I’ll Be Watching You

 As he waded through the crowd that filled the bar, Angel couldn’t help thinking of Kate. It was in a place just like this that he had first met her. And he was also searching somewhat hopelessly for a demon then... God, what makes people come to these places?, he kept wondering. Then he saw her, sitting all alone and looking a bit uncomfortable... It seemed Kate was back to looking for a date in a bar. At least, he thought, this time she can’t be here after some criminal. For a moment, he completely forgot what he was supposed to be doing there. Angel walked towards her, but it wasn’t easy and before he could get near he saw a man approaching her. He took a minute to consider whether or not to go greet her now that she had company. Maybe it would be better to just leave them by themselves. But something about her eyes made him think otherwise. There was a strange shade on them... A look that Angel didn’t recognize at all. It seemed like fear, only worse.

Coming closer, he could confirm his suspicions. The air was thick with the scent of sheer terror that exhaled from Kate, which was no small feat considering the surroundings.

Angel tried and found a place nearby, close enough to hear what was going on between the two of them. He was worried that Kate might see him and react in some unfavorable manner, but she was too wrapped up in the conversation to notice his presence.

"You stay away from me, you hear me? If I ever see you stalking me, I swear I’ll get a restraining order so fast..."

His laughter interrupted her speech.

"You really think so? Well, I’ve got news for you... I have some pretty good lawyers working for me now. Seems you should have watched your step around them... You must never piss a bunch of lawyers, Katie. These guys know how to get back at you, sweetie! How do you think I got free?" "Lawyers?", she asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, my dear. Does the name Wolfram and Hart ring any bells?", he said, mocking her.

"They got you out on parole?" Kate tried hard not to give away all the consternation flooding her at that moment.

"Parole?" He laughed again, only louder and harder this time. "Where did you get that? No, Kate. I’m out... Free! It’s the joy of having expensive lawyers, you see. And the best part is I got them for free! Free..." He savored the word as he spoke. "Gotta love that word, uh, Kate?"

"It can’t be... That’s not possible!" She felt a wave of panic overcoming her. "Oh, yes! It is, Katie. You better believe that ‘cause you’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on...", he chuckled.

She rose from her chair and did her best to flee the place as fast as she possibly could. Still he managed to grab her arm and pull her towards him. At this point, Angel intervened.

Holding the stranger with more force than necessary, Angel told him sternly to let go of Kate’s arm. As the man refused to heed his order, he twisted his arm backwards in a swift movement.

Then he rolled his eyes in a pensive, yet sarcastic way while wondering out loud "Let’s see, what was that movie? You know, the one where they say ‘Come on. Make my day!’" The grin on Angel’s face was actually more of a threat than the hold he had on the man’s arm. Not that said hold was anywhere near gentle... Kate felt the hand leave her arm and moved away. Angel released his grip too. But, before going after Kate, he made sure to strike a last blow - just to get the message across. "Don’t you even dream of messing with her!"

The glowering look on Angel’s face should have been enough, but it was not. As they headed for the exit, they could hear the man shout some last farewell words...

"Hey, Kate! They’re playing our song!"

Angel stopped at that and listened, trying to recognize the lyrics... It wasn’t hard to get why he said that. Sting’s voice was loud and clear...

"Angel! You’re back. Did you find the Droxwor?" Cordelia came out of the office and only then noticed Kate by his side. "Is she alright? What happened? Did the demon hurt her?"

Kate was shaking. Her face was paler than Angel’s right then.

"No. I never found that demon. Look... I’ll explain it all to you later, ok?

Just help me here now!"

Cordelia didn’t need to be asked twice. The concern in his voice and Kate’s appearance made it clear something was very wrong...

"So here you are! Where the hell have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you!

That Droxwor almost killed us!" Gunn was obviously mad at Angel.

Wesley didn’t say anything. He seemed to be still trying to regain some breath.

"I’m sorry..." Angel began to apologize, but Gunn cut him short. "You’re sorry? Gee! Did you hear that, English? The man is sorry! Isn’t that touching?"

