Title: Untold Feelings
Chapter: 2 – Disguise
Author: Minnie-May
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)
Rating: PG-13
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet.
UNTOLD FEELINGS
Chapter Two- DISGUISE
"Come on, no one really dresses this way" Cordelia complained, trying to pull down the skin tight dress that had hiked up on her hips. The two stood in the shadows of the alley across from the Los Angeles precinct of the police station, discussing strategy.
"Yes they do" Angel countered. He noticed the way that Cordelia was staring at him and cleared his throat. "We do live in LA you know." Cordelia rolled her eyes, she had just went to a very scary mental place.
"I just don't understand how this is going to help us get any information" Cordelia stated, taking in her whole outfit with a sweep of her hand.
Cordy was totally hooked out, tall, tight length pleather boots came within a couple inches of the short, short, short skirt on the skin tight, black slinky dress she was wearing. 'Only it's not exactly slinky,' Cordelia thought distastefully, 'it's more like skanky.' Angel had insisted earlier that they stop at her place and pick out the sluttiest outfit Cordelia owned. One moment of fashion impairment and look what was happening to her. 'This is why I take shopping so seriously' Cordelia thought, allowing herself to give Angel the full on Queen C glare. Angel fidgeted slightly under the pressure of her glaze and turned to look at the police headquarters.
"It'll help you blend in" Angel commented, watching as a police officer dragged an angry woman dressed very much like Cordelia into the precinct.
"Ok ok but they're just gonna let me walk around the station dressed like this, poking around in police files? I'd file that under 'unlikely'."
"Well you'll just have to blend in with your surroundings, try not to look noticeable" Angel said. Angel cleared his throat and continued off the withering glare Cordelia shot at him. "Ok then, too noticeable. Just try to slip in, get the file out of the storeroom and get out" Angel instructed. "If you run into any trouble, call my cell and I'll bail you out."
"You might be doing that....literally. I swear Angel, if I end up in jail because of this you are so seriously never hearing the end of it" Cordelia mumbled, straightening up and trying to plan how she was going to get in and out without getting caught.
Angel smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder. "Good luck, I'll be right here," he said as he disappeared into the shadow of the alleyway. Cordelia snorted and turned towards the station, 'like that's gonna help'.
Adjusting her dress a bit, Cordelia pushed her chin up and looked around as she walked toward the station. She was trying her best to keep her balance on the boots but she wasn't used to wearing heels that were that, well, skanky and she nearly tripped about three times before getting to the door.
She opened the door and slipped in, trying her best not to make a scene as she almost bumped into someone passing. She quickly mumbled an apology and looked around the place. It was insanely crowded, people getting fingerprinted and waiting in cuffs to talk to officers. She had read about a crime wave in the papers but you really didn't believe it until you were right up in it. In fact, you didn't believe it until you were pretending to be part of it.
As she walked past, a huge tattooed biker whistled appreciatively and she tried to contain the blush that was spreading across her cheeks. 'I can't believe this is my life' Cordelia thought, walking towards a big group of hookers on the other side of the room to blend better. 'Angel is going to die....again' she thought as one of the hookers gave her a dirty look.
She slipped to the back of the crowd and let her eyes roam over the room, taking in the doors on either side of her. One of them was labeled 'Storeroom' which was where Angel assured her she would be able to find the file. Angel had given Kate a call where she now lived in New York, trying to start over, and asked about where they would be able to find some of the more unexplained files. Cordelia slipped between a few of the girls and gingerly opened the door, making sure once more that no one was looking her way. Everyone seemed to be preoccupied and she slipped quickly into the dark room and closed the door soundlessly behind her. "So far so good" Cordelia mumbled to herself.
She pulled the flashlight that she had managed to jam in her small purse and walked as quietly over to the filing cabinet as was humanly possible when you were walking on boots that resembled stilts. She swept the beam of the flashlight over the room's scarce furniture and dusty filing cabinets. One of them was marked "Ongoing-Unexplained" and that was on the one that Cordelia crossed the room to get to. The drawer made a loud squeak as she pulled it free of it's resting place and she froze for a few seconds, hoping no one from outside had heard. After a few breathless seconds she thought it was probably safe to proceed and opened the drawer a little further, shinning the beam of the flashlight in to get a good look at the files.
Cordelia flipped through the files quickly, making sure that she glanced at the titles of all the envelopes to see if it was about the missing kids on the campus. She finally hit gold when she found a file called "UCLA" that had pictures of the missing students and morgue reports. She made a face as she passed the pictures of the bodies and closed the file, stuffing it in her small purse and heading toward the door.
