All You Have To Do Is Smile
By Kyizi
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, I'm only playing :)
Rating: PG-13/R
Spoilers/Timeline: This is set directly after the Season 2 finale
Dedication: To Sugar, Zen and Kath who gave me great lines and ideas with their insane chatter on the CA board ;) and, as always, to Heliona and the ever patient Loriel Eris.
To all those on the CA board (Wren, Keira, Kath, Angelfan1099 etc) who gave me info on the surroundings, shops, history etc. (Sorry if I haven't named you, but there are soooo many of you and you're all great!)
But mostly to Carrie, whose wonderful fic "Take Your Time" and its sequel inspired me to actually use this idea with the thinking that it might work! Due to the fact that I've been taking her version of history as read, I (again) had to use the CA board in the beginning, so thanks to everyone else there who gave me the info about what really happened!
Feedback: Do you want to see me beg? It's not a pretty sight but I'll do it… ;)
E-mail: kyizifanfic@hotmail.com
Yahoo! Group: KyiziFic
Notes: This fic will mostly be written from Cordelia's POV with the occasional trip into Angel's psyche.
Notes 2: Replies to reviews…
DONUTS said: "My only complaint is that things are a little unclear at times. I didn't know Cordelia was passing herself off as a Colonial until she thought about her "american fortunes," and I'm still not sure whether lil' Wes is supposed to be normal sized, or kiddie sized."
Okay, about the Cordy thing, I mentioned that she had been sailing across with her brother, who hadn't survived the trip, I thought I'd mentioned America, but I hadn't, have changed that! Also, have made it clearer with another sentence, that Wes was the size of his full grown self! (These changes have not been uploaded anywhere yet, but will be on my web page when it's up, then I'll think about updating everywhere else!)
Skyla said: ""you've returned to me an Angel" Kathy's words to the vampire Liam as she opened the door."
Thank you! I remember now. Was that an Angel ep? If it was, I don't think that ep had aired when I started writing this. If not, I'm just a forgetful sod! ;p
Ailsing (I love your name!) said: "P.S love the Irish accent. I'm from Ireland and we don't talk like that anymore but it's so funny to read it."
Yeah, don't worry, I know you don't! I'm from Scotland, and the stereotypical Scottish thing amuses me as well. But I figured I could get away with it here since this is in the past! My friend Stevie-Jane used to do the 'Irish beta' for me, but hasn't done it since about chapter three! (I update too slow to keep interest, I guess!)
Notes 3: I wanted to apologise for the wait for this one. I promised it about a week or two ago, but recently had some bad news and had to return home to be with my family. Things are slowly getting back to normal, and here's the promised chapter. Sorry for the wait :)
~x~x~x~x~x~
Angel sighed and rubbed his eyes. It had definitely been a strange few weeks. Since meeting Miss Imogene, his life had been turned upside down. He had stopped drinking, and had started caring about his life, his family...his future. EVerything just seemed so unreal that he wasn't sure where he stood anymore. But worse than that, he wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to make of his strange new way of life. But he did know that things weren't all they seemed. His memories were getting patchy, strange and confusing.
He gently fingered the necklace in his hands, running his hand over the simple teardrop design of it was strangely calming. Part of him knew that the necklace wasn't the normal thing that Miss Imogene would go for, but at the same time, he knew it was something she would love; whether he had seen her admiring it or not. And that was what was so confusing.
He had so many conflicting memories, and they were all patchy and getting more so by the minute. He could scarcely even remember where he had met Miss Imogene, but when he had asked Aunt Ella to remind him, putting it down to drink, Miss Imogene had overheard him and had given him the oddest look. There was so much that he wanted to ask her, so much that h no longer understood, but felt that he should know about. What was LA? What did a gun have to do with things? Why did Cordelia snigger whenever she saw little Elizabeth Fletcher? But what really confused him the most was that he felt he should already know the answer to those questions.
He sighed again and lay back on his bed. His body hadn't taken too kindly to the fact that he had so suddenly stopped drinking alcohol, and the shaking was beginning to annoy him. He felt cold a lot of the time and his headaches were becoming near impossible to ignore. He wasn't even sure what had made him stop drinking, but he knew he didn't want to start again. He preferred who he was when he was sober, and what was more, so did Miss Imogene.
If only he could figure out why.
~x~x~x~x~x~
Cordelia sighed and rubbed her eyes. Things were getting really weird. Time travel, Gunn and Wes in dresses and really itchy under garments aside, Angel was acting really odd, and she didn't like it. He had stopped drinking, which was definitely of the good, whatever Wee Jimmy said, and he seemed to be getting on a lot better with his family, but that didn't account for the fact that he no longer seemed able to separate Miss Imogene and Cordelia. Even when they were in private, which was happening a lot less, for some reason, he still called her Miss Imogene, and he seemed more…stand offish and, well, gentlemanly.
