(Untitled)

[mr_angel]

What the hell was going on? I got to have a chat with my dead little sister, Faith and I had our little talk with the 'island', the kids had gone missing when we got back to the beach, and now Faith had disappeared now that we were out looking for them. She wasn't around anywhere and now I was stuck trying to find Faith and the kids. Wonderful

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[mr_angel]

I gave Faith a small nod confirming that it was Wolfram and Hart that the portal led to. It only figured that it would be the place on the other side, but it still pissed me off all the same. Tyler nodded eagerly at Faith when she asked if they could take them there. Yeah, I bet it was loads of fun for them, but me? Not exactly my idea of a good time.

I smiled down at Lexi when she took my hand then looked back over to Faith again. She didn't need to thank me, but it meant something that she had. I nodded again at her but then I felt Lexi pulling on my hand and it seemed as if they were both wanting to get back.

"Alright, let's go," I smiled down at her. "You think you can remember how to get us there?" They'd both gotten there themselves the first time which, really, said something. How did they do that exactly?

We walked a while and I wanted to ask Faith exactly why she was covered in dirt, but I decided it might be better to keep quiet until we were alone. Who knows what happened and there was no need to upset Lexi and Tyler with something that happened to their mother. She didn't look physically hurt, so it could wait.

It didn't take long for us to get back to the compound and frankly this had better one of the last times I ever stepped foot in this place. I never wanted to come back after escaping the first time and now it was becoming a little too familiar.

Tyler was pulling Faith down the hallway and we went into the room where the portal was. He pointed to an area room and there it was. One bright, shiny portal straight to Los Angeles. We didn't even have to click our fucking heels. Looking over at Faith, I raised a brow. "Ready to go home?"

[neverbeenfree]

We walked in silence for a little while until we finally made it back to the compound. It was just as empty as I remembered it being but Tyler was insistantly pulling me towards something. Finally we were in a room I'd never seen before and my eyes got bigger as I looked at the...fucking portal. How the hell could we not find this before? We'd gotten sidetracked last time because of Angel's dead little sister but here it was plain as day. A portal.

I just stared at it for a second, because this was for real. We could really go home now and there were so many things...so much shit happened on this island. I felt like a totally different person from the one who had boarded the Christina O for a stupid annulment party. A party for an annulment that had never gone through. No kids, no husbands, as close to normal as I could get which pretty much meant it was just me. And Angel. Now there was...everything else and for a second I was just so fucking overwhelmed as I stared at it.

This was really my ticket home. The problem was, I wasn't sure that I would ever find that place again. I didn't even know who I was anymore.

Tyler tugged on my hand again and I was pulled from my thoughts as I looked down at him. "Yeah, I'm ready." I finally said as he pulled me through it.

I blinked and suddenly I was standing in a familiar looking hallway. Taking a deep breath I just looked around as people in business suits passed us, not even bothering to stop and give the four ripped up castaways a stray look.

"Holy F-" I glanced down at Tyler. "This has been here the whole time." The whole fucking time! God, I was getting tortured like two rooms over from here. How had I...

"Angel?!"

I was broken out of my spell as the four of us turned to see a familiar brunette staring at us. Cordelia. Oh, how I missed her....really. Suddenly Cordy had made her way towards us and was all smiles as she hugged him. Finally. A happy reunion.

[mr_angel]

We went through the portal and I looked around the place again. I hated how it felt so good to be in this building again when normally I couldn't stand the people in it, but at least most of them had to be better than what was on the other side of that portal. Right?

Yeah, it was here the whole fucking time. I gave Faith a sideways glance when she stopped herself from saying something that she probably didn't want the kids to pick up on anytime soon. Hah. That shouldn't be funny to think about, but hey I was back in Los Angeles in my building and we'd gotten ourselves home. That was good enough for right now.