"Knock it off, Gunn! Angel did have a good reason this time, although I still don’t get what happened..." Cordy’s call made the men turn to the stairs. "Is she better?" Angel sounded anxious and somewhat fretful. "Yes, she’s sleeping now. It wasn’t easy, though. I had to slip a sedative into her tea." Cordelia didn’t sound much better than Angel. "Who are you talking about? Who is she? And whose tea did you give her?" Wesley managed to pant.

"We’re talking about Kate, Wesley. And don’t worry... I’ll buy you more tea."

Both Cordelia and Angel shot him a glare of disapproval.

"Oh, fine. I mean, what happened?"

Cordelia joined the others in their wait for an answer. A few hours had passed, but she still didn’t have the slightest idea what had caused Kate to get into that state.

"So, this man was threatening her... Did you happen to catch his name?" Wesley was the one asking, but it was obvious they were all thinking the same. "No. No name." Angel sighed. "But whoever he is, we know he’s been in prison.

And now he’s free, thanks to Wolfram and Hart."

"Right. We can start there." Wesley didn’t sound very confident. "Wait. There’s more... If this guy is after her, then she’s probably the one who busted him.", pondered Gunn.

"Yes. And it was most certainly something big. I mean, Kate was really scared there.", added Cordelia.

"Homicide. She was a Homicide cop." Angel reminded them.

"Ok, let’s do some research..." Wesley said matter-of-factly.

"Any luck?" Gunn raised from the couch seeing Angel enter the lobby.

"No. News from Wes or Cordy?"

Gunn just shook his head in response and sat down again. "How’s she?" Angel looked towards the upper floor with a sullen expression on his face.

"Still sleeping. I don’t know what Cordy put in her tea, but it sure did the job."

"Oh, there you are! It’s a good thing you’re back already!" Cordelia and Wesley came rushing into the room.

"Did you find anything?" Angel could barely hide his anguish.

"Yes. And you won’t like it.", Wesley answered somberly.

"Start talking."

"Well, we searched homicide cases as we had agreed and we reviewed all Kate’s arrests that could..."

"To the point! Go to the point already, Wesley!" Angel was too distressed to take all that tittle-tattle.

"I’m getting there! The point is there was nothing. No homicides, nothing involving Kate as an officer came up lately."

"Nothing? But you said..." Gunn got into the conversation. "Nothing with Kate as an officer, no." Cordelia said sadly. "You see, when we reached a dead end there, I stopped and tried to imagine where we went wrong. Then I realized we shouldn’t be looking for cases involving her as a cop, but as a victim."

Angel didn’t utter a sound, but it was all too clear he was shocked. Kate - a victim? Of what?

"He raped her. Viciously."

A grave silence took over the place. After a moment of indecision, Wesley handed a folder to Angel. It had all the information they had uncovered in it. Angel stared at it pointedly, then turned around and went into the office, closing the doors behind him.

When Kate woke up, Angel was there waiting. He didn’t say anything. Just waited for her to speak.

"I guess you want to know what happened...", she offered diffidently.

"I know already."

"You do?"

"Yes. At least, what was on the report." He seemed to be measuring his words. "Kate... How? How did that happen? The report says you knew him. He’d been stalking you for a while. Why didn’t you turn him in before all that happen? Why didn’t you do something? You were a cop! You could have prevented that!" Angel could see how much his words stung. But he was baffled. He truly couldn’t understand. That was Kate. Kate - who always seemed so confident. Kate - who, in spite of having been fired, was a good cop. Hadn’t she seen the signs? Hadn’t she recognized the threat?

Kate started crying. Softly, the tears ran down her cheeks and she didn’t try to wipe them.

"A cop... I was a cop. A good cop. But a woman."

He came closer.

"You must think I’m stupid. But, you see, it wasn’t easy to become a cop. No.

