Title: Family: On to LA

Author: victoriamartynne

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Spoilers: None, I think!

Summary: Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale, Family: Forward to LA and Family: Return to Sunnydale. The Scoobies visit LA and a haunted house.

A loud banging upstairs startled them out of their silence.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Spike asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"Go check it out." Angel ordered. "I'll stay here with Cordy."

"Come on, I'll come with you." Buffy offered and stood up. "I don't think we should split up."

Cordelia turned her head and watched as they left the lobby.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"It's still hurting but I think the blood's slowing."

"You don't feel sick?"

"A little." She admitted.

"You should have let me take you to the hospital." He reproached her.

She shrugged. "I need to see that they get out okay. Fred was unconscious when I left but Wes was awake. If she'd been awake then we could have all gotten out."

He nodded and squeezed her cold fingers under his coat that he'd thrown over her in an attempt to keep her warm.

"We should get the other guests out of here." Cordelia suddenly thought.

He laid a restraining hand on her arm. "It's okay, while you were downstairs Claire and Al got everyone out." He suddenly thought of something. "If Buffy saw Al then where is Claire?"

Cordelia looked at him through glassy eyes. "I don't know."

Spike and Buffy came running down the stairs.

"We found Claire." Spike announced, holding up a faint looking Buffy.

"Where is she? Is she okay?" Cordelia asked, worried.

"That banging we heard? That was a ghost knocking Claire's bloody head into the wall." Spike informed them, rubbing Buffy's back. "And yes, she was already dead before we got up there."

Cordelia swallowed bile that was rising in her throat. "So, if they're killing people at random instead of the people chosen for the ritual, then what are they doing to Fred and Wes?"

An idea clicked into Buffy's brain and her head shot up. "They've changed their choices."

"What?" Cordelia asked, confused.

"You're not dead so they killed Claire." She told them.

"But why kill Al unless." Angel's voice drifted off.

"The English ponce has escaped." Spike finished.

Wes was scared, for the first time in a long while he was scared for himself. And for Fred. He didn't want to leave her. He'd been in the middle of untying her when one of the ghosts had thrown him against a wall. He'd gotten himself up the trap door that Cordelia had used and was running. He had no idea which way Cordelia had gone. All he could see at the top of the stairs was a wooden wall. He'd followed that down until he'd reached a door.

Opening it he jumped when it creaked.

He peered around the door and entered the brightly lit room. At the other end was a door.

This also creaked when it opened.

"Relax Wes, think rogue demon hunter." He urged himself.

Behind the other door was the upstairs corridor.

"Thank God." He murmured and set off at a run.

"Do you think Fred is okay?" Cordelia asked.

Angel squeezed her fingers. "I'm sure she's fine."

"I shouldn't have left them." She voiced her feelings of guilt.

"Don't think that." Buffy told her. "If you hadn't escaped then you could be dead right now. You did the right thing."

She nodded but didn't look altogether convinced.

"You look pale." Angel told her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Are you still in a lot of pain?"

She nodded. "A little, mostly I just feel faint."

"That'll be the blood loss." Spike told her and pulled a small whiskey bottle out of his coat. "Here, have a nip of this."

Angel held her head up so she could take a sip of the liquid. She pulled a face. "Could you have bought a cheaper bottle?"

He shrugged. "Gets the job done."

Buffy rolled her eyes at him.

"We're here!" Willow announced as she, Tara and Gunn entered the hotel.

Buffy and Spike stood up. "Have you got he spell?" She asked.

Willow nodded.

"Let's do it then." Buffy replied and pointed to the broken mirror.

Willow and Tara stepped forward ready to do their spell. Gunn waited pensively as they began chanting.

"What are we doing?" Wes asked Angel and Cordelia.

Her head shot up and she winced in pain. "Wes, thank God!"

She held lout her arms for him to lean down and hug her.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

"One of the ghosts stabbed her." Angel answered. "Good to see you Wes."

Wes smiled. "What about Fred?"

"That's what they're doing now." Angel told him. "The ghosts built a force field around the room, Fred's still in there."

"Claire and Al are dead." Cordelia added. "They killed them instead of us two. Fred would make the third."

Wes's face was grim. "I shouldn't have left her."

"That's what I said." Cordelia smiled faintly.

Wes gripped her hand tightly in his. "She'll be okay, she has to be."