A familiar voice tore me from my thoughts and when I looked up, I saw.. holy shit it was Cordy. There was probably a huge grin that broke out on my face and I wrapped my arms around her in return when she hugged me. God damn it felt so good to see her again. Finally pulling away, I just smiled at her.

"Miss me?" Alright, so probably not the best thing to say right now, but I wasn't known for conversation. "You have no idea how good it is to see you," I told her finally. "Connor's alright." I said with a nod and smiled at her again.

Sighing, I looked over to Faith and the kids. Faith actually looked pretty happy to see Cordy and the kids were both looking up at the two of us. "We.. found a portal on the island," I explained. Yeah. That's right. A portal.

[visiongirl]

I was getting nowhere with those stupid books and neither was Wesley. And for all I knew Veronica Mars was probably dead by now because I was the idiot who sent a teenager to go play intern. Alright, so fine she made me help her help me and I was doing stuff like this when I was a teenager but still! I didn't think getting an persistant little blonde killed would be such a good idea, no matter how tempting.

I was walking down one of the hallways off of the main lobby when I stopped in my tracks. Was I hallucinating suddenly? Because I swear I see Angel and Faith right in front of me, with two children that I didn't recognize.

When I realized it really was them I couldn't stop hugging the hell out of Angel. If this was a dream it was the best one ever because God, I've been worried sick and I missed them. My life was so boring without them around and Wes and I were at the end of our rope trying to find a way out for them.

Miss me?

"Duh."

I was about to ask when Angel assured me that Connor was alright. Okay, good. Then...where was he? I glanced over at Faith after he'd pulled away and narrowed my eyes.

"I'd hug you too but you're filthy. And also? I wouldn't hug you." I said with an arched eyebrow as she just stared back at me. "But I'm glad you're okay." I finally added in because it was the truth and I couldn't be all bitch all the time. Even around Faith.

"And it's probably about as good to see me as it is to see you. Wes and I have been freaking out trying to find a way to get you off of that island."

I glanced down at the little girl still holding tightly to Angel's hand and bent down to look at her before glancing over at the little boy near Faith.

"And you must be Lexi and Tyler."

"You have pretty hair." The little girl said to me blankly before letting go of Angel's hand to take a handful of my hair and tug.

"Ow!"

[mr_angel]

I raised a brow at the exchange between Cordy and Faith. Honestly, right now? I wouldn't care if they went into one of their worst snark fests because that meant things would be getting back to normal which I was more than ready to get back to as soon as possible. Well, at least a shade of normal, nothing would be the same anymore. Normal for us anyway.

Cordy bent down in front of Lexi and Tyler and I couldn't help but laugh a little when Lexi pulled her hair. When was the last time I'd laughed? Nevermind, not important. Tyler still kept a good hold to Faith's hand, but he was looking curiously at Cordy.

"Guys, this is Cordy. She's a close friend." That didn't really cover it, but there was no need to go into a backstory.

"Where's Wes?" I asked her. She'd mentioned that they'd both been working on trying to get us a way off the island and it would be nice to see him too if he was here, but I knew we needed to get back to the island but only to show that there was now a way to get ourselves back home. If I had my way, we'd all be off the damn beach never to go back again in a couple hours.

"Everyone else is still back on the island. We kind of came upon the portal.. by accident." As in, the kids found it and showed it to us.

"We played hide and go seek before Angel came and found us," Tyler said and smiled. This was just the perfect place to play. Wolfram and Hart was children friendly. Right.

[neverbeenfree]

"Wes is probably at his apartment." I heard Cordelia say as I looked down at Tyler. Apparently they had been playing hide and seek in Wolfram and Hart and nothing bad had happened to them? I was surprised at that, but also reassured. I mean, if Lena and James and Norman weren't fucking around with them when we weren't around that had to be a good sign. Right?

For as much as Cordelia annoyed the hell out of me I was actually kind of glad to see her, filthy hug comments and all and really that was kind of weak coming from the Bitch of the Year herself. Maybe she was glad to see me too.

