I own none of the characters of Angel.

"I have to go." Cordy said softly and I whipped my head around to face her.

"No Cor, it's too soon." I whispered over the lump in my throat. "You can't leave me yet."

"I'm not dying yet dumbass. All I meant by that was I will no longer be visible to Wesley."

"Well you should have said that." I snapped as Cordy and Wesley embraced.

"Cordelia it is so good to see you again." She placed her hand on his jaw.

"It's nice to be seen by someone other than beefcake over here." She smiled as tears filled her eyes. "I'm not going to be able to say this because I'm not going to wake up so I want to tell you this now. Wesley it has been a pleasure knowing and working with you. You are one of the most honorable human beings that I know."

"Cordelia you have matured into a wonderfully selfless woman. I am a better man having known you. I'm just so sorry that your life ended up like this. You deserve so much better." Cordy wiped her tears away and they hugged again.

"One more thing before I go. I am so happy for you and Fred. It's been a long time coming. I wish you all of the happiness in the world." Cordy walked over and linked hands with me.

"I have always wished that for you. I'm just sorry that you didn't find it."

"I did Wesley. Granted it's a little unconventional but I found happiness with Angel." She squeezed my hand.

"It would have been nice to see you this happy while you were conscious."

"It doesn't matter since I have it now. Goodbye Wesley."

"Is she still here?" She must have disappeared from Wesley's sight because she was still standing next to me holding my hand.

"Yeah she is still here." Wesley shook his head in amazement.

"This is amazing. I can't believe that this is happening to you. I was able to feel her when she was hugging me and you can feel her like that all of the time?"

"It's just like she never left."

"You mentioned that you two have made love. Have you really done it?" I nodded. "Is it as good you thought it would be?"

"Oh my God Wes, it's better than I ever thought it could be. She is an amazing lover. The things that she can do…" A nice hard slap came across my head. "Owww."

"I'm right here." She snapped.

"Sorry." I looked at Wes. "She doesn't appreciate me talking about our sex life with you."

"Maybe another time." Wes said with a smirk.

"Sure thing." Wrong words to say because she slapped me again upside my head as soon as they were out of my mouth. "Oww. Dammit Cordy." I heard Wesley snicker and I shot him a glare.

"So what do we do about the whole custom form that Gunn signed?" Wes asked

"Let's search his office and see what we can find." I said. Wes and I stood. "Are you coming?" I asked Cordy.

"If you think you need me."

"You are the only one who saw the form. You may be able to recognize it."

"Right I didn't think of that. Let's go."

An hour later we had went through all of the papers on Gunn's desk and found nothing of interest. There were a few custom papers on his desk but the were all dated yesterday of the day before, nothing from today.

"Now what?" I asked, my voice thick with frustration.

"We're at a dead end." Wesley stated.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." I snapped as I picked up the phone and tried unsuccessfully to reach Gunn again. When he didn't answer his home or cell I slammed the phone down.

"Angel there is nothing else that we can do tonight." Cordy said as she gently placed her hand on my arm.

"Something is going to happen because of this form. I just can't sit around and wait for it to happen."

"Without Gunn here there is nothing else that we can do." Wes said

"That's what Cordy said." I mumbled.

"She's a smart woman. You should listen to her Angel." I heard Cordy giggle behind me.

"I'm smart. How many times have I told you that?"

"I never said that you weren't smart Cor." Wesley laughed and I know he knew what she was saying.

"Angel I'm going to call it a night. Fred and I have plans tonight and I don't wan to keep her waiting." Wes said.

"Fred definitely should not be kept waiting. Meet me in here at 8 sharp tomorrow morning and hopefully Gunn will decide to bring his ass to work tomorrow and we can clear this up."

"I'll be here. Have a good night. You too Cordelia." Wesley said.

"Thanks Wes." She said

"Cordy said thanks. See you in the morning." As soon as Wes closed the door behind him Cordy climbed on my lap so she was facing me. She wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Baby you did everything that you could have done. Hopefully we can take care of it tomorrow and this will all be a bad dream."

"Except the part about you. You are the best thing about today, about everyday." She slowly leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. The kiss rapidly turned urgent and frantic. I easily stood up and she wrapped her legs around my waist. I broke our kiss so I could walk to my office without everyone thinking I was sleepwalking and it was pure torture keeping my lips away from her mouth while her lips gently sucked on my ear lobe. As soon as the doors to my private elevator shut my lips attacked hers. I really wanted to wait until I got to my apartment to make love to her but as her hands were unbuckling my belt, I knew that I wouldn't make it to my apartment. She pushed my pants and boxers down to my ankles. I pushed her skirt up past her hips and I impatiently ripped her underwear off of her body.

