Angel opened the window slowly so that he made barely a noise. Skillful at being quiet, Angel practically tiptoed inside Cordelia's bedroom so that if she were asleep, he wouldn't disturb her.

The vampire he'd 'interrogated' had given him useful information. Though he wanted nothing more than to get the prophecy himself without bringing any harm to Cordelia, Angel knew he'd need some backup and she was the right person for the job.

Why he was so concerned for Cordelia's safety was lost to Angel. Sure, she was a sixteen year old girl and it was a given that Angel, what with his soul, wouldn't want harm to come her way, but it seemed more to him. His actions concerning her were instinctual. No thought was needed to make the decision of finding out what was going on with The Master and Darla when Angel reminded himself that Cordelia was one of their targets.

Sighing, Angel shook his head at his naivety. She can handle herself and I should let her handle herself. She's a big girl just like any other Slayer, so why should I have to think about her so much.

Through his thoughts Angel managed to distract himself enough so that he didn't notice where a rug on top of Cordelia's carpet started. His boot immediately went under it, causing him to trip and fall with a loud thud.

Cordelia didn't jump up from her sleep, only because she was already awake and on the floor, leaning against the wall so that she was facing the window where Angel had entered from. With thickness in her voice, Cordelia managed to speak without a tremor in her voice. "Dork."

Getting up, Angel straightened his jacket and cleared his throat, trying to recover from his moment of 'dorkiness'. "I just can't seem to make a good entrance like those guys in the movies, huh?"

Cordelia didn't smile. Though to any normal pair of eyes Cordelia's face wasn't visible, Angel could see every feature of her façade and immediately caught on to the fact that she wasn't in the best of moods. The crease under her eyes and the puffiness and redness of them signified she'd been crying and hadn't slept in a while.

"You alright?" Angel asked, walking around her bed and sitting on the floor across from her. Though his legs were long he managed to position them in a slightly comfortable way unlike Cordelia's, which were stretched so that her toes were about a foot from Angel's crotch.

"I guess..." she hesitated to continue, but when she glanced into Angel's puppy-dog eyes, she couldn't help but speak further. "Had a fight with my dad."

"I'm sorry."

"You're always sorry," Cordelia rightly pointed out. "You don't have to keep saying that."

Angel's face fell at her abruptness, "Sorry."

"Can I ask you something?" Cordelia ignored his continued use of the 's' word to try and get something out of his arrival, to bring him to some position of usefulness. If he was going to sneak into her bedroom in the middle of the night he sure as hell was going to provide her with some insight. Even if she would have to twist his arm to get it.

"Sure."

"Did you ever have a problem when you were human?" she asked, picking absently at a thread on her pajama bottoms. "An addiction, even."

"Like smoking?"

"Yeah," Cordelia barely even nodded, her voice getting so quiet that even Angel, with his vampire hearing, had to strain to hear her.

"I was an alcoholic...always had a hangover and the cure for a hangover was getting drunk. At least that was how I looked at it."

Cordelia looked up at him, not even for a moment, but actually locking stares with him. It was an eerie coincidence at how he had the same problem. But then again, alcoholics weren't exactly rare in the world. "How'd you get over that problem?"

"How do you know I don't still have it?" Angel dared to ask her that question.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Shove it. You don't smell like you've been drinking and you're too damn smooth to be drunk. Well, not counting the whole 'tripping on the rug' bit you just had."

Smooth? Angel reiterated in his thoughts, surprised at Cordelia's word choice. "I didn't really get over it. When I was turned, it was blood that replaced alcohol. Then I was given my soul back. I was so tortured by the guilt from the things I had done that I starved myself of blood. Which you could say was like starving myself of alcohol."

"So that's how you go over it? Your soul?"

"Not necessarily. Things changed. Time passed."

Cordelia nodded, trying to understand. Time wasn't her friend or her fathers. She was the Slayer and therefore a shortened life was a given. What if she didn't have the chance to see her father get better? What if he never did?

Finally, Cordelia simply pushed past it and focused on other things. "Do you have something to tell me, or what?" she asked.

"I do," Angel nodded, though still he wondered why she bothered to ask about him, about his alcohol problem. Angel couldn't help but question whether or not Cordelia's home life was fine. But she wanted to change the subject so he did so.

