A Vacation to Remember *re-write* - PG-13 - W/A - 2/?
As promised to velvetwhip, here is chapter 2 of Vacation. Have a wonderful day on your birthday today hun!!
Title: A Vacation to Remember
Author: claudia6913
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: W/A
Summary: Willow is still getting over Oz and her friends aren't helping. Angel decides she needs a little vacation.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just play in the fields of other peoples imagination.
Distribution: My writing journal. NHA. Please ask for others.
Author's Notes: This is set during season 4 of BtVS and season 1 of AtS. It goes AU from there. This is also a re-write, though not much has changed. I've cut back on the Buffy/Kate bashing.
Chapter 2
Slowing the car to a stop outside Cordelia's apartment, Angel battled with himself over whether or not to wake Willow. In the end it didn't matter, the fact that the car was no longer in motion had made that decision for him. Stifling a yawn, Willow peered blearily out the window. “Where are we?” she asked.
“We're at Cordelia's apartment,” Angel stated. “We can wait a moment, if you want to wake up.”
“Moving would help. My foot's asleep.” Unlocking the door, Willow opened it and stepped out, nearly falling in the process. In an instant, and faster than she'd remembered he could move, Angel was there beside her, helping keep her steady. “Thanks,” she said, heat flushing her face.
“Why don't we get you inside. I'll come back and get your bags.”
“Don't be ridiculous. I can carry them, Angel. You've done more than enough,” Willow said, limping to the trunk. Her legs threatened to give out once more as she braced herself against the car. “Actually, be a gentleman if you'd like. I can barely carry myself.”
Angel gave a quick smile and a small nod. “She's just up the walk from here, first one on the right.”
Together they walked the short path. Angel was ever vigilant, making sure Willow didn't topple again with his hand pressed softly on her back. He could feel the heat radiating off of her and it felt wonderful against his cool skin. This was harmless, he thought, touching her like this, but the thrill it sent through him refused to be pushed away so easily. Too soon they were at Cordelia's frond door and Willow knocked.
“One minute!” Cordelia hollered from inside. The door creaked open an inch before it abruptly shut again. “Dennis! I told you they were coming, now let go of the door!”
“Dennis?” Willow questioned.
“A ghost,” Angel answered. “What's wrong Cordy?”
“I don't know, he won't let me open it,” she said in a huff. The door rattled a few more times before her she stopped to yell at the ghost. “Come on now Dennis, if you don't open this door right now, I'll cancel Cinemax!”
“A ghost?” Willow asked, completely confused. Cordelia had never been one to tolerate even the smallest of insects within ten feet of her. A ghost was definitely not something Willow imagined was high on her comfort zone list.
“It's a long story, but basically Cordelia's roommate is a ghost who's mother killed him in their apartment. Now he 'tries' to help Cordelia out. Right now I suspect he thinks he's doing her a favor by not opening the door, though I don't know why that would be.”
As if in answer to Angel's unasked question, letters began to form on the window beside the door in a clearly designer shade of red from one of Cordy's lipsticks. W - I - T - C - H.
Willow began laughing loudly. “Well, I guess we know now.” A look of consternation played over Angel's features and she decided to fill him in. “He thinks I'm going to exorcise him.”
“Oh,” he said, a bit moronically. What do they do now, he wondered. Cordelia's apartment had seemed like the ideal place for Willow to stay the weekend, now Dennis had ruined it. As if enough hadn't been ruined already. For a moment he was tempted to ask Willow to go ahead with the exorcising of the annoying little ghost. There were only so many places Angel was willing to take Willow. This was Los Angeles after all, and though it wasn't the Hellmouth, it had its share of evil lurking, and not always of the vampire variety. There were more than enough of the human underbelly in the city to make anyone think twice about staying alone.
“Well, if he's not going to let me in, I could always get a hotel room,” Willow mused. “I wonder if there are any open this late and if they would take me without a reservation. I'm sure I have enough money in my account for a few nights.”
Willow, in a hotel room, Angel thought. No, she wouldn't be safe there. There was no threshold, no one to make sure something evil wasn't lurking around the corner. Almost automatically, Angel said, “You can stay at my place. I'll sleep on the couch.”
