Sorry it's been so long, and i only own Carma, unfortunately.


"Uh…I don't suppose you could let us out of this could you?"

"Oops…sorry."

The web still holding the other three vampires fell away and immediately dissipated. Carma didn't notice immediately as she was locked in a sort of staring contest with Buffy, blue eyes glaring at silver, malice, and a fair amount of confusion. The slayer honestly couldn't understand why her two pet vamps (not that she would ever admit to calling them that outside of her own head) preferred this girl to her, she wasn't pretty at all! Carma didn't really have any idea what was going on, she'd been pulled out of Paris my the man she'd come there to meet, without any idea that she was actually going to find him. And to top that off he'd bought another her with him, from a time when she was actually worth something. Then she was thrown into the middle of a blood bath, had watched power she once controlled being released and used (in a way) on her, and now some weird blonde kept staring at her who had a very big and very distracting vein throbbing in her forehead.

"That is it! We've had it!"

That was Cordelia, her voice shrill enough to shatter any glass that hadn't already been broken. The rest of the LA gang had gathered behind her, all wearing the same expression, a bloody angry one!

"Don't interfere Rupert, Buffy, this is between Angel and us."

Wesley that time, looking as though he wanted to be wiping his glasses, if he had any of course.

"We need to talk sweetness."

Lorne, blithely ignoring the askance looks being sent his way for calling Angel 'sweetness'.

"Uh oh."

"Someone's in trouble."

William and Destiny sing-songed, smirking at the looks they were getting from their two sires, their doubles, and basically everyone except a few potentials and Colin, who were standing in a little huddle towards the back and grinning.

"Cordy, guys, I don't…"

"Now Angel!"

No one could refuse that glare, not even Angel himself (Angelus might have a shot though).

"While you're doing that," Will's tone said just what he thought of 'that', "we'd better be heading back." Nods of agreement as the three started to back away, "have fun sorting this out won't you."

"See you tomorrow."

Then they just disappeared, one second they were there…then they weren't. They'd grabbed Colin as they went, leaving behind a group of depressed teenagers and scoobies, who'd just come down from the battle high and had realised what the tidying up they were going to have to do, there were the very unhappy LA group, Faith and Connor slinking off heads close together, and Buffy…standing with her arms crossed and bright red lips thinned with a look on her face that really wasn't attractive.

"Angel…"

"Forget it Buffy, we got there first."

Cordelia ruthlessly cut through Buffy and staked her claim on the vampire, not giving anyone a chance to object as she pulled him off down the street, closely followed by the rest of their group, with Faith and Connor trailing behind.


"Don't you dare Angel! For the last couple of days we've lived through whatever this is, some mid-unlife crisis. But now you are going to stop and you are going to explain before I punch a stake through your heart myself."

Her face was bright red and a vein was throbbing worryingly in her neck, as was another in her forehead.

"The princess is right sweet. We need to talk, not that we're not loving the new, slightly more relaxed you, and hoping for the trend to continue." He skilfully ignored the disgruntled noises from the others and continued. "But that blonde was doing a lot of bitching while you were with your friends earlier, and if you're going to be able to do any good without a few hundred teenage girls in your way, we need some other stories to spread." He paused. "Plus we want to know the gossip."

An unholy gleam entered his eyes, mirrored in Cordelia's, and although she'd never admit it, Faith's, at the prospect of what promised to be some amazing gossip. And the whole crowd settled in, leaving Angel with no thought in his mind that they'd ever let him go before he spilled it all.


"But I don't want to go back. I don't like me, she's…vulgar. And don't laugh at me you pillock!"

A pillow smothered the offending chuckles, and while Colin helped William, Angelus dealt with the upset Destiny.

"We don't know what happened sweetheart, from what you told us she's had a hard time since everyone split up. She probably has her reasons, besides it doesn't matter we're going back and we're going to change it. Aren't we?"

"Course we are luv, stop worrying about a pathetic imitation of you that won't exist in a couple of weeks. We're going to make all of this better, remember the plan."

Will's arm twined around her waist and he stretched out between them, sending sinuous muscles rippling in his bare torso.

"I remember."

"That's my girl.

And where are you sneaking off too lad. You're part of this family and you have to help in developing strategies, we want to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Absolutely."

"Amen to that."

Colin halted where he was in the doorway and slunk back to the bed occupied by the three reclining vampires. A shy smile broke out on his face as he was welcomed into the circle.

"Carma and I came up with a sort of plan when we were in Paris."

The two younger vampires leant back automatically before the growl emanating from their sire.

"Why do you only ever come up with half a plan? How are you going to cope when you're in a situation and I'm not there?"

"We're not going to cope, you must have noticed that."

Will's impudent remark and cheeky grin earned him two laughs and a cuff round the ear.

"All right then," Angelus heaved a long suffering sigh, "what's your 'sort of plan'?"

The rest of the day was spent tossing ideas around, and by the time the sunset they had a plan that they were going to go with. Despite any objections raised by a certain blond bitch, objections raised purely for the sake of objecting.


I'm so sorry to everyone who's read this, but I had exams and then my family decided to try and win free entrance to a lunatic asylum, god I always knew they were mad but this was going to extremes, then my laptop and all the work on it just kind of fizzled up and died so I had to try and get all that back. And I'm really, really, really sorry but please read and review people :)

Mystiksnake: glad you like it and sorry it's been so long but everything got hectic and I ran out of time.

Vdarkangel88: hope you like this too; sorry it's been so long.

Scary Vampiress: hope you liked this one too, and I'm soooo sorry it's been so long but everything went a bit…peculiar for a while.