Disclaimer- The only character I own here is Rowan herself; the rest I
borrow.
1 Summary- This takes place before Cordelia becomes part demon and before Connor is born.
2 Please read and review- I need the attention…..
3 Chapter Five
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Rowan sluggishly felt her mind surfacing from sleep, a gentle knocking on her door the cause of her disturbance. Rolling over to the edge of the bed, she yawned widely as she put a stocking foot on the floor.
"Stockings?" her mind asked as it furiously tried to compute why she was still dressed in her suit. Rubbing her eyes, Rowan came to full consciousness as the door cracked open and Angel popped his head into the room.
Right, the visit with the vampire that ended up a sleep-over. "Yes?" she demanded, cranky at being woken.
Angel opened the door wider and dumped her suitcase by the door. "Luggage is here." He was gone almost as quickly as he had intruded, the door pulled shut behind him.
Rowan padded over to the bag, and hauled it onto the bed to unpack. At least she could put on something more comfortable to sleep in. Rummaging around, she pulled out a fuzzy, oversized gray sweatshirt with "University of Pennsylvania" scrawled across the front in peeling letters and a pair of equally fuzzy and worn sweats. It felt good to get out of the monkey suit she had won all day.
Pushing the bag off the bed and onto the floor, Rowan curled up once more under the covers and tried to go back to sleep.
Sleep, however, eluded her. Wired as she had been about meeting Angel, the short nap she had enjoyed before the arrival of her bags had refreshed her enough that she couldn't get back to sleep; she was doomed to wakefulness. Well, if she was going to be up, she was going to make the best of the time. Rooting in her bags again, Rowan pulled out some toiletries and a pair of comfortable jeans. Entering the bathroom attached to her room, she ran a hot shower and stepped in.
The water felt good on tense muscles, and she lathered her hair thickly. She stood in the shower until the water ran clear and she very much resembled a cooked lobster. Dried off and dressed, she returned to the outer room and took out a journal. It was her own Watcher's journal; splaying herself, stomach down, on the bed, she started to record the events of the day.
Concentrating closely on her writing, Rowan still could not help but be distracted by the buzz of voices downstairs in the lobby. She could make out, if she strained her ears, Angel's deep voice and Wesley slightly higher, more melodic one. The trouble with the demon earlier tonight must have been more difficult to solve than Wesley had though it would be. Glancing at the clock- 2 AM- Rowan closed the book and decided to see if she could be of any help. Wesley had suspected some kind of magical aid, if she had understood his comments earlier, and magic was certainly her specialty. One way to show her good faith was by helping out, right?
Rising from the bed and quietly easing the door open, Rowan was shocked when it hit something large but soft and then stuck in place. The door was barely open a inch when a small, wiry frame filled it. The other brunette from this afternoon, her voice shaky but with an unmistakable Texas twang, stood firm. "Sorry, but Angel said not to let you leave the room. You got to stay here."
Where did Fred come from? She hadn't been there earlier, Rowan was fairly sure. She hadn't heard a peep from the long hallway before her attempt to 'escape.' Rowan mentally smacked the damn vampire and cursed herself; has she really seemed like that much of a threat earlier with her magical display? She should have realized how suspicious Angel had to be. "I'm not leaving the hotel, Fred. I just want to go downstairs and see if I can help."
Fred vehemently shook her head, brown frizzy hair sticking a little further out than before. "No, ma'am. Angel said stay right here."
Rowan sighed inwardly. She couldn't exactly help save the world if this willowy woman corked her up in her room for the night. And she didn't feel like being confined for the next few hours if she couldn't sleep through them. "How about BOTH of us go down and ask him if I can leave my room?"
Again, a firm shake of a brown fuzzy head answered her. "No."
"Okay, Fred. Then I'll wait here while you go get Angel. I want to talk to him." Rowan left the door open but made her way to the bed and sat down.
Fred hesitated a few minutes, but when it became clear to her that Rowan was staying put while she herself went to find Angel, Fred took off quickly down the lobby stairs. Angel was back in less time than Rowan thought it should have taken.
"We're a little busy now, Rowan," Angel intoned impatiently from the doorway.
