See Part One for disclaimer and details. Welcome to the latest chapter of the fic! Thanks to everyone who's gotten in touch - and wow! There was a record number of responses to the last chapter, we definitely weren't expecting that. Plus people seemed to either love it or hate it, and we honestly weren't expecting such a polarising effect. Still, review junkies that we are, we're not complaining! Please keep those reviews and PMs coming, seriously. Anyway, enough about all that; let's get on with -
Part Eight: Maybe Something In You Sees Something Special In Me
Wolfram & Hart building, Los Angeles
January 26th, 2004
Eve was, quite frankly, having one hell of a panic attack right now.
Her spy at the hospital had told her that Ethan Rayne hadn't succeeded in waking up that never-to-be-sufficiently-damned maggot, Harris; that Angel's Seer had had some sort of vision about what Rayne was up to, and rushed in to stop him. The mole wasn't sure exactly what had happened after that – all he knew was that there had been some sort of eye-searing explosion of white light in the hospital room: and, afterwards, Rayne was nowhere to be found, and Harris was still in his coma.
{ That precognitive half-demon bitch probably vaporized that stupid, dying bastard. And while normally I'd just say 'good riddance', Rayne's fuck-up now means it'll be impossible to get someone else in there, in order to finish the job. If I know him, Angel will have put armed guards outside Harris's room as well as all over the hospital, in order to protect his gods-be-damned little whore, } Eve fumed. { Damn it, what else can go wrong? }
Eve really should have known better than to jinx herself that way; because at that exact moment, Lindsey was sucked upwards into that portal in Angel's office, and her 'extra-curricular activities' were no longer safely hidden from the minds of her creators.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Eve was running out of the Wolfram & Hart building to hide in Lindsey's apartment – which was protected by the same runic symbols that had previously hidden her boyfriend from supernatural and electronic detection – her immortal life in ruins, and with a huge target now painted on her back.
Somewhere underneath Los Angeles
The same time
For a moment, the dark chamber was silent until a ritual chanting began. Nine voices said as one, "Of the world's woe, now convene. All is bound by the Circle and its thorns. Invisible, inviolate, we, the seeds of the storm, at the center of the world's woe, now convene."
Even though it wasn't exactly common knowledge, the Circle of the Black Thorn had been created after the Senior Partners had been driven out of the mortal plane; along with the surviving pure demons known as the Old Ones. The members of the Circle, the self-fashioned Black Thorns, were charged with the task of being the driving force behind Wolfram & Hart's apocalyptic plans and maintaining 'man's inhumanity to man'. All so that the Senior Partners could eventually return and, one day, seize control openly.
All nine members of the Circle – Cyvus Vail, the demon Archduke Sebassis, Senator Helen Brucker, the Grand Potentate of the Fell Brethren named Ed, the leader of the Sahrvin demon clan, Izzerial the Devil, as well as three other human-looking men – had gathered here this evening. And once the chanting was over and the meeting had officially begun, Vail stared at the other eight members of the Circle sitting around the table. "The sleeper has awoken," he wheezed painfully.
"You're sure about that?" Izzerial asked, wanting direct confirmation that Cordelia was now awake.
"Yes," Vail rasped, panting loudly. "Angel's Seer has been seen awake, aware and ambulatory. Even though all that was never supposed to happen."
"I must admit, I am curious as to how this has come about," Sebassis mused, taking a short sip of blood that had been extracted from his blindfolded slave. He stared at Vail, adding, "Especially since you assured us that we had nothing to worry about, where that woman was concerned."
Brucker suddenly looked angry. "I didn't claw my way out of Hell and into a human body, just to miss out on getting control of the White House – if something goes wrong with our plans concerning that little slut!"
Sebassis immediately glared at her, from his position at the head of the table. "Remember your place, Senator."
"My place is in the Circle, Archduke," Brucker replied at once, showing no signs of weakness or fear. There were no weaklings within this secret society, after all, even if Sebassis was the first amongst equals and all the other members of the Circle were afraid of him to some degree.
"This bickering amongst ourselves is pointless," the Sahrvin demon leader said in annoyance.
"Agreed. What can you tell us about why the plan concerning the Seer has been disrupted?" one of the human-looking members of the Circle demanded from Cyvus.
"There was interference from an unexpected source," Vail replied, still wheezing like a human with emphysema. "A human who directly petitioned the Powers for help to save the Seer, and sacrificed himself to take the woman's place."