"I... 'interrogated' someone and I got some information about a prophecy. An important one that's pivotal against The Master, a powerful vampire who's looking for a fight with you, by the looks of it. The prophecy says something and we need to get it, it's in the Master's possession."

"Are you sure?" Giles asked, nearly spitting into the receiver of the phone, his voice a frantic whisper. When Cordelia spoke, assuring him, he nodded to himself in agreement. "I'll meet you there. Be careful."

Nearly throwing the phone back on the jack, Giles spun to grab his jacket, hoping to be fast enough to meet Cordelia and Angel at the place they said to go to before they got too impatient and jumped the gun by going in without him.

Only when he turned to the doorway he nearly knocked himself over when he ran into a dark-haired woman. Quite pretty, she looked at him with a curious expression, her entrancing eyes locking with his. It was Jenny Calendar, the computer teacher.

"What're you doing here?" Giles snapped, more rudely than he ever spoke with her, even if every time they spoke he was always a little snappish. "I'm afraid there isn't a computer in here fast enough for your short attention span."

Not quite affected by Giles sarcasm when he was always around her, Jenny simply rolled her eyes. "Have you seen Cordelia Chase?"

"Why?" Giles immediately asked, but when he noticed his brisk tone, he tried to cover by taking on a more sardonic one. "Did she leave a computer on?"

"That would actually require her to attend a class," Jenny pointed out, eyeing him with a daring look, as if challenging him to test her. "She wasn't in class today or yesterday."

Giles simply shook his head. "I'll speak with her later about it."

"Are you a mentor or guardian of hers?" Jenny asked, her eyes narrowing as they discovered one of Giles Watcher's Diaries open with several phrases jumping out at her and getting her attention. "What's that?"

She jabbed her finger at the open tome behind the librarian, even taking a step forward, trying to get a better look.

Never turning around nor breaking his gaze with Jenny, Giles closed the book as nonchalantly as he could. "It's nothing. Nothing at all."

Carefully avoiding large puddles and piles of mud, Cordelia arched her back forward so that she could fit through the small, cave-like tunnel. "What're we doing again?"

Brushing her chocolate tresses out of her face, the young Slayer glanced at Angel, who walked close beside her, expecting an answer. They'd left in a rush from her house, Angel leading the way to where they were now. Fortunately, or unfortunately for Cordelia's conscience, her father had yet to return home so they were able to leave through the front door with as much gear as they desired.

"One of The Master's minions has a mansion, which we're underneath right now and somewhere, at the end of this tunnel, is the prophecy," Angel explained. "And if you keep forgetting what we're doing and asking if we're there yet I'm going to pick you up and throw you back outside."

Cordelia snorted sardonically, "Don't you think it's a little early in our friendship for you to be manhandling me?"

Shaking his head in response, Angel held back a grin, hoping to not allow Cordelia's sense of humor to get to him, to let the seriousness of the situation cease. "We're getting close."

Cordelia nodded, once again brushing some stray pieces behind her ears, even if they weren't in her eyes. When she noticed Angel's eyes glance towards her, the dark brown depth of them reflecting in the fading color of the flashlight in his hand, she merely muttered. "It's a habit."

"Not a bad one," Angel said to her before returning his attention to the path they were treading.

Still, Cordelia seemed to have something else on her mind as she stayed close to Angel, just a step behind him. Eventually she spoke, her voice catching in her throat, causing her to clear it and continue. "So...you were an alcoholic?"

"Hmm?" Angel mumbled, trying to act as if he didn't catch what she was saying. But the look he got from Cordelia, a pointed look with narrowed eyes and her jaw firm, was enough to convince him to stop the charade. But it didn't mean he was going to give in all the way. "Drop it, Cordelia."

"Why?" Cordelia asked, grabbing his arm with a strong grip, keeping him from walking away, forcing him to face her. She was quite surprised that he was avoiding the subject now compared to when they were in her bedroom and he seemed so open to explaining his 'addiction'.

When Angel finally looked into Cordelia's eyes, he saw there the sincerity of her concern, of her interest in his past, in everything about him. "I'm not the kind of guy that delves too much into his past, alright?"

