Chapter 17
Fred ran out of the room screaming and covering her face with her hands. "Oh, my god! It-it was horrible! He attacked us with these-these laser beams that shot out of his horns and he escaped! He took my friend and now he's gone!"
"There is no other way out." One of the guards said.
"Right. No. Because-cause he killed my friend and then went through some, some sort of-of demon metamorphosis thing. And, and he spit out his entire skeleton like-like-like blah! Like, like that! And then-and then he-he just slithered away! Down the drain! In the sink! In the bathroom! Hurry!"
The first guard hurried into Lorne's room. The second one reported in on his radio before following. "Security one. We have a code green. Repeat, a code green!"
As soon as both guards were through, Lorne, wearing a trench coat and Fedora, came out with Buffy behind him. The guards tried to grab them, but Buffy grabbed their heads and slammed them together.
"Somebody wanna give me the low down?" Gunn asked, running up.
"Later. Suffice it to say we're dead if we don't get our fannies out of Dodge." Lorne said.
"Good enough."
They ran down the hall, Buffy and Fred throwing off their horns.
"We need more of the big guns. Where is Angel?" Lorne asked.
"I don't know. He wandered off and then we wandered off too." Buffy said.
"This is not good."
Buffy and Fred grabbed tissues somewhere along the way and started to wipe their makeup off. Gunn spotted Angel sitting in front of a one armed slot machine. He pointed and they ran up to him.
"Angel! Where have you been?" Buffy asked.
"Here. I was there before. Now I'm here." Angel responded, pulling the lever and watching the pictures swirl.
"Company is coming, kids, and I don't mean my aunt Ghurt." Lorne said.
"Look, there is big bad going down. We got to get Lorne out of here. You think you can slow them down?" Gunn asked.
"Ok." Angel put another coin in and pulled the lever.
"Give me your car keys." Buffy said. Angel pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them to Buffy, then inserted another quarter. "Hold them off as long as you can. I'll swing the car around, pick up at the end of the block, in front of the Nugget, okay?"
"Ok."
"Come on!"
"Good luck."
The gang hurried away as Angel moved to the machine next to the one he was on and inserted a quarter. A security guard came down the steps to intercept the gang. Buffy downed him with a single cross without ever breaking stride. The gang ended up outside on a crowded street, lit by hundreds of lights.
"Where the hell are we?" Gunn asked.
"Oh. Wrong exit. This is Glitter Gulch." Lorne said.
"Which way is the car?" Buffy asked.
"Um, I think it's back this.. Never mind." Fred said.
A couple of security guards made their way through the crowd and the four of them huddled together. The guards passed through the crowd behind them.
"Go." Buffy said. As they ran Buffy looked at Lorne. "You said this DeMarco guy is destroying lives. How?"
"By taking them." Lorne said.
"By killing people?" Gunn asked.
"No, worse muchacho. He's been using me to read members of the audience, find those with what he calls 'valuable destinies': power, wealth, fame, yada, yada, yada. Then the ones I pick they get chosen to play this spin- to-win game. Only ah, it's not a game. It's a big scamola. Then their destinies are imprinted on the chips. And that old black magic wheel is tricked out to never pay off. The house always wins, and everybody loses. Their futures, their destinies, they get offered up to an extremely black global market, sold to anyone willing to pay big money to change his or her life."
"Futures trading." Fred said.
"Can't get any more literal than that, crumb cake."
"What happens to them? Those people?" Buffy asked.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing happens to them, or will. They got no purpose, direction, unable to accomplish or succeed at anything ever again. Most never leave here. Some never even get out of the casino. They just sit there shoveling coins into slot machines that never pay off. Like zombies or.."
"Angel! They got him!"
"Uh oh." Fred said.
"Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty big oh-oh." Gunn said.
"No. That uh-oh."
Gunn looked where she was pointing and saw a group of guards moving towards them. He turned, but more guards were coming up behind them.
"What now?" Fred asked.
"Now we do that fighting for our lives thing that we do." Gunn said.