"Yeah, I know. Fester demon didn't die the way it was supposed to. Some kind of Magic involved, wouldn't you say?" Rowan responded from her perch on the edge of her bed.
Angel frowned, his hand still grasping the doorknob tightly. "Yes, that's what Wesley thought. We have it under control now."
Rowan, lack of sleep and her wired nerves getting the better of her- again today- snapped at him. "Yeah, that's why you're all still up at 2 AM arguing over missing demon codexes." Rowan smiled coyly at him. "You may not realize that you have a pretty competent witch who can't get back to sleep and is sitting here with nothing to do, and not a single true magician down there with you guys. Don't be a moron, let me help."
Angel shook his head negatively. AI members seemed to be doing that to her a lot tonight. "Thanks, but no thanks."
Rowan closed her eyes and took as deep centering breath. If he wouldn't take her skill at her word, she would just have to convince him. She carefully asked, as nonchalantly as possible, "Was the demon wearing any kind of jewelry?"
Angel narrowed his eyes. His voice was severe as he spoke. "I meant it. We don't need your help. I still don't know whether or not to trust you." He turned away and started for the stairs. "I'll talk to you in the morning."
Rowan shrugged at his retreating back. "Yeah, well, if the stone in that amulet was an amethyst, I can tell you exactly where he is right now."
Angel paused without turning back to face Rowan. "And how can you do that?"
"Scrying at a distance is my specialty, and amethyst is my primary focus stone. I've got a huge one in my bag there, and with an idea of what that amulet looked like, this stone will find that one." Rowan made a show of yawning, stretching her arms out wide. "But you know what? I am kinda beat. See you in the morning." She lay back for barely a second before the silence was broken.
Angel was back at her door, not quite in the room but at least looking at her again. "I didn't know that was possible, to track an object though a like object if you've never seen the other one yourself." He was back in the door again.
Rowan grinned broadly. As uncertain of herself as she may be in others' presence, especially this familiar stranger, she knew magic. "Not everyone can do it. But I've sufficient power and gift." She paused a second. "Do you have any Dr. Pepper down there? I always need a fix after a spell."
Angel pushed the door open further. Although he certainly wasn't smiling at her- or even looking vaguely friendly right now- he did look somewhat relieved. Things must be worse than Rowan thought. "You get the stone, Gunn will go for soda. We're in the conference room, second door to the left of the office we were in today." He paused one moment as she slid off the bed to kneel in front of her bag and reach in for the stone. Then he was gone. He moved so silently that she didn't even hear a whisper of movement.
Well, Rowan thought, at least I am making a better impression on him now than when I was falling asleep while he was talking to me in the lobby. Hefting the polished amethyst in her hand, she rose and slipped out the door after him. She found her way to the conference room without a problem. As she stuck her head in nervously, all talking ceased and everyone turned to face her.
"Hi, everyone," she shyly stated as she headed for an empty chair. She received no response until Angel formally introduced her to the rest as a doctor from Penn- no mention of the story she had told him or the relationship she had laid out for him earlier.
Cordelia spoke up first. "I guess this is why you tried to lay the funny golden glowing hands on me earlier?"
Rowan frowned at Angel before answering. "Yeah, I thought I could help then, too."
Cordelia looked her up and down, then gave Angel a meaningful glare. "Well, hopefully you can help now." She handed a piece of paper to Rowan, with a rather good sketch of a nasty looking demon wearing an odd amulet.
"This is the Fester we are looking for?" Rowan asked as she settled the stone in front of her and looking to Wesley for confirmation.
"Yes," he said quickly. "Although I wasn't able to get very close, I did get a rather clear view of the amulet. The outer edges of it had some kind of engraved script that I couldn't translate."
"Was it gold or silver?" Rowan inquired.
Wesley was puzzled a moment, then comprehension flooded his face as he got her meaning. "The amulet setting around the stone was silver."
Rowan nodded as she made herself more comfortable, sliding off her shoes and sitting cross-legged on the chair. She closed her eyes and mentally centered herself in order to begin casting the spell. "That makes it easier. Gold can be cursed, or a spell worked into it, but only pure silver can be used as a focus to actually cast a spell at a distance. Whoever or whatever aided the demon only cast the spell as soon as he/she/it realized the demon was in danger. So, I should be able to find the demon and trace the spell energy from the amulet to the caster. Then you'll know who this demon is working with, at least."
