"Journey!" Cordelia cried out wearily. "I thought I told you to comb your
hair."
Journey paused on his descent down the stairs. "I did everything you told me. I put on this stupid shirt and these stupid slacks. I put on these stupid dress shoes and this stupid belt. And I combed my stupid hair. What more do you want?"
"Well, maybe I should've specified to comb your hair with a comb and not your fingers. Now come here."
Journey rolled his eyes but obeyed. When he got close enough to her, she licked her fingers and reached out to smooth down his hair. Journey grabbed her arm in midair. "Oh, no you don't. I'm eight years old and you'll not be putting your spit in my hair anytime soon."
Cordelia dropped her arm. "Fine then. I suggest you march your butt back upstairs and comb your hair correctly." She smiled sweetly. "You've got five minutes."
Journey sighed loudly. "Fine." He turned and began to run back upstairs, passing his father on the way.
"Where's he going?" Angel asked.
"Going to fix his hair."
"Oh." Angel looked at the clothes he was wearing—a black button-down, long sleeve shirt, with a shiny silk red tie, black slacks, black dress shoes, and a black belt—exactly what Journey was wearing—and sighed. He felt.. well, he felt odd. Thank heavens this charade was only for one night. "Do I look okay?" Angel asked cautiously.
Cordelia smiled. "You look great. And plus, you follow orders correctly the first time. Now, the question is.. do I look okay?" She twirled around a few times so Angel could get the full effect of her silky black dress.
"You look beautiful, Cordy."
Cordelia let out a deep-contented breath. "Thanks. I'm really nervous for some reason. But hopefully, nothing will go wrong, right?"
"Hopefully."
There was a knock at the door and Cordelia and Angel's eyes met. "All right. Here goes nothing. Charm their asses off, okay?" Cordelia smoothed out her dress quickly and then stepped up to open the door. "Mother, Daddy… how nice it is to see you again!" She plastered on a fake smile.
"Oh, yes. It's simply marvelous that we're finally able to reunite after so long." Cordelia's mother responded, stepping inside and gently kissing both sides of Cordelia's face. Cordelia's mother stepped aside and her father entered the Hyperion. He hugged her quickly and tightly.
"You've grown so much, Cordelia."
Cordelia smiled, prepared to answer. She'd always had a better relationship with her father than her mother—she was a Daddy's girl through and through. But her mother interrupted before she could indulge in a reunion.
"My, my, Cordelia. Just who is this handsome young fellow?" Cordelia's mother asked, eyeing Angel.
"Oh, Mother, Daddy, this is my husband, Caden Michaels." Cordelia grabbed Angel's hand possessively. "Caden, these are my parents, Ethan and Victoria Chase."
Angel plastered on a fake smile of his own. It was unusual to see Angel smiling, though he did it now more than ever, and Cordelia had to keep herself from laughing. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Chase." He told her father as he shook his hand.
"Please, call me Ethan." Suddenly, Cordelia's mother thrust her hand in front of Angel.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Caden." She drawled, her eyes roaming Angel's body. He felt a little uncomfortable, but tried to remember what Cordelia had told him only minutes before. And so, instead of shaking her hand, he grabbed it gently and laid a light kiss on top of it.
"The pleasure's all mine." Angel grinned softly.
"My, my, aren't you the charmer?" Mrs. Chase said with a laugh.
Cordelia spotted Journey as he came back down the stairs. "Journey, you're just in time to meet my parents. You guys, this is Caden's.. er.. nephew, Journey Michaels."
Journey reached the bottom of the stairs and coughed as he heard his name being paired with the name of that evil Caden. Cordelia grabbed his arm tightly. "Journey, are you all right, child?"
Journey blinked against her glaring gaze. "Yes, Aunt Cordy, I'm fine."
"Good." Cordelia smiled.
Victoria Chase bent slightly to pinch Journey's not-so-chubby cheeks. "Aren't you just the cutest thing? You look just like your Uncle."
Journey repressed the urge to scream and smiled slightly. "Thank you."
She stood up abruptly, already having lost interest in Journey. "So, Cordelia, where shall we be dining tonight?"
"Well, I was thinking of this place—they serve the BEST sashimi—"
"But I've been trying to convince Cordelia all day of letting us cook for you. We make quite the culinary team." Angel interrupted.
"I didn't know you could cook, Cordelia." Her father told her.
Cordelia let out a small laugh. "Neither did I, Daddy." She looked at the ground and then at Angel. "Caden, honey, can I talk to you, please?" Turning to her parents, she said, "Could you excuse us for a few minutes? We'll be right back." Then she took a hold of Angel's arm and literally drug him out of the room and into Wesley's nearby office.