"Yeah, or-or I do this." Lorne took a hold of a microphone and let out a high-pitched note. All around people ducked, covering their ears as all around light bulbs exploded, showering the street below with shards of glass. Lorne cut the note off and they ran, ending up by the Red Barn on Freemont.
"That was brilliant, Lorne. I may never hear my upper registers again, but nice work." Fred said.
"Yeah, great work. Like how you sold Angel out." Gunn said to Lorne.
"Gunn.." Buffy said.
"Why, DeMarco must have wet his pants when you told him what a ripe destiny that was for the pickings. A champion to save the world or destroy it?"
"You really believe I'd do that?" Lorne asked.
"I don't know Lorne. I don't know why you did any of it. Why, you were living so large, belting out Tony Bennett so loud in that sweet suite of yours, you couldn't hear your conscience screaming at you!"
"Charles, it doesn't matter." Fred said.
"It does to me! I wanna know Lorne. Why didn't you just say no to that piece of.."
"I did!" Lorne said. "The first time he asked me to, of course I refused! So he blew a girl's brains out right in front of me. And he said that's what I could expect every time I said no."
Gunn looked down and then after a beat, he said, "Sorry."
"No more than I am, slick."
"Can we stop with the macho play?" Buffy asked. "My husband is in trouble and I'd like to save him. Plus I need him to have a purpose, you know? He has a kid to think about. And.. and he has me and I don't think I could live with a guy that doesn't even respond to his wife in THIS kind of outfit."
"Come on kitten. We're gonna get your soul man back." Lorne took Buffy's shoulders and together, the four of them found the car. Buffy jumped in the driver's seat and squealed off. They pulled up in front of the Tropicana and Buffy jumped out.
"Okay. As soon as I find Angel I'm bringing him right out. Better leave the engine running in case there is a posse behind us." Buffy said.
Gunn jumped in the driver's seat. "Be careful."
Buffy waved and ran in to where Angel was last sitting. He was till there and Buffy walked up to him. "Angel." He looked up at her. "You.. you know who I am, right?"
"Buffy." Angel said.
"Right. And I'm your wife."
"I know. I'm not stupid."
"Yeah. Okay. Angel, sweetie, something's happened to you."
"Ah. I got two cherries."
"What?"
"I got two cherries. If I get another one, I get my quarter back."
Buffy grabbed Angel's shoulders and turned him towards her. "You can't. Angel, listen to me. There's been a casino heist. Only you're the heistee. They took your destiny. Now we've got to find a way to fix it. But until then we've got to get out of here."
"Have to play to win."
"Fine, you wanna win something?"
"Yeah."
"Then win this." Buffy grabbed Angel's arms and pulled them around her waist. "We're going now."
"As a matter of fact you're not." Spencer, the guy that had forced Lorne to steal destinies, said.
Buffy saw the head of security coming up, followed by Fred, Gunn, and Lorne, held between more guards. Buffy looked at Angel who had slipped from her grasp and sat back down.
"Angel!?" Buffy asked, annoyed.
He didn't say anything. All her did was stick another quarter in the machine. Two of the security guards came up and grabbed Buffy's arms. She tried to fight them off, but their grip on her arms was in such a way that she could barely budge against their massive bodies.
"Don't even bother." Spencer said. "I know you're the Slayer and so do they. That's why they've got you in that hold. You can struggle all you want, but the more you do, the more your little arms are going to ache."
"Bastard." Buffy spat.
"Take them."
The guards led Buffy and the others to a large room that looked like a mini Wall Street. Angel was left at the slot machine. A man, probably Lee from Lorne's description, stood as they all entered the room.
"Lorne! I'm so relieved! I was afraid that something terrible might have happened to you. Missing your second show like that? All those poor disappointed people. All I could do was refund their money and comp their rooms for the inconvenience. And, my, my, what an inconvenience it was for all of us." Lee said.
"Yeah, yeah. Okay, Lee, okay. White flag's up. You got me. Grind your organ, I'll be your monkey. But you get nothing from me if you hurt anyone else. I swear it." Lorne said.
