Title: Unappreciated

Author: Inara

Rating: R (may go up to NC-17)

Pairing: C/A (not at first), F/G, B/S, D/C, and major C/S friendship

Email: Action/Angst/Romance

Summary: The Fang Gang goes to Sunnyhell to help with the first, the Scoobies are losing, Cordy's back and she isn't happy, and the apocalypse is a comin'. Can they save the world, or even stay in the same room? Tune in to find out.

Spoilers: All of AtS season 4, and BtVS season 7 (read AN)

Disclaimer: Angel: The series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon. David Greenwalt and Co. Fox, Mutant Enemy and whomever else Joss says it belongs to. I'm just taking the characters out of the box to play with for a little while, will put them back as I found them, promise. No infringement or breaking of any laws intended.

Distribution: (FSB), AO, anywhere else just email me first and it's yours.

Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated, will try and make this fic as interactive as readers want.

Chapter 1.2

Previously: "I managed to save Molly, I was training her in the Cotswolds when the attacks occurred." Giles finally having some good news to give.

"Molly?" Fred asked as she had silent tears running down her face.

"My niece" replied Wes. "Where is she?" Wesley asked looking around. "What training?"

"She's a potential, she's upstairs in bed, I told this afternoon about your family, she's was in shock, she only fell asleep a couple of hours ago." Giles answered.

Wes just nodded.

Crawford Mansion:

Wesley was in shock; actually he was so past shocked he had moved into a state of numbness, it was really quite comforting it allowed him to function. His mind turned over all the information he had been given in the past hour and with an objective perspective he quickly applied the new information to the situation, he was amazed that it took Faith to call them to the situation, they were in massive trouble. In a rather clinical tone that shocked the scoobies but the fang gang was all too familiar with it was Wesley's watcher tone, cold and detached.

"What is the exact situation here in Sunnydale?"

"The First has been attacking on three fronts, it's been using bringers to assassinate potentials here and globally; it's also using some form of pure vampires to keep Sunnydale in a state of turmoil and to keep Buffy busy. It is the First Evil's personal attacks in the form of the previously deceased, so far we encountered forms of Joyce, Jenny, Buffy, Drusilla and many others. The First has seemed to concentrate these personal attacks on Spike, we don't know why?" Giles replied he off all could understand Wesley's desire to focus on business.

"Spike? What's so important about him?" Angel asked derisively.

"Hey!" Spike replied defensively

"Angel!" Fred sounded disappointed, "that wasn't very nice!"

"Nice! Who cares about nice, it's Spike." Angel replied but seeing Fred he mumbled "First stalked me too! It's not a big deal,"

But Fred heard him, she couldn't believe the tension in the room, 'were gonna have to make an effort, especially if they wanted to survive the impending apocalypse. Feeling sympathetic to the blonde vampire who had already been physically and verbally attacked by Angel, and psychically by the First and yet no one had stuck up for him. So with an uncharacteristic heat she told Angel off "Damn it Angel, could you at least try to be civil, he's family!"

The shock was obvious on the faces of Gunn, Connor and Angel all three of whom had expressed their shock with a loud "Family?" Even the scoobies were surprised at someone calling Spike family, only Dawn and Willow were nice to the bleached vampire. Wesley however was quiet, his face unreadable and Spike was amazed, this Texan brunette who he had never even heard of, had called him family! Nobody had called him family before, it was then he decided crazy or not, soul or no soul he would protect Fred with all he had.

"Yes, family" Fred replied with a hint of steel in her voice, she was sick of loosing her family members and somehow she knew that Spike belonged, it felt right defending him. "Cordy showed me the charts…" she broke off realising whose name she had just spoken aloud. Her heart broke at Angel's expression; she hadn't seen him so cold before this past year, now it seemed to be the only expression he knew. The rest of her family was also tense.

"Fred" Angel began.

"No!" Fred interrupted, she was tired of pussy footing around the subject of Cordy, she knew what Angel was feeling, they all felt betrayed, and guilty. But enough was enough; it was time they dealt with past demons. They had no chance of conquering new ones with the old wounds bleeding them dry.

"Cordy! Cordy! Cordy! There I said her name! I know your hurting we all are but we can't forget her, as much as you try to. She was…IS family I won't forget her, I WON'T pretend she doesn't exist. Not even for you…" she broke off with tears running down her pale face. During her passionate speech she had made her way to Angel's side.

All Angel could do was to draw the skinny Texan into a hug. He couldn't argue she was right, he had been so focussed on his pain he had ignored his family's. Which according to Cordy included Spike, he couldn't help but smile as he thought of Cordy using charts to try and explain his rather confusing family tree to Fred. The rest of the Fang Gang looked on with relief, it was a step, and they were beginning to heal. Or at least acknowledge the issue.

"Hey, where is Cordy?" asked Xander looking at the Fang Gang, as he realised his ex was missing, obviously the scoobies were missing some facts as well. He could tell from the blank faces of his friends that they too were realising that ex May queen was notoriously absent. And from the scene they had just witnessed between Angel and Fred, it was going to be an interesting story. Seeing the pained expressions on the LA group made him pale "She's not…"

"No!" came the shocked replies from the entire Fang Gang.

"She's away, at the moment" Wesley tried to explain diplomatically, the fact that they knew so little about the circumstances that took Cordy away from them was troubling, they had not had the chance to look in to matters. Within 24 hours of stopping Jasmine in LA they were on their way to Sunnydale.