"What, Cordelia?" Angel asked as she shut the door behind them.
"What are you doing?! I can't cook… and how would you know how to cook? You don't even eat!!"
"Well, we wouldn't actually cook. We could order something in and 'pretend' that we cooked it."
"Why don't we just go to a real restaurant so we can live in reality and not Pretend-land?"
"Because, you and Caden eat out a lot, correct?" Angel waited until Cordelia nodded in reply. "And with how many nice restaurants are you on a first name basis with?"
Realization hit Cordy like a two-ton brick in the stomach. "All of them."
"Right. And if we go to any of them, they'll know I'm not Caden and they'll ask where he is and it'll blow our cover."
Cordelia sighed. "Crap. Now what?"
"We 'pretend' and eat here." He opened a desk drawer, pulled out a phone book, and began flipping through its pages. "So, what shall we cook tonight, dear wife?"
Meanwhile…
"Where do you go to school, Journey?" Cordelia's mother asked, making small talk to fill the silence.
"I'm taught by a .. private tutor." Journey replied. It was a bit of a lie, but not really. Fred wasn't a certified teacher, but she'd taught him all the same since he was 3 years old.
"Really? Well, that's wonderful." Victoria Chase's perpetual smile began to fade. "My goodness.. they've been in there an awful long time. Do you think they're all right?"
"Are they all right?" Journey repeated. "OF COURSE, they're all right." He was beginning to lose his patience with these people.
"Well, what on earth could they be doing that's taking so long?"
'Just what I was thinking!' Journey wondered to himself. They'd taken off and left him to the wolves. Staring at the room they were in, an idea quickly formed in his head. "They've only been married for a year. What do you THINK they're doing in there?"
Cordelia's father frowned. "I beg your pardon?"
'Oh, yeah.' Journey thought, a smile slowly forming on his face. 'This is gonna be great! And it'll teach them to leave me alone with strange people!!' "Come on! You know what I'm talking about. Don't make me say it."
Ethan and Victoria exchanged a look. "We're not following." Ethan told him.
Journey rolled his eyes and sighed. "Are you people really that dense? They're not in there 'talking'. They're in there… well.. getting their freak on."
Again, Ethan and Victoria looked at each other, and they slowly realized what young Journey was hinting at. Journey stifled a laugh as he watched their eyes widen.
"No…" Cordelia's mother said, trying hard not to believe.
"Shh! Listen!" Journey commanded them.
As they grew silent, they heard the sound of things falling or being moved abruptly. Then, they heard a loud thump, and an "Oh!" from Cordelia. Something hit the wall hard and knocked a picture off of the wall outside the office.
"Oh, my."
"Yeah, and THAT'S what I have to listen to up to 10 times a day! You'd think they'd protect my virgin ears and send me some place safe where I don't have to hear that. I'm only 8 years old! I should be enjoying my childhood, not spending it listening to a porno!"
Back in the office…
Angel threw the phone book up against the wall. "Why are they always so snotty?"
"It's their way." Cordelia replied, picking up all the things Angel had knocked off. "And good grief, do you HAVE to be so violent when you don't get your way?"
"Yes, I do."
"Fine, whatever." She stood back up, straightening her dress. "So, what's the plan, Stan?"
"A deliveryman will meet us at the kitchen door of the hotel in 45 minutes."
"45 minutes?!" Cordelia exclaimed. "What are you trying to do, starve us all?"
"We have to make it believable. You know, like we really cooked it."
"I guess." She shook her head. "All right. I'm gonna go to the kitchen now, and start setting things up. And I want you to stay here for a few minutes and calm down. I don't want to see you until your face is uh.. less vampy."
"I vamped out?" Angel raised a hand tentatively to his face. His jaw dropped. "How in the world… I didn't even know."
"Learn to control your rage, buddy." Cordelia said, opening the door and stepping out into the main foyer of the Hyperion. She began to walk towards the kitchen when she realized her parents were staring at her. "Oh, sorry, Mother and Daddy. I forget you were even here!"
"Obviously." Her mother sneered.
Cordelia frowned. "Oh-kay. Anyway, I'm going to the kitchen because Caden convinced me that we should cook for you guys. So, why don't you have a seat here and make yourself comfortable?"
"Aunt Cordy, where's Uncle Caden?" Journey asked mischievously.
"He's uh.. well, he's straightening things out in the office." She turned and continued to the kitchen.