"Lorne, sweetie, you worry too much. I promise you will be the only one hurting. Your friends will be dead so quickly they won't feel a thing." Lee started to walk away. "Take them out into the desert and shoot them. Bring the demon. I'd like him to watch."
"Mr. DeMarco." Spencer said.
"Not now, Spencer."
"Sir, we have a winner."
"That's impossible!" Lee looked up and saw Angel sitting at the flashing machine.
"He's won a little over three hundred thousand dollars and a car."
"Pretty good haul for somebody with no destiny, huh?" Lorne said.
"What are you doing? You! You! Back on the phones!" Lee yelled at the people around him. "And bring me that vampire. Now!"
A few minutes later, two guards ushered Angel into the back office.
"Hi." Angel said.
"I want answers. And they better be the right ones, or you're dead." Lee told Angel.
"I know this room."
Spencer hit Angel across the chin, making him drop the empty cup he was still holding. "Now. I'll start again. How did you win on that slot machine?"
"I put a quarter in the slot and I pulled that little lever."
"Are you playing games with me, vampire?"
"I have to play to win."
Lee stared at Angel who just looked back at him. "It was a fluke. A glitch in the machine. There is nothing there. Pay him his winnings in quarters and take the others on their desert tour."
One of the guards prodded Gunn forward. When Gunn wasn't fast enough to move, the guard hit him and Gunn stumbled to the floor.
"Leave him alone!" Fred yelled.
The second guard pointed a gun at Fred's face. Angel, watching, suddenly morphed into his vamp face, batted the guard's gun hand away and grabbed a hold of the guy's throat.
"Angel!" Buffy yelled.
All over the office people jumped up from their desks as Gunn took advantage of the confusion to attack the guard on him. Spencer reached for Fred, but she punched him in the face while Gunn tossed his guard over his shoulder. Buffy used the hold that the guards had on her to put all her weight on her arms and kick upwards with both legs, slamming her toes into the guards' faces. They released her as they scrambled to cover their bleeding noses.
"What am I paying you people for? Shoot them!" Lee shouted.
The guard Angel was wrestling with pulled the trigger of his gun. The bullet ended up hitting Spencer in the neck. Lorne knocked down a guard and took the baton away from him, then set his sights on the glowing sphere presiding over the destiny chips. Lee ran over to interpose himself between Lorne and the sphere.
"No, no, no, no! Don't! Maybe I went about this wrong! We can still come to terms, right, kid? I mean, it wasn't all bad here, right? I mean, not all the time? What's it gonna take? A bigger suite? Fewer shows? You got it! What-what do you say?" Lee said.
"Duck." Lorne said.
Lorne pulled the baton back to smash the chips and Lee screamed as the baton connected and smashed the sphere. The sphere exploded with a bright light. Lee was knocked to the floor, looking slightly scorched. Lorne stumbled backward and Gunn and Buffy caught him before he fell. Bright streamers of colored light shot from the remains of the sphere. One of the streams hit Angel in the back and he turned to Buffy as she rushed over to see if he was ok.
"This room. There is something familiar." He said.
"Angel?" Buffy asked.
"You're my wife. I know. I'm not stupid." He grinned and Buffy squealed, throwing herself into his arms. He hugged her tightly and kissed her curled hair. As he put her down, he realized the outfit she was wearing and the comment she had made to him earlier. "Hey Buffy?"
"Yeah?"
"Keep that outfit. My play to win craving has just come back up.. a lot."
Buffy laughed and took his hand. They all walked out of the office area and headed back out into the main casino. Angel still looked around, looking as if he was trying to figure something out. Then it hit him.
"Oh, now I remember that room! Elvis and Pricilla's wedding reception, 1967. Yes! All right. It's not like I was, you know, really invited. They just put me near the dais." Angel said. "I think somebody thought I was in the band. Probably because I was all drunk and sourly. They had these little fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches."
"Ew!" Buffy said. "Doesn't sound very good to me. But I'll leave the banana comment alone."
