Title: Family: Forward to LA

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. Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale. The Scoobies visit the Fang Gang.

Lorne arrived as soon as they called, saying that the babies were more important than his club. He'd left his barman in charge although he was dubious of doing so.

"Princess." He exclaimed and held his arms out to the sullen Cordelia. He pulled her into his embrace. "I won't let them get hurt, I promise. We'll be safe upstairs. Are you coming up too?"

"Yes she is." Angel answered for her as he walked past them.

She pulled herself out of Lorne's hug. "Like hell I am!"

"Cordelia, I'm not arguing with you. We've got a couple of hours until sunset. Gunn and Xander blocked up the balconies and windows, Buffy and Spike have blocked up the sewer access, Anya and Willow have cleared out a room for you to use on the fourth floor and Gunn's crew will be here within the hour. Dawn's gone to stay with her dad out of the way. All we have to do is get you four locked and barricaded in. Don't argue with me Cordelia, I am not letting you get hurt."

"You will not be letting me get hurt. If I do get hurt, if, then it will be my own fault. I cannot sit up there waiting for them to get my baby. I need to help. I have to" She argued, more upset than angry. "Please let me do that with your blessing."

He came across to her and took her in his arms, letting his chin rest on her head. He sighed. "I don't want to lose you. There's already a chance that we'll lose Ashleigh, don't let there be a chance that I could lose you too."

"You won't lose me Angel, I'm invincible." She whispered.

He laughed. "You wish."

She smiled as he kissed her hair. "I'll be careful, I promise."

"Okay, you can fight, but only because I know that I'll not win this argument. If anything happens to you I will never forgive myself." He closed his eyes. "I wish we could stay this way forever."

Gunn interrupted their moment by coming into the office, where they were stood, and coughed.

"We've all said goodbye, it's time." He told them.

"Come on kittens." Lorne said. "Lead the way."

Cordelia and Angel said goodbye to Connor and Ashleigh. Cordelia was crying openly, Angel was holding back his tears.

"Goodbye sweethearts." Cordelia whispered.

"Mama." Connor said and smiled.

Cordelia looked at Angel and Lorne in astonishment. "He said Mama. I can't believe it."

Cordelia and Angel forgot all their sadness for a moment until Wes insisted that they start to barricade the door. Angel kissed Cordelia's cheek "It's time honey. I love you."

"I love you too." She replied.

She followed him to the door but didn't make it in time. Angel slammed it behind him and locked it.

"No!" She screamed and started banging on the door. "You can't do this! I need to help!"

Angel, Buffy and Spike began nailing planks of wood over the door and adding chains. Spike had even found sheets of aluminium from somewhere and began hammering them on too.

"Ignore her." Angel insisted. "There is no way she is getting hurt. She's going to stay there until it's over. There's enough food and water in there to last them three days, just in case it doesn't happen tonight. There's another phone line so we can ring and talk to them. They'll be fine. She'll get over it."

"Who're you trying to convince pet?" Spike asked and paused between hammering. "Us or yourself?"

Angel glowered but said nothing.

"Angel, I will never forgive you if you do not unlock this door! Do you here me? I need to help, please!" She screamed and slid down the door crying.

Lorne came up behind her and lifted her off the floor. "Come on princess, don't make yourself ill."

"He did this on purpose, he had this planned. He lied to me." She was no longer shouting but both Angel and Spike, with their vampire hearing, could still hear her.

"He knew that I needed to do this and he locked me in a room. What about Anya, Willow or Fred? They're women, why aren't they locked in here too?"

"Because they haven't just been knocked down and had a serious operation." Angel shouted through the door.

Cordelia shouted back an obscenity. Lorne turned away so she wouldn't see his smile. She knew exactly what he was doing. "Don't even think about it Kermit, laugh at me and I'll."

"Cor." Angel said pleadingly through the door, interrupting her. "Please, calm down and leave Lorne alone. You're stuck with him for the next three days so please be nice to him."

Cordelia told him exactly what she thought of his idea.

"That isn't very nice." He chided. "We've done here. I'll call you to check up on you, okay?"

There was no reply from Cordelia but an affirmative from Lorne.

"Was Cordelia very mad?" Giles asked.

"Very." Angel replied.

"Not surprising." Gunn added. "You shoved Barbie in a room and locked her in. You're going to get it bro'."

Angel sighed. "I know."

"Angel, we need to get in positions ready for an attack." Wes told him. "You, Buffy and Spike take point. Gunn, Xander and I will fall behind with your crew, Gunn. Giles, you Fred, Willow and Anya stay at the back and guard the stairs in case one of them manages to get past us."

They nodded and went into the lobby to sort out their positions.

