Despite the obvious urgency of the situation, Cordelia and Fred were far too exhausted to do any credible research that night. Twice they attempted it and both times ended up asleep on their desks. They eventually gave into their fatigue and climbed the stairs of the hotel wearily intending to get started bright and early to make up for the time lost.
It was noon however, before either of them descended the stairs. Lorne was already in the lobby drinking coffee and looking much better off than he had the night before. Fred smiled in relief to know that there hadn't been any permanent head damage caused by the truth potion.
"Ah, there you are dumplings, I was wondering when you two were going to rise and shine."
"How come you're so chipper?" Fred wondered as Lorne handed her a cup of coffee that he had luckily made only moments before. Cordelia declined his subsequent offer and sat down next to him. "The truth potion sure did a number on you last night. You were the last person I expected to see up before us."
"It messed with my head quite a bit I won't lie," Lorne admitted, "but as far as rest goes it was better than a sleeping pill. I barely slept at all last night, that truth potion had me in such a deep trance. It was actually kind of nice. Too bad the stuff is so foul tasting...they could market it."
"Not for humans they couldn't." Cordelia reminded him. Lorne looked at her, slightly abashed and amended his statement.
"Fine, they could market it on the demon black market as a sleeping aid...you'd make a fortune Fred," he winked to let her know he was teasing and she smiled in return.
"Thanks but no thanks." Was her reply. "There's enough craziness in my life as it is."
"True enough sweetie pie." He agreed.
"Is anyone else up?" Cordelia wondered, hoping that nobody knew that she and Fred had slept so much when they had promised to be researching.
"Haven't seen a soul." Lorne replied. "Angel of course is naturally in la la land. Everyone else though I think is pretty pooped from what happened last night. Some heavy things going on around here, and not just professionally. I thought the emotional aura meter was going to jump off the charts last night."
"It was pretty intense." Fred agreed. "Whatever you do can you not tell anyone we slept in? With everything that's been going on around here, the last thing they need to know is that we slept the day away."
"Your secret is safe with me," Lorne promised. "But I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about it. It is only noon after all."
"We should get to work." Cordelia suggested. Fred nodded and headed over to the main desk where the file Connor and Dawn had stolen resided. Opening it, they divided up it's contents and got to work, hoping to pass the time and whether the internal storm that existed among those at Angel Investigations.