Chapter 5: The never-ending story…
Title: Reunion time.
Author: Ink
Author notes: Hi everyone, If you need to know about summary, rate and all the rest it's all in chapter 1 I'll just remind you that English is not my native tongue so you may find some spelling & grammar mistakes, you're more then welcome to let me know about them but remember you may find them while you read the story. Have fun.
Disclaimer: Angel & Buff's characters are not my creation (wish they were) they belong to Joss Whedon and David Greenbelt. Other characters that are not familiar from the show do belong to me.
A special thank you to Sigma for reproof reading my story. I hope you'll see the difference. As of that the upload of the chapters may take longer.
"What time is it?" Dawn asked again.
"5 minutes from the last time you asked." Buffy sighed.
"Shouldn't they be up by now? It's almost 10!" Dawn kept nagging.
"Dawn!" Buffy stopped and tried to remain calm. "They'll be up soon, I know you're excited to see them…"
Dawn jumped in "Excited can't describe what I'm feeling. Do you know how shocked I was to find Cordelia, Angel, and a baby sleeping in Willow & Tara's bed? Do you?" Dawn asked but not really expected an answer. "I was, like, shocked beyond words."
"In that case you shouldn't be talking." Dawn looked oddly at Buffy, "Cause you said you're beyond words. Right?" Buffy explained, having had enough of Dawn's questions or descriptions of how sweet they looked all curled up together and how sweet Connor looked and how she can't wait to talk to them.
"Hi guys." Willow called from the living room.
"Willow! Thank God!" Buff greeted her when she entered the kitchen.
"What?" Willow frowned, confused.
"She hasn't stopped talking and asking question since the moment she accidentally came to your room and found Cordelia, Angel, and Connor asleep in your bed. She's been driving be crazy for the past hour. I so wish it was Monday instead of Saturday so she could go to school." Buff whispered to Willow, but Dawn heard her anyway and made a face at her.
"Dawnie, how did you sleep?" Tara tried to change the subject.
"Did you see them? What did they say? Did you see Cordelia cut her hair?" Dawn was not about to change the subject. Except for when Buffy came back, this has been the most exciting thing that happened here in months.
"Ok, then. Pancakes anyone?" Willow tried to distract Dawn, but had no luck as she kept on chattering away.
Good morning, everyone" Giles greeted as he joined them.
"Oh, yes, good morning." Wesley joined in.
"Hi! G'morning everyone". Cordy walked into the kitchen.
"Hey, Cordelia, I wanted to apologize for barging in on you this morning. I didn't know you were there." Dawn apologized.
"It's fine, Dawnie. We didn't mind. Besides, Angel sleeps like a rock." Cordy smiled. Buffy couldn't believe that was Angel she was talking about--her Angel.
"Why don't we go to the dining room so we can all sit down eat breakfast together?" Dawn suggested with a huge smile.
"Sure why not." Buffy said reluctantly.
They all grabbed some food and headed out, Lorne joining them. Anya and Xander came soon after that with Fred and Gunn right behind them. Only Angel was a no show.
"What's taking him so long? I mean, I fed Connor, changed him, dressed him and took him with me downstairs. All he had to do was wash up and get dressed. God, he can be such a baby sometimes." Cordelia complained.
"Would you like me to go see what's keeping him?" Buffy offered.
"No, it's fine, I'll do it. He can be a real pain in the morning." Cordy explained.
"Sure, you know best." Cordy had already gotten up, so she didn't hear Buffy's last remark, but Willow did and she frowned at Buffy. Buff smiled back at herm trying to cover up how much the relationship between Angel and Cordelia bothered her.
"I'll be right back". Cordy called out as she went up the stairs.
"Angel, are you up?" she yelled from the hallway as she came close to the bedroom. "You'd better be cause everyone is downstairs about to eat breakfast. And, yes, I know you don't eat but you could at least sit with…" she opened the door and saw him sitting on the bed, fully dressed.
"What happened? Why are you sitting here alone? Is it brooding time again?" she grinned, but he didn't, which worried her. He usually smiled at her silly jokes. She came close to him and set next to him. "What is it? Tell me."
"This...all of this." He sighed, quietly.
"What's this? You need to get more specific." she smiled. Her smile always made him feel better.
"I never thought in a million years that I'd be sleeping in Buff's house in the same bed with you and my child". He looked at her and saw she had a strange look on her face. "What? What's with the look?"
"Are you ashamed of me? Of us? Do you think we've done something we need to be ashamed of and need to hide from others?" she got up and stood in front of him.
"No, that's not what I think." he tried to backtrack as he pulled her to him. She pulled back and turned away from him.
"So why are you like this? We're friends, Angel, and I love the way we are. I love your child and, even though he's not my child, I think of him like he is and I don't get your behavior." she stopped and looked at him.
"I didn't mean it to come out like that...you are Connor's mom and I do love the way we are...I just feel awkward with Buffy and all". He tried to explain but it came out wrong again.