All the while I had to prove that I was every bit as hard as any of the guys. Harder, in fact." She paused. "And then, there was Jeff. He went to the Academy with me. Popular with the girls. All the others thought he was cool. Tried to hit on me. But I was too busy and I didn’t want anyone to see me as just a skirt. Besides that, there were rumors about him. So I turned him down. I guess I wasn’t very subtle. Made a fool out of him in front of everybody. Not long after that, he got kicked. Rumors were true. Guy was a junkie. Someone told on him and he was caught. I think he blamed me. I know he blamed me." "Then, why did you let him near you?"

"Oh, come on! What did you expect me to do? Play the damsel-in-distress and cry for help?"

Angel gave her a long look that said ‘Yes! Why not? Wouldn’t it have been better?’

"I thought I could handle it." Kate lowered her head, trying to hide her feelings.

He touched her arm hesitantly.

"I’m sorry, Kate. I didn’t mean to judge you."

She glanced at him.

"Why not? You’re right. I should have been smarter." Her tone was all bitterness.

"It wasn’t your fault. You know that, don’t you?" "Does it matter?", she sneered. "It doesn’t change what happened. And it doesn’t change how I feel now." She became distant. "I thought I was over this. I never dreamed he could still fill me with such terror." "You once told me I should help my client get really mad at the guy who was stalking her. That it was the only way she could fight him. I didn’t realize you were talking from personal experience." He stared at nothing, remembering how her words had struck him as odd at the time.

"Yeah. I wish I could follow my own advice. But it seems it doesn’t work that well...", she sobbed.

"Did you convince her to stay?", Cordelia asked.

"Didn’t take much convincing. She’s too scared.", Angel answered curtly. "No wonder. You saw the pics, right?" Cordelia bit her lower lip as she nervously drummed with her fingers on the desk. "So, what do we do? The man is free. There’s nothing we can do about that." Gunn was angry too. He despised this system where all you need is a good, expensive lawyer so you can get away with murder - or rape, in that case. "That’s true. The lawyers did an excellent job of exploring the misdeeds of the police.", added Wesley.

"I don’t even get why they did all that. It was a simple case. There was no need to ‘produce’ evidence like that." Cordy’s voice showed a slight despair. "They certainly wanted to assure he wouldn’t escape prison. Remember not only Kate was one of them, but her father was also a cop. Esprit de corps, you know.", Wesley explained.

"Uh?" Gunn and Cordelia winced at that.

"Guys, could you concentrate on the problem here?" Angel felt restless. "We are, Angel. Look, we know you’re upset, but the truth is there’s hardly anything we can do. He’s free of all charges, as Gunn pointed. And we can’t just kill him as much as he may deserve it. He’s human, not a demon.", Wesley tried to reason.

"I’m not so sure about that.", Angel responded. "Oh, he’s human all right. And that’s the worst part. At least, demons have an excuse." Gunn wanted to punch something - or someone. Once again, silence engulfed them as words didn’t seem enough to convey their feelings.

"Kate...", Cordelia called softly from the door. "Hey, Kate. Doing better?"

Kate shot her a quick glance, but didn’t answer.

"Yeah, I know. Stupid question."

Cordy moved towards Kate. She was bringing a tray with food. But that didn’t seem to raise Kate’s attention either.

"Here. You better eat something.", Cordelia said gently.

"Cordelia... I don’t mean to be rude, but I’d rather stay alone.", Kate muttered

in a low voice.

"Do you? Really?" Cordy looked at her sympathetically. "Now... I won’t say I know how you feel. I’ve been through a lot, seen a lot and felt a lot. Yet, this is one experience I don’t know much about. Not in this way." She paused and Kate finally met her stare.

"But being alone won’t help, Kate. That’s not the way to go, don’t you see?" "Loneliness is my territory... Sometimes I think that’s what defines me.", Kate stated flatly. "I appreciate what you’re doing. Don’t think I don’t. But the truth is I have no friends... No one. This guy could kill me and no one would miss me."

