Lindsey's hand froze on the door handle, loosening its grip on it as he hesitated. He'd intended to hit the road and leave L.A. behind, because he had every reason to do so. He was sick of this city anyway, and especially wanted to put as much distance between himself and Wolfram & Hart as possible. There was so much spilled blood and bad memories that he'd more than had his fill of. He should leave right this second and speed away as fast as he could get away with.

So why wasn't he?

He could practically feel Angel behind him, watching him expectantly. The damn vampire had a powerful aura; maybe it was a side effect from all the brooding he did when he was alone. Cursing himself inwardly, Lindsey turned back towards Angel. Angel was frowning at him.

"Uh, forget something?" Angel asked.

"Yeah...kind of." Lindsey clenched his hand into a fist, certain he'd feel more at ease punching something right now than standing and talking with Angel. But maybe that was just the evil hand talking. "I was just thinking…" Lindsey began. "Maybe I can wait a little bit. Just for tonight."

"Oh?" Angel crossed his arms, appraising him.

Lindsey sighed. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him or why he was even talking to Angel. He could be headed to Caritas right now. "I could stand to let off some steam. Maybe do some carousing."

"Where are you planning on going?"

"Maybe...maybe Caritas. Maybe to listen to the karaoke, ...grab a drink. I could use some company, though,"

"Some company?" Angel's eyes bore into Lindsey's, scrutinizing him.

Lindsey swallowed, strangely intimidated by Angel. Despite all the animosity between them, there were traces of concern lingering in the depths of his dark brown eyes. The last time that Angel had looked at him like that had been long before he'd lost his hand. When Lindsey had been itching for an escape route from Wolfram & Hart.

"I mean, technically I won't be alone," Lindsey said. "Lorne will be there. Maybe I'll chat someone up if they seem lonely."

"Hm," Angel said. Most people would mistake his response for not caring, but Lindsey could tell that he was deep in thought.

"What?"

"It's just... I could use a drink." Silence stretched between them, awkward but not wholly unpleasant. Lindsey realized Angel was waiting for him to respond. Lindsey felt like his tongue was tied as he wasn't sure what to say. He wanted to tell him he wanted his company, but he felt a little shy all of a sudden.

And yet..., he couldn't quite forget how compassionate Angel had been when he had tried to help him in the past.

"Right." Lindsey laughed nervously. "Well, you can tag along if you have nothing better to do. No crimes to solve. People to save. Dishes to wash."

Angel put on a show as though he was weighing his options. His lip curled up at the corner. "Eh, maybe I can put aside the dirty dishes for one night. Since you're being so nice."

Lindsey rolled his eyes, slightly uncomfortable with the friendly ribbing. Not even just because Angel normally had the sense of humor of a shoe. Maybe he just couldn't allow himself to laugh in front of the guy. It was just too much ...like he was saying he was okay with everything.

But he was also craving company. It wasn't that Darla hadn't provided that for him because she had; maybe something was missing from that experience, though. But that made him wonder, if Angel—someone who tended to rub him the wrong way- was at all the right person to go to for that puzzle piece.

"Whatever. Let's hop in my truck and get going," Lindsey said, as Angel walked towards the passenger side and they both entered got in the vehicle.

It was a slow night at Caritas. Lorne had greeted them eagerly as they'd entered the establishment and sat them at a table near the stage. Lindsey had been itching to sing just a little earlier, but now that they were here, he felt like he'd much prefer to just talk.

Angel sat across from Lindsey and two mostly empty margaritas with a small bowl of half-eaten fries sat on the table between them. They'd been engaging in small talk, about Carita's and Lorne and Angel had even expressed concern for his friend Cordelia, who'd been having increasingly intense reactions to her visions. After discussing that for a bit, they grew silent. Angel's eyes were boring holes into Lindsey's, like he was thinking something but was waiting for Lindsey to ask him about it.

Lindsey ground his teeth together, irritated by Angel's staring. "What is it?"

"I'm glad," Angel said, looking as stony-faced as ever despite his declaration.

