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 85
Angel stood on the rooftop with Spike, Connor, and Gunn at his side. The rain was still falling down around them and they only had four crates left to set on fire and throw on the demon army below. They truly needed a plan but the problem was none of them had one, so the four men stood on the roof silently looking down at the army of demons they were supposed to somehow defeat. That had been the arrangement at the beginning of the battle, but now that plan seemed to be nothing more then a dream to the four members of Angel Investigations that stood on that roof.
Connor's glance moved from the army of demons to his father, to see that Angel was staring through the rain, his eyes scanning the entire area that surrounded the building they were on, as if the dark-haired vampire was looking for something.
"Dad?" Connor broke the silence on the roof.
Angel looked over at his son. "Yeah, Connor?"
"What are you looking at?" Connor asked.
Angel studied his son's face, unsure of what the boy was asking him. "What do you mean?"
"You're looking at something or for something out there." Connor motioned to the streets below.
Angel nodded. "Your sister."
"You really think Jess is gonna make it back here?" Gunn asked.
"What do you mean?" Angel narrowed his eyes at Gunn. It seemed to the vampire that Gunn was suggesting his daughter would not make it back at all, which Angel did not like.
Gunn saw the look on Angel's face, and quickly rethought his words. "I mean, is she gonna be able to find us once she gets back here?"
"She's a smart kid, she will figure it out." Angel said, turning back to look out at the streets below, hoping he would catch a glimpse of his oldest daughter somewhere.
"She's smart, but she's not a bloody mind reader." Spike said, moving to gather one of the four remaining boxes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel asked, turning to look at Spike.
Spike glanced up at the older vampire. "You never told her where to meet you, blockhead."
Angel clenched his jaw, turning away from Spike, and digging his hands deep into his pockets. He cursed himself silently at his own stupidity and at the simple fact that Spike was right. Angel had been so wrapped up in Jessica getting Cordelia out of the battle zone safely that he had forgotten to tell Jess where to look for him when she got back. He told her to meet him somewhere in the battle and that narrowed down nothing for his immortal daughter. He looked back down at the huge army of demons below and realized it would be a miracle if Jessica even made it back to the battle alive and a complete phenomenon if she was able to find them.
Cordelia with Erin in her arms, moved under the refuge of a nearby building to keep the rain off of her and Erin for a few minutes. Lorne and Fred soon followed the seer and all three members of Angel Investigations stood huddled next to each other.
"I can't believe Jess just left like that." Lorne said, leaning against the window of the building.
"She had to." Cordelia said, her eyes drifting off to the direction of the battle as she absentmindedly bounced Erin in her arms. "She belongs fighting. It's what she is meant to do. It's all she has ever known."
Fred studied Cordelia's face, and could see the look of lose on the seer's face. She realized just how much Cordelia had not wanted to let Jessica go back down into the battle, so she wondered why the immortal mother had let her child go after all. "Cordy…" Fred started.
Cordelia turned to look at Fred; she already knew what the physicist was going to say, so she smiled gently at the other woman. "Fred, I had to let her go. I didn't want her to, but it was her choice. She had to decide for herself."
Fred raised an eyebrow at Cordelia's comment. "You're her mother. You could have told her to stay here."
Cordelia shook her head, a sad smile creeping onto her lips. "Since when does Jessica listen to anything anyone tells her?"
Lorne and Fred exchanged glances, knowing that Cordelia's words were true. Jessica had never been one to follow the rules, and she had certainly never listened to anything that anyone else ever told her to do. Jess had her own way of doing things, and they all knew that she would never change.
Jessica made her way down toward the battle near Wolfram and Hart. She had been running up to that point, but as she edged closer to the army of demons she had slowed her pace down, creeping across the shadows of the buildings, not wanting any demons to see her. She knew if she were caught, she would be no match for the hundreds of demons in the Senior Partner's army.
Jess stopped on the side of the Wolfram and Hart building. She looked up to see the structure that had once been her office was swaying back and forth in the heavy winds from the rainstorm. It was only a matter of time before the entire law firm crumbled into pieces.
"Come on, Dad…where are you?" Jessica spoke out loud as she looked on the roofs of all the surrounding buildings. She had no idea where to start looking for Angel; all she knew was that she had to find her father.
Jess took another step around the side of the building, hoping that a different angle would give her a better view of the tops of the buildings. Of coarse, it didn't.
"This could take awhile." Jess sighed to herself as she continued to creep away from the Wolfram and Hart building, and toward another one. She could hear the cries of the battle on the other side of the building and that gave her enough hope to continue her search for any members of her family. After all, someone had to be fighting the Senior Partner's army.
Wesley continued to recite the spell to close the hole the demons were crawling out of as he inched close and closer to the opening itself. So far, no demons had even noticed him, let alone felt his spell beginning to work, but it was. He could tell.