Cordelia's father raised his eyebrows. As soon as Cordy left the room, Journey turned to them.
"See? I told ya so!"
---
An hour and a half later, they were all seated around the Hyperion's massive dining table, eating the Chinese stir-fry that Angel and Cordelia had "cooked". Everything was going smoothly. Cordelia's parents were enjoying the meal and Caden, despite their earlier disapproval of him because of what Journey had told them. It was kind of neat to be eating dinner with Cordelia's parents, Angel thought more than once during the meal. It was almost as if he were actually married to her. But then, they'd say the dreaded C name and Angel would fall back to reality.
As Angel, Cordy, Victoria and Ethan laughed at some story Ethan had told, Journey felt a weird sensation come over him. It was like the world had suddenly sped up, yet he was moving in slow motion. It seemed like it took forever for him to move his arm or his head. His breathing began to slow down, while the sound of his heart beating grew louder and louder in his ears. He didn't know what was happening, but for some reason, he was very scared.
It took him a few minutes, but he finally managed to ask, "May I be excused for a few minutes?"
"Sure, go right ahead, Journey." Cordelia granted him a release from the table and then went back to talk with her father. Journey slowly stood up and walked even more slowly out of the room.
Out in the main foyer, Journey decided to try to make it to his bedroom. Maybe if he laid down for a few minutes, whatever was going on would go away. It was taking him a long time to move.. it was like he was trying to run in waist-deep water. It was slow going.
But he never made it up to his room. When he got to the stairs, he collapsed to the floor, unable to move or cry out for a couple of minutes. After five minutes had passed, he slowly rose to his feet.
He didn't know how, but somehow he made it back into the dining hall. He tried to make out where his dad was sitting, but his vision had suddenly blurred. "Dad.. could you.. come here please?"
Angel stood up immediately and walked quickly over to him. "Journey.. ?" Something was very wrong, Angel knew. Journey's eyes were vacant and lackluster.
"Outside, please."
Angel nodded and turned back to Cordelia, who looked back at him in concern. "Excuse us. We'll be right back."
Journey had already turned and walked out of the dining hall. Angel followed him. "Journey, what's wrong?"
Journey faced his dad as tears began to spill down his cheeks, in slow rivulets. He began to fall forward, and Angel caught him before he hit the floor. Holding his son's limp body, Angel said softly, "You're scaring me, Journey."
Journey's unfocused eyes locked on his father. "I'm scaring myself." He managed to get out before his eyes rolled back into his head and his breathing stopped.
---
"Did he just call him 'Dad'?"
Cordelia heard her mother's question, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the door that Angel and Journey had just left through. "Um.. Journey's parents died in a car crash when he was only a year old. He used to call Caden 'Dad' all the time before he found out the truth about his parents."
Cordelia's mother went on with some meaningless conversation, while Cordelia stared worriedly at the door. She saw Journey.. and whatever was going on, wasn't good.
"Cordelia? Cordelia, are you even listening to me?"
Cordelia tore her gaze away from the door to glance quickly at her mother. "Yes, mother. Continue, please."
Suddenly, Angel's voice pierced the air, "Cordelia! Come quick!"
---
Later that night…
"Cordelia?"
"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry to call you so late, it's just.."
"Don't apologize. I'm your husband; you can call me anytime you'd like."
Cordelia's voice cracked as tears slipped down her cheeks. "I just.. I needed to talk to someone and I didn't know where else to go."
"It's all right. What's wrong, baby?"
"He's sick and.. and we don't know what's wrong with him."
Caden frowned. "Who, Cordelia? Who's sick?"
"Journey." She said softly after a few moments. "Journey's sick."
"Well, did you take him to the doctor?"
"No.. Angel doesn't believe in doctors."
"How do you know if he'll get better if you don't take him to a doctor, Cordelia?"
"It's not my decision, Caden! All right? I'm not Journey's father." Cordelia let out a shaky breath. "I didn't call you to argue with you. I called you because.. I'm scared. I'm scared that he's not going to make it."
Caden grew quiet. "I'm sorry, baby. I'm sure he'll get better."
"He has to." Cordelia said, wiping tears from her face. "Okay, well, I guess I'll let you go. If you need to get a hold of me, I'll be here and not at home."
"All right, baby. He'll get better. I'm sure of it."
"I love you."
"Love you too." Caden hung up the phone abruptly and wasted no time in dialing another number.
