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 36

Jessica pounded on the punching bag until her knuckles bled. She had been down in the basement all night, not wanting to discuss her feelings toward Cordelia with anyone. Truth was she was sick of everyone getting on her back about yelling at Cordelia. True, Angel had been the only one to talk to her about it, but everyone else in the hotel just kept giving her looks, and Jess was sick of the looks. No one could tell her how she had to act toward her mother.

"What'd she ever do for me?" Jessica clenched her jaw as she asked the question out loud and beat on the punching bag, each fist thrown hurting more then the last. Each connection she made with the bag adding another drop of blood to the floor.

"All she did was have me! I bet she didn't even want me!" Jessica growled, and before she could control it, she felt herself vamp out. She continued punching the bag even harder, smelling her fresh blood pour from her knuckles and hit the floor.

Finally, she threw one last punch, causing the bag to fly across the basement. She growled, relaxing her face back to its human state and sitting down on the steps. She looked down at her bloody knuckles and sighed, knowing it would take a few days for them to heal up.

As she sat there, she realized she wasn't alone. Without looking up, she knew he was behind her.

"What do you want, Connor?" Jessica asked.

"Holtz kicked me out." Connor joined his sister on the stairs. "He told me I belonged with Angel."

Jess nodded. "You do."

Connor shook his head. "I'm not so sure."

"Why not?"

"Holtz took care of us for so long, Jess, when he didn't have to. Obviously he cares about us."

"He cares about you." Jessica corrected him.

"Jess…"

"Connor, you know that's true. If Holtz doesn't want you around anymore you can't force it."

"I feel like I'm betraying him."

Jessica stood. "Well don't. If anything, he's betraying you." She then turned and exited the basement with Connor close behind. They both needed to grab some sleep before the morning came and everyone was down in the lobby running around them.

Cordelia stared at herself in the mirror as she fixed her short, blonde hair. It was still early, Angel hadn't even gotten up yet, but she could not sleep. Too much had gone on the past two days. She decided to take a walk down to the lobby just to check on Jess and Connor. When she got into the lobby she saw Connor on one couch curled up and Jessica sprawled out on the other, her blanket thrown on the floor next to her.

The lobby was cold, so Cordelia went over and quietly picked up the blanket, placing it on her daughter, and that's when she saw the blood oozing from Jessica's fists. Cordelia gathered her daughter's hands up, only to find that both her fists were torn up and bruised badly.

"Go to bed, they're fine." Jessica said groggily. Cordelia's heartbeat had woken her up.

Cordelia swallowed hard, not wanting to step down to her daughter like she had been doing the past couple of days. Cordelia had decided that regardless of what Jessica thought of her, she was going to respect her mother. "They're a mess."

"Its just blood. Go back to bed, I'll clean it up in the morning." Jessica became more awake now, and Cordelia could hear the anger creeping into her daughter's voice.

"Why won't you let me help you?"

"Because I don't need your help!" Jessica snapped and jumped off the couch. "And I don't need you!"

Before Cordelia could even react, Jessica had grabbed Angel's coat and was out the door.

Cordelia sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in front of her. It had been three hours since Jess had stormed out, and the sun was beginning to rise. Cordelia could hear someone coming down the stairs. She turned to see Angel in the doorway.

"Hey, what are you doing up so early?" He asked with a yawn.

"Couldn't sleep." Cordelia replied quietly.

Angel could tell something was wrong almost immediately. "Cordy, what happened?"

"Jess ran away."

"What!" Angel was confused.

"Last night, I came down here to check on her and Connor, and she woke up. She passed some words and then stormed out."

"Well, we need to find her!" Angel raised his voice, causing Connor to stir on the couch, and Wesley to run down the stairs, followed closely by Fred and Gunn.

"What the hell's going on?" Gunn asked, still half asleep.

"Jess rain away last night!" Angel panicked. "We need to go find her."

"Damn…I thought someone died or something." Gunn took a breath of relief.

"Gunn! My daughter is missing! Again!" Angel shouted.

"And we'll find her." Wesley tried to calm Angel down because he saw how upset Cordelia was getting from the situation.

"Yeah, we'll find her." Fred gently patted Cordelia on the back, but it only made the seer worse.

"We'd better." Angel growled.

Cordelia stood, tears in her eyes. "And if we don't? Then you blame me, right Angel?"

"What? Cordy…" Angel was shocked she would say that.

"Why not? She blames me for everything! Why not everyone else do it too?" Cordelia was hysterical now.

"Relax." Connor told the group from the couch. He really didn't seem too worried about his sister, and his attitude caused the whole room to calm down. "She's always like this."

"What do you mean?" Angel asked.

"Jess has a short fuse. It blows a lot. She probably just needed some time to vent. She'll be back when she's done." Connor explained.

