Part Three: Reaction
Angel was nearly in a manic state, which was pretty painful to watch. He was way too awake for a vampire at noon, for one. And every moment, he was doing something. Years of dust and debris had been removed from one more of the bedrooms on the second floor of the mostly unused hotel. Blankets and sheets had been found somewhere, and the bed was made as neatly as possible. But when Angel started to straighten out the bed for the third time, Wesley had to call a stop to it.
“Angel, please,” he said from the doorway.
“What?” Angel asked, looking up from his inspection of the blanket’s tucked corners.
Wesley sighed at the vampire’s atypical behavior. “Just...stop for a moment. Rest.”
Angel stopped, but seemed to sink into himself as he shook his head. “I can’t rest,” he said certainly. “If I rest, I’ll start thinking, and if I start thinking...”
“Then why don’t you sleep?” Wesley said instead.
Angel shook his head again. “I can’t.”
Wesley was just about to give up...and he thought he might scream if Angel started making the room perfect once again. “Could you stop cleaning the room at least?” he asked.
“She needs a place to stay.”
“Yes, and I’m sure she will be quite appreciative of the accommodations,” Wesley replied, not at all mocking. “But right now, I need you to focus.”
“On what?” Angel asked, looking Wesley in the eye for the first time in their conversation. “On the look in Kathy’s eyes in the hospital room, the fear? Or how about the fact that I can still remember how she tastes?”
Wesley had to force himself not to flinch at Angel’s tone. “Neither would be very productive,” he pointed out.
“I’m trying to be productive, okay?” Angel said, gesturing to the neatly made room. He plucked at the corner of the bed covers again.
“And you have been. But we need to answer a question – how did she get here?”
Angel sighed. “You’re right. That’s more important right now.” He paused, but still seemed like he was about to explode back into activity at any moment. He took a deep, unnecessary breath. “Any ideas?”
“None, I’m afraid,” Wesley said. “I only spoke briefly to Kathy about her arrival here. She does not remember anything unusual – merely being there one moment and here the next.”
Angel nodded, finally coming to a stop as he sat down upon the bed.
“Do you remember anything odd about when you...?”
“Killed her?” Angel asked, looking at Wesley sharply. He shook his head. “She was dead, Wesley. That’s enough.”
Wesley frowned. “That doesn’t fit with the idea of some sort of time travel, which was my first guess,” he said. “If she was taken from a moment before her death, you should remember her missing from that time.”
“Unless my memories...don’t reflect recent changes in the past,” he said.
“True,” Wesley agreed. “Dead or missing within minutes wouldn’t make much difference to history as a whole, would it?” He looked thoughtful. “I suppose I’ll have to do some research with Irish historical societies or something. See if we can figure out if this is a case of time travel or...something else.”
Angel nodded.
“Won’t you come and help?” Wesley asked.
Angel shook his head and stood. He quickly straightened out the wrinkles made by him when he sat down, and seemed to be looking for anything else to do. “I want to make sure everything is perfect. And...I guess I really should try and get some sleep.” He sighed heavily.
Wesley nodded. “You do that.”
“Wesley?”
The ex-Watcher turned to look at him on the way out the door.
“The only time travel spells or rituals I have ever heard of require tremendous time and resources. They’re far more trouble than the average person would want to go through,” he said. “If someone has brought my sister forward in time....”
“They probably have rather...disturbing reasons,” Wesley finished.
Angel nodded.
“I’ll see what I can find.” He turned to leave again, and stopped, joined by Gunn in the doorway.
“I’ve got something else for you,” he said to them both.
“Yes?” Wesley asked.
“It’s on the case,” Gunn said. “Cordy has a computer search set to flag any articles related to the victims. This came up.” He passed a sheet of paper to Wesley.
“’The family of Reesa Jordan would like to thank...’” he read, then paused. “Now that is odd,” he agreed.
“What is it?” Angel asked.
“Well, it seems her family received a rather generous donation from a corporation called ‘Lifespan’ in the aftermath of her death. But there’s nothing here on why, or even what Lifespan does.”
“Another mystery,” Angel said unhappily.
“Seems to be the day for it,” Gunn supplied.
Wesley nodded, glancing at the sheet again. “Yes, well, perhaps this one will be a bit easier to solve. I’ll see if I can find anything more about Lifespan, or whether they are connected to any of the other victims.” He went to leave the room again. “Gunn?”
Gunn waved him off. “I want to talk to Angel for a second.”
Wesley nodded and left the two of them alone. Angel looked at Gunn for a moment, then busied himself making sure everything in the room was in good repair. For a minute neither of them spoke. “What do you want?” Angel asked after a moment, sounding resigned.
