Title: Family: Heartache in LA
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale, Family: Forward to LA, Family: Return to Sunnydale, Family: On to LA and Family: Wedding in LA. In the aftermath of Cordelia and Angel's wedding, their happiness is ruined by one man from Angel's past determined to ruin their lives forever.
Part Two Cordelia walked into the apartment and flung her bag on the kitchen table.
"Baby, I'm home! Did you have a good day at school?" She eyed the mess on the counter with trepidation. "Did you try and cook?"
Ash came into the kitchen, the sixteen year old mirror image of her mother. Her head was cocked to the side, letting her dark hair fall in waves to her waist. Her eyes were typical Cordelia, flashing with mischief.
"I don't think a milkshake counts as cooking mom." She smiled.
"You've made enough mess." Her mother commented and put her car keys on the hook next to the fridge.
She hadn't changed much in the past fifteen years. She'd let her hair grow long again and let its natural colour shine through. She had small lines around her eyes but good moisturising and good makeup application kept her looking young. Her body was exactly the same due to kick boxing and Tai Kwan Do she practiced with Ash at the community centre down the streets on Wednesday and Sunday nights. She had a successful job as a Sex Therapist, of all things, much to the amusement of her daughter and she had a pretty apartment in the opposite side of town that she'd previously not been able to afford.
Ash dismissed her complaints and came to hop onto the kitchen table. "Can I go out tonight?"
"Where?" Cordelia asked suspiciously.
"Just to see a film." She replied casually, biting into an apple.
Cordelia pulled the apple out of her teeth. "Who with?"
She replied with her mouth full. "Just Abby and Charlie."
"As long as you're not too late." Cordelia told her and pulled vegetables out of the fridge.
"Can we have pizza tonight?" Ash asked. "Please? We've been eating vegetables every night this week."
Cordelia sighed and put the vegetables back in the fridge. "I suppose so."
In the first few years since she'd ran away, Cordelia had found it difficult to look after herself and Ashleigh so generally she went hungry in order to feed her daughter.
Eventually she found a decent enough apartment and got a job as a receptionist until she had enough money to apply to night school and get her qualifications to be a sex therapist.
Ashleigh had known about Cordelia's powers from an early age, she'd never hid them from her, although she believed her mom was a witch rather than a demon. Cordelia felt it better that her daughter not know about the existence of demons. Although she stopped getting the visions a couple of weeks after she'd moved out of the Hyperion, she still had the demon strength and the ability to levitate. As of yet, Ash had no powers of her own although she did desperately want to levitate. The only thing Cordelia had not been truthful about was Angel and Connor. Ash had been told that her father was not interested and her brother was dead. Cordelia supposed this was partly true. After leaving Angel she changed her second name to Smith, the most common one she could think of at the time. She didn't want him looking for her; she couldn't deal with her own guilt, never mind his.
"Ham and pineapple?" Ash asked, picking up the phone.
Cordelia nodded, absentminded, she was thinking of one of the couples she'd seen today.
"It'll be thirty minutes."
"I'll be in my office for a while. Call me when it gets here."
"Okay." Ash agreed, going back to the television.
They ate pizza and then Ash went to get ready to go to the cinema.
Cordelia went and took a bath and then got into bed early.
She idly watched a black and white film but ended up drifting off to sleep.
"Mom!" Ash screamed, entering the apartment.
Cordelia was instantly out of bed and into the hallway. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Ash was trembling. "There's someone outside. He just fell from the sky. I think he's hurt."
Cordelia grabbed her coat and threw it on over her night clothes.
"Show me." She grabbed a flashlight and followed Ash out of the door.
They ran down the street until Ash stopped and pointed at a shape on the floor.
Cordelia knelt down next to him and turned him over. He was dirty and wearing rags. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen with floppy brown hair.
"Can you hear me?" She asked him and shook his shoulder gently.
"Is he..?" Ash began.
"No." Cordelia told her firmly. "I can feel him breathing."
"Do we need an ambulance?"
She shook her head. "No, we need to get him inside. Help me?"
Ash bent down and they both lifted him, straining with the effort.
He began to stir as they took him inside.
