Chapter 3

Lindsey left work early because everyone was asking him questions about Angel's impromptu visit and attack. Once he got home he found Darla sitting at the kitchen table throwing tacks at the wall. He disregarded this, and went to the bathroom sink to patch up his bruised eye and bloody lip. Darla noticed that he had come in, and quietly followed him to the bathroom. He put his arms on the side of the sink in thought. Darla watched him and spotted the deep blue/purple of his eye. Shee took a deep intake of air that expressed her shock. Her hand shot up to her mouth to cover up the sound, and she caught herself, noting the breath that she hadn't realized she took. This made Lindsey notice she was there.

"Hey Darla. Anything interesting happen today?" He asked, as if nothing of interest had happened to him that afternoon. "You're back early, do you usually mope around my apartment when I'm not here?" He laughed.

Ignoring his questions he asked, "Did Angel do that to you?"

He stopped laughing.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You."

"Oh."

This small exchange seemed to explain everything.

She hated having such mortal feelings, and not being able to explain why. She often thought to herself while Lindsey was away, "Am I human, do I have a soul? Am I still me?" She wondered now more than ever, because after seeing Lindsey's battered face, she wanted to find Angel and do the same to him.

Darla lowered her head. Lindsey looked over at her, not wanting her to take the blame for what happened to him. He especially hoped that she wouldn't leave in order to stop Angel from striking again.

Interrupting both of their trains of thought, Darla joined him at the sink and helped him tend to his bruises.

Angel was furious. People following him, destroying his room, and Lindsey sharing a bed with Darla. Why did he leave his room in the first place? His soul was driving him mad. Cooped up on his own "atoning" day and night. Would it ever end? What was the point? In a rage he grabbed his jacket and left his room once more.

At Wolfram & Hart, Lilah was deviously plotting against Lindsey's plans. Using the same system they used to make Angel see that Darla was staying with Lindsey, Lilah made an alteration. She smiled to herself and was so very happy with her plan she could have very well kissed herself at that point.

That night, as Lindsey fell asleep he rested his head on Darla's lap, and she held a cold cloth to his bruises. With his eyes closed she looked down at him, her hands trailing up and down his face. She ran her fingers through his short hair, imagining how he might look with longer hair. She leaned her head back, onto the cushions behind her, and they both slept peacefully, it seemed for the first time in a long while.

Angel tossed and turned that night, haunted with more thoughts of Lindsey and Darla together, sharing moments that he himself never got to have with her, as they were both soulless during their time together. Angel was unsure if Darla had a soul thrusted upon her, or if she was being her usual deceitful, lying self to make him miserable. This night, Lilah's scheme would take place. Among the sights of Darla and Lindsey in Angel's dreams that night, Lilah sent a faux meeting of herself and Lindsey in his apartment. She was not proud of this documentation, and hoped it would never reflect true events.

Angel saw Lindsey and Lilah pushed up against Lindsey's bedroom door.

Confused in his doze, Angel continued to watch what his closed eyes could barely believe.

More so, he couldn't see past the cheap trick, and was lead to believe that Lindsey was lying to Darla, and sleeping with Lilah right under her nose!

Hardened by years of solitude, and envious with his only woman friend, ever, being with the enemy, and then apparently being cheated on, he woke up in a vicious stream of madness.

He was slowly driving himself crazy.

As Lilah tracked his progress that night, she laughed with an untold giddiness that was severely irregular for a lawyer of any kind. She closed up the computers and drove over to Lindsey's house, where she knew something would be happening of great interest to her, very shortly.

Lindsey and Darla were blissfully unaware of what was coming to them.

Angel wanted to beat the Hell out of Lindsey, and scream his frustrations out at Darla. He wanted to find Lilah and smack her over the head with a candlestick. He had a general dislike for her, even before seeing that she aided in making Darla the 'other woman'.

Now, Angel walked to Lindsey's apartment in a fury and rush while Lilah drove in a state that was calm and collected.

Angel smashed open the door with a strength that he had kept hidden for decades. A strength he hadn't needed to use.

Startled by the sudden disturbance, Lindsey sat up and Darla's eyelids burst open, and her heart filled with panic. It was then she noticed that her heart was beating, because it was pounding with such urgency. It seemed so loud to her, and she filled up with dread that someone could hear it thrashing around at such a pace.

In the commotion of Angel storming in, she didn't realize that she grabbed on to Lindsey. Frightened by this new discovery she attempted to pry loose, and couldn't make herself let go.

Without speaking, Angel took one look at Lindsey and Darlas cozy couch situation and grabbed Lindsey's throat so forcefully that he was ripped loose from Darla's clutches, and pinned to the ceiling by his grip.

"Angel! Stop it!! Darla screamed, unable to control herself.

"This is who you chose! This pathetic loser of a lawyer! He lies for a living and here you are...and what about Lilah!" Angel declared.

"What about Lilah!" Lindsay managed as his face turned purple.

"Stop! He needs to breathe unlike...us!" Darla said quickly. She didn't want Angel to know about her heart situation.

"I know that you're sleeping with Lilah! I saw it! Just like I saw you with Darla! Not only do you use her, you cheat on her!" He said, referencing to Darla.

Darla's face filled with hurt and confusion. Noticing Lindsey's slowly fleeting consciousness, she kicked Angel in the crotch, and he backed away only slightly, letting his grip of Lindsey subside and allowed Lindsey to tumble to the floor.

"How is that even possible! Lilah is tricking you! Darla is here all day, she's a sharp girl, I think she would notice if I was banging my most hated coworker in the room beside her." Lindsey said rubbing his neck.

Ignoring Lindsey, he turned to Darla.

"How could you protect him..after everything we did together."

"You aren't the same person you were then, and we all know it. You can't deny it to me. You can deny everyone else, but you can't fool me. I made you, and I disposed of you long ago." Darla said bitterly.

Angel showed no hurt in his eyes.

He lifted his arm and effortlessly threw Lindsey across the room.

"You want Angelus? You got him." Then he let the demon that had been sleeping inside him, swallow him up.

From the doorway where Lilah had been watching she opened her phone and started walking back to her car.

"Holland, he's back."