The hole was beginning to grow smaller with each passing second and Wesley could feel all of his energy pouring into the spell. When he finished reading the spell, he quickly threw the bottle of mixed ingredients into the hole, adding the final effect to close the gap.
Wesley then moved back into the shadows of a nearby building, leaning against it and taking a deep breath of relief. "Good show, Wesley." He said to himself.
Wesley then turned back to the hole, to see it was closing up much more rapidly now. It was getting harder and harder for the demons to crawl out and the ones who did get out seemed to be alarmed. He leaned back even more, getting comfortable. He wanted to watch the hole until it was completely gone.
Wesley couldn't help but smile as he watched the demons panic and struggle. It was the first real sign for him that Angel Investigations could win the apocalypse after all. It was the first real clue to Wesley that the Powers That Be still cared, otherwise how would Erin have been able to find that spell for Wesley in the first place?
Angel sat, perched on the ledge of the roof of the building, still keeping an eye out for Jessica. Spike and Connor were also looking for her, as Gunn continued to burn the last of the crates and drop them onto the demon army.
"We have no crates left." Gunn said, chucking the last crate over the side of the building. "That one was it."
Angel turned back to Gunn, nodding. "We will have to figure something else out."
"Does anyone see that?" Connor asked suddenly.
Angel whipped his head around, hoping that Connor was talking about Jessica. Hoping that his son had spotted his daughter. "What?"
"Not Jess." Connor seemed to know his Dad so well. "But look at the demon army." Connor pointed over the edge of the building. "Is it just me or does it seem like there are less demon down there now?"
"We did knock a few out with those crates." Gunn reminded the group.
"No, Connor's bloody right." Spike said, peering down at the army below. "There seems to be a hell of a lot less demons down there then before."
"Well, maybe Jess stopped a few of them." Gunn offered a reason as to why the numbers of demons seemed to be dwindling.
"Or maybe something else." Angel said, studying the hole the demons were crawling out of. Although it was on the other end of the street from the building he and the rest of his team were on, Angel could clearly see that less demon were pouring out of the hole. He also noticed something else. "Doesn't the hole seem to be getting smaller?" He pointed ahead.
Gunn, Spike, and Connor all looked over at the huge crack in the earth that the demons were coming out of, all nodding. Even in the darkness they could see the hole's size decreasing.
"It does look smaller." Connor agreed with his father.
Angel smiled; not knowing that Wesley was the reason the hole was closing up, and truly not caring what the reason was for the hole shrinking. To Angel, the simple fact that the hole was growing smaller meant that the Powers That Be were still looking out for their champions. It also meant that Jessica's chances of making it through the battle below and back to Angel were much greater then they had been earlier in the fight.
Cordelia held Erin close to her as she, Fred, and Lorne made their way out of the shelter of the buildings and back onto the wet streets. The rain was starting to die down, although the sky still remained dark. The clouds from the rain were not the cause of the darkness, and Cordelia, Lorne, Fred, and maybe even Erin knew that much. The darkness was the evil that had surrounded L.A.
"The rain is stopping." Fred acknowledged.
Cordelia nodded, moving so she could get a better view of the battle in the valley below. "It is."
"Maybe that's a good thing." Lorne offered. "Maybe when the rain goes so will Wolfram and Hart's army." Lorne knew his words were more then likely wrong and that neither Cordelia nor Fred believed them but for some reason he felt the need to say them.
"Maybe…" Cordelia said although her mind was clearly somewhere else. Her thoughts continued to drift back to Angel and Jessica and Connor. She wished she hadn't let Jessica go back down into the battle like she had. She should have kept her daughter safe.
Suddenly, Erin began squirming in Cordelia's arms, letting out a meek cry as the rain pelted her soft cheeks.
Cordelia snapped back into reality. "Sorry, Erin. Mommy didn't mean to let the rain get you." Cordelia quickly shielded the child in her arms from the rain.
"Hey…does anyone else see that?" Lorne raised an eyebrow as he studied the battle below.
"What?" Cordelia and Fred seemed to ask at the same time.
Gradually a smile broke across Lorne's lips as his suspicions were confirmed. "The hole. The one the demons are crawling out of. It's getting smaller." Lorne pointed below to the battle.
Cordelia and Fred both followed the direction of the green demons hand to see that he was indeed right; the hole to hell was growing smaller.
"Wesley…" Fred grinned, turning to Cordelia and Lorne. "His spell must have worked."
"Which means…" Lorne started.
"We could win this." Cordelia finished Lorne's statement with a complete look of shook on her face as she felt Erin's tiny hand grip onto her finger. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She couldn't believe Wesley had found a way to close the hole up, to stop the demon army. Relief seemed to flow threw her body. Her family had a chance of living through the apocalypse below. All any of them had to do was hold on just a little longer. But with that thought, Cordelia felt her stomach drop. Her family had been fighting so long, so hard. What were the chances that any of them even had the strength to hold on much longer?
