Pairing: Angel/Cordy (sort of)
Spoilers: Through Angel, season 4, Rain of Fire, and what I've heard might happen.
Summary: The day after.
Notes: I *really* hated what happened in that ep! ** indicate emphasis.
Feedback: It's ALL about the feedback (and naked Spike)! Don't make me beg, it's not pretty.
E-mail: spikedluv@midtel.net
Distribution: The Seduction of Spike, and The BatPack Archives. If anybody else wants it, please take it, just let me know.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just borrowing them for awhile. Everything belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Grr Argh, the WB, UPN and whoever else they really belong to, although I wouldn't mind having a Spike of my own. Who would? The story is mine, though.
Thanks: Amanda, beta and grasshopper extraordinaire.
****************
When Cordelia Chase walked into the Hyperion Hotel the morning after
she saw the arc of fire shooting into the sky, the morning after she saw
the balls of fire raining down on the city, the morning after she slept
with Connor, she found Angel sitting in the chair behind her desk. Her
old desk. He wasn't working, he was staring off into the distance, probably
brooding, which wasn't unusual for Angel. But he hadn't noticed her presence
yet, and that was unusual.
"Angel?" she called his name softly, not wanting to startle him.
Angel slowly turned his head and looked at her.
"Cordy. What do you want?" he asked.
"I...I thought I could help," she replied.
"Help?" he asked, confused.
"Yes, with Angel Investigations, you know, we help the hopeless, and with whatever is going on out there," she waved her hand to indicate the outside world.
"That's...very big of you," Angel said, looking away from her, "but we don't need your help. Why don't you go back and *help* Connor."
"Hello, vision girl!" Cordy responded.
"Call us, if you get a vision," he replied without looking at her.
"Angel...!"
"And don't call me that," he turned brown eyes on her, and Cordy swallowed hard.
"Wh-why not?" she asked.
"Because that's not who you see," he rose to his feet and took a step toward her. She didn't move, but he saw her flinch. "You only see the monster now," he walked to the staircase. "So, call me Angelus."
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"It's been a long night," he said. "I need to get some sleep." He paused with one foot on the bottom step. "Go back to Connor. He can obviously give you what you need."
"Angel...,"
Golden eyes flashed at her. "Don't call me that!"
"Wh-what did you mean, about Connor?" she asked.
Angel paused halfway up the staircase. "Did you enjoy sleeping with my son, Cordelia?" he asked without looking at her, and continued up the stairs.
"I didn't...I wasn't...Wh-uh-h-how did you know?" she asked, her breaths suddenly hard and ragged.
"I saw you," he said, and he was gone.
Cordelia just stood there, her hand on her throat, tears in her eyes. She'd never meant...
"What're you doin' here?"
She whirled around to see Gunn and Fred standing in the doorway.
"I-I came to help," she said.
"Did ya now?" Gunn crossed his arms over his chest. "What was that all about?" he inclined his head toward the staircase.
"Wh-what do you mean?" she asked.
"About Connor," Gunn said.
"That's really none of your business," Cordy said.
"It makes the big guy act like that," he pointed toward the stairs, "it's my business."
Cordelia said nothing, but blushed under his scrutiny.
"Did you really sleep with Connor?" Fred asked, and she blushed.
"Oh, my god," Gunn said, with a look of disgust on his face. "Tell me you didn't sleep with Connor!"
"Charles," Fred placed her hand on his arm in a placating gesture, and Gunn shook it off.
"Tell me!" When Cordy didn't answer, he just shook his head. "How could you do that, man? That-that's...disgusting!" he concluded. "Just last year you were changing his diapers! You called yourself his mother! And not six months ago, he trapped his father in a coffin and dumped him in the ocean! We looked for the two of you all summer! While Connor sat right here," he indicated the lobby, "and told us he didn't know anything. And then Angel was crazy with worry for you when he got back! And you sleep with Connor? How could you do that?"
"I was so sure you loved Angel," Fred's voice was soft and low, as if she were talking to herself.
"I did, do, love Angel, I just can't be with him," Cordy replied, tearfully.
"Why is that?" Gunn asked.
"Because," she began, "because when I was...gone...I saw everything he did...as Angelus."
"You already knew about Angelus. You got to see him first hand. Several times," Gunn said.
"This was different. I didn't just *see* it, I lived it, I felt their pain, and I felt how much he enjoyed...doing those things to them," she shuddered.
"How do you know those...things you saw, were even real?" Gunn asked.
"What do you mean? I got my memory back, and that was part of it."
"Yeah, awfully convenient, you ask me. I mean, you come back and don't remember any of us, then Lorne reads you and whatever he sees freaks him out, and then you miraculously get your memory back, and you have memories of living through Angelus's reign of terror, that about sum it up?" Gunn asked.
"Yeah," Cordy cautiously agreed.
"How do you know that the big, bad, evil thing you been seeing didn't plant those memories?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked again.
"Why would the higher beings want to show you that?" Fred asked.
"I don't know," Cordy said. "Does it really matter who gave me the memories?"
"It does if they did it to sow discord and dissension," Gunn replied.
"That's not what happened!" Cordy insisted.
"You don't know that," Gunn said. "So, what, you're just giving up on him?"
"No, I'm not giving up! I want to help! That's why I'm here. I just can't...be with him," she tried to explain.
"Maybe Angel was right," he said.