“Oh, Angel, I couldn't impose,” Willow said. Surely he wouldn't want her invading his private space like that.
“No, I insist. This was my fault. I didn't even think about how Dennis would react, and you're right, it is too late to get a hotel room in this city. We can go look tomorrow if you'd like.” As soon as those last words were out of his mouth, Angel regretted saying them. He had no intention of letting Willow stay in some seedy hotel.
“Uh, okay,” Willow said, flushing again. How many times had she done that now, she wondered. It was becoming a rather irritating habit of hers. Sure, under other circumstances blushing was normal, like when Giles asked her look up something in a book and finding out that all the letters were really just letters made by writing and ... naked human beings. But blushing around Angel, she thought, was not something she did on a regular basis that she could recall.
“Cordy, I'm going to take Willow to my place. See you in the morning,” Angel called to the door.
“Fine,” Cordelia said, yawning. It was nearly ten at night and everyone who wasn't dead was showing the signs of a long day.
Together Angel and Willow walked back to his car and made the short trip to his office, which also held his apartment below ground. He watched as Willow stopped to peer up at the building, and then run her fingers across the lettering in the guild plaque that read Angel Investigations. He vaguely heard her giggle under her breath as he unlocked the door and flipped on a light switch. The foyer was nothing special, and he'd bought out the other office space so that he could have the entire building to himself.
“So, this is Angel Headquarters,” Willow said, turning around taking in the scenery. She peeked at the little mini-fridge in the corner and the dying plant atop it which had the unfortunate position of sitting next to the still heated coffee pot. “Neat.”
“My office is over here, and Cordelia's is that other door,” Angel said pointing. “My apartment is downstairs through here.” He lead her through his office, a little smug that he'd had the sense of mind to clean off his desk a few nights ago. Though that had actually hurt him. There had been a rather important file that he'd shoved in that door along with his coffee cups, one of which had still congealing blood in it so that the file was nearly illegible. The client had come in this morning to see if there had been any progress ... which of course there hadn't been. So, he'd taken the time to sort through his desk and get everything in order. There were three files on the desktop that he was currently working on, but no more dirty mugs or dust.
“This is nice, Angel, I'm happy for you,” Willow said, turning to look at him.
He nodded. "The elevator's just over here.” He reached in front of her and pulled on the metal grate, cringing a bit when it squealed open unpleasantly. He'd have to remember to get it oiled. The slow ride down was silent. How odd was it that when they were writing e-mails back and forth, he never found himself at a loss for what to say, but now, face to face, he was near speechless.
The apartment was nothing special. Brick walls, hardwood floors, and sparse wall hangings decorated the majority of the place. There was a battered couch that had seen a few better days, and a large bed in his room that could be seen from the hallway. His kitchen was nearly empty of anything save an old refrigerator and a Formica table with four green chairs that looked uncomfortable to sit in for long periods of time. He stood back as Willow looked around, reaching out to touch the couch, walls, and other things as she went. It wasn't much, bits of nothing really, thrown together haphazardly in an attempt to make the place a little less like a dungeon and more like a home.
"This is cozy," Willow said, spinning around the living room, taking it all in. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but this hadn't been it. To be honest, she'd thought of the Bat Cave complete with technology out the wazoo and a little old man to wait on Angel. It was a silly idea, but there it was.
"Thank you," he said, walking into another room and setting her bags down next to the bed's wrought iron frame. "The bedroom's over here. You can use it until we find something else, or you can just stay here the whole time."
"That's really sweet of you Angel, but -" a crash sounded above them, cutting Willow off mid-sentence. Immediately they were attentive and listening for the source of the sound. There was a smaller noise a moment later, and a soft curse.
Shaking his head and relaxing, Angel couldn't believe his luck tonight. He knew who was invading his privacy, but couldn't she have chosen a different day, he wondered. Looking over to Willow he sighed. She was still tense, gearing for a fight (or flight if need be).
"Don't worry, Little One," Angel said, "I know who it is."