Cordelia gazed at her, not sure as what to say. She wanted to give Kate some reassurance, but it was hard to deny the facts. Kate’s personality didn’t make her a likely winner of any Miss Congeniality pageant. Not even a contestant. "Ok." Cordelia stopped and thought for a while. "So, you say you don’t have friends... How about we start to change that? You see, there’s a bunch of us here who are very worried about you. Angel in particular. But he’s not the only one."

"Isn’t your job helping the innocent?" It was supposed to sound ironic, yet came out rather pitiful instead.

"It’s not a job. It’s a mission. I guess you understand that all too well. Better than I did up to sometime ago." Another pause and Cordy went on. "I won’t claim to know you, Kate. But your sense of duty was the one thing I always admired in you. And then, there’s your strenght. And resilience. Or should I call it stubbornness?"

Kate let out a mild laugh.

"Hey, I got a smile! Now, that’s something!", Cordy exclaimed, smiling happily for the first time ever since it all began.

"So... How’s she doing?" Wesley asked.

"You know, it’s strangely refreshing to see all you guys worried about someone else for a change.", Cordy replied jokingly.

"I take she’s better."

"Yes, she’ll survive this. She’s tough, Wes.", Cordelia acknowledged.

Wesley became pensive.

"You’re thinking of Fred, right?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Wesley remained silent.

"You have to get over that, Wesley! She can’t stay in Texas forever. She doesn’t belong there anymore and you know it!", Cordy pledged with him. "Cordelia... Please! I didn’t ask her to go."

"You didn’t ask her to stay either. She’s only trying to help you. Give you some time to heal."

"Me, heal? I was the aggressor." His pain was almost tangible. "Wes..." Cordelia looked at him. She felt sorry for all that happened. In a way, she felt she had been responsible. But Cordelia was determined not to let the ship sink because of that.

Opening the folder that was still lying on the desk, she turned to Wesley and said:

"Here! Take a look at this! Take a good, long look at this, Wesley!" Her reaction left Wesley in a state of complete bewilderment. He stared at her, confused.

"Don’t look at me! Look at the pictures!", she commanded. "Why? What’s your point, Cordelia? To show me all I could have done to Fred?", he retorted in despair.

"You can barely bear to look at these, can’t you? Don’t you see? That’s the difference, Wesley! The man who did all this wasn’t under the influence of a demon. And I’m sure he’s not troubled with that. He doesn’t regret it, Wes. In fact, he’s somewhere out there ready to do it again." "That doesn’t make what I did any less horrible.", he mumbled. "Snap out of it, Wesley! I’m sick and tired of brooding and I won’t be taking that from you!"

Cordelia stopped to evaluate the effect of her words on Wesley, then changed her tone.

"No one is blaming you but yourself, Wes. Not even Fred. You have to let go and move on. And calling her asking her to come back would be a good start." With this, she turned around and left the office.

"You can’t seem to do without me, can you?" Angel smiled sarcastically. "As you can see, I got your message!"

Lilah gulped before anything else.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"I remember telling you to stay away from my friends.", he said, leaving a threat hanging.

"Which friends? What happened to them?" She seemed genuinely confused.

Angel walked around her, menacingly.

"Don’t give me that. You know perfectly well what you did, freeing that bastard."

Lilah stared directly into his eyes.

"Cut the crap, will you? If you want an answer, you better state the question clearly."

"Jeff Campbell. He raped Kate five years ago and is now free of all charges thanks to the invaluable help of Wolfram and Hart." "Kate Lockley, that detective who was sacked from the police department?" Lilah showed small signs of recognition.

"You know too well who she is, so stop playing around the bush!" "Yeah, I know her. Caused us problems in the past.", she conceded. "But, if someone is messing with her, it’s not me."

"Who then?"

"Park. Must be Park.", she growled.

"The guy who was trying to get me out of the hotel?" "It certainly sounds like one of his tricks. But I can’t help you there. After the latest events, he knows better than letting me into anything he’s up to."

"You didn’t find anything useful, did you?" Cordelia could tell by just looking at Angel’s face.

"It wasn’t Lilah."

"But..."

"She thinks it was Park.", Angel answered before Wesley could state the question.