The room died into silence when Rowan stopped talking. She opened her eyes again after a few moments of unbroken silence, ready to work. Angel watched her carefully; the others looked away when they saw the purple lightning flashing in her eyes as she called upon her magic. The amethyst in front of her began to emit a faint glow, and she stared deeply into it for a few minutes. The room became very still, as the onlookers waited for her to speak.
Rowan memorized what she could of the stone's view, but it seemed very odd to her. She was not from LA and had not seen much of the town today; she wasn't sure exactly where the spell was showing her. "Well, I'm confused," she admitted when she looked up again. "It seemed to show me an office tower, but there was something not quite right about the scene. The edges of the picture were very fuzzy, as if there was a layer beneath it that I couldn't quite see. Almost a glamour, of sorts. But I saw the name on the side of the building very clearly. Both the caster and demon are in that building."
Cordelia pursed her lips and began clearing things up. "Let me guess. The building said Wolfram and Hart."
Gunn entered the room with a case of Dr. Pepper. Angel quickly popped a can open and handed it to Rowan. "How did you know?" Rowan spoke around the bubbly liquid in her mouth.
"Wild guess." Cordelia looked at Angel. "So what do we do now?"
Angel shrugged. "I guess we try and figure out what those damn lawyers wanted at that factory."
Rowan suddenly understood Cordelia's question to her in the lobby now, about whether or not she was a lawyer. "I take it that these are not good lawyers?"
Again, Cordelia was the one who spoke, her head cocked at an angle and her tone tart. "Do you actually know any good lawyers?"
Rowan shrugged as she continued to chug the soft drink. When the can was empty, she reached for another. "So I guess you've dealt with these lawyers before?"
Angel grimaced. "You could say that. Just how good are you at magic?"
Rowan pursed her lips. "Pretty damn good. What else do you need done?"
Cordelia emphatically shook her head. "Oh, no, Angel. I know where you're thinking of going, and magic in there isn't a good idea."
Wesley agreed. "You shouldn't go in there at all. Who are you going to get information from?"
Angel sat back and crossed his arms in front of him. "Lilah will talk to me; what she says isn't as important as what she doesn't say. I'll be in and out. Besides, they don't actively want me dead anymore. They'll just throw me out if they catch me."
Rowan looked from Cordelia's frown to Wesley staring down at his glasses as he cleaned them to Gunn pulling on his jacket. "If you want my help, you're going to have to explain to me what the hell you're talking about."
Angel, ignoring the others, looked at and spoke directly to her. "How much do you know about my time in LA?"
Rowan swallowed. "Some, but not a lot. I've been to Sunnydale, so it's easier to See what was going on there. And you haven't seemed too, um- Angelus-like in the past few years, so I didn't Look as frequently as I maybe should have." She squirmed a little at the others' puzzled looks.
Angel looked a little relieved at her answer. Yeah, well, she had already decided that she wouldn't have been happy with a Seer watching her every move, either. "Wolfram and Hart are, literally, evil lawyers. They have tired to kill me and turn me evil, and have finally decided that I am not important enough to bother with. But I've run into them frequently, on the wrong side of certain...situations."
Understanding was beginning to dawn on Rowan. "So, they are big time into the Other World. And they don't like you. And you want to go see them but-" she nodded towards Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn- "they don't want you to go see Wolfram and Hart because it's dangerous. That means that they must have wards up against you."
Angel didn't exactly smile with his eyes, but they weren't so…hard anymore. "Yes. They have vampire alarms. I have very limited time before they can find where I am in the building. I could use some more time, if I want to find the demon, too."
Rowan slurped down the last of her second soda, and covered her mouth over a loud belch. "Sorry," she murmured, her mind racing at the possible ways that she could help Angel out.
Angel let her think a few minutes, during which the rest of AI traded any number of different kinds of looks at her and at each other about her. "can you come up with something?"
Rowan nodded. "I think I can. I need to look at Grandma's grimoire upstairs, and see what supplies you have first." She rose and started for the stairs, so intent on her mission that she didn't hear the voices raised in the conference room as soon as she left.
Angel had asked for her help. Despite a rocky start, this was going better than she thought it would after all.