"Away? What do you mean away, I saw her when I was in LA last week? Where'd she go?" Faith asked.

"That wasn't Cordy!" Connor's outburst surprised everyone, he hadn't spoken much before and they had almost forgotten he was there, so far only Willow, Faith and the Fang Gang knew his parentage, he had just been introduced as Connor.

"Of course it was I spoke to her for Goddess' sake" Willow added.

"It's complicated" Fred tried to explain, but how could she explain something they themselves had trouble understanding.

"I don't understand?" Dawn spoke up for the first time, "If Willow didn't speak to Cordelia who did she speak to? And where is Cordy now?"

"Who knows?" Angel grumbled, but was silenced by a glare from Fred. 'When did Fred start scaring me? Angel wondered, he was not looking forward to conversation that was about to start but could not think of a way to get away from it. "God I need a drink"

Everyone turned to Angel, 'Shit did I say that aloud?' Well from Spikes laughter, he apparently did. Wesley simply took a swig from his bottle and pushed it to Angel, who gratefully took a swig and passed it to Gunn who also drank but before he could put the bottle done it was swiped a surprisingly quick Winifred Burkle who immediately took a large swig. Liquid courage was just what she needed. She looked for Lorne knowing that the anagogic demon was gonna need fortification from the vibes that a Cordy related conversation would undoubtedly bring, but Lorne wasn't in the room. Huh? When did he slip out? Then she spotted him returning to the table with a large overnight bag that tinkled. 'He must have gone to the truck' she mused and passed him the bottle of rapidly dwindling whisky. Lorne just shook his green head at the Texan and began unloading almost ten bottles of alcohol from his bag. Seeing this Gunn smiled got up and retrieved glasses from the sideboard.

"Good thinking" Charles said to the demon.

"Please, once I heard we were roadtrippin' to hell, I knew I couldn't go through another apocalypse with you people sober. Hell being in the same room as Angelcakes drives me to drink." Lorne replied as he took a long sip of his neat Vodka and quickly began mixing drinks, from the auras at the table alone he knew the only way he'd sleep tonight is if drank himself into a stupor. He passed out drinks to Angel, Wes, Gunn and Fred. Connor went to grab himself a glass but it was swiped by Angel, who gave him a look. To everyone surprise he passed the drink to Spike. Fred beamed at Angel who just gave her a small smile.

Buffy just stared at them, she couldn't believe it. "What's with the booze? We're trying to find out about Queen C, God don't tell me the bitch has driven you all to drink and you sent her to Hawaii, so she's sunbathing while were trying to save the world." Buffy didn't mean to be harsh, but the unexpected arrival of her ex, and the change in him was just too much. Nobody was the way they were supposed to be Giles and Angel shouted at her, Wes seemed cold and a little scary, Willow was way too friendly with Faith, and there was a green demon mixing cocktails next to their research against the First. But what worried her the most was the fact that these obviously strong people (they had just averted an apocalypse) were resorting to alcohol, just for a conversation about Queen C. What the hell was going on? She jumped back as Connor lunged for her, and was brought back to the present. The Fang Gang looked at with cold anger in their eyes, Gunn was holding back Connor, but looked like he wanted to attack her himself, Lorne grabbed Fred's arm and Angel, his postured was so rigid he looked ready to snap. Buffy was confused what they were so pissed about.

"Don't ever call Cordy a bitch again" said Angel barely holding back his vampiric visage.

Buffy looked at the scoobies who looked shocked at the groups volatile reaction. Then Gunn spoke up his tone filled with unrestrained anger "Don't insult Cordy in front of us, ever. You're surrounded by people who would die for her."

"More importantly, we'd kill for her." The cool statement from Wesley who hadn't moved a muscle drew a gasp from the scoobies. All except Faith hadn't witnessed Wesley's new icy demeanour. At Wesley's statement the fang gang sat back down. He then began with the help of Gunn, Fred and Lorne to briefly outline what had happened to Cordelia, or what little they knew. Angel and Connor were mirrored in their stony silence.

"So you defeated this evil power masquerading as Cordelia, stopped the apocalypse and came here. But you have seen the real Cordelia for almost a year." Anya summarised in her abrupt manner.

"Wow" came the quiet whisper from Willow, who looked shocked,

"So where has she been? Where is she now? Do you even know?" Dawn asked.

"We think she's been working with the powers" came Fred's hesitant answer.

"You think!" Faith exclaimed, you haven't checked, she asked Angel directly.

"We only just realised that it wasn't her, and before that the betrayal…" Angel broke off.

"It just hurt too much" Connor added quietly.

Everyone just sat, and tried to absorb everything they had learnt in the space of a few hours.

"Why don't you guys unpack, Faith and I prepared your rooms earlier, and we can talk and strategise so more tomorrow" Willow offered in her considerate manner.

They all took off to unpack, patrol, research and train respectively when all of sudden Angel's voice could be heard booming from upstairs…

"SPIKE!"

A/N: I know still no Cordy yet. But Queen C needs an entrance don't you think?

I know Buffy seems uncharacteristically harsh, but she was like that in the middle of season 7, she will mellow, it just takes time. Please take the time to review, just to say that you're reading. So that I know I'm not the only one that is reading this now. FYI: this is my first fanfic, if you have any pointers let me know. Thanks Inara.