"Put him on the couch." Cordelia told Ash. "And then get some warm water and towels."
For once Ash put up no complaint.
Cordelia smoothed back the boy's hair and noticed for the first time the bruises on his face. Something in his face was strikingly familiar. The jaw bone perhaps or the eyebrows. She wasn't sure.
Ash came back with the water and towels and placed them beside Cordelia.
"Go and get ready for bed honey." Cordelia told her.
Ash was about to protest but the look on her mother's face stopped her.
Cordelia wet one of the towels and started to wipe the dirt off his face. There was a little dried blood in his hairline so she wiped that off too.
"Who?" He managed to murmur.
"It's okay; I'm here to help you." She told him. "Just lie still while I clean you up."
He suddenly shot up and had a knife to her throat within seconds.
Her eyes flashed. "Relax; I'm not going to hurt you."
His eyes narrowed. "I don't know you."
"I don't know you either." She told him calmly. "Which might be a good reason to get the knife away from my throat."
He looked at her for a moment and then lowered it. "Who are you?"
"My name's Cordelia." She told him and began wiping the dirt from his face again.
"What's your name?"
"I don't know." He admitted. "Where I used to live nobody ever knew me so I never knew what my name was."
"How sad." She murmured. "Where did you used to live?"
"In a hell dimension."
Her hand froze. "A hell dimension?"
He nodded. "I lived there with my father but he died when I was very young. I think he used to call me Ben, but it's a long time ago."
"What was your father's name?" Cordelia asked, her voice trembling, images of baby Connor going through the portal in Holtz's arms still fresh in her memory after all the years.
"Dad." He told her.
She relaxed and smiled. "Of course."
"I'm only kidding." He told her with a boyish smile. "He had a name. It was Daniel."
Cordelia swallowed back tears. "Daniel Holtz?"
He nodded. "He was my father."
Cordelia fainted.
When she awoke Ash was shouting at the boy frantically. "You've killed my mother!" She shrieked.
"Calm down." Cordelia urged, sitting up. "I'm still here."
Ash turned and threw her arms around her mother. "I thought he'd killed you."
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking at her over Ash's shoulder.
She nodded, unable to keep her eyes off him.
"I need you to come somewhere with me, okay?"
Ash pulled out of her mother's arms. "Where?"
"It doesn't concern you honey, I need you to stop here for me, okay?"
She nodded.
Cordelia stood up and gestured for the boy to stand up also.
"I'm going to name you, okay?" She told him. "I can't keep calling you Oi."
He nodded. "Okay."
"Connor, you're Connor." She told him.
"I like that name."
She got Connor in her car and began driving across town, her old neighbourhood still strikingly familiar.
She pulled up outside the hotel and took a couple of deep breaths.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"With friends." She told him and turned off the ignition. "Come on."
She walked through the doors and her breath caught, everything was the same.
"Hello?" She called out calmly.
She was fine, she could do this. "Is anyone here?"
She walked across to the counter and looked at the photograph in the black frame. The Angel Investigations team.
"Angel Investigations, we help the helpless." Fred's cheery voice came from the office and she poked her head around the door.
"Hi Fred."
Her eyes widened and her head disappeared.
An older looking Faith and Wes cam back out with her.
Faith came rushing to her to hug her.
"Cor girl, we missed you." She hugged her fiercely.
Cordelia had tears in her eyes and hugged her old friend back. "I missed you too."
"Cordy." Wes said his voice hoarse.
Faith let go of her so Wes could wrap his arms around her. "You're still a sight for sore eyes."
She leaned her head into his neck. "You too Wes."
"Where have you been?" Fred asked as she came to hug her.
"Around." Cordelia replied simply. "I need your help."
"Of course." Faith told her and looked behind her. "Who's your friend?"
Cordelia looked behind her and gestured for Connor to come forwards. "I found him an hour ago, I think he's Connor."
Wes looked completely bowled over. "Are you sure?"
She shook her head. "No, but I know he was brought up by Holtz in a demon dimension so that's playing my way."
Wes and Fred went to talk to Connor.
