Go TeamC/A
Title: Memory Lane
Author: Califi
Posted: Halloween 2004
Rating: R
Category: angsty, sad, hopeful resolution.
Content: Just read...
Summary: Sequel to Voices. Three month's later...
Spoilers: Set S5
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Distribution:
Notes: My Halloween special #2.
Thanks/Dedication:: Requested sequel -Here you go - Well, I really do hope you like this. It is fragmented and hodgepodge – but that was deliberate.[honest! ;) ]
Feedback:shall I beg? Not a pretty sight
I can only hope that someday
You'll wake up and you'll find,
That while my heart belongs to yours,
Yours, too, belongs to mine
Tamra L.NoeSweat dripped from her frowning brow and into her now-long mahogany hair. Twisting and turning restlessly, the bedclothes twined around her overheated body.
A party; muted music in the background. She looked down at herself and admired the sexy red dress she wore. Her name was called, which caused her to spin around; her softly painted mouth lifting in a pleased and surprised smile as she recognized the dark figure standing before her.
" Are you still GRRR?" The serious brown eyes warmed to melting chocolate; a smile touching those perfect lips...
"No cure…" she silently mouthed his soft reply, a matching smile twitching the corners of her mouth.
The scene changed…Dark, cavernous and strange looking people milling around below. A soft glow strengthened from the object suspended from above.
"Too bad we'll never know if this is a face you could learn to love…" twinkling blue eyes gazed into hers as the dark haired man with the unusual accent drew back from a gentle kiss…
A tear slid from the corner of her eye and down her flushed cheek.
"Is that it? – Am I done?
"Doyle…" a whispered sob and a slim hand raised from the bed. His face faded and the scene changed again.
The room she now stood in was dim and quiet. The slim man with wired spectacles looked rather uncomfortable in his all-leather outfit. She stifled a giggle.
"A lone wolf such as myself never works with anyone…I'm a rogue demon hunter."
"What's a rogue demon?" her hoarse voice echoed around her dark bedroom, and then she turned over onto her side.
It was dark outside, and as she turned from the window to face her desk, two men shifted uncomfortably on the other side.
"I've learned that men are evil. Oh, wait. I knew that. I learned that L.A is full of self-serving phonies. Nope; had that one down too. Sex is bad?"
"We all knew that." Those soft brown eyes tinged with humor.
"I learned that I have two people I trust absolutely with my life and that's the new part." ... …
So much pain…so many people in pain…"oh, God!" A frantic voice pierced through the agony, and a large cool hand grips hers tightly.
"Cordelia - I'm gonna fix this. - Promise. - I'm gonna get you back. - I need you back." … …
"Hey; welcome back." She glanced to the other side and sees her other friend battered and bruised. Turning back to the dark haired man gazing at her in a mixture of relief and tenderness, she squeezes his hand that holds hers firmly.
"I saw them all. There is so much pain. - We have to help them." She told him shakily.
"We will." He stroked her cheek. "We will." …
"Be as rude as you want. I'm not going anywhere until I know you're safe!"
"Me rude? You're the one that showed up at my place, attacked my boy, then decided to highjack my life. The way I figure it, I find your car for you, you give me my freedom back." a grin spread across her mouth as she turned onto her back and stretched out. The covers tangled around her partially covered limbs.
God, this place… so many memories…
"Why are you still here?" Abrupt much? He seriously needed a lesson in manners. She frowned heavily and turned to her computer.
"Unless there's a website called www.ohbythewaywehavedarlastashedhere.com we are pretty much out of luck." She snarked… …
"Hey! How about we pretend that you work for me?"
Did he just go there? "You are really unpleasant when you…"
"Then why don't we pretend that you don't."
"You can't fire me. I'm vision girl." She stuck her tongue out at him. Hah! That got a smile!… … the answering grin on her face faded, and turned to shock, followed by disbelief.
"You're all fired."…He got up and walked away… tears of grief and anger flowed down her face and onto the pillow beneath her head.… ..
Scenes and moments speeded up rapidly, confusing – yet achingly clear:
"Don't make me move you." …. " I don't even know what you are any more!"…,"I'm a Vampire; look it up."…. …
"You really hurt my feelings." Brown eyes darkening to black; his bruised face fell, expression wounded… she groaned in her sleep; a sob catching in the back of her throat... …
"I realize this is a bit of a shock, but I can explain." She screamed even louder as the talking green head rolled its red eyes. ."Take it easy. Okay, get it out of your system. You have to breathe some time. Good Lord – shut up, woman!"… …
"You're back! You guys, he's back!" he hugs her tightly, and her belly tingles with delight. God, she missed him!… …
"What do you want to say?" he raises a dark brow. She shifted awkwardly and looked over his shoulder into space.
"Ah, me? Nothing. What makes you think I wanna..."
"'Cause I know you?"
Did he? …
"If I lose the visions, I wouldn't be able to help you anymore. You wouldn't need me."
"That's not why I need you. *You're* important. - And the visions are just after market extras like Hurst shift or Krager wheels."
"Did you just compare me to a car?"
"It was a very nice car."
"I guess that's better than a dog."… a soft smile creeps onto the sleeping woman's face. "Men!"…
"Don't you think I would?"
"Would what?"
"Save you? …
Images shot through her head, swirling and rushing at an impossible rate, reminding her of another time, when the same thing happened – only there was physical pain; not emotional rending like now.
"I'd buy him some plaid shirts and take him to the beach. The boy needs some color."…
"Did - you and Darla...?"
"Uh...This is impossible."
"Tell me about it - daddy!"
"You slept with her?"
"Always blondes, jeez!" she muttered as she turned onto her front, clutching her pillow tightly...
