1

One Year Later

"Journey." Cordelia called, standing at the foot of the Hyperion's stairs.

"What?" Journey yelled back.

"Don't 'what' me, little man! Get your butt down here."

"I'm coming!" She heard Journey's voice and it sounded as if he were closer to her than before, but still yet, she couldn't see him.

"Journey, don't make me come up there…"

"I'm down here." He told her, sounding closer than ever."

Cordelia looked around. "Whatever, J. Just come down here now, all right?"

"I'm telling you, Cordy, I AM here." He seemed to be right in her ear.

"Stop the telekinetic crap, okay?"

"Telepathic." He corrected her. "Hold on, I have to sneeze." A loud sneezing sound echoed off the walls of the Hyperion and Journey's body flashed before her. Then, suddenly, Journey materialized right there before her very eyes! "See? Told ya I was down here."

Cordy's jaw dropped. "How did.. what? How did you do that?"

Journey shrugged. "Not quite sure. I sneezed and I was gone. I sneezed again, and here I am." He explained. "And I don't appreciate being yelled at for no particular reason."

"Sor-ry." Cordelia rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Well, I was wanting to see if you'd like to go to the movies with me, hateful."

"Sure, love t— Wait. Will Caden be there?" The disdain was clearly evident in his voice.

Cordelia shook her head. Even though she'd been married to Caden for over a year, Journey had yet to warm up to the idea of her marriage to 'that man'. "No, J. Caden's out of town for a few weeks."

"Again?"

"Yes, again. He's a very busy man, Journey."

"He's a very stupid man." Journey scoffed.

"Journey…" Cordelia began in a warning tone.

"Well, he is. Why would anyone in their right mind leave YOU for days and weeks at a time?"

"He's got a job to do, Journey."

"He's also got a job called being your husband. One that he sucks at very much."

Cordelia sighed. "Look, do you want to go the movies or not?"

"Fine. Just let me get my jacket." Journey began to run back upstairs, but stopped halfway. "Hey, is my dad back yet?"

"No. He'll be back after five. He took Wes, Gunn, and Faith with him to work on a case. So, it's just the two of us." The phone started to ring and Cordy rushed to answer it. "Hurry and get your jacket." She told Journey, who, for once in his life, obeyed. Cordy picked up the desk phone after its third ring. "Angel Investig—" She listened to the caller a moment before answering, "This is she."

Journey came flying back downstairs in time to hear Cordelia ask, "Who IS this?"

Journey walked over to her, jacket in hand. "No, really, who is this?" She repeated.

Journey looked at her and telepathically asked, "Who is it, C?"

Cordy simply raised a finger to her lips to silence any further verbal or telepathic questions brought on by Journey's curiosity. Cordy's mouth fell open. "And you're like in L.A. … now? Oh, brother. What? No, no. Sorry. Yes. Yes, I understand. Okay, but he's a busy guy and--. No. You won't leave until you see him? Well.. um, gosh, guess you'd really like to see him, huh? I'm sure he'd love to meet you too, Mother. Um, yes. Right. Okay. Just.. okay. Yes.. All right. Look, why don't you and dad meet me at seven o'clock here. Yes.. where I work..? You've still got the address, don't you? Yes.. well, I apologize for not inviting you to the wedding. Yes. I'm a bad daughter. No, Mother.. I was being sarcastic. Sorry. I said I was sorry!! All right. Okay. Bye now.. kiss kiss to you too, Mom." Cordelia hung up the phone and sighed. "Glory be…"

"So?" Journey asked impatiently.

"My parents are in town…"

Journey frowned. "Why?"

"They want to meet Cade."

Journey wrinkled his nose in disgust. " Yuck. Why?"

"I don't know why. But my mother specifically said that they were not leaving L.A. until they met him. So, all we have to do is show them Caden tonight and they're out of my hair by morning." Journey began to laugh. "Hey.. what's so funny about my situation, little man?"

"Well, Houston, YOU have a problem."

"Problem?"

"Uh.. yeah. MAJOR problem."

"What problem?"

"Mr. He's-All-That Husband is out of town for, uh, the next two weeks, that's what!"

Cordy's eyes widened. "No."

"Yep."

"No!" Cordy shook her head. "Figures. Angel's been in hell, you've been through kiddie hell. It only makes sense for me to experience hell as well." She sighed and let her head drop into her hands. "Oh, Journey, what am I going to do?"

"Well, first, we're going to the movies." Journey pulled on his jacket. "So, get up, and we'll go to the theater, lose ourselves for roughly two hours, then we'll come back here and figure something out."

"Journey, there's no time for movies."

"What are you going to do? Sit here and worry all day? No.. you're not going to do that. It'll only make you feel worse. " Journey grabbed one of her hands. "So, come on, let's go."

Cordy sighed heavily as she stood up. "All right. Might as well have one last time of fun before torture begins."

"That's the spirit!" Journey began to lead her out the double doors of the Hyperion. "Quick question."

"What?"

"When's the last time you saw your parents?" They started to walk to the nearest theater.

"Well, how old are you?"

"I'm eight.. you know that."

"Well.. then two years before you were born then."

Journey quickly did the math. "Ten years!?! You haven't seen your parents in ten years?"

"We don't get along very well, Journey. Not before, and especially not now." She said, thinking of how she'd changed in the years she'd left home. "I'm not the person I was."

"Yeah, but ten years? That's an awful long time. I don't think I could go ten years without seeing my Dad."

"Well, you have a dad who loves you and who you love back. I, on the other hand, didn't have that. I loved my parents and they never really loved me. Instead of telling me that they loved me, they showered me with all kinds of ridiculous presents. Which led me to be a spoiled brat by the age of 3 and to associate love with gifts. And that's not love. Not at all."

