DISCLAIMER: All characters associated with either Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel are property of Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, etc. Any other characters in this story are purely figments of my poor imagination!! Please read, enjoy, and remember that this is just a fanfic, and although I have tried to keep events as close as possible to the actual story lines, some items or events have been changed for story telling purposes. I would also like to thank some special people who have helped loads with this storyŠ..
Nicky, Mrs.B, Dreamer, and last but not least Foxglove, who¹s hard work I totally appreciate!
Thanks! *Stars*

The year is 2002, and this story begins in Los Angeles, CA during the early morning hours….

Chapter 1 –

Angel was walking slowly back towards the Hyperion Hotel. The looming art deco building that dominated the entire block was his home and where he feels most comfortable. It wasn’t much further now.

Exhausted from another vicious fight, a hard won defeat of a terrible creature, he made his way towards home. Back to his co-workers. Friends they were, really. More importantly, he made his way back to his son.

As he walked slowly down the street, he had the nagging suspicion that someone else was there, that someone or something was following him. He stopped and looked behind him, but there was nothing there. Slowly and cautiously he continued walking. He was continually glancing from side to side, though, in order to try and see, what he could sense was still there. Whatever it was, it was familiar. He knew this person, this thing, but it was not showing itself.

She cautiously went from tree to tree, from light post to light post trying her best to view this man she once knew. To view this man, without him knowing she was there. But, she got too close and she knew it….

Suddenly, he stopped and called out loudly, "Who are you? Show yourself!"

She knew she had pushed her limits, she had tried too hard to see that angelic face that she once knew. She knew it was time to go, at least for now.

There was no answer. Suddenly, he realized he could no longer sense the being. It was gone. He was too tired from the fight to give much more thought to what had been following him. Whatever it was, it was now gone. He was thankful for that. Only a few more blocks and he would be home. Back home, he thought, and smiled.

He clambered up the steps to his room, tired and torn. He had given much strength to fighting that creature, and now was desperately in need of some sleep. He quietly walked over to check on Connor is his crib. To his great delight, his son was sleeping peacefully. Angel walked to his bed, and collapsed on it. Soon it would be daybreak, and he needed to get some rest before Connor decided it was time to get up.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 2 --

When he awoke the next day, he automatically turned to look at the clock. It was 6:30 p.m. ‘That couldn’t be right,’ he thought to himself. ‘Connor would have been up way before then.’ In an instant he was standing next to the crib. Connor wasn’t there. In his place was a beautifully handwritten note that said:


When you decide to wake up sleepy-head, Connor will be downstairs with us!

~Cordy~

He heaved a great sigh of relief, and smiled at the beautiful handwriting on the note. He decided to take a quick shower, and then head downstairs to see what the others were doing.

After showering and dressing, he made his way downstairs. When he reach the landing, he saw Cordelia setting quietly on the bench in the main hallway holding Connor. She had become such a wonderful mother figure for Connor, he thought. He didn’t believe that he could have found anyone any better, that would care so deeply for his son. The pleasant thought was quickly removed from Angel’s mind as Cordelia stood up, announcing….

"Okay guys…..vision. At the corner of 9th and Broadway, there is a …. ewwww that is just gross…."

"A what?" said Gunn, anxiously anticipating the arrival of a demon that he could take his frustrations out on.

"Oh, sorry!" said Cordelia. "There is a rather large and disgustingly green, slimy, two-headed something that is about to attack a group of homeless people staying in the abandoned building there. You need to hurry."

Excited at the news, Gunn turned to his co-workers, and said, "So watch ya all lookin’ at, lets go!" Gunn walked to the weapons cabinet grabbed the biggest baddest ax he could find, and motioned for the others to get moving. Angel grabbed a large sword and ax, and followed Wesley as the three of them made their way to the car.

She had watched him carefully as he had left the hotel with his friends. She thought she would be able to get closer to him this time since there were others around. He wouldn’t be able to pick up her presence so easily as he had before. She decided to glance quickly into one of the other’s minds to see where they were going. She dare not try his, he was a demon and he would know instantly when she tried to enter his, but she was sure that the other two were human. It would be easy to go quickly in and read one of them and get the information she needed without their knowing she was ever there.

She choose the pale skinned young man, and looked straight into his eyes. Quickly and quietly she went in….’9th and Broadway, hurry, two-headed demon…’ was what she heard and that was all she needed. She hurried off, so that she would arrive before the three of them did. She would plant herself inside of the front door. She knew he would go in first and this would give her the opportunity she needed.