"No, it's not alright!" Cordelia protested, placing her hands on her hips and looking at him with an incredulous expression that was barely visible as the flashlight's bulb continued to flicker and fade.

Angel shrugged, his resolute stance faltering, if only for a moment. "Reminiscing isn't a hobby of mine..."

"Come on, you gotta tell me stuff about you," Cordelia pleaded, the adolescent side of her leaking to the surface as she bobbed up and down, waiting for an answer. "You know way more about me, so I think I deserve to-"

"Whoa, whoa whoa!" Angel raised his hands in the air, stopping Cordelia. He wasn't going to lose the argument. "I don't know way more about you."

"You know that I'm a Slayer," Cordelia pointed out.

"You know that I'm a Vampire," Angel replied.

Cordelia didn't miss a beat, "You heard me and my father talking about...stuff."

Pausing for a moment, Angel cursed himself in his thoughts for taking too long to come up with something else. "I told you about how I used be an alcoholic!"

Cordelia made a 'ha!' face, knowing she had the advantage. "You were in my bedroom and probably peeked to see me naked. Which means you saw my ugly-ass scars."

"You don't have any scars..." Angel argued, not denying that he 'peeked' for a better view. Still, he seemed reluctant to admit more about himself. "I'm not talking about this. So let's forget it before you get your satin panties in a wad."

Rolling her eyes, Cordelia just sighed. Only a few moments later, the flashlight in Angel's hands finally gave in just as he and Cordelia started once again down their paths.

"Ow!" Cordelia grunted. "You stepped on my foot!"

Angel winced when her finger ran into his eye.

"Whoa, bubba. Watch the hands!"

"I didn't mean to touch that!"

"What, are you saying that you didn't have the urge to just 'accidentally' slip and touch my boob? I don't know whether to feel violated or insulted."

"Hey! Little miss 'Personal Space', you better keep your hands in your pockets," Angel nearly jumped when Cordelia's hand brushed along the groin area of his pants.

"Like you have an excuse," Cordelia snorted, pointing it out right in Angel's face, standing still and just inches from him. "You're taking the darkness to an advantage. What, with your vampire senses and all. Perv!"

Abruptly, Cordelia and Angel's entire surroundings illuminated from the now revealed ceiling lights and it became apparent that the two had entered a larger cave-like room but hadn't taken notice because of their bitching.

But the moment of surprise at their location was short-lived as their eyes moved around the room to where five vampires looked at them with sly confidence, as if they were so sure they had the two trapped.

Xander pushed open the doors nonchalantly, shrugging out of his jacket as he continued to assure his redheaded friend who walked speedily ahead of him. "She's here, trust me. I gotta feeling."

"Yeah, in your pants," Willow rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms and slowed her pace, noticing two shadows spreading across the tile floor of the library coming from the office where Rupert Giles worked.

Turning around the corner she confirmed the two shadows belonged to Giles and surprisingly, Jenny Calendar. Usually during school hours the two of them couldn't stand to be in the same room as one another for more than thirty seconds. It was an odd site that she would have paid more attention to if she hadn't realized that Giles was obviously trying to get rid of the unwanted guest.

"Where's Cordelia?" Xander asked, not quite catching on to the tension in the room.

"She uh..." Giles strained a smile for a moment. Giving both Xander and Willow a look, he simply answered as cryptically as possible. "Got a little caught up."

A womanly figure made its slowly but steady way out of the manhole, a scratched, dirty and slightly bloody hand grabbing onto a small rock emerging from the ground for support. Cordelia Chase poked her head out of the hole as Angel pushed her upwards suddenly.

Her face scrunched up, she continued laughing as she rolled on the ground, holding her stomach.

Angel followed close behind her, his duster nowhere in sight, discarded earlier in the fight they had with the five vampires. He was laughing too, a rarity that Cordelia enjoyed seeing more than she expected.

"Did you see the one in the red shirt fall in the fire?" Angel asked her through his laughs, crawling over to his young companion as she lifted her other hand up to her brow to wipe the sweat away.

Ten o'clock at night, the full moon was shining brilliantly in the patch of green grass where a manhole was oddly placed, illuminating Cordelia and her skin that shone with a sheer layer of sweat that made her look even more beautiful.

