Title: Family: Back to Sunnydale

Author: victoriamartynne

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Spoilers: None, I think!

Summary: Imagine if Connor had never been taken by Wesley, Xander and Anya had never split up and Angel had told Cordelia how he felt. Cordelia gets a phone call that leads her back to Sunnydale and back to the past.
"Did Cordelia sound okay on the phone?" Wesley asked as he came back from the Magic Box with Lorne.

"She's worried about Morgan, Kathryn's child. She thinks that her father is beating her up. He used to beat her up when she was younger too." He exclaimed. "You know, her mom died and no-one told her until this morning."

"When did she die?" Wes asked.

"A few weeks ago."

"Poor Cordy. Is she okay?"

"I have no idea, and until the sun goes down I won't know. Fred's with her though so I know she'll be okay." But still, worry lines were etched into his forehead. "Could you do a bit of research? Find out who this Kathryn is?"

"Of course." Wesley agreed.

The sun set at six o clock that night. Angel was instantly out of the mansion and in his car to meet Cordelia. He'd phoned her about five and she'd admitted that the wedding had been hard. He drove straight to Kathryn's house where he saw her sat on the doorstep waiting for him. He came and sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head. "You okay baby?"

"I will be. I just know that there's something going on and I know that until I find out what it is I can't help Morgan."

"We'll help you. You know that."

She turned her face up to his for a kiss.

"Well darling." Raymond said to his wife. "It is done. After tonight we will have everything we ever dreamed. After the ritual is complete we will have more power than any being ever has before. And it is all down to you Rakhnah. We will start the ritual at midnight. Remind me to come upstairs to polish the orbs."

"I'm glad everything worked out alright. Your daughter doesn't suspect a thing. For a while I admit that I was worried. Especially when your ex found out. But we sorted that out, didn't we sweetheart?"

Raymond and his new wife kissed and then rejoined the party.

Angel broke away from Cordelia. "Are you really okay? I don't want you tiring yourself out."

"I'm fine Angel, really. You know I won't do anything to harm the baby." She smiled at him.

"I know you won't, until there's a demon that needs to be killed or an innocent that needs to be saved." He teased.

"I'll be careful. I promise." She crossed her fingers over her heart. "You know, I was thinking today, I don't even know how many weeks I am gone. I should probably find that out."

"Yeah, you should." He grinned. "And maybe we should think about getting back to the party. I think maybe I should meet your father."

Cordelia just snorted but got up anyway and led Angel into the house, making sure she got an invitation from Kathryn so he could actually enter.

The first people they saw were Buffy and Dawn. Angel's vampire hearing caught Cordy's groan so he directed her in the other direction. In the light of the kitchen he saw the mark on her cheek.

"What happened?" He asked pointing to it.

"My dad hit me. But before you say another word.." She held up her hand to silence him. "I think I broke his nose."

Angel smirked and said nothing more.

"Angel, hi." Angel recognised the voice instantly.

"Hi Buffy." He replied. "How are you?"

"I'm really good. I was actually thinking about coming to LA in a couple of weeks to see you. Would that be okay?" She asked, a hopeful look on her face.

"Sure." He replied lamely. He knew that Cordelia would kill him for agreeing to it when they got home. "Just make sure you call first."

"Great!" She beamed and then hugged him. "Me and Dawn are going now, I need to patrol and Dawn has chores to do. It was good seeing you. Both of you." She added looking at Cordelia.

When she had left he turned to see Cordelia glaring at him. Before she could shout at him they were interrupted again. This time by Raymond.

"When are you leaving?" He asked, ignoring Angel.

"I don't know." She replied coldly.

"I trust that I won't be hearing from you again?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On whether you stop hitting Morgan. She has my number and if you hit her again she will call me and I will be here in a shot. You got that?" She threatened.

"You're lying." He shook his head.

"I'm not the liar in this family. You are. Why did you never tell me that you got the house back after I graduated?" She asked.

"You were in LA. You didn't need to know." He explained and helped himself to a beer from the fridge.