Upon arriving at the corner of 9th and Broadway they saw only the building. Nothing more. Angel gave directions to the others. He would go in first, with Wes and Gunn to cover the side and back doors respectively. As each of the men opened their designated door, the same site greeted them, nothing.

And as she suspected, the door flew open, and there he stood, as handsome as he had ever been. She noticed that he appeared slightly older, but nonetheless still as stunning as she had remembered.

"Maybe we should split up and search the entire building," said Gunn. "Cordy doesn’t have visions just for fun you know."

"Good idea." said Wesley. So despite Angel’s hesitance for them to split up, the three men did just that, each taking a floor to investigate.

She wanted to stay, to watch him ever so closely, but when the three of them decided to go separate ways, she knew that she must leave. She quietly exited the building and began walking down the street, thinking about what she should do next. Now that there was no doubt she had found him, she wondered how, how was she going to approach him? Things had ended so badly between them….

In a little less than thirty minutes they had combed the entire building and found nothing. Not even a sign that a homeless person had been there, let alone a demon. "Let’s go back, maybe Cordy missed something in her vision, maybe she got the address wrong…" said Angel, knowing full well that couldn’t have been possible. The visions came from greater powers; they couldn’t have been wrong he thought to himself. With no other ideas the three of them decided that was the best thing to do, and they silently climbed into the car to drive back to the hotel.

She found her way to her favorite park bench. Though she hadn’t been here long enough to have really determined a favorite, she enjoyed the scenery from this one. There were always birds, and little squirrels running about, it made her feel at home, more at peace with herself. She sat there for what seemed like hours debating on how she should approach Angel. That was his name now, she knew that. But would he remember her? Certainly he would have to, ‘you just don’t go through those wonderful times together and then have such a horrible ending without remembering any of it’ she thought to herself. She sat on the bench quietly replaying those lovely moments over and over again in her head. But she suddenly remembered why she sought him out in the first place and the streams of terror grew great within her. She must act quickly, or everything would be in jeopardy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 3 --

Arriving at the hotel, Angel, Wes and Gunn slowly walked into the lobby, heads hung low as if they had been defeated. Cordelia looked up as they entered, immediately animated.

"Did you kill it?" asked Cordelia excitedly.

"Kill what exactly?" said Gunn with a bit of resentment in his voice. He looked less than thrilled at the moment.

"You know, the two-headed demon thingy in my vision." said Cordelia. Puzzled, she looked at Angel for an explanation.

"There wasn’t anything there." Angel murmured, trying to sound diplomatic about the situation. "Are you sure you saw everything? The street address, was it right, are you sure?" asked Angel.

"I’m sure, I’ve never gotten that sort of thing wrong before." insisted Cordelia, standing there looking incredibly confused and increasingly frustrated. She just couldn’t understand what had happened.

"Since we don’t know what happened, and it would likely be very difficult to find out, I suggest that we just go about our business for now and wait for Cordelia to have another vision. In the mean time I will see if I can find some information on the demon that she saw." said Wesley calmly.

"I think I’m going to go back to the building and have another look around. We had to have missed something." Angel murmured.

"Good idea, keep looking!" said Cordelia, still not understanding what had went wrong. She didn’t like her vision reporting being questioned. Gunn was about to tell Angel that he would join in the search, but before he could speak the words a softer and more eloquent voice suddenly stepped in and distracted him.

"I’ll go fix us some dinner, it’s getting late and no one has eaten yet." Fred offered, smiling shyly at them. Gunn just looked at Fred and smiled. "I’ll help!" said Gunn, and off to the kitchen they went.

Without another word to anyone, Angel walked out the door and headed to his car. Within moments, driving in a way no one mortal would dream of, he had reached his destination. Parking the car and getting out, he glanced up at the building. Corner of 9th and Broadway, ‘no mistaking that’ he thought as he read the green street signs which towered high above the pavement. This was the right place, he knew Cordy wasn’t wrong about that.

Angel opened the door to find things exactly as they had been earlier. Nothing was different but he was determined to find something, some clue as to what Cordelia had seen. He knew her well and her attention to detail was extreme. Whether it be his crooked tie when they all got dressed up for a night out, or the street name in a vision, it just wasn’t possible for Cordy to have gotten anything wrong. "Look harder, feel it…" Angel told himself over and over in a quiet whisper as he paced the floor back and forth. He finally stopped and stood in the center of the first floor room and closed his eyes, hoping that somehow, depending not on what he saw with his eyes but what he felt would make the difference. It worked. Suddenly he opened his eyes. He felt something… but what? He looked around the room, but could see nothing.

