Angel dumped the bag that he had packed in the hotel lobby and smiled reassuringly at Dawn. Unable to contact Buffy before he had left, he had decided to take Dawn with him rather than leave her home alone. He had explained in the note that he had left for Buffy that Dawn could stay overnight and then catch a bus back home to Sunnydale on Sunday, arriving long before sunset. He looked around, unable to believe that the usually busy lobby was empty.
"Hello? Anyone around?" He called, crossing to Wesley's office and throwing back the doors, expecting to see everyone crowded around the desk, listening to Wesley tell them that it was all part of a prophecy and things should go back to normal after a good nights sleep. It was wishful thinking.
Down in the kitchen with the others, putting the shopping away, Willow cocked her head and listened. "Angel's home!" She announced and raced out of the door.
"She's like a dog." Fred remarked to Gunn as they abandoned the shopping where it lay and followed Willow out of the kitchen at a slightly more moderate pace.
"I drool at the sound of a bell?" Willow asked for clarification, clearly puzzled.
Fred giggled. "I meant with the extraordinary hearing and all."
"Fred has a thing about dogs." Cordelia explained on seeing Willow's frown. "I'm like Lassie." Angel's Seer told Willow in an overly bright voice and a big grin as they walked into the lobby and Willow realised that Cordelia was finally mastering tact.
Willow grinned at Cordelia before she caught sight of the two people waiting for them.
"Angel!" She wailed.
Angel frowned. Somehow he had assumed that she would be more pleased to see him. "What?"
Willow gestured at him. "I can't believe you're wearing black! It makes me look so pale."
"It co-ordinates." Angel defended himself and then gestured back at her. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"You're wearing red!"
Willow shifted uncomfortably. "I can't wear red normally. And you have to admit, it suits you."
Angel tipped his head slightly to one side and considered. "But it's easier to co-ordinate with black. Especially when you have no reflection."
Willow conceded the point and rushed over to hug him. "It's so good to see you... me... you." She frowned. "Grrr! This is all so confusing."
Angel nodded, and reluctantly let her go. "So what's going on Wesley? How do we fix this?"
Wesley took the floor. "There are many ways to transfer souls between one person to another, but the majority of those require at least one of the two people involved performing the practice, and as far as I am aware, neither of you performed any such ritual, correct?"
Angel and Willow nodded and Wesley continued. "So, bearing that in mind, we turned our research to demons that could produce this... this effect and other spells. However, if you had been under the influence of one of the possibilities we have so far found, then the side effects would have been far more severe than those you have experienced."
"So, you haven't found anything?" Angel asked.
"No."
Dawn spoke up for the first time since they had arrived. "What about Darcy? She might know something."
"Dawnie!" Willow cried, noticing the Slayer's sister properly for the first time and giving her a big hug.
Dawn didn't even want to think about the fact that she was basically getting a hug from Angel, her sister's ex-boyfriend and the guy she'd had a crush on for as long as she'd known him. Okay, so it was actually Willow inside Angel, but the principle was the same. Angel's body was hugging hers.
It had been so much easier to approach Angel now that he was in Willow's body. They'd had a proper conversation for the first time ever and he was so funny! Dawn noticed that the conversation had gone on without her as usual and Cordelia was calling Darcy to get her come over.
"Swift, stop playing with the phone and get Darcy! It's an emergency." She said into the phone.
Dawn moved closer. Sure Cordelia had always been pretty mean to her, but she was nicer now and she'd always had such good fashion sense. "Is Swift what Darcy decided to call the cat in the end?" She asked.
Cordelia shook her head. "The cat's pretty much remained Basil, although Swift tells us that he does object to it because it's not his real name. Swift's the name of the dog Angel bought Darcy. It's turned out to be some kind of guardian spirit and looks out for her. Not very well though because he's dragged her through two lilac bushes this month. Yes, Swift, I am talking about you, now get Darcy. We keep getting calls from the morgue to tell us that our friend has died and will we please pick up her dog." Cordelia rolled her eyes expressively.
"He can understand you?" Dawn asked, curious to know why Cordelia was talking to the animal like she would a human.
Cordelia nodded. "And he can talk too. Either just to Darcy or to everyone. Hey Darce!"
Dawn moved away from the phone and closer to the small group congregated near a cool circular seating arrangement. Cordelia murmured into the phone, talking to Darcy, who Dawn had always thought was pretty cool. After all, how many people do you meet who are the offspring of a vampire? Just as she was thinking that, a green demon came down the stairs holding a small baby. Dawn rushed over to coo over him.
"Wow!" She exclaimed. "Is he yours?"
"Actually he's mine." Willow, no, Angel, Angel in Willow's body, said behind her.
Dawn whirled round to face him. "No way!"
Angel chuckled. "Way."
