Hey guys! I'm back, believe it or not. I bet some of you thought I was never going to finish this story, but here's the second chapter! I would have updated sooner, but someone deleted everything I had written and I had to start over. It took me forever to get anywhere.
Rating: Pg-13 to R.
Summary: Angel's human now, but then trouble makes its appearance and things take a turn for the worse. I don't believe there will be any fluff in this chapter, but I do promise fluff, or maybe even smut, *grin*, in the next chapter, so stay tuned. (Warning: Angst ahead!)
Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Angel. I'm just borrowing them for a little while. J
Buffy was on her knees beside Angel in a matter of seconds. He sucked in a second, and then a third breath before opening his eyes and meeting her worried and happy gaze. He shakily reached up with one hand and cupped her face, rubbing her cheekbone with his thumb.
"That didn't take as long as I thought it would." He said softly. She chuckled and kissed his hand.
"I'm glad. I don't think I could've waited months or years for you to become human. I would've, but I would've complained a lot."
Angel chuckled, knowing that she was teasing him. He slowly sat up and she helped him to his feet. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and Cordelia came to stand at his other side. Together the two women got him over to the couch and sat him down. Fred had gone to get him something besides blood to drink and something to eat.
"Buffy, as glad as I am to be human now, I need you to go do a couple of things regarding Wolfram and Hart before we start the celebration. I need those files regarding Spike."
Buffy twirled her engagement ring and nodded slowly. "I'll see what I can do. Do I need to take anybody with me?"
Angel thought for a moment. "Yeah. Take Cordelia. She knows her way around and can get into the systems pretty easily."
"Cool. When do you need us to go?"
"In a few minutes." He said as Fred handed him a glass of milk and a sandwich. He hesitantly took a bite and chewed thoughtfully for a minute. "What is this? I like it."
"It's turkey, mayo, tomato and cheese." Fred answered, hovering over him anxiously. Buffy had taken a seat beside him and watched him eat.
"Do you have any idea how weird it is to watch you eat real food?" she asked, rubbing his knee lightly. Angel took her hand and linked their fingers together.
"No weirder than it is to eat real food and taste it after more than two centuries."
"Touché. Well, I guess we better get over to Wolfram and Hart. I'll go get changed. Cordy are you ready?"
Cordelia surveyed her outfit. "I think I might need athletic shoes for this one. These Gucci heels just won't take rappelling and running very well."
Both women disappeared into different rooms and emerged at almost exactly the same times in dark pants, black turtlenecks and running shoes. Buffy had a dark backpack slung over one shoulder and handed a similar pack to Cordelia.
"What's this for?"
"It has rope, a stake, a knife and a cell phone in it in case we get separated. There's also more room in these for files than what we could carry. So, boss man, what's the plan? What exactly do you need us to get?"
"Anything that looks suspicious. Apocalyptic plans, vampire cloning, whatever. Just bring along whatever you can carry and get back here in one piece."
"Gotcha. I'll see you guys in a couple of hours. Angel, I love you."
"Love you too and both of you, be careful and don't get caught!" he called after them as they disappeared out the door.
"You drive." Buffy ordered, climbing in the passenger side. "I don't know where it is we're going and you do."
Twenty minutes later, Cordelia parked in a little used parking lot. "This is about half a block away. There's a ladder going to a roof nearby and then we use a medal rod Angel's got rigged up to get onto their roof. We use the service elevator to get in, get down to the boiler room and use a power surge to shut everything down. From there, we climb up the elevator shaft to the computer room. They have a backup system, so the computers will still be online, but the surveillance is down. From there, we have about twenty minutes to do our thing and get out before they get the power back on. If we aren't done by the time they get the power on, there's a dumbwaiter going back down to the cafeteria, which is on the subbasement. Once we're there, we can get out through the sewers. Any questions?"
"I think I got it. Let's go."
The two women got out of the car and walked the short distance to the escape ladder that was hanging about a foot over their heads. Cordelia surprised Buffy by jumping and hoisting herself up onto it. Buffy smiled a little and followed her up, easily climbing the rickety old ladder. They made it to the roof quickly and Buffy soon saw the medal bean running between roofs. She pulled on a pair of gloves, as did Cordelia, and sat down, with her legs dangling off the edge of the roof. She grabbed the bar and dropped, her slight weight not even making the bar shudder. She swung across and then waited for Cordelia, who made it nearly as fast as Buffy.
"Why couldn't you do stuff like this when you were in Sunnydale?"
Cordelia shrugged. "I was afraid to get dirty. Now I just kill whatever got me that way. It's much simpler. Come on, the service elevator is over here."
But Buffy grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the chimney. "There're two guards." She whispered urgently. "No one said anything about there being guards."