"I could have gone to college or got an apartment without the free cockroaches or even a car or some new clothes. You put me through hell and there's no way I'm leaving here without finding out what's going on with you."

He was about to swing back to hit her but Fred came into the kitchen with Jake. He left quickly grabbing another beer as he went.

"Cordy." Fred whispered to her. "I overheard your dad calling Kathryn Rakhnah if that helps."

"Fred, you are a genious!" Cordy hugged her and then dragged Angel out of the door.

"Cor, where are we going?" Angel asked as she dragged him down Main Street.

"To the Magic Box. That's where Wes is right? I need his help, and Giles's if he will. Fred said that my dad called Kathryn Rakhnah. That sounds like a demon name to me, maybe we could find something in one of the books and figure out what the hell is going on around here. Did you sense anything about her, maybe tell if she was demon or not?"

"No, but I was outside and she was inside and she did run off pretty quickly after she invited me in." Angel admitted.

Cordelia suddenly stopped walking and began to float a few inches off the ground.

Angel put his hands on her hips and waited for the vision to pass.

She landed back on the floor after a few seconds. "Okay, there's a man walking through the cemetery about to be attacked by two vampires. We've got a little time but we haven't got time to stop at the Magic Box. We'll have to go there on the way back."

"Do you think that maybe I should go alone?" He suggested, almost already knowing her answer.

"No chance!" She announced and they started walking again, hand in hand.

"Cordelia! Keep out of the way!" Angel shouted at her as he started fighting the vamps.

The man they were protecting had run away quickly.

"I'm not in the way." She protested. She was stood at least ten feet away from where Angel was fighting. "Do you need any help?"

"No, just keep out of the way."

"She could get in my way." One of the vamps said and headed towards her. Angel caught him and threw him into a headstone. While he was preoccupied, the other vamp headed towards her. She instantly pulled a stake out of her pocket and began fighting it.

She managed to get a couple of good punches in before she was punched back. She fell backwards into a crypt. She stumbled but then staked him. Angel staked the vamp he was fighting. And then came across to her with a face like thunder she braced herself for a lecture.

By the time they reached the Magic Box she was still being shouted at. They walked through the doors to find the whole Scooby gang sat there as well as the AI team, including Fred and Lorne.

"Angel, stop worrying! I have fought and killed enough vampires to know that I was in no danger! Now please, we've got work to do." She turned to their audience before Angel could think of another thing to throw at her. "Fred, did you fill them in?"

"Wow." Xander said. "Cordelia's got bossy."

"Cordelia's got pissed off. Are we getting anywhere?" She asked again.

"I believe that there is a demon called Rakhnah. Although as of yet we don't know what the demon does." Wesley told her.

"We have arrowed it down slightly to discover that it has something to do with the orbs of Jhamrol. When the demon enters matrimony with a human who has ingested these orbs something happens." Giles added.

"And that would be?" Cordelia prompted.

"I have no idea." Wesley said. "But don't worry." He reassured. "We'll find out."

"Thanks Wes, everyone. I guess it does sound like Kathryn might be a demon. She has just married a human and my father used to like collecting rare antiques. Maybe he's got these orbs." Cordelia rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Bug doesn't that mean that the ritual would happen tonight? We need to find out what's going to happen. Have you got any spare books?" She asked Giles.

He looked at her in surprise, all the Scoobies did. "Of course."

He gave her and Angel a book each and they settled down together to research in the corner.

Angel suddenly looked up at Lorne. "Where's Connor?"

"Angel cakes, I'm not going to leave Connor on his own. He's in the back room and yes daddy, I do have the monitor on." He held up the monitor to prove it.

Buffy and Willow watched Angel and Cordelia closely. They looked like they were really good friends. Just friends though, Buffy thought. And Connor, she thought, that was a surprise, she could just imagine Cordelia complaining about dirty nappies and the crying.

Anya and Xander were talking quietly about how Cordelia seemed to have changed.

She did seem to have grown up a lot from the days where they would grope each other in the school closet. Then again, they both had.

"Are you feeling okay?" Angel asked Cordelia and squeezed her hand.

