Strange Place to Live:
Holy Matrimony
by Cynamin

"And I can’t feel
Much hope for anything
If I won’t be there
To catch you if you fall"
~Something’s Always Wrong
Toad the Wet Sprocket

Buffy and Angel drove up to the address Buffy’s father had given them shortly before noon. It was a tall office building, and neither of them said anything as they got out of the car and entered. Buffy was nervous. She hadn’t seen her father in a long time now. When she’d called him to say she was getting married, that had been nerve wracking enough. If forces of evil couldn’t stop her from getting married, then her father wouldn’t either, but it was still important to both Buffy and Angel that he approve of their wedding.

So today they had arranged to meet for lunch while Buffy and Angel were in town. Buffy was going shopping for bridal gowns, Cordelia having promised to show her all the finest shops, and Angel wanted to get some things he’d left in his L.A. apartment. First, however, there was the lunch with Buffy’s father.

Buffy approached the reception desk a bit nervously. "Hello," she said, "I’m here to see Hank Summers?"

The woman behind the desk looked at her with a serious expression. "And you are?" she asked.

"I’m-" Buffy began.

"My daughter," said a voice behind them.

"Dad!" Buffy turned around to find her father right behind her.

"Buffy," he said, giving her a small hug. "It’s been a while."

"It’s good to see you, too," Buffy said with a smile. Stepping back, Buffy noticed Angel standing somewhat awkwardly by the reception desk. "Dad," Buffy said, gesturing for Angel to approach, "this is Angel. Angel, this is my dad."

The two of them shook hands seriously for a moment. "It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Summers," Angel said.

"The pleasure’s mine," Buffy’s father replied. They let go of each other’s hands and there was an uncomfortable moment of silence. "Well," Mr. Summers said finally, "I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m starving. How about we continue this somewhere nicer than the lobby?"

"Sounds good to me," Buffy replied with a grin, and the three of them made their way back out of the building.

The lunch at least started as a tense affair. Aside from her mother, no one in Buffy’s family had met Angel prior to their engagement. Not having spent much time in his daughter’s life in recent years, Hank Summers had been more than a little surprised when she announced she was getting married. Angel and Mr. Summers tried to get to know each other during lunch, but circumstances made that difficult. So much of Buffy’s and Angel’s relationship was tied up in her secret Slayer identity. There was only so much she could tell her father without mentioning vampires. She and Angel had come up with a story to explain what they could, but somehow Buffy felt that her father knew they weren’t telling him the complete truth. As the meal ended Mr. Summers did something surprising. "What are you doing after this?" he turned to Buffy and asked.

Buffy glanced at Angel for a second, then replied, "Angel’s going to get some things he left in his apartment, and I’m meeting a friend to go shopping for my dress." She looked at her father curiously. "Why?"

"If you don’t mind the company, I’d like to go with you."

Buffy looked at him in surprise. "You mean that?" It went unspoken, but Buffy finally felt her father’s approval. After a moment, she frowned. "What about work?"

"They’ll get along without me," Mr. Summers said. "I haven’t been part of your life much lately, and I’ll only get to be part of your wedding once."

Business was obviously closed. Angel stood on the sidewalk, looking at the small office. A discolored spot near the door showed where a sign had hung. The curtains were closed as they had always been, so he could not see inside, but he knew everything in the office had been cleared out. Cordelia had told him that she and Doyle had closed up shop as soon as they knew he wasn’t returning. She’d finally gotten an acting job at the same time, and still helped people occasionally, though in more mundane ways than before. Doyle had gone somewhere, presumably, but she didn’t know where.

The building didn’t have any new tenants yet. The office had been packed up, but Cordelia said that most of Angel’s stuff he’d left was still there. It was only a matter of time before everything was gotten rid of, however, and there were a couple of things he wanted. Opening the door, Angel entered the permanently darkened interior.

It was strange entering the office from the bright light of day outside. Oddly, the place looked almost exactly the same as it had when Angel had first entered the place. He didn’t care about anything that had been here. Instead, Angel descended the stairs to the basement apartment that had been his residence.

Angel flicked on the lightswitch to find the room exactly as he had left it. There wasn’t much here he wanted - he had plenty of clothes in Sunnydale, he’d been fighting demons less since he’d lost his vampiric strength so the weapons were sort of pointless, and there wasn’t much else in the apartment.

A couple of boxes were left behind from when the office had been packed up. Placing an empty box on the couch, Angel started filing it with the couple of books he wanted to take with him. Once he’d gone through those, he debated his collection of weapons. Even if he didn’t use them often, Buffy, Giles, or another Slayer might find need of them. Finally he put a couple of swords and other weapons in a box as well. The two boxes he placed in the elevator to take back up. That done, he glanced around the living area, then made his way into the bedroom.

This area had only a couple more things that he wanted to keep. There were things here that he had brought with him from Sunnydale in the first place, things that he’d wanted near him. Mementoes and other items that had some meaning to him went into a third, smaller box.

As Angel sat for a moment on the bed, he noticed a picture on the nightstand. The frame had been knocked over so it lay face down, but Angel knew what it was. He picked up the picture and looked at it with a smile. It was a sketch of Buffy, one he had drawn soon after moving to L.A. He’d wanted to at least have an image of her if he couldn’t be near. Sure, he’d done a lot of good in L.A., but it had been a lonely year.

Now, he didn’t need the picture to have her near. Not with their wedding less than two months away. Still smiling, Angel laid the picture in the final box.

In a moment Angel knew he was not alone. It didn’t take vampiric senses to know there was someone else in the apartment. Just plain human senses did that fine. It also didn’t take vampiric senses to guess who it was.

Angel waited until the footsteps came to a stop outside the bedroom door. "I was wondering when I’d see you again," Angel said calmly.

"Well, it’s not like you’ve needed my help lately," the Irish accented voice replied from the doorway.

Angel turned around, smiling slightly. "Nice to see you, too, Doyle."

The half-demon smiled. After a moment he said, "I figured you’d be back here sooner or later. Of course, originally I thought you were only going to be gone for a week at the most."

"Plans changed," Angel replied.

Doyle nodded. "Yeah, I got that. You know how it is - I had a vision a couple of days after you left. Got a glimpse of you and your lady-love taking a sunlit stroll to go with the headache. Figured you wouldn’t be back after that." He chuckled briefly. "I told you not to distance yourself from the human race, but I wasn’t expecting you to go to the opposite extreme."

"What can I say, I finally listened to you," Angel quipped. "Buffy says I never do things halfway." After another moment of silence he stopped smiling. "I’m really glad to see you, but since I never heard from you these last few months, I’ve got to assume you’ve got some reason to talk to me now."

"Hey," Doyle scolded, "you’re the one who dropped out of touch, not me. Left Cordelia and I sort of at a loss of what to do." Angel began to apologize, but Doyle waved him off. "No, you’re right. Besides, we both got new jobs within the week, and it was ‘meant to be’ after all. That’s not the point - I’ve got a message for you."

Angel began to protest. "I’m not staying, Doyle. We’re heading back to Sunnydale tomorrow."

"Nothing like that," Doyle assured. "This is just a warning for you and your Slayer. There’s hard times ahead."

"I know. They’ve already been trying to stop the wedding."

Doyle shook his head. "It’s not just that. There’s more going on than any of us know, and . . . ."

"And?"

"The two of you had better be ready."

Part Nine

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