"Could have fooled me," Lindsey muttered. "And you're happy because…?"

"You leaving that hellhole. Wolfram & Hart. Better late than never, right?" There was something in the way that Angel looked..., like he had more to say on that matter. Probably not as positive.

"Right…" Lindsey said, grudgingly. " And…?"

"And I'm thinking, if you'd left sooner, you'd never have lost your hand." Angel took a sip of his margarita as though to punctuate his statement with an 'I told you so'.

Lindsey scowled, before looking towards the stage, seeing Lorne talking to a demon. "Oh, so you're going to rub that in my face, huh? How was I supposed to know you'd slice it off without a second thought? Am I a psychic?" He tapped his fingers against the tabletop, irritable and not enjoying this choice of topic.

"I'm just saying," Angel said, holding his hands up in surrender as Lindsey looked back to him. "You shouldn't waste your energy on blaming me."

"What do you want me to do? Stop and reflect on my life? Feel bad that I was stupid and... and... I don't know. I don't know what you want to hear. I've learned my lesson. Paid for the surgery. And now I'm just done. Done and sitting with you, being lectured. All I wanted was a drink."

"You don't have to be done," Angel said softly. "You can always start again. In Oklahoma, right?"

"Yes," Lindsey hissed, stopping his table tapping to shoot Angel a glare. "Oklahoma."

"Just... don't come back here," Angel said. "I think that would be for the best."

Lindsey scowled reflexively, not knowing what to say to that. He didn't want to show that Angel's concern for him was softening him just the slightest bit... making him a little grateful for someone who actually cared about his future.

He noticed Angel's eyes had lowered to his hand; his eyes could have pierced his flesh with the intensity of his stare.

Lindsey's scowl dissipated, and he chuckled despite himself. "Relax, Angel. Evil hand is empty handed. No stake lying on my lap either. At least not for now."

The tension in Angel's face melted away, but he shot Lindsey a look. "Hey, you can't be too careful."

"No, you can't. You've learned that the hard way, haven't you?" Lindsey said as he swirled the dregs of his margarita with his straw. "What with Darla and Dru and all." Once the words had left his mouth, seeing the look on Angel's face, he felt some satisfaction. But there were other feelings there as well, ones that were unexpected.

Softer feelings.

"Is Darla with you? How is she?" Angel was going for the casual approach. Probably not comfortable with exposing much remorse for what he'd done. Or perhaps just not inclined to show much emotion in general. You never knew, with Angel.

"She's not with me anymore. Moved out. But she was about as chipper as one can be after being lit like a goddamn torch."

Angel averted his eyes and frowned. "It was for the best at the time."

"Right. Of course," Lindsey said. "You're not the type of guy to mess with when he's angry, that's for sure. You've definitely got a screw or two loose. And you're not even soulless."

"A screw loose, huh…" Angel mumbled, looking deep in thought.

"Well, isn't that the case?" Lindsey said, eyes darkening. He still remembered the aftercare that those burns required. Darla had cried so much from the pain and discomfort, for a while she couldn't sleep because of it. Sometimes she couldn't sleep out of fear of Angel showing up out of nowhere with gasoline and a box of matches. "What you did wasn't normal. It was very extreme."

"I know that." Angel looked tense as Lindsey dredged up unpleasant memories for them both.

"You could have just killed them," Lindsey muttered. "But you didn't."

"I didn't," Angel repeated.

"Why?"

Angel pursed his lips as he took a long sip of his margarita. Leaning back, he sighed. "I don't know. I just...couldn't for some reason."

Lindsey nodded as he accepted Angel's reasoning. He didn't know what else to say to that, anyway. He saw a demon walking by wearing a cowboy hat and smiled a little. "I can't wait to see my folks when I get back home. Oklahoma is a whole other vibe compared to LA. Yee-haw state. A lot of country, not so much to do or see there. Demons and vampires are probably nicer there, too."

"Sounds dull. Is that what you like?"

