Author's Notes: Okay, here's another fic that I wrote a while back. I hope you all like it, because I had a great time writing it. Connor doesn't exist in this fic, he was never there in the first place. Also, as you can probably tell by now, if you have read my other fics, I love the character of Anne, so I had to include her in this.

Inspiration: My mom was watching 7th Heaven the other day and the episode where Kevin proposes to Lucy was on and I just took a cue from it. Enjoy!

She was tired. Extremely tired. It wasn't an extremely busy day at the office, but then again she wouldn't know because Angel had her out all day tracking down a source that, as it turns out, died six months before. Plus, it was only her 26th birthday and everyone, including Angel, the man she loved, forgot about her birthday. How could he forget her birthday? They had been together for three years now. This was the man she had been with for three years intimately, ten years as he colleague, and heck, this was the man who begged her to stay in the hotel with him sometimes because he was scared.

Her birthday was the pin number for his ATM card, the alarm system pass code and his password to his e-mail account! How on earth could he forget? She was starting to think she was just doomed for birthdays, like Buffy.

19th Birthday: Office Blows up. 20th Birthday: Angel fires them. 21st Birthday: put in comatose state after vision attack. 22nd Birthday: Apocalypse. 23rd Birthday: Angel is put on trial for murder. 24th Birthday: the only good birthday in her mind, Angel finally asks me out on an official date. 25th Birthday: another apocalypse. And here she was at the 26th Birthday: everyone forgets, including Angel. How does everything keep getting turned back around to him? She dragged her feet up the last steps to the door of her apartment.

She wanted this day to be over with now. All she could think about was hitting the sack and not waking up until noon tomorrow. Some birthday. The only type of party she had was with a ghost with a confetti obsession at seven thirty this morning. Searching in her shoulder tote bag for her keys, she flinched when her fingers came upon something sharp.

"Dammit." Cordelia gave up, pulling the flap back over her bag and placing her hands on her hips.

"Dennis, a little help here?" She called out. The door opened gently and she walked in with her head still down.

"Thank you Dennis. I guess you're the only one who rememb...Oh my God..." Cordelia placed her tote bag on the nearest chair and then looked up, stopping mid-thought to gaze upon her newly decorated apartment.

It was filled with flowers and balloons of all sorts. She slowly walked forward as Dennis flipped on the lights. The illuminating light guided her path threw the living room space loaded with latex balloons, peach roses, gardenias, forget-me-nots, violets, more balloons with Happy Birthday written upon them, red roses, lilies and even more peach roses. The floating boxes up ahead told her that Dennis was anxiously awaiting her presence and wanting to know what was in the metallic silver wrapping paper. She sat down on the sofa, beside the invisible man, which again held flowers and a giant sized teddy bear holding a parchment envelope with her name on it.

"Do you know who did this, Dennis?" She asked the friendly phantom she knew was sitting beside her. Carefully opening up the envelope, she read the note with detailed instructions.

Dearest Cordelia,

Happy Birthday! Open your gifts and enjoy them

A driver will be at your door at seven thirty sharp.

Do not ask him questions as he is sworn to secrecy.

Secret Admirer

Her heart jumped in place. She was looking forward to whatever her secret admirer had planned. It sure beat the plans that Angel had which were 'sit in my dark room all night reading a book I have absolutely no interest in.' Placing the letter back on the coffee table, she grabbed the top box and quickly unwrapped it, predicting it was some sort of jewelry. Removing the tightly wrapped metallic paper, she lifted the lid and read the card that accompanied it.

Happy Birthday Cordelia!

Love, Wesley & Gunn

Placing the card aside, she extracted the abundance of cotton and tissue paper that she knew was thanks to Wesley, and pulled out the gift: Flawless, almost one carat diamond stud earrings.

"Oh..." She gasped, lost for any words to describe her emotions right now. They were beautiful. Extraordinarily beautiful. What could she say to them? Thank you just didn't seem enough. Dennis shook the next box in front of her, wanting to know what was next. Taking it out of the air, Cordelia placed the earrings back in the small box and set it aside, diverting her whole attention to the skinny flat box in front of her. Eliminating the paper like she did the previous box, a card was laid upon the mountain of tissue paper signed by Anne. Anne Steele was fairly new to the AI team but became fast friends with Cordelia and Fred. Placing the card aside, she tossed out the sheer paper and laid her eyes upon the black crocodile leather Prague clutch.

"Oh, Annie..." She gasped, checking the inside pockets, just in case. "What on earth are they doing?" She asked herself while Dennis tapped his famous pencil on the table, urging for more presents to be opened. The third box, she knew. She had several of these boxes in her closet, either filled with shoes she didn't wear anymore or were out of season. She set the lid of the box next to her and read the card.

Cordy,

Happy Birthday!

Hope you like these. I used all the rules you made for me and splurged.

Love, Fred

She knew she would like whatever Fred got her, because they had grown into sisters more than friends. Black, shiny with a single strap at the ankle high heels were presented in front of her. She even had to give herself credit there, her being the one to teach Fred about shoe shopping when they had gotten back from Pylea years ago. And Fred was right, she did follow all the rules. This was wonderful. She was excited about the next package and predicted in her mind that it would be some kind of apparel, calculating in the size of the box compared to the rest.

"Okay, last one Dennis. Do you want to or should I?" She asked, the box moving towards her. "I'll take that as me to do it." Lifting the big box up onto her lap, she took another deep breath wishing for at least a new shirt to show off at the office. Opening up the box, she picked up the oversized card and read it.

Happy 26th Birthday, sweetheart.

Love, Lorne

Short and sweet, just like Lorne. Pushing back the heap of sheer tissue paper, her eyes widened at the sight of the item. Taking it out of the box, she stood up, twirling with the strapless silver toned matte satin dress with bunched up tulle fabric cascading down the length of the dress. It was gorgeous, elegant, exquisite and charming all rolled into one.

"Okay, Lorne is so getting a kiss for this tomorrow." She said aloud, still holding the dress to her body, twirling about the living room floor. Lorne had the best taste in clothes, she reminded herself before being jolted out of her little world by a pencil frantically tapping against the clock on the wall. 7:00 p.m. She only had a half hour to get ready.

"Thank you Dennis." She told the phantom, gathering up the shoes and dress and hurrying back to her bedroom. Maybe this wasn't a bad birthday after all.

"Dennis, are you ready?" Cordelia called out from behind the corridor wall twenty minutes later and waited for his signal. The pencil tapping commenced and she stepped out, showing Dennis the finished product. The music came on and the pencil tapping became louder as Cordelia spinned around, the dress flowing behind her and sparkling in the dim light.

"Is that a good thing?" She asked again, the pencil almost breaking against the table. "I'll take that as a yes." She answered for Mr. Invisible and went over to the sofa, picking up the earrings and placing them on her ear lobes. Tossing her hair back again, she heard the knock on her door. She was nervous. She, Cordelia Chase, Queen C, was actually nervous.

When was the last time she was nervous? Oh yea, the time Angel was almost taken away from her again. Brushing the feeling away, she took another deep breath and opened the door. There stood a man, about her height, dressed in a black suit with a little chauffeur's cap on.

"Miss Chase, I presume?"

"Uh huh." She said apprehensively, shaking her head up and down confirming that she was Miss Chase.

"Happy Birthday. My name's Joe and I'll be driving you. Are you ready?" He asked, showing her the way out of her apartment. She shut the door behind her, clutch in hand and followed him down the stairs to the car waiting on the street corner. Here we go.