Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had barely been a month since Chris Parry had 'replaced' Leo as the Halliwells' Whitelighter, and so far Angel was silently wondering if the whole thing had been a mistake, even if he didn't feel entirely comfortable voicing that doubt to the sisters. Chris was competent enough when it came to dealing with demons and offering advice, but the revelation that he couldn't even heal people had raised several questions that none of the Halliwells had been able to get an answer about.

Still, so far, Angel had to admit that Chris seemed to be pulling his weight despite his healing handicap; that particular issue had just forced Paige to step up on her own attempts to practise her healing ability. Since Chris's advice had stopped Angel killing a Prio Muto demon that was actually acting as the protector of an unborn child with an unspecified but significant destiny, Angel was willing to give the guy a break despite his doubts- as well as that strange nagging familiarity about his scent that Angel couldn't quite place- even if the Whitelighter kept looking at him as though he was just waiting for something to happen.

Even their work at the agency was going well; Paige in particular had noted that it was good to do something that felt like she was just attending a regular job while simultaneously getting a chance to practise and develop her magic skills. She'd briefly thought about doing some temp work to increase their income during a quieter period, but had soon decided that the hassle and necessary paperwork wouldn't be worth it, preferring instead to focus on their existing roles. Doyle and Wesley were also settling into the new routine, with Wesley in particular having taken it upon himself to 'step up' and act as an additional supernatural information resource in Leo's absence. Chris, unlike Leo, had stated that his focus had to be protecting of the Charmed Ones to the exclusion of all else, and so Angel Investigations had been left to work on their own more often than not.

Still, unusually enigmatic Whitelighters from the future aside, with Angel Investigations making a good reputation for themselves and Phoebe's own career taking off with her new boss's publicity, the only real 'problem' facing them so far was Piper's unusually chipper approach to Leo having left her. He could appreciate her trying to put on a strong face for her family, but even his limited human contact over the last century or so knew that she was doing almost too well…

"How's things?" Doyle asked as he walked into the office, sitting down at his designated desk as he grinned over at the vampire.

"Well enough," Angel said, dismissing his private musings about Chris as he looked at his friend. "How did the date go?"

"Well enough," Doyle repeated, shrugging slightly as he sat down at his desk. "Got a bit weird towards the end, when Phoebe started answerin' a few questions 'fore I even asked 'em, but I chalk that up as a good thing; shows we're gettin' in sync, right?"

"Probably," Angel said. "Doesn't she have that radio interview now?"

"Yeah, but she asked me to listen to it later; doesn't want me to hear her screw up if things go wrong," Doyle answered, smiling slightly as he looked at his boss. "I'm dating a local celeb; how about that?"

"We both are," Angel pointed out. "It's just that they're celebrities in different worlds."

"Talkin' o' which, where is she?" Doyle asked, looking curiously around the office. "Out on some case?"

"Just investigating a possible curse," Angel confirmed. "We're having a slower period right now, so Paige is working on her scrying for potential curse spots; no active threats, but she found something that she wanted to check out downtown."

"And that's that sorted, by the way," Paige said as she walked back into the office, shaking her head in bemusement as she smiled at her vampire boyfriend/boss. "Some guy had been turned into a dog, so I had to break the spell and turn him back; odd, but simple enough, even if Chris had to call us in for another vanquish later."

"Anythin' interesting?" Doyle asked.

"Just something Chris called a Trok demon," Paige clarified. "It had two heads, but apart from Piper just trying and failing to blow up one head when it appeared, it all went simply enough."

"Good for you," Angel said, smiling as Paige walked over to sit in his lap and give him a quick kiss. "I take it you preferred dealing with the curse?"

"Eh, what can I say?" Paige smiled at her boyfriend. "Vanquishing's good, but it's nice to have a chance to practise the magic after so long just kicking butt."

"Chris still keepin' you all busy?" Doyle asked, looking curiously at their witch colleague.

"I mean, I can appreciate wanting to take out demons, but there has to be a limit," Paige said, sighing in frustration as she lay back against Angel, grinning a little as Angel nuzzled her neck. "He always talks about how they're potential threats to Wyatt, but I just don't get why he can't take a break for once and do something else… I mean, did you know he can't even heal yet?"

"I thought you were still workin' on that yourself?" Doyle noted.

"I'm half-Whitelighter, so it's only natural that I should take a while to get a handle on all my powers; what's his excuse?" Paige pointed out. "Besides, I'm primarily here as a witch; it's his job to heal us even if he wasn't the one sending us out after all this stuff, so why isn't he taking the time to work on that?"

"Maybe he's just trying to prove himself?" Angel suggested. "I mean, if he's from a future where he grew up on your legend, he probably wanted to give a good impression of his knowledge to show he's worthy of being your Whitelighter…"

"Maybe, but it's still stupid," Paige said firmly, before she turned her head to look at Angel with a slight grin. "Still, with that curse and the Trok dealt with, and Doyle here to man the office, maybe we could… have a little celebration of our own?"

The grin on Angel's face at that suggestion was the only cue Paige needed to orb them both down to his flat, leaving Doyle shaking his head as he adjusting his position in the seat to look more professional.

He might not quite be as far along on his relationship with Phoebe as Paige and Angel were, but he wasn't going to begrudge them their time together if the chance came up; after what they'd been through with Angelus, coupled with how busy Chris was keeping them right now, some time to just be a couple was the least they deserved.

None of them could have known that they were being watched from outside by a blonde woman with a firm glare on her face as she stared at Angel and Paige.

It had been almost two years for them since they'd last seen her, but for Darla, that fateful night in P3 remained fresh in her memory even after all the torment she'd suffered in Hell between then and now. She wasn't sure what rankled more; that Angelus had staked her for the sake of that little witch, or that the witch had accepted him despite knowledge of what he really was.

Still, what they had become over the last couple of years wasn't as important as what she was about to do to them now that she had returned. Getting past the building's magical defences would be a challenge, of course, but that was one situation where her new human status would be an advantage; every defence the Halliwells and Angel had set up was designed to stop anything magical getting in, but they'd never really considered the possibility that a normal human with magical knowledge would try and attack them like that.

It was an intriguing loophole, but once her current 'associates' had helped her make the appropriate arrangements, it would only be a matter of time until Angelus was back where he should be…

Chapter Text

As she reappeared inside the manor, Paige smiled at the thought of the previous hour she'd spent with Angel; they might be past the initial inability to keep their hands off each other, but every time she had the chance to be with Angel, she received a new reminder of just what he'd learned over the centuries before she met him…

She didn't like to think about how he'd learned most of that stuff, of course, but there was no harm in focusing on the positives, right? After all, it technically hadn't been Angel who'd done those things, and he certainly hadn't been with her at the time, so what was wrong with enjoying the results rather than brooding on the earlier events.

"Good, you're back," Chris said, looking at her in frustration as he walked out of the lounge area. "We have-"

"Let me guess, another vanquish?" Paige groaned, looking at Chris in exasperation; if this 'Natalie' woman she'd heard about from Phoebe had been that bad, she was amazed that nobody had told her to leave before she'd gotten killed. "Seriously, I can get you not liking Angel because he's a vampire even if I wish you'd get over it, but do you have to keep going on at us about the demon vanquishing? I mean, it's not like you have to meet a quota or anything…"

"I told you, I'm here to stop a demon going after Wyatt-"

"Yeah, but you don't know enough to know which demon we have to worry about, do you?" Paige pointed out, looking at him in frustration. "Seriously, Chris, if you're going to keep pushing us like this, we'll burn out in a matter of weeks; we need some time to ourselves if we're going to be any good to anyone."

"And on that topic," Phoebe said, walking in to look at Paige with a smile, "I just turned down a guy who asked me out."

"And… that's enough to make you smile?" Paige asked, looking at her sister uncertainly. "Last time I checked, we were both seeing people right now-"

"I turned him down before he'd even asked me out," Phoebe clarified. "I knew that he wanted to ask me out, and a part of me was even… I actually wanted to say 'yes' at one point because he wanted to…"

"Uh… OK…" Paige said, looking uncertainly at her sister. "So… what are you saying here?"

"I have a new power," Phoebe finished, grinning back at Paige with new enthusiasm. "I'm an empath!"

"And… you've come to this conclusion because you were tempted to say 'yes' to someone else?" Paige said uncertainly.

"Hey!" Phoebe said indignantly. "I know we didn't grow up together, but I am not flaky or easy; when I'm with someone, I'm with them, and that's that!"

"OK, sorry about that…" Paige said, holding up her hands defensively. "Guess I'm just a bit… well…"

"Can someone please fold the towels in the dryer when it's done?" Piper suddenly called out, walking into the hall carrying Wyatt and her purse, demonstrating the same disturbingly cheery manner that she'd always had ever since Leo left. "I put a casserole in the oven, you can check it in about an hour or so. I will be at the club if you need me. Have fun!"

As Piper walked out of the hall, Paige sighed and shrugged as she indicated the door.

"Basically, if you started being cheery, I'd worry that whatever had caused that had happened to you," she said to her sister.

"Oh my God," Phoebe said, looking after Piper as though she wasn't even listening to Paige. "She is so sad…"

"Sad?" Paige repeated. "Where are you getting that from?"

"How about this," Chris suddenly interjected. "Three more demons, then we can talk about taking a little break."

"OK, if this is about your whole 'future knowledge' thing, that would be a lot more relevant if you could actually give us a name rather than a bunch of possibles," Paige said, staring pointedly at the time-traveller. "I mean, if you're going to all the trouble of time-travelling, you might as well have some names for us… and how much can you know if the Titans destroyed your future?"

"Look, I already explained that I exaggerated the damage they'd done to get everyone focused on the main threat when I got back; that's not important right now-!" Chris began.

"No, what's important is you giving us time to recuperate between vanquishes if you don't want us to burn out," Phoebe backed Paige up. "And speaking of burning out, we really need to figure out what's wrong with Piper and her powers; I'm starting to think we need to check to see if Leo did something to her before he left…"

"I don't think that's possible," Chris said.

"Then make it possible," Phoebe said. "Look, even if he doesn't care about Piper as his wife, as an Elder he at the very least should care about what happened to her powers."

"I can't," Chris said.

"Yeah, you can," Paige said firmly; for a guy whose purpose here was to help them, he seemed to go out of his way to make things difficult. "You just go up there and tell him to get his butt down here-"

"That's not why I can't," Chris interjected. "Look, I didn't want to tell you this because I didn't want to worry you two but... Leo's missing."

"Excuse me?" Paige said, after she and Phoebe had exchanged glances as though each wanted to confirm they'd heard Chris properly. "Leo's missing? For how long?"

"Since the last time you saw him," Chris explained. "Anyway, the Elders think he's been kidnapped."

"By whom?" Phoebe asked.

"That's… one of the things we're working on," Chris said apologetically.

"Right," Paige said, looking resolutely between the other two, making a note to have a serious talk with Chris about keeping them up-to-date later; there was not worrying them, and there was just being stupid. "Phoebe, get scrying; Chris, see if you can find anything else from the Elders. Maybe if we can get Leo back, he can at least fix what's up with Piper; her whole… weirdness seems to have started back when he left, so maybe he can knock her back to normal."

It was a slim shot, but when she didn't have anything else to work with in this kind of situation, she'd learned from Angel that it was best to start with a basic plan and work out the necessary finer details later on.

As far as searches went, it had simultaneously been one of the hardest and easiest scrying sessions they'd ever had to attempt. While their initial attempts hadn't been successful at finding any trace of Leo, after Paige suggested that they scry using Wyatt as the focus as the only thing left in the house that was most clearly Leo's, it hadn't taken that long to identify his location as some strange island in the Indian Ocean, even if her and Phoebe's attempt to rescue him had just resulted in them nearly being attacked by the resident Valkyries before they managed to escape.

Chris still seemed to feel that Piper's condition should be their priority, but considering that the timing of Piper's strange 'mood swing' suggested that Leo had something to do with it, Paige was reluctant to try another spell to 'cure' Piper when the more obvious solution was to rescue Leo and get him to fix his own mess. When the possibility of returning in disguise with a warrior's soul had been raised, Phoebe had suggested that they try bringing Angel along, but Paige had quickly shot it down; since the Book of Shadows only specified the soul rather than the body, she didn't want to risk what might happen if she extracted Angel's soul, even if they found some way to keep the vampire contained while Angelus was back in charge. While Wesley and Doyle were improving their skills, neither sister felt comfortable classifying them as 'warriors', which prompted them to take the relatively safer option of using Darryl.

After Chris retrieved a Valkyrie pendant from an apparent source of his- how a guy from the future had time to form all these connections in the past, Paige didn't know- they'd transferred Darryl's soul into the gem, leaving Doyle and Wesley to keep an eye on their unconscious ally and their emotionally-off sister while Paige and Phoebe headed back to the island. The costumes felt a bit off, but in a strange way, after all her time training with Angel, Paige was appreciating the chance to dress as though she was going to kick butt; her regular attire was comfortable, but this felt like it was appealing to another part of her.

As she and Phoebe walked into the cave where they'd found Leo earlier, Paige took one last moment to mentally prepare herself for what they were about to do; kicking ass was straightforward enough, but presenting herself as someone she wasn't was a bit trickier.

"Can I help you?" one of the Valkyries asked.

"We've brought a warrior," Phoebe replied.

"Warrior?" the woman repeated.

"Is there a problem?" Phoebe asked.

"How come I don't recognise you?" another woman asked

"Perhaps you'll recognise this," Paige said, stepping forward with the confidence she'd used to infiltrate the demon market; when you're bluffing, act like you believe your own story and everything else falls into place. "A warrior's spirit worthy of Valhalla."

As she opened the bottle to release Darryl's spirit, she briefly wondered why he looked so much more solid on this island than he had back home, but quickly passed it off as a side-effect of this place; it wouldn't do them any good to have a warrior's afterlife where nobody could actually fight, after all.

Judging by the approving smile from the woman that had spoken last, Paige felt fairly comfortable assuming that at least the first stage of their plan had gone according to plan; the only question was how they would use it to get Leo out before Darryl was 'committed' to anything they couldn't retrieve him from…

Her concerns about that issue were put aside when Darryl was sent into the cage where she and Phoebe had seen Leo earlier, followed by a figure emerging wearing the same armour that her former brother-in-law had been wearing when last seen; the helmet he was wearing hid his features, but Paige doubted that the Valkyries would give Leo's armour to someone else this quickly.

Despite his own lack of experience at working with a sword and shield as opposed to more modern weaponry, to his credit, Darryl managed to make a fairly good effort in the early stages of the fight, until Leo knocked him down and the two of them rolled along the ground for a moment. Just when Paige was starting to wonder what they were going to do to get either of their friends out, Leo head-butted Darryl and stood up, arms raised in an exaggerated victory pose.

"Can we just apologise for sending you such a weak warrior?" Paige put in, standing up as she noted the disappointed look on the Valkyries' faces. "We can… get rid of him for you?"

"Get rid of him?" one of the women said.

"Yeah," Paige confirmed. "We'll… put him wherever; you all just move on and… do your thing."

As the Valkyries departed, Paige sighed in relief; she was guessing that had only worked because they never expected that anyone would even be able to break in here and try something like this, but the sooner they got out of here, the better. As soon as she and Phoebe were alone in the cage room, Paige threw a potion she'd prepared for this situation at the cage door, destroying the lock and giving Leo and Darryl the chance to leave.

"It's clear!" Leo said, looking urgently at the sisters as he hurried for the cave exit, carrying Darryl over his shoulders. "Where's Piper?"

"An emotional mess because of whatever you did to her," Paige said, glaring at her brother-in-law as she reached up to touch her necklace and open the portal. "Can we just get home and talk about this then?"

"Good call," Leo nodded, the four of them walking through the portal and back to San Francisco.

"So… it's all sorted?" Angel asked, as he and Paige lay on his couch a couple of hours later, Angel soothingly running his fingers through Paige's hair as she finished telling him about everything that had been happening.

"As over as you'd expect," Paige said, shaking her head slightly at the memory. "I mean, Darryl got back into his body easily enough, Leo's off starting his Elder-hood, Piper's back to normal, and she gets that things only went so wrong because Leo's unexplained 'vacation' meant that he couldn't adjust her mood himself, but she's still asked him to stay away for a while until she can just… get used to not having him around."

"Awkward," Angel said sympathetically.

"Hey," Paige said, looking at her boyfriend with a slight smile, "I miss him too, but it's not like he's going to be gone forever, right? I mean, Leo's not going to abandon his son even if he's got to be all 'Elder-y'…"

"Yeah, but it's still a bit of a shift," Angel sighed, staring thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "I mean, Leo's been there as long as I've known you all, and he was the only person I knew long-term who was even close to my age and wasn't trying to kill me…"

"Little morbid, but I get your point," Paige said, shrugging as she looked back at him. "Hey, I miss him too, but things change; we have to give everyone time to cope, right?"

"Right…" Angel said, leaning over to give Paige a brief kiss before the two continued staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

Piper might have lost Leo, but at least Paige still had Angel, and she had faith that he wasn't going to get a 'promotion' and move on any time soon…

Chapter Text

With things returned to some degree of normality after the confusion caused by the Cleaners 'removing' Wyatt- even if the Halliwells were the only three to really remember that there'd ever been a problem in the first place; Angel and his team just trusted their words- business returned to normal, with Chris maintaining his strange fixation on vanquishing demons while Angel Investigations continued to operate as their more 'public' face.

The only oddity so far had been Angel experiencing an unusually erratic sleep schedule, dozing for far longer than he had in the past, but Paige was trying not to be that concerned about something relatively minor; considering that Angel had been active at nights for centuries before he started working with them, it was probably inevitable that he'd feel a bit off trying to adjust his usual pattern now that he was regularly interacting with humans again…

"He's still noddin' off?" Doyle noted as he poured himself a cup of coffee while sitting at his desk, looking at Paige in surprise at the news. "I mean, I get that he's a vampire, but it's not been that busy durin' the day recently…"

"Not for him, anyway," Paige muttered, before she sighed and looked apologetically at Doyle. "Sorry about that; Chris has just been… well, he just keeps on pushing us…"

"Say no more," Doyle nodded in understanding. "We all need a bit o'time to unwind and he isn't givin' it to you, huh?"

"I mean, OK, he's from the future trying to stop things going to Hell, but he should know that he can't keep pushing us like this," Paige sighed, staring up in frustration.

"Everything OK?" Angel's voice asked as he walked up from his own rooms, looking curiously between the other two.

"Yeah, we're good," Paige smiled at him, earlier concerns forgotten at the sight of her boyfriend.

"Oh, Wes called earlier; he's runnin' down a new lead for Chris, so he might be a bit late in today," Doyle noted, before he looked more curiously at Angel. "On that topic…"

Before Doyle could finish his sentence, he suddenly bent over and clutched at his head, yelling in agony as another vision struck him. Paige and Angel quickly hurried over to help him, but he was standing up almost as soon as they moved, gasping for air but looking anxiously around at them.

"Girl," he said urgently, grabbing a pen and paper and writing down the street names. "In an alley… God, she was scared…"

"We're on it," Paige said, glancing at the address and the conditions outside- sun was still in the sky, but low enough for Angel to be safe if she was careful about where she took them- before she took her boyfriend's arm and orbed away.

As they reappeared in the alley Doyle had identified, Paige's eyes widened in shock as she saw two men standing over a teenage girl, the posture of both men making it clear that their intentions were less than honourable. For a moment, Angel and Paige moved to help, but their aid became academic when a nearby dumpster slid across the alley and slammed both men into the opposite building, the girl sobbing even harder as the dumpster rolled away to reveal the shattered bodies of both of her would-be attackers.

"OK…" Paige said, exchanging glances with the vampire. "That was unexpected."

"Yeah," Angel said, glancing anxiously at Paige before he came to a decision. "Stay back; if she starts throwing things again, I'm… well, I can take a hit like that better than you can."

"Gotcha," Paige nodded, stepping back as Angel approached the girl, holding his hands out in a calming manner.

"OK," he said, looking anxiously at the shaking girl, "let's just… try and keep it all together, shall we?"

"W-who are you?" the girl said, looking at him in apprehension. "Wh-what do you w-want?"

"Just here to talk," Angel said calmly. "That's all; just talk."

"Just… stay away from me," the girl said, trembling as she studied the vampire. "I-I'm really upset right now… you should just-"

"We're here to-" Angel began, before a nearby trash-can suddenly picked up and slammed into the vampire, sending him flying into another wall.

"Oh God, no!" the girl said, looking at him in shock. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's OK," Angel said, standing up as he clutched at his aching chest, trying to look reassuringly at the girl despite the damage he'd just taken. "I'm… I'm OK…"

"What?" the girl said, looking at Angel in shock. "How…?"

"Like I said, we're here to help," Angel said, smiling despite his pained wince. "My name is Angel."

"Great," the girl said, laughing in frustration at that comment. "I just attacked an angel; I'm never going to get into Heaven now…"

"Nobody's going to mind about that," Paige said, walking over to join her boyfriend. "Trust me, Angel's name might just be a name, but nobody's going to hold a grudge if you just… freaked out after a bad experience."

"What?" the girl said, looking in confusion at the two people standing before her. "Wh-who are you?"

"I'm Paige, and we're here because we're… like you," Paige said, wishing that her 'gift' was more like Prue's than it was; orbing stuff might look cooler, but it would make it easier to make her point right now. "I get what happened; those men were… trying to hurt you, and you stopped them, right?"

"I didn't mean to," the girl said shakily. "They followed me from the club; it wasn't-"

"It's OK," Angel said again.

"Yeah, it's just great!" the girl said harshly.

"You're not from here, are you?" Angel noted, after a moment's awkward silence. "Any family?"

As the girl shook her head, Paige smiled sympathetically at the girl.

"Always tough to make a new start," she said.

"You can't make me go anywhere with you," the girl interjected, cutting off Paige's tentative plans to make an offer.

"And we'd never try," Angel said firmly, as he reached into his coat and handed the girl one of the agency's card. "Just… take this. If you need anything… someone to talk to… we won't hurt you."

"I have a friend," the girl said.

"Never thought you didn't," Paige said. "We're going to be there for you; that's all we're offering right now."

Despite her words, Paige had still harboured a hope that the girl would accept their offer after that statement, but instead she just took the card and ran, leaving Angel and Paige to exchange uncertain glances.

"So," Paige said at last, "what do we do now?"

"She could move things?" Phoebe said, looking at Paige in surprise as her sister and Angel finished telling their friends the result of their investigation into Doyle's latest vision.

"Well, she moved a large dumpster to hit some guys who were about to attack her and then threw a bin at Angel without touching any of them; hard to pass both of them off as coincidence," Paige noted.

"Yeah, what'd you do with those guys anyway?" Doyle asked.

"Checked if they were still alive and then called for an ambulance," Paige said, shrugging as her sisters looked at her. "Hey, I'm still only able to heal if I really care about the people I'm healing; after what those guys were apparently going to do to that girl, I wasn't that committed to helping them that much."

"Fair point," Piper said, before she looked over at Chris. "OK, so you're our Whitelighter; if this girl's a witch, why didn't she seem like she knew who Paige was?"

"Maybe because she doesn't know she's a witch."

"Pardon?" Phoebe said, looking incredulously at Chris. "How's that possible? If she's active already, shouldn't her Whitelighter have told her about us-"

"Magic might run in families most of the time, but occasionally someone just develops it out of nothing," Chris explained. "Melinda Warren's the most potent example, but there have been others over the years; if this girl didn't seem to know anything about demons or the Power of Three, it's possible that she's one of those."

"She develops the ability to move things with her mind and she doesn't think it's magic?" Piper asked. "What else could it be?"

"With some of the modern ideas about human beings developing advanced physical and mental abilities as we 'evolve'?" Wesley put in. "It wouldn't be impossible for her to assume that it was something like that, particularly if she doesn't have any reason to think that she's dealing with magic if she hasn't encountered any actual demons so far."

"Anything else you have to offer on that theory?" Phoebe asked.

"Well…" Wesley began, before he shrugged. "Unfortunately, I haven't had much reason to look at that recently; your powers just clearly came from magic, so I never researched other explanations for them before now…"

"Get on it," Angel said, nodding firmly at his friend before he looked around at the others as Wesley headed off to consult his books. "As for the rest of us, we need to try and find this girl before anyone else gets hurt."

"How do we even do that?" Paige pointed out. "I mean, all we have to go on is what Doyle saw in his vision and our little meeting; we really don't know that much…"

"Her accent suggests north-east, possibly Ohio, and everything about her suggests that she's on the run, so start with runaways from that part of the country," Angel put in.

"Check; I'll head down and get Darryl to run a few searches," Paige said, standing up and orbed away.

"Right…" Angel said, wincing as he stood up and clutched his chest where his wound was still healing. "I'm just going to… get some rest; it's been a long day."

"You ain't been up that long-" Doyle began, but Angel had walked down the stairs towards his apartment before he showed any sign that he'd even registered that his friend was speaking.

"Uh… is it just me, or is Angel sleeping a bit more lately?" Phoebe asked, glancing over at Doyle. "I mean, I know that he's meant to be nocturnal, but he's been coping pretty well for the last couple of years…"

"Maybe it's just catching up with him at last; who cares?" Chris said briefly. "He's got his job, and you should be getting on with yours-"

"If it concerns Paige, anything that Angel Investigations does concerns us," Piper interjected firmly. "I get that you've been sending us after the demons that tend not to get involved with the rest of the world, but the agency's a good cover story for when we need to get more involved with the public, and this seems like more of their kind of case anyway; it couldn't hurt you to try and see how they do things, you know."

Judging by Chris's glare, Piper suddenly wondered if he was going to object anyway, but he eventually nodded grimly at Piper.

"Fine," he said at last. "I'll… see if I can find out anything more about this woman."

"Is that likely?" Phoebe asked. "I mean, if she's a completely new manifestation like Wesley thought-"

"If she's powerful enough to throw something around the size of a dumpster, she's powerful enough to have attracted interest from someone," Chris said grimly, before he orbed away, leaving the remaining two sisters and Doyle looking uncertainly at each other.

"Anyway," Doyle said at last, standing up and indicating the door, "I'll just see if Wes needs any help with anything; you two just… do what you do?"

"Gotcha," Phoebe said, smiling at Doyle in understanding as she stood up. "I'll check to see if anyone's posted any 'Missing' announcements at work; we can't exactly rule out anything, right?"

Chapter Text

Knocking on Angel's door, Doyle wondered if he should be concerned about the fact that the vampire was keeping such comparatively late hours recently.

It wasn't as though they needed Angel to be active during the day- orbing gave them more options for getting him around without risk of exposure, but there was still only so much he could do when the sun was out- but despite what Chris had suggested to the Halliwells earlier, Angel shouldn't be experiencing a 'relapse' back to his prior sleeping patterns after spending this long with humans…

"Hey," the vampire said, dispelling Doyle's earlier concerns as he casually walked out of his room, fully dressed and obviously ready to go despite a slight sense of fatigue around his eyes that could just be attributed to him having only just woken up. "How's things?"

"Uh… goin' slow," the half-Brachen noted awkwardly, as he followed the vampire up into the upper office, where Wesley and Paige were still studying their books. "We found a few ideas 'bout the power thing, but nothin' definite, 'part from Wes noting that it tends to emerge during periods of extreme emotional stress…"

"Which isn't much help apart from confirming that we're on the right lines," Paige noted, as she glanced over at her boyfriend and co-worker, just before the door opened and the woman walked in, wearing a jacket over an old-fashioned nightgown. "But we just got a lead."

"Hey," Angel said, reacting fairly casually to the new arrival. "How are you?"

"Bethany," the woman said, her voice trembling slightly. "Bethany Chaulk… you said that… if I needed anything…"

"You're safe here," Angel said, his voice low.

"All safe here," Doyle smiled.

"This is Doyle and Wesley," Angel said, indicating the other two men.

"Family business, huh?" Bethany asked.

"They're friends," Angel clarified.

"We work with my sisters on some… special cases, but that's a different issue," Paige shrugged casually. "How about you?"

Bethany was interrupted from answering when she walked into the room and fell over, Angel grabbing her before she could hit the ground.

"Sorry," Bethany said, pulling back from Angel in a manner was just too swift to be a desire for independence. "I'm just… so tired…"

"Would you like some tea?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, please," Bethany said.

"You'll be fine," Paige smiled, as her boyfriend headed for the apartment's small kitchen. "Angel does this kind of thing all the time."

"Makes tea?" Bethany asked.

"Helps people," Paige clarified. "We do that all the time; it's… basically his raison d'etre."

"So what's wrong with you?" Bethany asked.

"Let's just say we're all long an' complicated stories, trust me," Doyle noted, nodding in understanding.

"In the meantime," Paige smiled at the girl as she got up from her desk and walked over to join their new 'client', "maybe we should get you something better to wear?"

Staring out of the window that was currently in the shade, Angel wondered if they could really do this.

Bethany might not give the impression that she'd made a 'choice' about her powers one way or the other so far, but he just had to wonder why whatever higher power 'controlled' Doyle and Phoebe's visions had made a mistake by sending this one to Doyle. He might have worked with Paige ever since Doyle came into their lives, but surely the Halliwells would be better suited to help someone deal with developing powers; he was hardly an expert on magical issues, after all…

The sound of footsteps behind him prompted him to turn around, taking in Bethany standing behind him wearing a loose blue top and a long brown skirt.

"They're Paige's," Bethany said awkwardly. "Feels… kinda funny."

"You look fine," Angel said awkwardly. "Is your friend OK?"

"Just worried about me," Bethany shrugged. "How do you explain… I'd sound crazy."

"Are you?" Angel asked, making an attempt to lighten the mood despite knowing how awkward it would be.

"What?" Bethany asked.

"Crazy," Angel clarified. "I just think things would go smoother if I knew that upright…"

"I probably am," Bethany chuckled, before she sighed while walking down the steps. "I- I don't wanna… I don't want to talk about and share, or whatever. We-we can talk about stuff, but… I don't know. You're the expert, right?"

"When it comes to your powers, Paige would be the better bet," Angel said, trying to ignore his nagging suspicion about Bethany's reasons for asking that particular question; the last thing he needed was for their new client to get too attached to him. "She's… it's not the same, but she's been dealing with that kind of power for the last few years…"

"I don't want to control it," Bethany said firmly. "I want it gone."

"OK," Angel said, deciding to leave that issue for the moment in favour of the questions he could get answers for right now. "So… when you use your power… what's it like?"

"It's like…" Bethany began, waving a hand uncertainly until she continued speaking. "There's a flash, like… something pops in my brain, and then I'm… it's like… uhm, there's an undertow, like there's no gravity and my body's being pulled in different directions, but inside, you know?"

"Does it hurt?" Angel asked, wondering if it was a good or bad thing that Paige didn't have that kind of power herself; he doubted that things had been that way when Prue was using her powers before Paige was 'activated', but he'd spent most of his time when Prue was alive 'monitoring' Paige rather than keeping an eye on the active Charmed Ones.

"Yes… no…" Bethany said; evidently she'd never articulated this kind of thing before. "It's just for a second, then I'm back."

"And you only feel it when you make things move," Angel noted.

"I don't make them move," Bethany corrected. "I go into this and when I come back things aren't where I left them."

"You've never done it on purpose?" Angel asked; if she only used her powers in extreme circumstances, her issues must be greater than he'd anticipated.

"Of course not," Bethany said, as though surprised at the very idea.

"You've never thought 'man, the remote is too far away and I'd have to get up'?"

"It's not a parlour trick!" Bethany protested, standing up indignantly. "It's- a disease!"