"I need a vacation" she mumbled as she opened up the door and slipped back into the crowd. Except now there wasn't a crowd; the hookers that had been standing by the doors were nowhere to be seen and she was staring face to face with a man in blue.
"Excuse me, what were you doing in there?" he asked her skeptically, looking over her outfit. So much for fitting in, she was going to fit in so much that she would be behind bars. Angel couldn't have just found her a policewoman's uniform? Although on the other hand blue polyester wasn't exactly flattering for her skin tone.
"I was....." Cordelia trailed off, trying desperately to think up something that would sound plausible. "Looking for a bathroom?" she said, but the excuse came out more like a question.
The officer opened up his mouth to say something when a loud voice broke into their conversation.
"There you are!" Angel said, standing behind Cordelia and smiling. Cordy let out a breath and stared thankfully over at Angel. "I've been looking all over for you." He turned an apologetic smile to the officer. "You know women, they love to see men in uniforms."
Cordelia opened up her mouth to protest but Angel had her by the arm and was dragging her out of the station. The officer who had been so suspicious only moments before was now blushing and grinning like a fool. He was obviously not a seasoned veteran.
"Thanks for the help back there" Cordelia said gratefully. "Wait, on second thought, nevermind. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have been in there in the first place."
Angel looked over at Cordelia with a shamed expression on his face that made Cordy want to apologize.
"Sorry about all of this, you did a great job though," Angel grinned at Cordelia who arched an eyebrow in response. "Did you find anything?"
Cordelia pulled the file out of her purse and waved it in front of Angel's face. "Of course I did, sleuth girl, that's me."
****
"AHA!" Wesley yelled in triumphant glee. The sudden, and loud, interruption of the silence that had fallen between Wesley and Fred as they worked startled Fred so badly that she jumped about a mile into the air with a squeak. Her elbow connected with the pile of books near her end of the table, sending books raining down to the floor with loud thumps. For a long moment the two of them stared at each other; Wesley looking rather embarrassed and Fred still looking startled.
"Very sorry about that" Wesley said sheepishly as he bent to retrieve some of the fallen books and restack them neatly in the middle of the table. Fred was doing the same and for a moment their hands almost touched as they rebuilt the book pile. Fred shook off the sorry and leaned over to see the book Wesley was looking at.
"That's ok, did you find something?" Fred asked, waiting expectantly for Wesley to spill the beans.
"Yes, actually I found the demon we've been looking for" Wesley replied, pushing the book towards Fred and pointing to a picture surrounded by two or three paragraphs describing the demon.
Fred stared at the picture noting that the demon didn't look like someone you would want to meet in a dark alley. But then again who *would * want to meet a demon in a dark alley? From the illustrated picture in the book the demon seemed to be fairly tall with scaly skin and huge horns. Plus, who could forget the razor sharp claws that stuck out a mile from the demon's hands? It looked like standard demon farce to Fred, who had spent five years in a dimension where most people were green and scaly anyway. No, she decided, if there was anything remarkable about Mr. Demon it would be found in the text itself. So Fred buried herself in the book and read the few short paragraphs that worked as a description. When she looked up from the book Wesley noticed that she looked slightly perplexed.
"I thought Angel said that the demon went after love, but here it says the demon feeds from unrequited love" Fred said, tapping the book with her finger to add emphasis.
"Well actually it makes a bit of sense when you look at things on the whole" Wesley began, settling back slightly in his seat. "You see love, in it's purest form, is the ultimate good. Evil has been working for centuries trying to taint that love, to turn it into something they can use. Unrequited love is much different than love because the feelings involved are different. In unrequited love there is more jealously, more bitterness and injury. It makes sense that an evil presence would find it suitable to feed from," Wes concluded.
"Wow" Fred said, staring at Wesley in an utter state of wonderment. She really had no idea how he did it. He could always explain things so well, always say things so that she understood perfectly. Whenever she tried to explain something it always came out wrong, jumbled and incoherent. But Wesley was different; he was really amazing in that respect.
"Besides" Wesley muttered, turning beet red, "this marekiora demon matches the description we're looking for. It can control and open portals and the like" Wesley added, feeling immediately sorry he had brought it up when he saw the way Fred cringed at the mere mention of the word 'portal'.
"Well that really does make sense ya know? The whole love thing that is. I mean like that time in the 8th grade when I really, really liked Joey Jameson and he said he liked me too. But then he went to the dance with Annabelle and…" Fred trailed off, noticing the way that Wesley was just staring at her. "…and well it's not really the same thing is it?"
