Title: An Irish Lullaby
Authors: MissKitieFantastico (kitiekat24@go.com) & Tigerwolf (Tigerwolf_2@msn.com)
Summary: Cordy comes home from vacationing with Groo to find that everything has fallen apart.
Timeline: Set after 'Sleep Tight'. Probably something like the day after.
Pairing: Wouldn't you like to know… Heh, C/A angst & F/G
Rating: I dunno. Pick one. PG-13 maybe?
Disclaimer: We own nothing in the Angelverse. If we did, we'd be pretty rich by now, and wouldn't be writing fanfic. This would actually be happening on the show, and Groo would be very dead.
Distribution: Want. Take. Have. Just let us know where, we want bragging rights.
Spoilers: You know, that big one from 'Sleep Tight' and probably everything that lead up to it… Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.
Feedback: Yes please. It calms the angry puppy. Remember, kitties don't like puppies, especially angry one's.
A/N: This is a first, hopefully of many, collaborations between myself & Tigerwolf. All Cordy POV's were written by me, and all Angel POV's were written by Tigerwolf.
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Chapter One
There's No Place Like Home
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"Princess, are you alright?"
I turn to Groo as we walk towards the Hyperion. My mind has been way out in left field all day. Something's wrong, I can feel it in the air, but I didn't think I was so obvious that he'd notice. I've come to realize he isn't the most receptive man, much like one brooding vampire I've come to know and love.
"Yeah, I'm just anxious to see everyone. I guess I sorta missed them." I smile at him to reassure him that that was all I was thinking about. He bought it of course. He just smiles back at me as we make our way through the courtyard.
I stop right next to the dried up fountain for no sane persons' reason. I don't want to go inside yet and I don't know why. Groo didn't see me stop, but notices about ten feet in front of me, and turns around. I glance at the shrubbery and dead flowers. Someone should really start to keep these up, a garden should be full of life, not death. I shiver at the thought, and wrap my arms around myself but I know I'm not cold. Not on the outside at least. But somewhere else, it feels like something's missing inside me and I don't know what. It's been like this since last night, the feeling just won't go away.
Groo starts to say something, but I smile and his face lightens immediately. It seems like that's all I ever have to do with him is smile and it makes everything ok. It actually makes me mad that he doesn't understand me. I'm so used to never being able to get away with my own thoughts. Angel just always seems to notice when I'm thinking. A smile used to work on him, but now I can never get away with it. Ninety percent of the time he doesn't know what's wrong, but at least he notices.
My arms still wrapped around me, I start for the doors again but get the urge to look up to the sky. I have my sunglasses on, but it's still so bright that I bring my hand up to cut the glare. The sky is a brilliant blue, not the normal smoggy blue-brown that LA has become famous for. No clouds in sight, not even fluffy white ones to contrast the blueness of it, and the sun is out with full force. For some reason I think it's wrong that the sun is shining so bright today, even though it feels good on my newly tanned skin.
Groo holds the door open for me for the millionth time in two weeks, and now I'm starting to get annoyed with it. I'm perfectly capable of opening my own doors thank-you-very-much.
I'm taking off my sunglasses as I walk into the lobby, but a cheery hello is cut off before I even open my mouth. Whatever half smile I had plastered to my face falls in a millisecond as I take in the appearance of the lobby.
To say 'disarray'--which I'd never actually say anyway--is an understatement. To be blunt, the lobby was trashed. Books everywhere, blood on the wall by the counter, the weapons cabinet is once again broken. It looked like World War III was staged right inside these walls.
"Oh my god…" I manage to choke out those few words, as panic starts to make my heart pound in my chest and my knees go weak.
"What has happened here?" I see Groo move off behind the counter to inspect something, but I don't notice him after that.
My mind starts racing with my worst fears, and I try to get my feet to move. Yeah, right. I can't even feel my fingers let alone try to move. Oh god, Angel. What about Connor? Fred? Gunn? Wes? There isn't a single sign of life in here. Oh, god. Stop! Stop thinking like that, they've got to be ok. I would've known if they weren't. I'm barely able to contain my tears as two figures appear on the landing upstairs.
My heart lifts as they come out of the shadows.
Finally I can move, and I rush forward to meet them at the foot of the stairs. "I know you guys wanted to redecorate, but this is just ridiculous! What did you do to the place?"
Fred raises her head, and I notice her face. She's been crying. My gaze moves to Gunn, but he averts his eyes. It almost looks like he's been crying too. Now I notice the fact that Fred isn't even standing on her own, Gunn is practically holding her upright.
"Oh, no. What happened?" My voice catches in my throat and my mouth goes dry. It feels like an eternity while I'm waiting for them to say something.
