Queen D
NOTE: I wish these sweet, wonderful, and oh, so fun Angel characters were mine, but they belong to that Joss guy, who I'd love to slap.
A/N: This is a big, hopping AU. At the end of Hero, when Doyle kissed Cordelia, instead of him just passing his power along to her he impregnated her. The storyline stays the same from there. Wesley shows up, Gunn joins the team, they move into the hotel, Darla and Angel do the big nasty, AI rescues Fred, Darla comes back pregnant, Cordy becomes a demon, but Connor was never kidnapped. Want to find out more? Well, read on.
CHAPTER 3The following morning at the hotel, Danielle sat on one of the couches, doodling on a pad of paper, humming a song she'd heard on TV. Lorne sat next to her, asleep with an empty martini glass in his hand; Angel was also sleeping behind the front desk. Cordelia and Wesley entered the hotel simultaneously, talking.
"Mom," Danielle smiled, sitting the paper aside and going to hug Cordy.
"Hey, sweetie." Cordy knelt down and embraced the child. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, it was great," Danny replied. "Hi, Uncle Wes."
"Hi, luv," Wesley greeted then glanced at the two sleeping creatures. "What happened?"
"Those two are no fun at all when they're sleepy," said Danielle with an eye roll. "And I think Uncle Lorne fell asleep on his fourth martini."
"These two, I swear," said Cordy, going to approach the front desk. "Angel?" The vampire seemed refusal to wake up. "Angel!"
Both Angel and Lorne popped up at the same time.
"Just resting my eyes," Lorne said defensively.
"Great job of watching my kid," Cordelia said to Angel.
"I think the kid does a better job of watching herself," said Angel, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Angel," Wesley spoke up, wanting to go straight to the workday. "I have some new leads on that Spiral Horn demon you mentioned the other day."
"Oh, good," said Angel. "Now we just need—"
"Demon," Cordelia declared suddenly. "Two of them. They're downtown by the big street fair. They're going to start attacking children."
"All right, a vision," Danielle beamed.
"Fred and Gunn were taking Con to that fair today," Angel remembered. "I'll call Gunn's cell and give him the heads up."
Danielle climbed down from the couch and ran up to her mother. "Mom, can we go check it out, too? Please?" She batted her eyelashes, letting off pure innocence.
"No chance, Danny," Cordy replied. "Big horned ugly demons and little girls do not match."
"Cordelia, you bite your tongue," Lorne said, obviously insulted.
"You know what I mean," said Cordelia with an eye roll.
"It's not fair," Danielle pouted. "I'm not little. I grew two inches last week." Cordelia raised an eyebrow at her. "OK, half an inch… almost."
Connor sat on the couch in Fred and Gunn's living room, eating a stack of Fred's specialty chocolate chip pancakes. He nearly choked up on a piece of pancake several times laughing at the cartoons on TV. Fred sat in the armchair, eating her own pancakes, and watching the cartoons with Connor, which seemed more entertaining at the moment than pouring over her research.
"Morning those I love," Gunn greeted, coming out of his and Fred's bedroom.
"Pancake kiss," Fred smiled as Gunn reached down to give her a peck on the lips.
"Mm, chocolate chip," Gunn tasted.
"Only the best," Fred said, feeding him a bite of pancake with her fork.
"Hey, Connor," said Gunn, flopping down in the seat next to the six-year-old then noticed the show he was watching. "Saturday morning with Pokemon, is anything better?"
"I love when you're in a good mood," said Fred. "Your head does that shiny thing."
"Hey, Uncle Gunn, can we go to the fair now?" Connor asked. "Please, please, please?"
"Funny you should bring that up, little man," said Gunn. "Your dad just called. Apparently, Aunt Cordy had a vision and now we got a job."
"We're gonna get to kick bad guy butt?" Connor asked excitedly.
"Connor," Fred chided lightly.
"Sorry. I can go, right?" Connor asked.
"Go put your shoes on, Con," said Gunn.
Connor sat his pancakes aside and headed for the guest room.
"I don't think it's a good idea to bring Connor along, Charles," said Fred, forming the natural worry. "If something were to happen to him Angel would never forgive us. God, I'd never forgive us."