"Hey. Yeah, it's me. He's sick. Yes, already. So, you know that means, don't you? He'll be ready for the sacrifice sooner than expected…"
TBC
Journey paused on his descent down the stairs. "I did everything you told me. I put on this stupid shirt and these stupid slacks. I put on these stupid dress shoes and this stupid belt. And I combed my stupid hair. What more do you want?"
"Well, maybe I should've specified to comb your hair with a comb and not your fingers. Now come here."
Journey rolled his eyes but obeyed. When he got close enough to her, she licked her fingers and reached out to smooth down his hair. Journey grabbed her arm in midair. "Oh, no you don't. I'm eight years old and you'll not be putting your spit in my hair anytime soon."
Cordelia dropped her arm. "Fine then. I suggest you march your butt back upstairs and comb your hair correctly." She smiled sweetly. "You've got five minutes."
Journey sighed loudly. "Fine." He turned and began to run back upstairs, passing his father on the way.
"Where's he going?" Angel asked.
"Going to fix his hair."
"Oh." Angel looked at the clothes he was wearing—a black button-down, long sleeve shirt, with a shiny silk red tie, black slacks, black dress shoes, and a black belt—exactly what Journey was wearing—and sighed. He felt.. well, he felt odd. Thank heavens this charade was only for one night. "Do I look okay?" Angel asked cautiously.
Cordelia smiled. "You look great. And plus, you follow orders correctly the first time. Now, the question is.. do I look okay?" She twirled around a few times so Angel could get the full effect of her silky black dress.
"You look beautiful, Cordy."
Cordelia let out a deep-contented breath. "Thanks. I'm really nervous for some reason. But hopefully, nothing will go wrong, right?"
"Hopefully."
There was a knock at the door and Cordelia and Angel's eyes met. "All right. Here goes nothing. Charm their asses off, okay?" Cordelia smoothed out her dress quickly and then stepped up to open the door. "Mother, Daddy… how nice it is to see you again!" She plastered on a fake smile.
"Oh, yes. It's simply marvelous that we're finally able to reunite after so long." Cordelia's mother responded, stepping inside and gently kissing both sides of Cordelia's face. Cordelia's mother stepped aside and her father entered the Hyperion. He hugged her quickly and tightly.
"You've grown so much, Cordelia."
Cordelia smiled, prepared to answer. She'd always had a better relationship with her father than her mother—she was a Daddy's girl through and through. But her mother interrupted before she could indulge in a reunion.
"My, my, Cordelia. Just who is this handsome young fellow?" Cordelia's mother asked, eyeing Angel.
"Oh, Mother, Daddy, this is my husband, Caden Michaels." Cordelia grabbed Angel's hand possessively. "Caden, these are my parents, Ethan and Victoria Chase."
Angel plastered on a fake smile of his own. It was unusual to see Angel smiling, though he did it now more than ever, and Cordelia had to keep herself from laughing. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Chase." He told her father as he shook his hand.
"Please, call me Ethan." Suddenly, Cordelia's mother thrust her hand in front of Angel.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Caden." She drawled, her eyes roaming Angel's body. He felt a little uncomfortable, but tried to remember what Cordelia had told him only minutes before. And so, instead of shaking her hand, he grabbed it gently and laid a light kiss on top of it.
"The pleasure's all mine." Angel grinned softly.
"My, my, aren't you the charmer?" Mrs. Chase said with a laugh.
Cordelia spotted Journey as he came back down the stairs. "Journey, you're just in time to meet my parents. You guys, this is Caden's.. er.. nephew, Journey Michaels."
Journey reached the bottom of the stairs and coughed as he heard his name being paired with the name of that evil Caden. Cordelia grabbed his arm tightly. "Journey, are you all right, child?"
Journey blinked against her glaring gaze. "Yes, Aunt Cordy, I'm fine."
"Good." Cordelia smiled.
Victoria Chase bent slightly to pinch Journey's not-so-chubby cheeks. "Aren't you just the cutest thing? You look just like your Uncle."
Journey repressed the urge to scream and smiled slightly. "Thank you."
She stood up abruptly, already having lost interest in Journey. "So, Cordelia, where shall we be dining tonight?"
"Well, I was thinking of this place—they serve the BEST sashimi—"
"But I've been trying to convince Cordelia all day of letting us cook for you. We make quite the culinary team." Angel interrupted.
"I didn't know you could cook, Cordelia." Her father told her.
Cordelia let out a small laugh. "Neither did I, Daddy." She looked at the ground and then at Angel. "Caden, honey, can I talk to you, please?" Turning to her parents, she said, "Could you excuse us for a few minutes? We'll be right back." Then she took a hold of Angel's arm and literally drug him out of the room and into Wesley's nearby office.