Why won't they say anything?
I can feel my heart practically trying to jump out of my chest again, and I'm trying really hard to keep breathing.
"Where's Angel?… Where's Wes?"
Fred flinches when I say Wes' name, and my worst fear has just manifested itself. "Gunn? What happened… Would someone please tell me what happened!" I practically scream at him and my vision goes all blurry.
No, Chase, don't cry.
"Wes… He… We found him… There was so much blood… I didn't think he could've… because of all the blood…" My eyes dart to Fred. She's not even speaking in complete sentences and she looks like she's about to fall apart.
"What? Blood?" My mind starts racing, and I want her to just spill it, but the new Cordy refrains from shaking it out of her.
So I just stand there.
Finally Gunn speaks up after realizing that Fred just can't quite say whatever it is.
"Wes is in the hospital. Justine… She slit his throat. But we found him and took him to the hospital."
I may be dense but I know I see a flash of anger in his eyes when he says his name. Then the rest of what he said finally sinks in. I feel my knees go weak, and I manage to back myself to the couch and sit down.
"Is he…?"
"He's in critical condition. He lost a lot of blood, but they think he'll make it."
I ignore the coldness of his voice as I try to blink away my tears to see, and I feel them slide down my cheeks, and I sigh in relief. Thank god he's not… I can't even say it in my head.
I see Fred now that my vision isn't blurry and now more than ever she looks like she's about to crack. She catches my gaze for a split second before lowering her head again, and her long brown hair falls in her face.
"But he's ok, right? We're ok, right? No one else got hurt…. Right?" I keep saying that to try to convince myself that everything's ok, but the look on their faces shows quite the opposite.
"I… I can't do this!" Fred's voice comes out like a screech and she rips herself from Gunn before bolting upstairs and I can hear her sobs until a door slams shut.
Realization hits me now, and I'm trying to keep myself from falling apart after seeing Fred freak out. Obviously something else is going on here. I open my mouth a few times before I find my voice. Since when have words ever evaded me before?
"Where's Angel?"
So much for finding my voice.
All that came out was a whisper.
I look at his face and he flinches when I say his name. I was so quiet I almost didn't think he heard me, but that flinch told me otherwise. "Where's Connor?" Now I found my voice, it came out louder than I'd anticipated but this whole secretive thing is starting to freak me out. Give me demons and scary hell dimensions any day, but this is pure torture.
"He's upstairs. In your room. His kinda exploded."
"Why?" I get to my feet and move towards him now, a bit relieved that Angel's ok. But I still want to know what the hell happened. The lobby is trashed, Wes is in the hospital, Angel's room exploded. This is what happens when I leave them alone.
All I get from my simple one-syllable question is silence. It's much too quiet in here and I'm equal parts freaked out and peeved. Believe me, the silence is most definitely not helping, in fact it's making it worse.
To top it off, I feel like an idiot just standing in the middle of the lobby, waiting for him to fill me in. But he doesn't say anything.
Ok, this is bullshit! Oh boy, now I'm no longer peeved but I'm angry. He won't answer me and my patience wore thin about 2 minutes ago. I stare Gunn down but once again he does the averted gaze thing, so I push past him and stomp my way upstairs. All fear aside, I'm ready for some serious ass kicking if I don't get some answers about what happened while I was gone.
I make my way to the room in less than a second, but I stop before putting my hand on the knob. I have a feeling I'm really not going to like what's on the other side of that door. But I have to know, so I puff up my chest, taking in much needed oxygen, and open the door without knocking.
As I step into my room, my jaw drops. The place is a disaster. It looks even worse than the lobby did. What the hell did he do to my room?!
"What the hell did he do to my room?" I whisper, as I scan what used to be a rather lavishly decorated hotel room. Now I find a knocked over lamp, glass on the floor, and on my left-- the shredded upholstery from a very expensive sofa that I used to love. And, oh look, there's the rest of the sofa-- on the other side of the room!
I used to love that thing, granted I didn't pay for it, but still…
The back of the room is cloaked in darkness, the only light being from one of the lamps on the floor. I can't make out my bed but I know he's there. I can feel him. Weird huh? Don't know when that happened.
So I bend down and turn an endtable upright before placing the lamp on it. Now I can somewhat see my bed, and yup, he's there. He's lying on the bed, curled up like a little boy. I move to him.
His eyes are closed and he doesn't stir when I sit on the edge of the bed and place my hand, which is shaking like mad, on his arm. I knew I wasn't going to like this. Any trace of my anger is gone when I look at his face, and I know that when he wakes up I'm really not going to like what he has to say.
"Angel?"