Without explanation, Angel went to the elevator to go confront his would-be intruder. Just as he turned around to close the doors, Willow slid in behind him. He was torn for a moment between whether or not to make her stay downstairs or to let her up with him. In the end, it didn't really matter. His ceiling didn't lend to much privacy he'd learned, so she would hear one way or another. It was probably better if she came anyway.
As the elevator reached the top, Angel angled himself in front of Willow and opened the grates.
"Do you have a warrant, officer?" he asked, stepping out. The flash of the gun in the moonlight made him grateful that he'd stepped in front of Willow.
"I don't need a warrant, do I," Kate said, her gun trained on Angel's forehead. She wasn't sure if it would kill him or not, but it would definitely hurt, of that she would make sure. "You're not a legal citizen. Hell, you're not even human." A noise caught her attention and Kate swung herself to see around Angel, her gun sight landing on a petite little red-head.
"Who is she, Angel? Another 'rescue'?" Not waiting for an answer from the dark vampire, Kate turned her attentions to Willow. "Do you know what he is?" Her voice was a bit softer now, looking at the younger woman.
"From the plaque on the door, I'd say he's a private investigator named Angel," Willow said, unsure of this woman and her knowledge of the other side of the dark world they lived in. Though, her comment regarding Angel's humanity made her wonder just how much this woman knew. The steady gun, and her friend's comment about a warrant led her to believe this was a cop - one that had seen more than her fair share of fangs instead of guns.
"He's a vampire," the woman said, her eyes almost pleading Willow understand that this wasn't a joke. If this woman wasn't so serious, Willow might have laughed at the absurdity of someone telling her that vampires were real.
"Kate, this is Willow, she's a friend of mine from out of town. Willow, meet Detective Kate Lockley," Angel said, turning his body to cover a bit more of Willow. Kate was becoming more and more unstable as the days and weeks wore on since she found out about him. He had once hoped that she could've moved past all of that, taken him seriously. Instead, she had decided to play some sort of martyr for the human race, looking under every rock for vampires to kill. He understood the pain she was in, but couldn't help her. An idea that ate at him now and again.
"Is she a vampire?" Kate asked, her gun now pointed between them, ever ready to shoot the first one to come near her.
Laughing, Willow shook her head. "No, I'm not ... unless you count that alternate universe me that made an appearance one day when a spell went wonky." Willow shivered remembering. "She was freaky."
Smiling, Angel looked down at Willow, and for a moment, brief and barely there, he remembered that version of Willow and remembered how he had thought she would've made a beautifully evil vampire. "Kate, leave now. You have no reason to be here."
"You're practicing without a license," Kate said stiffly. It was not quite a lie. Angel had a permit to practice private investigations, however, it was under an assumed name - and they had assumed he was human. In Kate's world, that now made a difference between law and lawlessness.
"No he isn't," Willow spoke up. She blushed and looked at Angel. "Sorry, I kinda looked you up on the Internet one day. I saw you had this business and that's how I got your e-mail address."
"He's a vampire, and he should die," her voice became venomous. "It doesn't matter that he walks like us, or talks like us, or even sometimes looks like us. He's dead. He should've stayed dead."
Willow was taken aback by Kate's statements. Granted, there had been a time, long, long ago when Willow had first been exposed to all of this that she had had the same thoughts and convictions. However, along the way, she'd learned not everything was black and white. The world was full of grey area's that people had to tread lightly, and consider greatly their consequences. Obviously Kate hadn't been working on her twelve step coping program.
"If it were anyone other than Angel, I would agree with you," Willow said, stepping out of Angel's shadow. When he moved to shield her again, she just held up her hand and kept her eyes on Kate. "But Angel is not like other vampires." She decided to leave out the happiness clause. One step at a time. The gun wavered in Kate's hands as she got closer. It made her heart beat like crazy, but she knew, somehow just knew Kate wouldn't shoot her. She was human. Kate was a police officer. Under it all, Kate was a good person - just lost right now.
"He drinks blood, blood that has to come from some human. Don't you ever wonder what happens to that human?" Her face twisted with disgust.