"Yeah…" A nostalgic smile spread on Lindsey's face, as he was mentally transported to his family's farm in Norman. "It's too homey for me not to like it. And there's not a lot of noise or traffic. It's peaceful."

"Hm," Angel said.

"You'd like it, I'd think. Being the quiet sort and all." Lindsey couldn't help but be surprised that Angel seemed to prefer the busy city over a small town.

"I'm not that quiet," Angel said defensively. "I just don't like jabbering if I don't have anything worth saying." He paused. "And I like to listen."

"And I like that in a person," Lindsey blurted out. Angel looked surprised by the admission, so much so that he reached for his drink and took a sip. Probably as an excuse to be silent and not thank Lindsey.

Lindsey cleared his throat, embarrassed. "I mean, I've been told that I yammer on and on and on... That could just be part of the job description, though. We lawyers just love the sound of our voices."

He could have sworn he heard Angel mutter something like "Especially when you're behind a mic, right?", but he chose to ignore it.

"You probably think lawyers are soulless, like most people do. Not that I blame them entirely. The criticisms aren't unwarranted." Lindsey watched Angel take a sip of his drink. "But the job was tailor made to be the way it is. There's no getting around the drawbacks. The guilt you feel. Although over time, it hurts less."

Angel raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I don't think lawyers are evil. Just Wolfram & Hart."

"Your friend called me evil."

Angel's lip quirked upward. "Is she wrong?"

Lindsey bristled, slightly offended. Of course he wasn't going to call himself evil. He never felt that way about anything he'd done. Sure, he'd made some selfish decisions, but who hadn't? He knew Angel wasn't a saint. "I don't know," he muttered. "All I know is I've had a hard life and with that came hard decisions."

"No one's life is easy," Angel said in that infuriating, all-knowing way that he sometimes did. It made Lindsey grit his teeth.

"Yeah, well, it could end up being easy if you work hard enough."

Angel was quiet, and Lindsey was grateful that the subject was put to rest. The vampire at least had enough sense to not pursue anything that might provoke him. He watched as Angel took a sip of his drink and looked around him.

Lindsey looked at his margarita, ran a thumb along its rim. He wondered if Angel was bored of him. But then he realized that was just how Angel looked most of the time. Maybe he had been alive too long.

"I don't... I don't totally blame you," Lindsey said, concentrating on the margarita. "For Darla and Dru. I mean, you were wrong for how you went about doing it, but the feeling behind it—that I can understand."

"Really?" Angel sounded surprised.

"Yes. You did it out of compassion, as sick as that sounds. You were tormented at the thought of Darla turning so soon after returning as a human." Lindsey raised his eyes to look at Angel. "And you hated seeing her lose her humanity. Plus, they were on a murder spree."

Angel stared at him in disbelief. There were a few seconds of tension between them as he looked deep in thought. "She's still healing, right?" he asked. "They both are. From the burns."

"Yeah. Still healing. Third degree burns. Not so fun. Or pretty."

"And you think it's okay that I did that to them." Angel looked at Lindsey like he couldn't believe what he was saying. He looked conflicted, like this was the first time he'd thought about what he'd done since he'd done it.

"I'm not saying it's okay. I'm just saying it's... understandable."

"I didn't expect you to sympathize," Angel said quietly. His head was lowered and he was fiddling with the bottom of his glass.

"People can surprise you," Lindsey said, just as he reached for his margarita and poured its contents down the front of Angel's shirt. He stared at his hand and dropped the glass to the floor in surprise, shattering it.

"Hey!" Angel groaned as he stood up and snatched a bunch of napkins from the dispenser. He began wiping at his shirt with them. It wasn't a lot of margarita that had spilled on him, but it was enough to leave an impression.

"Sorry," Lindsey said as he held up his hand. "Evil hand, remember?" He felt a bit bad as he unconsciously played with his hand, flapping it around as though that might help him regain control. Still what he'd done was mildly amusing. He wondered if there was some small, old part of him that had influenced the hand somehow.