"It's similar" Wesley assured her with a smile. Wesley felt his gaze sweeping from Fred to the door of the Hyperion, to the door of his office and then taking in the entire empty lobby. They were the only two people there, just he and Fred all alone. If there had ever been a better time to tell her that he cared for her now was it. He should tell her, he decided watching as she nervously pushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him. There had been complications in the past on this front, that was for sure. The whole idea of an office romance was still bad at best and with what had happened when Wesley had become infected with Billy thrown in the mix he thought he might never say anything. He still had no idea how Fred would ever be able to trust him again but he knew he couldn't just sit around and do nothing, just let the feelings fester. He had to clear the air, get everything out there. 'Now if only clearing the air was easy,' Wesley thought pensively.
"Fred, there's something I think we need to talk about" Wesley said, leaning in closer to Fred slightly. "Well at least something I need to talk to you about" he added, trying to make it sound less like it was business. 'Now we'll just discuss this, like mature adults' Wesley thought trying to figure out what to say next.
"What is it?" Fred asked, leaning forward as well so that the two of them were much closer now. 'Closeness, I hadn't planned on closeness' Wesley thought, staring into Fred's eyes. 'But I can still do this, I'm going to tell her' and with that Wesley put on his resolve face and opened his mouth slightly, about to jump right into it.
Which, of course, was the exact moment the front door to the Hyperion slammed loudly closed. Fred turned around in her seat and smiled over at Gunn, giving a small wave. Wesley tried to surpress his grimace; Gunn wasn't a man of great timing. Gunn, in turn, looked at the two of them with slight suspicion as he descended the front stairs and made his way over to the table.
"Back" he commented, changing hands on the two axes he was carrying so that he could drag a chair over to squeeze between Wesley and Fred. Both were forced move over to make room for him as he got himself comfortable in his chair. He placed the two axes in the middle of the table and glanced over from Wesley to Fred.
"Hey! We found the demon!" Fred rushed her words together excitedly, pulling out the forgotten book with the details about the demon and pushing it over to Gunn. "Well actually Wes found the demon but I helped, sorta. See? Right there, the Mary Kay demon" Fred said, leaning over to point out where Gunn should look in the old dusty volume. Gunn picked up the book and then looked over at Fred with obvious puzzlement.
"Mary Kay? Isn't that makeup?" Gunn asked.
"Actually the demon's name is marekiora" Wesley corrected. "Did your gang know anything about the disappearances?" Wesley asked, wishing Gunn had stayed to talk with said gang longer.
"Not really. Most of them had never even heard of the disappearances before. And the ones who had just thought it was good old fashion murder, not life sucking demons. Which, by the way, I've been wondering how do they suck the life out of you? Or would I want to know the answer?" Gunn asked, glancing over at Wesley.
"Probably not" Wesley replied, smiling slightly. The weapons in the middle of the table finally caught Wesley's eye and he realized that Gunn had only left the Hyperion with one weapon, not two. "Where did the extra axe come from?" he questioned.
"Present" Gunn simply replied, touching the handle with a finger. Wesley couldn't help but remember when Gunn's idea of a good weapon was a hubcap fashioned to a pipe. Wes smiled at the memory and shook his head slightly. 'Time's have changed.'
Wesley picked up another book to continue his research since he still only knew the minimal basics on this demon. He wasn't even sure yet how to kill it, which was something rather important. As he turned a page he half listened as Fred and Gunn talked. Fred was laughing at one of Gunn's jokes but Wesley hadn't caught the punchline.
'I was so close to telling her' Wesley thought, glancing up at Gunn resentfully. 'So close.'
The three were so busy that they didn't notice the dark presence that slid under the doorway. Nor did they notice it when it slipped silently across the lobby floor in their direction. In fact, they didn't notice until it was upon their table….and then it was too late.
****
"Gimme your coat" Cordelia ordered abruptly. Angel turned, surprised by the sudden start of conversation. The two had been walking in mostly silence since they had gotten out of the police station. When Angel didn't reply right away Cordelia turned around again and gave him an icy stare. "I. Said. Give. Me. Your. Coat," Cordelia said, annunciating each word as if Angel had gone stupid.
"Right" Angel said, quickly shedding said-coat and handing it over to Cordelia. "Are you cold?" Angel asked, looking around the streets. Barely anyone was wearing a jacket, but Angel couldn't really tell if it would be cold or not. It was another advantage of being a vampire; not really big on the body temperature thing.