1 Summary- This takes place before Cordelia becomes part demon and before Connor is born.
2 Please read and review- I need the attention…..
3 Chapter Five
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Rowan sluggishly felt her mind surfacing from sleep, a gentle knocking on her door the cause of her disturbance. Rolling over to the edge of the bed, she yawned widely as she put a stocking foot on the floor.
"Stockings?" her mind asked as it furiously tried to compute why she was still dressed in her suit. Rubbing her eyes, Rowan came to full consciousness as the door cracked open and Angel popped his head into the room.
Right, the visit with the vampire that ended up a sleep-over. "Yes?" she demanded, cranky at being woken.
Angel opened the door wider and dumped her suitcase by the door. "Luggage is here." He was gone almost as quickly as he had intruded, the door pulled shut behind him.
Rowan padded over to the bag, and hauled it onto the bed to unpack. At least she could put on something more comfortable to sleep in. Rummaging around, she pulled out a fuzzy, oversized gray sweatshirt with "University of Pennsylvania" scrawled across the front in peeling letters and a pair of equally fuzzy and worn sweats. It felt good to get out of the monkey suit she had won all day.
Pushing the bag off the bed and onto the floor, Rowan curled up once more under the covers and tried to go back to sleep.
Sleep, however, eluded her. Wired as she had been about meeting Angel, the short nap she had enjoyed before the arrival of her bags had refreshed her enough that she couldn't get back to sleep; she was doomed to wakefulness. Well, if she was going to be up, she was going to make the best of the time. Rooting in her bags again, Rowan pulled out some toiletries and a pair of comfortable jeans. Entering the bathroom attached to her room, she ran a hot shower and stepped in.
The water felt good on tense muscles, and she lathered her hair thickly. She stood in the shower until the water ran clear and she very much resembled a cooked lobster. Dried off and dressed, she returned to the outer room and took out a journal. It was her own Watcher's journal; splaying herself, stomach down, on the bed, she started to record the events of the day.
Concentrating closely on her writing, Rowan still could not help but be distracted by the buzz of voices downstairs in the lobby. She could make out, if she strained her ears, Angel's deep voice and Wesley slightly higher, more melodic one. The trouble with the demon earlier tonight must have been more difficult to solve than Wesley had though it would be. Glancing at the clock- 2 AM- Rowan closed the book and decided to see if she could be of any help. Wesley had suspected some kind of magical aid, if she had understood his comments earlier, and magic was certainly her specialty. One way to show her good faith was by helping out, right?
Rising from the bed and quietly easing the door open, Rowan was shocked when it hit something large but soft and then stuck in place. The door was barely open a inch when a small, wiry frame filled it. The other brunette from this afternoon, her voice shaky but with an unmistakable Texas twang, stood firm. "Sorry, but Angel said not to let you leave the room. You got to stay here."
Where did Fred come from? She hadn't been there earlier, Rowan was fairly sure. She hadn't heard a peep from the long hallway before her attempt to 'escape.' Rowan mentally smacked the damn vampire and cursed herself; has she really seemed like that much of a threat earlier with her magical display? She should have realized how suspicious Angel had to be. "I'm not leaving the hotel, Fred. I just want to go downstairs and see if I can help."
Fred vehemently shook her head, brown frizzy hair sticking a little further out than before. "No, ma'am. Angel said stay right here."
Rowan sighed inwardly. She couldn't exactly help save the world if this willowy woman corked her up in her room for the night. And she didn't feel like being confined for the next few hours if she couldn't sleep through them. "How about BOTH of us go down and ask him if I can leave my room?"
Again, a firm shake of a brown fuzzy head answered her. "No."
"Okay, Fred. Then I'll wait here while you go get Angel. I want to talk to him." Rowan left the door open but made her way to the bed and sat down.
Fred hesitated a few minutes, but when it became clear to her that Rowan was staying put while she herself went to find Angel, Fred took off quickly down the lobby stairs. Angel was back in less time than Rowan thought it should have taken.
"We're a little busy now, Rowan," Angel intoned impatiently from the doorway.
"Yeah, I know. Fester demon didn't die the way it was supposed to. Some kind of Magic involved, wouldn't you say?" Rowan responded from her perch on the edge of her bed.
