Disclaimer: All characters and things from ANGEL and BUFFY belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. If they aren't on the show they belong to me.

Summary: A different turn of events after Season 1 Episode 12 "Expecting" A/C pairing

CHAPTER 19

Angel yawned as he entered the lobby. He had been gone for three days. The trip back from Sunnydale had taken a little longer than he had expected. He looked up at the clock on the wall to see it was barely five-thirty in the morning. He slowly made his way up the stairs, glad that he would get at least a few hours of sleep before everyone else started waking up. Then he heard Jessica's soft cries and sighed as he entered Cordelia's room.

Angel found Cordelia sitting on the bed with a crying Jessica in her arms. Cordelia looked tired and disheveled. She looked a lot older then she was, Angel thought, even if she was immortal now. He smiled at the thought of her spending eternity with him. He owed the Powers for that one. Cordelia looked up weakly at him and then focused back down on Jessica.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked as he knelt beside Cordelia.

"Nothing." Cordelia said, without looking up. "She's just been up all night. I think it might be a tooth."

"This young?"

Cordelia shrugged. "I guess." She focused back on her daughter who had become more relaxed once Angel had come in. "That's it, sweetie, you need some sleep..." Cordelia cooed at her daughter. Once Jessica was sleeping in her arms she focused back on Angel. "How's Buffy?"

"She was better then I expected." Angel told her. "She sends her best."

"I'll bet..." Cordelia said under her breath.

"I heard that." Angel smiled at her, but he did not get one in return. "It's the vampire hearing. I hear well."

Cordelia nodded and moved Jessica back to her crib.

"Cordy, what's wrong?" Angel asked as he stood.

Cordelia sighed, running a hand through her short hair. "I don't want to talk about it." She moved to her bed.

"Cordelia, I-"

"Angel! I don't want to talk about it. Jess is finally asleep, so right now I'd like to get some too, if you don't mind." She climbed into bed.

"No. Go on, get some sleep." Angel moved to the door. "We'll talk later."

Angel came down the stairs to find Gunn and Wesley cleaning the weapons. Both men looked up as the vampire entered.

" When did you back?" Gunn asked.

"This morning." Angel sat on the couch. "Early."

"How was it?" Wesley asked.

Angel shrugged. "Sad, but Buffy was doing better then I thought she would."

Wesley nodded. "She's a strong girl."

"Yeah." Angel agreed.

Just then the giggles of Jessica filled the lobby as Cordelia carried her daughter down the stairs. Gunn was the first to respond, jumping up and taking Jessica from Cordelia.

"Come see your Uncle Gunn." Gunn said as he sat down with Jessica. "Tell me how your teeth are kid..."

Jessica got an evil grin to her face and then giggled, grabbing at a button on Gunn's jacket.

Cordelia laughed and leaned against the counter. "Now she is a good girl. Last night she wouldn't let Mommy sleep."

"We can watch her, Cordelia, if you want to go get some rest." Wesley offered.

Cordelia shook her head. "I'm fine. One of the joys of motherhood is that I learned that I don't need a lot of sleep to function."

"Cordy?" Angel asked. "Do you think we could talk? For a minute?"

Cordelia took a deep breath. "Uh, sure." She led him upstairs and into her room. "What's up?" She asked.

"You tell me." Angel told her. "You're the one acting weird."

"When?"

"This morning."

"I was tired."

"You were avoiding me."

"Maybe."

"Why?"

"Because!" Cordelia threw her arms out. "You say you want to fix this. You kiss me. You arrange a beautiful dinner for me, and then you bail once Buffy needs you."

"Cordelia, her mom died."

"I know..." Cordelia looked down. "And I know she needed you, but what if it had been something small she called about? Would you have gone?"

"Nothing is ever small in Buffy's life." Angel told her.

"What's that mean?" Cordelia snapped.

Angel shrugged. "She's the Slayer. Nothing is easy for her."

"Oh, so because she's the Slayer she immediately needs more attention then the rest of us."

"Cordy-" Angel realized he had slipped up big with his words.

"Well, news flash buddy! I'm a demon! I'm the vision girl! I'm also a mother! I've got it hard too!" Cordelia said angrily.