Back in the real world for only a few minutes and already I didn't wanna go back on that island, much less drag the kids back. They didn't even know what any of this was, and I didn't know where to start explaining it, because I knew they would have more questions than I could keep up with.

"Do you think you could watch them?" I asked Cordelia. Okay, so she was probably my last choice of babysitters because well, she just was but it wasn't like Angel would just let me go back through the jungle alone and I wasn't about to let him do that either. Someone had to watch them if I didn't wanna pull them back and forth through the jungle again.

"Uhh...yeah, sure." Cordelia said. "You guys are gonna go back and bring the others through?"

I could tell that by 'others' she mostly meant Connor, not that I could blame her. She probably wanted to see that he was in one piece with her own two eyes.

"Yeah. That's the plan." I said, letting go of Tyler's hand before bending down so I was eye level with him. "You and your sister behave for Cordelia okay? She's gonna take you to the hotel. I'll be there soon."

[mr_angel]

I just listened as Faith as Cordelia to watch the kids while we went back through the portal to get everyone else. I was a little surprised that she'd ask Cordy, but at the same time it meant that they wouldn't have to go back on that island.

The kids looked a little confused about what was going on and I really couldn't blame them. They'd been alive for barely a few weeks and had already seen so much. "Remember home that your dad told you about?" Or at least one of them. "Cordelia is going to take you there."

Tyler looked back at Faith and nodded. "Okay, Mommy. Daddy will be there too when you get back?" Faith nodded at that and I looked again at Cordy.

"We'll get everyone together and be back as soon as we can get people back to the portal."

Sighing a little, I glanced back to Faith who had stood up again. I really didn't want to go back through that portal, but we didn't have another choice. "You guys don't drive Cordy crazy," I said flashing them and her a smile before moving to stand next to Faith.

"Alright, the sooner we go back the sooner we can be off the island for good." I didn't ask if she was ready because I wasn't, but we didn't have a choice. Faith told the kids goodbye again and we both headed back through the portal.

[neverbeenfree]

I looked up at Angel as he explained to the kids that Cordy was taking them home. Home. I guess that answered my question about whether we would be welcome back at the hotel or not after all of this. Which was stupid I know cause it's not like Angel is gonna kick me out but after everything that's happened? I don't know where I stand with anyone anymore.

Said goodbye to Lexi and Tyler again as I followed Angel back through the portal, and found myself standing in the compound again. Did I really just let my kids go with Cordelia Chase? Well, she didn't really have the superpowers thing but way I hear tell she's supposed to be a decent fighter these days. Who knows? They're safer with her back at the hotel than they are with me and Angel at the moment.

I blinked and looked around the room for a second before heading towards the door and finding myself back in the main hallway of the compound. Please don't let any dead family members show up. We were so close to it, I could almost taste the freedom.

"I can't believe we found the way out of here. I don't even know how long we've been here. I started to think we were never gonna be able to leave." I confessed to Angel as we made our way down the long hallway.

Now that I've found it, it almost seemed surreal to me. Like that was a dream, or this was all a dream. I dunno. I felt weird, which wasn't that different from how I usually feel.

[mr_angel]

"Yeah, and it's even more unbelievable that the kids were the one to find the damn thing," I said and shook my head. We walked through the hallways again and I kept my eyes open for anyone (or thing) that might decide to come out at us again. It probably wasn't a good idea to think it, but I really didn't think we would be running into anyone else at least until we got back to LA again.

"I'm not going to miss this place, but I guess it might be a little weird at first to be back for good." There was the sun thing I'd have to get used to again. It was weird how easily stepping out into the sun had gotten since we'd been on the island.

Once we were outside again and making our way back to the beach, hopefully to find Harry and Connor back there, I looked at her. "They said a lady came up to them and told them they'd be able to find candy in the jungle," I told her. "I don't know who, but someone wanted them to go in there."

