TITLE: Second Chances
CO-AUTHORS: Hitwoman and Novus
SPOILERS: General Angel: the Series season five, namely for the presence of Fred.
DISCLAIMERS: Joss owns all, We own nothing! We're just borrowing them for a teensy bit.


Angel stood by the window, arms crossed, contemplating the Los Angeles night. He could see
the occasional vague outline of people walking by, going about their normal business. Living
their normal lives.

It was his job to make sure those lives continued as normally as possible.

He corrected himself silently. Not his job. His and his team's job.

Angel turned slowly, looking around the Hyperion. Wesley was doing his usual thing, several
ancient texts spread out in front of him as he researched the lifestyle and habitat of the
latest Big Bad, some sort of slime demon that had been picking off pedestrians in the
industrial part of town. Fred and Gunn were arguing amicably as he tried to re-teach her how
to play checkers. He kept insisting that the pieces could only move to diagonal squares of
the same color, and she kept insisting that the pieces could move themselves where they
wanted to.

His mouth quirked. She'd assimilated herself back into her own culture quite a bit since the
return from Pylea, but there were some things about her that might never return to normal. And
if he was honest, he preferred it that way. She had a certain quirky charm all her own.

Cordelia was... he frowned briefly. Where had the brunette gone? She'd been sitting at her
desk, filing or painting or doing something to her nails the last time he'd seen her.

Just then, there was a high pitched squeal of distress from one of the back offices. Angel's
head swung in that direction.

Wes spoke first. "Hey, was that...?"

"Cordelia," Gunn finished grimly. "Angel...?" But Angel was already gone. Wes and Gunn
hurried after him, Wesley stopping only long enough to grab the aspirin and bottled water from
her desk.

"Is she gonna scream like that all the time?" said Fred to the empty room, still staring down
at the checkers. "Cause this game's never gonna work if she keeps scaring the little
critters."

* * * * *

Faith woke up yawning and with a crink in her neck. She let the yawn slide and began to rub
the sore spot. The beds in solitary were even worse than the ones in the regular cells.

It hadn't helped that she'd had the mother of all weird dreams, either. Half of it hadn't made
any sense and the other half was starting to fade away as she woke up. She did remember a -

The door swung open and two butt-ugly guards glared in at her.

Faith managed to keep a bland smile on her face and waited to see what they wanted.

"You've got visitors," one of the guards announced. She sounded about as surprised as Faith
felt.

Visitors? More than one? Maybe Angel dragged along one of his employees. Faith hoped not - she wasn't sure she could face up to Wesley or Cordelia just yet.

"Come on."

Faith nodded and followed the guards out of The Pit aka the solitary wing and to the visiting
room. And past it.

"What - ?"

"Private room," the guard explained, probably disappointed she had no idea what was going on.

Faith knew how she felt. She didn't even know there were private visiting rooms in this place.
What the hell was this all about?

Then she was ushered into one of the private rooms and things began to click into place.

Watchers.

She would have backpedaled, or gone for them, but they both had their hands on the table in
about as non-threatening a posture as you could get. Plus the guard was right behind her.

"Faith. Why don't you have a seat?" one of the Watchers, a not-quite-middle-aged black man,
asked, a polite smile on his face.

"Sure." Faith pulled the chair back a few inches, far enough away from the Watchers to react
if they made a move, and sat down.

"We'll be brief, since time is rather pressing. We..." The black Watcher's face scrunched up
before he reluctantly went on. "We need your help."

"Oh, really?" Faith asked, grinning at the pair. "You want me to break some rocks for you or
what?"

Just as she'd hoped, the Watchers didn't get the joke. "Nonsense. We want you to kill a
vampire. That is your duty, you know, present circumstances notwithstanding."

Faith shrugged. "Well, present circumstances make it kinda hard to do much slaying," she
pointed out, still grinning. "On the other hand, you could spring me."

The other Watcher, the skinny old one who hadn't said anything yet, leaned forward. "Precisely
our plan. If you cooperate, we'll arrange for your temporary release so that the vampire may
be destroyed."