Cordelia looked out quickly. "Don't worry. It's just a couple of security guards on their break. They'll be gone in a few minutes."
Buffy sighed in relief. "Good. I thought for a second that this was going to get hard before we even got started."
"Oh this will get hard. Not once have we ever gotten out of here undetected. Usually we're just too far ahead of them to get caught and they can never prove it's us, meaning their administration won't give them more money to hire people to kill us. If we do get caught though, I'm moving to Africa because no place will ever be safe."
"Then why Africa?"
"Because that's the last place they'll look. I mean me, in a place with bugs bigger than cars and heat waves worse than here? Even you have to admit that's a little far fetched, even for evil lawyers to believe."
Buffy nodded n agreement. "True enough. Come on, they just left. If the doors don't get closed before we get there, we can just drop onto their car and ride down with them. It's less detectable."
Buffy had a crowbar out of her bag before they reached the door. She pried the doors open and grabbed the cable with her still gloved hands. She slid down and heard Cordelia follow her quickly. They landed on the top of the car silently and crouched down to wait for it to stop. Once it stopped and Buffy heard the doors slide shut again, she pressed her ear to the top to make sure that no one was still in the elevator. Finding that it was clear, she took the emergency exit panel loose and climbed down. A few seconds later Cordelia fell down.
"What floor are we on?"
"Second. Push the button that says BR." Cordelia said, standing up. Buffy did as she was told and, several tense seconds later, the car stopped and the doors slid open. They looked around for people and, finding the coast was clear, they stepped out of the elevator. Buffy left her crowbar to keep the doors open and make sure that the car wouldn't go anywhere. Cordelia removed a small machine from her bag and found an electric panel. She plugged it up and pressed the red button. Mere moments later the lights flickered and went off. Buffy taped all the panels shut and they climbed back to the top of the elevator.
"Which way?" Buffy asked once they were on the third floor. Cordelia pointed left and they sprinted down the hall. Buffy used a code key Angel had given her to open the door and they hurried inside, Cordelia used another machine to seal the door in case they weren't finished by the time maintenance got the electric back on. "Now what?"
"Get on that computer and use those cards Doyle gave you to get into the main systems. Once you're there, look for anything suspicious. Print it all if you have to."
Buffy sat down and went to work using all the codes she had been given to bypass the preliminary systems. Once she was in the main system, she started clicking on random icons until she found a special files folder. She selected all documents and clicked print. After that she printed all contacts folders and then shut down the computer to go look through some files left lying open on the desk while Cordelia took her turn hacking through some of the more advanced systems to find something on Spike.
"Got it. As soon as this stuff prints we're outta here."
"Good. How long until they get the power on?"
"About five minutes. I think we'll have to take the dumbwaiter. There's no way we can get back to the roof in five minutes. Less than that unless this stuff prints quicker than it normally does."
Buffy looked around and Cordelia saw her pale visibly. "You mean this dumbwaiter? The one that's been cemented?"
Cordelia gulped. "That would be the one. Okay, here's what we have to do. We have to get to an elevator. And no one can see us get there. So, all we need to do is create another power surge with something. Unplug that computer you were just using and hand me the cord." Cordelia ordered, moving over to a breaker box in the corner of the room. "Now stand back. This won't be very pretty." She said, and then plugged the cord into one of the breakers. There was an awful noise, a loud crack and then everything went black. Cordelia grabbed the papers that had just quit printing and stuffed them in her backpack. "Pry open the door."
Buffy was way ahead of her. She already had the crowbar jimmied into the thin seal between the door and the wall and was prying it open slowly. Finally, after several tense moments the door slid open wide enough for them to squeeze through. Buffy went first, then Cordelia handed out the backpacks filled with the documents and finally, Cordelia slipped out, holding a large flashlight.
"Ready?" Buffy asked anxiously in a whisper.
"As I'll ever be. Let's get the Hell out of here."
"I'm right there with you." Buffy said, heading toward the nearest service elevator. "Let's head up to the roof and go the same way we came. It'll be quicker that way." She said, removing the emergency escape panel and climbing onto the top of the car. Cordelia followed as quickly as she could.
"What are we doing?"
"Getting out of here. What's it look like?"
"Like we're climbing up an elevator shaft fifteen stories to the roof."
"Fifteen stories?" Buffy asked. "Is it really that much?"
"Every bit of it. But if you think that this way is best…"
"What other way is there? We could try to get down to the boiler room, but the odds of us getting down there are about one hundred to one since every elevator car is on this floor and there isn't a way to get under the car."
"Point taken. I think I can make the climb, so let's try it." Cordelia finally relented. She watched Buffy begin the treacherous climb up the cables and, taking a deep breath, followed her at a slower pace. Finally, after the longest twenty minutes of their lives, both Buffy and Cordelia made it safely onto the roof. They sighed deep breaths of relief and then climbed back across the metal bar and down the rusty fire escape. They got in the car and headed back toward the offices.