They left the Tropicana and jumped into the car. Angel drove to the hotel and they checked out that night. They drove home and ended up back the next afternoon. Angel and Buffy had planned on going back home after dropping Gunn, Lorne, and Fred off, but they had convinced the two to stay for a little while.
"Okay. No more road trips for at least six months." Gunn said.
"I guess anniversaries are just as sucky as birthdays with me." Buffy said.
"We'll get it right. Besides, it wasn't really our anniversary. Just an early get away for it." Angel said.
"I can't wait for a nice hot bath." Fred said.
"Angel, how did you win? I never got around to asking you." Buffy said.
"It still doesn't make any sense." Angel said.
"Well, maybe DeMarco was right. Glitch in the machine." Gunn said.
"Or maybe Lady Luck was smiling down on you." Lorne said.
"Hmm. Lady Luck. I don't know. Just, I don't get why or how I was able to fight when I had no reason to, no destiny." Angel said.
"Well, even without a flight plan, bucko, you are still a stealth bomber. You were fighting for your friends' futures. The people you love are part of your destiny, and nobody can take that away, not even you. Ah, listen, I have a lot more insightful bon mots like that, but I've been stuck in the car for five and a half hours and I got to pee. Excuse me." Lorne ran ahead of them and into the hotel.
Buffy chuckled and took Angel's hand. "I've always provoked some interesting things from you." She whispered in his ear. Angel smiled.
"Hey. About that bath idea: maybe I can help you with one or two of those hard to reach spots." Gunn said to Fred.
"Or three." Fred replied.
"Hmm."
"Sounds like fun." Angel said, eyeing Buffy. She was back in her regular clothes, but Angel had insisted on keeping the outfit so it was tucked away in their suitcase.
Buffy and Angel got in first and stopped dead in their tracks. Gunn walked in saying, "Okay, but three is where I draw the.." He cut off when he nearly ran into Buffy.
Fred and Gunn stopped beside Angel and Buffy. All four of them stared at Cordy, dressed in a flowing white outfit, standing in the middle of the lobby with her back to them.
"Cordelia?" Buffy asked.
She turned around and stared at them. "Who are you people?"
Fred ran out of the room screaming and covering her face with her hands. "Oh, my god! It-it was horrible! He attacked us with these-these laser beams that shot out of his horns and he escaped! He took my friend and now he's gone!"
"There is no other way out." One of the guards said.
"Right. No. Because-cause he killed my friend and then went through some, some sort of-of demon metamorphosis thing. And, and he spit out his entire skeleton like-like-like blah! Like, like that! And then-and then he-he just slithered away! Down the drain! In the sink! In the bathroom! Hurry!"
The first guard hurried into Lorne's room. The second one reported in on his radio before following. "Security one. We have a code green. Repeat, a code green!"
As soon as both guards were through, Lorne, wearing a trench coat and Fedora, came out with Buffy behind him. The guards tried to grab them, but Buffy grabbed their heads and slammed them together.
"Somebody wanna give me the low down?" Gunn asked, running up.
"Later. Suffice it to say we're dead if we don't get our fannies out of Dodge." Lorne said.
"Good enough."
They ran down the hall, Buffy and Fred throwing off their horns.
"We need more of the big guns. Where is Angel?" Lorne asked.
"I don't know. He wandered off and then we wandered off too." Buffy said.
"This is not good."
Buffy and Fred grabbed tissues somewhere along the way and started to wipe their makeup off. Gunn spotted Angel sitting in front of a one armed slot machine. He pointed and they ran up to him.
"Angel! Where have you been?" Buffy asked.
"Here. I was there before. Now I'm here." Angel responded, pulling the lever and watching the pictures swirl.
"Company is coming, kids, and I don't mean my aunt Ghurt." Lorne said.
"Look, there is big bad going down. We got to get Lorne out of here. You think you can slow them down?" Gunn asked.
"Ok." Angel put another coin in and pulled the lever.
"Give me your car keys." Buffy said. Angel pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them to Buffy, then inserted another quarter. "Hold them off as long as you can. I'll swing the car around, pick up at the end of the block, in front of the Nugget, okay?"
"Ok."
"Come on!"
