Angel's heart leapt when Buffy finally entered the hotel, followed by Dawn and a very tense and sullen Connor. Despite himself, Angel tensed up as well as his eyes met those of his son's. Connor looked at him with such utter loathing that it made Angel's heart ache for all that he had suffered. Why hadn't he stopped Holtz from jumping into that demon dimension? Why had he foolishly blamed Wesley for what happened when it was his own recklessness that caused Wesley to take such protective measures in the first place? How could he ever make it up to either of them?
"Connor you made it," Angel blinked, not even realizing he has spoken until the words had left his mouth.
"I was told I was needed." Was his short reply. "What's the plan?"
"I have the location of the Brillcrall. We need whatever information we can get from it about Adamson and his plan, so this is a capture mission, not a kill. The team consists of Connor, Buffy, Gunn and myself. We hit the demon's lair at sunrise. I'm gonna need this to be brutal and fast. We have to catch him off guard, so that he doesn't get a chance to fight back until after we've hit him with the tranquilizer and secured him. We can chain him to the wall in the basement of the hotel until we have enough information to kill him."
"Speaking of," Fred interrupted, slightly shy all of a sudden when faced with the very imposing looking slayer and her sister. "Someone named Willow called the hotel with the answer to killing the demon. You were right Angel. All we have to do, is enchant one of the hotel's weapons with this spell she sent us and it should be fatal for him."
"I knew Willow would find a way to kill this thing." Dawn said with a smile. Then, looking at Fred, Lorne and Cordelia who had obviously been pouring over books all day, attempted to apologize. "I didn't mean that you guys couldn't, or that you wouldn't have eventually, I just meant that Willow beat you to it. Not that it was a competition or anything, I mean I'm sure that given the same amount of time, you all could have..."
"Dawn," Buffy interrupted, sounding slightly amused. "We don't have all night."
"Sorry." Dawn said with a sigh. "I'll remove the foot from my mouth long enough to say hi I'm Dawn! I don't think I've met some of you guys."
"I'm Fred," the Texan brunette said with a warm smile.
"Gunn," he said shortly. Dawn had a feeling that there was something between the two of them and smiled, thinking it was kind of cute.
"And I'm Lorne." The green skinned demon stated. Dawn instantly liked him. "Can you sing Dawn? Your aura is just screaming at me already and I would love the opportunity to figure out why."
"Huh?" Dawn said, confused. "My aura? Sing?"
"No singing." Buffy said quickly. The Angel team all looked at her strangely. "We've had enough singing to last a lifetime."
"I actually liked it. I mean, I was certain I as about to sing something American Idol-worthy, when those lackeys kidnapped me." Dawn sounded slightly regretful. "Oh well, there's always next time."
"Well whenever it is, I would love to be there." Lorne said seriously. "There is something different about you cutie-pie, I can feel it."
"Must be the key thing," Dawn muttered.
"Key?" Gunn echoed.
"Don't you think we should talk about this later? You guys are going to have to work on a plan of attack before the sun comes up." Cordelia's voice was impatient and irritated. The more Buffy stood there, the more her exclusion from the mission bothered her. Why didn't Angel think her strong enough to come with them? She was part demon after all.
"She's right Angel." Buffy said with a nod, completely oblivious to Cordelia's dislike of the situation. "We should go somewhere and plan a strategy. I don't want anything to go wrong in with this. This thing has killed too many people."
"Don't worry Buffy, everything will be fine." Angel said confidently. Buffy allowed herself to relax slightly. His words always comforted her no matter what the situation and it felt good to let herself lean on someone else for once. She hadn't been able to do that at all since he left her three years ago. "We'll go into the basement and start planning things a bit better. Cordelia, can you take Buffy and Dawn's stuff up to the room across from mine? I believe it's free. Fred and Lorne, could you guys get to work on enchanting that weapon for when we do take this thing out?"
"It shouldn't be too hard." Fred agreed with a nod. "We have most of the ingredients at the hotel."
"What about me? What do I do?"
"You can come with me if you want Dawn," Cordelia offered with a friendly smile. "I can show you the rest of the hotel if you want a tour."
"Thanks." Dawn replied, slightly disappointed in the fact that they clearly wouldn't be doing anything too productive, yet grateful for Cordelia's attention. Although she knew that she had never technically met Cordelia, her memories told her otherwise and in that respect she was happy to see her again. "Can I help get any ingredients for their spell?"
"If we need something that's easy enough to get, sure." Fred said brightly. Cordelia bit her lip and kept from showing her aggravation at the thought of being relegated to 'the girl who gets the safe ingredients'. Instead, she smiled and ushered Dawn upstairs, leaving the rest of the gang to go about their tasks.
"She seemed a little on edge." Buffy commented as they headed downstairs, Connor and Gunn trailing behind.
"I wonder why." Connor replied darkly. He had knew Cordelia briefly, and yet he knew that she was unhappy about Buffy's reappearance. He suspected that she too harboured feelings for him, although why two women could love him so fiercely still remained an elusive concept.
"Cordelia's fine," Angel replied, feeling a bit guilty for not treating her as well as he could have in the past few days. Just when he had begun to admit his feelings for Cordelia not only to her, but to himself, Buffy had reappeared in his life and shaken everything up. He knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't even want him involved in the first place. Still, whenever she was near, he couldn't control his feelings for her. He had thought given time they would lessen, but to his anger and sadness they had only increased. It tore him apart to realize that after this was over, she would go back to Sunnydale and back to her new life, while he would remain unchangeable and unable to move on.
"She's changed so much," Buffy mused softly, still clearly thinking of Cordelia. "You guys must have been through a lot together." She was surprised a the small twinge of jealousy she suddenly felt at the thought of Cordelia and Angel spending so much time fighting side by side.
"It's been rough." Angel admitted. He snuck a side glance at her and realized for the first time since she had gotten here, he couldn't read the expression adorning her face. She's changed a great deal as well, Angel realized suddenly. He hadn't wanted to think of it, but since she had gotten here, she had been harder, tougher, more unwilling to trust him, or anyone else but herself. What had caused her to revert to such unwavering self-reliance? What had she been through in his absence? Had he done this to her? He hated to think that he had.
There was no weakness in her now. When he had first seen her coming outside of school, he had been initially attracted to the combination of vulnerability and strength she displayed in every thing she said and every movement she made. He wanted to shelter her from the big bad world and at the same time, knew that she could handle almost anything the world had to throw at her and took pride in that knowledge. She had been a woman trapped in the body of a girl, strong, yet weak and Angel had loved her for it.
Now, that vulnerability was gone. The girl was gone. All that was left was a hardened warrior, and Angel wanted desperately to take her in his arms and assure her that she could always lean on him, always trust in him. He wanted to make love to her, and get as deep within her as she was always within him, so that she would know the extent of his willingness to protect her and keep her safe.
She was no longer even looking at her, but rather talking to Connor in short, clipped sentences about battle strategy and positioning. Angel sighed and turned his attention toward the conversation, ignoring the hateful looks his son was sending him. How did I manage to allow my life to fall apart like this? He wondered to himself. What kind of champion has a son that wants him dead, and a former lover who no longer trusts anyone?
"Angel?" Gunn's voice interrupted him. "You with us man?"
"Yea, Gunn, go ahead." He sighed and looked towards the group, hating himself utterly. "Let's get this done."