Angel had spent most of the night away from New Orleans doing business in Shreveport. It was a bigger city population wise than New Orleans now, after Hurricane Katrina, so it made sense that there would be people there that he had to talk to. The only reason Wolfram & Hart hadn't moved their headquarters from New Orleans was because it was a lot of effort, not even taking into account the supernatural things that would have to be moved. Plus, most people were happy to travel to New Orleans.
The particular demon group that he'd had to deal with tonight hadn't been so happy to travel, though, so he'd had to make the drive up. He had thought about taking the W&H jet, but it felt weird to do so when he could make the drive and it wouldn't take much longer. After dealing with the meeting that he had to deal with, he started to make the drive back to New Orleans.
Driving tends to get boring, though, so he decided to make a stop at a bar that he saw along the way. He felt some inexplicable draw to it, like he'd know someone there or something, but that was ridiculous. He was fairly certain that no one he knew was in the area.
He pulled his car over and, after parking, walked inside of the bar. Of course, as soon as he walked in, a particular blond who was sitting at the bar caught his eye. A very familiar blond. No wonder he felt the need to stop here. He knew that he should turn right back around and walk out, but something compelled him to keep walking until he took a seat at the bar near her, but leaving two seats between them.
The familiar presence, which she knew only too well, continued coming closer. She swallowed hard. How could it be possible? He was most definitely in Los Angeles. Right?
She had a feeling her face contorted with confusion and worry as the bartender, who someone had called Sam earlier, came to place her drink in front of her. "Rough day?" Sam asked lightly, though he also seemed concerned. "When is it not?" she said in response with a nervous smile.
Buffy heard the door open and closed her eyes as the feeling washed over her. She felt him sit near her at the bar. Did she dare open her eyes and look over? She turned slowly to look, figuring she was probably just crazy and imagining things; looking for something familiar in an unfamiliar place.
But, sure enough. There he was. "Angel," she said, trying to hide the surprise in her voice, as though they bumped into each other at this bar all the time, "What are you doing here?"
Even though she was trying to hide it, he could tell that she was surprised to see him here. Of course, because he was passing through Bon Temps, it should be as a surprise to anyone that he was here. When he sat down, he ordered a glass of wine from the bartender, who seemed content to give him the evil eye, but gave him the glass of wine just the same. He saw that the guy had True Blood behind the counter, but Angel really didn't like the taste of it.
"Passing through, actually," he said. "I had some business with some people in Shreveport and was on my way back to New Orleans." Of course, she didn't seem to know that he was in New Orleans. "There's...been a lot going on lately and we kind of had to move base from LA to New Orleans."
He wasn't sure how much he wanted to say in a public place like this. Hell, he wasn't even sure how much that he really could say in this place. He knew he could trust Buffy, whether or not they got along on a day to day basis be damned, but he didn't know anything about anyone else in this bar.
"I didn't even know--" Buffy started in a rush, but Angel finished for her with his explanation. "Move base?" she asked, her mouth quirking in a smile, "You sound like you're an army." She took an extra long sip of her drink, sliding out of her seat and onto the seat beside him.
"A lot's been going on for us, too," she said, "We had to 'move base' as well, after we were in Scotland for a while."
She tucked a strand of blonde behind her ear, lowering her voice and knowing Angel could still hear her clearly, "After the whole government got wind of us, we had to go into hiding. So, Dawn, Xander, Will, and I moved here. And Giles and Faith just showed up, too. The others are scattered around the world."
He chuckled slightly when she mentioned that it sounded like they were an army. "Not intentional, but it seems that there's a Hellmouth opening up in New Orleans, so not the worst comparison in the world." He knew that was something that she'd want to hear about, after all. Among other things, Slayers were supposed to guard Hellmouths. They seemed to have a lot of jobs.
He leaned a little closer to her when she whispered to him. "So, Giles, Faith, Dawn, Xander, and Willow are all with you?" Sounded kind of like old times for them, then. He was actually kind of glad that it seemed like her and Giles were talking again. He had heard that they had a falling out for a while, although he didn't know what exactly it was about.
"So, are you guys doing OK?" He meant that seriously. Even though him and Buffy had mostly (it seemed) moved past the part of their lives where they wanted to be together, he still cared a lot about her. She actually was the first woman that he truly loved, after all.
Buffy sighed, "Right, Hellmouth. It's been quiet so far, thankfully." She had come to Louisiana specifically to come to the new Hellmouth. She was glad to know Angel and his group were also in town, so there were a few more guardians in town.