"Well, we did it." Buffy said, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them.
"Yeah, but for some reason, it doesn't feel as good as it should. We got away with robbery. That isn't necessarily a good thing."
"That's true. But we stole the stuff from evil lawyers. That's got to make it at least morally better."
"Yeah, it does. But I think I still feel bad about it, and I don't feel bad about much."
"Let me tell you something, Cordy. The first time I ever killed a vamp, I cried for hours. I was so angry at myself and the Council, but mostly I felt guilty that I had taken someone's life. Granted, it didn't have a soul, and I didn't even know him, but I still felt so bad that I nearly gave up on slaying. Not like before. Now, I just get so fed up with everything that I don't think I can take it anymore and stop for a little while, but then, I really felt like the guilt would consume me. The next night, I saw a vamp kill a mother and her child and I felt guiltier about that. So what it comes down to is the lesser of two evils. Stealing from evil people or standing back and letting the evil people kill, maim and steal from innocent people. It took me about two seconds to get over the guilt I felt from killing the vampire. I realized that they have no souls, and that they are completely evil and can do no good. Wolfram and Hart are the same way. They're evil, they have no souls and they can do no good."
Cordelia sighed deeply. "I know, but this is illegal Buffy. We could get arrested."
"And they could get executed for the things we're stopping them from doing to people. Think about it that way."
"You have a point." Cordelia admitted.
"Is this the first time you've ever been in there?"
"As someone stealing things? Yes. But I've been in there before. And Angel made me spend hours studying all the floor plans and stuff."
Buffy and Cordelia walked into the Hyperion Hotel half an hour later. Angel, Wesley, Doyle and Gunn were waiting in the lobby, looking anxious. Buffy looked at her watch and saw that it was nearly midnight. Three hours after they had left. She walked over and laid the piles of files and folders on the counter. Gunn's eyes widened appreciatively.
"How'd everything go?" Angel asked, scanning through the different folders.
"Fine." Buffy said a little shortly, turning and walking downstairs to take a shower.
Angel looked at Cordy. "Did you two have another fight or something?"
"Men! Dear Lord, are you a complete asshole?" Cordelia demanded, catching everyone in the room off guard.
Angel looked startled by the outburst. "Cordelia, perhaps you would like to tell me what I did?"
"We come in here after three hours of doing something you have only done twice, and may I mention that nothing went as planned for that, and then all you say is 'how'd it go?' like it was no big deal. And all you even look at is those stupid folders. No, no one even cares about the two women who just did your job and nearly got killed! Especially not about the one who happens to be pregnant with your child, and engaged to marry you! So no, you did nothing wrong, except for being an insensitive, uncaring jerk!" Cordelia exploded before whirling and stomping up to the room she sometimes used whenever she spent the night at the hotel.
Angel shook his head. "Was I that bad?" he asked the remaining people.
Wesley considered the situation carefully. "Judging from the reactions of both women, I'd say you violated a very large female rule."
"I would very much like a copy of the rule book." Angel muttered under his breath as he followed the same route Buffy had take moments before.
"So would we." Gunn said to his retreating back. "But I think they make them up as they go." he finished.
Angel found Buffy getting out of the shower. She dressed in a pair of his boxers and one of his wife beaters and, without one word or look, she got into bed and pulled the blankets up over her shoulders. Angel sighed and changed into a fresh pair of boxers before lying down on the other side of the bed. Finally he decided to break the silence.
"Buffy, I'm sorry for whatever it is I did." He said in an apologizing voice. She made a noise and rolled over to face him.
"Don't worry about it, it's a man thing. You're a man now and there's nothing either of us can do to change it."
"And what's that supposed to mean? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. And I am very sorry. Now do you accept my apology or not?"
"Yes. I might as well. I just thought that since you're you, you would've been worried about me more than your stupid files. You ask me how it went without even looking at me. That isn't like you Angel. The Angel I know would've waited until he made sure I was okay before examining the precious folders."
Angel weighed his responses carefully. He didn't want to irritate her more than she already was. "I said I'm sorry and I meant it. But I'm not the same person I was when I left. And I think that means that I care a little less about
other people and a little more about my self."
Buffy snorted. "Funny, I always thought I was Buffy and not other people. Especially to you." She said, rolling over so her back was to him. "And for that matter, I always thought you cared about me a little more that every other person on the face of the planet."
"I do. And I didn't mean to compare you to everybody else. You aren't everyone else, you're Buffy and I love you. But like I said, I'm not the same person and you can't expect me to just turn back into the old Angel because we're back together. It doesn't work that way."
