Disclaimer: I don't own Angel. I mean no harm by writing this and make no money from it.

A/N: Cass comes from my fic "Dea Ex Machina", which runs parallel to this one. Big thank yous to gopie, a.a.k.88, justawritier, and –J for the reviews. Means a lot to me, you guys.

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The Higher Power slept. Cordy sat watch beside the bed. It was the same bed that she and Angel had been sharing for the past few weeks, though for tonight they had moved across the hall so this girl could heal in peace.

Cordy snorted. There was no telling what the Higher Power's real form was. She might be a red-haired girl or she might be a guy or a blue androgynous thing with tentacles. Ok, maybe not with tentacles—those were usually demon traits. Connor said she called herself Cassandra the Oracle. Cordy didn't recognize her. Not that it meant anything—there were dozens of Higher Powers and not all of them worked for the PTB's Human Resources department. Cordy didn't know even half her coworkers. She hadn't spent enough time in that other realm to get to know them.

She sighed and leaned her chin on her hand. Watching this girl sleep was boring. However, Angel and Connor were doing the male-bonding thing tonight. They'd gone with Gunn to see an action flick and maybe go out to a bar afterwards. Connor wouldn't be able to drink, but he could at least get in the door. She'd made all three of them swear they wouldn't get into any fights. Illyria was downstairs. The blue demon was attempting to discover if the light in the fridge stayed on when the door was closed. It should keep her entertained for hours.

The Oracle groaned. Cordy looked up and saw the girl was awake and looking at her with big green eyes.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. Being polite never hurt anything.

The Higher Power who called herself Cass smiled weakly. "Like I just did ten rounds with a saharit demon, but that's what I get for letting my charge goad me into a punching match."

"It's an interesting technique all right." Maybe she ought to try it on Angel—might get through that thick head of his.

"I'm new at this, okay." With another groan, she scooted herself up into a sitting position against the headboard.

Cordy's eyes narrowed. "How new?"

"Connor's one of my first charges. I've got three others right now."

"Four on the first time out?" she asked in surprise. Angel was her first and only charge. Of course, he was also the PTB's Champion and a handful, but this girl seemed like a complete fish.

Cass nodded. "I think Gabriel wants to overload me, get me to quit and go back to the ranks."

"Ranks of what?"

"I was one of Michael's foot soldiers before I transferred to Human Resources." She reached behind her and felt under the shirt for the wound. It should have been all but gone by now. Cordy's new fangled healing powers were nothing short of miraculous. No more messy antiseptics and yards of bandages for the Fang Gang now. She frowned—if Angel was human now, did that mean they were going to have to change the name? Angel had been singularly reluctant to talk about anything pertaining to their future, which had been fine for the first two weeks or so but was now really starting to bug her. And, now this girl was going to cause even more of a distraction, as if Wes and Spike still laying comatose down the hall wasn't bad enough.

"Why'd you transfer?" The frown on Cordy's face deepened, but she didn't care. Now that she was technically dead, there was no reason to worry about wrinkles. Not much chance of reviving her acting career either. Nope, Cordelia Chase was now a working girl of the Higher Power variety.

"Honestly? I got bored." The look on the Oracle's face made it clear that she expected to be derided for her motivation. Gabriel had probably given her hell for it. PTB or not, the man had a stick up his ass the length of the Eiffel Tower.

"I can relate," Cordy replied with a wry smile. "I used to be Vision Girl upstairs, but I just about went bonkers doing nothing but watching my friends."

That caught Cass's attention. "You were a seer?"

"Not just any old seer—I was the Seer, as in the vision pipeline from the PTB to their Champion." She couldn't help bragging, just a bit. While she certainly hadn't asked for the job and it'd caused her more than enough grief, the visions had allowed her to do a lot of good. She sort of missed the skull-splitting headaches, not that she'd ever admit that out-loud. They'd become a part of her life, like going to the dentist or occasionally getting drenched in demon goo—icky but integral. A little bit of her died when the PTB told her that she would lose her visions. It would be the cost, Gabriel had told her, for the chance to work with Angel again.

It was a fair trade.

Cass was duly impressed by the boast. "So Angel's the Champion?"

Cordy nodded. Where had this kid been? Under a rock?

The Oracle snorted. "When I was alive, Hercules was the Champion…" She paused, cocking her head to the side. "I can see the resemblance though—muscles, the forehead."

"So you're Greek?"

"Former Oracle of Delphi, at your service." Cass swung her legs over the side of the bed and eased her feet on to the floor. "You guys got anything to eat? I'm starving."

"I had to use some of your own strength to heal you," Cordy explained as she too stood, moving to help the other Higher Power.

Cass waved her off. "I know how it works, but thanks. Healing that naturally would have been a stone bitch."

"Next time don't pick a fight with Angel's son while he's in hearing range."

"I was trying to be quiet."

