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: Angel and Spike get a chance to get back the people that meant the most to them after the battle against Wolfram and Hart. But can they keep the real past a secret from the only people they want to share it with? A/C S/B
CHAPTER 27
Angel followed Cordelia down the stairs and into the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel where they found Gunn and Connor both standing over Lindsey's lifeless body while Fred, Wesley, and Lorne made themselves comfortable at the counter. Angel looked over at Lindsey's body, raising an eyebrow at Gunn.
"He's alive. Trust me." Gunn seemed to read Angel's mind. "We just knocked him out."
"I see that." Angel said as he and Cordelia both made their way over to take a look at Lindsey. "Why?"
"Gunn says Lindsey knows something." Lorne tipped his sea breeze toward Angel.
"Does he?" Cordelia questioned, crossing her arms over her chest. Even if Lindsey was unconscious, she felt as though she had to protect herself from him and all the evil that had somehow made its way into his veins. She almost felt pity for him. She could understand why vampires and demons were evil, but she had never been able to wrap her mind around how the people at Wolfram and Hart had turned so sinister.
"We're not sure." Wesley said simply. "Before Gunn decided to knock him out he didn't."
"What?" Angel looked at Gunn.
"Well, I mean, Lindsey never said anything but…" Gunn started.
"Actually he did." Wesley butted in. "He said he didn't know who we were or what we were talking about."
"And you knocked him out after that?" Angel questioned.
Gunn nodded. "He knows something."
"Except he never said that." Cordelia was trying to grasp what had happened.
"Yeah but he knows." Gunn repeated.
"But how do you know he knows if he never said anything?" Cordelia said, and then scrunched up her face, realizing she was confusing herself more. "Is anyone else lost?"
"Actually, you are right on." Fred told her. "Gunn went on a gut instinct and brought Lindsey in."
"So what happens when he wakes up?" Angel asked.
"We talk to him." Connor said simply.
"Yeah, except what if he legitimately doesn't remember?" Cordelia flung her arms out. "Then all we did was kidnap some lawyer."
"Why wouldn't he remember…" Connor started, but then realized what Cordelia was saying was true. None of them had remembered when they had first come back, well except his father and apparently Spike, but that was a different story entirely. "Oh boy."
"Exactly." Cordelia pointed down at Lindsey. "This is kidnapping."
"It is not!" Gunn immediately defended his actions.
"Oh yeah? Then what would you call it? Borrowing?" Cordelia made quote signals in the air, which immediately caused Angel to laugh as he recalled when she had used the same hand movements to describe the "antlers" on the roaches in her first apartment.
Angel's laugh got him an immediate glare from Cordelia. He felt his face burn up and knew his cheeks were turning red. He was never going to like or get used to people knowing when he was embarrassed.
"Look…we didn't kidnap him." Gunn said, motioning to Lindsey.
"We did if he wakes up and really doesn't remember anything." Lorne pointed out.
Suddenly Lindsey began to move on the couch, coming out of his unconscious state, and causing everyone in the hotel to gasp.
"Oh no! What do we do?" Fred searched the room for answers, knowing none of them we ready to be arrested for kidnapping.
Lindsey's eyes focus on the people around them. "What the…"
Before Lindsey could say another thing, Cordelia had collided one of Wesley's books from the counter into the back of the lawyer's head, causing him to fall unconscious again.
Everyone looked up at Cordelia with shocked looks on their faces to see her just shrug. "We needed some more time to think." She said simply, and it seemed to be a justifiable answer to her actions for all of the members of Angel Investigations.
Willow sat silently on the couch in Giles' living room while Buffy, Spike, Giles, Faith, and Xander all stood over her, waiting for her reaction. Buffy had explained everything to her, and Willow, evening know the crazy things that happened to them, was still a little taken back by it all. Finally, the red head stood.
"So now what?" Willow asked.
"What?" Buffy raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, what's the plan? Obviously we have some kind of battle or maybe another apocalypse right around the corner. We must have a plan. We always have a plan. Plans…they are good." Willow rambled.
"Wil, maybe you should sit back down. Take it all in." Xander told her. He was worried about his friend.
"No." Willow shook her head quickly. "I just…I want to help. I want to work this and I want…" She was losing her strength with each passing word.
"Willow, it's okay." Buffy moved to her friend.
Willow crossed her arms, shaking her head as a few tears fell from her eyes.