Nodding, Cordelia laughed as the image of the vampire struggling to put himself out by running into his other companion.

Angel just watched her for a moment, her laughing becoming more tranquil, even soothing as he tilted his head, his eyes locked on her smile that reached from ear to ear.

When her laughing died away, Cordelia's eyes narrowed just a little bit, a more bashful smile replacing her full-on one. "What're you staring at?"

"Nothing," Angel lied until he reluctantly explained. "You have a nice smile, that's all."

"Thank you," Cordelia said sincerely, her cheeks flushing pink for only a moment. "Yours isn't too bad, either."

"Not too shabby for Cordy?" Angel teased with a cute grin.

It was now Cordelia's turn to be silent and just look, as if the mere presence and image of Angel was enough to keep her occupied.

"Now what're you staring at?"

"No one ever called me 'Cordy' before," Cordelia explained quietly, looking away, off in the distance perhaps as she, for the umpteenth time that night, brushed her hair behind her ears. "At least not that I can remember."

Angel leaned forward, arching his neck so that he was in her eyesight. "Is that all right with you?"

Nodding, Cordelia smiled a pleasant smile, hoping it was enough for him. But when he remained there, looking at her with an expectant expression on his chiseled features, she reluctantly and verbally agreed. "It's fine."

Still, Angel's expression was serious. It only took Cordelia a few moments to realize that along her right arm was a deep cut, blood slowly trickling down, warming her slightly cold skin. She hadn't taken notice before, perhaps it was the rush or that she was enjoying a good laugh, it wasn't clear. But now she knew and she couldn't help but want to bandage it up and just get it out of her sight.

"We need to get that cleaned up so it doesn't get infected," Angel said to her, standing up and holding his hand out for her.

Taking it, Cordelia stood up beside him. "My house?"

"Nah, I know a place a little closer actually."

"Wow..." Cordelia whispered as she walked through the large oak double-doors of Angel's mansion-like home.

Though very few things were in the place, there were a few vases and a piece of artwork here and there along the walls and the oak table he had placed by the fireplace was obviously worth a fortune. The design of the place had a creepy feel to it, but Cordelia felt oddly at home inside along with Angel.

"You have antique-y tastes and it makes your place all cool and well...antique-y."

Angel let out a small, modest laugh as he walked across the living room floor casually while kicking off his shoes. "I'll go get some bandages."

Cordelia looked around from top to bottom, her eyes burning mental images into the back of her mind, as if she had the feeling she wouldn't be coming there as often as she would like. It wasn't that she liked the place; it was how easily she had already become attached to it, wanting to come back more often, that surprised her.

Walking around, letting her hand run along the worn yet still soft to the touch fabric of Angel's couch that faced the fireplace. Though no fire was lit, the soot covering the inside of the fireplace and the warmth that still somehow radiated from it made it known that fires were nearly always burning there.

A scowl crossed Cordelia's face when her eyes caught sight of a dark, liquid drop on the stone floor, seeming so out of place that she was surprised she hadn't noticed it before.

Walking closer she realized it was blood and felt a little better, reminding herself before she could jump to conclusions that Angel, though he had a soul, was still a vampire and needed blood.

Moving into the kitchen in search of some paper towels to clean up the small drop, Cordelia scratched absently at the long wound on her arm. The pain was throbbing now but she showed no outward display of it, not willing even subconsciously to admit to weakness, especially in front of an equal fighter such as Angel.

Some called it stubbornness, she called it common sense.

No one would respect her if she let her emotions speak through her actions, became a whiny crybaby that ran into the arms of a burly, 'protector' man

The kitchen was smaller than she figured, and it wasn't as much of a separate room as most kitchens. It was rather connected to the entire living room/dining room area, making it hard to tell when one room ended and the other began.

Curious, Cordelia let her eyes drift along the walls, taking in the features of the unlit room. Noticing the door to the refrigerator was ajar; Cordelia grabbed the handle and closed it out of politeness, only to reveal Angel standing behind it, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

"I saw blood on the floor," Cordelia explained immediately, pointing aimlessly out into the living room. Holding back the urge to bite her lip, she tried to also hide her frantic attempt to remain unfazed by his unwilling stare, even if his expression didn't give off an angry vibe. "I thought that I could clean it up while you got the bandages."