"OK, we're still working out what it is right now; let's… not start labelling anything," Angel said; whatever Bethany decided to do with her powers, considering them a disease couldn't be psychologically healthy. "I just want to know about you."

"Well, don't start asking me a bunch of stupid questions," Bethany countered indignantly. "Like 'when were you potty-trained', 'name all your pets', 'do you like hide-n-seek'?"

"None of those were on my list," Angel noted, bemused at the sudden shift.

"You don't even know what I'm going through!" Bethany yelled in exasperation. "I shouldn't even be here!"

"I agree," Wesley suddenly cut in, the ex-Watcher walking into the room to look grimly at the girl. "It's clear this girl doesn't want our help. I don't think we should be wasting our time with her."

"Wesley-" Angel began.

"I'm sorry, but there are people out there who need us," Wesley continued. "People with much more serious problems than impulse-control issues."

"Look, that's enough-" Angel began as he stood up; he had no idea what had prompted Wesley to go on this kind of rant, but he was starting to worry about his friend's mental state.

"Why doesn't she go back to her friend's, toss the furniture about?" Wesley said, walking up to stand directly in front of Bethany. "Or maybe we should send you home to your father?"

As though that word had been a cue, Wesley was sent flying back against a wall as Bethany gasped in terror. Only his experience with Paige's habit of instinctively orbing things away when panicked stopped Angel from trying to move forward and offer Bethany help himself; Wesley didn't look like he'd hit anything serious, but if Bethany threw him out of the window or something by accident there would be no guarantee that he could get to safety before he was hit by the sun.

Whatever Wesley had been up to, Angel sincerely hoped that his friend had gotten what he wanted, because there was no way that Bethany was going to want to talk to him again after that…

"What was that?" Paige asked Wesley, everything about her making her frustration clear as she examined his various bruises (The only good thing about her being unable to heal them was that at least it proved Bethany wasn't evil yet). "I thought we agreed we were going to try and be cautious about this whole situation?"

"I didn't want to give her time to get her defences up-" Wesley began.

"And if you'd taken more time maybe you could have come up with some strategy that wouldn't leave our innocent terrified and you bashed up," Paige countered. "What were you doing?"

"Testing a theory by mentioning her father," Wesley clarified.

"And her father is…?" Paige asked.

"I don't know; it's…" Wesley began. "In my research, the kind of trauma necessary to produce this level of potential power would usually involve abuse of some kind, typically very early on. She made reference to 'family business' when she arrived here, you mentioned a 'vibe', and her awkwardness about dressing in a potentially provocative manner… statistically speaking, the father was the best guess."

"Best guess…?" Paige began, before she shuddered as Wesley's meaning came to her. "Oh God…"

"Indeed," Wesley nodded grimly.

"You know," Paige said, after taking a moment to try and force that image out of her mind, "I can at least understand why demons are that sick, but what kind of freak tries to feel up his own daughter?"

"Sometimes people are flawed," Wesley noted solemnly. "All we can do is work to protect those that aren't so twisted."

Further conversation on that grim topic was ended when Angel walked into the office, glancing around at his team.

"She's shaken, but settling," the vampire said, before he looked firmly at Wesley. "You're gone."

"I understand," Wesley nodded as he stood up, wincing at the bruises in his back. "My being here wouldn't exactly… help her trust us. I'll see if I can find anything else out about her… circumstances… back at my flat."

"It's good that we know, anyway," Angel said, nodding in understanding at Wesley's grim expression, turning to look at Paige after the ex-Watcher had left the apartment. "Where's Doyle?"

"Decided to go along with Phoebe to check out a couple of his own contacts for more ideas about Bethany… manifesting like that," Paige explained uncertainly. "Should we… get him back?"

"Probably better if we… minimise Bethany's contact with anyone right now," Angel noted. "I mean, she seems to trust me, and you could just orb to safety if she tried anything, but everyone else…"

"Yeah; bit more vulnerable if she freaks out," Paige said, looking solemnly at her boyfriend for a moment before sighing grimly. "You think if more people knew about some of the stuff we have to deal with, less people would want to be heroes?"

Angel had no response to give to that statement, so he simply stood in grim silence as he glanced over back at the room where their latest client still sat.

He wasn't ready to offer Bethany the option of just stripping her powers yet- and considering the circumstances of her activation, he wasn't sure if that would even work- but there had to be something he could do to help her accept what she was…

Later that night, Angel lay in his room, staring up at the ceiling as he considered the current situation. Talking with Bethany had at least confirmed that she wasn't interested in using her powers for evil, but her attitude towards her own safety was far from positive, ranging from her choice of room to her own perception of herself as pathetic for focusing on her own problems.

Angel might admire it when people were able to focus on something other than themselves, but at the same time, he wasn't going to condemn someone for thinking about their own issues first.

The sensation of Paige snuggling up against him gave him something else to think about for a while, but even as he tried to doze, he couldn't shake the strange image of blonde hair and a demonic face… a body he'd known for a century and a half and yet never really known as himself at all…

Why were thoughts of Darla coming back to him all of a sudden? It had been over a year since he'd staked her and he'd never thought of her after that; why was it coming up now?

He was spared from those confusing thoughts when he heard a door open, glancing up to see Bethany peering inside the room, eyes widening as she registered Paige lying beside Angel.

"Oh," she said, the sound prompting Paige to open her eyes and glance at their client as Angel adjusted the covers to make their lack of attire less obvious. "You two are…?"

"We are," Paige said, rolling over slightly to better look at Bethany. "And what were you thinking of doing here?"

"I just thought…" Bethany began awkwardly, looking everywhere but at the couple in the bed. "Well… Angel and I could… I mean, I didn't know he was here with you…?"

Lost for anything else they could say in response to that awkward suggestion, Angel and Paige glanced at each other for a moment before looking back at Bethany.

"You have issues, you know that," Paige said firmly. "All your attitude about touching people and then you come here thinking about doing that?"

"I'm just not some frightened little mouse-" Bethany began.

"And you need to realise that things aren't always that simple," Paige said, suddenly wishing that Phoebe was there to give this girl a better assessment of her issues. "Seriously, you have all those touch issues and you come here for sex? What did you want?"

"Are you shocked I'm a great big slut?" Bethany asked, as she sat down on the end of the bed.

"We're… not that easily shocked," Angel said, stuck for anything else to say in this unconventional situation.

"Everyone thinks I'm so fragile and innocent," Bethany said, her brief assertive moment gone. "Men love it."

"Do you?" Angel asked.

"Do I love it?" Bethany said dismissively. "Who cares? I'm… I'm like the chambermaid. I just leave. When a guy's on me, I… I made up the room, I showed him in- and I leave until he's gone, come back and- clean up the mess."

"And the men?" Angel asked, taking over for Page as she looked away from Bethany, whether in pity or disgust Angel couldn't be sure.

"What, you think they'd notice or care I'm not there?" Bethany asked. "Would you?"

"People aren't as bad as you'd have them be," Angel said firmly.

"And before you say anything, Angel's seen a lot more than you'd think," Paige put in, turning around to stare at the other woman before she sighed. "Look, it's late and we're all tired; just… try and get some sleep."

They clearly needed to have several difficult conversations with Bethany, but late at night wasn't the time to have any of those talks as far as Paige or Angel were concerned.

As Bethany walked out of the room, Paige mused that this was why she preferred dealing with demons; they might be evil, but at least she could just kill them and leave it at that, rather than try and help people cope with all kinds of psychological issues because their parents were absolute monsters.

Chapter Text

Angel wasn't willing to give up on trying to help the girl just yet, but he still wasn't sure if 'his' team were the best ones qualified to deal with Bethany's issues. The more time he spent trying to help her, the more he had to wonder how anyone could seriously think that sending him to help this girl was a good idea. He'd been able to give her a few basic instructions about how she might take better control of her abilities, beyond just using them when she was feeling heightened emotions, but there was still only so much that he could teach her, and Paige was limited in what instruction she could provide given how different her powers were to Bethany's.

Still, he had to admit that they seemed to be making some progress. After a few sessions where he helped Bethany 'practise' her control by lifting smaller items such as scarves or notepads, Doyle and Wesley had checked out the addresses Darryl had found for her earlier attackers while Paige and Phoebe took Bethany to try and find her some new clothes rather than just borrowing some of the sisters' attire. With the rest of the team out, Angel had taken the time to sort out some of the agency's paperwork- they might specialise in the unconventional cases, but they still had to take on some more standard clients- until the phone rang.

"Yes?" he asked.

"We found the guy's apartment," Doyle said, his tone making it clear that their discoveries weren't positive. "Too smart for some street thug, which fits the word on the street I got from a couple of my… shadier contacts… that he was muscle-for-hire, and not the cheap kind either."

"Why would anybody hire someone to go after Bethany?" Angel asked as he sat in his chair. "If they knew enough about her to make them think it was worth going that far, they'd have to know that normal people wouldn't have much of a chance…"

"Wes's best guess is that the demons interested in her aren't fanatical enough to try and risk their necks just to provoke her towards Evil, so they hired some schmuck instead," Doyle explained. "Wes is scoping out the bugger's address book for anything on his latest client; let you know when we know more."

"Good call," Angel smiled at the news. "We're really getting the hang of this 'detective' bit, aren't we?"

"Tell me 'bout it," Doyle responded, sounding like he was grinning before he ended the call to return to business.

It might have just started as a convenient cover to legitimise their involvement with Darryl on some of his cases, but Angel was genuinely starting to enjoy some of the more regular cases they took on, as well as their more obvious vision-directed clients.

Maybe the visions were important, but as Doyle had noted early in their partnership, it was good for him to get a reminder about the normal people he was helping, rather than just those who were caught up in the supernatural when they may not have done anything to attract that kind of attention on purpose…

"So, enjoying the drink?" Phoebe asked, looking at Bethany with a warm smile as the younger girl took in her mocha while they walked through the streets.

"You were right," Bethany said, staring at her cup in surprise. "This is great!"

"The vanilla helps in that regard," Phoebe smiled.

"Yeah," Bethany said, smiling awkwardly. "Where I'm from, you know, they still just have coffee. Everything else is that… San Francisco stuff."

"Yeah," Paige smiled for a moment, before looking more firmly at their current 'client'. "Don't keep eyeing up my boyfriend."

"What?" Phoebe asked, looking between the two in surprise.

"I didn't know-" Bethany began.

"Which is the main reason I didn't do anything at the time," Paige clarified, staring resolutely at the girl. "I get that you've had issues, and we appreciate that you didn't know we were together when you came in, but… look, we all know that you're a bit beyond 'damsel in distress'."

"W-wh-what?" Bethany asked uncertainly.

"Look," Paige said, reaching out to place a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "We're not trying to be… mean or anything, and we're definitely not saying that you're fully… evil, but you have to admit that people have died because of you."

"Those men in the alley?" Bethany asked uncertainly. "That was the only… they were gonna hurt me-"

"And you could have done something else that didn't involve actually killing them to make them stop," Phoebe said, putting on her 'guidance hat' as she looked at Bethany, taking over the conversation for Paige. "I appreciate that it's easier to lash out and be sure, but you need to think more about who and what you want to do with… well, with this kind of power."

"Like you?" Bethany asked, looking uncertainly between them. "I mean, Angel mentioned that Paige has… something like me… and you're sisters…"

"What we can do is… complicated," Phoebe said; while Bethany was still developing an understanding of what she could do, telling her that it was magic might not help. "The point is that, in the end, you need to think about what you can do and what you want to do with it; there are occasions where killing might be necessary, but you have to watch that it doesn't become the first choice."

"I get it," Bethany said, looking solemnly at the two sisters. "You don't have to worry."

"Good," Phoebe nodded.

"So…" Bethany asked uncertainly, after they'd resumed walking for a few moments. "You and Angel… is that…?"

"If you're asking how the powers affect things, that's… a very complicated answer," Paige shrugged. "We were… introduced… because someone thought that Angel could help me the way he's helping you, but we generally just… don't let them affect what we do together that much."

Bethany was about to ask another question when someone bumped into her before walking on by, Phoebe's initial attempt to protest at the other man's actions interrupted when she realised that Bethany was suddenly off-balance.

"Hey, careful!" she said, grabbing Bethany's coffee before she could spill the hot drink over herself. "You're going to-"

The conversation was interrupted as two men grabbed Bethany's arms and began to drag her away. Thinking quickly, Phoebe and Paige each kicked out at the nearest man, followed by Phoebe throwing her and Bethany's unfinished coffees into their faces to make them release their grip on Bethany. Grabbing the younger woman, the two sisters ran for safety before a van suddenly pulled up in front of them, moving so quickly that it nearly struck them before it parked and a group of men in white emerged, moving quickly towards Bethany.

"Oh no you don't!" Paige said, lashing out at the nearest man with a quick strike to the face, Phoebe following up with a kick to the stomach of the next nearest person. She had no idea why anyone would go after a known witch with just a couple of schmucks like this, but right now, if it gave her a chance to practise her hand-to-hand while also protecting Bethany, she'd take what she could get. As the remaining men turned to try and attack her, Paige rammed her knee between the legs of the nearest man before slamming the palm of her hand into the chin of the other, forcing his head back and jaw upwards with an unpleasant crunching sound that felt like she'd broken at least a few teeth.

Paige was just straightening up to look at Bethany when a convertible pulled up beside her, Doyle and Wesley quickly emerging from the vehicle to look anxiously between the three women.

"Is everyone all right?" Wesley asked, trying to discreetly move so that the car was between him and Bethany.

"We're good," Phoebe nodded. "You guys?"

"We do have a couple of details we wanted to check up on…" Doyle said, looking apologetically at Bethany. "Sorry in advance, but does the name 'Steph Hogan' ring a bell?"

"Yeah, I'm staying with her…" Bethany said, looking anxiously between them. "What is it?"

In hindsight, Angel wasn't sure if it was better or worse that his friends had waited until they were back in the office to tell Bethany the truth about what they'd learned regarding her attackers. It wasn't as though she would ever have reacted well to hearing that someone she trusted had been planning to betray her, but at least if she'd been outside she might have had reason to try and limit the scope of her tantrum…

"It's not true!" Bethany practically screamed at him as she stormed into his office after he'd revealed their discovery in the 'reception'. "It's somebody else!"

"Bethany, I'm sorry," Angel said grimly, even as he was grateful that Doyle and Wesley hadn't returned to the office yet. "I know this is hard, but we found all kinds of details, and Doyle… knows things-"

"It's not her!" Bethany protested, doors slamming around Angel as he increasingly wished he'd found a better way to do this. "You're playing with me! Why does everyone wanna play with me? I don't wanna play!"

"Bethany," Angel said urgently, "I know this is a lot to process, but-"

"It's not her!" Bethany yelled again, doors opening and slamming around her. "You're making it up!"

"Bethany, take control, will you?" Phoebe yelled from outside the door; with her empathy control still in a delicate state, the last thing any of them wanted was for her to get caught up in Bethany's current 'freak-out', but she and Paige had felt that she was the better person to talk with Bethany right now. "This isn't going to help anything!"

"I don't have to listen!" Bethany protested.

"Bethany, stop; you can control this!" Angel said urgently.

"NO!" Bethany protested.

"Listen to me!" Angel said, deflecting a lamp that was suddenly sent flying towards his head as he walked over to crouch down directly in front of Bethany. "Nobody here wants to control you, and nobody is controlling you! You have the power here. You're going to kill us, you're going to die, then they win! Don't let them touch you!"

With that said, Angel stood back, giving Bethany a moment to collect herself before she got up to head towards the door. She had just reached the door when it opened to reveal an unfamiliar older man with dark hair and a faintly lined face, dressed in a casual dark jacket and light blue shirt.

"Hello, rabbit," the man said.

With those two words, Angel and Phoebe suddenly found themselves thrown into the nearest walls as a new surge of telekinetic energy burst from Bethany, the impact leaving them both dazed as she stared at the new arrival in horror.

"Daddy?" the young woman said uncertainly.

"God, Bethany, I've been so worried," the older man said, which at least confirmed his identity as Bethany's father. "I wouldn't have known where to find you except… your friend Steph and I only want to help you, sweetheart."

As the apartment began to shake around them, Angel fought to get back to his feet, trying to ignore the pain in his back from that last impact; it hurt, but if he could just focus on what was going on in front of him…

"I know what you can do, Bethany," her father continued, walking around her despite the trembling roof above him, giving a disturbingly good impression of being an understanding parent for a man who'd sexually abused his pre-teen daughter. "And I know you don't mean to hurt anyone. You're a good girl; I know that."

As Bethany looked at her father with wide eyes, Angel wasn't sure what would be the worst-case scenario right now; Bethany believing her father's words and going away with him, or lashing out in fear and killing him?

"No more worries, all right?" her father continued, still strangely unaffected by the trembling room around them. "You're coming back with me, we're gonna be a family again. Wouldn't you like that? To stop running all the time? To come back to where people know you, love you?"

As the walls began to shake even further, on one level, Angel appreciated the evidence that Bethany hadn't developed some kind of Stockholm-esque sympathy for what she'd been through at that bastard's hands, but that just made it even more likely that she'd end up doing something they'd all regret in the long run…

"I promise it'll be just like it was before," the father said, Bethany now looking like she was on the verge of tears even as she was clearly fighting to maintain control. "I've missed you so much… Shh, rabbit… why don't we go downstairs?"

As though that last statement was a cue, Bethany's eyes rolled back in her head for a moment before she glared at the older man, her face hardening as her father's feet suddenly rose up off the ground just as Angel and Phoebe felt the pressure holding them against the wall cease.

"You OK?" Angel asked, glancing anxiously over at the witch.

"Fine," Phoebe said, before glancing anxiously at Bethany and her father. "But this probably isn't going to go well…"

"Can you-?"

"She's in a very volatile place right now; I do anything to step in, it could just make it all worse," Phoebe replied, her voice low as she looked at the Chaulks, the father reaching out towards his daughter. "God, I just hope she doesn't do anything stupid…"

Phoebe wasn't sure how she should feel about Bethany's colder expression at those words, but at least it shook her out of her earlier shock. Even as her father began to protest, Bethany raised her father up off the floor, taking her power off the witch and the vampire as her father began to reach for his neck as though something was tied around it.

"I can't… breathe…" Mr Chaulk said, turning his focus to Angel and Phoebe as they stood on either side of the room. "Help me, please; stop her."

"Bethany," Angel said, looking firmly at the young woman. "You got the power. Use it."

Phoebe barely had time to look at Angel in shock before Bethany's father was hurled out of the nearest window. Not even pausing to yell at her friend, Phoebe ran for the window, staring anxiously as Chaulk senior headed for the ground, only to come to a halt what looked like a short distance above the ground.

"I'm… in control," Bethany said, smiling slightly at the two of them as she lowered her hand and flexed her shoulders, another quick glance out of the window confirming that Bethany's father was on the ground but still moving. "I don't… have to kill…"

"No," Phoebe smiled at the girl. "You don't."

"That said," Angel put in as he indicated the window," we should probably see about calling our police contacts if we don't want him to come back and try something like this all over again."

"I can work with that," Bethany said.

Standing outside Bethany's current apartment, Paige and Angel exchanged smiles as they heard the argument currently taking place on the other side of the door. With Bethany's testimony and Angel and Phoebe's own edited accounts of the confrontation with her father, it hadn't taken Darryl long to lock the guy away on several cases of child abuse, particularly since he didn't have much in the way of friends or associates who'd be willing to lie on his behalf.

"You think that's it?" a voice that the vampire and the witch presumed had to be Steph Hogan said from inside the apartment. "You have one chat with your father and poof, you're cured and all your nightmares are gone?"

"I'm not an idiot, Steph, and I'm not a child," Bethany countered.

"Yes, you are, and you need me," the older woman replied. "Sooner or later, your powers are going to reach a new level, and when that happens, you'll need a friend."

"My friends don't hire men to rape or kidnap me- not my close ones, anyway," Bethany noted.

"I was trying to make you stronger-"

"And now I've got some new friends who don't feel the need to make me do anything," Bethany said, followed by the sound of something closing and moving into her hand. "Good job at your end, anyway."

"You could have been someone important!" Steph called as Bethany opened the door, revealing a tall brown-haired woman dressed in expensive clothing with a very thin face, glaring in anger as Angel and Paige stepped forward to stand on either side of the open door.

"You need to learn how to lose," Angel said, arms folded as he looked at the woman.

"Did I mention that you're not-" Steph began, only for Angel to stick his hand through the door and be met with no resistance.

"Did we mention that doesn't apply right now?" Paige asked as Bethany walked out past them, enjoying the satisfaction of confirming that this woman was a demon of some sort (She was inclined to think 'warlock', given the lengths she'd gone to trying to corrupt Bethany where demons typically thought bigger when dealing with witches, but she was open to alternatives). "It's the little things that get you."

"Don't try to find me, Steph," Bethany said resolutely. "I mean it."

"I don't want- you're not…" Steph began, before indicating Angel in frustration. "He's a vampire, you know!"

"Weird," Bethany said, looking at Angel for a moment before she walked off, clearly unconcerned about that revelation.

"You think this helps anything?" Steph Hogan asked in frustration. "You save one amateur witch-"

"She'll be fine," Paige said. "Leo's got one of his Whitelighter contacts keeping an eye on her for when she gets around to practising any actual magic, and he's agreed to drop in on her from time to time as well."

"You're leaving her?" the woman said, looking at Angel and Paige in exasperation. "You go to all this effort-"

"She's not going to go for your side; after that, everything else is her choice," Angel said. "We've done our research; since she's a new witch, she's only of notable interest because of her powers rather than her history, so there's no reason for anybody else to go after her unless someone draws attention to her."

"And believe me," Paige said, reaching into her pocket to pull out a vanquishing spell she'd written on the way over, "we're quite willing to make sure that doesn't happen."

Chapter Text

It might seem like a strange hobby, but as Paige flicked through some of Wesley's books trying to find a means of dealing with the gremlins she'd just found at the fruit-packing plant, she had to admit that she was actually enjoying herself. The 'crisis' itself might be straightforward and relatively low-scale, but one reason she'd suggested that Angel start a detective agency was to give him a reason to talk with the people Doyle's visions sent him to help, rather than just sweep in and out of their lives like some amateur vigilante.

Batman as a concept might be cool, but she'd browsed enough comic books when she was bored to know that the modern version had terrible people skills even if he kicked ass; she didn't want that to happen to Angel.

A ringing phone distracted Paige from that particular train of thought, smiling as she grabbed her cell and realised that it was Piper on the line.

"Hey there," she grinned as she put the phone to her ear. "What's up?"

"Some old, some new," Piper replied. "Chris thinks someone's going to try and succeed in stealing the Book of Shadows based on some stuff he heard in the future, and Phoebe's feeling frustrated because her empathy power's not only letting her know that her editor's interested in her, but now she's picking up on my new bartender's interest in me."

"Ah," Paige said, lost for the best way to respond to that news. "Should we be… worried?"

"No, she says that she can focus with Doyle's help, given that he knows what's up with her and is working on keeping himself… well, in the right mood… when she's in a tricky situation, but even if she's working on her self-control, the results can still be a bit off-putting," Piper said, sounding more nonchalant than she probably felt. "How about you?"

"Found a few gremlins at a packing plant I'm trying to deal with; not dangerous, but a bit annoying," Paige shrugged. "By the way, have you seen Leo? Angel mentioned something about him trying to find a few leads about that whole abduction to Valhalla thing…"

"Chris mentioned that too, actually; no idea why he's so worried about it, given how long it took him to even tell us that Leo had been abducted in the first place…" Piper said, her voice low with frustration for a moment before she sighed. "Anyway, gotta go; Wyatt's being stubborn about his food again."

"Good luck with that," Paige noted as the call ended; she supposed the only good thing about Angel being essentially sterile was that she'd never have to worry about something like that…

NO!

She might have been with Angel for over a year now, but she wasn't sure she'd ever be comfortable actually thinking about things being that… long-term between them. She might have accepted the fact that he couldn't have kids or age on some level, but at the same time, a part of her still found herself worried about how he'd cope when those issues became more obvious…

Still, it wasn't like any relationship was guaranteed to last; all that mattered was that they were able to enjoy what they had when it did. For the moment, Paige preferred to focus on the fact that she was in a relationship with a good guy who was involved in her life and wanted to help her achieve her dreams; the fact that he couldn't tan and had a mostly liquid diet shouldn't be a factor.

All in all, the anomaly of Chris's strange behaviour at times aside, she felt that life was pretty good right now. Piper's personal life might be complicated by her uncertain relationship with Leo, but things were going well at P3, Phoebe's new powers were giving her far more insight into others' feelings while working on her column, and Paige genuinely felt like her work in Angel Investigations was becoming a career rather than just a job...

As she closed the last book in Wesley's small library that might have had anything to do with gremlins with nothing to show for it, Paige groaned in frustration; why couldn't some of those Watcher guys have shown at least some interest in the annoying magical creatures rather than just focus on the really dangerous or really good ones? There were a few references to gremlins being mischievous rather than malicious, which at least assured Paige that they weren't intending to kill anyone with their 'pranks', but that wasn't much good if she had no idea how to stop them hurting anyone by accident.

She might have wanted to spread her wings, but she was just going to have to go back to the manor and check the Book of Shadows again; it might offer less detailed information than some of these texts, but at least it often had something useful in terms of stopping whatever they were dealing with.

Staring at the potion she'd found in the Book, Paige hoped that adjusting the recipe like this wasn't going to backfire on her later on. She might want the gremlins out of the way before they hurt anyone, but she didn't want to actually kill something just because it was mischievous; she wasn't some psycho acting like every magical creature out there was out to get people.

"I've got to go to P3," Piper said, Paige's attention drawn back to her sister despite trying to ignore her earlier heated phone call. "Tell the nanny to give Wyatt dinner if I'm not back in time."

"Gotcha; bye," Paige said, nodding in acknowledgement as she carefully studied the potion ingredients in front of her.

"Are you sure about this?" Phoebe asked. "I mean, you said yourself that these gremlins nearly killed someone-"

"Wes's books might not have much on stopping these things, but they did state that gremlin are more pranksters than evil; it's not their fault that their definition of a 'prank' is more dangerous for us than it is for them, and I'm not going to kill something because it can't understand," Paige clarified, looking at the potion for a moment before she shook her head. "OK, I know we tweaked a few things, but I'm fairly sure this is goo rather than potion; can you double-check that recipe for me?"

"Sure," Phoebe said, Paige turning back to work before the sound of a book closing prompted her to look up and witness the Book glowing in what Paige could only think of as a defensive manner.

"Did the Book just… repel you?" she asked, looking uncertainly at Phoebe.

"Yeah…" Phoebe said, reaching out again and starting as the Book slid to the floor. "OK, what is this? It's like the Book doesn't even recognise us."

"But I was holding it ten minutes ago; what could have changed that quickly?" Paige wondered, just before something else came to her. "Hold on a minute… didn't Piper just say something about how she'd apparently made a cancellation she doesn't remember?"

"Yeah, so?" Phoebe asked, looking at Paige uncertainly.

"I don't know…" the youngest sister said, trying not to shudder at the sudden sense that things were about to become very complicated. "I just… after what Chris said about someone trying to take the Book around now… I think I need to check on Angel…"

Before Phoebe could ask her anything else, Paige orbed away from the manor…

"…sure you aren't exaggerating, Paige?" Wesley's voice said as Paige appeared outside the door of the agency's office.

"Trust me, Wes," an unfamiliar voice replied, in a tone far too casual for someone Paige had never heard before, "with these guys, hitting them hard is the best option."

"Look, Wes," Angel said, "I get that gremlins aren't always that bad, but if Paige thinks that we need to go this far, I think we can take her word for it."

"Thanks, Angel," the unfamiliar voice said, followed by the sound of a kiss that prompted Paige's eyes to widen in shock.

What the…? She thought, reaching for the door before she cut that train of thought short; if she'd learned anything from Angel's lessons over the last couple of years, it was that charging into a situation without a plan could only end badly. Taking a moment to be sure she remembered what she was working with, she orbed to the outside window-sill, at an angle where she could stay on one side and get a look at the office without drawing any attention until she was ready.

Looking through the window, Paige's eyes widened as she saw an unfamiliar blonde woman sitting in her chair, leaning casually back with her feet on Paige's desk, wearing tight black trousers and an off-the-shoulder black top with only a left sleeve, talking with Angel and Wesley as though she had every right to be there.

"…I'm saying, Paige," Wesley was saying as he looked at the blonde, "is that there has to be a less drastic solution to those gremlins-"

"Anything that can guarantee they won't come back?" the blonde countered. "Wes, I get that you're Mr Watcher Guy, but trust the person who actually saw these things; we want to keep people safe, we need to vanquish them post-haste."

As her phone suddenly rang in her pocket, Paige quickly pulled it out before orbing down to the ground level; whatever was going on here, she knew that she didn't want that woman learning that she was here.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Paige!" Phoebe said at the other end of the line. "Oh, thank God; I just got a call from Elise about my last article, and not only was she saying all this stuff about how I was advocating alcohol as a cure for depression and approving of multiple sex partners, she didn't even seem to know who I was!"

"You think that's weird?" Paige replied. "I just got to the office, and Angel and Wes are talking to some girl as though she's… well, she's me!"

"She's you?"

"Well, she doesn't look like me, but they're calling her Paige and talking with her about the gremlins; whatever's going on here, I think we can assume that it's not just someone screwing with the Book any more," Paige said urgently. "Check things out at the office; I'll try and find Piper and see if she's in the same situation!"

"Gotcha," Phoebe said before she terminated the call.

Paige had no idea what was going on, but that was one reason she was going to try and get to P3 the mortal way; orbing around might be quicker, but if they were under magical attack, she needed to give herself some time to think before she did something impulsive that could make it worse…

Chapter Text

After collecting Piper and Phoebe from their offices, Paige supposed that at least whatever had put that blonde into Angel Investigations with her name wasn't an attempt to target her specifically. Piper and Phoebe had experienced similar events, as Piper had been thrown out of P3 as though her own staff didn't recognise her while Phoebe had been thrown out of the Mirror offices and seen someone else's photo beside the latest Ask Phoebe advert.

Whatever they were up against, it had already taken their regular lives, and they couldn't let it get anything more…

Orbing into the manor, Paige wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing to find the blonde she'd seen at Angel Investigations sitting on the couch with two other women. They might not have worked out a plan to deal with whatever was going on yet, but at least they had a chance to confront the most obvious suspects directly right now.

"Alright," Piper said, glaring at the women in a manner that suggested she knew at least one of them, "who do you think you are?"

"Oh, you haven't heard?" the blonde in the middle of the trio said, the three standing up with the Book of Shadows held in front of them. "We're the Charmed Ones."

"Nice dress," the blonde on the right said, looking at Phoebe just as Paige recognised her as the one who'd been in the office earlier.

"And nice book," Paige added, glaring at the Book of Shadows held in their hands.

"Power of the Witches rise," the three unfamiliar women began, causing lights to emerge from Paige and her sisters before Piper could do more than raise her hands, "Course unseen across the skies, Come to us who call you near, Come to us and settle here."

Paige didn't need to have heard that specific spell herself to guess what had just happened, even before the blonde on the left grinned at them in a particularly worrying manner.

"Let's see," she said, looking at Piper with a menacing smirk, "what was that freaky little hand thing you did? Like this?"

As the blonde flicked her hands, Piper was thrown backwards as a vase exploded, in a manner that Paige recognised all too easily as the usual effect caused by Piper's powers. As her older sister fell, Phoebe lashed out with a powerful kick to strike the blonde that had just attacked them, only for the middle blondes to levitate into the air and kick Phoebe back.