"So girl's unstable then?" Gunn asked.

"She's not unstable!" Both Angel and Connor snapped at the same time. Father and son then looked at each other, both trying not to laugh.

"You're all unstable." Gunn decided, tossing himself on the couch across from Connor.

Angel turned to Cordelia, taking her hand in his. "When she comes back we are going to have a talk, our family. A serious talk, okay?"

Cordelia nodded. "Okay."

Jessica strolled back in the hotel ten hours later, just as the sun was setting, to find everyone sitting around in the lobby, all with a look of worry on their faces.

"Jeez, you guys looked like someone died." Jess joked, and then turned to Angel. "No offense."

Fred, Wesley, Lorne, and Gunn took the look Angel shot back at his daughter as their cue to leave, and they all quickly shuffled out of the hotel without saying a word.

Jess watched them exit, and flung Angel's coat in his direction before plopping down on the couch next to Connor. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"Just a little." Angel told her.

Jess sighed. "I figured."

"Then you know why?" Cordelia asked, she had been worried sick all day about her daughter and was extremely stressed at this point.

"Yeah." Jess stood. "And I'm not going to apologize for what I said to you."

"Actually, you are." Angel corrected his daughter.

Jess shook her head. "No, I'm not. I meant it, plan and simple."

"Well, too bad." Angel stood, mimicking his daughter. "Because we are a family and we are going to talk about this like a family-" Angel was cut off by the phone ringing.

"And in this house work comes before family." Jess told him with her sly smile. "You better get that."

"We aren't done with this discussion." Angel told his daughter before moving to the phone.

"Yeah, yeah." Jess said, making her way up the stairs.

"Hello?" Angel picked up the phone.

"Angel." Holtz said on the other end of the line. "I want to talk to you."

"Holtz?" Angel questioned.

"Yes." Holtz replied. "Can you come down to the hotel? It's about Connor and Jess, and you taking them back."

"Uh, sure." Angel said. "I'll be there in five." He then hung up the phone.

"Was that Holtz?" Connor questioned.

"Yeah." Angel nodded. "He wants me to meet him at the hotel he's in."

"What about Jess?" Cordelia questioned.

"I'll talk to her later." Angel kissed Cordelia. "I promise." He made his way to the door but then turned around quickly. "Don't forget about tonight."

"What?" Cordelia asked.

"You…me…the beach?" Angel reminded her.

"Oh, right. Our night out." Cordelia remembered.

"Yeah." Angel smiled at her. "Trust me, you'll love it."

Cordelia nodded. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Jess stood at the top of the stairs, peering down into the lobby. She knew Holtz was up to no good asking Angel to come over there. She just didn't know what Holtz was up to exactly. She decided she had better go check it out, so she quickly made her way down the hall and out the window.

Angel knocked on the door of Holtz's room and watched as the door slowly creaked open.

"Come in." Holtz said.

Angel nodded and stepped in the room. "What do you need?"

"I'm sorry." Holtz told Angel. "For what I did to you, to Cordelia."

"To my kids?" Angel asked bitterly, remembering all to clearly the scars his daughter would carry in her skin for eternity.

Holtz swallowed hard. "Yes. What I did to them, well it was wrong."

Angel nodded. "Go on."

"They're yours. They always have been. I tried to change them, but I couldn't. Their place is beside you now." Holtz handed a letter to Angel. "Give this to Connor. Jess doesn't need an explanation to what is happening, she knew it would from the beginning."

Angel nodded. "I'll give it to him."

"I'm leaving." Holtz informed him. "L.A. is not for me."

Angel nodded again. "Good luck." He said before exiting the room.

Jess watched from outside the window as Angel exited and Holtz picked up the piece of metal from the floor, and she realized what he was going to do. The weapon looked something like a welded fork; expect it had two prongs at the end that were about an inch and a half apart; about the width of someone's mouth.

Jess knew Holtz was going to use that weapon to kill himself, and make it look like Angel had taken a nice bite out of him. He was going to make Connor turn against his father by making it look like Angel was a big, bad killer.

Holtz raised the forked object to his neck and Jess did the only thing she could think of. She jumped in the window, falling onto Holtz and knocking the weapon out of his hand, as the glass came flying down around them both.

Angel entered back into the hotel to find it empty, except for Connor, who was sitting on the couch, reading.

"Hey, where is everyone?" Angel asked his son.

"Fred and Gunn went out, and Wesley went to help Lorne set something up in the club." Connor said, not looking up from his book.

"What about your mom?" Angel asked, not even realizing he had called Cordelia "mom" to Connor.

Connor didn't seem to mind though. "She went to the beach, to meet you. Remember?"