Without thinking, Cordelia took a few quick steps forward. She would have continued had it not been for Lorne's hand grabbing her and pulling her back.
"Cordelia, what are you doing, princess?" Lorne's eyes searched Cordelia's expression for a reason for her action, but found none.
"I…" Cordelia looked away from Lorne, back in the direction the battle was taking place.
"Cordelia…" Lorne said slowly.
Cordelia turned back to the Lorne, her voice almost a whisper. "They need me, Lorne. My family needs me."
"And they have you." Lorne told the seer. "You honestly think that there is one second in that battle that Angel isn't thinking of you or Erin? Or that Jess and Connor aren't praying that they get the chance for you to hold them again? You are with your family, Cordelia. You're the reason they are fighting."
"There are a million reasons for that." Cordelia said, looking away from Lorne as she bounced Erin in her arms.
"You and Erin are the only ones that matters to Angel or your kids." Lorne told her. "You know that as well as I do."
"I should be helping them." Cordelia said, her thoughts racing. "I shouldn't have listened to Angel and Jessica. I should have been there and helped them fight."
"You are doing that, Cordelia." Fred chimed in. "Just because you're not swinging an axe around doesn't mean you're not fighting. You fight everyday when you refuse to let the darkness win. You fight through your visions, through helping the helpless. You fight when you let your family go and do what they have to do to save other people. You've always put the world before yourself, and that makes you a fighter, more so then any of us, because you've always had the most at stake. You're the one who could have lost your children or your husband or your life. You could lose everything and you have never let that stop you, don't let it stop you now."
Cordelia took Fred's words in as she gazed upon Erin who was snuggled tightly to her chest. After a moment of silence Cordelia let out a sigh, her head tilting back up so she could look at Lorne and Fred. "Thanks." She said simply.
Fred and Lorne both nodded, and then the three members of Angel Investigations were silent as they looked down on the apocalyptic battle below. Lorne and Fred were both satisfied that they were able to convince Cordelia to stay with them and not go down into the battle like she clearly had wanted to. They both understood why she felt the need to be with her family and neither could blame her for her actions but they knew that they needed to keep her close for two reasons. One, they knew how angry Angel would be with them if he did make it out of the apocalypse and they had not been able to keep Cordelia out of harms way. The other reason, although neither Fred nor Lorne would admit it, was that they were both scared to face any repercussions of the apocalypse without Cordelia. She was their strength, the heart of Angel Investigations, like she always had been and always would be.
Jessica came to the edge of the Wolfram and Hart building, and from where she was standing she could see the battle in full force, although there seemed to be less demons then there had been before.
"Maybe we are winning." Jessica said, taking a deep breath, she leaned back against the building, contemplating her next move. She knew she had to find her father somehow, but the chances of her being able to just run through the huge line of demons yelling her fathers name seemed slim to none.
"Plan, Jess…think of a plan." Jessica knew she was talking to herself, but she also knew it was the only way she was going to keep herself sane. After a few minutes Jessica realized she had no plan, and she knew she was running out of time. She needed to get back to her father, brother, and the rest of her family if they were going to all stay together and win this apocalypse.
Jess knew what she had to do, but before she did she tilted her head up to the sky, hoping the Powers That Be were watching over her. "You Powers up there better make sure we all make it out of this alive or I'm coming for you." Jess knew it was pointless to threaten the Powers but it made her feel a little better as she quickly darted away from the shadow of the building and out into the middle of the army of demons. She hoped if she moved fast enough none of the demons would be able to stop her.
Angel was still perched on the roof's ledge. He watched as the hole the demons were crawling out continued to reduce in size, until it seemed as if it was almost gone. He still had no idea Wesley was responsible for the holes smaller appearance, he was just glad the hole was shrinking. Angel's eyes drifted away from the hole and back to the street, still covered in demons.
"Dad, Jess will figure out where we are." Connor said from his seat on the roof's floor behind his father and next to Spike and Gunn who were also both sitting on the roof. He knew exactly what thoughts were going through Angel's head, because he was thinking the same ones. They were both worried about Jessica.
Angel nodded, but said nothing. He didn't need to. It seemed his son always knew what he was thinking.
"I don't know. I'm getting bloody sick of sitting up here and hoping she can find us." Spike said as he lit up a cigarette from his jacket. "I mean, if she doesn't make it back we've still got to find a damn way of stopping those demons." He motioned to Wolfram and Hart's army below.
"I agree." Gunn said. "We need to fight and we need to do it now. We can't hang around for Jess anymore."
"I told her we would wait for her." Angel said, his eyes still scanning the crowd below, hoping for a glimpse of his daughter.
"You also assumed she would be able to find us." Spike reminded the older vampire.
"I'm not leaving without her." Angel said.