"What, Cordelia?" Angel asked as she shut the door behind them.
"What are you doing?! I can't cook… and how would you know how to cook? You don't even eat!!"
"Well, we wouldn't actually cook. We could order something in and 'pretend' that we cooked it."
"Why don't we just go to a real restaurant so we can live in reality and not Pretend-land?"
"Because, you and Caden eat out a lot, correct?" Angel waited until Cordelia nodded in reply. "And with how many nice restaurants are you on a first name basis with?"
Realization hit Cordy like a two-ton brick in the stomach. "All of them."
"Right. And if we go to any of them, they'll know I'm not Caden and they'll ask where he is and it'll blow our cover."
Cordelia sighed. "Crap. Now what?"
"We 'pretend' and eat here." He opened a desk drawer, pulled out a phone book, and began flipping through its pages. "So, what shall we cook tonight, dear wife?"
Meanwhile…
"Where do you go to school, Journey?" Cordelia's mother asked, making small talk to fill the silence.
"I'm taught by a .. private tutor." Journey replied. It was a bit of a lie, but not really. Fred wasn't a certified teacher, but she'd taught him all the same since he was 3 years old.
"Really? Well, that's wonderful." Victoria Chase's perpetual smile began to fade. "My goodness.. they've been in there an awful long time. Do you think they're all right?"
"Are they all right?" Journey repeated. "OF COURSE, they're all right." He was beginning to lose his patience with these people.
"Well, what on earth could they be doing that's taking so long?"
'Just what I was thinking!' Journey wondered to himself. They'd taken off and left him to the wolves. Staring at the room they were in, an idea quickly formed in his head. "They've only been married for a year. What do you THINK they're doing in there?"
Cordelia's father frowned. "I beg your pardon?"
'Oh, yeah.' Journey thought, a smile slowly forming on his face. 'This is gonna be great! And it'll teach them to leave me alone with strange people!!' "Come on! You know what I'm talking about. Don't make me say it."
Ethan and Victoria exchanged a look. "We're not following." Ethan told him.
Journey rolled his eyes and sighed. "Are you people really that dense? They're not in there 'talking'. They're in there… well.. getting their freak on."
Again, Ethan and Victoria looked at each other, and they slowly realized what young Journey was hinting at. Journey stifled a laugh as he watched their eyes widen.
"No…" Cordelia's mother said, trying hard not to believe.
"Shh! Listen!" Journey commanded them.
As they grew silent, they heard the sound of things falling or being moved abruptly. Then, they heard a loud thump, and an "Oh!" from Cordelia. Something hit the wall hard and knocked a picture off of the wall outside the office.
"Oh, my."
"Yeah, and THAT'S what I have to listen to up to 10 times a day! You'd think they'd protect my virgin ears and send me some place safe where I don't have to hear that. I'm only 8 years old! I should be enjoying my childhood, not spending it listening to a porno!"
Back in the office…
Angel threw the phone book up against the wall. "Why are they always so snotty?"
"It's their way." Cordelia replied, picking up all the things Angel had knocked off. "And good grief, do you HAVE to be so violent when you don't get your way?"
"Yes, I do."
"Fine, whatever." She stood back up, straightening her dress. "So, what's the plan, Stan?"
"A deliveryman will meet us at the kitchen door of the hotel in 45 minutes."
"45 minutes?!" Cordelia exclaimed. "What are you trying to do, starve us all?"
"We have to make it believable. You know, like we really cooked it."
"I guess." She shook her head. "All right. I'm gonna go to the kitchen now, and start setting things up. And I want you to stay here for a few minutes and calm down. I don't want to see you until your face is uh.. less vampy."
"I vamped out?" Angel raised a hand tentatively to his face. His jaw dropped. "How in the world… I didn't even know."
"Learn to control your rage, buddy." Cordelia said, opening the door and stepping out into the main foyer of the Hyperion. She began to walk towards the kitchen when she realized her parents were staring at her. "Oh, sorry, Mother and Daddy. I forget you were even here!"
"Obviously." Her mother sneered.
Cordelia frowned. "Oh-kay. Anyway, I'm going to the kitchen because Caden convinced me that we should cook for you guys. So, why don't you have a seat here and make yourself comfortable?"
"Aunt Cordy, where's Uncle Caden?" Journey asked mischievously.
"He's uh.. well, he's straightening things out in the office." She turned and continued to the kitchen.
