Title: Listen to the Silence
By Nicollette Marquis McFadgen
Joss the asshole owns them. Pardon my French, but I'm still in deep 
mourning.
Set after Heroes, way after Heroes. This is just a short fic that I 
wrote because I'm still grieving and I'm not sure if I'll ever stop.


"So."

"So," Cordelia repeated as she sat down next to the vampire. Kicking off
her shoes, she drew her feet up under her on the couch.

"How was your date?" asked the vampire who sat beside her.

She shrugged. "The same as they always are. Boring."

"Who was it? Mark this time?"

Cordelia shook her head. "Todd."

Angel nodded; he remembered now. "Yeah, Todd."

"How was your night sitting here alone?" she asked.

Angel shrugged. "The same as it always is. Lonely."

Sighing, Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, lonely," she repeated in a whisper.

"You'd think that after a year we'd stop doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Moping. Grieving."

Moving closer to the vampire, Cordelia rested her chin against his
shoulder. "We miss him."

"We do," he agreed.

"We'll never stop." Angel agreed by nodding his head. "Do you know why I
sleep here now?"

Turning to face Cordelia for the first time, Angel replied, "I have a good
idea."

"My apartment reminds me too much of him. The office does to, which is why
I choose to spend a lot of time down here."

Angel nodded. "Sometimes I still think he's going to walk in, wearing that
grin and. .."

". . .calling me Princess," she finished for him.

"Do you remember how it felt when he was in the room?"

She smiled. "Exciting."

Giving a short chuckle, Angel said, "Never a dull moment. His energy was
contagious."

"I liked his smell. One part whiskey, one part soap and two parts
Obession."

"Where do you think he is?" the vampire asked the girl.

"Not in hell. Not in heaven either. Somewhere in between."

"We're in between. Do you think he's here?"

"Watching us?" she asked. At his nod, she shrugged. "I don't know. I kinda
hope he is, but I fear what he thinks about what we've become."

"Yeah," Angel said, nearly whispering as he bent over and reached for the
unopened bottle of whiskey. It rested right next to the two empty bottles.

"No glasses tonight?"

He shook his head. "Nah. Just another step that wastes time."

"Yeah," she agreed as she watched him open the bottle. He took a large gulp
of the amber liquid, then passed it to her. "I should stop going out on
dates," she said like she said almost every night after she went out.
"They're all losers with lots of money."

"Yeah. You should just stay here."

"Yeah," she agreed as she took a long pull off the bottle then handed it
back to Angel.

They sat there, him holding the bottle and her pressed up against him, both
just staring out into space as they listened to the silence.

~**~

End [1]