"Do you ever miss Texas?"

The question had seemed to surprise Lindsey. "Not in the general sense, no," he answered, his eyes narrowing and looking at Angel from the corners.

"What about... where is it you also grew up? Oklahoma?"

"It is, but no, I wouldn't say I overly miss it either," he answered slowly. "It's nice to return and see family I guess, but that's about it. I typically enjoy being out this way I've found or even just travelling to different places when the job calls for it."

Angel's lips twisted a bit. "Did you always know this was what you wanted to do? Be an agent I mean?"

Lindsey stopped what he was doing, he turned his chair around to face Angel. "No, actually I thought I was going to be a lawyer like my dad. There was a long series of events that led me here instead. I wouldn't trade it, though, I love all of it. Or, well, maybe most of it would be more truthful."

Lindsey just continued to sit there, his cheek propped up a little by his fist, his arm bent at the armrest to his swively black chair. "Aren't you going to ask me why I'm asking you about these things?" Angel asked.

That made the Southern laugh. "No, I already know where all this is coming from. I saw that look on your face in the van that day when a certain little blonde number surprised you with her presence. I have seen that look haunting you on and off ever since she even came into the picture."

Angel's nose crinkled up. "What look? There's no look."

"Your face as you start to wonder what in the blue hell got you here, into a mess like this. Your face as you begin to wonder about a million different things you've done over the past several years and how you could have done them all differently, an endless amount of different paths your life could have taken you," he told Angel. Lindsey looked down at his boots. "Eve used to get a look like that."

A moment passed between the two men. "Are you going to be okay with this?"

Lindsey gave a sad smile and cleared his throat. "Going after my ex-wife's new husband? What could possibly go wrong?"

Angel was unsure of what he could say, nothing felt right. When he'd put the pieces together he'd been angry but that had since passed. Angel had learned a lot about Lindsey through this turn of events that he'd not been prepared for, learning about Lindsey's ex-wife, how she'd gained an addiction from working undercover, how it blew up her career, her marriage, changed both of their lives forever. She'd wound up attached to another stepping stone in this puzzle of theirs, some drug dealer turned... well, he seemed to be getting into all sorts of things, hands in all sorts of pockets as of late.

Angel was starting to like the Southern man against his own efforts so he disliked this piece of work a lot less the more he found out about him.

"Did you always want to be a thief?"

Angel chuckled. "You know my story and how that played out."

"True, but what did you want to do with your life before that came to be?"

Angel shrugged. "I don't really know. Growing up anytime I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I always had a different answer. I never felt really drawn to one thing or the other. I wanted to do everything and never narrowed it down I guess."

"You do pretty good with this," Lindsey told him. "At least you can put some of those skills to good use rather than being a lowlife."

"Gee, thanks."

OoOoO

The next several days were busy, everyone in their small group focused on the next take down. Angel liked having something to do, having a plan, much more than the sitting around and waiting aspect. It also helped keep his mind from wandering back to the tiny blonde woman who'd been flipping his world upside down as of late.

Before everything had gotten too hectic Angel had made a spur of the moment choice to order that said woman a new stove and oven combo appliance and have it delivered. He'd rarely used his funds so it'd raised some eyebrows but he was expecting that. He'd taken the proper steps with some help from an IT guy in the know and sent a small note so she'd know it was from him. But Angel hadn't seen her since he'd carried her to bed and it'd taken all his will power not to stay with her when she asked.

Angel both hoped and dreaded the next small break to come. He wanted nothing more than to go to her again but worried about what exactly it would all mean when he did.

OoOoO

Standing on top of a roof several buildings over, Angel smirked as he watched the authorities swarm. Sometimes he did miss parts of his former life but he had to admit this never stopped being satisfying. Angel walked over and found the small black bag he'd hidden up here days ago and soon was checking in with the rest of the team and getting bits and pieces of information as everything went down.

Angel was about to put everything back away and head back to base when the roar of commotion hit. Gunshots were fired and Angel's eyes scanned around to see what was happening. Two lackeys were fighting their way out he noticed and swore before shouting out what he knew. The two armed men took off in different directions and he started trying to follow one of them the best he could.

Jumping between buildings started to get rather complicated after a short while so Angel decided to sneak his way down to the ground again, slipping off any of his suspicious items such as his mask and gloves as he went, trying to blend in better as they headed toward a more populated area. He heard Samantha and Riley Finn come over his ear piece saying they were a few blocks behind him. No one called him off yet so he continued on.

Angel paused, having lost his mark. He breathed out a harsh line of curse words and ran a hand through his slightly damp hair. Angel heard Riley's voice again and the blonde man directed him on which building to go look in and said where he and his wife would go. Angel knew given his unique situation he had to handle things a bit differently but a big part of him wanted to follow suit and just sweep the whole area, but he followed orders and crossed the street. He peered through windows as he walked then headed for a small strip mall.