"Paige!" Piper yelled, Paige instinctively orbing out just as the blonde she'd seen posing as her tried to hit her with a lamp.

"Hey, that was supposed to be my power!" the girl yelled, glaring at Paige indignantly.

"Guess you can't take everything from me, lady," Paige said, before she grabbed Piper and Phoebe's arms and orbed away to a suitable alley; as much as she hated what had just happened, they needed time to plan after something that drastic more than those bitches needed an ass-kicking.

"OK," Phoebe said, looking anxiously at the other two women after they'd registered what Paige had done, "what the Hell was that?"

"Best guess, they used the Book to take our magic after hijacking our regular identities somehow," Paige said, looking grimly back at her elder sister. "We might not know them, but they obviously know enough about us; I mean, you don't break into the house of the Charmed Ones and cast a spell from the Book of Shadows without some kind of prior plan."

"And yet you can still orb?" Phoebe noted.

"Well, we already knew from my trip back with Clyde that I can orb without actually being a witch; maybe they could only take my witch powers?"

"OK, that's great, so Paige still has some magic; what do we do about this now?" Piper asked. "I mean, I was calling for Chris since nobody recognised me at P3 and he didn't show up, so we probably can't count on Leo responding either-"

"Which is why I'm going to go for Angel," Paige said, snapping her fingers in resolution.

"Angel?" Phoebe repeated, looking sceptically at her half-sister. "Were you not paying attention to the fact that everyone thinks that those blondes are us now? He's not going to know who you are-"

"He's not going to attack me if I orb to him, and from what we saw of those interlopers I don't think they're going to be pulling off any perfect impersonations of us," Paige said, resisting the urge to cross her fingers. "I saw that one in the purple skirt in Angel's office talking to him and Wes, but she was acting a bit too eager to vanquish the gremlins compared to what I'd do, and Angel and Wesley were already sounding a bit uncertain about 'my' attitude…"

"So you're hoping they'll accept that someone's hijacked your life rather than assume that you're lying and… she's just you on a rough day?" Piper asked.

"OK, I know it's not a perfect plan, but if you have a better one, I'd like to hear it," Paige countered.

"I… she's got a point," Phoebe noted, her voice slow as though she was working this idea out even as she was talking. "I mean, those three might have changed things so that everyone else… sees them as us, somehow… but I don't think they've actually changed anyone's actual memories of who we are us as people. I mean, if what my… replacement… tried to get published is any example, Elise still expected my usual work rather than… well, her crap."

"It's still a bit of a gamble…" Piper noted, looking at Paige for a moment before she sighed. "But it's not like we've got a lot of other options; you're the only one of us who still has any powers, and Angel's the easiest person for us to try and talk to who might believe this screwed up situation."

"Particularly when I have a few little things we can share that you'd need to have spent a lot of time spying on us to know about," Paige said, nodding reassuringly at her sisters before she orbed away once more.

Reappearing in Angel Investigations, Paige sighed in relief when she saw Angel sitting at his desk with no sign of Wesley or Doyle; they might need them she hoped that she'd be able to talk to them, but she had more faith in her ability to convince Angel of the truth than them.

"Hi," she said, waving awkwardly at Angel out of a lack of any better ideas for what to say in this situation.

"Who… are you?" Angel said, looking curiously at her. "I… I don't think we've met, but…"

He paused as he stood up and walked over to stand in front of her, his manner tense even as his expression was just curious.

"What is it?" Paige asked, not wanting to try and prompt him into anything even as she kept her fingers crossed.

"I just…" Angel said, taking a tentative sniff as he stood in front of her. "I don't… recognise you, but I know your scent…"

"My scent?" Paige repeated, looking at Angel with a broadening smile as inspiration struck her. "I smell like Paige, don't I?"

"Yeah…" Angel said, looking uncertainly at her. "Why would-?"

"YES!" Paige yelled, punching the air as she grinned gleefully. "Oh, take that, you identity-stealing bitch; never mess with the witch whose boyfriend has enhanced senses!"

"Uh… excuse me?" Angel looked at her in confusion. "What are you-?"

"Angel, I'm Paige!" Paige said, still grinning enthusiastically as she looked at him. "Some blonde and her sisters did something that screwed with your memory to make you think she's me, but I'm the real one!"

"Excuse me?" Angel said, looking at her in surprise.

"Come on, if I was trying to trick you, wouldn't I come up with something better than telling you someone screwed with your memory?" Paige asked, still grinning at him. "Their identity spell may have changed your memory of how I look, but why would anyone bother with a smell to change your memory of my scent? If I was trying to trick you, I'd have something better than that as a story, right?"

"Maybe," Angel nodded briefly. "But that doesn't prove-"

"OK, if the scent thing doesn't prove it, tell me who else would know that I said 'I vant to suck your blood' the night you told me that vampires existed?" Paige noted, crossing her fingers that she was on the right lines. "Or about the fact that I was about to cut off your head when your soul was returned to you during that mess with Alcathla? Or about that green negligée I wore when I was trying to seduce you because I was under some freaky voodoo that made me focus on you-?"

"OK, OK!" Angel said, holding up a hand to halt her before he looked at her with a more thoughtful expression, a tentativeness about his manner that at least suggested he believed her. "So… you're Paige? And the woman I remember…?"

"Hi-jacked my life while her partners in crime took Piper and Phoebe's; believe me, the Charmed Ones are not three skanky-looking blondes," Paige nodded firmly. "We're not sure how their freaky spell actually worked, but from what we've seen, we think they've changed everyones' memories so that they're remembered as us, and we're just… well, nobody."

"OK," Angel said, looking at her with a sceptical expression even if he was clearly at least willing to consider the idea. "So if you're the real Paige… when did this happen?"

"We think that it was probably around this morning; I was here researching gremlins last night without any trouble, and this morning she was here acting like me and encouraging you to kill the gremlins rather than banish them," Paige said, shrugging awkwardly out of a lack of anything better to say, before she looked at him with a hopeful smile. "So… you believe me?"

"Well… it's like you said; even without your scent, nobody would make up a story that bizarre to try and trick me," Angel said, looking at her with a tentative smile. "I'm not saying that I completely believe you… but you're acting more like Paige than Paige has been the last few hours even without the orbing."

"Yeah, she didn't get that power when she cast the spell," Paige nodded, before looking seriously at him. "So, can you help us get the Book back?"

"Which… involves getting past people with the power of the Charmed Ones who've convinced everyone that they're the real deal?" Angel asked.

"And we're pretty sure they're willing to kill us to keep them," Paige confirmed, her expression becoming awkward as she processed Angel's comment. "Yeah… we might have to fight through everyone else to get it back…"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Angel said, looking at her with a tentative smile. "Just… I mean, I'm not sure about…"

"You're putting a lot on faith when I've got nothing but a very weird story; I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with," Paige smiled at him in understanding. "All we need is to get the Book and get our powers back; if you want to do something to test our story, that's fine, and if the Book reacts to us in a way you don't like the look of, you can feel free to knock us out."

Her boyfriend might still be looking at her in a sceptical manner, but there was also a tentative acceptance that assured Paige that she'd made the right call.

She had told Angel their story, and he was willing to give them a shot, which meant that they had a chance; she just had to hope that those three blondes were more concerned with enjoying their lives than talking to their allies right now…

Under normal circumstances- as much as anything could be 'normal' when your life had been stolen by some smug blondes who had carried out the most twisted identity theft imaginable- Piper liked to think that they wouldn't have attempted something this brazen so soon after such a significant near-defeat. They'd dived in once and nearly lost their powers because they hadn't known what they were up against, and now they were trying to sneak back into their own home to confront a trio of evil witches with their powers with no way of knowing where their opponents would be.

Still, even if Angel was clearly slightly uncertain about their story, he still seemed to be willing to help them, which gave them an asset that she for one wasn't going to ignore. It was late enough right now that they wouldn't need to worry about the sunlight, and if they could just take these women by surprise…

"Anything?" she asked, keeping her voice low as she looked anxiously over at Angel; things were quiet right now, but for the moment he was their best hope at detecting trouble without any magic.

"Just a minute…" Angel said, tilting his head slightly as he listened to the house before he nodded back at the sisters. "Two people are upstairs."

"You can hear them this far away?" Phoebe looked at Angel in surprise.

"Only when I'm concentrating and it's relatively quiet," Angel clarified.

"Fair enough; just had to be sure you haven't been holding out on us," the middle sister nodded, looking over at the other two. "So what's the plan?"

"They won't be expecting us to do something this stupid and the one with my powers didn't know how to use them last time," Piper explained. "Angel goes after her- of everyone here, he's got the best chance- and the rest of us just… deal with whoever's left."

"And what about the third one?" Phoebe asked.

"Once we get our powers back, she'll be powerless and we can work out where she's gone before we negate the identity spell," Piper said, shrugging as the other two looked at her. "Hey, I want to be me again too, but what if we cast the spell and the missing one turns back to herself in the middle of something important? I don't like it, but I'd rather we didn't have to deal with the Cleaners because I seemed to change identities during a meeting or something like that."

"Good point," Phoebe nodded, before the four fell silent as they slowly made their way up the stairs. After a few moments of carefully moving up the stairs, the Halliwells heard voices up in the attic, discussing their attempts to scry in a frustrated tone that suggested that things weren't going well.

"OK," Angel said, looking over at the sisters, his expression firm, "I'm going to go up there and confirm your story; stay here."

"Wha-?" Phoebe began, before Paige clapped a hand over her mouth as quietly as possible.

"Fair enough," she said, nodding at him in understanding. "You have something to ask them?"

Angel simply nodded in reply, before he turned around and walked up the stairs into the attic, smiling at the two sisters he 'remembered' as Piper and Paige (He accepted the other woman's story for the most part, but right now each option was a possibility until he knew anything for sure).

"Angel?" the woman he 'remembered' as Piper said, looking at him in surprise. "What… brings you here?"

"I just heard about that recent attack and wanted to see if everything was all right," Angel replied.

"Oh, that?" 'Paige' shrugged, looking at him with a flirtatious grin that seemed somehow awkward. "That was nothing; they ran, we'll find 'em, it's all easy from there."

"And Wyatt's safe?" Angel asked, turning his attention back to 'Piper'.

"Sleeping like he always does downstairs," 'Piper' replied, looking at Angel curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Can't a guy want to know his namesake's all right?" Angel replied.

"Name- oh, that's where the Allen came from…" 'Piper' said, shaking her head as she smiled at him. "Sorry, it's been so busy lately-"

Angel cut that statement off by lashing out with a quick punch that knocked 'Piper' down before she could react, followed by the three apparently real Halliwells climbing up into the attic.

"You!" 'Paige' said, glaring at the three women before she stared at Angel in horror. "You remember them?"

"More like your little identity spell never changed his memory of my scent," Paige countered with a grin.

"And I actually named Wyatt after Doyle, not Angel," Piper corrected with a smile. "When a guy nearly dies disarming a bomb designed to kill everyone in the city who isn't a pure demon, you figure he deserves something special."

"Talk later; spell now," Phoebe put in from where she was standing beside the Book of Shadows, which had already turned to the spell that would call a witch's powers.

"You can't-!" the remaining blonde began, before Paige kicked her in the chest, knocking her down and glaring at her with a firm expression.

"We already know that our powers aren't tied into that identity spell you cast, so we're not worried about that," Paige said as she looked firmly at the blonde. "Hope you enjoyed your day as me, because that's the last free day you'll ever have."

They'd give the third blonde a bit of time before they started to worry, but they were back in the Manor and their powers would be restored soon; with both of the intruders knocked out and their powers already returning to them as Phoebe read the spell, Paige had to admit that she felt pretty good about herself.

Plus, of course, the fact that her boyfriend had played such a major role in their latest victory did help her feel good about herself…

"Damn," Paige said, sitting up in bed to look at Angel with a broad smile. "You can really keep going, can't you?"

"Like you haven't been putting me through my paces since we got here?" Angel countered, raising a teasing eyebrow as he looked at his lover. It had been a couple of hours since the third blonde had returned to the manor and their identities had been restored, but the moment Angel remembered Paige, the two had orbed back to Angel's apartment while Phoebe and Piper focused on dealing with any problems their impostors might have caused in their own lives.

"Well, when you had enough faith to trust us with a very bizarre story and no definite memories, you've got to get some kind of reward for it," Paige grinned back. "Might have been a simple enough win in the end, but we'd have had a lot more trouble getting anyone on our side."

"It was actually kind of amusing in the end," Angel smiled in response. "Besides, after everything Darryl puts up with for our sake, it's good to give him a semi-legitimate case with people he can actually arrest rather than us vanquishing or killing everything."

"Tell me about it; apparently they were wanted in eight other states even before they did anything here," Paige smiled at the memory. "Seriously, for ambitious witches, they really didn't take much care with their bigger plans…"

"Anyway," Angel smiled at her, reaching over to stroke her arm, "now that things are back to normal, shall we… get back to business?"

"In the morning," Paige said simply, reaching over to give Angel another kiss. "Right now, I'm just going to focus on the fact that we're all back in the lives we should have…"

Chapter Text

Paige wasn't sure if it was a side-effect of whatever the Stillman sisters had done, or if it was related to the relative lack of interesting cases they'd had at the agency for the last few days, but Angel was still being frustratingly unfocused. His concentration had picked up slightly during the aftermath of the Stillmans' identity theft, as though the threat had revitalised her own interest, but ever since he had struck her as being increasingly tired, as though he wasn't getting enough sleep, even when she was sure they had enjoyed a quiet few hours during the day or night.

Their latest case was a prime example of the problems Angel's apparent fatigue was causing for them. Wesley had just been going over some additional paperwork for paying the bills and dealing with their taxes- the disadvantage of saving people as a business was the need to account for the finances afterwards- when Doyle had his latest vision, which apparently showed something emerging from a wall to be attacked by figures in robes. Angel had shown a brief surge of interest when Doyle reeled over from the accompanying headache, but after that he'd kept drifting off while they were trying to identify where the vision was likely to take place, losing track of the topic and making jokes that were poor even for Angel's usual awkward sense of humour. They'd found the location in time to stop the demon rising- Wesley speculated it was some kind of thrall demon that was enslaving humans to worship it- but the way Angel had just kept hitting one of those demons and then wandered off afterwards…

Paige wanted to trust Angel, but the way he'd wandered off like that without even checking on any of them… even if she trusted that he wasn't doing anything as crass as cheating on her didn't mean that he wasn't suffering some kind of 'relapse' to his pre-soul days. It had been over a year since his soul was restored after his brief time as Angelus, but incidents such as that time he was turned into that Beast thing made it clear that the demon was still there no matter what they did to keep Angelus contained, which left Paige worried that their 'new' curse was finally showing a crack or two.

It might just be paranoia, but after seeing what Angelus was capable of, she felt she was right to be worried about anything that might give him a chance to get out…

When Angel walked into the office while ignoring their latest potential client, Paige knew that she'd had enough; she might find the man's apparent 'case' to be a joke if he seriously thought aliens were taking his wife rather than her just having an affair, but Angel had never been that disinterested in possible clients before, even when there wasn't any magic involved.

"OK," she said, storming into her boyfriend's office to give him a fixed glare, "what's wrong with you lately?"

"Wrong?" Angel repeated, looking at her with a brief shrug as he sat behind his desk.

"Look, I get that we did this to help people more than make money, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make this agency turn some kind of profit," Paige said, looking firmly at Angel even as he squinted in her direction, as though he was finding it hard to see. "You need to focus, Angel; who's going to take us seriously if the head of the agency looks this tired all the time?"

"I'm sorry," Angel said, shaking his head as though he was trying to clear it. "I-I didn't mean to, I've been so out of it lately… I just keep seeing her… I saw her in town last night…"

"Her?" Paige repeated, fighting down a brief sense of jealousy; Angel might have a very unconventional background, but he wouldn't cheat on her…

"Darla."

"Darla?" Paige repeated, her mind flashing back to that brief showdown in P3 just after she'd learned what Angel really was.

"I've been dreaming about her like crazy," Angel

"And the dreams have been so… I thought I was losing my mind, but she's back."

"After you staked her almost two years ago?" Paige countered, trying to force down her instinctive fear at the thought of facing that vampire again; she might have overcome bigger demons than Darla since that early stage of her life as a Charmed One, but that didn't mean she wanted to face that psycho again.

"I know that," Angel said. "But I also know it was her."

"Well…" Paige said, pausing for a moment to try and think of an explanation, only to find that nothing sprang to mind; she doubted that Angel would suddenly start feeling guilty about staking Darla after two years not thinking about her. "Is there… anything you can think of for us to check?"

"Nothing," Angel sighed, slumping into his chair. "God, this is so complicated…"

There was nothing that Paige could say to that, but she knew better than to try and get through to Angel in a mood like this; matters of his past always made him think, but when he was dealing with Darla, things were going to be particularly difficult for him.

The best she could hope right now was that a more standard case would give him something else to think about…

It wasn't exactly what she'd created Angel Investigations to do, but Paige had to admit that, in a weird way, she was enjoying the current undercover assignment. The waitress outfit seemed a bit skimpy for such an upper-class hotel, but it was still kind of fun to be sneaking around like this, planting a few more conventional listening devices to tackle a more regular case.

This case wasn't helping people in the same manner she'd signed up for, but it was giving a guy some peace of mind and answering his questions, even if he probably wasn't going to like the answers; the fact that she was already starting not to like the woman having the affair was just an added bonus. She appreciated that relationship issues weren't something anyone could predict, but if you were unhappy in your marriage, you should just have the courage to end it rather than play around and leave everyone involved feeling worried or upset…

Still, despite their relative lack of expertise at this kind of case, Paige felt that she and the others were doing fairly well. She'd planted the bugs, Wesley had taken a few photos, and now all they had to do was get the material to their client… while ignoring how relatively sleezy she felt about this…

Looking up, her eyes widened as she saw Angel get up from his chair and storm over to grab a blonde woman by the arm just as she was walking through the reception. For a moment, Paige was torn between staying in position or stopping her boyfriend from doing something stupid, but then she saw the face of the woman he'd grabbed and her mind was made up.

She'd accepted long ago that the world was a more complex place than she'd ever believed, but there was no way that some random woman who looked exactly like Darla could be in just the right place to meet Angel when he'd been dreaming about his sire for it to be a coincidence. Quickly hiding her recording device in her pocket- they had enough to satisfy their client, even if she still didn't feel comfortable at the thought of taking on these sort of cases on a regular basis- Paige hurried over to where Angel was talking with the woman as he flipped open her wallet.

"… trying to do; pass as human?" Angel asked, glaring between the familiar blonde and the wallet in his hands.

"Excuse me," Darla said, grabbing the wallet and stuffing it in her purse.

"OK, I have to ask, what the Hell are you doing here?" Paige put in, walking up to glare at the woman. "I get that it was a while ago, but I know I saw you bite the dust in every sense of the word last time we were in the same room!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Darla insisted, looking between them with what could have been genuine panic if Paige hadn't heard just how good an actress Darla could be. "Now just leave me alone!"

"I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play," Angel cut in, grabbing her arm as she tried to get past him, "but you're not gonna win."

"Uh, Angel?" Paige said, noting a member of the hotel security staff walking over to them. "I don't think-"

"Is everything all right?" the other man said.

"No," Darla said, looking anxiously at Angel, apparently dismissing Paige as irrelevant. "This man, he's trying to- my name is DeEtta Kramer. My husband is outside right now getting our car right now. I don't know anyone named Darla."

"I know it's you," Angel said, still glaring at his sire as Paige tried to contain her anxiety about this new twist; stepping in would just get her in trouble as well as Angel, but she had to be sure he wouldn't do anything stupid. "And I know you're not going out into that sun any time soon."

Paige was saved from trying to figure out what to do next when a security guard tried to pull Angel off, the distraction enough for Darla to twist free of his grip as she ran towards the doors. Just when Paige thought Darla was going to turn around and run for another part of the hotel, she ran out into the sunlight, where an unfamiliar man grabbed her arm and began talking to her in a clearly familiar manner, the should-have-been-vampire clearly unaffected by the sun shining down on her.

"Huh," Paige said, lost for anything better to say at that turn of events.

It might just be possible that this woman was actually someone who happened to look like Darla by sheer coincidence, but with Angel's dreams on top of everything else, Paige really doubted that it was something that 'simple'.

"Well," Paige said, as they finally walked back into the office after the most awkward departure she'd ever had to deal with, "that could have been a lot more fun; how did we get from surveillance to running away from the hotel staff?"

Angel didn't bother to answer his girlfriend's question, instead grabbing a phone book and starting to flick through it.

"At least we know one thing," Wesley pointed out, as though trying to find a bright side.

"Which is?"

"That woman walked into direct sunlight," Wesley said. "Obviously she's not a vampire-"

"Except that she looks exactly like Darla," Paige cut in; whatever she might have felt about the aftermath of that case, she wasn't going to let Wesley start doubting Angel's mental state.

"Excuse me?" Wesley said, clearly not expecting that news.

"Take it from someone who was nearly killed by her before she was staked; that woman was either Darla's exact double or Darla herself, and given what's been up with Angel lately, I'm inclined to think she's back," Paige said, her tone grim. "I mean, what are the odds that Angel runs into Darla's doppelganger just as he's started having dreams about her?"

"…Fair point," Wesley acknowledged, looking anxiously at Angel. "But that doesn't mean that he might not be taking this too far…"

"It was Darla," Angel said, looking up from the book to stare resolutely at his colleagues. "I was with her for the better part of a hundred and fifty years; I'd know that scent."

"You can't just sniff a person and know-!" Wesley began, before Angel leaned in and gave the ex-Watcher a distinct sniff.

"You had sex last night, with a bleached blonde."

"OK," Paige said, after Wesley had stared at Angel in shocked silence, "I don't think I want to know how you got the second part of that, so we'll just… focus on the obvious, right?"

"Which is going to take more effort, as DeEtta and Stephen Kramer aren't in this," Angel said, slamming the telephone book shut in indignation. "Run a title deed search, see if you can find anything for where they might live; I'm going to try some other avenues."

"Angel, couldn't you just be-?" Wesley began.

"This is not a coincidence, Wes," Angel interjected. "Someone brought Darla back on purpose, and whatever it is, I don't think we want to find out what it is when she's ready for it."

"What… are you going to do?" Wesley asked, looking anxiously at the vampire.

"Whatever it takes," Angel said grimly.

Paige wanted to say that she had faith in Angel, but right now, she didn't know what to expect from her boyfriend; Darla had tried to push her and Angel to kill each other the last time she'd been active, so anyone who'd brought her back clearly had something in mind for Angel.

She knew that she couldn't stop Angel when he put his mind to something like this, but she had to wonder if this was playing into their unknown enemy's hands…

Chapter Text

It had been almost three hours since Angel had left to consult his 'other avenues', definitely two since they'd found an address for the Kramers, and Paige had no idea if the fact that she hadn't heard from him yet was a good thing or a bad one. Doyle and Chris had dropped into the office, but Doyle had soon confirmed that he didn't have any contacts who might be able to help Angel work out what was going on with 'DeEtta Kramer' or whoever she was, and Chris had just settled down to wait, looking impatiently at Paige as though waiting for her to give up what she was doing.

Paige sometimes wondered what their new Whitelighter actually had against Angel; she knew that Leo had reported some concern from the Elders that they were working with a vampire after everything that had happened with Cole, but Chris had to know that they'd taken every possible precaution to make sure that Angel wouldn't lose his soul again after learning about the loophole in the old curse. Add in the prophecy of Angel's future humanity, and it just seemed to Paige like Chris was either deliberately ignoring what Angel was in favour of what he had been, or he just had some kind of prejudice against vampires in particular.

Paige appreciated that Whitelighters didn't have to be saints, given how her own father had screwed up while still technically keeping his 'wings', but there had to be a law of some sort against them being that prejudiced against a guy just because of what he was…

The sound of a ringing phone cut off that train of thought, Paige grabbing for her cell the moment she recognised the ringtone.

"Hey, Darryl," she said, urgently hoping that his latest case wouldn't demand too much of their time. "What's wrong?"

"Paige," Darryl said, tone grim with concern, "I know you told me when Angel… lost his soul… that vampires can't get inside a private residence unless the owners invite them in, but is there any way around that?"

"As in… can a vampire get into a place without an invitation?" Paige asked, taking a moment to think over Angel's past lessons about vampires; the invitation rule might be important, but it wasn't one that came up in their usual confrontations with the undead, since they tended to fight in the streets and only truly powerful or desperate demons tried to attack the Charmed Ones at home these days. "Well, they don't need an invitation if they're breaking into a demon's residence for some reason- no idea why demons are exempt from that rule, so don't ask- but the only sure way for a vampire to break into a human residence is if the official owner's dead."

"So… Angel couldn't just break into a house and kill someone, right?"

"What?" Paige said incredulously. "Angel wouldn't do that-!"

"I've got a break-in and a homicide where the victim and the two investigating officers claim that someone matching Angel's description smashed through her window and then killed her husband," Darryl said urgently. "I've managed to keep his name away from the rest of the team, as something about the story just didn't add up even if I wasn't sure about the invitation thing, but I had to be sure that I knew what I was dealing with."

"Thanks," Paige said, smiling in understanding despite her initial panic; she knew that Darryl had some trouble with concealing their cases from the rest of the police, which made it all the more important that he understood that they appreciated their efforts. "Who's the… victim?"

"Her name's DeEtta Kramer; ring any bells?"

"A few," Paige said, eyes narrowing as she grabbed a pen. "What's the address; we'll be there soon."

"What was that?" Doyle asked, as Paige finished making her last note and hung up the phone.

"Darryl," Paige replied. "Apparently, DeEtta Kramer just tried to accuse Angel of breaking into her house and killing her husband."

"What?" Chris looked at Paige in shock.

"It's OK," Paige said, fixing the Whitelighter with a firm glare as she remembered his usual strained reaction to Angel. "From what Darryl heard, it sounds like 'DeEtta' explicitly said that Angel broke into her house and killed her husband, and I think we can all see the problem in that scenario."

"How could he break into a place unless the original residents were dead?" Wesley finished with a smile.

"Or maybe it was just too new-" Chris began.

"The invitation rule applies as soon as a residence legally becomes the property of an individual; there are no circumstances under which a vampire can enter the private residence of a human being without an explicit invitation," Wesley said firmly. "Since it should be easy enough to determine if DeEtta Kramer legitimately lives there or not, I think we can safely assume that they were just the registered occupants rather than the legal ones, which means there's more to that woman than public records reveal."

"Right," Paige said, taking up the challenge. "Doyle, see if you can find Angel and work out what's going on here; Chris, get Wesley down to Darryl and see if either of you can help him find a more… conventional explanation for this that doesn't include Angel going nuts."

"Sure," Chris said, tone suggesting that he wasn't happy with his assigned role even as he put a hand on Wesley's shoulder and orbed him away.

"And I get stuck walkin' because?" Doyle asked.

"Because I'd feel more comfortable if you were checking leads on Angel's latest problem by yourself," Paige said, even as she moved over to the computer; she might not be a hacker extraordinaire, but she'd been picking up enough to learn a few little tricks when it came to finding information. "Make it quick; the sooner we clear him to everyone's satisfaction the better."

"Can't argue with that," Doyle nodded as he walked out of the office, leaving Paige to start her search.

She had no idea how Darla could have come back or acquired the means to do any of this stuff in the first place, but that was something they could work out once they'd determined what she was trying to do at the moment.

She had no idea how the vampire could have come back from being staked, but if Darla was back, it was safe to say that things weren't going to be pretty…

Looking over her notes on the events of the last few hours, Paige didn't know if she should be relieved or disappointed at how simple things had been in the end.

Once they'd introduced the idea that Darla was behind what was going on rather than just assuming that Angel had snapped for some reason, everything had fallen into place. After Angel had made his way to the Kramer house, he'd quickly confirmed that Darla was a human now for some reason, before two beings in robes who could only be warlocks had shown up to kill her 'husband' just as he dived in to try and stop them. He had noticed that one of the warlocks was missing his right hand, which helped him confirm that they were most likely the pair who had been working with Vocah during the ritual a few months back, but even if that explained how Darla had come back from the dead it still left them with several questions to answer regarding why someone had done that in the first place.

On the bright side, it hadn't taken much effort for Darryl to clear Angel's name of DeEtta's alleged charges. Digging into the background had been enough for Darryl to confirm that 'Stephen Kramer' was only an alias for David Bergman, a small-time actor who had apparently been hired to act as Darla's husband. The motive for it eluded them, but Doyle had guessed that the man had assumed he was part of some particularly complex scheme by Darla to get her own back on a creepy ex, as nothing in his history indicated any knowledge of the supernatural or past association with any demons. With Darryl able to provide samples of Angel's fingerprints, they'd confirmed that he couldn't have killed Bergman, with evidence supporting the idea that he broke in to prevent murder rather than commit it.

So, Paige thought to herself as she glanced over her notes, boss officially cleared of murder, and an apparent perpetrator identified, but otherwise unknown suspects, unclear motive, and no idea how and why the apparent key player in this conspiracy came back from the dead in the first place.

She wasn't sure what was more frustrating; the lack of Angel, the lack of ideas about who was behind all this, or the fact that Darryl had called later to confirm that someone had abducted DeEtta Kramer/Darla before she could be properly processed into the prison system, particularly when Angel was the only person who met that third criteria and she had no real idea where he was now.

God, it had been hours since he'd left to confront the Kramers and he still hadn't come back…

"Hey."

"Angel?" Paige said, looking up at the vampire in shock. "Where have you been? I was-"

"She's human."

"She wh- Darla?" Paige realised, answering her own question as she looked at Angel in confusion. "OK, I get how they used that to play on things, but why would anyone bring her back as a human in the first place?"

"I'm not sure," Angel said grimly. "Maybe they think I won't kill her in that state, maybe something about the ritual they used to bring her back meant that they couldn't bring her back as a vampire…"

"'They'? You know who did it?"

"She was with the warlocks who were there when Vocah performed the ritual, but I only know that because one of them's still missing his hand after I cut it off; I don't actually know who they are or why they did this," Angel explained, shaking his head as he looked out of the window.

"OK, we're deal with that later; maybe you could fill me in on what happened with the last few hours?" Paige asked, putting that issue aside until they could tackle it in more detail. "The last we heard, you'd taken Darla away after the police spoke to her about… well, her story that you'd killed Stephen Kramer…"

"I… spoke with her," Angel said, a shifty expression on his face making it clear that there was more behind that statement than what he was saying so far, even as Paige knew that she wasn't going to ask for more. "She admitted that she was going along with a plan because she thought it was fun even if she didn't think it would work… but she doesn't seem to have realised what's been done to her yet."

"Done to her?" Paige repeated, curious at the grim expression on her boyfriend's face.

"She has a soul now."

"Oh," Paige said, understanding striking her as she looked at him. "So now that she can feel guilt again…"

"She's been riding the high of being back so far, but I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before the pain of what she did starts hitting her," Angel confirmed. "She can talk about how we're still the same as we were, but she can't even recognise that I wasn't able to feel anything for her back when I didn't have a soul, and then there's everything she thinks she gave me…"

"She gave you nothing," Paige said firmly. "You're not Angelus, Angel; what he wanted or enjoyed isn't what you would choose. You're a good man, and Darla's a psycho who couldn't understand what makes you tick even if she wanted to; don't listen to a thing she has to say."

"I know," Angel said, looking back at her with a brief smile before his grin faltered. "Doesn't make it easier…"

Looking at her lover as he turned to stare out of the window, eyes fixed on nothing as he stared at the past in his mind, Paige had to wonder what he was about to do next.