"Whoa, back up. Temporary?"

Both Watchers nodded.

"Think of it as a..." the old Watcher hesitated for a second "... a chance to prove yourself."

"So I do the good deed and then you toss me back in this pit?" Faith asked, astonished, but
not that much, that even the Watchers could be so asinine. "Not much in it for me, is there?"

The two Watchers exchanged glances, then the black one frowned gravely at her. "It is your
destiny, Faith. How long will you keep denying your calling? Lives are in danger, the more so
the longer you hesitate."

She pressed her lips together and stared at them for a few seconds, weighing her options, then
shrugged as she came to a decision. It wasn't that hard, which surprised her almost as much as
the decision itself.

* * * * *

Angel stopped in the doorway of the back office, Gunn and then Wesley stopping just behind
him. They all gaped at Cordelia, who... far from being in the throes of a vision, was standing
on one of the older desk chairs, long skirt held close against her legs.

"There!" She pointed a finger towards the corner of the office, where a mound of papers were
evidence to the haste in which she'd dropped them. "Under that stuff! That's where it is!"

"Where what is?" Angel entered the room slowly. "What's got you so upset?"

"It was a cockroach." Wesley made some kind of muffled noise of disgust, and Gunn rolled his
eyes. "Hey, not your normal big-icky-bug cockroach either. This one was the size of a
Shetland pony."

"Well, it's gone now," said Angel quietly, managing not to smile. "Why don't you come down
from there?"

"Oh yeah, right. I step down, that thing attacks me with it's big antlers and it's buggy
little legs, all out for revenge for me having its entire family killed by the exterminator
last week and... OH!" Angel had solved the problem by the simple expedient of grabbing
Cordelia around the legs and carrying her towards the other room. She clutched at his head
with both hands, just managing to duck as he went through the doorway, thereby avoiding a
whack to the head from the door frame. Wes and Gunn looked at each other briefly before
moving to the pile of papers, digging through them in search of the insect that would be sure
to keep Cordelia from entering this room again.

In the lobby, Angel let Cordelia slide down until he could grasp her waist, then he set her on
her feet. Fred watched them with interest. "Do people do that around here? I knew it wasn't
so unusual in Pylea, but things were always so different there, so if you saw someone carting
someone else around, it didn't necessarily mean anything out of the extraordinary, so to
speak. But seems like most people here seem to think..."

"There was a bug," said Cordelia. "A big bug."

"Oh." Fred's brows drew together in confusion for a moment, then smoothed out again as
comprehension dawned. She nodded knowingly. "Ooooh. Was it going to eat your head?"

"Well as a matter of fact," began Cordelia, but then she met Angel's eyes. "No, it wasn't
really quite that big, Fred. Insects here are still pretty much at the small-and-easily-squishable stage. No head-eating ones that I'm aware of."

"That's good. That's real good," responded Fred, smiling happily. "Cause it's pretty hard to
make much sense after a bug eats your head."

"For some of us, it's pretty hard even before that." She smiled fondly at the other girl.
"But that's okay. In fact, it's actually kind of... oh no."

"No?" Fred got to her feet, looking at Cordelia curiously.

"No. Not... Angel?" With one last glance at Angel, she winced in pain, her hand going
instinctively to her forehead. She would have fallen to the ground, legs no longer able to
support her, if Angel hadn't gotten to her first, easing her down then sitting next to her,
supporting her himself as the vision hit her.

Fred turned to look back at the checkerboard. "Don't worry, little guys," she said in a stage
whisper. "She won't scream much. Probly won't, anyway. It's the curse, you know."

"Fred, we talked about this," said Angel, attention still focused on Cordelia. "It's not a
curse. It's just a vision, and we'll use it to help people."

He turned his head slightly. "Wesley! Gunn!"

The others hurried back into the room, Wesley with the aspirin and water still in his hand.
They both hurried to kneel next to Angel and Cordelia. Fred approached more slowly, trying to
keep an eye on the checkerboard. She didn't want to miss any moves the pieces might make,
since that tended to make the game even more confusing to her.