"Come on now…" Spike moved next to Buffy, feeling sorry for Willow. She had always been one of the more accepting scoobies.
"Wil, what is it?" Xander asked. Seeing Willow cry broke his heart, and he needed to know what was bothering her.
Willow just shook her head again.
"Tara." Faith broke in, realizing why Willow was so upset. She missed Tara.
Willow immediately looked up at Faith's simple word, shaking her head. "I don't get why she isn't alive."
"Same reason Anya isn't…" Xander sighed, digging his hands into his pockets.
"What reason?" Willow asked, trying to gather herself together.
"Their time was up. They did all they could for us." Giles told her.
Willow just stared ahead for a few minutes, and the room filled with silence, all waiting to see what the redhead would do or say next. Finally, Willow spoke up. "So the faster we fight this battle, the faster I can be with her."
"Willow…" Buffy started. "That's not how it works. She is gone, and you have a life to live now."
"I don't want it." Willow said quickly. "I want to help you fight, but I don't want to live a life based on a lie." She turned to Giles. "Find me a way to go back to wherever it was we were all before we came to this reality. I want to go there after this all."
Giles nodded after a beat. "I'll see what I can do. I would have to consult my books."
"Consult them." Xander said quickly. "Because if you can find a way for Willow to go back, I want to as well." If that was the only way he would get to see Anya, then that was all that mattered, she was all that mattered.
Giles nodded. Neither Willow nor Xander needed to explain themselves to the group. Everyone understood.
"I'll look into it." Giles told them. "Buffy, Spike, and Faith should head out and patrol. Willow and Xander can help me.
"Alright, sounds like a plan to me." Buffy said as she turned and lead Spike and Faith out of Giles' house, leaving Willow, Giles, and Xander to start researching ways to get Willow and Xander back to wherever it was they had all come from before the new reality.
Angel, Cordelia, Connor, Gunn, Wesley, Lorne, and Fred all stood in a circle around the couch that Lindsey was currently laying across, unconscious. They were all still unsure of what to do with the ex-lawyer once he woke up.
"He is going to wake up eventually whether we are ready for it or not." Fred spoke of Lindsey.
"We can just give him another good wake." Cordelia flung her wrist as if striking someone.
"I don't think his head could take another wake." Angel looked over at Lindsey's skull, to see the blood dripping from the corner of his hairline where Cordelia had belted the ex-lawyer with Wesley's book. "He is already bleeding."
"Well, we need to figure out what to do with him then." Wesley said.
"He wakes up and we ask him what the hell is going on." Gunn said simply.
"And what if he doesn't remember anything, Charles?" Fred asked. "What if he doesn't remember the past?"
"Then we hit him again, take him back to Wolfram and Hart, and leave him on the steps. He will wake up eventually, maybe think it was all a dream." Gunn said.
Connor nodded. "I could probably even write it up as a report down at the station. They would believe me."
"Okay, so we are going to lie to cover up the fact that we kidnapped him?" Cordelia was trying to grasp what Connor and Gunn were saying. She couldn't believe they had stooped this low. What was happening to Angel Investigations?
"No." Angel shook his head. "We can't do that."
"Thank you!" Cordelia was glad someone agreed with her.
"Well, what are we supposed to do then?" Gunn asked.
"Pray he remembers?" Lorne suggested.
"Yeah, well what if that don't work?" Gunn asked.
"Well it better." Lorne said. "Because we're run out of time kiddos." The demon pointed to Lindsey who was slowly waking up.
Every member of the fang gang held their breath as Lindsey slowly sat up, holding his head in the spot Cordelia had hit him.
Lindsey slowly looked up, his eyes narrowing on Angel. "What the hell did you do to me you son of a…"
Angel gave a slight grin to Gunn. It was Lindsey, and he remembered, Angel could tell. "Ah, good to see you're up, Lindsey." And with that Angel sent a punch across the lawyer's face so hard that Lindsey went flying across the lobby.
"Angel!" Cordelia went to scold the ex-vampire.
"Relax." Angel gave Cordelia that crooked smile that made her melt every time she saw it. "It's him."
"It's who?" Lindsey stood slowly, holding his head still.
"Don't play dumb, Lindsey." Angel moved toward the Texan, causing Lindsey to back up against the counter.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Lindsey's hands rummaged the surface of the counter until he found what he was looking for. He held it tightly behind his back. "I don't even know you."