Angel scowled as he placed the dirtied napkins on the table. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Lindsey grinned, unable to resist goading Angel at the prodding. "Well, I'm not totally opposed to it. But maybe the evil is starting to dwindle. If it was really evil, it would have poured the drink over your head. Or down your pants."

Angel shook his head and chuckled. He started to sit down, but looked hesitant. He was warily eyeing Lindsey's hand.

Lindsey sighed as he took hold of his evil hand with his other hand. He wasn't quite sure if that would take care of the issue, but he figured it might at least help a little. "You can sit down, Angel. I've got a grip on it."

Angel shot him a skeptical look before he relented and sat down. They heard Lorne announce someone going on stage to sing a song and they both looked towards the stage. It was a female demon with blue skin and large horns. As the demon began singing, Angel turned back to Lindsey but cast his eyes downward.

Lindsey smiled at the woman, who was singing the song beautifully. Her voice was so smooth and easy on the ears. "Nothing beats ending a night like this. She's pretty good. A lot of people who come here are, surprisingly."

"Hm," Angel replied.

"I love when people come up to me afterward, telling me they liked my singing or guitar playing. It's a nice little bonus. Work doesn't feel anywhere near that great."

Angel cleared his throat and Lindsey looked at him. Angel's eyes were darting around the room.

"What?" Lindsey asked.

"Nothing," Angel said, not looking Lindsey in the eye. "I mean, it's just...… well, singing on that stage is pretty hard. If you're not born with that skill. And some people - most people can't hold a note to save their life. Everyone's eyes are on you, waiting for you to screw up. You want to focus on knowing the future, but all you can think about is if people are gonna la—" Angel cleared his throat again. "It's hard, okay? It's really hard."

Lindsey stared at him uncomprehending for a moment, before realization hit him. He laughed in disbelief. "No way."

"W-What?"

"You sang on that stage? Mr. Stiffer Than a Corpse?"

"Technically I am a corpse," Angel said a tad defensively. "And I might have. Yeah. So what?"

"So what? So I gotta see this. You have to get up on that stage and sing right now." Lindsey had to see Angel make a fool of himself on that stage. It would make his night if he did. The memory of it would be seared into his head forever, seeing Angel butcher whatever song he chose to sing.

"Yeah, no. I'm not doing that."

"Come on. Don't you want Lorne to see your future?"

Angel frowned. "Not really," he said, but Lindsey could tell he didn't mean it.

"If you do it, I'll... I'll do something for you."

'Oh yeah? Like what?"

"I don't know. I'll think of something."

Angel scowled as he looked at the stage and at Lorne who was talking to a demon near it. "I'm not going up there so you can make fun of me."

"Alright, fine," Lindsey said with a sigh. Angel was probably right. It would be hard to resist teasing him afterward. He just didn't have it in him to not say something about how bad Angel probably was.

Once they were done with their drinks and Lindsey had finished the fries, they decided to leave Carita's. As they said goodbye to Lorne and stepped out, Lindsey took one last lingering look at the bar.

He was going to miss it.

As soon as they stepped outside they saw a scuffle happening near a parallel parked car. A woman was resisting against a demon who had her pinned against a car and looked like he was forcing himself on her.

"Get off me," the woman gasped as she tried wriggling herself out of his grasp. "I said, no!"

"That's not what it looked like to me," the demon said as he peppered her face with kisses. "I know you want it, baby. I can see it in your eyes."

Lindsey and Angel glanced at one another for just a second before rushing towards the woman and the demon.

Angel took hold of the demon's shoulder and yanked him backwards. The demon looked stunned as he stared at him and Lindsey. "The hell do you two want? She's mine, I'm not sharing."

Lindsey felt irritation bubble up within him, not liking the way this demon was thinking. "She doesn't want you, pal. How about you scram and go get your rocks off by yourself somewhere."

The demon smirked as the woman gaped at them, and was adjusting her hair and clothes. "How about you make me," he goaded.

"With pleasure," Angel said as he punched the demon in the face, making him stumble backwards and take hold of his jaw. Lindsey followed up by punching him in the stomach, making the demon double over and cough.