The question now was, had it worked out like this 'lady' planned? Harry and Connor had been knocked out with darts and yet Lexi and Tyler made it to the compound, found the portal, and hadn't been harmed. Why?

"What happened to you earlier? I mean, the dirt and.. well, it was like you disappeared."

[neverbeenfree]

A lady came up to them? What lady? Could we vague that up a little bit? Who the fuck would come up to them and offer them candy? They shouldn't even know what candy was. I guess I was going to have to have the don't talk to strangers chat with them when we made it back to the hotel. Tyler was really smart and Lexi was really strong but they were still just kids. They don't know anything about the world and I sent them off with Cordelia?

I should have my head examined.

"I dunno how we got seperated but I fell in some kind of ditch thing." I shrugged as we got out of the compound and I looked around a little bit. The sun was beating down against us and the trees and I wondered how long it would take Angel and Spike to readjust to staying in the darkness. I wondered how long it would take Harry to adjust. "Lena showed up and surprisingly bailed me out."

I raised an eyebrow at that as we started heading through the jungle. "You just found the kids running back and forth through the portal?" I asked him and it was almost amusing thinking about them playing hide and seek. God, there was so many things I could show them now that we weren't going to be living on the island of freaks.

"I was so freaked out." I shook my head up at him. "I kept imagining the worst things happenin' to them. It's only gonna get worse now that we're out in the real world, isn't it?" Especially at the rate they were growing. They could be teenagers within the week. God.... Angel was a dad and he'd missed out on a lot of stuff with Connor too.

[mr_angel]

A ditch? Lena? Okay, that was.. something. I didn't press on exactly what happened because right now there wasn't a point. We'd found the kids, I'd found Faith again, we'd gone back to LA, I'd seen Cordy.. now it was time to get evernyone out of here.

"Yeah..," I answered about finding them. "Could hear them in the room and went in to see them nearly about to jump back into the thing." Hide and seek in Wolfram and Hart. That sure as hell didn't happen every day at the office.

I listened to her talk about how worried she was. Mostly I looked ahead of me, but I ended up glancing at her again when she asked if it would get worse. It's almost weird how easy the worrying comes. There are people you worry about, but this.. it's different. "It's easy to imagine the bad things I guess. And it won't necessarily get worse. I mean, they can play hide and seek in the hotel instead of Wolfram and Hart." I tried a smile, but sighed a little. "Maybe not worse, just different."

We walked a little more and then for some reason realized we had been walking longer than we should've been. Shit. I guess we didn't know our way back like we thought we did. Great. That would only mean we would be here that much longer. Looking around, I frowned when I saw something up ahead. "What the hell is that?"

Once we got closer I raised a brow. "A plane?" Or part of one anyway.

[neverbeenfree]

Right. They could play hide and seek in the hotel. Well, I guess they could while Cordelia was watchin' 'em but I didn't know where the hell I was gonna go when we actually got back. I wasn't really thinkin' about it before because I didn't really believe we were gonna get to go home but now, I had to figure it out. Just because I didn't know where home was didn't mean I couldn't figure out a place for my kids to call that.

I didn't say anything though and after a little while of walking we ran into what looked like a plane that had crashed. Or at least part of it. "Holy shit." I muttered as I looked over it. Well, Kate and Jack and Sawyer and the rest of their friends had to have come from somewhere right?

"Wonder how long ago this crashed here." I said as we both stopped in front of the plane. I tilted my head to the side and looked at it. Morbid curiousity got the best of me and I walked over to the side of it. There was a small door and I pulled on the handle but it didn't wanna budge. Okay, now I really wanted to know what was inside.

"Give me a hand with this?" I asked Angel and he nodded at me before grabbing the door at the side. The two of us yanked on it hard before the thing came right off it's hinges.

A bunch of bugs scurried out from behind the broken door and I wrinkled my nose. Now that's gross.