"You really piss me off, you know that? I thought we trusted each other. But you've been lying. MRI's and CAT scans? It's been going on for over a year. Why couldn't you let me in? I could have helped you. You make me so furious."
"You're furious? I get body-jacked on my birthday, and *you're* the one that's furious?"…
"She is a rich girl from Sunnydale who likes to play superhero. She doesn't have what it takes to do this! Don't the Powers get that? Stop whispering and listen to me, damn it! She's weak."
"Skip. Get me out of here. Now!"
Her legs lifted; feet kicking out, causing the sheets to slip off the rumpled bed and onto the floor.
"Demonize me already!" she screamed out in remembered pain, and the camera in the corner of the room zoomed in on her thrashing figure...
"Don't be stupid. I'm that guy and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen is making eyes at me? It's either bachelor party or a scam."
"I'm only alive when you're inside me"…
"I just wanna pretend it never happened."
"Exactly."
"Wipe it from my memory."
"What? - Was it, like, disgusting?"
"No! I, ah... I would, I would just want... If we were to... - I would just want it to be... - new. Start at the beginning."
"Lost me in the middle."
"Cordy - you and I, we've been working together for - a long time. She lets out a short 'duh' ”What I mean is, you've become a truly extraordinary woman. I know we haven't always gotten along, but - I think that we, you know, we..."
"Groo?"… …
Her thrashing grew more frantic, her nightdress twisting around her thighs and her skin dampening as images of leaving…. coming back to find devastation…
"Connor!" she whimpered achingly, more tears stinging her closed eyes. "I'm so sorry!"
The door to the room flew open and a dark figure rushed to the bed. Leaning over he tried to soothe the sobbing woman, but she pulled away from his gentle hands. Taking a deep breath he sat on the bed and heaved her onto his lap, cupping the back of her head and tucking her face under his chin.
Tears slid down his pale face as his sensitive hearing picked up her hoarsely muttered words…
"You think you know something about living, cause you have this really long past. And that's really all you have, in my case anyway. Then one day you wake up and you have something else..."
"A future." She whispered softly. He nodded, then added:
" I had a son...
The brunette rambled on and on, and his undead heart clenched as he re-lived the memories. Part of him wanted to wake her up, but deep down, he knew he had to hear it all…
" I got dosed with demon DNA for that man. I'm semi-demon! And I still don't know what that means..."
He closed his eyes tightly; they knew now! Would she remember any of that, he wondered?
"Hi, dad."… …
"I'm in love!"
"I am?
I am!
“With Angel, right?"
"With Angel!"
"Just checking."… He smiled softly at that – and hoped she still did.
"Could you meet me tonight?"
"Tonight? Sure. Okay. Where?"
The warm body he held so tightly shivered and nestled closer into the protective shelter of his arms.
"It's ridiculous. - I'm just a somewhat normal girl - who - has visions, glows, and occasionally blows things up with her crazy new power. I'm a higher being."
"Yes."
"And when you say I've - outgrown this level, that sort of implies..."
"- You're moving on to a new one." She eyed the bronze Demon with anxious eyes.
"Now I'm really scared."…
"How is that fair? I can't leave without telling him! I won't. - He has to know how I feel! Why does this have to be now?"
"There is work to be done in the higher realms."
"Can you at least tell Angel for me?"
"Sorry. Not allowed."
"Then I'm not going. - How can they possibly do this to me now? - This is the last test, isn't it?"
This felt so wrong! Why the hell was she even considering this? “Oh, God! Just let me wake up!”
The Vampire held her tighter to him as she struggled and moaned. He was hearing things he needed to hear. He prayed she wouldn't stop now; even though his very soul ached for her obvious distress.
"I'm scared. - But I know it's right. I know somehow it's all gonna be alright. What do I do?"
"Just say yes."
"I already have."… …
"No, no! Don't do it!" she whimpered, breath catching in her throat; how could she be so stupid? The images now flooded her head: boredom, homesickness, she wanted her family…*him.*
Then she was back – wasn't she? But she wasn't alone. For a while she managed to force that evil entity, eating at her from the inside down – repressing her memories.
"If she doesn't have those, she can't use me." She whispered softly, and then scrunched her eyes. "Lorne, please; not that!"
" I know how you feel about me, Connor. When I think about what you've—you never had a childhood, or a family or friends or anything that's real, and if this is the end, I want you to have something that is…" ..."Angel! Help me! Get me out of here! I can't fight her any more!" she sobbed; her slim fingers dug into his chest, but he didn't care. What she'd revealed made him hate himself all over again. He'd let her down.
Deep down he knew something wasn't right – but he was so damn glad to have her back, it was easy to push away all those little clues to what lay beneath the surface of the face he loved so much.
As he listened to her garbled words – that made every sense to him, Angel cried for her; for him, and cursed the day she was taken away from him.
"I'm so sorry." … The sword raised above his head:
"Do it, for God's sake! DO IT!"
She screamed long and hard, and he just held on to her writhing body. He could tell by her heartbeat that any moment now she would waken – but who would look into his eyes; Sara, or-"
…"Cordy?" her beautiful eyes flickered open slowly, her breath coming out in panting breaths; the hoarseness scraping along her throat painfully. As her pupils dilated and focused, her face crumpled in anguish.
"Angel? I was so lost. So lost." Gasping for breath Cordy fell into him, too exhausted to cry any more.
Angel slid down the bed and curled her into him tightly; overwhelming relief as well as remorse for all that had happened in the last few years.
"I know, baby," he whispered softly as he stroked down her delicate spine, soothing her trembling slight body.
"But you're home now." he promised with every fiber of his being…
FIN
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