After a moment, Cordelia's eyes opened again. Wordlessly, Wesley handed her a couple of
aspirins and the bottle of water.

"Vampire," she said, breathing a little heavily. "Thanks, Wesley. A vampire, but not your
regular vampire. This one's... he's weird-looking. Old, I think, and... and dry."

"Dry?" repeated Gunn. "Can we get a little more specific on that?"

"Dry!" said Cordelia. "He was... dry. All paper-y looking. Like one of those old women who's
been to the tanning booth a few thousand times too many."

"Dry means he's probably been without food too long." Angel supported Cordelia as she sat up
on her own, then gave her a hand to help her to her feet. "Locked up somewhere, maybe. What
was he wearing? Did it look like a prison uniform?"

"No, not a uniform." Wincing a little, Cordelia moved to one of the round sofas that dotted
the lobby and sat down, laying her head carefully on the padded bench. "Some kind of robe-y
thing."

"Old vampire, locked up without food, wearing a robe." Wesley shook his head, moving back
towards his books. "I don't like the sound of that. Was it some sort of ceremonial robe? Can
you describe it?"

"Yeah. It was gross. All tattered and ragged and... dusty."

"Not exactly the sort of description I was hoping for." He began thumbing through one of the
books, a compendium of various well known vampires and their followers. "Color perhaps?"

Cordelia took a deep breath. "Purple or blue, maybe, before the 18 inches of solid dirt
covered it. What does it matter? Big vampire, BAD vampire... do we really need to sit here and
debate his color choices?"

"No, we don't," said Angel calmly, interrupting before another argument could start. "We need
to get out and find it. Location, Cordy?"

"I... " she was silent for a second. "Subway station, maybe? Or train station? I couldn't
tell for sure. But there was a big poster with a water bottle on it on the wall."

"Let's head out then." Angel grabbed his jacket, and the rest of the team moved to gather
what they'd need. "Looks like we've got a vampire to find."

* * * * *

Faith took a deep breath and grinned when the two Watchers stared at her. "Cut me some slack,
I've been in prison for the last year. Let me enjoy fresh, unconvicted air while I can, huh?"

"I must point out that time is of the essence," Deschain, the older Watcher who reminded Faith
of Giles at his prissiest, said in a tone that was just shy of impatience. "Also, we are in a
subway station."

Faith only shrugged. "It's better than nothing. And don't worry, I'm on it. That way," she
said, pointing down the empty tunnel off to the left.

The two Watchers exchanged glances. "Are you sure?" Deschain asked, a skeptical look on his
face. Faith wasn't known for the psychic abilities that some Slayers developed. But she
sounded fairly certain. Perhaps her Watchers had held back about her true talent for some
reason.

"Trust me," Faith insisted, even though she had no idea how she knew the vampire was coming.
She did know, but it was something she'd never been able to do before. Then the train rolled
into the station and she set that question aside. "It's here!" she announced grimly, drawing a
stake from her belt.

It was a somewhat redundant warning. The car's windows were coated in blood and faint screams
could be heard from inside and then from outside as the crowd at the station began scrambling
for the exits.

Faith and the Watchers were nearly swept away by the mad rush and only reached the edge of the platform when the station was all but deserted.

"Stay back," Faith whispered. She crept up to one of the doors and began to pry it open. The
two Watchers moved off to the side and drew their own weapons, ready to fire the minute the
door was open.

All three of them cursed when the window next to Faith shattered, glass and blood splattering
everywhere, and the vampire leapt through with a bestial roar.

* * * * *

"Doesn't anyone in LA drink tap water anymore?" asked Wesley irritably, as they walked past
the twenty-third bottled water poster. Cordelia had yet to find the one she'd seen in her
vision.

"When was the last time you tried tap water, English?" said Gunn, his voice amused as he
scanned the crowd.

"I drink tea," said Wesley.