Chapter Text

As much as Paige appreciated that Darla was a problem for them, she really wished that Angel would dial down the scale of his concern about her. She wasn't about to deny that the ex-vampire could be a problem for them- Darryl's intervention and knowledge should have made it clear that trying to frame Angel for a crime wouldn't be that easy, but it wasn't impossible- but on the other hand, it wasn't healthy for Angel to worry that much about someone who could only be a threat to them if Angel let her get under his skin.

Quite frankly, the fact that Angel didn't know where to go next was probably the only thing stopping him from doing something really dangerous like making some kind of kamikaze-esque attack on them. As it was, he'd risked a few of Doyle's more questionable contacts in the supernatural underbelly of the city by resorting to more extreme threats than Paige in particular felt comfortable with.

At least it's quiet at the office, she mused, flexing her shoulders as she took in the area around her. With business slow for the last week or so despite Chris's focus on pro-actively vanquishing various demons, Angel had finally been convinced to take a suggestion from Doyle and had left town to consult a swami that Doyle had heard about who may be able to help the vampire work though his issues with Darla's resurrection, in the hopes that a more independent view would give the vampire the help he needed. With her boyfriend away, Doyle and Wesley manning the office, and Phoebe and Piper stressing each other out as Piper prepared for her first post-Leo date and Phoebe tried to get her empath abilities under control, Paige had decided to use the rare day off to take a walk through San Francisco.

Maybe some could argue that it was an abuse of personal gain to orb around to various parts of the city, but even if their role as witches took the Halliwells to various parts of the city, Paige wanted an opportunity to explore it at her leisure, rather than dashing around to respond to the latest threat. She was experienced enough with some of the more downtrodden parts of the city after some of her patrols with Angel to find vampires, but she was currently checking out some of the older parts of the city, fascinated to see how the upper-classes lived.

Admittedly, the houses seemed a bit big for her taste- the manor was large, but it always managed to seem homey without feeling too spacious even when the rest of the family were out, while these places just struck her as huge- but Paige didn't have to want to live there to find the buildings appealing…

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a series of energy balls flying out from two of the houses further up the street that she was walking along.

Great, Paige groaned to herself as she took in the sight. So much for taking a break.

With nothing else to do but assess the situation, Paige tried to see if there was any way to be sure which side might be the 'good' party in this sudden conflict, but soon decided that she wasn't going to get anything standing around at this distance; she'd just have to try the direct approach and hope for the best.

"OK," she said, walking over to stand in front of one house and press the intercom near the gate, "I don't know what's going on here, but I do now that throwing those things around is just going to attract the wrong sort of attention; is there any way I can help?"

She stood for a moment, received no response, and then tried again. "Look, I'm not going to expose anything, I just want to understand what's going on…"

"What's going on," said a male voice with an accent behind her, "is that it's a little risky standing around here; haven't you noticed there's kind of a war on between these two homes?"

"What else would I be doing here?" Paige countered, turning around to look at the other man, who sounded like he represented the other side of whatever this was.

"Oh," the man said, looking at her thoughtfully for a moment before he spoke again. "You're not the first, you know. Others have come to try to help; maybe you should leave before you get hurt."

"I think I can handle it," Paige countered.

"Because you're a witch?"

"And how did you know that?"

"Nothing else would be this direct and non-violent in daylight," the man said grimly. "Look, ever since I was a kid, one sort of magical being or another has come to try help in the feud, and it hasn't worked. I mean, this last truce was the longest but…"

As another energy ball hurtled out of the house Paige had been trying to enter, Paige hurtled the man to the ground before the ball could strike him, flying on to hit a letterbox further down the street.

"OK," Paige said, quickly getting to her feet and grabbing the man's arm, orbing him to another street before fixing him with a firm glare, "care to explain what's going down here?"

"You- hold on, you just-"

"I'm half Whitelighter, but you were right about the witch thing for my other half, so let's just get down to business," Paige said firmly. "What was all that about a feud?"

"It's a… long-standing thing," the man explained awkwardly. "The Callaways and the Montanas- like me- have been fighting each other for… well, a long time."

"Why?"

"Nobody's evil, if that's what you're asking, it's just… well, things happen," the man explained awkwardly. "We're not sure who started this latest escalation a couple of days ago, but some years ago the Callaways cast a plague on us that left my brother with serious scars, and we retaliated with boils… or was it the other way round? I can't even remember any more; you start to lose track after you've been fighting this long…"

"If it's been going on that long, how come you look all right?" Paige asked, hoping that her tone made it clear she was simply asking a direct question rather than trying to imply anything deeper.

"You can't curse people that don't practise magic," the man explained. "I don't do that any more."

"Why not?"

"Last time I did… it brought me to a place I don't want to go again," the man said solemnly. "My fiancé, Olivia Callaway, got killed in the crossfire last year."

"Sleeping with the enemy, huh?" Paige said with a brief smile. "Been there, done that; I'm actually dating a vampire myself."

"A vampire?"

"He's cursed with his soul, so he's not a bad guy, but… well, it's got its ups and downs," Paige shrugged. "The point is, I've got some experience at dealing with a complicated situations; maybe I can… give your families some kind of help?"

It wasn't something she'd done before, but after spending so much time beating people up and vanquishing demons, she wouldn't mind the chance to deal with a problem in a more diplomatic manner.

"It's an intriguing notion, really," Wesley mused, looking thoughtfully over at Doyle as the two men sat at the available desks. "Psychiatry through magic; instant cures for phobias, compulsions, identity crises… which brings up the question why you never consulted him yourself?"

"Preferred to analyse things myself," Doyle said bluntly. "Angel, t'other hand… well, we need him at his best; can't afford to have him take a dive off the deep end because he had a bad day."

Wesley had a feeling that there was more to Doyle's reasoning than that, but decided not to question the issue; you couldn't make someone get help if they didn't want to, and Doyle's issues with his non-human heritage were all his own in the end. Stuck for anything else to say at this point, Wesley got up and headed into Angel's office, checking over the weapons cabinet and the books out of a lack of anything else to do.

He knew that he and Doyle needed to talk more, but there was something about the Irish half-demon that left Wesley always feeling stuck, as though he fundamentally wasn't expecting Doyle to be there and was having to adjust his way of thinking every time they were alone together. He knew that he could trust Doyle in a fight, and he liked to think that Doyle felt the same way, but during most cases they always ended up pursuing their own respective avenues of investigation rather than working together in any real sense, and Doyle tended to spend most of his leisure hours with Phoebe anyway.

Wesley supposed that was his own background coming into play in the end; the Watcher's Academy might have given him a good grounding on demonology, but in the end it was hard to talk to anyone who didn't know the truth about the world, and that was before he started thinking about the fact that he was working with demons on a regular basis now even if he consciously acknowledged that Angel was an exception to the rules and he'd already known that most demons just wanted to get by…

"Where is Angel?" a voice said from the outer office, accompanied by the thud of something hitting a wall.

"He's not here-" Doyle began.

"You're lying," the voice said. "Get me Angel."

"I can't, you twat; can't you just-?" Doyle began, before a sudden clicking sound alerted Wesley to the fact that someone on the other side of the door had a gun.

"My boss needs your boss, so I cannot leave here without him," the unfamiliar voice said, in a tone that suggested it expected to be obeyed. "So you're gonna get him for me now, or I'm gonna blow your head off."

"Now, look, we can talk 'bout this…" Doyle began, leaving Wesley to quickly glance around the room and consider his options. He couldn't be sure if the man threatening Doyle was alone or if he had accomplices, so just attacking him wouldn't work even if he knew how much time he'd need to get from the office to the other man before he could fire his gun, and without knowing for certain if this man was human or not he didn't want to do anything lethal. He wasn't sure if Leo and Paige considered him their 'charge' to the point that he could call them for help, and given that it took a few seconds for someone to orb in and become aware of the situation the man might just shoot the 'intruders' anyway…

Spotting a spare coat Angel had left on a chair, Wesley didn't stop to think about all the ways that this could go wrong, grabbing the coat and shrugging it on before he walked for the office door, slipping his glasses into the coat's inner pocket just to make sure (He mainly kept them on for reading and the Watcher-esque look, but it wouldn't help his current effort).

"I'm Angel," he said as he opened the door, revealing that Doyle was only faced with one unknown man with a high forehead and rough features, dressed in a dark jacket and trousers while holding the gun. "Looking for me?"

As the man turned his gun on Wesley, the ex-Watcher prayed that he looked more confident than he felt right now; he had to think like Angel or he wasn't the only one who'd be in trouble…

"That- that won't kill me," he said, grateful that he hadn't stammered more.

"Fine," the man said, lowering his gun and turning for the main door. "Let's go; follow me."

"You just expect me to follow you?" Wesley countered, taking a step towards the man. "I don't see why I should… you already know that gun won't kill me."

"And what's it gonna do to him?" the man said, turning the gun back on Doyle.

"Alright," Wesley said, raising his hands placatingly. "But, uh, I shan't be cooperative."

As he followed the man out of the office, Wesley shot a pleading look back at Doyle before the door was closed behind him.

He didn't know what this man wanted from Angel, but there was only so long he could continue this particular bluff before something went wrong…

Walking up to the house that the man had brought him to, Wesley wasn't sure if he should be concerned or relieved at this new turn of events. The scale of the place only left him with further questions about why someone living here would want Angel to do anything for them, but he had to have hope that the fact that nobody had realised that he wasn't Angel yet meant that these people weren't affiliated with whoever or whatever had brought Darla back…

"I invite you in," the man said just as Wesley was about to walk through the door, prompting the ex-Watcher to quickly jump back and hope that nobody had noticed him actually cross the threshold without an invitation. Muttering a quick thanks to his abductor, Wesley turned as two men walked into the entrance hall, both of whom he recognised from his perusal of some local newspapers, discussing something about drivers before one of them left the house.

"This is Angel," the man who'd brought Wesley here said, indicating the remaining man.

"Angel," the new arrival said, shaking Wesley's hand. "Sorry to make you wait; business thing. Come on in; I'm pleased to meet you. My name is Magnus Bryce; Benny, get him a drink."

"Mr Bryce," Wesley acknowledged as he was led into a smaller room off to the side of the hall, taking care to remain controlled. "I know who you are; I read the business pages. I don't know why you want me here, but this is not the way to get my cooperation. Your man abducted me tonight."

"I understand you're frustrated, but I'm a desperate man," Bryce replied. "You help people. I need help - protection for someone very dear to me. Now, relax, let me explain."

"Cheers," the now-named Benny said, handing Wesley a glass.

"Blood," Wesley noted, quickly trying to think of a way out of this potential mess. "I don't usually… drink in front of humans."

"Don't insult me," Bryce said in a friendly tone that nevertheless carried a certain expectation with it. "Go on, it's fresh."

Stuck for options, Wesley took a brief sip of the glass, taking just as much blood as he could without actually swallowing a large amount of it; he had to hope that Bryce had taken care to collect pure blood that would be easily digestible and wouldn't give him some kind of infection…

"You've heard about the software, the cable network," Bryce said, satisfied when Wesley drank and nodded in approval before he continued talking. "That's all a front; the money comes from wizardry. My great-grandfather created our first spell in his garage; a simple… tallness illusion. Now it's all custom designed work for people with the right money."

"Really?" Wesley said, seizing an opportunity to tip the contents of his glass into a nearby vase as Bryce and Benny turned away from him for a moment; it might attract notice, but they should probably assume he'd just drunk it in private to continue his earlier claim.

"You see someone in Los Angeles with looks and talent, chances are we provided one of them," Bryce continued. "It's like they say: the goddess Yeska does not give with both hands. It's not a nice business. I have a lot of enemies… industry rivals."

"Like the man in the hall?" Wesley asked.

"Paul Lanier?" Bryce nodded. "His firm's in wish-granting; scary little euro-creep. And there are others."

"Lanier is threatening you?"

"Someone is threatening my daughter," Bryce clarified. "My only family. Maybe it's Lanier, maybe it's Briggs over at consolidated curses. There are letters and calls. Twice we have caught intruders inside the house."

"But considering your own power, you must know dozens of protective spells…"

"Hundreds," Bryce confirmed. "Used them all. These guys are in the business, they know the tricks; I've put every last bit of oomph I can manage into them and they still manage to sidestep it."

"I see," Wesley said, musing that at least that explained why Bryce had come to him rather than the Halliwells. With protection spells, bypassing them was a lot subtler than breaking them, but the skill required to do something like that in a manner that would concern someone of Bryce's likely power meant that even the Power of Three might not be enough to create a spell that would be able to protect Bryce's daughter from harm without risking side-effects that would be just as dangerous. "And you want to ask me to act as her bodyguard?"

"No, asking doesn't enter into it," Bryce said. "I came a long way to pay you a lot of money to protect her; you'll do it, get paid, and we'll both be very happy."

At least Wesley had established what Bryce was doing all the way over here in San Francisco, even if he had to wonder how long he could pull off this particular deception; avoiding sunlight shouldn't be too difficult, but how was he going to cope if he had to deal with a more physical threat and everyone expected him to be Angel?

Chapter Text

"OK," Phoebe looked impatiently at Paige, "we've got our Whitelighter running around finding more demons for us to vanquish, your boyfriend's off on some magical spiritual retreated to deal with his obsession with his vampire sire, Piper's freaking out about her new date, and now you want us to get involved in some kind of magical family feud?"

"Hey, they've been throwing curses at each other for years and I'm not sure even they know what really started it all off; we can't exactly let them keep doing that if there's any way we can stop it!" Paige countered. "Come on, we can't just keep on kicking butt whenever there's a problem; wouldn't it be nice to have a problem that we can solve without having to kill something?"

"…Worth a shot, anyway," Phoebe acknowledged, sighing and nodding at Paige. "So long as you think they both want it; we're not going to make them stop against their will."

"All we need to do is give it a shot," Paige said reassuringly. "Come on, they're both just keeping this up because it's habit; with your empathy as a mediator, we could sort this before Piper even gets home!"

"Fine," Phoebe sighed, looking pointedly at Paige. "Just to be sure, this isn't just because the guy's hot, right?"

"Excuse me?" Paige countered indignantly. "I'm with Angel; just because… OK, I looked, but that doesn't mean I want to touch, I just want to stop anyone else getting caught up in their stupid fight!"

"OK, OK, I believe you, don't get tetchy…" Phoebe said, raising her hands defensively as she stood up; she might still be adjusting to this new power, but she could clearly sense Paige's continued affection for Angel even amid her brief spikes of lust when she thought about this 'Richard' guy. "Let's just get over there and see what's going on, OK?"

"On it," Paige said, taking her sister's hand and orbing back to the Montana house. Finding the door shut was a slight surprise, but Paige didn't let it concern her; she'd assured Richard that she'd be back as soon as she could, but it wasn't like he had no right to be cautious given his family's history.

It was only when her knock on the door met with a firm glare from Richard at the other side that Paige realised things were more complicated than just him wanting privacy.

"Uh… hi," she said, hoping that her guess was wrong. "This is my sister, Phoebe-"

"My father's dead."

"Oh," Paige said, lost for anything else to say to such a revelation. "Richard, I'm sorry-"

"Things are going to get worse," Richard said bluntly. "You should get out."

With that grim statement, he stepped back inside the house and closed the door, leaving Paige and Phoebe to look awkwardly at each other.

"…OK, so maybe we're here to stop this feud getting worse just… because?" Paige said uncertainly. "I mean, it can't exactly be a coincidence that we get here just as everything's set off again-"

"I don't think so," Phoebe said, looking at the house opposite the Montanas'. "You said the other side of the feud lives across the road, right?"

"Yeah… so?"

"So," Phoebe said as she looked back at her sister, "if they just killed a prominent member of the household they've been fighting with for the past few decades or more, I'd imagine that I'd feel something… intense from that side of the street… but I'm not getting anything."

"Anything?"

"I mean, there's the usual sort of resentment you'd expect from someone who's been feuding with their neighbours for that long, but there's no sign of anyone feeling particularly vindictive or hostile right now," Phoebe explained. "Either they don't know that Richard's father is dead because they don't know if whatever they did to kill him hit him or not…"

"Or they never did it in the first place," Paige finished for her sister, briefly grinning before the smile faltered on her face. "So if they didn't kill Richard's father…"

"Who or what did?"

In a slightly warped way, Paige was relieved at this fresh turn of events; it wasn't that she wanted Richard's family to be in danger, but at least now they had clearer evidence that this was a situation that seemed to need the Charmed Ones' involvement.

The question now was what kind of opponent were they up against, and would they figure it out before more people died?

We're going to need to hit the books on this one… which means we need the book experts.

"Doyle?" Phoebe looked at her boyfriend in surprise as she walked into the Angel Investigations office, the Irish half-demon sitting behind his desk in a brooding manner that she would have expected from Angel rather than her fellow seer. "What's wrong?"

"Few things," Doyle noted grimly. "Startin' with the fact that someone came here lookin' for Angel, threatened me with a gun if he didn't get out, and then Wes pretended to be him to get the guy off my back-"

"Hold on, I must have missed something," Phoebe held up a halting hand. "Someone came here and threatened you with a gun to get Angel, and just accepted that Wesley was Angel?"

"Exactly!" Doyle nodded in conformation. "I mean, why come all this way to find a guy when you make that kind of mistake about what he looks like?"

"Uh… Maybe we should be more concerned about the fact that Wesley's currently out there with someone who thinks he's a vampire?" Phoebe asked, not wanting to analyse Doyle's point when they had bigger problems than people making stupid decisions. "I mean, OK, they probably want him to do a bit more than be some kind of freaky test subject if they came looking for Angel specifically instead of just grabbing some random vamp off the street, but that doesn't change the fact that Wes is going to get killed if he gets into something too big…"

"No chance of Paige finding them?"

"Wes's status as her charge is still a bit… off, and she's busy with our own crisis right now; she might not be able to focus on him properly," Phoebe shrugged, wondering why more people working with them just made their threats more complicated rather than less. "I'll call Piper and check Wes's books for any ideas on our other problem; you try and find the guy who took Wesley in the first place."

"Good plan," Doyle nodded, turning over his options thoughtfully. "Now I think about it, man looked a bit rough around the edges; maybe Darryl could help me find some kind of criminal record for him…"

While Wesley appreciated that his impersonation of Angel so far might have been 'exaggerated' in some areas, he liked to think that he was doing rather well on such short notice. He was slightly surprised that the Bryces had so easily accepted his rather weak excuse about the mirror, but at least his cover was being accepted so far despite his minor gaffes like grabbing that crucifix (He guessed Virginia assumed that he was so used to operating in certain areas that he was thrown by being taken out of his 'comfort zone').

Admittedly, he was still puzzled by what could have prompted Bryce's enemies to take such a comparatively sudden interest in his daughter, or what was so distinct about these latest threats that Bryce would come all the way to San Francisco to hire Angel in particular when there had to be experienced bodyguards in Los Angeles, but when he was trying to maintain his own bluff it didn't seem like a good time to ask such questions.

Besides… after so long in a business where the only women he spent any time with were either already attached or single but with too much baggage for Wesley to feel comfortable making a move, there was something about Virginia that was honestly appealing. She had a fair knowledge of magic from her upbringing, even if she wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, but there was also a certain vulnerability about her that Wesley honestly found intriguing. She clearly cared about her father, given the effort she was going to trying to find him a gift for his upcoming birthday, but it was a very strained relationship, judging by Virginia's comment about how her father had to love something when he didn't love her.

Granted, the shopping excursion had been interrupted by those thugs, but it had been rather amusing to see them back down so quickly at just the thought of fighting 'Angel'…

"I hope you weren't too frightened," he said, as he walked Virginia back to her room.

"No, more angry, you know?" the young woman shrugged in a low voice.

"Well, they were trying to intimidate you-"

"Not at them," Virginia clarified. "At the whole thing, at the fact that I have to live like this."

"It's a bad situation," Wesley acknowledged.

"It's a bad situation?" Virginia repeated, turning to look at him incredulously. "It's a waste of a life! I keep waiting for my life to start and it never does. There is just- more locks, and surveillance cameras and- OK, what is this now, bedroom guards?" she asked, looking incredulously at two robed men standing by her door. "You go back and tell my dad-"

As one of the robed figures grabbed Virginia while the other raised one hand to summon a ball of fire, Wesley took just long enough to confirm that he wasn't facing a demon before he grabbed the man's hand and forced it shut, putting out the amateur fireball before following up with a punch to the face. With his immediate opponent dazed, Wesley turned to strike the man holding Virginia in the face, following it up by grabbing the first man and throwing him into his colleague, leaving them to scramble to their feet and run as Wesley glared at them.

"You were amazing," Virginia said, looking at him in awe.

"I was a bit," Wesley replied, smiling at the thought; he'd reached this point via convoluted route, but he'd certainly come a long way from the man who was impressed at the memory of how he'd taken out two vampires in controlled conditions.

"Your face?" Virginia said, looking uncertainly at him. "You didn't go all… like a regular vampire."

"Ah," Wesley said, swiftly deciding to go for something that was less of an explicit lie. "I suppose I'm not like a regular vampire."

As the red-head looked at him with a warm smile, Wesley felt like he'd accomplished something solo for the first time since he'd graduated from the Watcher's Academy.

He knew that his actions had made a difference while he was working with Angel and the Charmed Ones, but there was something different about knowing that he had done something, rather than relying on everyone else to do it…

"Your abductor works for Magnus Bryce," Darryl said, looking inquiringly at Doyle as the Irish seer stood alongside his desk in the police station. "Guy normally lives in L.A., which raises the question of why someone like that would come all the way here for one vampire?"

"Few ideas, nothing definite," Doyle shrugged. "Possible he's one of those multi-taskers, but no way to be sure…"

"Excuse me?" Darryl looked curiously at his strange associate. "Multi-taskers? As in you think he got this good using magic?"

"You'd be surprised how many people out there use a few spells to get a good public rep," Doyle shrugged. "Don't know for definite, but I've heard that Kevin Smith made a good guess when he suggested that someone made a deal with the devil to make Home Alone such a hit, and that's just the most public one."

"Some things you really don't want to know," Darryl mused, before he turned his attention back to the sheet in front of him. "Guy has a bit of a reputation for assault and B&E, but nothing serious enough that they'd go out of their way to make it stick or cover it up; in other words, the kind of person willing to do questionable stuff for enough cash."

"But Bryce is the big-shot he's associated with, right?"

"No real sign that he's known to anyone else with a lot of cash to spend on his kind of work."

"OK," Doyle nodded. "Thanks for that."

"You don't want to fill a report?"

"Not exactly enough to make a legitimate claim for abduction without getting into why anyone would do this to get a meeting with a private investigator," Doyle pointed out. "We'll let you know if we need any more help, but right now probably best to keep this all in-house."

"Fair enough," Darryl noted, even if he didn't completely like it. "Actually, considering that crap with Darla trying to frame Angel recently, probably best we don't bring him up any time soon."

"Point," Doyle mused, even as he crossed his fingers in his pocket.

Nothing in Bryce's history suggested he'd do anything particularly twisted to Angel, but that didn't mean the Watcher wasn't in trouble if someone found out what was going on…

Looking around the attic at the assembled two families, Paige could only hope that her amateur diplomatic skills were up to this task (she would have preferred to go and get Angel, but Piper had pointed out that after starting these talks it would be better for her and Leo to supervise them while she went to pick up the vampire). Leo might have agreed to act as a mediator to give this talk a bit more authority, and Phoebe's recent discovery suggested that they might be able to explicitly identify a third party as the reason for the escalation, but that didn't guarantee anything if people were being particularly stubborn.

"You think a ghost is trying to break the truce?" James Callaway asked, enforcing Paige's earlier fears.

"Could be an angry relative who can't let go," Phoebe shrugged hopefully. "All I can tell you is that there was definitely plasma balls being thrown about your house recently, which makes it pretty clear there's a ghost involved."

"This is ridiculous; it's just another trick-" Richard's brother Steve began.

"No it's not," Richard cut in, grabbing Steve's arm before he could leave. "I asked them to come; just let it play out, alright?"

"Thanks," Phoebe nodded at him before turning to light the five red candles she was arranging on a table in the middle of the room. "OK, by summoning this spirit, we bring them into our plane, so be careful not to break the circle until we've helped it move on, or else we're gonna have some angry spirits running amok. Everybody ready?"

For a moment, Paige wondered if her sister was going to say something to try and calm the mood, but Phoebe simply indicated to everyone else to join hands in a circle.

"Unknown spirit," Paige began after a nod from Phoebe, "we call to thee, Those who wish to set you free, Cross on over so we may help, Come to us, reveal yourself."

A gust of wind blew in the centre of the circle, the group shifting back slightly before lights appeared in the centre, subsequently fading to reveal a glowing, transparent young woman with fair red hair in a white dress.

"Olivia?" the Callaway father said in shock.

"Hello, daddy; miss me?" the ghost who was clearly Olivia said, before turning to Richard with a warm smile. "Richard."

"I don't understand," James Callaway said. "You attacked us. Why?"

"Because you didn't avenge my death, that's why," the ghost said, turning rapidly around to face the Callaway father with a cold glare.

"But you were hit by one of your own," Rosaline said.

"Or so you were led to think," Olivia countered, before sharply turning around again. "But that's not exactly true, is it, Steve?"

"It was an accident," Steve said, after an awkward glare.

"We were set up," one of the other Montanas said in frustration.

"Don't break the chain," Paige called over as Rosaline tried to leave.

"No, we wouldn't want that now, would we, Paige?" Olivia asked.

"OK, we have to move this along now, because woo," Phoebe whispered to Paige in a low voice.

"This can't be right," Richard said, looking urgently around the circle in denial. "This can't be you."

"I was wrong about the feud, Richard," Olivia said, as she turned to face him. "It can never end; I know that now. But that doesn't mean we can't still be together. Once I have my revenge."

With that solemn word, she vanished from the middle of the circle, along with a burst of wind that knocked everyone backward, breaking the chain. As she got back to her feet, Paige briefly wondered if that would come back to haunt them in a more literal sense, but as the Callaways and Montanas walked away, clearly still blaming each other for this conflict, she had more immediate issues to focus on than something that might not happen.

"Richard…" she began, only to find herself lost for words as he walked out.

"OK, that could have gone better," Phoebe noted.

"You think?" Paige glared back at her sister before hurrying out of the attic and down the stairs. She'd just reached the main hall when Olivia's ghost appeared in front of her, the dead woman glaring coldly at her.

"Why don't we go after Richard together?" the ghost smiled before moving forward to enter Paige's body, blanking out the half-Whitelighter's conscious mind just before she could do anything to orb to safety.

With all awareness of the outside world lost, all Paige could do was pray that Angel or Piper would realise what was happening to her before Olivia did anything she couldn't take back once she regained control…

"Are you all right?" Wesley asked, looking anxiously at Virginia as he sat beside her on her bed, the young woman now having removed her jacket. "I mean, two close calls like that…"

"I guess so," Virginia shrugged. "I don't know; are we safe now?"

"I don't know," Wesley said, deciding to be honest; even if Angel had been here to protect here, there would have been no guarantees of anything.

"Sometimes I think about running away," Virginia admitted with a smile. "Isn't that ridiculous, a 24 year old runaway?"

"We all want to escape our lives sometimes," Wesley said, briefly wondering if his time as Angel could be a similar experience to what he was describing; he was certainly getting away from who he was.

"I think about getting my own place, a little apartment," Virginia continued. "A job, something silly like, uh, a perfume sprayer, or working at a tire store."

"A tire store?" Wesley repeated, even as the two of them laughed at the idea.

"I told you it was ridiculous."

"No, no, it sounds wonderful. Rotating tires and inflating… things... Your father would not allow it, I'd imagine."

"Oh no, it's too dangerous," Virginia said, amusement replaced by frustration. "He says they would grab me in a second and use me to get to him. If you think about it, he's saying that if I moved out, it would kill him. I'd be responsible."

"That's a huge burden to put on you," Wesley noted, leaning forward thoughtfully.

"I just…" Virginia leaned on his shoulder. "I just want out."

For a moment, Wesley just enjoyed the experience of the young woman leaning on him, the kind of closeness he hadn't experienced since leaving England, but then she leaned in and kissed him on the lips, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Virginia…" Wesley began, before she kissed him again.

"I'm sorry," Virginia said, even as they continued exchanging brief kisses. "I know we can't."

"Yeah… why?" Wesley asked.

"Well, you're a pretty famous guy, Angel," Virginia clarified, pulling back with a brief smile. "I hear the guards talk sometimes. I know."

"Know?" Wesley asked, wondering just how much the outside world knew about Angel; Paige and Angel had tried to be discreet, both about their relationship and the changes the Charmed Ones had made to Angel's curse when restoring his soul, but it was always possible something had slipped out…

"About the curse."

"Ah, the curse," Wesley said, grateful that the only thing he had to deal with was information that was actually out of date. "Well, actually, this 'curse' thing has been widely misinterpreted."

"Really?" Virginia looked curiously at him.

"Yes," Wesley noted as the young woman moved her attention to his ear before kissing him again. "These days, it's less of a curse and more of a hex… actually, barely that… a recommendation…"

"Are you sure you're telling the truth?" Virginia asked, pulling back to look at him.

"Virginia, I want to be honest with you," Wesley began. "I want to tell you everything. I'm not-"

As Virginia fell on him again, further conversation was rendered unimportant as Wesley found himself with more urgent matters to attend to, even before she started pulling off his shirt and her own top.

Concerns about his identity could be dealt with when it wouldn't kill the mood, and his only 'lie' so far was claiming to be a vampire…

Chapter Text

"The swami was evil?" Piper looked incredulously at Angel, the witch still rubbing her sore head as they walked into the manor.

"He was a fake swami," Angel corrected. "You saw the body in the cupboard."

"And we know that wasn't just some random victim of a psycho because-?"

"What the fake said made it clear he had his reasons for being there," Angel clarified, shrugging apologetically at her. "I would have found more, but…"

"You know, I already told you I don't blame you for that; you had to work with what was on hand, it's not like the guy gave you much choice when he was standing out in the sun," Piper smiled reassuringly.

"What's going on here?" Phoebe asked, looking anxiously between her sister and the vampire as she came back downstairs.

"Oh, the swami turned out to be a fake who knocked me out when I showed up to get Angel and Angel had to pretty much tear his lips off with a fishing-line to stop him getting at me," Piper shrugged, before she looked more pointedly at Phoebe. "And what's got you all riled up?"

"Paige and I were trying to help negotiate a truce between a couple of magical families who've been stuck in some stupid feud for ages, but the talks broke down when it turned out the ghost of their daughter was the reason for things escalating in the last few months," Phoebe shrugged. "Paige ran off after them, and I've put together a ghost-banishing potion for when they get back, but…"

"You're worried it's going to escalate further now that they know the ghost's involved?" Piper asked.

"She confirmed that she was killed by the opposing side; you have to admit, that's going to make them a bit less willing to talk."

"Which is why we need to make sure they get the message," Angel stated grimly. "I am not going to let Paige get killed because some idiots can't get over old issues."

Piper might not like what the vampire was implying, but she had to admit that Angel's methods had the merit that they were simple, direct, and it was easier for him to do something that people would recover from while still making an intimidating presence.

She just had to hope they could get there before anything serious happened…

As the three of them pulled up in front of the Montana house, now flashing with lights that could only be spells being thrown around, Piper suddenly wished they'd had the patience to wait for the rest of the 'team'. Chris might be of erratic help when dealing with anything that wasn't part of his self-assigned mission to protect Wyatt, and she appreciated that Doyle was looking for Wesley, but if Wesley was in danger there was nothing they could do about it right now so it could have been useful to have him available to help out.