"Really?" Angel approached Lindsey and grabbed the hand the lawyer held behind his back to show what Lindsey had been hiding. A stake. "Then why would you attack me with this?" He motioned to the stake Lindsey was holding.
Just then Cordelia came up along side Angel, her arms crossed, glaring at Lindsey. "Start talking, because you are fooling no one, and trust me." She held up the book she had hit Lindsey with earlier. "I can swing twice as hard as I did the first time."
Lindsey swallowed hard and then sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine."
"Sit." Angel motioned toward the couch.
Lindsey nodded and made his way over to the couch in the middle of the lobby, while Angel, Cordelia, Connor, Gunn, Wesley, Fred, and Lorne followed him, crowding so he had no chance of escaping.
"Alright. What do you want to know?" Lindsey asked.
"Ha! I knew he knew something!" Gunn said proudly.
Lindsey looked at Gunn and shook his head. "I don't know as much as you think."
"Well…" Angel crossed his arms as he felt Cordelia's hand wrap inside of his arms. "Why don't you tell us what you do know?"
Lindsey took note of Cordelia's action and smiled at Angel. "So, it only took her to die for you to realize she was the only thing that kept you stable, vampire-boy." He nodded toward Cordelia's hand enwrapped in Angel's arms.
"Ex-vampire-boy." Cordelia glared at Lindsey.
"Ex-vampire?" Lindsey raised an eyebrow at Angel.
Angel nodded. "You didn't know."
Lindsey shook his head. "That had nothing to do with the Senior Partner's. As far as I knew they made sure your Shanshu was destroyed."
"Well, not well enough, obviously." Fred said.
Lindsey nodded. "Clearly."
"Enough with the small talk." Connor said from his spot behind Cordelia, causing Cordelia to jump. He was a lot like Angel in the fact that Connor never made his presence known or said much, and when he did it was only to get to the point. "Tell us what you know."
"Fine." Lindsey was not about to fight with the members of Angel Inc. because the truth was, the lawyer knew very little. "All I know is that you all died some horrible death at the hands of the Senior Partners…" He's eyes fell on Cordelia and Fred. "Well, you two were already dead."
Angel didn't like the look Lindsey had given Cordelia, and he bent over Lindsey so the lawyer could feel the ex-vampire's breath on his face. "Tell us something we don't know, smart ass."
Lindsey leaned into Angel. He wasn't scared. "I don't know much more, you had Lorne kill me at that point."
Obviously I didn't do a good job." Lorne said, taking a sip of his sea breeze. "You came back."
Lindsey rolled his eyes at the demon's comment.
"But Lorne's right." Cordelia looked at Lindsey. "You came back. So how did that happen?"
Lindsey shook his head. "Probably the same way you did. I just ended up here."
"You ended up here?" Angel stood back up, his arms still crossed.
Lindsey nodded. "Yeah, one minute I am dead, the next I am back in my office, going over a case."
"You just ended up back there?" Gunn raised an eyebrow.
"And you don't know why?" Wesley wasn't buying Lindsey's story, and from the looks of the other members of Angel Investigations neither was anyone else.
"No." Lindsey shook his head.
"You're lying." Angel said simply, bending down again so he was eye level with Lindsey on the couch. "So you either start telling the truth or I'll kill you."
Lindsey smiled menacingly. "How? You're not vampire anymore."
"How the hell do you know?" Angel asked. He had trapped Lindsey just like he had planned to.
Lindsey's jaw clenched as he realized he had just given himself away. Now he needed to start talking. "Look I don't know much."
"But you know enough. Start talking." Cordelia instructed.
"All I know is that you were brought back because the Senior Partner's planned on taking over this dimension too." Lindsey explained. "It seems that when the Senior Partner's realized that the Powers had this reality on the back burner incase you all did fail in the fight, well they wanted to make sure they destroyed any chance for good to overcome."
"I thought this had to do with a balance?" Angel asked.
"It does. Good needs evil just as much as evil needs good. If one doesn't exist neither does the other." Lindsey said. "Because who is there to judge the difference?"
"Cut the philosophical crap." Connor said quickly. "And get to your point."
"My point is that the Senior Partners were pissed that you were all given a second chance. It upset every balance and every plan they ever created. They want you dead, and they aren't going to stop until it happens." Lindsey said.
"But why?" Fred asked. "If we are dead, the balance is lost."
"In this dimension, just as in the old reality. But there are so many realities, so many dimensions for the Senior Partners to toy around with. They just want to control everything. They can't do that with you alive." Lindsey said.