Dawn turned back around to offer her little finger to the baby, who curled a chubby fist around it. "Does Buffy know?" She asked absently, all of her attention focused on the small child in the demon's arms.
"No." Angel said and clammed up.
"Angelcakes am I glad to see you." the green demon said and gave the baby to Angel before moving off.
"Who was that?" Dawn asked, struggling to extricate her finger from the baby's grasp.
Angel was absorbed in his son. "Huh? Oh, that was Lorne." He moved off, cooing to the child in his arms.
Dawn made her way back to the group of people again, joining them at the same time as Cordelia, who had just gotten off of the phone.
"What about D'hoffryn? Maybe this has something to do with him." Willow suggested.
Fred wrote it down on the whiteboard, underneath Wolfram and Hart.
Wesley shook his head at her and she rubbed it off again.
"D'hoffryn deals with wishes. Unless one of you wished this would happen then I think that it is highly unlikely that he is involved." He explained.
Willow tried her hardest to ignore Dawn's pointed look.
Unfortunately, Cordelia noticed. "Willow, did you wish this?" She demanded to know.
Willow squirmed. "Not exactly."
Angel turned to her, his attention momentarily diverted from Connor, and Willow was struck by how tiny she was.
"What do you mean, not exactly?"
"D'hoffryn asked her to become one of his minions." Dawn revealed.
Everyone turned to look at Willow. Gunn realised a second too late that he was actually looking at Angel, and turned to look at Willow instead. He looked back. And then back to Willow. He took a step back and viewed the situation logically. Everyone was looking at Angel's body, so that must be the right person to look at. Right? His head hurt.
Fred patted him on the shoulder sympathically. Gunn looked at her helplessly.
Willow decided it was time to break the blank silence. "I turned him down."
Angel walked up to the group. "So how far have we got?"
"So far, we've managed to conclude that the most likely people to have done this include Wolfram and Hart." Fred said, turning so that he couldn't quite see the whiteboard.
"And?"
"Wolfram and Hart." Fred moved away so that he could see the whiteboard with its lone name. And a load of Fred's mathematical equations.
"You've been working on wormholes again, haven't you?" Cordelia accused Fred.
Fred blushed, and Gunn's head still hurt.
Angel handed Connor over to Cordelia and walked into Wesley's office. He emerged two seconds later swathed in one of his leather coats. Three seconds later he landed flat on his face. He glared at the offending hemline and then transferred his glare to the hysterical bunch of people three feet away. Snapping out of it, Angel mentally slapped himself. Willow's body was starting to affect him, he reasoned. He was beginning to think like a woman. Hemline! He asked himself.
Willow helped him up.
"Thanks." He said, straightening his collar and trying to stand more like a man.
Willow looked pained. "Please don't do that with my body." She begged him.
"What?" Angel didn't have a clue.
"You make me look like a dyke." Willow explained.
"Is that the butch kind or the sexy kind?" Gunn asked.
Everyone looked at Gunn.
Gunn hadn't thought it was possible for his head to hurt more than it did. He was discovering how wrong he could be.
"Ow!" Cordelia slapped him again. "Do you know how hard your head is?"
"Not very." Gunn replied, sitting down and cradling his aching head.
"I thought you were a lesbian?" Angel murmured to Willow.
Willow was uncomfortable with the amount of squirming she was doing today. Angel wasn't. "Yeah, but you make me look it." She whispered.
Lorne wandered back into the lobby, trying to conceal the fact that Gunn wasn't the only one whose head was hurting. "Angelcakes, where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go pay a visit to some lawyer friends of ours." Angel grinned evilly.
Lorne studied his outfit. "Good idea. Go for it. You've really got the 'I'm an extremely pissed off vampire who's going to rip your head off' vibe going for you what with the oversized coat and all. Nice knowing you." Lorne went to walk off.
Angel promptly tripped over his coat again as he rushed to catch up with him. Picking himself back up again, he cast a beseeching look at Willow who immediately stopped Lorne in his tracks.
"Hey Lorne! Your underwear's showing." Willow shared a delighted grin with Angel as Lorne twisted himself around in circles, trying to see his arse.
Taking a side each they stood next to the green singer.
"Just kidding." Willow told him.
If looks could kill, Angel's body would have been a pile of dust. "Oh very amusing." Lorne said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go shut my head in the trouser press. All this droll wit is just too much for me."
"Lorne, wait." Angel called.
"What do you mean?" Willow asked the green demon.
Lorne sighed. "Okay Angelcakes, you want to know how to get through this?"
Willow and Angel nodded.
"You can't afford to show any weakness. If you do..." Lorne paused and then clapped his hands together. Angel jumped. "That's when your enemies will pounce. So you have to become each other. That's all the advice I can give you." Lorne walked away.
Angel and Willow stared at each other. Angel handed his coat to Willow.
"This is going to make my head hurt." Gunn remarked to no one in particular.