"Good luck."
The gang hurried away as Angel moved to the machine next to the one he was on and inserted a quarter. A security guard came down the steps to intercept the gang. Buffy downed him with a single cross without ever breaking stride. The gang ended up outside on a crowded street, lit by hundreds of lights.
"Where the hell are we?" Gunn asked.
"Oh. Wrong exit. This is Glitter Gulch." Lorne said.
"Which way is the car?" Buffy asked.
"Um, I think it's back this.. Never mind." Fred said.
A couple of security guards made their way through the crowd and the four of them huddled together. The guards passed through the crowd behind them.
"Go." Buffy said. As they ran Buffy looked at Lorne. "You said this DeMarco guy is destroying lives. How?"
"By taking them." Lorne said.
"By killing people?" Gunn asked.
"No, worse muchacho. He's been using me to read members of the audience, find those with what he calls 'valuable destinies': power, wealth, fame, yada, yada, yada. Then the ones I pick they get chosen to play this spin- to-win game. Only ah, it's not a game. It's a big scamola. Then their destinies are imprinted on the chips. And that old black magic wheel is tricked out to never pay off. The house always wins, and everybody loses. Their futures, their destinies, they get offered up to an extremely black global market, sold to anyone willing to pay big money to change his or her life."
"Futures trading." Fred said.
"Can't get any more literal than that, crumb cake."
"What happens to them? Those people?" Buffy asked.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing happens to them, or will. They got no purpose, direction, unable to accomplish or succeed at anything ever again. Most never leave here. Some never even get out of the casino. They just sit there shoveling coins into slot machines that never pay off. Like zombies or.."
"Angel! They got him!"
"Uh oh." Fred said.
"Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty big oh-oh." Gunn said.
"No. That uh-oh."
Gunn looked where she was pointing and saw a group of guards moving towards them. He turned, but more guards were coming up behind them.
"What now?" Fred asked.
"Now we do that fighting for our lives thing that we do." Gunn said.
"Yeah, or-or I do this." Lorne took a hold of a microphone and let out a high-pitched note. All around people ducked, covering their ears as all around light bulbs exploded, showering the street below with shards of glass. Lorne cut the note off and they ran, ending up by the Red Barn on Freemont.
"That was brilliant, Lorne. I may never hear my upper registers again, but nice work." Fred said.
"Yeah, great work. Like how you sold Angel out." Gunn said to Lorne.
"Gunn.." Buffy said.
"Why, DeMarco must have wet his pants when you told him what a ripe destiny that was for the pickings. A champion to save the world or destroy it?"
"You really believe I'd do that?" Lorne asked.
"I don't know Lorne. I don't know why you did any of it. Why, you were living so large, belting out Tony Bennett so loud in that sweet suite of yours, you couldn't hear your conscience screaming at you!"
"Charles, it doesn't matter." Fred said.
"It does to me! I wanna know Lorne. Why didn't you just say no to that piece of.."
"I did!" Lorne said. "The first time he asked me to, of course I refused! So he blew a girl's brains out right in front of me. And he said that's what I could expect every time I said no."
Gunn looked down and then after a beat, he said, "Sorry."
"No more than I am, slick."
"Can we stop with the macho play?" Buffy asked. "My husband is in trouble and I'd like to save him. Plus I need him to have a purpose, you know? He has a kid to think about. And.. and he has me and I don't think I could live with a guy that doesn't even respond to his wife in THIS kind of outfit."
"Come on kitten. We're gonna get your soul man back." Lorne took Buffy's shoulders and together, the four of them found the car. Buffy jumped in the driver's seat and squealed off. They pulled up in front of the Tropicana and Buffy jumped out.
"Okay. As soon as I find Angel I'm bringing him right out. Better leave the engine running in case there is a posse behind us." Buffy said.
Gunn jumped in the driver's seat. "Be careful."
Buffy waved and ran in to where Angel was last sitting. He was till there and Buffy walked up to him. "Angel." He looked up at her. "You.. you know who I am, right?"
"Buffy." Angel said.
"Right. And I'm your wife."