For a moment, Willow looked back at Angel, wondering why he'd never told Kate that he drank animal blood, or at the very least, blood from donor's out of a bag. Turning back, she said, "I think you've been misinformed about Angel. He drinks blood, yes, but animal blood. If you prefer, I can get him a disclaimer that says 'No humans were harmed in the making of this vampire'." Well, that was a bit of a stretch, if not a complete out and out lie, but the situation needed a bit of levity. "Lower your gun, please, Detective," she said softly. "He can't be killed by it, but I can."
Realizing it was nearly pointless, Kate lowered her gun. "I don't know how you do it," she said, shaking her head.
"Do what?"
"Feel comfortable around him, accept him. Do you even know anything about his past?"
"I probably know more about his past, present and future than you every will, Detective," Willow said. The use of her title was a ploy to get her to realize she was out of her bounds as an official. "Look, I know finding out about vampires is a shock, trust me. My sophomore year was full of them. But it gets easier. You have two options. One, forget it all. Forget about vampires, werewolves, evil witches, and everything else that goes bump in the night and carries more than a gun. Or, two, get used to it. Realize that just as there are decent human beings, there are decent vampires and other beings. But never forget that for every good one, there are a handful of bad, just like humans."
Willow's speech left Kate shaking her head and holstering her gun. "I don't know if I'll get to that point." Sighing, she backed out of the office and left, closing the door behind her.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Willow slumped and let out a whoosh of air. "Is everyone in Los Angeles crazy, or is it just that I'm so crazy that normal looks weird? First Cordelia living with a ghost, and now Super Cop."
Angel laughed, still amazed at how Willow had handled herself in that situation. She had been amazing. Nothing he could have done would've made a difference, he saw that now. Kate was too far against him for his words to do anything other than wound her. But Willow, she had managed to at least give Kate something to think about, something profound to consider instead of blind hate.
"Sleep now," Willow said, stifling a yawn. Together they went back into the elevator and rode down together.
"Thank you, Little One," Angel said, patting her on the shoulder. She waved it off like it was nothing and headed for the bedroom.
"Night Angel," she said yawning.
"Sleep well."
Title: A Vacation to Remember
Author: claudia6913
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: W/A
Summary: Willow is still getting over Oz and her friends aren't helping. Angel decides she needs a little vacation.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just play in the fields of other peoples imagination.
Distribution: My writing journal. NHA. Please ask for others.
Author's Notes: This is set during season 4 of BtVS and season 1 of AtS. It goes AU from there. This is also a re-write, though not much has changed. I've cut back on the Buffy/Kate bashing.
Chapter 2
Slowing the car to a stop outside Cordelia's apartment, Angel battled with himself over whether or not to wake Willow. In the end it didn't matter, the fact that the car was no longer in motion had made that decision for him. Stifling a yawn, Willow peered blearily out the window. “Where are we?” she asked.
“We're at Cordelia's apartment,” Angel stated. “We can wait a moment, if you want to wake up.”
“Moving would help. My foot's asleep.” Unlocking the door, Willow opened it and stepped out, nearly falling in the process. In an instant, and faster than she'd remembered he could move, Angel was there beside her, helping keep her steady. “Thanks,” she said, heat flushing her face.
“Why don't we get you inside. I'll come back and get your bags.”
“Don't be ridiculous. I can carry them, Angel. You've done more than enough,” Willow said, limping to the trunk. Her legs threatened to give out once more as she braced herself against the car. “Actually, be a gentleman if you'd like. I can barely carry myself.”
Angel gave a quick smile and a small nod. “She's just up the walk from here, first one on the right.”
Together they walked the short path. Angel was ever vigilant, making sure Willow didn't topple again with his hand pressed softly on her back. He could feel the heat radiating off of her and it felt wonderful against his cool skin. This was harmless, he thought, touching her like this, but the thrill it sent through him refused to be pushed away so easily. Too soon they were at Cordelia's frond door and Willow knocked.
“One minute!” Cordelia hollered from inside. The door creaked open an inch before it abruptly shut again. “Dennis! I told you they were coming, now let go of the door!”
