Author's Notes: Thanks again for all the feedback! I'm switching back to Grace's point of view for this chapter. Sorry it took me so long to post this. It's just I took a lot of time to write it, and I wanted it to be good. Not a whole lot goes on in this chapter, but I needed to use chapter 3 to explain some things. Before you read the rest of this, I want to take a minute here to reply to one of the reviews.
I really like the completely original idea you've come up with here. Seems like things are really going to get interesting, and hey-- bringing back Fred is great. The end of Chapter 2 did give me a bit of pause, though, in that it said that Wes, Gunn, Spike, and Angel all "hated" Illyria. On the show, they didn't (perhaps at first, and she and Angel weren't ever going to start up a mutual admiration society.) Wes had made his peace with her by the ending episode and even lied to Angel to save her life. Not hate. You have a potentially fascinating relationship dynamic with Grace and Illyria if you want to explore it, which would add a new vein of conflict.
What I meant was that they disliked her in the beginning, which is understandable since she did play a pivotal role in Fred's death. I think you'll see throughout this story that Illyria has been with Angel, Spike, and Gunn for many years now, they've grown to like her, and even accept her as part of the "family."
Resurrecting the PastChapter 3: Feeling Empty (told from Grace's perspective)
We walked back towards Angel's office in silence. I was still a little angry that Dad lied to me. We didn't usually keep things from each other. Dad and I...we're best friends. Ever since I can remember, it's been us against the world. I never really learned to depend on anyone but Dad, because he raised me that way. So many things had happened to him, he'd lost people he loved, and he even lost himself a couple of times. He didn't want that to happen to me.
Still, how could he lie to me about what happened to Mom? How could he not tell me that some demon took over her body, and is walking around with her face? I just don't understand. I know I never will. I can't understand how he believes her soul was destroyed either. That's so insane. I mean, souls can't ever really be destroyed, can they? I just can't even begin to fathom how that could be possible. She's out there somewhere. She could be suffering in some hell dimension for all we know. However, when I think about where her soul may have ended up, I always imagine she's in heaven. She's not alone either, she's with Cordelia and she's watching over us.
We walk back into Angel's office. Everyone, except for Illyria, is still there.
"Everything okay?" Angel asked, as we sat down. I just nodded.
"Angelcakes...that good looking blonde girl that keeps coming in is here again. She says some demon attacked her. I'm pretty sure she's just here to see you though." A green demon came into the room. He had a cell phone up to his ear, and was dressed in a yellow suit. In a way it reminded me of a banana that hadn't ripened yet. He mumbled a goodbye into the telephone, and turned to face everyone else in the room. He noticed Dad and me sitting on the couch.
"Wesley?" He smiled, and hugged Dad. I almost laughed out loud because Dad's awkwardness was just that amusing. The green man, whom I assumed was Lorne, stood up straight again. "What are you doing here? And who is this beautiful young lady?"
"This is Grace, and we're here because she's the new slayer." Dad answered.
"Gracie? Wow." He smiled at me. "You've sure grown up since the last time I saw you. I'm –"
"Lorne" I cut him off. He nodded. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Wish I could say the same." He said. He stared at me for a moment. I knew he was studying me. Realizing for the first time how much I look like my mother. "You look so much like Fred."
"So I've heard." I smiled. A moment of silence washed over the room. Everyone seemed quite happy that they had a missing part of the team back.
"So tell me, how did you all end up here?" Dad asked. Angel leaned back in his chair, and got comfortable. That made it obvious this was going to be a long story.
"Well, after we won the apocalypse the Senior Partners weren't too happy. They kept coming after us, using their minions. So we hid out for a while."
"And by a while, he means a year." Spike interrupted.
Angel glared at him and went back to his story. "We hid out for a year. We hid and we ran, because we knew the Senior Partners would come after us again."
"Did they?" I asked
"No" Spike and Gunn said simultaneously.
"Apparently, they thought we were dead. So after nearly a year and a half of hiding out, we came back to LA. Things were bad here. During the day things were okay, but when night came around it was like all of the hell dimensions on earth. So to make an extremely long story, as short as can be, we managed to get things back under control here in LA, and we opened up Angel Investigations."