"It's not?" Journey asked as they took their place at the end of the ticket line.

"No. And you're lucky to have someone who really and truly loves you. One that tells you he loves you each day instead of handing you a gift they had their secretary pick out. You're lucky to have someone like your Dad, Journey."

Journey squeezed her hand and looked up at her. "I'm lucky to have someone like you, too."

And suddenly, as Cordelia stared into the deep brown eyes that were so much like his fathers, she felt that everything would be all right. That no matter what happened, now or later, in the past or in the future, everything would turn out okay for her. And she saw all that in the child's eyes.

* * *

After the movie, Cordy ran back as quickly as she could to the Hyperion. Despite the calming effect Journey had had on her earlier, she was now panicking once more over her parents visiting. Journey tried his hardest to keep up with long legged Cordelia, and he was not far behind her when she slammed through the double doors of the Hyperion like a hurricane. She'd barely stopped in the doorway when she saw Angel, and she was off again. She rushed to him and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Angel, you're here! You're here! I'm so glad you're back."

Angel slowly embraced her, unsure of the situation. "Looks like you missed me." Journey came tumbling in the open doors of the hotel, red-faced and out of breath. "Is, uh, something wrong?"

Journey looked up and nodded as Cordelia moaned loudly, "Yes!"

"What's going on?"

Cordelia stepped back away from Angel. "Oh, the most awfullest thing. My parents are in L.A."

Angel frowned. "So? That's not exactly the soap opera drama you make it out to be, Cordelia."



"Yes, but… they're here to see Caden!!"

Angel cringed. "Why?"

"That's what I asked!!" The newly energized Journey exclaimed as he shut the door behind him and ran to Cordy's rolling desk chair.

"Yes, like father, like son." Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Will you keep your attention to the problem at hand? I've got a crisis here, people!!"

"Cordy, it's not that big of a deal. You and Caden have dinner with them tonight and they're gone tomorrow. Simple." Angel told her.

"But THAT's the problem!!" Cordelia looked about ready to pull all of her hair out, strand by strand.

Angel turned to Journey. "What am I missing here, J?"

"Ca-den's out of to-wn." Journey replied in a singsong voice.

Angel's jaw dropped. "Again!?"

Journey nodded. "Yep, again. How long has he been home this past year, Dad? A total of.. oh.. eight weeks?"

"More like six." Angel shook his head. "I can't believe this.. he's NEVER home."

"Yes, he is." Cordelia tried valiantly to defend her beloved husband.

"Cordelia, wake up! All right, you and I both know that what I'm saying is true." Angel tried to reason with her.

"Yeah, Cordelia. Get your head out of your butt and—" Journey piped up from Cordy's desk before being interrupted with a loud "Hey!" from both Angel and Cordy.

"Okay, I know that neither of you like or understand Caden, but please, can you stop ragging on him for five seconds? We've got less than an hour to solve this problem."

Angel shrugged. "I'm sorry, Cordelia, but I really don't know what to tell you."

"Figures." Cordelia sighed. "Wish Gunn, Wes, Fred, or Faith were here. They'd at least come up with SOMETHING."

Angel looked at the whiny Cordelia before his eyes. Though she'd undergone changes this last decade, she seemed to be resorting back to her Sunnydale ways. Maybe it was the arrival of her parents.. Angel didn't know. He just hoped it wouldn't stay long. "Well.. do they know what he looks like?"

"No."

"Well, find someone who looks like him and pay him to be your husband for the night. That's the only idea I have."

Cordelia grew silent as she began to pace. After a few minutes of pacing, she stopped. "You know.. that's not a bad idea."

Angel exchanged a glance with Journey. "It's not."

"No, not at all. Because I was just thinking…"

"ALWAYS a bad thing." Angel added.

"And I just remembered that I took pictures with you at the wedding."

"Well, you took pictures with everyone at the wedding."

"Yes.. but they're not here and you are. And when they ask me about the wedding, I'll have pictures to show them of me in my wedding dress."

"Oh, my God." Journey said slowly.

"What, J?" Angel asked his son, not taking his eyes of Cordelia. He wasn't sure exactly where she was going with this.. but he had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

"She wants you to be Caden!" Journey exclaimed with disgust.

Angel's eyes widened. "No.."

"Come on, it's just for tonight. And it won't be that bad!"

Angel shook his head. "No.. no. I can't be Caden. Besides what are we going to do with Journey?"

"He can be your nephew, cousin, or something. That doesn't matter. We'll just say he's the neighbor's kid."

"Good, cause I'm sure not going to be Caden's son!" Journey piped up.

Angel looked at Cordelia wearily. "Cordelia.. I…"

She grabbed his hands and held them in her own. Looking straight into his eyes, she pleaded with him. "Please, Angel. Do this. For me."

Angel closed his eyes. He knew he'd probably regret what he was about to say, but there was no way he could say no to those eyes. "All right, Cordy. I'll do it."

A wide smile brightened Cordelia's face. "Yes!" She gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. "Thank you sooo much, Ang- I mean, Caden!"

Angel winced at his new name for the night. "Your welcome, Cordelia. But please.. don't call me that unless necessary."

"Fine, whatever you say. Anyway, I'm gonna run upstairs. It's a good thing I've got clothes stashed here. After I get dressed, I'll pick out something for you to wear, Lover boy." She turned and quickly ran upstairs.

Across the room, Journey shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You're whipped, Dad."

Angel sighed. "I know.. boy, do I ever know."

TBC