“Dennis?” Willow questioned.
“A ghost,” Angel answered. “What's wrong Cordy?”
“I don't know, he won't let me open it,” she said in a huff. The door rattled a few more times before her she stopped to yell at the ghost. “Come on now Dennis, if you don't open this door right now, I'll cancel Cinemax!”
“A ghost?” Willow asked, completely confused. Cordelia had never been one to tolerate even the smallest of insects within ten feet of her. A ghost was definitely not something Willow imagined was high on her comfort zone list.
“It's a long story, but basically Cordelia's roommate is a ghost who's mother killed him in their apartment. Now he 'tries' to help Cordelia out. Right now I suspect he thinks he's doing her a favor by not opening the door, though I don't know why that would be.”
As if in answer to Angel's unasked question, letters began to form on the window beside the door in a clearly designer shade of red from one of Cordy's lipsticks. W - I - T - C - H.
Willow began laughing loudly. “Well, I guess we know now.” A look of consternation played over Angel's features and she decided to fill him in. “He thinks I'm going to exorcise him.”
“Oh,” he said, a bit moronically. What do they do now, he wondered. Cordelia's apartment had seemed like the ideal place for Willow to stay the weekend, now Dennis had ruined it. As if enough hadn't been ruined already. For a moment he was tempted to ask Willow to go ahead with the exorcising of the annoying little ghost. There were only so many places Angel was willing to take Willow. This was Los Angeles after all, and though it wasn't the Hellmouth, it had its share of evil lurking, and not always of the vampire variety. There were more than enough of the human underbelly in the city to make anyone think twice about staying alone.
“Well, if he's not going to let me in, I could always get a hotel room,” Willow mused. “I wonder if there are any open this late and if they would take me without a reservation. I'm sure I have enough money in my account for a few nights.”
Willow, in a hotel room, Angel thought. No, she wouldn't be safe there. There was no threshold, no one to make sure something evil wasn't lurking around the corner. Almost automatically, Angel said, “You can stay at my place. I'll sleep on the couch.”
“Oh, Angel, I couldn't impose,” Willow said. Surely he wouldn't want her invading his private space like that.
“No, I insist. This was my fault. I didn't even think about how Dennis would react, and you're right, it is too late to get a hotel room in this city. We can go look tomorrow if you'd like.” As soon as those last words were out of his mouth, Angel regretted saying them. He had no intention of letting Willow stay in some seedy hotel.
“Uh, okay,” Willow said, flushing again. How many times had she done that now, she wondered. It was becoming a rather irritating habit of hers. Sure, under other circumstances blushing was normal, like when Giles asked her look up something in a book and finding out that all the letters were really just letters made by writing and ... naked human beings. But blushing around Angel, she thought, was not something she did on a regular basis that she could recall.
“Cordy, I'm going to take Willow to my place. See you in the morning,” Angel called to the door.
“Fine,” Cordelia said, yawning. It was nearly ten at night and everyone who wasn't dead was showing the signs of a long day.
Together Angel and Willow walked back to his car and made the short trip to his office, which also held his apartment below ground. He watched as Willow stopped to peer up at the building, and then run her fingers across the lettering in the guild plaque that read Angel Investigations. He vaguely heard her giggle under her breath as he unlocked the door and flipped on a light switch. The foyer was nothing special, and he'd bought out the other office space so that he could have the entire building to himself.
“So, this is Angel Headquarters,” Willow said, turning around taking in the scenery. She peeked at the little mini-fridge in the corner and the dying plant atop it which had the unfortunate position of sitting next to the still heated coffee pot. “Neat.”
“My office is over here, and Cordelia's is that other door,” Angel said pointing. “My apartment is downstairs through here.” He lead her through his office, a little smug that he'd had the sense of mind to clean off his desk a few nights ago. Though that had actually hurt him. There had been a rather important file that he'd shoved in that door along with his coffee cups, one of which had still congealing blood in it so that the file was nearly illegible. The client had come in this morning to see if there had been any progress ... which of course there hadn't been. So, he'd taken the time to sort through his desk and get everything in order. There were three files on the desktop that he was currently working on, but no more dirty mugs or dust.