"What exactly do you do here?" Dad asked.
"Well, it's like Wolfram and Hart, only not evil. We're fighting the good fight. We represent cases of the paranormal, but we also do everything we did before we took over Wolfram and Hart."
"You mean like the things we did at the original Angel Investigations?" Dad questioned. Angel nodded.
"I figured you would have gone back to the Hyperion." Dad said.
"Someone bought it from us just after the apocalypse. The man that bought it offered us a bunch of money, and we needed it. It's a real hotel now. Lots of tourists stay there." Gunn said, with a hint of sadness in his voice. I could tell he missed the place.
"This place is much better, though. We have a medical wing." Spike added.
"Are the doctors human?" I asked. I knew some of the doctors at Wolfram and Hart weren't all human.
"Yes, everyone here, except for Spike and myself of course, is human."
"Uh, weird question, but do they know they're working for vampires and fighting evil?" I asked. As far as I knew, most humans didn't know these things existed.
"Yeah, they know. Most of the people that work here are what's left of the Initiative. They heard about what happened and showed up in town not long after the apocalypse. The rest of them are the humans that worked for Wolfram and Hart." Angel paused and looked at Dad. "I know you probably think we're crazy having people from Wolfram and Hart working for us, but we can't exactly have normal lawyers helping us. Plus they're well aware of the consequences if they try anything remotely evil."
"What about the Senior Partners? Have they tried to come after you?" I asked.
"No" Angel said. "But that doesn't mean they won't. They're going to come when we least expect it, and we've been expecting it for almost sixteen years now."
"A lot's happened since I've been gone." Dad said out loud, to no one in particular.
"It's good to have you back though." Angel said. "So tell us, where have you two been?"
Dad proceeded to tell Angel pretty much everything that we had been doing the past sixteen years, which seemed boring compared to what Angel and the rest of the gang had been up to. I was half asleep an hour later, when Dad announced it was time for us to go home and rest for a while. Angel suggested we all go out to dinner later that evening, and Dad promised we'd meet them at the restaurant at seven. We bid goodbye to the men, and headed to our new home.
"I like them." I said, as we sat in the back of a cab that was taking us to our apartment.
"I knew you would." He said.
"They're great guys. And Angel he's so...handsome, and tough, and mysterious is that endearing kind of way."
"Oh no." Dad shook his head. "No daughter of mine will be having a crush on Angel."
"I don't." I said.
"Then what's with that far away look in your eyes and all the rubbish you just said?"
"Jet lag?"
"Ha Ha." Dad rolled his eyes. "Anyone ever tell you that you're a bad liar?"
"I get that from you." I said.
We had arrived at the apartment building. After Dad paid the cab driver, we got out and headed inside. Our apartment was on the third floor. This place was so nice. It even had elevators. The place we lived at in New York had stairs. This sure was a step up. No pun intended. Was that even a pun? It doesn't really matter.
"If I did have a crush on Angel, and I'm not saying I do, but if I did, why would that be a problem?" I asked, as we stepped off the elevator.
"Lots of reasons." He replied, as he unlocked the door to the apartment.
"Care to venture one of those reasons?" I asked.
"No, not really."
We stepped inside the apartment and our conversation stopped. It was beautiful on the inside. The walls were an interesting shade of maroon, and it was huge. There was the living room, and then off to the right was a kitchen. There were sliding doors that led to a balcony on the other side of the room. Off to the left was a hallway, which I decided to walk down. It led to the bedrooms. There were three. The master bedroom, which had a huge closet and full bathroom inside, and then there were two smaller ones, and a bathroom in between them.
"This place is great." I walked into the master bedroom, where Dad was.
"I know. Look at the size of this closet!" Dad walked into the oversized closet. "I could sleep in here."
"Please don't."
Dad rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to, but I could."
"Great. That reminds me though, where exactly are we going to sleep? Our beds are still in New York, or somewhere between here and New York."
Dad looked around the closet he was still standing in, and threw something out.