She stood up and walked towards the window, staring out at the lights of the small town of Galway. She never thought she'd hear herself use a word like picturesque, but that was the only thing that would describe it for her. It was lovely. The light was gently fading, and the lamps in the houses were coming on one by one, and the whole village seemed to be shrouded in a red haze of fog that was so lovely it seemed unbelievable that it was natural. She only wished that Angel was sharing it with her.
And that was another strange thing. Whenever she called him Angel, he would give her a funny look and then call Cathy over to her. She had been thinking about it over the last few days, and she had been able to trace it back to the night of the Gala. They had been about to leave, when Angel had had a sudden sharp pain in his head that had rendered him useless, falling to his knees clutching at his head in agony. His father had muttered something about withdrawal from alcohol, and Angel had agreed when he had finally been able to stand up. But there was just something that wasn't right. Cordelia just knew it.
He had looked at her with a small smile and said, "Don't worry, Miss Imogene, I'm fine. I'm sorry for upsetting you." It was something that was perfectly acceptable for Liam to say to Miss Imogene, and it was, again, perfectly acceptable for Angel to say to Cordelia, but there was something that was not acceptable, and that was what his eyes had said. His eyes were lying.
He had clearly been confused, and had been trying not to worry anyone, including her. She had nodded and signalled to him that she knew something was up, but he hadn't sought her out that night. She had waited up, only finally falling asleep when the light was coming up again, and still he hadn't come.
She had slept through the day, fobbing Aunt Ella off by telling her it would have been her brother's birthday, and Aunt Ella had seen to it that she hadn't been disturbed. But Angel hadn't called round anyway. When he had finally come over, he had greeted her so properly that even Wee Jimmy had commented on it. That night had been even stranger. She had eaten dinner with Angel's family, and while he had treated her properly in front of them, he had also been the same with her on the walk home. It just wasn't right. Something was up.
She sighed again and sat on the window ledge, leaning her head against the frame. She was to go to the beach with Angel and Cathy in the morning, and she wasn't quite sure what was going through Angel's mind, but she was going to find out. If there was one thing that Cordelia Chase was good at, it was getting what she wanted out of people. And all she wanted from Angel was the truth. And how hard could that be?
~x~x~x~x~x~
He almost giggled in delight. If he giggled of course, which he most assuredly did not. Things were going perfectly according to plan, and he was going to make sure that things stayed that way. Cordelia was so confused it was amusing all in itself, but what made it so much better, was that Angel was no longer Angel, and she hadn't worked it out yet.
He had to admit that when he had cast the spell, he wasn't sure that it would work at all, let alone as well as it had, but Angel seemed to have no memory of the future at all. He was Liam now, and that was all he would ever be. Granted there was a hitch in that Liam also seemed to be in love with Cordelia and was more than willing to stay on the straight and narrow. But that could change. It would change. As soon as he was ready for it to do so.
He was impressed by the fact that there had been very few side effects of the magicks he had been working. The town had had a little more rain than was normal, but he knew that rain wasn't all that uncommon in Ireland. He had visited on many occasions when he was younger, and he had holiday photos that attested to that. Although, the fact that more people had commented on the increase in rain rather that the red haze that had shrouded the village, simply amused him. All in all, the side effect were minimal. He laughed. Who said you couldn't get something for nothing?
His plan to change the past had seemed so ludicrous that he had had to kill many of his 'minions', as it were, but he had almost succeeded. He would succeed. She would make sure of that. He glanced across the room to the small bed in the corner, a smile gracing his lips as she stretched like a cat, her hips grinding into the bed in a way that almost had him groaning out loud.
As if hearing his thoughts, she glanced in his direction, a predatory smile dancing across her face. "You want me," she purred. It was not a question, but even if it had been, he really wouldn't have needed to reply; the growing bulge in his trousers did that well enough for him.
She sat up and slid onto the floor, crawling towards him. This time he did groan. She laughed, and under normal circumstances he would have found it a creepy, insane laugh, one a little like his own he supposed, but these were not normal circumstances. She was helping him, and in return, he would help her. Or at least he would make her believe that as long as was necessary for his plan to be completed. In the mean time, there was always sex. And she was so good at that.
~x~x~x~x~x~
End of Part NineOkay, I know, I'm being really ambiguous, but I have a feeling you'll have worked out who she is anyway, I just didn't think stating anything worked here. Maybe next time.
Hope you like the new little twist with Angel, and I know nothing really happened here, but trust me, the action will be coming soon. The next chapter may be pretty mild, but after that, the plot will thicken as my bad guy's plan begins to take shape!
All feedback is welcome, and appreciated :)
Oh, and here's what the first paragraph was like, until I realised it didn't work! See if you can spot the DOH! Moment…it's pretty damn obvious! LoL!
Angel sighed and rubbed his eyes. It had definitely been a strange few weeks. Buffy's death, his grieving (or brooding as Cordelia called it), quickly followed by their impromptu return to the past, had thrown him out of sync. He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to make of things, but he knew that it wasn't all the way it seemed. Things were getting patchy, strange and confusing.