Part Seven: Remaining
“Angel,” Wesley said, calmly but forcefully.
The exhausted vampire raised his head and blinked at him. He was sitting at the counter in the lobby, leaning his head on his hands. Angel hadn’t gotten much sleep ever since Kathy had appeared in the present day. At least, not restful sleep. Still, after last night’s heart to heart, it actually felt like a good kind of exhaustion. “What?” Angel asked, a bit startled.
Wesley looked at him for a moment. “You know, we don’t really need you right at the moment. You could go get some sleep.”
“You didn’t offer that to me,” Cordelia huffed.
Angel shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said. “What have we got?”
Wesley had a pile of notes in front of him. He, too, looked more than a bit tired. “We still have one paying case, unsolved, but it’s been rather….”
“Ignored?” Cordelia piped up.
“Yes, well, overwhelmed by our other mysteries, alright?” Wesley finished.
“Mysteries?”
Angel looked up, surprised. He hadn’t even realized that Kathy was there, standing on the edge of the lobby, listening to everything. She wasn’t part of the usual group and so, in his exhaustion, he just hadn’t expected her to be there. It felt odd. Still, he flashed her a brief smile.
“Uh, yes,” Wesley said, nodding to the displaced girl. “Mysteries. For one, we have last night’s escapade. I don’t believe we have seen the last of that group, whoever they were. We must determine what exactly that ritual we stopped was and whether they are likely to try again. The other….” Wesley hesitated to finish.
“Ye mean me,” Kathy said in understanding.
Wesley nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m afraid we aren’t any closer to finding out what you’re doing here.”
“And if we don’t find something soon on our other case,” Cordelia pointed out, “we’re not going to get paid.”
A look crossed Kathy’s face that Angel couldn’t decipher. It was troubled by something he couldn’t pin point. “Kathy….”
She shook her head at him. “’Tis alright,” she said. “Ye have much to do. I understand.”
Angel opened his mouth to speak again, but Cordelia beat him to it. “How about Kathy and I go out for a donut and coffee run? Sounds like we’re going to be researching for a while.” That it would leave the two men alone for a little while went unspoken.
“An excellent idea,” Wesley agreed quickly.
Angel looked at them both in confusion. What exactly was he missing here?
Cordelia ignored his look and nodded at Wesley. “Come on,” Cordelia said pleasantly to the younger girl. “Let’s leave these boys to their books for a while.”
Kathy followed Cordelia out of the hotel without a word.
Once they were gone, Angel looked at Wesley expectantly. “Okay,” he said at last. “What was that all about? There’s more going on here than donuts.”
Wesley nodded. “I wanted to speak with you.”
“I kind of got that.”
Wesley sat easily across from the vampire. “Angel,” he said. He paused then, obviously choosing his words with care. “I see that you and your sister are on good terms again.”
Angel nodded, not sure where this was going. “We talked,” he said.
“And everything is well between you?”
“I don’t know,” Angel admitted. “It’s good that we’re talking, though. And I promised to try and help her…adjust.”
Wesley sighed. “That’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. “She is…quite out of place here.”
“It’ll take time,” Angel defended her. “And I’ll help her. I will. I know where she’s coming from.”
“Angel,” Wesley said patiently, “you had centuries – you changed right along with the world. She’s been thrown two centuries out of her proper place.”
“What are you trying to say?”
He clearly thought about it for a moment. “If we do find out how she came to be here,” Wesley said at last, “and we find a way to send her home….”
“No,” Angel said quickly. “There is nothing for her back then. She’s dead back then.”
“Things happen for a reason,” Wesley tried. “Who knows what might be effected by her not dying in her proper time.”
“Nothing will be effected!” Angel said quickly. “There is nothing back then left for her.”
“And what about now?” Wesley explained. “What might happen here that should not have? This isn’t her time, Angel. She is not meant to be here. I’m not certain she ever will adjust.”
Angel knew, in some part of him, that the ex-Watcher was right. But he would not let that be the entire story. “I won’t do it,” he declared. “She can not go home, because this is her home now.” He paused and took a deep, unnecessary breath. “I will not condemn her to death for the second time.”
The sunlight was painfully bright outside, but that was the least of the things Kathy was having trouble with. She stayed close to Cordelia’s side, squinting through the sunlight at a world gone completely mad. It did not leave her with much to say.
“So,” Cordelia said at last.
“Aye?”
Cordelia smiled lightly at her. “I saw you and Angel,” she said. “You’re actually talking now?”
Kathy nodded. “Aye. We spoke last night.”
“I take it from the fact that neither of you is all gloom and doom today that that talk went well,” Cordelia prompted.
“’Twas nice,” Kathy said after a moment.
Cordelia grinned. “I told you it would be good to talk to him!” she said.
“Ye did,” Kathy agreed.
A large truck came barreling down the street next to them, and Kathy jumped further onto the sidewalk. She collided with Cordelia’s shoulder. The older girl stopped for a moment to steady her.
“Easy,” Cordelia said. “Are you all right?”
Kathy nodded.
Cordelia didn’t look quite like she believed her. “And the talk you two had last night was a good one, right?”
Kathy nodded again, wondering where Cordelia was going with this.
“Then what’s bothering you?” she said. “And don’t tell me nothing, because that is total bull.”
Kathy didn’t quite get what Cordelia was saying, but she understood enough. “I donna think I know him anymore,” she said sadly.
“Of course you do!” Cordelia protested. “Come on, you guys are family! Brother and sister! I’ll bet you two were thick as thieves growing up.”
Kathy gave her a blank look.
“Well, you were close, right?” Cordelia tried again.
“Aye,” Kathy said. “He watched out for me. ‘Twas terrible when he left. And then he died so soon after…” Kathy gave a sad shake of her head.
“Well, he’s not dead now,” Cordelia said. “Or, he is, but….”
Kathy smiled very slightly at that. “I know,” she said in understanding. “But he’s not the same, either.”
“Has he really changed that much?” Cordelia asked, surprised. “I mean, he doesn’t really talk about when he was human, so I don’t know.”
“He has,” Kathy said. On one level, she was pleased to see the change in her brother. Something told her that he was now the man their family would have been proud of. But he was also one so different – not human, changed by time and events that Kathy had never seen. They had a common past…but was there anything else left? “Ye know him far better than I do, now. Yer his family. He even said ye’re like a sister to him.”
“He said that?” Cordelia asked, surprised.
Kathy nodded. “I donna know what to expect from him anymore,” she said.
Cordelia gave her a reassuring smile. “Well, you just started talking to each other last night.”
“True.”
“Well, then,” she said. “Give it some time. What you need is some good brother/sister bonding.”
“What?” Kathy asked, confused yet again. She was perpetually lost.
“Do something together so that you get to know each other again,” Cordelia explained. Then, she grinned. “I know! I’ll convince Angel to take you to the movies tonight.”
“Movies?”
Cordelia laughed lightly. “Yeah, movies. One of the wonders of modern technology. So you can get to know more about now and about Angel at the same time.”
Kathy looked at her hopefully. “Ye think that will work?”
“It’s a start,” Cordelia said. “That and talking. Do you like the idea?”
“I donna really understand it,” Kathy admitted.
Cordelia smiled. “Well, you will. And while Angel introduces you to the twenty-first century, I’m going to introduce you to some of the things he can’t. Like new foods.” She opened the door to a shop marked by a vibrant pink sign. The smell of sweet pastry was strong inside. “First, donuts,” she said happily. “Later, movie theater popcorn.”
And Kathy just smiled.
On to Part Eight
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