"I didn't say you didn't." Angel tried to backtrack. "Cordy I didn't mean to hurt you-"

"And another thing!" Cordelia continued. "If you think that I'm going to wait around here for..." Cordelia's voice trailed off.

Angel studied her face as she stared at the floor. "Cordelia?"

"Vision." She looked back up. "We'll continue this conversation later." She said, walking out the door.

"Wesley, vision." Cordelia said as she entered the lobby, with Angel close behind.

Wesley perked up. "Really? Of what?"

Cordelia sat down on the couch next to Gunn and took Jessica from him. "It was the weirdest vision I've ever had. It was of a girl." Cordelia's face hardened as she tried to remember what she had seen. "She was reading a book. She's in either a book store or a library."

"What's so weird about that?" Gunn asked.

"One minute she was there, and the next she wasn't." Cordelia told them. "And I don't know when or how or why it happened. Why would the Powers send me a vision without any of the important stuff in it?"

"That is weird." Gunn said.

Cordelia looked down at Jessica and traced her finger down her daughters face. To her surprise her daughter tried to bite it. "Hey Jess!" Cordelia looked down. "No biting Mommy!"

"We need to start." Angel said. "The only problem is, we don't know where."

"Not with a vision like that we don't." Gunn said.

Wesley fixed his glasses. "This is all rather odd."

"Damn right it is, English." Gunn told him. "What are we gonna do?"

They all thought for a moment, and then Angel broke the silence. "Lorne."

"Who?" Cordelia asked, her voice still full of bitterness toward the vampire, and father of her child.

"Lorne. The demon that owns the club." Angel told them.

"Yes, of course." Wesley smiled. "He can read Cordelia for us. Brilliant idea, Angel. Let's get going."

Wesley grabbed his jacket and exited followed by Gunn. Angel tried to hold the door for Cordelia, who was struggling with Jessica and Jessica's diaper bag, but she just snubbed him on her way out. Jessica however, laughed at her father, like she knew he was in trouble with her mommy.

"So you can help us then?" Wesley asked Lorne.

Lorne nodded. "Sure can. We just need to get Little Momma singing some tunes and we should be good to go."

"I have to sing?" Cordelia asked. "I can't sing." She looked down as Jessica began giggling in her arms. "See? Even Jess knows I can't sing."

"Well, if you don't want to sing, I'm sure we can just let the girl die." Gunn said sarcastically.

Cordelia sighed. "Fine..." She then began singing Madonna's "Material Girl."

Angel had to laugh at the song Cordelia had chosen. Back in high school it would have fit her perfectly, but now the words of the song were so far from the truth it was unbelievable.

When Cordelia finished they all turned to Lorne who was just shaking his head.

"Did you see it?" Cordelia asked.

Lorne nodded but swallowed hard. "I suggest you just forget about it. Would you like a drink? I make a great sea breeze."

"Forget about it!" Cordelia asked, clearly shocked.

"I guess that's an X on the sea breeze..." Lorne said uneasy.

"We can't just forget it." Angel told him. "This is our mission."

"Well, then maybe you should get a new one." Lorne cracked.

"Or maybe I'll just kick your green ass." Gunn grabbed Lorne by the shirt and pinned him against the wall.

"Gunn..." Cordelia said sternly.

Gunn sighed and let Lorne go. "You're lucky I listen to her."

Lorne straightened out his shirt and looked at Angel. "You'll find what you need at the public library."

Angel nodded. "Let's move."

"Well, good luck with that." Lorne waved.

"You have to come with us." Wesley told him.

"Oh no." Lorne held out his hands. "I can't. Honestly."

"You are." Gunn said, grabbing Lorne by the sleeve of his jacket.

The library was rather big, though there was no one there except the librarian, who was an older lady, when the gang entered.

"Can I help you?" She asked the group, eyeing up Lorne.

"its just make-up." Lorne said. "I'm in a play uptown."

The librarian nodded. "The library is closing soon, but can I help you all with anything?"

Cordelia nodded and looked at the guys to tell them to start looking around. When they broke away from her she turned back to the librarian. "I was wondering if I could talk to you." She asked, as Jessica began squirming in her arms.