"A human did that?" Ed of the Fell Brethren demanded in disbelief.
"So, who exactly was this particular individual?" another of the human-looking members of the Circle asked.
"He is known by various titles. The Prophecy Breaker. The Chaos Bringer. The One Who Sees Everything. The Defender of Mankind, even," Vail rasped.
"Ah. Isn't he the one who got around that inevitable prophecy within the Pergamum Codex, six or seven years ago?" Izzerial said, looking around the table.
"Not to mention, the one who prevented that mad witch from destroying this world eighteen months ago?" Ed subsequently asked.
"He sounds like a troublemaker to me," Senator Brucker sniffed disdainfully.
"Agreed. Why hasn't he been assassinated yet?" the Sahrvin demon leader demanded.
"After what he did concerning Angel's Seer, it was considered unwise to draw the personal attention of the Powers That Be by interfering with him directly." Cyvus exhaled noisily, not knowing of Eve's clumsy attempts to 'fix' the situation.
"Does anyone here wish to dispute that judgment?" the Archduke asked, looking around the table. And fortunately for Xander's longevity prospects, no one did.
"Personally, I'm more concerned about the mother of that renegade Power – that Cordelia Chase woman," Senator Brucker stared at Cyvus meaningfully.
"Why?" the third human-looking member of the Black Thorn commented, looking at Brucker curiously.
"Need I point out the obvious? She should never have woken up, and we were caught flat-footed with that whole 'Jasmine' mess, remember?" Helen said scathingly.
"True. But even so, that particular higher being is gone now, and her mother's threat potential is limited. Seer or not, augmented or not – she is only one woman, after all," Sebassis said, before taking another sip of that blue blood from his champagne flute.
"So, what about Angel? With his Seer awakened, what's to keep him from slipping his leash and becoming a problem again?" Ed demanded.
"His son, Connor," Cyvus growled, before drawing in a loud, wet-sounding breath. "The vampire knows that he has to behave, if he doesn't want his boy to remember who and what he really is."
If only he'd known that Whistler was standing not five feet away, listening in on the Circle's conversation but unable to seen or perceived in any way, the demon warlock wouldn't have been quite so sure about that.
CEO office, Wolfram & Hart building
A while later
The sun had finally come up, and for the rest of Los Angeles, it was a fairly bright and sunny Monday morning. All over the city people were getting up, having breakfast, walking the dog, shaving or showering or whatever other mundane thing the human masses did, after the weekend was over.
But not so Angel. He was brooding in his office, having spent an uncomfortable night alone in his penthouse suite, after everyone else had left the building last night.
The undead CEO still wasn't entirely sure what was going on around here, to be honest. First, Lindsey had shown up, dragged into his office by Spike and Faith of all people, before the lawyer had been – well, 'abducted' was probably the best word for it, by the Senior Partners. Then, when Angel had started looking for Eve to demand answers regarding what the Wolf, Ram and Hart were up to, he had found out that she had vanished completely. As in, without a trace.
Angel hadn't gotten to where he was today without refusing to believe in coincidence. He had quickly suspected that Eve and Lindsey had been in cahoots together all along, planning something – and now that McDonald had been exposed, she had run for it, to avoid both his wrath and that of the Senior Partners. { Well, never mind. They'll probably just send someone else to replace her, quicker than you can say 'evil liaison'. It'll just take me a while to housetrain the new guy, that's all. }
The intercom buzzed, and Angel picked up the phone. "Yeah, Harmony, what is it?" He ignored the fact that the soulless blonde was still working here, at least for now; there were higher priorities at the moment than finding himself a new secretary, after all.
Angel listened for a moment and then said hurriedly, "Well, show them in!" He put down the receiver and came out from behind his desk as Fred and Cordelia came in. He said with a big smile, "Fred, Cordy, I'm glad you're both here-"
"I quit," Fred cut him off sternly, her eyes gazing deeply into the vampire's. "I just thought, seeing as how I owe you my life several times over, both here and in Pylea, I'd do you the courtesy of informing you of that in person. Instead of with a resignation letter, or whatever."
"You're, you're leaving?" Angel's jaw dropped open before he quickly shut it again. "But, but I thought you were staying, in order to-"
"Fred can't help Xander recover from the coma any sooner than it takes for him to wake up on his own," Cordelia said tiredly. "He told me last night not to let anyone try to do something like that, anyway."