"Paige is in there," Angel said as he got out of the car, briefly shifting into his vamp face before he regained control of himself; charging into the house of fighting witches as a full-on vampire wouldn't help matters.

"Right," Piper said, nodding at the vampire and her sister, putting aside her brief thoughts on the erratic nature of their latest Whitelighter. "We go in, get Paige to safety, and stop this before it gets any crazier; agreed?"

As Phoebe and Angel nodded, the three of them charged into the house, where they found various Callaways and Montanas lying around the room, either obviously injured or likely dazed by magic, with Richard just hurling an energy ball at an older woman who was likely the Callaway mother. Piper quickly destroyed the ball before it could make contact, but that left Richard open to be hit by another ball. To Piper's shock, Paige appeared to run towards Richard, but her body froze as she registered Angel's arrival.

"Angel?" she whispered, before shaking her head as she turned to the fallen Montana sibling. "No, Richard needs… I have to…"

"Paige?" Angel asked, stepping forward to look anxiously at her, the battle around them temporarily halted in the face of the new arrivals.

"NO!" Paige yelled, in a voice that sounded like two people speaking at once, before she reeled back and the ghost of Olivia Callaway emerged from her, looking around the room in outrage.

"Olivia?" the Callaway asked, looking at her in confusion. "Why would-?"

"Because she's scared of losing what he had," Paige cut in, shaking her head as she looked solemnly up at Olivia. "You all felt her anger, but I experienced her pain."

"Pain?" Angel repeated incredulously. "She didn't have to do this-"

"She thought she did," Paige said, the battle around them falling silent as Paige walked up to Olivia, Angel tensed nearby in case the ghost tried anything while Piper and Phoebe anxiously watched their sister.

"I know how much you loved him," the youngest Charmed One said to the ghost. "How much it hurts to have lost him. But you have to let him live. It's the only way for you to move on and get out of limbo. Olivia, please, come away from vengeance, and come back to forgiveness. Back to who you were. Just let the feud end with life and not with death."

"I'm scared," Olivia said at last, looking uncomfortably at Paige.

"I know," Paige nodded. "But if this doesn't end now, everyone will die… and I know you don't want that, no matter what you tried to tell yourself."

After looking solemnly around the room at her family for another few moments, Olivia's spirit glowed one last time before she vanished, leaving the three magical families looking uncertainly at each other.

Piper had only the bare essentials of what had been happening before she, Phoebe and Angel showed up, but she hoped that things weren't about to escalate again just when they'd made this fighting stop.

"You know," Paige noted as she looked at her boyfriend, "was there ever a time when we could just finish one crisis and know we'd have a quiet few days?"

"You do remember that you've technically been here longer than me, right?" Angel countered with a slight smile.

"OK, I get that it's not the same, but as I recall, you still remember what Angelus did even if you weren't in control of it-"

"And he wasn't involved in everything you were doing at that point, remember?"

"Fair point…" Paige conceded, as she glanced down at the floor. "I don't know what's more ridiculous right now; Phoebe still freaking out about her new power by hiding in the basement, or the fact that Piper's having to go and rescue Wesley from some guys who think he's you?"

"At least we solved your problem," Angel noted, leaning over to briefly kiss Paige's forehead. Things with the Montanas and the Callaways were still awkward, since apparently Olivia had inspired Richard to take action by talking about how it was better to be the last person standing rather than continue to try and find a peaceful solution, but seeing what Olivia had become in death had apparently helped everyone realise how far they didn't want to go to win this fight. Leo had offered to make arrangements for a couple of Whitelighters to step in to act as neutral parties to ensure that any official treaties were as fair on both sides as possible, and Doyle had decided to stick around the houses for a couple of days to remind each side to stay calm, but that aside, all any of them could do now was hope.

Of course, Paige had her own questions about what had happened to Angel, considering what she'd heard about how the man he'd been sent to had turned out to be a fake. Angel had speculated briefly on the reason for such a switch, but he actually appeared to be content despite that unexpected twist, assuring Paige that the man had given him a few things to think on even if he conceded that the man hadn't really known what he was talking about, which Paige supposed was the best she could expect in the circumstances. She had thought about asking Phoebe for more details, but now that the combined Halliwells/Angel Investigations team was approaching full strength for at least one of their two groups, Phoebe had locked herself back in the basement to try and work out how to control her empathy powers, leaving Paige with Angel while Piper went to get Wesley.

Just as Paige was thinking about calling for Chris again, the door to the manor opened and Piper and Wesley walked in, the ex-Watcher looking particularly dejected about something while Piper had an edge to her expression that Paige couldn't quite read.

"You're really wearing my coat?" Angel asked, looking uncertainly at Wesley.

"I think the more obvious question right now is what you're doing back here already?" Wesley asked. "The swami should have-"

"The swami turned out to be a fake," Angel clarified, looking at Piper in surprise. "You didn't tell him?"

"I… wasn't in the mood for a long conversation after Wes here tried to stay and then the guy who abducted him called me a piece," Piper noted grimly.

"What happened?" Paige asked.

"Later," Wesley said, looking curiously at Angel. "The T'ish Magev was a fake?"

"Pretty sure of that, unless real swamis make a habit of keeping dead people in closets," Angel said grimly. "Someone must have found out I was going up there and hired this guy to keep me out of the way."

"Did you find out who?"

"He didn't say," Angel noted, as Wesley began to pace. "That's my coat, right?"

"It has to be Paul Lanier," Wesley said, ignoring Angel's question. "He thought that would keep Virginia unprotected, then when his men couldn't take me out, he tipped off Bryce that I wasn't Angel, hoping Bryce would get me out of the way…"

"Excuse me?" Paige asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Wesley tried to pose as Angel while you were both… busy… and ended up being 'hired' to protect Virginia Bryce," Piper explained.

"Virginia Bryce?" Paige repeated. "Would that be Bryce as in that billionaire tech mogul Magnus Bryce? What would a guy like that want with Angel?"

"From what Wes told me on the way back, it turns out Magnus Bryce made his money in magic rather than tech and now his main business rival Paul Lanier is trying to abduct Bryce's daughter Virginia for some reason."

"She's probably in danger at that party right now," Wesley said, shaking his head in frustration.

"Party?" Paige asked.

"Her father's birthday," Wesley clarified. "Big wizard event, cake, ice cream, tributes to the goddess Yeska…"

"Yeska?" Angel cut in. "Wait a minute here, I know Yeska; she's no goddess."

"She's not?" Paige asked. "What is she?"

"She's a Davric demon," Angel replied. "I found a few cults dedicated to them when I was… drifting."

"Ah," Piper nodded, understanding Angel's reference to his post-soul years in America. "I take it they're not pleasant?"

"They aren't," Wesley said, his musings replaced by an expression of grim apprehension. "And they definitely don't serve humans… unless the humans make a sacrifice."

"And there we are," Piper sighed. "What kind are we talking here?"

"Human sacrifice, generally live girls, offered to the Davric in return for great power, typically performed on the fiftieth-" Wesley began, before he halted as the horror of the situation came to him. "Oh dear lord, on their fiftieth birthday… Bryce is going to sacrifice his own daughter."

"Bryce is going to sacrifice his own daughter," Angel finished.

"But… we're not going to assume Lanier's the good guy in this, right?" Piper asked.

"Unlikely; he most likely just intended to kill Virginia so that Bryce wouldn't have a suitable sacrifice."

"Well, that's something," Piper nodded, before looking over at Paige and Angel. "Anyway, we've got a sacrifice to stop, and even with Chris off doing his thing, we still have a Whitelighter on hand; shall we?"

"Please," Paige smiled as she stood up to join her sister and co-worker. "Ending that feud was nice, but I wouldn't mind being able to hit something right now either."

With those words, she placed her hands on Piper and Wesley's shoulders as Angel took up position behind her, closed her eyes, and focused on the names of Magnus and Virginia Bryce…

As the orbs faded from around her, Piper found herself standing in a large room with various well-dressed people gathered around a large stone altar in the middle of the room. A young red-haired woman Piper recognised as Virginia was on the altar in question, chains attached to her arms and legs by leather straps and various candles arranged around her, as well as a group of men in all-concealing black robes.

"Release her or die," Wesley said, glaring at the men gathered around the altar.

None of the four were surprised when the guards charged towards them, even as the more well-dressed people in the room ran off. Not wanting to start freezing the room or blowing up men who might just be doing a job, Piper stuck to the hand-to-hand combat she'd picked up from seeing Paige and Angel in action over the past year, grabbing a champagne bottle to act as an additional weapon while her sister and their vampire ally lashed out with a rapid series of punches and kicks. Taking a moment to look at Wesley, Piper was surprised to see that he was actually doing rather well, deflecting a punch from one of the robed men and following it up with a swift uppercut, but she was soon caught up in struggling with someone who tried to grab her from behind.

"The hour approaches, Yeska," a male voice called out from another part of the room, as Piper finally forced her current attacker back with a quick punch to his groin. "Do not be blind to my plea… Yeska, I beseech thee, appear!"

As a strange wind began to blow inside the room, Piper desperately tried to see whoever was speaking, but the question became moot as it seemed like lightning struck inside the room. Once the sound and light had faded, a hideous woman with grey skin and thick messy blonde hair was floating in front of the altar, looking at Virginia with a sadistic grin made worse by teeth that reminded Piper of a piranha.

"The Sacrifice…" the woman began, before her smile was replaced by frustration. "… is impure!"

With those words, the woman who could only have been Veska vanished in another burst of blue right, leaving Paige, Piper and Angel looking uncertainly at each other while Wesley finished releasing Virginia.

"That was… simple," Paige noted at last, lost for a better word to describe what had just happened.

"She… she's impure?" a man Piper recognised from their earlier meeting as Magnus Bryce said, looking across the room at his daughter in bemusement. "She-she's not a virgin…"

"That's what impure meant?" Paige noted.

"You…" Bryce said, glaring over at Wesley. "You were supposed to be Angel. This wouldn't have happened. That's why I hired him; he's a eunuch."

"Excuse me?" Paige glared over at Bryce, but a firm hand on her arm stopped her storming over to the older man.

"Things happen," Wesley said awkwardly. "Two young people, danger…"

"What are you talking about?" Virginia cut in.

"She was a virgin before you got here-" Bryce said as he glared coldly at Wesley.

"I was not a virgin!" Virginia corrected indignantly.

"Well, that was obvious enough," Piper noted with a glance at Paige, as Bryce and Wesley each displayed their own kinds of shock at that news. "Although I wonder what this says about Angel's appeal when Wesley gets some just by pretending to be him…"

"Don't go there, OK?" Paige said firmly.

"What?" Bryce cut in, looking at his daughter in shock. "How could you? I kept you away from all men!"

"Daddy," Virginia said in a low, warning voice, "you remember that chauffeur from when I was sixteen? And the one at eighteen? I haven't been a virgin for a very long time… I even dated Rick."

A quick glance at some of Bryce's assembled followers and an awkward retreat confirmed which one was Rick quickly enough, but Bryce soon turned his attention back to his daughter. "Ginny, don't do this; don't make me angry-"

"Right, because then you might do something bad," Virginia practically spat at her father. "You were going to kill me!"

With that, she struck her father in the face, her hard left knocking Bryce to the ground. "You are not my father any more."

"And for the record, pal," Paige added, as she slung a possessive arm around Angel's shoulders while Virginia stormed off, "my sisters and I fixed that particular part of Angel's curse over a year ago; the only reason he'd have been a safe guardian for your daughter in that regard is that he wouldn't have sex with her because he's with me."

It was a small and pointless point to make, particularly after they'd just destroyed this guy's plans to get more power and were definitely going to get in touch with Darryl to ensure that he was arrested for attempted human sacrifice, but Piper guessed that Paige liked to make sure the other guy knew when he was wrong.

This had been an unconventional reunion to the crisis, but at least it looked like Wesley had enjoyed his brief stint in the spotlight; all they needed now was to sort out Phoebe's problem with her new power upgrade, and they were back to a comfortable place…

Apart from the whole Darla issue, but Piper didn't think that was worth worrying about; one ex-vampire was hardly going to be a problem to everything Angel had built since he'd met them.

Chapter Text

The problem with life as a witch/private detective was that it was hard to find the time to just relax without something interfering with their efforts. Paige appreciated that she had chosen a very active secondary line of work when she convinced Angel to open Angel Investigations, and she certainly appreciated the variety of work opportunities available, but the fact was that private detective was a profession that people generally didn't think about except for particularly exceptional circumstances, as opposed to social work attracting a range of problems.

Granted, they were a bit shorter-staffed at the moment, as Angel was still following up a couple of leads on where Darla might be hiding even if he was trying to be less obsessive about his search for his former sire, but they were still working on a few cases. Their last meeting with Darla had been awkward at best, considering that Darla had actively wanted to become a vampire again while Angel had confessed to his earlier attempts to remain with her even after getting his soul back, and Paige was still working out how she felt about that.

She appreciated that Angel hadn't exactly been himself at that point in his life, considering that he'd basically been Angelus for a century and a half. It was disturbing, but in another sense, it was only natural that he'd want to fall back on what he was familiar with even if he didn't feel that ruthless any more, and he'd already told Paige that he'd tried to be what Darla wanted while he had his soul for a time, even if there was a difference between hearing that when Darla was dust and hearing it when she was alive…

Paige knew that it was kind of warped on some level, but right now she'd almost be grateful for Doyle to have a vision; it might have meant that someone was in trouble, but at least it would give them something to do. Angel was still struggling with his feelings on all things Darla-related, and Chris's 'cases' were nothing more than attempts to take out anything that might threaten Wyatt in the future; as much as Paige loved her nephew, she wanted to feel like she was accomplishing more than crossing things off a hit-list.

"All OK here?" she asked, looking anxiously over at Doyle as she walked into the office, the Irish demon the only other person in the room.

"Workin' on it," Doyle said, glancing up from his desk. "Wesley's checkin' over some of his own books to see if he can work out some better way to find whatever demon threat might have gone after Wyatt than just tracking Chris's ideas, and Angel's… well…"

"Still training downstairs?" Paige asked.

"Workin' out in that basement like there's no tomorrow," Doyle nodded, shaking his head in exasperation. "I get that he's stressin' out, but this isn't exactly the healthiest option…"

"Yeah, but… well, Angel's never been able to relax when there's trouble…" Paige shrugged.

"Except he ain't even in trouble right now; he's just vergin' on freakin' out 'bout Darla," Doyle noted. "I mean, I get that she's trouble, but she's just human now; he's got bigger fish t'fry than her…"

His voice trailed off as he raised a hand to his forehead, before he bent over the desk and let out the yell that Paige had come to associate with his visions. Stepping forward, Paige put her hands to either side of him in case he needed any kind of help, but as always, the vision soon passed, Doyle ceasing his earlier yell as he bent over the desk.

"Oh god…" he said, shaking his head slowly. "That… that was a goddamn doozy…"

"Doyle?" Paige looked anxiously at her friend. "What's wrong?"

"Guy in… some office," Doyle said, shaking his head in confusion. "Give me a mo… hard to crack it…"

Paige waited impatiently for a moment, staring at Doyle as though she could encourage him to work through his vision through force of will alone, but he finally looked up at her in confusion. "I think… I think he's dead."

"As in… he's a ghost?"

"As in he just died last night and nothin' else."

"He died last night?" Paige repeated, looking at Doyle uncertainly. "You just had a vision of someone who died hours ago and there isn't even any sign he's a ghost?"

"He signed a form dated for yesterday and the clock clicked over to midnight while I was watchin' it," Doyle clarified, indicating the time on the clock.

"So… why are you having a vision of something that we can't stop?"

"Not sure…" the Irish seer said, looking uncertainly at the desk out of a lack of anything else to do with himself. "Maybe he… did something…?"

"OK," Paige said, deciding that this wasn't the time to fret about the implications of a vision they couldn't understand. "You work out who and what you actually saw; I'll… let the others know we have a case?"

"So," Wesley looked curiously at the information Doyle had drawn up since his vision, "you think this… Larry Henderson… fellow had something to do with demons?"

"My experience, people might just drop dead of heart attacks on the stroke of midnight by total coincidence, but I wouldn't have a vision of 'em if that was all it was," Doyle said, staring grimly at the news article discussing the death of his latest vision. "Just doesn't fit; why are we bein' called in after this guy snuffed it?"

"Maybe something he did before he died is going to be a problem?" Wesley suggested.

"Like what?" Paige asked, glancing up from her desk; she wished that she could get some help, but Phoebe was feeling frustrated about recent developments at the paper, Piper was stressing out about her work/life balance while trying to raise Wyatt and run the club while also getting back into the dating game as a single mother, and Angel was still just venting his issues downstairs. "From what I've read, he'd made all kinds of amendments to his trust funds in the last few weeks, and then spent yesterday settling up some of his ongoing cases before making a large donation to a children's foundation; I mean, the last person to see him alive was the office temp who says that he just gave her a large bonus before asking her to leave the office following some last-minute work."

"In other words, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that he knew that he was going to die that evening?" Wesley noted thoughtfully.

"Uh… good point," Paige said, taking a moment to think that over before looking curiously at the ex-Watcher. "Could that suggest anything about what killed him?"

"Possibly…" Wesley mused, only for his expression to become troubled.

"What?"

"Nothing-"

"No, that's not a 'nothing' face, that's a 'this would be really bad and I don't want to tell people about it' face," Paige said firmly, standing up from her desk to glare at Wesley. "What is it?"

"I need to be sure…" Wesley said, moving over to a free computer and sitting down, pulling up a few pages before he nodded. "Here we are; he had some business trouble some years ago, but then everything practically turned around overnight and business began booming again, and from then on he never made a bad call or lost a case until it was all over."

"OK, so he had a bit of good luck a few years ago; what does that have to do with him dying now?"

"I don't think it was luck," Wesley said grimly. "I think our victim made a Faustian deal."

"Faustian- as in the guy who sold his soul to the devil?" Paige looked at Wesley in surprise. "People can do that?"

"We work with a guy who changed when he got his soul back-"

"Yeah, but that was because other people cursed him; this is someone actually summoning a demon for the sole purpose of selling their immortal soul for what's fundamentally a short-term benefit," Paige countered Doyle's claim.

"It depends on the demon, really," Wesley noted. "Sometimes you have to summon them, but sometimes they appear to you directly; it all depends on factors such as their power potential, how much they can offer you in the first place, and what they'd get out of the deal in return."

"OK," Phoebe said. "So… we're thinking this guy sold his soul? Doesn't that… I mean, why would anyone send us a vision about this in the first place?"

"Excuse me?" Paige asked.

"I have to agree with Phoebe," Wesley noted. "I mean, these deals can be questionable, but I've never read anything about them to suggest that the people making them are forced into it."

"OK, he made a mistake in life, but does that mean he has to pay for it in his afterlife too?" Paige countered. "We didn't exactly abandon Angel for what he did when he didn't have his soul; we actually went to a lot of trouble to give it back-"

"But at the same time we hardly go around cursing every vampire in existence to restore their souls," Wesley noted. "Angel was the victim of an exceptional set of circumstances, and I agree that you were right to bring him back, but we can't use that as an excuse to try and save every victim we come across when we're this late."

"So we just leave this guy to suffer for all eternity because he screwed up?"

"Why not?" another voice cut in.

"Angel?" Paige looked up at the door to stare incredulously at her boyfriend. "What are you talking about; this is a man's soul-"

"And he make a choice to sell it," Angel said firmly. "Actions have consequences, and we can't go around cleaning up after everybody's mistakes, especially mistakes like this."

"OK, I can't believe I'm hearing this; you're only here because we made a leap of faith-"

"I didn't have any real idea what I was doing when I was turned into a vampire; this guy made a clear choice to sell his soul."

"We did have a vision about this…"

"And maybe we're just meant to stop the demon who made this deal making any more," Phoebe suggested. "We can't save everyone, Paige; I don't like it, but sometimes the best we can do is stop more death."

Looking grimly at the rest of the group, Paige stood up and walked out of the office, leaving Doyle to look pointedly at Angel.

"Could've handled that better, man," he noted to his friend.

"I was making my case," Angel said firmly. "This man sacrificed the most important thing in his existence; I'm not going to save a man who'll be that careless with his soul."

Looking at the grim-faced vampire, Doyle suddenly wondered how much of this attitude was because Angel resented someone being that careless with their soul or because he was just venting his frustration at the situation with Darla.

No matter how Paige looked at it, this was the most frustrating case she'd had since she opened Angel Investigations. Piper was too busy trying to make her new dates work to really focus on something she'd ruled out, Phoebe and Wesley seemed more interested in figuring out specifically what might have killed the guy in the vision so they could stop it happening again, and Angel had made it clear he wasn't that invested in the case anyway. Doyle had expressed some understanding about her concerns, but at the same time he didn't seem to be sure what he was meant to do in this situation in the first place beyond running down a few of his demonic contacts for fresh leads, leaving her to brainstorm options in the office with just a few ideas and no clear plan about what to do next.

She'd thought about talking to Richard Montana for a new perspective on the situation, considering his own experience with magic, but had soon decided against that; the man needed to move on after the crap caused by his family feud, and dragging him into this wasn't going to help him move on. Summoning Larry had been considered as an option, but since she already had a fairly good idea about what had happened to him, she didn't want to interrupt his rest and alert whoever was behind this that she was after them until she was sure she knew what she was going to do…

"Zahn."

"What?" Paige looked up at Doyle in surprise as the Irish seer walked into the office. "Who's Zahn?"

"Most likely the guy who bought Larry's soul."

"Excuse me?" Paige asked, her interest resparked as she looked eagerly at her friend. "You found him?"

"Keep in mind that the kind of demon who'd make this deal aren't really in the same field as my usual sources, so they can't say anything for sure, but this guy Zahn has made a lot of waves in the market despite him only seriously startin' work in this area just a few years ago," Doyle explained. "He was just an expert in demon law back when your grandmother was doin' the vanquishing, but he's built up a bigger base since then."

"Demon law?" Paige repeated in surprise. "That's a thing?"

"Even demons have rules," Doyle noted. "Point is, he's the most likely candidate for somethin' like this as he's cocky enough to try and make this sort of deal even when we're protecting San Fran, but we can't just drag him up here and vanquish him in case he's got some loophole in those contracts where all those souls go straight to Hell once he's dead."

"So we can't do anything?"

"…Depends," Doyle said, after Paige had spent the last few moments glaring at him.

"Depends on what?"

"Where he keeps his souls when he's not got 'em up for auction," Doyle explained. "No matter how connected he is, guy can't just buy and sell a soul at a time or he'd never make a real profit at it, and he's also probably using them to amp up his own powers-"

"That's possible?"

"Let's just say souls have an energy of their own and leave it at that," Doyle said, his grim expression hinting at something Paige didn't want to over-analyse; magic might be incredible, but the rules could suck. "Anyway, point is he'd need to have a bunch of 'em available so that he could be sure he'd always have a good power base available for himself and attract a range of interest from collectors when the time came to sell anything on. If we can find whatever he's using to store the souls he's preparin' to sell, it's possible we could set 'em free by blowin' that up and bringin' the guy down a few pegs, but…"

"But how do we get in there in the first place, right?" Paige asked, looking thoughtfully at Doyle for a moment before she sighed in resolution. "And we're not going to get in unless we can give him something really big in return."

"Hold on; you ain't thinkin'-"

"Me."

"Angel?" Paige said, turning to look incredulously at her boyfriend as he stood in the door. "What are you-?"

"No offence, but nobody's going to think that you're going to sell off your soul for the sake of one person when you could save so many other people with your sisters," Angel explained, his expression grim. "Me, on the other hand…"

"The bad guys overestimate your saving people thing so they might believe you'd go that far?" Doyle asked.

"But…" Paige looked uncertainly at Angel. "If you make a deal for your soul-"

"Chain me up before we make the deal," Angel explained. "You can keep Angelus contained for a few minutes, and then…"

"You're sure about this?" Paige asked, looking uncertainly at Angel as he lay on the bed, chains wrapped around him (and she wasn't going to think too much about exactly why her boyfriend had these available on such short notice) and a small summoning circle drawn on the floor beside the bed, a series of candles surrounding the circle.

"I'm sure," Angel nodded, glancing around the room as though to take it all in one last time before turning his attention back to Paige. "Everything's set?"

"You sure this'll work?" Doyle asked.

"In my experience, the powerful and young are always eager to prove themselves," Angel replied simply, indicating the small phial in his right hand, sticking out of the chains just far enough to move without being in a position where he could actually do anything about his bonds. "I can claim that I set this up before I chained myself up-"

"And then he'll be so eager to get something this unique he won't stop to think about why this situation doesn't work?" Doyle finished with a grin.

"Exactly," Angel nodded at his friend, before turning to Paige. "See you in a few minutes?"

"Good luck," Paige said, swallowing anxiously as Doyle headed for the door, the young witch/whitelighter pausing to look awkwardly at her boyfriend. "You're… sure about this?"

"You helped me find my own niche; I appreciate that you need to stand on your own, but you also have to know when to ask for help."

"Just so long as you remember that too," Paige smiled briefly back at him before she looked more solemn. "Seriously, though… thanks. I mean, I know you didn't approve of me getting so invested in this case-"

"And I… I'm sorry about that," Angel said, looking at her with a brief smile. "After all, if we're not in this to save souls, why do we make such a big deal about mine?"

Lost for anything she could say to that, Paige simply smiled gratefully at Angel before she turned and left the room, locking the door behind her.

Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, Angel tossed the last potion onto the floor, waiting for a moment before the candles around the summoning circle flared up and a man in an old-fashioned black suit over a blood-red patterned velvet waistcoat appeared in the middle of the circle.

"Well," he said, looking curiously at Angel. "What's all this in aid of?"

"A deal," Angel said simply. "Release Larry Henderson's soul, and you get mine."

"And why should I-?"

"Because the soul of a vampire should earn a bit more on the market than the soul of a lawyer."

As soon as Zahn looked at him with that raised eyebrow, Angel knew he had his in.

The only question was whether the key part of the plan was going to work…

When she heard a brief yell from inside the room where she'd left Angel, Paige could only cross her fingers and prey that doing this wouldn't invalidate the curse; she knew that Angel and Doyle still kept everything they might need to re-cast it in the apartment in case something ever went wrong, but that didn't mean she liked the idea.

After the yell had faded, Paige and Doyle exchanged grim glances and waited a few more moments before they opened the door and looked inside, 'Angel' looking at back at them with a satisfied smirk.

"Well well," he said, already visibly straining against his bonds as he looked at them. "You couldn't resist temptation for a year?"

"You really think we're going to be that stupid?" Paige countered. "You know as well as Angel does that you're not going to be out for long, and we all made sure those chains can hold you."

"And what makes you so sure you can pull this off?" Angelus countered. "You really think a guy like Zahn isn't prepared for any possibility?"

"Even the possibility of the impossible?" Doyle noted. "You that sure his eyes aren't bigger than his stomach?"

"And on that note," Paige added, stepping back to take Doyle by the hand as she felt the sensation of a charge calling in her mind, "we're just going to go and prove you wrong."

Standing in the middle of Zahn's auction room, Angel had to admit that he was actually more relieved at how things had worked out than he'd ever share with Paige. Guessing that he needed to actually sign the contract to hand over his soul had been the only reason they'd taken the risk of leaving one hand free, but there had still been the risk that he'd be unaware of anything actually happening to him at the auction, considering that he still didn't remember a thing about the time his soul had spent in whatever limbo it had existed in between Darla turning him and the first curse.

Still, as it was, he had arrived in the limbo dimension where the auction was taking place, which consisted of a group of people in clothing that ranged from old-style peasant garb to modern Goth punk gathered in a large stone candlelit chamber, with his contract and what looked like every other contract this guy behind an ornately decorated wooden door off to the side. It wasn't a perfect scenario, but if he could just draw this out long enough for Paige and Doyle to get down here…

"Ladies and gentlemen," Zahn smiled at the audience, "may I have your attention, please? Tonight I have a special treat for you. A once in a life time opportunity to purchase a truly unique soul; there is only one vampire with a soul, and I have his soul here tonight."

"Just the soul?" a voice called from the audience.

"For obvious reasons, I cannot offer the vampire directly," Zahn noted, actually sounding genuinely apologetic. "However, I can suggest that control of the soul will permit you a degree of authority over the vampire himself should you threaten to put the soul back…"

Angel wasn't sure if that kind of plan would even work on Angelus- his alter ego might 'fear' getting trapped in his subconscious again, but anyone trying that would need to be fairly powerful to stop Angelus from killing them as well- but he was hardly going to offer anyone any points on what they could do with his soul once they bought it. As Zahn started to take offers of various powers in exchange for his soul, Angel waited for a few moments until he politely coughed.

"Excuse me?" he said firmly.

"What?" Zahn asked, looking sharply back at Angel.

"Just to check," Angel said, wanting to be sure he was on the right lines, "you've only ever sold humans' and witches' souls like this, right?"

"Of course," Zahn confirmed.

"Good," Angel said, straining his arms and breaking his chains. "Because those chains were not going to hold a vampire."

Before anyone at the auction could react, Angel lashed out, his normally intangible soul enhanced by the mystical nature of the current environment; as he'd expected, his soul might be human, but he had spent so long in a vampire's body that he automatically thought of himself as possessing a vampire's strength. Quickly realising that he needed to focus his concentration to attack anything around him, he only managed to knock down the first couple of demons before they started to fight back, but with his speed helping him to evade the worst attacks, that was enough for Paige and Doyle to appear in the corner of the room, Doyle shifting into his demon face while Paige orbed a couple of energy balls back at the nearest demons.

"Vault's over there!" Angel yelled out at the witch, indicating the vault where Zahn had kept him earlier.

"Got it!" Paige grinned, pulling a small phial out of her pocket and hurling it at the vault door. As soon as the phial struck it, the door exploded, the contracts inside it all burning merrily-

As Angel vanished, Paige privately crossed her fingers that he was just back in his body; the curse hadn't been explicitly broken, so there was no reason for his soul to go anywhere but where it had been before, but right now she didn't have the time to worry about the worst-case scenarios. As Zahn screamed in outrage at the loss of his contracts, the contents of the vault burning merrily, Paige hurled a new vanquishing potion in his direction, smiling in satisfaction at the subsequent explosion.

"I love watching lawyers explode," Paige smiled over at Doyle, only for her smile to falter slightly as she looked at Doyle. "I mean, once they've actually done something worth blowing them up for, you know; I'm not a psychopath…"

"Never thought you were," Doyle smiled back at her before his grin faltered as he knocked down the last of Zahn's potential clients. "But you know your sisters ain't goin' to be happy with this…"

"Hey, I'll make it clear it was all my call; we took a chance, and what matters is that it paid off," Paige said firmly, looking at the shattered vault with a satisfied smile before glancing over at Doyle. "Destroying that does free everyone Zahn had in storage, right?"

"Pretty sure," Doyle confirmed.

"I'll take that," Paige smiled back at him before taking him by the hand. "Let's just get back up there and make sure that Angel's OK."

Even after she went up to the apartment and found Angel back in his body, back in control of himself and Zahn's victims released to whatever fate awaited them, Paige felt ashamed to find that a part of herself wondered exactly what had prompted Angel's shift of opinion.

She appreciated that he'd decided to help her in the end, but the way he'd referenced the idea of saving souls this time around… Was she just being paranoid if she worried about what that could mean for his future interest in Darla, considering that she was basically human now?

Chapter Text

When Paige had suggested that Angel start a detective agency, one of the first justifications for the decision had been the obvious benefits of giving them a legal reason to take action. They still found themselves facing a legally grey area at times, considering that there were some suspects they couldn't arrest, but Paige liked to think that the agency was forming a good impression even after they'd only been active for the better part of a year.