"Why? Does he even know Kate? I thought he was new to the firm." Cordelia was puzzled.

"He’s up to something...", Wesley thought out loud. "Yeah, yeah... But what?" Angel paced the floor up and down. "The thing is I don’t get this guy. Haven’t figured him out yet." "Well, I don’t either. But I have to go now. Are you people staying?", Gunn asked the others.

That seemed to shake them out of their concentration.

"Uh, no. I guess there’s no need to. Angel can hold the fort until tomorrow.

Right, Angel?" Wesley clearly wanted to go home already. "Ok. Let’s go then. Angel... You take good care of her." Cordelia’s farewell didn’t say as much in words as in looks. She was worried not only about Kate, but about Angel too. That feeling of powerlessness had dragged him too far before, not so long ago.

"I thought you were asleep...", Angel started to say.

"No. I wish I could." Kate was at the threshold. "May I?..."

"You don’t need an invitation, Kate.", he simpered.

"I haven’t thanked you yet... For taking me in."

He gazed at her. Her humbleness had him concerned.

"Are you afraid? Of being alone, I mean..."

"Is it that obvious?", she spoke in a murmur.

"It happened at night, didn’t it?" His tone was quite low too. "Yes. It started at night. Took an awfully long time to end. It seemed an eternity..." The memories led her to a different time and place, one she would like to bury forever.

"Would you rather stay here with me, Kate? Or would that feel... awkward?" "I don’t know. I’m having trouble making up my mind about, well... anything right now. It’s like there’s a million feelings running through me and yet, they’re all the same."

"I’ll tell you what... You lie down and I’ll watch over you as you sleep. How about that?"

She woke up startled, gasping for air.

"It’s okay, Kate. It’s okay... It was just a nightmare. I’m here. You can calm down.", Angel tried to soothe her.

Kate broke down into tears, crying her heart out inconsolably. Angel took her into his arms and let her weep. The situation disturbed him to no end. He thought he knew Kate. He thought he’d seen her at her worst before. All the time he’d imagined her infamous lack of trust stemmed from her job and her father issues. He’d been truly hurt by the way she treated him after learning the truth about him. He realized he hadn’t been upfront with her, but her reaction always seemed blown out of proportion to him. Now, it was evident there was a whole lot about her he’d never reckoned. How could he have been so blind? "How could I’ve been so blind?", he heard himself speak.

"What? Angel, did you say something?", she called through sniffles. He pulled away a bit so he could look into her eyes. It was like seeing her for the first time somehow...

"Angel?...", she whispered.

"How could I have failed you so miserably?", he asked while moving a lock of hair away from her face.

She didn’t seem to understand.

"Angel, what are you talking about?"

"I never got it, did I?"

He continued rambling as he saw she was becoming restless. "I was supposed to connect with people... But you were so... normal! And I just believed you didn’t know evil. I mean... Really. Intimately. I thought I’d scare you away from me for always and, instead of dealing you a fair explanation of who I am, I just lay low and gave you grounds to doubt me forever." Kate stared at him, unbelievingly.

"But I couldn’t be more wrong! ‘Cause you know evil... You know it lurks, it waits and it preys. And there’s no bigger mistake than underestimating it, specially once it reveals its true nature. You told me, from the beginning, that you had a hard time trusting people and I told myself I should keep my mouth shut because of that. Time and time again, you gave me opportunities to come clean. I didn’t take them! I was convinced I was protecting you. But I didn’t trust you, did I? And then, I was mad at you when you took offense on that..." "I wanted to trust you... I wanted so hard!"

"I’m sorry, Kate!"

She raised a hand to touch his face. Her tears had subsided, but she looked frazzled.

"It’s good to hear that. I guess I was too harsh... But I had to... The whole thing was driving me crazy. Finding the world was filled with creatures that could be worse than anything I had faced before... Now, that was something!" She forced herself to laugh. "I tried to keep some perspective, at first. But then, daddy died and it all spinned out of control..." A beat and she went on.

"You know, I’m sorry too..."

