Author's Note: Yay! Second chapter so soon! Thanks to all who reviewed.
Shadowshisper Thanks for reading, glad you think it's interesting
Piper Halliwell: Thanks, my friend helped me decided what to call Cordy. Here's your update.
Reverence: Glad you like it, I did hurry to get this chapter up.
Again, thank you for reviewing. Sorry this chapter is extremely short, but I wanted to get the Angel team in there, and there really wasn't much else for them to do.
Angel paced the lobby of the Hyperion as Wesley hit the books, trying to find a way to figure out where Cordy went. He had no idea where Fred had gone, most likely scurried off to a dark corner. He didn't blame her, five years in a hell dimension could do that to a person, and he had first hand experience.
He didn't know where Gunn had gone to, and Lorne had stayed at his club. Angel growled and slammed his fists down on the desk Wesley was working at, making the Englishman jump.
"Angel, getting angry will not help the situation. If you want you could help me with this," he gestured to the large pile of books before him. Angel tried to calm down and sat at the table, he opened a musty old tome and stared at the page, not really seeing it.
"Angel?" said a meek voice with a Texas accent.
"What?" Angel snapped. He turned around and saw Fred, who was now cowering slightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything," she gestured vaguely towards the stairs, "I'll go back up there now, bye…"
"No, Fred, stay. I'm sorry I snapped, but this whole thing is frustrating. We lose Cordelia, only to get her back then lose her again."
"Well maybe I can help," she said, ducking her head a little, "I'm pretty good with research, right? So maybe we'll find something faster that way." She smiled a little.
"Okay, you help Wesley; I have to do something physical before I go insane. I think I'll patrol, if you find anything call me on the cell, I won't be far."
Angel grabbed his coat and went outside, the night air hitting him like a slap to the face. He walked for a few blocks, mentally taunting any vampires that might be in the vicinity, what he need right now was a good fight.
He heard rustling in the alley to his right, hoping it wasn't some homeless person Angel went into the alley. "Here vampy vampy vampy," he whispered under his breath. Just as he got near the vamp turned into dust. Angel wondered what had happened until Gunn stepped out of the shadows.
"Hey man," said Gunn, "Guess we had pretty much the same idea."
Angel stared at the pile of dust forlornly, then his cell phone rang. He hurriedly answered it. "Wes?"
"We found something that will probably help find Cordelia. I don't think I could have found this without Fred, she's a wonderful researcher." But Angel didn't hear anything past Cordelia, because he had closed the phone.
"They found something," he told Gunn.
"Well then what are we waiting for man? Lets get goin'!" They swiftly made their way back to the hotel where Wesley was still sitting at the desk, re-reading and double checking the entry to make sure it was exactly what they needed. Fred had once again disappeared.
Wesley turned the book around so Angel could see the paragraph. "A 'scrying crystal'?" asked Angel, "What kind of witch uses a crystal to find someone?"
"Angel, you have been around the magical community far longer than is needed to know that crystals have a number of magical properties. Actually, I'm a bit surprised I didn't think of this before," said Wesley.
"Fine, what do we have to do?"
"Well it says that we'll need a map and a crystal, I think I have the required crystal in my office. I get it and the maps." When Wesley returned he had about three maps in his hand, and a crystal.
"Okay, we'll start locally first. We'll need something personal of Cordelia's, a piece of jewelry perhaps," said Wesley, laying out the maps of LA, California, and the United States. If she was anywhere besides those places, or not anywhere at all, they had a serious problem.
They all searched for a while, carefully combing the hotel lobby for the earring Cordelia had lost about a week before she disappeared. Finally Angel's keen eyes spotted the small gold hoop in question.
Wesley clutched the hoop in his hand as he swung the crystal over the maps. "If it tugs down, we've found Cordelia. If not well…" he let the words hang there, and everyone felt the implications of them.
The crystal did not find her in the map of L.A., and Angel held his non-breath as Wes moved to the map of California. Finally, the crystal slammed down on the map, right on San Francisco.