"Yeah, and there's a manly drink," said Gunn, grinning openly now. "You should try the tap
water. Put some hair on your chest."

"Children, am I going to have to separate you?" said Angel. They both turned to look at him,
brows raised, before going back to their amicable squabbling. "What?" he said, turning to
Cordelia who'd fallen behind the other two with him. "I'm not allowed to make a joke?"

"I guess they're still getting used to you," said Cordelia, watching the other two with a
ghost of a smile. The smile slowly died. "You know, since you had your epiphany and all."

And the conversation, slow as it was, died there.

Which was just as well, because it was about that time that they heard the roar of the
vampire.

* * * * *

"Son of a - " Faith yelled when the vampire slashed at her. She ducked back just in time to
avoid getting her throat torn out, and fell to the ground. There were two thunking sounds,
almost in unison, as a pair of crossbow bolts hit the vampire in the chest. Neither hit the
heart, and it kept on coming.

Faith jumped to her feet and punched it in the jaw. Ancient teeth shattered and the vampire
grunted, but it wasn't slowed down. The vampire slashed at Faith again, this time tearing a
few long holes in her shirt, and hissed, displaying the remainder of its long, blood-soaked
fangs.

"Oh no. That's not..." The Angel Investigations crew stood there for an instant, more
surprised at the sight of the dark Slayer than the ancient evil she was fighting.

"Faith," said Angel quietly. He touched the back of Cordelia's arm, knowing how the others,
especially Cordelia and Wesley, felt about the girl. "That's her."

"Damn dude, get a toothbrush!" Faith sidestepped to avoid being gutted and tried to maneuver
around the thing's back so she could snap its neck and slow it down a little. But the vampire
moved too fast, faster than anything she'd seen since Kakistos, and it was all she could to
stay away from its claws.

"Guys, a little help?"

Angel and Gunn swung into action first. Gunn went for the full frontal assault, joining Faith
in front of the creature.

Faith glanced at Gunn out of the corner of her eye. "What the hell?" she blurted out, then
grinned. "Hey there."

"Hi," said Gunn, the word little more than a grunt as he used one end of the lengthy
battle-axe he carried to slam into the vampire's face. The blow did little more than anger the
already-maddened thing, and it hissed at him with another swipe of those lethal claws.

Angel catapulted himself upward, grabbing one of the steam pipes that lined the ceiling and
using the upward force of the motion to swing his legs up and over the vampire's head. He
brought both feet down onto the back of the demon's head with enough force to send the
creature to the ground like a stone with a bone-cracking crunch, then dropped lightly back
onto the cement floor.

"Well," he said, wiping the grime of the steam pipe from his hands. "He seems to be a
little..."

"Still alive, awake, and ready to eat us?" finished Cordelia. "Look."

And it was true. The creature was already stirring again.

"Geez," said Gunn. "What's it take to bring him down?"

They all took several steps back as the vampire got to his feet again. The lower part of its
face was now a broken, bloody jumble of tooth and bone from the force of its forceful
encounter with cement, but it showed no sign of weakness.

"If I may make a suggestion?" Deschain said as he reloaded his crossbow. The sudden appearance of Angel and the others didn't faze him in the least, or at least not as much as the rampaging vampire had.

"Lemme guess," Faith muttered, grinning despite herself. It had been a long time since she'd
gotten a good ass-kicking rush like this. Prison fights just weren't the same. "Where are you
guys parked?" she asked Angel as she began to back away from the vampire. It was shuffling
aimlessly, apparently dazed.

"Parking lot," said Angel briefly, eyes on the wounded vampire. He and Gunn began to fan out,
trying to flank the creature.

Faith reached for another stake, intending to try her luck with long-distance dusting, but the
vampire made a strange gurgling noise and jumped down onto the tracks. Dane got one shot off,
but the bolt missed and then the vampire was gone.

"Shit. C'mon, anybody got a flashlight?"

"A flashlight?" repeated Cordelia doubtfully. "Because you're going to what... spotlight it to death?"