[mr_angel]

"Damn," I muttered as we walked up to the side of the plane. I guess this was how the original castaways made it to their island paradise. They crashed, we sunk. I helped Faith with the door and once it was off the hinges, I looked down to see the bugs empty out of the plane. Why were we bothering with this again?

I didn't bother asking but before I even could, Faith was walking inside and so I followed her. Ducking under something that was hanging from the top of the plane I hurried my steps and looked down at my feet carefully as I moved. I'd been in plenty worse, but there was just something about walking around in this damn half of a plane that I could do without, thanks.

"There had better not be any MOTHERFUCKIN' SNAKES on this MOTHERFUCKIN' PLANE," I exclaimed and stopped moving to look over at Faith who was just... well, staring.

Straightening up, I shrugged a little. "What? I heard Gunn say it once. It.. seemed appropriate." I let my voice trail off but she was just looking at me and I swear she was amused.

Just then Faith busted out laughing. Right. She was amused.

Rolling my eyes, I turned away from her and looked around the rest of the plane. "I don't think there's anything here."

Including the motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane.

[neverbeenfree]

I just stared at him for a second. Did he really just....? He really just said that. I really had to think about it because it didn't seem like something he would say and I hadn't really taken him for a Samuel L Jackson fan. I must have stared at him for a little too long cause he tried to justify it by sayin' he'd heard Gunn say it once. Yeah right!

I couldn't help it my face cracked into a giant smile and I started laughin' wicked hard. God, I couldn't even remember the last time I actually laughed, I almost didn't recognize the sound of it. But seriously, it was pretty fucking funny! He rolled his eyes like he was cranky and pissed that I was laughing at him but I couldn't stop. Motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

My ribs hurt by the time I finally pushed past him and made my way outside the smelly half of the plane. Shit. What was in there? I turned around to look at Angel as he emerged and I couldn't help myself. "Snakes on a plane?" I asked him and couldn't help it just started laughing again.

[mr_angel]

Faith was still laughing at what I'd said but really what was so funny? It was.. kinda funny when Gunn said it at the hotel one day, but nobody had laughed that hard. We stepped out of the plane and I just looked at Faith, waiting for her to stop laughing.

... Anytime now.

"Snakes on a plane?" I asked with a blank expression on my face. "Well.. yeah that's what I said, but so?" Shrugging, I shook my head and tried to forget that Faith still was pretty much cracking up at some line I just said that for some reason was just sooo funny.

I guess it was a good thing I didn't say it around anyone else. Not that saying it around Faith was a good thing since if she thought it was this funny, she wouldn't let me forget it for a long time.

Raising a brow at her, I had my hands on my hips. "You almost finished?" Well, at least someone thought this was funny and whatever, she needed to laugh. Right. It just happened to be at me.

"Can we get back to the beach now?"

[neverbeenfree]

He didn't even seem to know where the stolen line had come from, which really just made it even funnier cause he seemed confused as to why this was so funny. I didn't even care if was pissy though, cause it just felt so good to laugh even if it was his expense. Well, at least this time we weren't burying him underneath a layer of sand on the beach? Actually...that had been a fun afternoon.

"Sorry, but that ain't ever gonna stop being funny." I said to him, finally catching my breath from laughin' so hard. Finally I managed to get myself together but I was NEVER gonna let him forget it. Oh no, not ever. One of these days I was gonna have to make him sit through that movie just so he'd understand why it was just so fucking funny.

"Yeah, we can go back to the beach now. I think everybody'll be happy to hear that we can get the hell off of this island." I said seriously, but my mouth was still curved up in a slight smirk cause hell if it wasn't funny.

We started walking back to the beach, in silence for the time being and for whatever reason his little snakes on a plane reference put me into a slightly better mood than I'd otherwise been. Or maybe it was just the realization that I was really leaving this insane island.

"Do you really want me back at the hotel when we go back?" I asked him curiously.