"He did? Uh...but if Xander's still in a coma, then how...?" Angel now looked very confused.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay here, all by yourself?" Fred asked Cordelia solicitously, ignoring the vampire completely.
"Positive, Fred. Now go on, shoo," Cordy told her Texan friend with a weary-looking smile.
"All right. I'll be packing my stuff and clearing out my office; wait for me down by the front doors of this place, if I'm not finished by the time you're done in here." Fred hesitated, and then looked back at the ensouled vampire. "Goodbye, Angel." She then turned around and left the office without another word.
"She's never going to forgive me for doing what I had to do with regards to that spell, is she?" Angel asked semi-rhetorically.
"I don't know. I don't know if I could, if I was in her or Wesley's shoes," Cordelia said in reply.
Angel focused his attention back on the woman he loved. Her eyes – there was something different about them. Nothing physical, but – Angel had walked the Earth for three centuries, and he had seen that look in the eyes of other human beings before. Mostly in the elderly – who had lived for so many decades that they already had one foot in the grave, to use the old saying. "Cordelia? What's wrong? What's happened to you?"
"What's happened to me?" Cordelia snorted, before concentrating on her vampire friend. "I've lived an entire freaking lifetime while I was inside Xander's head, that's what's happened to me."
Angel didn't get that at all. "Huh?"
Cordelia exhaled, and quickly described what had happened last night. Ethan Rayne, her vision in the hospital corridor, the British wizard's efforts to wake Xander up, her interrupting his attempt to do so, the conversation with Xander's subconscious inside the man's mind, the various aspects of his psyche that had been caged up for her protection – everything that had happened, just about.
"Wow. That's just – I mean, you really – and then you – uh, wow," Angel repeated himself, still trying to process all of that. "And, seriously, Xander's subconscious exists in the shape of a woman? More than one, even?"
"Not all the time. I guess he's just more in touch with his feminine side than most other guys," Cordelia shrugged, seeming to consider that part of it as irrelevant.
Angel suddenly seemed to realize something. "Uh, why did you wait until now to tell me about all this? I'd have set up guards in that hospital, to make sure no one tried to do that to you again! I'd have-"
"Angel? Please shut up, and listen to me," Cordelia interrupted him softly. "Because all the people who work here, apart from Gunn and Lorne? They answer to the Senior Partners before they answer to you. And do you honestly think that that Ethan guy wasn't hired by someone who works right here, in this building? Angel, do you seriously expect me to entrust Xander's safety – and by extension, my own – to anyone in possession of a sub-machinegun, and who's employed by this evil nest of snakes?"
{ Ouch. } "So what's the alternative?" Angel asked slowly.
"Wes and Faith have already yanked Xander out of that hospital, of course. Weird as it sounds, I think that Little Miss Former Psycho volunteering herself to become Xander's personal bodyguard is probably the best option available – for now, anyway. And personally, I just came here to ask you if Faith and I could move into the Hyperion for a while. Because I don't have my apartment anymore, Faith's house is in Cleveland, and I can't think of any better place to live in and take care of my ex-boyfriend than there," Cordelia said, fairly slowly.
"The hotel is yours for as long as you want, you don't even need to ask," Angel said quickly, and Cordelia nodded, looking grateful. "But what I can do to help? I mean, until Xander wakes up, you're in danger-"
"Oh, geez – did everything I just said go in one ear, and then straight out the other? Come on, Angel!" Cordelia interrupted him firmly, her voice suddenly becoming a lot more animated. "What were you planning to do, put a S.W.A.T. team in place to keep watch on the hotel? Fine – but what if one of your toy soldiers has secret orders from the Senior Partners to assassinate the rest of his team, and then finish the job that that Ethan guy started? Don't you get it? Aren't you listening to me? Anything and anyone with Wolfram & Hart, it. Can't. Be. Trusted! What is it gonna take to make you understand that?"
Angel recoiled from the vehemence in her tone. "So what are you saying, that I can't trusted as well?"
