Title: Beginnings (1/?): Story 19 in the "Who I Am, What I'll Become" Series
Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: X_tremeroswellian@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All Roswellians belong to Melinda Metz and Jason Katims and Fox Productions and the WB and UPN. All Buffy and Angel characters belong to Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt and the WB and UPN. Nothing's mine. Grr, Arrgh.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up through and including "Destiny" for Roswell and "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been" for Angel, plus the entire "Who I Am" series thus far.
Timeline: Five days after "Strays Like Us."
Summary: The Angel Investigations crew celebrates New Year's Eve with the Roswellians.
Distribution: Any A/C sites that want it, Stranger Things, Jessi's fanfic site. Anyone else, just ask.
Category: Angel/Roswell crossover
Subcategories: Friendship/romance/fluff
Dedication: This one's for Julia, for kindly reminding me that she was wanting to read the next fic in this series. :)
Beginnings (Part One)
"What time is it?" Michael grumbled as he wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his sleeve.
"6:15," Liz replied as she handed him some orders from table 3. "Only forty-five more minutes 'til close."
"Good. Because--" he stopped mid-sentence and looked past Liz to the people who had just walked into the Crashdown.
Liz turned to look and broke into a wide grin as she saw Cordelia, Angel, Wesley and Kate looking around.
Cordelia spotted her at the same moment and her eyes lit up. "Liz!"
Maria shrieked from across the room. "Cordelia!"
The three girls met halfway, giggling and practically jumping up and down in excitement. Michael rolled his eyes. "Women," he muttered. Then he grinned.
"So you were in on this whole thing?" Cordelia asked, surprised.
Liz nodded. "Guilty. Angel wanted it to be a surprise for you."
"It definitely was," she said with a grin. She glanced across the room at Angel, who was talking to Wesley, Kate, Max and Michael.
"I can't wait until tomorrow night! This party is going to be a blast!" Maria squealed. "We've been planning forever!"
Cordelia bit her lip. "I don't have a good dress."
Maria dismissed her comment with a wave of her hand. "I haven't been shopping yet, either. Liz and I were planning on going tomorrow morning."
"Going where?" another voice asked.
Cordelia turned and smiled at Isabel and Alex. "Hi."
"Hi, Cordelia!" Isabel said, smiling back.
"Hey," Alex said.
"How have you guys been?"
"Good. Mostly," Isabel answered.
"So, where are you going tomorrow morning?" Alex asked curiously, glancing at Liz and Maria.
"Shopping," they answered in unison. They exchanged amused looks.
"Wanna come?" Liz asked Isabel.
The taller girl's eyes sparkled. "I'd love to."
"What? I'm not invited?" Alex asked, feigning hurt.
"Oh, Alex. You know we love you," Liz said, hugging him briefly.
"But it's a girls only trip," Maria added.
"Besides, I don't want you to see my dress until the party," Isabel added, a hint of mischief in her voice.
Cordelia couldn't help smile at the lovesick expression on his face.
"You know what we should do? We should have a slumber party," Maria said suddenly.
Liz shrugged. "We could do that. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."
"I suppose I'm not invited to that, either," Alex joked.
Cordelia laughed with the rest of them, feeling as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She hadn't felt this relaxed in weeks. She turned and looked across the room. Angel was staring at her. Her heart rate increased slightly when he smiled at her.
Then she smiled back.
"Goodnight, Cordelia," Kate said as she walked out of the Crashdown.
"Goodnight!" Cordelia called. She turned her attention to Wesley. "See you tomorrow, Wes."
He smiled at her. "Goodnight." He gave her a quick hug and followed Kate.
Angel hovered in the doorway, hesitant.
She looked up at him. "I'll be okay, Angel."
"I just don't like..." his voice trailed off.
"I know. But we were careful. He didn't follow me here. Kate made sure no one was following the van."
He nodded.
"Besides, I have a feeling that Isabel could probably protect me if it came down to that," Cordelia added with a grin. "And Liz said Michael's apartment isn't that far, so if something happened, you guys could be back in like, five minutes."
Angel smiled briefly. Then he reached down and touched her cheek. "I just don't know what I'd do if anything bad ever happened to you."
The breath caught in the back of her throat. "I'll be okay, Angel," she promised again, meeting his gaze.
He reached out and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She closed her eyes and hugged him back. Then he let her go, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
Their eyes met and for a long moment they just stared at each other.
"Goodnight, Cordelia," Angel said softly.
"Goodnight," she echoed.
Then he slid out of the doorway and disappeared into the night.
"I called Tess. She's on her way over," Liz informed Maria, Isabel and Cordelia, who were gathered around her room. Maria was sitting on Liz's desk, Isabel in the desk chair, Liz was perched on the edge of her bed and Cordelia sat on the floor meditation-style.
She glanced around the room, looking at all the pictures in frames and the ones tacked up on bulletin boards. Snapshots of her and Maria, her and Alex, the three of them together and a few pictures were of Max, Michael and Isabel, as well. For some reason, she truly felt comfortable with this group. She wondered what it would have been like to have grown up in Roswell, to have been friends with Liz and the others all along.
"Cordelia? I'm going downstairs to get some ice cream. Could you come help me out?" Liz asked suddenly.
"Sure." She stood up, followed Liz down the hall, down the steps and into the Crashdown.
"So, what's going on?" Liz asked. "On the phone the other night it sounded like something was wrong."
She hesitated, not really wanting to talk about what had been happening in L.A. lately, but knowing that she needed to let her friend know what was going on. "A couple weeks ago, I was attacked."
Liz froze and stared at her. "Attacked?"
Cordelia ran one hand through her hair. "I'm okay. A friend showed up and helped me out. But since then we've figured out that the guy who attacked me is a serial killer. He...stalks his victims for weeks at a time before he...kills them."