"Hey, don't worry your pretty brown head," Gunn assured her. "Nothing's gonna happen to our little man."
Back at the hotel, Danielle sat in Wesley's lap behind the front desk, reading up on the Spiral Horned demons with him. Angel walked around the lobby, looking at a large text. Cordelia stood over a filing cabinet, rearranging the names of certain clients by alphabetical order as Angel had requested. The brown haired woman glanced to the side and gasped at the scene before her. She saw Connor standing among a large crowd then saw what seemed to be a strange figure come upon him. Before she could get a better look, her vision faded.
"Cordy, are you all right?" Angel asked, noticing the strange look she wore.
"Angel," said Cordelia, standing up, panic in her voice. "I think something's wrong with Connor."
Fred, Gunn, and Connor all stood laughing at the street fair clowns, who were jumping through hoops. A large horde of people had formed to watch them perform. Fred held Connor in her arms, smiling at him, enjoying the sparks of excitement the little boy had in his deep blue eyes.
"You're such a natural mother," Fred heard someone say to her.
"Thanks," the brown haired bookworm said. "He's not my son, though."
"Good." Fred felt herself get shoved aside and she fell to the ground, holding Connor upward so that he wouldn't get hurt. "Then you won't mind if I take him off your hands."
"Hey," Gunn noticed what had happened. It had been a clown that had pushed Fred, just not a regular one, one with a spiral horn. Gunn reached into the large backpack he held and removed a crossbow from it. "Big mistake, bozo."
Another horned clown made his way among the crowd, darting at people's children, immediately causing a huge uproar. Fred held Connor close to her and hid him next to a carnival game, whispering to him to be quiet and stay down. She then got out her own crossbow and ran up to assist Gunn.
Connor peeked his head out curiously, watching the two people he considered his aunt and uncle go to work. Gunn got the children away from the clowns as they nabbed them up, giving Fred the chance to shoot a crossbow arrow, which seemed to miss a great number of times. Connor slowly crawled out from the game and headed up to where the action was taking place. Unknown to him, a figure came out from the large crowd that continued to grow, watching Fred and Gunn as they finished off the clowns. The figure held a dagger in hand, ready for damage. Before it could get close enough to Connor, a gunshot went off. Screams filled the mob of people, terrified of the sound. Connor felt himself get scooped up and the next thing he knew he was inside of Cordelia's van.
"Uncle Wes," Connor noticed as the one who had grabbed him.
"Connor, thank God," Angel breathed, removing the large blanket that shielded him from the sun's evil rays to hug his son.
"What happened?" Fred asked as she and Gunn came upon the car.
"Hop in," said Cordelia from the driver's seat.
Wesley sat next to her in the passenger's seat, holding a handgun. "Whoever that was that attempted to stab Connor should be careful to keep his distance from now on."
"Connor, what was up back there?" Gunn asked as he and Fred climbed into the middle section of the car.
"Connor Angel, I told you to stay hidden," Fred reprimanded. "What did you think you were doing? You could have been hurt, honey."
"And you nearly were," Angel agreed, holding Connor up so that their eyes locked. "Listen to me, Connor, when someone tells you to hide from danger, you do it, no matter what. Do you hear me?"
Connor pouted deeply, like he did often. "I just thought I could help. That's all."
"Do you hear me?" Angel repeated more sternly.
Angel released an unnecessary breath of relief, holding Connor closer to him then spotted Cordelia and Wesley both giving him a thumbs up for doing the right thing in the car's mirror.
"Wesley, can you ID that thing that was after Connor?" Angel asked.
"I didn't get a look at it," Wesley replied. "But I'll do what I can."
"Probably one of them nasty ass clowns," Gunn said.
"Charles," Fred hissed, reminding him of the young ears in the car.
Cordelia sighed deeply. "Never a dull moment, huh, folks? Hope we don't get anymore surprises today."
Lorne looked up from a book he was reading when he heard the double doors of the hotel open. "Back already, guys and girls?"
"Uh, hi," Xander greeted. "You haven't seen a tall, living dead vampire that rescues little old ladies have you?"
A/N: I'm being nice and updating. See? So, it's your turn. Be nice and please review!