It was almost morning when the phone rang, waking them both. Cordelia had a vision. Pretty ugly. She knew it would take all of them to defeat that demon, so Angel had to go meet them. Leaving Kate by herself... "It’s okay, Angel. You go. I’ll be fine." She prompted him.

"I can’t! What if this guy comes here and attacks you?"

"What if you don’t go and your friends die because of it?"

He didn’t know what to do...

"I can’t..."

"But you must. Look, I have a gun and I can protect myself." She tried to sound confident.

"Am I supposed to believe you suddenly overcame all your fears and is ready to fight back?"

"Well, miracles happen. Have happened before... And last night... I just don’t feel the same, ok?"

"Kate..."

"Go, Angel! Don’t waste any more time! If the sun rises before you get there, you’re toast, remember?"

He reluctantly agreed and left her with a kiss.

"They’re too many! What do we do?", Cordelia was shouting.

"You try and keep them busy! I’ll go after their boss!", replied Angel. Easier said than done. The place was like a maze and there were minions everywhere. After getting rid of several of them, Angel eventually found there were traces of blood leading all in the same direction. He followed them to a somewhat big room. It was obvious that was where they prepared the victims for sacrifice. The smell was nauseating. It would surely make any man sick to his stomach. And yet...

"What are you doing here?" Gavin Park stood at one side, apparently indifferent to the surroundings.

"Do you really need to ask? I came to kill it.", Angel said, indicating the door to the next room.

"I thought you cared more about your... friend. It may not be healthy to leave her all by herself with a rapist at large."

"And I thought you had proved he was no such thing.", Angel remarked scornfully.

"No, I just proved he was framed..."

Angel wanted to rip the little smile off Park’s face.

"So, that was the plan... To keep me busy, so you could get away with this." "Very smart... Now, why don’t you leave while there may yet be time to save her?" Gavin’s smile broadened.

"Get out of my way! I have a job to do." With that, Angel knocked him down.

"Now, that didn’t take too long." Angel spat at Park. "You can’t be sure, can you?", the semi-conscious man still distilled his poison.

Angel collected him from the floor and pinned him against the wall. "You’d better hope she’s fine. Because whatever happens to her... will happen to you!"

Angel tried to make his way back to the car as fast as he could. But the demon’s minions seemed to have gone into some kind of frenzy with its death. They were easy to kill now, but it took too long to deal with all of them. By the time they were done, the sun was high in the sky and Angel had to let Wesley drive him back to the hotel while urging him all the while to step on it! Arriving at the Hyperion, they all ran upstairs. Angel went straight to his room, which showed signs of a violent fight. There was a distinct smell of gunpowder in the air.

"What was she doing here? Angel, why was Kate in your room?", Cordelia asked. "That’s not important now. Finding her is!", Angel answered while going past her into the hall.

"Do you think they might still be here?" Wesley looked around.

"It’s possible."

"Then, we’d better part. We can cover more ground that way.", Gunn offered, but Angel was already gone.

They went each a different way.

Angel searched every room frantically and found nothing. Until... The shot was loud and clear. Angel ran towards the sound only to find Gunn lying on the floor. There was blood coming from a wound on his shoulder. "Hurry! He’s got Cordelia!", he groaned.

"Which way did he go?"

"That way! Go!"

"Are you gonna be all right? Can you hold?"

"GO!", Gunn shouted.

At that moment, Wesley showed at the door.

"Gunn! What happened?"

"You stay with him. Call 911! I’ll go after Jeff and Cordelia!", cried Angel while rushing away.

"Cordelia?" was all Wesley could say.

Jeff was dragging Cordelia by her hair, her hands cuffed behind her back. The man kept swearing all along.

"Shouldn’t I be the one calling names here? Ouch!", she screamed. "Shut up! If I had any time, I’d teach you a few things. But I guess that’ll have to wait.", he snapped sorely.

"I have time. Why don’t you teach me a few things?" Angel jumped him from the staircase.

Cordelia managed to get out of the way and Angel started beating Jeff savagely.

