"It's great to see you again too Angel." A grinning Spike said.

"Get out." Angel growled.

"You want me to leave?" Angel glared at him. "I'll go as soon as you make me Blister Boy." Forgetting that he was lying naked under the sheets, any sudden movement would cause him great pain, or he had practically no strength, he shot out of the bed towards Spike. He made it about a foot before he collapsed on the floor.

"Angel." Cordy yelled and Spike roared with laughter.

"Oh, God." He groaned.

"Wesley, please help me get him back to bed." Cordy snapped as she struggled with Angel. "Shut the hell up Spike."

"I…sorry…actually…I'm…not" Spike said between laughs. "Did you see his…it's burnt to a crisp?" He howled

Cordy and Wes got Angel back into bed. She ordered Wes to go find some more whiskey. The pain as been tolerable for a while now and he hadn't needed the whiskey so there was none available in the room. Cordy grabbed a stake as soon was Wes left the room and charged at Spike. He was to busy laughing to see her coming.

"You sorry son of a bitch. He risked his life to save Catherine." She shouted as she shoved him against the wall, pointing the stake at his heart. "I should put this stake through selfish heart right now."

"Princess Cordelia, you don't have it in you." In one swift movement she reached over and grabbed some old statue that Angel loved and hit Spike upside his head.

"I always knew that this piece of shit would come in handy." She said grinning as Spike picked himself off of the floor rubbing his head. "Now, do you think that I have it in me?"

"You aren't the prissy princess that I remember."

"You're still the same arrogant asshole that I remember."

"Cor..." Angel groaned from the bed. He was in a lot of pain. There was sweat pouring down his face. "Hurts."

"Ahh suck it up Mr. Crispy and be a man."

"Spike, I will kill you if you don't shut the hell up." Cordy said as she gently mopped up Angel's face. Wes returned right then with the whiskey. "Here Angel drink." He didn't fight her and drank greedily from the bottle.

"So who does the rugrat belong to?" Spike asked trying to make conversation.

"She's ours." Cordy and Angel answered at the same time.

"I'll be damned, mate. You've been shagging Sunnydale's princess?"

"Spike, what the hell are you doing here?" Angel mumbled through closed eyes.

"Wesley called Giles and told him that LA was down a vampire with a soul and his team was getting its asses kicked and they needed help so some of the best slayers were sent along with me for some extra muscle until Fire baby is back on his feet."

"We don't need your help. The slayers will be fine." Cordy said

"Look, I don't want to be here with Mr. Sourpuss anymore then he wants me to be here but I won't argue with Buffy. Well, actually I did when she told me to come but she refused to come herself and no matter what I said she wouldn't change her mind." Angel and Cordy looked at each other. They both knew why she wasn't here and as much as they could have used her help, they were thankful.

"As soon as Angel has healed Spike will be gone." Wesley said.

""Maybe even a second or two before." Spike quipped and Cordy rolled her eyes. She looked at Angel who was sleeping. The whiskey finally kicked in.

"Come on the sun will be going down and we need to get ready." Wes said as he and Spike walked out of the room. Cordy leaned down and gently kissed his lips, the only part of his body that was healing relatively fast. His eyes fluttered opened.

"Spike? Tell me that I was having a God awful nightmare"

"No, it wasn't a nightmare. He is really here."

"Damn"

"I'm going to work. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I hate this. I hate the fact that you have to go out fighting without me there to protect you."

"Hey, look at me." No response. "Angel look at me." She demanded. He slowly focused his tear filled eyes on her. "You trained me well and I can take care of myself. We both know that if something is going to happen to me it won't matter if you are here in bed or standing next to me. I know the risks of the job as does everyone else and I feel that the people that we save are worth the risk. Now, get some rest and remember that I love you."

"You are the most amazing woman that I have ever met."

"I know." She said smugly.

"Be careful. I love you." Cordy blew him a kiss and headed down to the lobby.

--

An hour later Cordy and Spike were patrolling together. The team had spilt off into groups of two or three; each of them with a slayer and Cordy had been stuck with Spike.

"Now, don't get used to staying here Spike. Angel will be better soon. To your left." She said and Spike spun around and staked a vamp in his left.

"Behind you." Without blinking Cordy staked the vamp that was coming from behind. "Trust me doll face, I don't want to say here either." They walked and staked in silence for another couple of hours before checking with the other teams who were having just as much success as they were. They hadn't staked this many vampires since before Angel's accident. It felt great.

"So you've been putting out for Angel huh?" Spike asked her grinning

"Can you possibly be any more vile?"

"As a matter of fact I can be. Would you like that? Does that turn you on?"

"You're disgusting." She spat at him.

"Come on Cordelia, Angel and I have shared many things in the past, including women. We shared many of our victims before they met their demise, we shared Darla, Drue and Buffy so why not add you to the list?" He said with a grin on his face and Cordy slapped that stupid grin right off of his face.

"He is not the same man anymore."

"Obviously. He is a wussy man." Spike said laughing at himself.

"He is a hero, a champion, something that you know nothing about."

"Maybe not princess, but I do know what it's like to never have the heart of the one person that you really love. I know what its like to be a substitute for a person's one true love." He said softy. He may have had Buffy in his bed and he may have had a small part of her heart but he never had it all. Her heart would always belong to Angel.

"I am no ones substitute. Angel loves me with his whole heart." Cordy said looking away from Spike. She didn't want him to see the tears in her eyes.