Cordelia's father raised his eyebrows. As soon as Cordy left the room, Journey turned to them.
"See? I told ya so!"
---
An hour and a half later, they were all seated around the Hyperion's massive dining table, eating the Chinese stir-fry that Angel and Cordelia had "cooked". Everything was going smoothly. Cordelia's parents were enjoying the meal and Caden, despite their earlier disapproval of him because of what Journey had told them. It was kind of neat to be eating dinner with Cordelia's parents, Angel thought more than once during the meal. It was almost as if he were actually married to her. But then, they'd say the dreaded C name and Angel would fall back to reality.
As Angel, Cordy, Victoria and Ethan laughed at some story Ethan had told, Journey felt a weird sensation come over him. It was like the world had suddenly sped up, yet he was moving in slow motion. It seemed like it took forever for him to move his arm or his head. His breathing began to slow down, while the sound of his heart beating grew louder and louder in his ears. He didn't know what was happening, but for some reason, he was very scared.
It took him a few minutes, but he finally managed to ask, "May I be excused for a few minutes?"
"Sure, go right ahead, Journey." Cordelia granted him a release from the table and then went back to talk with her father. Journey slowly stood up and walked even more slowly out of the room.
Out in the main foyer, Journey decided to try to make it to his bedroom. Maybe if he laid down for a few minutes, whatever was going on would go away. It was taking him a long time to move.. it was like he was trying to run in waist-deep water. It was slow going.
But he never made it up to his room. When he got to the stairs, he collapsed to the floor, unable to move or cry out for a couple of minutes. After five minutes had passed, he slowly rose to his feet.
He didn't know how, but somehow he made it back into the dining hall. He tried to make out where his dad was sitting, but his vision had suddenly blurred. "Dad.. could you.. come here please?"
Angel stood up immediately and walked quickly over to him. "Journey.. ?" Something was very wrong, Angel knew. Journey's eyes were vacant and lackluster.
"Outside, please."
Angel nodded and turned back to Cordelia, who looked back at him in concern. "Excuse us. We'll be right back."
Journey had already turned and walked out of the dining hall. Angel followed him. "Journey, what's wrong?"
Journey faced his dad as tears began to spill down his cheeks, in slow rivulets. He began to fall forward, and Angel caught him before he hit the floor. Holding his son's limp body, Angel said softly, "You're scaring me, Journey."
Journey's unfocused eyes locked on his father. "I'm scaring myself." He managed to get out before his eyes rolled back into his head and his breathing stopped.
---
"Did he just call him 'Dad'?"
Cordelia heard her mother's question, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the door that Angel and Journey had just left through. "Um.. Journey's parents died in a car crash when he was only a year old. He used to call Caden 'Dad' all the time before he found out the truth about his parents."
Cordelia's mother went on with some meaningless conversation, while Cordelia stared worriedly at the door. She saw Journey.. and whatever was going on, wasn't good.
"Cordelia? Cordelia, are you even listening to me?"
Cordelia tore her gaze away from the door to glance quickly at her mother. "Yes, mother. Continue, please."
Suddenly, Angel's voice pierced the air, "Cordelia! Come quick!"
---
Later that night…
"Cordelia?"
"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry to call you so late, it's just.."
"Don't apologize. I'm your husband; you can call me anytime you'd like."
Cordelia's voice cracked as tears slipped down her cheeks. "I just.. I needed to talk to someone and I didn't know where else to go."
"It's all right. What's wrong, baby?"
"He's sick and.. and we don't know what's wrong with him."
Caden frowned. "Who, Cordelia? Who's sick?"
"Journey." She said softly after a few moments. "Journey's sick."
"Well, did you take him to the doctor?"
"No.. Angel doesn't believe in doctors."
"How do you know if he'll get better if you don't take him to a doctor, Cordelia?"
"It's not my decision, Caden! All right? I'm not Journey's father." Cordelia let out a shaky breath. "I didn't call you to argue with you. I called you because.. I'm scared. I'm scared that he's not going to make it."
Caden grew quiet. "I'm sorry, baby. I'm sure he'll get better."
"He has to." Cordelia said, wiping tears from her face. "Okay, well, I guess I'll let you go. If you need to get a hold of me, I'll be here and not at home."
"All right, baby. He'll get better. I'm sure of it."
"I love you."
"Love you too." Caden hung up the phone abruptly and wasted no time in dialing another number.
"Hey. Yeah, it's me. He's sick. Yes, already. So, you know that means, don't you? He'll be ready for the sacrifice sooner than expected…"
TBC