Angel frowned, his hand still grasping the doorknob tightly. "Yes, that's what Wesley thought. We have it under control now."
Rowan, lack of sleep and her wired nerves getting the better of her- again today- snapped at him. "Yeah, that's why you're all still up at 2 AM arguing over missing demon codexes." Rowan smiled coyly at him. "You may not realize that you have a pretty competent witch who can't get back to sleep and is sitting here with nothing to do, and not a single true magician down there with you guys. Don't be a moron, let me help."
Angel shook his head negatively. AI members seemed to be doing that to her a lot tonight. "Thanks, but no thanks."
Rowan closed her eyes and took as deep centering breath. If he wouldn't take her skill at her word, she would just have to convince him. She carefully asked, as nonchalantly as possible, "Was the demon wearing any kind of jewelry?"
Angel narrowed his eyes. His voice was severe as he spoke. "I meant it. We don't need your help. I still don't know whether or not to trust you." He turned away and started for the stairs. "I'll talk to you in the morning."
Rowan shrugged at his retreating back. "Yeah, well, if the stone in that amulet was an amethyst, I can tell you exactly where he is right now."
Angel paused without turning back to face Rowan. "And how can you do that?"
"Scrying at a distance is my specialty, and amethyst is my primary focus stone. I've got a huge one in my bag there, and with an idea of what that amulet looked like, this stone will find that one." Rowan made a show of yawning, stretching her arms out wide. "But you know what? I am kinda beat. See you in the morning." She lay back for barely a second before the silence was broken.
Angel was back at her door, not quite in the room but at least looking at her again. "I didn't know that was possible, to track an object though a like object if you've never seen the other one yourself." He was back in the door again.
Rowan grinned broadly. As uncertain of herself as she may be in others' presence, especially this familiar stranger, she knew magic. "Not everyone can do it. But I've sufficient power and gift." She paused a second. "Do you have any Dr. Pepper down there? I always need a fix after a spell."
Angel pushed the door open further. Although he certainly wasn't smiling at her- or even looking vaguely friendly right now- he did look somewhat relieved. Things must be worse than Rowan thought. "You get the stone, Gunn will go for soda. We're in the conference room, second door to the left of the office we were in today." He paused one moment as she slid off the bed to kneel in front of her bag and reach in for the stone. Then he was gone. He moved so silently that she didn't even hear a whisper of movement.
Well, Rowan thought, at least I am making a better impression on him now than when I was falling asleep while he was talking to me in the lobby. Hefting the polished amethyst in her hand, she rose and slipped out the door after him. She found her way to the conference room without a problem. As she stuck her head in nervously, all talking ceased and everyone turned to face her.
"Hi, everyone," she shyly stated as she headed for an empty chair. She received no response until Angel formally introduced her to the rest as a doctor from Penn- no mention of the story she had told him or the relationship she had laid out for him earlier.
Cordelia spoke up first. "I guess this is why you tried to lay the funny golden glowing hands on me earlier?"
Rowan frowned at Angel before answering. "Yeah, I thought I could help then, too."
Cordelia looked her up and down, then gave Angel a meaningful glare. "Well, hopefully you can help now." She handed a piece of paper to Rowan, with a rather good sketch of a nasty looking demon wearing an odd amulet.
"This is the Fester we are looking for?" Rowan asked as she settled the stone in front of her and looking to Wesley for confirmation.
"Yes," he said quickly. "Although I wasn't able to get very close, I did get a rather clear view of the amulet. The outer edges of it had some kind of engraved script that I couldn't translate."
"Was it gold or silver?" Rowan inquired.
Wesley was puzzled a moment, then comprehension flooded his face as he got her meaning. "The amulet setting around the stone was silver."
Rowan nodded as she made herself more comfortable, sliding off her shoes and sitting cross-legged on the chair. She closed her eyes and mentally centered herself in order to begin casting the spell. "That makes it easier. Gold can be cursed, or a spell worked into it, but only pure silver can be used as a focus to actually cast a spell at a distance. Whoever or whatever aided the demon only cast the spell as soon as he/she/it realized the demon was in danger. So, I should be able to find the demon and trace the spell energy from the amulet to the caster. Then you'll know who this demon is working with, at least."