"Are you okay?" Faith asked her, the night Connor was taken still fresh in her mind too, as it was for all of them. "How long has it been? Fifteen, sixteen years?"
Cordelia nodded. "After the first five I was ready to come back, I missed you all, but I guess I'd left it too long. I couldn't bear it if you'd have all hated me or thrown me out. So I never came back, I set up a new life."
"How is Ashleigh?" Faith asked, fascinated by the fact she was with her friend again after so many years.
"She's sixteen, a holy terror!" Cordelia smiled. "She's doing well."
"Does she know about us?"
Cordelia shook her head regretfully. "If I'd have told her about you then she'd have wanted to come and see you. I guess I didn't want that."
"Does she know about Angel?"
Cordelia shook her head again. "No, there'd be too may questions. She knows she had a father and a brother but I told her they weren't in the picture. It seemed the right thing to do at the time. She was only four or five when she first asked me. It would have been too complicated."
Faith nodded, staring at her. "You've hardly aged, like another person I know around here."
Cordelia gulped. "Is he here?"
She shook her head. "He's out on a case with Gunn; he shouldn't be long if you want to wait."
Unknown to Cordelia Angel had had a rough fifteen years. When Cordelia had walked out he'd lost everyone. His son was already gone and Cordelia had taken his heart with her. For the first few years he spent his time searching for them and nothing else. But to no avail. It was only a couple of years ago that he'd started to get involved in business again and go out on cases. His room was a shrine to his family, photos of them covered the walls and some of Cordelia's clothes still hung in the closet. He'd only just given up hope that they'd return and now they had.
"No, I've got to get home to Ash." Cordelia told her. "I only came to see if you could find a spell or something to tell us if he is Connor. I need to know for sure before I do anything."
Faith nodded and Wes and Fred came back to join them. "Thank you. I, uh, I didn't know what else to do."
"Don't be a stranger okay?" Fred made her promise.
She nodded and smiled. "Come on Connor."
They left the hotel.
"I can't believe we've seen Cordelia again, and after all this time." Fred said, more to herself than anyone else.
"She looks good." Wes added.
The more perceptive Faith added. "She looks lonely."
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale, Family: Forward to LA, Family: Return to Sunnydale, Family: On to LA and Family: Wedding in LA. In the aftermath of Cordelia and Angel's wedding, their happiness is ruined by one man from Angel's past determined to ruin their lives forever.
Part Two Cordelia walked into the apartment and flung her bag on the kitchen table.
"Baby, I'm home! Did you have a good day at school?" She eyed the mess on the counter with trepidation. "Did you try and cook?"
Ash came into the kitchen, the sixteen year old mirror image of her mother. Her head was cocked to the side, letting her dark hair fall in waves to her waist. Her eyes were typical Cordelia, flashing with mischief.
"I don't think a milkshake counts as cooking mom." She smiled.
"You've made enough mess." Her mother commented and put her car keys on the hook next to the fridge.
She hadn't changed much in the past fifteen years. She'd let her hair grow long again and let its natural colour shine through. She had small lines around her eyes but good moisturising and good makeup application kept her looking young. Her body was exactly the same due to kick boxing and Tai Kwan Do she practiced with Ash at the community centre down the streets on Wednesday and Sunday nights. She had a successful job as a Sex Therapist, of all things, much to the amusement of her daughter and she had a pretty apartment in the opposite side of town that she'd previously not been able to afford.
Ash dismissed her complaints and came to hop onto the kitchen table. "Can I go out tonight?"
"Where?" Cordelia asked suspiciously.
"Just to see a film." She replied casually, biting into an apple.
Cordelia pulled the apple out of her teeth. "Who with?"
She replied with her mouth full. "Just Abby and Charlie."
"As long as you're not too late." Cordelia told her and pulled vegetables out of the fridge.
"Can we have pizza tonight?" Ash asked. "Please? We've been eating vegetables every night this week."
Cordelia sighed and put the vegetables back in the fridge. "I suppose so."
In the first few years since she'd ran away, Cordelia had found it difficult to look after herself and Ashleigh so generally she went hungry in order to feed her daughter.
