February 6, 1999
Angel was the first person to wake up, but he opted to stay in bed beside a sleeping Cordelia. He could hear the others in the house moving around, but he was content to ignore them. He just wanted this time with Cordelia alone. They'd become twisted together during the night. Cordy was sprawled on top of him, and she used his chest as her pillow. Angel didn't mind holding her. He frowned, remembering today's date. They had one day to figure out how to save Cordy and Anna from Jacob.
Cordy woke up surprised to find herself lying on top of Angel. She intended to get up quietly in an effort not to wake him but found that his arms around her wouldn't let her go. She looked up into Angel's eyes and realized he was awake.
"Just go back to sleep," Angel said.
Cordy realized they shouldn't stay there together wrapped up in bed, but she just rested her head on Angel's chest. She decided to blame their mutual lack of judgement on sleep deprivation.
"We have to get up sometime," Cordy said.
"Not right now," Angel replied.
Cordy sighed and said, "Okay, 5 more minutes."
"Let's leave," Angel said.
"I thought you wanted to sleep in?" Cordy replied sitting up.
"That's not what I meant. According to the obituary, Anna dies tomorrow at Sunnydale High. That can't happen if you're not even in Sunnydale on February 7," Angel said. "We can drive back into Sunnydale on the 8th. Then we can put your plan into action."
"But the obit doesn't say I die at Sunnydale High. It just says that's where I'm found. For all we know leaving town will lead me directly to the danger and then Jacob just dumps Anna's body over at the school," Cordy said frowning at her own thought. "I don't want to run. I just want to face him and get it over with. I can't take looking over my shoulder all the time for much longer."
With that she got out of bed and walked into the bathroom leaving Angel alone in the bed wishing he'd never brought the issue up, at least not while she was in his arms. The bed was too cold without her.
--
Downstairs Cordelia Chase had let herself in to find Gus and Buffy sitting in his kitchen. She noticed Angel's coat hanging on the chair in the kitchen.
"Morning Buffy, Morning Gus," Cordelia said.
"I'm not answering to that," he replied frowning at her.
Cordelia smiled at him, "Cordy said you'd hate it but come on. We can't call you both Angel. It'd be confusing. Somebody had to have the nickname. Maybe be we should've picked Dead Boy instead of Gus."
He glared at Cordelia who laughed and asked, "Where's Cordy and Angel?"
"They're upstairs," Gus replied.
"Good," Cordelia said grabbing Angel's coat.
"What are you doing?" Gus asked her.
"Snooping," Cordelia replied sticking her hands in the coat pockets. "Aren't you curious about any info your future self might be hiding?"
"You shouldn't." Buffy said but she ended up sitting beside Cordelia as she opened Angel's wallet.
"This is no surprise," Cordelia said pointing to the picture of Buffy in his wallet. "Let's see what else we've got here."
Buffy was relieved to see the picture there. It was an old picture that she'd given him months ago. It made her happy to see he still kept it in the future.
"Hmmm, his driver's licence has an LA address," Cordelia said and then a couple of business cards fell to the floor
"We move to LA?" Buffy said looking at Gus in surprise.
He picked up the business cards and noticed the words Angel Investigations and a LA address printed on it.
"There's a picture of me, Angel, and Wesley," Cordelia said, smiling.
Then she came upon a picture of Angel with his arm around a girl with glasses. Then there was a candid shot of Angel and Cordelia laughing in the middle of a conversation.
"I cut my hair?" Cordy exclaimed looking at the picture.
Then there was a group picture. Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley were the only ones in the picture any of them recognized. There was an older couple, young black man, the girl in the glasses, and a green skinned demon. Then Cordy turned to the last picture in Angel's wallet which was a candid photograph of Cordy holding a baby and looking outside a window.
"That must be Connor," Cordelia said remembering Angel and Cordy's argument from the night before. Something about Cordy being a mother.