For a moment, nothing happened. Angel just stood there, his dark, endlessly deep eyes looking into hers. But then his face softened and he flashed a mili-second smile at her. "No problem."

Turning to leave the kitchen, Angel scratched the back of his head absently as his thoughts drifted on a thousand subjects. Cordelia was in his kitchen, she'd seen the blood on the ground, smelled the dried blood that he'd spilled in his fridge a few days before...whether she was disgusted or afraid of him, he didn't want to know. It just bothered him that a young, beautiful woman such as Cordelia was in his home, seeing the things he did every time he came home at night, getting to know him.

"You...uh, have no blood in your fridge," Cordelia pointed out as she followed him out into the living room, entangling her fingers with one another nervously, trying to confirm if he was straining his nonchalant 'tude or if he was actually not bothered by her intruding his space.

"I haven't had time to get some more," Angel replied. He turned to face her, motioning to the couch. "You should sit...we don't want you to lose too much blood."

Cordelia did as he said and sat down, crossing her legs and sitting in the position she always sat in when she attempted to meditate. Sure, she never actually meditated before, but she tried to quite a few times in hopes of some relaxation. Didn't work.

After kneeling down in front of Cordelia, Angel grabbed her hand gently with his calloused hand. Lifting a bottle up to pour some liquid on her arm, he paused to run a finger along the side of the wound, making sure it wasn't swelling past a normal extent.

When he lowered the bottle closer to her arm, however, Cordelia pulled her arm back a little.

Offering a lopsided, comforting grin, Angel looked up at her. "It's just some medication..."

Though she hesitated, Cordelia gave in, her eyes sparkling a little as she watched the vampire return his attention to her wound, treating it with special care.

Wrapping the bandage around her arm, Angel pressed his fingers along it, making sure it stuck. "Done."

Looking up at her, Angel's pale skin looked almost perfect, soft and demulcent and Cordelia had the sudden urge to lift her hand just stroke his cheek, as if that was all she needed to dispense of the throbbing pain in her arm.

Angel broke the silence first, clearing his throat and breaking their locked gazes by focusing his attention on the prophecies in his pant pockets. "We should look at them, get a head start."

"Before Giles comes in and has a heart-attack trying to translate it," Cordelia joked.

Pulling out the parchment from his pockets and unrolling it, Angel took a long look before rolling it back up. "Won't be hard to translate it."

Though it was the exact opposite of what Angel said, the fact that she made a promise to meet Xander and Willow clicked and she remembered. "Crap, I promised that I'd hang out with Will and Xander tonight. I forgot..."

"It's my fault," Angel assured her, hoping she wouldn't be too hard on herself. "I dropped the bomb about the prophecies and-"

Standing up, Cordelia shook her head, stopping Angel from taking the blame. "Don't even try to take the blame. It's my fault. I made friends with them and I've already started to flake. Not really givin' them reasons to stay friends with me, am I?"

Angel stood up along with her, following her as she moved to the door, prophecies in hand. "Don't think that. You're enough of a reason for anything."

Cordelia, not quite getting it as she opened the door and walked outside, turned to Angel and smirked. "When I'm not sweaty and distracted, I'll figure out what you mean by that and come up with something to say in return."

Giles raised his hands and pointed to the book, frantically gesticulating, taking the opportunity as Jenny looked at Xander and Willow, her back to him.

"Why would you guys meet Cordelia here? A study group?" Jenny asked, curious.

Getting what Giles was trying to hide, Xander stuttered an excuse. "Yeah, study group. Study groups are fun."

"That's why we're here!" Willow nodded overenthusiastically. "For lots of studying fun."

Jenny, unconvinced, turned back to Giles, giving him a serious look. "I'll talk with you later then, in private."

And then she was gone.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Xander looked from the door that Jenny exited in to Giles and Willow. "I found that strangely entertaining. Lying to my teacher. A faculty member of the school I go to five days out of the week...that'll eventually get curious because of my plummeting grades and figure out...god, I'm already paranoid."

Sitting down, Xander placed his head in his hands, laughing to himself.

Seeing the look on Giles face, Willow nonchalantly explained as she shrugged. "Xander always experiences slight paranoia when he's deprived of sleep."