"No, but people are staring at me" Cordelia replied, shrugging the coat onto her shoulders. Two girls they passed pointed at Cordelia and started whispering and giggling. A man on the other side of the street noticed her and whistled loudly. Angel looked over at Cordelia and grimaced, but Cordelia was handling all the attention remarkably well. She just kept walking, although now that he was noticing things it looked like her boots were killing her, never paying anyone any heed.
"Sorry" he mumbled, glaring at a man hunched in a doorway so that he closed his mouth before the lewd comments even crossed his lips.
"Oh no, the whole hooker thing? I think that's coming back. I can be the spokes model for Ho's are Us" Cordelia said, fixing Angel with a withering glare. 'Ok' Angel thought, 'maybe I've had better ideas.'
Silence once more descended upon the two and Angel stared along the street. He watched people walk back and forth, with no idea that there was a demon out there. Just going about their daily lives, totally unaware. He wondered sometimes if Cordelia wouldn't rather be one of those people, without mind splitting visions and demons coming out of the woodwork.
It was while he was looking around that he noticed the dark shadow that slid along into the alleyway. The hair on the back of Angel's neck stood at attention and he knew immediately that it wasn't just a normal shadow. Something was there, and it was definitely not something good. Angel turned towards Cordelia and tapped her elbow, motioning with his head that there was something he needed to check out.
Wordlessly Angel crept toward the mouth of the alley with Cordelia trailing behind him. He pressed up against the wall just outside the opening and slowly peered down the alley. He didn't see anything at first, just the dank alleyway with trash strewn across it. Then he noticed something by the big dumpster in the corner; something moved.
Angel motioned for Cordelia to stay on the sidewalk while he entered the alley, walking cautiously towards whatever it was. The shadow rustled through the trash, moving farther away with every step that Angel took. Angel took another step forward and the thing slid another couple feet closer to the chain link fence at the end of the alley. "Don't be shy" Angel mumbled as he slid closer to whatever it was. He still hadn't gotten a good look at it and he wasn't sure if trying to face it weaponless was a good move. But it wasn't like he could just leave when he knew something was creeping around, possibly looking for some food. Possibly looking for some people to eat.
"What is it?" Cordelia hissed from directly behind him. Angel jumped a mile in the air and whipped around to see Cordelia peering around him at the dark mass.
"Didn't I tell you to stay back there?" Angel hissed back, turning to make sure the shadow hadn't moved. It stayed in place, as if it were watching the two of them, waiting for something. Angel did not like this one bit.
"Yea and since when have I started listening to you?" Cordelia said, turning her head to the side and staring at the shadow. "So why are we after the blob?"
"I'm not sure what it is. It could be dangerous, now go back on the sidewalk," Angel hissed, pointing back towards the opposite end of the alley.
"No way! I'm staying here with you! You think I want to be propositioned again? Ick, been there, done that, did not buy the postcard" Cordelia said angrily, glaring at Angel as he turned to check the thing again. "Plus I might be able to help." Angel turned and gave her a skeptical look. "What I might!" Cordelia exclaimed, obviously hurt that Angel didn't think she could help.
While the two were bickering the shadow slowly begun to expand, blackening the alley and sucking boxes into itself. Angel and Cordelia spun around just as the black hole grew quickly and pulled them in. They didn't even have a chance to react; one minute they were bickering about Cordelia's usefulness and the next they were being swallowed up by a giant….blob.
When they came to they were surrounded on all sides by thick cushions of darkness. Angel put his hand out in front of his face but even his sensitive vampire seeing didn't pick up the outline of his hands. He heard Cordelia whimper to the side of him and tried to figure out which side it was.
"Angel? Where are you?" Cordy called. 'The right' Angel thought, moving cautiously in the direction of Cordelia's voice.
"I'm here, just keep talking, I think I know where you are" Angel announced sidling over to the right; being careful where he stepped.
"Oh God, Angel what happened? One minute we were just talking and the next- It was like when I got sucked into Pylea, except then I felt something. Like there was a portal there or something. This time I didn't feel anything and- OUCH! That was my hand!" Cordelia yelled, snatching her hand back and holding it before her protectively.
At that moment it was like someone had just flipped on an overhead light and the space around them was flooded with glaring brightness. Angel blinked rapidly to adjust to the new lighting and looked over at Cordelia, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor. She stared up at him and shrugged, signaling that at this point she had no idea what was going on. Angel stooped to help her up and turned around to look at the environment around them. It was vast and never ending in every direction he turned. Very much nondescript too, with a couple of trees, some grass and clouds as the only scenery in site.
"Man are we screwed" Cordelia said.
*****
TBC