“This is nice, Angel, I'm happy for you,” Willow said, turning to look at him.
He nodded. "The elevator's just over here.” He reached in front of her and pulled on the metal grate, cringing a bit when it squealed open unpleasantly. He'd have to remember to get it oiled. The slow ride down was silent. How odd was it that when they were writing e-mails back and forth, he never found himself at a loss for what to say, but now, face to face, he was near speechless.
The apartment was nothing special. Brick walls, hardwood floors, and sparse wall hangings decorated the majority of the place. There was a battered couch that had seen a few better days, and a large bed in his room that could be seen from the hallway. His kitchen was nearly empty of anything save an old refrigerator and a Formica table with four green chairs that looked uncomfortable to sit in for long periods of time. He stood back as Willow looked around, reaching out to touch the couch, walls, and other things as she went. It wasn't much, bits of nothing really, thrown together haphazardly in an attempt to make the place a little less like a dungeon and more like a home.
"This is cozy," Willow said, spinning around the living room, taking it all in. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but this hadn't been it. To be honest, she'd thought of the Bat Cave complete with technology out the wazoo and a little old man to wait on Angel. It was a silly idea, but there it was.
"Thank you," he said, walking into another room and setting her bags down next to the bed's wrought iron frame. "The bedroom's over here. You can use it until we find something else, or you can just stay here the whole time."
"That's really sweet of you Angel, but -" a crash sounded above them, cutting Willow off mid-sentence. Immediately they were attentive and listening for the source of the sound. There was a smaller noise a moment later, and a soft curse.
Shaking his head and relaxing, Angel couldn't believe his luck tonight. He knew who was invading his privacy, but couldn't she have chosen a different day, he wondered. Looking over to Willow he sighed. She was still tense, gearing for a fight (or flight if need be).
"Don't worry, Little One," Angel said, "I know who it is."
Without explanation, Angel went to the elevator to go confront his would-be intruder. Just as he turned around to close the doors, Willow slid in behind him. He was torn for a moment between whether or not to make her stay downstairs or to let her up with him. In the end, it didn't really matter. His ceiling didn't lend to much privacy he'd learned, so she would hear one way or another. It was probably better if she came anyway.
As the elevator reached the top, Angel angled himself in front of Willow and opened the grates.
"Do you have a warrant, officer?" he asked, stepping out. The flash of the gun in the moonlight made him grateful that he'd stepped in front of Willow.
"I don't need a warrant, do I," Kate said, her gun trained on Angel's forehead. She wasn't sure if it would kill him or not, but it would definitely hurt, of that she would make sure. "You're not a legal citizen. Hell, you're not even human." A noise caught her attention and Kate swung herself to see around Angel, her gun sight landing on a petite little red-head.
"Who is she, Angel? Another 'rescue'?" Not waiting for an answer from the dark vampire, Kate turned her attentions to Willow. "Do you know what he is?" Her voice was a bit softer now, looking at the younger woman.
"From the plaque on the door, I'd say he's a private investigator named Angel," Willow said, unsure of this woman and her knowledge of the other side of the dark world they lived in. Though, her comment regarding Angel's humanity made her wonder just how much this woman knew. The steady gun, and her friend's comment about a warrant led her to believe this was a cop - one that had seen more than her fair share of fangs instead of guns.
"He's a vampire," the woman said, her eyes almost pleading Willow understand that this wasn't a joke. If this woman wasn't so serious, Willow might have laughed at the absurdity of someone telling her that vampires were real.
"Kate, this is Willow, she's a friend of mine from out of town. Willow, meet Detective Kate Lockley," Angel said, turning his body to cover a bit more of Willow. Kate was becoming more and more unstable as the days and weeks wore on since she found out about him. He had once hoped that she could've moved past all of that, taken him seriously. Instead, she had decided to play some sort of martyr for the human race, looking under every rock for vampires to kill. He understood the pain she was in, but couldn't help her. An idea that ate at him now and again.