"Oh, my God," she whispered.
"That's why Angel moved back in with me." Cordelia paused. "What about you? Sounded like there was some stuff going on here you couldn't talk on the phone about."
Liz suddenly looked very tired. "One of their enemies is somewhere in town. There was an incident at school, in gym class involving me and an arrow aimed straight for my heart. Tess saved my life." She leaned against the freezer.
"We lead exciting lives, don't we?" Cordelia said sarcastically. "Being stalked by serial killers and evil aliens, running for our lives and battling the forces of darkness."
"Yeah." Liz paused. "Do you ever wish...your life was more normal?"
Normal. How many times had she wished that in the past five years? At one time she would have answered Liz's question without hesitation. Hell, yes. But now? Now, normal would mean that she never would have been friends with Wesley or Oz or Gunn or Doyle or...Angel. "No. You?"
Liz's face broke into a wide smile. "Not for a million bucks."
"So your roommate is a ghost?" Tess stared at Cordelia uncertainly.
She took a bite of chocolate ice cream. "Yep. His name is Dennis."
"Okay, okay," Maria interupted. "My turn. This one is also for Cordelia. What is up with you and Angel?"
Cordelia froze. She hadn't expected that question. "We're friends. Best friends."
"No way. Uh-uh. I saw you two before he left tonight and there were definitely vibes."
She shook her head. She absolutely, positively could not allow her to think about Angel that way under any circumstances. That road would only lead to trouble. "Nope. You were imagining it. Angel is and always will be hopelessly in love with Buffy until the world ends."
"Who's Buffy?" Tess repeated, confused.
"Vampire slayer," Cordelia and Liz said at the same time. They exchanged a grin.
"No...I agree with Maria," Isabel spoke up. "Those weren't 'just-friends' vibes the two of you were giving off."
"There's nothing going on with Angel and me except friendship." Cordelia felt a wistful pang at her own words, but she ignored it. "My turn. This one's for Liz. What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?"
Liz thought for a moment. "I would say that getting shot was the scariest, but it happened so suddenly, there wasn't really time to be afraid..." She sucked in a breath and looked across the room at Isabel. "The scariest thing that ever happened to me was when the FBI special unit caught Max. There was all this time that we didn't know what was happening or where he was...it was terrifying," she said softly.
Cordelia looked at Isabel, who had become very still and silent, her eyes shiny with tears. She suddenly wished she hadn't asked that question.
"My turn," Tess announced, breaking the silence. "Cordelia, what's the scariest demon or evil creature you've ever encountered?"
"That's a tough one." Cordelia considered the question. "There was the mayor of Sunnydale. He turned into this huge snake that tried to kill us all at graduation. Spike and Druscilla were pretty scary. They're vampires. She's insane. Spike's pretty much harmless now. He's actually helping Buffy and the Scooby gang these days...Vocah was terrifying. He was a demon from hell who tried to kill me with never-ending visions." She stopped herself from adding Nasedo to the list. After all, from what Liz had told her, the psycho alien was pretty much like Tess's only father.
She stopped herself from adding another name to the list, the one that really terrified her the most: Angelus. Angel's evil self. One day he had been her friend, Buffy's boyfriend, and then the next day he was an unpredicatable, ruthless, cruel killing machine. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that even though he was evil, he had still looked like Angel, her former-friend.
Okay, so they hadn't really been that great of friends back in Sunnydale, but she had always considered him a friend. Pretty much in the same capacity she had considered Buffy, Willow, Xander and Oz friends back then--at a distance; people who she could count on to save her life, but knew that they secretly despised her.
"Yeah. I guess Vocah was probably the scariest," she finally said, shaking her thoughts of Angel vs. Angelus and things of the past out of her mind.
Liz was looking at her closely, and Cordelia had a feeling Liz knew she hadn't been completely honest. "Okay, Isabel," Liz said, diverting her gaze from Cordelia to Isabel. "What do you think about Alex?"
Cordelia glanced at Liz. She was smiling, but her eyes were serious. Cordelia did a quick check at Maria, and realized that she, too, was studying Isabel carefully. It suddenly occurred to her what they were doing. They were looking out for their other best friend at the same time they were trying to make Isabel comfortable with them.
"I like Alex. He's a really great guy," Isabel said, somewhat shyly. "He's easy to talk to and he's very sweet and charming. I guess...I've just been kind of...hesitant to get too involved with him because of who I am. But I don't have any intention to hurt him in any way."
Cordelia noticed that Liz and Maria both seemed satisfied with the answer, and Isabel relaxed a bit, apparently having realized she'd passed their test. Cordelia laid back against Liz's bed and closed her eyes. She was having fun talking with her new friends--she'd never really had any close women friends before and she was enjoying the experience--but she was tired. The trip from L.A. to Roswell had been about 13 hours.
"You know, I think we should all get some sleep," Liz announced, glancing down at Cordelia. "We still have to get up and go shopping and get ready for tomorrow."
Maria yawned. "I'm with Liz. I'm beat. That double-shift nearly killed me. I'm going to choke Agnes the next time I see her."
"If she's so much trouble, why doesn't your dad just fire her, Liz?" Isabel asked, looking puzzled.
"Because then it would be double-shifts for everyone all the time because there'd be no one to replace her."
"Isabel could do it," Maria said with a grin.
Isabel gave her a look, but didn't respond.
"I think this is a good time to end the conversation and go to sleep," Tess suggested.
"Yeah." Liz reached for the lamp on her desk and flipped it off. She crawled into bed, and Maria crawled in next to her. Isabel, Tess and Cordelia laid down on sleeping bags on the floor. "Goodnight, everyone."
There was a chorus of goodnights from all the girls.
Cordelia shifted onto her side and fell almost instantly asleep.