"You've actually lost that much sleep?" came a voice from the doorway. When Xander, Willow and Giles turned they discovered Cordelia and Angel walking towards them.

"Hey," Willow waved to Cordelia, half-smiling. "Ms. Calendar's lookin' for you."

Straining a smile and stealing a glance Giles' way, Cordelia cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Yeah, it's about something I'll take care of tomorrow."

Removing his glasses, Giles smiled at Cordelia, a little too big. "Is this 'something' you need to take care of perhaps you're missing classes."

Cordelia merely shrugged it off; hoping a change of subject would alleviate the tension. "We got the prophecy."

Giles nearly choked on his own spit at the revelation, looking at Angel and Cordelia incredulously. Cordelia ignored him though, walking over to Xander and Willow, nervously anticipating them yelling at her. When that didn't come, instead the innocent looks on their faces, she loosened up a bit. "You guys up for an all-nighter of researchin'?"

Shaking his head, Giles walked in between the three, already protesting the suggestion. "No. I will be researching all night, you will be going home to do homework and sleep. Make sure not to miss any classes also."

Angel cleared his throat, "I'll help out. Translating I mean."

"Why don't we go see a move this weekend," Cordelia suggested as she, Xander and Willow strolled down the sidewalk. It was dark out but no cold air came, unfortunately. Cordelia was still slightly flushed from the fight she had with Angel and the vampires. Sure, it was a rush but sometimes she wanted nothing more than to fight some bad guys in a room with good air-conditioning.

"Sounds good," Xander nodded, walking in the middle of the two girls, admitting to himself inwardly that sitting in a dark room with Cordelia, perhaps watching a horror movie, would prove excellent for some hand-holding or grasping onto his biceps. Well, whatever sort of biceps I have. "It'll be fun since the vibe I got from the library was that those prophecy papers are pretty darn important."

Cordelia simply sighed, "Can't worry about that too much. I got things like getting my driver's license on my mind."

Willow nodded, "I forgot about that. You'd be surprised how distracted you get when you start planning what you're doing over the summer."

The word summer struck at something in Xander's head, his usual mind-numbing curiosity heightening again. "Hey, Cordelia. Why'd you transfer to Sunnydale so late in the school year?"

"My dad's some sort of bigwig businessman," Cordelia admitted. "He's got a lot of cash stowed away in some account and I guess that someone wants it. Doesn't make sense since it's all in his will and the only people who have a chance at getting it are those in the will."

"Well, you'd be surprised at how stupid people are," Willow reminded her. "Making half-baked plans is a part of the American culture. American movie culture, sure, but culture nonetheless."

"He nearly died a few times," Cordelia finished, clearing her throat at the memory of coming home so many nights after hanging out with her friends to see ambulances and cops surrounding her house.

Willow looked at Cordelia with a wide-eyed expression. "Are you serious?"

"Haven't found out who's been doing it, though," Cordelia explained. "My dad chose this place because it's smaller. The house we have, though still a little big, is smaller than the one we had in L.A. He figures that whoever is trying to hurt him won't guess to look in a small home."

Xander took a few large steps and moved in front of Cordelia, stopping her in her tracks. "How is it that you're not like Buffy Summers? Her dad is rich too and I'm just sayin'...you're not like Buffy."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Cordelia pushed past Xander casually, teasing him slightly by directing her attention to Willow. But when she did so, she could see the curiosity in her eyes too. "He's hardly ever home, so I wouldn't know what it's like to be around him for long periods of time. He travels a lot for business, which I don't even know the half of what he does."

Willow and Xander remained quiet for a moment after she admitted her dad's usual absence, trying not to come off as rude for pushing her to say it.

Cordelia was the one who eventually broke the silence, though. "Is that why Buffy is such a snotty bitch? Because she's rich?"

"She was pretty nice in elementary school," Xander admitted, almost bitterly. "But then her dad put some good money in stocks, added to the promotion at his job and Buffy well...she got 'proud of herself'."

"Buffy was actually nice when I first met her, but then I got to know her..." Cordelia admitted while, in her thoughts, wondering why she was trying to convince them when she wasn't as convinced as she was coming off as. She knew Buffy was a bitch but somehow, she had that urge to justify it. "Maybe her parents just brainwashed her to think she's better then everyone else. Might not be her fault."