"So now what?" Angel asked.
"Now." Lindsey stood, fixing his jacket. "I believe you are all in for the rides of your very short lives." And with that the lawyer exited Angel Investigations.
Connor moved to follow Lindsey.
"Connor, no." Angel said.
"Shouldn't we stop him? Kill him? Something?" Connor asked.
"He is the least of our problems right now." Angel said. "Right now, it seems we have a fight on our hands."
"You think?" Gunn huffed.
Angel looked over at Wesley. "Call Sunnydale. Tell them everything. Tell them we are ready for this fight."
Wesley nodded, moving to the phone.
"We are?" Cordelia looked at Angel as he wrapped an arm around her.
"What?"
"Ready for this fight?" Cordelia asked.
"Yeah." Angel nodded, swallowing hard. The truth was, he didn't know if they were ready, but he wanted to believe it so bad. He wanted to fight this fight and win it so he could move on with his life, his second chance. He wanted to be with Cordelia forever.
Giles sat over a stake of books with Willow and Xander on each side of him. He had been over one particular passage for a good twenty minutes, and felt that it was the one he needed to allow Willow and Xander to go back to wherever it was they had all been before so they could be with Tara and Anya.
"I think I found it." Giles said.
"Really?" Willow jumped up, over Giles' back in a minute as Xander lazily made his way over from his seat on the opposite couch.
"Are you sure this time?" Xander asked.
"Positive." Giles said.
Xander nodded tiredly. "You said that the last three times."
"No." Willow smiled. "This is it." She looked up at Xander. "Giles found it."
Xander smiled back. Finally he would get to be with Anya. "What does it say?"
"It is a simple spell really." Giles looked up from the text. "Remember when Angel explained to us Cordelia's ascension?"
"The one that turned her evil?" Xander asked.
"The one that allowed the evil thing to come back." Giles corrected. For some reason he felt protective of Cordelia. He assumed it was because, back in the day, she had been part of the scoobies, and therefore, he felt it was his duty to watch over her. "Yes, that one. Well, it is similar to that."
"So once we fight whatever is coming, you can send us back to Tara and Anya?" Willow asked, excitedly.
Giles nodded. "Yes, I believe I can."
Just then Giles phone began ringing. Xander was the closet to it, so he picked it up. "Hello…Wesley? What?…no Buffy's out…okay, I'll tell Giles…yeah…yeah…try her cell. Okay, bye." And with that Xander hung up.
"Wesley?" Giles asked.
Xander nodded. "Yeah. He had some news."
"What?" Willow asked.
Xander took a deep breath, sitting down, and trying to remember all that Wesley had said to him. He knew that the battle Wesley had described to him was an important one and he did not want to leave any of the details out.
Wesley moved away from the phone and toward his old office where Angel and Cordelia were sitting, Cordelia on Angel's lap. The rest of the group was in the lobby, trying to digest all that Lindsey had said, and what they were about to get themselves into. Wesley opened the door and both Angel and Cordelia immediately looked up.
"Did you get a hold of Buffy?" Angel asked.
Wesley shook his head. "No. She was out. I talked to Xander. He said he would tell Willow and Giles but that we should call Buffy's cell."
"And did you?" Angel asked, already knowing the answer to his question.
"No." Wesley said simply. "I thought it was best if I left that to you."
Angel nodded. "Thank you, Wesley."
Wesley nodded, almost relieved, as if he were still a schoolboy, and Angel had just dismissed him from a task he did not want to complete. He turned and made his way back into the lobby.
Cordelia immediately looked up at Angel. "So, you should call her."
Angel nodded, running a hand through Cordelia's curly, shoulder length hair. He realizes only now, that her hair is in the same style it had been on the day she had walked out of Wolfram and Hart, and the world, but never his heart. She had always stayed there, and she always would.
Cordelia raised an eyebrow at him, smiling gently. She could tell he was thinking. "What?"
Angel just smiled back at her. "Nothing."
"Liar." Cordelia accused, but her smile never faded.
Angel shrugged, sighing. "I can't wait until this fight is over."
"Why?" Cordelia asked, nuzzling her head into his neck.
"Then we can start our real lives." Angel told her.
"What lives?" Cordelia joked. "Demons and vampires have been our business forever. Face it, if we don't have them, we have nothing."
Angel laughed. "Well, we will just have to find a new business."
