"Looks like our company left," Angel said, finding Lorne, Wes, and Gunn in the lobby area.
"And not soon enough," Lorne muttered.
"One Ethan Esoterra," Wesley replied, handing Angel the business card.
"Looking for a missing fiancee presumably kidnapped by business rivals," Gunn said.
"Yeah right," Angel said.
"He wants to find her quietly without the cops in order not to upset so-called rivals," Gunn continued.
"Do you think she was really engaged to him?" Wesley said, "We did find an engagement ring in her things."
"Girl like her running from a guy like that would have sold the ring for money," Gunn said, "Not haul it around as a keep sake."
"I guess that makes sense," Wesley said, "But she did have a fiancee at one point."
"Well let's see what we can find out about him," Angel said, "Maybe we can ensure he leaves our new friend alone and reunite her with anyone that maybe looking for her."
"Hold on a second, I know you're usually all gung ho to help helpless," Lorne said, "But you're going to have to change your approach. Her problem is strictly of the human variety and it needs to stay that way. Anything you do beyond helping her heal from her injuries and keep moving on will have dire ramifications."
"That's has to be ridiculous," Wesley said, "You mean to tell me we're just supposed to let this rich pervert continuing stalking her and possibly hurt her."
"No, we let her heal and send her on her way," Lorne said, "Hopefully, towards people equipped to deal with the human variety of evil."
"So the cops should deal with him," Gunn said.
"Apparently, that has never been effective," Cordelia said, joining them, "According to our trigger happy guest, this guy has connections to get any charges dropped or the cops look the other way or something."
"So she finally started to talk?" Angel asked.
"Not much," Cordelia said, "This Ethan guy held her for three days in a cabin and raped her. It sounds like he tried again when he found her the first time and the cops weren't helpful."
"This is just messed up," Wesley said.
"If the cops can't help her," Angel said, "I'm sure we can scare this Ethan creep into leaving her alone. Use the whole we are the things that go bump in the night to our advantage."
"I'm going to have to nix that one too," Lorne said, "We cannot interfere with her problem anymore than we already have. If her life becomes too connected to ours, it will alter her destiny and unleash things in the human world that will have unspeakable consequences."
"I think we might need more information, Lorne," Wesley said, "As long as the girl is in our care, we want to make sure we don't trigger that unfortunate outcome."
"Are we talking the apocalypse kind of consequence?" Angel asked, "Or unleashing some psycho demon on the world?"
"She hasn't sung so the details aren't clear on her exact destiny," Lorne said, "All I can tell you is that I get a Godfather or Sopranos type feeling about her future."
"So like she's going to what run the mafia?" Angel asked.
"Makes sense," Cordelia said as everyone looked at her, "What? You can't tell me you weren't thinking it after she held us all at gunpoint."
" I don't know why, but if she doesn't fulfill that destiny, it's bad for everybody," Lorne said, "There's some deranged uncles that if they fill that role instead of her and eventually Wolfram and Hart enter the mix. I shouldn't have said that, not sure she has a clue about any uncles."
"So you know something about her family," Angel said, "Maybe we could find them and they could help her."
"Did you miss the part where I said deranged uncles?" Lorne said, "and Wolfram and Hart."
"But if she's got uncles, what about a dad or mom?" Gunn asked.
"Mom's dead," Cordelia said, "At least that what she told me. She did not offer up any other details on the rest of her family when I asked."
"So we find her dad then," Angel said.
"If our little Nightingale wanted to find him, she could," Lorne said, "All we can do is let her leave to go wherever she wants to go."
"She's not totally alone," Cordelia said, "So why is she running around and not asking for help?"
"She has her reasons," Lorne said as Cordelia glared at him, "It's a complicated situation. One that she ultimately has to work out on her own. We cannot interfere. Now I have some place I need to be. Can I trust you to do as I instructed with regards to our little Nightingale?"
Lorne wasn't convinced by the half hearted grumbles of quasi agreement.
"Hey I'm serious, no loopholes, no workaround, nothing," Lorne said, "Am I going to have to babysit you? What part of don't do what you would normally do you not understand?"
"So if her Big Bad shows up?" Gunn replied, "What are we supposed to do just let her…"
"Of course don't let him hurt her," Lorne shook his head, "Just refrain from any obviously supernatural means and let her decide what she wants to next about him. In the meantime, let her rest. I'll be back later. Don't do anything well stupid…"
Lorne walked off.
"If we do as you say," Wesley yelled after him, "Will her stalker cease to be problem at some point?"
Lorne stopped and replied, "Yes, her destiny extends beyond his. How or why that happens I couldn't tell you."
Lorne then continued to leave.
"So what now?" Gunn asked.
"We do exactly as Lorne said," Wesley replied.
"Wait, you can't be serious?" Angel said, "You were just questioning Lorne about not stopping this Ethan creep."
"At first, I was shocked at what Lorne said," Wesley said, "But we did ask him here for answers regarding Miss Kellie. He gave them with some rather explicit warnings. I ultimately think we'd be remiss if we did not heed his counsel."
"There has to be something we can do," Cordelia said.
"As it stands any mortal means of helping rely on her willingness to do so," Wesley said, "Beyond healing from her injuries and hiding her from this Ethan, she's not showing any indication she wants our help."
"We don't have enough answers or information to figure out who she is," Angel said, "Even if we can find out anything on this Ethan or her, it's anything that's already happened."
"And in places where he likely has connections to keep her from any kind of justice though the courts," Gunn replied.
"Well, then we're just going to have to convince to her be more forth coming," Cordelia said, "Then we can nudge her towards what she should do next speed it up."
Cordelia started to leave.
"I don't think we can speed up her destiny," Wesley said.
"I'm going with my first instinct," Cordelia said, "Nail polish, girl talk, wine if she's old enough to drink. Make that sparkling cider with the pain killers."