"I believe she intends to chase it down the tunnel," said Wesley calmly. "Not a particularly
wise move, considering the likelihood of an oncoming subway car."

"C'mon, I can take it."

"Absolutely not!" Deschain said. "We clearly haven't the proper weapons to - my God,
Wyndham-Pryce, what are you doing here?" he suddenly blurted out, turning towards Wesley.

"I'm working here," said Wesley, looking down his nose at the Watcher. "After the Council
decided to... to..." His voice broke off.

"After you guys were dumb enough to let him go, he came to work with us," said Cordelia
loyally. "He's an invaluable part of the team."

"Oh, is he?" Deschain asked, a weak smile creasing his face. Dane and Faith both rolled their
eyes.

"His research skills are incredible." Angel clapped a hand on Wesley's shoulder.

"English here took a bullet for me," said Gunn, moving to stand on Wesley's other side.

"So if you guys are done, you can just toddle on," added Cordelia. Feel free to take Psycho
Slayer with you, she finished silently.

Deschain opened his mouth to put the Americans in their place, but Dane spoke before he could.
"We're not done, not while the vampire is still alive," he pointed out.

"Thanks so much, Captain Obvious," said Cordelia dryly. "Care to make a suggestion?"

Dane nodded. "Yes, I would. Perhaps we should focus on energies on finishing the task at
hand?"

"Quite right," Deschain reluctantly said. "Perhaps it's not coincidence that you and your
associates are here."

"And perhaps it is," muttered Wesley quickly, frowning.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but who cares? Now let's get together and kick some ass, okay?"
Faith turned and grinned at Angel. "You still got that big closet full of toys? I owe that
thing a few whacks with an axe, Lizzy Borden style."

Cordelia stepped between them, voice cool. "Sorry, but we're in the middle of something here."

"Cordelia," began Angel, but she cut in before he could say anything else.

"No, Angel. I mean it." She turned to look at him, eyes a little pleading. "You had your
epiphany. Maybe she's had hers. But she's got the Watchers to keep her busy, and we've got
our own work." She cast a sideways glance back at Faith. "And I have a hard time doing that
after catching someone's fist with my face."

Faith chewed on her lip. She wanted to apologize, or at least try to, but before she could
even begin to say something, it was too late.

"And the Watchers' motives are less than clear," murmured Wesley. "I'm not sure we want to
ally ourselves with them. You remember what happened when they sent a team after us, don't
you?"

Dane turned to Deschain, a disbelieving look on his face, but the elder Watcher nodded.

There was an uncomfortable silence before Angel spoke.

"I'm sorry, Faith," he said quietly. "I'll.. I'll be in touch."

"Right," Faith replied shortly. "Later."

Slowly the Angel Investigations team turned and began making their way back out of the subway
terminal.

"Would someone please explain to me what that was all about?" Dane asked when they'd left.

"Later, big guy," Faith muttered. "Let's just get the hell out of here and gear up. You guys
brought some guns or something from England, right?"

Deschain nodded. "But we hadn't anticipated needing them. Vampires aren't generally hurt - "

"I know!" Faith snapped. "But it'll slow that creep down long enough for me to get up close
and personal with an axe. Who needs them anyway?" she mumbled. "They'd just get in the way."

Not that Mutt and Jeff are doing that great, she thought. She'd seen the type before - wannabe
bad-asses who've never been in a real fight in their lives. Give them guns and they'd probably
end up shooting her in the back.

Ditching the two Watchers seemed like the best idea, but then what? Go try and beg for Angel's
help? Not much of a chance there, not with Cordelia and Wesley around to remind him of... all
that.

But how else was she going to take down the vampire?

"Dammit."

"What's that?" Dane asked as they started up the stairs to the ground level.

"I gotta pee," Faith replied, a sheepish expression on her face. "Wait here. Ah'll be back."

"Do hurry," Deschain absently commented. "I doubt the vampire's panic will last long."

"Don't worry," Faith said over her shoulder as she ran across the station to the ladies room.