"Angel." She groaned as I pushed myself inside of her with one swift thrust. To steady myself I pushed her against the wall and placed my hands on her ass and she tightened her grip around my neck. I lost all control as I thrust myself into her ruthlessly but if the moans and whimpers that were coming out of her mouth were any indication of what she thought of my thrusting, it didn't bother her at all. She sounded like she was enjoying herself. Within minutes the elevator was filled with our screams as our orgasms powerfully overtook our bodies.

"Are you okay?" I asked her when her trembling ceased. She responded with only a nod. "Can you walk sweetheart?" She shook her head. "Okay. Hang on." I kicked my shoes off followed by my pants and boxers then with her legs still wrapped tightly around my waist I carried to my bed.

"Where are you going?" She mumbled

"I'm getting my pants and the remains of your underwear out of the elevator in case I get any visitors. If they were found I would have a hard time explaining them."

"Hurry back." I hurried to the elevator, not wanting to be away from her at all. Grabbing the clothes I walked back into my bedroom and tossed them and my shirt into the laundry basket then I climbed naked into bed beside her. I was pleasantly surprised when I wrapped my arm around her I found that she was naked too. I pulled her face to mine and I kissed her gently until she broke away to breathe.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No baby. You didn't hurt me."

"I just wanted you so bad and when I'm with you I forget how strong I can be."

"I'm fine Angel." She flashed me her beautiful big smile and I traced my finger around her lips.

"You are so beautiful." I whispered as she kissed the tip of my finger.

"I know but it's nice to hear every once in awhile."

"You're beautiful, gorgeous, adorable and sexy as hell."

"Why is sexy the last thing you mentioned? Was it an afterthought?" She asked teasingly

"I was saving the best for last."

"How do you always know the right thing to say?" I shrugged and kissed her again. This time after we broke apart she laid her head on my chest and I snaked my arm around her, pulling her close to me.

"I love you Cordelia Chase." I told her as she drew lazy circles across my chest.

"I love you too Angel."

"I can't imagine my life without you. You have been there for me through the good and bad. You have seen the worst part of me, Angelus, and you have seen the best part of me and the best part of myself only surfaces when you are here. You are my best friend Cordy and I am a better man or vampire because of you." Instead of responding she placed her arm across my chest and hugged me tightly. A few minutes later I felt her tears fall onto my bare chest.

"Cor I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I just needed you to know how I feel about you, how you make me feel. I wish to hell I would have told you before that night so we could have really had all of this." I said softly as I linked my hand with hers.

"I feel the same way. You have seen the best and worst parts of Cordelia Chase and you still love me and for the life of me I haven't figured out after all of the bad things that I have done, why I deserve to be loved by you." She whispered tearfully into my chest.

"The bad things you have done? Have you forgotten Angelus? I slaughtered thousands of people just for the fun of it and before I killed them I tortured most of them because I could. It's me who doesn't deserved to be loved by you."

"This has got to be the worst pillow talk in the history of the world." I laughed. "How about we just accept the fact that we are both extremely lucky to be in love with each other and not count our past sins. Let's just enjoy this moment because we don't know if we will get another one." I kissed the top of her head.

"I love you Cor."

"I love you too Angel."

--

"Where the hell have you been?" I roared as soon as Gunn walked into his office the next morning.

"I took a personal day." He answered

"Did you not get any of our pages or voicemails?" Wesley asked calmly.

"I did but I wasn't able to call back."

"Why not?"

"I was busy."

"BUSY?" I shouted. "What kind of bullshit answer is that? Busy is not an excuse not to return our calls."

"What the hell is the big deal? No one died." I was about to lunge at him but Cordy's firm hand on my shoulder kept me in my chair.

"We have a concern about a customs form that you signed yesterday." Wesley calmly said.

"I uhh don't know what you're talking about." I quickly shot out of my chair and came face to face with Gunn.

"Quit lying. I'm not in the mood to hear it. Now what were you doing yesterday because I know that it had something to do with that custom form that I'm looking for. Now what the hell is going on Gunn?"

"I was losing it."

"Losing what?"

"The law, human and demon, the damn musicals everything. I was losing everything that

gave me a place here." Gunn admitted.

"The custom form?"

"I went back to the doctor who gave me the upload and he told me that it was temporary. I couldn't lose it so he told me that if I signed a simple custom form he would give me the permanent upgrade so I signed the damned form and got my upgrade."

"What was it?"

"Huh?"

"What did you allow to go through customs?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"I honestly don't know. I didn't read it. I knew it was a normal custom form but I didn't read it. Why is this form so important?"

"We don't know." I snapped. "That's the problem."

"How did you find out about it?" I looked at desperately at Wesley. Besides me, he was the only one who knew the truth and lying on the spot was never a great quality of mine.

"We received word that something was going to come through customs that could cause problems for us here. We were hoping that you could tell us what it was so we could stop it from destroying us." Wesley explained.

"How did you know that I signed it?" Wesley didn't miss a beat and answered him.