"Oh, right." Angel fidgeted around in his pocket until he was sure what he was looking for was still in there. "I better go meet her." He turned to the door and then turned back quickly, remembering what Holtz had given him. "Oh, here, this is for you." Angel handed Connor the letter.

"What's this?"

"It's from Holtz. He said it would explain everything."

Connor nodded as he watched Angel hurry out of the hotel.

Jess and Holtz wrestled on the floor for a few more minutes.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jess growled. "Trying to set Angel up for a fall in Connor's eyes?"

"Angelus is evil!" Holtz spat. "Just like you. A demon, that's all he is."

"You don't know what he is!"

"Of course I do." Holtz smirked as he threw the cross he wore around his neck at Jessica.

Jessica screamed, as the cross burned into her skin, and before she knew it the demon inside of her was out.

"That's what he is." Holtz commented on Jessica's vampire face. "Exactly like you."

"Well you do hate us both." Jess grinned, exposing her enlarged K-9 teeth.

"And eventually, I will kill you both." Holtz lunged at her, picking the cross up off the ground and driving it into her shoulder.

Cordelia stood on the beach waiting for Angel. She checked her watch. He was late. "Nothing new…" She said to herself, and then suddenly she got the feeling she wasn't alone.

"Cordelia?"

She jumped at her name and whipped around to come face to face with a familiar demon.

"Skip?" Cordelia held her chest and let out a sigh of relief. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to make a deal with you." Skip told her.

Cordelia's eyes narrowed. "What kind of deal?"

Connor read over the letter Holtz had sent him three or four times, still in shock from it. The letter basically said that Holtz was sorry for what he had done to Angel, and if Angel was as good as Jess claimed he was, than Connor's place was with his father. Holtz also said he would be leaving L.A. the following morning.

Connor stood, he had to go talk to Holtz before he left. He had to know if this was really what the man he had called father for close to eighteen years wanted.

Jess managed to pull the cross out of her shoulder just as Holtz was picking up the weapon he had made to do himself in.

"You're not going to get away with this." Jess grabbed Holtz by the back of the neck. "I won't let you put this on my real dad. Connor is not going to turn on him no matter what you want!"

"Yeah?" Holtz gasped. "Well what are you doing to do about it, you stupid little bi-"

"Shut up!" Jess jerked Holtz backwards.

"You know, I should have killed you when I had the chance. All those years of torturing you, well it just really didn't pay off for me. I didn't get any real satisfaction out of that. I didn't get anything from it." Holtz laughed. "All that time I spent on inflicting pain on you, well damn I just should have killed you back there. I don't know why I didn't."

"I do." Jessica told him, and before she knew it, she had sunk her teeth into his neck. She felt his blood slide down her throat and it didn't bother her one bit. She felt nothing for the monster in her hands. He had caused her so much pain, so much heartbreak. He had torn her really family apart. This was her revenge, she decided, as Holtz's lifeless body slipped from her hands.

Cordelia was waiting for the demon in front of her to answer her question. "What deal?" She repeated.

"You're a warrior, Cordelia." Skip started. "The Powers feel like you've done your duty here, you've earned your way."

"What do you mean?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow.

"They want you to become a higher being."

Cordelia was shocked. "What?"

"Yeah." Skip nodded. "They want you to be there, working with them."

"And leave my family? Leave Angel?"

Skip nodded. "Nothing's ever free."

"Well, screw that." Cordelia told him. "I'm not going."

"Cordelia…"

"No! My family was just thrown back at me. My son is afraid of his father, my daughter hates me! I'm in love, and happy with Angel." Cordelia told him. "I'm not leaving them."

"This is a great honor, Cordelia." Skip tried to persuade her.

Cordelia shook her head. "I can't. My daughter still needs me, and my son, and I'm the seer. If I leave they have nothing."

Skip thought for a moment and then nodded slowly. "This is really what you want?"

"Yes."

Skip nodded. "Okay. Nice chatting with you, I'll probably see you around." He then turned and disappeared.

Cordelia stood there for a moment; unable to believe how easily she had gotten rid of the demon.

Connor entered Holtz's hotel room to find him on the floor, dead, and drained. He was shocked. He picked Holtz up and began to cry softly.

"Connor?" Jessica's voice came from behind him.

"He killed him." Connor cried. "Angel killed Holtz."

"No, now wait, Connor-" But before Jess could finish her sentence, Connor had thrown two fists, knocking her out for a second to long. When she awoke, he was gone.

Cordelia stood, still confused about what had just happened, when she again felt someone behind her. "I told you, the answer is no!" She turned, expecting to see Skip again.

"I didn't even ask the question." Angel smiled from behind her. She looked beautiful; she was dressed in a long white jacket, with a white skirt and shirt under. A true angel, if Angel had ever seen one.

"Oh, it's you." Cordelia smiled. "I thought it was someone else."