Eventually she found a decent enough apartment and got a job as a receptionist until she had enough money to apply to night school and get her qualifications to be a sex therapist.
Ashleigh had known about Cordelia's powers from an early age, she'd never hid them from her, although she believed her mom was a witch rather than a demon. Cordelia felt it better that her daughter not know about the existence of demons. Although she stopped getting the visions a couple of weeks after she'd moved out of the Hyperion, she still had the demon strength and the ability to levitate. As of yet, Ash had no powers of her own although she did desperately want to levitate. The only thing Cordelia had not been truthful about was Angel and Connor. Ash had been told that her father was not interested and her brother was dead. Cordelia supposed this was partly true. After leaving Angel she changed her second name to Smith, the most common one she could think of at the time. She didn't want him looking for her; she couldn't deal with her own guilt, never mind his.
"Ham and pineapple?" Ash asked, picking up the phone.
Cordelia nodded, absentminded, she was thinking of one of the couples she'd seen today.
"It'll be thirty minutes."
"I'll be in my office for a while. Call me when it gets here."
"Okay." Ash agreed, going back to the television.
They ate pizza and then Ash went to get ready to go to the cinema.
Cordelia went and took a bath and then got into bed early.
She idly watched a black and white film but ended up drifting off to sleep.
"Mom!" Ash screamed, entering the apartment.
Cordelia was instantly out of bed and into the hallway. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Ash was trembling. "There's someone outside. He just fell from the sky. I think he's hurt."
Cordelia grabbed her coat and threw it on over her night clothes.
"Show me." She grabbed a flashlight and followed Ash out of the door.
They ran down the street until Ash stopped and pointed at a shape on the floor.
Cordelia knelt down next to him and turned him over. He was dirty and wearing rags. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen with floppy brown hair.
"Can you hear me?" She asked him and shook his shoulder gently.
"Is he..?" Ash began.
"No." Cordelia told her firmly. "I can feel him breathing."
"Do we need an ambulance?"
She shook her head. "No, we need to get him inside. Help me?"
Ash bent down and they both lifted him, straining with the effort.
He began to stir as they took him inside.
"Put him on the couch." Cordelia told Ash. "And then get some warm water and towels."
For once Ash put up no complaint.
Cordelia smoothed back the boy's hair and noticed for the first time the bruises on his face. Something in his face was strikingly familiar. The jaw bone perhaps or the eyebrows. She wasn't sure.
Ash came back with the water and towels and placed them beside Cordelia.
"Go and get ready for bed honey." Cordelia told her.
Ash was about to protest but the look on her mother's face stopped her.
Cordelia wet one of the towels and started to wipe the dirt off his face. There was a little dried blood in his hairline so she wiped that off too.
"Who?" He managed to murmur.
"It's okay; I'm here to help you." She told him. "Just lie still while I clean you up."
He suddenly shot up and had a knife to her throat within seconds.
Her eyes flashed. "Relax; I'm not going to hurt you."
His eyes narrowed. "I don't know you."
"I don't know you either." She told him calmly. "Which might be a good reason to get the knife away from my throat."
He looked at her for a moment and then lowered it. "Who are you?"
"My name's Cordelia." She told him and began wiping the dirt from his face again.
"What's your name?"
"I don't know." He admitted. "Where I used to live nobody ever knew me so I never knew what my name was."
"How sad." She murmured. "Where did you used to live?"
"In a hell dimension."
Her hand froze. "A hell dimension?"
He nodded. "I lived there with my father but he died when I was very young. I think he used to call me Ben, but it's a long time ago."
"What was your father's name?" Cordelia asked, her voice trembling, images of baby Connor going through the portal in Holtz's arms still fresh in her memory after all the years.
"Dad." He told her.
She relaxed and smiled. "Of course."
"I'm only kidding." He told her with a boyish smile. "He had a name. It was Daniel."
Cordelia swallowed back tears. "Daniel Holtz?"
He nodded. "He was my father."
Cordelia fainted.
When she awoke Ash was shouting at the boy frantically. "You've killed my mother!" She shrieked.
"Calm down." Cordelia urged, sitting up. "I'm still here."
Ash turned and threw her arms around her mother. "I thought he'd killed you."