He looked around some but it wasn't long before Sam's voice came over saying she'd found him and he was heading toward the exit. Angel listened as he made his back toward the front of the store he was currently in. He could he hear police sirens not far off.

Time seemed to both speed up and slow down as he made his way back outside. Everyone was moving, there was a lot of yelling, the sound of another gun going off rang out in the air. The suspect was taken down but Riley and a uninformed police officer had both been hit. Angel gathered around Sam's frantic screams that he was alive and it didn't seem too terribly bad at least.

Angel wanted to go check on the agent himself but he knew that was not in the cards at the moment. As he started pushing away from the crowd gathering, he sent a quick message through to Sam and then fiddled with his ear piece for a moment to tune some of it out. "Linds?" he called out and waited for a response. The cowboy was not in a very good mood. Angel didn't blame him.

Angel mostly listened as he walked away from the scene behind him. He asked what'd happened with the other moron who'd taken off and Lindsey told him he'd been killed but thankfully that'd been the only death in this whole mess tonight. Angel was about to tell him he would be heading back to base finally but he started getting a strange feeling as he walked on a bit more.

Stopping, Angel's stomach growled as he had the strong scents of the restaurant hit him. He looked over his shoulder then did a double take, his brown eyes meeting the slightly widened green ones he'd had on his mind for weeks now. The two just stared at one another at first. Angel cleared his throat, taking a step closer to her. "Buffy," he greeted.

"What in the hell does your little girlfriend have to do with anything right now?" he heard Lindsey's voice yell out.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked. Her eyes went down to the flashing lights.

"I had next to nothing to do with that," he quickly said. He heard Lindsey in his ear but only for another moment as he reached up and turned everything off.

"There are police everywhere out here," she half whispered.

Angel almost smirked, she looked worried for him. "There are. But it's okay, they're not looking for me," he told her, his voice low as well. "They already know exactly where I am."

Buffy let that roll around in her head. "What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Angel cleared his throat, another police car went flying by behind them. "This is not really a conversation for the middle of a sidewalk while chaos ensues nearby..."

OoOoO

It was nearly three hours later before Angel was in Buffy's presence again. For the first time he went to her home as just him, though out of habit he found himself sneaking in before shaking his head at the action. He found Buffy in her small living room, her eyes quickly going to his as he stepped deeper into the room.

Today had been long and he had a feeling it wasn't anywhere near close to being done. He was surprised Lindsey and Roger had even let him leave but he'd given his statements, had a talk with Lindsey about he was feeling knowing they'd gotten their guy and it'd thrown him back into the life for a bit of his ex, checked in on the Finn's, he'd gotten cleaned up, changed and here he was.

"You said the police knew where you were earlier..." She wasted no time diving right in.

Angel nodded. "They did."

"Do they know where you are now?"

"They do."

"Do you work for them? Are you like an undercover agent or something?"

Angel cleared his throat. "Something like that."

"The whole... Liam Connor thing? Is that real?"

He nodded again. "It was, I did all of that."

"Did you get caught?"

"No. A member of the FBI managed to reach out to me, I responded. They felt I had some unique skills that could help them on a case."

"And they didn't arrest you?"

"No," he said again. "They never technically have or charged me with anything. More like they offered me a job."

"Recently?"

"It's been a little over a year."

"And you... what? Help track down criminals?"

"In a nutshell."

Buffy let out a breath. "Do your parents know what you do?"

Angel chuckled, surprised at the question. "Actually, I'm unsure on that. I think they do, they've certainly hinted at knowing but neither of them have flat out said anything," he told her. "My sister knows, she knows everything."

"Sister?"

"Kathy. She's younger than me, and kind of the center of how everything came to pass. She knows everything I've done, she knows I'm working with the FBI, she even knows about you."

That got a raised eyebrow. "Me?"

"Yes."

"And the FBI know about me? Me and you?"

"To an extent, yes."

"You know, I went from feeling confused and a little guilty over the fact a known cat burglar was coming into my house and flirting with me and I was not exactly alerting anyone of this information to... well... I don't even know how I feel right now."

Angel cleared his throat again. "It wasn't my intention to meet you or to keep being drawn back here, back to you. I just was."

"Just as it wasn't in my plans to meet you and then keep hoping I'd see you again."

"I kept telling myself I'd stay away but that seemed more and more like I was only fooling myself. Sooner or later you'd be finding out more information about me though and I wasn't quite ready for that to come out. I'm still unsure of how to handle all of this."

"Do you still want to have dinner with me?"

"Yes."