"So we could lose this battle because you are afraid you will miss her if we go down there and fight?" Spike asked.
"You don't understand…" Angel shook his head.
"I do." Spike moved closer to Angel, almost whispering in the older vampire's ear. "Believe me, I do."
Angel studied Spike's eyes, and realized in that moment just how close Jessica and Spike had truly been. Angel wasn't stupid, he had been around long enough to know what Spike and Jessica had done, and just how much Spike really cared for his daughter.
If it had been any other time, Angel was sure he would have staked Spike right then and there for sleeping with his little girl, but Angel knew better. He knew Jessica was no longer the baby who used to bounce around in her crib screaming his name. Jessica was a young woman now, and a brilliant one at that. If she had chosen Spike it had been for a reason.
Spike could sense that Angel knew about himself and Jess, and the blonde vampire immediately looked away from the dark-haired one, afraid of Angel's reaction.
"Spike." Angel just shook his head. "I'm not leaving without Jessica."
"Dad…" Connor's voice came out uneven, causing Angel to turn quickly toward his son, scared something was wrong.
"What?" Angel asked, stepping away from Spike and toward Connor.
Connor pointed down to the street below to the demon army. On the opposite side of the street it seemed the demons were crowding around something, possibly fighting. "What is going on down there?"
Angel strained his eyes, studying the demons behavior. It was hard for him to see between the darkness and the rain, even with his vampire vision, although he could definitely tell something was going on below with Wolfram and Hart's army. Something had pissed the demon army off.
Jess sighed, looking around her. She had gotten herself in some predicament when she decided her best chance of finding her dad was running right through the demon army. She realized her plan had backfired massively when it had only taken the demons about ten seconds to realize who she was running through them. Now they had her cornered, and she was pretty sure this would be her end.
"This is crap." Jess shouted at all the demons. "I kick your ass all night, or day, or whatever time it is, and this is how I die? By you all bombarding me?"
All the demons sneered, crowding in closer to Jessica.
Jessica took a deep breath before morphing into her game face. If she was going to die, she wanted to take a couple of the demons with her.
Angel continued to stare down at the circle of demons that seemed to be forming opposite the building he, Connor, Spike, and Gunn were on top of. It seemed as though the demons were crowding around something, although Angel could still not tell what it was. Suddenly, it hit him like a punch to the gut as one of the demons went down and Angel got a clear view of what the demons were circled around. It was Jessica.
"It's Jess!" Angel was shocked.
Spike, Connor, and Gunn all squinted, looking at the circle of demons across the street.
"You're right!" Spike had spotted Jess. "Bloody hell, she is alive!"
"Doesn't look like she will be for much longer." Gunn said. "There are a lot of demons down there."
"We need a plan." Connor's voice came out in a high pitch. It was clear the boy was scared for his sister. "We need to save her."
"How?" Gunn asked. "We go down there and we are dead."
"Stay here." Angel said to Spike, Connor, and Gunn. He then stood on the ledge of the roof and jumped off. He was not about to watch his daughter die. He had to try and save her.
Jessica had taken about six demons out already. She had gotten a sword off of one of the demons she had killed and she swiftly swung it around her head, taking down two demons, but she was losing steam. There was no way she would be able to fight her way out of this one and she knew it.
"This is crap." Jessica mumbled to herself, taking another demon out with the swing of her sword. She had fought so hard throughout the apocalypse and throughout her life. She wasn't ready to die, not like that.
Jessica's eyes scanned the crowd of demons that surrounded her, hoping to see a familiar face, hoping one of her family members would come to save her, but she saw nothing. Nothing but the demons that wanted to take her life from her.
For the first time in her life Jess felt complete hopelessness. There was no one there to save her, not this time. She lowered her sword.
Angel could see Jessica's sword fall to her side as he rushed through the swarm of demons. All the demons were too wrapped up in Jessica to notice Angel and he had not had a problem getting through the crowd and to his daughter.
When Angel had almost reached Jess when he realized she was giving up. Without thinking, he broke through the first line of demons, grabbing Jessica by the arm.
"Jess, don't you give up! Don't ever give up!" Angel cheered into Jessica's ear.
Jessica turned to see her father, a sad smile breaking across her lips. "You're too late to save me, Dad. We are both dead now."
Angel looked around at all the demons, giving a quick nod. "You're probably right." He then turned back to his daughter, giving her the best smile he could. "But some things are just worth fighting for."
Angel then turned to face the one demon that had a direct shot at Jessica. It was as if he knew the demon was going to try and put the stake through Jessica long before the demon took the wooden object out. And in a way, Angel already did know. Cordelia had already warned him, and that was the reason he did not flinch when he felt the wood connect with his unbeating heart.
Jessica on the other hand did move, but not quick enough. All she was able to grab was her father's leather jacket out of the air as he turned to dust underneath it.