Merely snorting, Xander looked at Cordelia through the corner of his eye as if she were crazy. "Trust me, it's her fault."

Dropping it, Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest and let out a long sigh. "Guess we should head home. We sure have to get a head start on all that is good about being a teenager. Like homework!"

They all mumbled 'yay!' sarcastically.

Giles jumped up from his seats, throwing his glasses up in the air. "I have it!"

Angel pushed himself from the wall where he'd been cross-referencing a phrase he couldn't understand. "What does it say?"

His face fell for a moment as Giles read the rest of the passage, his blue eyes scanning the parchment as his features softened to a puddle with every word read. "It says something about Cordelia..."

Perking up, Angel leaned forward, trying to read the page himself. "What does it say?"

Silence followed as Giles closed his eyes for a moment, covering his mouth slightly as if he were nauseous. Even his skin was turning pale slightly under the light. Dropping the parchment on the table, Giles choked slightly as he tried to swallow the information. "The Slayer...shall die at the hands of The Master."

Angel's head fell as he heard the words come out of Giles' mouth. Saddened beyond previous limits at the divulgement, even after he cleared his throat his voice still wavered. "What—What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Giles responded as honestly as he could, not knowing the answer. "My first instinct is to keep it from her...but that's just impossible to do. Especially from Cordelia."

"She's just a teenager," Angel rumbled. "She has so much to look forward to in her life. She doesn't deserve to have it ruined by something written on a piece of parchment."

Giles wasn't so easy on the situation, pointing out what they both knew. "There's no way to avoid it from what it says...if it says she'll die then she'll-"

"Are you a Watcher or are you just a cynical old Englishman?" Angel asked gripping the chair the man was seated in tightly, just barely holding back the urge to yank it from underneath him. "She's a kid with so much innocence that doesn't deserve to be tainted."

Giles stood up suddenly, eyeing Angel. In his deep blue eyes it was plain to see he was as affected and caught off guard about the entire thing as Angel was, but he was trying to be at least rational about it. "She's the Slayer, Angel."

"I know..." Angel sighed, letting his head fall slightly as it all continued to weigh on him profoundly.

"And because of her being a Slayer, that innocence is always at stake."

Closing the door behind her, Cordelia yawned deeply, exhausted.

"Cordelia," came her father's voice from the living room, where her father sat in his chair as usual. Only this time he didn't have his scotch in his hand and he didn't look angry. In fact, his eyes were red, as if he'd been crying for hours.

"Yeah...?" Cordelia replied hesitantly, not even bothering to walk towards him, keeping distance between the two of them. It wasn't a matter of her own safety that was behind her keeping the distance, it was of his. He was being so selfish. Her mother had ditched her too and he was acting as if it only affected him. And drinking so much was his way of dealing with it instead of the better alternative like...actually dealing with it.

Their argument brought out her emotional side and his, but at the moment, she was far from teary-eyed.

Will Chase avoided her stare for a moment as his tongue rolled around in his mouth, trying to form the words he so desperately wanted to say. Finally, after moments of silence, he spoke. "I never thought I'd get a reality check from my sixteen year old daughter."

"Well, I never thought I'd have to give my forty-year old father a reality check either, so it kinda evens out."

"I love you, Cordelia. You know that right? Nothing will ever change that, even right now. Your mother left both of us and ever since I've allowed my bitterness to overwhelm me...to blind me from the fact that my daughter is having as hard of a time with the situation as me."

"I haven't exactly been the model for Best Daughter," Cordelia admitted, shoving her hands in her back pockets as she edged into the living room. "You're right in saying that this is hard on both of us. But I haven't been perfect in handling it. In fact, I haven't really thought too much about it. While you were thinking about it every waking moment I was avoiding it all."

Her father nodded and a ghost of a smile fleetingly appeared on his aged, yet still quite handsome, features. "I guess we're both handling this in our own way. But what I've realized is that life goes on. If it had been different and we'd lost your mother permanently, if she'd died...life would still go on. I guess I've been avoiding that while you've embraced it."

"I guess..."

"The rest of those bottles?"