Authors: MissKitieFantastico (kitiekat24@go.com) & Tigerwolf (Tigerwolf_2@msn.com)
Summary: Cordy comes home from vacationing with Groo to find that everything has fallen apart.
Timeline: Set after 'Sleep Tight'. Probably something like the day after.
Pairing: Wouldn't you like to know… Heh, C/A angst & F/G
Rating: I dunno. Pick one. PG-13 maybe?
Disclaimer: We own nothing in the Angelverse. If we did, we'd be pretty rich by now, and wouldn't be writing fanfic. This would actually be happening on the show, and Groo would be very dead.
Distribution: Want. Take. Have. Just let us know where, we want bragging rights.
Spoilers: You know, that big one from 'Sleep Tight' and probably everything that lead up to it… Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.
Feedback: Yes please. It calms the angry puppy. Remember, kitties don't like puppies, especially angry one's.
A/N: This is a first, hopefully of many, collaborations between myself & Tigerwolf. All Cordy POV's were written by me, and all Angel POV's were written by Tigerwolf.
==++==++==++==++==++==
Chapter One
There's No Place Like Home
==++==++==++==++==++==
"Princess, are you alright?"
I turn to Groo as we walk towards the Hyperion. My mind has been way out in left field all day. Something's wrong, I can feel it in the air, but I didn't think I was so obvious that he'd notice. I've come to realize he isn't the most receptive man, much like one brooding vampire I've come to know and love.
"Yeah, I'm just anxious to see everyone. I guess I sorta missed them." I smile at him to reassure him that that was all I was thinking about. He bought it of course. He just smiles back at me as we make our way through the courtyard.
I stop right next to the dried up fountain for no sane persons' reason. I don't want to go inside yet and I don't know why. Groo didn't see me stop, but notices about ten feet in front of me, and turns around. I glance at the shrubbery and dead flowers. Someone should really start to keep these up, a garden should be full of life, not death. I shiver at the thought, and wrap my arms around myself but I know I'm not cold. Not on the outside at least. But somewhere else, it feels like something's missing inside me and I don't know what. It's been like this since last night, the feeling just won't go away.
Groo starts to say something, but I smile and his face lightens immediately. It seems like that's all I ever have to do with him is smile and it makes everything ok. It actually makes me mad that he doesn't understand me. I'm so used to never being able to get away with my own thoughts. Angel just always seems to notice when I'm thinking. A smile used to work on him, but now I can never get away with it. Ninety percent of the time he doesn't know what's wrong, but at least he notices.
My arms still wrapped around me, I start for the doors again but get the urge to look up to the sky. I have my sunglasses on, but it's still so bright that I bring my hand up to cut the glare. The sky is a brilliant blue, not the normal smoggy blue-brown that LA has become famous for. No clouds in sight, not even fluffy white ones to contrast the blueness of it, and the sun is out with full force. For some reason I think it's wrong that the sun is shining so bright today, even though it feels good on my newly tanned skin.
Groo holds the door open for me for the millionth time in two weeks, and now I'm starting to get annoyed with it. I'm perfectly capable of opening my own doors thank-you-very-much.
I'm taking off my sunglasses as I walk into the lobby, but a cheery hello is cut off before I even open my mouth. Whatever half smile I had plastered to my face falls in a millisecond as I take in the appearance of the lobby.
To say 'disarray'--which I'd never actually say anyway--is an understatement. To be blunt, the lobby was trashed. Books everywhere, blood on the wall by the counter, the weapons cabinet is once again broken. It looked like World War III was staged right inside these walls.
"Oh my god…" I manage to choke out those few words, as panic starts to make my heart pound in my chest and my knees go weak.
"What has happened here?" I see Groo move off behind the counter to inspect something, but I don't notice him after that.
My mind starts racing with my worst fears, and I try to get my feet to move. Yeah, right. I can't even feel my fingers let alone try to move. Oh god, Angel. What about Connor? Fred? Gunn? Wes? There isn't a single sign of life in here. Oh, god. Stop! Stop thinking like that, they've got to be ok. I would've known if they weren't. I'm barely able to contain my tears as two figures appear on the landing upstairs.
My heart lifts as they come out of the shadows.
Finally I can move, and I rush forward to meet them at the foot of the stairs. "I know you guys wanted to redecorate, but this is just ridiculous! What did you do to the place?"
Fred raises her head, and I notice her face. She's been crying. My gaze moves to Gunn, but he averts his eyes. It almost looks like he's been crying too. Now I notice the fact that Fred isn't even standing on her own, Gunn is practically holding her upright.
"Oh, no. What happened?" My voice catches in my throat and my mouth goes dry. It feels like an eternity while I'm waiting for them to say something.