That said, she hadn't exactly expected that their small agency would be approached by someone as rich as David Nabbit for assistance, but she'd been surprised to find that the man was actually decent company, even if he was socially awkward, considering that he had admitted that he wasn't sure who some of the people at his parties were when they'd attended the party in San Francisco where he'd arranged to meet them. The discovery that he hired demon hookers- even if they were only Doyle's type of demon rather than hers- was a surprise, but she was trying to avoid making any moral judgements about something that was fundamentally a personal issue. Even if it was surprising to think of someone going from a Dungeons & Dragons nerd to paying demon hookers, Nabbit's situation seemed like it was more of an embarrassing mistake rather than something that merited him being classified as 'evil' just because he associated with demons, so Angel had agreed to take the case, and Piper had accepted Paige's reasons.

It was a simple enough problem, but as far as Paige was concerned, anything that got her boyfriend focusing on something other than his Darla-related issues was good with her. He was doing his best not to make it obvious, but she could tell that something was still bothering him even when they didn't have any cases, and Darla was the most likely candidate, so something else occupying his mind was no bad thing.

Besides, she was hardly going to complain about a case that basically served as an all-expenses paid vacation for a few days. Since Nabbit's people had already identified the blackmailer and his city of residence, all she and Angel had to worry about was finding him specifically, and her ability to orb meant that she could get back to San Francisco if something Power-of-Three-related came up. San Francisco to Los Angeles wasn't exactly a quick trip by car, but when Nabbit was willing to pay for expenses, they'd decided to treat themselves with an hour's flight into the city, and their client was even letting them stay in one of his properties in the area.

I know that we're here on business, but damn, what girl doesn't enjoy a chance to see L.A.?

As soon as she set foot in the brothel, Paige wondered if she'd been too keen on this case to think about what she was getting herself into. The central idea of helping a good man escape being prosecuted for an embarrassing personal habit was basically something she could get behind, but on the other hand, this was a very unusual place. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been somewhere with this many demons and not feel like she needed to start vanquishing while still feeling unnerved at the situation. The building just seemed like a fancy house from the outside, with less windows on the ground floor than normal but fairly casual overall, but after she and Angel had entered the main hall after the entrance corridor, they were immediately in a large bar, fancy paintings and artwork on the walls as all kinds of scantily-clad women fawning up to men in suits, the womens' faces displaying a variety of features from elongated ears to feather-like hair and cheekbones that reminded Paige of Jhiera.

Wesley had mentioned that this 'Madame Dorian's' place had a reputation among the Watcher's Council, but Paige had assured Piper that none of the stories Wesley had heard about it featured the prostitutes sacrificing their clients to their demonic masters.

"We don't do vampires," a woman said, looking otherwise human and wearing a grey suit over a white silk blouse, walking up to address Angel before glancing at Paige. "Although we do have options open for-"

"Yeah, we're not here for that," Paige said, not wanting to let that discussion go on any further; she wasn't even academically interested in what people might pay for a witch in this situation.

"We're just here to talk," Angel clarified, pulling out the picture Nabbit had given them earlier. "His name is Lenny Edwards; you know him?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," the woman said, placing a firm hand on Angel and Paige's arms as she started walking.

"You're discreet," Angel noted, Paige following his cue and letting the woman keep walking with them. "That's good."

"Essential in my line of work."

"How discreet would you say it is for one of your clients to be secretly photographed here and then blackmailed about it?" Paige asked as she and Angel stepped away from the woman's grip (It was a petty matter, but she was definitely enjoying the chance to act more like an actual detective rather than just stabbing things).

"What?" the woman asked, pausing to look at Angel.

"Bad for business, I guess," Angel continued. "You tell me where I can find Lenny Edwards, and we might be able to stop this before word hits the street."

"Who is the girl?" the woman asked.

"That… we don't know," Paige said uncertainly, making a note to try and take that kind of detail in next time they had a case like this.

"But the client's name is David Nabbit," Angel put in.

"Lina!" the woman called out, indicating a woman with what seemed to be feathers instead of hair. "Talk to Lina."

"Well," Lina said as she walked up to the two of them, running her hands thoughtfully over Angel and Paige's shoulders. "It's been a while since I've done a double offer…"

"He's a vampire, Lina," the woman who Paige was increasingly sure was Madame Dorian noted.

"Well, we can make an exception," Lina smiled. "Just don't do that… face thing… and we're good."

"Yeah, as interesting as some people might find it to see you paw at my boyfriend, we're here on business," Paige said, looking firmly at Lina.

"We're looking for him," Angel said, pulling out the picture of Lenny Edwards. "And I think your boss here would like to cooperate."

The sooner Paige got out of here, the happier shed be; she respected that everyone had a right to make a living the way they wanted, but that didn't mean she liked seeing some woman wearing that little clothing paying that much attention to Angel…

Hurrying towards the area that had been identified as Edwards' likely location this evening, travelling via rooftop for the most direct access, Angel was surprised at how simple this case had been in the end. Paige was checking out a couple of other likely locations Edwards might run to if their first choice didn't work out, but Angel had decided that their best solution was for him to take charge of finding Lenny and check out the most likely location Lima had given him first.

And this is not because having something else to do stops me thinking about that…

Spotting the car that Lima had identified as Lenny's, Angel leapt down to the ground, landing silently behind Lenny and then walking up towards his target as Lenny stepped out of his car.

"What do you want?" Lenny asked as Angel grabbed his arm.

"Big question," Angel said (he rarely got to indulge himself when dealing with demons; he didn't see any harm in a little fun right now). "What do I want? Love, family, a place on this planet I can call my own… but you know what?"

"What?"

"I'm doing fairly well on those at the moment, so I'm looking for new goals, and one of those includes those pictures you took of David Nabbit."

"Never heard of him," Edwards said.

"Yeah, you only get one lie; I probably should have mentioned that," Angel said with an exaggerated grin.

"Look, pal," Edwards smiled, patting him on the shoulder "you're obviously not from around here, but trust me, you do not want to see my bad side."

"You show me yours," Angel countered as he vamped out, "I'll show you mine."

With that said, Angel grabbed Edwards by the shoulders and slammed him against the car; with the likes of Lenny, making an intimidating impression was his best chance at getting what he wanted. "OK, so I'm not exactly from here, but you can consider me willing and able to move in and take over, you understand me? You can assume that I will do everything in my power to dog you every night for the rest of your very short life until you bring me what I want. Are we clear?"

As Lenny nodded frantically, Angel stepped back; the man wouldn't have the photographs on him now, but he didn't want to force the issue to such an extent that he drove the blackmailer to run away in fear.

"See you tomorrow," Angel said, turning around and walking away as Lenny got urgently back into his car and drove off. It was only when he

It was only as he turned to leave the alley that he remembered something he hadn't thought about for the last fifty years.

It was a small matter in the grand scheme of things, and his target might have moved on since then, but as long as he was back in this city, he'd lose nothing by checking for himself. As soon as he was back up on the roof, he pulled out his phone and quickly dialled the number.

"Hey, Paige?" he asked. "I made contact with Lenny, and he'll be bringing the photos over tomorrow night, but in the meantime, can you get in touch with Wesley to discuss what's needed for a Thesulac raising ritual? I have some… unfinished business to deal with at the Hyperion Hotel."

"OK," Paige looked curiously at him a couple of hours later, standing beside her bed with the spell items Angel had requested earlier on the bed in question. "Wes gave me everything we need for that ritual you asked about, as well as some details on what these Thesulac things actually are, and I looked up that hotel you mentioned. I can get why you'd think there's a Thesulac there, since it's had a history of suspicious deaths from pretty much the moment it was built when one of the construction crew went mad and took two people with him when he jumped, but why are you specifically interested in it?"

"I stayed there in the fifties," Angel replied, looking thoughtfully around the building.

"You stayed there?" Paige looked at him in surprise. "I mean, I got the impression that before you met me, you were just-"

"The fifties were one of my… better times," Angel said uncertainly. "I mean, I wasn't actively helping people, but I wasn't that interested in hurting anyone either; I was just… trying to stay on my own."

"Well… that was the time when McCarthy was making a big noise about possible Russian spies, right?" Paige asked. "From what Wes told me, these Thesulac guys basically feed on fear and paranoia… you found one in the hotel and you were too 'lone wolf' to deal with it then?"

"I stepped in when a girl ran into my room looking for help," Angel explained, looking bitterly down at the ground. "I gave her just enough help to stop her or her apparent boyfriend dragging me into their problems, but I ended up talking to her after a salesman's suicide sparked off far more questions than it deserved, even if it was just to make sure nobody started looking at me too closely. I worked out that there was a Thesulac involved, and I decided to try and vanquish it myself… until the other guests decided to lynch me after the girl panicked and told everyone I drank blood."

"Ah," Paige noted, wincing at the image; even if Angel didn't need to breath, being hung couldn't be comfortable. "I know it sounds harsh, but I kinda can't blame you for leaving them after that."

"Doesn't make it right."

"Oh, I never thought it did; just said I understood it," Paige replied. "If this is about you feeling guilty, you just need to accept that you can't blame yourself for being human; you've got a soul, but that doesn't mean you have to be morally perfect all the time."

"Maybe," Angel said, in a tone that suggested to Paige he wasn't going to abandon his own guilt about this that easily, before he looked back at her. "If your research matches mine, it looks like the Thesulac never abandoned this hotel; if it's out there, we can kill it now and get to Lenny in the evening."

"Deal with a paranoia demon from your past and then resolve a blackmail case; I like it," Paige smiled, before glancing at the ingredients gathered on the bed. "You sure we need to do this?"

"It only manifests if it's summoned or if it's been particularly well-fed, and I don't think we want to feed it that much even if we could."

"Fair point," Paige nodded, moving over to gather the ingredients once again. "Let's get this over with; we've got to pick those photos up tomorrow."

Walking into the abandoned hotel's lobby, Paige suddenly wondered what she was doing dealing with something as powerful as the demon Angel had told her about, but swiftly forced the thought down; when dealing with a demon that inspired paranoia, she couldn't let herself become worried about the slightest thing.

"Sure this'll work?" she asked, glancing over at her vampire boyfriend.

"As sure as I can be," Angel replied, looking solemnly back at her. "You ready?"

"Of course," Paige replied, pulling out the Orb of Ramjerin that was part of the ritual and beginning to chant, the ball glowing as she paced through the hotel and spoke the words. "We call thee forth, Thesulac of the netherworld, we command you, leave our minds and join us on this, the physical plane. We invoke thee by the power of the orb of priests of Ramjerin. What was once in our thoughts, be now in our midst."

As soon as Paige had finished chanting, there was a vast glow in the middle of the lobby, and an extremely tall figure appeared in the middle of the stairs, wearing a dark red robe with what looked like tentacles trailing out of the bottom of it. It had a weathered greyish-purple face with deep red eyes, looking around the room with a sadistic grin once the initial yell had faded.

"Watch his tentacles," Angel noted.

"Got that, thanks," Paige noted.

"I don't remember ordering take-out, but I like what you brung me," the Thesulac said, smiling over at the vampire. "Not as clear as the last one, but still a bit of spice in the right places…"

"You had your last meal here a long time ago," Angel said, moving to stand in front of Paige as he glared at the demon. "You should have gotten out when you had the chance."

"Got out?" the Thesulac said, drifting towards Angel. "Now why would I wanna do that? When the room service of this hotel is still excellent; has been for fifty years. Paranoia here is like a fine wine…"

"Excuse me?" Paige said, looking at the demon in confusion. "This place has been abandoned for almost two decades; how could you have any kind of room service-?"

As the Thesulac lashed out with its tentacles, Paige quickly orbed to the other side, slashing at the nearest tentacles with her sword before pulling out a crossbow to fire an arrow at another tentacle. With her target pinned, Paige orbed again before the demon could grab her, leaving Angel to grab a trailing tentacle and hurry over to the reception desk.

"The kitchen is closed," Angel said, firmly sticking the tentacle he'd grabbed into a nearby exposed fuse box. There was a sudden explosion of sparks as the demon's body shook with electrical power, the Thesulac screaming in agony as it was surrounded by a strangely translucent purple energy shield, before an explosion of white light saw it vanish.

Looking up the stairs, Angel ran up before Paige could ask him what was going on, but she only took a moment to hurry after him. After Angel had climbed to the second floor, he walked briskly along the corridor until he reached a particular door, pausing apprehensively for a moment before he carefully opened it.

As Paige joined him, her eyes widened as she took in the room's only resident, an old woman in fifties-style clothing, sitting silently in a chair, staring at a television that only showed static.

"Judy," Angel said, Paige only able to watch in silence as her boyfriend walked in.

"I don't hear them any more," the woman said, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Are they gone?"

"Yeah," Angel said, moving to stand in front of her, getting down on one knee to reach for her hand.

"It's you," the woman smiled, looking at Angel in recognition.

"Yeah, Judy," Angel smiled back, reaching out to place a friendly hand on the side of her chair. "It's me."

"You look the same," Judy whispered, reaching up to touch him herself.

"I'm not," Angel said, those simple words reflecting at the last two years' worth of growth even with the 'slip' when he had returned to Angelus.

"They killed you… because of me," Judy said, Angel shaking his head as the old woman stared tearfully at him. "I killed you."

"No, no, no," Angel shook his head.

"He kept them from the door," Judy said, sitting up as she looked at the vampire. "He told me I'd be safe… Am I safe?"

"You're safe," Angel said, a faint tremor around his eyes as he looked at her.

"Can I go out now?" Judy asked, smiling at the vampire.

"Yeah," Angel said, helping Judy to her feet. "You can go out; let me help you."

"I just…" Judy said, moving over to her bed. "I need to take a little rest first. Just a little rest."

Paige could guess what was about to happen as she watched Angel help the woman into her bed, but it wasn't like she could do anything about the old woman's health. Angel was giving the woman a chance at peace that she would have never had if that Thesulac kept on feeding from her, and that was probably more than Judy had ever expected to get from him if she had really believed he was dead.

"I'm so sorry I killed you," the woman said, holding his hands as she looked up at him. "Can you forgive me?"

"Of course," Angel smiled sympathetically, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears.

"I'm just going to rest," Judy said, smiling in satisfaction. "Just for a minute… and then… I'm going to go out."

As the woman fell silent, Paige walked over to stand beside the bed, staring solemnly at the still body of the old woman.

"She was the one you tried to help, huh?"

"She was one of the first people to believe in me…" Angel looked solemnly at the dead woman, reaching up to place a hand on Paige's where it rested on his shoulder. "I wasn't able to appreciate it at the time… but that was the first time I'd really tried to be a champion to anyone. It hurt when she turned on me, but before the Thesulac got to her…"

"She sowed the seeds for you to be what you are today," Paige smiled at him in understanding, before looking back at the body. "I'll get in touch with Darryl; maybe he can pass on an anonymous tip to the LAPD to let them know she's here and give her a decent burial without raising too many questions about what we were doing here."

"That… that'd be good," Angel smiled at her.

They'd deal with the blackmail issue this evening, but right now, he just wanted a couple of hours to deal with this reminder of his first failure to be a hero on his own, as well as mourn the woman he'd failed to save so long ago.

Chapter Text

The meeting with the Thesulac had been brief, but once the demon was vanquished, Angel was grateful that he had done it. As much as he regretted not being able to actually save Judy after everything she'd gone through, he appreciated how he had been able to give her a few minutes of peace that she apparently hadn't been able to find ever since his apparent death.

He still had no idea what was going to happen with the Hyperion Hotel itself, but the issue of the building's future fate was for someone else to worry about; he had a life in San Francisco, and he wasn't going to uproot his life out of some awkward sense of affection for one of the first places where he had tried to be human since regaining his soul. He was planning to send a message to Nabbit about the hotel once their case was concluded to see if the billionaire would be willing to keep an eye on the building for him, but that would have to wait until he'd actually solved Nabbit's case. In any case, he was optimistic that the man's generosity would hold up; Phoebe had called them to confirm that Nabbit had already reimbursed them for the expense of the flight to Los Angeles, as well as a substantial extra. According to what Paige had heard, their fee from Nabbit was so large that that had apparently left Piper wondering if they would have to worry about personal gain concerns, even if she'd soon decided that they hadn't used enough magic in this case for that to be a factor.

With payment dealt with, all Angel had to do now was get the photographs back from Lenny and everything would be over. Once the sun had set, he was back where he had encountered Larry the previous night, Paige watching from a rooftop in case Larry tried anything particularly stupid.

It was actually amusing when Angel thought about it; he'd never set out to be a private detective before Paige suggested the agency to him, but even if this was the first truly normal case he'd had for a while, he was kind of enjoying the chance to get away from vampires and demons and help someone in a manner that took him away from all the death he'd caused without his soul…

"You're a sneaky son of a bitch, aren't you?" Lenny said, jumping slightly as Angel appeared by his car.

"You brought the photographs?" Angel asked, unconcerned about Larry's reaction to him.

"Of course I brought them," Larry replied, indicating the envelope in his hands, before giving the vampire a mocking smile. "And a little something extra."

Angel didn't even have time to wonder what the man meant by that before a large grey demon with short horns around its bald head appeared next to Angel, punching him with such force that he was sent flying through the air.

"Whatever he's paying you-" Lenny began, before Paige appeared beside him, slapping him in the face and leaving him to lean against his car. Taking a moment to confirm that Angel was holding his own against the demon- their foe was tough, but since Angel was able to parry its blows Paige doubted it was that much stronger than her boyfriend- the young witch pinned Larry with one arm against his throat as she quickly searched him with the other hand.

"Y'know," she said, looking scornfully at Lenny as she pulled out the envelope containing the incriminating photos, "if you'd just given us these and left it at that, you'd be a lot better off."

Glancing back, Paige winced slightly as a loud crack accompanied Angel forcing the demon's neck backwards, leaving it to fall to the ground as he looked up at Paige.

"You got it?" he asked.

"Sorted," Paige waved the envelope at him, shoving Larry to the side as she put the envelope into her jacket. "Shall we go?"

With Larry hurrying down the street, Paige and Angel were just turning to leave when a long wooden stake impaled Angel through his left shoulder, tearing straight through his body even if it missed his heart. As Angel grabbed the weapon, Paige turned around to look at the source of the attack, staring in surprise at a group of scruffily-dressed black people, approximately in their early twenties from what she could see, gathered around a truck that seemed to have been fitted with stakes on all sides and even some kind of gun on its roof.

"What the Hell?" Paige yelled, before the gang started to advance towards her and Angel, the vampire shoving her to the side before he turned and ran down the street. For a moment, Paige could only watch as Angel ran down the street, tossing trashcans and other things behind him to slow down the truck as best he could, before she realised that someone was kneeling over her and actually pulling her shirt to one side.

"Hey!" she yelled, sitting sharply up and shoving the young man examining her to the side. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Saving your life, lady!" the guy said, looking indignantly at her. "Or did you not notice the-?"

"I know he's a vampire; that's not the issue here, you moron!" Paige yelled, scrambling to her feet as she checked her coat pocket for the envelope before orbing after her boyfriend, ignoring how the incredulous glare from her self-proclaimed rescuer changed to shock. Focusing on Angel even as she recognised that he was probably in danger, she adjusted her orbing to sense Angel's location and then move a couple of storeys up, reappearing on the roof of the warehouses before looking down to see him zigzagging along the street, tossing trashcans and assorted rubbish in front of the truck to keep it from getting a good shot. She was just about to try and orb him to safety when he dived under a partially-open warehouse door, prompting her to take a moment to assess the situation before noting a window in the upper level and then orbing inside.

Finding herself faced with a collection of abandoned wooden boxes, it didn't take Paige long to identify the area where her boyfriend was running, but it only took slightly more time to realise that there were other people in the warehouse, every one of them eager to slam a stake through Angel's heart. After a few anxious moments of searching, she spotted Angel throwing a man over his head and slamming his attacker against the floor, the vampire briefly moving as though he was about to stake his opponent before pulling back and running off.

OK, Paige noted as she took in the room below her, relieved that nobody was looking in her direction yet, no sign of vampires yet, so we're probably just talking humans hunting vampires, but that could still be a problem if they get in a lucky stake…

As Angel ran down another corridor, he only just managed to avoid a series of crossbow bolts launched from the walls, dashing down a small 'corridor' of boxes to another more open area of the warehouse. A couple of members of the gang attacking him tried to rush Angel, armed with what looked like baseball bats, but Angel quickly threw both of them aside before struggling with a young black girl who charged at him with a stake, wrapping one arm around her neck and turning around as a new wave of young men came charging in, armed with assorted anti-vampire weapons.

"Alonna!" one of the men yelled, looking urgently at the girl in Angel's hands before looking at the gang around hin. "Don't shoot!"

"What are you people playing at?" Angel asked, Paige straining her ears to listen to the conversation. She'd step in if he needed help, but right now it made more sense to let him deal with these people himself, rather than risk freaking them out by demonstrating orbing somewhere public (although she made a mental note to ask Leo or Chris what the 'rule' was about using magic in the presence of people who only knew about Angel's class of vampire).

"We're not playing," the man said firmly.

"You're going to get yourself killed," her boyfriend countered.

"We're gonna get you killed first!" the man yelled, raising the crossbow slightly.

"Let's dust him," another man said.

As Paige looked anxiously between her lover and the street gang gathered before him, Angel tossed his 'hostage' aside, only to intercept an arrow when it almost struck the girl he'd just thrown to safety, apparently triggered by the 'tripwire' she'd just fallen onto when Angel released her.

"Ow!" Angel said, looking indignantly at the gang as he pulled the arrow out of his hand, even as Paige noted that the man with the crossbow at least seemed to be aware of how unusual it was for a vampire to do something like that for a human. "You know, for some reason I'm getting the impression you don't like me too much! Maybe I'm just over-reacting."

"What?" the man who seemed to be the leader of this group said, moving forward as Angel's former hostage moved to stand behind him. "You're gonna pretend that you're different from the rest of them?"

"Yeah," Angel said sarcastically. "And then I just pretend that I saved her life?"

He glanced around the warehouse before he began to move again, keeping his steps slow and patient to avoid triggering any more traps or attacks. "You put a lot of work into this; some clever stuff really. I'm impressed, but I have a few suggestions0"

"I don't think we're interested," the leader said, even as his voice was too loud for a simple denial.

"Yeah, you should be," Angel said, tossing the arrow that had been in his hand onto the floor between them. "Who do you think that would have killed? We're fighting on the same side."

"The same side of what?" the other speaker said, clearly less interested in Angel's motives.

"I didn't come here to kill you," Angel affirmed.

"It doesn't matter why you're here, or what you are," the gang leader said, lowering his crossbow as he glared at Angel. "If you ever show your face down here again, don't count on any long goodbyes."

As the gang walked away, Paige waited for another moment to be sure that nobody else was around before she orbed down to join her boyfriend, who was now lying on the floor of the warehouse clutching his pained side.

"How are you?" she asked, glancing over the battered vampire.

"Stiff, but I'll live," Angel replied, briefly glancing inside his jacket before turning his attention back to Paige. "Pictures are secure, so we've dealt with the initial case, but I think we can both agree that we've got…"

"Things to do here?"

"Yeah," Angel nodded, carefully getting to his feet. "These kids were trained, but it's all self-taught, and if I'm right about them living somewhere around here, they don't even have the security of the invitation barrier to fall back on."

"Stake first and ask questions later attitude makes sense, anyway," Paige nodded, guessing her boyfriend's next course of action as she placed a hand on his shoulder and orbed them back to her hotel room. "You want to find them?"

"Once I'm healed up," Angel noted, indicating his injured shoulder. "These people were ready for this; we're not just talking a few amateurs."

"Damn," Paige mused, staring out of the window. "All that less than half an hour from the centre of one of the most expensive cities on the planet…"

"And if they're hunting like this, there has to be a nest," Angel noted. "If we can track that, we might be able to help the kids deal with this before things get worse."

"Right," Paige nodded, indicating the phone. "I'll let Piper and Phoebe know we're sticking around for a few more days…"

Chapter Text

"You're sticking around to help a bunch of street punks?" Phoebe asked, clearly surprised at tis development. "We're meant to deal with demons here-"

"And what good is that if we just neglect the little guy?" Paige countered. "I get that this isn't exactly a glamourous job, but these people are trying to protect innocents from vampires even when they don't have any magic; doesn't that make them worth protecting?"

"I never meant that; it's just… well, this isn't exactly something we'd have stumbled across normally-"

"Hey, I understand that we have a lot to worry about with Chris's warnings of the future and all that, but the fact is that I'm here now and we have to do something to make sure that they're going to be OK before Angel and I come back," Paige reiterated. "If you don't want to help, nobody's making you, but we're staying here; get that?"

"…All right," Phoebe said, her tone reflecting grim acceptance before she assumed a more conciliatory tone. "Look, it's not that I don't want to help, but… you remember that time I tried to save Miles and he just ended up being shot rather than being attacked by any kind of demon threat?"

"It's not the same," Paige said firmly, even as she appreciated her sister's point; Piper had been vague about how she knew that, but her story about why she'd delayed Phoebe's efforts to save Miles last year had raised some worrying possibilities. "Vampires might not be our kind of demon, but they're still demons; this is me helping some innocents learn how to defend themselves against the bigger problem."

"Fair point," her sister acknowledged. "Think you can handle this?"

"I've got Angel and my own experience; we'll be fine."

The fact that the gang they'd faced might not want to listen to Angel right now was something Paige would analyse in greater depth later; right now the priority was to find those kids before something happened to them. As Paige hung up the phone, she just hoped that Angel was having any luck tracing where the gang might be hiding; he'd obviously be handicapped by the fact that the gang were unlikely to be anywhere with direct sewer access, but there was bound to be something he could dig up if he was careful…

That said, Paige mused to herself as she put the phone down and glanced out of the window with a smile, as long as Angel's checking out the demon bars and vampire hang-outs where I'd just stick out and make it harder for him to get results, and since there's no sign that the kids have anything more to worry about than vampires, I might as well enjoy the paid vacation to see what this city has to offer before he needs me.

In hindsight, Paige supposed she should be grateful that she'd managed to get in a couple of hours of sightseeing before Angel got in touch with her. She had been aware that she was going to need to be available the moment Angel found anything in his search, but she sometimes wished that magic allowed her more opportunities to take a break rather than having to constantly be 'on-call' since the moment she met her sisters and future boyfriend. As it was, she'd only managed to check out a few of the smaller studios and more popular filming locations before she'd found herself back on call to track down their targets.

Piper and Phoebe had spoken with Darryl about this and managed to confirm that this gang they were looking for would almost certainly have access to electricity, which had given her something to focus on when carrying out her search. With possible targets narrowed down to a particular part of the city, Paige had printed off a map and begun orbing between the most likely locations, but her search was interrupted when Angel called her.

"Good news?" she asked as she accepted his call.

"Depends," Angel replied grimly. "The nest is empty."

"At two in the afternoon in the summer?" Paige noted after a glance at her watch confirmed the time. "We are talking about vampires, right?"

"No scent of something else here that I can find," Angel confirmed. "They'd left one vamp here as a lookout, but once he started talking, nothing he said suggested that there's anything here other than more of the same."

"So we have vampires out and about en masse in the daylight… I get that there are options, but how does that work in these kind of numbers?"

"I found a couple of empty wardrobes and a few sketches of plans for the creation of… let's just call them 'sunsuits' out of a lack of better names… to protect vampires in daylight," Angel explained grimly. "It wouldn't be a perfect solution, as any damage to the suits would basically render them useless, but if they were going after a bunch of kids who have no reason to think that they'd be attacked in the daylight…"

"Crap," Paige noted, praying they weren't going to be too late to stop whatever was about to happen. "Did their lookout give you anything useful?"

"Just an address," Angel replied, quickly reciting one of the old warehouses Paige hadn't gotten to yet.

"Fits what we have," she confirmed, taking a moment to assess her options before making up her mind. "I'll orb on ahead and call you to me when I know where you can go without getting burned up; after that, we just take these guys down hard and fast."

"Good luck."

With that exchange concluded, Paige ended the call and orbed away, privately hoping she wouldn't be too late to make any kind of difference.

Arriving on a rooftop across the street from her target, Paige took a moment to assess the situation, and decided to take action herself. Smoke was coming from the windows of the building, but lack of flames suggested smoke and gas grenades rather than fires, and there was a group of teens in scruffy clothes running for a corner while a young woman in similar attire was being forced towards a beige-coloured van by three men wearing long plastic coats, thick hates, and what looked like gasmasks. Already certain that these men had to be vampires wearing the 'sunsuits' Angel had told her about, Paige orbed down to the largest clear point outside the warehouse that she could see, before waving her hand and yelling "Helmet!" as clearly as possible.

As soon as the command had been issued, the headpieces of all the surrounding vampires had vanished, leaving the once in-control vampires screaming in agony as the noon sunlight struck them in the heads, forcing them to drop their prisoner. Still sitting in the van, a couple of vampires started to drive away, but as soon as Paige had confirmed what was getting away, she waved a hand and orbed Angel into the shade of a nearby awning over three large doors that must have once been used for deliveries when this warehouse was in operation. Quickly assessing the situation, Angel tore off a metal bar from a nearby railing and swung it so that it struck the van's windscreen, the force shattering the glass and exposing the driving vampires to daylight. The screams and accompanying flames confirmed that the plan had worked, and by the time Paige's attention had turned back to the vampires that had once been gathered around her, the only thing left of any of them was piles of ash.

For a moment, Paige and Angel stood, looking anxiously at their surroundings, before the young woman one of the vampires had been dragging away practically jumped on Paige, wrapping her arms around the half-Whitelighter as her shoulders shook.

"Oh god…" she said, body trembled as she processed what had just happened. "Thank you… thank you… if you hadn't…"

"It's what we do," Paige smiled, giving the young woman a reassuring squeeze before she stepped back to look at the girl more directly. "What's your name?"

"Alonna," the girl replied, smiling at Paige in a tentative manner, as though she was grateful but unsure how far she should go when showing it.

"Alonna, huh?" Paige returned the smile with one of her own. "Paige Matthews; that's my boyfriend, Angel."

"Angel?" Alonna repeated, looking in the direction that Paige had indicated. For a moment, her eyes widened in shock as she registered that the young man Paige had indicated was the vampire she and her gang had confronted yesterday, but to her credit, the moment passed quickly as she looked at him with a more thoughtful expression. "You… are a vampire, right?"

"I'm… an exceptional case," Angel acknowledged, standing as close to the edge of the awning as he dared, enough to make her feel in control without actually putting himself in danger from the sun.

"And we mean he's a really exceptional case," Paige put in firmly. "What happened to make him that way… just don't trust that you'll find any other vampires willing to do that for you, and you'll be fine."

"And… what about you?" Alonna asked, staring curiously at Paige. "You were just… all that white light…"

"Alonna!" a voice yelled urgently, as a young bald man in a dark blue hoodie and dark trousers ran out of the warehouse, anxiously assessing the situation before his gaze focused on Angel (Paige chose to assume that he'd just dismissed her as a threat because her location made it clear that she wasn't any kind of vampire). "And what the Hell are you doing here?"

"Helping."

"Helping," the young man repeated, as the gang who had previously run out of the warehouse began to cautiously congregate around this young man in a manner that made it clear he had some authority among them. "A whole mess of other vamps lying around as dustpiles in those fancy anti-sun suits, and we're expected to just-"

"Recognise that firstly I'm not a vampire," Paige interjected, waving a hand to make sure everyone was paying attention to her, "and secondly, if Angel just wanted to take over the gang like you're probably assuming, wouldn't it have made more sense to just kill the leader and maybe a couple of other guys here so that he could directly take over this abduction rather than kill everyone?"