After thinking on the situation and realizing the urgency with which she must act, she went looking for him. She had decided to go back to his hotel, thinking maybe she would be able to catch him alone there. When she arrived she saw him speeding off in his long, black car. She debated her next move for a moment, then realized this might be the opportunity she had sought. She decided to follow him. Maybe he would go some place quiet where she would be able to approach him. Recognizing where he was headed, she pursed her lips, confused as to his actions. ‘Back to that building again?’ she thought to herself, but she followed him in anyway. She watched him quietly for a few minutes, as he paced the floor back and forth, apparently waiting for something or someone. She decided she would show herself and tell Angel everything, but she hesitated just long enough, and then she saw it, standing behind him. For a moment she just froze, utterly unable to move. Realizing in a horrible second that Angel didn’t see it, didn’t even know it was there! The terror that she had felt before suddenly came rushing back. It was ‘Bangola,’ and he was going to kill Angel to get to her. There was only one choice for her to make….

There was that feeling again. The same one he’d had the night before, as he had returned home. He sensed something around him, a presence of some sort. It was definitely something familiar, yet at the same time there was something else, something evil. He glanced from side to side and finally with a growl coming from deep within his chest he shouted to all the shadows in the room…. "Show yourself, NOW!"

He was utterly unprepared for the sight that now greeted him. She had just appeared, suddenly as though she’d been there the whole time and he just couldn’t see her. He tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t come. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity he breathed one word.

"Liz?" he whispered the word, as though anything louder would wake him from what he was now sure was a dream. He closed his eyes for a moment, and reluctantly opened them again. And miraculously, the beautiful figure, the face that he had tried so hard to forget so long ago, was still there standing before him. She raced towards him and the moment he touched her hand they were gone, gone from the building, gone from reality, but where was he? He couldn’t see nor hear anything, yet he knew he had moved but he could still feel her hand in his…. ‘What was this?’ Angel thought to himself, then suddenly he knew. He remembered doing this before, just once. Long ago. But the moment was never spoken of after, and despite his incessant questioning, she had refused to tell him what had happened. ‘Would she tell me this time?’, ‘Why was she here?’ ‘After what had happened, why would she come to me?’, and suddenly he knew all of his questions would be answered. Still the thoughts swarmed in his mind. He felt comforted knowing that she would not only explain what had just happened, but that there would be many other things to speak of as well.

In a flash, it was all gone. The world had come rushing back to him quickly, and he realized where he was, back in his bedroom at the hotel. She was standing next to him. He glanced at her quickly and began to speak but before he could get a sound out she raised her hand. He stopped. The look on her face was plaintive. Demure, apologetic almost. It looked wrong on her.

"I realize that I’m probably the last person that you want to see right now, but" she began. Instantly Angel tried to interrupt her but the look in her eyes stopped him. She laughed a little, shrugged her shoulders. The laugh was one of resignation, "I need your help." she said.

"But why me? I can’t understand why you would want to see me, after the things that happened, I just thought…." Angel’s sentence trailed off.

"Well," said Liz, "You aren’t exactly the person that I’d like to spend my time with right now, but unfortunately for me, you are the only one who can help me." She looked away again. Clearly this situation made her uncomfortable. The utter surrealness of it overwhelmed both of them.

Suddenly, there were noises from outside his room. The door flew open, and in marched Fred and Cordelia carrying Connor in her arms. The look on their face sent a very clear message to Angel. They looked pissed. He sighed….He had some heavy explaining to do.

"Connor needs to be changed." said Cordelia sternly. "I guess I’ll just get what I need and we’ll all go back downstairs." The look she shot at Angel was perfectly clear, in case the cutting tone wasn’t getting the point across. He swallowed, the confusion and awkwardness of everything was draining his energy. He reached out and put his hand on Cordelia’s arm.

"No, wait…uhhh…..it’s a long story, and maybe we should all go downstairs." said Angel. Cordelia paused. The look on her face continued to speak volumes. Angel could see her sizing up this new girl. It didn’t appear that she liked what she saw. She pulled her arm away and rolled her eyes.