The attack began just after sundown. The first vampire to enter the hotel was dusted by crossbow. The ease of which he was killed lifted everyone's spirits. If one could be killed that easy then they all could. Spike even smiled.

They began to come more sudden after that. Buffy, Spike and Angel managed to hold them off, leaving the odd one to be killed by Wes's team.

The vampires were tough, not as tough as Angel and Spike, but tough all the same. They fought well, as though they had had plenty of training for this night. Watching them fight, Wes began to suspect that they had. It was clear that this was not going to be an easy fight.

"Angel!" Fred called out as she saw a vampire move towards his back while he was fighting one in front of him. "Turn!"

Angel spun and kicked it out of the way just as it was about to land a blow onto the back of his head.

The vamp skidded and landed near Gunn's feet where he proceeded to behead it with his axe.

"Charles, you need to help them!" Giles called out from his vantage point at the top of the stairs, watching the battle. "They can't handle it. All of you, you need to move forward!" He ordered and grabbed a crossbow himself so he could fire at the vamps that were still entering the hotel.

Wes, Gunn and Xander obeyed him and joined in the fighting. Anya even grabbed an axe and began fighting until Xander saw her and she stepped back.

"Buffy!" Angel warned as a vampire picked up a stray arrow and advanced on her from behind.

She dusted the vampire she was fighting and turned to knock the arrow from his hand and staked him too. "Thanks." She called back before starting to fight again.

Pretty soon everyone was fighting. Giles, Willow, Fred and Anya included. The vampires just kept on coming.

"Upstairs!" One of them called out to his comrades before being staked by a surprised looking Willow.

A few of them seemed to take notice and began to climb the stairs and push past Giles, who was less than capable to stop them.

"Angel!" He shouted across the lobby to where he was fighting off four or five vamps.

He managed to look across to where Giles was shouting and saw the vamps going up the stairs. He cursed under his breath. "Follow them! Try to lead them away, try anything!" He called back desperately and flung one of the vampires through the door, knocking it off its hinges.

Giles ran up the stairs, seeming to blend in with the vampires. He opened one of the doors on the second floor and ran in, locking it behind him. He pulled the cell phone Buffy had given him out of his tweed jacket. He quickly dialled the number of the phone upstairs.

Lorne answered. "Hello, land of peace and harmony, how can I help?"

"Lorne, for goodness sake!" Giles said irritably. "There's a war going on down here and we're losing."

"How bad?" Lorne asked quietly but Cordelia looked up from her seat next to the window.

"It's bad." Giles gasped. "There are hundreds coming in and we simply cannot hold them back. They are already upstairs looking for you. I'm on the second floor trying to distract them."

"What do you.?" He was cut off.

"Angel?" Cordelia's voice came onto the line.

"No, it's Giles."

"What's going on?" She asked.

"We can't cope." He told her simply.

"Let me out!" She ordered. "I can help."

"I can't Cordelia." He said regretfully. "Angel would kill me and if I did then the vampires already upstairs would find you. I'm hoping that I can distract them long enough for them to be killed by. someone."

"I can help!" She argued.

"Cordelia, I need you to stay there and keep absolutely quiet. Go into the bathroom and shut the door behind you. Take the phone in with you. If you're behind two doors then they might not hear your heartbeats. The only problem is the door but hopefully I'll be able to stop them getting onto your floor." He told her and then said goodbye.

He opened the door and then peered out. No vampires.

He crept down the hall towards the staircase he had just come down. He went up a floor and heard movement down the hall. He crept down further and then pressed the phone to his ear. "Cordelia!" He shouted, loud enough for them to hear. "They're on the third floor, you're okay in the basement, just don't move!"

He ran into one of the spare rooms and waited while the vampires had run past before going upstairs. He went to the room that Cordelia and Lorne were in and checked that it was still barricaded properly. Satisfied, he made his way down into the lobby again.

The fight was still going on fiercely. Buffy was injured as was Angel. Spike seemed in tact but Wesley was out of it in the corner after being flung into the wall. Fred, Willow and Anya were holding their own as were Xander and Gunn. The vampires were still coming. Their research must have been wrong; there were definitely more than two hundred vampires. Giles hurried to where Wes was unconscious. He shook him a bit and then slapped him to wake him up.

"Are you okay?" He asked frowning.

He groaned but managed to sit up. "I think so. How's it going?"

"Not good." Giles said and moved away so Wes could look. "They managed to get upstairs although I'm not sure if all of them came down. I called Cordelia and she kept insisting that I let her out."

Wes nodded. "I can understand that."

He stood up. "Well, back to it. You go help Willow and Anya and I'll assist Fred."

The two men rapidly joined in the fighting once again.