"Urrggghhh!" Cordy looked like she wanted to bang her head against the nearest wall of the office. "Men! Swear to God, you're all the same. Angel, let me put this as simply as I can. You're my friend, and I trust you. But you're...well, I don't wanna say 'compromised', but-"
"That's the best word that fits, at least in your mind," Angel interrupted. "And like I said before, you've changed. You weren't like this the other day; you may have been upset about what I did regarding Connor and that memory spell, but you still would have trusted me enough to believe that I knew what I was doing where your safety's concerned. Why the big change, Cordelia? Is it just because I wasn't able to prevent that sorcerer from nearly putting you back into a coma?"
"No, it's not that." The Seer shook her head sadly and said, "Angel – do you remember what you said about that Jasmine thing the other day, after that Whistler guy showed up? How we were all manipulated, right from the start? That our lives over the years, just about everything we did – that was all part of its big master plan? I'm betting you don't know just how right you were, when you said that. But I do. And so does Xander."
Angel's mind somehow made the connection. "What you said before, living an entire lifetime while you were in Xander's mind. You mean...?"
"If it hadn't been for him cheating on me with Willow, we'd have never broken up – and the dork and I woulda been married and expecting our first child by now," Cordelia told him firmly, which made the ensouled vampire want to cringe in horror. "I saw it all, Angel. Xander and I got out of Sunnydale, we built careers and lives for ourselves until death did us part – and most importantly, we didn't spend every moment of every freaking day fighting and bleeding and slowly dying for the cause. It was everything I ever wanted, whenever I thought about what the future held for us in high school! And to think, it was all taken away from me – from us – just so that I'd end up being your Vision Girl, and dead before my twenty-fourth birthday!"
{ No. No, I don't believe it. No way, that's just completely ridiculous! } Angel couldn't force himself to accept as true what Cordelia had said – it simply wasn't in his nature to do so. And he had to ask it, even if he doubted she believed she was in error. "Uh, are you sure you couldn't have been..." He trailed off, suddenly mindful of the woman's temper just now.
"Mistaken?" The Seer asked him with an upraised eyebrow. "I sure as hell don't think so. Because that wasn't the only memory I experienced, while I was inside Xander's head."
"There's more?!" Angel asked, flabbergasted.
"Yeah. Do you remember those trials Whistler mentioned? The ones that Lame Boy had to undergo before he could beg the Powers to save my life, somehow?" Cordelia asked in a hollow tone of voice. "I saw and felt all that, too, Angel! Every single moment of it. Especially when Xander thought he'd have to die to pass that final test in order to save me, and he told that Jeeves guy to go ahead and kill him – if that was what it took." She shook her head. "Really makes a girl think, when a guy's willing to do something like that for her – and he isn't even wondering about trying to get her back, y'know?"
Angel did know – he had never forgotten his own Trials in order to save Darla from the syphilitic heart condition which had been killing her, as a human – and at that moment, he understood (or thought he understood) why Cordelia was being so protective of her high school boyfriend. Harris now represented something truly meaningful to her – something which she could point at and say, 'see, my life hasn't been a complete waste of time!'
Angel also believed Cordelia was being incredibly over-emotional right now, what with everything that had happened over the past two days, and thinking thoughts about Harris that were patently ludicrous. But everything would settle down again soon, and go back to what it had been before. It had to; because he had been part of Cordelia's life for nearly half a decade, whereas Xander hadn't...
It never occurred to Angel that the past four and a half years might no longer compare favorably to the twelve years before that, within the young woman's mind; or that when Cordelia had rejected him in that hospital room, 'no' had meant no instead of 'maybe' or 'ask me again later'. Plus, self-deception was not a trait limited only to the males of the human species –
Thus, conveniently forgetting about the lethal implications of Cordelia giving him a moment of perfect happiness, Angel thought he just had to be patient and make sure not to alienate his seer completely; which meant that right now, whatever she wanted – especially where Xander was concerned – she got. No questions asked.
"So, uh, you and Faith will be moving back into the hotel. With Xander. We've settled that, right? But, uh, what are you gonna do for money?" Angel asked tentatively, before holding up his arms in surrender. "Not wanting to get you all angry about it, but you gotta know that taking proper care of a coma victim isn't gonna be cheap, right? And, uh, I can help there, if you want it."
"Thanks for the offer – but I don't think that'll be necessary," Cordelia said, shaking her head. "If I know Buffy and Willow, they'll get Giles to send Faith all the money we'll need. But even if they don't, I wasn't exactly planning on just sitting around the hotel and reading Cosmo and Marie Claire all day! I'll find some way to support myself. Whether that involves working with the Council, or something else, I'll figure something out."