"I know. I'm not stupid."
"Yeah. Okay. Angel, sweetie, something's happened to you."
"Ah. I got two cherries."
"What?"
"I got two cherries. If I get another one, I get my quarter back."
Buffy grabbed Angel's shoulders and turned him towards her. "You can't. Angel, listen to me. There's been a casino heist. Only you're the heistee. They took your destiny. Now we've got to find a way to fix it. But until then we've got to get out of here."
"Have to play to win."
"Fine, you wanna win something?"
"Yeah."
"Then win this." Buffy grabbed Angel's arms and pulled them around her waist. "We're going now."
"As a matter of fact you're not." Spencer, the guy that had forced Lorne to steal destinies, said.
Buffy saw the head of security coming up, followed by Fred, Gunn, and Lorne, held between more guards. Buffy looked at Angel who had slipped from her grasp and sat back down.
"Angel!?" Buffy asked, annoyed.
He didn't say anything. All her did was stick another quarter in the machine. Two of the security guards came up and grabbed Buffy's arms. She tried to fight them off, but their grip on her arms was in such a way that she could barely budge against their massive bodies.
"Don't even bother." Spencer said. "I know you're the Slayer and so do they. That's why they've got you in that hold. You can struggle all you want, but the more you do, the more your little arms are going to ache."
"Bastard." Buffy spat.
"Take them."
The guards led Buffy and the others to a large room that looked like a mini Wall Street. Angel was left at the slot machine. A man, probably Lee from Lorne's description, stood as they all entered the room.
"Lorne! I'm so relieved! I was afraid that something terrible might have happened to you. Missing your second show like that? All those poor disappointed people. All I could do was refund their money and comp their rooms for the inconvenience. And, my, my, what an inconvenience it was for all of us." Lee said.
"Yeah, yeah. Okay, Lee, okay. White flag's up. You got me. Grind your organ, I'll be your monkey. But you get nothing from me if you hurt anyone else. I swear it." Lorne said.
"Lorne, sweetie, you worry too much. I promise you will be the only one hurting. Your friends will be dead so quickly they won't feel a thing." Lee started to walk away. "Take them out into the desert and shoot them. Bring the demon. I'd like him to watch."
"Mr. DeMarco." Spencer said.
"Not now, Spencer."
"Sir, we have a winner."
"That's impossible!" Lee looked up and saw Angel sitting at the flashing machine.
"He's won a little over three hundred thousand dollars and a car."
"Pretty good haul for somebody with no destiny, huh?" Lorne said.
"What are you doing? You! You! Back on the phones!" Lee yelled at the people around him. "And bring me that vampire. Now!"
A few minutes later, two guards ushered Angel into the back office.
"Hi." Angel said.
"I want answers. And they better be the right ones, or you're dead." Lee told Angel.
"I know this room."
Spencer hit Angel across the chin, making him drop the empty cup he was still holding. "Now. I'll start again. How did you win on that slot machine?"
"I put a quarter in the slot and I pulled that little lever."
"Are you playing games with me, vampire?"
"I have to play to win."
Lee stared at Angel who just looked back at him. "It was a fluke. A glitch in the machine. There is nothing there. Pay him his winnings in quarters and take the others on their desert tour."
One of the guards prodded Gunn forward. When Gunn wasn't fast enough to move, the guard hit him and Gunn stumbled to the floor.
"Leave him alone!" Fred yelled.
The second guard pointed a gun at Fred's face. Angel, watching, suddenly morphed into his vamp face, batted the guard's gun hand away and grabbed a hold of the guy's throat.
"Angel!" Buffy yelled.
All over the office people jumped up from their desks as Gunn took advantage of the confusion to attack the guard on him. Spencer reached for Fred, but she punched him in the face while Gunn tossed his guard over his shoulder. Buffy used the hold that the guards had on her to put all her weight on her arms and kick upwards with both legs, slamming her toes into the guards' faces. They released her as they scrambled to cover their bleeding noses.
"What am I paying you people for? Shoot them!" Lee shouted.