"I see." Angel then pulled her close and kissed her passionately, until he felt the piece of wood on his back. He slowly turned to find himself face to face with Connor and a stake.

"Connor?" Angel questioned.

"You're dead." Connor said simply.

"Connor…" Cordelia stepped in front of Angel. "Honey, whatever it is…"

"Shut up." Connor glared at her. "You have no idea."

"Connor, we can talk about this." Angel said, slowly stepping in front of Cordelia to protect her. "I understand you're upset about Holtz, but that's no reason to be angry with me."

"Are you kidding?" Connor glared.

"Well, sure, I mean, he did leave you to stay with me, but you need to understand…" Angel started.

"That's what you call it? He left me?" Connor snorted.

"Well…" Angel nodded. "What would you call it?"

"How about, you killed him!" Connor lunged at Angel, pressing the stake to his father's unbeating heart, but before he could finish it off, he felt himself be thrown into the water. He got up, and turned around quickly to see Jessica wading in the waves after him.

"Wrong, Connor." Jessica grabbed her brother and tossed him back onto the beach. "Dad didn't kill Holtz."

"You saw him! He was dead!" Connor scrambled in the sand.

"Yeah, he was. But Dad didn't kill him." Jess repeated herself as she stepped into Connor's face. "I did!" She picked Connor up and threw him three more feet.

Connor jumped up. "You don't have to cover for Angelus…"

"Did you take a look at the bite marks?" Jess questioned. "You've seen them before, haven't you? The spacing of the teeth, the size of the bite…think Connor."

Connor shook his head, not wanting to believe his sister. "You didn't…"

"I did." Jessica grinned her sly grin. "And I'd do it again. All those years he spent torturing me, beating me to the bone. I killed him, Connor, and I'm not sorry."

Connor shook his head, before lunging at Jessica, his eyes filled with tears. He got on top of her, holding the stake to her beating heart. But instead of piercing it, he pulled his sister close to him. "I'm sorry, Jess." Connor cried. "What he did to you…"

"Connor…" Jess broke up the embrace. "That past is the past, we gotta just get over it. Move on, forgive, forget kind of deal."

Connor nodded, and turned to Angel and Cordelia. "Sorry." But he glared at Angel when he said it. Although Jessica had been the real killer, Connor realized that Holtz had never lied to him. Angelus was still in his father, and Connor was not going to forget that.

"Get back to the hotel. Put some dry cloths on." Jessica told her brother.

Connor nodded, and started up the beach.

"Jess?" Angel questioned his daughter, shocked that she had just killed a man, even if it had been Holtz.

Jess just turned to her father and mother. "What's done is done."

"We should get you home." Angel said.

Jess shook her head. "I should get home. You, Dad, should ask her already."

"What?" Angel was confused.

"I wore you're jacket, I found your little surprise in your pocket." Jess grinned at him. "And, hell, go for it."

"You said you hated her." Angel raised an eyebrow, trying to hide a smile.

Jess smiled at Cordelia. "The past is the past." She hugged Cordelia. "I don't hate you. You should know that."

Cordelia smiled at her daughter. "You mean that?"

Jess nodded. "I do." She then turned back to her father. "Now, go for it." She told him before following her brother up the beach.

Cordelia turned to Angel. "What was she talking about?"

"Uh, this…" Angel pulled a box out of his pocket and fiddled with it in his hand. "Cordy, we've been through so much together, we have a family, and I love you." He looked up at her, and then got down on his knee. "Would you do me the honor of spending eternity as my wife?"

Cordelia covered her mouth as the tears of joy fell from her eyes. She nodded her head, unable to speak.

"Really?" Angel smiled.

"Yes." Cordelia managed out as Angel slide the ring onto her finger, and pulled her in for a long kiss.

Faith sat in her jail cell, counting the bricks on the wall. She was bored, jail was definitely not a fun place to be, but at least she was atoning for what she had done.

Suddenly her ceil was filled with a light, and a demon came crashing through.

"What the hell?" Faith stood, ready to go at it with the demon.

"Wait!" The demon cried. "Not a bad guy here."

"You look it." Fait shot back.

"Well, I'm not." The demon stuck out his hand. "Name's Skip. I work for the Powers That Be."

"Isn't that who Angel works for?" Faith asked.

Skip nodded. "Yep. And they have a job offering for you."

"For me?"

"They see you're sorry for your past, Faith. They want to get you to help them fight the good fight. They want you to become a higher being."

"A higher what?" Faith asked.

"A higher being. An overseer, if you will. You get to keep an eye on all the champions. Help win this battle against evil.

Faith nodded after a moment. "What do I have to do?"

"Just say yes."

Faith nodded. "Yeah, sure."

Skip smiled, as he watched Faith suddenly glow with a bright light, and begin her ascension.