"Like what?" Cordelia was intrigued to see what Angel thought about their possible future together, because she had thought about it a lot lately.
"Well, I thought maybe we could clean the hotel up, and you, know, like run a hotel." Angel told her.
"Really?" Cordelia nodded in approval. She had to admit, that was not one of her ideas for their future but it sounded really good. "I like that plan."
Angel nodded. "I don't want to give the hotel up. Too many memories. Plus, everyone can stay here then, close. You know?"
Cordelia nodded. She liked the sound of that too.
"And we would have plenty of room for kids then…" Angel looked down at Cordelia. "You know, if you want any I mean."
Cordelia smiled, sitting up, so she was eye level with Angel. "Of course I do."
"Really?" Angel smiled.
Cordelia nodded, nuzzling close to him again. "But not as many as they used to have back in your days as human."
"Oh, so ten is out of the question?" Angel joked.
Cordelia raised an eyebrow at him. "Big time. Maybe three."
"Four?" Angel asked. He had always wanted a big family.
"You already have one." Cordelia pointed out, reminding Angel of Connor.
"I know. I want five. Connor makes five if we have four." Angel told her.
Cordelia smiled. "We'll talk about it later. But first…" She got off of Angel's lap. "We have to make it through whatever is coming…" She smile faded.
Angel pulled her back into his lap. "Cordy…we will."
Cordelia nodded. "I hope."
"No hope. We will. Its certain." Angel told her.
"How do you know that?" Cordelia asked.
"Why would the Powers bring us back to get us killed again?" Angel asked her. "Seems like a lot of wasted energy to me if we are all just going to die again."
"True." Cordelia agreed, smiling slightly again, and then sighing. "You should call Buffy."
Angel nodded. "I know." He smiled at her, taking the phone she handed him as she got off of his lap. He quickly dialed Buffy's cell phone number, unsure of how he had it memorized. But that wasn't important right now. Right now he had to get in touch with Buffy so she knew what was coming their way.
Buffy, Spike, and Faith were out patrolling around one of the graveyards in Sunnydale. There were a few of them, even in this reality. Buffy found that rather odd. If the vampires and demons were new to this reality then why were so many people still dead? Spike rattled her from her thoughts.
"You okay?" Spike asked her, nudging her slightly in the gut.
Buffy smiled at the blonde ex-vampire. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Spike smiled back nodding. "You seemed like something was bothering you."
"Just thinking." Buffy told him, taking his hand in hers and giving it a tight squeeze, causing his smile to grow wider.
Faith broke the special moment between Buffy and Spike. "Well, think a little less, B. We've got vampires and demons to look for, and I want to fight something."
"Well, there's something bloody new." Spike joked with Faith.
Before Faith could think of a comeback for Spike, Buffy's cell phone started ringing.
Buffy moved to grab her phone, reading the number off of it. "It's Angel." She said.
"Pick it up." Spike and Faith said in unison.
Buffy nodded, answering her phone. "Hey Angel…yeah, what? What do you mean? I…okay…how soon? Right…okay…no I got it…yeah…thanks for calling…yeah…yeah keep in touch." And then Buffy hung her phone up, her face a shade whiter then it had been before she had answered it.
"What did he say?" Spike asked, sensing something was wrong.
"Angel said that he ran into some lawyer today that gave him some information on this reality." Buffy said.
"Which lawyer?" Spike asked, knowing it had probably been someone from Wolfram and Hart.
"I'm not sure. It was weird. A girls name, but Angel kept saying 'he'." Buffy said.
"Lindsey." Spike said instantly.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, you know him?"
"Wish I didn't." Spike sighed. "What did Angel say?'
"You know…the usual…" Buffy folded her arms. "End of the world is coming and we have to stop it."
Faith nodded. "Nothing new there. Do we know when?"
"Soon." Buffy said. "Angel said to get ready for it. We'll have to fight our half here while they fight the other half in L.A."
"Sounds like a plan." Spike said.
Faith nodded. "Yeah."
"We should get back to Giles'. Get everyone together." Buffy decided.
Both Spike and Faith nodded in agreement as they followed Buffy out of the cemetery and back toward Giles' house. The three walked in silence, thinking about the fight that was ahead of them. They knew that they were born for it, but all three wondered if they were truly ready for it. They were all sick of fighting, it was all they had known forever, and now they wondered if they would have the same spark in a fight they had possessed the first time around.