"I want you to be who you want to be and if you want to be an insensitive male chauvinist, then by all means, be one. See if I care!" Buffy said with finality in her voice. She closed her eyes tightly and said one last thing. "And I'm leaving for Sunnydale tomorrow. I'll probably be gone by the time you wake up. I have to go tell my mother and Giles about the baby."
"I want to be there when you do." Angel told her softly. "This is not something you need to do on your own."
"What if I want to do it on my own?" Buffy challenged.
"Too bad. I'm going with you and that's final. Especially since Xander took Giles' car when he went back to Sunnydale earlier."
"I'll ride the bus."
"You most certainly will not do any such thing." Angel retorted.
"You aren't in charge of me. I'll do what I want to do and there's nothing you can do to stop me. Now good night. The baby and I need our sleep."
Angel relented and they fell asleep, the fight between them still hanging thick in the air. He had a feeling everything was just going to get worse than it already was. He sighed in defeat as he drifted off to sleep, and wrapped his arms around his sleeping fiancee who was still tense and stiff.
Buffy woke up just as the sun came up. Angel was still asleep beside her and she snuck out of his grasp. She gathered the small amount of things she had brought with her and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt before heading upstairs to leave. Somehow Angel was waiting for her at his car by the time she made it out the door. She stopped in shock and stared at him for a moment before turning and walking down the street.
"Where do you think you're going?" Angel asked curiously, following her.
"To the bus station like I told you last night."
"I'll drive you, get in the car."
"I don't have to listen to you." Buffy replied stubbornly. And suddenly Angel was in front of her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her progress.
"I hate it when we fight and I hate it even more when you're mad at me and I know you have a good reason, because it's easier to write off your bad moods to some quirky woman thing than to accredit it to something I did, but this has gone too far. I am sorry, okay? That's all I can say, and that's all I will say in the way of apologizing. And no, I am not the same person who left you after graduation, and I will never be that person again. I love you with all of my heart and fully anchored soul and I will do almost anything to make you happy and I will do anything to keep you safe. I would do the same for our baby. Now get in the car and let me drive you home. And I promise that if you tell me to I will leave you alone for the rest of our lives."
Buffy relented. "I don't want you to leave me alone. Truth be told, I would be happy if we never had to be away from each other again, but it doesn't work that way. I have my life in Sunnydale and you have your life here and most of the time they aren't compatible. But I do want to try, and I do know I was a major bitch to you last night and I'm sorry. And I don't want you to be the person you were in Sunnydale. You never smiled and you weren't happy and you are now. And if you want the God's honest truth, I feel like I'm intruding on your life and it made me touchy. And then when you didn't even seem to care that everything went wrong last night and we almost didn't get out alive, it made my short fuse become a non-existent one."
"You're never intruding on my life, Buffy."
"Really? Because it seems I've been getting that feeling a lot lately. Especially when I came down here at Thanksgiving. I knew I wasn't wanted and it wasn't by just Cordelia. You didn't want me here either. No one did, and ever since I came back, I can sense that no one trusts me, sometimes that sense includes you. And I hate it, I really do, but it's the way I feel and there's nothing I can do to change that."
Angel took a step forward and engulfed her in his arms. "I'm really sorry you feel that way. I didn't mean to make you feel unwanted or distrusted at any time. But I still want to drive you home and tell everyone about the baby with you. I don't think you should have to do that by yourself." He said, kissing the top of her head gently. Buffy nodded.
"Okay, you can come, but I have to warn you, it won't be pretty."
"I think I can handle it." Angel assured her. "It's just your mom and Giles."
"And Willow."
"And Willow."
Two hours later Angel pulled into Joyce's driveway. He and Buffy got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Buffy knocked and a couple seconds later Joyce opened the door. She looked shocked to see Angel standing in the sunlight and, without a single word or expression, stepped aside to allow them to come into her house. Buffy and Angel exchanged looks with each other and walked in.
"Mom, can you call Giles and Willow and tell them to come over? Angel and I have something to tell you all." Buffy said, breaking the silence. She hesitantly reached out and took Angel's hand in hers. He squeezed it and linked their fingers. Twenty minutes both Giles and Willow were there and waiting for their news.
"Well, what is so important that you had to get us all here at eight on a Saturday?" Willow asked in an irritated voice.
"Angel and I have some news. One—we're back together. Two—we're getting married. And three—we're having a baby. Oh yeah, and Angel's human and his soul is anchored."
Joyce turned blood red and turned to Buffy. "Get out of my house and never come back." She said. Buffy looked shocked for a minute, then stood and bolted from the house. Angel hesitated a moment until she continued. "You too. Neither of you are welcome here any longer."
What will happen next? Even I don't know quite yet. I'll try to up date as soon as I can, but it may be a while. Review please, I live on reviews!