She nodded to his question, "Yep, they're all with me. We live in this big mansion-ey type house on the outskirts of town. Dawn was, uh, a giant for a while, so we needed a place to sort of hide her until we could un-giant-ify her. But, she's totally fine now. She's going to apply for school here," she said, not hiding the pride in her voice. She was glad her sister was going to try and make something of herself, despite the crazy life she had.
Buffy shrugged, "We're doing okay, I guess. We've all had a few rough patches. Xander got hurt the other day and we, um, we lost another Slayer." She wasn't sure how much detail she wanted to get into about everything. She definitely didn't want anyone overhearing her saying she had accidentally killed someone. "How are you? How is everyone?" she asked, taking a sip of her drink.
Angel wasn’t too shocked to figure out that Buffy had come here for the Hellmouth as well. From as far as he could tell, Slayers were pulled just as much to them as vampires and demons were. Of course, they were pulled to them to protect the humans around them from the demons attracted to them.
“Dawn was a giant? What the hell caused that?” Stuff just seemed to happen to them, didn’t it? Kind of like the time him and Cordelia accidentally gave Gunn a tail by messing with one of Wesley’s books. It wasn’t Angel’s fault that his ancient Greek was atrocious, after all. Also, they all learned to not read things out loud from books when they didn’t understand the meaning. “Well, it’s good that she’s going to school here at least.” He knew that there was a college nearby this town, although he didn’t know the name of it off the top of his head. He just remembered seeing it from the interstate.
He nodded when she said that they had lost another Slayer. He never knew what to say to things like that. It was too bad, though. Not all of the girls with the potential to be called were really made for it. Unfortunately, Buffy had to do what she had to do at the time in an effort to survive, and that was just what had happened.
“We’re doing OK,” he said to her. “Cordy woke up, and she’s doing good. Everyone’s in LA now.” Then Angel realized that she might not know if Spike was alive again or not. Should he tell her? Something at the moment made him hold his tongue, if only because it was something that he probably shouldn’t let slip out in public.
Buffy ran a hand through her hair, knowing the explanation behind Dawn's transformation was a little ridiculous. "Yeah, she was dating a thricewise apparently. And then she boinked his friend, so he retaliated by turning her into a giant. And then a few weeks later, she was a centaur," she shook her head, "It was totally wiggy, but Willow fixed her. I guess she learned what happens when you have sex in this crazy world."
In her opinion, Dawn got off easy. Especially considering she was sitting with the very person who had tried to kill her, her family, and her friends right after she slept with him for the first time. "But yeah, it's great that she's doing something that hopefully has nothing to do with demons and vampires."
She listened to Angel as he continued, nodding along. "Wow, the gang's all here then. And wait Cordy's 'awake?' Was she not always?" She was clearly out of the loop of Angel's life, but that had been their agreement long ago.
"A thricewise?" Angel asked with an arched eyebrow. OK, that was just kind of funny. "You really don't find many of those running around these days, especially on a college campus." It sounded like she'd had the same Summers's girl luck with men. Of course, Angel was definitely tangled up in that bad luck. "At least now she's fixed and can go back to school." Seemed like she may find herself a normal life.
He hadn't been sure if Buffy knew about Cordelia's coma or not. "She had been sick and in a magical coma for a while." The less he had to explain about that, the better. Buffy wouldn't know about Connor, after all. "But she's awake now. All back to normal again." Of which he was greatly relieved, may he he add. "Apparently we can't have normal lives, either. Magical comas and all."
It would be nice if he simply had a normal week where nothing completely and utterly insane happened. That wasn't the life that he was going to lead, though.
"No kidding," Buffy said, "It was a bitch getting her here and trying to find a place to find her. But, thanks to some, uhh, money I recently acquired, we were able to find a place to keep her." She wasn't sure how much Angel had been paying attention to the news, considering she was now a terrorist.
After he explained Cordelia's situation, she was pretty impressed with what she'd missed in his life. And apparently Cordelia had been important enough to be put into a magical coma. Of course, she had no idea what the circumstances were, but considering the last time she'd seen her, she didn't seem to be going down any sort of magical path. "Wow," she said, "Insanity all around, then. I'm guessing that was a less fun coma than Faith's was for all of us."
She finished her drink and felt the calming warmth spread through her. "Have you guys noticed anything wonky happening with the Hellmouth? So far, it seems so quiet." And that definitely worried her. She knew it could go bursting open and sucking them all in at any moment.
