would that be?" Cordelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe you're not supposed to save her." He finally said in a calm, knowing tone. "I don't think that's why she came here. She didn't come here to be rescued. She knows her fate, she's just completing her mission." He tried to explain as everyone stared at him blankly.
"Don't take this personally," Cordelia nicely said as she walked closer to him, "but shut up." She then finished in a still calmed voice as she walked passed him.
"I wish I could sweetheart," he said shaking his head sadly. "I wish I could."
"So what are you saying? That there's absolutely nothing I can do? That there's no way to save her? That she'll just eventually die and it's only a matter of time?" Cordy asked in a shaky breath.
"This is nothing new darling. It's like your visions. You can't just get rid of that. It's a part of you." he said as everyone stood silent.
Cordelia's heart skipped a beat as he spoke those words. She lowered her eyes.
Some things only she was aware of. Some things she had never gotten the courage to tell the others.
Some things she never thought she would.
This was one of them.
As she heard Lorne compare Emily's condition to her visions, it suddenly hit her that this frantic search to rescue Emily was a pretense to rescue herself.
In some distant way.
"I'm sorry." Lorne added as he saw the heartbreaking look on Cordelia's tired face. "But I don't think she came here to be saved." He whispered.
"Then why did she come here?" she emotionally asked. "Why then?"
There was a short silence before Lorne answered.
"That's something you will have to ask her. Not me." He said as he picked up his coat and silently headed for the door. He stopped on his way out and faced her again. "Just remember, fear will only hold you down." He said before turning back to leave.
--
The air was thick. A warmth invaded the darkness of the hotel.
There was always such a warmth in that room. It had never ceased to amaze her.
Cordelia stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe as she watched the sleeping form that lied down on Angel's bed. She bowed her head down and crossed her arms against her chest, taking a much-needed breath.
So many things she couldn't understand.
So many things she couldn't do.
There he was. She could feel him. Even in the darkness, she knew he was there, behind her. Waiting. She tilted her head and noticed that he was standing a couple of inches behind her.
"Are you okay?" he whispered in the most concerned voice a vampire could make out.
"I guess."
It was all she could answer.
"Cordelia, about earlier tonight," he began hesitantly. "I know the visions are taking their toll on you. Don't hide it from me." He gently told her.
"I'm not hiding it from you.it's just." she tried but she stopped herself
They didn't need to talk about it now.
"What did she mean by 'I'm just the messenger'?" she inquired, to which Angel had no answer.
They both just stayed there in silence and watched the young girl that slept inside the room. She had been so exhausted. So beat. So everything.
He could hear Cordelia breathing. Her heart pounding against her chest. He could feel the worries, the sadness.and somehow, he could feel the happiness radiating from her. It took Angel by surprise at first. Why did he feel like there was a part of her that couldn't help but be happy?
"Cordy." he softly spoke.
The way he said her name. She knew what would follow. She had become used to that tone of his, whenever something serious was going to follow.
"Maybe Lorne's right." He whispered as she lifted her eyes, turned her head and glanced at him. "Maybe she doesn't even want to be saved. Maybe that's not why she came here." He honestly - and regretfully - spoke.
A sad smile spread across Cordelia's face as she lowered her eyes once again.
"You don't get it do you." she whispered back.
Angel simply looked at her, waiting. He waited for her to continue.
She knew he was.
"I don't care why she's here." Cordelia finally spoke, turning around to fully face him now. "Maybe I should, but I don't." she confessed. "I don't care why she came here, because she did. She just did." Cordy's voice filled with repressed emotion. "She's my cousin. Granted we're not inseparable and I don't know much about her anymore, but she's family. I don't care if she came here to die or to fulfill some stupid PTB mission, because the first thing that pops into my head whenever I look at her is 'God, somebody from my own family travelled all the way over here to see me!' How pathetic is that?! Huh?" she asked him with some sort of sadness and desperation in her voice that Angel had never truly heard before.
"It's not pathetic.you are the furthest thing from pathetic." He said in all sincerity as he stared into her sparkling eyes.
"She's just here. And I don't care why, because she's the first real family member who at least pretends that she cares - and we all know those are few and far between.if at all existent anymore." She confessed.
"Cordy." Angel whispered, taking a step forward.
She shook her head and smiled faintly.
"Why?" she asked in a weak voice as her eyes involuntarily filled with tears. "Why would the Powers do that to her?"
"I don't know." He said, looking down for a moment. "I promise that if there's a way, I'll find it." He said.
They both stared at one another in silence.
They needed no words. They knew what the other was thinking.
The inevitable.
"For both of you." Angel whispered after a short pause.
Cordelia lowered her eyes and leaned against the doorframe once more.
Angel didn't know.
He just didn't.
In the darkness of the room, she felt Angel's hand softly rest on her shoulder. Soothingly. Reassuringly. Caringly.
They just stayed there in the dark, barely touching, yet comforting one another as they watched Emily sleep.