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking at her over Ash's shoulder.
She nodded, unable to keep her eyes off him.
"I need you to come somewhere with me, okay?"
Ash pulled out of her mother's arms. "Where?"
"It doesn't concern you honey, I need you to stop here for me, okay?"
She nodded.
Cordelia stood up and gestured for the boy to stand up also.
"I'm going to name you, okay?" She told him. "I can't keep calling you Oi."
He nodded. "Okay."
"Connor, you're Connor." She told him.
"I like that name."
She got Connor in her car and began driving across town, her old neighbourhood still strikingly familiar.
She pulled up outside the hotel and took a couple of deep breaths.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"With friends." She told him and turned off the ignition. "Come on."
She walked through the doors and her breath caught, everything was the same.
"Hello?" She called out calmly.
She was fine, she could do this. "Is anyone here?"
She walked across to the counter and looked at the photograph in the black frame. The Angel Investigations team.
"Angel Investigations, we help the helpless." Fred's cheery voice came from the office and she poked her head around the door.
"Hi Fred."
Her eyes widened and her head disappeared.
An older looking Faith and Wes cam back out with her.
Faith came rushing to her to hug her.
"Cor girl, we missed you." She hugged her fiercely.
Cordelia had tears in her eyes and hugged her old friend back. "I missed you too."
"Cordy." Wes said his voice hoarse.
Faith let go of her so Wes could wrap his arms around her. "You're still a sight for sore eyes."
She leaned her head into his neck. "You too Wes."
"Where have you been?" Fred asked as she came to hug her.
"Around." Cordelia replied simply. "I need your help."
"Of course." Faith told her and looked behind her. "Who's your friend?"
Cordelia looked behind her and gestured for Connor to come forwards. "I found him an hour ago, I think he's Connor."
Wes looked completely bowled over. "Are you sure?"
She shook her head. "No, but I know he was brought up by Holtz in a demon dimension so that's playing my way."
Wes and Fred went to talk to Connor.
"Are you okay?" Faith asked her, the night Connor was taken still fresh in her mind too, as it was for all of them. "How long has it been? Fifteen, sixteen years?"
Cordelia nodded. "After the first five I was ready to come back, I missed you all, but I guess I'd left it too long. I couldn't bear it if you'd have all hated me or thrown me out. So I never came back, I set up a new life."
"How is Ashleigh?" Faith asked, fascinated by the fact she was with her friend again after so many years.
"She's sixteen, a holy terror!" Cordelia smiled. "She's doing well."
"Does she know about us?"
Cordelia shook her head regretfully. "If I'd have told her about you then she'd have wanted to come and see you. I guess I didn't want that."
"Does she know about Angel?"
Cordelia shook her head again. "No, there'd be too may questions. She knows she had a father and a brother but I told her they weren't in the picture. It seemed the right thing to do at the time. She was only four or five when she first asked me. It would have been too complicated."
Faith nodded, staring at her. "You've hardly aged, like another person I know around here."
Cordelia gulped. "Is he here?"
She shook her head. "He's out on a case with Gunn; he shouldn't be long if you want to wait."
Unknown to Cordelia Angel had had a rough fifteen years. When Cordelia had walked out he'd lost everyone. His son was already gone and Cordelia had taken his heart with her. For the first few years he spent his time searching for them and nothing else. But to no avail. It was only a couple of years ago that he'd started to get involved in business again and go out on cases. His room was a shrine to his family, photos of them covered the walls and some of Cordelia's clothes still hung in the closet. He'd only just given up hope that they'd return and now they had.
"No, I've got to get home to Ash." Cordelia told her. "I only came to see if you could find a spell or something to tell us if he is Connor. I need to know for sure before I do anything."
Faith nodded and Wes and Fred came back to join them. "Thank you. I, uh, I didn't know what else to do."
"Don't be a stranger okay?" Fred made her promise.
She nodded and smiled. "Come on Connor."
They left the hotel.
"I can't believe we've seen Cordelia again, and after all this time." Fred said, more to herself than anyone else.
"She looks good." Wes added.
The more perceptive Faith added. "She looks lonely."