Angel actually knew completely what had been going on with her. He was the CEO of Wolfram & Hart, after all. He knew exactly what she had been up to, including the robbing of the bank that had gotten her all the money. He was also technically the face of an evil corporation. He really didn’t have any way to judge her, did he? He was more understanding than he used to be about these sorts of things. She had needed money. If she had come to him, he would have thrown money at her and the Slayers. He had it now. Too bad she hadn’t done so.
“Definitely much less fun than Faith’s coma,” he said. Not that her coma had been a ton of fun, considering what it had led to, but her in a coma had meant that an enemy at the time had been taken care of. It was a completely different situation with Cordy, though.
“It’s been quiet as far as we know of. Cordy had a vision, so we came. So far, a big lot of nothing, though.” It worried him, too. He was pretty much expecting something big to blow up in their faces soon. That was usually how it went with them. Nothing stayed quiet for too long.
"Cordelia has visions?" Buffy asked, eyebrows rising in surprise. Yep, she sure had missed a lot. But, she had very firmly tried not to get involved in Angel's life after the whole Faith debacle, so it wasn't surprising that she was so in the dark. The only time they'd seen each other since then were so emotionally charged and self-absorbed with either the loss of her mother or coming back from the dead or even fighting off Caleb that she forgot about his other life. And never really bothered to ask.
"Well, I'm glad you guys are here," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching in a slight smile. "It's nice to have a familiar face around. Or faces," she said.
She nodded, "Not that I'm hoping for something horrible to happen, but it would be nice to have some sort of hint as to what's coming besides just generic doom and destruction. It's hard to train the new slayers if I don't know what I'm training them for."
Angel nodded. He admittedly forgot just what Buffy knew and didn't know about everyone at this point. "Yeah, she gets visions about the future in wonderful migraine inducing visions that are apparently occasionally 'scratch and sniff' according to her." She didn't like the fact that she got to smell the stuff along with seeing it.
"Definitely good to have familiar faces around during all of this," he admitted, a touch of a smile going across his face as well. It was good to know that there were people that he could rely on around him. As much as he wanted to use the resources of Wolfram & Hart, outside of his friends, he wasn't sure that he could trust any of them.
"It would be nice to at least know what we've got coming other than a Hellmouth in of itself." That could really mean all sorts of things. The basics just said that more demonic activity was going to be centered in New Orleans. You could almost say that was happening now. Anne Rice freaks did pool around the city, after all.
Buffy smiled. It was always nice to know when Angel was glad to see her. Especially since the last time she saw him had been pretty damn physical and well, a bit emotional for her. But that tends to be the case when you're about to face an apocalypse. She was just glad they'd matured enough to be able to sit together and just chat. Without all the drama. Well, almost.
"Definitely," she said, "And it's really hard for me and everyone to gather any info since I'm, like, a terrorist. And I'm pretty sure the police or whatever know what Will and Xander look like by now," she rolled her eyes. Being incognito worked for high school, but out in the real world? She was so over it.
"At least I'm still getting to do some hunting," she said lightly, not sure how much of her partnership with Eric she was wanting to divulge.
Angel couldn't help but be relieved that they were at least functionally getting along right now. Who knew if that would happen again the next time they ran into each other, although he had the feeling that now they'd be running into each other a lot more often.
"I'm not sure how much I can do, since it's a whole government after you guys, but I can try to get the heat off of you for a while," he said. "I *do* run a law firm, apparently." Something that he was still feeling...odd about, at least at times. He liked the resources at his and his friends' disposal, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed working around the likes of people who were normally employed by Wolfram & Hart, or it having an influence on his friends like it did.
"Hunting? How are you doing that?" Hunting vampires was technically illegal now, although most local police departments were...reluctant, to say the least, about investigating vampire murders. Plus, most vampire communities did that on their own, if they were organized like they were in the south.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, "Angel, thank you. Anything you could do would be great." Plus, once the media got wind of the murdered Slayer in the hotel room, she knew a whole new force of heat would be after her.
"Right, a law firm," she said quizzically, "What's that all about? Weren't they supposed to be all evil and you were trying to take them down?" She didn't know the whole story, just tidbits from her short visits and whatever Willow or Giles knew.
She bit her lip for a moment, "Well, there's this head honcho vampire in Shreveport. He's called the Sheriff or something? Anyway, he hired me to kill a bunch of bad little vamps that aren't playing by the whole synthetic blood rules."