Buffy was frowning. There was only the one old photograph of her in his wallet. She wondered why she and her friends weren't in the group photograph and she wondered why there were so many pictures of Cordy. She looked up at Gus and couldn't read his expression. He was wondering the same things she was. It had never occurred to him to keep pictures in his wallet but apparently in the future he'll start adding pictures as well as friends. But where was Buffy in this future?
Cordy took out the picture of Cordy and Connor and turned it over where the words "Cordy and our boy" were written on the back. She didn't recognize the handwriting. She replaced that picture and then went back to the first picture in the wallet and took it out. On the back she recognized her handwriting "There's something sad about a wallet without even a single photo so I added this one from your stash."
Gus stood over her shoulder reading the picture.
Then Cordelia took out the photograph of Angel, Wesley, and Cordy. Again Cordy's handwriting was on the back "I wanted to make sure we got a shot of the 3 of us. I hate that we never got a picture with Doyle. "
"Looks like I added the pictures to your wallet," Cordelia said taking out the next picture of Angel and the brown haired girl.
On the back of that in Cordelia's handwriting were the words, "I figure you'd find this soothing. I could still soothe your ass off though."
Then on the back of the picture of Angel and Cordy laughing were the words, "You should smile like that more often."
Then there were the words written on the back of the group shot, "Our family."
Cordelia then looked over the picture of her and a baby, "I wrote on the back of the others but I don't think I added this one to the wallet. It's not my handwriting on the back."
"It's mine," Gus said.
"I can't believe I have a son," Cordelia said staring at the photograph. "I wonder who the father is."
"Our boy," Buffy muttered. "It says in your handwriting 'Cordy and our boy.' What does this mean, Angel?"
"It's Gus now," Cordy interrupted. "We decided last night."
Buffy ignored her and asked, "What does it mean?"
"I don't know," he replied. "We're looking at the pictures without the context."
"Exactly, before getting mad we should just ask them about it," Cordelia said.
"Ask who about what?" Cordy said wandering into the kitchen.
"Where's Angel," Buffy asked.
"Shower," Cordy said walking towards the fridge.
She stopped in her tracks when she saw the open wallet and the pictures laying on the table.
"You were snooping."
"You would too," Cordelia pointed out.
Cordy shrugged and walked over to the table. She began placing the pictures back in the wallet and came upon the picture of her and Connor.
She smiled and said, "This is a new one. Angel or Fred must have taken it when I wasn't paying attention."
She turned the picture over and saw the words on the back which just made her smile more.
"Now that's we've seen the pictures would you mind explaining them to us," Buffy said.
"Giles said..." Cordy began.
"I think we've already learned too much about the future more information can't hurt," Gus said.
Cordy bit her lip, "I'll only answer questions about the stuff in the wallet. Everything else is off limits."
"Why aren't I in there?" Buffy asked.
"You are in there. You're the first picture," Cordy replied.
"But I'm not in any of the others," Buffy said.
"No you're not. Considering the fact that I added the pictures wouldn't it make sense that I would add the ones that were important to me which I thought Angel might like," Cordy replied.
Buffy bristled at that, "So I'm not important to Angel."
Cordy sighed, "You're the first picture in the wallet. It's not like I excluded you."
"Who's Doyle?" Cordelia asked wanting to get off the topic of Buffy.
Cordy smiled sadly, "A friend."
"What happened to him?" Angel asked.
"You know I can't tell you that," Cordy said.
"Who are they?" Gus said showing her the group shot.
"Well, that's you, me, Gunn, Wes, Lorne, Fred and her parents," Cordy said. "All great friends."
"Family?" Gus asked.
"That's what it says on the back of the photo," Cordy replied.
"Is this my son?" Cordelia asked showing the picture of Cordy and Connor.
"It's a long story that I can't tell you but yeah that's Connor," Cordy said taking another look at the picture.
"Who's the father?" Cordelia asked. "I need to know."
"Connor's dad is someone truly special and that's all I'll tell you about him," Cordy said.
"Is he one of the men in the group shot?" Cordy asked.