"Sure, dear." The librarian said, sweetly.

"Well, I'm looking for someone. A girl. Young, long hair, glasses. She disappeared in here, I think." Cordelia explained.

The librarian looked surprised, but after a minute she went into a drawer and pulled out a MISSING poster with a picture of the girl from Cordelia's vision on it. "Is this her?"

"Yeah, it is." Cordelia said, shifting Jessica in her arms.

The librarian sighed. "Winifred Burkle. We called her Fred for short. She used to work here."

"What happened to her?"

"No one knows. One minute she was stocking shelves and the next she was gone."

"Where was she stocking the shelves?" Cordelia asked.

The librarian pointed down an aisle. "Right there."

Cordelia nodded. "Thanks."

"She's adorable." The librarian said.

"Sorry, what?" Cordelia didn't understand what the librarian meant.

"Your daughter. She's adorable."

"Oh, thanks." Cordelia smiled down at Jessica before going in the direction the librarian had pointed her.

"So, what's the deal then?" Gunn asked Angel as they made their way down an aisle. Wesley and Lorne had gone a different way so that they could cover more ground in the library.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked.

"With you and Cordelia. Are you together or..."

Angel shrugged. "The thing with Buffy hit her hard I think. Plus, I think I messed up a little when she and I tried to talk about it this morning."

"That sucks." Gunn told him. "But you do have feelings for her?"

Angel nodded. "Yeah. I do. I really do."

Cordelia made her way down the aisle while bouncing a now sleeping Jessica in her arms. "Let's see..." Cordelia looked around the shelves and then saw it. The book appeared to be the same one from her vision. She took it off the shelf and opened it, only to find a bunch of letters jumbled together.

"Great..." Cordelia sighed. "What are these..kryblnc...what the hell?" She attempted reading again. "Krrbluninc dr unckd bl trtlrlc..."

The portal opened behind Cordelia before she could even scream, and both she and Jessica were sucked right through it.

"We're closing, guys." The librarian told Gunn, Wesley, Angel, and Lorne as they came up to her desk.

"Have you seen the girl we were with?" Angel asked.

The librarian nodded. She was asking about a girl who disappeared here, Fred Burkle, and then she went down there." The librarian pointed but then looked confused looked confused. "She was right down that aisle...a second ago. But I don't know where she went now."

Angel, Gunn, Wesley, and Lorne went down the aisle Cordelia was last seen in, except there was no one there.

"Great. Where did Barbie go?" Gunn asked as he stepped on a book. "What the hell?" He picked the book up.

Angel grabbed the book and smelt it. "It has Cordelia's scent on it. She read it."

Wesley took the book from Angel. "Well, let's see what she was looking at." He opened the book and looked confused.

"What is it?" Angel asked.

"Nothing. These aren't real words." Wesley said, looking up from the text.

Lorne looked over Wesley's shoulder at the book and felt his face turn a different shade of green. "Oh no..."

"What?" Angel asked, less calmly.

"Well..." Lorne gave an uneasy smile. "Cordelia's not exactly in this demention anymore. Neither is Jess."

"What!" Angel was frantic. "Where are they?"

"Pylea." Lorne told them. "My home demention."

"Well, we gotta get them outta there." Gunn said.

"Right you do." Lorne patted Angel's back. "And good luck with that, big guy."

"No! No! No!" Angel grabbed Lorne. "You're going to help us. We are going to get back to your home demention and you are going to help us save them."

"I can't. I'm not going back there." Lorne said. "Pylea is not exactly peachy. Especially if you're a human."

"Then we've got to save them fast!" Angel said, angrily.

"Or a runaway!" Lorne put his hands up in defense. "They'll chew me up and spit me out."

"And what do you think they'll do to Cordelia or Jess?" Angel growled and got in Lorne's face. "Now you are going to come and help us. Understand?"

Lorne swallowed hard and nodded. "Ok bossy."

"And if Cordelia or Jessica is hurt, even the smallest scratch…" Angel threatened.

Lorne nodded. "I've got it."

"We should get back to the hotel. Figure everything out and grab supplies." Wesley said, shoving the book in his jacket.

Angel nodded and led the way out of the hotel.