The particular demon group that he'd had to deal with tonight hadn't been so happy to travel, though, so he'd had to make the drive up. He had thought about taking the W&H jet, but it felt weird to do so when he could make the drive and it wouldn't take much longer. After dealing with the meeting that he had to deal with, he started to make the drive back to New Orleans.
Driving tends to get boring, though, so he decided to make a stop at a bar that he saw along the way. He felt some inexplicable draw to it, like he'd know someone there or something, but that was ridiculous. He was fairly certain that no one he knew was in the area.
He pulled his car over and, after parking, walked inside of the bar. Of course, as soon as he walked in, a particular blond who was sitting at the bar caught his eye. A very familiar blond. No wonder he felt the need to stop here. He knew that he should turn right back around and walk out, but something compelled him to keep walking until he took a seat at the bar near her, but leaving two seats between them.
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She had a feeling her face contorted with confusion and worry as the bartender, who someone had called Sam earlier, came to place her drink in front of her. "Rough day?" Sam asked lightly, though he also seemed concerned. "When is it not?" she said in response with a nervous smile.
Buffy heard the door open and closed her eyes as the feeling washed over her. She felt him sit near her at the bar. Did she dare open her eyes and look over? She turned slowly to look, figuring she was probably just crazy and imagining things; looking for something familiar in an unfamiliar place.
But, sure enough. There he was. "Angel," she said, trying to hide the surprise in her voice, as though they bumped into each other at this bar all the time, "What are you doing here?"
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"Passing through, actually," he said. "I had some business with some people in Shreveport and was on my way back to New Orleans." Of course, she didn't seem to know that he was in New Orleans. "There's...been a lot going on lately and we kind of had to move base from LA to New Orleans."
He wasn't sure how much he wanted to say in a public place like this. Hell, he wasn't even sure how much that he really could say in this place. He knew he could trust Buffy, whether or not they got along on a day to day basis be damned, but he didn't know anything about anyone else in this bar.
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"A lot's been going on for us, too," she said, "We had to 'move base' as well, after we were in Scotland for a while."
She tucked a strand of blonde behind her ear, lowering her voice and knowing Angel could still hear her clearly, "After the whole government got wind of us, we had to go into hiding. So, Dawn, Xander, Will, and I moved here. And Giles and Faith just showed up, too. The others are scattered around the world."
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He leaned a little closer to her when she whispered to him. "So, Giles, Faith, Dawn, Xander, and Willow are all with you?" Sounded kind of like old times for them, then. He was actually kind of glad that it seemed like her and Giles were talking again. He had heard that they had a falling out for a while, although he didn't know what exactly it was about.
"So, are you guys doing OK?" He meant that seriously. Even though him and Buffy had mostly (it seemed) moved past the part of their lives where they wanted to be together, he still cared a lot about her. She actually was the first woman that he truly loved, after all.
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She nodded to his question, "Yep, they're all with me. We live in this big mansion-ey type house on the outskirts of town. Dawn was, uh, a giant for a while, so we needed a place to sort of hide her until we could un-giant-ify her. But, she's totally fine now. She's going to apply for school here," she said, not hiding the pride in her voice. She was glad her sister was going to try and make something of herself, despite the crazy life she had.
Buffy shrugged, "We're doing okay, I guess. We've all had a few rough patches. Xander got hurt the other day and we, um, we lost another Slayer." She wasn't sure how much detail she wanted to get into about everything. She definitely didn't want anyone overhearing her saying she had accidentally killed someone. "How are you? How is everyone?" she asked, taking a sip of her drink.
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Angel wasn’t too shocked to figure out that Buffy had come here for the Hellmouth as well. From as far as he could tell, Slayers were pulled just as much to them as vampires and demons were. Of course, they were pulled to them to protect the humans around them from the demons attracted to them.
“Dawn was a giant? What the hell caused that?” Stuff just seemed to happen to them, didn’t it? Kind of like the time him and Cordelia accidentally gave Gunn a tail by messing with one of Wesley’s books. It wasn’t Angel’s fault that his ancient Greek was atrocious, after all. Also, they all learned to not read things out loud from books when they didn’t understand the meaning. “Well, it’s good that she’s going to school here at least.” He knew that there was a college nearby this town, although he didn’t know the name of it off the top of his head. He just remembered seeing it from the interstate.
He nodded when she said that they had lost another Slayer. He never knew what to say to things like that. It was too bad, though. Not all of the girls with the potential to be called were really made for it. Unfortunately, Buffy had to do what she had to do at the time in an effort to survive, and that was just what had happened.