"Oh…Buffy: the never-ending story." she said, a bit angrily but mostly sarcastically. "How do you ever expect to get on with your life, to move on, if you don't let go of her? Yeah, she was your one true love and all that, but you left and she moved on. Heck, she even died. But you still carry a torch for her. Grow up". she walked out of room, furious at him.
**Now she's really pissed off** Angel thought to himself.
"Cor. Cordy wait!" He ran after her down the stairs.
"We don't have anything else to talk about". She answered, continuing down the stairs.
"So...what? You get to say your piece and I don't?" Now he was angry.
"What can you possibly say? You know what I said was true! All of it" She really didn't feel like being the main character in the Cordy and Angel show so she walked away from him to the kitchen. He followed her.
"No, what you said wasn't true! You see what you saw the way you want to. You think you know everything that happened between me and her?" he asked angrily.
"Yes, I think I heard the 'Buffy loves Angel' saga before, and I think I know everything there is to know about your 'great love for each other'."
As she said that, everyone, who had been listening to them from the dining room, looked at Buffy in shock. She just looked back at them in equal shock.
"Cor, what are you saying? You want to fight because I feel awkward? Come on, how would you feel if you were in my shoes?"
"I am in your shoes". He looked surprised, not understanding what she meant. "Xander. I meant Xander. He is my ex. We dated for two years. I loved him and guess what? I got over him."
"That's not the same; not even close." He laughed at her.
"Just because my boyfriend didn't go all schizo and tried to kill all my friends so I had to send him to hell to save the world doesn't mean it didn't count." she yelled at him.
"Do you have to bring up the Angelus subject every time we argue?"
"Well, if it would only happened once…" she smiled when she saw how angry he had gotten.
"Oh…real mature Cordy, really. Bravo…" he clapped his hands.
"How long can they keep this up?" Tara wondered.
"They can go like this for hours." Fred sighed.
"One time they argued so long that we all went out for a movie and, when we got back, they were still arguing." Gunn remembered, smiling.
"But, they always kiss and make up". Fred said with a smile. Everyone looked at her. "I don't really mean kiss! It's an expression!"
Suddenly they heard a scream, the A.I. team knew what it was instantly but the Scoobies looked worried.
"A vision." The A.I. team chorused, running to the kitchen, leaving the Scoobies in the dining room still trying to figure out what just happened.
"Cordy... is she ok Angel?" Fred asked worried.
"She's fine. Let's take her to the living room. She needs to lie down."
Just as the Scoobies were about to go to the kitchen, they saw Angel come out with a dazed Cordelia in his arm, the rest of the A.I. right behind him. He put her on the couch and sat next to her on the floor, holding her hand.
"What did she see?" Buff asked.
"Give her minute, she'll tell us". Angel said protectively..
"Cordelia what did you see? Do you have any idea what's...?"
Angel interrupted angrily. "I told you to give her a second."
"It's ok, Angel. I'm ok." Cordy calmed him.
"I saw a portal open near the Bronze. This weird creature came out of it. He had a ring. A blue ring. That's it."
"That's all? A blue ring? That's not a lot". Anya said. Angel turned to her, frowning, but Cordy jumped in.
"Hey! I don't choose what to see, it just comes to me in a form of a painful headache. I'll tell you what, Anya: next time, you can have the vision and I'll be the critic. Give me a pen and paper. I'll draw you the thing I saw."
"Here you go". Dawn ran to the kitchen and brought her what she had asked for.
"Thank you, Dawnie". A few minutes later, the drawing was ready. "This is our guy."
"We need to research...and fast." Buffy said.
"I think the Magic Box is the best place". Anya said quietly, afraid someone would snap at her again.
Yeah, of course. All the books are there." Willow said.
"Ok, then, enough talk. Let's go. You guys can just follow Giles's car." Buffy ordered and they nodded in agreement.
"What about breakfast?" Dawn asked.
"I'll buy you something when we get there". Buffy promised, pulling her out the door.
"Angel, are you coming?" Gunn asked as he stood in the doorway.
"We'll be there in a second". He helped Cordy up.
"Cordy, about before..."
"It's ok, Angel. We're fine."
"I know we're fine, Cor, but are you fine? You seemed really upset about this, is there something you want to tell me?" He asked, hoping she'd say what he longed to hear.
"No, there's nothing. It just that I love you." He looked at her surprised. "You guys are like family to me."
"Oh." Angel said, disappointed
"I know you loved Buffy and I know you two had the greatest love since Romeo and Juliet, but you can't be together; you know that. You're on the road to redemption, but no one said you couldn't have a life along the way.If you keep pining for Buffy, you'll never be able to that. Do you understand?"
"Yes I do. But you don't need to worry I'm not paining for Buffy. Really I'm not."
"Ok, then, let's put this behind us." she said, walking out the door.
"Yes...behind us". Angel said in a quiet, sad voice as he followed her out.
TBC.