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 6

          Cordelia opened the door to her apartment, allowing Danielle and Xander to come inside. Danielle immediately ran to her bedroom, shutting the door. Cordelia sighed deeply as her daughter left, used to the girl's reaction after a mall trip. She sat her shopping bags down and ran a hand through her sort of messed brown hair.

          Xander sat down his own shopping bag and sat on the arm of the couch. "OK, so Danielle's not a mall groupie. I think we're missing the bright side of this. I got two new pairs of lovely pants along with a shirt that makes me look stunning. Let's not forget the imitation leather handbag."

          Cordy laughed light. "Still with the same Xander Harris oh, so classic wit I see."

          "What can I say? I was born to be among the wits," Xander said.

          Cordelia sighed, taking a seat in the armchair. "Listen, Xander, I'm really sorry I snapped at you earlier. It's just dealing with Danny and this thing with Connor—"

          "Don't even worry about it," Xander cut her off. "I'm the expert on the whole stressful, learning to deal thing."

          "Yeah," Cordy nodded. "So, where are you staying?"

          "Oh…" Xander realized he hadn't exactly made plans before he left Sunnydale. "Well, I guess I could crash at a motel or something."

          "No, don't be silly," said Cordy. "You can stay here. You're already on the couch and everything."

          "Sounds good." Xander smiled softly at her. "Thanks, Cor."

          Cordelia smiled back at him, very fondly.

          "What's he still doing here?" Danielle asked, coming out of her room.

          "He is staying here while he's in town," Cordelia replied.

          "What?" Danielle looked outrage. "Why does he have to stay here? Why can't he go bug Uncle Angel or somebody?"

          "Danielle," Cordelia said reproachfully. "He's staying here." The six-year-old quieted down, still looking angry. "Do you understand?"

          Danielle nodded then rolled her eyes, going back to her room.

          Angel sat at the office's laptop computer at the main desk, Wesley hovering over him. Connor had been sent up to bed a few minutes before. Angel had the phone pressed up against his hear with one hand and tried to work the computer with another.

          "Fred, can you elaborate on the word scar a little?" Angel asked.

          "That's all I know, Angel," Fred told him on the other line. "The guy Charles and I met up with said this woman had a scar or something over her eye."

          "And he said thin and short, black hair, right? Well, that narrows the search to only every Goth in LA."

          "Angel, we're doing the best I can."

          Angel let out an unnecessary breath, trying to control his rudeness. "Sorry, Fred. I'm glad you got a lead. I'll see you in the morning." He hung up the phone and hit the search button on-line. "In a moment Google here will take us to—"

          "One of five thousand and twelve searches for the words think, dark haired, and scar," Wesley chimed in.

          "Oh, this is useless," Angel decided. "We're never going to find out what ever this thing is that's after Con if we can't even get a decent description."

          "Angel, don't worry. We'll find something," Wesley assured him. "We just can't give up."

          Meanwhile, at Cordelia's apartment she stood over the couch, attempting to make it up with a sheet. Xander pulled the other end of the sheet, helping her to make up the couch. When Cordelia was done with her end she picked up the blanket she'd picked out for Xander and sat down in front of the couch, the blanket in her lap. Xander sat down and joined her when he was done.

          "Sorry about the white, pink heart sheets," Cordelia apologized. "My usual guest over here is Connor and he's happy as long as he can stick peanut butter under the coffee table and get away with it."

          "It's OK," Xander said, slightly amused. "It feels like a really warm sleepover thing." He sighed then and said, "I want to thank you for putting me up, Cordy."

          "No big."

          "A big," Xander corrected. "I know you and I have a history and everything—"

          "Hey. Who in our line of work doesn't have history?" Cordelia pointed out. "Besides it'll be good having you around. It'll remind me of when I was young, hot Cordelia instead of single woman, overworked Cordelia."

          "Well, I'm leaning more towards young and hot," Xander said.

          Cordelia looked at him seriously for a moment then just smiled.

          From the doorway of her room, Danielle stood peeking out and listening to them. There were a couple of things she just didn't like about Xander. First of all, she had never seen him before and Danny didn't much care for new people. Second of all, why did her mom get all happy and smiley whenever he opened his mouth?

          "You hear that noise out there?" a voice asked Danielle. "The most meaningful thing Cordelia ever said to me was, "You look like a retard," and even that wasn't say with heart."

          Danielle turned around and smiled. "Hi, Daddy."

          Doyle sat on her bed, flipping through one of her books. "How are you?"

          "I'm OK," Danielle replied insincerely.

          "No, you're not," Doyle could tell. "Your mouth is bunched up in a huff, just like your mother." He patted a spot near the bed, gesturing for her to come over. "Come tell dear, old Dad about it."

          Danielle went over and joined him on the bed. "It's Xander. I don't not like him. I just want him to…"

          "Take a leap?" Doyle supplied. Danielle nodded. "Know how you feel, Danny."

          "How do I make him go away?" Danielle asked, lying back on her bed.

          "Well," Doyle grunted a little as he lay next to her.  "Question is, do you really want him gone or do you just think you do?"

          Danielle shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know."

          "Well, until you figure that out, don't go looking to rid LA or yourself of anybody. You got that?" His daughter nodded a yes. "Good. Now close your eyes. You need your sleep." Danielle hesitated a little. "Go on. Don't worry. We'll see each other real soon."

          Danielle finally obeyed and closed her eyes, drifting off almost immediately.

A/N: I'm sorry if some of you think my Doyle writing is so bad you want to throw stuff at me. I was trying to think about things he might say since I didn't get to see many Angel episodes with him, so this is pretty much the idea I got from him. If you have any helpful suggestions or know some things he might say, let me know. Please review!