“We’re doing OK,” he said to her. “Cordy woke up, and she’s doing good. Everyone’s in LA now.” Then Angel realized that she might not know if Spike was alive again or not. Should he tell her? Something at the moment made him hold his tongue, if only because it was something that he probably shouldn’t let slip out in public.
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In her opinion, Dawn got off easy. Especially considering she was sitting with the very person who had tried to kill her, her family, and her friends right after she slept with him for the first time. "But yeah, it's great that she's doing something that hopefully has nothing to do with demons and vampires."
She listened to Angel as he continued, nodding along. "Wow, the gang's all here then. And wait Cordy's 'awake?' Was she not always?" She was clearly out of the loop of Angel's life, but that had been their agreement long ago.
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He hadn't been sure if Buffy knew about Cordelia's coma or not. "She had been sick and in a magical coma for a while." The less he had to explain about that, the better. Buffy wouldn't know about Connor, after all. "But she's awake now. All back to normal again." Of which he was greatly relieved, may he he add. "Apparently we can't have normal lives, either. Magical comas and all."
It would be nice if he simply had a normal week where nothing completely and utterly insane happened. That wasn't the life that he was going to lead, though.
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After he explained Cordelia's situation, she was pretty impressed with what she'd missed in his life. And apparently Cordelia had been important enough to be put into a magical coma. Of course, she had no idea what the circumstances were, but considering the last time she'd seen her, she didn't seem to be going down any sort of magical path. "Wow," she said, "Insanity all around, then. I'm guessing that was a less fun coma than Faith's was for all of us."
She finished her drink and felt the calming warmth spread through her. "Have you guys noticed anything wonky happening with the Hellmouth? So far, it seems so quiet." And that definitely worried her. She knew it could go bursting open and sucking them all in at any moment.
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“Definitely much less fun than Faith’s coma,” he said. Not that her coma had been a ton of fun, considering what it had led to, but her in a coma had meant that an enemy at the time had been taken care of. It was a completely different situation with Cordy, though.
“It’s been quiet as far as we know of. Cordy had a vision, so we came. So far, a big lot of nothing, though.” It worried him, too. He was pretty much expecting something big to blow up in their faces soon. That was usually how it went with them. Nothing stayed quiet for too long.
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"Well, I'm glad you guys are here," she said, the corners of her mouth twitching in a slight smile. "It's nice to have a familiar face around. Or faces," she said.
She nodded, "Not that I'm hoping for something horrible to happen, but it would be nice to have some sort of hint as to what's coming besides just generic doom and destruction. It's hard to train the new slayers if I don't know what I'm training them for."
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"Definitely good to have familiar faces around during all of this," he admitted, a touch of a smile going across his face as well. It was good to know that there were people that he could rely on around him. As much as he wanted to use the resources of Wolfram & Hart, outside of his friends, he wasn't sure that he could trust any of them.
"It would be nice to at least know what we've got coming other than a Hellmouth in of itself." That could really mean all sorts of things. The basics just said that more demonic activity was going to be centered in New Orleans. You could almost say that was happening now. Anne Rice freaks did pool around the city, after all.
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"Definitely," she said, "And it's really hard for me and everyone to gather any info since I'm, like, a terrorist. And I'm pretty sure the police or whatever know what Will and Xander look like by now," she rolled her eyes. Being incognito worked for high school, but out in the real world? She was so over it.
"At least I'm still getting to do some hunting," she said lightly, not sure how much of her partnership with Eric she was wanting to divulge.
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"I'm not sure how much I can do, since it's a whole government after you guys, but I can try to get the heat off of you for a while," he said. "I *do* run a law firm, apparently." Something that he was still feeling...odd about, at least at times. He liked the resources at his and his friends' disposal, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed working around the likes of people who were normally employed by Wolfram & Hart, or it having an influence on his friends like it did.
"Hunting? How are you doing that?" Hunting vampires was technically illegal now, although most local police departments were...reluctant, to say the least, about investigating vampire murders. Plus, most vampire communities did that on their own, if they were organized like they were in the south.
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"Right, a law firm," she said quizzically, "What's that all about? Weren't they supposed to be all evil and you were trying to take them down?" She didn't know the whole story, just tidbits from her short visits and whatever Willow or Giles knew.
She bit her lip for a moment, "Well, there's this head honcho vampire in Shreveport. He's called the Sheriff or something? Anyway, he hired me to kill a bunch of bad little vamps that aren't playing by the whole synthetic blood rules."
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