Cordy tried not to give away anything in her expression, "I can't tell you one way or the other."
"What did Angel mean last night when he said Connor already lost one mother?" Gus asked.
"His biological mother died in childbirth. I've been helping his dad take care of him," Cordy replied.
"Does Angel babysit?" Cordelia asked curious.
Cordy smiled and looked at Gus, "He's amazing with Connor."
She stopped smiling and suddenly looked teary-eyed, "I do miss that boy. I miss home."
She shook off the sadness and stood up, "Now that we're done with the Q & A I'm going to return this pictures to Angel's wallet and take his coat upstairs."
She picked up the wallet, the pictures, and the coat and was halfway out of the room when she heard Gus ask, "Why is there an LA address on my driver's license and what are the business cards about?"
Cordy sighed. She'd been hoping the pictures had distracted them from noticing other things in the wallet.
"I think the answer to those questions are pretty obvious," Cordy said walking up the stairs.
Gus frowned. Sure the answers were obvious, but they didn't make sense. At some point, he'd move to LA and start some sort of detective agency. He'd have friends close enough to him to be considered family. This family may or may not include Buffy. When Gus returned to the kitchen, Buffy gave him a looked filled with accusations.
"I need to talk to the future version of you," she said rushing out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
"This should be interesting," Cordelia said, giving Gus a reassuring squeeze on the arm. "She can't be mad at you for things you haven't done yet."
Gus nodded and headed downstairs to the training room. Cordelia remained in the living room. She was dying to find out what would happen next.
Buffy burst in the Cordy's room to find Angel sitting on the bed beside Cordy his arm wrapped around her.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
Cordy was having a moment of weakness. The fact that her life was on the line and that there was a good chance she wouldn't see any of her family again hit her hard. So she allowed herself a self-pity moment which Angel walked in on so he tried to comfort her as best he could. She didn't like feeling weak in front of Buffy.
Cordy's eyes flared, "You could've knocked first."
She got up from the bed and left the bedroom.
"What happened?" Buffy asked suddenly more concerned than angry.
"She's homesick," Angel said. "You should give her some space."
"The pictures upset her?" Buffy said.
Angel nodded, "You guys should have stayed out of my wallet."
"Cordelia wanted to take a look," Buffy said. "We were all curious."
When Angel didn't reply Buffy said, "I have some questions."
"I know you do," Angel said. "But I can't answer."
"You have a family in the future. Am I apart of it?" Buffy asked.
Angel took an unneeded breath, "No."
"Do I...Do I die?" Buffy asked.
"You're alive," Angel said.
"But we're not together anymore?" Buffy said.
"I can't tell you anymore. I shouldn't have even told you this much," Angel said.
"Just tell me if you're with Cordelia in the future," Buffy said.
Angel didn't know how to answer that. He and Cordy weren't a couple, but there were moments when it felt like they were this unit. And it wasn't just friendship. It was definitely something more.
Uncertain how to reply Angel said the one thing he was sure of, "Cordy's my best friend."
"How did that happen?" Buffy said finding it hard to believe. "Queen C best friends with a vampire?"
Angel shrugged, "She's more stubborn than I am."
And then he smiled thinking of Cordy which made Buffy frown.
"I don't understand any of this," Buffy said.
"You're not supposed to. A lot of things haven't happened yet," Angel said. "We need to focus on saving Cordy and Anna. Smith needs to be our priority right now."
Buffy nodded remembering what was at stake.
--
Jacob sat in his car calming himself. His mistake the last few days had been letting his temper flare instead of thinking ahead. He caressed the cover of the Magic text Anna had been using. It was inevitable that he would figure out what Anna had done. Until then there were other things Jacob could do.
He smiled thinking of his plan, and then he saw her. The red-headed girl who had been with Anna the night he'd set that fire outside the Summers house. He'd taken a good look at all the people who had been with Anna that night and the red head looked the most vulnerable. If he couldn't get to Anna, there were others he could reach.