“Just curious.”
Angel glanced at Gunn. “About what?”
“Why you never mentioned a sister.”
Angel looked away. “I don’t talk about my family, and I don’t talk about my victims,” he said. “She’s both.”
His tone brooked no argument, but Gunn wasn’t one to be easily fazed. “You’re not the only one who’s killed a sister,” he said after another moment.
“It’s not the same,” Angel said certainly. “You didn’t kill your sister – she was already dead. She was a monster, a vampire, same as I was when I did kill mine.”
“I know that,” Gunn said. “But it doesn’t feel any different.”
Angel looked at Gunn again. “I don’t want to talk about this,” he said.
Gunn gave up simply. “That’s cool,” he said. “I’ll leave you alone. You going to rest like you said before Cordelia gets back?”
Angel nodded. “I’ll try.”
He had a feeling he was going to need a rest before he faced his past again.
Cordelia had to admit she felt sorry for the girl that she had been put in charge of. On the upside, Kathy now believed the bulk of what had been told to her. On the downside, she was even more lost than before.
The young girl had been obviously relieved to get out of the hospital when Cordelia arrived. She also seemed to be relieved that Cordelia had come alone, though neither of them commented on that. Cordelia had brought with her a simple outfit for Kathy to wear before they bought her more clothes, and all seemed to be going well until Kathy tried on the skirt and tank-top combination.
“Are ye sure this is complete?” she’d asked, plucking uncomfortably at the shirt’s straps.
Cordelia smiled as reassuringly as she could. “You look great,” she said.
The girl still looked uncomfortable.
“You’ll be glad of it outside,” Cordelia tried. “It’s probably hotter out there than you’re used to.”
Kathy had nodded reluctantly and said nothing as Cordelia proceeded to check her out of the hospital.
She didn’t say much of anything outside of the hospital either. She was obviously startled by the obvious evidence of over two centuries past. Yet she did not show fright, just a sort of sadness and resignation. With every new thing she seemed to shrink a bit further in on herself. Despite Cordelia’s efforts, she could not get the girl to open up.
It partially had to do, of course, that the two of them had no common frame of reference. Cordelia was sure Angel had far more of an idea as to just what might be going through Kathy’s head right now. After all, they had grown up together. He knew where she was coming from like no one else possibly could. But to get Kathy to speak to her older brother...her murderer...? Cordelia had even less of a clue as to how to accomplish that.
So she smiled, and was kind, and let Kathy talk or be silent as she wanted. When she took Kathy to buy clothes for her indefinite stay in modern times, she tried to keep things as conservative as possible. She did not try for shorts or short skirts. It was impossible to make the young girl comfortable, but she tried. And if Kathy did not end up in the latest styles, she still looked good. Fashionably old fashioned?
By the end of it, Cordelia was actually just as eager to get back to Angel Investigations as it appeared Kathy was eager to get off the streets. The poor girl needed a lot of adjustment time, yet she’d just been thrown in the midst of everything.
Outside the Hyperion Hotel, Kathy froze suddenly. Cordelia stopped and looked seriously at the confused girl. “Kathy? What’s wrong?”
Kathy shook her head. “Liam...lives here?” she asked.
Cordelia nodded. “Well, yeah.” At Kathy’s stare, she explained, “It used to be a hotel.” Still confusion. “An inn?”
“Oh.”
Cordelia smiled. “Besides, it’s not like he lives in the whole thing. It’s also the office. And we haven’t even gotten around to fixing the top couple of floors.”
Kathy still did not move, staring at the large building. “Ye work together,” she said, remembering.
“Yeah.”
“But what do ye do?” she asked in frustration.
Cordelia just smiled and placed a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Believe it or not, we help people. People with...strange problems.”
Kathy blinked at her. “Liam?” she asked in disbelief.
“Well, Angel,” Cordelia said calmly, “but yeah.”
“Angel...?”
“It’s what he calls himself now,” Cordelia explained.
A look Cordelia could not decipher crossed the girl’s face. “Oh.”
Cordelia took a couple of steps towards the hotel, trying to encourage Kathy to come with her. “He is trying to do good,” Cordelia tried for what seemed like the hundredth time. “Your brother is my friend.”
Kathy was silent for a long moment and made no effort to move. Cordelia was afraid that she’s frightened the girl into complete silence.
“Cordelia?” she said at last.
“Yes?”
Kathy took a couple of hesitant steps to stand by Cordelia’s side once again. “Would ye tell me...?”
“Tell you what?”
Kathy swallowed. “Tell me about me brother.”
Cordelia smiled and led the girl into the hotel. “I would be happy to,” she said.
On to Part Four
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