The man glared at Paige for a moment, clearly trying to come up with a counter-argument to that assessment of the situation, before he turned his gaze back to Angel.

"So," he said firmly, "if you're apparently not interested in this area like the other vamps were, what the hell were you doing in a place like this?"

"Helping a client."

"A client?"

"We're private investigators," Paige put in, pulling out a card and holding it up, giving everyone around a chance to confirm that she wasn't holding a weapon before carefully handing it to the nearest member of the group, who passed it to the man she'd already tentatively identified as Alonna's brother.

"'Angel Investigations'?" the young man said, looking at the two in surprise. "You're private dicks… from San Francisco?"

"We were hired to deal with a blackmailer and tracked him to this area," Angel explained.

"You came here from San Francisco for a case?" one of the gang looked at Angel sceptically. "And what's she when she's at home?"

"I'm… complicated," Paige said; these people might believe in vampires, but she had a feeling that bringing magic into the equation would be asking too much for this gang. "Let's just say that our client base tends to be very unconventional and take it from there."

"Unconventional enough to work with a vamp?" the man asked, although Paige noted that his earlier hostility had faded slightly.

"He did help save me, Charles," Alonna pointed out.

"That doesn't change what he is," the man said firmly, before he turned back to Angel. "'Preciate what you did for her there, but I don't need advice from some middle- class white dude, that's dead! You don't know what my life is; you have no idea what it's like down here!"

"Yeah, just to point out, he did live on the streets for a couple of decades before he met me," Paige put in. "Granted, he wouldn't have lived this life from your perspective, but I think he has some insight into what you're dealing with."

"And I can confirm that if you keep this up, some of you will die sooner rather than later," Angel added. "Maybe even all of you."

"People die all the time," another member of the gang said, wearing what appeared to be a makeshift flamethrower on his back as he looked at Angel. "Some of them just for talking too much."

"Yeah, it's attitudes like that which will see you all dead or bitten sooner rather than later," Paige said. "I get that you have your reasons for being here, and I'm not going to probe into that more than I have to, but if you keep lashing out at the vampires, all you're going to do is get them mad enough at you to do… well, they'll try something like this again, except this time we won't be here to stop it."

"Paige is right," Angel said firmly. "We can help you… unless death is what you're after; then you're on your own."

"We're always on our own," the man noted grimly.

"It doesn't have to be that way," Angel countered. "I thought it did once, and then I met Paige… and she helped me realise that I could be more than what I was."

"I did say he could be useful," Alonna noted, glancing at her almost-certainly brother with a smile. "And this time you can't say he only did it because he would have been dead if he hadn't; nobody made him come here to save me."

The man stared probingly at Angel and Paige for a moment, the rest of his group gathered around him, half of them tensed as though waiting for an excuse to go after Angel while the rest simply watched their leader, before the man nodded and his stance shifted into a pose that might qualify as 'relaxed'.

"Charles Gunn," he nodded at the two. "Thanks for savin' my sister."

"Paige Matthews," Paige said, letting herself relax as she looked at Charles. "And this is Angel."

"Angel," Charles repeated, looking at the dark-clad man with a slight smile. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Angel nodded in response, before he indicated their surroundings. "So… can we go somewhere more shaded to talk about this?"

The majority of the gang were still looking suspiciously at Angel, but judging by the way that they also kept looking at Charles to assess his reaction to the vampire by a soul, Paige had a feeling that they were going to go with his cue in this situation.

Riskier case than I'd like, but anything where we can help rather than kill is nice.

Chapter Text

After a few days in Los Angeles, it made a refreshing change for Paige to find herself back in San Francisco. The holiday/case had been interesting in its way, and she'd found one or two potential supernatural hotspots that might be useful for her or her sisters to make contact with later on, but the real benefit of this experience had been the new friends she and Angel had made in the form of Charles Gunn, his sister Alonna, and their gang of street kids. While she had been initially put out at Charles' preference to be referred to by his surname rather than his first name, and she had noticed him occasionally glancing in Angel's direction as though waiting for him to snap and start drinking, his sister had proven more willing to listen to what Paige and Angel had to say.

Paige hadn't been completely sure about exposing magic to people she'd only just met, allowing them to make their own assumptions about her ability to orb, but she and Angel had been able to suggest a few more basic tricks that would help the kids keep their property secure without trying to set up an invitation spell on a place that may never qualify as a 'home'. Angel in turn had suggested a few practical changes they could make to their usual M.O. in a fight, such as practicing with crossbows and using crucifixes at close quarters, and the gang had been tentatively willing to accept that he knew what they were talking about.

It's not saving the world, but it gives a group of kids a chance to keep themselves alive; sometimes, it's nice to get back to the basics.

"All that effort for a blackmail case?" Richard Montana looked sceptically at Paige as he sat opposite her. "Seems a bit of a way to go."

"Firstly, as private detectives with a legally-questionable license, we can't exactly afford to be that picky when dealing with clients who actually hire us and offer to pay expenses, and secondly, David Nabbit was a good guy who just had odd taste in women; that's hardly something he should be condemned for," Paige countered firmly. The rest of his family had moved on from San Francisco, but Richard still seemed to be stuck in a strange form of limbo since the end of the family feud; he had told Paige at one point that, as much as he hated everything magic had done to his life, he still didn't have any real plan for what he was going to do with his life now that he was out of his family feud. "You know, you shouldn't criticise what we do until you've seen it from our side; most of the magically-based demons we deal with might be evil, but Angel's introduced us to a few other demon species that aren't actually evil, and… well, it sucks in a fight, but a bit of moral ambiguity in the detective game can keep it interesting."

"I went through enough moral ambiguity with my family's vendetta," Richard mused. "I'd just like everything to be simple for once…"

In hindsight, it was almost to be expected that, as soon as Richard said that, Paige would receive a phone call from Piper about a woman appearing in the reflection of the water in her sink.

"OK, water lady pops up from a sink, and we're sure she's not a demon?" Paige asked, looking pointedly between her sisters as they emerged from her latest orb in the centre of the park.

"I'm sure she needed help," Piper affirmed.

"But she didn't give you any more information than this park?" Wesley asked, curiously studying their surroundings.

"That was it," Piper confirmed. "Pretty park, pond, and poof."

"And we had to come here when the member of our group with enhanced senses can't come out because…?" Paige began, before the aforementioned pond began to bubble and a large sword emerged from the water, held by what looked like a woman made of water. As the sisters, Doyle and Wesley watched, the water-woman moved rapidly to the edge of the pond, emerging onto dry land to reveal that she had curly red hair that put those watching in mind of Virginia Bryce, as well as a silver dress with loose white sleeves. For a moment, the five simply watched in silence as the woman walked towards them, but the solemn moment was abruptly interrupted as a long-haired man in a black robe appeared, holding a five-sided shield with an emblem that resembled a T with a sideways S on the bottom, along with a dagger in his other hand.

"They're coming!" the woman yelled. "Take this, it does not belong to them!"

The sisters had no time to ask for more information when the man threw the dagger into the woman's back, the sword flying from her hands into some trees. The Halliwells ran for the woman while Doyle and Wesley turned to go after the sword, but their plans were halted when the attacker was suddenly joined by two demons wearing black masks and wielding axes.

"Axes!" Paige yelled, summoning the weapons from the new arrivals and redirecting them to Wesley and Phoebe, Doyle transforming into his demon state to charge at the now-disarmed henchmen. The first man to appear on the scene now wielded a large sword in place of his dagger, but with his henchmens' weapons lost, all it took was a couple of well-timed punches from Doyle and they were disorientated long enough for Wesley and Phoebe to kill both men with their new axes. As they moved back into position in front of Piper and the woman, the first attacker took a quick glance at the forces arrayed before him and then shimmered out.

"Wuss," Paige said mockingly, even as she glanced over to be sure that Wesley and Phoebe had kept hold of their new axes.

"The sword," the woman in white said. "The sword is…"

With those words, the woman closed her eyes and her body suddenly turned to water, collapsing into the grass in a few small specks.

"Where'd she go?" Phoebe asked. "What did she say?"

"She said something about the sword," Piper replied as she stood up, clearly just as baffled by those words as the rest of them. "Where is it?"

"Right there," Wesley said, his tone sounding bemused as he took in the sight before him. "In that stone."

Turning around, it was soon clear what Wesley was referring to; whether they had misjudged the direction of the sword's flight or magic taking a bigger part in things than they had expected, the sword was now sticking out of a large stone near the edge of the lake, perfectly angled for anyone who might try to pull the weapon out.

"The sword and the stone," Piper said, her tone incredulous as she stared at the sight.

"Well," Doyle noted, "think it's safe to say nobody expected this."

"We're guarding the sword in the stone?" Angel said, looking at the large stone in the middle of the conservatory where the table had once been.

"And it's glowin'," Doyle observed, pointing as the sword's blade suddenly glowed with a golden light. "I can't be the only one who sees that, right?"

"OK, even if that's everything we think it is, are we seriously going to believe that the lake of Arthurian myth is a pond?" Piper cut in.

"You think she was from Avalon?" Richard asked.

"She must have been flushed out by whoever's after Excalibur," Paige said, smiling as she indicated the sword with a brief flourish. "The maker of kings."

"Are we seriously talking like Camelot was real?"

"After everything else we've seen, you're going to believe that this isn't?" Paige asked, looking at Piper in surprise. "We're witches who fight demons and dragons, and you have a sister who's dating a vampire."

"That's different; that's real," Piper countered.

"Actually," Wesley put in, "while there is still a great deal of historical debate about exactly where and when Arthur reigned and Camelot existed, there is a not inconsiderable amount of historical and magical information to suggest that something took place in Britain's past around fifteen hundred years ago that marked the moment when magical entities began to coordinate themselves in secret while maintaining some discreet presence in the world we are all more familiar with…"

"So there's a chance Camelot was real?" Richard looked at Wesley with a smile.

"Can we focus on the fact that we have Excalibur in your house and are probably going to have several people after the damn thing?" Doyle asked. "This isn't the kinda situation where we can just hold the thing until the real guardian shows up; the Lady o' the Lake died in front o' us, remember?"

"And according to the myths, whoever wields Excalibur is said to be unstoppable…" Wesley noted, staring solemnly at the sword once again.

"OK," Phoebe put in as she walked into the conservatory, the Book of Shadows in her arms, "nothing in here about the sword, but I think we've spent enough time dealing with Angel's type of demon and other related types of magic to know that just because something's old doesn't mean that it's going to be in here."

"I'm not sure if I should be offended by that or not," the vampire in question noted with a slight smile.

"On the bright side," Phoebe continued, choosing to ignore Angel's teasing comment as she turned to a particular page in the book, "we have encountered these guys; Executioner demons, low-level bad asses for hire."

"Hired by the bigger problem, I assume?" Doyle asked.

"You know," Paige glanced at Richard, who had been standing awkwardly in the door, "I know I said I wanted to talk, but… this might not be the right time for that."

"Fair enough," Richard nodded. "Bye."

"Right," Piper said, looking between her sisters as Richard left the room, "if we're dealing with an upper-level demon, that means a vanquishing potion should be enough."

"And you're looking at us for that because…?"

"Because I have a few hundred things to do around here in addition to raising the baby."

"Piper, I know that you have so much to do, but I can't do this; I have to go to work, I still don't have an assistant," Phoebe countered.

"Hey, I can work on the spell front," Paige smiled between her sisters. "Advantage of having my own business, you know."

"Which means that we can keep an eye on the sword," Angel noted, smiling as he indicated himself, Wesley and Doyle, walking over to place a hand on the hilt of the sword. "After all, how hard can it be to-?"

As soon as Angel made contact with the blade, it practically slid out of the stone, leaving the vampire to brandish it above his head before he realised what he was doing.

"Huh," Paige noted, just as a strange golden light appeared in the ceiling, triggering a small tornado coming down to the floor before it dispersed, revealing a man wearing a surprisingly casual dark grey suit jacket over a lighter grey T-shirt.

"I bet you weren't expecting that when you got up this morning," the man said, smiling at Angel.

"Uh…" Angel responded, still staring incredulously at the sword in his hand, the rest of the group too stunned to acknowledge the ironic echo of Doyle's previous words.

"The sword has chosen," the new arrival proclaimed, moving to stand in front of Angel as though presenting the vampire to a court. "You are the new saviour. The champion of good, the master of Excalibur. Welcome to your new destiny."

Looking at the shocked expression on her boyfriend's face as he looked at the sword in his hand, Paige wondered if she should laugh at Angel's incredulity or feel sorry for him for being dropped into something like this.

It's not that he doesn't deserve this kind of break, but does he really need all that pressure when we still don't know what Darla's doing out there right now?

Chapter Text

Talking with Leo about the situation when he finally came down, Paige supposed that it could have been worse than it was; if Angel hadn't pulled Excalibur out himself, it was possible that they could have had several magical beings coming to the manor to try their luck at claiming the Sword themselves, which would have been even harder to deal with now that Phoebe had gone into work at the paper to deal with her recent backlog. As it was, there had been a couple of dwarves, elves and similar showing up to make proclamations of loyalty to Angel, but once he'd made it clear that he wasn't interested in that sort of thing, they'd promised to pass the word along and left him alone.

Of course, Paige mused as she studied her boyfriend, who was now staring at the sword in his hands as though he couldn't believe he was holding it, that doesn't mean this is going to be easy any way you look at it.

"Seriously," Angel looked incredulously at the sword on the table in front of him, "who thought it would be a good idea to give me control of Excalibur?"

"There was no choice in the matter," the man who had identified Angel as the wielder said, standing solemnly in the middle of the room with his hands clasped in front of him. "It's drawn to you and you have been drawn to it."

"I have not been drawn to it, and I'm not interested in being the new King Arthur!" Angel objected.

"Angel, I get that this wasn't exactly expected, but this isn't the time for you to deal with your usual cold feet and self-esteem issues," Paige looked reassuringly at her boyfriend. "You're the one wielding the kind of power that nobody's been packing since Camelot… tell him, Merlin."

"Oh, actually, the name's Mordaunt," the man said, looking at Paige after a moment's uncertainty. "Merlin was just a fairy tale."

"Hah!" Piper cut in.

"But Camelot was not," Mordaunt finished. "And thanks to you, it will rise again."

"Right… and where do you fit into this?" Angel asked, looking curiously at the other man even as his tense posture made it clear to Paige that he didn't like the implications of that last comment.

"Consider me a humble teacher in the service of the sword," Mordaunt replied. "And we must begin your training in earnest before the enemy attacks."

"Well, that part shouldn't be too much of a problem," Paige smiled. "Angel is pretty much the best hand-to-hand combatant I've seen since magic became a part of my life; if you can teach him anything about wielding a sword, I think we'll all be very impressed."

"Truly?" Mordaunt looked at Angel in surprise.

"You pick things up when you're over two hundred years old," Angel replied.

"…Excellent," Mordaunt said, quickly getting over his surprise at that revelation.

"And we have a vanquishing potion ready and waiting if that Dark Knight thing shows up again," Piper put in.

"What's in it?"

"Mandrake variation with a bit of griffin's blood."

"Good," Mordaunt nodded condescendingly, "if you're going up against a pustouous knave which you're not. If you want to fight the Dark Knight with magic, this is what you need."

With those words, a piece of parchment appeared in Mordaunt's hand with a golden glow.

"I thought you said you weren't a sorcerer?" Leo noted.

"I picked up a few things along the way," Mordaunt said nonchalantly as he handed Paige the parchment, which a quick glance identified as a complex list of potions ingredients. "The Dark Knight is no trifle. You have to hit him with everything you have."

"And we should just… accept this from someone we've never met?" Paige asked pointedly.

"Your distrust is expected but don't let it blind you. If I haven't taught Angel how to master the sword before the Dark Knight returns, your survival depends on that potion."

"Should we be offended that he's doubting your abilities?" Paige glanced over at her boyfriend.

"I don't… think so," Angel said, uncertainly studying the sword. "I've used a lot of swords in my time, and this one… even allowing for different styles of swordsmanship and design quirks, there's something about this one that feels really different…"

"It is one of, if not the, greatest magical weapon ever forged; of course it would feel 'different'!" Mordaunt said, a cool confidence in his tone as he looked at the vampire, the witches and the Elder.

"Right…" Paige said, looking over the list before she shrugged and stood up. "Well, I'd better get looking for some of these ingredients." With that said, she orbed off, leaving Angel to look awkwardly at the sword in his hands.

"I'll go to check with the other Elders and see what they know," Leo said, following Paige's example as he got to his feet.

"And while you're at it, could you drop me off back at the offices?" Wesley put in. "I appreciate that the Elders' knowledge is vast, but it never hurts to cover every angle, particularly on something as significant as the return of Camelot."

"You… do that," Piper nodded at her ex-husband and Wesley before glancing over at Doyle. "Guess that leaves us as back-up if something goes down here?"

"I can work with that," Doyle smiled. "I mean, guess I'll need ter take point while you keep an eye on Wyatt…"

"I can do both," Piper noted defensively.

"Look, we don't even know if anything's going to come after us right now," Angel pointed out as he looked between his allies. "Right now we need to-"

He was interrupted mid-sentence when Mordaunt suddenly lunged towards him as a sword appeared in the other man's hands, the vampire only just managing to spin around and deflect the blow with Excalibur. Once he had established that he wasn't dealing with a genuine threat, the vampire swiftly went on the offensive, parrying Mordaunt's first few blows.

"Very good," Mordaunt acknowledged. "Better than Arthur's first time."

"No offence on the kid, but as I recall, he didn't exactly have Angel's background when it came to using that kinda thing," Doyle put in, smiling slightly at Angel's performance.

"Like Paige said," Piper smiled, "Angel's the best hand-to-hand fighter any of us have seen."

"Well, you'll forgive me if I want to test that further," Mordaunt said, raising his sword again. "Believe in Excalibur's power, and just let it flow through you…"

As the training session resumed, Doyle and Piper watched it for a few moments before leaving the room, each acknowledging that they had more personally relevant issues to deal with than watching this kind of training.

Never easy, is it? Paige mused as she returned to the manor, carrying the bag of ingredients Richard had put together for her from the Montana family storerooms. I encourage him to get out, and then I have to keep dragging him back in…

She knew that Richard had stayed in San Francisco for more reasons than wanting to get away from his family's old feud, but she also recognised that he was enough of a gentleman not to force the issue, and she was just selfish enough to appreciate having a friend who knew about magic but wasn't part of the family or work. Phoebe had mentioned that she was uncomfortable about the 'relationship' considering the implications of the situation, but Paige had assured Phoebe that she was keeping an eye on things, and Angel had faith that Paige wouldn't do anything about Richard's feelings.

Granted, something about the potion list Mordaunt had given them still felt a little off, but she'd run it by Wesley before she started putting everything together; she had just come back to the manor to pick up a few other key items before moving on. Glancing into the hall, she smiled in approval at the sight of Angel still duelling with Mordaunt, Excalibur blazing in the light as her vampire lover moved with a skill and expertise beyond even anything he'd demonstrated in their own training sessions.

Not wanting to distract Angel at a crucial moment, Paige simply gave him an approving smile when she had a feeling he was looking in her direction before heading to the kitchen, grabbing her 'favourite' cauldron and a few more standard ingredients before orbing to Angel Investigations.

"Paige?" Wesley looked up from his desk, pouring over one of the older tomes in his collection. "Is everything all right?"

"Just got the ingredients for the vanquishing potion from Richard and thought I'd make it here so I wouldn't distract our own dark knight from his training session," Paige explained. "How are things going here?"

"Difficult," Wesley noted grimly. "The only thing any source agrees on is that Excalibur is strongly tied to King Arthur, Merlin and Camelot, but every one of them varies on Excalibur's origins and the nature of that connection."

"Not as simple as Mordaunt says?"

"To say the least," Wesley nodded grimly. "Don't get me wrong, some sources support his claims that Merlin wasn't real, or maybe was only a title used by a series of witches to assist Arthur, but others have Merlin as a key figure in the very creation of Camelot, others present him as its mystical defender while Arthur grew into his role as king before and after Uther's death, quite a few explore his complicated potential relationship with Morgana or Morgraine or all kinds of other possible spellings of her name…"

"So in other words, no hope of a simple answer, huh?" Paige asked, before a thought occurred to her. "Hey, I thought Arthur never knew his dad?"

"Again, sources vary on the exact details of Arthur's childhood."

"Remind me to check those out later… anyway, getting back to the facts, what about the sword?"

"Well, Excalibur definitely has some power of its own, but where it came from is equally open to debate; was it enchanted by the Lady of the Lake, forged in the breath of a dragon… the possibilities are nearly endless."

"But is it safe?"

"So long as it's wielded by the ultimate power that's destined to control it, the sword itself isn't dangerous to anyone but its master's enemies."

"Right…" Paige shook her head, frustrated at the lack of concrete evidence, before sighing and showing Wesley the list. "Anyway, remember how Mordaunt gave us that list of ingredients for a vanquishing potion?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I was able to pick up some of the more obscure ingredients from the Montana family vaults, so I can put the potion together easily enough, but I just… could you take a look at it?"

"Second opinion?" Wesley smiled, taking the list and glancing over it for a few moments before his eyes widened. "Wraith essence and black poppy seed?"

"That's bad?"

"Combining the two would produce an explosive effect that would completely destroy whoever was brewing the potion."

"Ah," Paige said, before her eyes widened in horror. "But that means-!"

"Angel!" Wesley yelled, grabbing Paige's arm as she orbed back to the manor.

Arriving in the main hall, the sounds of fighting from the attic quickly drove Paige and Wesley to head upstairs, where they found Angel and Mordaunt duelling with the Dark Knight and the last of his demon allies. Paige was about to move to help when Angel thrust Excalibur through the Dark Knight and the last demon simultaneously, impaling them both with an under-arm stab that got both of them as they charged towards the vampire's back.

"Your assimilation is complete," Mordaunt proclaimed, looking approvingly at Angel. "You are now one with Excalibur."

"And why would you want that?" Paige cut in, glaring at the man in grey whose subtle similarities to Angel were suddenly more unnerving than they had been. "Considering that you just tried to kill us?"

"What?" Angel turned to look at the two new arrivals in surprise. "He tried to-"

"That is not important, my liege," Mordaunt said, placing excessive worship in the last couple of words that would have made Paige uncomfortable even if she didn't suspect he had another agenda now. "What matters is that you control the sword, and they would object to that because of what you are-"

"Hey, I have no problem with letting him have the sword; it's letting you talk with him while he's holding it that I don't like!" Paige cut Mordaunt off.

"Perhaps we should leave, my lord?" Mordaunt looked at Angel

"Leave…?" Angel repeated, staring thoughtfully at the sword in his hands. "Leave…"

Just before Paige could get worried, Angel turned around and rammed Excalibur through Mordaunt's heart, his face shifting to his vampiric features as he glared at his foe.

"Nobody tells me what to do," Angel said, his tone cold as he watched the other man fall to the ground.

"Uh… OK," Paige said, trying to sound optimistic as Angel turned towards her, "great to see you take that guy out, but right now you're-"

As Angel roared and lunged towards her, Paige silently orbed one of her own swords to her and raised it in a defensive manner, soon finding herself locked in a desperate dangerous parody of their old training sessions.

Paige had complained about it in the past, but this was the second time she was grateful that Angel didn't believe in holding back when they were sparring; he was obviously aiming to cause more damage, but at least she still knew what to expect from him at his peak.

"Angel, stop this!" she yelled at him. "This isn't you-!"

"Not the old me," Angel corrected, vampiric eyes flashing a more intense shade of gold. "Gotta say, I'm liking this…"

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that," Paige countered, ducking under another blow and launching a quick kick to Angel's chest that knocked him off-balance; she might not have his raw power, but she had enough experience to know his weak spots. "Seriously, Angel, you've dealt with your demon for decades; don't let some ancient sword get to you like this!"

Snarling in anger, Angel charged towards Paige again, prompting her to fall back on her old 'stand-by' when dealing with a deranged Angel as she orbed out just as he ran through her. The contact with her orbs wasn't as jarring for him now as it had been when he was acting as that Beast the previous year, but as Paige turned back to him, she immediately saw that he'd relaxed his grip on the sword.

"Excalibur!" she yelled, the sword dissolving into white lights that she immediately sent hurtling downwards into the room below; she couldn't see it, but she had to hope that the impression she was holding in her mind would be enough for the sword to settle back into the stone that it had been in originally. She hoped that removing the sword from Angel's grip would be enough to knock him back to normal, but just to be sure she followed up the orb-banishment by striking him in the head with a spinning kick, knocking him to the ground before she leapt onto his back.

"OK," she said, glaring firmly at the back of Angel's head while grabbing his arms to better pin him down, "the sword is out of the way, so think about this; Wes just told me that the apparent vanquishing spell that Mordaunt guy gave us was actually intended to blow us up, and you were just about to kill me just because I said something you didn't like; what's that about? Think about this, Angel; you're not Excalibur's new master…"

She paused and glanced at Wesley. "Right?"

"R-right," the ex-Watcher nodded uncomfortably. "I'd guess that Angel was… he was meant to guard the sword until he could pass it on to the true master…"

"You get that?" Paige glared at Angel. "You're a great choice to guard this thing on a short-term basis, Angel, but you're not the one who's meant to wield it to forge the new Camelot or whatever; you're Angel, you're the vampire with a soul, you're the subject of the Shanshu Prophecy, you're the man that I love whether you're human or vampire or what… just calm down, OK?"

For a moment Paige and Angel were still on the ground, Paige looking anxiously at her boyfriend while Angel lay immobile, until he finally turned around to look at her with an uncertain smile, his face now human and his eyes heavier with regret than usual.

"Paige?" he said, regret clear in his voice. "What… what happened?"

"Whatever it was, it could have been worse," Wesley said firmly, glancing over at the fallen body of Mordaunt. "Whoever this Mordaunt was, he must have hoped that he could influence whoever ended up with Excalibur to work with him while he sought to gain their power for himself; comparatively speaking, we were just lucky that you were the one who got the sword given your own experience at resisting darker influences."

"Right…" Angel said, shaking his head as Paige got off his back and helped him back to his feet. "So… where's Excalibur now?"

"Back in the stone," Piper's voice cut in as she and Doyle walked into the attic, the eldest Halliwell looking between her half-sister, the vampire and the ex-Watcher before her gaze fixed on Wesley. "I'm going to assume there's a reason Mordaunt's dead and Angel's not wielding that sword any more, but would you care to explain what it is?"

"Long story short, Angel was just meant to guard the sword until the true destined wielder was ready to claim it," Wesley replied, before a slight smile crossed his face. "Although, considering past precedent, I think we can take a guess as to who is meant to wield that sword when they're ready…"

"Wyatt?" Doyle looked at Wesley in surprise. "Seriously?"

"We do have hints that he will be an exceptionally powerful being once he gets older," Wesley noted. "It's hardly that great a stretch, when you think about it."

"So… if Wyatt's the destined wielder, how could I pull it out?" Angel asked.

"Because you're the one best qualified to actually use a sword?" Piper shrugged, before she looked over at Paige. "That said, if we've got it back in the stone now, think you can get Excalibur up here so we can put it somewhere people aren't going to fall all over it?"

"No problem," Paige said, waving her hand again and summoning the stone and sword into the attic, banishing the swirling orbs to the corner of the room before it reverted to a solid state. "That work for you?"

"It works," Piper nodded, before looking at Angel. "Uh… should I apologise for this?"

"You're not responsible for your son dragging me into his destiny," Angel smiled at the eldest living Halliwell. "Besides… in a way, it's nice to be appreciated by a more immediate destiny."

"Even if it didn't work out?" Piper asked.

"You've got to get things wrong before you get the hang of it all," Wesley shrugged. "All we can really do is hope that the learning curve isn't serious enough to actually kill anybody."

"Yeah…" Piper said, glancing over at the sword.

"What?" Paige asked.

"It's just… if Wyatt can do everything we've seen him do without the sword… what will happen when he's ready to use it?"

"That's tomorrow's problem," Doyle shrugged after a moment's thought. "Right now, we've got… well, we have a few more immediate things to think 'bout."

Paige appreciated how Doyle didn't actually say that Darla was one of the things they had to worry about, but that didn't change the fact that Angel's reborn sire was going to be a problem down the line unless they found some way to deal with her.

Chapter Text

The only thing Paige doubted she'd ever like about her life since magic became a part of it was the way that every day she had no way of knowing what she was going to be dealing with when she woke up, or how long it would affect her and the people close to her after it started. Phoebe had recently had a lucky break when she managed to get a qualified temp assistant who helped her interns reorganise the filing system she used to keep track of her unanswered correspondence, and Piper was doing a good job of keeping up a work-life balance when it came to Wyatt, but even if Angel had kept control of himself during that Excalibur mess, it still seemed to her that the way Chris kept looking at her boyfriend had become more intense since he came back from whatever he'd been doing on Leo's behalf. Phoebe had also expressed a few doubts after hearing how close the vampire had come to attacking them while under the influence of the sword, but she'd at least had the decency to do that when Angel wasn't there and leave it at that, rather than subtly glare at him when he wasn't looking at the Whitelighter.

Still, to Chris's credit, he wasn't letting his increasingly suspicious attitude towards Angel affect him interacting with the vampire when they were out on 'business', even if the Whitelighter still seemed to be pursuing his own agenda. At the moment, Phoebe was out on her latest date with Doyle, apparently at a fancy restaurant that Doyle had spent the last month or so saving up for, while Wesley examined a couple of local bookshops for new additions for his collection, leaving Paige and Angel to man the agency desk before Piper called them for help. As soon as Paige had the address, she and Angel had orbed to the alleyway where Piper was apparently facing the subject of her latest vanquish, only to find her sister hiding behind a pile of old boxes in an alley, staring apprehensively as a creature wearing dirty brown rags, with three thick fingers on each hand and a head that looked like an armoured snake, literally ate a man that had to be a demon because there was no way her sister would ignore something eating a human.

"What the Hell is that?" Paige looked anxiously at Angel while indicating the apparent demon-eater.

"No idea-" Angel began, before the demon's corpse turned to dust, leaving the creature to turn and stare at the two witches and one vampire. Piper yelled in fear as the creature charged towards them at incredible speeds, raising her hands to try and blow it up, but the creature did little more than stagger back before it continued its charge. One of its hands knocked Paige back from the force of the blow, but Angel managed to grab the other hand in his left one while drawing his sword with his right, the blade digging into the creature's side before it threw him back with a ferocious hiss. Using the distraction provided by Angel, Piper flicked her hands and it, but her attempted attacks just sparked off the creature's hide, knocking it backwards without doing any actual harm.

"Power line!" Paige yelled, holding her hand and pulling out the power cables linked to a generator just behind Piper and Angel's current position. As soon as the lines struck the creature, it shook and screamed as it was subjected to a massive electric shock, letting out a sound that was more like a howl than its earlier hiss, before its body burst into flames and vanished.

"OK," Piper said, after the glow of the electric shock had faded. "That was different."

"Why have we never tried something like that before?" Paige looked at the cable in surprise.

"Probably because it risks attracting the kind of attention we don't like?" Angel noted, indicating the now-darkened streets around them.

"Point…" Paige began, before she raised an awkward hand. "Uh… speaking of attention, am I the only one who's hearing a baby?"

Looking in the direction of the sound, the two witches and one vampire realised that there was a small bundle of blankets lying where the dead demon had been attacked earlier. Walking over to the blankets, Piper crouched down to pull them back, and revealed that the brown woollen blanket contained a small fair-haired baby, a lizard-esque tongue extending from his mouth as he smiled at them.