"What's this?" I asked, as the bag landed near my feet.
"An air mattress."
"Woohoo." I mumbled. My idea of a good night's rest did not include sleeping on an air mattress.
Dad finally stepped out of the giant closet. He walked around the rest of the apartment, and he seemed pleased.
"At least Andrew's good for something. Picking out nice places to live."
"Yeah I just hope his watcher skills are as good as his...picking-out-apartment skills."
"I won't let anything happen to you. None of us will." Dad promised. "But if you do start falling for Angel, I will have to lock you up in your room forever."
"Dad..." He walked back into the living room, and I followed. Seeing as we had no furniture, he plopped down on the floor, and I sat across from him, with my back against the wall.
"He's too old for you."
"He's too old for everybody." I pointed out.
"He'll break your heart. Angel's a vampire. He can't have a real relationship. He can't give you the things you desire in a relationship. Although seeing as you're only sixteen, I'm praying you're not desiring anything, from anyone."
If only he knew the things I've done, the things my heart has been through. Of course there's two things a girl can't talk to her father about, sex and guys. No, that's something a girl needs a mother, or an older sister for.
"That's not all. You know if achieves one moment of perfect happiness, he could turn into Angelus."
"Well if I ever had a chance with him, I'm sure I would not be the person to give him perfect happiness."
Dad shrugged. "He has a thing for slayers."
"Look, stop worrying about this. He's attractive. I'll gladly admit that. I don't stand a chance with him though, for many reasons, but mostly because he's one of your best friends. That's weird on so many levels. I mean he was there when I was born. It's strange."
Dad breathed what can only be considered as a sigh of relief.
"Why are you trying so hard to get me to not like him?"
"I don't want you to dislike him, I just don't want you having a crush or falling in love with him."
"Why, do you have a thing for him?"
Dad's eyes went wide, and I almost laughed. "Have you gone mad?"
I just shrugged. "It would explain some things. Like why you haven't been on a date in...well ever."
"I've been raising you. I haven't had time to date."
"If you got a thing for Angel, it's totally cool Dad. This is Los Angeles. No one will care."
"I do not have a thing for Angel."
"Okay."
"I don't like men that way."
"Alright." I said.
"The reason I haven't been on a date is because, what's the point? I could never love anyone else. Not like I love Fred. I still love her so much."
"That's great, because you should still love her. That doesn't mean you can't be happy with someone else."
"There's no one else I could be happy with."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"There are some things you just...know. For me, that's one of them."
I nodded, because I understood. Not from experience, but in a way that a daughter understands her father.
"Dad, all my life I found solace by the theory that Mom was in heaven. Now that I know about Illyria, I...don't have that solace anymore. She died because Illyria was taking over her body, and it supposedly destroyed her soul. Now she's gone. She's not with Cordelia like I imagined all my life. She's nowhere. She's just...gone." I stopped to choke back a sob, because I was crying. "She's gone, and I don't understand why."
Dad walked over by me and sat down. He pulled me into his arms, just like he had always done when I cried, and I sobbed into his shoulder.
"How do you go on everyday, without that solace? Without the peace in knowing that she's safe, and she's in a better place?"
"You." He said. "You keep me going. One of the last things Fred told me was to take good care of you. So that's what I've been doing ever since she died. That's what kept me hanging on, even when I desperately wanted to give up. When I thought there was nothing left for me here, I always remembered that there was you."
I hugged him. "Thank you. For not giving into the need to give up. You're a great Dad, and maybe I'm biased, but I think you did a pretty good job raising me by yourself."
Dad smiled, kissed the top of my head, and helped me off the floor. "I love you Gracie."
"I love you too Dad."
The solace that I had believed in all my life may be gone, but there's something inside that tells me not to give up hope. So I won't.
Okay, so let me explain about the whole Initiative working for AI thing. I didn't think about the fact that it would be strange to have regular people working for Angel Investigations before I started writing this. So I chose to have the people from the Initiative working for him, because to me it was the only thing that really made sense. That's it...that's my terrible reasoning for bringing the Initiative into this story.