CHAPTER 13
Historical Note: By now, the story takes place in the end of the fifth season of Buffy, and the fourth season of Angel.
Author's Note: Ummm…. Well, it's 2:30 in the morning; I can't really think of anything besides in this chapter, there is a part that mentions the Curse. I know there was some worry a while back that it was being ignored. I'll try to fit it on more, K?
Author's Note/Historical Note: This part takes place three months after where the second one left off. Angel is still missing, leaving Buffy to deal with the Hyperion Hotel, and to raise Connor. Cordelia has also gone missing, and the crew is searching for her as well. Also, Joyce gets terminally ill, forcing Buffy to go back to Sunnydale and take care of things for awhile not knowing she'd end up doing it permanently.
A little while later, Angel arrived back at the hotel with a paper bag full of packets of pig's blood. Not wanting to run into Cordelia; who could be anywhere in the hotel since he'd left; he headed straight for the kitchen.
"Hey you," Buffy said from behind him. Angel quickly spun around.
Angel smiled at her. "Hey. I was just going to put this in the fridge," he explained. Buffy smiled.
"Then I'll join you," she said as she followed him into the kitchen.
"How's she doin'? Angel asked as he put the blood away in the fridge. Buffy was sitting on top of the counter as the two talked.
"She hasn't really come down since you left," she explained. Angel looked around the kitchen and frowned.
"Where's Dawn at?" he asked curiously.
"Sleeping."
"Where's everyone else?" he asked.
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know," she said. Angel put the plastic bag away and walked over to her.
"So that means were alone?" he asked as he put his hand on the counter and leaned closer to her.
"For now," she said. She smiled before his lips met hers. After a few moments they broke off their kiss and just smiled at each other before leaning forward and kissing once more.
Buffy broke off their kiss a few seconds later.
"What? What is it?" Angel asked confused. Buffy was looking down.
"Damn this curse," she said finally. "The one thing that broke us up in the first place." Buffy mind begin to drift to her Junior year of high school; the night she and Angel had spent together. Goosebumps began to appear on her arm as she thought back to the cruel things Angelus had said the next day… 'Come on Buffy; it's not like I've never been there before..' Buffy cringed at the thought. She was so deep in thought that she jumped when Angel put his hand on her arm.
"Buffy?" he asked concerned.
"Ok, we'd better get back to work before something happens," she said as she jumped down from the counter. Angel caught Buffy by her arm.
"Buffy, you sure your ok?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said.
"Ok," he said as they walked back out of the kitchen.
* * *
The couple headed for Angel's office, when Cordelia appeared and began down the stairs.
"Hey. Is everything ok?" Buffy asked as Cordy walked over to them.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I was just looking around the hotel and I came across some things that are a little confusing," she explained. She held up a yearbook and opened up to the first page.
"Here, look at this," she said as she handed it to Buffy. "Here. This one mentions something about 'flaming arrows'," she pointed out from the signatures. "And this one here mentions something about a giant snake."
"Oh, um, a few of the kids you knew had a bad prank pulled on them, and you helped them out," she lied. She felt like kicking herself for the lame lie she had just made up, but she hoped Cordy had somehow bought it.
"Oh," Cordy said simply. "Well, what about this?" she said as she flipped to another page in the yearbook and handed her two pictures that had just been placed in the yearbook.
"Who's that guy I'm with?" she asked. Buffy smiled at the sight of her friend.
"That's Xander," she explained as she handed the picture back to her. "You two used to date back in the last two years of high school," she explained.
"Why'd we break up?" she asked. Buffy shrugged.
"Beats me." Cordy went quiet for a second and studied both Angel and Buffy.
"I'm getting that you two are...together, am I right?" she asked curiously.
"Yeah, were together," Buffy assured her as Angel put his arm around her shoulder and gave it a loving squeeze.
"So I take it the picture of the baby I found in one of the boxes up in my room is yours?" she asked them.
"Yeah," Angel looked at Buffy, who looked up at him at the same time. "Yeah, that's our son."
"Oh, he's so cute. What's his name?" she asked curiously.
"Connor. His name is Connor," Buffy told her. Cordy looked at the couple and sensed it was a sore subject, and decided to move on.
"Oh, I almost forgot….Am I a nun?" she asked. Buffy had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
Angel on the other hand let out a chuckle. "What gave you that idea?" he asked. She reached into one of her pants pockets.
"Well it's just, I found these in a box," she said as she handed Angel a handful of rosaries. Before Angel realized what Cordy was handing him, the rosaries dropped in his hand and instantly burned him. He growled and quickly dropped them on the floor. Cordy looked at him with a shocked expression before letting out a blood curdling scream.
"Cordy, what's-" Buffy began. She looked up at Angel and realized he had vamped out from being burned. Cordy quickly turned around and ran out of the building.
"Cordy, wait!" Angel called out after her as he and Buffy ran after her. Before Cordy could reach the front door, she literally ran into Lorne, who wore a look of worry on his face from the scream he had heard from upstairs. Cordy looked up to see who she had ran into, and came face to face with a green-horned demon, which made her scream again.
"Holy Palooza, what in the world is going on?" he asked. Before she could run away, Angel and Buffy caught up to her.
"Cordy, wait a minute," Buffy said. Cordy quickly backed away from Lorne and turned towards Angel; who was now back to normal.
"I knew there was something you guys weren't telling me," she told them, trying to hold down the fear that was still inside her. "Now I want you to tell me the truth. And I mean everything about my past and what you people do here," she demanded.
Buffy nodded and motioned to the couch in the lobby. "Ok."
* * *
"Ok, so let me get all of this straight," Cordy said a little while later after the group told her the truth about everything. "So vampires, demons and all that stuff are real; I lived on a Hellmouth-" she looked at Angel. "-Your a vampire, and this place is an investigation agency that deals with fighting all the things that go 'bump' in the night?" she said. Both Angel and Buffy nodded simultaneously. Cordy stood up, letting all the news sink in abut her life of demon fighting.
"And I get visions of people in trouble?" she asked.
"Yup," Buffy assured her.
"After kissing a guy named Doyle who used to work here?" Angel paused for a second at the sound of his friend's name.
"Oh, did I say something wrong?" she asked.
"No. No. It's just; we were all close. As a matter of fact, he liked you a lot," he explained. Cordy smiled.
"What happened to him?" she asked.
"He died saving a group of half demons."
"Ok. The part I'm lot loving along with the rest of this is how some evil law firms from Wolfram & Hart are after me to find out what I know about the future."
"Yeah, were working on that now," Angel assured her.
"Yeah, well. I still don't like it," she said, sounding slightly angry.
"I got it!" Buffy exclaimed. Angel and Cordelia looked at we weird. "Let's get Lorne to read her, see if he can read her destiny," she suggested.
"Wait a second; Read me?" she repeated.
"Yeah. The demon you ran into earlier. His name is Lorne, and he reads peoples aura's," Angel explained.
"How does he do that?" she asked.
"Well, you have to sing."
"I don't sing," she told him plainly.
"It's the only way he can read you," Angel told her. "Besides, it might help us." Cordelia pondered her choices.
"Alright, fine." On that note, Buffy headed to where Lorne was, and brought him downstairs.