The guard Angel was wrestling with pulled the trigger of his gun. The bullet ended up hitting Spencer in the neck. Lorne knocked down a guard and took the baton away from him, then set his sights on the glowing sphere presiding over the destiny chips. Lee ran over to interpose himself between Lorne and the sphere.
"No, no, no, no! Don't! Maybe I went about this wrong! We can still come to terms, right, kid? I mean, it wasn't all bad here, right? I mean, not all the time? What's it gonna take? A bigger suite? Fewer shows? You got it! What-what do you say?" Lee said.
"Duck." Lorne said.
Lorne pulled the baton back to smash the chips and Lee screamed as the baton connected and smashed the sphere. The sphere exploded with a bright light. Lee was knocked to the floor, looking slightly scorched. Lorne stumbled backward and Gunn and Buffy caught him before he fell. Bright streamers of colored light shot from the remains of the sphere. One of the streams hit Angel in the back and he turned to Buffy as she rushed over to see if he was ok.
"This room. There is something familiar." He said.
"Angel?" Buffy asked.
"You're my wife. I know. I'm not stupid." He grinned and Buffy squealed, throwing herself into his arms. He hugged her tightly and kissed her curled hair. As he put her down, he realized the outfit she was wearing and the comment she had made to him earlier. "Hey Buffy?"
"Yeah?"
"Keep that outfit. My play to win craving has just come back up.. a lot."
Buffy laughed and took his hand. They all walked out of the office area and headed back out into the main casino. Angel still looked around, looking as if he was trying to figure something out. Then it hit him.
"Oh, now I remember that room! Elvis and Pricilla's wedding reception, 1967. Yes! All right. It's not like I was, you know, really invited. They just put me near the dais." Angel said. "I think somebody thought I was in the band. Probably because I was all drunk and sourly. They had these little fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches."
"Ew!" Buffy said. "Doesn't sound very good to me. But I'll leave the banana comment alone."
They left the Tropicana and jumped into the car. Angel drove to the hotel and they checked out that night. They drove home and ended up back the next afternoon. Angel and Buffy had planned on going back home after dropping Gunn, Lorne, and Fred off, but they had convinced the two to stay for a little while.
"Okay. No more road trips for at least six months." Gunn said.
"I guess anniversaries are just as sucky as birthdays with me." Buffy said.
"We'll get it right. Besides, it wasn't really our anniversary. Just an early get away for it." Angel said.
"I can't wait for a nice hot bath." Fred said.
"Angel, how did you win? I never got around to asking you." Buffy said.
"It still doesn't make any sense." Angel said.
"Well, maybe DeMarco was right. Glitch in the machine." Gunn said.
"Or maybe Lady Luck was smiling down on you." Lorne said.
"Hmm. Lady Luck. I don't know. Just, I don't get why or how I was able to fight when I had no reason to, no destiny." Angel said.
"Well, even without a flight plan, bucko, you are still a stealth bomber. You were fighting for your friends' futures. The people you love are part of your destiny, and nobody can take that away, not even you. Ah, listen, I have a lot more insightful bon mots like that, but I've been stuck in the car for five and a half hours and I got to pee. Excuse me." Lorne ran ahead of them and into the hotel.
Buffy chuckled and took Angel's hand. "I've always provoked some interesting things from you." She whispered in his ear. Angel smiled.
"Hey. About that bath idea: maybe I can help you with one or two of those hard to reach spots." Gunn said to Fred.
"Or three." Fred replied.
"Hmm."
"Sounds like fun." Angel said, eyeing Buffy. She was back in her regular clothes, but Angel had insisted on keeping the outfit so it was tucked away in their suitcase.
Buffy and Angel got in first and stopped dead in their tracks. Gunn walked in saying, "Okay, but three is where I draw the.." He cut off when he nearly ran into Buffy.
Fred and Gunn stopped beside Angel and Buffy. All four of them stared at Cordy, dressed in a flowing white outfit, standing in the middle of the lobby with her back to them.
"Cordelia?" Buffy asked.
She turned around and stared at them. "Who are you people?"