Why won't they say anything?
I can feel my heart practically trying to jump out of my chest again, and I'm trying really hard to keep breathing.
"Where's Angel?… Where's Wes?"
Fred flinches when I say Wes' name, and my worst fear has just manifested itself. "Gunn? What happened… Would someone please tell me what happened!" I practically scream at him and my vision goes all blurry.
No, Chase, don't cry.
"Wes… He… We found him… There was so much blood… I didn't think he could've… because of all the blood…" My eyes dart to Fred. She's not even speaking in complete sentences and she looks like she's about to fall apart.
"What? Blood?" My mind starts racing, and I want her to just spill it, but the new Cordy refrains from shaking it out of her.
So I just stand there.
Finally Gunn speaks up after realizing that Fred just can't quite say whatever it is.
"Wes is in the hospital. Justine… She slit his throat. But we found him and took him to the hospital."
I may be dense but I know I see a flash of anger in his eyes when he says his name. Then the rest of what he said finally sinks in. I feel my knees go weak, and I manage to back myself to the couch and sit down.
"Is he…?"
"He's in critical condition. He lost a lot of blood, but they think he'll make it."
I ignore the coldness of his voice as I try to blink away my tears to see, and I feel them slide down my cheeks, and I sigh in relief. Thank god he's not… I can't even say it in my head.
I see Fred now that my vision isn't blurry and now more than ever she looks like she's about to crack. She catches my gaze for a split second before lowering her head again, and her long brown hair falls in her face.
"But he's ok, right? We're ok, right? No one else got hurt…. Right?" I keep saying that to try to convince myself that everything's ok, but the look on their faces shows quite the opposite.
"I… I can't do this!" Fred's voice comes out like a screech and she rips herself from Gunn before bolting upstairs and I can hear her sobs until a door slams shut.
Realization hits me now, and I'm trying to keep myself from falling apart after seeing Fred freak out. Obviously something else is going on here. I open my mouth a few times before I find my voice. Since when have words ever evaded me before?
"Where's Angel?"
So much for finding my voice.
All that came out was a whisper.
I look at his face and he flinches when I say his name. I was so quiet I almost didn't think he heard me, but that flinch told me otherwise. "Where's Connor?" Now I found my voice, it came out louder than I'd anticipated but this whole secretive thing is starting to freak me out. Give me demons and scary hell dimensions any day, but this is pure torture.
"He's upstairs. In your room. His kinda exploded."
"Why?" I get to my feet and move towards him now, a bit relieved that Angel's ok. But I still want to know what the hell happened. The lobby is trashed, Wes is in the hospital, Angel's room exploded. This is what happens when I leave them alone.
All I get from my simple one-syllable question is silence. It's much too quiet in here and I'm equal parts freaked out and peeved. Believe me, the silence is most definitely not helping, in fact it's making it worse.
To top it off, I feel like an idiot just standing in the middle of the lobby, waiting for him to fill me in. But he doesn't say anything.
Ok, this is bullshit! Oh boy, now I'm no longer peeved but I'm angry. He won't answer me and my patience wore thin about 2 minutes ago. I stare Gunn down but once again he does the averted gaze thing, so I push past him and stomp my way upstairs. All fear aside, I'm ready for some serious ass kicking if I don't get some answers about what happened while I was gone.
I make my way to the room in less than a second, but I stop before putting my hand on the knob. I have a feeling I'm really not going to like what's on the other side of that door. But I have to know, so I puff up my chest, taking in much needed oxygen, and open the door without knocking.
As I step into my room, my jaw drops. The place is a disaster. It looks even worse than the lobby did. What the hell did he do to my room?!
"What the hell did he do to my room?" I whisper, as I scan what used to be a rather lavishly decorated hotel room. Now I find a knocked over lamp, glass on the floor, and on my left-- the shredded upholstery from a very expensive sofa that I used to love. And, oh look, there's the rest of the sofa-- on the other side of the room!
I used to love that thing, granted I didn't pay for it, but still…
The back of the room is cloaked in darkness, the only light being from one of the lamps on the floor. I can't make out my bed but I know he's there. I can feel him. Weird huh? Don't know when that happened.
So I bend down and turn an endtable upright before placing the lamp on it. Now I can somewhat see my bed, and yup, he's there. He's lying on the bed, curled up like a little boy. I move to him.
His eyes are closed and he doesn't stir when I sit on the edge of the bed and place my hand, which is shaking like mad, on his arm. I knew I wasn't going to like this. Any trace of my anger is gone when I look at his face, and I know that when he wakes up I'm really not going to like what he has to say.
"Angel?"