The force field was lifted and Gunn rushed straight in.

He came out carrying a comatose Fred. Her eyes were puffed up and her lip was split.

"Is she..?" Cordelia's voice faded as she strained to catch a glimpse of Fred.

"No." Angel reassured her. "I can hear her heart."

Gunn lay her down on the couch opposite Cordy and tried talking to her.

Upon further inspection it was obvious her arm was broken and perhaps a couple of ribs.

"Baby, we're getting you out of here." Gunn promised her and scooped her back up.

"I'll get the door." Spike offered and led Gunn to the doors.

Angel began to pick Cordelia up too but was stopped as Spike was thrown backwards from the door. Buffy rushed forwards to help him up.

"They've created another force field." Cordelia gasped from the pain of Angel moving her. "We're trapped."

"Okay, we just need to think." Buffy shouted above the din the ghosts were making.

Wind was rushing around the lobby and objects and furniture were being flung around.

"Will, can you break the new force field?"

"I don't think so." She stuttered. "It's too strong."

"Well, if we can't break the force field we have to get the ghosts, right?" Spike said logically. "You got the exorcising spell?"

Buffy pulled the spell out of her pocket and gave it to Tara. "Can you do it?"

She nodded. "I think so."

Wes got up and sat in the circle with Willow and Tara. "We need another person."

Buffy and Spike looked at each other and then she answered. "I'll do it."

She sat down crossed legged in between Wes and Willow.

Willow pointed out the words and the four of them began to chant in Latin.

A horrendous scream echoed through the lobby as the ghosts realised what they were doing.

"Keep going." Wes urged and they started chanting again.

One of the tables in the lobby was flung at them but it missed by centimetres.

"Keep going." Cordelia murmured.

The glass in the windows suddenly shattered and Angel flung himself in front of Cordelia to shield her.

Wes and Tara were stuck with pieces of glass but they continued to chant.

The ghosts screamed horribly again.

"It's working." Gunn said in amazement, still holding an unconscious Fred. "The force field's weakening."

"Keep going." Wes urged again.

The chanting continued and the ghosts started to materialise.

Cordelia jumped as the burned woman appeared next to her on the couch. She let out a curse.

The man appeared in the middle of the circle and the beheaded girl appeared in the corner.

They began chanting louder, as if shouting at the ghosts.

Cordelia turned white as the girl dropped her head and it rolled across the floor before it and she disappeared with a scream. Cordelia fainted.

The woman was the next to disappear and Gunn could have sworn he could smell burned flesh as she did. The man was the last to disappear. He brought about a mini tornado, sending books and tables and chairs swirling before disappearing and sending them crashing to the floor.

Buffy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God that's over. Now, can we get out of here?"

Gunn barged through the door with Fred, intent on getting her to a hospital. Angel picked up Cordelia, Buffy and Wes close behind, leaving Spike to pick himself up off the floor, from under a table and follow, swearing under his breath at the ghosts who had just been exorcised.

Fred was stirring by the time Gunn had her in his truck, perhaps due to the cold outside.

Cordelia, however, stayed fainted. Wes was looking a bit worse for wear as was Tara who was covered in shards of glass.

When they got to the hospital Fred was moaning in pain and crying softly.

Cordelia was taken to surgery where she was stitched up internally and superficially.

Luckily the blade had missed her kidneys so there was minimal damage.

Fred had her arm put in plaster and had her ribs strapped. She had no cuts on her just bruises so Gunn could take her straight home. Wes went with them leaving Willow and Tara with Angel, who was waiting for Cordelia to come out of the operating room.

"I wish I could count on one hand the number of times I've sat here waiting for her." Angel said wryly to Willow as they sat in the waiting room together while Cordelia and Tara were being treated.

"You've waited here often?"

He nodded and smiled slightly. "Well, there was the time the visions drove her insane and she ended up in the psychiatric ward. A couple of years ago she fell down the stairs and twisted her ankle and Wes insisted that she get an x-ray. She got food poisoning a while back and ended up here because we thought she might be really ill. Then there was when she was knocked down and had Ashleigh. And then there's now."

"And she was in hospital in Sunnydale that one time." Willow added.

"What for?"

"When she fell through the stairs at the old factory and got a rebar through her side." Willow reminded him, guilt niggling in the back of her mind.