The room died into silence when Rowan stopped talking. She opened her eyes again after a few moments of unbroken silence, ready to work. Angel watched her carefully; the others looked away when they saw the purple lightning flashing in her eyes as she called upon her magic. The amethyst in front of her began to emit a faint glow, and she stared deeply into it for a few minutes. The room became very still, as the onlookers waited for her to speak.
Rowan memorized what she could of the stone's view, but it seemed very odd to her. She was not from LA and had not seen much of the town today; she wasn't sure exactly where the spell was showing her. "Well, I'm confused," she admitted when she looked up again. "It seemed to show me an office tower, but there was something not quite right about the scene. The edges of the picture were very fuzzy, as if there was a layer beneath it that I couldn't quite see. Almost a glamour, of sorts. But I saw the name on the side of the building very clearly. Both the caster and demon are in that building."
Cordelia pursed her lips and began clearing things up. "Let me guess. The building said Wolfram and Hart."
Gunn entered the room with a case of Dr. Pepper. Angel quickly popped a can open and handed it to Rowan. "How did you know?" Rowan spoke around the bubbly liquid in her mouth.
"Wild guess." Cordelia looked at Angel. "So what do we do now?"
Angel shrugged. "I guess we try and figure out what those damn lawyers wanted at that factory."
Rowan suddenly understood Cordelia's question to her in the lobby now, about whether or not she was a lawyer. "I take it that these are not good lawyers?"
Again, Cordelia was the one who spoke, her head cocked at an angle and her tone tart. "Do you actually know any good lawyers?"
Rowan shrugged as she continued to chug the soft drink. When the can was empty, she reached for another. "So I guess you've dealt with these lawyers before?"
Angel grimaced. "You could say that. Just how good are you at magic?"
Rowan pursed her lips. "Pretty damn good. What else do you need done?"
Cordelia emphatically shook her head. "Oh, no, Angel. I know where you're thinking of going, and magic in there isn't a good idea."
Wesley agreed. "You shouldn't go in there at all. Who are you going to get information from?"
Angel sat back and crossed his arms in front of him. "Lilah will talk to me; what she says isn't as important as what she doesn't say. I'll be in and out. Besides, they don't actively want me dead anymore. They'll just throw me out if they catch me."
Rowan looked from Cordelia's frown to Wesley staring down at his glasses as he cleaned them to Gunn pulling on his jacket. "If you want my help, you're going to have to explain to me what the hell you're talking about."
Angel, ignoring the others, looked at and spoke directly to her. "How much do you know about my time in LA?"
Rowan swallowed. "Some, but not a lot. I've been to Sunnydale, so it's easier to See what was going on there. And you haven't seemed too, um- Angelus-like in the past few years, so I didn't Look as frequently as I maybe should have." She squirmed a little at the others' puzzled looks.
Angel looked a little relieved at her answer. Yeah, well, she had already decided that she wouldn't have been happy with a Seer watching her every move, either. "Wolfram and Hart are, literally, evil lawyers. They have tired to kill me and turn me evil, and have finally decided that I am not important enough to bother with. But I've run into them frequently, on the wrong side of certain...situations."
Understanding was beginning to dawn on Rowan. "So, they are big time into the Other World. And they don't like you. And you want to go see them but-" she nodded towards Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn- "they don't want you to go see Wolfram and Hart because it's dangerous. That means that they must have wards up against you."
Angel didn't exactly smile with his eyes, but they weren't so…hard anymore. "Yes. They have vampire alarms. I have very limited time before they can find where I am in the building. I could use some more time, if I want to find the demon, too."
Rowan slurped down the last of her second soda, and covered her mouth over a loud belch. "Sorry," she murmured, her mind racing at the possible ways that she could help Angel out.
Angel let her think a few minutes, during which the rest of AI traded any number of different kinds of looks at her and at each other about her. "can you come up with something?"
Rowan nodded. "I think I can. I need to look at Grandma's grimoire upstairs, and see what supplies you have first." She rose and started for the stairs, so intent on her mission that she didn't hear the voices raised in the conference room as soon as she left.
Angel had asked for her help. Despite a rocky start, this was going better than she thought it would after all.