"I didn't touch them!" Cordelia defended herself, her voice wavering. It was clear though in her eyes that she wanted nothing more than to destroy them.

"I finished what you started..." Will Chase finished to his daughter, his voice barely a whisper as he stood up. "I stopped myself before I went even further...and I couldn't have done it without you."

"Well, you couldn't do a lot of things without me," Cordelia actually allowed a small grin to appear on her face as her father nervously approached her, hesitating before eventually hugging her warmly. "Remember, I'm the girl who taught you how to make pie!"

Her father laughed whole-heartedly for the first time in what seemed like forever. When they finally broke their hug, his eyes moved from her face to her arm, where her bandage was evident. "What happened to your arm?"

Cordelia didn't respond, instead she hugged him again, tighter than before. Not only was it a way to detract him from questioning her injury for the time being, but it was a great thing for her to do, hugging her father and him hugging her back. Things weren't perfect but she sure as hell liked where they were headed.

Rolling around under her covers, Cordelia grumbled several incoherent words and phrases. The softness of her cotton sheets didn't comfort her as they usually did in her deep slumber that seemed disturbed every few moments, her body twitching and a sheer layer of cold sweat forming on her skin.

Suddenly, she bolted up, grabbing frantically at her covers, her eyes wide. A lodestar for startlingly realistic nightmares, Cordelia bit her lower lip as she took in a deep breath, hoping to calm her nerves.

Her eyes drifting all along the walls of her room, as if half-expecting a large tarantula to be on them prepared to pounce, she tried and tried for moments that lasted for what seemed like an eternity to figure out what exactly occurred in her nightmare.

All she remembered was herself, a frightened look on her face and pure terror shining in her eyes already brimming with tears.

A dark figure caught her eye and she froze, her impulse to grab the stake underneath her pillow. Her eyes focused and became adjusted to the darkness of her room and she realized that it was Angel, a disturbed look on his face.

Her muscles still taut, Cordelia lifted the covers over her chest, remembering that she was wearing a thin nightie. "Angel?"

Angel just looked at her, remaining spookily quiet.

"It's a little creepy, you watching me and all."

"Sorry," Angel apologized, his voice hoarse. Embracing the darkness, he blinked away the thin layer of tears in his eyes, letting his head fall as his hands played with each other in his lap.

"Are you all right?" Cordelia asked, tightening the covers around herself. It was unsettling, the way Angel was so quiet and without many words. Something was obviously disturbing him and in turn, it was disturbing Cordelia.

Angel halfheartedly nodded, still not looking up from his lap.

"Is there something bothering you?" Cordelia asked, trying to firm her tone, to get it so that he couldn't help but admit what was on his mind. "It seems like there is."

Laughing a little under a sigh, Angel's mouth twitched from a grimace into an unreadable expression. "We've known each other for about what, three weeks? I've felt a lot better since I met you, about myself mostly."

"What're you trying to say?"

Angel finally looked up, not at Cordelia but at the wall opposite of him. Absently clearing his throat, his eyes drifted as if looking into the past. "When I was turned...after I dug myself out of my grave I went to my home where my father, mother and sister were. My sister was the first to see me and the first to..."

He paused, his voice catching in his throat. "She called me an angel. After she invited me in...I killed her."

Cordelia swallowed hard, her own heart hurting by just hearing the story, seeing the pain the vampire was going through, the guilt he was experiencing.

Angel was in a new light and it frightened her because she didn't know the reason why he was telling her, why he was spilling his heart out to her when earlier he had so adamantly refused to. "Why are you telling me this?"

Looking down back at his lap, Angel took in a deep steadying breath before replying at length. "When I was ensouled...everything I would have felt, the guilt and regret, when I killed those people came rushing back. But the thing that stuck out was the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I remembered my sister. Taking away all that innocence..."

"I wish more than anything that I could take back what I did to her, taking away her childhood, her adolescence, her future, her innocence... I wanted nothing more than to never do that again."

"Angel..." Cordelia said his name, her voice a ghost of a whisper. Though touched by his angst, his sincerity in telling her something that was obviously painful, she was frightened as it dawned on her that something was terribly wrong.

He looked up at her finally, his eyes locking with hers as he stood up and held his hand out for her. "Come on, we need to go. There's something that you need to know..."

TBC...