"Our informant told us that one of us had signed it and you were the logical conclusion."

"I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"If anyone gets hurt you will be really sorry." I whispered.

Later that afternoon Wesley and I had exhausted all of our leads and we had come up with nothing. I was hoping that the vision was a false alarm but deep down I knew that it wasn't and Cordy quickly confirmed my deepest fears. One of my people was in trouble.

"Angel it's in the lab." Cordy said suddenly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Some kind of coffin thing. You need to get to Fred before she opens it." Wesley picked up his and called the lab.

"No answer." He said and we both took off running.

"Hurry Angel. Save her." I heard Cordy call as Wes and I exited his office.

We ran up to very long flights of stairs to the lab. Time had never moved so slow before. We burst into the lab as Fred was backing away from the coffin coughing.

"Fred." Wesley shouted as he rushed over to her.

"It's too late." Cordy sobbed in the corner.

"Come on Fred. I'm going to get you down to medical." Fred lifted her into his arms.

"Wesley I'm fine. You're overreacting." Wesley looked at me and I nodded and he rushed out of the room with Fred in his arms.

"Cordy what did you see?"

"It's too late." She sobbed. I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly as her body shook with sobs.

"Tell me what you saw sweetheart so I can save her." I begged.

"You can't save her."

"Yes I can if you just tell me what you saw."

"Fred will be dead in less than twelve hours Angel."

"There must be a way to save her life Cordy."

"There is but you won't do it and she won't want you to do it either."

"Cordelia." I was getting really tired of this cryptic shit.

"This is the sarcophagus of an ancient demon named Illyria. It was stolen from the deeper well and brought here so she could reclaim her kingdom. The demon is going to slowly destroy Fred from the inside. Her organs will liquefy so her body can become a hard shell for the demon." Cordy choked on a sob. "You could go to the well and the keeper could cast the spell to bring Illyria back to the well."

"See I know there was a way to save Fred." I said triumphantly but Cordy shook her head.

"For Illyria to be drawn back she will infect thousands of humans on the way and they will all die."

"Screw them. I lost you and I'm not losing Fred too."

"Angel think about what you're saying. Killing thousands to save one?"

"I am thinking about it Cor and that one is Fred. Winifred Burkle."

"You know damn well that she won't let you do that."

"So you want me to basically kill our friend? Is that what you are asking me to do?"

"I don't want Fred to die anymore than you do Angel but you need to think of Fred, She won't be able to live with herself if she is alive because thousands are dead."

"Cordy I can't let her die."

"Then ask her what she wants you to do. If she says screw them then fly your ass down to the well and save her but if she is willing to sacrifice herself for the world then you need to let her do it."

"God dammit." I shouted. "Why Fred? Why her?"

"I don't know." She whispered softly. I walked out of the lab and headed down to medical. Wesley was waiting outside with Gunn, who looked devastated.

"The doctors said that she will be fine." Wesley said happily.

"Wes, I need a minute alone please. Gunn can you stay with Fred?" He nodded and I led Wesley to a private room. Once we were alone I told him everything that Cordy told me.

"No there has to be another way." He said.

"I'm sorry Wes."

"We have to save Fred."

"I agree but we should give her the choice."

"I don't want to tell her that she's dying." He said softly

"She's smart, She's knows what's happening to her." Cordy said and I repeated it to Wesley who reluctantly agreed. By the time we got back to Fred she was coughing up blood.

"It's my boys." She said weakly. Cordy sobbed beside me. "It must be bad if you all are here."

"You're too smart for your own damn good." Wesley said. He sadly told Fred what Cordy had seen in her vision and no one questioned where this information had come from.

"You know what has to be done." She said softly.

"Angel go get on a plane and get to the well." Wesley said.

"I'm on it. Spike you're with me." I said,

"No." Fred said from the bed and we all froze. "Thousands of innocent people cannot die because of me. It's not worth it."

"Fred you are worth it." I said and she shook her head.

"I will not let innocent people die to save me." She said stubbornly.

"Dammit Fred." Wesley said.

"It's the right thing to do." She whispered weakly.

"I don't want to lose you." He choked out.

"Come on guys, Let's give them a minute alone." I said to Gunn, Lorne and Spike and they walked out of the room. "Wesley, Fred we'll be in the hall."

"Don't go far." Fred said.

"I won't." I promised and I left them alone.

"Poor Fredikins. It's not fair. Angel are you sure there isn't another way?" Lorne asked me.

"I'm sure Lorne."

"This is all my fault." Gunn mumbled. I slowly walked over to him.

"Just so you know you never needed to have an upgrade in your brain to be a part of my team. You always have been and always will be a part of my team with or without a brain upgrade." I told him softly. Before he could respond the door to Fred's room opened and Wes walked out.

"She's ready to say goodbye."

Thanks for reading. Please send me a review with your thoughts. Pretty please?