Angel automatically opened his mouth to say that she didn't have to do that, he could easily provide whatever she needed – but luckily for him, his brain-to-mouth filter kicked in, just in the nick of time. "So, uh, where are Buffy and Willow? I haven't seen them since last night."
Cordelia looked surprised. "You haven't heard? They're gone."
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Angel asked with an astonished look on his face. "Wait, you don't mean...?"
"Huh? OH! No, you moron, they're not 'dead' gone; they're just 'left the city' gone," Cordelia said, briefly looking exasperated. "Faith told me how they got an emergency call from England. Buffy had to go back to Europe to help deal with some kinda situation in Romania, and Willow had to hightail it back to South America; apparently someone in the know recognized her on the streets, and was spreading the news all over the place. They asked me to say sorry on how they couldn't say goodbye to you in person – well, Buffy did, anyway. Willow just sorta grunted, with a look of disgust on her face."
{ Yeah, that doesn't exactly surprise me much, } Angel thought glumly to himself. He then went over to his desk, and opened a drawer. Grabbing a set of keys, he gave them to Cordelia and said, "The keys to the hotel. That's where all your stuff's been kept in storage, by the way. And call me if there's anything that needs to be taken care of with the old girl, okay?"
"You mean, like me and Faith paying rent while we're staying there?"
Angel stared at Cordelia in shock. "What? NO! I never...I mean, I didn't give you the impression that I was expecting...did I? Because I'm not! I-"
"I was just kidding, geez! Seriously, Angel, chill out – okay?" Cordelia sent him a weak version of her toothpaste commercial megawatt smile, but at least she did smile. At him. "I'll see you around." She gave the Irish-born vampire a quick peck on the cheek, before turning around and leaving.
It took everything Angel had not to run after her, take Cordelia in his arms and kiss her like there was no tomorrow. Beg her to be with him, the way he yearned for with all his heart and soul, now and forever after. Still, somehow he managed to do it, knowing that right now the Seer would just refuse and break his heart all over again.
Which totally, royally, sucked.
A place where nothing need be what it seems
A while later
Finding herself lying on her back on top of a picnic blanket, Cordelia blinked, opened her eyes and sat up, looking around at the woods-y wilderness.
Trying to remember what happened, the Seer recalled arriving at the Hyperion with Fred, Wesley, Faith and Xander's comatose body, unlocking the front doors and fondly thinking 'home, sweet home' as everyone entered the premises and she guided the gurney into the lobby. There had followed a brief discussion on what to do next, like hiring a registered nurse to look after Xander properly and cleaning up the hotel a bit to make it livable once more. Wesley had then confessed about Giles' offer to work for the Council again, and Fred had wondered if they could also use a physicist-slash-demon fighter like her, before Faith had mentioned that she'd need to negotiate for a decent salary first...
Cordelia shook the memories away. { How the hell did I get here, wherever 'here' is? }
"Hey," a familiar male voice said, as Xander smiled and plopped down next to her on the blanket.
"XANDER?!" Cordelia exclaimed, her eyes suddenly as wide as saucers. "But, but you're – I mean, how...?"
"You figure it out, sweetheart," Harris smiled at her. The one-eyed man then started unpacking the plastic grocery bag full of food that he had brought with him. "Here you go, tuna and turkey sandwiches made by my mom; they were supposed to be for the relatives, but everyone usually gets drunk before she gets around to actually serving food, so it was pretty safe grabbing them for you."
"Wait, your mom? But Willow said that she and your dad have, like, disappeared..." Then she suddenly figured it out. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"
"Yep. Knew you could do it! This was your favorite day in Sunnydale, apparently," the dream version of Xander said as he passed her a sandwich. "Everything just went...right. You got along okay with your parents, your friends acted civil to you during cheerleader practice, you never crossed paths with Buffy or Willow or Giles, no demons or monsters jumped out to attack you, and I, Xander Harris, was unable to focus on absolutely anything except you," he said with a chuckle. "When we were alone out here in the woods, we weren't even kissing – and yet, I was looking at you like you were my...everything. A girl tends to remember that sort of thing."
"I guess. And hey, yeah, I remember that day now! It was shortly after the whole swim team Fish Monster thing," Cordelia nodded, as she accepted a juice box from him. "You're right, I was real happy that day; geez, this is one of the few truly good memories of Sunnydale that I have. And I have to admit, once I heard that the whole damn town had vanished into the ground? I wanted to celebrate the fact that it was finally dead and gone!"