"Is she a vampire?" Kate asked, her gun now pointed between them, ever ready to shoot the first one to come near her.
Laughing, Willow shook her head. "No, I'm not ... unless you count that alternate universe me that made an appearance one day when a spell went wonky." Willow shivered remembering. "She was freaky."
Smiling, Angel looked down at Willow, and for a moment, brief and barely there, he remembered that version of Willow and remembered how he had thought she would've made a beautifully evil vampire. "Kate, leave now. You have no reason to be here."
"You're practicing without a license," Kate said stiffly. It was not quite a lie. Angel had a permit to practice private investigations, however, it was under an assumed name - and they had assumed he was human. In Kate's world, that now made a difference between law and lawlessness.
"No he isn't," Willow spoke up. She blushed and looked at Angel. "Sorry, I kinda looked you up on the Internet one day. I saw you had this business and that's how I got your e-mail address."
"He's a vampire, and he should die," her voice became venomous. "It doesn't matter that he walks like us, or talks like us, or even sometimes looks like us. He's dead. He should've stayed dead."
Willow was taken aback by Kate's statements. Granted, there had been a time, long, long ago when Willow had first been exposed to all of this that she had had the same thoughts and convictions. However, along the way, she'd learned not everything was black and white. The world was full of grey area's that people had to tread lightly, and consider greatly their consequences. Obviously Kate hadn't been working on her twelve step coping program.
"If it were anyone other than Angel, I would agree with you," Willow said, stepping out of Angel's shadow. When he moved to shield her again, she just held up her hand and kept her eyes on Kate. "But Angel is not like other vampires." She decided to leave out the happiness clause. One step at a time. The gun wavered in Kate's hands as she got closer. It made her heart beat like crazy, but she knew, somehow just knew Kate wouldn't shoot her. She was human. Kate was a police officer. Under it all, Kate was a good person - just lost right now.
"He drinks blood, blood that has to come from some human. Don't you ever wonder what happens to that human?" Her face twisted with disgust.
For a moment, Willow looked back at Angel, wondering why he'd never told Kate that he drank animal blood, or at the very least, blood from donor's out of a bag. Turning back, she said, "I think you've been misinformed about Angel. He drinks blood, yes, but animal blood. If you prefer, I can get him a disclaimer that says 'No humans were harmed in the making of this vampire'." Well, that was a bit of a stretch, if not a complete out and out lie, but the situation needed a bit of levity. "Lower your gun, please, Detective," she said softly. "He can't be killed by it, but I can."
Realizing it was nearly pointless, Kate lowered her gun. "I don't know how you do it," she said, shaking her head.
"Do what?"
"Feel comfortable around him, accept him. Do you even know anything about his past?"
"I probably know more about his past, present and future than you every will, Detective," Willow said. The use of her title was a ploy to get her to realize she was out of her bounds as an official. "Look, I know finding out about vampires is a shock, trust me. My sophomore year was full of them. But it gets easier. You have two options. One, forget it all. Forget about vampires, werewolves, evil witches, and everything else that goes bump in the night and carries more than a gun. Or, two, get used to it. Realize that just as there are decent human beings, there are decent vampires and other beings. But never forget that for every good one, there are a handful of bad, just like humans."
Willow's speech left Kate shaking her head and holstering her gun. "I don't know if I'll get to that point." Sighing, she backed out of the office and left, closing the door behind her.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Willow slumped and let out a whoosh of air. "Is everyone in Los Angeles crazy, or is it just that I'm so crazy that normal looks weird? First Cordelia living with a ghost, and now Super Cop."
Angel laughed, still amazed at how Willow had handled herself in that situation. She had been amazing. Nothing he could have done would've made a difference, he saw that now. Kate was too far against him for his words to do anything other than wound her. But Willow, she had managed to at least give Kate something to think about, something profound to consider instead of blind hate.
"Sleep now," Willow said, stifling a yawn. Together they went back into the elevator and rode down together.
"Thank you, Little One," Angel said, patting her on the shoulder. She waved it off like it was nothing and headed for the bedroom.
"Night Angel," she said yawning.
"Sleep well."