Once he managed to catch his breath, he scrambled away from them, muttering something about them being pansies. After he was gone, they helped the woman up.

"Thank you," she said as she looked from Angel to Lindsey. She smiled gratefully. "Bad date," she said with a laugh.

"I hear ya," Lindsey said. "Just be careful from now on."

"Do you need anything else?" Angel asked.

"No, I'm good now. Thank you, both of you."

As the woman got into her car, they started walking back to Lindsey's truck. Their walk was mostly quiet, but it was a pleasant sort of quiet and not an awkward one. Lindsey's mood had partially soured because of that demon's inability to keep it in his pants, but helping that woman had felt good. Really good. He'd never really done anything like that before. In the past, he tended to not get involved, but something made him want to take action for once.

As they got in the car and Lindsey started it, he could feel Angel's eyes on him. As he reversed and made his way out of the parking lot, he sighed. "What is it?"

Angel was quiet for a moment. "It's going to be boring here without you."

Lindsey kept his eyes on the road. "So I guess we'll both be bored, then. Me in Oklahoma and you, here." He tried not to read too much into what Angel was saying; ...how it made him realize that, in a funny way, he'd miss Angel as well. Maybe he was just a sucker for pain.

"You're not the only one…" Angel said suddenly. "...who's a little evil. You shouldn't forget that."

"What do you mean?" Lindsey frowned, distracted by Angel's words.

He could practically feel the tension vibrating off of Angel in the seat beside him.

"You know what I mean. I never can be truly good. Not as long as I'm still capable of happiness."

"You really are the most uplifting guy, aren't you, Angel?"

"I'm just letting you know. That anyone can be corrupted. Whether it's from external or internal forces. I just hope you make better decisions in the future."

"You think I haven't thought about that? If I was the exact same person, I would have let the guy in that tank go on living, instead of having mercy on him."

"I know. That's why I'm telling you to not forget what you did back there. Not to forget that there's still hope for you, Lindsey."

Lindsey scoffed, although he hated to admit that Angel was getting through to him. He was stirring uncomfortable emotions in him, making him regret past choices. He didn't like feeling this way, it made him want to take a shower and wash away the feelings.

"I'll keep that in mind," Lindsey said.

When Lindsey finally made it back to Angel's car, ready to drop him off, he found that he was a little disappointed that their night had already come to an end. He'd had a good time and liked their heart to heart in the car. Although he did hate that Angel was burrowing his way beneath his defenses,. C charming him with his aloof, yet caring nature.

As they stood across from one another on the street once more, Lindsey saw that Angel was smiling a little. For Angel, that was the equivalent of a grin, though.

The silence stretched just a little too long, like many of the silences they'd endured that evening. "Well," Lindsey said awkwardly. "I guess this is goodbye, then." Lindsey's hand shook a little at his side before he thrust it forward, for Angel to shake. He tried smiling amiably, but was certain it looked like a grimace instead. Angel looked surprised, making Lindsey's face heat up in embarrassment – even this gesture felt far too friendly for sworn enemies. At least that was what they had been not too long ago.

Angel reached forward, taking Lindsey's hand in his own, shaking it. At the last second, Lindsey felt something weird in his hand, like it was being tickled. He whipped his hand backward and stared at his palm.

He looked at Angel, whose eyes were smiling in amusement. He held his hand up. "Evil hand," he said.

"Right," Lindsey said, laughing a little and looking awkwardly at his own hand. "Well, I... I better get going then."

"Don't drive too fast," Angel said, smiling gently. "Cops can be jerks."

After Angel had left, Lindsey walked back to his truck and sat in it for just a few seconds, smiling to himself. He felt strangely good, like he'd been reinvigorated. He never would have expected to spend so much time with Angel without lashing out at him, but it wasn't an unpleasant experience. It was interesting to say the least. Angel himself was definitely interesting. A hard vampire to read. But he felt like he'd grown somewhat closer to breaking down his barriers.

As Lindsey drove away, he felt even better about leaving L.A. behind. Leaving his past behind.

Leaving Angel behind.