"About what?" Cordy asked.
"Maybe you should go on back to Connor. At least you two have something in common. You both only see the monster."
"That's not fair," Cordy said.
***
"Angel," she called softly.
"Cordy?" Angel opened his eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Not anymore," she sat down on the side of his bed and brushed her fingers over his face.
Angel sat up and grabbed her hand. "What are you doing?"
"I'm sorry, Angel," she leaned forward and gently kissed him. "I'm sorry I doubted you. I'm sorry I hurt you. I love you. I need you. Please don't push me away," she kissed him again.
Angel framed her face with his hands, then slid one hand into her hair, the other down her back, and pressed her to him.
"I love you, Angel," she whispered. "I forgive you."
The figure of Cordelia Chase stepped away from the bed and looked down at the sleeping vampire on the bed. She tilted her head back and laughed, and morphed into Buffy.
"You should have known I'd be back for you," she said, "it's...,
"...all about power," Drusilla said, "and who has it."
"Now, I've got it," the Master said. "Welcome back, Angelus."
***
Cordy was sitting at her desk when Angel came downstairs, wearing leather pants and a velvet maroon top.
"Angel!" she said, surprised. "I-I thought you were going to sleep."
"Sleeping's overrated," he smirked at her.
"Are those leather pants?" Fred asked from the hallway leading to the kitchen. Gunn appeared behind her.
"Hey, Angel, man," he greeted him.
"Gunn, Fred," he looked them over. "My, aren't you a tasty little morsel," he grinned at Fred, who blushed, then paled. "But you'll have to wait. I need to thank Cordelia, first," he continued to walk toward her.
"F-for what?" Cordy pushed her chair back and got up, backing away from Angel. "Angel, what are you doing?"
"Angel's not here anymore. Soulboy took a powder. And I have you to thank," he reached his hand out as he approached her. "So come on over here and let me do it properly," he morphed into vamp face, and Cordy couldn't hold back the scream.
"You felt it," he said. "You know how much I'm enjoying this, the scent of your fear," he breathed in deeply. "How much I'm going to enjoy tasting you, killing you. Yeah, it's good to be back!"
"Don't move," he looked back at Gunn, who was attempting to sneak away and grab a weapon. "Or I'll tear her throat out before you get two steps," he pointed at Fred, who let out a little squeak of fear. "God, that smells so *good*!" Angelus cried out.
Angelus continued stalking Cordelia, until he had her backed up behind the reception counter. Suddenly the front door opened and Wesley came stumbling in.
"God, it's horrible out there...What's going on?" he asked.
Angelus turned toward Wesley, vamp face in place, and growled.
"Jesus, Cordelia, you slept with him?" Wesley yelled.
"No!" Cordy yelled back. "You think I wanted this?"
"No," Angelus agreed with her, "she didn't sleep with soulboy. Wouldn't have him. 'Cause she could only see me," he smiled at her, and let his human mask return. "But she did sleep with Connor," he added.
"What?" Wesley cried.
"Is that really important right now?" Cordy asked, pushing herself into the corner.
"No," Wesley pulled up the crossbow that he'd been holding behind his back and shot it at Angelus. The bolt hit him in the shoulder and pinned him to the wall behind him. "Get out of there!" he yelled as he quickly fired a second bolt and pinned Angelus's other shoulder.
Cordy jumped up onto the counter and swung her legs over it. Fred and Gunn rushed toward the front door. Angelus pulled the first bolt out of his shoulder, and saw Cordelia getting away. He pulled his other shoulder away from the wall and lunged toward her.
Cordelia screamed as his fingers touched her back. Then she was on the floor on the other side of the counter, racing for the door. Angelus bounded over the counter.
"Don't move," Wesley said, "because next time, I won't aim for your shoulder."
Angelus froze in place. "Don't you want to know how Cordelia brought me back?" he asked, his face a mask of angelic innocence.
"I thought you said you didn't sleep with him?" Wesley accused.
"I didn't!" she said.
"Yeah, just with Connor," Gunn muttered.
"Do we need to do this now?" she said between gritted teeth.
"How?" Wesley asked.
"Do we really need to know?" Fred asked. "Can't we just, like, leave?"
"The information might be useful, if we want to get his soul back," Wesley replied.
"Can't we just find an orb and do the spell, you know, someplace safe?" she suggested.
"And where would that be?" Wesley asked.
Angelus just laughed maniacally, as he pulled the other bolt out of his shoulder.
"She forgave him," he said, tossing the bolt to the floor, then laughed again, until bloody tears ran down his face. "Oh, hell, it was priceless! And it was only a *dream*!" he laughed once more. "He dreamt that you forgave him," he looked at Cordelia, "and had a moment of true happiness."
Cordelia made a noise deep in her throat, then turned and ran out the door, into the sunlight.
"Thank you, Cordelia!" Angelus yelled after her. He watched as the others backed out of the hotel, then looked down at his ruined shirt. "Damn, I really loved this shirt," he shook his head, then jumped up on the counter, and laid down, one foot on the counter, knee bent, the other swinging over the side. "Gonna thank you properly, when I see you next, sweet Cordelia. Now, where would they run off to? Wesley's? Gunn's?"
He jumped off of the counter and headed for the weapons room en route
to the sewer entrance. "Well, I'll just have to go find them. No good deed
goes unpunished, after all."