"I know," 'Xander' said, leaning in slightly. "Because not only did you end up truly hating the place, Sunnydale just wasn't for you. You were always destined for greater things than hanging around in a one-Starbucks town like that. About the only thing you should have done different, before you left that damned hellhole behind you, is hit the real me over the head, drag my ass onto that bus and then sit on me, all the way to Los Angeles..."
"Eww, and get my clothes all smelly and wrinkled? As if!" Cordelia scrunched up her nose in distaste, which made 'Xander' laugh. "Still, you're right. And what the hell, it might have happened that way – if we hadn't had that huge fight, just before we parted company during your lameass road trip. Skip's doing, you think?"
"Who knows?" 'Xander' shrugged. "It might have been – or it might not, either. I'm pretty sure that evil demon thing wasn't responsible for every fight you and your boyfriend had, especially after you got impaled by that rebar. And that's because you're Cordelia Chase, and you don't take shit like that from anybody. Not the real me, not Angel, not Wes or Groo or even Doyle. Huh – kinda funny how you constantly fell for the dumb ones that way, isn't it?"
"Yeah, very funny, ha-ha. Freakin' hilarious," Cordelia made a face as her dream companion chuckled again. "God damn it, when I think of all the time we wasted..."
"Wasted?" 'Xander' raised an eyebrow, something Cordelia recognized as a move she'd practiced countless times in the mirror – to immediately put an unruly Cordette or an ugly freshman back in her place, something which had happened a lot during this point in her life. "Now, you do know that old saying about making assumptions, don't you? Because the real me didn't spend all those years after high school, waiting for you to arrive from L.A. and take him back. He found someone else; that Anya girl he mentioned in his letters, and who Willow told you about during her phone calls over the years. And sure, he fucked up by leaving the evil fairy godmother at the altar; but you heard from Faith how much he grieved for that girl, after the Hellmouth finally went ker-blooey. So what makes you assume you can take her place, just like that?"
"Damn it, I'm not assuming that! I'm not! I know it's not gonna be as simple as 'hey, you saved my life! Now let's get back together!' – because I'm not that dumb," Cordelia glared at the guy. "But I'm Cordelia Chase, damn it all to hell. Whenever I make up my mind that I want something, I go after it and get it!"
"And you've made up your mind that you want the real me, rather than Angel?" 'Xander' asked her. "I mean, was Willow right? Do you still have feelings for your high school boyfriend?"
Cordelia hesitated before saying, "I think so, yeah. And don't get me wrong, Angel's a Champion and a freaking gorgeous guy – I mean, different circumstances? I could and would have fallen for him big-time, and done whatever I had to so that we could have had a future together. But not now. Not after everything I learned, while I was inside the real Xander's head..."
"You're thinking that maybe, just maybe, it's not too late for Jesse and Joyce to be born?" 'Xander' asked. "That you can get back at least part of the semi-perfect life Jasmine and Skip stole from you? Again, sweetheart, that thing about assumptions..."
"I know, damn it! I fucking know!" Cordelia swore. "We're totally different people now, and I know it won't turn out like in the vision that African witch doctor cooked up. But I sure as hell intend, by all that's pure and good, to try to bring about the happily-ever-after that was stolen from Xander and me! And God help anyone who tries to get in my way!"
'Xander' leaned forward again, and for a moment, Cordy thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, an unfamiliar voice came out of this mouth, saying, "Miss Chase? Please, wake up! Miss Chase?"
Cordelia blinked as the world momentarily went black, and then she found herself laying on the main couch within the Hyperion's lobby. She blinked again, staring up at Andrew's concerned face. "Huh? Wha – who are you?"
Andrew straightened up, and dug a pipe out of one of his jacket pockets. "I'm Andrew Wells, my good woman. Special operative of the Council of Watchers of Great Britain. I'm here to meet with my hopefully soon-to-be colleague, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. And check out the situation with my former colleague, Alexander LaVelle Harris." He then stuck the pipe and lit it, coughing slightly as the tobacco entered his lungs. "If you would be so kind to assist me in these matters?"
"Oh, ye gods. The Earth is so totally doomed," Cordelia groaned, letting her head fall back onto the couch's pillow with a big thud.
TBC...