Liz turned to him suddenly and said, "I don’t think you should get these nice people involved in this. This is way beyond the comprehension of a mere mortal." That was of course the absolutely worst thing to say in front of Cordelia, with the possible exception of implying there was something wrong with her hair. Angel knew he had to diffuse the situation, quickly. It was gonna get ugly otherwise. Before Cordelia had the chance to say a word, Angel grabbed her by the arm and motioned for everyone to follow him.

As Angel and his contingent of women marched down the stairs, Wesley and Gunn emerged from the office with looks of bewilderment on their faces.

"Who is she?" asked Gunn.

"Someone who doesn’t think that Angel should involve us mere mortals in whatever this…..fashion hazard has going on!" spat Cordelia as she stared at Liz. By this time Fred had decided that her best bet was to take poor Connor, who was now caught in the crossfire of words from Cordelia and the mumblings of Angel, and stay out of the way. Although, to be honest, she wasn’t sure where ‘out of the way’ was going to be because everywhere she went, the argument seemed to follow.

Curious himself as to who this woman was, Wesley stepped up, cleared his throat and said, "uhhhrrrrmmm…. can we please do this in a civilized manner?" He turned to address Liz. "I know you are apparently concerned for our welfare madame, but I assure you, we are all quite capable of handling your problem. We deal with things you might be unable to handle on a regular basis." Quite pleased with his remark, Wesley stepped back, smiled and waited for a response.

Liz took a deep breath and began. Somehow this encounter had already gone quite wrong and she didn’t want it to get any worse. "I’m sure each one of you are quite capable in your own right, but what I am dealing with is very dangerous and I don't want to get anyone hurt or killed." After seeing Cordelia’s eyes shoot furious glares of death in Liz’s direction, Angel decided he better suck it up speak up or they weren’t going to have to wait on some big evil to come kill them. There would be one pissed off half demon who would be more than happy to send sparks his direction.

"Liz, it’s okay, what ever needs to be discussed with me should be discussed with my friends as well." said Angel.

"You know…… maybe before we hear what she wants, maybe we should know who she is!" said Cordelia as she stood arms crossed glaring at Angel. She could not believe the nerve of this girl. And the fact that Angel still had not explained her presence unnerved her even more.

"That really isn’t that important." said Angel, feeling quite anxious at the question. As soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew by the look on Cordelia’s face that he had blown it.

"Oh, but I think it is VERY important that we know all that there is to know about her and why she needs YOUR help!" said Cordelia, glaring once more, this time straight at Angel. He knew that this would be a losing battle and he’d just better fess up before anything else happened. Looking at the scene playing out in front of her, Liz felt a little bad that she hadn’t done much to dissuade any wrong ideas or assumptions. She really didn’t want to cause problems for Angel and his friends. She decided to remedy that, hoping it would smooth things over.

"Maybe I should be the one to explain, if it is really that important to you. There are a lot of things that Angel just doesn’t know." said Liz.

"Fine." said Cordelia, "I don’t care who gives the grim details, just give them."

Everyone found a place to sit and Liz began, "My name is Elizabeth Connors, and Angel and I were childhood friends. Our parents owned property next to each other. We were only small children when we met, I think I was about 7 and Angel would have been about 9." Liz looked at Angel in a way he hadn’t seen from her for decades.

"So you are old, like as old as Angel?" said Cordelia.

"Let her finish." said Angel, and Liz continued.

"We became fast friends and on each Sunday afternoon during the summer months after we returned from the service at the local church, we would run off to the brook which ran through both of our lands. I always brought some bread and fruit, and we would have such fun, talking and telling stories…." Liz smiled as she reminisced.

"Okay, enough of the sweet stuff, get on with it! Not all of us are immortal, I actually will grow old, I don’t have time for this to drag on and on.." Cordelia spouted off. Looking appropriately chagrined, Liz continued to speak.

"So anyway, when we entered our teenage years, the thoughts of marrying and settling down grew more and more. It just seem so natural. We began falling in love." said Liz.

Angel looked at Cordelia to see what her reaction was to that statement was, but he already knew. The look on her face was exactly what he had known it would be. He didn’t even have to look.

"And?" said Cordelia. Liz was clearly a little more uncomfortable now and Cordelia wasn’t about to let up. Everyone just listened, interested as to where this was all going.

"And before the eve of my 17th birthday, in the dark of night, my parents tore me out of bed and we left Ireland. I thought I would never see my dear Liam again."

"Who is Liam?" asked Cordelia in a puzzled yet annoyed voice. She had officially decided not to even try to pretend with this chick.

"Liam was my given name." said Angel quietly.

"Oh." Was the unanimous sound from everyone.


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