"I'm just a little tired I guess. I was up early today. Being pregnant sure does take it out of you though. I can just imagine me a few months down the line. Fat, being sick all the time, unable to get up on my own. The list is endless." She complained with a smile.

"You'll love it." He grinned. "And you won't be fat; you'll have a baby growing inside of you. The best bit will be when it wants to come out."

"Don't you dare remind me, I'm terrified already." She admitted.

He squeezed her hand in response. "Maybe we should go back to the mansion." He suggested.

"We can't. We have to help research. It wouldn't be fair to let them do all the work." Cordy said and then heard Connor crying on the monitor. "But maybe I can skip a little work and go get the baby."

"Wow, looks like we're going to find out how motherly our old friend Cordelia is." Buffy said to Xander as she saw Cordelia go get Connor.

"I want a baby." Anya said which earned her a stricken glance from Xander.

"Maybe you two should stop gossiping about Cordelia and do some research." Giles suggested.

"Oh, come on Giles, aren't you a little curious as to why Angel has put up with her for all these years?" Willow said.

"No, quite frankly I am not." Giles said.

"Peaches might have fallen for her." Spike suggested, not very tactfully.

Buffy shot him a death look. "I think I'll go check on the niblet." Spike said and left.

Cordelia came back with Connor nestled in her arms. She sat down next to Angel and Gunn brought his bottle across. "Cordy, we haven't found anything yet. Maybe you should go home and we'll call you if we do." He suggested.

"No, I'll be fine Gunn thanks. Connor will only keep me up there and I might as well get some research done." She smiled at him and then gave Connor his bottle.

"He was hungry." Angel stated.

"Yeah, I think he's tired though. With the drive yesterday and everything." She sighed and rested her head on Angel's shoulder.

"Look at them." Buffy said in disgust and then looked around to make sure none of the AI team was within earshot. "She's practically all over him."

"If she gets any closer he'll lose him soul." Xander joked but then caught the look of anger and pain cross Buffy's face. "Not that he'd sleep with her, of course. But not that there's anything wrong with her."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Anya asked. "Do you think she's better looking than me?"

"No of course not, I'm going to shut up now." He said and slunk down in his chair.

"Cordy, I think I found something." Fred said and held up the book she was reading in one hand and shoved her glasses up her nose with the other.

Giles and Wes came to stand behind her chair to read over her shoulder and Cordelia gave Connor to Angel in order to go see what Fred found out.

"It says here that the Rakhnah demon needs the orbs of Jhamron in order for the human that has ingested them to transform into the Creator." She explained.

"I guess the Creator is not going to be a God like figure."

"God like might be right." She admitted. "But not a good God, an evil one. He can use his powers to rule nature. It says here that the last time the Creator was, uh, created, he tore down all the trees and greenery and only enabled evil beings to be born. All the good people and beings in the world were captured and were going to be used as bait. I said were because he was stopped. He forgot to control the earthquakes and he was swallowed into the earth. All the bad things that he did were reversed."

"Okay, so this is like a graduation day apocalypse, right?" Angel looked around. "So, how do we kill it?"

"This is my father we're talking about here." Cordelia said. "Is there any way we can stop it without killing it? How long have we got until the ritual is due to take place?"

"It may have already happened." Wesley said. "In the book it says midnight but it could have happened earlier. It's eleven thirty now."

"So, it may not have. We might still have time to stop the ritual. If not then we think up a way to turn my father back into a human or a way to kill him, but only if we have to." Cordelia said and grabbed her coat from the chair where she'd been sat. Angel gave Connor to Lorne.

"Wait!" Buffy said and held up her hand. "Who put you in charge around here?"

"No-one did." Cordelia said calmly. "But if you've got a better plan then tell me now. If you haven't then can I please count on you for your help?"

Buffy shut up but grabbed a stake off the table.

"Do you think we'll need Spike?" Fred asked.

"No, I don't think so." Giles replied. He liked the young Texan. "Once we know what the situation is then we can re assess and see is he is needed."

"Okay, so we go then." Gunn said.