"Something made a huge crash." That's what had brought the two of them running. They hadn't expected anyone to be up here except Connor and the two soulless sleepers. When she'd heard the noise, some little part of Cordelia had hoped one of them had managed to wake up on their own. I wanted it to be Wes. Over three weeks and still no life-bringer to bring him completely back to life. She was starting to worry that there wouldn't be anyone for him. Wesley hadn't exactly been an outgoing sort of guy. From what she'd seen looking down on him and the others, Fred had been the only one to really capture his heart. He'd been so painfully in love with the slender, geeky scientist for so long. Not even his relationship with Lilah, as odd as that'd been, could come close to the torch he'd carried for Fred.

And then there's Spike... Why hasn't Buffy shown up yet? I'm going to have to talk to Angel about that.

"That would have been me hitting the wall," Cass said with a smile. "The boy has skills."

"Yes, he does."

The two women headed down to the kitchen, and Cordy was pleasantly surprised to find the guys were already home. Gunn sat at the kitchen table, Gwen perched on his lap. Connor froze as they entered, a deer-in-headlights look on his face as he stared at her. The look made her uncomfortable and not for the first time, Cordy wondered just how much he remembered of what had happened before his brain wipe. Angel, though, had nothing but a smile for her as he bounded over and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"How was the movie?" she asked as she gave him a quick squeeze. "And what happened to going to a bar?"

"Decided to come home and spend sometime with you," Angel replied, "And the movie was good."

"Got my car-chase fix for the week," Gunn added.

"This coming from a man who's been in them," Gwen teased. The thief tilted her head back for a kiss, and Gunn obliged. If she and Angel hadn't been just as kissy-kissy lately, Cordy would have been tempted to stick her finger down her throat.

The Oracle had her head in the refrigerator, and Connor was hovering nearby, his eyes flicking back and forth from Cass to her so quickly Cordy was sure he was going to make himself dizzy. A moment later, Cass surfaced, the milk jug in one hand and a plate of leftover pizza in the other. She held the plate out to Connor, offering. The two of them would have to work out their own truce, Cordy decided.

Gently, she took Angel's arm and steered him out into the old office behind the front desk. "We need to talk," she informed him, shutting the door behind them.

He flopped down in the old rolling desk chair. "About what?"

"About what's going on," she replied as she settled herself on the edge of the desk. He reached over and began to gently massage her knee. "Connor and the Oracle, Wes, Spike, Buffy. You and me. Everything."

"Connor's back with us. He's going to be ok," Angel said, sincerity in his dark eyes.

"Someone killed his family, Angel. Taking him out to the movies tonight probably wasn't the best idea—the cops are looking for him," she pointed out. "Wolfram & Hart have done their best to make life as difficult for him as possible and, by extension, for you too."

"I just wanted to get him out of the hotel for a while…get him away from that Higher Power," Angel growled.

"I'm a Higher Power too, you know."

"Yes, but you're not an annoying one. At least not all the time." There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it, but she swatted at him anyway. "What I don't get is why they killed Connor's family. There had to have been other ways to get at the both of us without hurting innocents."

"Hurting innocents is all that Wolfram & Hart does. They're evil, remember?"

Angel looked away, but not before she saw the look of hurt in his eyes. Too late, she remembered that he'd been affiliated with the law firm for the past year. The Senior Partners had given him the keys to the kingdom in hopes that it would corrupt him. It very nearly had.

Cordy slid off the desk and sat down in his lap, wrapping her arms around him. 'That's why you went kamikaze, isn't it? It wasn't the vision I gave you—it was the feeling that you were slipping…that you just had a few more days left before you gave in to them."

A tear slid down the side of his nose. "I never would have gone there. I never would have led Wesley and Fred and the others there if it hadn't been for you and Connor. You were both so hurt, and I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just let the two of you die."

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for that, but it was my time, Angel. I had to die, in order to come back to you." Reaching down, she took his hand in hers, lacing their fingers together. "Now, we have to get on with this business of the future."

"You've had a vision?"

Cordy shook her head. "Nope, no more visions for me. You've got a new Seer coming, or so they tell me."

Angel rested his head against her shoulder. "I don't want a new Seer…I like the one I've got just fine."

She snorted. "There's just the little problem of me being dead."

"You don't feel dead to me," he murmured, then brushed his lips against the side of her neck, resting them briefly over the pulse in her throat. "I can feel your heart beating…which I shouldn't be able to now that I'm human. Why didn't I lose my vampire senses along with Angelus?"

"Honestly, I don't know, and I haven't…had the time to ask around." She gave him a teasing smile and kissed him lightly on the nose. "Now, completely off-topic, but you need to call Buffy."

Angel jerked back. "What? Why?"

"Because I believe the darling Slayer is ignoring Illyria's call to come and awaken Spike. Because I don't know how long Illyria's magic can keep him alive without a soul."

"He survived a good hundred years without one," Angel groused. She smacked him—just hard enough that he winced. "Ow! All right, all right, I'll call Buffy."

Cordy slid off his lap, so he could get up. "You ready for this?"

"Ready to have the two of you in the same building? Not really," he admitted as he moved to the desk where a tan plastic phone sat, waiting. It was the only thing on the dark wooden desk except a blotter stained with grease from take out. His hand hovered over the receiver, shaking slightly. As she stood, arms folded impatiently over her chest, he raised his dark eyes to look at her. "I love you. Remember that."

"I will," she promised.