Angel nodded. "Her waist is going to look like a dot to dot if she doesn't start being careful."

Willow laughed. "That's true."

His reply was cut off as Tara joined them.

"Are you okay?" Willow asked and put her arm around her girlfriend.

She nodded.

Angel stood up also and gave Willow his car keys. "Here, get yourselves home, I'll be okay here. I'm getting used to this place."

She smiled gratefully and began leading Tara down the hall.

A couple of hours later Angel was taken to see Cordelia, who had just woken up from the anaesthetic.

"We're going to have to stop meeting like this." She joked, her voice hoarse.

He sat down next to her and took her hand in his. "Yes we are." He told her seriously.

She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"No, it wasn't your fault." He admitted and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll just have to keep a better watch over you."

She rolled her eyes but kept quiet.

"I mean, I do want you to be alive at our wedding on August ninth."

A smile lit up her face. "August ninth?"

He nodded. "That's what we agreed on, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, my mother's birthday. So, you really want to go through with it? I can start planning?"

He nodded and kissed her fingers. "Of course I want to go through with it baby. I love you and I've never been as scared as I was tonight when you fell through that mirror. I thought you were dead." He admitted and swallowed back a lump in his throat.

"I wouldn't die on you honey, I'm invincible." She said lightly in response.

He shook his head slowly. "No, you're not. How did you get caught anyway?"

"I was running down the hall after Buffy and I was grabbed from behind. They covered my eyes so I couldn't see where I was going. I was tied to a chair in a room behind the mirror in the lobby. Fred was there and then Wes came in too." She explained.

He nodded and sensed she was tired. "Get some rest now, and then you can come home."

"I'm coming home tomorrow." She insisted as her eyes closed.

"Of course you are sweetheart." He replied and kissed her lips gently.

"I am." She murmured but drifted off to sleep before he could respond.

True to her word Cordelia came home the next night. Angel picked her up from the hotel and insisted on carrying her in the hotel.

"Hi guys!" She exclaimed as they came in through the doors. "Miss me?"

Buffy came across to hug her as soon as Angel had put her down on the couch. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Cordelia hugged her back. "Me too."

Cordelia settled herself against the cushions and then smiled when she saw Connor tottering from behind the counter. "Hey little guy!"

He came across to her and rested his head on her side. "Mommy missed you."

Lorne came from behind the counter with Ashleigh.

"Hi baby!" She cooed and held Ashleigh's hand for a moment. "Mommy missed you too. Did you have fun with Auntie Willow and Auntie Tara?"

She turned to them. "Thanks for looking after them this week, you were Godsends."

Willow smiled. "We enjoyed it."

"Well, except for all the dirty nappies and waking us up in the middle of the night." Tara added. "But everything else was fun."

Cordelia stroked Connor's downy hair absentmindly. "I won't leave you again honey, I promise."

As though he knew what she was saying he looked up and smiled at her.

Fred came out of the office, Gunn following closely behind her. Seeing her hold her ribs with her good arm brought tears to Cordelia's eyes.

"Fred."

Fred smiled at her.

"I'm sorry."

Fred waved her hand at her. "No, you did the right thing, and you paid for it. I don't blame you. It could have been a lot worse, for all three of us." She glanced at Wes who was keeping a low profile in the corner with Spike, still feeling slightly guilty about letting Fred and Cordelia get hurt although they both insisted that they didn't blame him.

"Still, I'm sorry."

Fred smiled at her again.

Angel came to sit next to Cordelia. "I guess this is where we get back to normal."

Spike, Buffy, Willow and Tara went back to LA a couple of days later.

Fred moved in with Gunn so that he could take care of her.

Cordelia recovered fast from her injury, probably due to the demon in her. Within a week she was walking properly and could carry Ashleigh or Connor without testing her wound. The stitches were taken out and she was fine.

Cordelia and Angel both enjoyed living in the hotel on their own. It gave them a sense of having their own house where they could live together like a proper family, when they weren't demon fighting of course. They had more privacy and room to be like they wanted with each other without having to worry about Fred or Gunn catching them. It was nice.

Cordelia walked down the stairs early the next Saturday with Ashleigh. She was humming a song she'd heard on the radio the night before. She went in the kitchen to get Ashleigh's bottle and then went to sit on the couch to feed her. She stopped in her tracks.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

The End