"Where is she? What did you do to her?", he kept repeating.

"I-I-I’ll tell you... Stop, please!", Jeff begged.

"Talk!", Angel answered, without letting go.

"She... Please! I can’t breathe!"

"Tell me!" Angel ordered angrily.

Another shot was heard. Jeff had managed to aim directly at Angel’s heart.

He fell to floor and Jeff kicked him, saying:

"I hope you enjoyed her... ‘cause now it’s my turn!" He turned to look for Cordelia and failed to see Angel raise from the floor. Yet her reaction tipped him to the movement. Jeff could barely believe his eyes. Not only was Angel still alive, he was in game face too. Angel didn’t give him time to register all his horror. Jeff was thrown across the hall onto the staircase steps. Next thing he knew, Angel was punching his face with all his might.

"Stop! Angel, stop!" Cordelia called him off. "You’ll kill him that way!"

"And how’s that a bad thing?"

"We may not find Kate without him.", she reminded him. "And he’s already out of it. So, leave him alone and get these off me!"

"Where’s the key?"

"In his pocket. Go, get it!", she commanded.

There were two keys in his pocket, which didn’t bode well. Angel collected them both and tried them to find the right one.

When he turned back again, Jeff was gone. Angel quickly followed, ordering Cordelia to go back to where the others were. Amazingly enough, she didn’t argue this time.

Angel caught up to him pretty fast. Jeff was at the penthouse by then and waved his gun at him wildly.

"That can’t hurt me."

"What are you?", Jeff cried frenetically.

"Where is she?" was the only answer he got.

"Look, she’s okay... I didn’t hurt her. Just gave her... a little something." Angel walked to and fro. He couldn’t get any closer as the entrapped man was standing directly in a patch of sunlight.

"Where is she?", he snarled again.

Jeff said nothing. He was too afraid. But Angel was at the end of his rope by then and morphed into game face once more.

"I warned you not to mess with Kate..."

"Nooo! Stay away from me!", Jeff screamed and stepped back. The floor under him gave way slightly and startled him, making him jerk further backward into a section even more unstable. He kept going back in spite of himself and crashed through the window at last, taking a plunge into the open. Angel didn’t need to take a look out to know he was dead.

Right then, though, he heard something. A low babble coming from the rooftop...

There was little shade where he could stand, yet Angel could see her out there. Kate was cuffed and blindfolded, but otherwise on the loose. Angel called her name, hoping she would follow the sound to where he was. Then he realized that was a really bad idea...

Kate was stoned. Very stoned.

She did try to follow his voice, but the results were dreadful. She went in the wrong direction and came dangerously close to the edge. Angel shouted a warn, but she didn’t stop. With no options left, he darted into the roof, getting to her just a second before she tripped over the edge. He went back inside as fast as he could, taking her with him and almost bumped into Cordelia, who was now standing at the open door. "How did you...?"

Angel didn’t pay any attention to the question. He was too busy freeing Kate.

"Kate? Are you okay?", he asked while checking her for injuries.

"Angel...", she drawled. "I’m sooo glad you’re here!" "She seems all right. But I’ll take her down to the paramedics anyway.", Cordy said, gently leading Kate down the stairs.

"The paramedics are here?"

"Yes. They just arrived. And so did the police. So I strongly suggest you sneak into your room and change into another shirt."

He stared at his chest.

"Yeah. I guess it would be hard to explain how I can be on my feet after that...", he pondered.

"Not half as hard as explaining why you didn’t burst into flames...", Cordy let slip.

"So... How are things going?", Angel asked.

"Kind of slow... A part of my clients will probably never come back.", Lorne answered bitterly.

"Well, I like what you did with the decoration...", Angel returned coyly.

"I just hope I don’t have to keep renovating every few months."

"Uh... There’s something...", Angel gave it a try.

"Don’t. Ask. Me." The Host was in no good mood.

"But..."

"Look, Angel... Darling... This is one thing you’ll have to figure out for yourself. Or should I say... yourselves?" He winked, turning to the stage where Kate was singing: