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 8
Vera sat on the couch in her living room that evening, watching Jhiera, who sat cross legged on the coffee table, her eyes closed tightly. Vera attempted to flip through a TV guide, but couldn't take her eyes off what Jhiera was doing. The dark haired woman was just so strange and, more than anything else, puzzling.
"Would you stop that already?" Vera snapped. "You're making me nervous."
Jhiera opened her eyes slowly. "This exercise relaxes the mind."
"Isn't that special?" Vera said with an eye roll. "Look, I don't have time to come at one with my inner babe. Just explain to me how I can get my hands on Doyle's daughter."
"Be patient," Jhiera told her. "We both want the same thing. The demon's daughter will be in our grasp sooner than expected."
Vera raised a suspicious eye brow at her. "You sound like you have a calendar date marked or something."
Jhiera just closed her eyes again without answering her, restarting her exercise.
Gunn and Fred entered a bar that was loaded down with noise from conversation, mainly men. The couple had been searching demon bars nonstop and had finally decided to step into a normal one. Gunn lead the way down the aisle, going to take a seat at the counter.
"Charles, we've been at this for nearly four hours," Fred said, a groan in her voice as she sat next to him.
"You tired, babe?" Gunn asked her.
"Just a little," Fred sighed. "Don't get me wrong, though. I want to find whoever it was that came after Connor. I just think we're going about it the wrong way. We've been on wild goose chases at all of these bars."
"What can I get you folks?" the bar tender asked, walking up with a pad of paper in hand.
"Information," Gunn replied. "We got questions."
"Hey, pal, this isn't a library," the bar tender informed him.
"We just want to know a couple of things," said Gunn. "Anything been going down here?"
The bar tender thought for a moment the replied, "Men come in, load up on booze, their wives come and drag them home. Pretty much as down as it gets in here."
"Charles, let's go," Fred said. "It's impossible to get anything on some thin woman with dark hair and some scar over her—"
"Eye," the bar keep supplied. "Don't know if it's the same chic you're looking for, but a girl just like that came in here a few hours ago."
Gunn and Fred exchanged a look. Finally, something to go on.
"Did you find anything out about her?" Gunn asked. "Anything?"
"Not much," the man shrugged. "She was in here talking to some other woman. Didn't catch much."
"Well, do you have any way we can maybe get a better idea of what she looked like?" Fred asked.
"Might've got her face on the security cam," said the bar tender.
"Give it up," Gunn said.
"You got money?"
"You got the tape, we got the money," Gunn replied simply.
The bar tender sighed and headed towards his security camera.
"At least we have something now," Fred said with a little smile.
"Told you we'd get something," Gunn said to her. "Need to listen to me more."
Fred shook her head and said, "Of course."
Lorne and Wesley climbed out of Wesley's car, heading towards the Caritas debris. Lorne shook his head at the horribly burnt building, which still got to him after all those years. The grand re-opening hadn't been quite as grand as he had hoped it would be.
"Are you sure you have a contact here?" Wesley asked.
"Demon I knew from Pylea," Lorne explained. "Hangs out in what's leftover at Caritas. Good guy for hearing things, but if you don't catch him when you can it's your loss."
The two of them stepped up to a small opening at the side of the building and a large amount of old bits and pieces collapsed, nearly hitting them both. Wesley and Lorne exchanged a glance of caution before going inside fully. The inner was no greater than the outer, if not worse. Lorne stepped out to the middle of the room.
"Great Lou Dab Val," Lorne called as if he were chanting. "Come to us. We beseech you for answers and wisdom." The green demon glanced around, not hearing a reply. "Lou? Hey, Lou?"
Finally, a dark blue demon tumbled out from behind some ruble. He stood, allowing Wesley to get a good look at him. Deep blue skin, large green eyes, and a long tube for a mouth. He also looked more frightened than "great" as Lorne had called him.
"Charming fellow, isn't he?" Wesley asked.
"Shh, Wes," Lorne hissed then turned to Lou with a smile. "Lou, buddy, pal, old amigo."
"Krevlorneswath," Lou addressed. "It's been such a long time."
"Noted," Lorne said. "And nowadays it's just Lorne."
"Oh, of course," Lou said meekly. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, just a tad bit of info would be helpful," Lorne replied. "Have you gotten word on any Claudus demons up for hire? You know the clown look-alikes?"
"The Claudus?" Lou repeated. "No one hires them anymore. They're low breeds."
"Looks like you were right on the money there," Lorne said to Wesley before going back to Lou. "Get any activity out of these guys lately?"
"Very little, but I believe a few were involved in a child abduction recently."
"Near child abduction," Lorne clarified. "That's why we're here."
"I wish I could help, but nothing has really been going down these days," said Lou. "It's been rather peaceful."
Lorne sighed deeply. "Well, thanks, anyway, pal. I'll be seeing you."
"Good luck to you, Lorne," Lou said then waved to Wesley, who waved back lightly.
"Big walloping dead end here," Lorne said to Wesley as they exited.
"It's all right," Wesley assured him. "We won't actually have anything to worry about until we let Angel know his son is still in danger."
Cordelia and Xander sat side by side at Angel's desk in his office at the hotel, a large pile of books stacked up in front of them. Cordy flipped back and forth through the pages of a book she had been reading for nearly half an hour. She suddenly shut the book hard in frustration, completely tired.
"That's it," she said. "I officially loved whatever passion I had left for reading. There is nothing here that can help us. And other that nothing, what's there? More nothing!" Xander chuckled a little, staring at book of his own. "Well, I'm glad I'm entertaining you."
"No, it's just that…" Xander trailed off, laughing again. "You remember homecoming senior year?"
Cordelia smiled, fading into memory. "Yeah. Buffy and I nearly killed ourselves competing, paid for the limo, and overly expensive dresses and, what do you know, neither one of us wins. Fun evening, huh?"
"Yeah, well, the part I remember best is the way you looked that night," Xander said. "Like a dream come true."
"Aw, that's so… corny," Cordelia said humorously. "But sweet." Xander nodded before picking up his coffee cup and taking a sip. "I don't know. Maybe we could break and check on the kids." Cordelia picked up another book, looking at the cover. "Some of these things look completely ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that a large cat demon would be after Connor—" She suddenly slipped forward, startling Xander, who flung his cup a little, spilling coffee on Cordy's blouse.
"Oh, sorry, Cordy, major oops moment," Xander apologized as they both broke into laughter.
"Not that funny," Cordy said, unable to hide her own humor, though as she tried to wipe the coffee off with her hand.
"Here let me help," Xander said, grabbing a napkin then reached out, wiping off her shirt.
"God, hot stuff, hot stuff," Cordy hissed.
Xander chuckled a little. "I was just thinking the same thing." They suddenly glanced up into each other's eyes, Cordy surprised by him. "Not that I was… I just meant that…"
"Uh, maybe we should get back to research," Cordy said.
"Yeah, research. That's good. That's production," Xander agreed. They reached out towards the pile of books, suddenly locking hands as they touched the same text. "OK, not so…" Cordelia looked up at him again, seriousness in her eyes. "Uh, productive."
The pair leaned in closer towards each other, suddenly finding themselves in a kiss. Xander reached out and wrapped his arms around her and Cordy in return hugged him around the neck, pulling him in tighter. They only kissed deeper, neither looking ready to let go of the other's lips.
Unknown to them, Danielle sat outside in the lobby, watching them from the very see thru window. The little girl's eyes were bugged out as she looked at them in revulsion. She turned and ran towards the stairs where Connor sat playing with his toy cars.
He looked up at Danny and asked, "Hey, wanna play?"
"No!" Danielle suddenly screeched. "I want to leave."
"How come? Where you going?"
"I don't care," Danielle snapped. "I'm not staying here anymore."
Connor stood and said, "I'm coming, too."
Danielle didn't say anything just took her jacket from one of the couches, heading for the double doors. Connor took his own jacket and followed after her. It wasn't until they had left out of the hotel completely that Connor thought about something.
"Danny? What about Aunt Cordy?" he asked.
Danielle shook her head and said softly, "She doesn't need me, Connor. She has Xander."
A/N: In case I messed up in previous chapters, Danielle's age is seven and a half. Just wanted to clarify. Please review!