"Are you forgetting his curse pet? You two obviously did the nasty and my old pal Angelus didn't surface so that should be proof enough that you don't own his heart, just his manhood."

Cordy swung around to face Spike. Her eyes were flashing with anger. "Listen up asshole. Angel does love me. We made love with the help of The Powers That Be." Spike interrupted her.

"That's beautiful He couldn't do it on his own. He needed help. I love it."

"Believe me; he needs no help in that area. He was given a potion that he drank before we made love which allowed him to keep his soul."

"How disappointing."

"I don't want to here another word out of your filthy mouth about Angel, Catherine or our relationship. In fact avoiding talking at all will be great."

"I will do as you wish your highness." He said sarcastically. Cordy sighed. Angel couldn't get better quick enough.

--

Cordy walked into her bedroom and panicked. Angel was not in bed.

"Angel?" She shouted and she heard noise coming from Catherine's room. She grabbed her stake and sword and ran towards the room. She heard the intruder heading her way. She positioned herself and waited. As soon as she saw the shadow she jumped out swinging her sword but stopped in mid-air. "Angel, what the hell are you doing out of bed? I almost killed you."

Cordy dropped the sword and stake and grabbed him by the waist to hold him up. He looked about ready to collapse. They slowly shuffled back to the bed. Once he was settled she went to check on Catherine who was sleeping soundly. "What were you doing out of bed?" She asked him as she climbed in next to him.

"Catherine had a nightmare. I heard her crying."

"She is fine now."

"I got her back to sleep. She was so scared Cor, she was clinging to me."

"It's normal for kids her age to experience nightmares."

"I know, but what they don't know is that most of the monsters they see in their dreams are real. I was one of those monsters."

"But you're not anymore. You are the hero that saves people from those monsters."

"Right after the accident, I had visions Cordelia."

"Visions, what kind of visions?"

"I had visions of my family and all of the people that I killed." He had tears in his eyes.

"Baby, you were having extremely high fevers. You were hallucinating." He shook his head.

"No they weren't. They were sent to me by The Powers That Be to help me ease my guilty conscious."

"Was the guilt bad lately?" Cordy knew that he goes through periods of extreme guilt. It was really bad after Catherine was born.

"Really bad. I'm not sure what triggered it but yeah, it was bad."

"You should have talked to me."

"They almost all forgave me for killing them. I don't deserve it but they gave it to me anyhow."

"Of course they did. You are helping people. You have a soul but you don't have to use it for good. You could have locked yourself away and been miserable and insane but you didn't. The PTB saw what a good man you are and how much good you can accomplish. They gave you a mission and you accepted it and made us proud. They all know that you would have never hurt them if you had any control over your evil impulses. Vampires are evil. You didn't know any better than to be evil, granted you were worst than most but you had help in that department."

"My mother and sister are proud of me. They have seen you and Catherine. My mother said that you are a wonderful mother."

"Thank you for telling me. You said that almost everyone forgave you. Who didn't?" She asked him softly. She had a feeling that it was his father but she wasn't sure.

"Well Drue was one. She loves being a vampire too much. She thinks that I gave her a gift so according to her there is nothing to forgive."

"That doesn't surprise me. Who else Angel?" He didn't answer her. "Was it your father?" He nodded as tears flowed from his eyes. Even though he was over two hundred years old, he was like any other man who wanted his father's love and approval. As gently as she could, without hurting him, she pulled him into his arms as he cried. She cried with him.

"He hates me Cordy. He has always hated me and he will spend all of eternity hating me. I was never the son that he wanted." He sobbed into her arms. He has always avoided talking about his father when at all possible but in Cordy's arms, it felt right to get it all out.

"Oh baby, he doesn't know what he is missing."

"All I ever wanted was his respect. I wanted him to respect my choices and my lifestyle. I wanted him to respect me, and who I was but he never did. He never will. When I killed him I thought that I had won but I didn't. I lost any chance of ever gaining his approval."

"Angel, I know that you want his approval and respect. Every son wants his father's approval but unfortunately you aren't going to get it. He is an ass for not realizing what an amazing man that you turned out to be."

"I'm scared that I will screw up with Catherine. Connor is already grown so I can't screw him up anymore that I have already done, but Catherine is just a baby. I can really ruin her life."

"You need to stop thinking like that Angel." Cordy said softly. "You are a wonderful father. You did not screw anything up with Connor and you won't with Catherine. Both of your children respect you. They look up to you. You have made so many choices to make their lives better. There will be many times in Catherine's life where you will make a decision that she will hate but you are doing it because you love her."

"But I don't want Catherine to hate me when she learns what I am and what I've done." There, he voiced his biggest fear. "Like Connor did."

"Connor was brainwashed and he doesn't hate you anymore. In fact, I don't think that he ever really hated you just the things that you did and he now knows that it wasn't you that did those things. It was Angelus and Angelus isn't his father. You are. And don't forget that Catherine is my daughter also. She won't hate you. She will understand and like me, she will feel all of the good that you have done as Angel and not the evil that was Angelus."

"I hope you're right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm Cordelia Chase. You just need to have faith in yourself."

An hour later Cordy was almost asleep when she heard Angel whisper "Thank you Cor."

"Your welcome. What are you welcome for?"

"For being here for me, believing in me, trusting me and loving me."

"Baby, I love you so the rest just comes naturally."

"Thanks anyways."