"OK," Paige said tentatively. "That's… cute, right?"

"So… you vanquished his mommy and decided to bring him home?" Phoebe asked, looking uncertainly at the baby, which was now lying in the conservatory in one of Wyatt's playpens, the three sisters alone in the manor with the children while Angel and Doyle had gone back to the office to carry out further research.

"What were we meant to do; leave him there?" Paige asked. "Aside from the tongue thing, he's… well, as I said before, he's kinda cute."

"Says the woman dating the vampire?" Piper noted.

"OK, I thought we were past the point where we assume something's evil just because it isn't human?" Paige cut in, glaring over at her eldest living sister. "I mean, Angel might be an exceptional case, but Doyle's not that impossible, and even Cole only went that… well, again, he was only a threat towards the end because of a really exceptional chain of events."

"Uh, talking of exceptional events…" Paige said, indicating the pen as Wyatt orbed into it alongside the baby.

"Hey, he's got the protective bubble; whatever we think about the baby, Wyatt'll be safe enough," Phoebe said reassuringly.

"And at least he looks like he likes his new friend," Paige smiled.

"Yeah… maybe we should try and figure out what this kid is before we start being all casual about my son spending time with him," Piper noted. "I mean, I get that we've been working with demons for the last couple of years, but you said yourself that most of them weren't evil because of a very specific set of circumstances…"

"And even if his nature's against us, we've got to consider the nature versus nurture thing, you know," Paige put in. "I mean, maybe I'm just biased because I was adopted, but it's got to be a factor somewhere even if we introduce magic to the equation, right?"

"Look, whether he's evil or good right now isn't the main issue; we still need to work out what we're going to actually do with him," Phoebe said, walking over to sit down and look over at the baby for a moment, her eyes narrowing in thought before she relaxed her expression and shrugged helplessly. "All I can say right now is that I'm getting nothing; no good, no evil, just… there."

"Like any baby, right?" Paige pointed out, just as Chris orbed in with his usual urgent expression.

"So you vanquished the demon?"

"Yes and no," Paige nodded at Chris, before she sighed and indicated the playpen. "We did vanquish the thing that killed the demon you sent us after, but… well, it left something behind."

Walking over to the playpen, Chris stared incredulously at the demon baby as its lizard-like tongue came out of its mouth while it smiled at him.

"I think he likes you?" Paige suggested, out of a lack of anything better to say in this situation.

"I don't care," Chris said firmly. "Vanquish it."

"Chris!" Phoebe protested.

"I mean it-" Chris began.

"And I mean this," Paige said, standing up to glare resolutely at the Whitelighter. "We are not vanquishing a baby; what the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm just concerned that this could be the future evil-" Chris began defensively.

"Oh, yes, that precious unnamed 'future evil' crap you keep on sprouting for us; there comes a point where that doesn't actually justify everything, you know?" Paige countered firmly. "I mean, so it's a demon; isn't Doyle proof that 'demon' doesn't always have to equal 'evil' just because you're born a certain way?"

"OK, we can get into the nature-VS-nurture debate another time," Piper cut in, looking firmly between her sister and the Whitelighter. "The main thing right now is that we are not going to kill a baby before we even know exactly what this kid is and whether it's one of our demons or if it's something like Doyle, OK?"

In a selfish way, as her sisters took over the current argument with Chris, Paige was relieved when Darryl called to ask for help with a hostage situation; whatever the complications, Darryl's problem was at least something she and Angel could theoretically hit.

Chapter Text

Whatever Paige thought about the complications introduced to her life by being a witch and dating Angel, she could at least be grateful that he had a very direct way of dealing with things. Once Darryl had briefed them on the panicked hostage situation he was dealing with, Paige and Angel had hurried there as quickly as possible in Angel's car, allowing Angel to sneak into the building from the back and take out the hostage while Darryl kept the other officers distracted out front.

It didn't solve the current problem of the demon baby, and under other circumstances Paige acknowledged that she should have expressed a greater interest in why Darryl had been eager to save this particular hostage, but this wasn't the time for those concerns when talking about a situation that had been resolved already. Chris was still insisting that they prepare to vanquish the demon baby because of his own belief in its inevitable evil, drawing the sisters' attention to the manticore entry in the Book of Shadows that confirmed his own concerns and drawing their attention to the reference to manticores travelling in packs, but Paige was grateful that her sisters were refusing to go along with Chris's prejudices.

I get that Chris grew up in a rougher future, but I'm not exactly comfortable acting like I'm the Terminator targeting Sarah before she can get pregnant, especially when we're talking about killing a baby…

"Everything OK here?" she asked Piper as she walked into the observatory, unable to hide her smile as the manticore baby orbed into the playpen beside Wyatt.

"I just… what do I even do here?" Piper groaned in frustration as she looked back at her sister. "I mean, I get that manticores aren't exactly Brachen demons that could go either way, but there's a big difference between killing a ruthless man-eater that definitely wants to kill you and planning to kill a baby that it just might be possible to teach to be something else…"

"Talking to the woman who's dating the ex-Scourge of Europe here; believe me, I get it," Paige nodded, before she sighed in frustration at herself. "OK, it's not exactly the same thing, since Angel made a conscious decision not to be like that any more, but-"

"The key point is that there are some things we just can't automatically vanquish," Piper nodded at Paige in understanding. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely comfortable with the fact that my son is basically trying to hang out with a demon, but I'm not going to kill the kid just because he isn't normal when he hasn't done anything to us yet."

"And the fact that Wyatt trusts this kid doesn't hurt, huh?"

"It… makes it easier," Piper conceded, staring down at her son and the demon baby with an awkward expression. "I just wish I could be sure…"

"Well, until we're all clear on what we want, maybe we should see about getting something set up for the kid?" Paige suggested. "I mean, I get that you're not comfortable having him here long-term, but maybe we can… set up a room so he's got somewhere to stay that isn't right next to Wyatt?"

Even as she spoke, Paige reached down to pick up her nephew and namesake, smiling briefly at him before the demon baby beside him started crying.

"What?" Paige looked sharply at the baby. "OK, I get that you're hitting it off with Wyatt here, but you can't just scream whenever you want something-"

"Paige!" Piper hissed urgently. "Just put him down-"

"What-?" Paige began even as she obeyed Piper's instruction, before a creature in a long brown cloak suddenly shimmered into the room beside the playpen, swinging an arm to knock Paige to the side as it leaned over the playpen. As the youngest Halliwell brought up his forcefield once again, Paige drew the dagger she always kept at her side and slashed out at the creature, the blade leaving a cut on the creature's arm even as Paige's follow-up blow managed to knock the creature's hood off. For a moment Paige stared at a face that she could only think of as somehow lop-sided, revealing a hairless head with twisted skin and strange ridges along its bald head that were particularly prominent on the right-hand-side, but then the creature took advantage of her shock to throw her back with a palm-strike to the chest, leaving Paige gasping for breath against the attic wall as the creature turned its attention back to trying to break Wyatt's barrier.

"Hey!" the eldest Halliwell, glaring at the creature as she began flicking her arms at it, causing small golden bursts of energy even as the creature itself was relatively unharmed. "Get away from my kid!"

Staring at Piper for a moment, the creature shimmered away from the pen, only to suddenly reappear behind Piper and wrap its arms around her waist and neck, shooting Paige a glare over her eldest living sister's shoulder before it let out a roar and shimmered away once again.

"Crap," Paige said, stuck for a better response as she stared at the place where her sister had been standing just moments ago.

Her sister had been abducted by a creature that she didn't recognise, there were an unknown number of manticores to deal with, and right now she had no real idea what to do about either problem.

"OK," Angel looked at Paige as she stood in the office. "So we're dealing with the manticores and this… thing?"

"I've got no idea what that thing is, but it's packing some serious oomph and it wants the baby for some reason," Paige confirmed. "Add in the fact that it showed up when the baby started crying, on top of how I can't actually find Piper no matter how much I scry, and we're dealing with something that just doesn't fit with the situation we thought we were dealing with."

"In other words, we've up against the manticores and whatever this thing is at the same bloody time?" Doyle mused. "What happened to demons taking turns?"

"Was that ever a thing, or have we just been really really lucky?" Phoebe noted, even as she anxiously held Wyatt, before she glanced over at Wesley. "Any ideas what that is?"

"I've been trying to think of a likely candidate, but nothing immediately springs to mind," Wesley said apologetically as he looked over at Paige. "From what you told me of this… beast, he seems a bit… well, to be blunt, virtually every demon I've ever heard of has been fairly symmetrical."

"Whereas this guy was hunched over and at the very least one side of his head looked like it was bigger than the other?" Paige asked.

"Precisely," Wesley affirmed. "Granted, that could mean he was injured somehow, but your description gave no indication that he was handicapped in any way, so the question of what he is remains an issue…"

"Maybe the fact that he showed up after the baby started crying had something to do with it?"

"It showed up when the baby started to cry?" Wesley looked at Paige with new intensity. "So there is some connection to the manticore?"

"Or the baby, at the very least," Paige conceded. "Too bad that doesn't help us work out where it is…"

"And luring it in for interrogation is not an option unless we establish a few specific guidelines, OK?" Angel said firmly.

"Hey!" Phoebe looked indignantly at Angel. "I wouldn't do-"

"Let's just focus on what we will do right now," Paige cut off her sister's protests. "The point is that he would have killed Piper already if he was going to do that, so we still have the baby as potential leverage even if I'm really not comfortable thinking of a baby as a bargaining tool…"

"Hey," Chris said, as he and Leo orbed into the office.

"Keep it down," Paige hissed urgently.

"Where's Piper?" Chris said, lowering his voice in response to her plea.

"We're… working on that," Doyle shrugged.

"She's missing?" Leo looked urgently at the Irish Brachen demon.

"Did the Manticores take her?" Chris asked.

"That's something we're still working on," Wesley conceded. "There's something else getting involved in this situation beyond the Manticores…"

"OK, this is why you should have vanquished that baby-" Chris began.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; y'know, I don't know what your future was like, but here we tend to prefer not killing things that aren't actively tryin' to kill us," Doyle cut the Whitelighter off with a pointed glare. "You want to be part of this team, key step is to not condemn everyone for crimes they may or may not have committed just because they ain't human."

"It's not that simple-"

"As far as we can see, it is that simple," Paige cut Chris off firmly. "You're fighting with us, which means that, unless you can give us clear evidence to the contrary, we're going to operate on the assumption that non-human things aren't automatically evil; around here, the good guys don't kill people on a maybe."

"She's right," Leo put in. "The magic makes it harder for demon babies like this to avoid going evil, given the power of their parents' darkness, but it's still theoretically possible for them to overcome their heritage."

"We're not talking about-!" Chris began.

"If we start on that route, we're going somewhere I'm really not comfortable going, so stop right there and nobody else has to get hurt," Paige held up a hand as she glared firmly at Chris.

"Nobody else needs to get hurt if we play this carefully," Angel said, looking between Paige and Chris before turning to Leo. "I get that this is… well, 'awkward' is probably putting it mildly, but maybe…"

"I'll take Wyatt somewhere safe until Piper's back," Leo nodded in understanding at the vampire, reaching over to pick up his son before he orbed away, Chris shooting a frustrated look at Angel and Paige before orbing after him.

"OK," Phoebe said, looking urgently around their small team. "We're going to need to put something together to deal with the manticores before we start trying to lure in that beast-thing, whatever it is; let's move."

Chapter Text

"And you're sure going in alone is the smart thing to do?" Phoebe looked anxiously at Angel as they stood in the attic preparing for their new plan of attack.

"What's the smart move here; try and ally with the manticores that we know eat people, or hope that the creature we don't know anything about beyond that it's attacking manticores isn't like that?" Angel pointed out. "So far this creature's been intimidating but it hasn't actually attacked anyone unless they've either been between it and the baby or tried to attack either of them first-"

"Which doesn't mean it's good-" Phoebe began.

"But also doesn't mean it's evil," Paige noted. "I get that you find it easier to just… label things, Phoebe, but despite what Chris seems to think, there can be shades of grey in this kind of situation."

"Hey, I'm not…" Phoebe began, shaking her head uncomfortably. "OK, this is getting more personal than I'd like, but I'm… OK, I can't really say anything without it sounding worse than I think it really is, so can we just get on with this?"

"Fair enough," Angel conceded, before turning to Paige. "You ready?"

"Just so long as you are," Paige nodded back at him. "We do this, I'll be putting everything into getting through to Piper, so it'll just be you if we're attacked; if it's a choice between it or us-"

"I'll do what I have to do," Angel affirmed before looking over at Phoebe. "You sure you're-?"

"Hey, I may not have the crazy vamp strength, but Doyle and Wesley are nearby if I need back-up, and I was the hand-to-hand girl before you showed up, remember?" Phoebe cut Angel off with a half-teasing smile. "I'll focus on preparing the potions for when you get back, but I think I can handle myself for a few moments if things get that ugly."

"Then let's get the gang back together," Paige said, as she placed a hand on Angel's shoulders before she closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind for her missing sister…

When they appeared in what looked for all the world like a normal house, Paige had to admit that she was surprised at how simple it had been. Faced with something as twisted and apparently powerful as that 'beast' had been, she'd been expecting to find some kind of grand cavern in the underworld, or maybe some lavish house on Earth, but this place looked more like it had been abandoned in a hurry after a frantic search, with furniture and objects spread out all over the floor in varying states of disrepair.

"This is it?" Paige looked around in surprise. "This looks-"

"Look out!" Piper's voice yelled, Paige diving for cover as Angel spun around to grab the creature as it charged towards him. For a moment, vampire and creature grappled, the other entity apparently able to match Angel's raw physical strength, before Angel shifted his focus, releasing his grip and leaving his opponent so overbalanced that he was caught off-guard by a powerful punch to his jaw before he could get his defences back up.

"OK," Angel said, looking firmly at the creature as Piper and Paige hugged in relief behind him, "care to explain what this is about?"

"Exactly!" Piper put in, stepping away from Paige to look at her recent captor. "Like what are you and what do you want with that baby?"

"That's… my… son," the creature said, rubbing uncomfortably at his jaw as he glared up at the other three.

"Son?" Paige asked.

"How did that happen?" Piper looked the figure over incredulously.

"Manticores," the creature said, jaw still swollen as he got back to his feet even if he could already talk more easily than before.

"…You get that's not an answer, right?" Paige looked pointedly at the man. "I mean, granted, we've not really met any manticores for more than a few moments at a time before we kill them or they run away, but I get that you're not one of them…"

"The stories are true?" Angel looked at the creature in surprise.

"You heard them?" the creature looked back at Angel with a raised eyebrow.

"I… Angelus heard things about them; he just never really paid much attention to them at the time," Angel explained.

"What stories?" Piper asked.

"Stories that manticores… had children with humans when they wanted to breed hybrids to blend in with their prey," Angel explained, looking uncertainly at the creature. "You were the human parent?"

"And the baby is my son," the creature nodded. "I got away after the conception before… the mother… could kill me, and then I…"

He sighed. "I did everything I could to get my son back so he wouldn't have to be raised like them, but the only chance I had to do that was to turn myself into this."

"How?" Paige asked. "And I mean that both in the sense of how'd you know about the conception and how did you become this?"

"Conceiving a hybrid like that is… involved," the creature said, smiling grimly at Paige. "And as for how I became this, I just… started mixing potions using whatever I could steal from them. I didn't know for sure what I was doing, but I didn't care; all I cared about was finding a way to fight them, to find him. I didn't care what happened to me; I just wanted my son."

Looking at the sisters, Angel was pleased to see that Paige and Piper felt the same way he did; the creature might not look human any more, but there was nothing to indicate that anything he'd told them was a lie, which meant that, in the end, even if what he'd done had been ridiculously dangerous he'd acted out of the purest of human motives.

"They're still going to try and take him back?" Piper looked at the creature.

"Yes," the man said.

"Then let's do this together," the eldest Halliwell said firmly, before looking over at Paige. "Should we get Phoebe?"

"Uh… probably safer to leave her with Wyatt," Piper concluded. "No sign manticores need a Power of Three spell to take them out; I blow them up, Angel and our new friend here hit them hard, and you… do whatever you do."

"Check," Paige said, holding out her hand and concentrating for a moment as one of her favourite swords appeared in her hand. "Let's do this."

With the creature's insight into the manticores, it didn't take long for them to find the location of the manticores' current nest. After Paige took a quick detour back to the manor to explain the situation to Phoebe and collect the manticore vanquishing potion the third Charmed One had been preparing, the four of them travelled directly to the manticore's lair, which was revealed to be an underground cavern with a few rock formations and a couple of blazing torches mixed in with human bones.

The six manticores were awake and alert when the sisters, Angel and the creature arrived, but all four quickly leapt into action to strike down the nearest creatures before they could do more than look at the new arrivals. Piper's powers couldn't do much more than knock the manticores back, but that was enough to give Paige the chance to stab them in the legs once they were off their feet, while Angel and the creature delivered a series of quick blows that sent the other manticores crashing into each other. With most of the creatures injured, Angel and the witches moved back, only to realise that the creature was still wrestling with the last manticore, which had remained on its feet despite a dagger sticking out of its leg.

"Hey!" Piper yelled urgently. "Get out of-"

"DO IT!" the creature yelled.

Lost for better options as the other manticores began to carefully get up, Piper and Paige hurled the vanquishing potions at the manticores, setting the monsters on fire as the potions' energies were released. As his opponent began to burn, the creature shoved the manticore back towards its fellows just before it exploded, the blast knocking him into the nearest wall. After taking a moment to be sure that all of the manticores were dead, Piper, Paige and Angel hurried over to check the creature over, revealing that he was badly burned and battered but otherwise still seemed to be all right.

"Damn…" the creature said, looking down at his still-smouldering clothes with a smile. "Guess I… should've… been quicker… about it…"

"Hey," Piper glared at the creature. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking about, stop it, because you are not going to die here, OK? We can heal you once we turn you back to human."

"You can't turn me back," the creature said, wincing in pain even as his lesser injuries began to heal. "No one can. Not unless I die."

"No offence, but you said yourself that you didn't really know what you were doing when you turned yourself into this," Paige noted. "We can work something out once we've saved your son; don't start planning to ditch him before we've tried to help you."

"You did all this to yourself because you had hope that you could save your son," Angel looked at the transformed human being with a sympathetic smile. "Have faith that we can help you with this."

The creature looked around the now-empty cavern for a moment, before he sighed and lay back down, a grim smile on his twisted face.

"And there was me thinking the best I could expect from this was finding someone who could raise him after I was gone," he noted, looking up at Piper with a smile that would probably have been called friendly if it was on a human face.

"Keep that as Plan B," Paige noted. "We just took out a bunch of man-eaters, but I'd like to try the options that don't involve killing someone or letting them die because they're not human."

"OK, let's just move on from that and focus on getting him back to normal, huh?" Piper suggested, shooting a brief warning glance at Paige. "And after that, we can let this strange new family work on making a life for themselves."

A few hours later, the last of the spells had been cast and the man they had referred to as 'the Beast' had been returned to his original human appearance, revealing a handsome man who bore a slight resemblance to Leo apart from his thick curly dark hair. Now dressed in a dark green shirt and dark trousers, the man had a warm smile on his face as he looked at his son, who was sitting peacefully in the stroller Piper had given them.

"So… Derek," Angel looked curiously at the man who'd only just introduced himself by name, "you sure you'll be all right?"

"I'm sure," Derek nodded at the vampire as he looked down at his child. "I get that it's going to be difficult, but I think I'll find my way."

"We could… bind his powers if you want?" Piper asked.

"Thanks, but no," Derek said. "Like I said earlier, you've done enough giving me those old clothes; if I can explain where I've been, I think I'll manage."

"Already got a friend of ours on that," Paige put in. "Darryl's putting together the paperwork to claim that you've been in witness protection for the last few months, and he just needs to talk with you so that you can decide what you want to claim you actually saw; everyone you knew may not be happy you cut yourself off like that, but it gives you an excuse they'll understand."

"Thanks again for everything," Derek smiled at the sisters. "I just… I wish there was something I could do for you."

"One thing does come to mind," Wesley put in, looking thoughtfully at the child. "What's his name?"

"I…" Derek looked down at his son, smiling awkwardly at the baby. "I never gave him one, actually. I never had the chance."

"Well, you do now," Doyle grinned at the man who had once been a tortured monster. "Think you'll be OK?"

"He already shimmered into the stroller," Derek shrugged. "I think I can make it work."

"On the topic of shimmering," Piper put in, "I know you already said no, but if you ever need us to bind his powers…"

"No, thanks," Derek said. "That's really sweet but it's not necessary. He's a good boy, so it's just up to me to make sure he stays that way."

"In that case, he's in good hands," Piper nodded approvingly at Derek. "Well, take care."

"You too," Derek said.

With those words, he walked out of the manor and back into his life, leaving the Halliwells and the members of Angel Investigations to exchange hopeful smiles with each other.

It had been a difficult day for more reasons than the traditional vanquish, but they had come through in the end, even if Paige recognised that she still wanted to have a word with Phoebe about her attitude towards Angel and the manticores just because they weren't human…

Chapter Text

Paige didn't know if she was becoming paranoid or jealous, but either way, as she lay in bed after another night out at P3, she was becoming concerned about how little time she'd spent with Angel as a couple since they learned that Darla was back.

She understood that Angel had a complicated history with the ex-vampire, considering how long Angelus had spent with that woman before the original curse, but she still felt that he was spending too much time on that issue. Neither of them were comfortable trying to find another swami after what had happened with the last one, and Angel insisted that he was fine, but it was hard for Paige to ignore the fact that they'd had barely one date night out in the last few weeks, not counting the times they were out on a case.

Frankly, she was just glad that things with Doyle and Phoebe were still going well; Doyle's visions might add to their workload, but there was still something satisfying in having another seer available beyond the obvious fact that he made Phoebe happy.

At least it stops me wondering if we're all just cursed; if Doyle and Phoebe can make it work, maybe Angel and I can get through this particular rough patch…

On top of that, she still wasn't entirely sure how things were going for Piper's latest attempt at getting back into the dating pool. Things with this 'Greg' guy Piper had met recently hadn't been going too badly so far, and at least him knowing about Wyatt or Leo's continued role in Piper's life wasn't a deal-breaker (even if Greg didn't know why Leo had left in the first place), but there were so many other possible issues that could come up if things went any further…

Actually, now that she thought about relationships, she suddenly wondered what Chris and Wesley did with their free time. Unlike Leo, Chris didn't have any other charges to keep himself occupied as far as she knew, and Wesley's pre-San Francisco social life was apparently non-existent after he got fired from the Watcher's Council and was disgraced in the eyes of most of his old associates. .

Add in the sudden news that Chris had just had some kind of weird encounter with an unknown woman with a distinctive tattoo on her wrist, and it felt like they were dealing with so many uncertainties in their personal relationships that she wondered how they were meant to get anything done beyond fighting demons.

Maybe I should just move into the office with Angel and get away from the worst of this mess…

"So we're back on the 'don't exactly trust Chris' approach?" Paige looked thoughtfully at her sisters and colleagues as they stood in the attic.

"Well, when the guy's who's spent all his time here totally freaking about even the slightest threat to Wyatt is that nonchalant about some strange woman showing up to talk to him, I'm concerned," Piper said firmly.

"A fair point," Wesley nodded. "Considering Chris's demonstrated… well, I hesitate to use the word 'paranoia' when he has always had legitimate reasons for sending us after his chosen targets, but-"

"No, I get it," Piper nodded. "That's the whole point of this, really; the guy's so worried about anything that even might threaten Wyatt, but he acts like there's nothing to worry about when some strange woman shows up looking for him?"

"And then he's being very nonchalant about the whole 'she tried to kill him' bit," Phoebe added. "Don't forget that."

"Ever considered that she might be after you three?" Doyle put in.

"He already brought that up," Phoebe shook her head. "But I just don't know… he seemed a bit too jumpy for it to be that straightforward… or rather, he seemed too not jumpy…"

"As in you think he'd show more concern if he thought she was after you all?" Wesley asked.

"Well, he might be a bit too work-focused when we're trying to hold on to our lives outside of just being witches, but one thing you can't say about Chris is that he isn't dedicated," Phoebe observed with a brief grim smile. "It just gets me that I still can't tell what he's feeling about anything…"

"Uh, I need to go," Piper said, as the doorbell rang below them. "I had a… well, y'know…"

"Go ahead," Angel nodded at her. "Paige can keep an eye on Wyatt and we'll see what we can dig up on this new demon."

"Thanks," Piper nodded at the vampire before she headed downstairs.

"Tough break."

"Mmm?" Phoebe glanced over at Doyle.

"Getting' back on the horse after a divorce and dealing with Chris's worries about whatever might be after her kid," the Irish half-Brachen clarified. "I mean, it was rough enough for me to adjust to bein' single after things ended with Harry, and I didn't have a kid to deal with on top o' all that."

"Well… we've got to keep up with our lives, right?" Phoebe smiled at Doyle. "I mean, we can't all just luck out and find guys who know what we do in our spare time."

"Point," Paige smiled. "I mean, right now the only guy Piper knows who knows about magic and isn't involved with anyone already is Wes here, and to be blunt, you aren't her type."

"No offence taken," Wesley nodded politely at his colleague. "Piper is an excellent woman, but there isn't a true… spark, I suppose."

"Anyway," Paige shrugged as she looked around the room, "let's give this another go-over before the night, come back at it with a fresh view in the morning, and then maybe we can wrap this up in time for a night out?"

"…Sounds good," Angel nodded at Paige with a brief smile.

Even as Paige turned back to the Book of Shadows, she wondered if she'd ever manage to broach the topic of moving in with Angel the way she wanted to. Phoebe's attempt to move in with Cole might not have worked out, but she and Angel had been going fairly steady for over a year ever since he got his soul back, orbing would have made it easy for her to stay in touch with Phoebe and Piper if they needed her magic, and with everything else that had happened since she'd become a witch, she just wanted to make an official commitment of some sort to the man who'd done so much for her.

"A phoenix?" Paige looked between her colleagues in surprise as their latest evening of research concluded. "Isn't that a fiery bird of some sort?"

"The true phoenix, yes," Wesley nodded. "But according to our sources, a 'Phoenix' in this context is a family of assassin witches; elite, power, and born with a distinctive birthmark to symbolise their rise from Salem's ashes."

"Bit melodramatic, but that's this kind of assassin for you, I guess," Doyle shrugged.

"No sign what they want beyond collecting a bounty, I take it?" Paige asked.

"Not that it matters," Angel said firmly. "We stop the assassin, then maybe we can find whoever posted the bounty and make it clear we won't accept anyone trying to kill the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter."

"Hear hear," Paige smiled, before glancing over at Doyle. "Where's Phoebe?"

"At work," Doyle answered.

"And Piper came in a bit late last night, so… well, I thought I'd just let her rest first," Wesley shrugged.

"You stayed that late?"

"Well, how often does a Watcher get the chance to have private access to the private spells of the Warren family line?" Wesley smiled awkwardly. "I'm not sure if she came in alone or not-"

"Probably not something we should consider right now," Paige shook her head; after over two years in this family, it felt weird to even consider thinking about her sisters having sex. "Anyway, shall I get Piper and Phoebe?"

"Probably better to try and catch these phoenixes off-guard with a more physical approach rather than relying on spellwork," Angel observed. "Paige scries for their location and then gets us in, and all we have to do is hit hard before they can use any magic on us."

"Sounds good to me," Paige nodded.

"I can work with that," Wesley added.

"Not goin' to be the guy who says no to this sorta support," Doyle affirmed.

"Right," Paige smiled. "I'll get the map."

"What was wrong with the ol' 'orb us in and hit 'em hard' plan again?" Doyle asked as the four members of Angel Investigations parked outside the apartment building that Paige had identified as the Phoenix witches' lair.

"That was before we knew how… well, how normal they are," Paige conceded, looking uncertainly at the building at that comment. "I mean, unless there's some spell that'd make a place like that bigger on the inside…"

"Not without more significant warping of reality around it, and certainly not for long-term use," Wesley affirmed.

"OK, so it's just a regular flat with a regular number of people in it; best we do it this way," Paige nodded in resolution before she looked back at the others. "Right, given the shade at the moment, probably easiest if Angel and I go in and take them by surprise; we can at least get the numbers straight before we start hitting things."

"Hopefully they're still reeling from the loss of that one Piper took out last night," Angel observed as he quickly opened his door and walked briskly towards the building's main entrance; the sun might be hidden right now, but he knew better than most how quickly that could change.

"Wait here," Paige looked urgently at Wesley and Doyle. "If we're not back in five minutes, call for back-up and… well, do what you can."

"Check," Doyle nodded, he and Wesley exchanging anxious glances even as Paige got out of the car to follow Angel.

A part of Paige disliked reminding Wesley in particular of his relative weakness in a situation like this, but she knew that in the end the Watcher appreciated honesty; he had been working on his hand-to-hand skills, but against trained assassin witches with unknown powers, he was best kept in a research capacity.

Once she and Angel were inside the building- amazing how variable the invitation rule could be, if it let Angel into the public corridors of apartment buildings but restricted his access to the apartments themselves- the two of them headed upstairs until they reached the apartment that the scrying crystal had identified as their current target. Knocking on the door, Paige waited for a moment until a woman opened it, with close-cropped blonde hair and wearing a light blue sweater.

"Hi," Paige nodded.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"Hopefully," Angel smiled. "We just moved in and wanted to get to know our neighbours."

"Oh, well, welcome," the woman said, smiling at the two in the slightly awkward manner Angel had come to expect from people who had company 'forced' on them but didn't want to be rude. "Where did you move from?"

"Phoenix," Paige said nonchalantly.

"Really," the woman nodded politely before indicating the flat. "Please, come in, come in."

"Thank you," Paige nodded at the woman, relieved that there was no need to force the issue of getting an explicit invitation as she and Angel walked into the flat. She briefly registered the sound of the woman locking the door behind them, but chose not to worry about that as she assessed the flat, decorated with furniture that reminded her a bit of the manor in the 'old but sturdy' sense, albeit mixed in with simpler shelves on the walls.

"Nice place," Paige said.

"Thank you," the woman replied, just as a little girl ran into the room.

"Mommy, mommy, mommy, can I play with-?" the girl began.

"Bianca, sweetie, can you give Mommy a minute, OK?" the woman said, just as Paige glimpsed the birth mark that had given them their only real break in this 'case' so far on the little girl's wrist.

Glancing at Angel, Paige was relieved to see him just as disturbed at this twist as she was; planning to take out a group of assassins was one thing, but going after a mother and her child was a different matter altogether…

The issue was abruptly taken out of their hands as the woman threw an energy ball at them just after shutting the little girl back her room, Paige orbing to the side to evade the ball while Angel just dived in the other direction. As the woman turned to face Angel, Paige threw a small phial of potion and nodded in satisfaction as the woman vanished in the subsequent explosion.

"What was that?" Angel looked curiously at Paige.

"The recipe we used to imitate Piper's power when the Hollow stole it," Paige shrugged. "Useful to keep on hand-"

The sound of the woman's voice in the room with the little girl sent the witch and the vampire running in that direction, but they were only just in time to see the still-living woman pick up her apparent daughter before they both shimmered away.

"You saw that, right?" Paige glanced back at Angel.

"Yeah," the vampire nodded.

"Which means that either I made the potion wrong…"

"Or these witches can reform if they're attacked like that," Angel finished for Paige.

"Which means that the one who went after Chris might still be alive too," Paige groaned. "Just when I thought we had a simple one…"